Starring: The Midwest

CEBU, Philippines - Time and space must take a backseat, that's why there's the Midwest.

But even as progress has taken over where tradition may have been, architectural history and natural resplendence should and must remain. And this is just one of the achievements of Suroy Suroy Sugbo there.

I would be very, very biased about the latest edition though - Explore the Midwest (from June 11 to 12). I have spent 99 percent of my life in the West, so no matter how great and green they would say the other side of the fence is, the West is a niche (academically, we belong to the Northwest District). And despite the parochial aura hovering over most of the seven stops, the West will forever remain beautiful in my eyes (ehem!).

This beauty goes on a superlative degree now that the six towns and one component city have gamely accepted the challenge of raising cultural pride bars higher. Tabuelan, for example, is a surprise. We don't see much of Tabuelan in the old days because of the reported insurgency problems it was known for including Tuburan and Asturias. In fact, in most of our high school outings (or escapades?), we trooped to Tajao (Pinamungajan) instead or just a little beyond Abucayan (Balamban). Farther north is a no-no, or we could be headed for doom!

 But lately, my rat pack was able to hop from tricycle to tricycle in the hope of visiting museums, the Molobolo Spring, the flea markets, the wharfs, the plazas, and the rest of the heritage sites there marked according to provincial directives. I'm so proud how the "Westerners" have taken on a transformation --- from laidback to being proactive, but not losing our ground.

The eGwen Hidden Paradise in Tabuelan, on over a kilometer stretch of fine, off-white sand is so lovely. I just hope it would remain a public beach forever and ever.

It was a big "argh!" to have skipped Molobolo Spring in Tuburan. This charming haven of froth and fizzle is a good place to return to over and over again. There is the meeting of spring and saline water, like celestial horizon meeting a cobalt sky. 

Asturias is a smorgasbord of fresh catch - shrimps, red tilapia (I mistook it earlier for dalagang bukid, sorry!). There are always firsts even when you're four decades old. So, it was the first time I saw tilapias rubicund even in the raw.

Balamban sparks all the more with opportunities from shipbuilding to trading. It is the next city in our homecourt! Buanoy is awesome. Despite not really being an original center or hub of commerce, it now pulsates with livelihood opportunities.

Pinamungajan is also alive with its coastal forests and another public beach. We were driven up Barangay Lamac to witness how cooperativism gave birth to the Hidden Valley Mountain Resort and Training Center. It is one of the most successful and highly regarded cooperatives in the country today. Proof that self-sufficiency is within reach if we bring the best practices even in highlands described in jest to be: diyes 'tabos na lay plete padung langit (fare worth ten centavos to reach heaven).

Aloguinsan is promising with its vermi beds showcased in an organic farm. There's much lesson offered here as to how we can put our hands off from pesticides that benefit the top of the food chain, awright, but kill the other organisms at the base of the pyramid. The Farmhouse educates us how we can rethink green and relive green by way of a shift in our consumption patterns or a return to the basics but with adaptation to improved technology in green farming.

Hinulawan Festival animates Toledo, home to my La Sallian Family in Cebu (Animo, La Sallistas!). Our stop was timed on the celebration of the Feast of St. John of Sahagun on June 12 which is also Independence Day. The dinner at the seawall capped two days of discovery, rediscovery, and meeting new friends. Two hotels and a commercial arcade have already replaced what used to be the seawall where I used to spend my weekend writing poems or just dozing off.

My acquaintances from Quezon Province munched on cassube (cassava + ube) and puto lancho (glutinous rice, sugar and young coconut), that my Toledo City is known for, over conservations on the possibility of meeting again in the next edition of the Suroy. The Campita couple (Marissa and Elson) of Lucban, both photography hobbyists, looks forward to the Northern Escapade to complete all four editions of this provincial tourism initiative.

As emphasized, the Explore the Midwest edition did not only showcase how the localities have cultivated a deeper sense of cultural pride; such initiative of the Provincial Government to invigorate tourism in the countryside also served as a platform for people to engage in an "indigay" (Cebuano for contest).

This encourages our six towns and a component city to all the more uphold communal pride through activities and initiatives that spur a people's enthusiasm and commitment to be an essential part of the whole. This is deemed to transform into obsession among city and municipal leaders, workers, and residents the desire to "do more, come up with brighter ideas to highlight what makes each locality worth visiting (its product and people), and of course to innovent (a contraction of innovate and invent) when it comes to attracting tourists to not only indulge in the "suroy-suroy" (leisurely trip) but to also commit to "balik-balik" (come again).

The rest of the localities visited also showed how prepared they are this time in terms of comfort room facilities, raising the standard-mometer a bar higher. When it comes to food, the anagram for "Sugbo" - busog - to mean having been filled or stuffed is an apt word to describe how a hop from Tsuneishi Hotel of the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries in Balamban to the Baluarte Heritage Park in Aloguinsan has, as usual, met high "gustatory expectations." (FREEMAN)