Tabla, Liloan

The long climb to Tabla.

Road in front of Tabla Elementary School, it flows down to the barangay hall. This is the highest elevation in the barangay.

What I remember most about Tabla are its roads. Winding rounds that undulate up and down. Off-camber blind curves. Long descents with spire-sharp rocks. And there is that 1.2km steep, non-stop climb on the way to Tabla Elementary School.

Tabla is a town of scattered houses. Its U-shaped topography cradles the livable area of the barangay, which in turn, braces a lush, green valley in its middle.

One of Tabla's valleys.

Many people in Tabla live through farming, either scraping the most corn from their small patch of land or rolling-up "inadlaw" (literally "daily") wages from the bigger farms. Unfortunately, it is not everyday that farm hands are handy.

So some people, the lazier ones, make their living with through habal-habal. Those who do not have the money to buy their motorcycle, or those wives and children who want to augment the meagre income of their husband or father, make bamboo sticks.

In Cebu, where there is sky, there is also faith. This proves true in Tabla. They have their Chapel situated just meters away from the barangay hall. It was built in the '90s during the time of some Padre Manayon.

They have their mass every Sunday. At present, the masses are presided by a Father Jumao-as, who might be celebrating his last at the barangay this Sunday, November 28. As overheard from a local lady, the collection is not encouraging enough for the priest.

The chapel in Tabla, Liloan.

Ang Balay nga Tabla

Before, the land that spans Tabla is a part of another barangay in the flatlands. In 1975, the place became known as Sitio Tabla.

Tabla is Cebuano for wood planks. The place was named thus because of the "Balay nga Tabla," which is its first landmark. Situated just across the school, the house was owned by a Cabesa Ingkoy, a local leader during the later Spanish times.

Cabesa Ingkoy's front of the tabla house became a place for trade gatherings, known as "tabo" (meet). When people were asked where they were going, they would reply "didto sa balay nga tabla."

Where the balay nga tabla used to nestle.

Population increased over time and in 1980, the first dirt road was bulldozed up to the balay nga tabla and some kilometers more pass it. As time moved forward, the tabla house crumpled down into antiquity. It is in 1986 that the last woods of it were seen.

By then, there were enough people to consider Tabla a new barangay. Somewhere in the '80s, a handful of people submitted a petition that Tabla become a barangay of its own. (Will still have to refer to the municipal hall in Liloan for the exact year since the interviewee was uncertain of this part.)

Path leading to the house of Cabesa Ingkoy's descendant.

Map of Tabla

Cabadiangan, Compostela

26 kms north of Cebu City lies Compostela, a town that borders both on the sea and the mountains. Among its many mountain barangays is Cabadiangan. Cabadiangan can be accessed through Estaca, Compostela. But it is a bit of a travel before you get there.

Cabadiangan is a barangay in Compostela, Cebu. Most residents live in plains surrounded by mountains

There is another Cabadiangan by the way. It lies just next to Cabadiangan, Compostela, but is a part of Liloan.

The bridge that separates Cabadiangan, Liloan and Cabadiangan, Compostela.

Cabadiangan got its name from “badyang,” a plant that resembles taro (gabi) but is very itchy to the skin. It grew everywhere on that place and so, it came to be known as Cabadiangan (“a place with many badyang”). But I don’t know where the hell they have gone. All that I saw there were vegetables, mangoes, and corn.

Vegetables crawling on trellises form a canopy.

Cabadiangan according to a local:


Kangmasyang and the Lady with a Golden Blanket

There is a hill that dominates Cabadiangan with its lushness and size. They call it Kangmasyang, after a man named “Masyang” who was its lone resident.
The hill was very steep and, for some reasons, Masyang decided to settle there decades ago. Masyang has long been dead, but the hill keeps his name alive. Kangmasyang means “of Masyang.”

Kangmasyang. Inside the hill lives a maiden blanketed in gold.

There are two legends about the hill. One says that the hill is filled with water inside so the river at its foot never dries. There was once a nine-month drought that hit the barangay, and the river inexplicably kept on flowing.

Because of its abundant supply of water, MCWD (the biggest water supplier in Cebu) once negotiated with Cabadiangan to get water from there. But the locals did not agree since MCWD would not agree to provide free water to the locals in exchange for their consent.

The river at the foot of Kangmasyang.

It is also said that inside Kangmasyang lives a beautiful maiden who has a golden blanket. The maiden is not an action figure, you know, and she is not supposed to do anything. So don’t ask why what she is there for. She is just there.

Listen to the legend yourself:


Pigs, goats, and water

Cabadiangan has ample underground water, a flowing river, and a wide plane. This makes it ideal for the barangay to grow vegetables. But nature’s blessings do not always bring good.

Since Cabadiangan has a lot of water and a vast plane, people were encouraged to build their animal farms there. the flowing river makes it easier for them to dump the waste of their animals.

Before, people can drink water from their own wells. Now, Manong here has to travel far to buy commercial distilled water. Not only does he have to buy drinking water by the gallons, he also has to pay habal-habal fare.

Manong lived in Cabadiangan all his life, just like his forefathers.

Daily life

Cabadiangan is not like the mountain barangays in Cebu City where you see big houses, four-wheel drive cars, and kids on their high-end mountain bikes. Most people in Cabadiangan are working- / lower-class people. Many of them rely on selling crops for a living.

A city barong-barong’s equivalent in Cabadiangan is something like this:
A house made of Nipa and rice sack.

There are many kids, too, in Cabadiangan. Ask the parents why. Early in the morning, you see them walking their long way to school or riding habal-habals in bunches.

Kids on their way to school. They have to walk 3kms more under the drizzle to get to Cabadiangan Elementary School


These kids should not go to school too early. They’ll learn nothing anyway


Plants & crops grown in Cabadiangan

A real vegetable garden should have both flowers and vegetables. Or flowering vegetables

Cabadiangan grows a lot of manga which they sell in the markets in Liloan. They cut the branches to clear the road.

Corn is also grown in Cabadiangan, mostly for consumption.

Patola, the tinola veggie

Cabadiangan has rice paddies, too. Though obviously it’s not something that you can get something out of.