By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

Note: This story was written and was published by the ZigZag Weekly and I guess even in the Manila Bulletin in April 2005. . I am sharing it here for those who have not yet read it at that time and likewise to serve as backgrounder for a story I am going to tell in a while.
If you have danced in Obando and sought other remedies and the longed for child has not yet arrived, why not try the spring which allegedly induces the birth of twins in Lubuagan, Kalinga?
Aside from keeping alive the hope that very soon you will have your offspring, the trip will also have a touch of history because Tiwod Spring supplied the water needs of General Emilio Aguinaldo and his men for three months.
Geronimo Alunday, 84, Lubuagan’s informal historian, relates that from March 16 to May 17,1900, Aguinaldo with around 200 men who were then being pursued by the Americans stayed in Lubuagan. They built makeshift barracks right on the flat ground above Tiwod Spring where the present police station is located and like the rest of the town, went to the spring for their water needs.
“When the Americans came, they built their camp on the same spot and also took their water from the spring. So did the Japanese during World War II,” Alunday said.
Of Tiwod Spring having fertility powers, Alunday has something personal to say. He related that in the 70s, he and his second wife Rebecca lived in a small house right below the spring a few meters from their present house and that was where their twin daughters Aster and Audrina, 26, were conceived.
The Alunday spouses point to around 10 more families who used to live or still live within 100 meters radius to Tiwod Spring which include those of incumbent Lubuagan Mayor Johnny Dickpus and Lubuagan Municipal Trial Court Judge Josephine Gayagay.
The spring now flows through several short metal pipes driven into the concrete-lined mountainside. Aside from being the source of domestic and irrigation water of the immediate area, the place now serves as a public bath and washing place especially during summer when the other water sources of Lubuagan Poblacion dry up.
Dickpus, 54, relates that he and wife Norma transferred to their current house which is around 40 meters from the spring in 1978. They were desirous to have a child as their firstborn died five years earlier and in 1983, their prayers were answered with the birth of twins Charisma Anne and Chanty Faith.
“The belief that Tiwod Spring has fertility powers is borne out of the observation that many families whose houses are located near it have twins and not only that, have lots of children. In our particular case, aside from using water from the spring, we approached specialists and prayed because we wanted to have children. My wife had irregular menstruation at that time,” the mayor said.
For her part, Judge Gayagay laughed that it might have been coincidental that they have twins – Godfrey and Godsend who are now 24 – just like many other families who live in the vicinity of the spring.
She said she never gave it a thought until a few years back when Dr. Amelia Miranda, an EENT specialist in Tabuk, related to her that a worker of hers (Miranda’s) who was childless for seven years of marriage conceived three months after she took home water from Tiwod Spring which she and her husband drunk.
Miranda related that Dominga Balliyao went to Tewod Spring on October 29,1999 and gave birth on October 27, 2000.
Asked for an explanation on the experience of Balliyao, Miranda said: “From my point of view as a doctor, may be the mind is stronger that the body. If you believe, it could happen. It could have a psychological effect.”
Some words of warning though: First, Tiwod Spring in its current state is not very presentable but according to Miranda, the women of Lubuagan led by former mayor Cristeta Duguiang promised they will keep it clean henceforth.
But more importantly, according to Alunday and Dickpus, of the more or less five outlets, there is one which induces infertility – and residents cannot pinpoint it up to this time.