Monthly Archives: March 2003

Kalanguya Festival (Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya )

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Northern Luzon is a prime tourist destination in the Philippines.  The Cagayan Valley, with its rich cultural heritage and stunning geographic diversity  of scenic mountain ranges and valleys, is one of the most beautiful and exciting of these destinations and Nueva Vizcaya offers both man-made and natural wonders (the legendary Salinas Salt Spring of Bambang, the amazing Alayan-Kapisaan Cave System of Kasibu, etc.).  Its many cultures is also worth immersing into.   One such cultural heritage, that of the Kalanguyas, is showcased in Sta. Fe’s Kalanguya Festival.

Street dancing parade

The National Commission on the Culture and Arts (NCCA), through its Committee on Northern Cultural Communities, strives to promote and revitalize traditional culture and arts through distinctive or unique festivals that continue to be part of the local population’s life and culture.  For the second time around, the NCCA has supported, with grants, this festival which showcases the Kalanguya’s rich cultural heritage.

L-R, David Greedy, Leah Luna, Gerry Gracio, Nonoy Froilan and me
Yours truly was tapped to write an article on this unique festival held on the second week of March.  Joining me were NCCA Project Development Officer Ms. Leah A. Luna; NCCA videographer Mr. Nonoy Froilan; Mr. David Greedy of Getty Images; free-lance writer Mr. Gerry Gracio and COLORS photographer Mr. Joseph “Jay” Agcaoili.   We all left Manila by 10 PM via a Nelbusco bus.  The 216.85-km. trip took all of 5 hrs. (including stopovers).  It was a chilling ride for me as I forgot to bring a jacket, a regret that was to stay with me even during my stay at the town.  The 399.82 sq. km., pleasantly cool, fifth-class municipality of Sta. Fe is the first town to be traversed when going to the Cagayan Valley.  We arrived at the Golden Rose Hotel by 3:30 AM, billeting ourselves at 3 of the hotel’s 9 non-airconditioned rooms.  After a short 2-hr. sleep and early breakfast, it was off to work.
Kalanguya dance

The town has a 2,001 population of 13,942, 75-80% of which are Kalanguyas which inhabit 13 of the town’s 16 barangays.  The rest are Ilocanos and Tagalogs.   The Kalanguyas  occupy the mountain ranges of the Caraballo Sur and belong to the Igorot tribe which include the Ibalois, Kankanai and Karaw.  They are also found in the area west of Sta. Fe, the eastern portion of Benguet plus some areas of Pangasinan, Ifugao and Nueva Ecija.

The Kalanguyas were formerly called Ikalahans (from a tree having broad leaves), an ethnolinguistic  name first coined  by American anthropologist  and missionary Delbert Rice.  Pastor Rice maintained that Kalanguya was a derogatory tribal name, it being a contraction of “kelan ngoy ya?” which is best translated as “What in the world is that?,” an expression commonly uttered to indicate contempt.  This was contradicted during the Kalanguya-Ikalahan Tribal Consultation (July 6-7, 1993) which confirmed that the Kalanguya name is not derogatory but a word of peace.

The indispensable pig

The hardworking Kalanguyas are kaingin (slash and burn) farmers.  The delicious kamote (sweet potato), raised in inum-an (upland farms or swiddens), is their staple food.  They also raise the indispensable pig, used in almost all occasions like the canao (socio-religious celebration), wedding celebrations and tongtongan (a traditional system of settling disputes). Kalanguyas in Brgy. Imugan (the  Kalanguya center), also produce jams and jellies made from guava, santol, bignay or wild berries and Ifugao handicrafts like bamboo baskets, woodcarvings and exotic and beautiful handwoven fabrics (used as tapis by women and g-strings by the men).

