PRESERVING Cebuano culture is a painstaking one. When I stayed in some Cebu City mountain barangays for around six years in the 1980s, I observed old practices that I did not see being practiced growing up in the city’s lowlands. I only got to understand those old practices when I wrote the history of my town of Tudela in the Camotes group of islands commissioned by the Cebu Provincial Government and handled by the University of San Carlos.
I even had this urge to document those old practices as a way of preserving them, but work and other things made sure it remained an urge. I would have wanted to do more researches in the mountain barangays where apparently the old practices can still be observed, but I could not get to do it. But I have written about these a few times in my columns.
For example, when I was in Barangay Buot-Taup, there was this presentation called linambay (okay, my memory has dimmed a bit so I am not sure about the name now). I understand this is a local version of the moro-moro. Unfortunarely, that was also a time when we did not dare show up in public, so I never got to see the presentation.
I don’t know if linambay is still being shown in that barangay, but I still have to hear the city government promote it. I am sure Barangay Buot-Taup officials are clueless about the tradition, but city officials should have known that they have a treasure there. Linambay is even more valuable than those shows presented by radio talents like Teban and Goliat during fiestas.
Then you have those rituals. One time in a village called Morga, a farmer invited us to a feast, but before that he did a ritual with the help of an old man. A chicken was slaughtered and was boiled whole until tender. The old man then muttered what was supposed to be a prayer using the chicken and bunga fruit wrapped in buyo leaf. That old man must be dead now.
When I wrote the history of Tudela, the Cebuano Studies Center provided us with some materials that helped us understand more the life in the archipelago before the Spaniards came. Rituals like those I observed were talked about. It has become obvious to me that if Cebu City wants to preserve its old ways, it merely has to study the old practices in the mountain barangays.
As for those tunnels, the City should preserve them and use them as part of educational tours. For example, there is another tunnel near the peak of what was once a village called Bocawe in Barangay Sapangdaku. One mouth of the tunnel faced east and had a good view of the plains far away, while the other mouth faced west and had a good view of the mountain range going to Balamban. That tunnel was apparently used by sentries.
Cebu City is old, and we Cebuanos should be proud of that. Yet government is not making an effort to showcase or preserve that. Leaving everything to the private sector is wrong. The City has more resources than say the Cebuano Studies Center or even the newbie Palm Grass hotel. It should therefore do its work.