THE Christmas holiday traffic was horrific, as expected by residents come every long holidays. But this year was extraordinarily bad, and they say something new factored in.
La Presa is a quiet village near the summit of Mount Cabuyao, the second-highest peak seen from Baguio, actually located in Tuba, Benguet, but reached through a Baguio route.
Almost unheard of even by city folk, La Presa became a tourist phenomenon that triggered the curiosity of those enamored by the magic of the world-trending Philippine teleserye Forevermore, aired every evening on ABS-CBN.
La Presa is really Sitio Pungayan, reached via what would normally be a quick ride coming from Marcos Highway.
Tourists started drifting in since the start of the teleserye last October, but came to an intense climax since December 20, when the influx of tourists started clogging Baguio’s roads.
So quiet is life in Mount Cabuyao that only one public jeepney traverses it daily. Homes are few and far between as it has, since time immemorial, been farm gardens.
Forevermore is set in this summit village as a strawberry farm, with its lead character Liza Soberano as Agnes, portrayed as belonging to a group of strawberry farmers, and her screen sweetheart, Enrique Gil, is Xander, a scion of a hotel chain, using the Manor and Forest Lodge as settings. Xander, who by force of circumstances worked on the farm of Agnes, is transformed from a wealthy and bratty kid to one enlightened to the values of hard work and respect for the simple life.
And what has the teleserye done for this remote sitio?
For the first time, the barangay had to request for police assistance to help control traffic.
The Cabuyao Garage Association (CGA), composed of 10 vans stationed below Mount Cabuyao at the Compac police station, where the trek to the summit starts, brought tourists to La Presa nonstop. The long stall of vehicles was seen starting on Marcos Highway, and so has the briskness of business.
William Lachica owns a sari-sari store at Green Valley, also known as Dontogan, just at the junction where the Mount Cabuyao rise starts. He said his sales jumped to so much because passengers, who stalled in front of his store, bought drinks, fruits and food while waiting it out to move another few inches in the bumper-to-bumper traffic congestion.
Beside his store is an ukay-ukay shop, where sometimes the cast had made a few scenes, and this was rented out for P5,000 per four-hour taping, according to owner Norma Simeon.
Other stores also profited from the shoots, including an eatery and a computer shop.
It was December 30 when we trekked up La Presa. It was one day when traffic eased, but still a steady stream of tourists breezed by the uphill road, where Ramon Casionan of CGA would say at the base, “La Presa? Go right up ahead. It’s a 10-minute ride to there.”
Along the road, there is a sign that says “La Presa Café.” Another older Café by the Sky has become a popular stopover. And closer to the site, makeshift stalls selling vegetables and souvenir items were quickly set up and would stay until the shooting of the whole teleserye is over. There were La Presa eateries here and there, and even backyard pay-comfort rooms.
Many Baguio residents have joined the bandwagon, climbing Mount Cabuyao for the first time just to see La Presa. Mount Cabuyao is known for its Calvary journey during Holy Week, when tourists also flock to the city. Bigger-than-life sculptures of the Stations of the Cross mark the path to the summit.
At the Cabuyao Headquarters Radio Relay Station, the landmark twin Doppler radars sit, and this has become a popular sight for residents and tourists alike. They are better known as the giant electric fans or Mickey Mouse ears because of their shape. Past the radar stations is the turn to the trail that leads to this magical hill of La Presa.
La Presa is reached through what feels like a ride or walk through the clouds, as it is heavily misted by drifting clouds, turning the surrounding mountains and peaks into a place of enchantment. Where the view is not obstructed by the fog, the garden terraces show, and from the peak, one can enjoy an eagle’s-eye view of Baguio City on the east side and boats sailing the China Sea on the west. The coastal sunset from here is fantastic, and the city lights at night are mesmerizing, especially to the cast and crew of Forevermore, who do their shoots day and night.
A 15-minute walk to the mystical La Presa, at the turn from the giant radars, was trailed by the obsessive fans of Forevermore from Northern Batanes tip to way down south in Mindanao. They came as families, grandmothers and teen grandkids, trekking it out excitedly, or as sweethearts inspired by the love story, or as friends.