Kalanguya kiyad

The Kalanguya Festival, held in conjunction with the town’s fiesta, was started in 1996 during the first term of youthful Mayor Teodorico DP. Padilla (of Tagalog-Ilocano descent) and elderly Vice-Mayor Donior Tidang (a Kalanguya).  This lowlander-highlander tandem were instrumental in dissolving lowlander discrimination and the prevailing differences  between these two peoples by presenting the culture of the Kalanguyas to the lowlanders.   The first Kalanguya Festival was a step in the right direction with its theme “Nah-Nah Yaw Ni Puli, Hak-Hakay Ni Manhilbi” (Despite Cultural Diversity, In Service There is Unity). The festival aims to conserve, preserve and protect the almost-forgotten Kalanguya cultural heritage, especially to the younger generation, amidst modernization and high technology.  Slowly, the Kalanguyas are being recognized as a component for society’s progress and a feeling of brotherhood now exists between the two peoples.  The festival also brought enormous progress  and development in the town and its people’s lives.

Sacrifice of a carabao

This year, with the Padilla-Tidang tandem still in governance, the 8th staging of this festival proved to be just as successful as the first. The festival proper kicked off with an early  morning parade of floats from Consuelo to the plaza coupled with street dancing by participants in native attire (g-strings for men and tapis for women). At the gymnasium, we witnessed a showcase of the cultural heritage of the tribe through displays and exhibits, songs and dances, chants and rituals (kiyad), exhibit of traditional arts and crafts, indigenous games and sports and sacrifices of a pig and a carabao.   In the evening, a performance of the play Ibong Adarna, featuring Wowee de Guzman, was held at the town gymnasium.  At 9 AM the next day, March 16, we all left Sta. Fe for Manila  via a passing Victory Liner bus and arrived in Manila by 4:30 PM.

Anilao: Arthur’s Place Dive Resort (Mabini, Batangas)

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

A chilling, foggy morning greeted me when I woke up.  It was already sunrise but the sun was obscured by the clouds.  We soon had breakfast prepared, packed our gear and waited for our “porter” and guide to arrive.  In the meantime we posed, as mountain conquerors would do, behind our cameras.  Our guides soon arrived and similarly unburdened, we easily proceeded down the mountain and back to our starting point.  After refreshing drinks at the store, it was back to our car for the now downhill, but nevertheless still treacherous, drive down the zigzag road.   The guys hiked down to their car further down the road.

Arthur’s Place

We decided to all meet at Arthur’s Place to savor what Anilao has to offer underwater.  The beach here was a relatively shallow.  Offshore is a dive site aptly named Arthur’s Place, gradually sloping from five to 21 meters with plenty of reef fish, small coral heads, soft corals, feather stars, hydroids, anemones and sponges.  The resort, opened in 1984 (with two rooms) by the late Arthur Abrigonda was, together with Aqua Tropical Sports (opened in 1967) and Aquaventure Reef Club, the first to open resorts in the area.  It now has 12 rooms with bath (two of them airconditioned), a restaurant, dive shop, picnic tables, shower rooms and offers two boats for diving trips.

None of us went diving (although Cecil was a trained diver) but we indulged in the next best thing by going snorkeling.  Even near the shore, the fish and coral life along the reef was quite good.  I’ve tried diving once (in Club Paradise in Palawan) a long time ago.  Anilao is sure worth the second try with its coral slopes or steps of small drop-offs, shallow coral gardens among sandy patches, profuse small fish life and numerous crinoids and nudibranches.  Some marine sanctuaries have been set up.  Diving is good all year round but the best season is from November to May.

Arthur’s Place Dive Resort: Anilao, Mabini, Batangas. Mobile numbers (Ms. Estelita M. Abrigonda): (0919) 716-7973 and (0919) 312-3938.  E-mail: arthursplace_ph@yahoo.com.  Website: www.arthurs-place.com.

Anilao’s Gulugud Baboy (Mabini, Batangas)

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

I accepted an invitation from my friend Rosevie “Vi” Sevilla to join her and her friends Ms. Dynah Pizarro and Ms. Cecil Divinagracia on a camping hike to the 501-m. high Mt. Panay (locally called Gulugud Baboy) in Anilao in Mabini, Batangas.  Gulugud Baboy is the highest point on the rocky headland of the Calumpang Peninsula. I brought along my son Jandy plus my tent and other camping equipment.  To joining us later, in a separate vehicle, were Edwin A. Guisihan, Jersey Miranda, Joseph de la Rosa and Carlo Peña.  The morning trip from Manila was via the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to the Calamba Exit, then on to the Batangas towns of Sto. Tomas, Malvar, Cuenca, Alitagtag, Sta. Teresita and Bauan as well as the cities of Lipa and Tanauan.   It took all of 3  hrs., traffic and all, including stopovers and asking for directions.

