INTERVIEW ON PINOYAPACHE, LAST PART

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONNAIRES FROM A B.S. EDUCATION STUDENT AS A REQUIREMENT FOR STUDIES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, DILLIMAN, QUEZON CITY.  SEPTEMBER 6, 2013.

1.     Do you think bushcraft is applicable in this age of instant gratification and package tour mentality?

Everything is possible with capitalists and amateurs.  However, in bushcraft, instant gratification absorbs very deep to an individual and, once learned by heart, will become his/her way of life.

2.     Do you think BMC (Basic Mountaineering Course) needs to be updated to include bushcraft?

Not necessarily.  The BMC introduced by the University of the Philippines Mountaineers had been very valuable in educating many generations of mountaineers, backpackers and other outdoor enthusiasts where it had increased safety, organized better the process of climbing and had given the satisfaction of freedom to the individual.  If bushcraft is to be included, it has to wait for the proper timing when an individual needs to upgrade himself/herself to teach same with survival skills and that means learning it outside the scope of BMC.

3.     Is bushcraft for everyone or it requires a special kind of attitude for you to become a good bushcrafter?

It is for everyone.  You may find it awkward at first but when you had made your first wooden spoon or created a fire by friction, you will begin to understand what is self-reliance is all about and you begin to notice that your backpack becomes lighter and lighter everytime you take a bush hike because what you carried before are now found inside your head.  The challenge there is to visit the outdoors with as minimal gears as possible and adapt with nature.

4.     What makes you an effective leader?

I just do what my heart lead me to.  It is a combination of experience, a youthful exuberance, good planning, timely judgments, endurance, a thankful spirit and adherence to the Almighty.

5.     What is your most successful accomplishment?

If you meant my 15 minutes of fame, it is the time I arrested a serial killer in a place I hardly knew, almost by my own lonesome self, which placed that feat in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on January 10, 1995 and a documentary in ABS-CBN’s Magandang Gabi Bayan.  Promoting bushcraft and survival among outdoorsmen and other individuals as a better, but cheaper, alternative to enjoy the outdoors in the Philippines is a feat in itself, considering that we have a community of outdoorsmen with closed minds with own personal agenda among themselves.  But my most meaningful accomplishment is my charity activities for children in the highlands of Cebu that inspired many clubs and individuals here to replicate it and make it as one of their activities.

6.     What are your greatest weaknesses?

Too trustful.  Too kind.  Impatience.  Doing things at the last minute.  Too daring.        

7.     Name some situations in which a leader may fail.  Tell me about a time when you failed as a leader.

When the very people who placed you to lead begin to question your motives and decisions.  It was during my incumbency as president of my former club when the old pillars used LNT as basis to censure me when they ran out of reasons to back me up the wall.       

8.     What methods have you used to gain commitment from your colleagues from different fields?

Treat them each as a very special individual.

9.     All leaders have to deal with conflict situations.  Describe a recent disagreement or conflict you personally had to handle.

When some Camp Red members became embroiled with people of another forum, I have to stamp on my authority to stop their visits and interactions to that site because, by their very actions, they placed Camp Red in a bad light.

10.  What are your career goals, short term and long term?

I would like to shorten my time with the corporate world and concentrate more on Snakehawk Wilderness School or with Warrior Pilgrimage.  By that time, I would be with the outdoors all the time and, possibly, tour the country and, hopefully, the rest of Asia, as a wilderness survival lecturer.

11.  What are the most important values and ethics you demonstrate as a leader?

Courage.  Stamina.  Compassion.  Wisdom.  These are the only virtues which a warrior need and it is still applicable in these present times.      

12.  Tell me who you would like to emulate.  Why?

Sir Ranulph Fiennes.  He is a modern-day explorer who, despite his age, had overcome extremely difficult expeditions and adversities in life.  I have read his autobiography – Bad, Mad and Dangerous to Know – and I begin to learn his style of leadership and the manner by which he carried out his expeditions.  He is a class by himself and I am quite delighted by the way he planned his journeys.  

13.  What do you dream for the Philippines?

I would like to see a Philippines that is not afraid of external threats and could define its course of economic independence free of the shackles of its colonial past.  I would also like a Philippines led by worthy statesmen instead of politicians who were voted for office because of money (ex. Pork barrel) and other perks that comes with their positions.

14.  Is there anything that you would like to share that was never asked from the questions above?

Just one: Why did I name my blog as Warrior Pilgrimage?

A warrior on pilgrimage is a lethal warrior; offering his best skills against an adversary by test of arms, strength, will and cunning.  A warrior after a pilgrimage is a changed man; he finds grace in defeat and compassion in victory and wisdom in between.  It is a path taken by just a few and that is the essence why I name it as such.  I have once been on that path long ago and it had given me inner peace and insight that I have not had before.  A warrior-style pilgrimage can now be adopted in real life in whatever circumstance (minus the tools of conflict and warfare) to gain acceptance and understanding of yourself, of people, of community, of life.