The Great Divide

If one goes for the age-old catholic tradition of Biseta Eglesia and doing it just a little further than the comforts of your own city then go south of Cebu.

Southbound one might wrestle through the traffic of Talisay and Minglanila but that’s just about it. From the town of Carcar all the way down is a breezy coastal ride with lush greenery on your right meeting the expanse sea on the left. You’re like driving through the Great Divide. This experience alone gets you thinking, “How great Thou Art”.

SIMALA CHURCH (Sibonga, Cebu). This is renowned to be miraculous church of the Blessed Virgin Mary that sits magnificently on a hill.

Despite the scorching heat and long cues, throngs of worshipers steadfastly held their lines. My father once told me there can be no forgiveness without atonement. This version of sacrifice is atonement to most Filipinos.

And, yes, I see them all: young and old, teeners and those in between. To the young and the “young at heart” it is adventure, an escapade.

To those past their primes it is an activity of anything to ward off that torpid feeling of being left behind by a world that is no longer theirs. I remember Daddy walking really slow despite my effort of lagging to his cadence. I guess he must have felt the same.

BOLJOON CHURCH (Boljoon, Cebu). This is the oldest original stone and mortar church in Cebu. From afar nothing differs it from similarly comparable old Cebu churches but zooming in is a different story. It is massive!

The wall is made up of sea coral presumably lifted up from the ocean across the street.These are not just palm-sized stones, these are boulders intricately carved to fit snugly in corners and crevices. It’s like an organized brickwork puzzle (is there such a thing?). My two-arms stretched sideways are shorter than the thickness of the wall.

The pillars are so many I lost count. They are massive as well. If engineered well, cumulatively they can support a jumbo Boeing 747 with passengers on board.

OSLOB CHURCH, (Oslob, Cebu). A church with a belfry as big as the church. Hahaha! It is a church with lots of shaded parking space and well maintained covered basketball court on the side. A municipal police quarter and executive hall are conveniently within a few meters from one another. From across the street is the town’s marketplace and plaza. Suma-total it is the activity center of Oslob.

Sadly, behind all these massive structures are the vast majority of people living in makeshift squalid houses.  And, yes, we do not see "forced labor" upon us now as they were back in the Spanish era but I can still feel the ugly trepid feeling of being controlled like the puppet to a puppeteer.  Massive churches are now a thing of the past instead we see expensive schools of the likes of DeLaSale and Ateneo and breakneck rates they charge in first class church controlled hospitals.

I still see them both:  poverty and the Church.  Like the Great Divide.