The Villages of Bagumbayan

In 1969, the municipality of Bagumbayan was created by virtue of Republic Act No. 5960. In 2010, the Provincial Planning Development Office released a comprehensive profile of Sultan Kudarat. I wanted to know what happened to the villages of Bagumbayan along the years, so I compared the lists in the two documents.

According to the law that took effect in 1969, Bagumbayan was to comprise thirty-two barrios and sitios taken from the municipality of Isulan. It’s not clear from the law which of the territories were barrios and which were sitios. According to the 2010 report, Bagumbayan comprise nineteen barangays. Note that barrios are called barangays today. Barrios and barangays are essentially the same—basic unit of government in the Philippines. Sitios are settlements that are usually far from the center of the barrio/barangay, but sitios are not independent and are still governed by the barrio/barangay.

Of the thirty-two barrios and sitios of Bagumbayan in 1969, nine became barangays: Bagumbayan/Poblacion, Bai Sirafinang, Biwang, Busok, Kapaya, Kinayao, Masiag, Sipaka/South Sepaka, and Tuka. Four still exist today as sitios, as can be seen in the map of Bagumbayan in the 2010 report: Chrismor, Lawa, Marbel (Marble possibly), and Salatan. Due to lack of resources, I cannot determine what happened to the remaining nineteen places: Damaslot, Dawing, Kambad, Kanakan, Keposo, Kibongkog, Ladasino, Lanao, Languan, Malalas, Malingaon, Malay, Mamison, Mapayag, Muno, Natubak, Payaguntong, Pangolan, and Siop. A few of them, though, especially Keposo and Muno, sound familiar to me; they may be in Kulaman Plateau.

Nine of the current nineteen barangays of Bagumbayan were not included in the 1969 law, so they might have been created after that year: Chua, Daluga, Kabulanan, Kanulay, Monteverde, Sison, Sto. Niño, Sumilil, and Titulok.

Daguma was also not included in the 1969 law and might have become a barangay after 1969, but it is an old place, even older than the municipality of Bagumbayan. It is listed as one of the thirty-seven municipal districts of Cotabato Province in Act No. 2711 of the Philippine Commission, dated March 10, 1917. The municipal district of Daguma was later annexed to the municipality of Dulawan when the municipality was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 66, dated November 25, 1936. The municipal district of Daguma was abolished somehow, and its seat of government, Barrio Daguma, was included in the municipality of Isulan when the municipality was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 266, dated August 30, 1957. Perhaps in 1969, when Bagumbayan was created, Daguma remained with Isulan, and for some reason, it joined or was made to join Bagumbayan later. I wish to know more what happened, but Daguma is in the plains, at the foot of Daguma Range, which borders Kulaman Plateau. The barangay is beyond the scope of this blog.

Going back to the map of Bagumbayan, I’m glad that sitios are included in it. I can point for you where exactly I spent the 2014 Holy Week, the subject of a series of posts that I wrote months ago. The Toro-toro, my favorite peak, is somewhere between the sitios of Sinaban and Mining Area. Sitio Miasong, where the cousin whom I visited lives, is somewhere between Sinigawan and Liquicon. Bagumbayan has a really big area, and its annual income is among the biggest in the province. It’s really possible to create another municipality within it. The new municipality may include the barangays and sitios in the Kulaman Plateau area, with Barangay Masiag as the seat of government. That way, the mountainous area can be governed better. The way things are, it seems to me that development is just focused on the plains, the Allah Valley area.

Villages Named Kulaman

In 1965, a municipality named Kulaman was created, and like most municipalities at the time, it was named after the most prominent barrio in the area. The municipality lasted less than a year due to a legal issue about its creation, and it was not recreated until twenty-four years later, in 1989, and this time, the name of a heroic Manobo chieftain was dropped for the name of a heroic Philippine senator. The municipality was named Senator Ninoy Aquino, and the village of Kulaman was made the seat of government.

Even if the name Kulaman officially applies only to the poblacion or central village, it is used by many people to refer to the whole municipality. People rarely use the terms Ninoy and Ninoy Aquino, much less the lengthy Senator Ninoy Aquino. If you’re in the capital town, for example, and you’re on your way to Senator Ninoy Aquino, you should tell the driver of the tricycle to take you to the “terminal to Kulaman.” If you say “terminal to Senator Ninoy Aquino,” he might not know where to take you. In some cases, Kulaman is still used in official documents. For example, the Sultan Kudarat Division of the Department of Education divides the districts of Senator Ninoy Aquino into Kulaman I and Kulaman II.

I always try to make a distinction between the traditional and the official. When I’m in my own province, I tell people I’m from Kulaman. When I’m in other places, I tell people I’m from the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino. In my write-ups, I use Senator Ninoy Aquino town, Kulaman Plateau, or Kulaman village; I’ve never used Kulaman town, as far as I can remember.

I used to think that Kulaman village—or Barangay Kulaman or Barrio Kulaman—could only be appropriately used for the central village of my town, that settlement near the body of water that is also known today as Kulaman River. To my surprise and delight, I found out from old laws that there had been villages in the past that were officially named Kulaman, that Kulaman officially (not just traditionally) had a much wider area.

In 1959, when Palimbang was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 350, the municipality was to be composed of more than forty barrios, two of which were North Kulaman and South Kulaman. It’s not clear from the law if the two barrios used to be part of the municipality of Kiamba or of the municipality of Lebak. I’m fairly certain that it’s Lebak.

Map of Senator Ninoy Aquino. Poblacion and Kulaman refer to the same place.

The official yet inaccurate map of Palimbang. Barangay Baluan
should be close to the boundary, at the meeting point of the two creeks
from Senator Ninoy Aquino.

In 1961, when Kalamansig was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 459, the municipality was to be composed of twenty-eight barrios and sitios—twenty from the municipality of Lebak and eight from the municipality of Palimbang. One of the barrios and sitios from Palimbang was North Kulaman. This means that South Kulaman was left in the territory of Palimbang. At present, though, Palimbang doesn’t have any barangay named South Kulaman. I don’t know yet what exactly happened to the village or its name, for I don’t have copies of Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board) resolutions creating the barrios and barangays of Sultan Kudarat.

North Kulaman must have later been referred to as Kulaman only. In November 1965, when the municipality of Kulaman was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 211-E, its assigned seat of government was the barrio of Kulaman, which was taken from the municipality of Kalamansig. There was no mention of any barrio from Kalamansig named North Kulaman. At present also, Kalamansig does not have any barangay named Kulaman. (But Kalamansig got its name from Kulaman suwayeg, which means “Kulaman in the river.”)

So North Kulaman became the Kulaman that we know today, and South Kulaman disappeared from the map. Or more accurately, the name South Kulaman disappeared from official records of the municipality of Palimbang. But where was the barrio of South Kulaman possibly located? Take a look at the maps of Senator Ninoy Aquino and Palimbang. If the locations of North Kulaman and South Kulaman had been based on the flow of Kulaman River, South Kulaman must have been around the area where the sitio of Datu Sipot is located today. If South Kulaman had been straight south of North Kulaman, it must have been on the west of Barangay Baluan. Take note that the official map of Palimbang is not accurate. Barangay Baluan should be close to the boundary; it’s just a short ride from Barangay Tacupis in Senator Ninoy Aquino.

