Siargao Island revisited © 2004

EVERYDAY, tsunami-like Pacific waves barrel through the reefs and coastlines of General Luna town and three other coastal municipalities in the tear-drop shaped island of Siargao. The place is a surfing enclave located on the northeastern side of Surigao del Norte in Mindanao.

Though dangerous to the uninitiated, the waves that continuously hammer the island’s coasts are wholesome enough for surfers who perpetually worship waves for that ultimate exhilarating glide. Nothing in this world can make them turn their eyes off of Siargao Island.

Approximately 800 kilometers from Manila, the island of Siargao and its group of tiny islets has changed for the better since I last visited it with writer Monica Feria and the late Edith Eco in 1985. Those days, a fishing trawl was the only means of getting to the island from Surigao City. At present, air-conditioned fast craft ferries carry more passengers to the island.

I was on the island barely three months after a typhoon called Nitang had struck Northeastern Mindanao in late 1984. Siargao and its adjacent islets bore the grunt of the typhoon which left the inhabitants at almost a total loss and devastation.

As I looked at the photographs I took in 1985 on the island, they struck a vivid reminiscence of the early years when the island was famous not because of its perfect glimmering waves and friendly people, but because of putol – the legendary 20-foot crocodile who gained notoriety in the early ‘70s for devouring some of the island’s hogs, carabaos and fowls. It was also revered that even the only kartero (mailman) of Pilar town disappeared in the gaping jaw of this monster croc. Folks depicted that only a mangled bicycle found on the swampy road was the only memory left of the mailman.

An island oldtimer said that putol continued to terrorize the swampy mangrove villages on the island for several years before he was finally captured by croc wranglers and brought to Palawan, where his skeletal remains are said to be on display at a crocodile farm in Puerto Princesa.

Today, after twenty years since I last stepped foot on this fabled paradise, General Luna is now swarming with foreigners – and not just foreigners. They are the whole gamut of the international diving and surfing world – a myriad of professional surfers, divers and backpackers in search of the ultimate wave and underwater marine adventure. They come in groups, with partners, while some came alone – treasured surfboard tucked under their arms.

Quite new to me is Dapa’s newly-constructed port which was bustling with activities. Disembarking passengers wait in line to take the 30-minute habal-habal ride from the port going to the town of General Luna.

Dapa is Siargao’s main trade hub and the bustling human activity at the port dictated my instinct that it was time to photograph this place again - albeit knowing that time was not on my side.

Very typical of remote Mindanao islands, the habal-habal is the king of the road. It is a two-stroke motorcycle outfitted with side steel railings that can accommodate more than six passengers at a time. It is the only known mode of rapid transportation on the coral- and limestone-laden roads of the island, aside of course, from a couple of jeepneys - filled to the roof with riders and their cornucopia of loads. The habal-habal’s counterpart in Davao’s mountainous provinces is the ‘skylab’ motorbike.

Indeed, time was not on my side. My second stint on the island a few years ago was a short stay – two days – compared to the one-week stay I had twenty years ago.

It felt like it was the longest two days of my life, where I had to literally eat dust while traversing at full speed from General Luna to Pilar, then to Dapa, then back to General Luna.

The hasty trips restricted me to thoroughly picture the island and its inhabitants. I needed more time to be able to come up with a comprehensive perspective on what changes have taken shape on the island.

One thing that mesmerized me when I disembarked at the port was the peculiar thought that nothing seemed to have changed on the island. A single name worth recalling over and over still cast redundant specks in my mind, reminding me that on this island a classic character still casts a giant shadow on the island’s demography.

I went to look for him.

It wasn’t really hard to find former General Luna Mayor Jaime “Jimmy” Rusillon, the quintessential walking tall man of the town’s 16,000 residents and its unlikely cultural minorities. He is not a Clint Eastwood look-alike but his height towers like the pacific waves that endlessly batter the island’s coastline.

Call it dynasty but he was never defeated in any local election and he served as mayor of General Luna for four consecutive terms. His father, Filomeno Rusillon, was also the mayor of General Luna in the ‘60s way well into the ‘70s.Today, Jimmy’s energetic and lovely wife and former biology teacher, Cecilia, succeeded him by winning the town’s mayoralty election. She is now on her third term in office.

The man-cum-historian whom foreigners fledge to like and traditional politicians failed to rein-in, is still the man to reckon with (albeit he admitted retiring from politics) when it comes to promoting and preserving the pristine natural wonders of General Luna town.

He also finds time to tell visitors of stories when he played in the midget basketball team of San Beda College with Freddie Webb. He also boasts of being a former high school classmate of the late Andy Poe, FPJ’s younger brother.

In 1969, he finished law at the same school where constitutionalist and Rep. Ed Nachuria and Rep. Zacaria Candao were his classmates among others – quite a rare fete for a remote island lad.

Rusillon has become the honorary adviser to the foreigners when problems with the locals arise. He is also regarded as the brainchild behind Siargao’s entry into eco-tourism and the surfing world. Rusillon takes pride to being called the “ninong” (godfather) of the surfers.

