FEATURE... 

From Balay sa Kabus’ to Balay sa Dios 

Bishop Uy completes circle in 

Cortes church turn-over Jan 16 

He has come a full circle. 

Bohol bishop of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, who used to preside over the turning over of Balay sa Kabus, for Bohol’s poor, hied off to preside over a bigger turn-over: the restored Balay sa Dios to the community in Cortes. 

Bishop Alberto S. Uy led national and local officials in solemnizing the formal turn-over of the newly restored Balay sa Dios: the parish church of the Santisimo Nombre de Jesus, to the Diocese of Tagbilaran January 16 in time for the town fiesta. 

Good luck of bad luck? Bishop Uy asked the parishioners in his homily after the ceremonial reopening of the Puerta Mayor following the signing of the turn-over documents of the over P100 million restoration project to the Diocese of Tagbilaran. 

Was the earthquake in 2013 a stroke of good or bad luck to Cortes, the bishop stressed. 

As a pastor for his flock of believers and devotees of the Santo, bishop Abet has since guided his flock from the corrals of the nearby alternative church as the temporary venue for the town’s religious celebrations, to their new and yet the old home of their faith. 

Himself a key fixture in the balay sa Kabus: a free low-cost housing for the community’s under privileged, Bishop Uy, or popularly bishop Abet has since presided over the turn-over of the October 13 Earthquake-damaged churches in Bohol. 

While turning over Balay sa Kabus entails the pooling of resources to build a house for the poor member of the church of God, turning over of Balay sa Dios entails three government agencies funding the multi-million building for the faithful. 

Together with Bishop Uy is National Museum of the Philippines (NM) Assistant Director Ana Theresa Labrador who stood for the government’s National Museum (NM), Bishop Abet also led the community in thanking the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the Department of Tourism’s Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprises Zones Authority (TIEZA) which funded the P104,366,426.40 restoration of the 18th century stone church destroyed by the October 15, 2013 earthquake. 

Cortes Church, over the years, from its earliest known location to the present, has consistently stood as a bastion of faith for the kabus in the region. 

Although not the earliest church in Cortes, this late 1800 stone church built on top of the hill in a resettlement called Paminguitan, is the second religious structure after the Christian Community of the town was established in the early 1600. 

Then Jesuit missionaries from Baclayon and Loboc could have founded the settlement near a good source of fresh water: the Abatan River. 

The first church, which was built by the Jesuit missionaries near the river in Cortes was for the settlement in Malabago, the old name of the town, and which was located in the upper tributaries of the Abatan river. 

The church in Malabago, which served the catchment for the faithful now in the Barangays Rosario, Loreto, Patrocinio and Monserat and the rice communities across the river: Tupas, Santo Rosario and Viga, was built of light materials, according to church historians. 

Church historian Regalado Trota Jose assumed that the Malabago Church was made of light materials, possibly nipa and bamboo and was burnt down, at the same time Tamblot Revolt was raging in 1622. 

It was also never known if the burning down of the church had something to do with Tamblot’s religious revolution. 

In the time between 1622 and the coming of the Augustinan Recollects who replaced the Jesuits in the Catholic missions in the country in 1768, there was no record of what happened to the burnt church and the community. 

The timeline would be crucial, because this can establish the possible establishment of this newer church on top of a hill, the church of the settlement in Paminguitan, one that is overlooking the wide expanse of the sea. 

According to professor Trota-Jose in his book Visita Iglesia, the parish of Maribojoc was established in 1767, and by 1769, Malabago became a visita of Maribojoc, which is now its new mother parish. 

Maribojoc became a parish under the Agustinian Recollects who came in 1768, and the church there was erected thereafter. 

Now, if one would recall the politics behind the banishment of the Jesuits and the coming of the Recollects, one would wonder why the Augustinian Recollects would build a church in Maribojoc and a church in Paminguitan, churches that are practically designed differently. 

The subtle way of the Augustinians was to cover the church facades of the Jesuit-built churches, with what builders would call as the portico façade. 

The Jesuit churches of Baclayon, Loboc sport this fully built Jesuit façade, but the Augustinians hid them from sight by placing a new façade: the portico. 

Interestingly, this church in Paminguitan also sport the double facades, unlike the Maribojoc church 

By 1793, Trota-Jose said, the visita in Malabago got separated from its mother parish Maribojoc and the center was moved to its current location, then called “Paminguitan” referring to the hook-and-line method of fishing in the nearby Abatan River. 