Confused yet? You’ve got company. In October 1965, when Bagumbayan was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 187, Kulaman was listed as one of the barrios and sitios that were to compose the new municipality. Bagumbayan was being formed from within the municipality of Isulan, so Kulaman could not be included in the list, for Kulaman at the time was part of the municipality of Kalamansig. In any case, the law was declared null (as what happened to the law that created the municipality of Kulaman), and when the municipality of Bagumbayan was recreated in 1969, the barrio of Kulaman was not included.

To recap, the village of Kulaman (two villages, in fact) was officially in existence as early as 1959, and in 1965, it was already large enough to be made the seat of government of a municipality. The laws are strong proof that the name Kulaman has been attached to the land, much earlier and more strongly than the name Senator Ninoy Aquino. What am I trying to say? Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino should be renamed Municipality of Kulaman.

The Mother of Kulaman III

(This is the last of a three-part series.)

Are you still hanging on? Unless you badly need the info for a project in your history class, you most likely have not gone over my previous posts. No matter. I’m writing this for local history buffs and for myself. So without much ado (or without as much ado as my first and second posts had), here’s the you-can’t-miss breathtaking spine-tingling hair-raising finale:


1951 April 12
Executive Order No. 432

The seat of government of the Municipality of Lebak, Province of Cotabato, was transferred from its location at the time at Kalamansig to the barrio of Salaman of the same municipality.

The significance of this law to the history of the Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino is that ten years later, in 1961, the Municipality of Kalamansig would be created, and in 1965, parts of the Municipality of Kalamansig would form the western part of the Municipality of Kulaman.


1954 June 12
Republic Act No. 1035

The name of the Municipality of Dulawan in the Province of Cotabato was changed to Datu Piang. The southeast half of the present-day Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was still part of the Municipality of Dulawan during this time.


1957 August 30
Executive Order No. 266

The Municipality of Isulan was created. The new territory comprised forty barrios and sitios from the Municipality of Datu Piang and eight barrios and sitios from the Municipality of Norala. One of the barrios from the Municipality of Norala was Kalawag, which was assigned as the seat of government of the new municipality.

At this time apparently, the Philippine government had stopped subdividing territories into municipal districts. The Municipal District of Daguma no longer existed, but Barrio Daguma was listed as one of the barrios from the Municipality of Datu Piang that were included in the new municipality. Likewise, the Municipal District of Isulan no longer existed, but its name was used for the new municipality.

Compare the list of barrios that composed the Municipality of Dulawan (the old name of the Municipality of Datu Piang) in 1936 and the list of barrios and sitios that composed the Municipality of Isulan in 1957. From the two lists, you can infer that the Municipal Districts of Isulan and Daguma in the Municipality of Dulawan had roughly the same territory as the Municipality of Isulan. The barrios that the two territories shared were Dukay, Laguilayan, Daguma, Kapaya, Bual, Natubak, Tuka, and Sipaka. Furthermore, the following barrios might be the same but had been changed due to typographical error or natural evolution: from West Maliñgao to Malingawon, from Maluan to Malugan, and from Tuka Mapayag to Mapayag.

In 1957 also, the southeast half of the present-day Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was still part of the Municipality of Datu Piang. That portion of Kulaman Plateau, however, did not yet have any politically significant settlement. Among the listed barrios and sitios from the Municipality of Datu Piang, the nearest to the present-day Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was Masiag, now a barangay of the Municipality of Bagumbayan, Province of Sultan Kudarat.

Prior to the issuance of Executive Order No. 266, series of 1957, the Municipality of Norala had been created by virtue of Executive Order No. 572, series of 1953, from a portion of the Municipality of Koronadal. Earlier still, the Municipality of Koronadal was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 82, series of 1947, along with the Municipality of Kiamba and nine others.


1959 August 14
Executive Order No. 350

The Municipality of Palimbang was created. The new territory comprised forty-six barrios from the Municipality of Lebak and the Municipality of Kiamba (forty-seven barrios if Ripulon Langali was two barrios and a comma was inadvertently omitted when the law was written). The barrio of Palimbang was made the seat of government.


1961 December 29
Executive Order No. 459

The Municipality of Kalamansig was created. The new territory comprised twenty barrios and sitios from the Municipality of Lebak and eight barrios and sitios from the Municipality of Palimbang. The barrio of Kalamansig was made the seat of government.


1965 October 24
Executive Order No. 187

The Municipality of Bagumbayan was created. The new territory comprised thirty-two barrios and sitios from the Municipality of Isulan. The barrio of Bagumbayan was made the seat of government.

This law was later made void by a Supreme Court ruling, and the Municipality of Bagumbayan was recreated on June 21, 1969, by virtue of Republic Act No. 5960.


1965 November 29
Executive Order No. 211-E

The Municipality of Kulaman was created. The new territory comprised twenty-one barrios and sitios—nine from the Municipality of Kalamansig, ten from the Municipality of Isulan, and two from the Municipality of Palimbang. The barrio of Kulaman was made the seat of government.

This law was later made void by a Supreme Court ruling, but the territory was recreated later as the Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, on February 17, 1989, by virtue of Republic Act No. 6712.


1969 June 21
Republic Act No. 5960

The Municipality of Bagumbayan was recreated. The new territory comprised thirty-two barrios and sitios that were separated from the Municipality of Isulan: Bagumbayan, Bai Sirafinang, Biwang, Busok, Chrismor, Damaslot, Dawing, Kambad, Kanakan, Kapaya, Keposo, Kibongkog, Kinayao, Ladasino, Lanao, Languan, Lawa, Malalas, Malingaon, Malay, Mamison, Mapayag, Marbel, Masiag, Muno, Natubak, Payaguntong, Pangolan, Salatan, Sipaka, Siop and Tuka. The barrio of Bagumbayan was made the seat of government.


1973 November 22
Presidential Decree No. 341

The Province of Cotabato was divided into three provinces: North Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat. The province of Sultan Kudarat comprised the municipalities of Tacurong, Isulan, Lutayan, Bagumbayan, Kalamansing, Lebak, Columbio, Palimbang and the new municipalities of President Quirino, Mariano Marcos, and Esperanza. The Municipality of Isulan became the capital of the Province of Sultan Kudarat.


1989 February 17
Republic Act No. 6712

The Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was created. The new territory comprised seven barangays from the Municipality of Kalamansig and one barangay from the Municipality of Bagumbayan. The baragays from Kalamansig were Kulaman, Buenaflores, Bugso, Kiadsam, Kadi, Kulaman, Malegdeg, and Sewod, and the barangay from Bagumbayan was Langgal. Kulaman was made the seat of government.

The Mother of Kulaman II

(This is the second of a three-part series.)

