Guihulngan

My Negros Oriental Tour: Guihulngan City

This is a city! And like Canlaon I said “why is this a city?”. Ah, them legislators have a collectively weird trend of thought so we better leave them to it. Fact is, this is one such city in my list where I have not seen (on the web) anything worth visiting at city center other than the nearby beach resorts which are of course nothing to harp about if you consider the places in this country that I have been to. Well, if I was harping in previous blogs why Cabadbaran, Borongan or Tabuk are cities, check this place out hehe! It can easily pass as a barangay of Baybay, Bogo, Catbalogan, Naga, Carcar or even Mati and Tayabas! Nah, if you thought I meant that for a negative remark, it is in fact the reverse. This place is just too tranquil and quiet a place, away from the bustling urbanities. Yet, it is called a city! What else can you ask for?! Anyway…

I bussed in from nearby Vallehermoso one November afternoon just to see really what is at center of town(okay, okay... city)! That, because I knew about a lake, some falls, hot springs and caves being touted to be interesting tourist destinations in this city. But nothing in the city center. As in c’mon, even this city’s website is as confusing as how the town got its name! The guihulngan.gov.ph website btw, seems to be just a mirror of the Philippine government’s LGU web presence instead of its own. Yep, the eLGU project of the DILG. And gosh! But this ‘city’ is part of Negros Oriental and I cannot just do a ‘take it or leave it’. I must take it and take it I did. Hah, as I have always said in past blogs, throw me into any locality and I am sure to find something worth my while. Guihulngan is another such case.

Center of town (okay city), is not actually literally at center. Its by the water’s edge and wonderfully so. Ah yes, the provincial highway cuts along between them and the water hehe. But there is a park… in the making that is. Yes, there is a park – in the making, that is hehe. The ground is still muddy earth, but I can assure you, in due time it will be one grand place to be in Guihulngan. The era-type lamp-posts are already standing, the sea-wall is well in place, a monument is already standing amidst the mud. Yeah, I think that is Rizal and probably Maria Clara below him. I could not go any nearer as the earth was still fresh mud due to the rains. But let’s wait a bit more, this place could be a wonderful expanse of grassy greens or a fantastic heat producing concrete field of a park by the sea. Just you wait hehe! Let’s go somewhere else…

The city hall. It’s nothing humungous. In fact we can all say it is small for a city as cities have many administrative departments. It looks like a little town’s municipal hall. Its not fantastic but its not ugly either. You clearly see the many ‘improvements’ or ‘modernizations’ that they have done with that building, but in total, it does seem to retain a kind of feel from the Hispanic-American eras. The name alone says it… “Guihulngan Presidencia”. Si si, la presidencia! Wandering and looking around this building, I observed it does have quite a space around it. Probably a park on all sides of the building, in the past that is.

Nowadays, most of those spaces arounde the presidencia are concreted parking areas for the many city vehicles like jeeps, trucks, canters, elfs, etc. Plus the city bus. City what?! Well yes, the city also has an “official” bus. It seems to be a fad in the Visayas these past few years. And I would not wonder if that too came from Kaohsiung just like what that old man of Cebu City (Tomas) did, he begged for Kaohsiung to donate their otherwise destined for the junkyard buses and let his constituents use it for just about anything they could think of other than commute hehe.

Anyway, even the Guihulngan city ambulance is parked at the very front foyer of the building, plus the firetruck is also parked just a bit to the side but still front of city hall – proof enough they need space. Which is probably why the park near the water’s edge is underway, because really, people lost those cozy tree shades and grassy greens to those vehicles.

Now that we've seen where the firetruck rests, you probably are sure where might be the city's fire department, right? Wrong!!! Hehe, the fire department, yes their office that is, sits about 50 or even more meters away from that truck. It is actually under the bleachers of that gym or multi-purpose something by the side of the highway facing Jose Rizal at his muddy park in the making. It'd probably be crazy fun of youtube viral-video caliber if a fire emergency happens and someone can shoot a video of the firemen running from their fire-station to the firetruck at city hall, then the firetruck wading its way out of those other parked vehicles, honking loudly for the ambulance to get out of the way, finally emerging out on the street. Hahaha, I could just imagine!

