Holes in Cave Fish Story

It is highly believed that there’s an opening to underwater cave (or amphibious cave) at the back of Liloan Church’s altar. In the old days (perhaps until the early 1970s), the cave opening was left open for public viewing. If you throw something in the hole, it would send off a hollow sound suggesting a sizable hollow space. Some brave souls even went as far as going down the hole.

The underwater cave could be man-made and used as escape route during the marauding days when Spaniards ruled the town. Or maybe it is just a freak of nature and nothing but a black hole. The actual opening of the “cave in a cove” is some meters from the shore at the back of Liloan Church. It runs underneath towards Suba Channel and back to the altar of the church or elsewhere. In any way, there’s a huge tourism potential for it. The cave could contain past secrets and other unveiled beauties.

Deep inside the underwater cave, as blogged earlier by Immortalundead, there were reports that the inhabitants down under are ancient sea creatures. Giant fish called cogtong? Octopus? Mermaids? We don’t know. And there’s not much available literature about it even in Internet archives of folklores.

So we asked around. The older Liloanons we interviewed failed to provide conclusive answers. Wanting for authoritative take, we went several times to hear words from Church people. A few days ago, we were able to finally “corner” Fr. Eric Jecong, the parish priest of Liloan. He is one cordial priest and appears very animated when he talks. He allowed us to take pictures inside the church but not beyond the altar.

Swerver: “Can we have a look at the hole for a sec, father?”
Father Jecong: Why?
Swerver: We would only take some pictures… very quickly. We won’t go down inside for sure. If the hole is padlocked, we won’t ask anyone to open it…
Father Jecong: Dong, I’m just new to this parish. I don’t really know where’s the hole or if there is really a hole.

I know he’s a good and sincere priest. Father Jecong is. But something tells me there was an apparent “air of discomfort” with Church people whenever we talked about holes. Something fishy?

-Swerver