Stopover at Sibulan

Not Rizal this time, its the Guy!

This is something new. A monument in front of the municipio not dedicated to Jose Rizal. This time it’s Ramon Magsaysay, our guy – I’m not sure why they have Magsaysay but I suppose that the president was not only popular with the old politicos here in the mid 1900’s, who built the monument but with the people as well. Too bad we lost the Guy. He died when his plane crashed in Cebu (how can a presidential plane crash?). I heard that the crash site have a memorial, thanks to Sibulan I was reminded of this, I’m already planning a visit sometime this month.

Sibulan, aside from its natural wonders (its breathtaking twin lakes) is where Dumaguete airport is located. I don’t know why they allowed to have the airport to be built in their place and have it named after the adjacent town of Dumaguete, well, I think this is the case everywhere, Manila airport (now Ninoy Aquino – hope that they won’t change it to Cory Aquino this time) is in Paranaque and Pasay, Bacolod’s is in Silay, I guess that’s how it is here in our country. Sibulan is also the entrance of the ferries that comes from Santander, the Sibulan-Liloan ports regularly transport people from Cebu to Negros Oriental and vice versa.

Looc, here in Sibulan is where the Japanese and Guerilla units made of brave Filipinos first fought. In this barrio is a shrine dedicated to that historic moment. They celebrate this encounter annually.

San Antonio de Padua de Sibulan

The towns charming church of San Antonio de Padua is also a popular devotion site, built to honor the town’s patron Saint around mid 1900’s along with a very peaceful plaza, on its side is the town mercado. Here people customarily light 13 candles for their wishes. June 13 is their feast date of St. Anthony; I guess this explains the 13 candles.

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