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RECENTVISITORSDECEMBER-JANUARYPia Cayetano, senator-electGov. Josie de la Cruz, BulacanAndrea D. Domingo, former

BID CommissionerRicardo C. Galang, WWII heroBoni Belen, USP, Cebu CityPerfecto Yasay, senatorial

candidateSusan Calo Medina, Travel Time

hostMila LaneSr. Pauline ValdesSr. Pilar Wijangco, Assumption

SistersLeng Gomez-Caine

FEBRUARYBenjamin Abalos, COMELEC

ChairmanWillie Rivera, councilor-elect,

Angeles CityVicky Vega, councilor-elect,

Angeles CitySen. Rodolfo BiazonGilbert Perez, ABS-CBN TV

directorVioleta Esguerra, TESDADr. Victor Paz, archaeologist

MARCHLuli Macapagal Arroyo,

Presidential daughterSen. Robert JaworskiDr. Rey Aquino, congressman-

elect, Third DistrictSr. Mary Assumpta Bacay,OCD, Carmelite MonasterySr. Mary Therese Francisco,

OCD, Carmelite MonasteryFr. Joseph Bacay, Sto. Tomas

ParishFr. Aureo Nepomuceno, SJTet Basilio, Gender & Devt.

Officer, Angeles City

APRIL-MAYDr. Josette T. Biyo, Iloilo teacher who got a planet named after herGrace Nono, singer-artistLevi Laus, President, Pampanga

Chamber of CommerceFr. Joseph Ardencia, Agusan

del SurJoselito Fraga, Agusan del SurKabbigat Bimuyag, Baguio CityProf. Eduardo Tadem, UP Diliman

Photos by Jimmy Hipolito

Pia Cayetano

Josie de la Cruz

Susan CaloMedina

BenjaminAbalos

Luli Arroyo

Robert Jaworski

Josette Biyo

Grace Nono

Levi Laus

The Center for Kapampangan Studies has convinced almost all municipalitiesin Pampanga and Lower Tarlac to organize their respective arts and culturecouncils as mandated by law through the DILG Memo Circular 2002-81.

Dr. Rosita Isabel Mendoza, a committee head of the National Commissionfor Culture and the Arts (NCCA), presently a consultant to the Center, recentlysubmitted to University President Bernadette Nepomuceno the list ofmembers and officers of these various councils.

The towns in Pampanga and Tarlac which have organized their councils orpassed resolutions and executive orders are:

Bacolor SB Res. No. 114, S-2002Candaba Mun. Order No. 01-2004Floridablanca Exec. Order No. 04Guagua Exec. Order No. 1, S-2004Lubao Exec. Order No. 03, S-2002Mabalacat Res. No. 92-44, S-2004Masantol Exec. Order No. 002, S-2004Minalin unnumbered Exec. OrderSan Fernando Exec. Order 04-004San Luis Exec. Order 14, S-2004San Simon unnumbered Resolution.Santa Ana SB Res. No. 06, S-2004Santa Rita SB Res. No. 17, S-2004Santo Tomas Exec. Order No. 2002-02Concepcion unnumbered Exec. OrderLa Paz Exec. Order No. 003, S-2004

The Province of Pampanga has also formed its own provincial culture andarts council under SP Res. No. 19, S-2003.

Dr. Mendoza visited town executives and attended Sangguniang Bayan/Panlalawigan sessions to explain the DILG directive and the roles of the NCCAand the Center. For its part, the capital city of San Fernando held its planningworkshop in advance of the June 1 general assembly and workshop for allcouncil officers, facilitated by former UNESCO Phils. Commissioner Prof. Felipede Leon Jr. and attended by DILG Asst. Regional Director Dr. Rolando Rafaeland delegates from various towns of Pampanga and Tarlac.

Robby Tantingco, Director of the Center for Kapampangan Studies,said the Center will provide these councils technical advice on preparation ofproposals for funding from NCCA and other funding agencies; conduct seminars,workshops and training; help set up a network of cooperation and informationamong various municipal arts and culture councils; liaison between the NCCAand the councils; provide free use of venue for meetings and presentations;provide free access to library resources; and assist in the setting up of townmuseums and libraries.

Arts & culture councilshold first assembly

Jose Abad Santos rites The Center, the City of

San Fernando and the AbadSantos family led by Senator-elect Jamby Madrigal laidwreaths at the statue ofKapampangan martyr JoseAbad Santos on Capitolgrounds last May 6. The HAUchoir Angelite MusicalAmbassadors and the HAURondalla performed, while SF

Tourism Officer Ivan Anthony Henares emceed a short program. In apress release that day, Center Director Robby Tantingco called onprovincial leaders “to go beyond legislating holidays” in honoringKapampangan heroes.

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The Center ’s second book, Laying theFoundation: Kapampangan Pioneers in the

Philippine Church1592-2001 by Dr.Luciano P.R.S a n t i a g o ,published by theHoly Angel UniversityPress, was one ofonly three nomineesin the Historycategory of therecent National BookAwards, sponsoredby the Manila Critics’Circle, along withHoracio de laCosta ’s four-

volumeWritings (Ateneo Press), which won, andIsagani Medina’s Espionage in the Philippines(UST Press). Members of the Manila Critics’ Circleinclude Ofelia Dimalanta, Alfred Yuson, Isagani Cruz,etc.

As part of its program ofbringing quaintKapampangan traditions to students and employees of Holy Angel University,the Center sponsored last Holy Week a pasyun serenata, in which two sets ofchanters and their respective brass bands alternately sing the pasyun to thetune of classical opera pieces. This tradition survives only in certain villages inSta. Rita town. HAU faculty and employees participated in the chanting, ledby the Banda 48 (Lumanug) of Betis.

The Nepo Mall management and the Center co-sponsored the revival of sabat santacruzan in Brgy.Sapangbato, Angeles City, which was lastperformed five years ago. The sabat is a vestige ofthe original santacruzan, featuring costumed Muslimsand Crusaders in swordfights and poetic jousts. TheCenter will help organize the community to ensure thesurvival of the unique Kapampangan tradition, developit as a tourist destination and use it as rallying pointfor community cooperation.

National Book Awardfinalist

Center, Nepo Mall reviveSapangbato tradition

The Center has inked an exchangeprogram with other universities hereand abroad as a way of promoting itsresearches as well as establishinglinkages with other schools andagencies. Public Relations Officer KayeMayrina Lingad cited the UCLA Asian-

PasyunSerenataheld oncampus

The Center stepped up the driveto create awareness of Kapampanganculture among the general populationby sponsoring the airing of threeKapampangan songs per day on DW-RW 95.1. The Center plans to lobby

Kapampangan songs on radio

Research Journal exchange program

in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ofPampanga and Tarlac for a bill requiringall AM and FM radio stations in theKapampangan region to play OriginalKapampangan Music (OKM) thricedaily.

American Studies Center, the MichiganAcademy of Science, Arts & Letters, theUniversity of Michigan UndergraduateResearch Forum and individualresearchers like Ernesto Turla andHiroaki Kitano.

Residents of Brgy. Cabalantian, which suffered the brunt of the Bacolor laharflows in 1995, recently made the first big step to rebuild their community byholding a cultural concert for the construction of a new church. Organized by Dr.Salve Olalia, with the assistance of the Center, the show featured Kapampanganartist Mon David and Andy Alviz’ ArtiSta. Rita and was held in front of thehistoric San Guillermo Parish Church.

OKM(Original Kapampangan Music)

Cabalantianchurchproject

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The National Commission forCulture and the Arts (NCCA) has grantedfunding for the compilation of aKapampangan-English Dictionary now beingundertaken by the Center for KapampanganStudies. Fr. Venancio Samson, who justrecently completed the translation of theofficial KapampanganBible, heads the teamcomposed of Centerstaffers, visitingresearchers and volunteerstudents and faculty.

Initially, Fr. Samson willtranslate into English oneof the earliestKapampangan dictionaries,Fray Diego Bergaño’sVocabulario en la LenguaPampanga en Romance(published in 1732 andreprinted in 1860), whichwill be publishedseparately. Word entriesfrom the Bergañodictionary, as well as from other extantKapampangan dictionaries and grammarbooks, will also be integrated into theproposed new dictionary.

Aside from the Bergaño dictionary, theCenter has acquired copies of the followingreferences: Arte y Diccionario Pampango(1700) by Fray Alvaro de Benavente; English-Spanish-Kapampangan Dictionary (1905) byLuther Parker; Arte de la Lengua Pampanga

Center, NCCA to co-produceBergaño translation,Kapampangan Dictionary

(first published in 1729, republished in 1736and 1916) by Fray Diego Bergaño, Arte yReglas de la Lengua Pampanga (1621) byFray Francisco Coronel; KapampanganGrammar Notes (1971) and KapampanganDictionary (1971) by Michael L. Foreman,Classic Kapampangan Dictionary (1999) by

Ernie C. Turla, VocabularioPampango-Tagalog-Ingles(undated) by GavinoDimalanta and S. Calderon;Pampango Syntax (1955) byMa. Luisa Castrillo; Outline ofGenerative SemanticDescription of Pampangan(1970) by Bro. AndrewGonzales, FSC; SpeakingKapampangan (1971) byLeatrice Mirikitani;Phonological Peculiarities ofPampangan (1940) byVirginia Mendoza;Diksyunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles (1972) by J.V.Pangilinan; Gramatica

(undated) by H. G. Roque and R. Acosta;Kapampangan Morphemes (1980) by Aniciadel Corro and Modern English-Pilipino-Pampango Dictionary (1987) by MarioTongol.

The new dictionary being prepared bythe Center will synthesize all Kapampangandictionaries as well as add Kapampanganterms now being collected from villagesthroughout Pampanga and Tarlac by

volunteer students and faculty from HAU, inparticular the HAU ArchaeologicalSociety, as well as by public school teachersand pupils mobilized by the Departmentof Education. Kapampangan poets andscholars have also been invited to lend theirglossaries for this project.

“We are inviting all individuals andinstitutions to contribute their collections ofKapampangan terms so we can include themin this dictionary,” Robby Tantingco,Director of the Center, said. “In return, theywill get credit for it as well as a free copy.”

He added that linguists, lexicographersand other experts will serve as consultantsand editors. “The best guarantee for thesurvival of a language is to document it inthe form of a dictionary. Hundreds, probablythousands of Kapampangan words havebeen lost and forgotten in the last centuriesbecause no one bothered to record them,”Tantingco said.

According to Tantingco, the dictionary willuse the new Kapampangan orthography (k)but the old orthography (c and q) will still bementioned in the entries. “For example,opposite the word keka we will still enclosein parentheses queca. We are committed topromoting the new orthography but wecannot repudiate the old orthography. Mostof the literary classics were written in theold orthography and we have no right to re-spell them. Of course we want to makethem accessible to young readers and thebest compromise is to expose our studentsto both new and old orthographies so thatthey are not clueless when they read theclassics, but at the same time they shouldbe using the new orthography in their dayto day, because it’s simpler. The old is elegantand I know there are still many who insiston using it, and there’s no way we canconvince them to adopt the new.”

Fr. Venancio Samson

1732 edition of Fray Bergaño’s dictionary Fray Coronel’s grammar book (1621) Luther Parker’s dictionary (1905)

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Mon David’s Abe Mu Ku, the second Kapampangan CD co-produced by the Center forKapampangan Studies and recently launched at the Center’s open-air theatre, is selling like theproverbial hot cakes just like the ArtiSta. Rita’s Kapampangan Ku album before it.

Probably the country’s best balladeer today, Mon David recorded traditional Kapampangansongs as well as new compositions by Recy Pineda, Andy Alviz, Crispin Cadiang and himself.The CD also features an unusual interpretation of Atin Ku Pung Singsing, sung a capella infive different voices by Mon David.

Abe Mu Ku, which is the fourth major Kapampangan CD after Sapni nangCrissot’s Pamalsinta king Milabas/Alang Dios! Soundtrack, Crispin Cadiang’sPaskung Kapampangan, and ArtiSta. Rita’s Kapampangan Ku, marks thefull initiation of Kapampangan music into the national mainstream.

These CDs are available at the Center for Kapampangan Studies.

Another CD of K songslaunched

Francisco Guinto, native of Macabebe, wascrowned poet laureate Tuesday night after bestingfellow veteran poets in a competition sponsored bythe Center.

Guinto, who missed his daughter’s wedding tojoin the contest, received the traditional gold laurelcrown, a trophy, and P10,000.00 cash prize. Secondprize went to Anastacio Navarro of Masantol, andthird prize was awarded to reigning Ari ning ParnasoVedasto Ocampo of Magalang. They receivedP7000.00 and P5000.00, respectively.

In the declamation category, held for youngorators, Charmagne Sunga, Kathryn Mae Garciaand Abegael Mallari won first, second and thirdprizes, respectively.

The board of jurors was composed of poetsQuerubin Fernandez, Eufrocinia de la Pena,Norberto del Rosario, Aspe Dula and Fr.Venancio Samson. Guests included CatalinaSaplala, Commissioner (Kapampangan Language) ofthe Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, and Dr. RositaMendoza of the National Commission for Culture andthe Arts (NCCA).

New poet laureatecrowned

Responding to calls for aKapampangan-language publication,the Center and the Sapni nang Crissotwill co-publish the maiden issue of thenew quarterly magazine Indung Ibatan(a phrase from Atin Ku Pung Singsingmeaning “mother from whom it came”).The new publication wil l be acompanion piece to the English-language Singsing magazine.

Edited by Erlinda Cruz, the firstedition of Indung Ibatan features thepoems entered in the recent Ligligan(contest) for local poets, which had thetheme Tagumpe da ring Kapampanganking Lupit ning Bulkan, to mark the 13th

anniversary of the eruption of MountPinatubo, news articles, various townhymns, excerpts from works ofKapampangan literary masters, etc.Felix Garcia and Francisco Guinto serveas literary consultants.

Center launchesliterary magazine

With Sapni nang Crissot Oral history bookA Cofradia of Twooff the press soon

A Cofradia of Two:Oral History onthe Family and Lay Religiosity of JuanD. Nepomuceno and Teresa G.Nepomuceno of Angeles, Pampangawill soon be published by the HolyAngel University Press. The book,authored by Erlita Mendoza of theUST Center for Intercultural Studies,is the fifth book of the Center forKapampangan Studies.

The book contains first-handaccounts of the Nepomuceno coupleby their children and children-in-laws,and a discussion on the role theyplayed in the development of the firstcity of the Kapampangan Region.

The book will be launched with therevised edition of Ing Cacanan CuAldo-aldo, Juan Nepomuceno’stranslation of Anthony Paone’s MyDaily Bread.

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People put names on placesbased on how those places arerecognized: topographicfeatures, flora and fauna, culturalor economic significance, heroes,saints. Their choice ofplacenames reveals what values

D A Y B E F O R E Y E S T E R D A Y

TOPONYMSAS CLUES TOPREHISTORYBitas, Balutu, Batungdalig—names ofobscure villages hint at spectacularevents in the distant past, from a craterlake breakout to massive flooding toprehistoric laharflows that pushed thecoastline from Guagua to its presentsite in Masantol; also, what’s a villagecalled Taklang Anak doing inBatangas?By Joel Pabustan Mallari

the residents have and how theelements in their community—climate, geology, pedology,vegetation, land use, settlementpattern, transportaion, language,food and territorial identity—interplay with one another and

with the rest of the environment.

KAPAMPANGANTOWNS OUTSIDEPAMPANGA

Examples of places outsidePampanga Province which bearKapampangan names:Calumpit in Bulacan town wasnamed after a fruit-bearing treeknown as kalumpit, Terminaliamicrocarpa Decne, which bearsedibles like thoseof the telapayungtree and provides anatural canopywhen fully grown.The name ofB o t o l a n ,Zambales camepossibly from aparticular bananaspecies, Musasapientum L. Thisspecies issometimes calledsaging gubatbecause it could

adapt to any environment,including high altitude and harshclimate. Barangays Mapacofrom paku-pakuan (ferns,Fimbristylis globurosa Kunth),Pahu from the rare mango fruitlike tree known also as pau(Mangifera altissima Blco.) andAlmendras (also known astalisay and telapayong,Terminalia catappa L.) can befound in Concepcion, Tarlac.Pakupakuan has a wide variety

of species, someof which are soedible they can beserved uncooked,with ebun buru(salted egg).Sitios andbarangays likeAnupul (Cissusrepens Lam.),B a n a b a(Lager t roemiaindica L.),

Masantolinhabitantsloved sigang

Did Mt. Arayat have a crater lake, which broke outin a doomsday avalanche?

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Culubasa (Cucurbita maximaDuch.), Kebaldugan Gandus(gandus, Colocasia esculenta L.,which was known as taro amongearly seafaring people of theAsia-Pacific region; whilekebaldugan may mean as beingstricken, in this case by fallingtaro), Dapdap ( Erythrinaorientalis L., similar to paper treethriving along riverbanks androlling hill terrains) are all foundin the town of Bamban, alsonamed, by the way, after a plant(Donax cannaeformis K.Sch).BIOTIC ANDABIOTICPLACENAMES

Examples of indigenousplacenames within PampangaProvince: Dau (Dracontomelondao Blco.), Balibago (Hibiscustil iaceus L.), Masantol(abounding santol trees,S a n d o r i c u mkoetjape [Burm. F.]Merr., implying thepeople’s fondnessfor sigang a asan),M a b a l a c a t(abounding trees ofBalacat, Ziziphustalanai Blco., one ofthe tree speciesused in theproduction ofGalleon shipsduring the Spanishperiod), Apalit( P t e r o c a r p u sechinata or indicus?Willd.—quite problematic interms of whether the specie wasa variant of the other one knownas Narra or vice versa[Gomez,2003]), Porac (Toonacalantas Merr. and Rolfe.—couldthis be just another name ofCalantas tree? There’s abarangay in Porac namedCalantas), Bulaon from a treecalled bulaon, known also asmulawin and Molave inEnglish, (Vitex parviflora Juss.)—one of the favorite first-classtimber used as trusses andbeams in early churches togetherwith Dau, Calulut, Balacat,Apalit, Akli, Amugis, Anúpul,Batikulíng, Calantas, Calulut,, Kamagong or Anunas,Lauaian, Tindalo, Yakál, Ipil,Binayuyu and other less knowndipterocarps and shorea species.The Betis tree (Madhuca betis

Blco.), like Apalit tree and Dautree, was a favorite material forsculpture and furniture-making.No wonder the people of Betisare known for their art and craftof wood working. Calulut tree(Cissampelos pareira L.) is sosturdy that the early settlers hadto spend at least two days justto cut down its buttress alone.Baliti (from the different typesof Ficus species) is a barangayof San Fernando. Anunas, afruit-bearing tree known also asKamagong (Annona reticulataL.) is another first-class timberused for making not onlyfurniture but also arnis stick—favorite weapons in the ancientmartial art of self-defense.Sapang Maisac literally meansriver of mais, which is corn ormaize, Zea mays L., staple of theancient people of Mexico andMesoamerica; this barangay is

coincidentally partof Mexico,Pampanga (whichsome peopleclaim to havebeen named afterthe CentralAmerican colony).P u l u n g b u l omeans island ofbulo (bulo,C a n a r i u masperum Benth.subsp. asperumvar. asperumBurce raceae) ;Sapang Abias

(rice, Oryza sativa L.), “streamwhere rice grows.”Telatundunbaka Hill in Poracresembles the shape of the napeof a cow, the same thing withthe Galudgud Babi Hills namedafter the metaphorical shape ofboar’s backbone found rollingalong the Bamban-Capasboundary. In Apalit, a barangayis named Calantipe which is aname of an edible fresh watershell (Pangilinan, 2004) ofPhylum Mollusca. In Bacolor,there is Maliualu, meaning aproliferation of the liualufreshwater fish. Sapang Talabaliterally means river of oyster ofPhylum Mollusca is a small riverin Lubao. The town of San Luiswas formerly known asKabagsak from the wordkabag, a fruit bat. SapangCuayan (Bambus- blumeana,

J.A. & J.H. Schult), “streamwhere bamboos grow.” Also inLubao, a vil lage is namedBalantacan (Coix lacryma-jobiL.; Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.)which is a woody shrub thatbears hard seeds used as pelletsfor sulbatana, a small blow-guntype weapon which can be thepossible derivation of the nameof the ancient lantaka cannon.These ancient cannons weremade by the famous metalsmithworker named Pande Pira ofApalit. Cabalantian, abarangay in Bacolor, derived itsname from the plant namebalanti (Homalantus populneus(Geisel) Pax var.).NAMES DESCRIBINGLAND FEATURES