As promised the previous Monday, I’m posting here today the laws that created Cotabato Province and its subdivisions. The focus, of course, remains to be the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino. Imagine a map of Mindanao with a tiny dot at the south central part, east of Celebes Sea. As the leaves of the calendar flit up, the colors around this dot change. At some point, the dot lies between a narrow green swath on the left and a large yellow patch on the right. Later on, the dot is surrounded by an orange vertical rectangle that is lumpy on the right side. That dot is the village of Kulaman, and the color-shifting shapes around it are its mother municipalities throughout the decades of the 1900s.

In some of the laws below, the villages of some municipalities are enumerated. The villages in Kulaman Plateau, however, are not all listed. That’s because I’m planning to create separate posts about the villages of Senator Ninoy Aquino, Kalamansig, Lebak, Palimbang, and Bagumbayan. I want to compare the past and present compositions of those municipalities. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, peruse the laws and their salient details. I’m not sure if you’ll enjoy going over them. I enjoyed researching about them and chopping the convoluted sentences into simpler and clearer ones. I believe I was able to sharpen my writing skills, and of course, I learned so much from the text. I now feel that the past of my homeland has become more tangible. It’s no longer a monochromatic map framed behind a hazy glass.


1903 June 1
Act No. 787 of the Philippine Commission

This law provided for the organization and government of the Moro Province, comprising five districts, namely, Sulu, Zamboanga, Lanao, Cotabato, and Davao. Zamboanga was made capital of the province.

The Cotabato District included “all that part of the Island of Mindanao lying east of the Lanao District, south of the eighth parallel of north latitude, and west of a line running south from the eighth parallel of north latitude along the crest of the Apo range of mountains to the southernmost peak of Mount Apo, thence along the watershed that divides the waters that flow into Davao Bay from those that flow into the Rio Grande and Sarangani Bay to Sarangani Point.”


1914 September 1
Act No. 2408 of the Philippine Commission

This law provided for a temporary form of government for the territory known as the Department of Mindanao and Sulu. The department comprised seven provinces. Five of these provinces had been districts: Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Sulu, and Zamboanga. The two other provinces were Agusan, which was already a province at the time, and Bukidnon, which used to be a subprovince of Agusan. Zamboanga was made capital of the department. The “town of Cotabato” was made capital of Cotabato District.


1916 December 31
Act No. 2657 of the Philippine Commission

This is the original Administrative Code. Section 45 states “the general location of the provinces of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu and the principal subdivisions contained in them.” According to this law, the Province of Cotabato contained the municipalities of Cotabato and Parang.


1917 March 10
Act No. 2711 of the Philippine Commission

This is the revised Administrative Code. Section 40 states “the general location of the provinces of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu and the principal subdivisions contained in them.” According to this law, the Province of Cotabato contained the municipalities of Cotabato (the capital of the province), Dulawan, and Midsayap. The province also contained 37 municipal districts, namely, Awang, Balatikan, Balut, Banisilan, Barira, Buayan, Bugasan, Buldun, Buluan, Carmen,[Daguma], Dinaig,[Dulawan], Gambar, Glan,[Isulan], Kabakan, Kalanganan, Kiamba, Kidapawan, Kitubud, Kling, Koronadal, Lebak,[Libuangan], Liguasan,[Maganui], Nuling, Parang, Pikit-Pagalungan,[Reina Regente], Salaman, Sebu, Silik, Subpangan,[Talayan], and Tumbau. (Insertions in brackets are in the source, not mine.)


1936 November 25
Executive Order No. 66

The Municipalities of Dulawan and Midsayap were formed. The Municipality of Dulawan comprised (1) the Municipal District of Daguma, (2) the Municipal District of Isulan, (3) the Municipal District of Maganuy, (4) the Municipal District of Reina Regente, (5) the Municipal District of Talayan, and (6) the southern portion of the Municipal District of Dulawan. The Municipality of Midsayap comprised (1) the Municipal District of Libuñgan and (2) the northern portion of the Municipal District of Dulawan.

The law states that by “organizing” the municipal districts “into independent municipalities under the names of Dulawan and Midsayap,” “the one municipality of the Province of Cotabato is hereby increased to three.” There must be a gap in my research or the provincial board and the president failed to review the existing pertinent laws at the time. As early as 1917, as stated in Act No. 2711 of the Philippine Commission, the Province of Cotabato already contained three municipalities, namely, Cotabato, Dulawan, and Midsayap.

Kulaman Plateau at this time was inhabited purely by Dulangan Manobos, and no settlement there was large enough or had regular contact with the provincial government to become a municipal district or even just a barrio. Among the 104 barrios that composed the Municipality of Dulawan, the nearest to the present-day Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was Barrio Daguma, probably the seat of government of the Municipal District of Daguma and now a barangay of the Municipality of Bagumbayan, Province of Sultan Kudarat.

Based on this law, it can be surmised that, in 1936, the southeast half of the present-day Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was part of the Municipal District of Daguma in the Municipality of Dulawan. The northeast half is not covered by this law.


1947 August 18
Executive Order No. 82

Ten municipalities were created, increasing the number of municipalities in the Province of Cotabato from three to thirteen. Added to Cotabato, Dulawan, and Midsayap were (1) Pagalungan, (2) Parang, (3) Nuling, (4) Kiamba, (5) Buluan, (6) Kidapawan, (7) Kabakan, (8) Koronadal, (9) Buayan, and (10) Dinaig. The ten municipalities were formed from all, except three, municipal districts in the Province of Cotabato. The three municipal districts that did not become part of the new municipalities were annexed to the Municipality of Cotabato.

The Municipality of Kiamba was created from the Municipal Districts of Kiamba, Kling, and Lebak. Some parts of the Municipal District of Lebak eventually composed the northwest half of the present-day Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino.


1948 December 31
Executive Order No. 195

The Municipality of Lebak was created, with the seat of government at the sitio of Kalamansig. The new municipality comprised the Municipal District of Lebak in the Municipality of Kiamba and the Municipal District of Salaman in the Municipality of Dinaig.

The previous year, both Kiamba and Dinaig had been made municipalities by virtue of Executive Order No. 82. The Municipality of Kiamba at the time comprised the Municipal Districts of Kiamba, Kling, and Lebak, while the Municipality of Dinaig comprised the Municipal Districts of Dinaig, Awang, and Salaman.

(Come back next Monday for the continuation of these laws and the last part of the series.)

The Mother of Kulaman I

(This is the first of a three-part series.)

What is the mother municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino? The easiest answer perhaps is Kalamansig and Bagumbayan, for in 1989 the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino was created out of seven barangays of the Municipality of Kalamansig and one barangay of the Municipality of Bagumbayan. But what about before that, say, in 1950? To what municipality did the eight barangays belong? Kalamansig and Bagumbayan were themselves created from other municipalities.

So I dug up my hometown’s past. I thought it would be easy, that I would be able to finish doing research and writing blog posts in several hours. I winded up spending days on the topic, checking various files I had saved in my drives, scouring the web for decades-old laws, and writing and revising and revising again my write-ups. Largely to blame for the repetitive process I went through are the sources. The available materials on the history of Sultan Kudarat Province, online or otherwise, are packed with errors or lack important details. My most reliable sources are executive orders, republic acts, and other laws, and even they are not exactly handy. They have typographical errors and clunkily structured in some parts, and I have to piece them together and arrange in chronological order. I also didn’t know at first how to present them in this blog.

