Getting Lost With Names - Kalayaan

This topic started with this article

Kalayaan. Oh freedom! Thou shalt be the name of many things! It’s good we’re just talking about towns so there are only two in the whole country! One is a town in Laguna (Regiona 4A – CALABARZON) and the other is in the island province of Palawan (Region 4B – MIMAROPA).

The former is sitting on the eastern edge of Laguna Bay and is interestingly composed of just 3 barangays! Oh yes, that is where you are supposed to find the “Lukayo” – a tradition of long ago slowly disappearing due to the hypocrisy of catholic priests, that transcended into what most Filipinos now call "moral standard" and even transcended into how laws are made in this country. Should you be interested, remember this... the Lukayo tradition has already been a practice of our forebears even before the jesuits came! Oh of course, this little town is more known to the business community for power-plant topics than anything else! Then again many of us know that this town also touches part of Lake Caliraya on its other end.

Now that Kalayaan in Palawan. Hey, because many towns and cities would usually have 30 or 40 or even hundreds of Barangays in them, you would have thought that it is weird for Kalayaan, Laguna to have only 3 Barangays, right? Then hear this… Kalayaan town in Palawan has only ONE Barangay (Brgy. Pag-asa)! And, ironically too, this one-barangay town is actually composed of so many islands, islets and reefs. But, add more irony, this town of little islands has its own airstrip more than a kilometer long and about a hundred meters wide! Population? Two hundred plus people! How to get there? Two hours by chartered plane or two days by chartered boat! Intriguing, right? Then again, you might have heard about that controversial, disputed Spratly Islands? This is actually part of it hehe! The western-most part of the country. Their municipal office and mayor does not hold office in any of the islands though. Its in Puerto Princesa City!

Both towns are named "freedom" and both have have controversial or intriguing things about them...

Oh freedom!

Comments