Looking Back : Hot springs
Ambeth Ocampo aocampo@ateneo.edu
Inquirer News Service
WHEN you talk about hot springs in the Philippines, the conversation usually starts with the town of Los Baños (which literally means "The Baths" in English) in Laguna province and, of course, those in Tiwi town in the province of Albay. As a child, our family would visit the thermal baths in Los Baños regularly, staying in a place called Agua Santa [Holy Water] for a weekend. While most children enjoyed pools and water sports, I preferred cold pools rather than these hot dips that left me quite spent. Then there was that disagreeable volcanic scent in the water. I remember my first visit to the Bicol region, where we dared not try Tiwi where eggs were placed in a handkerchief and dipped in holes in the ground with hot water. After a few minutes, one asked for the rock salt and feasted on hard-boiled eggs. When I caught myself enjoying the Laguna hot springs a year ago, it dawned on me that I was approaching senior citizen age.
After resigning from the intrigue-ridden Emilio Aguinaldo Cabinet, the "Sublime Paralytic" Apolinario Mabini decided to retire in a place with hot springs. He did not go to Tiwi or Los Baños but settled briefly in a place called Balungaw, in the northern province of Pangasinan. Here he soaked and reflected on the fate of the country he loved. He looked back on his brief stay in government, once upon a time the closest and most trusted adviser of the president, then a sick disappointed man licking his wounds in a thermal bath. I visited Balungaw recently in the company of National Artist F. Sionil Jose, who brought me all the way to Ilocos and Pangasinan to show me the setting for his Rosales novels. It was a nostalgic trip back to the land of Frankie Jose's childhood; and it was a research trip for me because I had hoped to find the place where Mabini wrote those articles criticizing the government he had left. Those articles were so sharp that Congress considered limiting press freedom in the name of national unity and security. Funny how some things never seem to change even after a century.
I did not find Mabini's bath in Balungaw but I found the equivalent under the home of Paciano Rizal in Los Baños. After the execution of his brother Jose, Paciano joined the revolution and rose to the rank of general. In retirement, he settled in Los Baños and built a "chalet" designed by Andres Luna de San Pedro, son of Juan Luna. This simple one-bedroom home by the lake, with a view of Talim Island, is built atop a hot spring. Paciano had a makeshift pond built under the house where he took daily therapeutic baths. Today, the property is a historical landmark and shrine -- Paciano and his spinster sisters Josefa and Trinidad are now buried in the garden-visited during solemn commemorations. That's why I didn't find the guts to shed my formal barong and try out Paciano Rizal's hot spring. That's another item in a long list of things I plan to do before I die.
Kept indoors due to the heavy rains last week, I was thinking of the hot springs in Los Baños when I chanced upon a section on the therapeutic properties of certain springs in the Philippines while browsing the thick Volume 3 of the Report of the Philippine Commission to the President [of the United States], published in Washington in 1901. It may be a century old, but some parts of this report are still useful especially the detailed description of the land and people of the Philippines. I did not realize that hot springs differed because of the water: acidulated, carbonic, ferruginous and bicarbonated waters in Lanot springs, Daet Camarines; alkaline-bicarbonated waters in San Raimundo spring, Calauan, Batangas; sulfurous-sulphohydric waters in Mainit spring, Morong; bicarbonated-calcic waters in Candaguit spring, Cebu; sulphated sodic waters in Cabad spring, Lepanto and Quensitog spring, Tiagan;
Chloro-sodic waters in Salvadora spring, Benguet; chlorated sodic-calcic waters in Cotabato spring, Mindanao; chlorated, sodic, bicarbonated and calcic waters in Binobresan spring, Batangas; and finally sulphated, calcic, chlorated and sodic waters in Cauan spring, Tarlac. Many of the springs are in places I have never heard of and are just as obscure to me as the mineral properties of the water.
Filipinos are lazy about distinctions and speak in generic terms: all toothpaste -- no matter the brand -- is "Colgate"; all refrigerators are "Frigidaire"; all detergent bars are "Perla"; and soda crackers of any kind are "Skyflakes." Any bottled water is referred to as "mineral" without distinguishing between plain bottled tap water, distilled water, spring water, mineral water and purified water.
Surely, there is some difference here, but nobody seems to mind, Thus, the 1893 analysis of certain springs around the archipelago made me realize why people with certain ailments went to particular springs because each had a corresponding use: for drinking, bathing, inhaling, or all of the above. Each spring could be used year-round or only on certain months. Each spring provided cure or relief from a variety of diseases: from respiratory and intestinal ailments, skin problems, to menstrual disturbances, tuberculosis, syphilis, paralysis, rheumatism, anorexia, gout and even hysteria. I guess I don't have to find a historical reason to enjoy our hot springs. Any hot spring will do.
