Life Bitter and Sweet, Harsh and Wonderful: The 2009 NCCA Writers’ Prize Winning Entries

Concepts for a collection of poems in Iluko dealing with the sweetness of life despite tragedy and for a novel in Filipino following the adventures of an aswang are awarded the 2009 National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Writers’ Prize, which will bestow financial grants for the authors to finish their works.

The entries of 52-year-old managing editor of Bannawag Cles B. Rambaud and 44-year-old freelance writer, editor and translator Rosy May M. Bayuga, more known as Mayette Bayuga, were judged the best out of 10 in poetry in Iluko and 19 in novel in Filipino, two of the five categories open for 2009. The other categories—drama in Bicol, language in southern Luzon Island, and essay Pampangan, language of Pampanga in central Luzon—do not have winners.

Rambaud’s project in mind is called “Tagisam-itek Pay Laeng ti Tagapulot” (I Still Find Molasses Sweet), a collection of about 30 poems, written in Iluko, the language in the Ilocos region and the dominant one in northern Luzon, chronicles his own experiences and life. The poet chooses to be cull from his own life to lend truthfulness to his work.

Rambaud wrote: “Awanen, para iti proponent (kalpasan ti personal a pannakaisangolna iti datdatlag a pagteng nga isu ti ipupusay), ti kasayaatan, kapupudnuan a mabalinna nga isurat a dandaniw no di met laeng dagiti agwerret iti bukodna a biag, nga isu ti am-ammona unay, a patienna met a saanna laeng a bukod a rikna wenno padas no di pay ket nariknan, napadasan wenno marikna ken mapadasanto met ti sabsabali ken mangibatinto met kadakuada a mangam-amiris iti bukodda a biag. Iti sabali a pannao, gapu ta ti liday, ragsak, namnama, pannakapaay, ipupusay, pannakaipasngay ket saan a kabukbukodan a mapadasan ti maymaysa laeng a tao, patien ngarud ti proponent a saan nga agbalin dagiti daniw a kas orasion ti maysa a mangngagas wenno Latin a litania ti maysa a padi nga isuda laeng ti makaawat no di ket babaen dagitoy a daniw, daydiay makabasa, makipagragsak, makipagladingit, makikinnatawa, makiinnisem, makipagbaklay met iti pungtot, suron nga imet dagiti daniw. Ngarud, saan nga agtungpal a kabukbukodan ti proponent dagiti daniw no di ket agbalin a daniw met ti asino man a makabasa, nangruna ket kadagitoy a daniw, maibagasan met ti kultura a dinakkelanna.” (After having been personally put through the painful experience known as death, there will be no other poem that could ever come out of my pen that is better, more truthful than those that come about through my experiences, my life which I know so well…experiences that [I] believe are not mine alone, but which others must have also felt, gone through, and/or will experience in the future and which will make them analyze their own lives. In other words, because pain, happiness, hope, failure, birth and death are not the monopoly of just one person, [I] believe that these poems will not become like a faith healers’ oracion or a priest’s Latin litany which they alone can understand. Through these poems, the readers will laugh, cry, and smile with the persona; and will share the same burden and hatred that the poems contain. And so the poems will not just be the author’s but the readers’ as well.)

Sadly, the very personal collection was prompted by the death of Rambaud’s 20-year-old daughter, the firstborn of three. Just graduated from a nursing course, she was waiting for the results of the Nursing Licensure Examination when she died, six months after her heart operation.

“Dayta nga ipupusay ti inauna iti dua a mutiami ken baket ti nangiselsel iti panunotko (iti pammatik) iti pudpudno a kaipapanan ti biag— ken patay,” Rambaud further wrote. “Nakakaskasdaaw, no di man nakalaladingit, ngem kadagiti napalpalabas, iti laksid ti ipupusay dagiti dadduma nga ipatpateg iti biag: gagayyem, kakabagian, ken mismo a kameng ti pamilia, nupay naipanurok idi, iti ammomi, ti panangus-usigmi iti kaipapanan ti biag ken patay, nagbalin dagitoy nga ubbaw iti ipupusay ti anakmi, a gapu ta inauna, isu ti nakaitalimudokan ti panunotmi a kas mangkitkitanto iti pagimbagan dagiti dua a kakabsatna.” (I believe that the death of our first child instilled in our minds the real essence of life and death. It is amazing, if not sad, that while the deaths of other loved ones—friends, relatives and other members of our families—had caused us so much pain, the pain these deaths had caused us is incomparable to that caused by our child’s death. Because she was the eldest, we had always looked upon her as the one who would look after her younger siblings.)

“Manipud iti ipupusay, adda biag (nga isu dagiti daniw) nga agrusing a mangitan-ok, mangrambak, mangsangit, mangkatawa iti biag (From death there is a life [which is these poems] that grows to cry and laugh at, glory in and celebrate life.),” he said.

And despite the pain and tragedy, the writer still find life sweet, a realization to be distilled and crystallized in poems in the mother tongue of Rambaud, who is born in the town of Pinili in Ilocos Norte, and now living in Caloocan City in Metro Manila.

“Ken kas met laeng iti panagrupsa ti sipnget a nangbalkot iti biagmi ken baket gapu iti ipupusay ti balasangmi, ad-adda nga agtalimudok dagitoy a daniw iti panangrambak iti biag—a ti biag naan-anag gapu met laeng kadagiti rekadona a katawa ken lua, sam-it ken pait, pannakapaay ken namnama (And in the same way that the darkness that cloaked my wife and me when our daughter died slowly gave way to light, these poems will be more of a celebration of life, a life that is more meaningful because of its many spices—tears and laughter, happiness and pain, failure and hope),” he ended.

A long-time writer, Rambaud has had several awards and grants for his works in Iluko, and his short stories, poems and articles were published in different publications, many in Bannawag, the leading if not the only magazine in Iluko, published by The Manila Bulletin. Educated to be a civil engineer and a teacher, Rambaud chose to be a writer instead, working for Bannawag for 31 years now.

The judges for the category—veteran writers in Iluko Herminio Beltran, Juan S.P. Hidalgo and Jose Bragado— evaluated the entries and their authors according to their contribution to Iluko poetry and to Filipino poetry as well; authenticity of [presenting] Ilocano culture; originality; and credibility (of the author).

On the other hand, Bayuga’s work may be considered larger in scope and ambitious. The concept of her novel called Sa Amin, Sa Dagatdagatang Apoy (In Our Place, In Dagatdagatang Apoy) examines life and its power struggles, taking inspirations from folklore and mythology, with plots, characters and places that operate simultaneously in the literally and symbolic/figurative levels.

At first, the concept is intriguing because of our familiarity and popularity of Western works such as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. While these works’ protagonists are wizards and vampires, Bayuga’s is an aswang¸ vampire-like creature in Philippine folklore, named Darling Kaloloy-on from the place called Dagatdagatang Apoy (literary, sea of fire). The novel follows her adventures with a narrator that will present another theme of the novel: “pagsusulat bilang pagbabalyan” or writing as a mystical act.

Written in the Tagalog-based national language Filipino, the novel overall has a heavy social comment. Bayuga wrote: “Bubuksan at tutuldukan ang nobela sa usapin ng kapangyarihan. Ang pagyakap sa esensiya ng salitang ito ang magiging salalayan ng kuwento. Hahaging ang nobela sa mga landas na kaugnay ng isyu ng kapangyarihan—tunggalian ng babae’t lalake, pamantayan ng naghaharing-uri at ng alipin, palihan ng iskolar at ng laking-kanto, at marami pang iba—pero ang tuwirang dadalirutin nito ay ang naiibang uri ng kapangyarihan.” (The novel will begin and end with a discourse on power. The embracing of this word’s essence will be the axis of the story. The novel will touch on issues concerning power—the sexual battle between women and men, the standard of the dominant kind and the slave, the exchange between the scholar and the street-smart, and many others—but what it will directly analyze is a different kind of power).

Additionally, Bayuga also said that the novel is an end-of the-world story: “Ihahain ang tunay na kahulugan ng gunaw—hindi bilang kahindik-hindik na apokalipsis kundi isang pagbuwag ng mga institusyong makamundo; hindi bilang katapusan ng sansinukob kundi isang simula ng bagong kamalayan; at hindi pagluluwal sa isang bagong daigdig kundi isang pagbabalik sa sinapupunan ng paglikha.” (It will present the true meaning of end of the world—not as a terrible apocalypse but the demolition of worldly institutions; not as the end of the universe but the beginning of a new consciousness; and not as a birthing of a new world but a return to the womb of creation.)

