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 Buhi Catholic Church at dawn (foreground) with the tip of Mt. Mayon showing (left). [ CREDITS ] |
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GENERAL
INFORMATION
The town of Buhi was discovered and made a
permanent settlement by a Spanish exploring party led by
Captain Pedro de Chavez and Franciscan Father Tomas
Francisco on April 14, 1578. Hence, Buhi is now a
dominantly Roman Catholic community with St. Francis of
Assisi as it's patron saint. It celebrates its annual
town fiesta on May 24th and 25th.
ECONOMIC PROFILE
Buhi has a labor force of 24,000 economically productive people which is 39.48% of the total population. This work force are ages from 15 to 64 years old.Eighty percent (80%) of the economically productive people earn less than P3,000.00 a month with each earner supports an average of 3 to 6 dependents. With this income dependency ratio, more than 50% of Buhinon families are estimated to be living below the poverty line. Buhi is basically an agricultural and fishing town and only a little more than half of the families own their respective home lots. As a fishing town, Buhi exports quality tasty tilapia in commercial scale to its neighboring towns and to as far as Metro Manila.
DEMOGRAPHY
Buhi, which is composed of 38 barangays, has a population of 60,796 as of the 1995 national census. The urban center or the "poblacion" which has 6 barangays, has a population of 11,682 or (20%) while the 32 rural barangays has 45,814 or (80%). Growth rate is about 2.1%. Buhi has a total household of 10,126. Buhi's populace is unmistakebly young as the combined population of teenager and young adults totals 48,505 which is 79.78% of the total municipal population. Majority of Buhinons are single individuals.
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GEOGRAPHICAL
LOCATION
Buhi is situated in the southern part of the
Province of Camarines Sur in the Bikol Region of Luzon
Island. It is bounded on the East by Mount
Malinao, on the West by Mt. Asog,
on the North by the Sangay-Buhi Mountain Ranges
and on the South by Polangui, Albay.
Likewise, Buhi is located with the following coordinates 13, 25' and 52.4' North and 123, 30' and 49.1" East with Malangkaw Hill as the point of reference.
Buhi has a total land area of 22,851 hectares . One thousand eight hundred (1,800) hectares of which comprise the lake and 8,463.6901 hectares are timberlands. The land area is subdivided into 38 barangays.
Its world-famous Lake Buhi is the habitat of the sinarapan, the world's smallest commercial fish. Lake Buhi, was formed out of Mt. Asog's eruption of January 4, 1641. During that eruption almost half of the southern portion of the top of Mt. Asog slipped down the western part of what then was a valley. Water was trapped and collected at the mountain-ringged north-eastern end of the valley and formed the lake. Folklores and historical accounts suggest that the original sitio in the valley was completely inundated at the bottom of Lake Buhi.
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PEOPLE & CULTURE
Buhi's folklore of old tells of fishermen in
Lake Buhi observing the mirage-like apparation of the
flooded sitio with people going about the daily routine
of their lives at the bottom of the lake. It is said one
could witness this ghostly tableau through the glass-like
surface of the lake at midnight especially when the full
moon is directly above overhead.
The present Boienen descended from the refugess and survivors of Albay's Mt. Mayon eruption on February 1, 1814 who finally found their refuge and the beginning of the town of Buhi in sition Marayag, now a part of Barangay San Buena. The town's name nakabuhi (an Albay Bikol word which means the one that got away or escaped.) was derived from the saga of the hardy survivor of Mariang Magayon or Mayon's esplosive fiery-wrath.
RELIGION
Buhi is a community of Catholics with a number of 59,093 (97.20%) professing majority of the total population. Iglesia ni Kristo ranks second but of very minimal number totalling 554 (0.91%), Jehovah's Witnesses rank next with 170 members(0.28%), Protestants 128 (0.21%).Growth of the Roman Catholic religion is evidenced by the rise of two more parishes:
The Parish of St. Vincent de Ferrer in Barangay San Vicente which was erected in 1990 and serves the spiritual needs of the mountain barangays.
Our Lady of Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia Soledad in barangay Tambo which was canonically erected in 1994 and has ecclesiatical jurisdiction over the barangays of the Lake sector.
The Parish of St. Francis of Assisi, which is the oldest as it was established in 1578 and which formerly served as the town parish, now only serves the Poblacion and road sector.
However, despite the dominance of the Cathoilic religion in every barangay of Buhi, Barangay Namurabod has the "Watawat ng Lahi" as predominant religion.
LANGUAGE
Buhi had its own distinct language that some of its terms cannot be pronounced by most people from other places. More surprisingly, a lot of its terms cannot be written either even by the very Buhinons. Consequently, Buhinons easily learn the dialects of their neighbors but their neighbors hardly learn Buhinon.Finally, in most cases each town has its particular dialect being used by the entire municipality or city. But in Buhi, there are 3. In the urban area and those near and around the lake, including the lowland areas going southward of the Poblacion speak Buhinon. But in some barangays southwest of Buhi near or at the boundary with Iriga City, the people speak the Rinconada dialect. And in mountain top areas bounded by the town of Sangay in Camarines Sur and the towns of Tiwi, Malinao and Polangui of Albay, Bikol is spoken. But in totality most Buhinons can speak and understand the 3 dialects depending on the circumstances.
