Revisiting the Bell Tower of Bukagan Hill

"I was so excited on the day we’ll be going to Malaubang!  It was my first time to go to a distant place with only my classmates as my company. It was really an adventure since Susie only left us a sketch of her house.  Meaning, we have to go to a place unknown by ourselves and I was so thrilled by the idea of getting lost!

Bukagan Hill?!  I’ve heard of it already!  I haven’t been there and I definitely wanna go there!  At that instant, I asked Susie to get us there!  But she insisted ‘coz it is dangerous for only kids to go.

However as I look back now, I don’t have any regret of getting to Bukagan Hill because until now I never had the chance to be in that place again."

- Excerpt from Bukagan Hill of My Adventures, 2011

And after so many years, a chance to visit Bukagan Hill came my way!  However, it was not an adventure as what I had in grade school.  Today, the road to the hill is very easy.  Vehicles can now get you on top with the newly-constructed cement road though the start and the end are not yet finished.  Sadly, that makes me think that Filipino government projects are always half-baked.  Anyway, it's good that there is an improvement.  But it was more exciting before when we just walked our way to the top without the paved road.

Then the ancient bell tower was still standing on top of the hill.  It was not as majestic to my eyes as it seemed before.  The bells are not as gigantic as what I also saw before.  Well, maybe I just grew up.  The magic of being mesmerized by something tall and big suddenly ebbed its way from me.      

  

And the vandalism worsened!  I know it's graffiti and I know it's art but can we put art in the right way?  Sadly, our Lasallian students' names who were under me are the ones written there.  I don't know if they themselves wrote it or some other people who have interest in them wrote it so to express their love to them.  OK, let's just understand.  Youngsters these days have their own way of expressing themselves.

Honestly, I was quite disappointed with what I saw 'coz aside from the vandalism, piles of garbage are on the ground.  Wrappers of chichiria, bottles of beer, and jebs of stray animals were scattered around.  There's nobody maintaining the cleanliness of the place.  I wish the city tourism office of Ozamiz will be reminded of Bukagan Hill's forgotten splendor because the place just have a great potential for tourism.  And if there are tourists visiting our place, local livelihood can be developed too.

But despite of my disappointment, I couldn't do without a mini pictorial.  That was a Sunday morning after church so it was a Lacy Sunday post!

Thanks to Sissy Ep2x for the Photos

Though I could never hear the bells' big ding-dong, I hope that this post's little ding-dong can be heard by my students and other Ozamiznons to take care of our environment and local treasure.  The bells of Bukagan Hill are a great part of our history so let's stop vandalizing and littering around.

To end, maybe sometimes we need not go back to a place we already considered marvelous and magical.  For the beautiful childhood memory I once had with Bukagan Hill was replaced with a disheartened feeling for the place.  Let's not just take for granted the heir from our ancestors.