A homage to heritage

In bohol’s white sand beaches, the chaos of the election season and the cares of a weary world are totally absent. The shoreline, picture-perfect and pristine, extends as far as the eye can see, minus the rowdy crowd of vacationers and drunken tourists cavorting in the open sea.

It is said that in Bohol, there is "night" but no "life." Even in the province’s premier hotel resort in Panglao Island, only the mild rhythm of the waves disturbs the peace of a warm Maytime evening.

This absence of a night life could mean a lackluster holiday for visitors marooned in a cottage with only the stars and the sea for company. But that is precisely the point of a vacation in Bohol: one goes to Bohol for peace and quiet and for that rare experience of genuine Filipino culture and heritage that is getting rarer by the day.

It is no surprise that Bohol was chosen as the site for the kick-off activities of this year’s National Heritage Month, a tribute to a low-key province that has successfully guarded itself from the onslaught of commercialism and the raucous influences of foreign culture.

World famous for its Chocolate Hills, there is actually more to Bohol than these cone-shaped hills that have become the province’s tourism trademark. In choosing Bohol to host the opening rituals of the National Heritage Month celebration, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (ncca) has focused the spotlight on a place that traces a deep historical and cultural legacy.

For one, the province has retained the charms of the Philippines’ hispanic past, with centuries-old churches and a very active Catholic faith that is still the center of the people’s social life. From the capital, Tagbilaran City, it is only a few minutes to the neighboring towns of Baclayon, Alburquerque, Loay and Loboc, all of which boast of well-preserved ancient limestone churches two centuries old.

The opening salvo of the Heritage Month itself–a unesco World Heritage Sites exhibit featuring photographs of the 26 churches in the Phlippines that have been identified as national cultural treasures–was held at the museum of the Baclayon church.

About 15 minutes from Baclayon is the town of Loay, which boasts of another Catholic church that was built in 1822. Last year, the national government gave the Church of Santissima Trinidad official recognition as a historical treasure, deser-ving the protection of the state. This church’s priest, one Padre Leon Inchausti who served from 1936 to 1939, was martyred in the civil war in Spain and was canonized a saint in 1999.

In unveiling the historical marker at the entrance of the church last April 30, Ambeth Ocampo, a renowned historian and the current chairman of the National Historical Institute (nhi), extolled the value of old churches like the Santissma Trinidad "as places of remem-brances and memories that will hopefully be included in the national narrative".

The neighboring town of Loboc, considered the musical capital of Bohol, has its own centuries old church too–the St. Peter the Apostle Parish Church, which has become famous not only for its historical importance but for its role in recent events.

In the 1970s, a bridge was built across the Loboc river that had the church right in its path. Enraged, the townsfolk protested the bridge’s construction, whose permit, they said, did not come from the local government but directly from the national government in Manila. As government projects go, construction of the bridge continued until it was just a stone’s throw away from the church’s three-story convent and bell tower before the project was stopped.

Both the unfinished bridge and the church stand today, eyeball to eyeball, a symbol of a people’s struggle between preserving their heritage and the onslaught of progress.

The historic church and the controversial bridge both hosted the opening ceremonies of the Heritage Month Festival. At the church, a musical concert was held featuring the town’s pride–the internationally acclaimed Loboc Children’s Choir, which won two awards (in the age category and as overall champion) in the 6th International Folksong Choir Festival held in Barcelona, Spain last September. Founded in the early 1980’s by Alma Fernando-Taldo, a music teacher at the Loboc Central Elementary School, the Loboc Children’s Choir was a three-time winner in the children’s category of the National Music Competition for Young Artists (namcya).

From the bell tower of the Loboc church, the angelic voices of the children entertained the town’s dignitaries, guests from Manila as well foreign visitors gracing the opening of the National Heritage Month, which coincided with the Tagbilaran fiesta.

The town’s musical talent was on full display that evening. Aside from the children’s choir, the Loboc Brass Band, Dimyao Rondalla, the Holy Spirit School Choir, Musica Entrino, Loboc Revival Orchestra, and the Trouvers Choir all rendered musical numbers both in the festival’s opening program and the evening concert that followed at the town plaza.

To cap the musical event, nationally-acclaimed organist Eric Dimson, a professor at the UST College of Music and a Boholano by heritage, was invited to perform in the Loay and Loboc churches.

The townsfolk relate that it was the Spanish friars who were responsible for the musical tradition in Loboc. "Music was one of the pillars of the education of seminarians during the Spanish era and the rigid music training was (carried on) to the townspeople eventually," relates Grace, a local tourist guide. "From there, Loboc was able to develop a long-lasting tradition of musicality."

But music is not just in Loboc. In the celebration of the town fiesta in Tagbilaran the following day (May 1), the Diocesan Cathedral of St. Joseph held a high-noon Misa Baclayanon. The two-hour 19th century Boholano mass, celebrated by Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak, featured a 100-member choir and was said in three languages–Latin, Boholano and Filipino.

Heady though the cultural offerings were, it is a shame not to play tourist when one is in Bohol. On ordinary days, a tourist can take the Loboc River cruise, a 45-minute ride aboard a local boat to several sites along the river, including the Blood Compact Site, Baclayon Church and the Chocolate Hills.

For the opening of the National Heritage Month, guests rode in fully decorated motorized bancas, and with the Loboc Brass Band providing musical background, were treated to a community theater presentation along the river banks.

As the boats sailed down the Loboc River, a local historian, Marianito Jose Luspo, head of the Office of Cultural Affairs and Development, related the history of Bohol. In the course of the one-hour trip, the boats stopped several times in clearings along the river, which functioned as the stage for short dramatizations of Boholano history.

The first stop featured local actors re-enacting the barter scene in Bohol before the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in 1596. The second stop featured the warriors of Loboc in 1602. The third stop was a skit of a 16th century scene wherein the Jesuit Provincial superior is visiting Loboc town. Other stops included the re-enactments of the death of a local seminarian, Miguel Ayatumo, in 1609; the cholera epidemic in 1842; and a bathing ritual highlighting Loboc’s belief in the diwata.

The Boholano Heritage Weekend, dubbed Saulog sa Atong Kapanalundana (Homage to Heritage), is a laudable effort of the local government, the ncca and the nhi at cultural main-streaming, a valuable effort at reversing our apathy and disinterest in our own culture, and a pointed reminder that we are erasing our own heritage from the national consciousness. Thankfully, Filipino culture is alive and thriving in places like Bohol, for all of us to feed and nurture our spirits.