Batanes is known as the "Home of the Winds," is the smallest and northernmost province of the Philippines. It comprises 10 main islands, 3 of which are inhabited, with Basco as the capital. The island Y’ami, lies just 100 kilometers south of Taiwan which makes it more closer to Taiwan than it is to mainland Luzon. The province is home to the Ivatans who are nationally acclaimed as the “True Insulares”.[1] The Ivatans are of Malay stock, tracing their roots to early immigrants from Formosa, Taiwan as well as Spaniards who came to the island in the 16th century. Being an insular people, the Ivatans have kept the purity of their culture through time.
Aside from the famous Ivatans, Batanes is known for dried fish which is the local staple of the province. Handicrafts like native hats and fans are among the more popular export-quality handicraft products of the province, and garlic from batanes is known for its superior quality. Sugarcane or palek are sold widely in the islands. Furthermore, because of its pristine environment, the beautiful seascapes and landscapes of the province have been declared as Protected Areas.
Batanes on the rise
ONE SUMMER WAY BACK IN THE '70S, WE MUST HAVE been among the few intrepid souls who ventured into yet uncharted seas and unexplored lands when we took off on a whim for Basco, Batanes.
Armed with nothing but our sense of adventure, we boarded a PAL plane, then the only carrier servicing the island weekly. With us was the late great director Lino Brocka and two of his friends, as he was then interested in scouring the country for locations for his movies.
After an hour-and-a-half flight, we caught sight of what appeared to be the dirt runway, a couple of carabaos lazing about, and a group of grade school children running around, clapping their hands in welcome of the aircraft. The plane made several circles around the runway as we glimpsed the children shooing away the carabaos before we made our historic landing.
Upon deplaning, the kids were still there crowding us with silent curiosity. Who were these strangers, their eyes seemed to ask, and why were they here? This served as our unique introduction to the island, and what was to follow.
We boarded a jeepney, which we were later told was the only one on the island, and asked the driver to take us to the church in town. The Filipino parish priest, whose name we have already forgotten, was surprised to see us. Immediately, he offered to house us even before we asked and serve as our unofficial tour guide during the week-long visit.
Smallest province
We were told Batanes is the smallest Philippine province in terms of population and land area (209 sq km, half of which are hills and mountains). The population then all over the province was a little over 11,000, with 40 percent concentrated in the capital Basco.
Ten small volcanic islands make up the province, only three of them inhabited-Sabtang, Itbayat and Batan with the capital Basco, plus Ivana, Uyugan, and Mahatao which we visited.
The islands of Sabtang and Itbayat were supposedly interesting locations, but we were not that adventurous as to venture out after hearing stories that one had to jump from the boat to the cliff at Itbayat, which didn't have a pier at that time. We also heard of people getting stranded in Sabtang due to bad weather and having to stay for months on the island.
Valugan beach Mahatao viewed from Charatayan hills (Photo by Ace Meriel)
Batan was sufficient for us at the moment. Taking the only jeep on the island, we toured the rolling hills that could only remind one of the Scottish highlands with similar small stone houses, except that the houses had thick cogon roofing, with carabaos and cattle grazing in the rolling hills. The entire scenario was of another country. There were no nipa huts to remind us that we were in the Philippines, and the radio blasted away with broadcasts from Taiwan.
We found women in the fields garbed in the vacul, a traditional woven headgear of grass that kept the wearer cool during the day and warm during the rainy season. We never found this particular headgear in any other province.
Batanes is the northernmost cluster of islands in the Philippines, home of the typhoons, closer to Taiwan than to the Philippine mainland (190 km south of Taiwan, and 280 km from Aparri). It is said that one could hear the cock crow all the way from Taiwan in Batanes, and it is the only province with winter from November to February, summer from March to May, the rainy season from June to October, and a two-week Indian summer sometime between September and October.
Apart from the weekly flight, with erratic schedules depending on the weather, a navy boat came once a year with supplies from Manila. Batanes was therefore as remote from the mainland as it was in culture and language. Anthropologists described Ivatan as an Austronesian language (not a dialect, but a language, the residents constantly emphasized).
30 years later
The Batanes of today is totally different from our memories of 30 years ago. Although still ravaged by typhoons, still small in population (only over 16,000 province-wide), still our only province with "winter" as a season, still blessed with unpolluted air, waters and picture-pretty rolling hills and natural rock formations, we can count on our fingers the number of traditional stone houses and can no longer find women wearing the vacul.
Instead, the homes are of cement, especially in town centers, and the vacul is found for sale in the marketplace as tourist mementos, and in the new Globe commercial. Technology has obviously arrived in the form of Internet cafés, and the cell phone and ukay-ukay from Manila litter the many small shops in Basco.
The rolling hills are still as attractive as they were in "Hihintayin Ka Sa Langit" which beat Brocka to being the first to do a film on the islands. But today some of the hills are dubbed "Marlboro Country" and pretty soon, perhaps we will find there a "Brokeback Mountain."
The Department of Tourism has listed the province as an "emerging destination." There are various inns, led by the Batanes Resort with its six duplex-type cottages perched on a hill overlooking the rocky beach, and the Ivatan Lodge in town with its modest rates, both operated by the provincial government.
Just before San Vicente, a town before Ivana during low tide (Photo by Ace Meriel)
There are now more forms of transport-at least 50 jeepneys in Basco and 30 more in the other municipalities, and tricycles all over Basco. However, there is still no moviehouse in Basco, and fastfood chains are unknown in this province.
Asian Spirit operates a twice-weekly direct flight from Manila, its other flights of the week include a stop-over in Tuguegarao. Batanes' roads are paved, and carabaos no longer roam the runway. Package tours are becoming popular with domestic and foreign travelers. Apart from its natural attractions, the province's other tourist stops include vestiges of the Dominican presence in churches all over the islands, lighthouses that are always a photographic delight, and the house of the late international Ivatan artist Pacita Abad that now stands against the landscape and the skies as a loving tribute to the artist who has finally come home to rest.
The crime rate is low with most crimes committed by transients, mostly Taiwanese who find it so easy to get to the islands. Along with crime and the tourists come the threat of destruction of the environment and cultural heritage. And this is what this "emerging destination" has to face now.