The Real Name of Twenty-One Falls

 

With the family, I started 2021 at 21 Falls, here in my hometown. But we actually just went to one waterfall. The others are not easily accessible and, I heard, not as big or beautiful. The fall is at Barangay Lagubang. Its pool is up to my thighs only, so you can't swim. To bathe, you have to stand under the water instead, as you would in a shower.

On our way home, we dropped by the house of Brgy. Chairman Gomer Ugat, a family friend. I asked him the name of the fall, and he said it was "Lufaken," but he didn't know what it meant. The e in Lufaken is pronounced like the e in uncle and tricycle.

From Brgy. Kulaman, the poblacion of the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, you have to travel for about thirty minutes to reach the center of Brgy. Lagubang. The highway is paved, but from the highway to the center of the barangay, you have to travel on a muddy road with large stones. The road, which stretches for about two kilometers, is not passable by bicycle or scooter. Bigger motorcycles and four-wheeled vehicles would be fine. From the center of the barangay, the road is still rough but better. You have to travel by vehicle for four or five kilometers more, and then from the road, you have to walk downhill for about fifteen minutes to reach Lufaken Fall.

Some adventure seekers here say that you can see all twenty-one falls if you go to Lufaken Fall via Brgy. Midtungok. You have to walk uphill along the stream. I have not been to Brgy. Midtungok myself. It is separated from Brgy. Kulaman by Brgy. Kiadsam, and the entire length of the road is unpaved. For now, I think the trail in Brgy. Midtungok is better left to locals. Tourists should head straight to Lufaken Fall via Brgy. Lagubang.

On the way to the fall, one interesting sight is the steep hills in Sitio Benebol. On the foot of them is a Dulangan Manobo community. You can also see the less-seen other face of Ilian Hill and a glimpse downhill of Brgy. Midtungok and Brgy. Kiadsam, the tin roofs of the houses shining under the sun. As someone from here, I'm not impressed with the view, of course, but if you grew up in the plains, especially in an urban area, I'm sure you'll be amazed by the formidable mountains, sloping hills, and how human settlements, and humans as well, look so small amid them.

The Manobo of Bagsing and Lagubang

(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 104–5. The publishers encourage free reproduction of the book, so I’m posting this excerpt without prior permission. For the complete citation, see Webliography.)

The ancestors of the present Manobos of Sitio Bagsing, Barangay Gapok lived here since time immemorial. They were the first known residents of the area. The name of Sitio Bagsing is both the name of the first known datu and a creek nearby. The sitio used to be virgin forest, teeming with wild animals, deer, wild pigs, monkeys, and wild fowls; the creek also teemed with fishes. The Manobos hunted with bows and arrows, spears, and the luba (pointed bamboo) for wild pig. They also engaged in kaingin system of agriculture, cutting down trees in the process, to plant corn and rice for household consumption.

Informants Datu Samagka Mandaw, Datu Ali Ulan, Datu Langgal Lape and Datu Kafay Gogo said the Ilonggo settlers came in small groups sometime in the 1950’s. Now, they number about 40 families. They worked on the Manobos’ kaingins, promising to leave after harvest. They never did.

The Manobos’ current means of livelihood is planting rice and corn. The excess of their family consumption goes for sale, either at the center or at Kulaman, about 22 kilometers away.

The Manobos of Lagubang have been in the place for as long as anyone can remember. Their early means of livelihood was hunting in the lush forest for wild pigs, deer, monkey, pythons, and monitor lizard (halo). Fishing in the nearby river and planting banana, corn, rice, root crops and sugar cane are their main source of subsistence.

According to Datu Eyet Enggew, Datu Talo Empet, Datu Sakay Salaman, Ernesto Kantim, Ebe Solot and Palot Dangya, the Ilonggos arrived in 1983, in the course of an evacuation. They chanced upon the place and decided to settle there after the evacuation. They secured pieces of land through borrowing or mortgaging some lots from the Manobo residents.

Lagubang became a barangay in 1991, with a certain Leopoldo Deoric as first appointed barangay captain. The next barangay captain was Elmerto Cordero,a nd the latest was Daane Datoon. All three barangay captains were non-Manobos. Buagas Enggew, Mapel Owag and Gomer Ugat are Manobo kagawads in the community. At present, there may be a thousand families in the length and breadth of Lagubang, with the non-Manobo settlers numbering some 70 families and occupying the central portion. The Manobos reside in the periphery of the poblacion and in the hillsides.

The Dulangan Manobo and Their Domain: Kulaman

(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 103–4. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here. To cite the book, please see Webliography.

Except for inserting a minor correction, enclosed in brackets, I did not change a single word and kept the style of the text as it appears on the source. Note, however, that some descriptions of geographical locations in this excerpt are not accurate. For a disambiguation of the term Kulaman, see the blog page About Kulaman.)

In Kulaman (now Ninoy Aquino), Sultan Kudarat, the names of sitios, barangays and other places were often derived from the names of people such as their ancestors, events or things. For example, Lambak is the other name of a place called Basag, a term used referring to the soil in the middle of the forest. It also referred to the core (ubod) of a Tapican (palm variety) abundant in the vicinity.

According to the informants, Datu Keson Mamo, Eddie Labe and Jessie Andang, at first there were twenty Manobo families in the area. When the Visayans started arriving in 1974, only ten Manobo families stayed in the area. Their means of livelihood consisted of hunting wild animals, which were plentiful in the virgin forest; fishing in the nearby river or stream; and engaging in kaingin agriculture. As with the other Manobos, they subsisted mainly on dagmay (gabi), sugar cane, sweet potatoes, cassava, corn and rice. Later, they also planted coffee.

The barangay officials of the poblacion of Bugso set a reservation for the Manobos comprising 42 hectares. There is also a proposal by the same officials to make the sitio a separate barangay by itself.

The name of Sitio Todog of Barangay Bugso came from the name of a hunter from Malegdeg who rested and died under the shade of a large tree. The sitio is eight kilometers away from the Municipality of Sen. Ninoy Aquino or Kulaman, and three kilometers from the center of Brgy. Bugso. Its view is splendid, with hills similar to Bohol’s Chocolate Hills, though fields dot the hillsides.

Later, a Manobo named Dipunto Kalay, claimed some 1,500 hectares of land for the use of his family, much to the consternation of the other Manobos. The clan numbered about 30 families, with a population of more than a hundred, including children.

The name of Barangay Lagubang is derived from the oldest resident of the area. A nearby sitio also bears the name of his wife Kapatagan.

Barangay Midpanga was named in honor of a certain datu who went hunting in the lush forest one morning and never returned. His family and relatives went searching and found him dead under a big tree, apparently killed by a falling branch (sanga). Since then they called the place where they found him Midpanga.

Barangay Midtungok got its name from a creek where a mother and a child drowned during a [raging] flood. The child rushed to save his mother who was carried downstream by the strong current. Both disappeared in the swirling waters, their bodies found a couple of days later.

Baranagay Nati was named after the first known leader of the community who died by drowning during a devastating flood long before the Spanish and American colonization.