Cebu City, Philippines

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Hi,

I had some annual leave days to take before the end of March and I’d heard from people in Beijing that the Philippines are very nice. So I came here for twelve days only, to do a quick survey of some of the central islands. It has been even better than I anticipated.

I flew with Cebu Pacific overnight from Shanghai to Manila and then south to the island of Cebu in the Visayas group of islands. I left Shanghai at 12:30am, arrived in Manila at 4:00am and the one-hour flight to Cebu arrived at 7:00am. Because the flights were short and during the transfer I had to keep moving, I didn’t feel the usual tiredness of an overnight flight or bus ride. It was a small plane and I was a bit confused when the stewardess spoke about the “comfort rooms”. I thought it must be the first class area, but I hadn’t seen one. Later I realised it is the Filipino term for “toilets”. The airport for Cebu is actually on the adjoining island of Mactan so I had to take a taxi across the bridge to the hostel I had booked in Cebu City.

I knew nothing about the Philippines before I arrived, so here are some facts to assist those of you who don’t either.

"The Philippines consists of over 7,000 islands but 95% of the land is spread over the eleven largest islands. Only 400 of the islands are permanently inhabited so one could find their own deserted island. It doesn’t receive as many backpackers as the rest of Southeast Asia so it is relatively easy to island-hop, find good accommodation and connect with the local people than in more touristy places like Thailand.

73 million people live on these islands, mostly from the Malay group. Although there are over 70 native languages spoken, the primary one is Pilipino and English is considered to be the second language.

Like most countries in tropical climates, the main industry is agriculture – corn, coconuts, rice, bananas and sugar cane. The timber industry is also strong (most of the islands are covered in trees) but most non-agricultural industries are generally confined to the capital, Manila. There is only one train line, on Luzon Island from Manila.

Cebu City, “the Queen City of the south”, is the second largest city in the Philippines and an important port. It is the commercial and education centre of this central group of islands, the Visayas. Cebu Island is the ninth largest in the Philippines. There are three million people on Cebu Island, one million of whom live in the city.

The Visayas were first settled by the migration of the Malays from mainland Asia. It was discovered by the Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan during his last voyage across the Pacific Ocean. Cebu City’s spiritual heart is the small crypt that houses the Cross of Magellan. It’s actually a modern hollow cross that is said to contain fragments of the original brought by the famous conquistador in 1521 and used in the conversion of the locals to Christianity. Next to it is the Basilica del Santo Nino, built 1735-37. The statue of Santo Nino (Christ Child) is the most famous religious icon in the Philippines. It is said to have been presented to Queen Juana of Cebu by Magella after her baptism in 1521.

The next significant conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, arrived in 1565 and built Fort San Pedro. Legend has it that his soldiers burned down local villages in a bid to control the people. In one burned-out village Legaspi found the Santo Nino unharmed in a wooden chest. It was deemed to be a miracle and a church was built in honour of the Christ Child."

The receptionists at Allson’s Hostel were very welcoming and arranged for me to settle into my room and have breakfast before I took a nap. The room was small with a bathroom ensuite and colour TV with HBO, for 900p/€17 including breakfast. I would recommend this small hotel because it is economical, clean and quiet with friendly staff. It isn’t a place to party or hang out and chat to other travellers though.

When I was ready to go out the receptionist suggested that I taxi into the city centre to see the sights. The alternative was to take a colourful jeepney, a mode of public transport unique to the Philippines. They are old US Army jeeps with two planks of wood acting as benches in the back, with no glass in the horizontal windows. I later noticed some pulling tarpaulins over the windows when it rained. There are hundreds of them buzzing all over the city, each with its own route number posted on top. Of course I had to take one of these!

