Learn history from Samar’s tourist destinations
By Roel T. Amazona
BASEY, Samar, May 18 (PNA) –- Looking for a place to recall
some pieces of Philippine history? Visit this Eastern Visayas town and you will
surely get the right answer.
Basey is said to be the capital of Leyte province during the
American occupation before the establishment of Tacloban City, now the regional
capital.
Features of this tourism destination would take tourists
back to Spanish and American occupations until the Japanese era.
There are, for instance, the Buscada Chapel and St. Michael
the Archangel Church, both located at the town center. Built in the 17th
century, these churches are two of the remaining stone churches in the region.
Visiting these two churches and looking at their walls,
tourists will notice markings that have names written on them.
The names were those of the people entombed in the 10-foot
thick, coral and limestone walls as part of Spanish tradition. They were
well-known townspeople during the Spanish era and some were parish priest who
served in the church.
Buscada Chapel (Mt. Carmel Chapel) is significant for the
people of Tacloban. During the city fiesta, the image of the Holy Child Jesus
of Buscada is exchanged with the image of Holy Child Jesus of Tacloban in a
ritual called Balyuan.
Checking the tombstones at Buscada Chapel, the latest burial
in its church wall took place in 1928.
Outside Buscada Chapel itself, there are still traces of
graves indicating that the church ground was used as a cemetery in the ancient
days, along with the 17th century- old St. Michael the Archangel Church.
A century-old pulpit that is only used now by the parish
priest on special occasions such as Christmas Eve and Holy Week masses and 18th
century painting at the ceiling of the church can still be seen at St. Michael
Parish Church.
The bell tower of this church is visible from Tacloban’s
Cancabato Bay area.
The most popular among the tourist destinations of Basey is
the Sohoton National Park and Natural Bridge, which is about an hour travel
from the town proper of Basey.
From the entrance of the Sohoton cave, visitors may glance
at the Panhulugan Cliff, named by locals after the word "hulog" or
drop, the ambush site of Filipino guerrillas against American Forces during the
occupation of the Philippines.
Two caves can be seen at the Panhulugan cliff, the
Panhulugan Cave 1 and 2 that were used as burial sites in the 13th century.
Sohoton cave is a cathedral-like dome with an entrance of a
parabolic arch-type about 50 meters high.
Of the caves inside Sohoton National Park, it is the Sohoton
Cave that is most visited by tourists.
Sohoton cave has a flat door area near the entrance, about
20 meters in width and 50 meters in length.
On its ceiling hangs spike-shaped
crystalline stalactites. It has rustic and cavernous walls and stalagmites can
be found on the cave’s floor.
Inside Sohoton Cave, one can see stalactites and stalagmites
formation like pair of eagle legs, image of the Holy Family, stalactites that
can create sounds like an organ. At the far end of the cave are a prince-like
window and a balcony overlooking the natural swimming pool below.
About 10 to 15 minutes' kayak ride from Sohoton Cave is the
fantastic huge arch-shaped rock Sohoton Natural Bridge that connects two
mountain ridges spanning to the Sohoton River.
This stone bridge is forested at its upper portion while on
its underside hang heavy karst formations of giant stalactites and a river that
until now is used by the locals in transporting their goods.
The river under the natural bridge is ideal for picnic,
swimming and kayaking.
Also found in Sohoton National Park are the Bugasan and
Kapigtan caves that are off limits to visitors due to ancient remains that
dated back from Stone and Iron Age periods.
A visit to Basey is not complete without checking the centuries-old
tradition of Baseynon --a tradition that was passed from generation to
generation, the tradition of mat weaving.
Basey is famous for its banig (mat), a prime handicraft
product that is made from indigenous material tikog, a grass that is abundant
in Leyte and Samar.
Basey banig weavers, mostly women, do their weaving inside
Soob Cave in Mabini village along the national highway. The cold temperature
inside the cave helps preserve the raw materials, according to local weavers.
The weavers are locally known as paraglara and are taught
the traditional mat weaving at an early age. It is believed that the people in
Basey have been weaving mats long before the Spaniards came to the Philippines.
From the traditional banig, mat weavers in Basey have expanded
their products to bags, wallets, slippers and other decorative materials. The
colorful and bigger a banig product is, the more expensive it is.
Their products have reached as far as the United States and
several other countries around the world.
A more complicated mat design showing the likeness of a
public figure or a “portrait mat” is also sold in this town. This technique,
which can be compared with embroidery, is done by experts mat weavers at the
town proper.
Super typhoon "Yolanda" had greatly affected the
mat weavers of Basey after their source of materials were destroyed, but a
private group and the local government unit had worked together to bring back
this industry by organizing farmers and identifying a village of Basey where
they could grow tikog.
In the other part of Sa-ob Cave, one can find skeletal
remains of people that were placed in a tomb inside the cave.
Residents in Basiao village where Sa-ob cave is located said
the skeletons belonged to people who died during World War II.
Basey, 26 kilometers north of Tacloban City, is the current
record holder of the world’s longest mat, recorded in the Guinness Book of
World Records. It could be reached from Tacloban by a 45-minute land trip
passing through the picturesque San Juanico Bridge. (PNA)
SCS/SQM/Roel T. Amazona
