Remembering Old Churches in Bohol

While eating breakfast this morning, I wasn't able to receive brother's call. Soon after, us three girls started receiving string of messages from him saying there was an earthquake. Since sister and I both own phones that can connect to the Internet, we checked several social media sites and was shocked with the messages about the earthquake. Turning the television on made us see the horrific images.

A 7.2 earthquake hit the country, with the epicenter located at the town of Carmen in Bohol. Even if the province of Bohol is composed of one big island and a few smaller islands nearby, the earthquake was felt as far as the province of Sorsogon in Luzon and the province of Davao in Mindanao.

There were a lot of damages, but the ones that took the biggest hit in the province of Bohol were its centuries old churches. I was able to travel to the said province two times (2008 and 2011), so for this post, let me just remember these churches.


Baclayon Church, completed in 1727.


Loboc Church and Museum (photographed from the Loboc River floating restaurant), completed 1734.

Textured with two layers of Kim Klassen's "Organic" texture,
one set to Overlay at 50%, the other set to Soft Light at 60%

Dauis Church, completed in 1920.

As a Catholic country and as a Catholic, one of the things I do whenever I travel is visit Catholic churches, not because I see myself as a saint, but because these churches show a lot of history and culture. It was sad though, that in the two times of traveling to Bohol, I never really had a chance to set foot inside the Loboc Church, because in both occasions, I went to Loboc to eat lunch at their floating restaurants and visiting the church wasn't part of the itinerary.

Still, I am grateful. Grateful that in my lifetime, I got to see these churches personally before a force of nature destroyed them. There's happiness in my heart that these images weren't just something from the books, magazines, newspapers, and Internet... but images I took using my own camera.

The Philippines is experiencing a lot of blows lately. First, the war in Zamboanga followed by a series of typhoons devastating different parts of the country, and now the earthquake. It reminds me that nothing is permanent in this world and all of us would just have to make the most out of life while we still have it. I pray for the people affected by these calamities... and as soon as I know a place to go to, the girls and I will wholeheartedly donate our still wearable clothes.

To read more about this earthquake and to view images of the destroyed churches, please click on this link.

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Photograph of Dauis Church taken in 2008 while on a holiday with K, all else were taken in 2011 during an out of town trip with mom and her friends.

* Jenn *