The Guinayangan Republic

I keep Googling the other night till my fingers were numb, so that at least add an article regarding our small lighthouse “Parola”. I have found a related site about lighthouses in the Philippines and to my frustrations none of them are even close to Ragay Gulf. The site is quite informative yet shortlisted to very few popular lighthouses like Cape Bolinao lighthouse.( http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/phl.htm )

I phoned my seafarers friend who were my (Bunkmate or Mistah in PMA) back in the PMMA(Philippine Merchant Marine Academy). Wishing he could help me with my little curiosity. I narrowed his research to focus on and gave him the coordinate 13°54'52.39"N, 122°30'31.73"E where supposed to be the Lighthouse erected. My friend helps me and quote “To find its history is to find its purpose”. After all lighthouses were built to aid nautical navigation. Lighthouses give absolute bearing to ships or sea craft with reference to north. Signaling the ships its true relative position from the chart it uses.
He also said that in lighthouses the observer is always assumed to be at a height of 15 feet, although on large ships he may be 40 to 60 feet above the sea. Assuming a light at a height of 20 to 30 feet, the range to an observer at 15 feet above the horizon will be about distance is 6.4 + 14.3 or 20.7 miles.. This is known as the geographic range of the light. I recall the table in book of Navigation by Bowditch.



Charting the range it will depict a purpose of Catabangan Port or Ragay wharf. That “Mang Taning” my old folk use to tell me a story then that Catabangan once had a port, where large Log ships who carry Timbers and Logs to and fro the Stretch of Gulf. Also Ragay Gulf were mentioned numerous time in a book “The closing of the frontier: a history of marine fisheries of Southeast by John G. Butcher.” Where he documented that lots of fishing activity of foreign fishing like the Japanese sardines and mackerel trawlers during the 50s and 60s ( http://bit.ly/zRen4). With that demand I would assumed that lighthouse was served that purpose.



The book mentioning Ragay gulf in several passage.

I promised my father Estanislao that If I saw a book documenting the “Basnig” I will read and translate it for him. He died last summer that I haven’t told him I did. If he only knew that Basnig means “Bagnets” in English he would at least amazed what information Technology can do in either way of our life. It’s funny that fishing problem and its history of our gulf have been written by a foreign guy with statistics and data, we should be ashamed of our selves!. It means we really doesn't care at all about our surroundings. The book even documented and illustrates how “Basnig” catches fish. Though it’s late to fulfill my promise to my father, but at least someone like the British John. G. Butcher published a book about the gulf conditions from circa 1850 to 2000.



I never recalled that the (Parola) lighthouse was operating in my child hood days neither my father. That time It became a place for short picnics, sightseeing and boating destinations when checking in some Tagkawayan Resorts. I believe we associate Parola as our own in Guinayangan, but geographically it is part of Tagkawayan Quezon. Nevertheless we both owned it to say the least. I have to thank Second Officer Paul Carcasona to show me the Bowditch books to enlighten me with my unusual curiosity. To my father with his little educational literacy bring out the best out of me. To where you are it’s my duty to tell our kababayan about something we ultimately neglected, the gulf. It is from where he took all our source of food from my childhood to my teenage life, till I learn to feed myself. I hope someone could preserve it since nearby tourist destination like Sta Rita and rest of resorts may take advantage of the rare locations where Parola is in their horizon’s view that adds beauty in it.

-By Cornelio Cenizal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com