On social media, it
has become a badge of honor to flex visiting all 82 provinces of the
Philippines. But Arvid Marius “Marco” Puzon has taken this personal travel
goals to its extreme: every city and municipality in the country.
 |
| Mr. Puzon in Lawak Island, Kalayaan Group of Islands, West Philippine Sea, Palawan |
When a plebiscite
in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on April 13, 2024
created eight new municipalities in North Cotabato, bringing the national total
to 1,642, Puzon, who already step foot on the 1,634 cities and municipalities,
did what he has vowed himself to do. He packed a bag and went back on the road.
To him, this is not
about a boast or a bucket list. It is about giving attention to places most
travelers pass through, to towns that barely register on a map.
The Early Case of
Itchy Feet
Travel, for Puzon,
was not a late-life ambition but something that began in childhood. Summers
were spent in his parents’ hometowns in Northern Luzon, weekends at
once-popular beach resorts in La Union, and frequent trips to Baguio.
 |
| Batan Island, Rapu-Rapu, Albay. Puzon also travels with a small plushy toy he named Elmo. “I like to believe many other travelers have their plushy companions,” he said. “Elpo appears to have a traveler’s itch of his own, and he has been a witness to thousands of miles and moments |
“In my adult years,
my different former professions required tons of travel and field work,” he
said. “I worked as a DOT-accredited, German and French-speaking guide in the
mid-1990s to show them the chaos of Metro Manila and accompany them on package
tours.” By his mid-20s, he had visited 19 provinces including what was then
Kalinga-Apayao. He calls this his “Early Travels Era.”
“From September
1997 to June 1998, I went on a series of solo backpacking trips across the
country,” he said. “I traveled to festivals, to remote towns, and re-explored
provinces I had already visited—it was my ‘Tour Guide/Backpacking Years.”
 |
| Lahi-Lahi, Tuburan, Basilan |
His wanderlust was
already growing. But the shift from provinces to municipalities came later,
sparked by a desire to explore and learn each province more.
From Provinces to
1,642 Towns
In 2010, Puzon
found himself in Barobo, Surigao del Sur for work. He never left the seaside
resort where the activity was held. He did not see the capital, Tandag. On
paper, he had visited the province. In spirit, he felt he had not. That unease
planted the seed.
“Would I be able to
say that I had been to Surigao del Sur when I was not even able to visit the
capital city or other places apart from the venue?” he recalled.
 |
| Mr. Puzon in Pahamuddin, with long time friend and colleague, Amor Pendaliday, Ed.D, and his cousin. No. 1642/1642 reached |
By 2012, during
what Puzon refers to as “my NGO Years and in my early 40s”, he had visited all
but six provinces even the
short-lived province of Shariff Kabunsuwan. After being laid off in 2013, amid
what he describes as an existential crisis, he began the project: to visit all
1,634 municipalities and cities then recognized in the Philippines. At first,
he aimed only for Luzon’s 771 towns and cities.
He began in San
Ildefonso, Bulacan. Within a year, he had covered 569 towns and cities in Luzon
and Cebu City. A career shift to microfinance expanded his reach to the Visayas
and Mindanao. By the end of 2018, he had visited 1,579 of the then total of 1,634
towns and completed all 81 provinces. (the 82nd Maguindanao del
Norte was formed in 2022).
From an outsider’s
point of view, his travels may seem something straight out of an epic
travelogue written by a Paul Theroux or a Pico Iyer, but what others don’t
know, there’s grind that comes with it. He once visited 15 towns in a single
day, tracing a route from Sta. Catalina in Ilocos Sur to Bangar in La Union. At
other times, reaching a single municipality required two days of travel.
"Sometimes it
took me two days to reach towns like Calanasan (Apayao), Tinoc (Ifugao), or
even longer for Pangutaran (Sulu).” Puzon said. “My longest travel waits were a
week to Cagayancillo in Palawan, and Mapun in Tawi-Tawi. Thankfully, friends
who shared my goals got me a ride to Taganak, Turtle Islands, aboard the BRP
Ivatan in July 2017”.
