 At
first glance it may seem like any old sleepy seaside town in the South
of Cebu Province that travelers pass by with nary a cursory look. But
move in a little closer and you’ll see that there’s more to Boljoon.
Boljoon is as small and as pretty as a postcard. Its people (of the
population of 13,380 about 3,000 live in the town center) live on the
catch from the sea and whatever could graze or grow in the rocky hills
or by the river running through the narrow valley.
Since it remains largely undiscovered by the majority of tourists, it
only has a few rooms to offer in its ten or so beach resorts, and modest
fares in its two or three eateries.
Boljoon is painfully constrained by its peculiar terrain, formed, it is
said, by a cavity formed by the sudden collapse of a mountain range.
(Boljoon may have derived its name from nabulho meaning "collapsed.") To
the north it is closely hemmed in by the venerable Ele Rock (a landmark
described by a Boljoonon as "like God’s toe jutting out to sea") whose
sides of granite and limestone had to be hacked away by blasting and
digging to create an access road; to the south by Boljoon River and to
the east by the Bohol Strait (over-hanging cliffs reduce the beachfronts
to little more than 12 kms in all); then suddenly to the west by the
Kasanghel Hill.
Certainly worth a day tour, Boljoon has a quaint church facing the sea
that has been declared a National Historical Landmark by the National
Historical Institute.
 One
of the oldest Augustinian churches in Cebu, the tile-roofed church, with
the convent attached to it, was dedicated to Nuestra Senora Patrocinio
de Maria when it became a visita of the parish of Carcar in 1599 before
it became a full-fledged parish in 1690. Since Boljoon was declared a
pilgrim parish in 1690.
The church, which was originally built as a fortress in the olden times,
attracts sightseers, religious art connoisseurs, academics, and
conservationists. The interior is beautifully decorated. It features
gold-leaf and polychrome on the retablos, the fine tracery railings of
the pulpit and choirloft (which has a now-decrepit organ vintage 1880),
the ornate "Islamic" silverwork of the communion rail, the lushly
painted ceiling.
The facade, consisting of three levels with rococo decorations on the
panels and along the shallow pilasters, is topped by a pediment that
gives the squat church a slightly askew shape.
Beside the church is the churchyard (burial ground) on whose crumbling
walls one can still make out the friezes of skulls and crossed bones.
Standing apart from the church is the blockhouse, or fort, which served
as a fortification against Moro pirates and slave-traders. The windows
were so constructed as to fit cannons, while the walls of piedra vitoca,
or coral blocks, were a meter thick to protect the local militia.
The church was built by the Augustinian Fray Julian Bermejo, parish
priest of Boljoon in 1802. During his time he also built the three
baiuartes (watchtowers) strategically located in different parts of the
town: one on top of Ele Rock, the second and largest near Lusapon river,
and the third at the tip of Cayangan Point facing seaward.
The Boljoon watchtowers formed part of the defensive network of
baiuartes masterminded by Fray Bermejo. The chain of baiuartes stretched
96 kms. from Carcar to the north to Santander at the southernmost tip of
Cebu.
The priest named the baiuartes after saints associated with soldiery,
like the archangels Michael and Gabriel, Sta. Barbara the patroness of
the artillery corps, and an obscure 4th century martyr by the name of
Cucufate aka Cugat.
Fray Bermejo belonged to a long line of friar-soldiers whose exploits
are documented in books in the archives in Valladolid, Spain. It was
Fray Bermejo, also called "Padre Kapitan," who organized a small armada
of 10 balangays, or shallow draft boats, with Boljoon as base of
operations. The boats were manned by volunteers from Boljoon, Oslob,
Nueva Caceres and Dalaguete, who were primed to fight the Moros at a
moment's notice. Each vessel was equipped with falconets fore and aft
and its crew with a variety of weapons for hand-to-hand combat.
Stories about battles against the Moro raiders in Boljoon are legendary.
One tells of a great silver bell whose sound, when struck to announce
the sighting of the Moros' prahus in the horizon, would carry all the
way to Caceres and Alcoy. This bell was carted away by Datu Guranding or
Orendain, but it was so heavy it sank with one of the prahus into the
bottom of the sea.
The history of Boljoon is closely linked to the
Moro slave-raiding era from 1770 to 1870. Records in Baljoon describe
the marauders as armed with the latest cannons, gunpowder, flintlock
rifles and shot-guns acquired from European and Chinese traders. They
terrorized the inhabitants of coastal towns and settlements throughout
Southeast Asia, swooping down on them in fleets of as many as 40 to 50
prahus carrying 2,500 to 3,000 armed men, as well as heavy artillery. No
one could predict their coming, although the southeasterly winds of
August to September would often push the Iranun and Samal Balangigi
boats across the sea.
Other things to see/ do:
When visiting Boljoon for a day and not just whizzing through, you may
want to take a look at:
• Bells made in Spain with dates and the names of the friars who brought
them to Boljoon.
• Escueia Gatolica where children were taught how to read and write
using the cartilla. Candidates for Holy Communion were also housed here
for the whole of May to prepare them thoroughly in good manners, respect
for elders, love of God, and the benefits of the sacraments. The
building has a twin concrete staircase in front of the building, one for
the boy communicants, the other for the girls,
• Boljoon River and the wildlife remnants.
• Kasanghel Hill, recommended for mountain climbing and camping,
• Pottery at Pondohan in Barangay Upper Becerril, where roof tiles are
handmade by the locals. These places are reached by for-hire bus, jeep
or the habal-habal, the passenger motorcycle built for five, the Cebuano
version of the Thai tuktuk.
Visit the Beautiful Philippine Islands today! A great vacation for the entire
family...
|
