By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Summer capital. Am not referring to Baguio city or any part of Cordillera.
I was surprised to see the two words together boldly announced in big letters on a building in the mid-elevation town of Leon. It says in no uncertain term, ‘Welcome to Leon, the summer capital of Iloilo’.
It was Nov. 9, 2024 when I was there, and I felt a bit hot even at 3 pm when we arrived at the town center. Oh well, we came out from an airconditioned vehicle. That explains it.
I have been in many parts of the Philippines like Bukidnon, parts of North and South Cotabato, Cebu, Negros Occidental and Oriental which are even cooler than the climate of Leon but they don’t claim to be the summer capital of their areas.
Let’s give it to them in Leon, though. There are actually several towns in Iloilo that maybe considered ‘highland’ municipalities, but I guess, they are no higher than the población of Sablan.
Of course, Baguio is Baguio and it is a barometer of sort. Many places in the country would like to be called little Baguio, like in a place in the town of Maayon, Capiz that I visited in October. Or, maybe it’s just cool to them to be called Summer capital.
The town of Leon is actually a bustling 2nd class town, only about 36 km away from Iloilo city. It is dubbed, Summer capital because of its mountain resort area called Bucari. The area is really a tourist attraction with its cool climate. Pine trees are freely growing there together with other tree species found in Benguet like teak.
The Bucari area actually consists of 15 barangays from Leon and 5 barangays from the adjoining town of Alimodia that I also visited. It is part of the Central Panay Mountain range. Its total area is one-and-a-half times bigger than the total area of La Trinidad. That part of Alimodia town hosts the so-called seven cities, definitely a tourist area. I would have liked to visit the area but it will take more than one hour to reach it from the población, which I wasn’t able to, because I didn’t have the luxury of time.
The area has an average elevation of 764.5 m above sea level but some areas reach as high as 1,300 m asl.
It grows practically all the vegetables produced in Benguet except potato. This is one of the reasons why Leon is also called the vegetable basket of Iloilo. Temperatures there average 18-20 degrees C and sometimes dipping down to 10 degrees in Dec-Jan.
Strawberries are also produced there because of those temperature regimes.
So, the Summer capital tag is correct after all.
It is not difficult to understand why Leon also has a facility similar to the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center based in La Trinidad. But they just call it food terminal. Staff from the municipal agriculture office toured us to the facility. They explained that it accepts both the highland and lowland vegetables, root crops, banana, and other crops which come also from the adjoining towns. It is full of traders from various municipalities, and even from other Panay provinces, in the morning
The town is justly called the Vegetable center not only of Iloilo but also of the entire Panay island.
Arabic coffee is also one of the present crops that the town is proud of. They have a brand name called Camandag coffee, which is already in the market. It is a name that immediately prodded my inquisitive mind to ask why it was called so. I had in mind the civet coffee in which coffee beans pass through the digestive system of that furry animal before they are processed into what they say as the most expensive coffee.
Well, Camandag, which is in coffee bag, is named simply from the name of the barangay that produces it. And it is not expensive.
Now, they are also developing their cacao industry.
Some of the Panay residents are thankful that they have Bucari area where to enjoy cool temperature. Baguio, according to them, is too far away. I told them: “Baguio is Baguio, you should visit it when able. It will be an entirely different experience to remember”.
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