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BY HERBERT VEGO
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CALUYA, Antique is the municipality to which Semirara Island belongs. And Semirara is where Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) mines coal.
How would the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) that would raise excise taxes on coal affect the local government of Caluya?
Methinks “not much” for an answer, although everybody in the Philippines would certainly spend more due to consequential increase in prices of consumer goods in the New Year.
Caluya earns the biggest income – more or less half a billion pesos annually – among the 18 municipalities of Antique. Its jump from 4th class to 1st class municipality in 2007 could be described as phenomenal. The majestic municipal hall, a stone’s throw away from the beach, mirrors progress. So, too, do the concrete buildings, the creeping road network, electricity and water system.
However, there is no “coal forever” on which Caluya would depend for survival. In fact, Mayor Genevive Lim Reyes would not like her constituency to thrive on coal alone. There are potential alternatives, including tourism. Being only three hours away by boat from the famous but now congested Boracay Island, the “spillover” tourists would accumulate and eventually turn it into another “paradise.” It is a getaway for nature trippers escaping from the cacophonous city life. There, they can go snorkeling, diving, boating or swimming alongside playful dolphins.
There is now a fast craft – thanks to the improved sea port in Barangay Masanag – that links Caluya to the town of Libertad in mainland Antique within two hours (used to be four hours). That should encourage tourists to come for its annual tourism event, the Tatusan Festival – three days of tribal dancing and merrymaking in the last week of May.
The name of the festival stems from its indigenous crab known as “tatus” – a unique blue-streaked crab that thrives mainly on coconut meat. It sells locally at P500 per kilo but may cost thrice as much when sold outside the island. This elusive burrowing creature can only be caught at night with the help of a flashlight and grilled coconut as bait. It can grow up to 40 centimeters and weigh up to four kilograms.
It is with gratitude over the bounty of tatus that Caluya celebrates the Tatusan Festival through a parade of colorful crab-shaped floats, street-dancing and booth display showcasing various sizes of tatus, among other highlights of the festival.
A dot in the map in the northernmost tip of the province of Antique, Caluya has a population of 30,000 spread out in the cluster of eight islands. Apart from Caluya Proper, it has seven more islands: Sibay, Sibato, Sibolo, Liwagao, Nagubat, Panagatan and Semirara.
Sibato, a 15-minute boat ride from the main island, is very much like Boracay with white-sand beaches. Unlike Boracay today, however, its sea is still pristine and crystal clear; the island, sparsely populated. It could be another Boracay.
Meanwhile, seaweed farming has become a profitable livelihood of the townsfolk. Caluya is now the fifth largest seaweed producer in the country. Needing no fertilizer, it takes only about three to four weeks to harvest. The natives grow seaweeds by attaching the stems to a long string, which are suspended in the water using styrofoam. It’s amazing to see the vast seaweed farm systems spanning hundreds of hectares in Caluya’s waters. Compradors buy seaweeds at P200 per kilo for processing into carrageenan, a gum used as stabilizer or thickener in jellies and dairy products, processed meat, toothpaste and pharmaceutical products.
The local government provides some 1,500 seaweed farmers and fishermen with seaweed propagules and fishing gears, respectively.
No wonder, Caluya is no longer maluya. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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