For Tourists, Places to Visit in the Zamboanga del Norte Area

Aligway Island - Part of Dapitan City (Zamboanga del Norte) visible from the shores of the towns of Manukan, Roxas, Katipunan, Dipolog and Dapitan City. About a fourth of the island is rocky. The The island is of natural white corral sand belonging to Dakak Park and Beach Resort. The island is around 10 hectares in size. No wildlife except the two kinds of wild brown pigeons that feed with the residents' chickens. A community ordinance prohibits the hunting and hurting of the birds. Other birds also reside in the island, the locally called golansiang black in color, red eyes, belonging to the starling family. Small brown birds of thrush family and thumb size birds, yellow chest and greenish brown body feathers of the humming bird family also reside in the island. No land snakes so far found. Water snakes are sometimes found among corral rocks trapped by the receding tide. Cemetery 18 graves, houses of light materials more than one hundred. No electricity, no water system. Rainwater is collected by the residents into drums and containers. Drinking water, other than the bottled mineral waters come in black former soy sauce containers from Dipolog and Dapitan.

Libuton Cave - Located in a mountain community seven kilometers from the town proper of Manukan, Zamboanga del Norte. Libuton Cave is the path of an underground river with undiscovered source and drops vertical into an abyss-like hole nobody knows where the water goes from there. The entrance to the cave is a tiny hole as small as a 29-inch television. Once inside after a short crawl spaces widen. The underground river is host to albino looking fishes and freshwater crustaceans due to absence of sunlight.

Chicken Statue - Inside the Manukan municipal complex along the national highway is the statue of a male bantam. Inside the statue is the municipal historical museum. The chicken statue is around four stories high from the ground to the tip of the crest and a length of 30 meters from

the tip of the bill to the end of the tail

Jose Rizal Shrine - A small park of about 15 hectares in size in Dapitan City where the Philippine's most important hero, Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled by the Spanish government from 1892 to 1896. A view deck for a complete view of the historical little city is placed on top of a rock above the park is reachable by winding foot trail. The Pulawan Harbor to the west is also visible from the view deck The house of light materials Jose Rizal built as his dwelling during the period of his exile is preserved inside the park. A museum also inside the park houses the collection of items Jose Rizal used and faded photographs about the hero.

Villa Ester Resort Mountain - A mountain resort nine kilometers from the national highway, a part of Roxas, Zamboanga del Norte. The resort swimming pool is feed by a spring that contributes to the water of Dohinob Daku River, Cottages of all-bamboo materials thatched with marsh palm leaves are available to guests.

Dakak Park and Beach Resort - A world class cove beach resort located in Dapitan City.

Franceso Paliola Murder Site - Inside the Adaza Estate in Jose Dalman, Zamboanga del Norte, close to the shore is the murder site of an Italian Jesuit missionary priest by the name of Franceso Paliola. The very spot on which he died is enclosed in a steel fence piled with corral rocks and planted around with dwarf cypresses. He was tasked by his superior Jesuits in Dapitan the evangelization of the Subanos in the Manukan and Ponot (now Jose Dalman) areas between 1642 and 1648, the year he was murdered. Although not regarded as holy as no work for the sainthood of the Italian priest is being done, people come to visit the murder site to say prayers to seek the murdered priest's guidance and to light candles around the steel fence. A framed psychic picture as to how the priest was killed hangs on an altar by the murder site. Franceso Paliola was the first foreigner to have learned the Subano language.

Hotels
Sunset Boulevard Hotel, Dapitan City
Camilla Hotel, Dipolog City
Top Plaza Hotel, Dipolog City
West End Court Inn, Dipolog City

Restaurants
Jollibee, two hamburger restaurant branches in Dipolog City
CL Fastfood Restaurant
Jos Inato Restaurant
Big Joe Restaurant

How to Get to Zaboanga del Norte
One hour flight from Manila to Dipolog. The route is serviced by Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific with one flight each daily. By boat, 24-hour travel from Manila to Pulawan Harbor, Dapitan City serviced by Aboitiz-Jibsen and Sulpicio Lines, Inc with one boat each weekly. And from Cebu, six hours of slow, diesel smelling, old boats departing there at 10 o'clock in the evening and getting Pulawan Harbor 4 o'clock in the morning.

