Paraiso is an adventure story arc

Story arc

A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...

 of the Philippine comic strip series Pugad Baboy

Pugad Baboy

Pugad Baboy is a comic strip created by Filipino cartoonist Apolonio "Pol" Medina, Jr. The strip is about a Manila community of mostly obese people - "fat as pigs", so to speak ....

, created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, popularly known as the Inquirer, is the most widely read broadsheet newspaper in the Philippines, with a daily circulation of 260,000 copies. It is one of the Philippines' newspapers of record...

. This particular story arc lasts 54 strips long. In 2000, the story arc was reprinted in Pugad Baboy XII, the twelfth book compilation of the comic strip series.

Synopsis

Keeping a promise he had made more than five years previously, Dagul takes Debbie on a vacation to Club Paraiso in an island off Busuanga, Palawan

Busuanga, Palawan

Busuanga is a municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. The territory of Busuanga covers the western one-third of Busuanga Island, which is part of the Calamian Group of Islands lying between Mindoro and mainland Palawan...

. On the their first night on vacation, Dagul discovers that Polgas had stowed away

Stowaway

A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....

 inside one of his travel bags. In the following days, the trio go snorkeling

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...

 and scuba diving

Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

.

The first encounter

During one of these forays into the sea, Polgas notices dead fish floating past him. He soon discovers another diver squirting cyanide

Cyanide fishing

Cyanide fishing is a method of collecting live fish mainly for use in aquariums, which involves spraying a sodium cyanide mixture into the desired fish's habitat in order to stun the fish...

 into the surrounding water. Polgas bites his arm and the cyanide fisherman, after losing the container of the poison, attacks Polgas with a knife. Polgas deflects the strike; consequently, the diver cuts off his air supply with his own knife. He swims for the surface with Polgas in hot pursuit. As they break the surface, Polgas hears the diver talking to another fisherman on a fishing vessel

Fishing vessel

A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....

 in Mandarin (which the reader actually sees rendered in Chinese character

Chinese character

Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...

s. These lines loosely translate to, "Catch me if you can, even if you die trying"), and the second fisherman opens fire on Polgas. As Polgas dives to evade the gunfire, lit stick of dynamite

Dynamite

Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...

 is thrown at him. As a consequence of the explosion, Polgas temporarily loses his hearing.

Polgas soon learns that mainland Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 frequently entered and illegally fished Palawan waters using cyanide and dynamite. He decides to stop them upon seeing a whole fleet of Chinese fishing vessels operating off the Club Paraiso beaches. Using the satellite phone

Satellite phone

A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites...

 built into his garapata gun, Polgas calls Khalid, the former Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 pirate he had befriended, and asks for the Red Marlin Group's help in stopping the illegal fishermen. He then calls OCB headquarters and requests that a special package be shipped to his current location. Needless to say, Polgas then assumes his Dobermaxx persona.

Engage!

Before leaving for Busuanga to retrieve his requested package, Dobermaxx deploys Gary, his tiny-tech fleabot, to provide him with updates in his absence. He then takes an inflatable boat

Inflatable boat

An inflatable boat is a lightweight boat constructed with its sides and bow made of flexible tubes containing pressurised gas. For smaller boats, the floor and hull beneath it is often flexible. On boats longer than , the floor often consists of three to five rigid plywood or aluminium sheets fixed...

 powered by an outboard motor

Outboard motor

An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom and are the most common motorized method of propelling small watercraft...

 and threads his way through the fishing fleet. One of these, however, gives chase. A fishermen on board attempts to throw a lighted stick of dynamite at Dobermaxx, but a shot from the OCB agent's garapata gun causes him to drop the explosive. The pursuing fishing vessel blows up. Upon reaching Busuanga, Dobermaxx goes on horseback to the airport, intent on retrieving his special package. At the airport, Dobermaxx bark-activates the package, which is actually the Jet Jackal and flies back to Club Paraiso, but not before a security guard (who is a relative of Patrolman Durugas) tries to deny that such a shipment arrived.

