ON A busy thoroughfare in Daet, capital town of Camarines Norte, near the Provincial Capitol and the municipal hall, you will find the first monument to National Hero Jose Rizal, unveiled on Dec. 30, 1898.
It was financed by contributions of the people of the province, led by two lieutenant colonels of the revolutionary army, Ildefonso Alegre and Antonio Sanz.
Whitewashed and triangular in shape, the three-tiered monument carries a dedication ''A (To) Jose Rizal'' capped by a star. The two novels of Rizal are cited, ''Noli 1887'' and ''Fili 1891,'' along with ''Morga,''an apparent reference to the controversial Spanish governor-general/historian Antonio Morga whose works Rizal annotated.
A few steps away is another shrine commemorating the martyrs and patriots who on April 14-18,1898, staged a revolt against the Spanish authorities. Many were killed, and the others were imprisoned and tortured. Enshrined are the names of 50 heroes, from Jose Abaqo to Eleuterio Zaleta.
The two landmarks are a good introduction to Camarines Norte and its progressive capital.
In the early 1570s, the Spanish conquistadores led by Juan de Salcedo, after subduing Taytay and Cainta, swept southwards to La Laguna (now Laguna), Tayabas,(now Quezon) and gained control of a large province which they called Ambos Camarines(later divided into Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur).
By the end of the century,because of the missionary zeal of the Franciscans and the Augustinians, most Bicolanos had become devout Catholics. And that is how, by and large, things still stand today, many Bicolanos being devotees of Our Lady of Peqafrancia.
Less known but also said to be miraculous is the Black Nazarene of Capalonga, to whom many Chinese are devoted, perhaps because this personification of the Lord Jesus brings them luck in business. Every year,on the feast day of May 13, many Chinese from Manila trek to Capalonga, despite the rough roads in that remote coastal town,to pay homage to the Black Nazarene.
Camarines Norte (or Hilagang Kamarines, as it is now officially called) is a province of mountains, rolling hills, fertile fields and valleys, and a crescent-shaped shoreline which faces the turbulent and sometimes treacherous Pacific Ocean, with its undertows. Among the major products of the province are gold and pineapple.
The fine art of jewelry making is alive and well in the province, where hundreds of workers fashion bracelets, pendants,earrings,pins, and other fashion accessories. The gold reserves are estimated at 23 million metric tons.
Gold extracting--with its use of open-pit mining, posing environmental hazards--has fortunately come to a virtual halt.
''Perhaps it's no longer profitable,'' speculates Pelusio R. Celzo, the provincial environment and natural resources officer. ''The gold may be buried too far down by now, or dangerously near the sea.''
On the other hand,pineapple plantations, mostly in the towns of San Lorenzo Ruiz and Basud, occupy an aggregate area of 2,556.5 hectares. Sweet and crispy, the pineapples here weigh from 0.45 to 1.30 kilograms.
Each year in May, the province holds a lively, week-long Pineapple Festival which features street dancers in pineapple-inspired, green-and-yellow costumes, and contingents from the 12 towns of Camarines Norte.
Because of its proximity to Southern Tagalog, Camarines Norte is one Bicolano province where people who speak Tagalog-based Filipino as a first language outnumber those who are native Bicol speakers.
''For political purposes,'' as Celzo puts it, five towns from Labo to Santa Elena are Tagalog-speaking, and seven towns from Vinzons to Basud are Bicol-speaking. But the Tagalog-speaking towns (like Labo, which takes more than an hour to traverse) are bigger.
From southern Camarines Norte to northern Camarines Sur stretches the Bicol National Park, a shared jurisdiction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Ambos Camarines.
''Of the 2,840 hectares in Camarines Norte, 600 hectares are virgin forest,'' reports forester Ricardo B. Ramos Jr. ''The rest are second-growth.''
Dipterocarp tree species, like lauan, tanguile, and bagtikan, abound in the park, which is home to the hornbill (kalaw), wild boar (baboy damo), deer, parakeets, eagles, water lizards and monkeys. The indigenous Agtas still live in the mountains of some towns, and during weekends they come down to sell their rattan products, like coin purses and baskets, and also to watch movies.
The capital of Daet lies 350 km south of Manila, and 100 km north of Naga City. Bus lines which ply the Metro Manila (Pasay Rotonda and Cubao)-Daet route include Philtranco,BLTB, and Superlines. It is close to an eight-hour ride by bus through good roads, passing through Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon.
A few kilometers away from downtown Daet is Bagasbas Beach, a surfing area with a long strip of eateries, drinking establishments and videoke bars which come alive at night,during weekends and especially during summer. There are portable picnic cottages labelled STD (''Sa Tabing Dagat'' or By the Sea).
Come Holy Week, the beach swarms with people. The
non-government organizations hold kite-flying contests, and the Jaycees, under their Sagip-Buhay project, bring in watchtowers and lifeguards. (Remember the Pacific undertow.)And on Easter Sunday, it's clean-up time for both private and public organizations led by the DENR.
''Get a boat, dumeretso ka lang (go straight) and you'll end up in Guam,'' says forester Ramos, laughing. And environmental management specialist Henry A. Lopez tells of a rare, disturbing incident in which a shark, apparently very hungry, pursued a boy swimmer right up to the beach, where it was hacked to death by the people.
More windy, private and scenic than Bagasbas is Mangcamagong Beach, with its beige sand, in Basud. Here and in the other beaches of the province, just strewn along the shores, are what the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) considers the biggest capiz shells in the world.
The BFAR intends to submit the data to the Guinness Book of Records. (The record on biggest capiz shells is currently held by Sri Lanka.)
From Mangcamagong beckon the nearby islands of Apuay Grande (which is connected by land bridges to Apuay Pequeqo), Malasugi, and Caringo. Apuay Grande, owned by an Australian and his Filipino wife, is perhaps the most developed tourist spot in the province. It has a white-sand each, air-conditioned cottages, swimming pool, restaurant and a putting green, among other amenities.
Another interesting ecodestination is Sinagtala Resort sa Kanayunan in Tulay na Lupa, Labo. It is located within a 13.5-hectare forested area along the banks of the Matogdon River. The main attraction here is a series of pools with cool waters diverted from the river, and separated by rock barriers.
A convention hall serves as a venue for seminars, weddings, and other occasions.
There are other places to discover in the province, like Lanot Beach, Talisay Beach, the Abasig-Matogdon-Mananap Watershed, and Pulang Daga in Paracale (noted for its gold), so called because the sandy beach is red.
And there have been sightings of the butanding (whale sharks).''They eat plankton and when they eat, their ears wiggle,'' notes Ramos.
Such is Camarines Norte, which is full of surprises, like a Black Nazarene venerated by Chinese from Manila, friendly whale sharks during certain months, an underground cave (Canton in Mercedes); waterfalls (Mananap, Santa Elena Twin, Colasi and Malatap Falls) reached only by hiking through the mountains; beaches, resorts and islands known only to a few foreign and local tourists (like those from Quezon); century-oldrevolutionary landmarks; one of the cleanest rivers (Basud) inthe country; jellyfish (dikia) which is air-dried and exported to Taiwan; and reportedly the biggest capiz shells in the world.
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