What is uncertain is that: was the visita really in Paminguitan or Malabago? Note that Malabago Church was burned and that Paminguitan is now the new village center by this time. 

Here, it may be safe to assume that the community built a church again, this time in Paminguitan after the 1622 burning of the church in Malabago. 

This could be what Trota-Jose would claim, as the church which “was replaced with a more substantial edifice of cut coral stones in 1880.” 

An inscribed date 1892 was then visible atop the baptistery in the epistle side of this earthquake damaged church. 

The sign has been lost in the rubbles during the 2013 earthquake. 

Now, a question. Would a community start building a church by building a baptistery first before completing the entire church, as the inscription would tell? Interestingly, the church façade marker shows 1896. 

Further, in 1891, the town’s name was changed to Cortes in honor of the Spanish conquistador of Mexico, Hernan Cortes. 

Further, Trota-Jose went on saying that in 1892, the [Paminguitan] church was finished. (1892 was the sign on top of the baptistery entrance) but the portico sign was added in 1896. 

and that the Agustinian Recollects served as the spiritual administrator of the parish from its founding until the end of the Spanish rule in 1898. 

Over this, Cortes residents have been asking when really was this two-façade church built when the portico was added in 1896? 

Even then, clearly, the Paminguitan Church now dedicated to the Santisimo Nombre de Jesus is over a century, if not centuries as the circumstances here tell. 

When the October 2013 earthquake turned some portions of the into ugly heap of rubble, the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) declared the Sto. Niño Parish Church Complex, which included the church, convent and mortuary chapel) as a National Cultural Treasure by November 14, 2013. 

Although, the declaration was released after the earthquake, preparations for its declaration began in 2012, according to NM information Officer Emmylou Palacio-Noel. 

The bell tower, among those heavily and extensively damaged in the tremor has to be reconstructed, and now was decided to be built according to available archival photos. 

As the restoration work began in November 2017, this was completed on December 2019, a little over two years. 

This after 6 years and 3 months, is the newly restored church and convent, back to its original grandeur. 

At the formal turn-over, NM Assistant Director Labrador representing the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) and Most Reverend Alberto S. Uy, D.D. representing the Diocese of 

Tagbilaran signed the Certificate of Turn-Over and Acceptance, witnessed by local officials including Governor Arthur Yap, Congressman Edgar Chatto, Cortes mayor Iven Lynn Lim and local officials including a horde of Catholic priests concelebrating the fiesta pontifical mass. 

It may be recalled that a partial church turn-over was held last December 14, 2019, this was in consideration of the parishioners use of the newly restored church for the Misa de Gallo. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

BALAY SA DIOS. Bishop Alberto Uy with NM Assistant Director Ana Maria Theresa Labrador and local officials including Church Cultural Patrimony Committee Chair Fr. Val Pinlac, Gov Arthur Yap, Cortes Mayor Ivenn Lim and Parish Priest Roderick Pizarras unveiled the Important Cultural Treasure marker for the newly restored Cortes Santo Nino Church, January 16. (PIABohol)

Bishop Abet consecrates the mass table for the newly restored Cortes Church as he has convinced the parishioners that the earthquake which shook the faith of the community has also shaken into a sturdier resolve to strive with the guidance of the Infant King. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

FROM THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT. From the dark experience of the earthquake, parishioners in Cortes have remained steadfast in the faith and are now stepping into the light as the government has put up the funds for the restoration of their shaken faith. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Calape, Jagna, Valencia lead 

in Bohol’s drug clearing drive 

CORTES, Bohol Jan 18 (PIA)—Of the 47 towns and one city in Bohol, three towns lead the list of attaining an almost perfect number of drug cleared barangays, a report shared at the recent Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council (PADAC) and the Provincial peace and Order Council (PPOC) joint meeting showed. 

The towns of Calape, Jagna and Valencia each scored 97% in the Regional Oversight Committees (ROC) Drug Clearing program, Calape clearing 32 of their 33 barangays, Jagna clearing 32 or their 33 barangays and Valencia, clearing 34 of their 35 barangays, according to reports by the Center for Drug Education and Counselling (CDEC) in Bohol. 

After the three, the drug clearing campaign in Trinidad and Pilar come as a strong runner up, each clearing 95 percent of their drug affected barangays. 

Pilar scored a barangay clearance of 20 out of their 21 villages while Trinidad scored in the clearing of 19 of their 21 barangays, according to the same report at the PADAC meeting. 

