I first mentioned about this in a post I made way back in April, 2009 on the ruins of Cagayan’s first ever church:
While I was doing the series on Sanchez Mira early this year, scouring the web for any information about the place already available at the time, I came upon a website (http://cagayannorth.com) that mentions of a place called “Pata” (which, as the site describes it, is part of Sanchez Mira). According to the entry, short as it is, it is where the ruins of “Nagtutulagan” or “Nagsisiiman” are situated (however, it doesn’t give any detail regarding the nature of the ruins). In addition, it also mentions that it is where the first seven baptized natives were born.
At the time, we weren’t able to go to the site because most people seem to have already forgotten about the place.
When my family and I went back to Sanchez Mira, Cagayan for our Christmas vacation last December, I once again asked my brother-in-law, Mang Val, if we could try once more to locate the site/ruins of this “Nagsisiiman”/”Nagtutulagan”. To my great joy, he obliged.
And so, we went around town asking people about the place.
Most people, particularly those who were beyond 500 meters from the site, are practically clueless about it. Luckily, we bumped into a couple of elderly people who had been to the place as children back in the 60s or 70s. One of them remembers seeing stone “seats” (pews probably) scattered on the site.
But, to my disappointment, when we told them that we wanted to go there, they told us that it was very doubtful that we’ll be able to see anything there because they’ve heard that the stone seats/pews had already been discarded by either miners or the farmers living near the vicinity.
But still, we carried on.
Our first attempt was a failure… thanks to the vicious dogs roaming around the dirt path going to the site. We were also told that there are snakes along the way and that we’ll need someone to guide us.
When we went back a few days later, we were very fortunate to find a local (Vicente Donalvo Yaquin) who was very much willing to take us to the site (which is situated on top of a hill).
Our guide, Vicente Donalvo Yaquin
It was quite a long trek. And since it had been raining earlier, the path was muddy and slippery.
Path to the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
Path to the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
Path to the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
When we reached the top, this was what we saw…
The site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan on top of the hill
But upon closer inspection, we saw something distinctively manmade lying underneath the thick green carpet…
The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
I wasn’t able to make a visual of how the place could have looked like before. What I can say is that the the area covered by the “ruins” is quite wide. And the view is Wonderful!
The view from the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan
There’s still something there, and it’s probably almost 500 years old.
Sanchez Mira/Claveria boundary (Namuac Bridge) - Hill on the right is where Nagtutulagan is situated
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