On my latest trip to Northern Mindanao, I had an interesting road trip with a couple of friends to and from Cagayan de Oro City. The trip going was uneventful and rather tiring because I had little sleep the previous night, and it rained hard.

On the other hand, the trip from Cagayan de Oro back to Davao via Bukidnon was quite rejuvenating, even though it was physically tiring. I’d missed traveling by land, that’s why I jumped at the chance to go with my friends.

I had mixed feelings, though. Not much has changed in the landscape, if you consider the larger picture. But when you look close enough, you’ll see that progress has indeed started to make inroads in the countryside. There are quite a few more buildings around, especially in places like Malaybalay and Valencia. Even in Buda (short for the Bukidnon-Davao border) you see more people and houses around.

The highlands of Davao City — Marilog, Epol, Salumay, Bagani, and beyond — aren’t as pristine anymore. Signs of progress, like carved out mountainsides, garish lighting all around, and others, are much in evidence. That rather depresses me. Little by little, the days when going to Epol was an adventure is becoming a thing of the past. Now it’s so easy to go there by motorized vehicle; there are trails all over the thinning jungle; and uncollected trash riddle the caves and waterfalls.

And it wasn’t as cold as before any longer. I was surprised when we took a brief break somewhere in Salumay (that’s about 2 hours away from Davao’s city proper), because the late afternoon wind wasn’t as bitingly cold as years before.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still many breathtaking sights along the Davao-Bukidnon Highway (which my grandfather built in the 1970s)… It’s still a trip worth taking… But if we don’t stop and think about preserving nature and taking positive action, the generations after us might not get the chance to enjoy the lush forests and pristine rivers that once were.

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