Vigan Cathedral and the Murder of Floro Crisologo

Vigan Cathedral. Early morning mass.

The cathedral was built in 1541 upon Juan Salcedo’s directives. It is said that the young Spanish captain personally picked the location where the church was to be built. In front of it is a wide plaza with fountains and benches. In the mornings and afternoons, people from all walks of life flocks around the plaza just like in the older times.

If your standing in front of the church, facing it, to your left is the archbishops palace, to the right was where the old seminary used to stand (which are now rented out to fast food chains). The buildings are all made to resemble the Vigan houses. The original buildings were destroyed by fire in the 60′s.

UNESCO’s declaration of Vigan as the “best preserved Spanish colonial town” is a bit confusing, if not actually wrong. Yes, it was influenced by hispanic design but hardly can it be considered solely “Spanish”. A bahay na bato exist nowhere in the world except here. Add to this is that the people who built and resided in these houses were almost all locals with the exception of the missionaries. Perhaps, the town’s layout is what is being referred to as “Spanish”. The more accurate description should include “Filipino” because this better defines the marrying of the influences between local and hispanic.

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The cream colored church is classified as baroque. I’m tempted to elaborately define its stylistic form but I’m no expert in classical architecture. What I can say is that its one of the prettiest church I’ve ever been in and that it ties everything together. You really can’t go wrong with a creamy theme!

What makes this church unique, along with those of Laoag and Paoay, is that the church bells are separated from the main church. The builders wanted to secure the church from the bell towers, which are normally the first to collapse during massive earthquakes. Even then, Filipinos learned to deal with such calamities and find a way to overcome them.

Yes, we are a hardy bunch, we Filipinos.

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Ilocos Sur’s violent political wars reached its peak when Floro Crisologo (whose greatest contribution was the passage of our social security sytem) was shot dead inside the cathedral while waiting to receive his communion. He’s kin to Mena Crisologo (first Ilocos Sur governor and Malolos Congress representative). The Ilocano congressman died instantly. The murder remains unsolved to this day.

I first learned about this story from the movie “Bingbong” which I saw together with a brother when I was 11 (we used to sneak in and watch these movies in Makati’s Plaza Fair). The real Bingbong, now a QC congressman, has been an active religious leader since Marcos pardoned him in the 80′s. He was convicted for burning two villages in Bantay. The movie highlighted his spiritual transformation. Last time I heard about Bingbong was when he almost came to blows with MMDA operatives. The latter was attempting to demolish some shanties in his constituency, the congressman, the tough guy that he is, preventing the demolition taking place.

The Crisologo’s are among the biggest families in Vigan. In Vigan, everybody seem to be related by blood and share more or less the same apellidos but blood nor having same last names prevented political feuding. Even Bingbong’s mother, Governor Carmeling Crisologo, was not spared. She survived an attempt on her life during her term. Their rival and relatives, the Singsons, also had numerous assassinations attempts. Everybody was trying to get rid of everybody else – gangster style!

Thank Heavens Vigan today has surpassed these ugly political warring. The city has been largely peaceful and is held out as a tourism model in the country. Now, that’s an admirable transformation. I sure hope it stays this way.

The Crisologo museum in Vigan is open for public viewing throughout the week. Its free and is very well maintained. The bloodied clothes of the congressman and the car where his wife almost lost her life are preserved and is on exhibit.

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A stone throw away from the cathedral is Plaza Burgos where the empanadaan was built so tourist can sample the town’s famous empanada. During the two days that I stayed in Vigan, I would go to this place to eat this healthy dish – its cheap and filling. Their version is closer to the Mexican taco than to the empanada we usually get in Manila (bread fried with chicken and potato filling). The main ingredients of the Vigan empanada are carrots, mungo, unripe papaya, egg, cabbage and meat (sometimes substituted by their version of longaniza).

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September 2012

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Related:

Vigans Pretty Houses In a Row

Vigan Before Sunrise

Vigan’s pretty houses all in a row

One of my favorite philosopher, the late Terrence Mckenna, once said:

“The imagination is the goal of history. I see culture as an effort to literally realize our collective dreams.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Our tangible heritage is an essential part of this imagination.

Architecture, being one of the earliest and most constant expressions of development – hispano filipino architecture – is the product of the evolving Filipino imagination, as he was slowly shaping his own world in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

There’s a reason why there’s a sense of familiarity in themes and design. The antillean houses and churches were all built to establish an identifiable pattern. Clearly, the voicing out of the Filipino identity and culture.

