During the Philippine Revolution under the Spanish colonial rule, Apolinario dela Cruz led a revolt in 1839 called the Confradia de San Jose Revolt, with followers numbering several thousands armed with rifles and bolos. This fraternity embodies the local religious aspirations and disappointments of the Filipinos.
However, Apolinario was captured and executed on November 5, 1841. Survivors of the bloodbath became remontados, or those who go back into the mountains, leaving their villages to live on the slopes of the volcanic Mount San Cristobal and Mount Banahao.
Mt. Banahaw (also spelled Banahao) is the highest volcano in Southwestern Luzon, reaching an elevation of 7,177 feet. Its subsidiary cones of Mt. San Cristobal and Banahao de Lucban are 4,900 feet and 5,983 feet respectively. Geologically, both of them are extinct volcanoes. Their peaks are essentially craters.
These mountains where no friar or prayle ventured became folk religious centers, places of pilgrimage for lowland peasants and became the birthplace of religious communities known as colorums.
Colorums are Filipino religious movement that expressed a rudimentary desire to be rid of the Spanish and discover a promised land that would reflect memories of a world that existed before the coming of the colonists. This movement gave birth to the "Watawat ng Lahi" (Flag of the State) sect who believes that Dr. Jose Rizal was a reincarnation of Christ and that Rizal will come again. This group and other sects makes Mt. Banahaw as "The New Jerusalem
It is ironic that this mountain in Dolores, Quezon along San Pablo and Nagcarlan, Laguna named after San Cristobal, the patron of travelers in the Greek and Latin traditions would be notorious as haunted and always referred by the mountaineering community as spooky.
During the Spanish colonial rule, Mt. Cristobal was considered as a holy mountain. Then came the Chinese who subscribe to a concept called Yin Yang, which is a belief that there exist two complementary forces in the universe. However, Western perception of yin and yang corresponds to evil and good.
Therefore, if Mt. Banahaw is the holy mountain, Mt. Cristobal became the "Devil's mountain." Spreading ghosts stories, creating the Tumao legend (something like the bigfoot myth) and other spooky tales also became the Filipino Revolutionaries' way of warding off the Spanish militia.
Mt. Cristobal's reputation as the Devil's Mountain and the chilling and supernatural tales surrounding it makes the climb more exciting. It's like a supernatural, spirit-hunting climb. Incidentally, Mt. Cristobal's rainforest with its moss-covered old trees blanketed by the eerie fog will give you the right hair-raising effect.
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