UNEARTHING HISTORY BUT STILL ENJOYING

by: THEODORE CHRISTIAN RESIDILLA

THE ARRIVAL (CCP terminal A)
January 18, 2008, the day when 1CMID along with other freshmen sections discovered a big part of the Philippine History just across Manila Bay in a 1hour and 15minutes travel.

We took a cab from UST going to CCP of one reason, we don’t know the place. We were the first group to arrive in the CCP terminal A, well we weren’t surprise that much because it was as early as 8:00am when we arrived। So, we just took pictures first and wait for the others to come. When the moment we got bored we went on the nearest restaurant/bar just located beside the terminal.

We were having mango juice and a pack of Clover Chips as our morning snack. And that was too heavy in my pocket because I took care of the bill for our order. Well, it was fun to stay in Inggo’s grill and bar. Although, the smell of the sticky sea side with a touch of pollution was blowing us off at our less than 1-hour stay in the restaurant।

At the terminal, we were the “most” quiet section inside। It turned out that the wild CMID were positioned in a big cage. Some of our classmates helped in to carry the stuffs the Sun Cruise to give us. We were as excited as anyone else, but in a more behave way of exposing our excitement.

THE SUN CRUISE FERRYBOAT
We were the first batch to aboard the ferry, an incentive for being punctual. We chose the upper deck as our spot to stay in the ferry for viewing purposes. It was a moment of discomfort of changing our seat numbers for us to sit with our groups- basically by friends.

Of course, first priority is the friends and group picture taking. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get our group photo because Timothy was very shy and Lloyd was a bit far from our seat. But still we enjoyed the rest of our time waiting for the ferry to start its engine and move.

It was about 10:40 when the ferry started moving. Everyone was blissful and went over the view deck to watch how the ferry moved away from the port. Everybody was in to the camera capture thing. The trip was very enjoyable especially when the ferry started to wallop because of the tides, which made the trip more amusing.

ARRIVING AT CORREGIDOR

Corregidor was a beauty; the natural island formation was preserved, unharmed by the World War II. It’s a tadpole-shaped island. Every part of the island had been used for defense territory, headquarters, and the military base for the soldiers protecting and defending the country. Other area had served as hideouts and assembly areas.

The moment we stepped our feet off the ferry, excitement rushed into our bodies we hardly ran towards the beach to refresh ourselves (we weren’t allowed to swim though)। It did not matter, all we did is to play along the rocks and shore of the beach, took pictures, smell the fresh ocean breeze and felt the cold water through our feet. Well, good for me I experienced that because I was just wearing a pair of slippers for the whole trip while the others were so dressed and worn their shoes that they can’t even step in to the sand.

The beach moment was cut-off, it was the time to eat our lunch. Uhmmm, the lunch served wasn’t that tasty to me, and the chicken scared me most because it looked like uncooked. Anyway, after eating we went to the grasses and played on the obstacle courses. We were very aggressive in making our time worthy. We have been playing and taking photos in the beach and the grasses up to 2:30. Well of course, we went there for the tour, the “real tour” I mean.

At past 2:30 in the afternoon, the busses arrived, the other sections were ignorantly hurrying to reach the bus for them to go first। Well, we were as polite as we could that’s why we let them go first. The last two busses arrived, there we were separated, the other bus were half-occupied by other section and most of the boys of CMID, our group stayed there since most of us in our group is a boy so we joined the rest of the clan with Ishi and Jewel leaving the others (mostly girls except Jeremiah, Redmond and Mark) to the last bus with our Professors.

Our busses took separate routes, we first went to Malinta Tunnel, explored the whole tunnel and watched a chronological scene of dioramas and videos inside the tunnel showing the historical events that had happened during the war in Corregidor. It was fun touring the whole tunnel, but some of it’s sub-tunnel was creepy and unsafe. Well, others were chattering of the ghosts they see… naah! Them and their silly stories, there’s no ghost during the tour, just other student displaying their “PAKITANG GILAS SKILLS.” The tour continued until we reached the end of the tunnel with another opening at the other side of Malinta Hill. It was fun taking pictures inside, It’s a kinda dim place but had a better ambience.

After the “Spooky?” tour in the tunnel, our bus took us in the battle field, we passed by the McArthur statue of “I SHALL RETURN” and other significant places the military barracks, suicide cliffs, and ruins.

Our second stop was the Battery way (batteries are cannons, areas with batteries in Corregidor were defense areas from aircrafts or the air-attackers). The battery can rotate 360degrees and can change its angle up to 90degrees. The battery is a solid metal, only direct hit bombing from air can destroy it. Our next stop was the defense area which the largest battery was planted, it can also rotate 360degrees but cannot change its angle due of its heavy characteristic.

Then, we went to the Battery Grubbs or the commonly known as “disappearing guns”। It is a three-layered defense area in which batteries are drawn below when fired to change its ammunitions and to refill ready for a fire again। The place was so cool, at the top-layer shimmers the beautiful sea of Bataan। It was windy in the place, and we decided to take our snack while exploring the place। We were eating our packed-snacks while telling jokes and stories। We were so bonded that time… of course because we have the food that gathered the goons of our section and especially the PGs of the class were never absent and one of them was “Louie”.

After our snack stop, we went directly to the Old Spanish Lighthouse and Spanish Museum. There’s no much view from there except climbing the lighthouse and viewing more trees and bodies of water below. I didn’t enjoy the place compared to those we previously toured. Although it was a no fun for me, it was the moment we met the girls of our section. There we saw AUDREY RENALENE PATACSIL standing like, of course a woman, but looked so surprise she hardly jumped to her feet upon seeing us. But we parted again minutes after.

From the Spanish Lighthouse we went back ahead to the Pacific War Memorial Park, there stood several emblems of war, along its side stood the Mile Barracks and the Cine Corregidor and the Bachelor’s Headquarters on its other side. At its back part was the Corregidor Museum, the Dome of Valor and the Historical Park which leads to a beautiful scenery of the Sea. And there ends our tour.

Upon waiting for the other sections to return to our Bus, our group with the other groups were playing and fooling each other again just in front of the PWMP. We were consuming all our remaining time. Louie got injured, well it was a slight injury, a very slight so it did not matter anyway but he went in the bus to clean the wound leaving us in the helicopter pad still playing. As to our surprise the moment Louie went back to the bus, the bell started making sound signaling us to return.

Then there it ends, our bus took us straight back to the port. Well, our tour guide still allowed us to explore places along our route. There we saw the Old Swimming Pool, The 8-battery ruins and other embellishments and ruins. And minutes later, we already reached the port, we were the last batch to aboard the ferry. Everyone was settled on their seats, Our section was very noisy as always but the other section was the nosiest. The ferry starts to move and everyone had their own actions, Milet and her group was telling stories, John’s group was asleep, Charm’s group was as always dramatically quiet, the others were changing their clothes and our group was seriously eating our remaining snack.

The trip back to Manila was bumpier than our trip going to Corregidor. It was 6:45pm when we reached Manila, on our way displayed the Sun’s beauty as it kisses the Horizon, it was very beautiful, and the bad part was I am already sleeping. Well, the whole trip was superb. I would suggest everyone to visit Corregidor for vacation, family outing, or fieldworks. Promise, you won’t regret it.