Lake Holon Adventure
The mystical Lake Holon , dubbed as the “Crown Jewel of the South,”
Considered sacred by the T’boli tribe and one of the popular tourist destinations in Soccsksargen region. Lake Holon (previously named Lake Maughan) is nestled on Mt. Melibengoy, also known as Mt. Parker. The mountain and the lake were named after Frank Parker and Russell Maughan, both US military officers who died when their plane crashed while they were mapping the area in the 1930s. Long before it became a tourism attraction, Holon, which means deep water in T’boli, is considered a sacred place by the tribe, though it had been associated with death and destruction.
On Sept. 6, 1995, Lake Holon’s crater wall collapsed, allegedly due to treasure hunting activities, sending an estimated 30 million cubic meters of water crashing downstream for 130 kilometers. At least 53 people were killed and P278 million worth of infrastructure and farm crops were damaged. From 2016 to 2017, the lake was also recognized among the world’s “Top 100 Sustainable Destinations,” an initiative by the global Green Destinations.