Gulugud Baboy

We arrived at the port just in time for a carinderia-style lunch.  That done, we proceeded down to a road on the left located about 200 m. before the marketplace and jeepney terminal.  From here, we drove 8 kms. along a sometimes paved, but often rough and dusty road, from Brgy. San Jose to San Teodoro.  The route is lined with about 40 dive resorts, many of them quite basic and most situated along the coast of Balayan Bay.  Some do not have access by road and could only be reached by banca from Anilao.     The Calumpang Peninsula is a rocky headland all throughout, the end result of which is a lack of suitable beach spots.We finally arrived at Arthur’s Place, said to be the jump-off point to Gulugud Baboy.

Our campsite

It so happens that Arthur’s Place, according to its manager Ms. Lita Abrigonda, is just the nearest resort to the access road going up the mountain.   It would be a long hard climb going up and we couldn’t secure porters around willing to take our heavy backpacks up.  So I decided to take my Mitsubishi Adventure, with all my passengers and gear, all the way up as I could possibly go.   The mostly rough and dusty zigzag access road was very steep, narrow and quite treacherous, with ravines along the way.  Already very difficult to traverse even during that late afternoon sun, I wouldn’t imagine anyone trying it at night.  I was to be proven wrong later on.  Our “breathtaking” drive was somehow alleviated by the equally breathtaking scenery along the way.

A fantastic view of Maricaban Island

We soon reached a basketball court with a sari-sari store beside it.  Going beyond it was made impossible by an impassable stretch so we decide to just park our car at the court.  From hereon, it would be all footwork.  However, I haven’t given up hope of getting porters and we asked around at the store for one.  There were no male porters around but the “porter” we secured (at PhP200 for a one-way trip) proved to be more dependable than three male porters; a horse.   Thus unburdened, we proceeded, together with our heavily-laden horse and guide, past the village, along a moderately graded dirt path.  It was initially quite a breeze but it all ended upon reaching an opening beside the road.  From hereon it was all uphill along a grassy and treeless trail.   The scenery began to unwind into a series of plateaus resembling sloping golf courses.  I wonder if this spine-like contour is where the mountain got its name.  Gulugud baboy is translated as “pig’s spine.”  Store caretaker Lina Castillo gives a different version, that of a baboy ginto (golden pig) seen to roam the place.

A foggy, very cold and windy evening

After about an hour’s hike, we finally reached the peak of Gulugud Baboy.  And what a peak it was!  From this vantage point high up, we had a spectacular 360 degree view of the ocean, Anilao, Batangas Pier, the narrow 11-km. long, densely forested Maricaban Island, the hat-shaped Sombrero Island, the 1,145-m. high Mt. Makulot and even Mindoro, Mt. Lobo and Mt. Manabo.  Within reach is the similarly grassy and treeless Pinagbanderahan where the Americans were said to have raised their flag (bandera) after the Japanese surrender in World War II.

The gang’s all here
Within minutes, we unloaded our backpacks, paid our guide then went about the necessary business of setting up our tents on the grassy, treeless peak and cooking an early dinner. That done, we settled down to a hearty meal.  It was now late in the day and we were rewarded with a beautiful, fiery sunset.  Simply Heaven!  However, the bitter cold and fog soon began to set in.  We also began to wonder if our other companions could still make it up as they were still in Bauan having dinner.  It would seem recklessly foolhardy for them to try to negotiate that steep and narrow zigzag road at night.  But foolhardy they were as they still pushed on to Anilao and up the steep and treacherous road up to Gulugud Baboy.  We had to guide them by phone.  There were anxious moments when we lost touch of them due to signal dead spots.  Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the faint but welcome glow of flashlights carried by the guys came into foggy view.  We all greeted them with a sigh of relief and, after a narration of their misadventures, helped them set up their tents.  The rest of the night was spent chatting, singing, drinking and making merry.