Here it is, anyway—where Senator Ninoy Aquino came from. I realized that for the town’s history to make sense, I had to connect it with the bigger picture, the bigger territory. I had to go back all the way to how the Americans administered Mindanao (along with the rest of the Philippine archipelago). Let’s start with a brief timeline:

1903—Cotabato District established under Moro Province
1914—Cotabato District turned to Cotabato Province under Department of Mindanao and Sulu
1916—Municipalities of Cotabato and Parang established in Cotabato Province
1917—Municipalities of Cotabato, Dulawan, and Midsayap and 37 municipal districts established
            in Cotabato Province
1936—Municipalities of Dulawan and Midsayap created from municipal districts
1947—Kiamba, Dinaig, Koronadal, and seven other municipalities created from municipal districts
1948—Lebak created from parts of Kiamba and parts of Dinaig
1953—Norala created from parts of Koronadal
1954—Dulawan renamed Datu Piang
1957—Isulan created from parts of Datu Piang and parts of Norala
1959—Palimbang created from parts of Kiamba and parts of Lebak
1961—Kalamansig created from parts of Lebak and parts of Palimbang
1965—Bagumbayan created from parts of Isulan
1965—Kulaman created from parts of Kalamansig, Palimbang, and Isulan
1966—South Cotabato Province created from parts of Cotabato Province
1969—Bagumbayan recreated from parts of Isulan
1973—Cotabato Province divided into three: North Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat
1989—Senator Ninoy Aquino created from parts of Kalamansig and parts of Bagumbayan

Despite spending days on the research, I was still not able to iron out two major issues. First is that I don’t know why Dulawan and Midsayap were created as municipalities in 1936 by virtue of Executive Order No. 66. The two places were already municipalities before that. Act No. 2711 of the Philippine Commission, dated March 10, 1917, names them, along with Cotabato, as the three municipalities of the Province of Cotabato. Perhaps sometime between 1917 and 1936, the two municipalities were dissolved and the municipal districts that composed them were governed directly by the provincial government. It seems that the municipal districts that composed them in 1917 were the same municipal districts that were chosen to compose them in 1936.

The second issue that boggles me concerns the municipalities of Kalamansig, Bagumbayan, and Kulaman. They were created in December 1961, October 1965, and November 1965, respectively. The executive orders that created Bagumbayan and Kulaman were later made void by a Supreme Court ruling, and the two municipalities had to be recreated in 1969 and 1989, respectively, with Kulaman renamed Senator Ninoy Aquino.

I can’t find any court ruling that dealt directly with Bagumbayan and Kulaman. (But not for lack of trying.) What I found instead was a ruling that involved thirty-three municipalities created in 1964 by virtue of executive orders. The ruling was issued on December 1965, less than a hundred days after the municipalities of Bagumbayan and Kulaman were created. The Supreme Court ruled that the president could no longer create a municipality through an executive order because the law that had given the president the authority to do so (Section 68 of the Administrative Code) had been impliedly repealed by the Barrio Charter Act. The Administrative Code (Republic Act 2711) was dated March 10, 1917, while the Barrio Charter Act (Republic Act No. 2370) took effect on January 1, 1960.

The ruling states, “The Executive Orders in question are hereby declared null and void ab initio and the respondent [the auditor general] permanently restrained from passing in audit any expenditure of public funds in implementation of said Executive Orders or any disbursement by the municipalities above referred to.” I don’t what the heck “passing in audit” means, but I’m sure that the thirty-three newly created municipalities was going to have serious problems with money. This must be the reason why Bagumbayan and Kulaman petered out as municipalities even if the executive orders that created them were not brought to court and declared null and void.

I wonder, though, why Kalamansig was not affected by the ruling. I rummaged through the web for any republic act that recreated the municipality, but my search yielded no result. And all the sources that I found about the history of Kalamansig point to Executive Order No. 459, dated December 29, 1961, as the basis for creation of the municipality. Again, the Barrio Charter Act, which removed the power of the president to create municipalities, took effect on January 1, 1960, two long years before Pres. Carlos P. Garcia made Kalamansig a municipality. Like what happened to the municipality of Kulaman and the original municipality of Bagumbayan, the municipality of Kalamansig should have also stopped existing. Does this mean that Kalamansig is a de facto municipality? If someone questions in court the legal personality or whatever of Kalamansig, the barangays there might suddenly find themselves without a mother.

(Come back next Monday for the second part, where I will discuss in greater detail the laws that created Cotabato and her children.)

The Twenty Caves of Sultan Kudarat

Based on official records, the province of Sultan Kudarat boasts of twenty caves that tourists can explore. Ten, or half of those caves, are found of course in the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, often promoted as “the town with a hundred caves.” Three of the twenty caves are in the municipality of Bagumbayan, one in Kalamansig, two in Lebak, one in Isulan, and three in Columbio. Only the four caves in Isulan and Columbio are not located in or very near Kulaman Plateau.

The twenty caves are not all that the province has. They are simply the ones that are accessible to or frequented by tourists. There cannot be twenty caves only in the whole province because Senator Ninoy Aquino alone has dozens. The municipality can possibly live up to its seemingly hyperbolic epithet if all its natural tunnels are examined and listed. It’s also impossible that there are only one cave in Kalamansig and two caves in Lebak. Most of the land area of the two “coastal towns” has the same topography as Senator Ninoy Aquino. The area probably has dozens of caves too. The caves have not been discovered yet because the area is sparsely populated and controlled by a private logging company.

For now, tourists who want to go spelunking in Kalamansig only have the Pangaun Caves to visit. Note, though, that the name is in plural form. The caves, located in Barangay Sabanal, may have several mouths and have chambers that branch off in several directions, not just a single straight tunnel. (I haven’t been there, and I’m sorry that I’m not sure of my information.) In Lebak, tourists may explore a cave in Salangsang and a cave in Kalamongog that are named after the villages where they are located. Salangsang is where the burial jars that are now in Silliman University were excavated, so the cave there is historic aside from attractive.

The ten caves in Senator Ninoy Aquino are the following: Midpanga Cave in Nati, Tinalon Cave in Tinalon, Bugso Cave and Tudog Cave in Bugso, Saklay Cave in Malegdeg, and Kiabuan Cave, Lagbasan Cave, Bitogon (also called Casi) Cave, Batasan Cave, and Kalupingon Cave in Kuden. Lagbasan Cave is what I call White Cave in this blog, and the burial jars that are now at the University of San Carlos were taken from a cave in Kuden, though the sacred cave is probably not one of the touristy caves in the list.

Bagumbayan has Pitot Cave in Sto. Niño, Guano Cave in Masiag, and Maetas Cave in Titulok. I’ve explored Guano Cave last summer. Isulan has Kamanga Cave in Laguilayan. Though I heard that the hamlet of Kamanga is in the mountainous part of Isulan, it is populated by Maguindanawons and not by Dulangan Manobos, so I’m not counting the area as part of Kulaman Plateau.