Topographical features,orientation of geologicallandmarks and importance ofgeographical context have theirshare of recognition. Suchconsiderations enumerate thefollowing: Kalangitan, a villagelocated among the high plateausof the Bamban-Capas boundary,means sky. Along the Mabalacat-Bamban boundary, near theSacobia River, a sitio—favoritepicnic ground in yesteryears—isnamed Bana, which means amarshy area or a swampland,which has anotherKapampangan term: pinac.Another placename is Burak,meaning mud; it can beassociated with alluvial soil oreven rice paddies, while a riveris named Marimla, which meanscold, as the water source is a coldspring. In this case, the watersare usually of meteorologicalcharacter, that is, rainthat hassoaked intothe grounda n dreemergedas a spring in a lower spot,which is exactly the conditionof the river on thesouthwestern portion ofBamban. In the town of Sto.Tomas, a barangay namedSapa literally means a river.It is the center of a currentpottery industry togetherwith its neighboringbarangay of Sto.Tomas in thearea (the proximity of theplace to the river allowsconvenient transport of

tempering and coloring materialfrom the river). Darabulbul,which means bubbling sound offlowing water, is a barangay ofConcepcion (but the absenceof any watery feature in the arealeads one to wonder if the namerefers to the liquefaction thatmay occur there duringearthquakes—as it did in the1990 quake—since the area is ontop of an active faultline).Balukbuk, a sitio in Porac,means bubbles, according to theold residents there. In Bulacan,rivers named Matulid andAngat l iterally mean as“straight” and “lift,” respectively.(Straight, probably because ofthe direction of water flow; liftcan be associated with miningand quarrying, as the river is asource of alumina sand, beingone of the quarries of metal oreespecial ly on the side ofNorzagaray, most probablymagnetite ore and silica sand,from as early as 18th century,according to historical sources(Dizon, 2003). MalutungGabun is a barangay of Capas,which means red soil or clay. InConcepcion town, a barangaynamed Telabangka, whichliterally means boat-shaped isactually the siltation formation(Mallari and Mallari, 2004a), asit was told, the massivedeposition of fine sand indicatesmajor flooding and even ancientmudflows, now called lahar. InSan Francisco, Magalang, thename of a sitio is Mabatu-batu,which means rocky or stonyterrain. Similarly, a barangay in

Angeles City, on thefoothil ls of Mt.Pinatubo, is namedSapang Bato,which means lake ofstones. Another

example is

abarangay of Poracknown as Planas.This name isrecognized byresidents of another

t o w n ,Bamban,as a

Fruit bats swarmed inCabagsac, now San Luis

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volcanic-to-sedimentary rocktype commonly found alongrocky cliffs close to riverbanks.This type of rock was quarriedlong ago for building churches,bridges and istaka, the riprapslabbing of the pampang toprevent soil erosion. In Apalit,barangay Capalanganborrowed its name from blacksand (Pangilinan, 2003), whichis a good source of magnetitesand used for metal slipping inearly potteries and ancientpyrotechnology. Going back toCabalantian, Bacolor, there is asitio named Banlik, whichmeans fine sand.This particular finesand is used astempering materialfor bricks andpottery to preventthem from breakingduring firing. Balasis the generic namefor many types ofsand whether it isfine as banlik andcapalangan or asrough as thealumina and silicasand quarriednowadays, commonin rivers originatingin volcanic areas. Assuch there are atleast threebarangays namedBalas, one each inC o n c e p c i o n ,Mexico and Bacolor.These three townshave one thing incommon: they each have a majorriver that emanates from Mt.Pinatubo. These rivers areSacobia-Bamban River passingConcepcion; Abacan River, whichelbows from Angeles to Mexico(some say the town’s originalname was Makasiku, meaningelbowing); and Pasig-PotreroRiver that heads its way to thetown of Bacolor. All indicationshows that prior to 1991, therewere already several Mt.Pinatubo eruptions. InPampanga’s coastal area is thetown of Macabebe, whosename is perfectly justifiedbecause it means “along a bodyof water.” Bacolor came frombakulud, meaning plateau orelevated area; Guagua or uauameans mouth of the river.

Interesting to note: Bacolor wasone of the hardest hit by lahar,which indicates it is not a plateaubut obviously a depressed areawhich is in contrast to itsmeaning (one explanation is thatat the time they chose its namebakulud, it really was elevated,but an eruption and lahar flowoccurred 600 years ago whichelevated its surrounding towns,and that was what the Spaniardsfound until Pinatubo eruptedagain in 1991 which elevatedBacolor once more). Guagua, ormouth of the river, seems also amisnomer since the town is at

least three towns away fromPampanga Bay—unless thecoastline used to be Guagua, andthe towns in-between, Lubao,Sasmuan and Macabebe, wereall underwater before—whichsome geologists say was whatactually happened, and mayhappen again (proof is thepresence of seashells in Guaguaand a barangay there namedBangcal, which is also the nameof a tree thriving alongriverbanks near the sea, inmangrove areas). BarangaySindalan of San FernandoCity means “leaned on,” whichrefers to the orientation of a riverthat pushes towards a highertopography. The name ofMount Pinatubo means“allowed to grow,” a metaphor

for the conical peak. Tabun,which means “buried,” is thename given to barrios inMabalacat (in fact buried bylahar, along with adjacent townof Bamban), in Candaba and inAngeles City. Kutkut, a synonymfor buried (by lahar? flood?), isthe original name of barangaysCutcut in Angeles City andCutcut I and II in Capas.Several sitios and barangays inPampanga bear the namesParoba and Paralaya, whichare directional names vis-a-visMt. Arayat. These twoplacenames show directionality

relative to the position of Mt.Arayat or the eastern horizonwhere the sun rises: paralayameans “towards alaya, whichrefers to either the dawn or theold name of Arayat,” whileparoba means the oppositedirection (towards west”—that is,presuming that the earlyKapampangans’ mode oftransportation to be river boat,not land vehicle. Suchplacenames reveal basic andcomplementary clues inunderstanding thepalaeoenvironment of ourancestors and their neighbors.HISPANICINFLUENCES

The City of Angeles, until1796 only a barrio of SanFernando, was named in honor

of its founder Don AngelPantaleon de Miranda; earlier,it was known as Kuliat (a vine?a tree? Sto. Tomas was namedin honor of the Apostle while thetown of San Simon was namedin honor of Simon de Anda, aSpanish Governor General whotransferred the capital of thePhilippines to Bacolor,Pampanga. It was commonpractice to coincide the name ofa person being honored with thatof a saint to justify the namingand to spare the honoree of anyaccusation of immodesty (e.g.,the choice of Bacolor’s patron

saint, SanGuillermo Ermitaño,was a thinly veiledway of honoring thetown’s founder,G u i l l e r m oM a n a b a t ) .F lor idablancawas named afterJosé Monino,Count ofFloridablanca inSpain who they sayat one time visitedthe place in theearly 1800s. Thisidea is totallydifferent from whatothers think is realorigin of the town’sname—small whiteflowers possibly thegrass species oftambu and palat ormost likelysugarcanes, whichhappened to be in

bloom when a new Spanishpriest was assigned in the area.FARTHER BACK INTIME

Some toponyms have reallyancient etymologies. Balutu, anancient riverboat, is a place inConcepcion, Tarlac;Telapayung, umbrella-shaped,is a village in Arayat;Batungdalig, stone wall orpalisades, is a sitio in Sagrada,Masantol town; Bitas, whichmeans collapse or break out, isa barrio in Arayat. These aremost likely features or eventsobserved by our people manycenturies ago. Balutu is a smallcanoe-type riverboat withoutoutriggers—hinting at theancient Kapampangans’attachment to rivers and seas.

San Simon named after the Apostle butactually in honor of Gen. Simon de Andawho made Bacolor capital of the

Floridablanca named after Jose Monino yRedondo, Count of Floridablanca, Spainwho led suppression of Jesuits

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In fact the discovery of a stoneartifact called daras or adze inCandaba, a tool for carvingcanoe-type boats by hollowingtreetrunks, supports the theorythat some kind of a boatmakingindustry had existed in Candabain prehistoric times. On the otherhand, Telapayung may havebeen the almendras treeobserved by the Spaniards(talisay in Tagalog), or it couldbut it could also be bangcal andeven kalumpit trees, since all ofthem have an umbrella-likecanopy of leaves. Batungdaligliterally is a wall of stone; duringthe Spanish Period, people usedadobe (volcanic tuff), batungmete and batung gagato (allpumice stones) or coral stones(in coastal villages) for buildingconcrete structures. Is it possiblethat coral stones were used inthis prehistoric and now lost wallof stone on the shoreline ofMasantol, said to be the fortressof the warrior Tarik Soliman,which is why Pampanga Bay nolonger has coral deposits? In factthere is a river named asKabalasan (“source of sand”) inMacabebe which is very nearBatungdalig, which raises thepossibility that an overflow ofsand, or lahar, may have buriedthis ancient fortress and the coralreef. Lastly, Bitas implies thatinitially a vessel or containeroverflowed and burst its walls.The western slope of Mt. Arayat,where the famous White Rock islocated, has a steep inclinecompared to the rest of themountain. Scientific studiesindicate that there might havebeen some ancient seismicactivity (Delos Reyes, 2004) thattriggered the collapse of thewestern rim of the caldera (craterlake) at the top of Mt. Arayat,causing a doomsday scenario ofhuge waters cascading down theslope towards the towns ofMagalang, Mabalacat andAngeles and baring the solidifiedmagma chamber which is nowthe White Rock. In Angeles City,a barangay named Margot is arather peculiar name for a placesince it is not common practiceto use a first name alone. Couldthis be the foreign word margah’(Forman, 1971)? Margah’ maymean volcanic ash or, in rarecases, lava as Gaillard opined as

the village is already very nearMt. Pinatubo.THE LATINAMERICANCONNECTION

Guagua or Uaua literallymeans either saliva or mouth ofa river, as in most languages ofthe Philippines. About 40 yearsbefore the Spaniards came here,they had set foot in what wouldeventually become the state ofEcuador in South America,where the ethnolinguistic groupAndian (especially the Quetchuacommunity) used the wordguagua although pronounceduaua, and that meant baby.According to Gaillard (2003), theSpaniards who came toPampanga and heard the nativessay “uaua” probably applied theSouth American spelling“guagua.” More or less thesame phenomenonoccurred in the caseof the town ofM e x i c o ,Pampanga. Thisarea waso r i g i n a l l ycalled Masicuafter theKapampanganword siku,w h i c hm e a n se l b o w ,referr ingprobably to the elbowingdirection of the AbacanRiver. But since theSpaniards had alreadyfounded the town ofMexico City (from theMexica Pre-Hispaniccommunity) inMexico, CentralAmerica as early as1519, or 50 yearsbefore they came toPampanga, theyprobably appliedthe familiarspelling theyalready used inCentral America when theywrote down Masicu,according to Gaillard, sincex is also pronounced s amongSpaniards.KAPAMPANGANNAMES IN THETAGALOG REGION

Placenames provide astrong evidence ofKapampangans’ strongattachment to their land. Placesin the Pampanga River delta,where Spaniards first arrived,have a higher percentage ofHispanized names than those inthe interior,or farther away fromthe river such as the northerntowns including those in Tarlac,where Spanish influence was notas pervasive. The incidence ofretention of indigenousplacenames is higher (close to80%) in the sitio level, probablythe Spaniards did not bother tochange those names anymore.

In the Tagalog Region,San Miguel de Mayumu’soriginal name was simplyMayumu, which means sweet orsugar in Kapampangan; the area

w a sactuallypeopled

by Kapampangans until the early1900s before the migratingTagalogs came in. The towns ofAngat and Binwangan haveKapampangan names (angatmeans lift and the other onepossibly came from the wordbinuangin [Mallari and Mallari,2004b] which was an earlyspecies of rice, a short varietywith red stripes on its hulledseed, known to Kapampangans;there is also a barangay inBataan by that name). Bothtowns are pronounced nga, quiteuntypical among Tagalogs whousually say an-gat instead of a-ngat. The Quinua River,according to Santos (1984) camefrom the word kinua, whichmeans “got something.” Itreplaced the name to the oldAngat River. Talaguio from theword laguio means name;Maputi, which means white;and Matulid, which meansstraight are all on the boundarybetween Pampanga andBulacan. The Matulid River,which runs through this place, isone of two rivers named Matulid;the other one is located atMexico, Pampanga where an old

pueblo and the oldest Catholicchapel in the province is

located. Gabon andCapitangan arebarangays in Bataan,another Tagalogprovince that used tbe Kapampangan;their names mean “soilor land” and“ m i d n i g h t , ”respectively.

In Batangas,there is a townnamed Taisan,Kapampangan forgrinding stone; itcan be compared toa sitio in Bambancalled Panaisan.Another populatedplace named

Taklang Anak,which means, literally,

child’s feces or smallfeces, is found right in

the heart of Batangas,between the towns of

Lemery and Calaca.According to the catalogueof Philippine flora byAugustinian Fray ManuelBlanco (Camaya, 2004), this

Angeles was named after Los Angelesde los Custodios, but actually in honorof town founder Don Angel Pantaleonde Miranda

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is the name of a plant firstrecognized in Arayat orCandaba(?). Comparatively, inthe province of Nueva Ecija,there’s a barrio named TaklangDamulag which means carabaomanure (another barrio in thesame province is namedArubo—could it be thefavorite Kapampanganulam, arobu, known alsoas adobo in manylanguages?) Theseunsavory placenamesare similar to thoseof sitios inBamban such asP i t a k l a n a nDamulag andTaklang Anak.Gapan andCabiao in Nueva E c i j acame from the words gapangand kabio, which means“to crawl” and “to poundrice,” respectively. In factthere is another barangayin the City of SanFernando namedQuebiawan, aconjugation of the sameverb.

In Rizal Province,one of the peaks in thefamous limestonemountain there has aKapampangan name,Pamitinan Mountain, whichfaces another mountain knownas Puting Bato. Pamitinan means“used for hanging” as in stalactitepatterns, a feature in thelimestone caves found there.Even the name of the othermountain could have beenKapampangan if prefixed asMaputing Batu, meaning white

rock. (Incidentally, the twomountains are the same twogiant rocks pushed by thelegendary Bernardo Carpio ofTagalog folklore.)INDONESIANCONNECTION

There are oddsimilarit ies

between

K a p a m p a n g a nplacenames and those found in

other countries, just like whatSantos (1984) narrates:

Magalangan, a Sumatranvillage, and Magelang, the nameof a region, a district and acapital of a residency in Java,easily remind one of the townMagalang in Pampanga. Porathe name of some islands inSumatra brings to mind the town

Porac. Minjalin, theNortheastern-most island of theAnambas group in Sumatra,reminds one of Minalin, anothertown here…

Santos evenmentions severallocations bearingthe names ofP a n d a n ,Pamapanga andPampangan. Thefirst twoplacenames arebarangays ofAngeles City whilethe other one is akin to the nameof the Pampanga Province and avariant of the name of the peopleliving there.

A thorough analysis oftoponyms will shed light not onlyon the environment ofKapampangans but also on theircharacter and identity. Theproliferation, variety and survivalof indigenous placenamesindicate a special attachment ofKapampangans to theirenvironment (Mc Lennan,1980)—the river people whowere the original settlers alongthe banks of dendritic riverpatterns of the ancient region ofCentral Luzon.

ReferencesCamaya, Edwin 2003(Personal

communication) Researcher ofKapampangan Culture, University ofthe Philippines, Los Banos, Laguna;Delos Reyes, Dangal 2004 (Personalcommunication) Geologist,Archaeological Studies Program andNational Institute of GeologicalSciences, University of thePhilippines, Diliman, Quezon City;Dizon, Eusebio 2003 (Personalcommunication) Archaeologist and

archaeometallurgist, ArchaeologicalStudies Program University of thePhilippines, Diliman, Quezon City;

Forman, Michael, KapampanganD i c t i o n a r y ,University ofHawaii Press,Honolulu 1971;Gail lard, Jean-Christophe ,Toponyms andcultural diffusionin Pampanga,Singsing Vol.2 No.1, The Juan D.N e p o m u c e n oCenter forKapampangan

Studies, Holy Angel University,Angeles City; Gomez, Eduardo 2003(Personal communication), Marinebiology expert, Department of MarineBiology, University of the Philippines,Diliman, Quezon City; Madulid,Domingo A. 2001 A Dictionary ofPhilippine Plant Names Vol. 1,Bookmark, Makati City; Mallari,Emerson M. and Mallari, Hilarion Sr.2004a, 2004b (Personalcommunication), Agriculturist andfarmer, Bamban, Tarlac; McLennan,Marshall S. 1980 The CentralLuzon Plain: Land and Society on theInland Frontier. Quezon City,Philippines: Alemar-PhoenixPublishing House, Inc.; Santos,Edilberto 1984 Pampanga 1571, Javaand Sumatra 1511 St. LouisUniversity Journal Vol. XV No. 2,Baguio City; Pangilinan, Michael2003, 2004 (Personalcommunication), a.k.a. Siuala dengMeangubie, Kapampangan CultureResearcher, Angeles City;

Singsing Vol.2 No. 1 and Vol. 2No.3, The Juan D. NepomucenoCenter for Kapampangan Studies,Holy Angel University, Angeles City;http://www.geocities.com/lppsec/pp/pampanga.html

Nueva Ecija villagenamed after carabaodung

The original coastline may have been in Guagua, and the towns ofMacabebe, Sasmuan and Lubao were under the sea-- whichexplains the meaning of Guagua, i.e., mouth of the river

Spaniards spelledUaua as Guagua andMasiku as Mexicobecause they hadencountered thesenames in LatinAmerica earlier

There is aMagelang villagein Java, and Pora,Minjalin, andPamapangaislands in Sumatra

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To be sure, Kapampangans do not have an illiterate past: ourancestors were as cultured as any of their Southeast Asian neighborsbecause they lived in well organized communities with fullyfunctioning governments; they had an agricultural system thatproduced food in surplus which was why they traded with othernations; they had gracious manners, skilled labor, fine cuisine, beliefin deity, and a calendar of festivals showcasing their tasteful andprolific arts.

Some historians say that when the Europeans came, theytransformed our “ear culture” (oraltradition) into an “eye culture”(literacy), which presumed ourancestors may not have beenignorant but by Western standardswere illiterate—but this is notentirely accurate becauseKapampangans (as well as mostethnic groups in the archipelago),to the last man, woman and child,could read and write in an ancientorthography, according to thechroniclers who arrived here withthe first expeditions.

So what did the Spaniardsintroduce to ancient Kapampangancivilization?

They gave us a new order ofthings, altering our lifestyles andmaking us change our ways, fromchewing betel to smoking cigar,from linear housing patterns alongrivers to centralized pueblos, froma diet of fish and rice to pork andcorn imported from Acapulco, froman ancient orthography to theRoman alphabet, which revertedthe already literate Kapampangansto illiteracy; from boats on a river to carriages on roads and bridges,from leisurely timelessness to oppressive time-keeping marked bythe church bell, and from a combination of Islam, paganism andpantheism to a new religion of a stern God and his forgiving Son.

They also left behind those massive, soaring churches all overthe province. These churches were totally unexpected from apeople used only to building nipa and bamboo thatches (actuallyquite odd considering that their Southeast Asian neighbors hadbuilt magnificent stone temples; Nick Joaquin in History and Culturetheorizes that our Hindu and Buddhist neighbors did not bother toconvert us; hence, the absence here of temples so common inThailand and Indonesia.) Initially the Spaniards contracted Chinesemasons and artisans since the early Kapampangans did not knowthe kind of masonry needed to build thestructures the Spaniards had in mind. Theyprobably scratched their head indisbelief as the friars described thechurches back in Spain: belfriestowering over the tallest treesand domes as big asmountains.

But after only a fewyears, Kapampangans hadhad enough training andconfidence to begin enlargingthe initially small churches thattheir Spanish cura parroco hadbuilt. Rich Kapampanganfamilies, their economic

The damage that PadreDamaso’s character haswrought on the image of thefriars may take forever to undo,but Kapampangans have adifferent story to tell about theirAugustinian priests

BEYONDPADREDAMASO

By Robby Tantingco

wealth continuously growing, contributed huge sums to financethe construction of bigger, sturdier and more elaborate churches:the gigantic San Guillermo church of Bacolor, the stunning retabloof Santiago de Galicia church in Betis, the massive bell tower ofthe Sta. Ana church, and the ceiling paintings of the churches ofApalit, Sta. Rita, Guagua, San Fernando, San Luis andMacabebe. These new churches displayed Kapampangans’exuberance and fine taste. (Why we did not acquire the religions

and advanced cultures of India,China and Japan despite centuriesof trading with them, while it onlytook several years of Europeancontact to thoroughly imbibeWestern ways is, according to NickJoaquin’s theory, one proof that ourarchipelago was largely bypassedby these great Asian empires, citingas one example the fact that whileeveryone else in Asia was alreadytraveling on paved roads, we werestil l using jungle trails! Theargument against this theory is thatthe colonizers used the Sword onus and were motivated by imperialexpansion, while our neighbors inthe continent treated us as, well,neighbors.)

That these churches havesurvived centuries of battering fromearthquakes, typhoons, floods andrevolutions is a testament toKapampangan genius and hardwork. If the Indonesians, theCambodians and the Thais havetheir Buddhist and Hindu temples,Kapampangans have their CatholicChurches, genuine artifacts and

giant monuments of the skill and wisdom of their ancestors. Andfor all the bad press they have been getting throughout history, itwas the Spanish missionaries—the Augustinians in Pampanga andthe Recollects in Tarlac—those generally erudite, cultured and saintlymissionaries, who braved these distant, mosquito-infested islandsand inspired the early Kapampangans to reach for the sky, literallyand metaphorically, and for that they deserve at least somegratitude. We could have resisted the religion they preached tous, or discarded it as soon as the colonizers left, yet we not onlystuck with it but also embraced it and bloomed with it.

