In Surigao

My recent visit in Surigao reminds me that I came from there. Actually I was born in Surigao City. But, I have never been in a place so long enough for me to say that I really was from there. When I was six, we moved to Bohol.

In a small fishing and farming village between a laterite mine in a mountain range and the sea in the town of Claver, is where my mother grew up and married. When the marriage failed she came back to this place to recuperate from pain and of course to bounce back from the blow.




The place was not the way she remembered it many years back. And it was not what I remembered when I lived there for a while. Back then, early in the morning when the tide was up, children would race to the sea and learn the basic of swimming in the then very clear sea water. Now, when the mine was opened up in the mountain, orange soil flowed down the river towards the sea. The once clear sea water at least the shallow part near the community became orangey and sea shells no longer thrive.

However, despite of that, what I always love that never changed and still remains--boating, still existed. Men in the village have been fishing ever since and will always be. There are small boats lining up the seashore. There was one very big boat for big time fishing.

I would ask someone to row the boat for me as I enjoy the scenery, the orange sea at the shallow part and the blue sea at the deeper part; the sunset and the sunshine; and the waves of course. Although our place has no big waves like that in Siargao, but one can enjoy the serenity of the sea. There are times when you think you can walk on the water because there are times the sea will become still that no waves disturb its surface and the reflection was that of a mirror.



Across the place where my lola's house is, is an island. It was called Carambanwa or Karaang Banwa. From afar, it looks like the upper half of a circle. It is an hour ride in a row boat and 15 minutes by motor boat. It has now become a sanctuary by the local government. The main purpose is to save the different family of fish and seashells as well as sea weeds. According to Tiyo Tikong a.k.a Teke Boy, who was a relative and manning the sanctuary, the island will be cordoned with white big floating balls about 50 meters around the island. Nobody is allowed to fish within the cordoned area. And it is expected that at the end of two years, fish of different kind and colors along with seaweeds and shells will thrive in abundance.



Sadly, if and when the mining up in the mountain will continue and there were already rumors that before the year ends, it will start again, the sea will be filled with laterite. And I am afraid that the next generation of kids will not be able to enjoy swimming near their houses thus, hampering many of them from learning swimming at an early age.

It was a good move for the local government to protect one island and turn it into a sanctuary for diminishing fishes and corals due to dynamite fishing.



Surigao is a beautiful place abundant with beautiful mineral filled mountains, wide deep blue seas, and beautiful islands. Even in the small fishing and farming village where I came from, I can say God is generous in giving us a beautiful little place.