Meanwhile, Dagul, Debbie and the rest of Club Paraiso's staff had taken refuge at Eagle's Point, the highest piece of terrain in the area. The Chinese fishermen, armed with assault rifle

Assault rifle

An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies...

s, attempt to storm the position, but Dagul and the rest fend them off with nothing more than thrown rocks. More attackers rush the group, but Dobermaxx hooks one of the fishing vessels using the Jet Jackal and drops it on the fishermen. One of the attackers managed to make it through the group's defense and rushes at them armed with a dao

Dao (sword)

Daois a category of single-edge Chinese swords primarily used for slashing and chopping , often called a broadsword in English translation because some varieties have wide blades. In China, the dao is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the gun , qiang , and the jian , and referred...

, but Dagul, using an Aikido

Aikido

is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to...

 technique, throws him off a cliff. Observing the fisherman's fall, Dagul himself fell off the cliff and into the sea. There, he decides to board the Chinese fishing vessels and do some damage. Using joss stick

Joss stick

Joss sticks are a type of incense used in many East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, traditionally burned before a Chinese religious image, idol or shrine. They can also be burned in front of a door, or open window as an offering to heaven, or devas...

s as a primitive timer, he rigs each vessel's explosives to blow out in the open sea. At the sixth vessel, however, Dagul was caught by a sentry. As the sentry was about to shoot Dagul, Garapeater cannon fire from the Jet Jackal put him out of commission.

As the rigged vessels began to blow up one after the other, the bad guys came down from Eagle's Point to defend their boats. At this moment, 20 millimeter cannon fire began to rain down on the surviving vessels. It was the Red Marlin Group, now the Philippine Navy

Philippine Navy

The Philippine Navy is the naval arm of the Armed Forces of the Philippines . Its official name in Filipino is Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas, literally, "Sea Force of the Philippines"....

's special action group. As the Chinese fishermen ran out of ammunition, they began to adopt Kung Fu stances, apparently with no intent of surrendering. They did surrender, however, upon seeing the kris

Kris

The kris or keris is an asymmetrical dagger or sword nowadays most strongly associated with the culture of Indonesia, but also indigenous to Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Brunei. It is known as kalis in the southern Philippines. The kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade , but many have...

 wielded by the Red Marlin. A few of the bad guys were able to escape in their fast motorized outrigger canoe

Outrigger canoe

The outrigger canoe is a type of canoe featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull...

s, but the strong downdraft

Vertical draft

An updraft or downdraft is the vertical movement of air as a weather related phenomenon. One of two forces causes the air to move. Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A mass of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, and so will rise...

 from the Jet Jackal's helium fusion engines caused these vessels to disintegrate.

After Dobermaxx lands the Jet Jackal, he and Khalid exchange good-natured ribbing. They had last seen each other five years ago, during the operation to destroy the biggest pirate

Piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 ring in Basilan

Basilan

The Province of Basilan is an island province of the Philippines within the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . Basilan is the largest and northernmost of the major islands of the Sulu Archipelago and is located just off the southern coast of Zamboanga Peninsula...

 (as related in Pirata

Pirata (Pugad Baboy graphic novel)

Pirata is a full-color graphic novel written and illustrated by Filipino cartoonist Pol Medina, Jr. and first published in 1995 by Pugad Baboy, Inc...

). After subduing the illegal fishermen, Khalid remarks that they were composed not just of Chinese, but Malaysians and other nationalities as well. Knowing that their respective governments would simply negotiate for their repatriation

Repatriation

Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...

, Dobermaxx shoots them with his garapata gun. The victims began to itch and scratch.

Epilogue

By next morning, Khalid had taken the prisoners to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation. Everyone sat down to a feast of the illegal fishermen's confiscated catch. As they began to dig in, Cathy, the resort's operations manager, thanked them for what they did; she however began to lecture the group about the damage done to the area's fragile ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

 as a consequence of the battle. The other staff members, embarrassed with this outburst, hurriedly took her away.

Dagul attempted to keep a towel emblazoned with the resort's logo, but was prevented from doing so by Debbie. As they were about to leave, Dagul became annoyed with the farewell song being performed by one of the resort's staff, which was "Hindi Kita Malilimutan" by Basil Valdez

Basil Valdez

Basil Valdez is a Filipino balladeer.He has received several Tinig Awards and the 1991 Tanglaw ng Lahi Award from Ateneo de Manila University-Biography:...

 (a common interment hymn in the Philippines).

He also checks his bag to see if Polgas had stowed away in it again, but Debbie remarks that Polgas is flying back with Dobermaxx in the Jet Jackal (in keeping with the premise that they do not know Polgas' secret identities, even though they obviously do).