The only part of Kulaman Plateau that has no cave for tourists is Palimbang. Again, this is not an indication that there is no cave at all in the municipality. Palimbang, in fact, may have as many caves as Senator Ninoy Aquino has. It’s just that its mountainous part is barely accessible. Most of the villages of Palimbang, a small fraction of the total land area, are located at the coast.

As mentioned earlier, most of the twenty caves in the list are in or very near Kulaman Plateau. Only the three caves in Columbio are quite far: Datalblao Cave in Datalblao, Panes Cave in Lasak, and Bombed Cave in Lasak and Eday. The existence of caves there, however, is not surprising if you’re aware that Columbio is “the other” mountain town of Sultan Kudarat, the one being Senator Ninoy Aquino.

I wish to explore all the caves above that are in Kulaman Plateau and share the trip with you in this blog—in words and photos. It’s a shame that I’ve only been to two out of the sixteen caves. If I get a few thousand bucks to spare in the future, I will go cave hopping—and burial jar hunting. From the experience, surely, I’ll be able to create more than a hundred posts.

(Photo: A stitched image of the mouth of Guano Cave, in Masiag village, Bagumbayan town)

Festivals of Isulan, Esperanza, and Bagumbayan

Municipality of Isulan

(Update: Isulan has moved its foundation anniversary celebration to August, and the festival has been renamed Hamungaya. I agree with moving the event to the accurate date, but I can’t see why the name should be changed.)

Every September, Isulan holds the Pasundayag Festival to celebrate its foundation anniversary. Pasundayag is a Hiligaynon term that means “show”; thus, the festival showcases the literary, musical, and cultural talents of the people of Isulan, both young and old.

Pasundayag is also a thanksgiving festival of its residents, who are mostly engaged in agriculture. The products of Isulan are rice, corn, vegetables, and African palm, one by-product of which is the kalakat, a weaving that is used as a wall.

The festival is divided into two parts. First, the different activities done in the farm are shown. Next is merrymaking in the form of dance using different materials as props.

Municipality of Esperanza

Hinabyog Festival portrays the diverse tradition and culture and the history of Esperanza from a humble sitio to a progressive municipality despite tribal conflicts.

Agriculture is the primary source of income in Esperanza, and as the population grew, the people began to engage in simple cottage industries to sustain their way of life. Weaving is an important activity. Weavers use anahaw, buri, pandan, tikog, nito, wild bamboo, and rattan, which thrive in the area. From these materials, mats, bags, baskets, kaing, kalalaw, and duyan are made.

The duyan (hammock) is significant to the name of Esperanza’s festival. The duyan does not only give the populace pleasure and rest. It was also used to transport individuals who needed medical attention since motorized vehicles were rare in the old days and animals or animal-driven carts were not always comfortable for people in sensitive or serious condition.

Taking inspiration from the swing or habyog of the duyan, Hinabyog Festival was created. Through arts and culture, the festival aims to keep alive the memories of the pioneers and their successful struggles and to swing the present generation to continue dreaming for a better and more beautiful Esperanza.

Municipality of Bagumbayan

When the Christian settlers in Bagumbayan had established their farms and begun reaping the fruits of their labor, foremost that came into their minds was the offering of thanks to the Almighty. They did this in the form of a harvest festival, which would start with religious prayers and highlighted by merrymaking festivities. The festivity evolved and was enhanced throughout the years as the Christian settlers learned more about the beliefs and traditions of their Muslim and indigenous neighbors.

Thus, the Bansadayaw Festival came into existence. Although the term is a combination of the Hiligaynon words bansa (in full view) and dayaw (praise), the other, non-Ilonggo inhabitants of Bagumbayan are deemed integral part of the revelry.

Bansadayaw also signifies that somebody in full view is lording and above humanity. He is the Heavenly Creator who wants his creation to act according to his will. Therefore, aside from merrymaking, the festival is a means to implore the divine guidance of the Almighty.

The Bansadayaw Festival is a result of the unified efforts of all the tribes in Bagumbayan—Maguindanon, T’boli, B’laan, Dulangan Manobo, Ilonggo, Cebuano, Ilocano, Pampanggeño, and Tagalog.

(Blogger’s note: This post is a part of “The Other Towns” series. See my October 5 post for the overview.)

Brief Histories of Bagumbayan and Palimbang

Municipality of Bagumbayan

In the early fifties, Datu Kudanding Camsa, a Maguindanaon leader, opened a settlement on the western part of the Allah River. It was named Bagumbayan, which came from bagong bayan, which means “new town.”

Bagumbayan became one of the largest barangays of the municipality of Isulan. In November 1965, then-President Diosdado Macapagal turned Bagumbayan into a municipality by virtue of an executive order. The municipality comprised nine barangays taken from the western part of Isulan.

Datu Kudanding Camsa became the first mayor of Bagumbayan, but the municipality existed until April 1966 only. It was reverted into a barangay as a result of a Supreme Court ruling that the president of the Philippines could not create a municipality by executive order.

On June 21, 1969, Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos signed Republic Act No. 5960, recreating the municipality of Bagumbayan. A special election was conducted in November 1969, and Datu Don Ampatuan was elected mayor. In mid 1970, a conflict between Christians and Muslims broke out, and Vice Mayor Martin Forro became the acting municipal mayor.

Municipality of Palimbang

Palimbang used to be called Pula, after the trees that grew abundantly along the river in the area. The inhabitants of Pula were mostly Maguindanaons, who became Muslims when Sharif Kabungsuan came to Mindanao in the 1500s.

The name of the place was changed to Palimbang when some fishermen from Indonesia had to dock on Philippine shores due to bad weather. The natives, headed by Sendale Tambuto, met the foreigners and learned that they came from Palembang, Indonesia. The interaction with the visitors inspired the natives to adopt the name Palimbang as the official name of their place.

Through Executive Order No. 350, dated August 14, 1959, Pres. Carlos P. Garcia created the municipality of Palimbang. The municipality comprised some portions of Kiamba, Cotabato (now Kiamba, Sarangani), and some portions of Lebak, Cotabato (now Lebak, Sultan Kudarat).

(Blogger’s note: This post is a part of “The Other Towns” series. See my October 5 post for the overview.)

Bagumbayan: Map and Facts in Brief

Land area: 59,300 hectares
Population: 59,810 (projected for 2012, based on 2007 census)
Number of barangays: 19
Creation: June 21, 1969, Republic Act No. 5960, from Isulan
Literacy rate: 86.66 % (household population 10 years old and above, 2000)
Population density: 101 persons per sq. km. (projected for 2012, based on 2007 census)
No. of households: 12,620 (projected for 2013, based on 2007 census)
Major industry: farming, mining
Major crops: rice, corn, coffee, banana, pineapple, sunflower

Scenic spots: Pitot Cave in Sto. Niño, Bamban Falls in Kapaya, Guano Cave in Masiag, hot spring in Daguma, banana plantations in Sumilil, waterfall in Bai Saripinang, waterfall in Kinayao, Mercy Rose Swimming Pool in Sison, Hidden Spring Resort in Tuka, Maetas Cave in Titulok

Income: 285.60 million (2010)
Registered voters: 31,089 (2010)

(Blogger’s note: This post is a part of “The Other Towns” series. See my October 5 post for the overview.)

