Features: Bongao Peak – The Mysterious mountain of Tawi-Tawi
By: Becky D. de Asis
Not easy to climb this 750steps
of the enchanted mountain located in the
hearts of Bongao Municipality.
Bongao Peak or Bud Bongao stands grand at the Island of Bongao, the
provincial capital of Tawi-Tawi. It is the Islands most conspicuous feature
famous for the reasons: the local believe it has healing powers hence, local
offer their prayers when climbing the peak and it offers a birds eye view of
the islands turquoise waters and white sand shores of ineffable picturesque.
Before entering the enchanted mountain, you must bring a bundle of
bananas or any foods for the guardians,
a long tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) or monkeys asking a piece of
banana or foods as your pasalubong for
this long-tailed, brown-eyes Macagues, the waiting security of this mysterious mountain of Bongao.Aside this
macaques there are different species of insects, birds and plants, some endemic
and most threatened.
The secrets of the mountain, sprouting 340 meters above the sea
level and almost 250 hectares, one of
the remaining moist forest in the country and ARMM government protected area.
Accordingly, there are some religious groups or pilgrimage conducted their rituals in
different ways of praying. Along with, it has secret cave within the mountain,
known as bats cave, dwells the cave and find foods around the mountain during
night time.
Untold stories to tell:
Around 650 years ago or 14th century, the first Arab missionaries who
travelled from the Middle East to the Philippines to introduce Islam were
burried in Bud Bongao.One of the station in Bongao Peak is the tomb of Sheik
Karimul Makdum, an Arab merchant and missionary who built the first mosque in
the country, now called Sheik Karimul Makdum Mosque located in Bohe, Indangan,
Simunul where his first foot landed in 1380.
Tourists Destination:
Ms Kim Amparo said, there are
some foreign and local tourists every
week visited the peak around 2,000 registered tourists from different
countries visited according to provincial tourism officer of Tawi-Tawi.
The provincial tourism also enhancing their capability to assists the
big flacks of tourists every day orienting them first, the do’s and don’ts in order to
preserve the area and maintain
cleanliness while climbing.
Bongao Peak is locally managed as conservation erea and the first
eco-tourism park in the region. It is one of the 12 key biodiversity sites in
the Philippines, protected under the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) New Conservation Areas in the Philippines (NEWCAPP).
Development:
As a primary landmark and recreation site, the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has allocated P56 million pesos to put in place an
access road to Bongao Peak and to develop the area as an eco-tourism
attraction.
Aside from the access road, also included in this project is a tourists
center building, wherein visitors can register and receive orientation before
climbing the peak Around 750 steps with railings for support and protection and
waiitng sheds.
The breathtaking and majestic view, makes the challenge of trekking
this mountain rewarding. Beautiful view decks installed just make you fell free
to seen, how beautiful the world is....
Mayor Que said, improvements of
the peak Bongao will attracts thousand of tourists just to feed out
their curiosity about the mysterious mountain of Bongao.
Cold breeze, moist mountains,
long-tailed browned-eyes monkeys, bats cave, a 14th centuries tomb of Shiek
Makdum, a beauiful places and histories may treasures while where in the peak
The local government of Bongao reeled off this project in October 2015,
after inking a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the regional government.
It is one of the priority projets of the ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman as
an effort to preserve and conserve the environmental and historical signifiance
of the site.
.....if you wish to discover everything the mysterios island,
snorkeling, swimming, scuba diving, island hopping,,, please contact us or
email @ beckydeasis531@gmail.com