It Started with a Flagpole, Now It Became a Party and Beach Resort: The Centennial Park of Iligan City

            In 1998, Iligan City built a really tall flagpole just across the national highway on an empty lot facing Iligan Bay in Barangay Dalipuga. This flag pole is so tall that taking a picture with an ordinary camera is a failure. It does not fit into one. Because it is so tall, it requires a really huge flag to balance the view. That was what it was like about more than ten years ago, during the commemoration of the 100 years of Philippine Independence.

SNORKEL

            The bayside area used to be the place where we spent all the days of our summer snorkeling, swimming and jumping off the quay where a diving board was built. Even at that time even before it was declared as a marine sanctuary, the sea life was already robust. There was a wide variety of marine life starting from the different colored starfishes, sea urchins, sea plants, sea anemones, and glow in the dark fishes.

FOOT SPA

            The sea has a natural foot spa, much like the foot spa offered by some sea park in Metro Manila. Everytime we have scabs, which is most always all the time because of our activities, we sit on the quay with our legs hanging deliberately and submerged in the water. The fishes would come and start biting off the scabs in a ticklish pricking manner. When they are done, the scabs are gone and the wound is cleaned, cleaner that if it were dressed in the clinic.

LITTLE  BAGUIO AND SLEEPING UNDER THE TREES

            A hill lined up with trees faces the bay. We call it little Baguio because of its cooler temperature and because of its height and because we wanted to experience Baguio in our imagination. There was a hut on top of the hill that overlooks the sea on the left side and the national highway on the right side. But the best thing about the area in the park is that you can find a place to stretch and doze off on the benches or on the soft grounds. Some bring their hammocks. Hang them on the branches and sleep under the shade of the trees and the friendly sea breeze.

RESTAURANT AND FLOATING COTTAGES

            With the establishment of the centennial park, the government turned the adjacent sea into a protected marine sanctuary and started to prohibit swimming on the area but the people did not budge. Near the sanctuary, they built a half-floating restaurant, called Hoyohoy Restaurant. This is one of the places in Northern Mindanao where KC Concepcion and Sam Milby shot their film just very recently. Beside the restaurant is a limited beach with a crown of thorny bushes that provides ample shade to the swimmers. In fact it is used also as a dressing room.

            Facing the restaurant are floating bamboo cottages not too close to sacrifice privacy of the swimmers and not too far for accessibility. A bamboo raft or a banca is used to reach the area. Families bring food there and swim there while enjoying the site of the passing vehicles on the national highway and the view of the Iligan City Port and the distant view of Misamis Occidental.

SUNSET

            If Dapitan has their Sunset Boulevard, Iligan City has the Centennial Park. With its crimson sunset, the park is a favorite romantic destination of lovers and those who has just lost love. The area within the park is covered with a lot of huge trees all of them aged at least ten years. The sea wall is also lined up with Talisay Trees which offers ample shade at any time of the day.

VIDEOKE AND SARI SARI STORE

            In front of the park and just across the highway are sari-sari stores about twenty of them lined up with their tables and chairs lounging on the sidewalk. There used to be only one proud store back them, but it mushroomed to more than ten when I woke up and in due time there were twenty of them competing for their market share. And since maybe the small-scale entrepreneurs have flourished economically, they installed huge videoke machines in their stores. When you pass by the area you are startled by the loud music and you can just imagine what it is going to be like if all the 20 stores tune in all their videoke machines simultaneously. But this is what fun is like especially on the weekends, summer and Christmas because the park turns into a venue for parties and family reunions, which is a good thing for the stores. Today and on weekends, the peace and calm of the park and the marine sanctuary has turned into a loud repartee of videoke music and happy people dancing and partying on the beach, the park and beside the highway.