When I visited Tagoloan in 2008, that was more than ten years ago, I was amazed at how beautiful the plaza was. It had a lot of children playing in the see-saws and swings! There were kids running around the huge playground area, and it was already around past 5:00 pm. They were also playing in the huge complex of colourful cemented slides. That sight for me was something that I remembered for a long time. I don’t remember seeing something like this somewhere else. This was really an impressive plaza for me. When I was younger, we did not have something like this in our parks or in our schools! I thought to myself, wow! The children in this lively town are really well taken care of. The mayor must love the children so much! At least that was my initial impression.
One other impression of “Tagoloanons” was that most of them had booming voices. To me, it seemed like they were always shouting even when they were talking to people within earshot. Why was that? When I asked about it from someone else, they would just tell me: Ah that’s normal. “Basta Tagoloanon dako jud ug tingog”! (If you are a native of Tagoloan, you normally have a loud voice!)
What I liked most about the place, was the people. The people were very polite and always easy to talk to. Whenever you asked around for directions, you will have no problems whatsoever. I asked around, one time, and I was rewarded with a smiling person eagerly telling me the right direction to a particular place. People seemed to be always smiling. I thought to myself, this must be a very happy town. The people were really nice! A few times, whenever I rode a Tagoloan-bound jeepney, after I paid the transportation fee, I noticed that the jeepney conductor would always say “salamat” (thank you) whenever I got off the jeepney. That was something unusual for me. I asked myself, why would he say thank you? I asked around, I asked about the reason why the conductor would always say thank you whenever a passenger got off the jeep. Some answered, he was grateful you gave the right amount of money. Some answered, he was glad you visited Tagoloan. Some said, he was glad you arrived safely. The answers were many different things. And so I thought maybe the reason was all of the above or none of the above. Whatever the reasons, the important thing to remember here is that most of the people in this beautiful town of Tagoloan are polite, happy and friendly.
Thank you “Tagoloan” for showing me the beautiful colors of your plaza and your people. Thank you for being a great place to be a part of. God bless Tagoloan and all Tagoloanons! Please continue being strong, happy and polite people.
"We Love Tagoloan" 