Currently based in San Pedro, Laguna, Bayuga has won second prize for short story in Filipino in the 1997 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and other awards. She has been a fellow, panellist, judge and resource speaker for various writing workshops and literary contests. In 2002, she published a collection of short stories in Filipino, Virgintarian at Iba Pang Akda (University of the Philippines Press).

The judges for the novel in Filipino—poet-professor Cirilo Bautista, novelist Jun Cruz Reyes and scholar and critic Rolando Tolentino—found the concept and the initial output to be “fantastic, witty and poetic.” Additionally, “seryoso ang paksa,” (the topic is serious) and the work has “panlipunang kabuluhan at magaan at kontemporaryo ang gamit sa wika. Matalinghaga rin ang pagkakasulat.” (social relevance, and the use of language is easy-flowing and contemporary. The writing is also metaphorical.)

Rambaud and Bayuga will be given a grant of P250,000 gross each to assist them during the writing stage of the project and will be given in four tranches. The grant is good for one year, after which a manuscript of the writing project will be submitted to the NCCA for possible publication.

The biennial award was spearheaded in 2001 by National Artist for literature Virgilio Almario when he was executive director of the NCCA, the leading government arm and funding institution for arts and culture. This is in line with its mission of “encouraging the continuing development of a pluralistic culture by the people themselves,” and of creating the opportunity to have a direct hand in the development of Filipino literature. With this grant, the NCCA Writers’ Prize, writers will be freed from the demands of their work and shall be able to focus on the writing of the project for one year.

Open to all Filipino writers, the NCCA Writers’ Prize has different genre categories such as the novel, short story, essay, poetry and drama. Since 2007, it has opened to other vernacular languages. The NCCA announces what categories and languages are open for the year.

Since 2001, the prize has been bestowed to several established and emerging writers. In 2001, the winners were Timothy Montes for his novel in English Running Amok; Lourd Ernest de Veyra for his collection of poetry in English; Jimmuel C. Naval for a collection of short stories in Filipino Dalumat sa Labinlimang Pagkatha; and Alfred A. Yuson for the English translation of Mike Bigornia’s poetry in Filipino, which was published in a book, Love’s A Vice (Bisyo ang Pag-Ibig): Translation from Filipino to English of 60 poems of Mike L. Bigornia, by the NCCA in 2004.

In 2003, the grantees included Ramon “Mes” de Guzman for his novel in Filipino Rancho Dyanggo; Francis Macansantos for his epic Womb of Ocean, Breasts of Earth, which was published by NCCA in 2008; Eugene Evasco for a collection of essays in Filipino Nasa Dulo ng Dila: Mula Kina Mariang Sinukuan, Mariang Alimango, Pilandok Hanggang Kina San Roque, Binembi at Edward Stratemeyer;

Virginia Mercado-Villanueva for a collection of children’s stories, Stories from the South; and Helen V. Banez, translation of the poetry of Fernando A. Buyser from Cebuano to Filipino.

In 2005, Edgar Calabia Samar was awarded the NCCA Writers’ Prize for his novel in Filipino, Walong Diwata ng Pagkahulog, which was published by Anvil Publishing in 2009, together with Alvin B. Yapan for his collection of short stories in Filipino, Sa Paghahanay ng Bagong Anyo Para sa Moda ng Panlipunang Realismo: Isang Proyekto ng Labinlimang Kuwento; Rebekah M. Alami for a collection of essays in English, A Rose for Angela: The Muslim Filipino Woman Taking the Word to Create Textual Expression of Hu Psyche; and Joel M. Toledo for a collection of poetry in English called What Little I Know of Luminosity, which won first prize in poetry at the 2005 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature; and Danton Remoto for Awit Para sa Tuyong Panahon, a translation project.

In 2007, Ed Maranan won for his essays in English, The Country in the Heart: A Writer’s Times and Travels; Elyrah Loyola Salanga for literary biography in Filipino, Alfrredo Navarro Salanga: Sa Mga Pahina at Ibang Salaysay ; Telesforo Sungkit, Jr. for a novel in Cebuano, Mga Gapnod sa Kamad-an; Kristian Sendon Cordero for poetry in Bicol, Segunda Mano: and Rosario Cruz-Lucero, for a collection of short stories in English called Papa’s Field and Other Stories of the Disappeared.

