LAGUTAY HILLS: a site to behold and reminisce

Today, I drove a motorcycle and went to Lagutay Hills in Barangay San Jose, Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte to see how the locals and agility enthusiasts venerated and appreciated the place every time they visit there. As I scanned the place, there is nothing much about its site to behold because as you travel along the road you will notice a few quarry sites. As you ascend towards the sloping road of the infamous Lagutay (formerly Yargo) Hills, you will start seeing the mountain ranges from nearby and at a distance with thick vegetation and forested landscapes. You will also notice that there are isolated houses that stood above the adjacent mountains with small cleared lots on a mountain slope planted with corn and cassava.

A welcome remark for visitors to Lagutay Hills

As I observed last year from Facebook posts, joggers and bikers mostly coming from población Tibal-og who visit the place would only crowd into a certain area where there is a clear view towards the horizon of the rising sun where they enjoy the sceneries of the mountain ranges and sunrise silhouette. These, I think, are some of the reasons why many people are so brisk in visiting Lagutay Hills despite its distance from sentro Tibal-og.

A reel post from Emee Guape Dairo depicting
the early morning scenery at Lagutay Hills

When I arrived there, I drove beyond the meeting place of local visitors and found out that the concrete road has stopped at an ascending curved road. Aside from that, there is a portion of the road where the ground that has become the support of the concrete road has been carved out by heavy rainfall that spilled over the cliff. The support system that was installed over the cliff was also swept away, including the road signposts. It will be very dangerous for bikers when they pass through this portion, especially for a group of bikers that will be cycling all at once.

A road signpost being swept away from a recent heavy downpour.

A portion of the concrete road where its underneath becomes hollowed out due to the recent heavy downpour.

A Road to Where?

Back in 2008, roughly 15 years ago, when I was in my first year of high school, I remember we went to Sitio Talos in Barangay San Jose, Santo Tomas to conduct a feeding program activity with the Ata Manobo Community, an ethnic group in Davao del Norte, in order to address the issue on malnutrition at the time. From our school in Santo Tomas National High School in Menzi, all the students under the Special Program in the Arts (SPA) curriculum, including the SPA faculty members, boarded on a dump truck and rolled on towards the hilly and forested landscape of San Jose.

As we traveled along the narrow, sloping, and newly bulldozed road of Sitio Lagutay, we reached a path where the truck could no longer penetrate that would get us to the community. So, we got off the truck and continued our journey on foot while carrying our backpacks and food items.

As we arrived at the community, we were welcomed by Datu Doming Tumaytay, the local chieftain of the Ata Manobo community together with the Indigenous People (IP) officials. The program was commenced by our department head; and as the program was about to finish, our group decided to descend from their community to experience the Busay, or the small waterfall at Sitio Talos. We spent for a while before we journeyed back on foot to Tibal-og via the waterways leading back to where we came from.

Ten years later, in 2018, I tried to recall the road that we passed through in going to Sitio Talos and could not believe how the path had narrowed so much that only a motorcycle could enter. There was this man who was walking towards the forested area and asked him if this road leads to Sitio Talos, and he said yes. Maybe I was right, or not. Ten years is quite a long time for a person that sees a lot of changes in its place. There are instances in our memory that seem to have been the true memory that we remembered but it's not.

A Road to Another Perspective 

I, among others, truly appreciate the worthiness that the local visitors of Lagutay Hills have shown since a place would likely bloom where people flock. But let this place be what it is. If the sole purpose of the road is to make easy access for the settlers in the hinterland as they descend from their community to deliver goods that they produced and for the local government also to have easy access to the hinterland communities, then let this road be a road all alone, nothing else. Let this road be the firm and tangible legacy for the new generation of hinterland community settlers that will connect in our memories as we continue on our journey of existence. 

The road does not make boundaries to anybody else whatever your race, culture, and belief systems, but connects to various cultures and celebrates them in one place. Let this road again be the agent of change, a kind of change that we have to abandon our old customs of superiority and inferiority, and that all of us are created equal in the heart, mind, and soul of God. We must respect each other's differences and appreciate the natural wonder of nature and the worthiness of the life support system that it provides in all of humanity and to every living thing we all share in this world. Let Lagutay Hills be a reminder to all of us that as we pass through the road we met different kinds of people from different cultural backgrounds but all of us are mere travelers in this journey of life. Adios!