57. MAGAYON CAGSAWA

MAGAYON CAGSAWA

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano

14 January 2018

I have the habit of turning on the television set every six o’clock in the morning and hear the replay of the previous day news as I do my daily rituals before I head for the office. In the headlines is the restlessness of the country’s most active volcano, Mount Mayon located in the province of Albay in Bicol region. Yesterday at 4:21 p.m., a phreatic eruption occurred that propelled a grayish steam and ash plume approximately 2500 meters high that drifted to the southwest side of the volcano. When I reached my office, I surfed the net on the history of the eruption of the popular volcano. Mayon erupted over 50 times in the past 500 years. The first eruption for which an extended account exists was the six-day event of July 20, 1766 followed by the infamous February 1, 1814 eruption burying the town of Cagsawa with the belfry and facade of the Catholic Church left standing after he rumbling. Other significant eruptions occurred from 1881-1882, 1897, 1984, 1993, 1999, 2006, 2008, 2009-2010, 2013 and 2014.

I have visited the Cagsawa ruins a number of times since my teenage years specially everytime I pass through the Bicolandia on my way home to the land of my paternal forefathers in Calbayog City, Samar. In 2003, part of my function as political and youth affairs officer of the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is to conduct regional youth forums on the environment and sustainable development around the country. In Region V, we held the youth activity at Bacacay town, one of the municipalities situated at the foothills of the great Mayon. In my three-day stay in Albay province, I started to research about the volcano, its legend and the ill-fated Cagsawa town.

Google further gave me data on the majestic mountain. Mayon, is an active strato volcano renowned as the "perfect cone" because of its symmetric conical shape. The volcano with its surrounding landscape was declared a national park on July 20, 1938, the first in the nation. It was reclassified a Natural Park and renamed as the Mayon Volcano Natural Park in the year 2000. Local folklore refers to the volcano being named after the legendary princess-heroine Daragang Magayon. Numerous festivals and rituals are associated with the volcano and its landscape. The volcano is the centerpiece of the Albay Biosphere Reserve, declared by UNESCO in 2016.

One can never miss asking how the name “Mayon” came to be. A popular legend supports the etymology. Daragang Magayon or “beautiful maiden” in English, is the heroine that appears in the legend of Mount Mayon. Magayonfestival.albay.gov.ph narrates that Magayon was the only daughter of Makusog (strong), the tribal chief of Rawis, whose mother was named Dawani (fairy), who died shortly after giving birth to her. She grew up to be a very beautiful and sweet woman that struck the swains from faraway tribes who vied for her attention. However, none of these young men could captivated the heart of Magayon, not even the handsome but haughty Pagtuga (eruption), a hunter and the chief of the Iriga tribe. He gave fabulous gifts to Magayon, yet it was not enough to capture her attention. One day, Daragang Magayon was bathing in the Yawa river when she slipped on the rocks. Unfortunately, she did not know how to swim. Panganoron was passing by and saw what was happening to Daragang Magayon, so he saved her from the river. He began to court her, and after some time Magayon accepted his proposal and he received her father's blessings. However, when Pagtuga knew about the relationship between Panganoron and Magayon, Pagtuga kidnapped Magayon's father and asked Magayon to be his wife in exchange for her father's freedom. Panganoron knew about the situation so he asked his warriors to join him in the war with Pagtuga in the mountains. The war was fierce and breathtaking. The people and Magayon watched the war between the two of them. In the end, Panganoron killed Pagtuga. Upon his victory, Magayon ran to embrace her lover. As Magayon ran toward her lover, an arrow shot by one of Pagtuga's warriors struck Panganoron, killing him. Magayon held Panganoron as he died in her arms. Pagtuga's warriors surrounded the lovers as Magayon took the knife from Panganoron's side and shouted Panganoron's name before stabbing herself. Her father and tribesmen witnessed how Magayon died with her lover. Her father buried them together. As time went on, they noticed something about the place where Makusog buried the lovers. It started to form into a volcano, and when the people saw it, Makusog named it Mt. Mayon, after his daughter's name. Mt. Mayon is as beautiful as Daragang Magayon. Some people said that it's a curse because she took her own life, but myths and legends said Magayon is the volcano and Panganoron is the clouds that surround the beautiful volcano.

It is a must to drop by the Cagsawa Ruins once one visits the Mayon area. Now filled with souvenir shops, the place is the best spot to take souvenir photos not only with the imposing Mayon at the background but also the remnants of what was once a great place of worship in the Bicol peninsula during the 16th century – the Cagsawa Roman Catholic Church. In 1587, the Franciscan missionaries built the baroque church in the town of Cagsawa (Cagsaua in other documents). In 1636, the religious edifice was burned down by Dutch pirates. In 1724, it was rebuilt Fray Francisco Blanco but was destroyed again in the 1814 volcanic activity. It was the strongest eruption recorded to date of the Mayon volcano which buried the town of Cagsawa and its surrounding areas under several hundred million cubic meters of tephra and lahar, killing an estimated 2,000 people. Hundreds of inhabitants of the town of Cagsawa purportedly sought refuge in the church, but were also killed by pyroclastic flows and lahar. Survivors resettled into the nearby Daraga, which was then a mere barrio of Cagsawa.  The ruins are currently located in Barangay Busay in the municipality of Daraga, Albay. It is part of Cagsawa Park, protected and maintained by the municipal government of Daraga and the National Museum of the Philippines.

The name Mayon has been used as street names in many localities around the country especially in private subdivisions and villages including the famous Mayon Street at the boundary of Quezon City and Manila in the metropolis. When I was studying in Ateneo, Mayon was one of the sections in Grade 2 where all classrooms were named after famous mountains. A controversial motorized sea vehicle “owned” by the Maritime Company of the Philippines is also named MV Mayon.

Since I am a numismatist for over three decades now, my keenness on the details of coins made me notice the silhouette of the Mayon Volcano on old Philippine coins and banknotes. Mayon has been featured as part of the design of Philippine money in the American Colonial period with a man seated beside an anvil holding a hammer (1/2, 1 & 5 centavos) and Lady Liberty striking an anvil with a hammer (10, 20, 50 centavos & 1 Peso) issued from 1903 to 1935. Another set of coinage was issued during the Commonwealth period (1935-1945) with the same observe design except for the ½ centavo and 1 Peso coin which were removed from the coinage. The English series issued from 1958-1979 bears the same design on the observe. After this series, the Mt. Mayon silhouette was never used in Philippine coins until it was significantly printed at the back of the 100 peso banknote issued since 2010. Included in the design are the butanding, Rhincodon typus, whale shark and a Bicol textile design.

The Mayon is a national symbol and all Filipinos recognize the image of the volcano in any perspective. This year’s eruption may cause great danger to our brother Bicolanos but at the end of every grumbling of Magayon, the area including what was left of the Cagsawa Church is still one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. The Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin, one of the world’s top travel trade shows based in Berlin, Germany has even recognized the site as one of the places to visit in Asia.