Lake Sebu (with and S, not a C) in South Cotobato is the home of the T’bolis. Three thousand feet above sea level with an altitude of 984 feet at the southern Tiruray highlands, it offers unmatched scenery. This picturesque place offers picture-perfect seascapes framed by rugged hills, distant mountain ranges tracing the endless horizon.

An important water shed in the south, Lake Sebu irrigates the virgin lands of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotobato. It used to be a village of Surallah, but today, it has become a tourist place right there at the Tiruray Highlands which boast of rolling hills and gliding mountains crowned with evergreen trees. This is the homeland of the T’bolis, a highland ethnic tribe producing t’nalak, the colorful, hand-made cloth material complemented occasionally with colorful beads or brass jewelry. Lake Sebu is also the Ubo and Tiruray.

I thank my student at PWU and a dance director of the famous Bayanihan Dance Company, Leo Laurence Lorilla, and his family for taking me there to cover the T’nalak festival and to visit this ethnic country in Southern Cotobato. It was a weekend trip on board PAL to Koronadal City via General Santos on a Saturday and then as early as 10:00 a.m. the next day, I boarded the same PAL that landed an hour ago and took me to Manila in time for my lecture in Composition at Fort Santiago.

Nature’s topography designed Lake Sebu from three mountain lakes: Lake Siluton, refutedly the deepest; Lake Lahit, the smallest; and Lake Sebu, the largest water body. These three lakes are situated in the middle of Allah Valley.

Watershed Forest Reserve cultures tilapia, shrimps, snakes and ducks – sources of income for the ethnic residents. The valley areas are devoted to agriculture. Seven waterfalls known as the Dongon Waterfalls highlight the place. Two of the main falls are accessible to tourists, and the rest to the more adventurous ones who get the thrill of crossing jungles, clinging to vines, climbing perpendicular hills to reach them. And these falls are worth one’s physical effort.

(Cecilia S. Angeles is a professor in Photography and other Fine Arts subjects at PWU and a regular lecturer in the FPPF photography workshop at Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila. Email: csa_palay@yahoo.com)