Luyang Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Lictin Tower, San Andres, Catanduanes. Near the village of Lictin, en route to San Andres. At the Calolbon–Virac highway. (13.6044426, 124.1342648)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=200 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Luyang Cave, Lictin Tower, San Andres, Catanduanes, Tel: +63-939-261-8744.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

Luyang Cave is a rather small cave with a bloody history. Its fame is to have been the hideout of the local population during a pirate attack in the 18th century. As the whole village died, a mass is held yearly for those who perished inside Luyang Cave. The entrance has a stone staircase leading down into the entrance hall, a paved floor, a bench and an altar.

Binanwahan, a small village, was regularly raided by Muslim slave raiders. Luyang Cave used to be their hideout, they closed the entrance with dried leaves and branches including chili leaves and its fruits. The raiders were puzzled that the village was devoid of people and waited in hiding to see if the natives will eventually come out from their hiding places. When they spotted a few women, the raiders followed them to the cave. The women tried to stop the marauders, and set the leaves and branches at the entrance on fire. The wind blew the smoke into the cave, and they all suffocated.

Its unclear if this is a legend or actually happened, but it is definitely not impossible, as Muslim slave raiding was a fact until the middle of the 19th century. The Datus and Sultan needed slaves, and so they sponsored slave raids between the Bay of Bengal and New Guinea. Some 200,000 natives of the Visayas, Luzon and north Mindanao were enslaved. During the so-called “pirate wind” between August and October 2,500 to 3,000 armed men on 40-50 vessels captured all people they could find. They caught fisherman, sea traders, and people on religious feasts. Foreigners and Spanish friars were ransomed off. As a result, trade between islands and with Manila collapsed. But the spanish friars organized resistance, installed an efficient warning system with towers which sent the sighting of slave huters from station to station. In 1848, the Spaniards introduced gunship steamboats and destroyed Balangingi, where most of the raiders were based. By the 1860s, many of these raiders were in prison or exiled in the Cagayan Valley.

The cave is freely accessible. Beneath the entrance section there is a cemented pathway inside for 200 m. But there is no light, so you must bring a torch, or even better a helmet with headlamp.