Source: Sunstar Cebu, The Freeman and Cebu Daily News
Date: October 23, 2008

Finding one's bearings is prosaic and mystical.

This thought flits across as one gazes skyward, up the 72-foot octagonal shaft of the Bagacay Point Lighthouse.

Since 1857, the heritage landmark in Catarman, Liloan has guided fishermen and other seafarers navigating the Mactan Channel.

Built by Spanish engineers using prison labor, the Liloan parola was reconstructed to withstand typhoon-velocity winds by the American authorities. For decades, the Liloan parola suffered neglect until May 14, 2006, when it was declared a national historical landmark.

Adopted by the Philippine Coast Guard, the parola is also the focus of the efforts of Barangay Catarman, the Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) and the Coastal Highpoint Ventures, Inc. (CHVI).

Though three powerful spotlights are now trained on its tower, symbolic of its focus for heritage conservation, the Bagacay Point Lighthouse has not lapsed in its age-old watch. It still sends out a white flash every five seconds, visible on a focal plane of 44 meters. 
 
Where its solitary eye looking out on a landscape darkened by uncertainty and lurking risks once assured night travelers to "beware of danger" and "come this way," the Liloan sentinel today draws travelers and tourists, artists and families to gaze up at its tower and bask in the light of its unchanging message:  "This is exactly where you are."

Steering for home

For Socorro de Guia, a lifetime of traveling-actual, metaphysical and virtual-honed a deep sense in her of appreciating where she came to be.

On a balmy afternoon, in the middle of a typically full workweek managing the four campuses of the family-owned Royal Oaks International in Cebu, Socorro de Guia and daughter Summer Eve Shafer gaze out to sea.

In 2005, Socorro bought a lot in Amara, a coastal community developed by the CHI and the CHVI in Catarman, Liloan.

The first lighthouse community in the Philippines and one of only 24 existing in the world, Amara is a few meters away from the Bagacay Point Lighthouse. When the parola's beacon sweeps the evening landscape, it highlights an Ayala Land Premier seaside residential project, which, for all its rustic environs, boasts of 24/7 security, state-of-the-art amenities and a modern Asian tropical theme.

For Summer, a home by the sea inspires her art and nascent creative undertakings. For Socorro, the opportunity to take seaside retreats-Amara is a short drive from their Mandaue campus, a trip that may be cut short to 15 minutes when the North Coastal Road will be open-is a fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

So crystal-clear was her vision of a beachside property that Socorro made her first Amara purchase after only a virtual glimpse of her dream lot. She was on a US trip when she heard that CHI started receiving letters of intent from Cebuano and Cebuano-Chinese buyers interested in the first 114 lots. (Less than a week after Amara's official launch on October 18, 2005, 94 percent of the Phase 1 lots were taken up; Phase 1 sold out in three months.)

Fortunately, the innovative Amara website which featured a three-dimensional view of the lot, as well as 360 degree view from the lot made it possible for clients to also take virtual tours. (Due to later features, such as the Serenity Park Tour and the Thematic Renderings showing the 3D images of house models that can be put up for a lot type, Phase 2 of Amara was also sold out, with overseas Filipinos representing 44 percent of the clients.)

A risk-taker who found her niche in education back in the city of her birth after a "detour" that took her overseas for nearly two decades, through fields as diverse as banking and trading, Socorro said she firmed up her decision to buy a lot after merely navigating the virtual Amara. "That and the decision to join a winning team," crystallized her dream of having a home to retire to someday with her children and grandchildren.

Heaven on earth

Only coastal living can give one a front-row seat to one of the grandest shows on earth: the sight of heaven kissing earth.

More than good fortune saved seats for Ray and Letty Patuasi. Though Ray was informed by a CHI property specialist about the pre-selling of Amara Phase 3, Letty vetoed his interest because she perceived Liloan was out-of-the-way and inconvenient for the couple's regular visits to their grandchildren.

Ironically, it was after a weekend outing to see Liloan's famous lilo (whirlpool) at the Catarman bridge that the Patuasis, their children and grandchildren thought of checking out the nearby seaside residential development.  A mere glimpse from the gate was enough to make Letty "fall in love at first sight" with Amara.

It is a passion shared by her partner of 37 years. A businessman and civic leader, Ray is a sportsman who looks forward to the lifestyle options offered in Amara Phase 2's Sports and Recreation Club, with its basketball court, badminton courts, fitness gym and beach volleyball court.

But the doting grandparents see also endless opportunities to entertain their two active apo (grandchildren) in Phase 1's 25-meter infinity pool and wading pool, as well as Phase 3's picnic grove in a forest setting, with gazebos and lighted walkways.  Viewing decks along the esplanade and a boardwalk in Phase 3 will enable Ray, Letty and their daughters' families to gaze at the Mactan Channel and Camotes Sea.

"Gihatag gyud sa Ginoo (God gave our home to us). It was meant to be," murmurs Leticia of their "little heaven on earth."

Amara is "safe harbor"

In Spanish, amarrar refers to the mooring rope that anchors a ship at port. In its connotation of a safe harbor for the family, Amara is auspicious, too, for Socorro, solo parenting her daughter and son for 15 years.
 
In 2008, she bought another Amara lot. Located in Phase 3, whose 84 lots are now sold out since its October 2007 launch, this property is reserved for Socorro's son. Still finishing his studies on Clinical Psychology in the US, Socorro's son has nevertheless told his Mom of his desire to come home to Cebu.

"He said he would never exchange Cebu for any place in the world," Socorro recalls.

CHI is set to launch the next phase, Amara North, this October. There will be 16 premium bluff lots, with eight of them fronting the Camotes Sea.

"Amara is not an investment," muses Socorro while sitting under a 100-year-old Calumpang tree left undisturbed near the Phase 1 esplanade. "Amara is for the family. Having my children nearby will keep me young beyond my retirement."

For Tess Albulario, a multi-awarded merchant at the Ayala Center Cebu, years of nurturing Tim, Anna and Angela created a different yearning. "Now that all the kids have grown up, I decided to just put my feet up and treat myself to a much-desired gift," says the Park Tower resident and member of the City Sports Club Cebu.

"That gift? A piece of heaven. And that's Amara."

Over the marine life thriving in the low-tide eddies of a nearby abandoned port in sitio Bagacay and the families and individuals setting down roots and wings in Amara, the Bagacay Point Lighthouse keeps its unbroken vigil: "This is exactly where you are."