Rizal may be accurate in his scathing description of the friars,but he probably did not meet the Augustinian missionaries inPampanga.

Reference: Culture and History by Nick Joaquin, Pasig City: Anvil Publishing

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They introduced God, designed our temples, definedour tastes, changed our alphabet and forever alteredthe history and cultural landscape of theKapampangan Region

he Augustinian presence in the Philippines began with th arrivalof five friars led by Fray Andres de Urdaneta who accompanied

Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’sexpedition in 1565. In the 1570s, moreAugustinians arrived to begin their missionarywork in Manila and its environs, includingPampanga. In 1575, the Order created theProvincia del Santissimo Nombre de Jesusde Filipinas in response to the increasingnumber of Augustinian missionaries and theneed for effective administration. (A“province” is an administrative aggregation

HEARTS ON FIRE:LEGACIES OF THEAUGUSTINIANSTO KAPAMPANGANS

of religious, i.e., priests and brothers,assigned to a defined missionary or pastoralarea.) Of all the Orders that came to theIslands in colonial times, it was theAugustinian Order that established the mostnumber of parishes: approximately 250parishes, 22 of which were in Pampanga (the23rd and only town not included in theAugustinian sphere of influence wasMabalacat, which was founded andadministered by the Augustinian Recollects).

As an incentive for their pioneering workof evangelizing distant colonies, theAugustinians as well as the other religiousorders were allowed by the Vatican to direct,control and supervise the infant local churchthrough the leadership of the religioussuperiors and without interference bydiocesan bishops especially regardingpreaching and the administration of thesacraments.

The Augustinians thus went aboutconverting natives with the same fervorsymbolized by their traditional emblem of aflaming heart, encouraging nomadic orscattered natives to live in permanentsettlements, which were later established assmall communities or as towns, dependingon population size. The missionaries builtchapels called visitas in the barrios, whichwere small basic communities (moreorganized than the pre-colonial barangay).A visita that grew was promoted to aministerio which had a permanent priestadministering it. Ministerios were usuallybuilt in cabeceras or capital towns, fromwhich priests went out to convert natives inthe still “unpacified” surrounding areas. Aftera ministerio succeeded in stabilizing theseareas and organized a system of collectingtributo or taxes, it was promoted to aparroquia or parish.

The Augustinian logo of flaming heart onthe entrance of Porac church

Famous story of St. Augustine and the boywho was attempting to fit the entire oceaninto a small hole on the seashore

By Fray Francisco D. Musni

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ost towns in Pampanga are still organized the way the Spaniards wanted them,

with the municipio (town hall), theiglesia (church), and the palenque(market) all within a stone’s throw awayfrom each other in the poblacion (towncenter)—symbolizing the coexistencethat the Church and the State neededto rule the islands effectively.

But the church, for whichKapampangans created their own word(pisamban) instead of borrowing thecolonial term (iglesia), attracted morepeople than the municipio did, and

Never forced to build their churches,Kapampangans exceeded their Spanish priest’sexpectations by producing such masterpiecesas the Betis retablo, the Sta Ana belfry andthe Minalin facade

TIMELESS TEMPLES,MAGNIFICENTMONUMENTS

Pisamban:

By Fray Francisco D. Musni

affected theirlives moreprofoundly.The bells oft h ecampanario(belfry), tocite onee x a m p l e ,heralded theb e g i n n i n gand end of each day, hence the term bajola campana (under the bell), whichdefined the boundaries of the communitybased on how far the sound of the bells

Old Lubao church, dedicated to St. Augustine,founder of the Augustinian Order; below is theinterior of the Lubao church as it looked in the1800s. Notice the ceiling paintings, now all gone.Mass goers either stood or knelt since no pewswere provided, except for the rich

San Jose Matulid churchin Mexico, said to be theoldest surviving churchin Pampanga

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Bacolor church and convent circa late 1800s

Sta Ana church circa late 1800s

Angeles church circa late 1800sBelow, Spaniards reorganized communities around a church

reached. The bells also alertedthe town during fire, typhoonand other impending dangers.Meanwhile, the priest,unencumbered by familyconcerns, devoted practically allhis waking hours for the people,living right next to the church ina house Kapampangans calledcumvintu (convento)—quite amisnomer since the word meansa house for a community ofreligious men andwomen living. (Themore accurate termfor a priest ’sresidence is casaparroquial, andtoday there arenew terms likerectory and parishhouse.)

Some historianssneer at colonialchurches asproducts of forcedlabor and of otherSpanish atrocitiesimposed on natives. InPampanga, the Kapampangansneeded to forced labor toconstruct the churches—theyonly needed to be paid, as theLibro de Gobierno shows.Furthermore, these grandiosestructures did not mushroomovernight and did not require themobilization of the populace ona massive scale, because theevolution from tiny thatchedvisitas to the palatial iglesiasoccurred quite slowly. Lubao,Bacolor and Betis, to cite afew, started as visitas or merechapels of the parroquia ofTondo, small structures made oflight indigenous materials suchas bamboo and nipa, not unlikethe cubol (huts) built for thepabasa (pasyon) during mal áaldo (Holy Week).

As the village populationgrew, so did the chapels. At thispoint, an Augustinian friar wasusually assigned to it as curapárroco (parish priest).Communities built the kind ofchurch depending on theirwealth, human and materialresources, and the church of theneighboring town, which theywould want to outdo—which weprobably took after the Spaniards

who liked to havecontests even forthe biggest iglesiaor catedral (oneresult of which wasthe Cathedral atSeville).

T h econstruction of astone pisambanwas financedprimarily from theproceeds of thetributos (taxesimposed by theSpanish King) paid

by the natives. It must beunderstood that from a legal andadministrative point of view,taxes were a necessaryconsequence of subjugation. TheSpaniards, as well as othercolonizers in those days,borrowed the ancient Romanconcept of posse comitatus, inwhich able-bodied males of acertain age rendered free laborto the community (those whowanted exemption had to paytaxes or render services), and thelaw of patria potestas,whichgranted the chieftain the powerand authority to commandobedience over all members ofthe said community.

In the case of the Spaniardsin the Philippines, the Kingexempted able-bodied malesfrom paying the tributo but in lieu

thereof, they renderedsome service or work(polos y servicios) for adefinite number of daysevery year. Archivalrecords, however, showthat the labor employedin the construction of thechurches, in Pampangaespecial ly, was notentirely a result of thepolo system, contrary toclaims by somecontemporary writers.We find it more objective

From smallchapels ofbamboo andgrass, ourancestorsstartedbuildingmassivechurches thattowered overthe trees.

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and fair to support the position that the churcheswere primarily fruits of communal and spiritualservice rendered by natives who were enthusiasticwith their new-found religion. The possibility,however, that some amount of forced labor was usedis not altogether discounted but it should be takenmore as an exception rather than a general practice.

Friar accounts reveal that construction of thelater iglesias, casas paroquial and escuelas werefunded partly from assessments from the revenuesof premiere and pioneering parishes. Generousbenefactors also financed their construction as thecase of the church in Angeles. In San AgustinManila, the Prior Provincial issued appeals forcollections; money, chickens, rice, bamboo canesand rattan formed part of the general fund-raisingcampaign.

Arayat church and convent during the Spanish Period; below, Apalit church in the 1800s

Sto Tomas church andconvent in the 1800s

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Given that native Kapampangans hadhad no experience in masonry andarchitecture on a grand scale, theAugustinian friars must have spent weeksjust describing and sketching themagnificent cathedrals back in Spain, andmore weeks making thenatives acquire the skills tobuild similar structures. Thefriars were learned inphilosophy, theology and theclassical languages, and weregiven to art and architecturalappreciation but generallywere neither architects norengineers. Their RatioStudiorum did not providethem even basic architecturalor engineering courses fromwhich to begin. They had courses on churchhistory and church architecture but thosesubjects dealt more on the art rather thanthe science of making buildings. In onechapter of Rizal’s El Fili, the FranciscanPadre Damaso was bragging about havingbuilt fine churches in Laguna without beingan architect himself. He was right. And toaggravate matters further, Pampanga hadno seashores from which to quarry corralstones and had very negligible if at allsustainable source of adobe stones.Curiously though, Fray Juan Albarranmentions in his Método that the stones withwhich the Church (now Basilica) of theSanto Niño in Cebu was built were takenfrom Porac.

The friars taught the natives how towork with entirely new building materialslike batu (stone,) hierro (steel roof), tejero

Stone, egg white, lime, molasses—Kapampangans built their churches the way they cooked their food, with ingenuity, skill and good taste

(brick), pacu/clavo (nails), and the like.While the natives possessed innate skills inhandling endemic materials like cuayan(bamboo) and pinaud (nipa) they were notacquainted with woodwork. While sometribes showed woodcarving talents as

Recipe for a church: batu + calaru + api + pulut

mixture— consisted of sand, water and api(lime), which they acquired from sacks andsacks of seashells. Recent researches alsodiscover other organic components in theargamasa to make it more durable, suchas tree sap, plant juices, and pulut(molasses). But the most intriguing storyis about the use of eggs in buildingchurches—was the entire egg used, or justthe calaru (egg white), which had bindingproperties? If so, what did they do with allthat discarded yolk? Does this explain theprevalence of egg-based delicacies inPampanga such as yema, leche flan, tocinodel cielo, and saniculas (pan de SanNicolas)? Prof. Ricardo Trota Jose inhis book Simbahan expresses what isprobably on everybody’s mind: Howmany hens were needed to lay all thoseeggs?

evidenced by several extantpieces of pre-Spanish Era bulol,the rice gods of the North, none of this sortwas found in Pampanga and its environs.The lack of graven images buttresses thetheory that the early religion of theKapampangans was Islam, which prohibitedstatues and other likenesses. We can thussay that it was the old friars who initiatedPhilippine natives to the fine art ofwoodcarving. Besides, several churchinventories show that woodcarving pieceswere brought in by the same ships thatcarried the pioneer missionaries, and laterby the prosperous Galleon trade.

What used to be old wives’ tale is nowscientific fact: the builders of colonialchurches indeed used more thanstone and sand. The argamasa,or mortar—the binding

Tabique pampango: a type of frameworkusing bamboo slats and mortar

Adobe used in building Cebu basilica (top) quarried inPorac hills

Native wood carvers made the famous Betis retablo, above. Eggwhiteswere used to build Sta. Rita church, right, and all the leftover egg yolk musthave led to the town’s turrones de kasuy and sans rival industry.

By Fray Francisco D. Musni

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Buildingthe early churchesBy Joel Pabustan Mallari

The definitive legacy of theSpaniards is the Catholic faithwhich is evident today in ourlives—our religiosity, cuisine,fiestas, education, arts andculture, and most spectacularly,our churches. Every stone,wood, stained glass, limecement, brick and plaster foundin these weather-beaten, history-scarred edifices are mutewitnesses to our ancestors’ painand sufferings, hopes andaspirations, as well as to theircreative responses to thechallenges posed by the capricesand surprises of their everchanging environment.

The Spaniards who came toManila Bay in 1571 foundwooden palisades on thecoastline and rivers of Manila andPampanga, most l ikelyMacabebe, Lubao, Guaguaand Betis. After the Spaniardsconquered the natives andembedded themselves, theyreplaced these palisades withstone fortifications, andproceeded to build a Spanish city,

the Intramuros, following theprescriptions direct from KingPhilip II. Streets were laid outaccording to a lattice blueprint,and the main plaza had thechurch at its center, which wasbuilt near and facing the highwayof those times, the river.

The early churches weremade of wood, bamboo andthatch, but after the yearlytyphoons blew them away andthe fires from candles destroyedthem in seconds, the Spanishfriars and their native (andChinese) workers started toexplore more durable, more orless fireproof materials. Theydiscovered quarries andconstructed kilns (for productionof brick and mortar). In the1580s, large volcanic tuffquarries were found in SanPedro, Makati and theconstruction of dwellings,churches and fortifications instone was in full swing. Fr.Antonio Sodeño introducedthe art of masonry. In Manila,construction using uniformly cut

The adobe used for churches in Pampanga is volcanic tuff quarried from the hills in sitioGubat and sitio Telatundun Baka in Porac. In the 1960s, archaeologist Robert Fox reportedseeing what looked like ancient quarrying sites in these upland areas in Porac. As it is understoodin the Philippines, adobe is quite different from the adobe of Latin American countries, whichrefers to sun-dried rectangular blocks of mud and straw (some structures made of thesedate back to 8300 BC). Adobe is the Spanish name derived from the older Arabic al-tob;considering that the Moors also settled in Spain, the Spaniards must have borrowedthe term to also apply it to the volcanic-tuff blocks made here in the Philippines. Ithas also become a generic term for all cut stones used in churches, when in factsome stones are actually river stones or coral stones, common in coastal areas.Interestingly, the Kapampangan word planas, which means rocks found in cliffsclose to riverbanks, also applies to coral stones (subsidence theory?). Planas rockswere used to build the old church in Brgy. Pio, Porac; they were also used to buildold bridges and as istaka, the riprap slabbing of riverbanks to stop erosion.Coincidentally, there is barangay in Porac called Planas.

The adobe’s rough texture and heterogenous materials are due to the violenteruptions of volcanoes associated with low-viscosity (high-fluid) magma, i.e., theexpanding gases from the magma chamber form a froth that turns into light,glassy rock called pumice—very common on both sides of the Zambales mountainrange, especially on riverbeds, which hints at prehistoric eruptions of Mount Pinatubo.The adobe comes from the volcanic tuff which is actually the solidified, compacteddeposits of pumice, cinders and ash (collectively known as tephra) that had beenejected from the crater and had descended on the surrounding areas. Pumice, onthe other hand, comes directly from magma that has solidified; when the magmais not so thick and solidifies too quickly, it forms too many air pockets which makeit float on water (some pumice rocks are heavier).

One could see volcanic materials embedded in the adobe blocks on the erodingwalls of churches in Macabebe, Minalin, Candaba, Sta. Ana and Mexico. Thereare, however, churches made purely from pumice: Porac, Angeles, San Luis,Magalang, Sta. Rita and partly Floridablanca.

Adobe and pumice: Upon these rocksthe Kapampangans built their churchesBy Joel Pabustan Mallari

Buildingthe early churchesBy Joel Pabustan Mallari

Detail of the San Jose Matulid church (Mexico)

Magalang church side wall (next page)

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stone were called de silleria or de cal y canto. OutsideManila, where quarrying adobe was not yetwidespread, natives used irregularly shaped rocks andriver stones; this type of rubblework construction wascalled de mamposteria (a good example is the ancientwall of the remaining old bell tower of Mexico,Pampanga). Elsewhere in Pampanga, cut-stonestructures were rising as fast as those in Manila; theearly ones were Lubao’s San Agustin Church andMexico’s San Jose Matulid chapel, probably the parishchurch of the original Mexico settlement along theSapang Matulid, until the community moved to higherground later.

Those first churches had rectangular or cruciformfloor plan, had high and thick walls; and since therewere no steel dowers to reinforce the stone blocks,buttresses were built around the church. Windowswere small and some of them had been covered up—sign of more turbulent times when townspeople ranto the church to seek refuge. Bell towers doubled aswatchtowers. Many belfry windows have been partiallycovered up obviously for sniping purposes.

Wall of the Macabebe church made of bricks andmamposteria (rubblework of kapsa or sherds ofpottery and argamasa or mortar)

In some churches, brick and adobewere combined. A wall could consistof alternating brick and adobe, orfollowing a checkerboard pattern (e.g.,San Luis and Macabebe). In Minalin,bricks instead of pumice were formedinto balusters; stones and bricks werecemented together using argamasa (asmortar was called then), a mixture ofpowdered lime and water. Sometimesvolcanic ash and crushed sherds ofearthenware and porcelain were addedto the bonding material. Sometimesegg white was used, too.

Another function of mortar was toprotect masonry walls from erosion andmoisture caused by humidity and rain.Known as paletada, this protectivelayer was sometimes carved forornamentation, especially on facades

By Joel Pabustan MallariPaletada: Skin of the church

and above entrances. Some refer tothe paletada as the skin of the church;like the human skin, it should bepampered so that it does notdisintegrate over time. There is a kindof paletada called stucco (lime,crushed marble and glue-like bindingadditive) which is excellent vehicle forpainting frescoes (where the artistdoes the painting on a still-fresh orwet surface; thus the paint dries alongwith the surface). The mural in Minalinis probably a fresco which explains itslongevity.

When mortar is applied over ascreen of interwoven bamboo slats,the resulting thin wall has come to beknown as tabique pampango, used aspartition wall or exterior wall in homesas well as churches.

Quarrying means conducting anopen excavation from which any usefulstone is extracted for building andengineering purposes. The types ofquarrying are dimension- stonequarrying (for blocks of stone, likeadobe, pumice and coral stones) andcrushed- stone quarrying (granite,limestone, sandstone, basaltic rocks arecrushed to produce concrete aggregate,mortar and cement materials).

In the earliest days of quarryingin the Philippines, workers used crudehand tools and crude explosives(supplied by Chinese merchants) todetach large blocks, which were thensplit and broken into smaller stones.They were transported to constructionsites through river channels. Thus, if aquarry site did exist in Porac, largeenough to be able to supply aconstruction in Cebu, there has to be amajor river system close by. The theoryof some archaeologists is precisely thatthe Porac-Gumain River, long before itwas silted by the eruptions of MountPinatubo, was a deep river that was ableto sustain navigation and tradingactivities with a major settlement alreadyidentified in the Porac uplands throughrecent archaeological excavations.

The toponyms of places seem topoint to a tradition of quarrying in theKapampangan Region: Balas (sand), a

Ancient quarrying in Pampanga

By Joel Pabustan Mallari

The high concentration of adobe and pumice already hinted at the presence of a volcano

common name for barangays inBacolor, Mexico and Concepcion(Tarlac); Sapangbato (lake of stones)in Angeles; Mabatu-batu (rocky) in anFrancisco, Magalang; Banlic (sand ormud after a flood) in Cabalantian,Bacolor; Planas (coral stones) inPorac.

Lariu is the Kapampangan word formaking bricks. Clay, molded byrectangular wooden casts, was fired inkilns or sun-dried to produce ladrillos(bricks), tejas (roof tiles) and baldosas(floor tiles). Brick factories may haveexisted in Tenejero, Mexico, San Isidro(original name: Factoria) in Nueva Ecijaand Casinala, Apalit. Initialarchaeological studies, based on anunusual proliferation of sherds on theground, suggest that Candaba mayhave supplied the neighboring townswith pottery products. Before thetechnology of lariu, churches may havehad floors of compacted earth, just likethe Sta. Teresita Church near Taal Lakeand some houses in rural areas. Later,natives used slabs of granite (piedrachina), left behind by Chinese shipswhich had previously used them asballast. Such slabs can be found in thechurches of Minalin, San Luis andCandaba. There are even small bridgesin Mexico town made of piedra china—quite an oddity.

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By Kaye Mayrina-Lingad and Arwin Lingat

Tigtig campana:FOR WHOMTHE BELLS TOLLEDAugustinian bells as tools of subjugationor the voice of God Himself

One of the most potent toolsthat the Spanish friars introducedin colonial times was the churchbell--that ubiquitous instrumentwhich had the singular honor ofoccupying the tallest tower of theland--the belfry. It served as thecommunity timekeeper, dictatingon the townspeople everythingfrom when they should wake upto when they should go to bed.It also determined theboundaries of the pueblo--theparish was as far as the bell couldbe heard, hence the saying bajode la campana.

From earliest days, bells havebeen a source of comfort in timeof despair, warning duringimpending disaster, andcompanion inbattle, in revelry,in worship. Thebell spoke its ownl a n g u a g e - -s o m e t i m e splaintive, orominous, or stern,or reassuring.

Thus, the earlyKapampangansknew everynuance of bellsounds, as if theirlives depended onit. In more waysthan one, it did.

Here are someof the types andmeanings of bellpeals:

Invitation to Mass:Palagad. The call to worship

starts at least one hour beforeMass. It is achieved by ameasured stroke on the largestbell followed by two shortstrokes. This is repeated 5 timesat 15-second intervals, afterwhich 10 short strokes are struckevery quarter of an hour until a

Esquilada, or rotary bell, heldby a wooden esquila, ismanually rotated

few minutes before Mass.The palagad may be

resumed during recessional ifthere is another Mass afterwards.

Padalas. At the end of thepalagad series, just minutesbefore the Mass, the bell is rungcontinuously to announce theimminent start of Mass.Simultaneously, a small bell isrung in short strokes as the priestleaves the sacristy and enters thealtar. This is the dalas malati.