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NATURAL
RESOURCES
Buhi is rich in agricultural and inland-water
resources. Buhi is a verdant refreshingly cool town
surrounded by rain forests in its long tall mountain
ranges. Its south-eastern part is pockmarked by small
hills mainly made of volcanic cinder and formed along the
way of the soil creep from Mt. Asog's last eruption. Mt.
Asog is supposedly an extinct volcano, but after Mt.
Pinatubo, who could tell? Buhi is an officialy declared
watershed area.
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ATTRACTIONS
Some of Buhi's natural attractions: are Itbog
sndBaybay falls, Binangkaan, Pitong
Sagurong, San Rafael, and Sinillaran. Along
the verdant southern slope of Mt. Asog are found seven
lakelets On the edge of the western abyss of Mt Asog's
less than half-way to the top is found Sarikaw.
Sarikaw is an enchanted rock formation of a supossedly magically petrified ancient Boienen hunter and his dog. This is according to Boienen mythology.
Asupre Spring of Iraya is a medicinal natural spa that provides cure and relief from various epidermal afflictions and soothes the heart and mind of those determined enough to hike almost half-day through rough mountain terrain to get to it.
Buhi is host to several private commercial lakeside vacation and picknic resorts such as Punta Esmeralda, La Roca Encantada, and Magindara Resort.
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FACILITIES
Buhi has 2 Public Rural Health Units under the
Local Government, 21 Barangay Health Centers, 4 Private
Medical Clinics, 2 Dental Clinics, and 5 Drug Stores that
cater to the health needs of the residents.
Buhi has a public library with a fairly big numbers of reading materials catering to the public which are mostly students doing researches.
The town has a moviehouse, a cockpit arena, 2 disco houses, and several karaoke-TV bars , beta/VHS rental shops, mountaineering supply shop, and a computer shop.
BUSTROS (Buhi Sattelite Television Ro System) serves as Buhi's cable TV Service which supplies Buhi with TV programs, from Manila and foreign TV stations.
CASURECO III provides electricity to household and business establishments. Buhi is host to a hydro-electric plant run by National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR).
Buhi Rural Waterworks and Sanitation Association serves residents of the Poblacion with clean and cold potable water, while the rest of the barangays have their water system, deep and pump wells.
EDUCATION
Buhi has 33 public elementary schools, 2 private pre-schools and 6 high schools, 3 of it private and located in the poblacion. As of 1995, total enrolment in the public elementary schools is 10,381, private pre-school (50), private high schools (2,594), and public high schools (1,417).TRANSPORTATION & COMMUNICATIONS
Buhinons can now communicate directly with relatives and friends throughout the Philippines and the rest of the world due to the installation of the direct dialing telephone facilities.Digitel Telecommunications Philippines, Inc., which was granted the franchise to operate the telephone system, is now offering telephone subscription to the public.
The rate for international call, which is the same as that of PLDT is that for 36 kms. and below, person to person is P1.65 for the first 3 minutes and an additional P0.55 per minute during week days, and the charge from station to station during weekdays is P4.50; station to station is P1.20 for the first 3 minutes and an additional of P0.40 per minute.
Digitel has interconnections with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) thus providing subscribers with lots of channel to call anywhere.
Postal Mail is handled by the Buhi Central Post Office operating to accept and delivers mail matters.
Land & Water Transportation are the major transportation facility in Buhi. Three major roads are the main transportation arteries out of Buhi. One road connects Buhi to the town of Polangui in Albay. The other two, connect Buhi to Iriga City. Bus companies such as, AMA Trans., BLTB and Philtranco have daily regular trips from Buhi to Manila and vice-versa.
Private-owned jeepneys ply the same route on a so-called door to door system. Other means of transportation are the tricycles and "pedicabs", a customized bicycle. For water transportation in crisscrossing Lake Buhi, there is the motorized and non-motorized bancas.
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PHOTO CREDIT: Buhi Catholic Church at dawn by Alan Caparanga (1999)
Last updated: January 13, 2000
Copyright © 1999 Buhi, Camarines Sur. Philippines.
All rights reserved.
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On the occasion of its 79th anniversary, the Bogo Redeemers Society, Inc. honors new Bogohanon professionals and graduates in recognition of their efforts. The awards and recognition has been the tradition of the Bogo Redeemers Society since 1920, the founding year. This year, the awardees are students who graduated with high honors, board exam passers and topnotchers. Non honor college graduates are also recognized in the souvenir program.
This year's awardees are enumerated below.