Banahaw - Off limits to visitors

Beginning April 5 2004, and covering the next five years, Mount BANAHAW will be off limits to visitors


MYSTICISM, religion and romance shroud Mount Banahaw. The scenic mountain and popular tourist spot in the province of Quezon is said to be the home of ancient spirits and a shrine for supernatural power.


For these reasons, numerous religious cults believe Mount Banahaw to be sacred, where devotees must go to make their yearly pilgrimages and celebrate their rituals. Some even have settled down at the foothills of the mountain to commune continually with their gods.
Over the years, however, tourists and devotees alike have inflicted much damage on Mount Banahaw’s pristine surroundings.



Owing to neglect and carelessness, heaps of garbage littered the area, according to the Lucena Protected Area Management Board. The municipal watchdog tasked to protect the mountain’s environmental health disclosed that nearly half a million tourists and devotees annually climb Mount Banahaw, during the Holy Week and two weeks before Lent.


We can only guess at the amount of damage these visits have wreaked on the mountain. Moreover, since some cultists have settled on its footsteps, we can surmise that part of their food and water comes from the mountain’s plants and wildlife. This, too, can upset its ecological balance.


Preserving Mount Banahaw has gained paramount importance, since it is the largest watershed in Southern Tagalog and a magnet for tourism. A member of the board, Manny Calbayog, also Lucena’s municipal and natural resources officer, has disclosed that the towns around the mountain have started to experience a decrease in their water supply—no doubt as a result of the harm done to Banahaw over a long period of time.


We commend the move to save Mount Banahaw from further deterioration by imposing a five-year ban on tourists and religious devotees who would trample all over the place.
Beginning April 5, and covering the next five years, the mountain will be off limits to visitors, except for certain assigned areas at its foot where worshipers can do their annual rituals. April 5 marks the start of Holy Week, Expecting a howl of protest from faithful and wayward pilgrims, Calbayog noted that “only two out of ten climbers are real devotees.” If they were really God-fearing Christians, would they leave garbage in their church? Indeed, would a devout Catholic leave bubble-gum wrappers inside the Saint Peter’s Basilica?


He has observed that garbage left by “devotees” after Holy Week included sleazy magazines, playing cards and empty liquor bottles. These are hardly the things you’d expect from people who go to Mount Banahaw to nourish their soul and spirit.


The moratorium on the beautiful mountain, harsh as it may seem, is very necessary. Given the mountain’s historic and cultural niche, the government must act to protect it. The ban could have been prevented, of course, had those who frequently go there obeyed the old saying: “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Date: February 25, 2007 : We are at the summit , Santong Durungawan. (Holy Window ) Unang Dungaw , cooking our dinner : ) .

Local folks said that it is now open for public but they have not announce such thing because the news were easily spread out. As the saying goes " May pakpak ang balita may tainga ang lupa ". If you are truly a devotee of Mt. Banahaw you can surely know these and grab your back pack and trekking through the Mountains of Holliness.