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artists from Japan, North America, Taiwan, Indone- sia and Switzerland, Malaysia, to participate in their conventions. It is not surprising then, that the level of bonsai art in the Philippines is very high, and excel- lent, private collections of superior trees can be found in different parts of the country.
The Philippine has also produced several out- standing bonsai artists that are gaining recognition far beyond the boundary of their country. Most no- table among these are Vic Ceballos, who conducted a demonstration at the World Bonsai Friendship Fed- eration Convention in Jintan, China in 2013. Another celebrated Philippine bonsai artist is Bobby P. Gopiao, a landscape designer, who has created some of the fin- est private gardens in the Philippines.
An Emerging School of Bonsai in the Philippines
After the award ceremonies at the exhibition, sev- eral members of the Philippine Bonsai Society Board of Directors accompanied the invited guests (Elias, Sulistyo, Yen, and Tang and their wives) on a flight to northern city of Batac in Ilocos Norte region. Our destination was the Mariano Marcos State University were a new academic program in bonsai was estab- lished in February, 2014. This new program has the enthusiastic support of the Philippine Bonsai Soci- ety, and the dynamic university President, Miriam E. Pascua. Their joint vision is helping to develop a small but growing bonsai businesses in the northern Philippines.
The first day in Ilocos Norte was spent visiting sev- eral small bonsai growers, stopping to see amazing coastal rock formations, and the native habitat of their
Top left; Mother & child, Alfonso Apostol, Best Suiseki in Show, BCI Excellence Award
Top right; The Falcon,
Tony Gedang, BCI Excellence Award
Bottom; Midnite Crawler, Erwin Paulos
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