The Other Towns

For the past several weeks, I’ve been posting data about the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino that were culled from the “2010 Socio-Economic Profile of Sultan Kudarat Province,” compiled by the Provincial Planning Development Office. I’ll be doing the same for several weeks more, until the end of the year. My future posts, though, will be about the neighboring towns of Senator Ninoy Aquino that have Dulangan Manobos in them. Here’s the schedule:

October 12 – Kalamansig: Map and Facts in Brief
October 19 – Lebak: Map and Facts in Brief
October 26 – Isulan and Esperanza: Maps and Facts in Brief
November 2 – Bagumbayan: Map and Facts in Brief
November 9 – Palimbang: Map and Facts in Brief
November 16 – Brief Histories of Lebak and Kalamansig
November 23 – Brief Histories of Isulan and Esperanza
November 30 – Brief Histories of Bagumbayan and Palimbang
December 7 – Festivals of Lebak, Kalamansig, and Palimbang
December 14 – Festivals of Esperanza, Isulan, and Bagumbayan

Many people in the plains of Sultan Kudarat, especially those who are from Isulan and Esperanza, will be surprised to find out that there are Dulangan Manobos living in their areas. Know more starting next week. The posts in this “The Other Towns” series will appear every Monday, as listed above. In case I’m able to write other articles about Kulaman Plateau, I’ll post them on other days of the week.

A Note on Human Behavior

The previous Holy Week, when my younger brother, my nephews, and I visited some interesting spots in Bagumbayan town, we didn’t have a laid-out itinerary. It was my first time in that part of Kulaman Plateau, and I didn’t know where we should go and how much time we needed to reach and enjoy each place, so I didn’t insist on having a schedule, list of things to bring, list of things to buy, and what have you. So we winded up barging into people’s kitchens and cooking our food there. It was, for me, the weirdest of the things that we did—weirder than sleeping on a tarpaulin used for drying corn, hitching with other groups in exploring caves because we didn’t have our own flashlights, and stuffing ourselves (six persons) in a motorcycle that, at the kind of road we were traveling, should be carrying three persons only at most, including the driver.

My companions, of course, asked permission to use the kitchens, but I still felt as though we were marauders. I don’t visit anyone’s home unless I have texted or called first and the owner of the house has told me that I could be accommodated. In the three houses we went to, we just parked in their yards, said we haven’t had our meal yet, and asked, “May we cook our rice here?” The owners of the house would say yes right away, as though they were just asked to lend a ballpen or anything that is not private or intimate. For me, letting someone use your pot and wash in your sink is akin to baring your soul. By letting someone into your kitchen, you are revealing to him your socio-economic status, sanitation habits, and personal taste. In any case, my nephews showed no hesitation when they asked the favor. In that part of the world, barging into people’s kitchens seemed a natural thing to do.

That’s one good thing about community spirit, about living in a rural or mountainous area, where everyone knows almost everyone. If you suddenly find yourself without a roof to shield you from the rain, without a bed or floor to spend the night on, without a hearth to cook your rice in, and even without anything to eat, you can count on the nearest house in sight to take care of you and your emergency needs. Try doing that in a crowded urban neighborhood. Your neighbor’s mouth would utter a polite yet vague excuse why he couldn’t be of help even if he wanted to, while his eyes would dart from one spot of your body to another, checking if you’re hiding a knife or something, for he would suspect you’re just trying to find a way inside his house to steal his iPhone or HDTV.

I’m not saying, of course, that people in the boondocks are good and people in the cities are bad. Dichotomies are for dummies. I want, in fact, to show you the two sides of the community, or communal, spirit in rural areas. Because there’s no strict sense of privacy and property in rural areas, some people can sometimes be shameless, unmindful of the difference between sharing and stealing. When we left my cousin’s fish pond after letting out most of its water and catching a moderate number of fish, one of the neighbors took over without permission and, using an improvised device for electrocuting fish, was able to catch bigger fish than we did. I didn’t see the man myself, but the other neighbors told on him to my cousin. I even gathered that the man had been doing the same thing whenever my cousin and her family were away.

I try to understand why the man must have felt he was entitled to a share in the product of the pond. One reason I can think of is that the pond is actually a stream dammed with rock and soil. He must have felt that the stream, like the sources of potable water, belongs to everyone in the community. I have observed the same mentality in my own village. If you have a well in your property, you keep it clean and make improvements at your own expense, and your neighbors are free to fetch water from it anytime they want. (Much of the village now, though, is served by a water system.) If a stream passes through your property, your neighbors are likewise free to catch fish, crabs, and bakbak (frogs) in it and gather shells, takway (taro runners), and tangkong (swamp cabbage) from it. My cousin’s thieving neighbor, however, failed to take into account that my cousin’s family spent effort, time, and money damming the stream and releasing commercial tilapia hatchlings into the water. And what I find most disagreeable about him is that he gained unfairly from my nephews’ labor on that particular day. My cousin did not allow her sons to empty the pond of its water and fish, so the barriers were returned to their place and we left. By this time, the water level was already very low, and it was easy to catch fish, especially if you were using a device to electrocute them. The neighbor took this opportunity to obtain a week’s worth of free meal for his family. It looked as if my nephews spent the whole morning shoveling mud and sweating buckets just so he could conveniently pick up fish at noontime.

Let me conclude this rant by employing a lazy writing technique—by telling the reader that this post is getting too long. That’s it. I want to say that living in an open and close-knit community has its endearing and frustrating sides. Of course, I’ve long known that, but I had not given it much thought, I had not been keenly aware for a long time of the specific situations until I decided to disrupt my humdrum everyday life and went someplace else for the Holy Week. This is what travel does to you. (And I mean travel, not vacation.) It makes your blood run a little faster. It makes your eyes see a little farther. It makes you a little more alive, more human, than you have been.

Where Bad Catholics Go

In this predominantly Catholic country, most people spend the Holy Week taking part in church activities or at least taking some rest at home or in a serene resort. The bad ones, though, grab the opportunity to meet and gamble, and one of their destinations is a dreary hamlet somewhere in Masiag village, Bagumbayan town.

I was there on Good Friday with the gamblers, so you may judge my moral character. My sin, though, is not as grave as the others’ because I didn’t bet. I just watched the horse-fighting event. It was my first time to watch such an event, though I had plenty of opportunities to do so before. For one reason or another, I would not grab the opportunity.



I had expected a horse fight to be similar to a cockfight, where the opponents would be at each other’s throat almost without rest. To my surprise, the horses spent more time sniffing each other than biting or kicking. I learned from someone, though, that intense fighting do happen but usually between “rated” or high-caliber horses only. The three fights I witnessed were just arranged that day. The owners brought their horses to the venue and spent the whole morning negotiating with one another. The fights took place in the afternoon. One of the three fights was just a “test fight” because the owners failed to find enough supporters to finance the wager.