For a poor country like the Philippines, writers constantly struggle between making a living and writing and staying true to his/her art. With the NCCA Writers’ Prize, an opportunity is presented to them to create their works, which will become part of the nation’s imperishable treasure and heritage, and to touch and enrich other people’s lives with their art and insights on life itself—bitter, sweet, harsh and wonderful.

Writer in Iluko Cles Rambaud

Judges in the poetry in Iluko category - Juan SP. Hidalgo, Herminio Beltran and Jose Bragado - deliberating on the entries. With them are a couple of NCCA employees.

Flock to Eagle Point Resort

On the road, there is just parched land and no sign of the sea. A sign of the resort seems to point deeper into a forest with a dirt road choked with dry brambles and weeds. The road would go down rather steeply and zigzag through palms and hedges until the sea shows. Once in Eagle Point Resort, there is much sea to enjoy and views of it to imbibe, and sprawling dry land is a memory at the back of your head. The room opens up to the sea. The restaurant almost perches above it. The paths may not lead you to it but they always afford you an azure backdrop. Eagle Point Resort nestles on a thin strip of land and against a cliff, like most of the resorts in the area, and the natural direction is facing the sea, a blue eternity with occasional dreamy islets.



The Calumpang Peninsula of the town of Mabini juts out of the province of Batangas into the South China Sea, its craggy shores and cliffs defiant sometimes rough waters of the bays of Balayan and Batangas. There is nothing luxurious about the place—steep and daunting cliffs, rocky and jagged shores, wild and hardy vegetation—but the Mabini-Tingloy area suggests adventure and has coral reefs teeming with marine biodiversity that have long attracted divers. Soon, resorts despite almost unmanageable terrain cropped up over the years to cater to them and eventually even to non-diving vacationers, who erroneously call the whole area Anilao, actually one of Mabini’s barangays with the most concentration of resorts of different types and the most accessible in the peninsula. People are lured by a sense of adventure and the proximity of the area to Manila, the Philippines’ capital. Resorts line the northern shore of Calumpang Peninsula starting in Anilao East and Anilao Proper, and then going on southeast to Majuban, San Jose, Selo, Ligaya, Bagalangit and San Teodoro. Aside from dive resorts, there are also small to medium picnic resorts. Many resorts are of the “rugged” type, not really built for a luxury vacation. Many divers are not particular about poshness but are keener on the dive facility. Excursionists from nearby areas, on a budget, look for inexpensive resorts. Right now, there are 34 dive resorts and there are 24 small- to medium-enterprise picnic resorts. Among them are 16 private resorts.



In Bagalangit, Eagle Point Resort sprawls on six hectares of sloping land, the biggest resort in the area. Being at the northeast tip of the peninsula, it also has one of the best views of the seascape. The island municipality of Tingloy and the hat-shaped Sombrero Island lie across the Maricaban Strait.

The resort formerly served as a private vacation spot of Norberto “Doy” Quisumbing and his family in the late 1980s. In 1993, the family decided to expand the area and open it to the public as a resort with Doy’s son, lawyer Ramon Quisumbing, managing.



Now, Eagle Point is one of, if not the best, resort in the area, offering a wide range of amenities and facilities. From serving divers, it is open to diverse clienteles—barkadas, families and companies. Able to host guests of up to 300, the resort wants to promote itself as a good venue for company outings and conferences, and other group activities.

There are accommodations of different types. The newest facility is the Terrace Hotel, a four-story white structure with 30 rooms with verandas facing the sea. It sits next to the Main Core, so-called because it is the heart of the resort containing the reception area, restaurant and bar and the main pool.









On the other side, the southern, eighteen one-bedroom cottages line the slopes, each air-conditioned, equipped with toilet and bath and possessing a balcony with a view of the sea. The cottages actually have large sliding glass doors for the spectacle. One can wake up with sea beckoning.

Among the cottages are the Native Cabanas, ten of them. Without air-conditioning, these simulate native living with thatched grass roofs, woven walls and bamboo slat floors. The resort says that many foreign guests prefer them.

One of the original structures of the resort before it began accepting guests is The Villa, now renovated with two-bedroom suites on the second level, a small function room on the ground level, and a large multi-purpose room used for wedding receptions and other large functions on the third level.



