by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #newmedia specialist
:for #microadventurism
Caption: Archaeologists gathered hundreds of these secondary burial jars from Pinol Cave of Maitum town in Sarangani Province in 1991 bearing calibrated radio carbon dates from 5 BC to AD 225 and from AD 70 to 370. Dr Eusebio Dizon of the National Museum described them in his book “Faces from Maitum.” Pottery shards were discovered in a cave believed to be a ritual site. They appear to have been created during the Late New Stone Period from at least 3000 years ago. POSTCARD care of ELEANOR CONSTANTINO SAGUIGUIT
SARANGANI, PHILIPPINES — Sarangani’s mountainscape in the southermost tip of mainland Mindanao launched me into an imaginary flight. I thought I saw myself flying wingtip to wingtip with a black hawk soaring on a bright November 20 morning. At 750 feet above sea level I was combing with my bent fingers the summit of Mount Matutum from Kalon-Barak, a B’laan village nestled atop one of southern Mindanao’s verdant mountain ranges.
“Maybe not today, but someday, someway,” I consoled myself at the thought that it would be impossible to climb Matutum because of time constraint.
In the first place I hauled myself in Alabel, the provincial capital of Sarangani, for the Munah To. Coined from B’laan words to mean “first people,” it is Sarangani’s festive way of celebrating decades of governance.
The week-long Munah To Festival is positioned to nurture Sarangani’s rich people resources – a mixed population of Cebuano-speaking B’laans and Muslims in the east coast; Ilocano-speaking Tbolis, Manobos, and Muslims in the west coast; and Ilonggo-speaking B’laans and Kaolos in the north uplands.
Sarangani’s “first people” were portraits done in clay on secondary burial jars discovered inside Pinol Cave in the municipality of Maitum, sometime in 1991. The findings were considered by one Dr. Eusebio Dizon, head of the Underwater Archaeology Section of the National Museum and director of Archeological Studies Program – University of the Philippines, as an “exceptional archaeological assemblage unparalleled in Southeast Asia.”
Some of these anthropomorphic jars depicted thin faces with pointed chins and puckered mouths associated with the aged. Pot shards showed semblances to those unearthed in Bukit Tengkorak, Sabah with dates placed from at least 3000 years ago.
From Kalon-Barak Skyline, I burst into the “overused” wows and found every detail of the mountainscape gorgeous, majestic. It just is a pain to remember that the peace for now here is waiting to be shattered by some morons, extremist dickheads.
Kalon-Barak are B’laan words to mean “cogon grass” and “jackfruit.” It is the last frontier of B’laan indigenous knowledge, systems and practices.
The road to Sarangani, Mindanao’s real source of tuna, took me scanning a note on travel. It was Saint Augustine, an early Church father, who said that the failure to travel can be likened to reading only a page of a very good book. Pretty sure Augustine had his time too spent in seeing the world by frequently skipping and dotting isles to isles, studying contours of land, recording in memory the color of the soil, and the smile of the people when in the most interesting destination.
Sarangani is named after Sarangani Bay whose name, itself, is legendary. It is about Saranganing, an adventurous son of a Sangil family from the coast of Celebes, off Indonesia. His voyages often brought him to the Sultanate of Buayan (now General Santos City), the stronghold of the Maguindanaoans. His outstanding character impressed the people that they named the bay in his honor.
Sarangani is cut midway by GenSan giving it two sections hammock-like shapes that hug the mountains and the Sarangani Bay facing the Celebes Sea. It comprises the towns of Glan, Malapatan, Malungon, Maasim, Kiamba, Maitum, and the capital of Alabel. It has 140 barangays with vast beachfronts, rolling hills, and fertile plains offering diverse opportunities for economic growth and development spurred by a landmark legislation – RA 7228 elevating its status from the former third district of South Cotabato to the country’s 76th province.
With at least 26 percent of its total land area placed at 4,100.42 square kilometers on a typhoon-free belt, suitable for agriculture and with Sarangani Bay’s fishing ground rich with tuna catch, farming and fishing are the main sources of livelihood in the area.
One should not confuse it though with Sarangani Island which is in the south of Davao del Sur.
SoCSKSarGen (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City)
Sarangani lies at this one of the country’s fastest growing development clusters. This young province’s tourism potential is strengthened by the discoveries of human faces and figures on earthenware medium in Maitum and by the reported sightings of the mal (B’laan for tarsier in the Nanema Watershed in Malungon.
“Munah To is a people-centered festival based on a very interesting archaeological find. The Munah To is historically significant to the Sarangans who have been in thirst for ages to understand their cultural roots, connect with a colorful past, and honor a heritage of excellent craftsmanship,” Tourism officer Larry E. Asparin shared.
Meanwhile, the Munah To fest featured another first – the Aquaculture Expo headed by Eleanor Constantino Saguiguit, chairman of the Provincial Tourism Council.
Product exhibit showcased live, fresh and processed aqua-fishery products like tuna and smoked milkfish – for export items. And those ancillary to aquaculture.
The culinary arts fest displayed innovation in preparation and presentation of fish species available in the province like pompano, milkfish and sergeant fish. Sidelight to the event was the fruits and vegetables carving competition.
“The festival (every November 23) is Sarangani’s way of promoting its diverse culture and its productive economic enterprise and activities that are supportive of the growth plan requirement for the agri-industrialization of southern Mindanao, achievable only through participative governance and cohesive citizenry, and with the full support of groups and institutions that are advocates of peace and sustainable development,” Saguiguit said.###
TRAVELEANORISM 