After years of not returning to Mindanao where twin sister Myrna and I were born in Cagayan de Oro, we joined 13 Silliman alumni from Dumaguete to Butuan City for the Sadya Mindanaw reunion.
The big Butuan Alumni Association chapter organized the event on April 28-30 which other alumni from Manila, the Visayas, and other provinces in Mindanao as Davao and Bukidnon eagerly attended.
According to Butuan Chapter President Rene Burdeos, there were 160 of us Sillimanians there for Sadya Mindanaw.
A motorcade gave the Butuan community a chance “to see” the visitors (if they looked hard enough through the tinted glass windows), but the tarpaulin sign in front of each vehicle identified us as reunioning Sillimanians. Although they could not hear us, we called out just the same for them to send their children to college at SU.
We had a welcome and fellowship dinner which was made colorful with most of the participants wearing ethnic garb.
Trustee Atty. Grace Sumalpong, SU President Ben S. Malayang III, and National Alumni President Atty. Mikael Lee Maxino graced the gathering with their presence. So did some of Butuan’s important leaders.
The history buffs in the group were treated to a delightful and educational experience of Butuan’s rich past through a visit to the Balangay Shrine where in 1976, the remains of a wooden Balangay boat was excavated.
Many Balangay boats used to sail the seas of Southeast Asia. They were not fitted with outriggers, and were made of timber planks. They could be used as a house, cargo vessel, fishing boat, and sometimes, a warship. Some of them anchored in pre-Spanish colonial Philippines where communities were slowly started.
Butuan, at the time of Magellan’s arrival, was already a thriving community.
We also visited the National Museum branches in Butuan and Cabadbaran which display cultural artifacts such as jars, weapons, and old plates which the early populations used. It was encouraging to see that the Butuanons maintain their museums, and are proud of their past.
Our hosts also organized a tour on Day 2 to show us the environmental attractions of their place. On our way to Alegria in the town of San Francisco in Agusan del Sur, we stopped to gape at a Toog tree that soared way above us.
Unfortunately, the marker in front does not give its height, nor an explanation why locals call it “the tallest tree” in their province? In the region?
What I now know is that toog/Philippine Rosewood tree we saw in Alegria is the country’s tallest at 65 meters high; and it’s about 300 years old. Its leaves are medicinal (can treat skin rashes), the seeds are edible and taste like groundnut, and the wood is hard as molave and highly-preferred for constructing bridges, beams, door jambs, wood piles in wharves.
(A lesson for us here in Dumaguete: We must make sure we provide adequate information on our tourist spots to educate our visitors, and most especially ourselves.)
We toured the Britania group of islands with their white sand in San Agustin, Surigao del Sur. (How exciting for us to realize that we were in the province next to Butuan!)The sea there is so pristine and unbelievably-blue.
We passed by another island that had the ubiquitous tianggi that sold trinkets, snacks, etc., including chopping boards (tadtaran), which some of us bought for their “genuine handwood”.
The Enchanted River in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur was another stop, deep in a forested area, and sheltering large fish that have been trained to feed at a certain time of the day when a siren sounds off (an exciting lesson of Pavlovian behavior for us).
The river is swift with a strong current, and allows swimming only for those who are real swimmers (and brave of heart, I must add).
The place was full of people that day because of the long weekend. For us, shorties, it was difficult to see the action going on below from the bank where we stood with so many heads blocking our view. Nevertheless, it was impressive to note that many local people were like us in appreciating their tourist attraction.
We were fortunate that MetroPost columnist Moses Atega was part of our Dumaguete delegation to his home province of Butuan.
Cabadbaran City, a few kilometers from Butuan, is Mong’s hometown. We travelled there on our last day, stopping in the town of Magallanes to see another historical feature — the Bitaug tree that has been declared a “Centennial Tree”.
The town leaders had prepared for our arrival, providing chairs under the tree so we could listen to an excellent lecture by a male scholar about the Bitaug tree. It is mentioned in Spanish reports as early as 1523 (a mere two years after Magellan arrived in Butuan). Then some 400 or so years later, we were told, the same tree is mentioned in reports of the Katipunero and American skirmishes that took place near it.
The Century Tree with a big root system has a large trunk circumference covered by bark that suggests its ancient age, and its wide and long branches spread high above people on the ground, covered by Bird’s Nest ferns and fungal growth. Those in charge of the tree are now considering seriously its “health needs” (as well they should).
The presence of a Magellan marker in the same town marks the spot where Magellan is believed to have set foot on as he sailed along the Butuan coast.
Shame on us who were forced to study Spanish in college, some taking 24 units of the subject, when we could not translate everything that was printed on the marker!
Reaching Cabadbaran, we were warmly welcomed by some local officials at the City Hall who led us after a refreshing snack of budbud, ripe mango, and tsokolate to the Cabadbaran Museum. We saw for ourselves again how the people take pride in their past.
Lunch and the closing program of the reunion was in the Gazebo, an events place owned by Silliman alumni Rodulfo & Charity Udarbe-Sevilla. It was filled to standing room as more alumni arrived to join the group.
Our celebratory mood was enhanced not only by the presence of so many Sillimanians, but also a group of Manobo dancers in their bright ethnic costumes and percussion instruments.
An announcement was made of the next Sillimanian alumni reunion which will be held in Manila in 2018. (This is different from the Dumaguete Tipon reunion in August this year.)
The last stop in our Cabadbaran tour was the large Atega house built in the 1920s, with a stairway leading up to the second story and a wooden floor of dark and light hues.
We took note of its old furniture, the large table in the dining room, and the presence of many rooms on one side of the house. We were fascinated by the old portraits and pictures on the wall of its early inhabitants, including those of the Spanish friar and the lovely American mestiza who started a generation of handsome and beautiful members of Mong Atega’s family. Memories of its early inhabitants are kept well in the house.
Having had our fill of the house’s interesting interior, we lingered in the lovely garden bordered by flowers and ferns and colorful leaves, quiet in the approaching twilight — an apt benediction to our lovely visit to Butuan.
Madahan gyud ang among memorable visit and reunion with fellow alumni!
