Marangas Island, as everybody would call it, sits just several hundred meters west from the shore of Malanut Bay, Quezon, Palawan where the populated poblacion is located. Nobody would venture near or traverse this island for fear that something untoward will happen to them. This island is enchanted, so they say, and fishers avoid landing on its shores.

View east of Marangas Island, Quezon, Palawan.

The Snake Story

It all started when a certain fisherman, several years ago, anchored on the island’s rocky fringes. He got himself ready to rest on that limited island space when suddenly, from out of nowhere, a host of snakes wriggled towards his direction. He was alarmed and by pure instinct darted to his boat. He boarded and hurriedly steered his banca away from the ferocious snakes coming his way.

This story spread like wildfire by word of mouth among the fishermen, then later to the whole community. They said the island is enchanted and it is taboo to set foot on it. Since then, nobody dared approach the island.

Curiosity Has Its Rewards

Our research project required coral reef survey in the bay where Marangas island is located. Unfamiliar yet with the study area, we asked our guide to bring us to known reef locations. Among those sites, they mentioned Marangas Island. They cautioned us, however, that they wouldn’t dare approach the island because it’s enchanted. They recounted to us the above story.

I insisted that we do some SCUBA diving just around the island, not necessarily to land on it. The boatman and his helper agreed and we set forth toward the island. A few meters from the island’s shoreline we anchored, wore our gears, then dived underneath.

What we saw amazed us because despite the reef destruction in other sites within the bay, the surrounding areas of Marangas is one of best sites where corals can be found! We saw wide tabulate and branching corals and many butterfly fishes indicating very good coral reef condition.

Wide tabulate corals characterize the surrounding areas of Marangas Island in Quezon, Palawan.

People’s Beliefs Determine Their Behavior

This experience reminded me of one of our assigned readings while I was taking up graduate studies in environmental science. It argued that people’s beliefs, like believing that spirits live in trees, rocks, or other inanimate objects, can influence how they deal with their environment. If trees or rocks are defiled, the spirits will cause harm to the doer in the form of illness or misfortune.

This is an important finding useful in resource management. Since whatever beliefs are inculcated in people’s minds determine how they will treat their environment, enchanted places must remain just that. Science need not refute this belief as enchanted places are respected, and for that matter, effectively conserved.