176. BASEY, INFINITE ESCAPES OF EASTERN VISAYAS
The 2nd Regional Directors’ (RD) Meeting of the Department of Tourism (DOT) was
hosted by DOT Eastern Visayas and was held at Tacloban City, the regional
center and the capital of Leyte province. After arriving on June 6 at the
Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, we had breakfast at the Biliran Hall at Summit
Hotel in Marasbaras, the same venue of our meeting the following day. I
requested the Secretariat if I can visit the famous landing site of General
Douglas MacArthur and we journeyed for about a quarter of an hour and reached
the MacArthur Leyte Landing Memorial National Park at Baras in Palo town, Leyte
province. The last time, I was at the memorial was in May of 1998. I was with
my campaign team who worked hard to capture a slot for me in the Sangguniang Bayan
of Cabatuan, Isabela. As a treat, we travelled by land to my dad’s hometown,
Calbayog City, Samar via the Bicol peninsula, crossed the San Bernardino Strait
and eventually travelled south and traversed the San Juanico Bridge to Tacloban
City and Palo.
I got the chance again to cross the San Juanico Bridge in 2003 when I brought
home dad to his final resting place in Calbayog City and on the evening of the
second day after the RDs meeting when we had a San Juanico Cruise together with
my fellow directors and two of our Asecs and two USecs of DOT. I got the rare
chance of cruising the San Juanico Strait between the Islands of Samar and
Leyte and passed underneath the once longest bridge (2.16 km) in the country
until 2022 when the Cebu-Cordova Bridge (8.9 km) surpassed it. Aside from the
scenic experience, we were very much amazed by the perfect show of colorful
aesthetic lights and sound. I stayed at the upper deck of the boat and enjoyed
the sea breeze with Pinoy pika pika food of pork stuffing empanadas, mini
burgers, dark chocolate cherry truffles at iba pa.
The first day was a blast as we explored Basey and Marabut towns in the
southernmost part of Samar province. Samar island is divided into three by
virtue of Republic Act 4221 signed on June 19, 1965. The northern and eastern
part are named “Northern Samar” and “Eastern Samar”, respectively, however; the
western part chose to retain the solo name “Samar” for the locals believe that
the western portion was the cradle of the original settlements of old Samar.
We arrived at the Sohoton Visitor Center and Eco-Lodge at barangay Wespal in
the Municipality of Basey and we were met by the local tour guides of the
Sohoton Services Association (SSA) who administers the tourism operation of the
Sohoton Cave and Natural Bridge Park. The park covers the 841 hectares of the
455,700-hectare protected landscape of Samar Island Natural Park. It is a maze
of magnificent limestone karts wall, caves, waterfalls and thick forests cut
through by a river. This geological wonders and preserved ecosystem of some
rare and endangered flora and fauna was established as a national park on July
19, 1935 by virtue of Proclamation No. 831.
We cruised the Cadac-an River, famously known as Golden River, one of Samar’s
most scenic waterways and we disembarked the floating barge and settled in the
Sohotan Cave System starting point. We were greeted by Waray songs sang by a
team of two guitarists and one boy vocalist who delighted us all. After we ate
our turon and drank buko juice, we started our caving at the Panhulugan Cave,
the largest of the caves in the park and the most tour-friendly because of its
almost flat terrain. With magnificent stalactites, stalagmites, columns and
other rock formations shaped by tiny droplets throughout history, a lighting
system was installed along the pathways of the multi-chambered cavern to ensure
that we clearly witness the beauty of the natural tunnel. The vivid and wild
imagination of the local guides created many illusions on the rock formations
such as religious icons, animals, plants, parts of the human anatomy and
domestic as well as foreign tourist destinations. These were labelled as: the
Holy Family, a three-legged elephant complete with its trunk, chair of
Alexander the Great, ice cream cone, guardian angel, anaconda, Statue of
Liberty, Great Wall of China, Banaue Rice Terraces, Bohol’s Chocolate Hills and
the likeness of the male and female genitalia. Only the wonder of mother nature
can create and preserve such spectacle.
The root word of Panhulugan is “hulog” which means “drop.” The cave is called
such because during the Spanish time, the rebels would throw logs and debris
into the Spaniards who were passing through the Golden River.
After an hour inching our way in and out the alluring Panhulugan Cave, we
boarded a kayak, a canoe type made of fiberglass having a small opening in the
top to sit in. I was with the RD of Region 5, former Santo Domingo, Albay mayor
Herbie B. Aguas plus the driver who sailed us to the natural bridge, an
arch-shaped rock that connects two ridges over the river below. I can say that
the smooth cruise to the natural bridge is truly amazing and unforgettable. The
river is surrounded by thick, lush jungle covering majestic limestone cliffs.