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Here are some more pictures I took in the Sts. of A. Reyes, V. De los Reyes, Plaridel, Singson & Luna:

Related:

Back to Vigan

Vigan Before Sunrise

Back to Vigan

This isn’t my first time in Ilocos but it sure feels like it. The last time, about 2+ years ago, was a disaster. I thought I could squeeze touring Ilocos Norte and Sur in just one weekend – epic fail – I ended up on a hurried tour of inspection.

You know you’ve messed up the travel when all you think about is getting back in time for work.

Well, I’m known for poor planning and weak time management when it comes to traveling. I leave a lot to chance. That’s the kind of traveler I am but I like it, keep things interesting.

How could I even begin to write about my Vigan experience here?

Impossible.

One has to see Vigan to fully grasp exactly how conserving heritage revives the spirit of identity — our ancestors came a long way before they started building these massive stone houses. In order for us to regain our lost sense of identity and pride we have to study the historic shift that took place during the last couple of centuries.

What a delight to see all these bahay na bato’s still standing as if they were rooted so deep that nothing could ever remove them from existence.

Today we’ve embraced the culture of planned obsolescence. Building for the generations is  a concept that is as foreign to us as another planet. We’ve come full circle – from pawid to stones to weak hollow blocks – nothings built to last anymore.

I feel that these giant houses are material manifestation of our ancestors longing to be different, to have an identity that is unique, incomparable. This was their way of saying, this is us now — capable of achieving development. Proud of what they have become.

But as in all civilization, decline is inevitable.

No wonder Vigan produced someone like Padre Burgos, who advocated for the Filipinization of parishes. There’s this proud history that led him to believe that we’re ready. The revolution we celebrate had its roots here in Vigan.

Vigan was not the original site of the Diocese of Nueva Segovia, Cagayan was but because the place where the old Diocese sat regularly gets flooded, the Bishops then requested to moved out toVigan. This was to be the beginning of the golden era of Vigan. A period started when there was a renaissance of interest in commerce, arts, traditions and religious culture. That the present Vigueños has managed to conserved much of its historical treasures, including its traditional food, is simply magical.

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Related: Vigan Before Sunrise

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September 2012

Thoughts, Laoag

Clear or light, according to locals is where the city got its name. They must be referring to the skies. The sky in these parts, on a clear day, is blue as blue can be. The weather (I don’t know if its just me) feels a lot hotter around here. Must be the reason why Ilocanos are darker than the rest of us.

I once met an old man from Pangasinan who told me that the Ilocanos were originally confined in what is now Ilocos but because their ancestors were industrious farmers always looking for land to earn from, they found their way to La Union, Pangasinan, Isabela and Cagayan. This must be true because I’ve heard of Negrense relatives that married Ilocano farmers. These men my mother told me was known to them as sacadas, seasonal farmers that worked the sugar fields of Negros back in the day.

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Going to Laoag (this time from Vigan) I passed by hometowns of some of our most recognizable heroes. Towns like Badoc, Batac and Sn. Nicolas. I skipped the Marcos museum and the Fort Ilocandia. I was told that these are “must visit” when you’re in the province. I thought about it but in the end decided not to go. I felt that I wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.

What I did try is this popular delicacy called tinubo. A combo of cheese and melted sugar steamed inside a bamboo. And since I’m a veggie fan I also tested their dinengdeng, just to sample one that was cooked by an Ilocano and not an Ilonga! My mother loves to cook this dish back home.

If there’s one thing that I regret not seeing that’s the town of Sta. Maria and its church. I completely forgot about it. I usually don’t do extensive travel planning. It finally caught up with me.

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Along the way I saw banners of birthday greetings for Apo Lakay. Ferdinand Marcos is still king around here. The Marcoses still dominate the politics of the province. To Ilocanos he’s a hero. For an outsider, this is all too strange, especially those who were taught to believe that Macoy reigned with nothing but terror and destruction. Now that we’re learning more and more about what really happened during those tumultuous decades – well maybe, yes, some part of it was really that bad but not all of it. On a personal note, our family benefited from his policies in land tenancy. In the end we have to acknowledge that there are groups that supports and still believes in them.

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It took me more than 2 hours to reach Laoag (from Vigan). There are roads that were being repaired somewhere in San Nicolas, so my bus encountered some traffic along the way.

Laoag have a typical Spanish era town design where the church and all the other administrative buildings are located not far from each other. Just imagine how it looked during the heyday of tobacco production in the 1800′s. They for sure must’ve rivaled the most progressive towns back then.

