LIFE-SIZE images of the Stations of the Cross are displayed along the path and surrounding the crater of the Kawa-Kawa Hill in Barangay Tuburan, Ligao City. MARK ALVIC ESPLANA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON
WORD of mouth has driven Irene Regulado, 82, to travel around 75 kilometers from her home in Canaman town in Camarines Sur province to Ligao City in Albay province on Holy Tuesday.
Despite the long travel, she said she still felt excited to have made the visit to Barangay (village) Tuburan in Ligao City, where a 250-meter-high Kawa-Kawa Hill stands.
Neighbors encouraged Regulado into making the visit, along with 12 members of her family, to the hill, known as Kawa-Kawa for its cauldron-shaped summit that made it known as “the hill without a hilltop.”
Regulado said she went to the hilltop that has an 836-meter crater rim because she wanted to see the life-size sculptures of the 14 Stations of the Cross depicting the Passion of Christ.
While knowing she couldn’t possibly be near the installations depicting Christ while in agony, as these line the 500-meter path to the crater, extending all the way around the crater’s rim, Regulado has remained hopeful.
“The way I see it, I think can’t climb the hill but who knows God may give me enough strength to reach the top,” she said.
Angelita Castillo, 75, from Pasig City and a volunteer of Apostleship of Prayer at the Archdiocese of Manila, said she was able to reach the second Station of the Cross of Jesus carrying his cross.
Castillo said she was surprised when she reached the top which she deemed as a “place that reveals God’s graces.”
Elmer Bermejo, 52, of Quezon City, said trekking 20 meters between the life-size figures of Christ was a “sacrifice that made me seem like I’m one with God’s hardships before he was crucified.”
Rodolfo Pamorada, 67, of Barangay (village) Paulba, Ligao, said it was his first time to climb the mountain but found it “worthy even if tiring.” His wife Gracia was with him on the hilltop where they opted to mark their 50th wedding anniversary. The couple said they were there to continue to “ask for God’s blessing.”
3 million pilgrims
Aside from the Way of the Cross, Holy Masses are celebrated at Divine Mercy Monastery at the foot of Kawa-Kawa Hill. The monastery is run by nuns from the Carmelite of the Holy Trinity.
For the safety of pilgrims, city government officials have formed a medical team to attend to those who might get sick or collapse while climbing. An ambulance is also on stand by.
Mila Monzon, a tourism coordinator of Ligao City, said since the start of Palm Sunday, more than 100,000 local tourists have visited the place. She said the figure might be three or four times more on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
“Based on our monitoring, visitors came mostly from Luzon and from other parts of Bicol region,” she said. Also climbing the hill were around a hundred foreign tourists from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany and other Asian countries, she added.
Nature park
“In 2014, about 535,000 pilgrims visited Kawa-Kawa Hill during the (40-day) Lenten season,” Monzon said. Park management estimated that around three million pilgrims have visited the hill since seven years ago when it first opened to the public.
Albay Rep. Fernando Gonzalez (3rd district), owner of the 25-hectare Kawa-Kawa Hill and Natural Park, said there have been a lot of improvement since the park was first established in 2008. He said three pathways have been constructed, instead of stairs, to make it easy for visitors climbing Kawa-Kawa Hill that occupies 15 hectares of the park.
Gonzalez said the Stations of the Cross, which have now become a popular pilgrimage site, were created in 2009 with its sculptures made by Conrado Balubayan, a sculptor from Sta. Cruz town in Laguna province.
He recalled facing many challenges in turning the park into a tourism destination such as planting trees like mahogany, pili and narra.
The place has also become a venue for exercise, therapy and health improvement because of the clean air and refreshing view of Ligao City and the towns of Guinobatan, Oas, Polangui and Libon, in Albay and Bato lake in Camarines Sur.
“Our efforts to improve the geological wonder has paid off. We saw the potential of the place so we turned it into a nature park,” said Gonzalez.
He said they have also put up a bird sanctuary at the slope of the hill where two Philippine eagles and four owls donated by local residents are housed.
For recreational activities, the park has put up 10 units of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) that are for rent at P100 per hour.
Gonzalez said he has no plans of adding other recreational equipment as he wants to maintain the park as a haven for tired souls seeking oneness with nature and God.