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Greening
in Valencia
The name Valencia may sound European, evoking
images of quaint rows of stone houses and
cobblestone walks. More so if you meet their
mayor Rodolfo V. Gonzales, Jr., whose
Castilian features remind one of stage
director Tony Mabesa or character actor Tony
Carreon. But Valencia in Negros Oriental would
conjure, if one has visited, images mainly of
lush vegetation and mountains. Valencia is
considered here a kind of the province’s
mountain resort just as Baguio is to Luzon.
While Baguio is cooler, Valencia is moderate.
But compared to the rest of the province, it
is relatively cooler. Baguio is urbanized but
Valencia somehow remains, in a way, pristine.
The town is 9.40 kilometers away or just 30
minutes ride from Dumaguete City, the
province’s capital. It is actually near. The
land area of 7,716 sq km is a treasury of
greenery, beautiful with Mt. Talinis or
Cuernos de Negros (Horns of Negros) as
backdrop. Sixty-five percent of Valencia is
actually mountain terrain and thirty-five
percent is rolling plains and the rest is used
for agriculture, which is the main livelihood
of the people. Though its population is
20,147, the place seems un-crowded and
peaceful.
It was already night when we arrived in
Valencia from gallivanting around the
province. We were sea-fresh,
salt-and-wind-scrubbed and sun-reddened from
the visit to Apo Island, whose offers were
untamed beaches and striking reefs and fishes.
So Valencia proved to be a different world and
one realized the wonderful diversity in just a
few kilometers.
Mayor Gonzales, with his officials, welcomed
us in Forest Camp, which is a camping area and
resort offering communion with nature. The
grass, which virtually carpeted the whole
area, was tingly with dew-laden blades. With
the backdrop of forest that seemed to hold the
darkness of the night and the sound of
cicadas, they set up tables around a bonfire
where we had dinner until the late night’s
mist came. To get the feel of the area with
its feel of dampness and its curious little
insects, we slept in tents.
I was awakened when the sunlight fell on our
tent making it a hothouse, and came out to see
the camp in the daylight, a sprawling
park-like tract of land. Forest Camp seemed to
me the most beautiful campsite resort in the
country. The camp has uneven terrain, vibrant
with trees and coconuts. There was a creek
running through it, feeding two man-made
swimming pools. Over it was a hanging bridge.
Footpaths inlaid with stones sliced through
the tingly grass carpet. There was an area
where you can set up tents, a common bathroom
and toilet, and areas where you cook and
grill. But there is also a restaurant at the
center of the site. There were also nice,
comfy cottages for those who want to straddle
between modern comfort and nature. But the
centerpiece remains to be a magnificent tree
house. At the end part of the site, the area
sloped upwards towards a forest, where you can
trek and then further is already mountain.
Breakfast was a great idea. And here one can
really savor Negros Oriental’s favorite snack:
budbod kabog, a kind of suman made from
glutinous rice and coconut milk and wrapped in
banana leaves, which is dipped in hot
chocolate and eaten with slices of ripe
mangoes. Of course, there is the much-talked
about danggit and fried rice. One is
constantly reminded of nature because a brash
and inquisitive blackbird dropped in our
breakfast and stole our food. It will also
rummage through your things if you left them
in the open.
Forest Camp in Apolong, Valencia, is owned by
Florante Vicuña and wife Melba. They are
really Ilocano, who migrated into Valencia and
started the camp with a small piece of land
and then expanding it by acquiring adjacent
tracts.
After breakfast, we headed to our first
destination, which curiously was the PNOC
Geothermal Plant in Barrio Puhagan. Plants and
factories are not really touristy spots to
visit, but the geothermal plant in Valencia is
an interesting sights, which owes largely to
its picturesque surroundings. It was a bumpy
but pleasant ride up the mountains, where the
greenery was broken by occasional houses with
a garden of curious flowering plants like a
small tree-like plat with large,
peach-colored, trumpet-shaped flowers hang
droopingly from its branches. It was an
indication that the area is home to
fascinating flora and fauna.
Before visiting the plant itself, we were
brought to a vantage where we could see the
plant from above, a real panoramic view. The
plant is nestled among the verdant Cuernos de
Negros mountain, like a big shiny steel
machine spouting steam lying among the
vegetation. The PNOC was a result of the 1975
exploration of geothermal resources in the
area jointly undertaken by the Philippines and
New Zealand. The plant presently supplies
power to the whole province and parts of
Central Visayas. Plant personnel seemed to be
used to having visitors as they were treated
to an informative lecture of how volcanic heat
is harnessed from the earth, goes to this and
that pipes, and is transformed into
electricity. And we toured through the
facilities to the control room with its
multitude of green and red buttons glowing
like Christmas lights to the rooftop with its
humungous stacks spewing off steam like
hyperactive dragons. One might think that such
a plant in an environmentally precious area is
an incongruity. But it seemed to me that the
plant and its environment were complementary.
