Feature: Multi-faceted landscape of Rep. Mercado’s cool hideaway
A breathtaking view at a top of a mountain on Bogo Tree Park of Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado (photo). Photo by Jani Arnaiz
BOGO VILLAGE, Maasin City, Southern Leyte — In Congressman Roger Mercado’s bird sanctuary located in this interior village not far from the city proper, the natural scenery all along the ascending climb in a mountain until reaching the top was worth all the effort for one’s body and soul.
The view at the mountain’s topmost point was breathtaking, and, yes, relaxing, as one sees the cascading mountains as far as the eyes can see on one side, while in the other side, the far reaches of the Mindanao sea can also be appreciated — granting, of course, that one really admires watching nature in its natural form.
Just how many cemented steps are there in all from the ground below up to the pinnacles of uninterrupted sights in this twelve hectare paradise?
“I guess about more than two thousand in all,” Cong. Mercado told PIA last week when several members of the local media were invited to take a tour of the reforested area.
A taste of o sweet spring water from a rocky portion of the tree park. Photo by Jani Arnaiz
Reforested? Surely, although an uninitiated visitor may not readily notice it. But in this place rests the realization of one of Cong. Mercado’s timeless slogan printed in T-Shirts: “One Man One Tree Can Make A Forest.”
It all started in 1987, when much of this place was plain cogon-grass dominated, or what in bisaya is called tangad-tangad.
With constant reforestation every year without fail, those more than twenty years of dedicated community tree-planting labor is now bearing solid results, with many tree species either deliberately planted or natural-growth teeming with life, such as acasia mangium, mahogany, narra, tugas, and a host of many others, including the natural-gown dita, and bamboo, said to be the world’s tallest grass.
At the foot of the mountain one can readily feel a cool atmosphere even if the hot sun is up at noon. A caged Eagle and Kalaw birds greet visitors at the entrance of the sanctuary, whose decent ambiance can be compared with homes in the woods of any European countryside.
Cong. Mercado, ever the gracious host to any group of visitors coming to his place, will always be the one to serve as a tourist guide in the trek — a guaranteed physical work-out which necessitated some limbering first for warming up the body before the actual start of the upward walk.
As the ascending journey went on, sounds of chirping birds dominated the air, and lines from Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” poem can be read in every bend.
Thus, up and up you go, turning either left or right, stopping at a miraculous image formation in a rock that resembled the imprint of Virgin Mary, then proceed up again, turn here and there, stop at a pool of cascading water for rest – and a refreshing drink.
The upward walk will continue after the refreshing pause, again turning here and there, until one faces a solid rock like a wall, and this “wall” was so high that a scaffolding – the height equivalent to a three-storey building — was installed.
Those who have fear of heights, discretion to have a go or no-go upon reaching this point is advised. No problem? Enjoy the challenge? Okay, fine.
It would seem that the scaffolding portion would be the end of the hike, but no, it’s still up there for a few more minutes, up to the highest point where a coral stone can be found, where the mountains and the seas, the feel of fresh air, can be seen and felt all around; the presence of the coral stone suggested that this area millions of years ago was a seabed which, over time, was thrust upward with nature’s constant mountaineering activity.
By the time we had come down to where the trip had started, we estimated having conquered a 200-meter high lush vegetation of a mountain in more than 120 minutes, or about three hours.
It was Sunday, November 1, when members of the local press got the sweats and the surprises of their lives when they toured Cong. Mercado’s bird paradise.
Incidentally, the first reading for that day was taken from the book of revelation, in which a portion of the passage reads, “…Do not harm the Earth, or the sea, or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads…”
What a telling coincidence. The occasion also was the annual remembrance of our dearly departed and the Saints, so another slogan of Cong. Mercado’s, as printed in T-Shirts, was just as telling and as coincidental: “Live beyond your lifetime — plant a tree.” (PIA-Southern Leyte)