During the MassDupical (also called

Repique). The rotary bell (orbells), campana de vuelo orcampana de esquila, is rung insuccession to produce a melodicsound during the Gloria and

Credo. Itl i k e w i s eannounces thestart and endof a religiousprocession aswell asbaptisms andweddings. Thedupical, whichis a joyful andfestive peal, isironically alsorung duringfires and otheremergencies,although muchfaster thanduring simplea n n o u n c e -

ments.Mag-sanctus. The big

stationary bell is struck once tolet the people know thatconsecration of host and chaliceis taking place. This is for thebenefit of those who are seatedfarthest from the altar and forthose in the streets. This is onlydone during Sundays and feastdays and does not oblige those

agunias is rung only once, theplegaria is rung every hour at therequest of the bereaved, usuallya wealthy family. The plegaria isthe slow swinging of the rotarybell alternating with thestationary bell. There is noprescribed number of strokes forthe plegaria but it is alwayspreceded and concluded withthree dobladas. The doblada(or double-ringing) involves thesimultaneous tolling of the bigstationary bell and the smallrotary bell.

If there is a need for theplegaria, it is done after theregulars such as oracion and thecustomary time indicators.

Outside the hourly tolls, theplegaria is also rung when theciriales (cross bearer and twocandle-bearers) leave the churchfor the wake to fetch the casketon its way to the church (dakitciriales). Plegaria resumes as thefuneral procession leaves thechurch, continuing until thefuneral procession reaches thecemetery, which in earlier times

outside the church to pause as agesture of uniting themselveswith the Mass. In some towns,the brass band plays in front ofthe church during consecration.

Oracion. The big and smallrotary bells are simultaneouslyrotated 3 times with 15-secondintervals to signal the prayer ofthe Angelus at 6 p.m. In somechurches the tolling lasts as longas the praying of the Angelus.On Saturdays and eve of HolyDays, the evening oracion pealis followed by the dupical.

Agunias. The death knell –the ringing of the big and smallstationary bells at least 10 times--is very slow, expressing sorrowand grief over the loss of theloved one. The agunias is rungas soon as the death is reportedto the church. Interestingly, onecan tel l the gender of thedeparted based on which bell isstruck first. A low, powerful ringis used for the male while a thin,high-pitched ring is tolled first fora female.

Plegaria. While the

Stationary bell contains engraved information such as name ofdonor, name of parish priest, year the bell is dedicated, emblem ofbell caster, saint to whom bell is dedicated

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Pampanga: first and last Augustinianterritory in Luzon

Pampanga was not only the pioneerand premiere missionary territory of theAugustinian Order in Luzon but also thelast bastion of their evangelical ministry.The Augustinians administered Pampangathroughout the 300-year Spanish colonialperiod (with a few interruptions) and waybeyond it, from 1572 all the way to 1960

By Fray Francisco D. Musniwhen they ceded their last parish to localdiocesan clergy (although the lastAugustinian priest working in theKapampangan Region died only as recentlyas 1993). Here’s a brief description of thetwenty mission stations (now parishes)founded by the Augustinians in Pampanga(Editor’s Note: Many of these communities

had existed long before the Spaniardscame; “founding” here is used to meanestablishing a mission):

LUBAO (1572)Maestre de Campo Martin de Goiti

helped P. Fray Juan Gallegos foundLubao in 1572. In 1580 a school for Latinand Humanities was established for theinhabitants and missionaries from Spainand Mexico. The first Augustinian PrintingPress in the country was located in thistown. Fray Antonio Herrera built thechurch, the largest in Pampanga.

was only adjacent to the church.Today, when cemeteries arelocated a good distance from thechurch, plegaria stops as soonas the funeral procession is outof sight.

The agunias and plegariaare, by rule, only tolled foradults. For dead children thesmall bell is struck three timesfollowed by one stroke of the bigbell (teng-teng-teng-dong). Thisis repeated three times thenfollowed by the alternate ringingof the small and big bell (teng-dong-teng-dong). The peal isremarkably joyous, signifyingthe innocence of the departedand his sure entry into heaven.

Customary time

The palagad is followed by the padalas before thestart of Mass, the dupical during the Gloria andCredo

The agunias announces the death of a person while the plegaria isheard during funeral procession. Photo above shows dakit ciriales, aprivilege for the rich

indicatorPangising. At 5 a.m. the bell

summons the faithful to start anew day. The stationary bell isrung with 5 short strokes. Thisis done as a prelude to aninvitation to Mass. Hence, thepangising is not rung when noMass will be said on a particularmorning. On holy days however,the esquilada or rotary bell isrung together with the stationarybell.

Tigtig alas diyes. At 10 a.m.the bells ring for the morningbreak, announcing rest for theortelanu (farmers) and otherworkers, and to signal time toprepare lunch. This is signifiedby ten long strokes on the big

When the deceased is a child, a surprisingly joyous ringing isproduced by the churchbells, signifying the innocent soul’s certainentry into heaven.stationary bell.

T i g t i galas dose.Lunch isannounced at12 nn withthree strokesof the big bell.This is followedwith thedupical onSundays andHoly days.

T i g t i galas dos. Thebell is rung at2 p.m. signaling the end of siestaand the resumption of work andclasses. Ten long strokes on thebig stationary bell are followed

by another ten long strokes onthe small bell. Tigtig alas dos isalso called vesperas whereevening prayers for that nightmay already be recited.

Tigtig alas cinco. 5 p.m. ispamanuli or time to head home.The big stationary bell is rungwith five long strokes.

Tigtig alas otso. This is thelast peal for the day and isidentical to plegaria. It signalstime for the special prayers forthe deceased and to bid thefaithful good night.

Source: interviews with Fr.Venancio Samson

Jojo

Val

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Ale

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astro

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BETIS (1572)Also founded in 1572 by Fray

Fernando Pinto, although the Libro listsP. Fray Mateo Peralta as its first pàrroco.P. Fray José de la Cruz built the stonechurch. Early friars describe the faithful ofBetis as the most pious and industriouspeople in the whole province, not tomention that Betis is said to have producedthe most number of priests not only inPampanga but in the entire country.

MACABEBE (1575)

P. Sebastian Molina was Macabebe’sfirst pastor. Equally prominent friars, PP.Montoya, Tallada, Coronel, Medina, andthe illustrious Foronda—all writers inPampango—later followed him. The firstPampango book ever published, Vida de SanNicolas de Tolentino (1614), was written byFray Tallada when he was minister of thistown.

CANDABA (1575)P. Fray Manrique was the pioneer

missionary of Candava (Candaba), alsofounded in 1575. P. Fray José de la Cruz,

who had built the churches of Betis andMexico, built its stone church only in 1665.P. Fray Esteban Ibeas built its cimborrio(dome), and P. Fray Bravo the tower. Theconvent was built by the early fathers andlater embellished by Fathers Ferrer,Ibeas, and Bernardo.

BACOLOR (1576)P. Fray Diego Ochoa, author of the

first Arte, Vocabulario y Confesionario enPampango, founded Bacolor. The churchis said to be the most beautiful in theprovince, featuring a grand transept, a

ugustinian friars came to

Pampanga in the 1570s, and thefirst thing they did was study theKapampangan language tofacilitate not only evangelizationbut also the friars’ integrationinto the community of newconverts. Like other tribes in thearchipelago, Kapampangansused a different orthography (infact, a hundred years after theSpanish Conquest, manyKapampangans were still signingtheir names in the ancientscript), and the friars faced thealmost insurmountable obstacleof reeducating the natives withthe western script.

Barely seven years after theSpaniards first came toPampanga, Fray Diego deOchoa, former parish priest ofBacolor and Lubao wrote athree-volume work, which servedafterwards as a guide to laterwriters. In 1677, Fray FranciscoCoronel published his Arte yRegla de la Lengua Pampangain the printing press atMacabebe. Fray AlvaroBenavente (later Bishop ofXiangshi, China) wrote his Artey Vocabulario de la LenguaPampanga, a critique to FrayCoronel’s 1617 grammar.

But it was really Fray DiegoBergaño who wrote an effectivePampango grammar andvocabulary, his Arte de la LenguaPampanga was published by theJesuit Press in 1729. It was laterreprinted in 1736. His morefamous work however, is his1732 Bocabulario de Pampangoen Romance y Diccionario deRomance en Pampango,reprinted in 1860.

The transition from pre-

Hablo y escribo en idioma Pampango:Augustiniansand theAmanung SisuanThe friars in Pampanga wrotesome of the first grammar booksand dictionaries in the countryto understand the language of theirnew convertsBy Fray Francisco D. Musni

Top, pre-colonial Kapampangans wrote in the ancient orthographycalled kulitan. Above, Fray Francisco Coronel (1621) spelled Kapam-pangan words using Roman alphabet in his Arte y Reglas.

colonial to colonial orthographyresulted in the use of Hispanizedspelling of written Kapampanganlanguage throughout the colonialperiod, including the so-called

Golden Age of KapampanganLiterature at the start of the 20th

century. (It was Zoilo Hilario,with the publication of BayungSunis in 1960, who lobbied for

the dropping of c and q and othertraces of colonial influence inKapampangan orthography.) Today, Kapampangans arestill divided on orthography;traditionalists frown overspellings like king for qñg, kanufor canu, keni for queni, Ginu forGuinu, kekayu for quecaiu.These last two examples may bean offshoot from the Spanishaspiration of guerra (gEhra)where the vowels u and e formthe diphthong ue. Macanian isspelled by some as makanyanfollowing the Tagalog for ganyan.

Like the Spanish palabra, thePampango amanu also exhibitschanges in meaning based onsyllabic stress. MarianoHenson illustrates this nuancewith this classic example:másaquit (sick) masáquit(difficult) and masaquít (painful).

Adaptations of the Spanishvocabulary and syllabication setKapampangan apart from otherindigenous languages. The letterh rarely (if ever) appears in thePampango vocabulary, and if itever appears, it is not aspirated,ditto for Spanish. But sometimes,the Pampango is known to go forthe extreme; he will aspirate theletter h even when it should notbe the case.

Life of St. Nicholas, by FrayFelipe Tallada, first book inKapampangan (1614)

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project of PP. Fray Manuel Diaz, E.Alvarez, and Antonio Bravo, and boastsof having the biggest convent in the wholeprovince. It also has a spacious cemeteryequipped with a fine chapel.

MEXICO (1581)The town was initially called Nuevo

Mexico, with Fr. Bernardino de Quevedoand Fr. Pedro de Abuyoas first priors. Thefirst church, built by P. Fray José de laCruz in1665, was destroyed by the greatearthquake of 1880 – leaving intact the belltower. Fr. Esteban D. Ibeas had a

provisional structure of wood and hierro built.The construction of the permanent church,which Fr. Ibeas had planned, was neverrealized because he was recalled to Manila,and eventually died of cancer of the tongue.

ARAYAT (1590)Among the friars assigned to this town

were Fathers Contreras, Ven, Bedoya,Ortiz, and Ossorio who built its beautifulchurch of cut stone and brick. Fathers JoseTorres and Juan Tarrero later rebuilt itfrom 1858 to 1892. Arayat owes to Fr. Torresthe construction of a beautiful baño (bath

house) at the foot of the mountain, abouttwo kilometers from the town proper,which is now still a popular destination.

GUAGUA (1590)Fr. Bernardo de Quevedo founded

the Guagua mission in 1590, with Fr.Juan de Zabala as first resident priest.One Augustinian wrote that “Guaguaoccupies the second place among theconvents of Pampanga, just after that ofBacolor although formerly it was numberone.” One reason for Guagua’s progresswas the existence of a Parian, an area

DE LA CONJUGACION Y VARIACIONDE TIEMPOS.

MODO INDICATIVO.TIEMPO PRESENTE.

SingularYo escribo…… acong susulat o susulat cu.Tue escribes …icang susulat o susulat caEl escribe………iyang susulat o susulat ya.

PluralNosotros escribimos…iqueng susulat o

susulat camiVosotros escribis………icong susulat o

susulat cayoEllos escriben …………ilang susulat o

susulat la

Excerpts from Fr. Diego Bergaño’s Arte de la LenguaPampanga (1736)

SASALPANTAYA CU (CREDO)From Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana enLengua PampangaTranslated into Kapampangan byFray Francisco Coronel, OSAin 1621 in MacabebeSasalpantaya cu qng Dios Ibpang mayupayangtutuMengaua qng Banua ampon qng labuadSasalpantaya nacuman qng Anac nang bugtungy Jesucristong Guinu tamuQuiglian ya’t lalang ning Espiritu Santo,Mibait ya can Sta. Maria VirgenLinasa ya qng utus nang Poncio PilatoPinacu re qng CruzMete ya, quitcut ya, tinipa ya qng infiernos.Iniang catlu nang aldo sinubli yang mebie,Pepaitas ya Banua,Macalucluc ya uanan ning Dios Ibpangmayupayang tutu.Ibat carin sinubli ya naman queti,Minucum caring mabie ampon caringmengamate.Sasalpantaya cu qng Espiritu SantoAmpon qng ating Sta. Iglesia CatolicaAmpon qng ating pamisamac ding SantoAmpon qng ating pangasubli rang mie dingcatauan ding sablang tauAmpon qng ating bie alananga.

Fr. Gaspar de San Agustin (ca. 1685),author of the famous Conquistas de las IslasFilipinas, wrote that the Augustinians had aprinting press in the town of Lubao,Pampanga. Several accounts however, showthat it could have been in any of the towns ofPampanga (Lubao, Macabebe, or Bacolor)or San Pablo [San Agustin] in Manila, sice thepress was moved from town to town accordingto the needs of the friars. The press had beenbought in Japan in 1614 (or earlier). The firstbook ever printed by this press was Vida delGlorioso San Nicolas de Tolentino by Fr.Phelipe Tallada. Other books printed by thesaid press: Arte y Reglas de la lenguaPampanga (1617, Fr. F. Coronel); Relacion deel martyrio de el S.F. Hernando de S. Josef. EnJapon y del Santo Nicolas Melo en Mofcouia . .. (1618 Fr. H. Becerra); Relacion del Martiriodel B.P.F. Alonzo Navarrete . . . (1618); Libro anaisuratan amin ti bagas ti DOCTRINA

CRISTIANA. . . (1620, Fr. F. Lopez); Catechismo y Doctrina Christiana en la lenguaPampanga (1621, Fr. F. Coronel.) The printing press was later sold to the Jesuits,due to the great expenses it entailed and very little profit, but “with much regret tothe Augustinians.” Fray Guillermo Masnou, former parish priest of Angeles,Santo Tomas, Guagua and Concepcion is said to have written a manuscript,entitled Estudio acerca de la antiguedad de nuestra imprenta de Lubao, but it waslost on its way to the printing press.

The Augustinianprinting press in Lubao

The Lubao press printedreligious books like this one byFray Guillermo Masnou

La Il

ustra

cion

Fili

pina

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where natives mixed with Chinesemerchants in marriage and in business.Originally these Chinese were refugeesfrom persecution by Gen. Simon de Anda,who had accused them of conniving withthe British invaders in 1762 and plottingto assassinate the Governor General andsome Augustinians. Another Augustinianlikened the Holy Week processions inGuagua as comparable to those held inSpain.

SEXMOAN (1590)Sexmoan (Sasmuan) was a visita of

Guagua in 1590 and of Lubao in 1611. In1613 its residents complained of theinconvenience of having to go to Lubao forMass, confession and catechism. In 1615,Fr. Pedro de Zuñiga was appointed vicarof Sexmoan. Fr. Jose Duque built the firstchurch between 1659 and 1677. 18th-centurychronicler Fray Gaspar de San Agustin wrote:“The church is very beautiful, and it is placedunder the advocation of Santa Lucia; theconvent is of first class too.” Both buildingswere swept away by the overflowing riverbeside them. In 1884, Fr. Toribio Fanjul

restored the church.PÓRAC (1594)Fr. Mateo de Peralta founded Porac

in 1594 by organizing the Negritoes fromvarious rancherias into a single town. In1607, Porac was annexed to Bacolor as avisita; in 1641, the convent was relievedof its obligation to pay rent to Manila dueto extreme poverty. Fathers ManuelObregon (1726) and Nicolas Mornier(1735) are credited to have constructedthe church, which was destroyed by anearthquake in 1863 and restored by Frs.

Early scientific studies in Pampanga

The Augustinians were learned men whomade scholarly studies on theirKapampangan milieu. Fray GuillermoMasnou, for instance, catalogued andanalyzed the herbolarios of Pampanga, whileFray Antonio Llanos studied Mount Arayat,which he admired for its”lush vegetation, theluxuriant rivers that flow from its core, andits curious shape in the midst of a greatplain.”

Meanwhile, another great astronomicalevent in Pampanga became the object ofintense study not only by Augustinians but

also by scientists everywhere. Shortly before5 PM on April 5, 1859, “an extraordinarythunder as the sound of cannon fire andheavy gunshots was heard in the town ofMexico as well as in the great part of theprovince of Pampanga.” It was a meteorfalling “in a southeast-southwest direction,a long strip of smoke passing over thetown and ending in a field,” andcreating a

hole “with a depth of three spans,” fromwhich the townspeople extracted “a bigstone, which was still very hot and smoking.”The stone measured about a foot long

and 8 inches wide, andweighed 23

Cas t i l i an

Herbolarios, rivers on Mt. Arayat and the taclang batuin that fell in Mexico townBy Fray Francisco D. Musni

1860 sketch ofMt. Arayat (LaIlustracion Filipina)

24

Isidoro Fernando and Esteban Ibeas(while stationed at Sta. Rita). Damagedagain in World War II, it was restored byFr. Daniel Castrillo, the last Augustinianparish priest of Pampanga.

APÁLIT (1597)The first prior was Fr. Pedro de

Vergara, but it was Fr. Juan Cabello thatstarted the construction of the first churchin 1641. The present church wasconstructed by Fr. Antonio Redondo in1876-83. It cost P40,000 but Fr. Redondospent only P30,000 through good fiscal

management It is said that the sacristanwould go around town ringing a bell andpreceded by the brass band, and thetownspeople would follow him with theirdonations of sand and other materials:“whole town of Apalit helped either withmonetary donations, personal service or theirgood wishes.”

MAGALANG (1605)Fr. Gonzalo de Salazar served as first

prior in 1605 in the town’s original site atbarrio Macapsa. It was transferred to SanBartolome, which was abandoned due to a

flood in 1856, prompting another transfer,to its present site in barrio Talimunduc.Fr. Ramon Sarrionandia supervised thetransfer and gave the town its name SanPedro de Magalang. The first church, builtin 1725 in San Bartolome, was destroyedin the flood; the present church was builtby Fr. Sarrionandia in 1866.

MINALIN (1614)Minalin was segregated from its matrix

Macabebe in 1614; Fr. Miguel deSaldaña served as the first prior only in1618. No records exist on when the

pounds. It was compact and hard withoutany portion of slag, mainly siliceous grey colorand in part blackish like metal and fine grainwith bright spots. Curiously, it emitted anunpleasant odor, living up to its local nametaclang batuin (star droppings).

According to eyewitnesses, the meteoritehad no resemblance whatsoever to thestructure and mineral composition of thestone and soil on the surroundings on whichit fell (the terrain was called pila), not eventhose of Mount Arayat.

A British national, Messr. Guill, was oneof the first to arrive at the scene and holdthe stone. The gobernadorcillo (town

Although Fernando Magallanes hadproven the earth is round, the news hadnot yet spread wide and most peoplecontinued imagining the planet to be flat.And in that flat world, the Philippines wasthe farthest outpost of Spain, double thedistance of Mexico, located practically at theedge of the world beyond which they didnot dare sail anymore.

The friars camehere with oneobjective: to convert asmany pagans aspossible. These earlyfriars were differentfrom the later friarswho came here merelyto maintain theparishes alreadyestablished by the pioneers, and they werecertainly different from civilian Spaniardswho came to make money, legally orillegally. The early friars were truemissionaries who left the temperate comfortof home and braved the harsh conditionsin these islands—diseases, mosquitoes,heat, alien culture and language,

THE FAR END OF THE WORLDIt was the later friars whom Rizal described as abusive in his novels;the early friars were true missionaries who braved mosquitoes, headhuntersand 15 months at sea to convert natives and build churches from memoryBy Robby Tantingco

headhunters—just to spread the Gospel.It took the friars seven months to sail from

Spain to Mexico, and another eight monthsto cross the Pacific to reach the Philippines.That’s 15 months on board a rickety ship,grappling with seasickness, scurvy, pirates,storms and boredom. They usually stayed afew weeks in Mexico to recuperate and

prepare for the long trip to theEmpire’s most distant colony,the Philippines.

When they arrived here,they stayed in their motherhouse in Manila for a whileto get instant tutoring on thelanguage of their futureparishioners (which was whythe vocabularios had to bewritten early on), before

proceeding to their assignment in Pampanga,usually to replace an old priest in a big parishlike Bacolor, or to establish a new parish in aGod-forsaken place like Porac. After forgingagreements with local chieftains through aninterpreter, or sometimes aided by a Spanishsoldier or official, the Augustinian nextprepared to build the church, where he could

mayor), Don Anastacio Aguas, took it andgave it to the parish priest of Mexico, Fray

Manuel Luis, who later sent it to thegovernor of the province. Aguas was laterawarded the Medal of the Merito Civil.

The townspeople who gave signedtestimonies were Calixto Carrion, MarianoMedina, Timoteo Tubul Roque, PaulinoTubul Roque, Jose Tifoso Silverio,Tiburcio de los Santos, Alejo TapanosCruz, Romualdo Tubul Roque, FelixParras, Juan Morillo Aniceto andGregorio de Villanueva.

