"Marikit ng Lipa"

Malepunyo Range or Mounta Malarayat is an extinct volcano located in the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, and Quezon.

Mount Malarayat does not only provide a majestic sweeping scenery to Lipa City but it also serves as a wind breaker in times of typhoons plus it supplies clean and cool air to the city.

The mountain range is home to thousands of flora, fauna, and other forms of life and one of which are civet cats as the source of famous alamid coffee. Water is also seen as the primary ecosystem service of Mt Malarayat to Lipenos.

As previously written in our previous Lipa Status's article, with so many benefits of the mountain to Lipa and nearby towns, the mountain should be given utmost priority and protection not only by Lipa but the rest of the cities and municipalities covered by the mountain range. We should be learning from what's recently happening in other places and the effect of climate change.

More Details: Mount Malepunyo is its highest peak located at Barangay Talisay, Lipa City standing at 1,002 metres (3,287 ft) above mean sea level by the ridge of its caldera. The second highest peak of the range is Mt. Dalaga standing at 755 metres (2,477 ft) above mean sea level situated at the boundary of Santo Tomas, Batangas and Alaminos, Laguna. During the 1990s, the name was changed by the locals of Santo Tomas to Manabu as a shortened Tagalog phrase Mataas na Bundok which means "High Mountain". At the center of the mountain range is a cliff known as Bagwis Cliff by the locals, yet due to its shape that resembles a goat's breast, it is also called as Susong-Kambing (en: Goat's Breast). In time, mountaineers have also mistakenly named this cliff as Susong Dalaga (en. maiden's breast) which is actually the oldest name of Manabu Peak.

How Safe is Lipa from Typhoons?

 With the recent calamities in the country, you will sometimes think how safe is Lipa City? The last typhoon that badly hit Lipa was Glenda (Rammasun) in 2014 which was one of the only two category 5 super typhoons on record in South China sea. Typhoon Glenda put Lipa in total power outage for about 2 weeks and connected to power outage was scarcity in water supply. The typhoon also put damaged to few properties and flooding in some areas of the city.

In general, Lipa can stand strong typhoons which can be attributed to the protection being provided by Mount Malarayat and Mount Maculot. Lipa is also on high elevation which helps the city not to be flooded heavily if having high density of waters from strong typhoons.

However, time is changing so quickly. Lipa became the most populated city in Batangas since 2015 and population at present may now be approximately close to 400K. Lipa being the most commercialized center in Batangas has attracted a lot of real estate developers and currently has the most number of subdivisions in Batangas. In the recent typhoons that visited the country, more areas got flooded in Lipa although not yet life threatening but is getting to be alarming.

The city government of Lipa should have an extensive ordinances that will cover the protection of Mount Malarayat, ecological balance in the city proper, sustainable drainage, sustainable subdivision framework, and other long term projects that will reduce the effect of climate change. Individuals, organizations, and business establishments should always think if their actions or waste products will have unfavorable effect in the environment. It's not yet too late to improve the health of our environment in Lipa.

photo: Arthur Chicky Mijeno

Breezy Lipa

It's time of the year again when people of Lipa are having challenges in taking a bath directly from tap water at any time of the day because of the outside temperature.

Northeast monsoon or "amihan" is bringing chilly weather in Southeast Asia which includes the Philippines and even extreme condition in some areas.

Cold months have more "winter feels" like in Lipa City since it is situated at an elevation of more than 1,000 feet above sea level and visually dominated by Mount Malarayat making its temperature lower than average Philippine temperature all year round same with Tagaytay and Baguio as having the coldest temperature at least for the cities in Luzon.

Winter monsoon is expected to peak on December until February but this year is more active because of La Niña event which will trigger for flash floods, flooding and rain induced landslides on high risk areas.

Lipa Opens Christmas Attractions

Lipa City Government opened its Christmas attractions today in two separate venues. First was at the City Hall grounds where selfie lovers will surely enjoy the Walk of Light and the other one was at the City Plaza where giant Christmas tree is located with a grand fireworks display and Christmas give away to early patrons.