THE last time I was in Oriental Mindoro was back in 2014 and I only covered the northern part of the province from Calapan City to Puerto Galera (the province’s main tourist draw). This time around, joining another media familiarization tour, we were to cover the province’s rarely visited eastern and southern seaboard, from Calapan City all the way down to Bulalacao. A nearly two-hour drive, via van, brought us to Batangas City International Port where we took a one-hour SuperCat ferry to Calapan City Port.
After lunch at Vencio’s Garden Seafood Café (our favorite watering hole for lunch and dinner during our four-day visit to the province), a short 25-minute drive brought us to Naujan where we visited the Bancuro Church Ruins (more popularly known as Simbahang Bato or Stone Church), the remains of an Augustinian Recollect church and priory that was built in the 1690s but burned to the ground in 1824 by marauding Moro pirates. We also visited the nearby Benilda ng Bancuro Resort and Restaurant, as well as the picturesque, 26-hectare Balinese-inspired La Hacienda Naujan, two of the town’s premier resorts.
From Naujan, a 90-minute drive brought us to Gabutero Organic Farm (GOF) in Bongabong, the only accredited organic farm in Oriental Mindoro. Bongabong is strivings to be the “Organic Capital of Oriental Mindoro” and GOF, a Department of Tourism-accredited Agri-Farm Tourism Site and an Agricultural Training Institute and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-accredited learning site, is taking the lead in educating us as well as the locals on organic farming. From GOF, a one-hour drive brought us to Bulalacao where we had dinner and stayed the night at South Drive Beach Resort.
Our second day was spent island-hopping. After watching the sun rise and breakfast at the resort, we were driven to the town’s Fish Port where our boat awaited us. The town has 12 beautiful offshore islands and we were able to explore three: Aslom, Alibatan and Soguicay. Though these islands are privately owned, they charge no admission fee to visit. The 12-hectare Aslom Island has a beautiful, crescent-shaped white sandbar that stretches for about 500 meters at the northern end of the island.
The approximately 5-hectare, stingray-shaped Alibatan Island was also called Target Island because, in 1946, Americans staying in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, used the island for aerial bombing practice.
Making landfall at a beautiful cove on the southern part of the island, a concrete pathway, following the coastline of the island, led us to an approximately half hectare lake at the center of the island.
The oblong-shaped Soguicay Island (where we had lunch), the most popular island in Bulalacao Bay, has a small village, a 500-meter long white sand beach and clumps of healthy mangrove trees running throughout the whole length of the island. We returned to the mainland via a 300-meter long wood and bamboo pier.
Back in Calapan City, we attended the Battle of the Bands before calling it a night while staying at the Huanying Hotel, the newest budget hotel in the city. The next day, after breakfast at the hotel, we made an ocular visit to the soon-to-open Jolly Waves Waterpark & Resort, the biggest in Mindoro. In the afternoon, we explored, via a concrete boardwalk, the 41-hectare Silonay Mangrove Conservation and Ecopark located east of the city.
This protected area, opened on November 13, 2013, on the 87-hectare Silonay Island, is a haven of 14 species of mangroves, fireflies, two species of bats, 29 species of migratory birds, fiddler crabs and various kinds of fish. Here, some of us planted mangrove saplings in the mudflats. This ecotourism zone also offers bird-watching and kayaking.
Come evening, we proceeded to the highlight of our visit: the Pandang Gitab (Festival of Lights). This ritual folk dance was inspired by the practice of wives from the coastal community of Mindoro who accompany their fishermen husbands going out to fish at the crack of early dawn. The burning wisps of their oil lamps light the way to the shore.
The Pandang Gitab is a nod to this tradition. The dancers in this lively street dance parade, clad in colorful and glittery traditional Filipino baro’t saya, stomp their feet in triple-time rhythm, grinding and swaying to the rural, lively tune of the Pandanggo sa Ilaw, illuminating the evening with the bright tongues of light from three glittering oil lamps (tinghoy), or candles in glasses, balanced on the pandanggera’s (dancer’s) head and on the back of each hand.