Romblon and Sibuyan Islands in the Philippines

Cresta de Gallo Islet, San Fernando, Sibuyan Island  (Photo taken by Jan Levent - courtesy of Romblon Tourism Office)

I found myself with a few days free and I had nothing planned.  With just an ordinary school-size backpack of basics and an extra set of clothing, I took the 30 minute cab to the port of Manila on a balmy afternoon, walked in from one passenger shipping company to the next, asking if there was a sailing the very same day anywhere.  By the third time, I lucked out - a departure was scheduled for the islands of Romblon.  Within an hour, I was on board.  And to my surprise, I had the whole four-bunk bed (two on each side) cabin by myself at P600.00 or US$30.00 at that time.    I saw other similar cabins later that night with full occupancy.  The lady clerk at the Ticketing Office was nice to me.

Mary the Queen left Pier 10 promptly at 5 pm. As I stood on the highest deck, right beside the bridge, I felt like a boy filled with delight in riding a big boat.  Westward towards the mouth of Manila Bay, we cruised.  The fiery golden Manila Bay sunset gave a spectacular show.  The breeze became stronger and for almost an hour, it was heavenly.  As we came closer to the shores of Southern Bataan meeting the promontory point of Cavite, there was an ominous blackness in the distance.  The gap between the two lands end looked like an entrance to a black hole.  Within 10 minutes, it was total darkness. 

I headed to the ship’s cafeteria where dinner was an excellent barbecued chicken.  But Mary the Queen was rocking giving you that uncomfortable seasickness.  I returned to my cabin with very clean sheets.  After doing my toiletries, I lay down, luxuriously solitary, and found myself being rocked, more like being rolled left and right, to sleep.  I dozed off giddy with what tomorrow might bring.

At around 3 a.m. I awoke, too excited to go on slumbering.  Walking to the stern, it was still pitch black but there appears to be a cluster of lights in the horizon.  The gentle punches of the wind on my face were pleasurable.  I found out it was a turbulent night with the weather but in my deep REM, I slept through it all. 

The Romblon Province is composed of three major islands Tablas, Sibuyan and Romblon.  Mary the Queen will call on the center island Romblon first where the capital with the same name is, and then Sibuyan skipping altogether Tablas.

Half an hour later, we berthed at Romblon Bay.  Two-thirds of the passengers disembarked and cargo unloaded: vegetables, boxes, cabinets, sofas, a car and a van.  There was not much to see further beyond the dock because it was still dark.  Including layover time, I had two hours or so more to go before my destination: the port of Cajidiocan in the island of Sibuyan.

As dawn rose on our starboard side, Mt. Guiting-Guiting loomed in the horizon seemingly hiding King Kong.  Sibuyan has that Pacific look.  Am I hearing Bali Hai?

Around the bend of Agutay, we quickly made our way to the single protruding dock of Cajidiocan, which from a distance, looked clean and had that South Pacific look. 

The beauty of Sibuyan is its rawness and virginity, untouched by manufacturing – just agriculture.  I hired a motorbike with a late teenish driver to do the 90 kilometer or so coastal circle road called Sibuyan Circumferential Road.  

Pawala River, Tampayan, Magdiwang, Romblon

With no helmets, the exhilaration of a bike ride was more intense with the streaming wind on my hair.   We went through pastoral sights of verdant rice fields, postcard coves, beaches and placid rivers.  The whole island is amazingly clean.  No trash nor plastic litter anywhere.  And those tiny villages hold some architectural surprises.  Blue-painted cottages with thatched roofs and flowery gardens,  imperial trimmed brushes of what the residents call Malacañang Grass alongside luxuriant columns of banana plants – Sibuyan is beguiling.

To my surprise, there is a growing German community who live long-term in the island.  A number of them live in a gate compound facing the sea. No wonder some of the passengers in Mary the Queen had a German accent.  They did not quite look like backpackers.  See  Friendly Germans Open Their Doors

At Sibuyan I stayed overnight with a high school teacher who was renting out a room in her house. What she did not tell me is she had another sideline - she would show movies in her living room television to her neighbors for a fee.  It was one of those guns and chase films and it lasted close to midnight.  With a flimsy wall and loud speakers, it was certainly a late night for me.   The following day the teacher did connect me with a local businessman who had a private boat that will make the hour trip to the capital of Romblon in Romblon Island.  The boat was also taking the owners’ kids to school for the week.  It was a small vessel and there were five other passengers.  On the way, the waves became bigger and I wanted to throw up.  The teen daughter and son of the owner were sitting in the bow in front of the standing shelter.  How did they manage?   They did look alright once we got in Romblon Bay.

