THE SECRET OF LOON, BOHOL PHILIPPINES

The Philippines is divided into three main places called Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon region is the biggest part located in the north pole, where we could find the capital city. The Visayas region is located at the center of the map whereas the Mindanao is located in the southern part.

I belong to the center part of Visayas. There are lots of different places inside on it and Cebu City is the big main city. But I'm not living in Cebu. My parent raised me up in Bohol, it is also a small island belongs to Visayas region.

Bohol has a 47 towns, 1,113 baranngays with 75 islands/islets. There are 31 baranggays located along the coastline included the only main City of Bohol, called Tagbilaran City. It is facing the one of the noted tourist spot in the Philippines, called Panglao. There are 17 inland barangays. Panglao is the new location of the latest international airport of Bohol.

My beloved hometown where my parent raised up me and my siblings. Until now, my father and my siblings are there. My mother died last March 02, 2020 in this town.

My hometown is Loon

Loon, Bohol is the second class municipality with a 67 barangays. It has two tourist spot island called Sandingan Island and Cabilao Island. When I was small I already heard about the Cabilao Island Beach resort but we can't afford to go there. Sandingan Island is so near to us and it was the hometown of my grandmother. One hectare land of my grandmother's family sold to a British family last 2014 and now, they are building beautiful beach resorts. If I have a money, I want to have a business there.

This is the road going to the Island of Sandingan where we could find many new developed tourist spots. Last vacation, I didn’t able to go there and I was just taking picture in this road. The back part is the island and this road was made up long time ago to connect the people quickly.

Why is it called Loon?

According to my forefathers and school, it is called Loon because the sources of the water from our neighbor barangay in the part of the mountain meet the water to the sea and it supported the whole town of Loon. Loon in Visayan dialect refers to the English word mating. The source of our drinking water is located in the boundary of our barangay and the nearest one. My grandfather was the old maintenance working in the water district before he died.

I'm belong to the mountain of Loon.

The road going to our home, 3 kilometers from the highway.

I was born in Badbad Oriental Loon. It is 3 kilometers away from the town. Our town is along the sea. We were enjoying the sea every weekend before picking seashells and fishes. We have rich aquatic resources.

Unforgettable Church of Loon, Bohol

[image source](https://facebook.com/oldbohol/photos/a.447273408705140/447273748705106/?type=3&d=m)

I recommended this link for more detail about our church.

Credit to the owner of the picture #Old Bohol.

The church was made by the Spaniards during their visits in the Philippines islands in 18th century if I'm not wrong it was 1851. It was a very big and made from stone church. Spaniards headed by Magellan brought Christianity to our place. They build old stone churches all over Bohol Island and we had one in Loon. It was name Our Lady of Light Church. Inside the church, there were so many old statues of the Virgin Mary and the Apostles. There were angels made from stones. It was a very good artifacts. All the inside the church had an art of different Apostles and Jesus Christ. It was so memorable place to us but unfortunately it was turned to zero ground after the 2013 , 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastation in my place. I never had a picture because all of my album was damage by the earthquake. I requested a picture from my cousin to show up it here.

This ws a picture inside the church sent by my cousin , the one in the picture, Jho-wanna Lamour de Dieu. She allowed me to used this for this blog purpose.

Note: The owner of the picture Jho-wanna Lamour de Dieu sent me this picture through my messenger. I’m asking for the detail of my post. I highly credited this picture to the owner and even I didn’t cut it. I posted it here the same way she sent it to me. She said , it was taken the year 2012 before the 2013 earthquake.

At the back of the church, there are hundreds steps of made of stone stairways going to the sea. This is still visible up to this time. (Picture also credited to the owner Jho-wanna Lamour de Dieu)

It’s me during my 2019 vacation. It is the Statue of Liberty of Loon made last 1921 with the statue of our first National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal.. It is located beside the old church.

I was so happy to see my town, standing again after the 7.2 mag. 2013 earthquake who ruined our house and some houses in our town.

The new Catholic church stands at this moment The old church is hard to copy the structure since it was made by hard stones.(picture credit to the owner Jho-wanna Lamour de Dieu)

The church was the most memorable place for us as a rembrance from the Spanish exploration in our town long time ago.

The new Loon.

Last year when I visited my hometown, I was so grateful and thankful to God. The town stands again. I heard that we have already received some tourists from another part of the world. We have a lot of beautiful spots now and there is a tourist spot that is in progress.

Our language is Visaya and it is more on Spanish accent. We speak Tagalog and English as it is mandatory for our education from Kinder garden up to college. So if you visit Loon, Bohol I could assure you will enjoy your vacation.

Before coming across our town, you have to be in Panglao International first if you are on board an airplane. Panglao has the very best Beach Resort The Bohol Beach Club and many more latest beaches I never know yet.