Our last stop in Basey was in Basiao particularly at Saob Cave and here we
witnessed the craftsmanship of the world famous Basiao Native Weaver’s
Association (BANWA) Tikog Weavers who have been mastering their craft for
generations. The locals would undergo the weaving process underneath the
stalactites of the low beam but long scope of the cave. The cool temperature of
the cave is conducive for tikog, the raw materials used for weaving, to
maintain its quality. Tikog (Fimbristylis utilis Elmer) is a special reed grass
that grows in swampy areas along rice fields and has solid, jointless and
usually triangular stems. Once harvested, the tikog are dried for several days
then dyed with colors to add some designs. Originally, women are the weavers
but lately some men join the process and we witnessed those hands that create
numerous arts and handicrafts. The process is intricate and time-consuming,
requiring a great deal of skill and patience. The finished products are
displayed at the far end of the cave where one can purchase floormats,
placemats, banig, slippers, purse, wallets, wall decorations, bags of all sorts
including laptop bag among others. In 2000, the Basaynon laid its claim to have
woven the longest banig in the world for the Guinness book.
The word Basey comes from the vernacular “baysay” which means “beauty”. This is
in deference to its most beautiful erstwhile inhabitant named Bungansakit. When
the new town adopted the name, a competition in her honor caused Bungansakit’s
original home village of Balud to be renamed Guibaysayi which means “most
beautiful”. Basaynons themselves contracted Baysay to Basay for convenience in
ordinary talk. In turn, the Spaniards corrupted Basay to Basey to suit in their
formal writings. Basey can be found in Spanish records relating to the town.
This includes early Spanish maps of the Philippines, which puts Basey in its
right location. In addition, the church bells, which dates back as early as
1858 in the Saint Michael’s church belfry are engraved with Basey in reference
to the town. These bells predate the arrival of the Americans in 1898.
History of Basey, Samar by: Dr. Wilmo C. Orejola reveals that an SVD missionary
Father Karl Hutterer discovered in 1968 evidence of human habitation in the
Sohoton and Panhulugan caves. The findings traced local history back to the
early Stone Age and later Iron Age. Archeological diggings that include stone
flake tools from various sites of the Panhulugan caves are dated 8550 BC. Some
artifacts found in the 13th century marked the wave of migration of Malayan
settlers in this region. Towards more modern times, these caves served as
burial sites.
In 1591, the first Spanish mission recorded the flourishing settlement of Basey
under the bishopric of Cebu. The Jesuits were already active in Basey even
before 1603 but the parish was not formally established until 1650. Father
Cristobal Miralles of the Jesuit mission in Basey built a church made of wood
only to be burned and looted of its treasures by Moro raiders on Corpus Christi
Day in 1663. From 1591 to 1768, Basey was under the sphere of the Jesuits. In
1768, Basey was ceded to the Agustinians but three decades later, in 1795, it
was given to the Franciscans. The Franciscans took a decade to assume their
post for lack of personnel. Finally in 1804, they ministered the town and
Father Juan Navarro was appointed first Franciscan parish priest. The coral
church built on a hilltop started as the present convent inside a fort, which
overlooks San Pedro Bay. The Franciscans named the church Saint Michael the
Archangel, in deference to the patron saint of the founding Jesuit
missionaries. In 1845, Father Domingo de Madrid repaired the church. He also
built the bell tower, which was finished in 1856. About the same time a
cemetery in barangay Buscada was built with a coral stone chapel inside it. In
1880, the church was damaged by a storm and in 1894 Father Vicente Gutierrez
replaced the roofing with galvanized iron.
Basey was originally located near the river’s mouth, in a place now known as
the village of Binongto-an. Like other early coastal settlements, it was not
spared from plunder by the Moro marauders, which resulted in the poblacion
being moved a few kilometers north of Binongto-an to its present site. Because
of the Moro raids, people living in villages along the river bank had to move
deeper into the uplands, some of them venturing into caves now known as the
Sohoton Caves.
During the Philippine-American War, Filipino revolutionaries established a camp
atop a cave, now called Panhulugan, at the confluence of the Cadac-an and
Sohoton rivers. From their vantage point, they would throw bamboo spears and
drop boulders into the river where an enemy boat was passing by. The Americans,
however, were able to eventually overrun the camp in the late 1901. The
Cadac-an River has also been a mute witness to the environmental destruction of
the mountains of Basey by a commercial logging firm where thousands of logs
were floated on the river and dragged to the outside world from the 1960s until
the early 1980s. It was probably the logging operations that caused the
siltation of the river and changed its color from clear to light brown. The
locals, however, saw a golden hue and started calling it the “Golden River”.
The town of Marabut, Samar was our next stop. We had our Waray inspired
luncheon at the Caluwayan Palm Island Resort and Restaurant, an ideal
eco-tourism-oriented resort designed to fit as a perfect alternative place of
relaxation being surrounded by a breathtaking view of towering rock islands and
islets with secluded coves and coral gardens. The resort is a paradise for
scuba diving, snorkeling, sea kayaking, sailing, swimming, sun-bathing or
simply lazing on the beach enjoying the view of the beautiful seascape of the
bay. The showcase of Waray menu and delicacies was sponsored by the Provincial
Government of Samar through the tourism office.
Truly, Eastern Visayas region is an infinite escape. Though we visited only a
small fraction of the region’s vast natural wonders and tourism destinations,
my decades long experience of travelling can vouch the beauty of the twin
islands of Samar and Leyte plus Biliran. Aside from the splendor of the
islands, our short stay was highlighted even more with the incomparable
hospitality of the host DOT region headed by the veteran tourism warrior and
advocate, Director Karina Rosa Santiago-Tiopes, famously known as RDK, and her
team. Damo nga salamat. Until our next visit…
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