The Boulevard of the Untamed Dreams

by: dodong



The sun starts its reign of the day. The dazzling beauty of the rainbow-like colors of the sea, the tiny waves approached the shores when stillness was the mood of the pacific ocean, and the scent of the early morning breeze how could one forget you. It reminds like it just happened yesterday, a vivid recollections, these are but the reminisced memories of the then little boy who used to witness the sunrise at Bacuag sea front while collecting a kind of small clam, the sea shell called “Caraycay.”

The view of the scenic silver sparkling sand of the shores winking as it shined seemingly begs for mercy, the people and the relatives of the fishermen who hardly open their eyes, eagerly waiting the fishermen who went on their fishing adventures the whole night, queuing and waiting to have a glance on their catched were over jealous when finally plenty of sorted fishes caught were being displayed. Undeterred by the heat of the shores as the sun seemed hotter than usual they did endure to be able to select the best fish of their own choice.

Oh summer time here I am as the boy quipped, no classes, unyielding for more playing time, swimming & sun bathing seemed relentless, at the seashores with ample gusty winds conducive to kite flying, these were children’s festivities during the day. While parents were busy in the farms harvesting rice, their kids were also busy making sand castles, casting fish nets and bait fishing. “Aso-os” and “buga-ong” were the common fishes caught.

Unlike the years that had gone by, people at present find it difficult to rely on aqua-marine product for their livelihood. It’s likely our place is already over populated or source of marine resources are very much depleted. The LGU’s timely putting fish sanctuary covering mostly the town’s stretched shores was the best control measures ever done to protect and preserve the newly hatched and fish spawns to ensure the growth of the same to replenish our supply of fishes due for people consumption.

The people of Bacuag have witnessed the construction of seawall in the past years, and our LGU has successfully sponsored the holding of national skim boarding competitions. What we need now is the much improve beach and more presentable seashore to cater our visitor’s good sight. Let’s not be reluctantly mover of progress. We shall help our leaders get rid of eye sores and pollutions at the seafront. Support the realization of the plan to construct the Bacuag Boulevard from the Bitaog River down to Sabang river. This tourism project will not only improve the sight of our town’s beautiful seashore but will surely help us in income generating endeavors and augurs other recreational locations like safe bicycle lanes during night time and a good place for ocean and sunrise spectators and star gazers, expectedly nightlife will be alive because amenities will flourish such as barbecue grills and other food concessions. Be part of the dreams!

The Waterfalls of Little Baguio

The Beauty of ‘Sandayong’...by: dodong

Commune with nature, this is the message of my late father. I remember while I was still young he maintained the mini irrigation dike for our rice farms in Canaya, Sto. Rosario, I could not recall the author but he said something this way, “you could not step twice into the same river, for other waters are ever flowing on to you” unless the water is stagnant. This reminder was still vivid and he instilled into my mind to ensure that water in the dike must be monitored seeing to it with no leak at all times & should not be wasted due to the scarcity of waters in our farm every drop of water from the dike shall be put to use.

Then I realized and found out that rivers are more than just a necessity for man’s survival but also a masterpiece of God’s work. We fetched water using our bamboo container, we took water from the improvised pipe made also of bamboo we called it “Sandayong.” Water in “sandayong” holds a special fascination on me that seem to transcend reality to capture my imagination on waterfalls from a downhill near our farm. Then I had invented a mini waterfall by creating a detour of small rivers “sapa” down to the cliff. At that moment my man-made waterfall exists from mountain stream capturing the seemingly tamed water cascading to our rice farms.

Let me tell you about Jurong Falls. It is the tallest continuously running artificial waterfall in the world, at 30 meters (100 ft) tall. The falls are located within the open access water aviary at the Jurong Park in Singapore. This has captivated millions of tourist there. Water plunges over the top of a touring cliff at a rate of 140 liters per second. The water is circulated through a meandering stream that cascades down over a series of levels, creating an ideal environment for water birds, fishes, plants and other life forms at the aviary.

What differentiate from Jurong Falls is that our waterfall is made by nature. We could develop and enhance the beauty by sensuously sculpting slot, adulating and stunning slick-rock deep locations. We could construct and improve a landscape to make basin-like pool of water where falls drop and where people could swim. We could also conduct reforestation and regulate the area for tourism purposes. Peace and order conditions necessarily must be improved.

Infrastructure projects will follow. Roads and bridges must be built from Barangays Dugsangon and Payapag up to Little Baguio. These infrastructures must be maintained and sustained to enable to support the developments and enhancements of the tourism in Little Baguio. This will not only be limited to benefit tourism industry but also boosts and facilitates the farm to market shipments of agricultural produce made by the southern portion of our people in the municipality. In the end our community can have another sustainable development program in pursuit for a better quality of life for its empowered citizenry.