MEDIUM RARE

Quoting the first lines of a poem by the French Impressionist poet Paul Verlaine: “It rains on the town as it weeps in my heart.”

Imagine how much more beautiful it is in French! But then, wishing for the rain as a romantic element is just that, pure imagination. Rain could be romantic, poetic even, until it threatens to be or degenerates into a typhoon.

Which happens quite “normally” in our islands. At any rate, according to the weather bureau, the rainy season has officially begun, with two or maybe more typhoons expected within the next 29 days. What is it about our islands that make them so attractive to heavy gray clouds to gather and form overhead, the inevitable result being strong rains accompanied by thunder and wind?

More than one person, beginning with the then First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, has publicly commented on the silhouette of our archipelago as akin to “the shape of a rosary,” and in the words of a retired Army officer, “fraught with religious symbolism.” If memory serves, Mrs. Marcos’ secretary of housing and human settlements at the time, Jolly Benitez, was of the same opinion.

What a waste that President BBM’s recent trip to Tawi-Tawi was not given due coverage video-wise to titillate our traveling fancies and fantasies — not even his father, FM, during his 20 years in Malacañang, had ever ventured to that faraway Shangri-la. The few people I know who have visited Tawi-Tawi, including a retired naval officer, are unanimous in praising the island for its pristine, indescribable beauty. As one of them put it, “Beautiful beyond words. You have to see it for yourself.”

Should the people of Tawi-Tawi ask the Department of Tourism to bring the world to their island, or do they prefer to keep their secret to themselves? A lawyer (not a native) replied, “Things have been moving slowly, but small steps are finally being taken to start development.”

Philippines, 7,000 beautiful islands though we have yet to hear of a traveler taking the initiative to tour the archipelago from Aparri to Tawi-Tawi. If you’re familiar with anagrams, the ancient way of finding hidden meanings in a name by scrambling the letters in the word, those four letters spell WAIT.