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.