The meteorite was sent to the Museumof Natural History in Madrid, Spain--or at leastthat was what the Director of OverseasAffairs ordered.

1859 sketch of the asteroid that landed inMexico, Pampanga (La Ilustracion Filipina)

say Mass, administer the sacramentsincluding the urgent baptisms, and live (inthe convento next to it). The first churches,made of bamboo, thatch and other localmaterials, were deemed too frail to withstandthe typhoons and too humble to house asplendid faith, and so the friar set out tobuild a concrete church.

Thus, the priest learned to become notonly a teacher, community organizer anddoctor, but also an architect and engineer.He taught the natives to use stone, to buildhigh and to build big. And becausephotography had not yet been invented, thefriar had nothing to show his workers exceptrough sketches of churches he rememberedfrom his days in Spain and Mexico.Pampanga churches were thereforepatterned after the churches of Europearound the time of the Baroque style, aswell as after the Mexican churches, whichwere themselves a mix of European andAztec. They were further influenced by theavailable raw materials at the time, theavailable manpower, the availabletechnology, and of course, the uniqueKapampangan skill and artistry.

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church was constructed and by whom;only one record states it was finished in1834. Augustinian figures as well as whatappears to be a map of the town marked1619 (although unlikely the map waspainted in that year) are found in theconvento.

SANTA RITA (1726)Fr. Pedro de San Nicolas served as

minister of both Porac and Sta. Rita in1722, but it was only in 1726 when Sta.Rita had its own priest and thereforebecame an independent parish. Fr.

Francisco Royo built the present church in1839; Fr. Juan Merino completed it in 1868.These two priests also opened the roadlinking Sta. Rita with Porac and Guagua.During the Revolution, the townspeople hidtheir last Augustinian parish priest, Fr.Celestino Garcia in their houses until theforces of Gen. Maximino Hizon capturedhim in Bacolor and took him all the way toLepanto in the Cordilleras.

SAN LUIS (1740)Formerly known as San Nicolas de

Cabagsa, in honor of former parish priest

Fr. Nicolas de Orduño (cabagsac meansa place where fruit bags are bagged out),the town had Fr. Jose Echevarria as firstprior in 1742. There is no data on whobuilt the church or when, except that Fr.Isidro Bernardo made great restorationsin 1883.

SAN FERNANDO (1754)San Fernando had its first prior, Fr.

Sebastian Moreno, only two years afterits foundation in 1754. He also startedthe construction of the church; Fr.Mariano Alafont completed it in 1781.

he missionaries, among them the Augustinians, were the pioneer educators in the Philippines. Their evangelization

activities included the founding of parochialschools (escuelas) as cradles of Christianinstruction. These 16th-century schools werethe first schools in the Islands. Among theearliest parochial schools in the Philippineswere those of Bacolor, Betis, Lubao(Estudio Gramatica later Colegio de Lubao,1596) Candaba (Estudio Gramatica, 1596)and San Miguel de Mayumo—all built bythe early Augustinian fathers.

Parochial schools were, as a general

Enseñanza Agustiniana:FRIARS AND CATHOLICThe Augustinians put up the first schools andestablished an educational system that’s flawed,but then, they preceded the Thomasitesby more than 300 yearsBy Fray Francisco D. Musni

practice, located near the convent or withinthe convent itself. Thus, the “priest-architect”had the escuela always in his mind whenpreparing the building plans of a parish house(convento), so as to include in the groundfloor, besides his office, two rooms largeenough to serve as escuela—one for boys,and the other for girls. The friars thought itexpedient to locate the escuela in the conventor in its vicinity to exercise effectivesupervision in it.

Initially, it was the friar who handled thedifficult task of giving instruction. Armed onlywith a few background courses in education,and some books and pamphlets (usually in

Spanish and Latin) he carried with him, hewent on to teach Spanish and the 4R’s(religion, reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic.) Thelack of a common language was a greatobstacle at the start; there were nointerpreters, no dictionaries, no grammarbooks. The Augustinian friar, nevertheless,overcame this difficulty in due time, and evengained mastery of the native dialects, andin a few years published a number ofcomplete grammars, dictionaries, andvocabularies. Several Pampango books andpamphlets, usually translations of popularLatin, Spanish and French writings, werepublished by the fathers. For local

EDUCATION

Fray Guillermo Masnou built an escuela on the first floor of the Angeles convento, which later grew into the Holy Family Academy

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Destroyed in 1828, it was restored by Fr.Pedro Medina and Fr. AntonioRedondo, who had paintings done on theceiling and the majestic dome built. Itwas destroyed again in 1899 by AntonioLuna’s soldiers, rebuilt, then burned downin 1939. Archt. Fernando Ocampo, whodesigned the Manila Cathedral,reconstructed it after the war.

SANTA ANA (1756)As early as 1598, the town (formerly

named Pimpin) functioned as a visita ofArayat, and it was in 1756 that

Augustinians declared it an independentparish, with Fr. Lorenzo Guerra as firstprior. The church was built in 1853; Fr.Lucas Gonzales added the five-story belfryin 1857. The stones used came fromMeycauayan and the wood from Porac andBetis.

SAN SIMON (1771)The town’s original name was Virgen del

Pilar, after its founder, Mariano del Pilarde los Reyes. After the British Occupationof 1762-65, Gen. Simon de Anda renamedit San Simon after his own name. The

Augustinians appointed the first prior onlyin 1771, Fr. Fernando Medalla. In 1870,Fr. Benito Ubierna built the first church;the revolutionaries burned it down in 1898.

STO. TOMAS (1793)Formerly called Baliuag, Sto. Tomas

parish was founded in 1793, probably bysecular priests, although by 1853 theAugustinians had reclaimed it. The churchwas built by secular priest, later repairedby Fray Guillermo Masnou. Conventwas built later by Fray Tarrero and FrayBedoya.

catechetical instruction, a goodnumber of religious pamphlets,booklets, and novenas inPampango were also published.The Catecismo of Fr. FranciscoCoronel for instance was firstwritten in 1621, and was laterpublished over 15 times, withthe last edition in 1882. TheAugustinians worked zealouslyto provide instructionalmaterials in the vernacular thateven technical subjects likearithmetic were translated toPampango, like Fray Fernando

Chapels doubling as schools: left to right, San Miguel Chapel, Sta Monica Chapel, San Nicolas Chapel, all in Lubao

and put it under theadministration of the TertiaryOrder of Augustinian Sisters inthe Philippines. The colegio waslater turned over to theBenedictine Sisters of Tutzing in1922. Another example is theparochial school of SanGuillermo Church in Bacolor,later developed into Saint Mary’sAcademy (also under theBenedictine Sisters) until it wasburied by lahar in the early1990s. The old EstudioGramatica still stands on itsoriginal location in the old casaparroquial next to the churchbuilding, but is now known asHoly Rosary Catholic ParochialSchool.

After World War II, theAugustinians helped found twomore Catholic schools in theprovince. Saint CatherineAcademy in Porac was foundedsometime in 1945 with the helpof then parish priest, Fr. DanielCastrillo. Fr. Lucinio Valles,a uno de los ult imos dePampanga (one of the last friarsassigned to this province) wasinstrumental in establishingSaint Augustine Academy inFloridablanca, Pampanga in1951. Fr. Valles became its firstDirector while serving as párrocoof this town.

The Augustinians founded the Bacolor Catholic School, which later became St. Mary’s Academy

Garcia’s Macuyad a Pipagaralanqñg Aritmetica published inManila by the Imprenta Amigosdel Pais in 1884. The friars alsomade Pampango translations ofpopular stories and biblical talesin Spain such as Don JuanTiñoso, Siete Ynfantes de Lara,Gonzalo de Cordoba, JoseVendido, and the like. Thesebooklets became instant localfavorites, which the nativescalled curiru (from Spanishcorrido) Some were fine piecesof lyrical poetry, which were

later sung as lullabies and usedfor entertainment in socialgatherings.

Several escuelas establishedby the friars can still be foundtoday; some even have growninto prestigious centers ofCatholic education. Holy FamilyAcademy in Angeles started asan escuela (built by FrayGuillermo Masnou) located inthe first f loor of the oldconvento. In 1915, theAugustinian cura cal led itColegio de la Sagrada Familia,

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ÁNGELES (1830)The former barrio of San Fernando

became a separate town in 1829. Initiallyministered by a secular priest, Angeles(formerly Culiat) got its first Augustinianprior, Fr. Vicente Andres, in 1843. Fr.Guillermo Masnou built a woodenchurch in 1855 to replace the first nipachurch, while Fr. Ramon Sarrionandiastarted the construction in 1860 of thepresent stone edifice. Fr. Rufino Santos(not the cardinal) did some restorationwork in 1893. It took 37 years to complete

the church, in 1897.FLORIDABLANCA

(1867)Formerly a hacienda of Lubao called San

Jose de Calumpaui, the town was renamedFloridablanca after the Count ofFloridablanca, Spain (Don Jose Monino),who reportedly owned vast tracts of land inthe town. Fr. Jose Hernandez served asthe first prior after the town became a parishin 1867, the same year Calumpaui becameFloridablanca. Fr. Luciano Morros Yllaconstructed the church and convent in 1887.

The parish was under the Augustiniansuntil 1960.

MASANTOL (1877)The town, formerly a barrio of

Macabebe, was founded in 1877—probablythe last town founded by the Augustiniansin Pampanga. It became an independentparish with the name San Miguel deMasantol in 1894

In the year 1660 sometowns of Pampanga revoltedagainst the Spanish government.Tasked with the work of cuttingtrees for the construction ofgalleons, some abuses werecommitted against them werecommitted by the overseer andthey were not paid or theirpayment was delayed. Thus, inthe early days of October 1660the loyal Pampangos made theirfirst movement by burning thehuts in which they had lodged.The Dominican Fr. PedroCamacho, chaplain of thetimber-cutting people, as well asDon Juan Gomez de Payva,governor of the province, dideverything possible to pacifythem, but all in vain. Dn.Sabiniano Manrique de Lara,Governor General of the Islands,seeing with great anxiety howthe events were evolving, sent asecret letter to the AugustiniansFr.Jose Duque parish priest ofSesmoan, and Fr. IsidroRodriguez of Guagua, askingthem that, with the authoritywhich they had acquired duringso many years as ministers inthat province, they persuade therevolting Pampangos to lay downtheir arms. Those religiouslabored to that end, with all theireagerness, but the only effectwas to further embolden therebels. Though many of themutineers retired to their towns,Dn. Francisco Maniago and

The Augustinians and thePampango Revolt of 1660-61

By Fr. Policarpo Hernandez, OSA

Caught between their fellow Spaniards andnative parishioners, the friars had no choice but to mediate

his insurgents became strong inthe town of Macabebe, and inBacolor as strong forcegathered there, closing themouths of the rivers with stakesto hinder the commerce betweenPampanga and Manila. Theysent letters to Pangasinan andIlocos, urging them to followtheir example and throw off theyoke of the Spaniards.Information reached GovernorManrique at night, and withoutwaiting for daylight, heembarked with 12 militaryofficers and set out at daybreakfor the town of Macabebe. Inspite of the Governor General’s

presence, however, ittook time to pacifythem. All theAugustinian ministersof the province—whom the Pampangosreverenced, writes Fr.Casimiro Diaz—availed themselves ofany opportunity andspared no occasion topersuade some andlure others withpromises, and soontheir efforts bore fruitas the chief promotersof the rebellion, seeingthe courage of theirfollowers weakening,began to search forways for their ownsafety. The rebelsdispatched Fr.

Andres de Salazar, parishpriest of Betis, with a missive tothe Governor General, alleging ascause of the disturbance thearrears of payment which weredue to them for their services.If paid, they promised, theywould lay down their arms andgo back to their towns. TheGovernor General, influenced bythe arguments which they placedbefore him, agreed to grant partof what they demanded, offeringthem 14,000 of the 200,000pesos due them.

(Casimiro Diaz, Conquistasde las islas Filipinas, 2a. parte.Valladolid, 1890. pp. 567-577.)

Francisco Maniago

The Seven Years’ Warbetween England and Spainextended all the way to theircolonies in the Far East. OnSeptember 23, 1762, a Britishfleet commandeered byGeneral William Drapermade a surprise attack onSpanish ships in Manila Bay.The ill-prepared colony easilyfel l in the hands of theinvaders, who lootedIntramuros (including theAugustinian church andconvent), made ArchbishopManuel Rojo, the actingGovernor General, surrenderthe capital, and forced themilitary leader, GeneralSimon de Anda y Salazar,to transfer the seat ofgovernment to the newnational capital, Bacolor,Pampanga.

In Bacolor, Simon de Andaorganized a resistancemovement composed mainlyof Kapampangan soldiers.

THE GENERALANDTHE FRIARS

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1571 March 16:Adelantado Miguel Lopez deLegazpi lands in Manila withMartin de Goiti and AugustinianFray Diego de Herrera.1572 Augustinian Province ofProvincia del Santissimo Nombrede Jesus del Fil ipinas isestablished.May 02: Betis town admittedas visita of Tondo and later ofBacolor

TIMELINEOF THEAUGUSTINIANPRESENCEIN PAMPANGA

May 03: Lubao accepted asvisita of Tondo1575 March 03: Macabebeand Candaba accepted as housesof the Order and as visitas ofCalumpitSeptember 03: Fr. Sebastian deMolina named prior of Macabebe1576 September 06:Macabebe convent aggregatedto Lubao with Fr. IldfefonsoHeredero as its vice-priorDecember 31: Bacolor

(vacolot) accepted by theAugustinian Council as aconvent, and was called SanGuillermo.1581 April 24: TheAugustinian counselors acceptthe town of Mexico (NuevoMexico) and the visitas ofMasansan and Matulin.1583 Philip II issues a royalcedula1590 May 17: Guaguahouse accepted by the

The idea of secularization ofparishes had already beencontemplated as early as 1583,when King Philip II opined thatin canon law, parochialadministration belonged properly tothe secular (diocesan, or undersupervision of local bishop) clergyand that religious orders like theAugustinians could not administerparishes unless granted specialpermission by the Vatican itself.Thus, once an adequate number ofdiocesan priests was obtained, thereligious should turn over theirparishes to the secular clergy.

In 1624, another decreeordered Manila to secularize allparishes located within 14 leaguesaround it. In 1753, King CarlosIII ordered religious and civilleaders in the colony to relieve thereligious of their parishes and handthese over to secular priests, butdue to strong opposition, the Kingagreed to a compromise by givingreligious and civil leaders the optionto approve or disapprove anyturnover and by allowing thereligious order to keep a maximumof two rich parishes in eachprovince.

Nobody was happy with it andso the next year, 1754, the King

Augustinian friars were Gen. Simon deAnda’s staunchest allies against the British Occupation in 1762-65,yet only eight years later he had them allejected from Pampanga: What happened?By Fray Francisco D. Musni

Augustinian friars did their part by supplying Anda withprovisions, encouraging their parishioners to join themovement and actually organizing reinforcement troops inBulacan and Pampanga, thus putting Augustinian lives andproperties in great danger.

When the issue of secularization of parishes strained therelations between the King and the Augustinians a few yearsafter the British left the Islands, Gen. Simon de Anda,expectedly, sided with his King. He sent his military officersand soldiers to Pampanga to forcefully throw Augustinianfriars out of their parishes. This maltreatment angeredAugustinians who considered the ejection an unwarrantedact and a contravention of a royal decree that allowedsecularization only for those parishes that had become vacant.The Augustinians felt that the injustice committed againstthem was so severe that they threatened to abandon alltheir parishes in the entire archipelago. The friars werearrested and brought back to Manila, and their personalproperties confiscated.

Gen. Simon de Anda’s shabby treatment of theAugustinian friars, despite their contributions to hiscampaign against the British only a few yearsearlier, was seen as emanating from apersonal grudge against the AugustinianPrior Provincial, who did not nominatehim to succeed Archbishop Rojo asGovernor General.

1772-1791:18 FRIARLESS YEARSIN PAMPANGA

dropped this compromiseamendment and reiterated hisoriginal decree to secularize allparishes in the colony. TheAugustinians and other religiousorders, as expected, joined forcesin expressing their objection.Peeved, King Carlos III instructedhis officials and supporters, led byno less than Archbishop Basiliode Santa Justa y Rufina andGen. Simon de Anda, toimplement his order and campaignagainst religious orders.

General Anda sent troops toPampanga to forcefully eject theAugustinians from their parishes—the same Augustinians who hadsupported him in his campaignagainst the invading British forcesin 1762-65. By 1773, all Augustinianparishes in Pampanga had beentaken over by native secular clergy.“The libraries left in some of theconvents were destroyed and all thebooks went into waste because ofleaking water from the gutters andtermites and worms,” wrote onebitter friar. The Augustinians wereso offended by what the considereda grave injustice that theythreatened to abandon all theirparishes in the Philippines.

Hearing this, King Carlos III

1571-1960

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Augustinian Council as aconvent with voting rights; onsame day, convent of Apalitplaced under jurisdiction of Fr.Pedro Mendieta and Fr. MateoPeralta of Calumpit. August 25:Arayat accepted by theAugustinian Council as“Convent of Santo Domingo deArayat,” a house of the Order;Sesmóan made visita of Guagua1596 May 12: The Fathersdecide to transfer the Estudio

Gramática from Candaba toLubao.1594 October 31: Poracaccepted as a house of the Orderwith the right to vote in provincialmeetings1597 November 17:Service of the religious to theconvent in Porac orderedtemporarily suspended; priestfrom Lubao and Bacolor to attendto it. Apalit made a priory withthe right to vote in provincial

meetings.1598 Town of Pinpin (SantaAna) accepted by the Councilfathers as a visita of Arayat.1603 Guagua made aVicariate, under the directsupervision of the PriorProvincial.1605 Magalang, mentionedas visita of Arayat in 1598,receives its first pastor, Fr.Gonzalo de Salazar.

1606 Porac annexed toBacolor as its visita; thus itceases to be a priory.1608 Porac placed underthe direct care of the PriorProvincial who is empowered toname a vicar.1611 The Council fathersaggregate the visita of Sesmóanto Lubao, which belongs toGuagua.1613 Sesmóan convent

reprimanded General Anda through a royalcedula, and once again amended his decreeby ordering secularization of only thoseparishes that had been declared vacant, andby subjecting religious-run parishes todiocesan visitation and royal patronage. TheAugustinians reluctantly retained theparishes of Mexico and Sta. Ana.

Over the next years, fewer and fewerAugustinians were sent from Spain. In 1810,they decided to give up all their parishes inPampanga except Apalit. By 1893, however,the number of Augustinian missionaries haddramatically increased again, and theyreclaimed 15 of their parishes in Pampanga.

The fraile (friar) was the first beneficiaryof the Kapampangan culinary genius. For

sure, he taught his native cooksome European recipes but itwas to the cook’s credit that theresulting fusion of local andforeign elements produced whatis now known as the unique,innovative and defiantKapampangan cuisine. Thuspaella became bringji, chorizobecame longanisa, cecina (curedmeat) became pindang.

The Pampango’s diet makeshim a candidate for ailmentssuch as alta prision (highblood pressure), ataquede corazon (heartattack), diabetes, batu(kidney and gal lstones), among others.He has evolved into anobstinate foodie, in spiteof the risks involved infeasting on cholesterol-,sodium- and sugar-ladenfood.

Pampango cooking is knownfor its three basics: sincutsa(marinade and parboil), guisa(sauté), and fritú (fry). Sincutsaoriginated in the refrigerator-lessdays when raw meat from newlybutchered animals wasseasoned with vinegar, salt, soy

sauce and spices and simmered in largecauas (vats) for longer storage. The processwas done during the vespera (eve) of a

SPANISH CULINARYHERITAGE IN PAMPANGAPre-colonial Kapampangan cuisine, alreadyremarkable in its daring and variety, got a Europeanspin from experimentations in the friar’s kitchenBy Fray Francisco D. Musni

banquet. On the day of the fiesta, the cooksrose at dawn and began sautéing (guisa)the meat parboiled the day before. ThePampango fries (fritu or, to use the originalKapampangan term, titi) his sitsarongbulaclac or pititian, lechon kawali,cammarrones. The culinary fare in thepusiunan (social gatherings) offeredmenudu, asadu, bringji, caldereta, estofadu,p e s c a d o , sarciadu, croquetas ando t h e r Spanish- and Mexican-

influenced dishes.I n every town it was the fraile

who was given the best cook;girls and even boys who wanted

to be cooks apprenticed with thepriest’s cook. Well-to-do familiesusually contracted the services ofthese professional cooks duringfiestas and parties.

The fraile most likely alsotaught his Pampango cook howto prepare chocolate drink, a

delicacy imported from Mexicothrough the galleon trade. (One

easily remembers a scene from NoliMe Tangere where the cura orders hisassistant to prepare chocolate ah orchocolate eh, the importance of his guestdetermining the thickness and consistencyof the chocolate.). Pampango cooks cameup with their own versions with the help of abatidor or batirul (brass pewter) and themolinillo (wooden beater) introduced by theAugustinian frailes. The Spanish custom ofdipping churros (curly pretzels) or bread inchocolate mutated to dipping broas and pande saniculas.

