ILIGAN, Philippines – I never hesitate to travel to the Islamic City of Marawi whenever the opportunity arises. I’ve loved the place since my first trip there as a little child in the early 1960s when the older generation of Iliganons still referred to it as Dansalan. My mom’s cousin, the late Dr.
Oscar S. Fudalan Sr., practiced medicine there.
His wife, my Auntie Bianing, was a midwife who brought many Meranaw babies into the world during their stay in this summer capital of the Philippines in the South. We’d drive over for birthday celebrations with Uncle Oscar’s family. Travel took more than an hour over the muddy and cratered highway, further slowed down by thick fog that settled at certain times of the day.
We were amply warned to avoid hitting any animal – not even a chicken – else we would pay blood money ( bayad sa kamingaw or payment for the loneliness). I’m sure this was just another stereotype ingrained in the psyche of Mindanaoans across generations of prejudice. CREATIONS.
Sample langkit creations from a workshop in Marawi City. – Ricardo Jorge Caluen The changing soil coloration signals the ascent to Marawi’s 700-meter elevation: dark in the Iligan side to orange-reddish starting in Balo-i, Lanao del Norte. Hills and mountains frame an area that witnessed so much history from the time of Sultan Kudarat down to Datu Amai Pakpak, Governor General Ramon Blanco, General John J.
Pershing, and through the struggle for Bangsamoro autonomy. Of .