Strong contenders are Lila (17 cleared of their 18 barangays) and Batuan, where 14 of the 15 barangays are now ROC certified drug free. 

During the recent joint council meetings held January 16 at the new Capitol Building, citing police undated reports, CDEC authorities also bared that 11 municipalities in Bohol have lack-luster performance in the war on illegal drugs as bannered by President Rodrigo Duterte. 

The Philippine National Police which tallies the drug clearing accomplishment of the ROC bared that Bien Unido, Carmen, Corella, Cortes, Inabanga, Loay, Mabini, Panglao, Sagbayan, San Miguel and Ubay have scored nil in the campaign to clear their barangays of the drug menace, from 2017 until the present. 

Now, what could have happened along the way when from the hailed province having convinced drug offenders to come out in droves, local authorities are groping for ways to sustain on the momentum? 

The same question pops as the anti-illegal drugs campaign critics take on the government’s drug clearing program and the seemingly increasing bulk of drugs flooding the streets anew. 

Which should come first: choking on the drug supply and clearing communities or clearing drug affected communities and then going on into the supply chain? 

In the heated campaign against illegal drugs, narcotics authorities at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Bohol have disclosed that the tricking supply of drugs then has caused the increase in street price and the police supply reduction operations have choked the channels working as drugs conduits. 

At the same time police and other allied authorities who are acting on their mandates in support of the national anti-drugs campaign horned on the menace that has hounded the future of the youth, recent reports bare that drug supplies in the streets have come back. 

At the joint meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and the Provincial Anti Drug Abuse Council (PADAC), held at the new Bohol Capitol January 16, police authorities said they arrested an average of two drug personalities a day in 2019 in their 566 operations. 

These drives also confiscated a total of 7.6 kilos of dangerous drugs with a Dangerous Drugs Board street value of P52 million, all in a year’s time. 

And as to the drug clearing operations, while the Bohol Center for Drug Education and Counselling (CEDEC) reports the capacitation of 47 towns and Tagbilaran City on Handling the Psycho social services for Persons Who Use Drugs (PWUD), and 48 of the 48 towns being trained in the barangay Rehabilitation and referral Desk, barangay drug clearing is still at a measly 36 percent of the 1,109 barangays in Bohol. 

When the drug clearing operations started in June of 2018, the Regional Oversight Committee (ROC): a multi-agency committee assessing the presence or absence of drugs in a locality, has cleared 321 barangays. 

But, since then until now, the ROC has since added only 63 more barangays cleared until November 29 of 2019. 

As yet, of the 1109 barangays, the ROC has only cleared 394 barangays: or nearly 36%. 

And as some municipalities ventured out into ways of creatively packaging a system that works to fast track the clearing of their drug-affected barangays, 11 towns in Bohol still register a zero percent drug clearing program. 

In clearing drug affected barangays, the ROC takes DDB Board resolution Number 3, series of 2017 as a bible and is guided by the criteria stated as the program’s implementing rules. 

Short of saying, the ROIC drug clearing operations can not start without the local authorities on their feet and their butts off the seats in their offices. 

It also entails communities getting vigilant and watching each other, while local leaders innovate and creatively adopt ways to facilitate and hasten the screening, CEDEC’s Dr Cesar Tomas stressed. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

HIGH VALUE TARGET. Police identified Jonar Cutamora, Evander Chatto and Lorenzo Jaculba as high value targets in the government’s anti illegal drugs campaign, all of them nabbed in an operation on the evening of January 08, 2020 in Brgy. Danao, Panglao, Bohol. The suspects yielded a total of 110 grams of shabu with Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) value of Php 748,000.00. The growing volume of drugs in the streets would have made Bohol struggle to be drug-cleared anytime soon. (PIABohol/photo from BPPO)

Crimes escalate; crime 

solution efficiency up 

CORTES, Bohol, Jan 18 (PIA)—Except for homicide, crimes involving the attainment of peace and order surged to an already high 17.79 percent, as local police authorities scamper to find the leak that could smear a bad image to the province that banks on tourism and more investments. 

But, the good thing to note is that despite the increase in crime volume in almost every crime classification, Bohol police through the lead of PSSupt Jonathan Cabal still managed to better their crime solution and clearance efficiencies making criminals now think twice. 