The Road Obstacles
Not all obstacles
were logistical. In July 2016, the bus he was riding from Bicol to Manila was
involved in a fatal accident in Quezon Province. A young passenger died. Puzon
survived, but the experience forced him into a four-month pause from travel.
The incident reinforced his belief in safer travel and exposed systemic
weaknesses in road safety enforcement.
 |
| Brgy. Tee, Datu Salibo, Maguindanao del Sur |
“Although I did
somehow think whether my 1634 PH goal was worth it, the event ruined my zero
accident goal,” he said.
Then came March
2020. He was six towns away from completing the list when the pandemic halted
the world. Stranded in Lapu-Lapu City for three months, he considered stopping
at 1,628. “After all,” he said, “I don’t think anyone has ever made it as far
as I have.”
But curiosity
proved stronger than fatigue. When travel resumed, so did he. He speaks of
places as unexpectedly beautiful not for their landscapes alone but for their
people: “There are so many ‘unexpectedly beautiful places’ in the Philippines
and what makes these beautiful beyond scenery are its people,” he said. A
father caring tenderly for his daughter at a waiting shed in Nagtipunan; an
elderly balikbayan revisiting her island hometown of Araceli in Palawan,
perhaps for the last time; electric cooperative workers who let him hitch a
ride between Agutaya and Cuyo; local officials in La Paz, Abra who offered
lunch upon learning of his quest.
“I didn’t have any
moments in my travels that made me wonder whether obsession had overtaken joy,”
he said. “But there were periods that I would describe as very difficult.”
He has been treated
unwelcome, too, dismissed by local tourism officials. He remembers a few
telling him this waterfall or that island were “very far” when they were not,
blamed for not coordinating earlier despite finding no contact information
online. Oftentimes, he found habal-habal drivers or police officers who proved
more willing and helpful guides.
 |
| Sterling Inn, Pajac, Lapu Lapu City (where Puzon was stranded for 3 mos during pandemic) |
“I observed that
there’s a large push towards annual festivals and celebratory events, complete
with pageants and booths showcasing what the town or city offers,” he said.
“But I am thrown off by the difficulty of finding accommodations and
frustrating commutes.”
He observes that
many local governments lean heavily on festivals and borrowed monikers; “the
Switzerland of this,” “the Boracay of that,” catchy ones but lacking narrative.
The strength of a tourism office, he notes, depends largely on the support of
its mayor.
Completion of a
Passion Project
When Puzon arrives
in a town, he makes one thing nonnegotiable: a visit to the municipal or city
hall. For him, it is the center of every town, the plaza, the old and new
buildings, the monuments, the markers, all combine to tell a hint of the town’s
history.
 |
| Blos River, Maconacon, Isabela |
“I would never
consider myself having been to the town or city if I have not been to the
municipal or city hall,” he said.
He admits that
completion has been a powerful motivator. Finally, after Puzon returned to the
road to visit the eight new municipalities, he became the first on record to
complete visits to all 1,642 cities and municipalities by February 14 of this
year spending Valentine’s Day in Pahamuddin, a newly-formed municipality in the
Special Geographic Area in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,
doing what he love the most.
But he insists that
curiosity matters just as much. “There is always something new to visit and
learn,” he said. Beyond that, another list awaits: the country’s 150 largest
islands. He has visited 113 so far, with 37 of the largest still left to go. He
has not traveled abroad since his NGO years, when he was sent to countries from
Thailand to Colombia. Despite arguments that international trips can be
cheaper, he still prefers the Philippines.
An ordinary day on
the road, he said, begins and ends with prayer. In an age when travel is often filtered
into highlights and hashtags, Puzon’s project feels almost old school. It is
not about the spectacular, nor even the scenic. It is about showing up at the
far edge of an island or any random locations and refusing to let a place
remain a blank space on the map.
This article was first published on Rappler.
