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Bohol's Environmental and Cultural Splendor http://www.boholprovince.com/articles.php?article_id=56

James P. Ong IF YOU are in Bohol and thinking brown, forget Chocolate Hills. Instead, why don't you hop to Panglao Island, a 30-minute drive from the capital Tagbilaran. There you will see people whose skins have turned chocolate brown from hours under the sun. And who can blame them? The island is a veritable paradise -- beaches that boast of clean and fine white sand, and the clearest and bluest waters. Not many know the secret that is Bohol's beaches. Panglao, for instance, is popular mainly among divers who use it as a base for when they go to nearby Balicasag Island, said to be second best only to Tubbataha Reefs located in Sulu Sea, which in turn is only accessible from February to June because of violent sea conditions. There are several beaches in Bohol and not all of them are developed. One of the more popular ones, Alona Beach, didn't even get a name until the 1970s, when the sexy actress Alona Alegre was shooting a movie there and showed off the first ever bikini suit worn in the province! It was also in Panglao that Cesar Montano, whose parents hail from Bohol, shot the movie "Muro Ami." Recently, there was VJ and model Bianca Araneta, spokesperson for Nestea's "Love The Beach" campaign, which started September last year and entails going to different beach destinations to do underwater and coastal clean-ups. In Bohol, the clean-ups were held in Alona Beach in Panglao Island and Cainggit Beach in Tagbilaran. Today, Alona Beach has over 20 resorts and about half that many dive shops, and it is popular mainly among Europeans. "We also get some Japanese visitors, but they find the nightlife here too tame," says Jerry Lim, owner of Crystal Coast, one of the bigger resorts there. There are about four decent bars, and they stay open as long

as there are customers nursing their San Miguels and picking on grilled fresh seafood. The food here is priced mid-range, with breakfast averaging 120 pesos and regular meals for about the same price, if not slightly cheaper. There aren't many restaurants to choose from, unlike in Boracay where there are, at least, near-authentic Indian and French places. One of the better places to eat and drink is Oops! Bar, which is owned by Filipino, Swiss and English partners. Safety Stop, a tribute to divers, serves mostly German sausages and has a pool table. Alona Tropical serves excellent fresh fruit juices and the elusive brewed coffee. Crystal Cove has the best view, since the resort itself is perched on top of a hill. From the open-air restaurant, one can enjoy the view of the beach, Bohol Sea, and nearby Siquijor. All these restaurants serve kitong, a delicious local fish. In Alona, unlike in the other beaches in Panglao Island, you can find both cheap and expensive accommodations. Crystal Cove has over 40 air-conditioned rooms in a newly built building and charges about 1,500 pesos a night. Alona Tropical's air-conditioned bahay kubos start at 800 pesos. The cheaper cottages can be found away from the beachfront and can be as cheap as 200 pesos a day, with no air-conditioning. There's no reason to be fussy about where you are staying, since you will be spending most of your time in the beach anyway. There you can get an hour's massage for 200 pesos. Amazingly, there are also shops where you can check your e-mail.

Although you are going to Panglao to escape from the city, there may come a time when you would want to escape from the beach's quiet. There are mini-buses that go to Tagbilaran from Alona every hour on the hour, from six in the morning until four in the afternoon. If you are in a hurry or miss the bus, you can hire a motorcycle for a minimum fee. There isn't much to do in the capital but enjoy looking at their big tricycles, painted with biblical quotations, and walk through the clean and orderly streets under the sweltering heat. Definitely worth a visit is the home and studio of painter Nene Borja-Lungay, who graduated from UP Fine Arts Class of 1953 with the late Jose Joya and National Artist Napoleon "Billy" Abueva, also a fellow Boholano. Painting became Lungay's second priority after she got married right after university. Today she still lives in the same house where she raised her nine children, near the river-end of H. Grupo Street. A small section of the house has become her studio and, on the week we visited, she was busy preparing for an exhibit of old and new works in UP's Vargas Museum. She has been asked several times to exhibit there, but because she is busy with her family and still needs to contact collectors to borrow some of her old works, it's been postponed several times. If and when it is mounted, it will consist of around 40 pieces and be her first exhibit in Manila after graduating almost half a century ago. Lungay is an indomitable lady who has also been holding summer art workshops for ages 5 and up in Bohol for 17 years now, and is called "Nana" by her students and grandchildren. On the day we visited, she showed us works in watercolor, part of her kinampay, or purple yam, series. Kinampay, she says, is associated with the faith of the Boholanos -- it is also one of the province's best-known delicacies.

It is also said in Bohol, according to Lungay, that if a child trips on the ground, you scold it. But if you accidentally drop kinampay on the floor, you have to pick it up and kiss it. From Tagbilaran, you can also ride buses or jeepneys to visit other Bohol towns. Some seven kilometers from the capital is Baclayon Church, one of the country's oldest, and built by the Jesuits in 1727. It has a museum that houses a rich collection of religious memorabilia -- from old musical notes to vestments to santos. The renovation of Baclayon Church has been put on hold following funding problems that worsened after the transfer to the current Arroyo administration. The story is complicated, but Fr. Milan Ted Torralba, one of Bohol's most ardent advocates of historical and cultural preservation, is hopeful the project will soon resume. There are 15 heritage churches in Bohol and it is no wonder these churches' collections of santos are being stolen every other week and find new homes in antique shops in Manila or private collectors in exclusive subdivisions. A city council officer we talked to was careful to say that the thieves are not from Bohol but from a nearby province. Torralba himself says he knows who the people are, or at least knows where the santos end up in. There have been many instances when the diocese has had to buy back these priceless religious figures from antique shops, he says. But Torralba also remembers one instance when a well-known collector gave him back a santo, which he bought for 250,000 pesos, after learning that it was recently stolen. A bit further from Tagbilaran is the old stone church of Loboc, which was awarded 2 million pesos by the National Historical Institute. The first step undertaken has been the repair of its old pipe organ, now being fixed in Las Pinas. There is also an interesting museum right in

the church grounds. Bohol's many churches are also the focus of UP professor Ricky Trota Jose's newest book, Visita Iglesia Bohol, which will be launched during the Bohol Travel Mart in SM Megamall at the last week of November. Organizers of the travel fair say the main focus will be Panglao Island, but don't let that stop you from scheduling a road trip to the rest of Bohol, one of the most unexplored and underrated places in the country.