The rotonda goes around what they call Ilocano Heroes Hall where there is also a monument built to commemorate the end of the tobacco monopoly. The park is well kept and have fountains that are working. Near the capitol building is a wonderful old red brick building that once housed the Spanish era tabacco factory (this now houses their provincial museum). It’s a good idea to walk around this area as there are plenty to see if you take pleasure seeing heritage structures.

I was surprised to see so many calesas still doing the routes around Vigan. The streets are uncluttered. I also noticed that tributaries and rivers around the city are relatively clean. So there’s some good points on how the city is being managed.

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This bell tower is enormous that I thought it was an old building. So solid they say that it has slowly been sinking under its own weight. Its a fascinating engineering feat considering the time when it was constructed. Some believes that the reason for this “shrinking” phenomena is that the tower was built on sandy soft land. Well, the river is not that far from the area so its a plausible explanation. Historians regards it as the “most solid and tallest bell tower” in the country.

I believe that there’s much that we don’t know about this shrinking tower. Its time that church officials look into getting some expert advice on the bell tower’s structural integrity and maybe some of its history. We don’t build them like we used to – these towers are gems of our religious and cultural heritage. A comprehensive study would certainly reveal things we don’t know about its construction.

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September 2012

Vigan Before Sunrise

It was a short but good 6 hour sleep. I was so tired traveling from the previous day (to Laoag, Paoay) that I fell right straight to bed when I got back to Vigan – dropped and slept like a log. My hunger woke me up at around 3am. Tried to sleep some more but my stomach wont let me until I decided to just go out and find something to eat. And since I’m headed back to Manila that same day, I packed my stuff and made sure that I don’t have to come back for nothing.

I came out and found not a soul (of a living person of course) in sight. It was too early even for locals known for their industrious nature. But just before dawn, the church opened its doors, bells were rung and recorded Gregorian chants started playing. Inside the church, people has started to come in. Just outside, near Plaza Burgos, there were people doing aerobics, around the park everybody’s jogging. I’ve never seen a provincial town this lively this early in the morning.

Seeing the Vigan houses is important for me personally because I’ve been advocating heritage conservation all my adult life. The town gives me a good feeling – a little hope that heritage conservation can succeed in our country. I could not believe that these houses are still here. It is as if they were silently hidden away from all the wars and calamities for us to see today. We Filipinos, should be proud of Vigan!

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The houses are more than architecture and art for me. They’re links to our ancestors emotions and imagination. And if you believe in spirits like I do, they’re tangible spiritual connections that can bring us closer to our past. We have to think about those who built these houses and try to understand who they are. What made them built something that was so resilient, so strong that it has outlive so many generations. Kalaw wrote a wonderful piece about this where he explains our gran scions vision. For these early Filipinos, its all about love, family and the next generation. The houses was intended not for them but for us. The way we allow the degradation of our heritage today is a sad reflection of how ignorant we have become as Filipinos.

The bahay na bato represents the evolution and devolution of the Filipino. I see them as reminders of what was achieved and what the generations after it failed to achieve. Monumental pieces that were built to last, relics left behind for us to learn from. 400 years ago we lived in bamboo shelters and caves, from this we jumped to building in stone and mortar. Quite an accomplishment considering that it was done in a short period of time. Today, we can’t even built proper sidewalks much more decent homes. We can’t seem to understand the message our ancestors attempted to convey with their creation. It’s not surprising that men like Rizal, Mabini and Luna appears to us more like mythical characters than real persons.

I’ve accepted long ago that it would take a miracle of biblical proportions for all of us to realize that we need to save what’s left of our heritage. Not the case here in Vigan, of course. All it took was a united effort from the local government and civic groups. For some reason the town has defied this sickening culture of destroying heritage. The kind that we have in Manila.

Vigan has made an important lesson for the rest of us. Maybe all hope is not lost after all.

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Call it weird but I always hope to have visions of images from the bygone era, and I was hoping to see one that morning: a Filipina in a gracious terno, or, a barefooted Chino peddler, or what about, a gentleman properly dressed for the dawn mass. I saw none of these of course, I needed a time machine for it, but with all of these wonderful houses for a background its easy to play these scenes inside your head.

