Batanes: The Windy Isles

The Philippines’ northernmost province is composed of three principal islands, Batan, Sabtang and Itbayat, and a few smaller islands some uninhabited like Ivuhos. Official maps (NAMRIA) list the islands as North, Siayan, Mavodis, Itbayat, Diogo, Batan, Sabtang, Ibuhos, and Dequey. Yami the northernmost island of the Batanes group is 50 kilometers away from southern Taiwan. Benedek (1991) remarks: “The name of the first island, ‘Yami,’ seems to be a mistake and has led to the erroneous belief that this island is populated by the Yami people.” Moreover, he observes, the native Ivatan call the islands Mavodis, Misanga, Ditarem, Siayan, Itbayat, Dinem, Ivatan, Sabtang, Ivohos, and Jikey.

The islands’ physical isolation from Luzon and proximity to Taiwan have created an ecological niche for flora and fauna unique to the islands. In Batanes are found the ariyos, an evergreen, popularly called Taiwan or Buddha pine (Pinus taiwaniana); the riwas, a tree with half-moon shaped leaves; the voyavoy or Phoenix palm from which fiber is extracted. Found in Batanes is the extremely rare but poisonous yellow viper called MacGregori; migratory humpback whales have been reported in the area.

The topography of Batanes, except for the flat island Ivuhos, is hilly and rugged, with narrow pockets of plain, here and there. The island group is also exposed to typhoons during the season of the southwest monsoon, August being the month when typhoons hit frequently and hardest. Batanes’ physical distance from Luzon and weather condition have created a province that fells and looks so different from the rest of the Philippines. Visitors wax poetic describing the islands as resembling the Isle of Man. Isolation has also honed its inhabitants to a life of frugality, simplicity and downright honesty. Except for occasional foreign poachers, who invade Batanes’ municipal waters for fish, the provincial jail at Basco is empty. Almost no one locks his house at night and should your forget something in someone’s house, it will get back to you. Only in Batanes do you find an “honesty coffeeshop,” a shack actually, which its owner outfits with hotwater for instant coffee, a can of biscuits, and a box where you can drop payment for any coffee you have consumed, before you cross from Ivana to Sabtang or return from the neighboring isle.

The traditional inhabitants of these islands are the Ivatan. Their language is akin to that of the Yami islanders who live south of Taiwan. There are approximately 15,000 inhabitants in Batanes mostly concentrated on the islands of Batan and Sabtang. However, many more live outside the islands, and some abroad. The inhabitants village of Songsong devastated by tidal wave after an earthquake have migrated to Maramag, Bukidnon where they are model farmers and cattle raisers.

In pre-colonial times, archaeological evidence indicates that the inhabitants occupied high places for safety. Called ijang, these sites were ideal for defense. Such sites are found near Basco, the provincial capital, near the airport and at Chadpidan and Sabtang, the neighboring island to the south, at Savidug. Characteristic of these peoples was their practice of burying their dead in large earthen jars, and marking the burial area with stones arranged in a boat pattern. A number of these prehistoric sites are near Basco, some on privately owned land. The National Museum has been conducting long term excavation at the ijang and Ivuhos Island, where precolonial remains have been found.

Boats play an important role, because travel from island to island is through perilous seas. Unlike the rest of the Philippines, Batanes boats do not have outriggers as in other regions of the Philippines. It is claimed that such outrigger-boat types cannot survive the waves and currents of Batanes; better are boats that bob rather than pierce the waves. Batanes boats are built of edge-pegged planks, carved and shaped to resemble Yankee whalers. Made of palo maria and other hardwood, the planks are shaped by adze rather than steam bent. The “Batanes winter,” (from August to February) is the season for boat repair and boat building. The small boat, called tataya and operated by oar and sail, is used for fishing; the larger boat called falua used for transporting passenger and cargo is propelled by motor

The privateer Dampier on board the Cygnet was in the Philippines from 1686-67. He was the first European to describe Batanes and its inhabitants, and the crew of the Cygnet were the first European to set on foot in Batanes arrived in the late 1686. But the attempt to colonize was aborted after two decades. Only in 1720 did the Dominicans return to establish mission stations and towns. To this day, Dominican friars remain the spiritual ministers of Batanes.