The Capitol. That’s the next thing I naturally wanted to see in this capital town. I knew there should be a provincial capital center in this place since the island is now a province – new as it may be. This island was for a long time a sub-province of Leyte but was declared an entirely new province of Region 8 just in the early 1990s. So walking out of the municipal hall area, I asked another trike driver where I would find this capitol. He told me it was/is even further up the road so I hopped in to take a ride. Probably the same distance between the church and the munisipyo.
Well, what do you know?! This is probably the cutest capitol building I have seen in the country. Not as aesthetically appealing like the capitol buildings in Catbalogan (Samar), Tacloban (Leyte), Cebu City (Cebu Province), or Bacolod (NegrosOcc) all built in the early American era, but a capitol building just the same. Many a barangay hall in Makati or elsewhere could even be more beautiful than this one. And not to mention, bigger. But what would you expect of a provincial capitol in a province with just 8 towns and a total provincial population even smaller than that of Barangay Commonwealth in Quezon City?! This one is probably just right for Biiiran Province.Nonetheless, like the municipal hall of Naval, I liked that this capitol compound is in a place where it is breezy, dominated by trees, plants and gardens.
I did like the look of their provincial tourism center. That one at least got some mdas touch of the more recent kind of building architecture. Y’know, the color, the shape, the memory that it evokes. Plus the bigger glass windows. Not just a boring cube of concrete, right?! It is starting to receive various additions to make it unsightly though. Starting with? That aircon exhaust box! Sa dami ng pwedeng paglagyan nyan, talagang kelangan pang ilagay sa harap ‘no?! There is also that bulletin-board-like signage announcing that in there is located their ICTC office.Hmm, give this building a year more or two and it should probably start to be adorned with more bulleting boards, signages here and there, announcements posted on every part of the wall, and so on and on hehe!
Government Center/Provincial Park. Out of the capitol, I was waiting for a trike ride going back to the town’s central area. But I liked this ‘still-rural’ location, so while waiting on the side of the road, I strolled up and down a bit. Until I saw that signage! Hmm, provincial “park”! Curious curious! So I continued walking to find at least where there is an intersection going leftwards as indicated by the directional sign. Doing so, I was of course also thinking why this area I was walking at seemed to be devoid of people and vehicles on a Saturday afternoon – considering that there is a “park” somewhere.
Then I saw this next signage. Two kilometers away? Like hello?! That far?! OMG! In my mind I was saying “like are you trying to tell me there is still civilization two kilometers from this barren place?”. But those signages could not be wrong, right?! So, if I wanted to know, I had to go! I did! When the next available tricycle came (there are not so many of them in this place btw), I told the driver I wanted to go to the “mercado” at center of town, but also wanted to see first what might be there to see at the “provincial park”. Driver said “motuyok ta?” and after asking how much would it be, I said yes.OMG what a park! Hahaha, the rigors of being me hahaha haha! What was there to see? Vast tracts of land with a spattering of buildings and/or fences and/or housing projects still starting to develop! No wonder the trike driver seemed startled when I told him I wanted to see this area! Well there is a sports field complete with a grandstand.
Charge it to experience hehehe! Anyway, I returned to center of town with still a bit of daylight enough for me to see other things Naval. But let’s do that next, okay?!
For a chronology of stories on this Biliran travel, please click the following:
2512540.875-1529
0 Comments