On January 6, 2023, I was finally able to hike Mount Pingganon. It directly overlooks the beautiful Looc Bay of Mandaon, sprinkled with the green islands of the elongated Pulo Dacu and the round Cagmasoso. At the foot of the mountain is the expanse of the peaceful agricultural landscape of Lantangan. Mount Pingganon is still an unpopular hiking destination, so I am lucky to be among the few who were able to witness its beauty.
One might think that the mountain is named so because it may look like some “plate” (as “pinggan” means “plate”), but it clearly does not look like one. There is a legend behind its name, which the locals have been calling it ever since. Thanks to our guide, Rodito OrtigaRivas, and his mom, I am quite lucky to know the story.
In the past, there was a portal in the mountain where golden plates appeared. However, these golden plates are supposed to only be borrowed. But just like anything that is golden, these plates became a symbol of wealth as well as luck. Sadly, there was a time when the locals may have been overwhelmed by greed and may have wanted to possess more wealth, to the point that they had not returned the golden plates. This may have angered the entities from the other world that the portal in the mountain was closed. And the golden plates that were once a normal occurrence on the mountain were never to appear again.
It is a mystical story, and I have a hunch about how the legend came to be. I am guessing that the name “Pingganon” came from the trading activities that used to flourish in the area, specifically on the shores of Lantangan, with Mount Pingganon dominating the landscape. I believe that plates were among the most common commodities being traded.
Looking at the etymology of “pinggan,” it comes from the Malay word “pinggan,” which means “plate.” Interestingly, the Cebuano usage of “pinggan” does not only connote “plate.” It specifically means “plate, especially the one made from China.” Because Masbate has always been shown in history texts as a Bisaya-speaking society during the early Spanish colonial times (while the existing local language “Minasbate” may have evolved from the role of the islands of Masbate as a melting pot of cultures and languages in Central Philippines only recently), the locals may have used the term “pinggan” the same way as the Cebuanos did. This may support my hunch that the name “Pingganon” is actually rooted in the trading activities of the locals with foreign traders, such as the Chinese, where among the prized goods were the plates (maybe golden plates, too).
Regardless of the races that traded with our ancestors in Lantangan, however, the legend may have emerged when the trading activity became a distant memory from the past. And generations of settlers gave different interpretations of this memory. What may have been an act where the locals could not pay for the goods (like prized plates) they acquired that prompted the visiting traders to stop trading in Lantangan became a piece of the legend wherein the portal from the other world stopped sending golden plates that were only meant to be borrowed because the locals did not return them.
I arrived with this hunch in terms of our past, because after all, it seems that Lantangan has been settled since ancient times. One of the islands in Looc Bay, Cagmasoso, was even one of the first communities in Masbate that was Catholicized by the Spanish colonizers. Looking at our natural resources this way is important because they not only serve as the setting but also witness the events that made us who we are and what we have at present.
So, when you have the opportunity to visit Lantangan and reach the peak of Mount Pingganon, do not only be amazed by the beautiful Looc Bay. You may also want to imagine what the Lantangan shores would have looked like when ships from various parts of the world stopped by the area and traded goods with the locals. In this way, we could see that the Lantangan landscape is not only one of beauty but also one of mystery and history.
The header features a photo from the Mt. Pingganon FB page (credit: Fotoj). Jofer Asilum’s short essay on the folktales from Mount Pingganon in Barangay Lantangan, Mandaon is part of the 2nd Edition of the book Readings on Bikol Culture published by the University of Nueva Caceres.
About the author
JOFER BUNAN ASILUM is the Founder and President of the non-government organization for sustainable development, Damgo Naton Masbate. He graduated with the degree of MSc Natural Resources Management at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand as a DAAD Scholar of the Federal Republic of Germany. He is currently finishing his degree MA Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Prior to this, he graduated with the degree of BA Philosophy, also from UP Diliman. He is a licensed environmental planner who has worked as a development consultant for the Provincial Government of Masbate and the Local Government Units of Mandaon, Milagros, and Pio V. Corpus. He also served as the Planning Officer and International Relations Officer of Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa, Sr. Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology in Mandaon, Masbate.