By Apo Bobby Reyes (AKA Roberto Reyes, V, an 8th-generation Filipino American)

A Prediction of What the Philippines Will Look Like More-than a Century from Now and How Overseas Filipinos Will Become the Engineers of Change for the Foreseeable Future

Dateline Bulusan City, Philippines, Dec. 24, 2112, Philippine Alternative Press International (PAPI)

Y es, it is December 2112 or some 115 years since my namesake, Lolo Bobby Mercado-Reyes (my great-great-great-great-grandfather), wrote How Filipinos Reinvented Christmas, which is still available online. Lolo Bobby’s Christmas opus has generated more-than 100-million Internet buys (hits) just this new century alone.

As readers know, the world did not end on Dec. 21, 2012. Again Lolo Bobby was right when he wrote this article, which is also still available online, The 2012 Doomsday Scenario Does Not Make Sense to Christians

According to my great-great-great grandfather, Dean (Lolo Bobby’s only grandchild surnamed Reyes), his grandfather wrote many articles that foretold the future, especially his predictions about the Philippines. It was good that the Philippines listened to Lolo Bobby and followed his suggestions as stated in his series on Global Warming. (I am the fifth Roberto Reyes, after Lolo Dean named his eldest son after his grandfather and then called him “Roberto, the Second”.)

The Filipino people and their political leaders followed Lolo Bobby’s idea, as expressed in his what is now-considered Bible of urban planning, Reinventing New Orleans, Manila and Other Low-Lying Cities (Part 13 of the Global-Warming Series)

So when the sea level rose by 30 feet in 2050, the Philippines and many other countries were almost prepared for the new environment. Those that did not prepare for it met catastrophic fates and literally swallowed by the sea.

I am spending Christmas in Lolo Bobby’s home province of Sorsogon, which is now called “Ibalon,” its original name during the pre-Hispanic era. My flight from Ontario, California, landed in the Philippines’ most-modern airport situated almost in the middle of the twin cities of Bulan and Magallanes. (Readers must remember that the Los Angeles International Airport – or LAX – became part of the Pacific Ocean in 2050 and that was why Ontario Airport became the new LAX). The ultra-modern Bulan-Magallanes airport was built on elevated runways and aprons at least 50 feet above sea level.

The province of Sorsogon, oops, Ibalon, became an ecological oasis when the people followed to the letter Lolo Bobby’s and his fellow Overseas-Sorsoganons’ ideas about the “Green Revolution.” The “Green Revolution” coupled with the “Blue Revolution” and the “Wireless Revolution” had been launched successfully in 2013. Lolo Bobby’s description of his province as one of the greenest, if not the greenest, area of the Philippines in the 1950s was written in this article, The Filipino "Silent Springs" (With Apologies to Rachel Carson)

Now Ibalon is very green again and Sorsogon Bay is alive once more like it was in the 1950s. (The folks decided not to rename the body of water, which is the province’s most-valuable ecological asset.) But the bay has tripled its size to some 60,000 hectares as a result of the new sea level. Sorsogon Bay has also the only tidal-powered electrical generators in the country, aside from numerous mini-hydro power-generating plants in its rivers. The “tidal dam” now supplies nearly all the needs of  the Bicol Region and the rest sold to the Luzon Grid. (The Bac-Man Geothermal Plant was bought by the Province of Sorsogon and shut down for environmental reasons.)

By the way, the beach of Sorsogon Bay is now in the Cogon District of Barangay Bibingcahan, some two kilometers from where it used to be – and now close to the ancestral home of Lolo Bobby.

My kin in Ibalon – the Reyeses, the Sesbreños, the Mercados, the  Diños, the Encisos, the Llamases and their in-laws and other relatives – and I will have a grand Christmas dinner and ball. The venue of our reunion is in one of the 5,000-room hotels in the new City of Bulusan that had been built in one of the new valleys carved up in the mountains of the province. We are occupying the state-of-the-art China City Cultural and Gaming Resort’s Grand Ballroom that accommodates 5,000 sit-down guests. Again, Lolo Bobby wrote in the 2010s about how to redevelop the land of the province in this now-memorable article, How to Make a Biblical-based Real-estate Redevelopment the Answer to Global Warming, Starting in Sorsogon

Cut-Christmas Trees Are Banned

N owadays Filipino families are banned from putting up Christmas trees that are cut from pines and other tree varieties. The 22^nd-century practice is to decorate a chosen living pine tree in special  plantations not only in Ibalon but also in the Bicol and Leyte-Samar Regions, which are the sites of what Lolo Bobby designed as the “Las Vegas of the Orient” and the “Caribbean of the East” resorts.

Now the Bicol and the Leyte-Samar Regions are just as green as Ibalon, thanks in part to an exposé in the beginning of the 21^st century that was written by Charo Nabong-Cabardo of Samar. Lolo Bobby’s good friend, Prof. Cesar Torres, sent this article to him in the early 21^st century,

Plundering the Forests of Samar Island and the Philippines

Before I leave for California, some of my kin and I will hike the “virgin” (sic) forests surrounding Bulusan Lake of the Bulusan Volcano. The original “virgin” forest actually disappeared due to illegal logging but the people planted new hardwood saplings. The forest is back and Bulusan Volcano attracts now millions of tourists per year, as it has been turned into a world-class resort, a Filipino equivalent of “Magic Mountain” of Southern California. 

Lolo Bobby laid down also the mechanics for generating electricity in this article, How OFWs Can "Reinvent" Power Generation in RP and Simultaneously Fight Global Warming (Part 14)

Now, almost all the vehicles in the country are powered by electricity. But very few people own electric cars, as commuter and express trains and electric buses – as started by the resorts in Ibalon, Bicol, Samar and Leyte – now provide fast, safe and economical means of transportation.

