Cave as the source of life

By: Leslie Hayzel Tagala

“We need the cave and the cave needs us.”

This is always the statement that echoes inside my mind, when I remember one tourist spot in Baguio, the Crystal Cave. I do not know what kind of relationship it explains. Is it mutual or parasitic?

Last September 23, I went to Crystal Cave. I did not only go there to have some adventure, but also to clarify some things. It took me ten minutes from the town to the cave. When I got there, I immediately went to the Crystal Cave Group Association (CCGA) office, a small white house with a large parking lot and a large white gate. I looked for “Manang”, my tour guide ever since, when I first went there.

“Maam bumalik kayo para bisitahin ang cave. Hindi po kayo naniwala sa mga taong nagsasabi na delikado ang sitwasyon sa cave. [Ma’am, you come back to visit the cave. You did not believe those people who are saying that the cave is at the high risk,]” she said.

I was happy because of the warm welcome of “Manang” gave me. “Manang”, whose real name is Erlinda Milo, 45 years old, said that nothing has changed in the Crystal Cave.

“Ma'am nililinis pa rin po namin ang cave at ginagamit namin iyong pera na ibinabayad ng mga turista na tulad nyo para mas gumanda pa ito. [ Maam we are still cleaning the cave and we use the money that tourists like you are paying to make the cave more beautiful],” she said.

“Papaano naman po iyong stalactites at stalagmites, nasa maayos pa ba silang porma? [How about the stalactites and stalagmites are they still in the good form?], I asked.

“Opo ma’am. Noong nandito po kayo dalawang buwan na ang nakakaraan , naaalala nyo pa po ba kung ilang kristal ang nakabalandra sa harap ng CCGA office? Dahil kung naaalala nyo pa po, mapapansin nyo ngayon na kaunti na lamang ito. [Yes, Ma’am. When you were here two months ago, do you still remember how many crystals were displayed in front the CCGA office? Because if you can still remember it, you will notice now that the crystals are now little in number]”, she said.

I asked her who commonly buys the crystals and she said foreigners, mostly Americans. I was surprised about what she said about the cleaning of the cave especially about the crystals that came and are formed from the stalagmites and stalactites.

I asked her where did they (CCGA) got the crystals they were selling. She said that it came from the second cave.

The second cave is 1,109.9 meters and considered to be the longest cave, Mining and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) CAR records showed. Manang Erlinda said there are three caves in Barangay Crystal Cave and only one cave is safe to enter. The second and third cave were blasted according to her without any reasons, but the second cave can be entered by anyone but with a high price.

“Php 150 ang babayaran sa pagpasok doon, pero ayaw ko pumunta roon kase maraming kwarto at matubig ang dadaanan [Php 150 is the entrance fee, but I do not want to go there because there are a lot of rooms ( tunnels) and water is on your path],” she said.

“Pupunta lang ako roon kung may “tour guide” na mga lalake [I will only go there if there are tour guide guys to be with],” she added.

I asked her if I can visit the two caves, but she told me that they are far away from the first cave. Because I have no chance to visit the two remaining caves, I asked about the price of the crystals.

She said the price of the crystals ranges from 20 to thousand pesos, and it depends on the size of the crystals.

When she said Php 20 was the lowest price, I told her that someone offered me a crystal that is only five pesos and someone even gave it to me for free when it was my first time to visit Crystal Cave.

“Iyon yung mga kristal na ninanakaw ng mga bata sa harapan ng CCGA office para makabili lang ng candy o kaya soft drinks.Pero kapag nakikita ko ang mga batang iyon na nagbebenta ng mga kristal sa maling halaga, sinasabi ko naman kung ano ang tamang presyo [Those crystals are stolen by some children in front of the CCGA office just to have some money to buy some candies or soft drinks. But when I saw those children selling crystals at the wrong price, I told them what the real price was],” she said.

She said that the money came from selling the crystals are not for the CCGA fund but for the people living near the cave, because the CCGA fund is only for the cleaning and rehabilitation of the cave. They do not get any salary for being a tour guide of the cave so selling crystals is where they get some money.

She said that the crystals they are selling are also bought from people who are getting and selling the crystals from the second cave.

I asked her who were those people and what they look like. She answered that she even does not know who they are.

“May mga lalake na pumupunta rito at nagsasabi sa amin na bumili ng mga kristal. Binebenta nila ang mga kristal sa malaking halaga halimbawa limang daan. Siyempre hindi namin kaya iyon, kaya binababaan namin iyong presyo ng dalawandaan singkwenta o kaya dalawandaan halimbawa [They are guys going here and telling us to buy crystals. They are selling crystals in a high price for example Php 500. Of course we can not afford it, so we lowered the price like 250 or 200 for example],” she said.

Furthermore, Manang Erlinda said that the highest price of crystal that can be found there was Php 5,000. I was shocked about what I learned and I told her to tour me to that cave. Before we arrived at the end of the cave, Manang showed me the Php 5,000 crystal. It was huge, and it is like 4 ½ feet and its wide is like a wine barrel.

I asked Manang before I left what will they do if, there is a law saying that removing and holding the stalagmites and stalactites are prohibited. She only repeated the her answer two months ago:

“Ito ang buhay namin. Kailangan kami ng cave para malinisan ito.Kailangan namin ang kagandahan ng cave at ang kanyang mga yaman para kami ay mabuhay. Tanging ang cave lamang ang nag-aaruga sa amin [This is our life. The cave needs us to clean it. We need the cave’s beauty and resources so that we can survive. Only the cave cares for us],” she said.