Glan is more than just SarBay Festival

Glan is more than a century old municipality in the province of Sarangani. It is geographically located in the southern tip of Mindanao and is bounded by three water bodies in Sarangani Bay, Davao Gulf and Celebes Sea. The land area of Glan is the largest among all localities in the province and at present it is inhabited by close to 140,000 people made up mainly of migrants from Luzon and Visayas and its Indigenous Cultural Community of B’laan tribe. Despite having huge potential for agri-industrialization given with its strategic location near General Santos City, local leaders of Glan opted to maintain the laidback environment of this municipality, employing agriculture, fishery and tourism as its priority programs in terms of economic development. 

Sarangani Bay Festival is the town’s flagship event in terms of tourism. The long beach line of Glan is blessed with fine white sand with incredible underwater biodiversity, prompting local authorities to consider it the Boracay of Mindanao. SarBay Fest was in hiatus for two years due to the pandemic, but this year they decided to consider a rebirth of the grandest beach festival in the country. I joined the celebration courtesy of an invitation from my good friend from San Miguel Brewery, Inc. Miss Meggy Santos together with other media friends from Davao Maya Padillo of Edge Davao, Mark Perandos of Sunstar Davao and Abraham Babao Mantawil of Davao Digital Influencers. Some blogger friends from General Santos were present also during the occasion particularly Avel (GenSan News Online), Mars (Planet Marz) and Ariel (Living in the South). San Miguel Brewery was co-presenter of an evening chill party on May 27 at Coco Beach that featured band performances, beer plaza and other entertainments.

This is my 4^th time attending the festival. The first three were all in grand and festive mode, obviously, because those were held prior to the pandemic. This year the crowd was controlled following COVID-19 protocols. As I looked at the schedule I noticed that organizers gave more weight to conservation activities which is commendable considering that Sarangani Bay is a protected seascape. 

The history of Glan is most notable as it hosts the finale of a circumferential voyage of a surviving crew of the group led by Ferdinand Magellan and Sebastian Elcano, better known as the Magellan-Elcano Expedition. When Magellan was killed during the Battle of Mactan, Elcano took over as the leader of the remaining Spaniards. On account of expedition chronicler Antonio Pigafetta who was on board the same ship with Elcano, it was October 26, 1521 when the expedition team reached the barrio of Batulaki after surviving a strong typhoon. They had to momentarily seek refuge in Batulaki for food and to wait for a strong typhoon to subside. Balutaki is a coastal barangay located at the edge of Glan.

In 2021, the National Historical Commission (NHC) erected a historical marker in a cliff of Batulaki overlooking the beautiful Celebes Sea. It is the 32^nd of the 34 quincentennial markers in the Philippines and an important piece which will remind people of the role of Glan to the Spanish circumnavigation of the world. The marker stood as one of Glan’s tourism attractions. 

Being the oldest town in Sarangani Province, there are numerous old houses and structures being preserved in Glan and we visited two of the most interesting places owned by the Ruiz Clan. Our first stop was the Ruiz Ancestral House located at the heart of Glan opposite the municipal hall building. The house was built in 1960s and now serves as podium of several memorabilia by the Ruiz family dating back the very first time their ancestors arrived in Glan all the way from Cebu. Mrs. Margarita Ruiz-Uy, the eldest of the third generation of Ruiz siblings, eagerly shared to us interesting information about how they preserve the house and made sure all keepsakes would be kept and showcased in such that the house is now being considered as a historical tour attraction in SocSarGen.

In the inscription The Pioneering of Spirits, the coming of Ruiz family in Glan started when their grandfather Tranquilino B. Ruiz of Alegria, Cebu was appointed by Governor Francis Burton Harrison as Superintendent of Agricultural Colony No. 9 in 1914, one of the Agricultural Colonies established in Mindanao through the Colonization Act of Don Sergio Osmeña, Sr., then Speaker of the House of Representatives. The first wave of Cebuano settlers came to Glan on October 8, 1914. The second batch arrived on March 10, 1915. They opened and tilled the fertile soil of Glan. Vast tracks of land were then planted to corn and coconut. And thus, “the interminable coconut fronds that line the vista of Glan is a story unto itself. It is a story of how a group of men and women of true grit and fortitude overcome a future fraught with peril and uncertainties.” 

Around 5 kilometers west of Poblacion is an old White House of the Ruiz family situated beside the National Highway. This is another structure pared by the Ruiz’s to conceal with an ancient theme, somehow a revelation of sort of the centennial existence of the clan. Here we were met and were given excellent coffee break by Doc Tranquilino Ruiz II, himself a very accommodating host who gave us so much wisdom and significant information about practically everything in Glan.

Unlike my previous experiences in Glan where hype was a usual thing, this year’s visit is a lot more fruitful for me because of the learnings and important information I gathered from Glan’s rich history and culture. 

Afterthought: Lloyd

By Julius R. Paner

(This piece was written last May 3, 2022; a day after MFSM had a reunion meeting with my friend Lloyd held at Kuya Dods Restaurant, Davao City) 

Last night I attended a reunion of the alumni of Mountaineering Federation of Southern Mindanao (MFSM). Arranged by Event Director Jun Bacus, the event was a welcome party for a good friend Lloyd Ryan Limon, former MFSM officer who suffered brain stroke in 2016 just when he and his family was already starting to live a better life in Canada. I met old faces in the federation and of course Lloyd was there being the main character that evening. It was a bittersweet gathering with grins and tears falling in between conversations. 