During the recent joint meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and the Provincial Anti Drug Abuse Council (PADAC), police Camp Dagohoy authorities bared that they tracked both peace and order and public safety incidents rising in 2019 comparted to the previous year. 

In a comparative data presented to the joint council members, Camp Dagohoy through PSSupt Jonathan Cabal bared that from 4,928 crime cases comprising the peace and order incidents in the province from January 1 to December 31 in 2018, authorities tracked some 1,468 cases forming the significant increase in crime volume by 2019. 

Peace and order incidents include crimes like theft, physical injuries, robbery, rape, murder, homicide, motor and carnapping. 

The increase forms the 29.78 percent that could be critical factor in the over-all peace and order situation in Bohol. 

As to public safety incidents, crime statisticians tracking the Crime Information and Reporting Analysis System also noted the 27.48 percent increase in crime volume which comprises the 801 increase in crime incidents. 

In summary, total crime volume for 2018 (4,928) and 2019 (2,915) is 7,848, while by the following year, crimes rocketed to 6,396 and 3,716 for a total of 10,112, or 2,268 crime incidents over the past year resulting in the 28.93 percent up. 

As to the index and non-index crime classification for peace and order incidents, police noted the same general upward trend. 

For index crimes, or those committed against the Revised Penal Code, the year had Bohol experiencing 2,102 which increased to 2,476 in 2019. 

With the 374 cases which could average a case a day, the increase pegged at 17.79. 

For the non-index crimes, or crimes committed against special laws including anti-illegal drugs, gambling, traffic violations, and several other crimes with special penal provisions, a 38.71 percent crime increase will hound crimebusters this year. 

That is because from 2,826 in 2018, the crime volume crept to 3,920 or over a thousand cases to nearly three more crimes a day compared to the previous year. 

And while the initial implementation of a pinch in traffic rules in Bohol did great, the previous year showed again the seemingly unmanageable crime smudge. 

Physical injuries from traffic related violations for example, in 2018, when Camp Dagohoy noted 1,609 cases, this revved to 2201, or roughly over a crime incident a day in increase. 

The same trend is also present in damage to property as a result of traffic accidents. 

From 1,215 traffic cases resulting in damage to properties in 2018, the figure climbed to 1,564 in 2019; the 349 cases of almost an incident a day figured in the 28.72 percent increase in crimes. 

As one death in the streets is one too many, the year 2019 found an over-all 131 homicide cases, which is 40 more deaths compared to the 91 recorded in 2018. 

Amidst the gloomy picture however, is a silver lining. 

Despite a bleak scenario, police are able to solve crimes better in 2019, posting a 7.82 percent increase in efficiency. 

That means, with the 52.40 percent increase in crime solution efficiency (CSE) in 2019 over the 48.60 percent in 2018, more and more criminals are now hailed to court to answer to their transgressions, police authorities disclosed. 

Roughly, over half of the crimes last year are now considered solved, the culprits identified and is now made to answer for their infractions. 

As to crime clearance, or at least when the police have identified the suspects but are still awaiting for more weighty proof and motives for the crime, police all over the province posted a 13.30 percent increase in crime clearance over the 54.10 percent pegged last year. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

RSPL: largest, ChocoHills, 

smallest protected area 

CORTES, Bohol, Jan 18 (PIA)—With a little less than 400 thousand hectares of agricultural, upland forests, open grasslands, beaches, fishponds and mangrove forests, keeping Bohol’s biodiversity is assured with the government’s efforts to declare the 16 protected areas in Bohol. 

The declaration as protected areas assures that about 11 percent of Bohol’s total land area remains as centers for maintenance of the essential ecological processes and life support systems, preserving genetic diversity, sustainable resource use and maintenance of the area’s natural conditions as provided by the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems (NIPAS) in the country. 

And as protected areas are identified portions of land and water set aside for their unique and biological significance, these are managed to enhance biological biodiversity and protected against harm of human exploitation, according to information from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). 

Over these areas, regulation and carrying capacities are eyed to make sure there is limited or lessened environmental impacts, and make these areas sustain by the management, the DENR organizes a Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) composed of local officials, government agency heads and people’s organizations. 

The PAMB has regulatory, policy making and managerial and monitoring functions, all deciding for the sustainability of the specific protected areas and on the basis of the regulatory policies supplied by the NIPAS Act and the Department Orders from the DENR: all to assure the top-named intention. 

And in keeping Bohol, which anchors its tourism industry in its ecological and cultural treasures, it might be good to know which areas are now declared as protected and may exact entrance and use of facilities as one enters these sites. 

