PI Field Trip

Today was our PI class field trip to Banahaw. Ate Lee and I left home early. The bus was supposed to leave at 6:30 am but schedules are always prone to change. It was an hour later before the bus started moving. I sat on the back of the bus with my sister beside me. Behind us were four of her bio blockmates. The rest of the students on the bus were from the college of public health. Before proceeding to Banahaw we stopped over in Sto. Tomas, Batangas were we bought our lunch. We were supposed to eat them when we get to Sta. Lucia falls but I was hungry so I finished most of my lunch in the bus.

After an hour or so we finally arrived in Banahaw, Quezon. We took a jeep ride to our first stop which was the Sta. Lucia falls. It was about a 100 meters below us so had to go down a flight of steps. It was slippery and none of us wanted to fall down so we were very careful in our descent. When I reached the bottom I saw children jumping off the rocks and diving in the river, in another corner were people doing their laundry, on the far side was the falls that was fabled to have healing powers. We had to cross the river because the picnic site was on the other side. Sir Esguerra was already on the water helping the others to cross. The water was really cold. I held my shoes up high so that it didn't get wet. I crossed the river as dry as I can be but then I tripped and got my pants wet from the knee down. Good thing though the camera in my pocket didn't get wet.

The place was serene. The sound of the water rushing down was calming and relaxing. It's my first time to see waterscapes such as this after living in a desert country for almost half my life. I wanted to swim but I didn't have extra clothes. Ate lee never said anything of us stopping by a river so I wasn't really prepared for this. The others took out their lunches and started eating. I roamed around and took pictures of the river. After an hour we had to go to our second stop so we started climbing the stairs we went down a while ago. If going down was hard, going up was even harder. There were about 289 steps all in all. The one in our Batangas field trip was only a 100. It's like climbing a twenty story building.

When everyone got to the top we hiked across the village to our second stop which was the chapels of the Rizalistas in Banahaw. Along the way we caught sight of certain symbols like the all-seeing eye. If you watched National Treasure you'll be familiar with this one. It's a triangle with an eye at the center. Esguerra said it is a sign of the Rizalistas and is associated with free masonry. I remember seeing it in a basillica in Batangas on our previous field trip.

The old chapel was in renovation. The new one however was one of the cleanest that I've ever seen. The tiles were so bright and shiny that you could see your reflection on them. Although they are more or less like Christians in belief, there are major differences. Their priests are women whom they call their sumprema. Their first ever suprema was MBB (I forgot what the initials stand for) whose teaching have become part of their doctrines. They revere Rizal and other Filipino heroes. It's interesting though that Aguinaldo was not one of them. During the forum with one of the leaders, I asked if they treat Rizal as a god. He answered that Rizal is just as man as any other of us human beings and it is only God whom they worship. I have my doubts though. I've also noticed that they were feminists. In one of the paintings outside the old chapel they quoted a verse from Jeremiah. Part of it says, "Mananaig ang mga babae sa mga lalake." When I asked him about this he says that they are not feminists but they believe that when the end is near the women would be superior to the men. He cited examples of how in today's society women have equal rights with men. He also used GMA as an example.

It would be better if the person we interviewed was the suprema herself because she would have given a better insight on their sect and what they believe in. A lot of the beliefs shared by the person we interviewed closely resemble that of the Catholic faith so it's really hard to tell if they are a cult sect, as most of the people believed.

Anyway the interview lasted for almost two hours. After that we packed up and went home. It was an exhausting day but the fun and the experience made the trip worthwhile.

This entry was posted on February 13, 2005 at 9:41 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.