Menudu, asadu, at suclati:

1860 sketch of a male cook(cocinero). Among Kapampangans,the men are said to be better cooksthan the women

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separated from Guagua.1614 May 17: The Councilfathers segregate Minalin, avisita, from its matrixMacabebe.1617 April 29: The noticeof separation of Minalin fromMacabebe is repealed; no priestis assigned there until theappointment of Fr. MiguelSaldana in 1618. In this samemeeting the visita status ofSanta Ana is reconfirmed.

1622 The encomendero andparishioners of Arayat requestthe Prior Provincial to annexArayat to Candaba because theyare unable to support the parishpriest.1624 September 09: Adecree is issued, ordering theBishop and Audiencia of Manilato give secular priests all parishes14 leagues near Manila. Arayatsegregated from Candaba,becomes a Vicariate under

discretion of the Prior Provincial.October 31: Parish of Minalinaccepted as a vicariateindependent from Macabebe.1633 Minalin given the twovisitas in Pangasinan andTubungao.1641 Arayat once againaggregated to its former matrix,Candaba.1642 Sesmóan annexed toLubao due to the general lack ofpriests.

1645 Records show Lubaomay have suffered fromearthquake because it wasexempted from rent in this year.Bacolor church also damaged.1672 Bacolor conventcatches fire.1722 April 23: Fr. Pedro deSan Nicolas named minister totowns of Porac and Santa Rita ( this is the firsttime that records mentionSanta Rita)

THEAMAZINGSANIKULASBy Kaye Mayrina-LingadSanikulas2 cups cornstarch2 cups flour1 cup sugar1 tbsp. baking powder1/8 tsp. salt½ cup oil½ cup butter½ cup coconut milk4 pieces egg yolk

Mix dry ingredients together except sugarin a bowl. In another bowl, combine therest of the ingredients and mix with thehands. Knead to a smooth paste. Dividedough into small balls and roll intogreased wooden molds. Line with waxpaper and bake at moderatetemperature, about 280 degrees untilgolden brown.Note: This is a commercial recipecourtesy of Ms. Lillian Borromeo ofMexico, Pampanga.

The biscuit is named after St. Nicholasde Tolentino. His middle-aged parents,Compagnonus de Guarutti and Amata deGuidiani, were childless until a prayerful visitto a shrine of the original Saint Nicholas atBari, Italy. In gratitude, they named theirson, Nicholas.

Once, when he fell severely ill, he hadvisions of the Virgin Mary, St.Augustine andSt. Monica who alltold him to eat acertain piece ofbreadroll dipped inwater. After he wascured, he beganhealing people bygiving out bread overwhich he recitedMarian prayers. Thebread was eventuallycalled St. Nicholasbread and is sti l lbeing given away athis shrine to this day.He is the patron saintof children. It isbelieved that her e s u r r e c t e dhundreds of deadchildren includingseveral who drownedtogether.

The Augustinian friars brought the SanNicolas bread to Pampanga during theSpanish Period with variations from the local

valuable as an easily digested, nourishing dietfor convalescents, especially with bowelcomplaints. It also has other medicinalproperties such that the mashed rhizomes areused as application to wounds from poisonedarrows, scorpion and black spider bites, andto arrest gangrene.

The friars, however, did not explain themedicinal properties of this biscuit to theirfaithful. Instead, they distributed the sanikulasduring St. Nicholas’ feast day every September10th and promised miraculous cures and goodhealth to all the children who attended theMass.

Meanwhile, there is another theory tothe biscuit’s healing properties. TheKapampangans usually prepared their ownfood and kept them away in jars and claypots for later use. When prepared properly,the sanikulas kept well for several months intightly sealed jars. Unknown to them, thebiscuits grew molds in time but did not changetheir quality or taste. According to researchers,the molds contain penicillin which explains theantibiotic effects that cured most illnesses.

The authentic sanikulas biscuit is preparedusing arrowroot starch and coconut milk. Oneside of the biscuit bears the image of St.Nicholas. Although there are stil lKapampangans who prepare sanikulasbiscuits using the original recipe, thecommercial variety uses more readily availableingredients such as cornstarch and flour.

bread. The biscuit is made with arrowrootstarch. Locally known as araro, the arrowrootplant has rhizomes (or roots) that yield edibleand almost pure starch. The powder is usedin cookery as a thickener. Arrowroot is chiefly

The church of Mexico, destroyed by the1880 quake (the same quake that toppledone of the towers of the San Agustin Churchin Intramuros) and never reconstructed toits old glory (the bell tower, lone survivor ofthe earthquake, stands incongruously besidea rather unimpressive new church) is said tobe suffering from not one but two curses:the first curse was made after prominentfamilies in Mexico took the cascajo (bricks,and gravel) from the construction site and

THE CURSE OFTHE BRICKS

used them to build their own houses(people were superstitious about usingchurch materials for domesticconsumption), while the second cursewas a result of the 1898 execution ofthe town’s last Augustinian parish priestFr. Juan Tarrero (1892-98) by agroup of katipunero revolutionariesunder Gen. Maximino Hizon, bypublic hanging in the church square.

[Based on an interview with a Mexicoold-timer and 99 year-old, Sñra. MercadoVda. De Lising, lone surviving descendantof Don Monico Mercado, interview,Masangsang,Parian, Mexico, Pampanga,Dec. 27, 2003] (F. Musni)

Bricks marked E.I. (Fray Esteban Ibeas) found inMexico households; damaged Mexico churchnever rebuilt to its original

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1726 Fr. Honorato de Villanamed minister to Santa Ritaalone, separate from Porac.1728 Santa Rita aggregatedto its former matrix, Porac, atdiscretion of Prior Provincial.1734 September 31: TheProvincial Council allows theprior of Porac to use cash fromannual rent to build church.1735 The Province ofPampanga divided from

Pangasinan at the request ofDominican Fathers during theAugustinian Council of October31.1746 Bacolor begins tofunction as the capital of theprovince.1753 King Ferdinand VIorders viceroys, governors,archbishops and bishops torelieve the religious from theirparishes and hand these over tothe secular clergy of the country.

1754 February 04: The Kingorders the religious to continueworking and observe the statusquo ante. San Fernando isfounded under the advocation ofOur Lady of the Assumption.1756 Santa Ana is made anindependent parish.1762 British Invasion ofManila (1762-1764)September 23: Admiral SamuelCornish and General WilliamDraper, and a 13-ship British fleet

land on Malate Beach, and seizechurch and convent there.October 05: Simon de Andawithdraws to Bulacan, and laterto Pampanga, and rallies theseprovinces against the British; hegains great Augustiniansupport.November 03: The Britishsack San Agustin Monasteryand carted off treasures andbooks.Decemer 25: During

When thePhilippine Revolutionbroke out in 1898,the Augustinian friarsassigned to variousPampanga townsrendezvoused inMacabebe alongwith Spanish soldiersand their families.The attackingAguinaldo forceswere delayed by theloyal Macabebes asthe Spaniardsscampered on everyavailable boat on theriver, en route to theirships in Manila Bay.The friars’ boat,however, was blownoff course by astorm, and beachedin Bulacan, wherethey were arrestedby revolutionaries.The friar-prisoners,kept hostage byA g u i n a l d o ’ sRevolutionary Army,were hauled off fromtown to town across Luzon Island, torturedand publicly displayed as war booty. Whenthe pursuing American troops had anencounter with their captors in the Cordillerahighlands, the Augustinian prisoners escapedand took a boat to safety in their convent inIntramuros. They were:Fray Bernardo Martinez PoracFray Bernabé Giménez BacolorFray Ramón Zorilla FloridablancaFray Vicente Ruiz San SimonFray Galo Ma. de la Calle San LuisFray Pedro Ubierna MagalangFray Fernando Vázquez ArayatFray Vicente Martinez Santa AnaFray Faustino Diez MinalinFray Fernando Garcia MacabebeFray Toribio Fanjúl Apalit

[List lifted from Fr. Ulpiano Herrero’s listin his 1900 Nuestra Prision ] (F. Musni)

Canitang pepagobran da que qng dalanqng balean Hagonoy, ding aliua caringmacaquit quecami malulunus la’t manangis;at ding aliua, nung lalabas cami siping ningbale rang mamacut gabun qng calapayan,papasiag da quecami ing e mu nanu rang

Ing Macuyad a PamagsalitaDiquil qng Bie nang Delananat Pangatimaua ning Metunga Mebijag

lungcut at sucal lub, palmuran dengmacatacut ing papasaquit quecami (tau yaPaombong ing minutus qng pamagobraming caibat na na queng libsan qnganggang cayatinan mi) at qng lijimpainuman da queng café, at dirinan da

Excerpts from a letter written by Spanish friar-prisoner Fr. Fernando Garcia, OSA to hisKapampangan parishioners after escaping fromGen. Aguinaldo’s Army in 1899

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Midnight Mass on hristmas Eve,Chinese refugees in Guagua(then considered a parian orChinese ghetto), suspected ofhatching a plot to kill GovernorGeneral Simon de Anda, arearrested. Arts and theologystudents from the Estudio deManila are transferred toconvent of Lubao to continuestudies under supervision of Fr.Diego Noguerol.1768 Expulsion of

Augustinians from theirPampanga parishes1771 April 20: The conventof San Simon accepted in ameeting of the Council fathers.1773 Total secularization.Governor General Simon de Andaexpels the Augustinians fromtheir Pampanga parishes, andconfiscates their propertiesDecember 28: King Carlos III,through a royal cedula,

disapproves Anda’s method ofremoving friars.1774 April 25: FrayAmbrosio de San Agustin namedprior of San Luis, which isconsidered the date ofacceptance of this parish. CarlosIII orders restoration ofAugustinians.August 05, November 08:Carlos III orders secularization ofmissionary parishes “as they fallvacant.”

November 09: The Kingfurther orders restoration ofgoods taken from them throughanother cedula,also declaresfriars are free to retain twoparishes of their choice; theAugustinians choose Mexicoand Santa Ana.1810 Augustinians disposeof all their Pampanga parishes,except Apalit.1830 Augustinians decide ina meeting to accept the town

queng mamun, tinape, cigarillos, at aliua pa.Ding aliua padala lang imalan quecamiquetang bale tutucnangan mi. Ding aliuanaman salapi pa’t miayaliuang pagcabie ingbabie ra. At ding aliuang masican a lub atmangayap a babay pipianda’t pirinsan aalang bayad ing quequeng pacacalulungimalan.

(When they made us work on the roadin Hagonoy town, some of those who sawus pitied us and wept; others who saw uspass in front of their houses hauling dirt,expressed their great sadness andindignation, and cursed the person whocaused our suffering (the one who orderedus to work after divesting us of all ourpossessions was a native of Paombong), andsecretly gave us coffee to drink, as well asbread, cigarettes and others. Some hadclothes sent to the house where we stayed.And others gave us money and all forms ofsustenance. There were the more daringones and truly kind who washed ourmiserable clothes for free.)

That the Augustinians were reverenced and loved by the Pampangos could be seen inthe letters gathering dust in several archives, mainly the Archdiocesan Archives of Manila(AAM) and the Archives of the Province of the Augustinians of the Philippines (APAF) atValladolid, Spain. These letters were written and signed by the gobernadorcillos, leadersand people of towns of various provinces in the Islands and addressed to the DiocesanBishops, Augustinian Provincials and even to the Governor General, both Spanish andAmerican, before, during and after the Revolution of the Filipinos against Mother Spain.We will cite here only some of those written by Pampangos:

December 3, 1852 Letter of the Gobernadorcillo and Leaders of San Fernandoto His Excellency, the Archbishop of Manila requesting him to intervene before theAugustinian Provincial to reconsider decision to reassign their parish priest Fr. Pedro Medinaas bursar of the Augustinian Monastery in Manila. Reasons given: The friar was busyrepairing their church, decorating it with new statues, silver candle-stands, constructing amarble altar for the baptistery, etc.; the cost of these projects was being defrayed throughdonations of well-to-do families; Fr. Medina was a “true and worthy Pastor of rare qualities,virtue and fatherly zeal that from the moment he took charge of this ministry, has alwaysshown to the public and especially to us his beloved sons.” Among the 26 signatories:Antonio Froilan Dizon, Manuel Pasion Henson, Julian Pegson, Cirilo de Miranda.(AAM, I-A-1, folder 5, letter 73) Apparently, the Augustinian Provincial granted the

townspeople’s request. On February 5, 1869, or 16 years later, the people of San Fernandoonce again sent a letter to the Metropolitan of Manila requesting that their now aged

and venerable parish priest, Fr. Medina, still remain as their pastor, sincehe had caused them no problem but had in fact always been

the consolation of all, working tirelessly for the spiritual andmaterial welfare of the people. (AAM, I-A-1, folder 6, letter

81) This time, Fr. Medina left for Spain to his newappointment.

January 7, 1877 Letter of theGobernadorcillo and Leaders of Lubao to the

Augustinian Provincial requesting him topermanently appoint the acting parish priest Fr.

Urbano Bedoya, who replaced Fr. Juan Venawho had resigned. Reasons given: “The

healthy seeds planted in the faithful bytheformer, sprouted fruitfully through the

impulse directed with all ability by thelatter, as those wandering about

without direction stopped in

“We all like, respectand idolize him…”

By Fr. Policarpo Hernandez, OSA

In countless letters, Kapampanganswrote about their true feelings towardsthe Augustinian friars

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of Culiat (Angeles) under theadvocation of Los Angeles dela Guardia, or AngelesCustodios.1839 Santa Rita made anindependent parish from Poracwith the appointmentof Fr. Francisco Royo as pastor.1843 Fray Vicente Andresarrives in Angeles, to take overits secular priest.1848 Augustinian-foundedparishes increase, from 18 to

22, 11 of which stillheld by the Augustinians.1858 September 22:Magalang, together with othertowns in Tarlac, devastated by aflood that made it look like a lake.As a result, the town istransferred, for the third time, toits present site.1867 Floridablanca (formerlyCalumpaui) declared anindependent town andaccepted as a parish, in an

Augustinian meeting.1877 February 04:Minalin established as a townwith the barrios of Bebe, Caingin,and Nuigin.1879 January:Floridablanca formallyinaugurated an independenttown, 12 years after it relocated.

1880 Major earthquakedestroys Mexico church andcauses damage to those of

Macabebe and Bacolor.1881 September 11: Inresponse to a request onAugust 06, 1852, an order fromMadrid transfers the capital ofPampanga province fromBacolor to San Fernando. Thetransfer took effect much later,on August 15, 1904 by virtueof Act. No 1204, issued at theinstance of Macario Arnedo.1894 January 13: SanMiguel Masantol (Masantol)

their lost course upon observing the gentle, generous tact and full ofkindness of the latter.” 79 signatories. (APAF, 375/3)

December 11, 1897 Letter of the Principales and Peopleof Angeles to the Augustinian Provincial requesting him not totransfer their parish priest Fr. Rufino Santos, especially in thoseuncertain times of the Revolution. Reasons given: they loved andidolized this “kind parish priest, a good father, the best adviser andassiduous protector. To him, Fr. Provincial… we owe our peace inthese (critical) times. His kind and at the same time strong character…isthe reason not a single person in this town had ever made commoncause with the insurgents. They put a price on his head as they knewthat, thanks to him, no matter how they tried, not one of the townjoined them in those tragic events.” Signatories included: ClementeGueco, Numeriano de Ocampo, Mariano Vicente Henson,Catalino Mercado, Mariano Alesna?, GalicianoValdes, JuanNepomuceno, Lucio Dizon. (APAF, 375/3)

February 6, 1898 Letter of the People of Floridablancato His Excellency and Illustrious Archbishop requesting himto permanently assign parish priest Fr. Pedro Diez Ubierna.Reasons given: “During the ill-fated days of such disastrousrevolution, cause of much misery in the loyal towns…our Rev. ParishPriest…protected us, who for our well-being, like a providence, arrivedon time to be our venerable Pastor. With his affable treatment and

talent, knew how to inculcate in the hearts of all his faithful thehumility and true obedience to the Divine Laws, strengthening uswith the Word of the Gospel and good example, which he soeloquently knows how to transmit in the local language.” Amongthe over 40 signatories: Cecilio Avenida, Quintin Romero,Gregorio Velasco, Pedro Lagsima?, Jeronimo Denis,Celestino Beltran?, Robert Toledo. (AAM, I-A-1, folder 5, letter12)

April 23, 1898 Letter of Government Officials andPrincipales of San Luis to His Excellency the Archbishop andthe Very Rev. Father Provincial of the Augustinian Orderrequesting them to allow Fr. Galo de la Calle to return to hisparish after Augustinian priests moved from remote parishes to towncenters, to escape threats of assassinations, abduction, robbery,etc. Reasons given: “He has harmed no one, he has wronged noone; on the contrary, all like and respect him; all idolize him becauseeveryone has received from him invaluable benefits, be they spiritualor temporal. And we solemnly promise and swear to defend himagainst danger from any person.” Among the 31 signatories:Francisco Mananquil, municipal captain; Vicente Aguilar, justiceof the peace; Francisco Tiangco, Juliano Bartolome, JuanCarlos, Gil Franco. (APAF, 375/2)

By Fray Francisco D. Musni

Surviving the RevolutionAUGUSTINIANSOUTLASTEDSPAIN IN THEPHILIPPINES

When the PhilippineRevolution broke out in 1896,11 Augustinian parish priestsin Pampanga were arrested byGen. Aguinaldo’s soldiersand subjected them to atorturous 18-month trekaround Luzon Island. Severalchurches were burned,including those in SanFernando, Macabebe andSan Simon. A number offriars were also executed.While many Augustiniansreturned to Spain after therevolution, some opted to stayand retire in the Convento de

(Next page)

Gen. Antonio Luna’s revolutionary forces burned San Fernando church (altered picture)

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made an independent parish byvirtue of a civil decree.1897 Restoration of Bacolorchurch completed by Fr. AntonioBravo.1898 May 05: The churchand convent of San Simonburned by the revolutionaries.1899 May 05: Soldiersunder General Antonio Lunaburn the San Fernando churchand convent.

1900 Release of 11 friar-prisoners in Lepanto, MountainProvince.1902 Local epidemicoutbreak in Pampanga1925 Chapter indicateswillingness to respond to requestfor Augustinians to be assignedto parishes in Pampanga.1926 Lubao parish turnedover to the Archbishop of Manila.1939 Santo Tomas parish

ceded to the Archbishop ofManila.1941 December 08:Japanese war planes make asurprise bomb attack on PearlHarbor in Hawaii, igniting WorldWar II.1942 Minalin turned over toMsgr. Michael O’ Doherty,Archbishop of Manila. April 25:The Japanese kill Fray PabloGomez, OSA, 37-year-oldassistant parish priest of Porac

for being suspected acommunist.1945 February 19: Some14 Augustinians killed in Manila,including Fray EmeterioPinedo—all former missionariesto Pampanga. Floridablancachurch destroyed during theshelling.March 01: Fray FranciscoMozo dies as belfry collapsesfrom impact of bombing1948 Pampanga becomes

San Agustin in Intramuros, whileothers requested to return toPampanga to continue assistingtheir former parishes, even in theface of some anti-clericalsentiment and choleraoutbreaks.

At the start of the 1900s,three Augustinians wereadministering Lubao andFloridablanca, two inSasmuan and one in Betis.About 40 stayed in Intramuros;some were assigned ascompañero or assistants tonative parish priests, such asFray Galo de la Calle, who diedin Lubao in 1902. In 1925, apolicy was adopted to sendreligious to towns that asked forthem. Thus, the parish of SantoTomas was given anAugustinian priest, followed byMinalin and Porac.

It seemed that Augustinianswere about to reclaimmuch of Pampangabut World War IIhappened, duringwhich a great numberof friars wereimprisoned or killed,and churches andconvents bombed.While the San AgustinChurch in Intramuroswas the only churchspared in the carpetbombing of Manila,the Augustinianconvent suffered themost number offatalities.

After theDiocese of SanFernando was createdin 1948, a few moreparishes in Pampangacontinued to beadministered byAugustinians. In

1949, Betis finally ceded to thediocese, followed by Sasmuanin 1955 and Porac in 1957(Lubao had been ceded to theLocal Ordinary earlier in 1926due to the il lness of itsAugustinian prior, and SantoTomas, too, in 1939).Floridablanca was the last tobe ceded to the diocese in 1960,making Fr. Lucinio Valles thelast Augustinian official lyassigned to Pampanga.

The creation of the diocesealso coincided with theinstruction of the Reverend PriorGeneral of the Augustinian Order,Rev. Fr. Engelbert Eberhard,OSA, to relinquish al lAugustinian parishes in theislands so they could concentrateon their missions in China, whichsuffered setbacks after theChinese Communist Revolutionin 1949.

