Kuwentong Peyups
Atty, Dennis Gorecho
The mysticism of Mount Banahaw
Before its closure in 2004, Mount Banahaw used to be a significant destination for religious pilgrims and those seeking spiritual experience, healing and miracles, particularly during the Lenten season.
For two decades, Banahaw’s peaks had been classified as “strict protection zones” that remained off-limits to pilgrims and trekkers to revive its natural resources.
Banahaw is known as the mystic mountain that straddles the municipalities of Lucban, Tayabas, Sariaya, Candelaria and Dolores in Quezon province and parts of Rizal, Nagcarlan, Liliw and Majayjay towns and San Pablo City in Laguna province.
Declared a national park in 1921, Mounts Banahaw and San Cristobal cover an area of 11,133 hectares of moderate to steep terrain. The Quezon side is noted for its unique rock formation, mystical cave and medical springs.
It has three towering peaks-Banahaw de Lucban, 1,875 meters above sea level; Mt. Banahaw, 2,158 meters above sea level, and Mount San Cristobal, 1,470 meters above sea level.
There are basically four categories of people who frequently visit Banahaw.
First, the religious or sects who consider the mountain as sacred.
Second, those who scale the slopes of Banahaw as a healing center and as part of their sacrifice in exchange for blessings or “miracles” that they are seeking, including the cure for those suffering from sickness.
Third, visitors who are in search of anting-anting, psychic or paranormal experiences due to its reputation of high concentration of energies, and a mystical vortex.
Lastly, mountaineers or outdoor groups wanting to breathe fresh air from one of Southern Luzon’s largest forests.
For the religious sects that believe that the mountain is the “New Jerusalem”, the holy parts of the mountain are called puestos in Dolores and Sariaya and erehiya in Tayabas. The puestos normally represent the elements: earth, water, air and fire.
With hymns and rituals, wearing ceremonial garb, they periodically sweep the templo, dredge the sacred pool, repair the footpaths for the pilgrims, trim the grass and the branches of the trees, and burn the refuse left in the sacred groves by tourists.
At the time I last hiked Banahaw in 1999, the jump-off point was Santa Lucia toward Kinabuhayan town. The wide and well-trodden trail leads to Kristalino Falls, a 30-meter waterfall surrounded by vine-covered trees, ferns, palms and bamboos. Just one-and-a-half hours away is a second waterfall whose surrounding area is ideal for a campsite.
One of the most difficult portions of the trail is a vertical wall leading to a very narrow ridge over a minute waterfall known as Salamin Bubog. This climaxes in a treacherous slippery stretch over huge boulders leading to a cavernous formation with a 30-meter-high entrance known as the Kuweba ng Diyos Ama.
On the way to the summit are landmarks like Pinoy Lihim, huge moss-covered boulders marking two divergent paths, and rows of trees with twisted trunks almost hugging the ground on bended knees. These trees are commonly known as Niluhuran.
The first peak is Santong Durungawan, which overlooks a clear, blue open sky. The crater of the volcano is shaped like a winding canyon with walls soaring as high as 915 meters; its floor is between 27 and 46 meters wide. Thick forest carpets most of the interior but some portions exhibit marked scars of past avalanches. From Durungawan, the descending group will pass through Tatlong Tangke, which used to refer to a series of waterfalls, and again to a gully and a kaingin trail. Crossing over rocky trail will lead to the backyard of the town of Kinabuhayan
In 2009, the Banahaw and San Cristobal were declared protected landscape under R.A. 9847 for being major watersheds in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon, aside from their educational, aesthetic, biodiversity, and cultural and religious importance. Portions were later closed as part of the conservation of biodiversity and the integrity of the ecosystems.
I first wrote an article on Mount Banahaw in relation to my journey in taking the 1998 bar exams.
Before I begun my review, I went there to ask divine guidance and I carried ballpens to the peaks which I later used for the exams. Even the jacket that I wore during the exam period was the very same jacket that I had during the trek,
Then I went back in January 1999 before the release of the results , when it was a blue moon, to again ask for divine intervention. Hiking for almost three days was not an easy matter, but the fatigue and stress did not matter when one was seeking her blessings.
I was among the lucky 1,465 examinees who passed the 1998 bar exams held in DLSU, or 39.63 percent out of the 3,697 examinees with three batchmates from the University of the Philippines College of Law landing in the top 10.
(Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho is the junior partner who heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908866578).
