Sagada revisited

It’s been 42 years since I first visited Sagada in the Mt. Province. Memories of that first visit came alive last week, when my sister Jocelyn, who had come home for a respite from work in Australia and I decided to see a relative, Nellie Abeya Pit-og, whom I had last seen in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1987.

First of all, about Nellie. She had married my brother, Nell, in Sagada, her hometown. A million things happened since that time, but I found her the same as before — quick, inspired, result-driven, and, starting as a nursing graduate of St. Luke’s Hospital Nursing College of Quezon City in 1967, then living in Virginia, USA, for some 20 years, she returned to Sagada only last month, leaving with her daughter Shelly a thriving homecare business to take care of.

And then, Sagada, one of ten towns in the province of Kalinga. Its history practically begins with the coming of American missionaries who put up St. Mary’s School of Sagada, one of the best high schools in the country, and made the Episcopalian influence felt.

Nearly all the residents here (daytime population, 12,000 in a 9,960 sq. kilometer area) are related. More houses this time, more sari-sari and hardware stores, eating places and inns along narrow streets, and more tourists and strangers. But the weather is cool (on the average, the temperature is from 15 to 23 C, and can go down to 3 C in February; pine trees still abound, and except for buses and the few private automobiles running through town, and with about only one motorized tricycle, air pollution is not a problem. “I hope the town council will never approve public motorcabs,” someone in our group said.

We paid a courtesy call on Mayor Eduardo Latawan, 46, a civil engineering graduate of Baguio Colleges Foundation (now Cordillera University) and owner of a construction firm in Baguio. He said his decision to seek reelection next year depends on “kung ano ang pinag-uusapan ng mga tao.” If informal consultations with the townsfolk show they want him to stay on, then he will run.

Mayor Ed said the town operates on a yearly internal revenue allocation (IRA) of P25 million and P2 million in taxes - clearly not enough to meet the needs for services and infrastructure. He successfully solicited P18 million from allies — the late Congressman Victor Dominguez and successor Rep. Manuel Aquino and Gov. Mariano Dulog. From this amount he put up a concrete structure housing the judiciary and health services, and the present administrative building which was the public market that got burned down, will be rented out for more income for the town.

About 100 tourists come every day, said Jessie, but hordes on holidays, especially during Holy Week. “There are not enough inns to house the visitors, mostly coming from Manila, and foreigners, including backpackers.” Private homes, mostly made of wood and painted Mediterranean colors, are opening their doors to people looking for places to sleep in.

What draws them? Jessie ticked them off: the cave connections (the most famous of which takes four hours to explore), hanging coffins, burial caves, several rice terraces; many falls, springs gushing from everywhere, the Danum lake, hills and dales to trek on, mountain tops from where to view sunrises and sunsets. It’s a foggy town, rains come often, but quickly stop. People sometimes just walk and seek their adventure, some of them camping out in open places. From Sagada, they can take public buses or rent private vehicles to Bontoc, and from there, proceed to Banaue, then Manila.

Sagada’s under-development and small population are on account of there being not enough jobs because there are few investors from the outside, because of the bad, tortuous, winding roads that at some points are precipitously hanging on cliffs. It takes more than 12 hours to reach Sagada, if one started from Manila. Were it not for this tiring travel experience, more people would be traveling to this lovely town.

Wait till the Halsema road connection is finished, said Mayor Ed. This project, one of the highlights of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation address, vastly improves the highways that link Baguio to Mt. Data, Sagada, Bontoc, Kalinga, and Banaue. Already, work on the portions of the highway connection has begun. Hopefully, this will be finished before the presidential election next year.

Mayor Ed said Banaue is a favorite tourist spot for President Arroyo, whose helicopter lands on the strip right below the St. Mary’s School of Sagada — one of the historical institutions in town. (More about SMSS in a future column). “When the President comes, she brings along her immediate family.”

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In Sagada, we stayed at Nellie’s ancestral home, called Abeya-7, so-called because of the seven Abeya children. Still up and about was Mama Flora Galardo Bondad Abeya, 96 years, and quick to recall dates and events in her life. Pictures of the Abeya clan are tacked against walls, among them, those of the patriarch, the late Ricardo Dwagan “Kolot” Abeya, who served as custodian of St. Mary’s Church, and mayor of Sagada during World War II.

We had dinner at the Rock Inn and Café, situated off the beaten track, owned by the Capuyan family under the management of Fely Capuyan, and serving Filipino and continental dishes. . . Souvenir items excellent to take home are the Ilocano woven handbags, placemats and dress materials of the Sagada Weaving store owned by Ezra and Marie Capuyan, whose smart daughter, Jikki, took us around town in her pick-up truck.

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To start our sojourn from Manila to Sagada, we had to make a stop to nurse tired bones. In Baguio, we stayed at Iggy’s Inn and Restaurant on South Drive. It’s owned by Des and Au Bautista, has a cozy, home-like atmosphere, with reasonably-priced rooms. Aside from home-cooked meals, there are organic food products for sale, like salad dressings and teas, made by Au. For inquiries, call (074) 4447146.

On the way back from Sagada, we stopped in Baguio for a few hours for shopping at the Skyworld Mall (ukay-ukay, manang), and had dinner with lawyer Inglay Capuyan, a member like my sister Jocelyn of the Silliman baseball team during the ’70s, and with Juliet Fiagoy, a sister of Nellie Pit-og. (We dined at the Omi Kayam, famous for Mongolian barbecue and fabulous desserts.)

Then we rode back to Manila in a Victory Liner for another six-hour ride. We phoned home for a masseuse. But we loved revisiting Sagada.

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