Well hey, they do have a city tourism office and it also sits under the bleachers of their multi-purpose gym just like the city’s fire department. But I did not anymore go inside that tourism office for I knew all they would tell me are the caves and the falls up in the mountains and nothing to see at city center. Across the tourism office is a building with fairly a number of people coming and going. A health center that sits by the side of the road where Ceres stops (just after a sharp left-turn near the park-in-progress if you’re coming from Dumaguete). Mind you, Ceres has a muddy space just behind that multi-purpose sports something (across a hostel) but at times they opt not to enter the narrow street anymore and just stop across the tourism office – which is a bit dangerous since it is by a sharp curve of the highway.

The church is a wonderful find. Its not the common olden church that most towns have. Guihulngan’s is a bit on the modern type – probably after so many refurbishments. Even the parish name is a bit uncommon, "Nuestra Senora Del Buensuceso"! What's that, Our Lady of Good... Success? Eh, am not sure if there's such a thing for that would mean there is something we can call a "bad failure" hehe! Anyway, the façade has been installed a foyer-like pre-entrance area am not sure what for. Maybe for those men who go to church but never even enter it hehe. Probably too, to house the church’s bulletin boards. So those big angel statues flanking the main entrance are partially obscured from outside view care of that foyer. Front of the church is a park with ample tree shades and a fine area for some folks to laze around during a hot sunny day. Oh, there’s a big Mama Mary statue plastered to the front wall of the bell tower. Closely, I noticed it is a very good piece of work. Its really good, down to the details!

Inside, I list this church as one of the airiest ones that I like. There is practically no side walls. Most are just grills to let light and ventilation in. And its not only practical, its wonderful. But, everywhere you look or touch, it is obvious that this church is accorded utmost care as if it were a real indoor place. Yes, there is a scattering of saints at the altar area, but in total, said altar still looks uncluttered or not overdone. Ah look at the ceiling! Its blank and even shines with the paint. But the choice of color evokes the sky, the heavens! Luvit! And the grassy greens outside one side of the church is also grand!

Out of the church and ready to move elsewhere, there’s one interesting thing I got to witness in this place. City you say? Well, in what city in the Philippines do you see men let their cocks (the birds, the animals that is) fight right at the very grounds of a small place called a bus station?! I guess only at Guihulngan! Haha, am no fan of cockfights (sabong, bulang) but my goodness, watching them do it was fun. And it happened right outside my bus before I left this city! Hmm, I got to take a closer look, and noticed that those dudes even put some kind of “boxing gloves on their cocks. Yeah, during a real ‘fight-to-kill’ cockfight, what takes the palce of those ‘gloves’ are the sword-like little lethal blades. See? Its really fun roaming around this country. I learn a lot!

Lastly, and I opted to mention this at the very last just to give one reader a hard time hehe. So let’s do the tongue-twister for this city. Guihulngan is pronounced in just 3 simple syllables so listen well children, okay?!!! The ‘gui’ sounds like ‘gui’ in ‘guilt’ not ‘guide’, ‘guest’, ‘gee’ or GUI(goowee - graphical user interface) hehe! Second syllable ‘hul’ soulds like ‘who’ll’ just remove the ‘w’ sound at the apostrophe portion; and it is definitely NOT like the sound in ‘hull’ or ‘whole’. Its sounds more like ‘full’ or ‘pull’ but you replace the ‘f’ and ‘p’ with the ‘h’ sound! Last syllable ‘ngan’ is just as it is but sounds like ‘ngun’ – again because the letter “a” in this country is always pronounced like a quick guttural “uh”. Alright Brian, there you are… ‘gui-who’ll-ngun’! Oh yes, as I said above, residents themselves are torn and confused on how that term became the name of their town, oops yes, City… whadeverrrr!

Let’s go to La Libertad, but fast-forward a bit to to tell you that cruising south to north, Guihulngan boulevard is a wonderful afternoon scene even on a gloomy day!


If you want to read the chronology of all stories on this tour, click the following:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

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