A jeepney soon arrived in the small street outside the hostel and I climbed in and found a seat on a bench. I had been told that the trip would cost 8 pesos (€1 = 55 pesos) and my fare was passed hand-to-hand to the driver. Sometimes there’s a “conductor” hanging off the back platform who takes fares. It was great fun jostling on the bench while the jeepney careened around corners and chugged through crowded streets. It was a great chance to “rub elbows with the locals.” Of course I was the only Westerner among the 20+ passengers and I didn’t actually notice any Westerners during my afternoon at the historic places of interest, at the tourist office or in the huge churches.

I got off the jeepney at Colon Street the oldest mercantile thoroughfare in the Philippines. Traders lined every sidewalk and the crowds were amazing. I kept having to remind myself that the Philippines has a huge population (73 million) and most of the people live in cities or around the rim of the islands. No wonder every city is crowded and public transport is so plentiful.

What struck me forcefully from my arrival in the older downtown area of Cebu was how like Belize City it is. Like the coastal country of Belize, the main city is crowded with street traders, has dusty, potholed streets and old, buildings with damp patches and peeling paint. However most tourism brochures for the Philippines show photos of the turquoise seas lapping on white sandy beaches beside exquisite posh resorts where one can go scuba diving. In Belize the tourists are drawn to similar beaches and resorts on the islands. Many tourists go to Belize especially for the scuba diving Mecca, The Blue Hole, popularised by Jacques Cousteau because of its wide range of tropical fish and fauna. I haven’t been to a beach yet but they look beautiful.

My first stop had to be the shrine containing the remnants of the cross planted by Magellan on Cebu’s shores and that commemorates the conversion of the first Filipinos to Christianity. Ceiling murals depict the first Catholic Mass celebrated on Philippine shores. Magellan was killed in a battle on the neighbouring island of Mactan by its chieftain, Lapu-Lapu, who became the first Philippine hero to repulse foreign domination.

After my afternoon in Cebu City my first impression is that Filipinos are poor, polite, friendly and devout Catholics. My God are they devout! Their conversion seems to focus on the arrival of the second wave of Spanish conquistadors, led by Legaspi in 1565. He declared that he had been sent by King Philip II to convert Filipinos to Catholicism. He set out to control the locals by burning down their villages.(A tactic not advocated by Dale Carnegie!) After one such native village had been vanquished they found a wooden chest that miraculously had not been burned. Intact within was a small statue of the Christ Child dressed in a crown and red robe, Santo Nino. It had been given to the Queen more that 40 years before, on the occasion of her baptism. This was considered the first of many miracles attributed to the statue and it has been venerated ever since.

I visited the Santo Nino Church and watched many devotees, including teen-aged boys, lighting votive candles and praying. Inside the church huge fans blew cool air across the many people engaged in prayer and meditation. I was amazed at the small groups of teenagers saying the rosary and how both men and women reverently touched the glass boxes around the church holding statues of Mary and the saints. There was a line about 300 metres long, winding through Church corridors, for devotees to venerate the (replacement) statue of Santo Nino. In supposedly Catholic Ireland you might see a few old women in a Church during the daytime, certainly not young people.

I was at the Cathedral for 7:00pm Mass and it was full of parishioners. Loudspeakers broadcast the Mass to people sitting quietly on benches in the nearby gardens. Later I took a jeepney home and when an older woman passenger got on and took her seat, she made the sign of the cross, I suppose to pray for a safe journey.

I briefly visited the large Independence Park and then the adjacent Fort San Pedro. It is the smallest and oldest bastion in the country and was built in 1738 to repel Muslim raiders. At times it served as a stronghold for Filipino revolutionaries, as a US army barracks, and as a prison comp during the Japanese occupation. Guide books refer to it as an oasis of peace in the bustling city and I found it both quiet and interesting.

The Philippines are famous for seafood so for my dinner I went to a “barbeque” or restaurant. I ordered roasted fish, squid and pork chunks with cooked green vegetables and rice, plus a bottle of local beer. That cost 258pesos/€5. It was all very nice but I very sparingly dipped the chunks in the standard accompaniment, a small dish of green chillies, a chunk of lime and vinegar. It was very spicy.