When I was a new member of MFSM Lloyd was one of the most accommodating persons I knew. We shared several interests aside from mountaineering – photography and Eraserheads to name a few. Back then we only had two artists in our playlists, Eraserheads and Bob Marley. We both argue what Ely Buendia meant when composing the song Light Years and Ang Huling El Bimbo. In one of our trips in Bislig, Surigao del Sur Lloyd convinced me to do a rendition of Wasak Waltz with me doing most part of Francis M’s. 

In the heightening success of outdoor adventure in the region we had good climbs together, among those were a technical climb in Tudaya Falls with then Director Sonia Garcia of the Department of Tourism XI, a maiden climb in Mt. Magdiwata of Agusan del Sur and an Ecotourism Festival held in Kapatagan, Digos City. There were other activities in the federation where Lloyd was actively involved. He was a jolly good fellow with a heart for responsible mountaineering which we both advocated.

Sadly, all those memories were gone for him when he succumbed to brain stroke. In his testimony he said he could have gone to heaven but asked God to be back to earth because he still has a family to attend to and take care. He had to reconfigure himself every day. His wife and children had to remind him every morning about his existence. His life is an upgraded version of the movie 51^st Dates.

Lloyd’s return trip to Davao was part of the medication process, he told me. Seven Canadian physicians agreed for him to undertake a distant plane travel purposely to enable him to retrace lost memories in his home place, hoping that his recovery would be hastened. The moment he suffered brain stroke was eventually the period he cut off his mental inbox and unlike computer stuff where lost files could be retrieved using latest applications, Lloyd’s returning to memory process is quite uncertain. But I have this prayer for him to be able to retrieve at least 50 percent of his remembrance given that his very short stay in Davao, I thought, gave him a glimmer of optimism. He was actively involved in our conversations, could even dance a reggae beat that evening, and in some instances he had thrown old familiar jokes to us, the same Lloyd that we knew in the mountaineering glory days.

Me performing Ang Huling El Bimbo during the reunion

Again, as the healing progresses Lloyd is able to remember few persons slowly but surely. In fact I am flattered to be one of those whom he remembered because of three things namely mountaineering, photography and Eraserheads. The rest of those who attended the reunion were identified by him one by one and that even included their respective middle initials. He said he could hardly remember events and activities before, that would be too much I presume.

Lloyd’s dilemma never left unnoticed to all of us who were there during the reunion. He left a lasting message that for as long as you keep the person in your heart no amount of brain stroke can take away that person in your memory. No medication is known to help reverse memory loss, but in Lloyd’s case mountaineering proved to be very effective, at least during that evening. Maybe because he spent more than half of his life climbing mountains and that all experiences in the outdoors were recorded in his heart, not elsewhere.

Afterthought: Lessons from a Silvery Kingfisher

By Julius R. Paner

In my early years of birding one of the special birds I chased and wanted to be instantly included to my life list is the Southern Silvery Kingfisher (SSK) - Ceyx argentatus. Life list is a cumulative record of observed birds since day 1 of an individual’s birding milestone. Most birders opt to extend their record for personal fulfillment, inciting them to go to places with higher level of avian endemism, hoping to add few more species in their respective records.

The Southern Silvery Kingfisher is a Philippine Endemic bird located only in Mindanao and recently considered Near-threated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to habitat loss. In 2019 I spent exactly eleven months to look for this bird at the Philippine Eagle Center (PEC) in Malagos, Davao City. I could hardly remember escaping a single session every first Saturday of the month just to see SSK face to face. That same year we had a Big Year of sort with my birding friends in Davao where we targeted to see 200 birds and I surely could not afford to miss SSK in that list. After series of PEC visit I finally nailed one. That was 3 days before 2019 ended and definitely a great finale of my birding-filled year. That was also a culmination of the creation of Big Year Davao Group, a team made up of avian enthusiasts from all over Davao Region.

Looking at how I started loving birds in the wild and up to this point I have always considered SSK very special. In 2020 during the pandemic we had this collaboration project with Malagos Garden Resort (MGR), one of the most popular and high-end highland resorts in Davao City, for bird watching and bird conservation program, an initiative I could say very timely because the same program at PEC just suddenly evaporated into thin air with no clear reasons at all. I don't know. I'm not sure.

Well, like a flower full of caress our partnership with MGR blossomed. In our first few sessions here we were treated with sights of SSKs, sometimes even in pair, other than the 71 bird species we discovered. And yes, we always saw the bird practically everywhere within the resort compound. We made it our flagship species that symbolizes friendship and lasting partnership. And lately we discovered that MGR hosts one of SSK’s nesting areas. What else could be lovelier than that?

Now that we have witnessed good stories unfolding before our very eyes I think it is safe to say that the Southern Silvery Kingfisher is about to take over as a promising Mindanao icon for wildlife conservation. While this bird has what it takes to be a revelation, it has, in a way, gave me so much teachings in life. Its existence left me in awe until now, maybe because it has led me to meet new friends outside of my family and workplace, and that it provided me more force to level up my passion for conservation and the environment. That eleven long months of chasing the Southern Silvery Kingfisher has inspired me to appreciate the virtue of patience, and that in life, failures - and more failures, are pre-requisites to success.