The other suite and rooms are in the Casablanca, a four-storey building beside the restaurant. It was once a spa but was converted into a three-bedroom condominium suite with three bathrooms, living room, satellite television and five hotel-like rooms.

While cuddling inside the room with the view of the sea can be enough to fill one’s length of stay, activities on offer are tempting. Of course, swimming and diving are top on the list. The resort’s Safety Stop Dive Shop (SSDS) can address a diver’s needs. It also has a resident dive master and licensed instructor to assist divers in exploring the numerous dive sites of the Mabini-Tingloy area and teach introductory diving lessons to non-divers. Non-divers wanting to have a glimpse of the reefs can go snorkelling. The reefs are accessible. Just beyond the piers of the resort one can get a view of the corals and other marine life. The resort’s reef is level with a depth of about fifteen feet, then sloping down a shelf to about a hundred feet. Just under the shadow of the Main Core, a site called Canyon Land manifested itself during low tide—two large rocks just beneath the surface with a canyon-like crevice of about eight feet deep and usually filled with fish.

One can go further, to Sombrero Island, for more snorkelling. Reaching the islet by boat takes about fifteen minutes. The east side has a beach for swimming but the west side offers a coral garden to marvel at.

With special arrangement, one can go riding a banana boat, kayak, Jet Ski and speedboat.
Three swimming pools are at the guests’ disposal. The Main Pool, between the restaurant and the hotel, has two levels connected by a thirty-foot water slide. Adults usually hangout at the main deck and three-foot-deep swimming pool while kids can frolic at the two-foot-deep upper-level pool with a waterfall. Nearby, the Nipa Bar dispenses drinks and snacks. At the southern end of the resort, a more secluded and private place, the South-end Pool lies more accessible to guests in the cottages and the cabanas. With a bar and coffee shop, and a good view of Tingloy Island, this pool can accommodate big groups, thus they would not be distracting to other guests who can use the other pools. The last pool is an interesting one—a saltwater pool that simulates the marine environment. The twelve-foot-deep Reef Pool is used as a “launching pad and training tank for novice scuba divers and snorkelers,” but anyone can use it, especially those who wants to get the feel of the sea but are afraid to venture out in the open. Located very near SSDS, this pool even has groupers and baby sharks.





Non-water recreation is also available. There is a tennis court and a game room with billiard and pool tables by the Main Pool. A Videoke machine can be rented out. One can walk around the resort; there is a walk-in aviary housing birds like ducks, fowls, eagles, kites and owls, gifts to the owners. The resort’s name is inspired by the birds.

When hungry, the restaurant, which is built like a Samoan longhouse and has Wi-Fi connection, offers an array of American, European, Filipino and Oriental dishes. Salad choices include panzanella (crisp bread and vegetables with anchovy red wine vinaigrette), mixed greens, Caesar’s and tomato mozzarella. The restaurant also offers pasta (spaghetti, fettucine or penne with Bolognese, creamy chicken, marinara and primavera sauces and lasagne al forno) and pizzas (Margarita, pepperoni, New York, Espaniola, prawn and mango, Hawaiian and vegetarian). Grilled items—steak ala pobre, king prawns, lapu-lapu (grouper) fillet, chicken steak, fillet mignon, pork chop, mixed seafood and Spanish mackerel or tangigue—come in a combo with buttered vegetable and rice or mashed potatoes. The house favorites are wiener snitchzel (breaded pork cutlet with German potato and sweet and sour cabbage), bistecca alla pizzaiola (tenderloin of beef with capsicum-tomato sauce and country-style potatoes), grouper alla Dieppoise (grouper fillet with prawns on Dieppe sauce and mashed potato), Cajun bourbon chicken (chicken barbecue with rice or mashed potato), beef bulgogi (tenderloin on Korean sauce), sautéed Brazil prawns (sautéed tiger prawns on garlic and olive oil) and sizzling squid teppanyaki (squid grilled on flat iron and flavored with traditional Japanese sauce). Filipino favorites on the menu include crispy pata; chicken, squid or pork adobo; pork, prawn, beef or fish sinigang (sour soup); bistek Tagalog; beef bulalo; Bicol Express; chicken inasal; and pancit gisado. Sandwiches, desserts and kids’ meals are also available.