If you noticed in the video above, there’s a gray horse tied at the center of the arena. It’s a female horse. Male horses will only fight if there’s a female around. To agitate the horses, each of the males are first brought near the female. The owner would let his horse try to copulate with the female, but the owner would cut the courting short. When this has been done to both horses, they are released. They will then fight. They are actually fighting over the female, not to prove to each other who is stronger or who should own the territory. If the males just keep on sniffing each other or standing with the female between them, one of the organizers would hit the female with a stick or loosen its rope so that it would move around and the males would be after her and against each other.

If you listen to the video, you can hear people, including kids, yelling and cheering, demanding more action, more gore, while you don’t hear anything from me. I’m simply not thrilled at the sight of two horses trying to kill each other at the orchestration of human beings. I don’t even watch boxing or mixed martial arts on TV; they’re not sports for me. I went to watch the horse-fighting event just out of curiosity, and now I know that it’s one curiosity that should have not been satisfied. I guess I’m not that bad a Catholic at all.

One of the defeated horses. Its left eye, not seen in the photo, is also bloody. While the owner was tying the horse to a tree, his wife approached him and said, “See, I told you not to agree to the fight. The opponent is much bigger!”

Five Fingers Cave in Guano

Sitio Guano in Barangay Masiag, Municipality of Bagumbayan, is locally known for its wide-mouthed cave. It’s not the only pride of the place, though. It has another cave, lesser known but equally interesting. It’s called Five Fingers. From the center of the hamlet, you must go down the hill on the north to reach Guano Cave and you must go down the hill on the west to reach Five Fingers.

Below are some of the photos I took of Five Fingers. I wish I had taken better photos and some videos. I failed to because I was already so tired when we got to the cave. We had gone up the Toro-toro the previous day, and we had gone to Guano Cave the previous few hours. Besides, I had not yet decided whether to write about the experience for this blog. I just wanted to enjoy the sights, or more accurately, to survive the walk.

At the mouth of the cave. To get here, you must walk down a steep hill for about twenty minutes.

Five Fingers took its name from the stone formation at the mouth of the cave. The big rocks jutting down from the roof look like human fingers.

The cave is a series of narrow passages and spacious chambers. The first narrow passage is particularly challenging, scary even. You have to twist your body sideways to go through it. On the way back, the best thing to do is to pass through it feet first.

Looks like ice cream, tastes like, well, stone.

Squid tentacles, corroded iron bars, or stalactites?

The Wide-Mouthed Guano Cave

My relatives and their neighbors had been telling me that the mouth of the Guano Cave was really huge. “You could park ten trucks in it,” one of them said. I took their statements with a grain of salt. Having seen the White Cave of Kuden village in the town of Senator Ninoy Aquino, I couldn’t be easily impressed with any other cave in terms of size or grandeur.

When I got to Guano Cave, I realized that my relatives and their neighbors were right. The adjective huge is indeed not enough to describe the entrance of the cave. You have to pair it with at least one bad adverbs, such as amazingly or incredibly. To be mathematical, my estimate is that it is at least thirty meters wide and thirty meters high at its narrowest point. It’s difficult to pinpoint where the entrance starts because the cave is at the foot of a hill and the entire face of the hill is bald, rocky, and gradually sloping inward. I realized that Guano Cave is a beauty on its own and should not be compared with the White Cave.

My nephews and their friends strike a pose at the mouth of Guano Cave.

From where they are, they still have to walk down for at least

twenty meters to enter the cave.

I think one of the contributing factor to the enormity of the Guano Cave is its stream. It flows into the cave instead of out of it. When I visited the cave, though, the stream no longer entered the cave. It must have become stagnant in a certain spot or diverted into a sinkhole. I knew about the stream because my nephews told me they had seen it during their previous visit. Its dried-up course was also discernible. Furthermore, the stream was visible on our way down to the cave.

To reach the cave from the road, we had to walk down a steep hill for fifteen to twenty minutes. The walk down was a breeze. The walk up took much longer and tested the limits of my legs and lungs.

Another distinctive feature of the cave is its gray and tiny stalactites.

Guano refers to bird or bat excrement used as a fertilizer. Maybe there used to be a considerable amount of guano in the cave, and it is why the cave and the hamlet where it is located is named after the substance. When I went there, though, the floor of the cave is rather clean of droppings, though there was a good number of swifts flying around. One of my companions even found a hatchling. Its body was already fully covered with black feathers, but it could only fly for two meters or so. We made the wee bird perch on our fingers and had our photos taken. For a moment I was tempted to take the bird home, but after thinking about what taking care of it entailed, I let my companion return the bird to the tiny ledge on the wall where he had found it.

My estimate is that at least three hundred people visited the cave on the day that I went there. It was Good Friday, and many people made visiting the cave some sort of pilgrimage even though there’s nothing religious there.

Aside from its incredibly huge mouth, what I find interesting in Guano Cave is its roof near the mouth. The surface is gray, and the stalactites were tiny, wrinkled, and bunched up. In the inner chambers, though, the surface and stone formations look like the interior of most other caves. Check out the short video I made. I’m a little frustrated because none of my photos and video clips could do justice to the grandeur of the Guano Cave, especially its mouth. You have to see it for yourself. And I say this without any reservation. It is one of my favorite now, and if I have to give a friend a tour of Kulaman Plateau, the cave will surely be in my list of destinations.

At the Top of the Toro-toro

I have always wanted to climb the Toro-toro and see what’s on top of it. The peak, which roughly means “like a bull,” is one of the most distinctive in Cotabato Region. It looks like a stationary giant bull from afar, but what made me interested in it is that it looks like a volcano. At the top, it dips at the center, and I suspected that it might have a crater. I finally got to find out on Good Friday this year. With my younger brother, some nephews, and some locals, I scaled the mountain.

The Toro-toro can be seen both from Kulaman Plateau and Allah Valley. As far as I know, most people in the plateau can recognize the Toro-toro. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the people in the plains. Perhaps it’s because people living in the towns of Bagumbayan and Senator Ninoy Aquino get to see the peak a little more up close whenever they travel between the plains and the mountains; they get to be awed by the size and majesty of the peak. In the Allah Valley—specifically the towns of Isulan in Sultan Kudarat and Norala and Sto. Niño in South Cotabato—the Toro-toro, though still distinctive, gets swallowed by the beauty of the entire mountains, specifically the Daguma Range. The range is known for its ridged almost-treeless slopes.

On our way up the Toro-toro. From the nearest hamlet to the peak,
the trek takes about two hours.

The nearest settlement to the Toro-toro is the hamlet of Sinaban, which is part of Monteverde village in Bagumbayan town. From the hamlet, my companions and I had to walk for an hour to the foot of the Toro-toro. It’s really difficult to identify where the foot of the Toro-toro is. It seems to be a huge hill on top of huge hills on top of a mountain range. I’m not also sure if I should call the Toro-toro a mere peak, a hill, or a mountain. For the purpose of giving you directions, let us consider the highest spot where there is a house and source of water as the foot of the Toro-toro.

