Coming Home to Oquendo

The final approach to the ridge that hides Benitinan:
the concluding heights to scale after a punishing one-hour accent
from the valley of Mayubay to the boundary of Libacao and Balete.

Oquendo is regarded as the last frontier of Balete. It is a place far off from the urban poblacion and ergo still rich in natural resources. One gets there either through hiking or through a boat ride upstream which are both punishing. Originally called Matanat, it is one of the 11 barrios of Balete, Capiz in 1893.

A hidden valley called Benitinan

Today, it has seven sitios (villages) spread over its 1,368 hectares of land mostly of  mountainous terrain: Agbaeogo, Benitinan, Dayas, Panarga, Panukduka, Proper and Tagubaea. It is bounded on the north by Barangay Morales and on the east by Barangay Guanko, both of Balete. On the south, it meets Barangay Ganzon of Jamindan, Capiz and on the west, Barangays Ogsip, Guadalupe and Mayubay, all of Libacao, Aklan. Sitio Proper is about 15 kilometers from the Poblacion. And it houses one of the two primary schools--the other is in Sitio Benitinan, a small isolated valley southwest of Sitio Proper.

Health personnel readied for a bamboo raft ride upstream
to Sitio Proper. Takeoff point: Sitio Numa, Morales.

Oquendo is home to about 300 families, more or less. It has one health station and is attended by a midwife. The doctor and the nurses stationed at the Poblacion take excursion into Sitio Proper and Sitio Benitinan from time to time. Out-migration is common and the fertile land is left to a handful of upland farmers to grow the highly sought "Bisaya rice".

Sitio Dayas

Situated in the mountainous region of Balete, the people of Oquendo were often regarded as "taga-ilaya"--the highlanders or remondados-- who knew little about the civilized world. It is perhaps in reaction to this social stigma that many of her sons and daughters have endeavored to become professionals and excelled in their respective fields of specialization. To date, it has several certified public accountants, lawyers, teachers, engineers, nurses, etc. Aside from the Poblacion, it is the only barangay in Balete to have produced a priest in the person of the late Rev. Fr. Virgilio "Vio" Dandoy. As of this date, there are only two active Baleten-on Diocesan priests--the Rev. Fr. Reynold G. Corcino and the Rev. Fr. Wilmar Y. Oquendo.

In 2002, Fr. Vio Dandoy, his cousin then Punong Barangay Winnie Dandoy and former SB Member Pet Garmino launched their "Balik Barangay" paradigm to encourage their "kasimaryo" or townsfolk to return home to Oquendo and make it once again a productive place to live in. The initiative was solidified through the reidentifying the barangay as an agrarian reform community. The priest and the politicians used their clout to popularize the call that they manage to launch the event in a very high profile manner that involved the local ordinary, the lone representative of Aklan in the House of Congress, and a batch of local government executives and legislators and key functionaries of various national government agencies in the district.

Headwater of the Benitinan Creek

The fiery land crab, Oeangkas

Oquendo is indeed the last frontier of Balete. Up there, it is easy for one to reminisce those by-gone years when Balete was rich with natural resources and the crystal clear Jal-o flows unimpeded by silts and human waste. Up there, the freshwater eel (sili) feasts on freshwater shrimps (paye, bueok and patuyaw) and the bamboo groove thrives in lush of  festive jubilation. You will see there how the Maganhop towers over the Abaca and shelters the acrobatic Daeawidaw and Tagwatihot as they hunt spiders and insects on its undergrowth. On its damp fertile ground both the cultivated and the wild Gabi offer comfort and protection to those innocent minuscule land crab called Oeangkas. Once inside their abode (of having unique architecture--think I'll write something about it later), one is entertained to their "composo" and traditional dance called sotis.

Portion of the Jal-o River in upstream barangays of Guanko on its left
and Oquendo on its right.

When Balete was reestablished as a municipality in 1920 with a smaller land area as compared to its "glorious Hispanic days", Matanat and the rest of the barrios of Balete were renamed after some prominent families in the Poblacion. In this instance, Matanat became Oquendo to honor the memory of the Oquendos (both the poor and the rich--as Fr. Vars categorized his family into such dichotomy, his belonging to the former according to him, of course!). The Balete teachers of 1948 reported that Oquendo was named after a certain Simeon Oquendo and that it was established in 1917. I infer however that it was named either after Subas Oquendo who was a member of the Luzurriaga clique that was tasked of reorganizing the local government units in Capiz during Taft's governorship in the Philippines or of the first Presidente Municipal of New Washington in the person of Don Juan Oquendo in 1904 and who also became the first President Municipal of Balete in 1920.

The poblacion and its adjacent low laying barangays are frequented by flashfloods of phenomenal depths lately. Ea is showing signs of restiveness. And the mayor and the people of Balete remember the call of Fr. Vio and his companions for us to come home to Oquendo to redeem the denuded Jal-o River watershed that it housed. We have to do something about it before it is too late. We do not want to find ourselves preoccupied by what Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to as the pomp of bread, kingdom, stars and sky only to realize later to notice the scorn under the solemn fillet of the days that had passed us by. We will come home to Oquendo to celebrate life at its very beginning by bringing with us seedlings of hope for the next generation to cherish.

Google map of the town of Balete