OPOL – The Town | Misamis Oriental | Northern Mindanao
The municipality of Opol, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao, is the closest municipality to the west as seen from Cagayan de Oro city, that is, towards Laguindingan airport and Iligan town.
I am deeply disappointed with the municipality of Opol.
There are several reasons for this. Our plan was to make a video of Opol. To do this, we stopped right at the point where Opol Beach meets the National Highway to start filming. The administration of the community seems to be very proud of the 6-lane highway. On the seaside, they have built another boulevard, without greenery, without lighting, but decorated with plenty of garbage. The entire length from here to the Panagata Seafood Restaurant is a single gray concrete desert. For pedestrians, there is neither an overpass nor an underpass. Wait, not quite, at the back of the market, there is a possibility to crawl under the bridge with your head tucked in, but also with the possibility of falling into the water. Also under the bridge everywhere garbage.
Whether the welcome on the wall at G. Rabe Street is meant seriously, I can not judge. I followed the stairs to the left of it and came to the replica of an ostrich that had been placed here lovelessly and with some contortions on my part and goodwill we reached the street in front of the municipality hall and a building under construction. In front of it, some people were sitting. When I asked for the tourist office of Opol, they wanted to send me to the market. But then I saw in the corner of my eye a small building that said it was the tourist office. Knocked on the door and pushed it open. There were three people in the room. Two were chatting and asking what I wanted. The third sleepily scrambled up from a sofa. This was the officer on duty.
Alright, since I am an active member of the Knights of Rizal Order in the Cagayan de Oro Chapter, I visit the Rizal statue in the Philippine town out of respect and to see how it looks and is treated there. In Opol, the Rizal statue is located in the plaza between Opol Central School and Opol community College. A desolate and neglected plaza. At the end of the plaza, on C. Salva Street are some nice, old, shade trees and seating for meetings of students. Then there are some stalls for refreshments, but even there the cleanliness left much to be desired.
We still visited the public market. An old, dark building, which does not really invite to enter and shop. For this, a new, large municipality hall will surely be finished soon.
Refreshing was then the really beautiful fishing port and the currently provisional Luyong Bonbon Public Market to look at, where the caught fish is sold.
There is a separate video about this at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWxg…
VIDEO (6:40) by Philippine Magazine
