Mount Bandilaan, also spelled Bandila-an, is generally given as the highest point on Siquijor and lies in the island's interior. The surrounding upland is protected as the Siquijor Forest Reserve, known to visitors as Mt. Bandilaan Nature Park (some sources call it a natural park or national park). A mountain road runs through it, with a nature centre, a garden-style mountain view park and a viewing tower near the top. Each Holy Week the mountain is also the gathering place for the Healing Festival of traditional healers.
\nProclamation No. 523, signed by President Manuel L. Quezon on 12 March 1940, established the Siquijor Forest Reserve for reforestation, forest protection and timber production in the municipalities of Siquijor and Lazi. The proclamation and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 7 give the area as 212 hectares, and DENR reports that in 2022 the barangays of Cang-agong, Luzong, Cantabon and Cangumantong signed a commitment to protect it. Lonely Planet files the mountain near Cantabon, a barangay of the municipality of Siquijor, and the Siquijor Provincial Tourism Office lists the nature park in Barangay Cang-agong, also in Siquijor municipality.
\nPublished heights disagree. The Siquijor Provincial Tourism Office and Lonely Planet give 557 metres. BirdLife International, which identifies Bandila-an Peak with Mt Malabohoc (also spelled Malabahoc), the island's highest point, puts the island's highest altitude at 628 metres, and Wikipedia also gives about 628 metres. The reported range for the Bandilaan area is therefore about 557 to 628 metres, and any single figure should be treated as approximate.
\nBirdLife International lists Mount Bandila-an as an Important Bird Area and describes it as the best remaining forest on Siquijor. It includes a remnant of primary lowland forest, said to be the only primary forest left on the island, although much of the cover is disturbed secondary growth in which fig (Ficus) species dominate. A floristic survey of sample plots, posted as a preprint that has not been peer reviewed, recorded 188 plant species, with families such as Moraceae, Rubiaceae, Fabaceae and Meliaceae among the most common. A 2007 survey of Siquijor's birds, published in the Silliman Journal, reported 35 bird species at Bandilaan, the highest count among the island's forest patches, and found the Streak-breasted Bulbul, a threatened Philippine endemic, to be abundant there.
\nThe approach is by a mountain road, with the Bandila-an Nature Centre and the Bandila-an Mountain View Park along it. Between the two, Lonely Planet notes two clearly marked points where concrete steps lead up to the peak in about 10 minutes. At the top, the Siquijor Provincial Tourism Office describes a concrete viewing tower about 15 metres tall that gives 360-degree views over the island. The Mountain View Park is described as a public garden with flowers, walking paths and small pavilions for picnics, and as a place to watch birds and butterflies.
\nThe mountain is tied to Siquijor's reputation for folk healing. News reports date the Healing Festival to 2009 (ABS-CBN) or 2006 (Philippine Daily Inquirer) and describe it as an annual Holy Week event in which traditional healers, known as mananambal, gather at the top of Mt. Bandilaan; ABS-CBN mentioned about 150 healers in 2022, and other reports say healers and herbalists from the Visayas and Mindanao take part. According to these accounts, ingredients such as tree bark, roots and herbs believed to have medicinal use are gathered over the seven Fridays of Lent from the mountains, caves and sea, chopped during Holy Week, and cooked in a large pot of coconut oil on Black Saturday to prepare remedies. Coverage stresses that the practitioners see themselves as traditional medicine healers, not witches. It is a living cultural and religious practice, and visitors during Holy Week should treat it with respect.
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