Macabebe church in ruins after theRevolution; this was the hometown of thepro-Spanish Macabebe soldiers

The rapport that the Augustinian missionaries established withthe Pampango people endured after the Revolution against Spain.This was due to the friars’ dedication for the spiritual and materialwelfare of the people of Pampanga. They were, too, theirdefenders against the misdeeds of governors and leaders, to suchan extent that some Augustinians had to be transferred to otherplaces for defending the rights of their faithful. One of those whosuffered persecution was the talented Fray Francisco de laEncina. He arrived in the Islands in 1739, and after completinghis ecclesiastical studies and learning Pampango, Tagalog andCebuano languages in San Agustin of Manila, where all the newmissionaries had to study them before being assigned to anypastoral work, he was appointed parish priest of Santor (1745-47), Gapan (1747-48), Arayat (1848-50) and Apalit (1750-52).In this last year, 1752, to avoid major complications with the civilauthority, Fr. Encinas was removed from Pampanga upon the ordersof Baltasar Sanchez Cuenca, governor of the province. ThePampangos, oppressed by the fiscal taxes imposed by theambitious governor, had complained to their parish priest who inturn called the attention of the governor, who did not stop untilFr. Encinas was out of the province. This is the reason Fr. Encinaswas assigned to distant Argao (Cebu) in 1756-59, dying later inOpon (Cebu) in 1760.

(Isacio Rodriguez, Historia de la Provncia Agustiniana del Smo.Nombre de Jesus de Filipinas. III. Manila, 1967, pp. 134-135)

DEFENDINGBy Fr. Policarpo Hernandez,OSATHE OPPRESSED

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independent of the Archdioceseof Manila as Vatican createsnew Diocese of San Fernando;Msgr. Cesar Ma. Guerrero ofManila is first Bishop of SanFernando1949 Betis ceded to the newDiocese1955 Sesmóan conveyed tothe new Diocese1956 Porac reverted to thenew Diocese

1960 Floridablanca, the lastAugustinian parish in Pampanga,is reverted to the new Diocese,officially ending Augustinianpresence in Pampanga.

REFERENCES USED IN THIS TIMELINEAND IN OTHER ARTICLES:

BooksAchutegui, History of the Church in thePhilippinesAgoncillo, Teodoro. The History of theFilipino People. Quezon City: NationalBookstore, 1990.Bazaco, Evergisto OP, History ofEducation in the Philippines, Manila:

UST Press, 1953Calle, Blas Sierra de la, OSA.Illustracion Fil ipina 1859-1860.Valladolid: Museo Oriental, 2003Castro, Agustin. Ma.,OSA. MisionerosAgustinos en El Extremo Oriente, 1565-1769 (or Ossario Venerable), Madrid1954 (ed. Merino).Catalogus Religiosorum ProivnviarumHispanae Ordinis Eremitarum S.Augustini. Bilbao: Typis Th. Olejua.,1940Comyn, Tomas de. Estado de las IslasFilipinas en 1810. Madrid: 1820Dizon, Lino L. An Epistle of a Friar-Prisoner 1898-1900. Angeles City: HAUPress, 2001.Galende, Pedro, OSA. San Agustin: Art

and History 1571-2000. Hongkong:Solutions, 2000._______________. San Agustin NobleStone Shrine. Pasay City: G.A. FormosoPublishing, 1989Garcia, Fernando, OSA. IngPangatimaua ning Metung a Mebijag.Manila: Imprenta de Colegio de SantoTomas: 1900 .Hartmann, Arnulf, OSA. TheAugustinians in Seventeenth CenturyJapan. Ontario: Augustinian HistoricalInstitute, 1965.Henson, Mariano. The Province ofPampanga and its Towns. Manila:Villanueva Book Store, 1955Hernandez, Policarpo, OSA. TheAugustinians in the Philippines. Makati:

When the Americans took over the Government of thePhilippines, a number of parishes asked for the return of theAugustinians, either as parish priests or as assistants to Filipinoparish priests. As early as 1902 several Augustinians hadvolunteered to return to Pampanga, bravely facing a few butvociferous anti-friar elements, in order to cope with the needs oftheir former parishioners during a cholera outreak. Fr. GaloMa. De la Calle wrote the Archbishop that the whole town ofLubao “without exception of class and rank,” wanted three things,first, for him to stay; second, for another priest, Fr. AgustinMuñoz to return; and third, for yet another priest, Fr. Jose R.de Prada to assist. (APAF, 375/3) In Macabebe, theparishioners, with the consent of their Filipino parish priest Dn.Juan Guevarra, wrote the Vicar Forane to allow the “immediatereturn” of one or two assistant priests “who know the Pampangolanguage for the proper administration of the Holy Sacraments.”They added in the letter that they had pleaded with their Filipinoparish priest to intercede for them but “nothing has been doneand we do not know why.” (APAF, 375/3) In Sesmoan, thetownspeople begged for the return of Fr. Luciano Ylla “alreadyfor three times… and this is the fourth time.” (AAM, I-A-1, folder2, letter 12) When Fr. Ylla did return, it was the turn of the womenof Sesmoan to request the return of another Augustinian, Fr.Ramon Zorilla as Fr. Ylla “cannot take care all by himself.” (APAF,375/2) Another Augustinian who did return was Fr. FernandoGarcia, a former prisoner of war, who knew “the havoc the cholerawas causing in the town (Macabebe)… he came with anothercompanion…showing once more in such a sorrowful occasion hischarity and zeal for the salvation of the souls of those who werehis beloved subjects.” (APAF, 375/2) The people, the simplepeople, no doubt, knew best about their Pastors. However, mostof their requests were not granted mainly because most of theAugustinians had left the Philippines to continue their apostolateelsewhere; still, the Kapampangans did not stop until somereligious was sent to take care of them.

… AND NURSINGEPIDEMIC VICTIMS

One bigproblem of theSpanish colonialgovernment in the1700s was how toirrigate the dry, idlelands of UpperPampanga. FrayMartin de Zuñigawrote in hisEstadismo that thePampanga alcalde mayor(provincial governor) convincedthe secular priests of the provinceto agree to his idea of “openingup” the Rio Grande (PampangaRiver) in Arayat to provide analternate route as well as to leadwater to the then uncultivatedlands of the northern towns. Oneinfluential Spaniard, theAugustinian Provincial (1782-86),Fray Pedro Martinez, whohappened to be also an ex-parishpriest of Candaba (1767-69), shotdown the proposal, arguing thatthe resulting harvests would notbe worth the investment, and thatit would wreak havoc on the land.A disappointed Zuñiga wrote, “Ialways venerated Father Martinezas a man well versed in theology,canon law and morals…. I havenever talked to him without

TWOFRIARSFIGHTOVERRIVER

learning somethingnew, but he knewnothing abouthydraulics andhydrostatics, nor didhe understand theseterms and with hisopinion on a matterthat he had nounderstanding of, hedeprived Pampanga

of many benefits.” In 1784, aftera visit of the Governor-General toPampanga, the governmentinstalled wind-powered pumps onthe banks of the river. The hotwind and the parched land,however, made the waterevaporate as soon as it flowedinto the fields, and anotherexperiment was discarded.Father Martinez wrote bitterly,“Only the less useful and difficultprojects (are) adopted… while thenatural and simple ones whichultimately come out well areignored. This happens becausethe high officials listen only to theless experienced persons andbecause more attention is paid toambitious display rather thanutility.” (F. Musni)

Source: “Paranum 1800s: Windmillsin Pampanga” by Fray Francisco D. Musni,Monasterio de San Agustin, 12 March 2004.

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Colegio de San Agustin, 1998.Herrero y Sampedro, Ulpiano, OP.Nuestra Prision en Poder delosRevolucionarios Filipinos. Manila:Imprenta del Colegio de Santo Tomas,1900Jimenez, Manuel, OSA. MártiresAgustinos del Japon. Valladolid:Imprenta de D. Juan de la Cuesta,1867.Joaquin, Nick. Culture and History.Occasional notes on the process ofPhilippine Becoming Quezon City: SolaCorporation, 1989.Jorde, Elviro Perez, OSA. CatalogoBiobligrafico de los ReligiososAgustinos de la Provincia delSantissimo Nombre de Jesus de lasIslas Filipinas desde de su fundacion

hasta nuestros dias. Manila:Establicimiento del Colegio de SantoTomas, 1901.Jose, Regalado Trota. Simbahan ChurchArchitecture in Colonial Philippines1565-1898. Makati: Ayala Museum.1991.Larkin, John A. The Pampangans.Quezon City:New Day PublishingHouse.,1993.Mallat de Bassilan, Jean Baptiste. ThePhil ippines. History, Geography,Customs, Agriculture, Industry andCommerce. Transl. By Pura Santillan-Castrence. Manila: National HistoricalInstitute, 1983.Martinez, Bernardo, OSA. ApuntesHistoricos de la Provincia Agustiniana

del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus deFilipinas. Madrid, 1843.Martinez de Zuñiga, Joaquin, OSA.Status of the Philippines in the 1800.[Madrid: 1803.] transl. Vicente delCarmen. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild,1973.Merino, Manuel, OSA. AgustiniosEvangelizadores de Filipinas 1565 –1965. Madrid: Ediciones ArchivoAgustiniano, 1965.Missiones en El Extremo Oriente,XXXIIICongreso Eucharistico Internacional.Manila: Cacho Hermanos, 1937Nomenclator de los Religiososagustinos de la Provincia del SantissimoNombre de Jesus de Filipinas. Febrerode 1917 Madrid: Imprenta de GabrielLópez del Horno, 1917.

Phelan, John Leddy. Hispanization ofthe Philippines Spanish Aims and FaithResponses 1565-1700. Madison: TheUniversity of Wisconsin Press, 1959.Prada, Jose Rodriguez de, OSA.Memorias de un Prisonero. Madrid:Imprenta de la Viuda é Hija de GómezFuentenebro, 1901.Rizal, Jose. Noli Me Tangere, NovelaTagala. Manila: Jose Rizal NationalCentennial Commission., 1965.Rodriguez, Isacio, OSA. Historia de laProvincia del Santissimo Nombre deJesus de Filipinas. 17 vols. Manila andValladolid: 1965-1984.________________. The AugustinianMonatery of Intramuros. Trans. ByPedro G. Galende, OSA Makati, Rizal:Colegio San Agustin, 1976

Some unforgettable Augustinianswho served in Pampanga

Blessed Fray Pedro de Zuñiga was parishpriest of Sasmuan until 1618; martyred inNagazaki in 1622; the Vatican declared himBlessed in 1867

Fray Esteban Ibeas was parish priest ofMacabebe (1870), Candaba (1878) andMexico (1881-1892); he commissionedpainting of San Agustin church interior

Fray Fernando Garcia became a friarprisoner during the Revolution; returned asparish priest of Macabebe and Betis; wasaprolific writer and homilist in Kapampangan

Fray Alvaro Benavente, OSAArrived in 1668, served as secretary and

definitor (representative to the Chapter, ameeting of friars) of the Province, left forthe China missions in 1680. He becameBishop of Xiangshi, China where he remaineduntil his death on March 20, 1709.

(Blessed) Fray Pedro de Zuñiga,OSA

Born and bred and professed in the cityof Seville; left for the Philippines in 1609,assigned to Pampanga as prior of Sexmoan(Sasmuan) until 1618; sailed for Japan in1620, where he worked zealously topropagate the faith; was imprisoned, torturedand finally martyred in Nagasaki on August19, 1622; in1867, the Vatican elevated him

to the rank of Beato (Blessed), Martyr ofChrist

Fray Diego Bergaño, OSABorn 1695 in Cervera de Pisuerga

(Palencia), arrived in the Philippines in 1718;served as minister in Mexico, Pampanga in1725 and Bacolor in 1731 and again in 1747,where he mastered the Pampango languageand wrote grammars and dictionaries,including the classic Vocabulario en la LenguaPampanga en Romance (1732). He died inBacolor on January 09, 1747.

Fray Esteban Ibeas, OSAArrived in the Philippines in 1864, a year

after his priestly ordination, named VicarProvincial and Visitor to the convents inPampanga and Tarlac and parish priest of

Macabebe in 1870, Candaba in 1878(where he built the grandiose church dome),and, his longest tour of duty, in Mexico(1881-1892), where he replaced the quake-damaged church with a provisional place ofworship; constructed large camarines (barns,store rooms) where brick was mould andfired; commissioned the painting of thefamous interiors of San Agustin Church inManila, by Italian painters Alberoni andDibela; died in Manila in1893, due to cancerof the tongue.

Fray Fernando Garcia, OSACame to the Philippines in 1875, worked

as pastor in Ilocos until 1889 when hereturned to Spain to serve as Rector of theAugustinian College at La Vid, and reassigned

By Fray Francisco D. Musni

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San Agustin, Gaspar de, OSA.Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas.(1565-1615). Luis Antonio Mañeru.Manila: San Agustin Museum, 1998. The Observer Yearbook 1952.Floridablanca , Pampanga: 1952.Vela, P. Gregorio de Santiago, OSA.Ensayo de Una Biblioteca Ibero.American dela Orden San Agustin.Mardid: El Escorial. 1913-1931. 7vols.Wim Denslagen, ArchitecturalRestoration in Western Europe:Controversy andContinuity.Amseterdam: Architecturaand Natura press, 1994.Zaide, Gregorio. History of thePhilippines;Journals and MagazinesHernandez, Policarpo, OSA. The

Augustinians and the Progress ofPhilippine Agriculture in SEARCH: CSAResearch Journal Second Semester1995-1996 Vol. No. . Makati: Colegiode San Agustin, 1998.Archivo AgustinianoUnpublished MaterialsActasGalende, Pedro, OSA. [Notes andtranscription] Fr. Juan Albarran’sMetodo;Libro de Gobierno de Provincia;Libro de VicariaPerez, Eduardo, OSA. Notes on theHistory of the Province of the HolyName of Jesus of the Philippines,Manila: 2002Archives

Archdiocesan Archives of Manila,Arzobispado de ManilaArchives of the Augustinian Sisters ofOur Lady of Consolation, Santolan,Pasig.Archivo de Provincia Fil ipinas,Valladolid, ManilaFray Francisco D. Musni

Fray Galo de la Calle was also a prisoner ofthe Revolution; returned to Lubao to assist inthe cholera outbreak; he contracted thedisease himself and died there

Fray Guillermo Masnou was parish priest ofSanto Tomas and Angeles and later, Guaguaand Concepcion; founded the school thatlater became Holy Family Academy

Fr. Santiago Blanco was the last Augustinianin the Kapampangan Region; died in Bambanin 1993; he had opted to stay when theAugustinians left Pampanga

to El Escorial as spiritual director;came backto the Islands in 1896, and held prisoner bythe Katipuneros, with other friars during theRevolution; wrote an account of his 18-monthordeal, Ing Pangatimaua ning Metung aMebijag, published in 1901; had very goodcommand of the Pampango language, havingwritten several books in the vernacular; laterserved as parish priest of several Pampangoparishes, most notably Macabebe; namedPrior of the Augustinian Monastery in Manilain 1913. After two years, he resigned fromhis post as prior and returned to Pampangaas párroco of Betis. Several accounts in theArchivo Agustiniano in the 1920s show hewas a favorite guest homilist in town fiestasin Pampanga; died in 1924; buried in theside chapel of San Nicolas in San Agustin,Manila.

Fray Francisco Coronel, OSACame to the Philippines in 1606, assigned

to parochial mission in Mexico, Pampangauntil 1611; later assigned to Lubao (1613),Bacolor (1617, 1629) and Macabebe

(1620, 1626); became an effective preacherand writer in Pampango; wrote severalsermons and booklets in this language,among them his Arte y Vocabulario enPampango (Macabebe: 1621) and hisCatecismo y Doctrina cristiana de la lenguaPampanga (Lubao, 1621); appointedDefinitor twice, and Visitador and Prior ofGuadalupe in 1619; died in Bacolor in 1630.

Fray Juan Tarrero, OSAJoined mission to the Philippines in 1871;

from 1872 until his death, he was assignedto several stations in Pampanga: Sto.Tomas (1872), Arayat (1877) and Mexico(1892-1898). On May 30, 1898, he sent amessenger with a letter informing GeneralMonet in San Fernando that therevolutionaries were planning to attackMexico town. Fr. Tarrero himself was on hisway to San Fernando when a group ofkatipuneros stopped him in BarrioLagundi; later, a group of Masonickatipuneros led by Gen. Maximo Tizon (someaccounts say Gen. Maximino Hizon) asked

him to swear allegiance to and bless the flagof their association; Fr. Tarrero refused; Gen.Tizon sentenced him to death by publicexecution. However, Gen. Tizon’s soldiers,who came from Mexico town, refused to carryout his order of execution; he turned to hissoldiers from Arayat which Fr. Terrero hadalso served; they, too, refused. Finally, thesoldiers from Magalang volunteered. Theyshot the Augustinian priest in the townsquare of Mexico, in full view of thetownspeople.

Fray Galo de la Calle, OSAMade his solemn profession at Valladolid

in 1871, ordained priest in Manila in 1877,two years after his arrival; ministered inPampanga until he was held prisoner bykatipuneros in 1898, together with otherfriars; after his release, stayed briefly at SanAgustin, Manila, volunteering to help victimsof cholera outbreak in Lubao in 1902; despitehis zealous work, was subjected to calumnyand humiliation by a small group ofkatipunero veterans who harbored anti-friar

sentiments; died a victim ofcholera in Lubao in 1902.

Fray GuillermoMasnou, OSA

Born Nicolas GomezMasnou in Valladolid , arrivedin Manila in 1853, and wasfirst assigned parish priest ofSanto Tomas town; latertransferred to Angeles wherehe built the first church, aconvent, a cemetery and aschool; wrote the prologue tothe de luxe edition of Fr.Manuel Blanco ’s Flora

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Filipinas in 1876; He masteredthe language and wrote severalworks in Pampango likeCapabaluan ampong usuc amatampa caring talasaua,t ibpaning pibalebale ingguil qñgicacayap ding caladuara amponing caring catubalera. (Manila,Imprenta de Ramirez y Girauder,1876); Sermones en dialectopampango (Manila:1876);namedRector of the Augustinian Colegiode Sta. Maria de la Vid in Spainin 1877 but resigned due tohealth reasons; returned to thePhilippines in 1888 and wasassigned to Guagua, and laterto Concepcion; died at SanPablo Convent (San Agustin)Manila in 1895.

Fray Manuel Camañes,OSA

Left for Manila in 1864;ordained priest in 1868 andassigned to Betis, which heserved for 30 years (1868-1898);repaired church and convent,built a school, a cemetery, and apublic artesian well in the plaza,the first of its kind in the country;wrote Aral caring taungmamalayan (Imprenta delAmigos del Pais, Manila 1885),Pamanalo qñg Ssmo.Sacramento at cang Mariacasantusantusan, a picatsanangS. Alfonso Maria de Ligorio(Guadalupe, 1886); Pamagmulaqñg banal á pamibiebie(Tambobong: Pequeña imprentadel aislo de Huerfanos deNuestra Señora de laConsolacion, Tambobong 1891);and Ing Bulan ning MarzongMacadaun qñg Patriarca S. Jose(Malabon, 1898). Like Fray Galode la Calle, he also offered to

Fr. Lucinio Valles was the lastAugustinian officialy assigned toPampanga (Floridablanca ceded todiocese in 1960); founded St.Augustine Academy in 1951

Fr. Daniel Castrillo was Poracparish priest who founded St.Catherine Academy in 1945

help during the cholera outbreakin Pampanga in 1902, where hecontinued his work; died onChristmas day, 1919, in Manila.

Fray Phelippe Tallada,OSA

Fray Tallada, author of Vidade San Nicolas de Tolentino, thefirst Capampangan bookpublished (1614), came fromEstepa (Sevilla), where he alsomade his profession. He joinedthe Philippine mission in 1604,and was assigned to severalPampanga parishes: Candaba(1605); Guagua (1607);Macabebe (1613, 1638); andLubao (1614). He was madedefinitor in 1617, and laterComisario-Procurador both inRome and Madrid. Upon hisreturn to the Philippines, he wasassigned in Porac (1626); Betis(1629, 1633, 1641); Candaba(1630, 1635); and Bacolor(1639). He died in Betis onSeptember 01, 1645.

Santiago BlancoApung Tiago, as the

Pampangos fondly called him,was ordained in 1928 andassigned to various towns inPampanga, including SantoTomas and Betis. Forsentimental reasons herequested to be left behind whenthe Augustinians gave up theirlast parish in Pampanga; in 1963,he applied to become a secularpriest. The Holy See granted hisrequest, and he moved to thenewly created Diocese of Tarlac,became an honorary Monsignorand an Episcopal Vicar in thediocese with residence inBamban until his death in 1993.

Kapampangans have remained the most demonstrative intheir pious devotion among all ethnic groups. Parishes still holddaily Masses and on Sundays as many as ten Masses, the churchfilled to capacity in each Mass. Christmas, Holy Week and saints’feast days are observed with well attended rituals. In sometowns the priest still exhibits the patron saint’s reliquario fordevotees to venerate, usually with the saint’s gozo sung by thecongregation. In Pampanga, having a child become a priest or anun is considered a blessing to the family. Rightly or wrongly,Kapampangans also treat their pari (parish priest) as ari (king).

In every Pampango’s home is a place for prayer, the altaror stamp where an image of the town’s or family’s patron saint isenshrined, along with that of the Sagrada Familia – a must forevery home. At dusk, the family prays the Angelus together infront of the altar. Most of the old folks know several Spanish andLatin prayers even if they did not attend formal schooling. Prayerslike the rosario, trisagio (a special rosary for the departed), andnovenarios are popular.

