A Wild Fickle River - the Aklan
by D. I. Ilio Sr.

Part III

The Mighty Aklan River between the towns of Banga and Malinao. The Manduyog hill in Banga could be seen far off in the distance.

There are evidences attesting to the passing of the river at certain particular points. In Banga town proper, certainly the Aklan passed along the very foot of Manduyog hill as there are intermittently dry creeks leading to the present course of the Aklan. Also just north of Sigcay is the Nalamsan Pond that does not dry up year round. And in Ugsud, there was (in the 1930s to 1950s) the libo-o across which a wooden bridge was constracted with a thatch roof along the Banga-Malinao gravel road.

While the present course passes east of Libo-an hill in Malinao down to the east side of the Lezo-Bagto hillock, curiously there is the never-dry libo-o called Guicod to the west of Lezo poblacion (just behind the Lezo elementary school grounds). This little lake could be where the Aklan passed centuries ago on toward the sea at Albasan or Madianos in Numancia town. If so, this is the reason why Datu Bangkaya first settled in Aklan at Madianos long ago - as the mouth of the Aklan was then at that point. It must have been later that the Aklan took a straighter course to the sea via east of Lezo and erupted into Sibuyan sea at Buswang in Kalibo. (The reason why this Kalibo coastal barrio got its name, buswang, meaning to burst.)

The vast expanse of the Aklan river alluvial plain

The longitudinal gradient or slope of the river bed is considerably steep that is why even on normal flow, the current is fast, much more during flood stages when the discharge is in thousands of cubic meters. Thus the annual flooding is devastating not only in destroying plants and crops, carrying away habitations and animals but also scouring the bed and eroding the banks. And during big floods, it is not predictable where the river may find a new course across the expanse of the alluvial plain.

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