Conclusion
AT ANOTHER table sat Mariquita Yeung, a friend who insisted that since we were flying by helicopter to the heritage town of Carcar, why not proceed to Boljoon (pronounced bol-hó-on) just a few towns away to see probably the most magnificent Spanish colonial church in Cebu province?
Without waiting for our answer, she immediately phoned to tell the mayor to expect us.
What I like most about Cebu is that it is a place where serendipity always happens, and here it was turning up again. We were on a serendipity roll.
The weather unexpectedly cleared. Immediately we took off from a large vacant lot in two helicopters following each other in a low circle over the city, past urban street patterns that a\were surprisingly orderly when seen from above.
We saw monumental buildings marking important plazas and broad avenues, and everywhere was the cityscape of rusted roofs densely crammed into a narrow area of flat land between the congested coastline and the mountain range behind the city.
We flew southward, away from the city and above the heavily populated coastline for half an hour, until we landed behind a Carcar steel factory amid a large gathering of people encircling the makeshift helipad etched on a muddy grass field.
Our dropping in was the town event of the week. So many Carcaranons came, holding up umbrellas or banana leaves over their heads to shelter themselves from the drizzle.
Natural ventilation
We visited two heritage houses in Carcar. The difference between Casa Gorordo Museum and the Carcar houses dating from the same mid-19th-century era is that these are no museums. The owners still live in them.
In the Castro and Alfafara homes, the wide hardwood floor planks are polished to mirror-perfection. Pieces of antique furniture are still used by the family, including four poster beds in the rooms. Modern appliances have brought old kitchens up to date.
Our visitors marveled at the natural ventilation cooling the homes; the beauty of the tropical hardwood unlike any wood found in France; the simplicity of traditional joinery; and the East-West architecture fusing Cebuano, Chinese, Spanish and, much later, American colonial influences.
Equally revealing to the visitors were the constant efforts of the determined homeowners to maintain their houses in top condition despite hardships and so many factors outside their control, like flooding due to increased street levels brought on by repaving, which has blocked all existing natural drainage.
And, of course, the ravages of time and pollution eating up old plastered walls.
Emerald green
We took off for Boljoon in a slight mist that diffused the light, softly illuminating the rolling, coastal agricultural fields. The brilliant emerald green reminded me of subtle Batanes landscapes, or farther afield, the serenely beautiful Irish countryside.
Gone for the moment was the usual bright tropical sunlight. Never had I seen Cebu like this, its verdant landscape sparkling in the afternoon drizzle.
We flew over the magnificent string of fortress-churches of southern Cebu, each appearing at regular intervals along the coastline, a reminder that Cebu (and much of the Philippines) was a coastal society where travel was by boat.
Each church, its back to the mountains, squarely faced the sea. From each tower sentries once signaled impending attacks by ringing bells that called townspeople to take immediate refuge inside the church. Boljoon church is an example of this architecture.
The mayor hastily set up a helipad in the churchyard on the Boljoon shoreline where we landed, one after the other, in full view of what appeared to be the majority of the mayor’s constituents standing at the edge of the yard.
Magnificent Boljoon church, its richly carved altars and painted ceilings intact, ecclesiastical art all in place, is the focus of preservation efforts by provincial and national authorities, local clergy and townspeople – a rare example of true community heritage effort.
In true Filipino hospitality, merienda was offered. We hastily took it, because the clouds were coming in once again and the pilots insisted on flying out while we could, before bad weather grounded us. We got out just in time.
