Cris Evert Lato-Ruffolo
This year, I made a promise to myself to climb at least one mountain in Cebu every month. I am a “rebel returnee” of the outdoors. I parked my hiking shoes 10 years ago to give way to crazy Saturdays of outreach activities and lazy Sundays of binge-watching TV series.
Except for annual tree planting activities that I participated in every year, I have given up my tent and my shoes to city life, books, movies, and plays.
But the outdoors called me back last December.
Over the last eight years, I have been writing and sharing about how beautiful my hometown is and how wonderful of an experience it would be for a resident of Cebu to visit the Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL) which covers 29,062 hectares of forest reserves and watersheds.
The CCPL covers the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Toledo and Danao, and the municipalities of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Balamban.
It is important to Cebuanos and those who live in Cebu because it is our source of water and the home of endemic species of plants and animals that you will never see anywhere else in the world. In several occasions, wildlife biologist Lisa Panguntalan and ornithologist Godfrey Jakosalem of the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Inc. emphasized how amazing Cebu’s biodiversity is despite our little forest cover. The Cebu cinnamon tree, locally known as kaningag, can only be found in Cebu.
The same is true with the the Cebu hawk-owl or Cebu boobook (Ninox rumseyi) , the Cebu flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor) and the Black Shama (Kittacincla cebuensis). There could be more of these plants and animals that scientists have not discovered and defined.
Under the CCPL, there are five major watersheds. These are the Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve, the Mananga Watershed and Forest Reserve, the Sudlon National Park, the Central Cebu National Park and the Kotkot-Lusaran Watershed and Forest Reserve.
My late friend, Malu Largo, who worked with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and the Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water (CUSW) was a major influential figure in my curiosity about the CCPL. Although I was not under the environment focus area of PBSP back in 2010 to 2013, I would go with her and our colleagues — Jessie Cubijano, Iyay Bunao and Juan Yao — to the Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve (BWFR) to explore ways on how we can help people better understand the importance of the Buhisan Dam so they will conserve water especially during the summer months of March to May, where water is scarce and limited.
We usually hiked the area leading to the Buhisan Dam and Iyay would often remind us to give an alkabala or buhis to nature because we are essentially invaders of nature, and thus, we should give something as payment, sort of an excise tax, for the disturbance we caused.
The Buhisan Dam turned 100 years old in 2012 along with the Fuente Osmena Circle. The two has a twin history given that the circle is a waterworks project that was inaugurated in 1912 while the Buhisan Dam started operating on February 13, 1912. The dam, specifically its 60-hectare pond area is the only surface water source tapped by Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD).
News reports about the dam quoted MCWD saying that the dam produces 5,000 to 6,000 cubic meters of water per day but with the invading dry spell, the water supply is only at 2,000 to 3,000 cubic meters per day.
Back in 2012, I remember being told that it produces between 5,000 to 10,000 cubic meters and provides 5 percent of the MCWD water supply.
There is a so-called “Spartan Trail” that usually starts in Banawa and ends in the areas of Barangays Buhisan and Pamutan. In this trail, the Buhisan Dam is a worthy stopover. The Spartan Trail is considered one of the hardest trails, especially for newbie hikers and rebel-returnee outdoor enthusiasts like myself. Nevertheless, it gives hikers and trekkers a refreshing side of Cebu City, away from the crazy traffic and noisy politics.
I am hoping to take on this trail again next month after the fun climb of Mount Manunggal last March 17, 2019, in time for the 62nd death anniversary commemoration of former President Ramon Magsaysay, who passed away in a tragic plane crash in Balamban, Cebu.
It is purely coincidental but I find it worthy to write here that both the Central Cebu Protected Landscape and the Cebu City Public Library — two Cebu “destinations” that I love most — share the same acronym: CCPL.
One is an outdoor site; the other, an indoor experience. Both requires ditching gadgets and scaling certain heights which require mental and physical stamina.
Cebuanos are blessed and endowed with natural and man-made resources that are ours for the taking. In the case of the great outdoors, most of these trails are safe and friendly. With proper planning and preparations, you can even take your children out for a day hike or an overnight camping experience.
But always remember to leave no trace. Minimize your human impact by bringing down what you brought up. Please avoid carving your names on the trees and rocks; we are not interested about who you love and where you came from especially when you hurt nature in the process. Practice outdoor ethics by not vandalizing and littering our forests, mountains and watersheds.