Owning the biggest swath of protected lands in Bohol is the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape (RSPL), that forest acclaimed as the last frontier of the Philippine molave and stretches from Bilar, Batuan, Carmen, Sierra Bullones, Garcia Hernandez, Valencia and Dimiao with a total protected area of 10,452.60 hectares as per Presidential Proclamation No. 287. 

After RSPL is Loboc Watershed Forest Reserve which covers the watershed areas that empties into the Loboc River catchment with 6,700.03 hectares. 

Third comes Talibon Group of Islands Landscape and Seascape which comprises all the islands of Talibon towards the Caubyan chanel and then to the Calituban group of islands and seascapes characterized by the Danajon Double Barrier Reefs with a total of 6,457.97 hectares in protected areas. 

Fourth biggest is the Getafe Group of Islands and Wilderness Area and Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve which also includes Asia’s largest mangrove reforestation with 6,453.51 hectares. 

Fifth is the Alejawan-Canhaway-Anibongan River Watershed Forest Reserve located in the mountains of Jagna-Duero–Guindulman with a total land area of 3,727.30 hectares, according to data from the DENR Community Environment and Natural Resources Office. 

On the western side of Bohol is the Cabilao-Sandingan Island Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve which includes the mangroves and swamp areas of the islets of Cabilao and Sandingan in Calape with 2,919.01 hectartes. 

Seventh largest is Panglao Island Protected Seascape which includes the seascapes of Dolho towards Puntod and Gak-ang islets with 2,447.54 hectares. 

Eighth is the Alburquerque-Loay-Loboc Protected Landscape and Seascape which is shared by the towns of Alburquerque -Loay and Loboc with 2,200.03 total protected areas. 

Ninth is Ubay Group of Islands Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve which includes the mangrove swamps of Sinandigan and the nearby islands with 1,170 hectares. 

Tenth would be Inabanga-Buenavista Group of Islands Area Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserves with 1,103.72 hectares. 

Eleventh biggest is the Candijay-Anda-Mabini Group of Islands Wilderness Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve with 908.33 hectares. 

Twelfth is Calape Group of Islands Protected Landscape Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve with 792.72 hectares. 

Thirtheenth is Pres. Carlos P. Garcia Group of Islands Wilderness and Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve with 348.48 hectares. 

Fourteenth is the Tubigon Group of Islands area and Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve which covers the mangroves of Cabgan Island, Macaas and Tinangnan with 268.23 hectares. 

Fifteenth is the Clarin Group of Islands Wilderness Area with 58.62 hectares. 

Smallest but then with the most number of human activities is the Chocolate Hills Natural Monuments, a protected area with only 14.002 hectares of protection. 

Just recently, about six PAMBs of the 16 protected areas in Bohol, adopted the DENR Department Administrative Order in support of the NIPAS Act. 

DENR DAO 2016-24 put up the revised fees for entrance and use of facilities and resources in the protected areas. 

According to the PAMB-adopted revised fees especially for the Loboc Watershed Forest Reserve where the famous tourist stop in the Man-made Forest, every adult non-Boholano tourist pays P30.00, P15 for students while persons with disabilities and senior citizens including kids 7 years old and below are free. 

Non-Boholanos and foreign tourists pay P100 for their entry into the protected area. 

As to the use of parking facilities in protected areas, motorcycles and tricycles pay P20 for the first 2 hours of parking, P5 for the succeeding hour and fraction thereof. 

For cars and vans with 10-person capacity, parking is P45 for the first 2 hours and and P10 for the succeeding hours or fraction. 

For minibuses and coasters with 11-20 capacity, first two-hours parking rate is P60 and P20 for succeeding hour and fraction. 

For buses with over 20 pax capacity, first two hours of parking is P150 and P30 for succeeding use of parking facilities. 

The DENR through Provincial Director Charlie Fabre in Bohol, who sits as the Protected Area Supervising Officer however has opted to suspend the implementation of the PAMB fees imposition pending the crafting of the mechanics for the collection of entrance fees and use of facilities. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

CHEKING OUT THE KAGWANG. Tourists stepping into Bohol’s largest protected area: the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape go for long treks, bird watching adventures and the must have-a quick view of the gliding flying lemurs still existing in this forest reserve. Flying lemurs themselves are a true wonder, Boholanos call sa kagwang. (PIABohol)