BARONS OF BACOLOD AND ILOILO (1/4)

El Ideal

From the 25th -28th of April, 2018 I was travelling all over Bacolod and Iloilo with my Advocates For Heritage Preservation family. The tour was arranged for us by AHP member Emman dela Pena who took great pains in ensuring the tour went smoothly. Tito Encarnacion was the busy bee who acted as the team leader. He is after all, the founder of AHP.

I'm no stranger to Bacolod since I have friends in this province. But normally when I'm there it's usually for an outreach performance of Ballet Philippines from many years past. This trip makes it extra special because aside from the sentimental journey I was about to take, it offered me a relaxed attitude in seeing Bacolod and Iloilo from the vantage point of  being an admirer of heritage and an advocate at that! All those years of going to these provinces have become more meaningful as it provided me the opportunity to reminisce and remember some friends who are no longer with us in the physical world and some who have moved to distant lands and started new lives...

Our trip to these islands also led me to gasp at the lifestyle of the aristocrats... It just surprised me that my friends were/are as normal acting as anyone who didn't have tracts of land nor money to burn. I guess the truly rich in their own humble way are never flashy with their wealth nor as eager to flaunt what they've got.

I was at the NAIA terminal 3 at 1:00 a.m. to be sure I made my flight. There, I bumped into Tito and Aye who were taking a chance in re-booking to an earlier flight. At the gate I saw Alice de Vera Vasquez. Then I saw Noel Panaligan and family with Ness Cembrero across the hallway. Before we knew it, Tito and Aye were also walking towards the gate. Our flight landed in Bacolod at 5:00 a.m. and we got a van share to get us to the meeting place for breakfast in Silay City. El Ideal is a non descript, unpretentious restaurant that has been a land mark in Silay for decades. It's a re-purposed ancestral home with a historical marker out front along the main highway next door to an old school building. They serve great food at reasonable prices and they also have shelves of delicious local breads and delicacies made in the area.  I had Chorizo Pudpud for breakfast which was a good idea. The  sausages are taken out of their casing and fried. The meal is served with garlic rice, sunny side and a dip of local vinegar called sinamak. The protein kept me awake for the morning tour. At 130.00 pesos, that was a good choice.

I also went meandering around the town while the meals were being prepared. They open for breakfast around six but we were let in due to a previous arrangement with Emman. I took photos of old homes along the main highway and went into the San Diego de Alcala church right beside the town plaza. Built over the ruins of the old church, the new edifice was erected in 1920. Some of the ruins remain undisturbed behind the church. It was elevated to Pro- Cathedral status in 1994, the second church to gain that distinction and the only one outside of Manila. The church was designed and built by Italian architect Lucio Bernasconi after churches of his beloved country of origin. Funds were provided largely by Don Jose R. Ledesma, a wealthy sugar baron and the rest were from donations of the community. The church is laid out in a cruciform pattern flanked by two belfries and a rosette window in the facade and a dome on the altar area (the only one in Bacolod).

One by one the participants started to trickle in as their flights arrived. The Manila, Bacolod and Iloilo contingent once completed started to board the bus (a first for AHP heritage tours) and made our way to open countryside towards the Chapel of the Cartwheels in Manapla which was our first stop. Shaped like the typical salakot ( a wide-brimmed hat used to shield workers from the searing sun), the chapel's roof is made of slats of old wood to form a conical shape. Most of the walls are made up of old discarded wheels of carumatas  (wooden carts) that transported freshly harvested sugar cane from the fields to the milling area. Even the image of a crucified Christ is mounted on an old cart wheel emphasizing the significance of the chapel's thrust to reach out to the farm hands. Pews are made frown hewn hardwood and assigned to the family that made it. Lighting fixtures use re-purposed steel plates from tilling machines that draw furrows during planting season. A centuries old boulder brought to the area by workers serve as the main altar, while an image of the Madonna with butterfly sleeves stands off tangent to the altar. During construction, Msgr. Gaston dissuaded his father to see the church and upon completion, presented it to his father who thought it was unsightly. The individual parts of the chapel are pregnant with ecclesiastical meaning which was lost on the aesthetic sensibilities of his father.

Hacienda Rosalia

It seemed as though it was a joke considering the chapel is within the grounds of Hacienda Rosalia. The three story mansion sits amidst lush gardens with a tennis court on the side and a playhouse which is an ode to the nursery rhyme of the old lady that lived in a shoe. The sparkling white mansion is punctuated by brilliant hued flowers and a fountain in the front. This ancestral home is used by the descendants of the Gaston family and was used by Peque Gallaga (who is married to one of the daughters) for the award-winning film Oro, Plata, Mata. They actually opened its doors to welcome us and allowed us entry into the recibidor. All around it are the sugar cane fields where the family gained its wealth and prominence. Manapla is 44.5 km north of Bacolod City and may be reached via public transport or van hire.

Our guides Raymond Alunan and Cidni Mapa (take note of their family names) made commentaries along the way engaging us with stories of  the powerful and mighty hacienderos whose property lines reached out to as far as the horizon line.  They spoke of how the wars affected the way of life of the rich and mighty landlords and how their loyal workers would shield them from Japanese atrocities if they had treated their workers fairly. This was how the haciendas that remain were spared from commandeering by the Japanese Kempeitai and how the families managed to hold on to their baronies. The stories were animated enough to include the quirks of the rich and famous and the workers who pandered to their little  whims for fear of getting their ire.