My companions and I rested for a while at the house and filled our water containers. I knew by this time that the peak of the Toro-toro didn’t have any body of water, so the likelihood that it had a crater was nil.

We continued the trek. This time, the slopes were much steeper. The first slope we had to scale was a clearing that stretched for about two hundred fifty meters and inclined by at least 70 degrees. That alone sent me and my brother almost breathless. Remember that we had been walking for an hour before that, over a dozen hills. We could only look in awe at our companions ahead of us. Being locals and used to working in the farm, they seemed to have not broken a sweat. Their raucous conversation had not ebbed. They even ran and raced against one another every now and then, and once in a while, they would stray from the path to hunt for spiders and make the poor creatures fight in a tiny stick.

I fall behind my fellow climbers because I take photos. But that’s just an
excuse really. At this point, I have to stop every after ten steps
to catch my breath and ease the pain in my legs.

The forested part of the Toro-toro was a little disappointing, to tell you the truth. There wasn’t much animal life in it. There seemed to be more birds in our yard at home at any given time than in my path to the peak. A bird or a pair chirped every so often, but other than that, the Toro-toro was quiet, which was disquieting. Not that I wished to bump into wild and possibly hungry animals, but I hoped to at least have some hint that the forest was still home to deer, wild boars, monkeys, pythons, hornbills, and many other species. Sadly, the only assurance I received was the information from my nephews that wild boars still roamed the northern foot of the peak and some of their neighbors had in fact gone there to hunt the animals.

Now don’t mistake me for an environmental activist. As someone who grew up in a poverty-stricken farming village, I believe that we should by all means exploit our natural resources to not only feed the hungry human beings but to give them the educational and economic opportunities that everybody deserves, but we should not do it to the extent that other species are driven to extinction.

By the time my brother and I reached the peak, our seven companions had built a fire and had been lounging on the grass and dead leaves for some twenty minutes. We joined them. We stayed at the peak for about half an hour, talking about mundane things. Check out the short video I made.



The peak of the Toro-toro isn’t much different from a low-lying rainforest. It was filled with trees, but while the trees at the foot of the Toro-toro grew as high as thirty meters, the trees at the top grew no higher than fifteen. The wind was cold, and I stayed most of the time near the fire, warming my palms against it. The fog was heavy. My jacket got damp after I left it on the ground for several minutes. Nothing could be seen beyond twenty meters. My nephews said you could see Kulaman Plateau or Allah Valley if you climbed a tree, but I didn’t bother to. I was too tired to climb a tree, and I went up the Toro-toro to see what’s in it, not to see what’s around it.

The interesting fauna at the Toro-toro included pitcher plant and rattan. I had thought that the pitcher plants there grew on the ground. I was surprised to see them high above the trees. I suspect that they used to be everywhere, but because their habitat had been disturbed by humans, only the ones above the trees had survived. As to rattan, it’s a common rainforest plant, of course, but what struck me was that they didn’t grow in a thick cluster like bamboo, so gathering them must be difficult and time-consuming. I understood better how much effort had been put into the rattan hammock and some furniture we have at home.

Because we headed to the Toro-toro after lunch, it was already dark by the time we got down to its foot. We spent the night in one of the very few houses there. We had a boodle fight for supper; we cooked in the house the rice we had brought, spread it on a banana leaf, poured the content of a couple of canned goods on the rice, and ate with our hands. I was tired and starving from the long walk and arduous climb, so the food for me tasted so much better than I suspect it really was. We slept on the wooden floor. Because we had not brought with us any mat, the owner of the house lent us his tarpaulin, which he spreads under the sun at daytime and to dry his corn and other produce on. The next morning, we all shared our observation that the foot of the Toro-toro wasn’t as cold as our respective home villages. It must really be the temperature in the place, or it must be because we had been packed on the floor like the proverbial sardines.

The walk to the Toro-toro starts at the hamlet of Sinaban, where boxing
has a twist. Too bad, we missed the event by a few days.

Holy Week in Bagumbayan Town

My companions were laughing at how badass we must have looked, and in my mind I told myself I had no business being with them. As a thirty-year-old, I was supposed to be mature and responsible. I had no business riding a motorcycle in a rocky and sloping road with five other guys. Even if the motorcycle was designed to carry several passengers, it still didn’t have enough space for us. Two among us had to sit on the tank in front of the driver—sideways, one on the other’s lap.

My companions, including the driver, were my younger brother and my nephews. They were aged sixteen to twenty and thus had an excuse to be wild and free and stupid. I had none, except maybe for the fact that I didn’t have much choice. Riding the motorcycle all together was the most efficient way for us to get where we were headed.

It was Good Friday of this year, and we were on our way to Guano—a sitio (hamlet) of Masiag village, Bagumbayan town—to explore the two caves in the area and watch a series of horse fights. We had come from the nearby village of Monteverde, where the previous day, Holy Thursday, we scaled the Toro-toro, one of the most distinctive peaks of Cotabato Cordillera.

The road between Masiag and Monteverde, just like most of the roads in the mountains of Bagumbayan, made for a most inconvenient ride. We were a little lucky because El Niño had been going on for months and the road had been dry. We only had to negotiate protruding rocks. During rainy days, the rocks, exacerbated by mud, could make the road so dangerous that many people traveling in the area for the first time would cry, swear not to come back, or both.

Our cramped arrangement elicited jokes from my nephews about squashed penises and torn asses. The whole thing was a harmless joke for them, while I was thinking that if my nephew who was driving made even just a minor lapse in judgment, or one of us passengers moved when we were not supposed to, it would be such a tragedy for the entire family. My parents would be left childless. Fortunately and unfortunately, I didn’t have to worry about accidents. The mere act of breathing was difficult. Whenever the motorcycle was running downhill or along a stretch of half-buried rocks, our chests would press or bump hard against each other, which made me understand the pre-mortem agony of stampede victims.

The ride was over in just thirty minutes or so, but because mortal danger hanged in the air in every minute of it, it felt as though we would never reach our destination. It was the most dangerous part of my four-day visit to the village of Monteverde, specifically in Sitio Miasong, where my cousin and her family lives. (On our way back from Sitio Guano, two of my nephews rode other motorcycles.) The ride, though, was neither the most challenging nor physically demanding. As mentioned earlier, we climbed a mountain and explored caves (which also involved climbing mountains). We also helped empty a pond to harvest the fish in it, watched a horse-fighting event, and spent idle hours with relatives catching up on one another’s lives. It was an experience worth sharing, I believe, and in the coming days, I will make additional posts on some of those activities.

Photos: (1) It seems to me that there are balete trees everywhere in Sitio Miasong. The tree normally starts as a small plant that clings to and sucks the life out of another tree. (2) The mouth of Guano Cave looks big in this photo, but I tell you, it’s way bigger in person. (3) My brother tries to hide his exhaustion behind a smile. The peak of the Toro-toro looks so near on this spot, but the worst of our trek is yet to come.