I really like places where human structures
and nature harmonize. The plant does not
pollute, actually. Its waste product is mainly
water from the steam and this water is treated
for any high concentration of minerals that
may cause imbalance. The PNOC Geothermal Plant
is into environmentally concerns. A large part
of mountain they declared a reservation under
their protection. Aside from preserving
Valencia’s environment, the plant could be the
town’s biggest employer, helping with the
economy of the area.
Maybe plants and factories can be included in
tours, a sort of scientific travel that can go
hand and hand with cultural explorations.
After the scientific, we went cultural. We
went to the Cata-al Private Museum of World
War II memorabilia. It is recommended that any
visit to any place must have for its initial
stop a museum. But it seemed that when
Filipinos go on a tour, museums are not a
primary destination. And Philippines does not
have many museums, and if it has, they are not
really patronized, prided or cherished.
Although, there are some visionary patches the
population which strives for them like the
private museum Cata-al. An identification of
how developed a place or civilization or the
caliber of the people is the presence of a
good museum, and how well maintained it is, or
how valued or cared for the items in its
possession. The existence of good museums
bespeak of the advancement, culture and
intelligence of the people.
Actually the Negros Oriental province has no
museum unlike its sister province Negros
Occidental which has a competent museum, which
however needs improvement. Museums here are
not supported by the government like the
museums of the Silliman University in
Dumaguete and the private Cata-al museum.
The museum was really a private home, with a
sign on the front gate in Japanese, a front
yard that was variably unkempt and a small
creek running beside it. The house was a
modest two-story affair. The makeshift garage
housed an old army jeep. An identification
that told that this was no ordinary house was
a few, large rusting bombs station in front of
the house.
The collection of was housed in the house’s
silong. And it was an impressive collection
items from dog tags, metal canteens to
uniforms crammed the area. The museum is
divided into two parts. The first part is the
World War II memorabilia and this was largely
items from, and about the Japanese Imperial
Army and a smattering of US Armed Forces. Part
of the collection are the bones of Japanese
soldiers. The bones collection started in Oct.
1986 with 17 sets donated by the Lion’s Club
of Japan. And then diggings in the area
resulted 7 sets in 2000 and 4 sets in 2001.
Most of the bones are donated to Sokoni Shrine
in Tokyo and the Emperor’s museum.
The second part is a personal collection,
which includes antiques, coins, old bottles,
musical instruments like harp and violin,
miniature models, replica of military
vehicles, etc.
The museum was started by Felix Constantino V.
Cata-al who actually studied agriculture. It
started as hobby when he was a boy in
1967-1968. The bulk of the present collection
came after 1981. Mr. Cata-al personally funded
searches like diggings in the area for his
collection. Others came from purchases from
other people, exchanges and loan for display
by private individuals. Diggings were done in
the barangay of Sagbang, were many World War
II items were found.
Sagbang was actually our next stop, not to dig
though from World War II treasures (rumor has
it that there have been diggings in connection
to the Yamashita treasure) but to visit the
Philippine-American-Japanese Amity Shrine. Our
way to the shrine was through Dumaguete City.
After going through the city we entered a
small road and suddenly we were going up the
mountains where the ride became increasingly
bumpy and sometimes difficult. A slight rain
can make the ground very slippery and once we
were stuck. The shrine itself may not worth
the travel there. It was just a simple affair,
a three-sided tower and steps around it and a
cordoned off park. A marker was supposed to be
in a corner wall but it was stolen as many
people visit to camp in the area. What could
be worth it was the view. From this point, one
could see the nearby island provinces of
Siquijor and Cebu.
Sagbang was actually the last stronghold of
the Japanese forces in the province. The
shrine was erected in 1977 in memory of those
who died and also as a symbol of friendship
and end of World War II hostilities. We were
amiably and hospitably greeted by baranggay
officials of Sagbang, which seemed to be of
Agta descent. While the mayor sincerely
conversed with the woman baranggay captain
about local affairs, we were offered a modest
snack of boiled saging na saba and kamoteng
kahoy, an effort that can be subtly touching.
Before we knew it, our time was up in
Valencia, and there were many things to visits
like the Casaroro Falls, Pulangbato Falls,
Lake Melipendol, Lake Yayumyum and Lake
Halawig, which are all in Mt. Talinis or
Cuernos de Negros. Now, Mt. Talinis, which
reaches the height of 1,938 meters, is a
favorite and marvelous mountain to climb for
mountain climbers and enthusiasts. As
mentioned, the mountain is home to interesting
flora and fauna. The rare spotted deer is
believe to be found only in this mountain. And
then there are the Bleeding heart pigeon, the
Visayan warty pig, the Visayan writhed
hornbill and the Visayan tarictic hornbill.
But seemed that we had to Mt. Talinis to a
later, indefinite date. And we were not really
geared by a high-impact mountain climbing. So
our travel diary was filled with places in the
foot of the mountain, but these were good
memories enough, so good and so green. Now we
will remember Valencia not with cobblestone
walks but of mountain trails that leads to
adventure. |