The sun was getting high  and we reached our next stop at another chapel that was built for the workers. This one was recently featured as another model for art conservation.  Perhaps the newest among the churches in Bacolod, the Chapel of St Joseph the Worker in Victorias, is right smack in the heart of the Victorias Milling Co. and one needs special permission to see it. I was here many years ago for the 75th anniversary of Victoria Sugar Central. It grabbed my attention then as it still does now. The chapel is a composite work of modernity amidst a busy factory and sugar mill. Done by Ossorio family in 1948, the modern church features mosaic artwork in the baptistry on the baptism of Christ  and some panels in the altar and facade made of bits of colored soft drink bottles.

The piece d' resistance is the mural of the last judgement with the gargantuan image of the "angry" Christ dominating the mural. The artwork was a collaboration between Alfonso Ossorio ( son of Miguel Ossorio) and Ade de Buthune, a Belgian born American artist. The fresco remains the focal point of the altar with  brilliant colors that seem to leap out from the walls. It is hard to maintain as it requires a particular pigment, carbon chromium carbide ethyl silicate no. 40 to retain its brilliance. Around the chapel are images of saints in Filipino attire and style. Ergo it was featured in Life Magazine and Liturgical Art Magazine for its  first Filipinism in ecclesiastical art.

It was past noon when we got to our lunch venue at Edgewater  restaurant. It sits literally at the edge of the ocean. Edgewater offers  fresh, abundant seafood at very reasonable prices. For our meal, we feasted on garlic fried milkfish, kilawin with gata (ceviche with coconut cream), KBL-kadios, baboy langka (beans, pork and jackfruit),  sisig, calamares and a basin full of fresh oysters and streamed rice. All of that for two hundred pesos per pax. Beat that!

Our next stop was at the Hofilena Museum. We were a bit late for our appointment because lunch was a bit slow but so worth savoring,  but sir Ramon Hofilena was a most gracious host. The museum is actually their ancestral home  and he actually lives there.

Sir Ramon is a sprightly 84 year old that can still deliver a punchline to enliven sleepy guests. A former swimsuit model, artist, athlete, thespian and former golden boy of High Society, his activities were side-swiped when he had a temporary paralysis from head to toe. Thankfully,  he recovered! His well appointed home is replete with memorabilia of an esteemed family that was used to travels abroad and stately dinners at home. Walking from room to room, I was constantly amazed at his collection of fine china, artwork, books, photos and curios from various ends of the globe. He will even sign prints of artworks and memorabilia one can purchase at the museum.

Next item on our itinerary was the Victor Fernandez Gaston Heritage House or the Balay Negrense. The home was donated to the local government by the Gaston Family as a showcase for culture and the arts. There was formerly a dance studio on the ground floor but is now an exhibit area of furniture and costumes some of the rooms are now showcases of family portraits and escudos of the family's noble past.  The wooden balusters of the two-pronged staircase lead to an open floor plan on the second level where groupings of furniture  are set purposely to encourage conversation among guests. Nothing beats the charm of gleaming old wood! The floor boards are wide and polished to a dark sheen. And the front windows are arched tall enough with ventanillas underneath to give it an inviting open  facade.

On our way to our last stop for the day, we passed many other heritage houses and our guide Raymond would break into story-telling of many tragic romances that left us feeling a little sad. One such story was that of Adela who was forbidden to see  Rudy, (a man who courted her) because he was below her station. Given that she was duty-bound to listen to her parents' will, Adela and  Rudy made a vow to wait for each other. Adela still tried to reach out to him through letters sent through her friend, Emma. Apparently, Emma and her beloved Rudy fell in love  and were eventually married. Adela, refusing to accept her fate becomes a recluse and locks herself up in her room. She shuns the company of her  family and lives her life in utter solitude. And because every time she wakes up in the morning  and rises to the sight of her married friends home (one house away from hers), her last act upon inheriting the home from her parents was to lop off the second floor of the house where she lived and stayed on the ground floor. She passed on in September 2,  2011.

Before Sunset we made our way towards the Balay ni Tana Dicang in Talisay.  I had to tell the sad love story of Adela because our next stop was at a home of a strong-willed empowered lady. The house was owned by Efigenio Lizares and Enrica Alunan. Tana is the diminutive for kapitana referring to the matriarch of the clan. The house sits on a 6,000 sq.m. property and done in the traditional Bahay-na-Bato style. The exterior is made of corral stone (coquina) and brick with a palitada of lime. The  ground floor was where the boys rooms were stationed. This was so the boys could protect the women on the upper floor. A total of 18 rooms make up the whole house. On one side of the house was formerly a street that Tana Dicang had closed off to discourage unwanted male admirers of her daughters. That side of the house has iron grill works protecting the windows while the street side has none. Venatanillas are present everywhere and above that are sliding capiz windows. The callado and balustrade of the escalera principal are decorated in thorn-like patterns while rosette patterns soften the theme. On one side are masculine almost phallic motiff  and the sala has  a more feminine motiff. Tana Dicang was eventually widowed and she had to raise all her children on her own, She rose to such prominence that statesmen would make an appointment to solicit her influence. At the same time, she ran the affairs of her hacienda with a trusty Thompson (shotgun) by her side. In order to keep the property within her family she willed that only the daughters could inherit her property.

Raymond Alunan playing the piano at the sala of Tana Dicang

The sun was going down  and it was time to head for dinner and a place to rest after a long day. We drove up to Mambukal Resort in Murcia which is 32 km from Bacolod City. Spread over 23.6 hectares, Mambukal is a nature sanctuary and water park with natural hot springs fed from the vents of Mt. Kanlaon.  We got our room assignments for the night and unloaded our gear in the cabins. At P1,200.00/night for 4 pax, it was a good deal.  Our dinner was at the reception area of the Ishiwata Baths where we dined on KBL, pancit, fish, chicken and fresh fruit for dessert. But before we could make it to the hot spring dipping pool it was about to be closed for the evening. I didn't mind. Freshening up after dinner, I drifted off to slumber land...