I always look forward going to San Carlos City via the Negros Translink Highway where you pass by the Municipality of Don Salvador Benedicto. Good roads, cooler climate, and a beautiful scenery will keep you awake for the whole trip.
Don Salvador Benedicto’s cooler climate will remind you of Tagaytay or even Baguio City. Whereas Baguio is the Summer Capital of the Philippines, Don Salvador Benedicto is the Summer Capital of Negros Occidental . This is why some people would refer to DSB as the “little Baguio” of Negros Occidental.
Just like Baguio, it also fogs at Don Salvador Benedicto and San Carlos City mountain areas. When it happens, visibility is limited to a few meters so be extra careful when driving especially if you don’t often travel this route. The roads traverse the side of the mountains and sometimes has sharp curves. Any wrong turn and you’ll end up several meters below.
Of late, travelers are greeted with a lion statue along the road of Don Salvador Benedicto. I recently traveled to San Carlos with a guest and upon seeing the statue, he requested to stop by so he can have some souvenir photos. This lion is quite small compared to the one in Baguio which elicited a comment from our guest, “Little Baguio nga kasi yung lion little din.”
The statue is within the park and community center constructed by the Bacolod City Host Lions Club in partnership with the Kaohsiung Port Lions Club in Taiwan and the Ichon Lions Club in South Korea. There’s also a viewing deck where visitors can see the scenic backdrop of the mountains and a bucolic view of the river and rice terraces below.
The statue is already getting a lot of attention from passersby and a lot of people have posted photos of it in social networking sites and blogs. However, I have to agree with Errol Gatumbato, the statue seemed out of place at the North Negros Natural Park (NNNP). I know the Lions Club has many projects in the area which benefited a lot of people in the community. I just wished they hadn’t built the lion statue. Besides, there’s already a marker which claim it as a Lions Club project.
I would prefer seeing a statue of the Visayan Spotted Deer since it’s endemic to Negros and it’s a good way to raise awareness on environmental protection. The Visayan Spotted Deer is already endangered due to the destruction of its natural habitat but a remaining few still lives at NNNP. They are so few in the wild that it’s now considered the rarest deer in the world.
Negros used to be 90% covered with forests but only around 4% remains today. The North Negros Natural Park is considered one of the top 10 most important forests in the world according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), yet it is also one of the most threatened. The survival of the Visayan Spotted Deer hinges so much on the survival of NNNP.
If ever you see a statue as tall as 10 feet amidst the lush mountain backdrop, you would naturally ask what it is and why it’s there, wouldn’t you? Anyone would recognize a lion but sadly, not everyone can differentiate the Visayan Spotted Deer from the deers of the world.
It may not look as imposing as a lion but the Visayan Spotted Deer represents the vulnerability of our forests and the role we have to play in saving it.