HALCON MOUNTAINEERS ASSOCIATION INC.

THE HALCON MOUNTAINEERS (HALMS)

Mountaineering as a sport although started by a small group in the island by the late 70 really started to become popular only at the second half of the 80’s after holding of the then NATIONAL MOUNTAINEERING FEDERATION OF THE PHILIPPINES 7^th Annual Congress and Climb with Calapan as the Congress venue and Mount Halcon as the mo8ntain to sweat through.

Mountaineering was formerly looked upon by the Mindoreño as done by people who have so much money to spare since nothing could be earned from the effort or participated in by the people like us who have nothing much to do. Climbing a mountain then was meant only for the native mangyans who inhabit those terrains or for the search party on a rescue mission of possible survivor from the plane crash.

These conceptions were change by 1986.It was through the preparation of this congress that a group of former high school buddies got to know Boboy Francisco and Boy Siojo of the UP Mountaineers and got some how to learn that our mountains could be climbed and there is such an organization who do as a sport.

Calling themselves as Sunday Club, they got to be name the HALCON MOUNTAINEERS with Mount Halcon as their climb, prodded on by the members of the UPM. With nary though of danger, they plunge through a climbe of the highest peak of the island, bringing along improvised  equipment their wits to hang on, managing somehow, to weather the onslaught of the climb with a minimum preparation. Applying for membership with the federation, the group manage to pass as a member the following year, 1987, at the federation Congress in Bukidnon.

By 1987, the controversy of a timber license issued by the government in the last quarter of 1986, gave them their first baptism in the field of environmentalism. The license would have affected about 46,000 hectares of the island’s wilderness which would effect on the ecological balance of the island as a whole if pushed through. Spearheading a multi sectoral campaign and even a more intensive monitoring of the possible areas. By the howl of the majority of the island’s populace, the repeal of the said TLA was foregone conclusion by the last quarter of the same year.

This movement helped galvanized the stand of the organization into forming itself not only as recreational group, but helped incorporating within each member the need to integrate the concept of a more responsible kind of mountaineering. :

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