At the Other Side

Amidst of one of the mountain barangay in Bulacao, Cebu City, there lies the cave which happens to be connected with the cave in Guadalupe Cebu City.

This cave, as described by the people who have seen it and the people who have lived around it, has stood up like ever since the beginning, a part of God's creation. And it has this tabernacle-carved-like stone which the people from the past used as their altar.

There were, of course, who live in the cave. And these people choose to live inside the cave to serve their purposes in life.

Their lifestyle is more based on their spiritual aspects, not on physical ones. They lived in a not so likely-to-believe-in-lives that we, the people of this generation used to believe and live in. These people did some unbelievable things yet one has to know that it really did happen, like they cook their rice (corn) with the use of their clothes.

Together with them who lived in the cave were (some) unknown persons or spirits, no one knows. The people kindly asks something to these unknown creatures and their requests are immediately answered. It gives them everything that they ask for to borrow and in return, the people must return what they've borrowed.

All those things that they've asked weren't just ordinary platter or any thing that is made of normal materials... All of it were made of pure gold and silver.

Times passed, they all existed in peace. The spirits giving them what they've asked, the people uses it care and returns it after using.

But an incident happened that made the spirits angry and left them, not hearing their request anymore. A resident asked some things to the spirits and never returned the things that he or she borrowed. So angry at the resident, the spirits left the people alone, not attending to their pleas and request.

It was said that there was one man who successfully passed the cave and reached the mouth of the Guadalupe cave and went back the same way to the mouth of the cave where he lived.

His name was Bantong. He lived in the cave for all of his life doing his life's mission. Together with some of the people during that time, before the Spaniards came to the Philippines or more, they all lived in the cave.

How he came to set forth for his arduous, yet successful journey in reaching the mouth of the cave of Our Lady of Guadalupe and back to the entrance of the cave where he was from was very coincidental.

He saw a cave and approached towards the mouth of the cave as he heard some voices from the inside. And there, so much from his surprise, were 3 persons, or maybe prophets from that time, talking inside the dark cave which was only illuminated by a single book that was held by one of them.

Not anticipating someone to come inside the cave or even know about the cave, the three hurriedly left, their traces were eaten by the darkness of the cave, unknowingly dropped the book. Going after them, Bantong saw the book that was left and picked it up.

Bantong, having the book to lighten up cave, decided to take a walk deep inside the cave to see if there are other openings of the mouth that will lead to another places that is connected to theirs.

And so it was how it was. It was also said by the people from time to time, Bantong was a young lad when he decided to go on to a journey inside the cave and by the time he walked out from the mouth the cave, his hair was already white. That means he have walked for years inside that cave.

If you were to walk casually in the streets, it would take at around 2 hours or more to get to the mouth of the Guadalupe cave. But this is a cave that we're talking about. It would be very hard to cross the cave for there will be times that one can walk so casually in there, then they will gradually bend down and down until one will have to drop down on their feet for them to crawl out their way from the very little space in which one has to go through.

Today, there are no more residents inside the cave, though there are still some people who reside beside it, guarding and taking care of the cave. Though there are some people who still come and prayed inside the cave, and some even had in their mind to try to take a journey into the depths of the cave but then they would stop, that is only until where their faith is up to.

Another is said that one of the few known people to have come to the cave to perform their live's mission is the mighty Leon Kilat.

- photo from the internet

From Bangkal to Cabangcalan

Have you noticed on how some places here in the Philippines were named of? Well, some places, not just in our country, were named after some people, some according to legend and some are after plants or trees. Yep, trees. And I bet that most of you are familiar of Talisay City of Cebu, Antipolo in Rizal, Cabuyao in Laguna and the Lucban town in Pahiyas. These are some of the many places here in the Philippines wherein it is named after a particular tree that is abundant in that certain place.

But let me tell you that there is an exception to that or maybe more. Now, I'll tell you more about this particular place, in the place where I have been. There is this tree in which it is named after a tree which you seldom see in the area.

Here in the boundaries of Cebu City and Talisay City, there is this Barangay Bulacao on each side of the two cities. And in the barangay Bulacao in Cebu, there is this sitio named Cabangcalan which is said to be named after the tree Bangkal (Nauclea orientalis).

In that place, as Aling Lucia said that she does not remember any presence of any other bangkal tree aside from one that stood proudly beside a mango tree which was located at the slope between the basketball court and the river of the place.
No one knows why it was named as such when most of the time a place is named after a plant or a tree was because it was abundant in the area and yet here is a certain sitio was named as such when a lone tree resided the area and thus became the basis of the name of the place.

On the night of the second week of November, 2001, a strong typhoon named Nanang hit the Visayan islands. One of the places that met the harsh treatment of Nanang was the place of Sitio Cabangcalan I, Brgy. Bulacao Pardo, Cebu City where it left almost a lot of plants and trees destroyed by the storm and the lone bangkal never stood a chance.


- photos from the internet