For a while, I thought that Jimmy Rusillon was pulling my leg. He calls the foreigners in General Luna his “cultural minorities.” He boasts of having introduced a crowd of Americans, Swedes, Brits, Australians, Japanese and German surfers as his "indigenous tribe" to former President Joseph Estrada when the latter visited the island in 1999.

According to Rusillon, Siargao was first "literally" discovered by several drifters from Palau who accidentally landed on the island’s shores in 1910 until they were fetched and repatriated by a U.S. Navy boat back to their country four years after they had landed.

Then there was the Russian seaman who jumped ship and swam towards Guyam island and to the shores of General Luna. And finally, the recent discovery of the perfect waves by John Michael Boyum, who was also called Max Walker (the Phantom). With these three significant occurrences, Siargao has never been the same again.

Rusillon said that Boyum was a professional surfer from Hawaii who later discovered the coastal point where waves push through the reefs that send crests of horizontal whirlpools. He called this place Cloud Nine, and turned it into world class surfing spot.

“While Hawaii is ranked as the number one surfing hub of the world, Cloud Nine in General Luna shares the number two ranking with Billabong, Australia and G-Land in Indonesia,” Rusillon said.

In surfing jargon, Cloud Nine waves offer the surfer world class right hand breaks that create machine-like barreling perfection. The waves work on any swell when the southwest winds blow and work best from two to three meters. According to surfers, a wave this big with a peak that rises abruptly, hallows out and breaks heavily in just two meters of water.

It was in the early ‘90s when Boyum first set foot on the island. Rusillon described the American as a mysterious trail blazer and loner who went fasting for forty days and eventually conked-out on his favorite spot overlooking the barreling waves.

“Boyum was a champion rider who had surfed the world’s greatest waves. He found solace here, fell in love with the place, bought a small property, and built his own bamboo cottage until he eventually died where he fasted after several months of solitude and oblivion,” said Rusillon. “I remember when he said that he wanted to surpass Christ’s 30-days fasting record - and so he did.”

The American surfer was later buried at the local municipal cemetery living two surfboards, some personal belongings and a box containing US$63,000, which the mayor later returned to Buyom’s sister in California.

“Surfers have their own culture here and they will not hesitate to call those whom they believe are not part of their genre by obnoxious names. Surfers have their own distinct gutter language,” Rusillon said. “Local folks are used to these foreigners with their gutter talk and strange behavior, but the more dignified ones are the opposite.”

The former mayor said that the “saner” surfers who come to General Luna and the island’s 19 surfing spots are very much conscious of the ecology. The foreigners, he said, teach local kids on the proper disposal of waste and keeping the environment clean and preserved.

“I believe that in the future, we can easily blend with this new kind of culture,” Rusillon stated. “I guess it’s not wrong to say that blending the Asian dream with the western dream is a good way of understanding, learning and adopting cultures.”

Despite being classified as a fifth class municipality, General Luna has its own fair share of progress, too. Dream satellite cable televisions are now installed in most of the resorts and cottages that the foreigners built.

Cellular phone signals are at a usable level and rarely do brownouts occur because the submersible power cables that run from mainland Surigao del Norte across the heavy waters of the Surigao Trench, provide 24-hour electricity to the island. A lone internet café along the rows of cottages and huts provides foreigners an access to the information super hi-way.

Rusillon said that at present more than P150 million in tourism investment has been poured in General Luna by foreigners seeking to cash-in on the waves’ potential global market. Proudly, he boasts of having 240 of his constituents now directly employed as staffers in several 5-star resorts owned by foreigners.

Indeed, the days have vanished when the transistor radio was the only form of entertainment on the island. But the most fabled is of course indulging in the regular sessions of scotch whisky with bow and arrow, and the weekend chi-la-la or charismatic Christian cult that practiced transcendental and spiritual meditation inside the local parish church.

Some of Siargao’s islands are also known to have the biggest mangrove forest reserves in Mindanao.

The island’s topography is densely graphed with long stretches of wetlands that nurture the propagation of commercial agar-agar (seaweeds) and other exotic seafoods.

Despite these natural wonders, the former mayor can only dream of one thing – that someday a local boy or lass from General Luna will etch a name in the international surfing world. To realize this, he encourages youth on the island to learn and master the art of surfing.

Surfing competition on the island started in 1994 when Rusillon started the first Siargao Surfing Classic where hundreds of professional surfers competed.

Since then, international surfing competitions had been held on the island and continue to lure professional surfers from all over the world.

The influx of surfers and tourists prompted Rusillon to order the construction of a 300-meter long catwalk and surfers’ observation platform that runs from the sandy landings of Cloud Nine beach to the rocky reef where the waves roll in unison.

Indeed, the island of Siargao has many stories to tell. Much can be said on the future of surfing in this beautiful island paradise … and one has only to listen.

Extraordinary people like the Rusillons remain optimistic that the island’s pristine image can be preserved because they consider the harmonious co-existence of the foreigners with the island’s residents as the best collateral it can offer for tourism to sustainably succeed on the island.

As I bade the people of Siargao goodbye, and turned to have a last look at the beautiful place, the thought of returning justified the squint of smile that I have imprinted on them.

Siargao Island revisited was published in the December 25, 2005 issue of Panorama magazine.