Chipping Marble Quarry

It is in Romblon Island where the famous marbles are quarried.  I did buy a few pieces: a mortar and pestle, and a cheese board.  I wonder where are they now?  Romblon Island seems much more elevated than Sibuyan.  

Biniray Festival celebrating the miraculous Senor Santo Nino de Romblon - in Romblon Island

At the very spartan hotel, I was invited by a group of three, a college professor and her students to join them on a boat trip to one of the smaller islands. 

On the island, I talked with a man in his twenties who said boredom was a main problem.  Other than fishing, without electricity there was nothing to do.  I guess white sand, crystal-clear water and panoramic sunsets do not give bliss forever.

Finally, it was the night to go back.  I took a ship to the Port of Batangas overnight instead of Manila.   No private cabins this time but a huge room with double-decker beds - like in a penitentiary. I managed to snooze.

It was astonishing to see how many ships were plying the same route back and forth at night.  With their headlights, it was a busy water highway. 

At Batangas City the next morning, we were met by public buses, no AC, to make the two-hour trip back to Manila.   After an enjoyable trip, the bus ride was such a downer.  The heat and humidity made me pine for Sibuyan.

Good Blogs re Romblon  see 

Travel Guide to Romblon

Hiking Mt. Guiting-Guiting

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, only for Blacks?

For a number of Americans, nth-generation and recent arrivals , Martin Luther King Jr. Day is viewed as a holiday celebrated mainly by Black Americans with the added bonus of everyone getting a day off.

But if it wasn’t for Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, supporters and the victims of segregationist policies in the 1950s and 60s, who woke up the country from inaction, the United States of America would be an entirely different place to live in today.

Largely due to the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Act was legislated in1964 banning discrimination based on “race, color, religion, or national origin.” A year later, the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, dramatically opened the doors for non-European immigrants. These noble Acts also exist in some fashion in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, but ask a number of immigrants from these countries who have re-migrated to the United States, or people who left the U.S. and migrated to these countries, and you would hear “yes in paper but not in practice.”

Comparatively, today America has less societal and personal world view barriers on race, a non-American accent, foreign education, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation primarily because of the precedence of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. If the Movement was not as resolute and leading, there would have been no Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, nor today a Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal of Louisiana. There will be no medical doctors and nurses with accents in hospitals. There will be very few women managers or positions for the disabled. There will be little tolerance for Hispanic media or Spanish Spoken Here signs. But the most telling of them all will be in the eyes. There will be unmitigated stares of “why are you here?” as you enter schools, restaurants, bars, and golf clubs. The list can go on forever.

It is not hard to imagine what an America without a civil rights movement past would be like. All you have to do is drive north to Canada. Although Canada has been open to immigration and asserts itself as a “multicultural country with two official languages”, at day-to-day living, the evidence of professional disfranchisement for most immigrants are numerous and hardly debated. Thousands of skilled individuals have been unable to practice their vocation especially those in the medical, engineering, and accounting fields because of onerous certification rules, lengthy licensing requirements, fashioned scarcity of internships especially for foreign medical school graduates, lack of Canadian work experience – a Catch 22 situation , and as some studies indicate having a non-European sounding last name - less chances for being called to a job interview even though the person’s credentials are at par with a European-surnamed resume.

America by relative measures is still a country that gives most people a chance, but it came with a price. Rosa Parks, Emmett Till, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, to name a few, who have challenged and/or been victims of discrimination, opened the door to fairness for many Americans. The Union is struggling but the foundation for equality and decency remains strong, thanks in part to the vision of that man who stood at the Lincoln Memorial, and declaimed “I have a dream” for “all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics.” Well Martin Luther King Jr. (pause), many would say America is not there yet but the nation has made a few steps forward. Just take a walk a mile away to a big white house at Pennsylvania Avenue.

If ever Americans, new and long-standing, need to celebrate, and really celebrate a day of gratitude and indebtedness, it is more so today. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt for everyone, not just Black Americans.