The Legend of the “Butanding Baron”

T he ten-million or so foreign and domestic tourists that visit annually  the resorts in Ibalon and in the Bicol-Leyte-Samar Regions usually go to the town of Donsol, near the mouth of Sorsogon Bay. It is the home of the butanding (whale shark). There the giant aquariums were built as part of the new “Blue Revolution” infrastructures for Sorsogon Bay and the Pacific Ocean’s blue waters surrounding the province. The whale sharks are unrestrained and are free to swim in-and-out of the aquariums to Sorsogon Bay, the China Sea, the Pacific Ocean and beyond.

In one of the aquariums is a monument to Donsol-born Joseph G. Lariosa, who settled in Chicago, Illinois. Lolo Bobby dubbed Mr. Lariosa the “Butanding Baron.”

It was Joseph Lariosa who finally formed the “Butanding Brigades” and “liberated” the captive whale sharks in the United States as per this article of Lolo Bobby:

"Butanding Liberation Brigade" Launched to Free Captive Whale Sharks in the Georgia Aquarium

The “Butanding Brigades” won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2055, long after the “Butanding Baron” has gone to the Blue Yonder, oops, Blue Sea.

The 22^nd-century Political Infrastructures of the Philippines

T he Philippines actually became a federal republic like the United States of America, Germany and other leading developed countries in 2020. The so-called “The Imperial Manila” has virtually disappeared, as most of the land in what used to be the biggest metropolis of the Philippines went under water in 2050. Most of the Filipino feudal families lost their haciendas and property holdings, as sea waters submerged most of them.

Today, all of the Philippines 12 federal states are almost politically independent but economically-interdependent with each other and with the United States of America, Mexico, Spain and other industrialized countries. The “Federal Republic” dream of that Filipino statesman, Aquilino Q. “Nene” Pimentel, Jr., not only became true but it also resulted in a nightmare for those who only wanted to continue the rule of “The Imperial Manila.”

The Vegas-styled and Caribbean-themed resorts in Ibalon, the Bicol and Leyte-Samar Regions and other parts of the country have been celebrating since 2020 the great holiday of July Fourth. The foresight of Lolo Bobby and his literary mentor, the great Poet-pundit Fred Burce Bunao, prevailed as per this article,

The Fourth of July Is RP-US "Interdependence Day"

The Philippine President is now just an honorary head of state, a ceremonial figure. The Filipino Prime Minister manages the day-to-day affairs of the federal government but in reality, the 12 states are quasi-independent from it. The “ReVOTElutionary” ideas of Overseas-Filipino activists were adopted by the Constitutional convention of 2017, the draft of which was first described in this article, ReVOTElution.com Proponents Launch an Online Constitutional-Convention Forum

The 22^nd-century Celebration of Filipino Heritage

C hristmas and the other holidays in the resorts of Ibalon, Sorsogon Bay, Bicol and Leyte-Samar Regions have become actual celebrations of the contributions by many countries in the making of the Filipino heritage.

The Bicolnons take pride during Christmas to highlight the contributions to their history and heritage of the people of Thailand, as described in this Lolo Bobby article, Siamese Traders Introduced Thai Cooking and the Muaythai Boxing to the Philippine Region of Bicol

In the field of music, the Ibalon resorts have established a new industry that caters to the musical demands of the tens of millions of foreign and domestic tourists that visit annually its facilities. The local equivalent of the I-Tunes not only features Bicol but also Visayan and Filipino music. The musical renaissance in Bicol was partly started by this article, Seeking More Bicol Folksong Lyrics and their Music

Filipino composers and Overseas-Filipino poets like Maya Teague and Ilving Tabios-Zamora produced world-class lyrics and music. Then the poets teamed up with Overseas-Filipino journalists like Romeo P. Marquez, Mar G. de Vera, Romeo P. Borje and their comrades in the Philippines. They established a “Philippine Alternative Press International (PAPI),” which soon dominated the Filipino Fourth Estate. The PAPI will be celebrating its centennial in 2115.

The 22^nd-century New Economic Axis called the “S.P.A.M.”

M ost of Lolo Bobby’s economic-development plans were reviewed in 2012 by an octogenarian economist, former Board of Investment Governor Ben Sanchez, and their friends. They refined what was thought by some detractors as “sheer folly,” if not Quixotic dreams.

In the field of maritime science and shipping, Lolo Bobby, Commodore Bert L. Lazo and their friends like retired American sailor Jesse Jose started a renaissance in what was then Sorsogon Province in 2013. They organized the “Southern Naval Academy” and rebuilt the old Spanish shipyard in an island off Magallanes town of the province. They started building replicas of the galleons used by Fernando de Magallanes and sailed them throughout the world from 2019 to 2021 for the 500^th anniversary of his circumnavigation of the world that ended in Cebu Island in 1521.

Then in 2041, a Spanish-Philippine-American-Mexican (S.P.A.M.) consortium started building in Magallanes City in Sorsogon (now Ibalon) Province ultra-modern gigantic galleons powered by the wind and the sun. For the world ran out of crude oil in 2050. It restarted the Galleon Trade between Magallanes City (Philippines) to Acapulco (Mexico) and other ports in California (U.S.A.) and Spain. The quad-venture consortium got all the inspiration from this Lolo Bobby’s article,

Destroying More FANHS Myths About the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade

By 2051, Mexico became the world’s fifth-biggest economy followed by California, which regained its economic clout as the sixth-biggest economy in the world. The Philippines then became the conduit of Mexico, Spain and the United States, principally led by California, to the Southeast-Asian Economic Market, which region now rivals the economies of China, Japan and Korea combined.

(To be continued . . .)