My quest to explore the mountains of Sta. Cruz is not over yet. Last month the latest site we visited was another summit located within Saliducon and Sinoron but accessible via barangay Binaton of Digos City. It is still part of the Unified Bagobo-Tagabawa Ancestral Domain and Mt. Apo Natural Park particularly within Strict Protection Zone (SPZ).
Local and tribal leaders of Saliducon call this place Mt. Sarerab’n, a Bagobo term which means drizzle or mist and translated by Visayans as salibu. They explained that more often than not this place experiences light liquid precipitation normally caused by low stratiform and stratocumulus cloud.
The adjacent forest of Mt. Dinor, Tagaytay Range, Mt. Baryara and Mt.Loay is visible on a clear day. The summits of Mt. Buribid, Mt. Tampurong and Mt. Apo form part of the scenery on the other side. I managed to spot one Philippine Serpent Eagle flying above us but overall Mt. Sarerab’n is a cool site for birding. In that 2-hour trek I recorded 28 bird species.
It was an easy hike of 1.2 kilometers trail up to the summit measuring 1,360 MASL. Although located in Mt. Apo’s SPZ but the vegetation at the summit is mostly ferns and grasses. A good trail from the summit connects to a more forested area where Mt. Buribid commences all the way to sitio Kidaran of Tibolo and sitio Baras of Kapatagan, Digos City.
Efforts have been geared towards identifying Mt. Sarerab’n particularly its political boundary. The proponent Indigenous Peoples organization is now working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and National Commission for Indigenous Peoples so that appropriate measures will be undertaken to make it another community-managed tourist attraction within an Ancestral Domain.
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