SUBANO Manggahat the lies and the truth about it.

Stories are told about the Subano manggahat but nobody really knows for sure if there really were manggahats. There is no equivalent term for the character in the lowland. But they were believed to be vengeful characters from a Subano tribe out to avenge the death of a member of their tribe whether of natural cause or in a fight or in a murder among themselves. They are sent out by their tribal head or they go on their own to kill anybody they find, bring home the body as offering to their gods, whether a fellow Subano of another tribe or a lowlander. The manggahat leaves home with a provision of cooked aromatic rice preserved to last more than a week by sesame oil wrapped with the green leaves of binonga, a forest tree frequented by small birds of thrush and starling families for its fruit the tree bears the whole year round. Nobody really took chances on a manggahat that they either believed as truth or laughed at as untrue. Mothers tell tales about manggahats to lull them in their afternoon sleep. They were believed to tie red cloth around their heads with big knife like a man about to go on amok. Police in the municipalities around the Zamboanga peninsula has not recorded any killing incident perpetrated by a Subano manggahat. Except for the killing of a boatmaker in the public forest of Manukan, Zamboanga del Norte which was attibuted to Subano manggahats but later turned out to be a plane murder by Subanos due to an old grudge.

Tal-tal, Subano Wedding

The Subano tal-tal is the equivalent to the lowland people's wedding. The word taltal rhymes with the Pilipino word kasal.which means wedding. It is a primitive type of wedding but the ceremony is accepted by the Philippine Government as a legal valid wedding. Only the Timuay (tribe head) can officiate the wedding. He's authorized by the Philippine government with a license from the National Census and Statistics Office. It is totally different from lowland people's wedding mostly in a Catholic ceremony that its is integrated in a mass. In the olden times though the Philippine Family Code was put to practice, Subano tal-tal was not recognized by the Philippine government as a valid wedding. The Timuay had to be granted authority as a way of preserving their culture, their practices. But the Catholic Church is not accepting the Subano tal-tal as the ceremony is pagan, it doesn't mention Jesus Christ in uniting the couple.

SUBANO Buklog

The Subano Buklog is a celebration usually held after a good harvest of mountain rice and sturdy mountain corns (they call "tinigeb" that lasts in their barns until the next cropping without being eaten by weevils.) The festivities last for days. Preparation begins with the building of stage-like flatforms mostly of bamboo materials and logs of young trees where their dances are performed and their prayers are said. The pounding and winnowing of red aromatic rice to be cooked and served in the celebration is also a part of the preparation. The rice is pounded on giant mortars by three pounders each with pestles alternating in pounding the rice. Each mortar loads around three gantas, old grains measure, equivalent to around 10 kilos. Winnowing is done on a nigo, an oblong tray made of thin bamboo (rimmed around with a pair of rattan slats) to separate the grain from the chaff. Animals such as pigs domesticated and wild and goats to be butchered on the occasion are brought to the buklog site freely donated by neighboring tribes. Drinks they call "pangasi," stored in giant china jars aged by burying for years underground are likewise donated by neighboring tribes aside from the celebrating tribe's own pangasi. It is a kind of wine fermented from cassava. Two tastes are available in the buklog. One sweeter for women and another one stronger for men. In the entire duration of the buklog celebration the wines remain in the antique giant chinas the Subanos call bahandi meaning treasure.. It's drank without decanting into bamboo tumblers but strawed with a bamboo pipe of the bagakay variety. The celebration includes chewing of betel and areca, chanting of ginarongs accompanied with gongs, usually in lewd language to draw laughter. In some Subano buklog the celebration culminates with the chanting of gumans that chanting is done in stages and last for two days up to a week. But the Subano buklog like traditions and practices of other indigenous peoples, is in danger of becoming a thing of the Subanos' past the present and succeeding generations have no way anymore of knowing what it is except in blogs like this. The chinas they store their pangasi are all gone now, sold as a result of hardship to antique collectors at prices almost a give away because the Subanos don't know the value these antique giant chinas. And the Subanos donot own anymore the lands they use to till to grow their rice and corn necessary to carry on up to these days the Subano buklog.