Biga Pit

Biga Pit is a former quarry in Cebu’s south-central interior, one of several inland extraction sites that have left the island’s hill country pocked with terraced walls and pooled water once mining stopped. Cebu’s interior has run on limestone and aggregate quarrying for the cement and construction industry for decades — the province is one of the country’s larger cement-producing regions — and pits like this are the physical record of that industry once a site is worked out rather than reclaimed. The turquoise color comes from mineral content and depth rather than anything ornamental: dissolved limestone and sediment suspended in still water bend light the same way they do in the province’s better-known quarry pools.

What’s here now is closer to an accidental landmark than a designed attraction. There’s no formal walkway, no facilities, no entrance gate — just the terraced rock face and the water it’s collected since the last equipment moved out. [FACT NEEDED: name of the quarry operator and the year extraction stopped] Quarrying like this typically runs on a rotating local workforce rather than a large resident crew, and once a pit like Biga is worked out, that labor generally shifts to the next active site rather than staying attached to the land — part of why abandoned pits across Cebu’s interior tend to sit unmanaged rather than get converted into parks or fenced recreation areas.

That lack of management cuts both ways. It’s what keeps the site free and open to visit, but it also means there’s no supervision, no rail along the rim, and no water testing to confirm whether swimming here carries any risk from residual quarry sediment or unstable underwater ledges. [FACT NEEDED: whether swimming is locally considered safe, and any recorded water quality testing] Visitors who do come tend to be day-trippers from Cebu City chasing the photo rather than locals, since the pit itself has no practical use for the surrounding barangay beyond the modest, informal income a handful of tricycle drivers and small sari-sari stores pick up from the traffic passing through.

The terrain around the rim is loose scree and cut rock rather than packed trail, and the drop to the water is steep enough in places that footing matters more than it looks like it should from photos taken at a distance.

Sites like Biga Pit sit in a gray zone for local tourism planning: too remote and unofficial to attract the investment that would make them safer, but popular enough on social media to keep drawing visitors regardless of whether anyone in local government has decided the site should be open to the public at all. That tension plays out at abandoned quarries across the province, and it’s worth treating a visit here with the same caution as any unregulated industrial site rather than as a managed attraction with implied safety standards.

• The color contrast between the blue-green water and the layered rock walls is the main draw for photography, strongest around midday when the light is direct.
• A walk around the rim gives a full view of the pit’s scale, though the terrain is loose and uneven in places.
• Sturdy footwear matters here — there’s no maintained path, and the edges aren’t fenced.
• Treat the water itself with caution; unlike a managed swimming hole, there’s no one confirming depth, current, or water quality.

Explore More in Moalboal and Southwest Cebu

• Mt. New Bucao
• Liki Spring Asturias
• Mantayupan Falls