Sunset at Lingayen Gulf

Sunset at bodies of water are nice to look at.  The Manila Bay is famed for its sunsets, but I will be showing how a sunset looks like at Lingayen Gulf along the coastal town of Binmaley in Pangasinan province.

An extension of the West Philippine Sea on Luzon, the gulf stretches 56 kilometers and is surrounded by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union. It is situated between the Cordillera Central and the Zambales Mountains. The Lingayen Gulf is drained into by the Agno River.

The strategic significance of the Lingayen Gulf was proven during the Second World War.

The Japanese 14th Army under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma landed on the Eastern part of the gulf on December 22, 1941. They defeated a contingent of mainly Filipino and American troops, resulting in the invasion of the gulf. More than three years later, on January 9, 1945, the U.S. 6th Army staged an amphibious landing on the gulf. The initial landing saw 68,000 troops. About 203,608 troops went to the gulf in subsequent landings along a 32-kilometer beachhead.

Without going further in history, behold the sunset:

Rice Field in Pangasinan

Rice fields in the Philippines are fascinating sights to see. The greenness evokes freshness - a very welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the city. As the grains ripen, the green turn into gold - reminding people of a bounty harvest, reward for hard labor of planting Oryza sativa.

As urbanization spreads from Metro Manila, rice fields have been becoming rarer. The once-green-and golden plots are being converted into subdivisions, golf courses, name it; all, they say, in the name of the development. Each disappearing rice field, lessens our country's chance to become an agricultural power, a food producer in the world.

I hope that rice fields see renewed life in our land, so we will become a rice exporter once more. I rue the fact that we now import rice from other countries that once depended on the Philippines so that they would learn how to plant rice.

Months ago, I passed by the town of Mangatarem in Pangasinan. There are still a lot of rice fields there: