Thursday, May 29, 2008

Jagna and Camiguin Linkage Increases Sales of Bohol's Calamay

Written by Joe Espiritu
Columnist of the Bohol Sunday Post

Don't look now but he Jagna Camiguin ferry has done wonders for Jagna. This is noticed by calamay makers and vendors. Sales of their product has doubled and tripled. Even if the holiday season is marred by early rains passenger traffic has not let up. Some make pilgrimages up the Ilihan Shrine. For a time, Jagna becomes a local tourism spot.

There had been stories that the Jagna Sierra Bullones road is starting to be improved. The road to Mayana, the northernmost barrio is cemented. The landslide portion is to be rehabilitated. The Jagna Sierra Bullones connection via Mayana has to be improved. Commuters are of the opinion that this is not an all weather road. The national government program will remedy this.

There is one thing that may render the Looc Mayana portion of the Jagna - Sierra Bullones road better. Highway authorities say that the required grade for a national highway is six percent (6%). That is; the rise is six meters every hundred meters. This is to limit the wear and tear of the engines of those plying that route. There are buses that navigate those places and the nearby barrios of Mayana. However they only run once or twice a day.

There would be entrepreneurs, who would want more frequent service. With transportation frequency, downtown living schoolteachers would not mind being assigned to the upper barrios where the busses will reach them. Upper barrio folks would not feel neglected by downtown municipal authorities. Some are more loyal to the centrals of the towns near them.

Commuters have to time their activities. They have to finish whatever their transactions are in time for the return trip. Otherwise they will be stranded downtown at night. There may be those who would mind being left downtown at night. That is if we have some nightlife to offer. However, after twelve midnights Jagna is dead. Commerce ceases, most activities stop. What will be up are drunks and rowdies.

Perhaps, some sociologists would be asked how to sustain the fiesta momentum after May. This could be possible. If Jagna is to offer nightlife, laws should be stringently enforced. More policemen or women should be hired. Amusements attract undesirable elements. Those who would like to find amusements would like to feel safe while they are at it.

Take this case in point. We have been hearing about Matapay. First we thought we heard Magtapay and that is in the Cantagay point. But it is somewhere else.

Such an odd name, perhaps derived from the Visayan word tapay or flat. Yet according to stories, there is nothing flat there except the pocket when going home. It is a seashore resort in Nausok where the girls there will help one go broke with pleasure if it suits one's taste.

There are those who enthused that girls there are beautiful. He must be drunk.

The beauty of Helen of Troy was judged on how many ships had been launched in the Greek crusade to recover her. So we will make a standard how many beers will one drink to make a Matapay girl beautiful. If she is pleasing to the eye without drinking a bottle, then she is beautiful. One to two beers mean she is pretty.

Three to five means she is allowable, six to twelve means doubtful. Over that, she is a horror, a candidate for horror movies.

Before we introduce nightlife to Jagna, it is best to consult municipal and religious authorities as well. A well-run establishment would be a tourist attraction; locals would patronize it as well. A badly run concern might arouse the ire of the Josephenians, CWL, JAMAVEA, JACAMAVEA and other women organizations looking for their errant husbands who went with the members of the JAMCODA, Habalhabal Inc and other motorcab drivers to those doubtful places.

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