Eagle Point Resort has ways of mixing business with leisure. Out-of-town conferences and seminars can be held here as the resort offers two function rooms. The main function hall, on the third level of the old villa next to the Casablanca and accessible from the Main Core, can accommodate about a hundred persons. A smaller function room at the ground floor of the old villa can hold about forty people. Equipped with comfort rooms and air-conditioning, the function rooms can also hold other events like wedding receptions, parties and other group activities.
One of the highlights of a stay at the Eagle Point Resort is the short trip to Sepoc Beach Center, located at Sepoc Point.

In 1998, the resort acquired a two-hectare piece of land at the northeast tip of Tingloy Island, in the barangay of Maricaban. The property, with a white-sand cove and a recognizable promontory, is set apart from the rest of the island by a range of hills, a secluded enclave. The hazy outline of Mindoro Island can be seen on the horizon. Beautiful in its desolation, the area has large crows, hovering above or resting in the forest. Sepoc Point is reachable by a fifteen- to twenty-minute by boat ride from Eagle Point Resort, across the Maricaban Strait. Here, the resort built a host of facilities like a large hall for functions and dining, a bar, a watchtower, rest rooms and shower areas, a volleyball court, among others. Hammocks and kubols or mini huts were set up for resting.






Sepoc Beach Center can accommodate up to 350 people and is usually used training, teambuilding, seminar or even a wedding. Many people find the place an ideal venue for such activities because of its beauty and isolation. All guests of the resort can have a day tour to the place. They can swim to their hearts’ content, lounge around, have lunch, play volleyball, or simply lie on the hammock and read a book. There are trails that one can tackle either up a hill to have a panoramic view of Sepoc Point or around the area up to the promontory.
Snorkeling is also an ideal activity here as the area has an extensive coral garden, most in front of Cemetery Beach. The garden stretches from the shore to about a quarter of a mile out, abruptly ending in sand. The deepest is only about fifteen to twenty feet during low tide. Several long crevices, carved out by the ever moving tides, make ideal avenues for the snorkelers.
It is discovered that Sepoc Point is also a nesting area for the endangered green turtles. If guests are likely, they can be releasing baby turtles. The resort has been into environment conservation, including caring for and the releasing of the hatchlings.



Before sundown, one has to leave Sepoc Point Center, which has no power and accommodation facilities. One can enjoy the setting of the sun at the resort, particularly at the South-end Pool. At this time, the light guilds your magical stay at the resort, a treasure found after a rough but adventurous way.



Getting There
Driving to Eagle Point Resort is now faster and more convenient via the Star Tollway, Phase II. The PhP2.75 billion road project was inaugurated recently by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This new toll way extension cuts travel time by as much as thirty minutes and is considered more scenic—corn fields, mango orchards and a deep, forested river gorge. Instead of exiting left at the Lipa City exit, keep going straight on the Star Tollway Extension for twenty more kilometers until the very end, where you enter the Batangas City Diversion Road.
From Manila, go to the South Luzon Expressway to the very end toward Calamba, Laguna, (42 kilometers). Turn right at Exit 50 onto Manila-Batangas National Highway toward Batangas City, and travel 7.5 kilometers. Turn right into Star Tollway and go to the very end toward Batangas City (32.6 kilometers). At end of Star Tollway, go around the rotunda and turn right into Diversion Road toward Batangas International Port and travel four kilometers. Turn right under overpass onto Batangas-Balayan National Highway toward Bauan, and travel six kilometers. After leaving Bauan, passing a Petron gas station and crossing Manghinao Bridge, turn left toward Mabini and travel for nine kilometers. Turn right at the Mabini rotonda toward Anilao and travel 1.7 kilometers. Turn left on coastal road in Anilao toward Bagalangit and travel 8.8 kilometers. Turn right to Eagle Point Resort private road and go to the very end at the EPR parking lot (1.5 kilometers).

Contact Information
Eagle Point Resort is at Barrio Bagalangit, Mabini, Batangas, with telephone number (043) 986-0177, fax number (043) 986-0187, mobile phone numbers +63917-846-3958, +63918-846-3958. Its Makati sales office is at the Ground Floor, Corinthian Plaza, 121 Paseo de Roxas corner Gamboa Streets, Legaspi Village, Makati City, with telefax numbers (+63 2) 813-3353 and (+63 2) 813-3560. E-mail rsvn@eaglepoint.com.ph for reservations. Web sites are www.eaglepoint.com.ph and www.eaglepointresort.com.ph.