Speaking of having a vision of the past, this experience could be one. Or it could also be the product of my overly active imagination. I don’t know. But I remember in Lipa’s Casa Segunda, upon entering the gate I went straight inside the old house, since I thought there was no one around. I walked around the house and went upstairs. I don’t know if this has something to do with my familiarity with bahay na bato but I knew where everything was located inside the house. It felt like the lay out of the house was embedded in mind. The strangest part of this experience was that I knew that the marble chess board where Luz and Rizal played have cracks on it and that it was bonded by some type of cement – when I saw it, it was exactly the same image I have in mind. I never told this to my gracious host, who later found me wandering around the house, because she might get offended that I went inside the house without her permission. I feel that spirits can read our intentions, I think that time I was guided by the original owners, maybe Segunda or Manuel, or maybe other former residents that had long crossed over. Who knows. We can never fully understand such experiences.

Bantay Church and Tower as History

The bell tower built on a mound

I wasn’t suppose to see Bantay today but I did because I saw countless tourists gathered to have their pictures taken with the iconic red brick tower as background. I got curious if there was an event. I later found out that those folks were pilgrims. The church is popular pilgrimage among Catholics because it houses the miraculous image of Apo Caridad, the Lady of Charity, the oldest Marian icon in the region.

According to historians Galende and Javellana the builders feared that the enormous belltower, that doubled as an observation tower, would squash the church in the event it collapse during an earthquake. So they built it away from the main building. Compared to the customary church towers built (usually attached to the main building) during that same century, these towers in Ilocos are distinct because they were designed to perform multiple functions. From this belltower one could see a fantastic view of the town, including Vigan, the vast western seas and the mountains in the east.

In the Visayas, we have the “bantay sa hari” (like that of Mandaue but these towers, sadly, are fast diminishing), towers that have no bells but served as sentinels against pirates and Moro raiders. Ilocos’s Bantay, the town’s name, must have been derived from its bell tower’s role during those days. Similar to Cebu, the Augustinians built these structures that doubled as defensive towers which were sometimes armed with canons like that of Argao.

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An old house that serves delicious grilled pork bbq!

The western seas

Bantay is home to one of the first native author in our history, Pedro Bukaneg, who also helped the friars learn Iloco during the crucial years of putting the northern region under the bells. In Bantay, he co-wrote the first book written in Ilocano, “libro a naisuratan ami a bagas to doctrina cristiana” in 1621. Bukaneg is an interesting historical character, but like Pinpin, little is known about him. It is said that he appeared in the river, a baby floating in a basket like Moses. “Christianized heathen” according to some Ilocano historians is the true meaning of “bukaneg”. It was likely that he was abandoned because he had perceived physical disabilities. Adopted by the Augustinians and was sent to Manila to study. Inside the convent he became a linguist, a master poet and a musical genius. Bukaneg and Pinpin are examples of native converts that became zealous advocates of spreading the religion. The missionaries and their native scribes pioneered literature in the local languages because evangelization, they figured, will spread much faster, become more potent, when its agents speaks the local language. Teaching Spanish would’ve been impractical, almost impossible given the missionaries number so even if there’s a decree that all subjects must be taught Spanish, the friars never prioritized this (a case of, obedezco pero no cumplo).

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Another figure that became part of Bantay history are the Silangs. In San Agustin, Diego Silang imprisoned a handful of friars including the bishop. When the British successfully took Manila, Silang collaborated with them to overthrow what remains of the Spanish in his Ilocos. He was appointed by the British, the Governor of Ilocos. In the end he was killed by a fellow Ilocano – a man denounced as traitor because he sided with Filipinos who wanted to stay Spanish against Silang’s, who wanted to go under British. He was killed in a house not far from the church. After the assassination of Silang, his wife Gabriela continued the struggle but was later captured in Abra and was hanged along with his men. This husband and wife story presents to us an admirable story of heroism for love and freedom but their concept of liberation was limited to their Ilocos, they were operating in that confined space because the Filipino idea was yet to be born. To claim that their movement was one that is national, or moving towards a united revolution, is historical allegory.

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In recent years, I’ve written more on churches, their cultural and historical importance, than any other heritage structures. I feel I’m beginning to sound more like a religious nut to some people. But you know, tangible heritage, what’s left of it, are mostly churches these days – a huge chunk of it . These centuries old buildings dominates our heritage landscape, while the clusters of bahay na bato and all the other civilian structures built during Spanish Philippines era has been largely removed from our landscape. Economics has a lot to do with this situation. The preference of descendants and local governments to make profit rather than contribute to society by preserving these centuries old structures. But the root of our peoples eagerness to impart from our heritage can be traced to how history is taught as national education. Aided by revisionist historians text books that regards Spanish era as “colonial”, thus, deserving no merits affected conservation in all levels.