Sixty-year-old Nina Salina from Rizal said this is her second time to watch a Forevermore shoot. She claimed that she goes for Xander, just like her two teenage granddaughters.
A family of 10 from Surigao, where a storm was raging at that time, said come hell or storm, they are out to La Presa. Glen Tiu, head of the family, claimed he told his brood that nobody leaves Baguio until La Presa has been reached. They walked back smiling, saying they had pictures taken with Xander and Agnes and would have something to brag about back home.
The most popular spot to see now is the GI sheet shanty, where Agnes lives. From afar, avid fans would squeal, there is the window, there are the three blue water drums, the familiar constant sight in the teleserye.
A cordon controls the crowd while a shoot goes on and in breaks between takes, Gil and Joey Marquez and the cast are seen waving to fans, and very audibly the name Xander is heard. During a setup, the actors pose with fans for the precious photo souvenirs of their La Presa moments. These are the lucky ones for thousands more came to experience La Presa while the cast was on a Christmas break, happy enough to pose at the Welcome to La Presa signboard for a memento.
While Forevermore popularized La Presa as strawberry gardens, they were hard to find and many said they were just props. The mountain terraces are instead carpeted with the white flowering potato plants.
But there was, indeed, a time when these were strawberry hills. Dominic Domingo, whose family line has been into strawberry planting for generations here, said they used to plant strawberries on the rainfed hills they turned into swidden farms. With so much open space then, the new swiddens were always very fertile. Over the years as the climate got colder, frost destroyed their strawberries and they started making terraces and planting potatoes and vegetables.
Many remember that strawberries from here were considered premium, as they were watered only by the morning dew.
There was a time when the Good Shepherd strawberry jams were taken only from here for they were sure to be clean.
Amusingly, the cast and crew of Forevermore did plant some strawberries here.
“We even harvested some of them,” said Forevermore director Cathy Garcia-Molina, adding that they are small, but a thrill just the same.
What has caught the hearts of this teleserye around the world?
University of the Philippines film professor Ed Cabagnot said it must be the lightness and the wholesomeness of the love story.
It is a relief from all the other teleserye saturating television prime time revolving around themes of infidelities and family troubles.
It has the same timeless magic of Love Story, which starred Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw decades ago, banking on the (forevermore) never-failing formula of rich-boy, poor-girl romance and the travails they overcome.
Love Story became a hit also because it came at a time when films were heavy with themes of mystery murder and science fiction stories, and a love story awakened the fantasy-romance slumbering in every human heart.
And there is the star idolizing complex of Hollywood, just like the Philippine cinema.
Garcia-Molina said their teleserye actually took a risk creating a new love team. The other popular love tandems are now into mature roles, no longer fit to play teen roles like young love and first-love stories.
If anything now shows the success of the new love team of Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano, it would be the 500-meter traffic jams they created just so tourists can get a glimpse of the real life place with the fictional name of La Presa.
“We just had to create a fictional name to make sure we do not offend anybody should there be issues alluded to,” Garcia-Molina said.
Garcia-Molina also said they are just happy about the mini-businesses they kindled. There are brooms now with Forevermore labels. Selling strawberry jams, they say they are made by Agnes, known in the teleserye as making the most delicious strawberry jams. All the way to the Baguio market, strawberries are sold jokingly as all coming from La Presa.
For the cast, the chill is both exciting and quite an adjustment. The temperature up on Mount Cabuyao can go several degrees lower than Baguio City, which dips to as low as 10°C. Garcia-Molina said the character Bunky even fainted once from the chill.
Most important, it has become clear Mount Cabuyao, where La Presa, and now on the map of tourists, is a Tuba, Benguet, jewel, and not, as more popularly known in the past, as a destination within Baguio City. And many more will come should La Presa linger forevermore in the memory of the fans, not just for La Presa, but for the charming scenery and mystical environment that La Presa helped to uncover.
Image credits: Mauricio Victa