I had thought it would be OK to be out after dinner because places usually don’t get dangerous until at least an hour after dark. I forgot about not having street lighting and trying to negotiate the pot holes, broken curbs and swampy puddles in the gutters. Possible muggers would be a cinch to handle after these! I decided to go to the bus station to check out buses to Oslob on the southeast coast of Cebu Island where I’d heard there are regular whale watching trips offshore. Visitors can also swim with whale sharks and dolphins. I had to try that.

I took a jeepney to the bus station OK but in order to get to my guest house I had to transfer to another one. By this time it was rush hour (7 – 8pm) and the ones I wanted were all full. Of course there is a trick to getting onto one but I didn’t know it. Finally a young man made a packed jeepney stop and take me aboard. Whew!

I had a great sleep and then had a one-hour wait for my breakfast. The hotel has a complicated system whereby you order your breakfast from the receptionist who relays it to the kitchen staff on the third floor. (God help anyone who tries to talk to the kitchen staff.) You get a phone call when it is being delivered to the rooftop dining room. Then you wait, and wait, and when it arrives you can see that the orange juice made from powder, the hash browns were fried from frozen patties and there is tinned fruit cocktail. The scrambled eggs were fresh and the tea was weak. Oh well, the price was right (free).

On my second day in Cebu City I decided to go back down to the historic centre, the old town, because I hadn’t visited the famous Carbon Market. As I said, I hadn’t noticed any other Westerners (white folk) on my first day so I was determined to be more observant this time. The Carbon Market is huge and crowded with all kinds of everything. I enjoyed chatting with the stall holders about their wares. One young woman at a big indoor shoe shop was having lunch and offered me a “warm banana.” I had no idea what she meant until she explained that she cooks these less sweet bananas (plantains) in her rice cooker. It was delicious. A group of traders and myself sat there chatting for a while, which was fun. Later I saw a woman cooking something in a huge, steaming pot. She put in something then added a cube of coloured jelly. She said the grain was sago and the different flavoured bags were used in cooking. I bought one and was about to try it but she warned me it isn’t eaten straight like that. Maybe it needs to be cooked more. I have no idea. (I later learned that you mix it with crushed ice or whipped milk to make a drink.)

As a token she put some mashed purple sweet potato, ube, into a small plastic bag and urged me to eat it straight. It was good. I have since seen purple ice cream and cake made with ube. I continued to wander and chatted to a man who makes huge flower wreaths for funerals and to people making traditional handicrafts mostly from tambo, but also bamboo, coconut leaves and hemp.

I was having such a good time I missed the museum opening hours. I decided to walk north from the city centre and see if I could find the Heritage Monument and a nearby historic house that were marked on the map. I saw a huge crowd gathered in front of a fire station to watch a basketball game. Basketball is the most popular sport in the Philippines.

[Speaking of which, while I am reminded of it, there is a huge buzz in the Chinese media about Jeremy Lin (23yr), who was born in California to Taiwanese parents. His grandmother still lives in mainland China. Lin has brought the New York Nicks to dizzying heights after many wins in a row. The previous basketball star of China was Yao Ming. In 2002 then 22-year-oldYao was the first NBA draft pick and was the Houston Rockets All-Star Centre. Last year he retired due to injuries and now sponsors events and is studying at university. He is a Big Star in China, well, 6’3” to be exact. Despite the long political stand-off with Taiwan the Chinese are claiming Lin as one of their own.

I digress, but basketball is definitely the most popular team sport of the Philippines.

I visited the Yap-Sandiego Heritage House that gave me a real picture of everyday Cebu home life 400 years ago. It was well worth the small entrance fee. The nearby Abu Heritage Monument would have been hard to miss. It is huge and in the middle of the original Plaza Parian. It is a tableau of sculptures made of concrete, bronze, brass and steel showing significant and symbolic events in the history of Cebu from the time of Rajah Humabon to the recent beatification of Cebuano martyr Pedro Calungsod. The monumental sculptural tableau, completed in 2000, took national artist Edgardo Castrillo three years to complete. It is similar to the mural at the Basilica but much bigger and three-dimensional. Cebu is the oldest city in the Philippines and the people are clearly very proud of their ancestral heritage and conversion to Catholicism.

