Mobile coffee shop brings people to Mindanao’s Mount Malindang

A mobile coffee shop, and perhaps COVID-19, have brought a lot of people – from young trekkers and religious groups to members of the academe and nature lovers – to the foot of the majestic Mount Malindang, which two decades ago was the battle ground between insurgents and government forces.

“I was enticed by the concept of coffee served in a café with no fixed physical structure, this is new,” said Maisalian Julian Acopiado, a university professor.

“Besides, they serve coffee and cookies here at the foot of Malindang that most of the time is covered with fog, it’s almost heaven.”

Photo by Bert Laput/Rappler

Malindang is a 53,262-hectare mountain range that encompasses Mindanao’s Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Misamis Occidental provinces. It has 7 mountain peaks that range between 1,532 meters and 2,404 meters above sea level.

About 62% of the mountain range is still covered with virgin forests that sustained its lake named Duminagat and 49 rivers and streams that supply potable water to the three provinces.

The roadside, where the mobile coffee shop is set up every weekend, is on the top of a ridge at the boundary between Barangay Alvenda of Mutia Municipality in Zamboanga del Norte and Barangay Mansawan of Don Victoriano Municipality in Misamis Occidental.

“Actually, there are 4 of us who got this idea and we named it Café Movil,” said Rodney Lorenzo Benedicto, a 30-year-old agriculturist in Dipolog City.

“We were resting in this area while noticing a few trekkers on the way up to Lake Duminagat and some going down. And we said to each other, how about serving coffee here, and maybe give some reminders appreciating and preserving nature,” he recalled.

Benedicto then worked with his wife Jessa Cruz, a banker; Demver Gumahad, the barista; and Gumahad’s partner April Olasiman to put up the mobile coffee shop.

“Those who come here are increasing by the week, and now they include those who just want to escape the crowded places in the cities, I guess the pandemic is also helping the people experience and appreciate nature, enjoy the peace and the coffee of course,” Benedicto quipped.

The sight is very promising now, particularly if you saw this area as the former battleground between insurgents and the military, revealed a former insurgent.

 A former insurgent said that the place where Café Movil is located was what they code named “six thousand” because it is top of a 6,000 feet ridge. He claimed the entire Malindang was infested the highly mobile New People’s Army”s “Monterosa Front,” which is now called “Sendong.”

“Sa una ingnon lang mi nga mag-abot ta sa six thousand, pero karon wala na, daghan nang sundalo, tua na lang sila sa lasang gatuyok-tuyok,” the former insurgent said. (Before we just received orders, we’ll rendezvous at 6 thousand, but no longer today, there are already a lot of soldiers, the insurgents have moved inner part of the forests.)

Jessa Cruz noticed that the place is now getting productive as some residents, mostly from the Subanen tribe, have put up makeshift stores nearby to sell their produce.

“We are happy that we, in our own way, have acted like a little bridge that connects people and nature,” Cruz commented.

“In fact we have now a baby we named Ridge,” she said. – Rappler.com