Friday, July 26, 2013

ALONA ALEGRE, FATHER PIO, AND THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE

The Beach

The story was that Alona Alegre ran nude along an unknown beach in Bohol while shooting a scene with FPJ  for the 1973 film "Esteban".

She told a friend about the beach who told her German husband who came and built a resort or something and named the beach after the actress.

Today, almost every resort lined along or near that beach in Panglao Island has "Alona" attached to their names.


The Saint

Baclayon's church is of course reputed to be the second oldest in the Philippines after San Agustin's in Intramuros, tracing its Catholic history back in 1595 when it was established as a Jesuit mission.

Being such and of the belief that the structure has not been significantly altered since it was rebuilt in 1724, I thought the church should make it at least to the NCCA National Heritage Site list.


But it was not so perhaps it could make it into one of those pilgrimage sites because of a Father Pio image allegedly etched in one of the buttresses that was accidentally spotted by an unidentified tourist who was then reviewing the photos he/she took of the church.

I have my doubts though because honestly, the image looked more like Karl Marx.


The Bridge

Yes, it's that stupid bridge to nowhere that some inane asshole/s thought of.

If completed, the bridge would have required the demolition of the 400-years old Church of San Pedro in Loboc which is the second oldest church in Bohol after Baclayon's.

The church was erected in 1638 on the ruins of an earlier burned down structure.

It survived the ravages of time and the harshness of the land but almost succumbed to the folly of humans who thought of building a bridge to justify the church's destruction so they can help themselves to unproven tales of buried treasure within.

Today, the church stays as a monument to our colonial history and legacy.

The bridge stays too, uncompleted, a symbol of the people's triumph against madness, perhaps a painful but necessary reminder of the way we still are, a concrete manifestation of absurd thinking that a gallant but pitiful attempt to transform it into a hanging garden of sort miserably failed to disguise.


The In-Betweens  

We were a group in a tour so I have to bear with the usual tourist traps, the tarsiers, and Chocolate Hills.




I was the only churchophile so I have to do with drive-by shootings of the churches in Batuan, Bilar, and Albuquerque.




The Loboc River cruise was welcome and the late lunch that came with it appetizing.


I was not able visit the must-shoot colonial churches in Anda, Balilihan, Calape, Candijay, Corella, Cortes, Dimiao, Duero, Garcia Hernandez, Guimdulman, Inabanga, Jagna, Jetafe, Lila, Loay, Loon, Maribojoc, Tagbilaran, Talibon, Tubigon, and Valencia but I was happy enough to get myself second and third helpings of Loboc's version of the canton

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