CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is recommending Mount Balatukan Range Natural Park in Misamis Oriental as the country’s ASEAN Heritage Park.

DENR Protected Area Management Superintendent of Mount Balatukan Range Natural Park, Ivy Saclote, made the recommendation to Governor Juliette Uy during a recent meeting with the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB), which was attended by international visitors for the validation of Mt. Balatukan.

“If we pursue this and pass the validation, this will be the first ASEAN Heritage Park in Misamis Oriental,” she said.

Saclote added that Mt. Balatukan serves as a buffer zone against natural typhoons in the towns of Balingasag, Lagonglong, Medina, Claveria, and Gingoog City.

The Balatukan River is also a major water source in the province.

For Higa-onon tribesmen in Northern Mindanao, after a person dies, their “gimokod” (spirit) will go to Mount Balatukan for reunification with departed loved ones, tribal legends say.

According to Higa-onon myths passed down through generations, as soon as a person dies, their soul leaves the body and goes directly to the 8,040-foot extinct volcano, where a river emanates from the crater.

The Mt. Balatukan Range, located in the city of Gingoog and the municipalities of Claveria, Medina, and Balingasag, has been declared a national park and protected area.

In the article The Spirit World of the Bukidnon by Fr. Vincent G. Cullen, S.J., a former parish priest of Impasugong town in Bukidnon, natives believed that a person is composed of “Lawa” (body) and “gimokod” (soul).

The soul, according to the natives, is in physical form and is even called the true body.

“It has the form and size of the person. The relationship of the soul and body is like the body to the clothes it wears,” the article reads.

It is believed that when the body is weak, the soul wanders. There is a ceremony called gimokodan, in which the soul is invoked and enticed to return to the body.

Natives also believe that when one is sick, the soul may be imprisoned by a “busaw” (evil spirit).

The article also says that the soul can travel in dreams. One story recounts a man who traveled in his dream to Mount Balatukan to search for the soul of his sick wife. He went to the great house of Gumigunal, found his wife’s soul in a bottle, set it free, and she recovered.

Bukidnon tribal folk also believe that every person has a “Kawa,” a soul companion that accompanies them throughout life. After death, the soul companion remains above the grave, frightening people who visit the cemetery.