Philippine Summer Destinations, part 4

Never a surfeit of summer destinations in the Philippines! My bucket list of places to visit runs endless. Fortunately for the peripatetic me, I’ve been to quite a few. Now that is summer, these holiday retreats beckon any soul.

Here are a three more choiced spots in the Philippines which I highly recommend.

Hilutungan Island, Cordova, Cebu

This small speck of an island in the central eastern seaboard of Cebu sports wide stretches of shifting sugar-fine white sand and clear clean warm waters. But Hilutungan Island’s claim to fame is its marine sanctuary which rapidly becoming as one of the most popular in central Philippines. The no-take haven boasts of tens of thousands of fishes of various sizes, from the elusive barracudas to meter-size bat fishes and the small anemone fishes, most of which literally would feed off your hands (travel tip: bring bread!). The island is also a renowned diving spot with a steep wall of corrals. It can be accessed by boat from any point in Mactan (a day’s rent goes from $25 to $75, depending on boat size). Snorkeling fee at anchor bays around the sanctuary is about $1.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/100s, f/14, 18mm, ISO 100
approaching Hilutungan Island, Cordova, Cebu, the Philippines


Batanes

Semi-tropical and semi-temperate, Batanes is the most isolated province in the country. It is accessible only by plane as there are no passenger ferries between mainland Luzon and Batanes. A ticket from Manila via Tuguegarao (Cagayan) is about $100 one way. Relatively uninfluenced by the outside world, the islands evoke of pastoral and rocky vistas associated Ireland or even New Zealand. Of course, there are still the requisite white beaches like the famous swimming hole of Nakabuang in Sabtang Island. Now this is unmistakably tropical Philippines.


the Nakabuang beach in Sabtang island, Batanes, Northern Philippines
Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/1250s, f/4.5, 18mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV


Baguio, Benguet

Baguio is the original summer capital of the Philippines. Established in the early 1900s by the Americans, the city is synonymous to mountain retreat- verdant, foggy and cool. Sitting some 1,500 meters above sea level, the temperature can be some 8 degrees (centigrade) lower than the lowlands’ in the day. At night, the air can be downright chilly. A bounty of pine trees, orchards of strawberry, tracts of flower farms and dramatic panoramic mine views awaits the city traveler. And wait, Baguio is itself a highly urbanized city so easy comforts are never far away. Metropolitan convenience is definitely part of its charm.


an Ifugao hut in the Botanical Gardens, Baguio, Benguet, the Philippines (picture taken by my wife)
Canon PowerShot Pro1, 1/250s, f/8, 7.2mm


part of an ongoing series on Philippine summer destinations:
part 1 - Alegre (Cebu), Pandanon Island (Bohol), Siquijor Island
part 2 (the isolation series) - the sandbar of Bais (Negros Oriental), Inampulugan Island (Guimaras), Mambucal (Negros Occidental)
part 3 - (Pagudpud, Bantayan, Dakak)

the hubris of Ferdinand Marcos

At the height of his power, former dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos commissioned the construction of this 99-foot concrete bust of HIS own image. What drives a man to make a “Mt. Rushmore”-inspired monument of himself while he’s still living? HUBRIS, that’s what! Never mind that he had to displace the Ibaloi tribe from their traditional land on this spot just to glorify himself.


Canon PowerShot S40, 1/320s, f/4.9, 21.3mm


More than 36 years ago, in SEPTEMBER 21, 1972, Dictator Marcos declared Martial Law. His poor justification was well, take your pick: the Communist Party of the Philippines, the Moro National Liberation Front, the student protests and labor strikes. I was too young to remember then but I grew up with Marcos ruling by presidential decrees, curtailing press freedom and other civil liberties, closing down media establishments and Congress and ordering the arrest of opposition leaders and his critics. Constitutionally barred from seeking another term beyond 1973, Marcos doctored the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention to adopt a parliamentary form of government to pave the way for him to stay in power beyond 1973.

It wasn’t until 1986 that he was finally overthrown but not after hundreds of disaparecidos (the disappeared), an estimated $5-$10 billion dollars of ill-gotten wealth and ehem, 3,000 pairs of Imelda’s shoes. So let’s allow this ugly concrete monument to rot, if only to prod us that we, Filipinos, should never have short memories.