MANILA, Philippines - Wandering through the length and breadth of the Philippines, we had thought Batanes in the north, and Laminosa, Sulu in the south are the farthest we have reached. Yet, distant as these islands are, we found them relatively more accessible than Bantayan Island at the tip of the northeastern coast of Cebu. And that is its singular attraction?its remoteness and therefore air of mystery.

That is also what saves the island from being gobbled up just yet by real estate developers who know a good thing or two when they see one.

It will take almost three quarters of a day to get to Bantayan, by plane to Cebu from Manila, by bus for three hours to the Hagnaya port at the tip of the island, by ferry boat to Sta. Fe town an hour away, by tricycle to the various beachfront resorts all over town. We reach Kota Beach Resort, owned by the Hubahib family, thinking that the only rides missing are a gallop on a horse and a slow plod on top of a carabao.

Bantayan Island was so named from the time the Moros were actively pillaging the Visayas in the mid-1600s. To protect themselves, the residents built massive stone walls and thick watchtowers throughout the island, locally known as Bantayan sa Hari, meaning Watchtowers of the King.

Bantayan is one of the 15 islands clustered off the northern point of Cebu island on the Visayan Sea, which also includes the similarly acclaimed Malapascua. It has three municipalities: Bantayan, seat of commerce and history in the 428 year-old St. Peter and Paul Church; Sta. Fe, site of the island?s most beautiful white beaches; and Madridejos to the very north of the island.

We visit the imposing church in Bantayan town, known as the first parish in the Visayas and Mindanao put up in 1580 by Augustinian missionaries. Throughout the Spanish rule, the church became a refuge of the villagers, not only from the Moros but pirates as well. The present edifice was completed in 1863 after 24 years of rebuilding, and is possibly the only Catholic church in the country today with three meter-thick cement walls and images of saints carved in coral stone.

Fishing is the main industry of Bantayan, although the town is also known as the egg basket of the Visayas, with 1.4 million chickens producing a million eggs a day.

But what makes this island unusual is the fact that it is probably the only place in the Philippines where people eat meat on Good Friday without feeling guilty about it. A long time ago, a special Church dispensation was granted to Bantayan, allowing its inhabitants to consume meat during Holy Week since fishing would come to a halt in observance of the Lenten ban on hard labor.

Holy Week is fiesta time in Bantayan. Inhabitants of neighboring islands participate in the Holy Thursday and Good Friday processions of more than 30 huge and richly decorated caros with life-sized statues representing the Stations of the Cross. Majority of the caros are family-owned, although some belong to the Church.

?It?s very touching to watch hundreds of people with their children dressed as angels or saints, bearing candles and forming a carpet of soldiers armed with prayers and storming the heavens. You can literally feel the collective aura of spirituality,? reports Malen Yap Gardner, who spent her childhood at Sta. Fe, recalling how they could stretch their P20 allowance to last the entire summer. The amount, she said, covered transportation, food, and beach rental.

The cost of the caros varies?a great number of the statues are hand-carved by the local sculptor, Mang Binoy and his son; some have faces and other body parts of ivory purportedly from Spain; others are dressed with fresh or paper flowers and trimmings such as candles and lights.

Malen says their family caro has maintained the practice of using paper flowers that are later used as anting-anting (good luck charms) which fishers attach to their boats to bring in a better catch.

Holy Week in Bantayan also means the start of good business. Like other resort islands around the country, visitors during the Lenten Season and summer stir up enough business to sustain the Bantayan folk the rest of the year when they go back to their normal pace of life. Beer consumption during Holy Week in Bantayan, according to a beer distributor, approximates the amount normally consumed in Cebu City in a month.

Despite its remote location, visitors to Bantayan will happily discover that the island plays host to numerous resorts, from the most basic to five-star accommodations. Among them are the five-star Alegre Beach Resort, the Maia Beach resort at Basawon, Sulangan, run by a German and his Boholana wife, the Kota Beach Resort with its home cooked meals and general ambiance of a provincial beach retreat, the upscale Hoyohoy Villas (from Hayahay meaning airy in Cebuano) with its first class amenities and chef imported from the Cebu Plaza, and the Yooneek Beach Resort run by Japanese-American Juan Yagui and his wife Bernie.

What makes Bantayan? specifically Sta.Fe town?most interesting is its cosmopolitan air mixed with traditional customs and culture few can find in the world today. It?s probably how Boracay was, 30 years ago.

Bernie of Yooneek Beach Resort describes it so well: ?It's a tropical paradise with its laid-back lifestyle. People are so friendly. Practically everybody knows everybody. The crime rate is zero. You?re safe even if you walk home alone to your resort at midnight.?

Her husband Juan, who is among the hundred or so foreigners who have made Bantayan their home, has integrated himself completely into the community, joining medical missions for cataract operations and starting a yearly gift-giving tradition for kids at his resort.

But what does the future hold for this ?piece of heaven created by God on a good day? as Malen terms it? Like many others who pray for progress but fear what it will bring, one hopes that the Bantayan folk will live up to their forebears? militancy and guard the island against the kind of progress wreaked on other devastated Edens.

For more information on Bantayan, please contact Kota Beach office (032) 4389042; Bernie of Yooneek at fax (6332) 4389050, email yooneekbeach@yahoo.com; or Anthony of the Sta. Fe Tourist office, mobile 0922-2499906, email noiduarte@hotmail.com/ noyduarte@yahoo.com