THE skies are bluer. The forests are more verdant. The air seems rarified.
One of the blessings of the pandemic is that it has generally kept away nature from the assaults of man and, as if in gratitude, giving back.
My awe still lingers from the coverage my video team and I did of Romblon before the virus scared our asses.
The Island of Sibuyan
I heard the winds chant, harmonizing with the pygmy woodpeckers on molave trees.
There are three big islands in Romblon: Sibuyan, Tablas, and Romblon. Add to these are a few specks of island municipalities.
Sibuyan is a proud island. At its center is the cinematic Mount Guiting-Guiting, which means jagged in the native tongue.
This refers to the predominantly luxuriant forest that is topped with naked, serrated rock formation like a Gaudian cathedral.
It is an awesome sight and place that have attracted a community of climbers.
The mountain, 2,058 meters high, is open all-year-round for hiking. But with the lockdowns, it is enjoying a rest.
The Jagged Mountain
This mountain is acknowledged even by seasoned climbers as the most difficult and technically challenging Philippine mountain to ascend.
The entire upper trails consist of exposed, broken, and sharp ultramafic rocks and boulders.The summit is primarily a heath land and grassland with the exposed rocks at the peak.
I am proud that at age 60 moons ago, I climbed Mt. Pulag, the third highest peak in the country at 2,928 meters above the sea.
My souvenir shirt from that trip is spot on: I survived Mt. Pulag. I thought I was going to die on the final ascent because of the thinness of oxygen at dawn.
So, Mount Guiting-Guiting got me at “most difficult.” I decided it was wiser for me to direct my team from the ground.
Know When Nature Is Mightier
I was right. The guys, with their seasoned guides, had to turn back midway because the paths were obfuscated by condensation.
It had been raining for days before and the trails were slippery. All signs spelled danger.
The guides had to carry down one of our videographers who sustained gashes and was in the verge of collapse due to exhaustion.
Otherwise, the work was a lovely commune with nature.
Like kids, we plunge into one of the crystal-clear rivers where I broke my eyeglasses and we almost lost one of our GoPro in the water.
We marveled at the island’s majestic trees and I wondered which of them were ents.
DENR Doing Its Job
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is doing a splendid job in preserving the beauty and bounty of the island.
It has been able to deter loggers and botanical collectors away, with the active participation of local government leaders, the academe and NGOs.
Sibuyan Island, together with the larger Tablas Island in Romblon illustrate both the struggles of people and of nature.
Human communities endanger the natural habitat.
But when man takes care of it, nature will take care of man.
Reciprocity and Balance
Like the community pantry, the law of reciprocity and balance can only enrich those who give and those who take.
Sibuyan Island has extremely high endemism largely due to its remoteness.
Endemism means unique to the place. Through long years and isolation, species survive and develop exclusively to a place and nowhere else.
This has occurred in Sibuyan.
The entire remote island is away from the commerce of man and is teeming with wildlife.
More than half of the Island is covered with forest.
Respecting the Wildlife
The forest density in Sibuyan is said to be 1,551 trees per hectare; making it the densest forest ever recorded in the Philippines.
A handsome circumferential concrete road has been built on the island, but that has not disturbed its forest gradient – the mangrove, lowland, montane, mossy forests, heathland, and grassland - from the shoreline up to the summit of Mt. Guiting-Guiting.
The dense growth is a plantita’s delight. But no, you don’t!
There are approximately 700 vascular plant species in the island, including 54 species that are endemic to the island.
These include Sibuyan Pitcher Plant, the Sibuyan lipstick plant, the ant plant and begonias.
The Birds and the Bees
A total of 130 species of birds have been recorded in the park, of which 102 are either known or presumed to be breeding residents.
My birding friends may want to pack their gears and shoot there.
While they do their thing, I could go back to that quaint café with excellent carbonara, delightful donuts, and a lovely binibini.
Sibuyan is an island that shows us how a universe unfolds. - 30