Here is a potted history of Filipino political rulers over the past 110 years – the good, the bad and the crazy. Filipinos speak of the oppression and violence their ancestors suffered under the Spanish and are proud that they got rid of them. In 1898 Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States after the Spanish-American War but the country governed separately as a charter province after that. During World War II the Japanese used Cebu as a base from when they occupied the Philippines in 1942. General MacArthur led American troops to rout the Japanese in 1945. The Americans then established bases here. The Philippines established independence from colonial rule in 1946.

There is a statue in Independence Park of the popular former President Raymon Magasay who was elected in 1953 and died in a plane crash in 1957. There followed a few more Presidents up to the infamous Ferdinand Marcos who was elected in 1965 declared martial law from 1972 – 1981 and was ousted in 1986. His wife Imelda became even more famous than her husband when her eccentricities were revealed.

I remember when the Presidential candidate Benigno Jr.Aquino was assassinated in 1983. His wife Corazon Aquino then took his place and was elected President in 1986. She seems to have done a good job and one of the things she did was to force the American military to leave. In 1991 the Senate refused the renewal of US military bases in the Philippines. That may have seemed a good idea at the time but now the Filipinos want the Americans back to protect them from other Asian powers, particularly China and North Korea.

The 14th President was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who was in power from2001 – 2010. I was informed that she was an economist who was in college with Bill Clinton. Well, I guess she did some serious networking while in the States because she showed herself to be a very corrupt President. Among other extravagances, she bought homes in the States for each of her children. Taxi drivers love to recount her ill-gotten gains. In November 2011 Arroyo was arrested following the filing of criminal charge against her for electoral fraud. She is incarcerated at a medical centre in Quezon City under charges of electoral sabotage. The Supreme Court has refused her request to travel overseas for medical treatment.

The current (15^th) President is Benigno Aquino III, 50, the son of Corazon and Benign Jr. Aquino, was elected in 2010. He is negotiating with the Americans to re-establish bases here in the Philippines. Last week the Philippines Supreme Court ordered that his family divide their huge estates among the hundreds of poor who have worked for the Aquinos for generations. The family is resisting it vehemently.

OK, back to the delights of Cebu. Before left the city I decided to hire a taxi to take me to “uptown” Cebu. I had seen some high-rise buildings and parkland as we flew over Cebu so I knew that there had to be a more upmarket district. It wouldn’t be fair to say that the downtown area is representative until I had seen more of the city. Sure enough, there is a large area of office blocks, hotels, etc. making Cebu City look like any other city anywhere. Ho-hum. The big attraction is the business area where they are building more and more call centres. Ireland used to have many call centres until we got too expensive. Many Filipinos speak English fluently and are willing to work night shifts to accommodate overseas customers, for $400/month. It is a flourishing business here. There aren’t many old building but the Cebu Capitol is a pre-War building situated at the top of the Avenue of Flags, against the backdrop of mountains in the distance.

I had seen enough so I went to the bus station and took an air-conditioned bus heading to the southern tip of the island, Santander. I always enjoy bus journeys, no matter what the weather. I love taking photos of the homes and people as we drive by - working, shopping, playing and eating together.

Cheers, Sheila

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Comments

[Anastasia78]

I love this!
What a great photo!

[Jackie]

Fascinating stuff!
Really enjoyed reading about your experience.....Have never been to Phillipines but it sounds really interesting........

[anonymous]

Hi Sheila,
Another great blog. This was very informational for us as we will be in the Philippines in late November/ early December. We would like to go to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks and dolphins. Did you enjoy that? Another wonderful blog...glad you had some time away.