The campaign to eliminate our hispano filipino memory by detaching us from it has been for the most part successful because this disinformation campaign has become our history text. Unwittingly, these so called nationalist historians, desperately wanting to make the Filipino accept their asianic golden age by debasing his hispano filipino past, assisted the cultural and economic intrusion of the Americans. Instead of embracing the idea of an decolonized Filipino, the Filipino in turn went to the culture that America introduced. In the end, we ended up with neither a Filipino identity that is asianic nor hispano, we became the brown styled, wannabe Americans.

Not unless we understand what these monuments of our heritage represents, we’ll remain the kind of Filipinos our failed historians wanted us to become. We’ll never see an end of Filipinos who unconsciously declares their revulsion towards the accomplishments of our hispano filipino ancestors and the culture they bequeathed us within their circle of Filipino friends but among outsiders and foreigners lay claim with pride “my grandparents are Spanish”, “I have Spanish blood”,  and ” my grandparents, they spoke Spanish!”.

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San Agustin of Bantay

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Behind these mountain must be Provencia de Abra!

The bells of Bantay

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Salamat kaayo sa Ginoo sa tanang kalipay nga among gibati diri sa pagsuroy-suroy diri.. a Visayan note in the church log book.

The ruins at the side of the church

The guide usually acoomodate tourists who wants to climb the church tower. To avoid children from loitering and climbing the tower, volunteers guards the church grounds which I thought is a good idea.

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I spoke with the church’s tour guide and he told me stories about local movies and music videos shot in the grounds of the church.My sweet Lord. What a comedic relief this was. I was tired traveling all day, listening to him was a welcome break. Yeah, he should have lectured me with the towns historical facts but hey, lets cut him some slack, these guys don’t get paid (they’re given an allowance everyday for food), but still they look after the church and its visitors, and that’s a very noble thing to do. I’m sure he knows more but we just never had that conversation. Anyway, he gave me a snippet about a popular telenovela in channel 2, I would like to share this here. This is his exact words: “Katrina and the guy will be married here (with Bantay church as background), this will be the ending of the telenovela”. I don’t know what he was saying but I wrote it down. You’ll never know when these kind of information would come in handy!

The Old Convent Ruins of Paoay

Nature has begun to reclaim the insides of this old ruin

Coming from the euphoria of seeing the heritage treasure that is Paoay Church, I crashed into a sad state of realization seeing the old convent, lying in decay just across the church. Potentially another historical gem, I thought, only if we could just find a way to restore it or maybe find some useful means to showcase it for educational purpose, just like what other people do with their centuries old buildings. I really don’t know much about the history of this building aside from that it was the old residence of the missionary fathers. Chances are that this building was used for other different functions, as it was common for such buildings to take on new roles as time goes by. Most of these convent were made schools by the seculars during the early 1900’s. The rudiments of education, essentially religious of course, had been given to the early natives of the area from this building. This event alone merits its preservation.

It was strange walking around the ruins, thinking that people lived and died in what was once a wonderful building – what were their memories of this place? I have these qustions in my head, wondering, do we have an obligation to take care of these old buildings and preserve them? What if I’m non-Catholic and I see these relics as nothing more but remnants of a past that I resent? Do I have to support the restoration of such things?

In a time when bashing the religion is the flavor of the month, I could only see the support to conserve old churches and her structures to diminish. Not to put the blame on anyone who does not believe in the church, the local hierarchy has its share of failures in protecting these wonderful buildings. There’s what appear to be a movement to do away with conservation, instead, build new constructs, everything must be new, the old uprooted – the only justification is that this method is the practical way to do things.

We went through different stages in our culture and tradition of building structures, it begun with the temporary shelter (with the kubo). Then came the shift to permanence (with the balay na bato and the stone churches) and now, the disposable (plastic, glass and metal). It’s sad to think that we are reverting back to the beginning, a mentality that is concerned only with the present, not the future – only difference now is that we’re using different (recyclable) materials, but exacting more from our environment.

The great things our forebears accomplished in the past; the buildings, stone houses, literature, paintings, sculptures, advances in science, quality of life, all of these are the realization of their imagination of who they are. Joaquin is right that when they built their bahay na bato it was their way of saying this is us now. We only need to look back and compare what they have then and what we have now to understand what we’ve become – offshoots from the original Filipino.

The facade with windows adorned with Catholic symbols

It appears that the facade has been reinforced as there were quite a few parts that had been cemented with concrete

Coral stones and red bricks

What was once a hall way