the asinganian

The Asingan Municipal Hall, circa 1994



The Asingan Municipal Hall at present..



the following article came from an Asinganian newsletter printed here in Toronto in 1994. It has been decided during a recent meeting of Toronto Asinganians that a newsletter would be a welcome project that would bind townmates together. I am reproducing the article entitled ASINGAN '94: SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW..The New Asingan referred to in the article is Asingan way back 1994..


ASINGAN is no longer the sleepy town we once knew in the '50s. In the '90s, this languid, sluggish settlement woke up with a vengeance.

Nowadays, if you live in the Poblacion, you will hear nothing but noise, noise, noise. All day long, 7 days a week there is the constant roar of motorized tricycles carrying people from one point to another. Then there is also a new kid in the block called the KULIGLIG. Originally intended for the farm, some innovative farmers put on it a minivan body thus changing it into a passenger vehicle. It is complete with a steering wheel and four tires.Kuliglig, by the way is a Kubota motorused by farmers to perform menial tasks originally assigned to the carabao.

Now a days the KULIGLIG has found other uses: a parade float for beauty queens, a carrier for various farm products and many others. It adds to the noise pollution in Asingan. As if there is not enough of this din from cars, jeeps, vans and small trucks owned by some well-to-do Asinganians.

Recently, the telephone arrived in Asingan. In 1992, some townspeople were asked to subscribe to a private telephone business. Some signed up, the rest didn't. The second group later regretted not accepting the offer. Now anybody with that gizmo could call overseas by dialing first 108 which connects you to a switchboard operator who in turn will connect you to the country of your choice as soon as there is an available line. Sorry folks, now a days, there is still no direct dialing for overseas yet. It may take you about 15 minutes before you could talk with that party located halfway across the world.

But the really rich Asinganians have started acquiring another new kid on the block: the cellular phones...

( to be continued )

note: the black and white masthead at the top of the page is originally used in this ASINGANIAN newsletter that was published in 1994. This article SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW is quite long. Frankly speaking, I am not a fast typist and I do appreciate someone who might help me do some word processing which I could just insert in the template or pages. If you a fax machine and you have some time to spare, then please e-mail me at Mabait42@aol.com..I would surely appreciate your help. This is purely voluntary work for now, until maybe we can get some sponsors or advertisers. Well, maybe, just maybe.

Thanks!...