For Sunday Mass, women still wear their special habitu(uniform/habit) and a escapulario (scapular) which identified themas devotees of some special advocation, depending on the colorof the habit and cordon (cord) or sintas (cincture): yellow andgreen for devotees of Saint Joseph, violet for the apostolados deoracion, brown for St. Anthony of Padua, etc.

Aside from circumcision, boys become munecillos (a corruptionof the Spanish monaguillo, altar servers.) as a rite of passage.Whole families or clans sponsor scholarships of seminarians(modern-day capellanias) or have one of their own boys enterthe seminary. Panatas (acts of penitence) are passed on fromfathers to sons, like flagellation, or from mothers to daughters,like setting up a pabasa and dressing up the santo.

The fraile and the Castila helped form the fe y urbanidad(faith and good manners) of the Pampango, which made himconscious of deportment as more valuable than any familyheirloom. Parents are sensitive to criticisms about their childrenbeing alang modo or alang marine (ill-mannered).

Protestants and serious Catholics frown on this emphasis onappearances, on religiosity instead of spirituality, arguing thatpacked churches do not lessen criminality and that too manyrituals prevent people from deepening their faith. Still, this isthe way the Augustinians taught Kapampangans to worship God,and Kapampangans so far are not complaining. (F. Musni)

Pious, faithfuland shallowCommon folk mistake religiosity for spirituality

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Balen a pari, balen a ari . . .” (Town ofpriests, town of kings . . .) So goes anentrance hymn sung during Mass inPampanga parishes. The extremelyaccommodating attitude of the Pampangostowards priests, especially their own pàrroco,may be traced back to the days of theAugustinians. 18th-century chronicler FrayGaspar de San Agustin wrote of the Pampangofaithful: “They are very good Christians, mostrespectful of their ministers.”

Pampangos have always been known topamper their parish priests to death. A newlyordained priest of lean constitution arrives athis new assignment, in time unconsciouslyputting on weight until his parishioners noticethat: “ catundun yang pari” (bulging nape likea priest’s). Village folks always save and servethe best for Among (a term of endearmentbased on amo, lord or master). In town fiestas,

Ya ing pari, ya ing ari:Why Kapampanganspamper their priests

Ya ing pari, ya ing ari:Why Kapampanganspamper their priestsIt dates back to Augustinian days whenthe friar was the most powerful figurein town

the lechon is not served until the among arrived.And when he does come, there is a mad scrambleto give him the best seat and to sit closest to him.Someone will fan him so he does not break into asweat, another will shoo away the flies and thechildren who want to kiss his hand, and still anotherwill cut up his food and one more will entertainhim with small talk. Among’s presence in any partyups the prestige of that party, and of course hedoes not leave without bringing a bagful of goodiesor pocketing a sealed envelop.

The whole town turns emotional when theirpriest is reassigned to another parish, but thenalso outdo themselves to give his successor awelcome he will not forget. The inevitable daguis

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The Recollects, or theRecoletos as they are popularlyknown, were the fifth religiousgroup to come to the country,arriving in Manila on May 31,1606. The 12-memberdelegation, headed by Fr. Juande San Jeronimo, was still thenbelonging to a basically youngorganization, the Congregationof the Augustinian Recollects. Ithad been formally convened inthe historic chapter of Toledoin 1588 as a consolidation ofthe Monastic Hermits of SaintAugustine of the 13th centuryand of the mendicant orders,with a commitment to

Where the Augustinians , the Dominicans, the Jesuits and the Franciscans didnot go, the Augustinian Recollects went, and that included the headhunters-infested Mabalacat and southern Tarlac

pisamban (literally, church rats) spend practically all their wakinghours in the church not so much to pray as to be around the priest,generally to be at his beck and call, dust the church pews as well asthe priest’s room, gossip about prominent parishioners, help decoratethe altar and prepare for Mass and novena. Conservative churchfolks, called cosiangs or hermanas, usually consider themselves anotch higher than the daguis pisamban.

This is the same worshipful attitude towards friars that Rizal soresented in his novels, but it has endured and now has beentransferred towards native priests. The Augustinian priest did not

THE RECOLETOS’MISSION-FIELDS AND FOOTHOLDSIN PAMPANGA AND TARLAC

By Prof. Lino L. Dizoncontemplative and dedicatedapostolic ministry; and thusdistinct from the other, thecalced—or shod—Augustinians.Often referred to as Discalcedand Barefoot Augustinians, thatfirst missionary group started aPhilippine province which wasnamed Provincia de San Nicolasde Tolentino.

Being late arrivals, theRecollects were not included inthe spiritual apportionment ofthe territories of the Philippinearchipelago to the four principalreligious orders, earlier done byPhilip II. Therefore, they did nothave the option to choose their

mission-fields, accepting whatthe Church, the Other orders,and the State had to offer. Whatthey got were mostly the remoteplaces yet to be evangelized, orthose which the other groupshad discarded, usually forreasons of security and hostiletribes. Nevertheless, theFranciscan chronicler, Fr. JuanFrancisco de San Antonio hadthis to say about them in the1730s:

Even if they were (theBarefoot Augustinians) the lastof the evangelic workers toarrive, their apostolic zealcompetes with that of the first

with, as fruit of their labors, theconversion of the mostuncivilized of the islanders, andthe exemplary lives led by thefriars of this reformed order.

When the Recollectsinaugurated their missionaryactivities on Philippine soil in1607, only a year after theirarrival in the colony, their primalthrust was the Zambales area.Taking advantage of the sea asthe only suitable means oftransport, the initial batch ofthree Recoletos led by Fr.Miguel De la Madre de Dios(the protomartyr), Fr. Pedro deSan Jose and Fray Francisco

have to require Kapampangans to pamper him; they would gladlydo it to him.

This repute of the Kapampangan is so far reaching that even inthe halls of the Augustinian Royal College in Valladolid, several friarprofessors who were assigned to Pampanga swear to the munificenceand graciousness of their Kapampangan flock. There were evensome Augustinian pastors who, forced to retire in Spain, still longedto go back to Pampanga even in their twilight years and expressedtheir wish to die in their beloved province. (F. Musni)

Arrival of Augutinian Recollects in the Philippines (mural by Juan Barba)

The Other Augustinians

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Capas parish church

de Santa Monica led to thefoundation of coastal missionsin Bataan and later in Zambales.It is true that they were not thepioneers in the area; they merelycontinued what the Augustiniansand the Franciscans had begunsince the early days of theSpanish conquistadores. Butwhat the Recollects did was morethan enough to spur, aside fromthe spiritual, the politico-economic development of theterritory as well.

The evangelization of theheartland of the region wasanother matter. For more than acentury, with its ravagingmountains and ‘untamable’natives, this interior, of what wasthen the Zambales-UpperPampanga border, remained ahinterland. Such conditions wereaggravated by the bickering ofthe Recollects and theDominicans over who had theright to administer Zambales, theheight of which occurred in 1679when a Manila court ordered theRecollects to abandon the areain favor of the Dominicans. Asreplacement, the Recollects weregiven the island of Mindoro.Actually, during this conflictbetween the two rel igiousgroups, both civil and churchauthorities were aware that thishinterland in question was yet tobe included in the reduccion ofthe region. This was the reportof the Recollect historian, Fr.Juan de la Concepcion,concerning an event of 1676:

(I)n the year seventy-six thesaid Father Pequero (theDominican procurator-general at

general concerning theconversion of the above-mentioned localities—a disputerelated to the on-goingcontroversy of the two religiousgroups (Dominicans andRecollects) concerning theadministration of Zambales.Their conjuncture in this areacame about with the Recollects’evangelization of Zambales andthe Dominicans’ evangelizationof Pangasinan. The documentprovided an early account of theUpper Pampanga hinterland inthe late 17th century. Moreover,it supplied a rare citation of thepre-Recol lect status of themissions, purporting, thoughwith delayed evangelization,their early existence asrecognized settlements.

Then, in 1712, a little morethan a century after their arrivalin the colony, another courtruling gave Zambales back tothe charge of the Recollects.Governor-General Martin deUrsua, popularly known as theConde de Lizarraga, promptedRecollect authorities to include intheir missionary efforts theCentral Luzon interior,particularly what was thenknown as Alta Pampanga orUpper Pampanga. TheRecollects complied but, takingcue from their earlier futileexperiences among themountain tribes, not withoutmuch reluctance. Following thefootsteps of their protomartyrand his two companions, thesame number treaded on whathad long been terra incognita,this hinterland.

By Prof. Lino L. Dizon

Recoletos’ legaciesin Upper PampangaConversion of the Aetas, mountain trails acrossPinatubo, giant acacia trees, high vocation rates inCapas and Bamban, and villages named Aranguren,Bueno, Dolores and Santa Juliana

Mabalacat parish church

that time) informed thegovernment of these islands thatthe conversion and reduction ofthe Zambals - both the light-complexioned ones and thosewith the kinky hair, on both sidesof the mountains that extendfrom Batan to Pangasinan,especially in the localities ofAglao, Buquil, Alupay, and

Culianan, and many others - hadnot thitherto in charge of any ofthe orders of these islands.3

The famous historian’sreference could have been theletter of the Recollect Provincial,Fr. Jose de la Ssma. Trinidadto the King of Spain in 1676questioning the authority of thethen Dominican procurator-

Jose Aranguren, the Recollect parish priestof Capas (1831) who became Archbishop ofManila (1947)

Absence and the passage of time wearaway the endurance of a memory. This sameprinciple applies to the Recollects in theirformer missions in the provinces of Tarlacand Pampanga. Though it was through thelabors of the missionaries over two centuries

that these areas eventually grew into politico-economic centers, the present inhabitantsof these former missions hardly knowanything about their founding fathers. Thisis quite normal, considering the Recollectshad been gone for almost a century now,

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and also considering the abrupt andunceremonious way they left their missionson account of the Revolution.

But memory is not always completely lost.Bits and pieces of it can still linger, making itpossible to reconstruct fromthem what supposedly hadbeen. The role of theRecollects in shaping theidentity of the presenttowns which used to betheir former missionscannot be denied orunderstated. And that goesfor other towns founded byother religious orders. AsAlfonso Felix once wrote:

Actually the characterof towns in this countryvaries according to themissionary order thatfounded the towns andadministered it throughoutthe centuries.

On the other hand, without vacillatingthe train of thought and the historicalenthusiasm already offered, it will not be asimple task re-identifying the Recollectcharacter in the former missions of Tarlacand Pampanga; especially amidst the bulkof material progress and development thathave already taken over. It is a sad thing,though understandably practical, for thepeople of these places not to have concernedthemselves in preserving mementoes of theirpast. Most of the ecclesiastical edifices -churches, convents, and sacristies - havebeen face-lifted, if not completely renovated,like those of Bamban, Mabalacat,O’Donnell and Capas; making it extremelyhard to review their connections to theformer times, particularly the Spanish colonialperiod. The once mighty church ofMoriones, whose bells used to reverberatearound the forests of Bolso, as an accountwent, is in ruins; a makeshift chapel standswithin its perimeter of tattered boulders toserve the handful of faithful that haveremained. At least three ancient bells couldbe found in Capas and Bamban; foundedin the middle of the 19th century ( oneBamban bell is being attributed to thecraftsmanship of Macario de los Angelesof Quiapo, dated 1834). A surviving bell inCapas was cast in 1876 and dedicated tothe Nuestra Señora del Carmen, and wasmost probably under the direction of Fr.Miguel Garcia del Carmen, the thenmisionero of the pueblo. Most of these bellsare still intact but no longer functional (some,they say, have become victims of thieves andcollectors). Only the old cemetery ofO’Donnell, called municipio (an inkling ofthe former township of the reverted barrio),has been able to preserve some of its colonialstructures of pristine adobe walls and an

unknown mausoleum at the center; but bothare ready to give in to the whim of theenvironment any time.

Consequently, what is left to rememberthem by - documents, write-ups and other

remembrances - have been too inadequatefor historiographical purposes. So much hasindeed been lost, and so many factors toblame: weather conditions, catastrophes,pilferage and human carelessness, and themere passage of time. The resultingconditions would be very hard to convalesce,even with the enthusiasm of the Recollectsand other historically conscious individuals,to redeem what is left of their former

missions: indeed, the vacuum of almost acentury is enough to eradicate whatevercould still be traced from their presence inour midst at one time in our history.

History, however, has a way ofcompensating itself in spite of the lostgrounds and the bygones. Amidst thephysical renovations and thesuccession of modernization, thespirit of the past can still pervade -in the traditions and the spiritualityof the people who have benefitedfrom such historical bond.

Old folks of O’Donnell (Patling)have always regarded “the bigRoman Catholic Church, the acaciatrees around, and the coconut plantswhich cannot be found in the otherbarrios of Capas” as the “token of(the) Spaniards’ stay” in their place.In 1906, in his “Nota de los edificiosparroquiales (Iglesias y Conventos)de los Ministerios...”(an appendix inthe Catalogo), Fr. Sadaba made aninventory of the Recollect church andconvent structures at the outset ofthe Revolution; and, except for Capasand Mabalacat, most of the UpperPampanga missions were included inhis third classification (de tabla otabique pampango desde su base -foundations predominantly of wood/tabique pampango). The Capaschurch was the only one included inthe first category (de mamposteria -predominantly stone materials)though its convent was, like the rest,made of wooden materials; both thechurch and the convent of Mabalacatwere of mixed materials (secondclass). Thus, and considering theformer pueblo’s topography andgeographical location, it was mostlikely that the massive churchstructure referred to by the peopleof O’Donnell was of recent origin,probably during the American period.As one Recollect commented: “(i)twould be difficult to give an overalldescription of Recollect churches astheir constructions were adopted tothe particular condition or situationof the mission territories.”

Yet, the age-worn, gigantic acaciatrees that queue themselves into anavenue of sort towards the church

bespeak of their respectable bout with thecenturies. Also the coconut palms in thebackdrop. Their multitude may make thema phenomenon in O’Donnell; but these arecommon sights in Bohol, Palawan, and theMisamis which have also been formerRecollect ministerios. Far from being theenemy of progress, to paraphrase Fr. Sadaba,the missionary has actually imbued amongthe people the value of honest labor - and

A Spanish-era well (top) and cemetery (above) bothin Patling, Capas. Patling was made a parish in1772 and renamed O’Donnell after the Irish-SpanishCarlos O’Donnell, President of Spain’s Ministeriodel Ultramar who visited in 1861

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which can be most visible in such plantationsand other forms of agriculture. “I hope you’llsend as soon as possible your samples oftrees and plant seeds, with their names andother data, so that they can be planted here...,” wrote Fr. Diego Cera, the famousbamboo organ builder and former misioneroof Mabalacat, to a fellow Recollect in 1825:an exhibit of enthusiasm that might not havebeen rare among the early missionaries ofUpper Pampanga.

Such trees could still be seen sprawledon the patio of each church. And the churchwas always the heart of the poblacion,asserting what an early Protestant missionaryhas observed: “(a)lmost without exceptionone may see the massive whitestone church, far and awayamong the first buildings, andthe choicest location in everytown in the archipelago...” Ahuge plaza serving as its facadehas been the commonarrangement of most of theformer Recollect missions inTarlac and Pampanga. Even tothis day, such set-up hasmaintained the tranquility of thesimple past; so especially truein the morning when theselfsame tranquility greets thefaithful on their way for prayers- to God and to their patron.

And such devotion to thepatron has lingered. TheRecollect Proper of Saints ismuch visible: Nuestra Señoradela Candelaria (Mabalacat), InmaculadaConcepcion (Moriones), Madre Dolorosa,Patriarca de San Jose (O’Donnell), Sta. Lucia,Sta. Monica, and a host of others.

No doubt, however, that the most popularamong them is San Nicolas de Tolentino, thepintakasi of Capas and Bamban. Veneratedthroughout the year, it is the month ofSeptember, though, that is most sumptuousand splendid (his feast day is September 10).At its first crack, the streets of Capas arealready filled with a doleful hymn to the saint(Gale King Maligayang San Nicolas) by thebrown-garbed, girdled devotees:

Ampat icang macapasiagPatulunan ming mapanya(u)pLingun ca keke at gunyatMaligayang San Nicolas ...

Bista’t baug lang matua muAbunga ra ca ping tutuLingun ca keke at gunyatMaligayang San Nicolas ...

Anting ambu’ ning banuaMaging lunas king sakit daLingun keke at gunyatMaligayang San Nicolas.

(Since you are the anointed/ our chosensuccor/Look upon us and be glad/ O gloriousSt. Nicholas...Though your parents arebarren/ Truly you are their very own fruit/Look upon us and be glad/ O glorious St.Nicholas ... Like the dewdrops of Heaven/Be the cure to their sickness/ Look upon usand be glad/ O glorious St. Nicholas)

Note the inclusion of the town’s pristineenvironment in such songs: trees with theirwet-season fruits, rice fields with their firstsign of gold, the piercing cry of that migratorybird, the brown shrike (tarat), announcingits arrival for its annual visit to the islands.There is even a Kapampangan folksong ofyore attributing the “locust-eating tarat” as

a blessing from San Nicolas.Even now, it is still part of one’s childhood

in this town that the regular sacraments ofBaptism and Confirmation must besupplemented with the biniag o bendicionSan Nicolas. In the olden times, the recipientof the rite must be given galang-galang, adoughnut-shaped bread which, vendors tellbuyers, has been blessed by the ascetic sainthimself. The highlight of each feast day ofSan Nicolas is the blessing of the bread—are-enactment of a healing miracle by thesaint. And in Kapampangan homes, analmuerzo of saniculas (cookies with theimprint of the Saint)18 immediately follows.

In spite of its elevated topography,Southern Tarlac (including the northern partof Pampanga) is, ironically, looked downupon since it has remained the largestsanctuary for the aboriginal Aetas. Much ofthe evangelical labor of the Recollects duringtheir tenure in the area was spent in theprotection of the rights of these peopleagainst Spanish and Filipino expansionists.One of those who strongly championed theircause and plight was Fr. Juan Perez deSanta Lucia, missionary and founder of thepresent town of Capas. “Who has,” askedJose Felipe del Pan in 1888, “after Fr. Juan

had formed the pueblo of Patling for theAetas, accorded these forsaken people theiropportunities for progress?” This century-old question is yet to lose its applicability inthe present times.

In these highlands where tribalcommunities could still be found, it is notunusual to hear of Spanish toponyms orgeographical names as Sta. Monica, Flora,Bueno, Aranguren, Socorro, Dolores,and Sta. Juliana commingling with Pilien,Maruglo, Tambo and other places ofNegrito provenance. This is much reflectiveof the zeal that had guided the earlymissionaries in penetrating what used to bethe hinterlands.

Even prior to the Pinatubodisaster, the government hadalready complained ofimpassable roads and distancesof places as the barrier to theefficient delivery of services tothe Aetas and other poor peoplein these areas. The eruptionmerely aggravated the situation.Recently, a Recol lect priestvisiting their former missions forthe first time was amazed at theutmost dedication of locals inconstructing a network of dirt-roads to connect the variousmissions and settlements put upby the Recollects, ignoring thegreat distances between thesesettlements and the harshtopography. “It had been a featalready for most of the Recollects

to have maintained their missions in theVisayas and other islands then,” he said,“yet, since the sea was a convenient meansof transport, for the remaining few to havebeen able to hold on to these missions inthe mountainous heartland of Luzon forat least two centuries with only their feetfor support is something else.” And then, ofcourse, a Recollect missionary in UpperPampanga had to contend with the presenceof various languages and dialects (Negrito,Zambal, Ilokano, Pangasinense andKapampangan) while his confrere in theVisayas had only Hiligaynon and Cebuanoto grapple with.

Yet, the greatest legacy of the Recollectsin their former missions would have to betheir converts: people with deep, abidingspirituality and who are proud of theirChristian heritage. As a testament, Capasand Bamban are two of the towns in thewhole Diocese of Tarlac with the highestnumber of priestly vocations, both diocesanand religious, but especially missionaryorders.

Fr. Andres de San Fulgencio and hiscompanions who toiled in this part of thecolony hundreds of years ago, some ofthem even losing their l ives, couldprobably ask for nothing more.

Interior of Mabalacat church before renovation

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Fr. Diego Cera was the Recollect cura parroco ofMabalacat, his first assignment, from 1794 to1797. Later in1797, he was transferred to Las Piñas (until 1831) where heconstructed the now world-famous bamboo organ, only afew months after leaving Mabalacat—which raises thepossibility that Fr. Cera may have conceived, planned andsketched the world’s only bamboo organ while he was stillthe parish priest of Mabalacat, and may have in fact beeninspired by the tall and prolific bamboos of Mabalacatespecially those lining the town’s Sapang Balen just a stone’sthrow away from the church. Fr. Cera may even havetransported these Mabalacat bamboos and used them tobuild the unique organ!

Bamboo organconceivedin Mabalacat?

The history of Mabalacattown has always been associatedwith the popular account of how afriar, before being killed in cold bloodby a band of hoodlums on ordersfrom a head of a prominentMabalacat family, uttered a curse,saying that Mabalacat will neverprosper and thrive.

The priest in question wasPadre Gregorio Bueno de laVirgen del Rosario, born inTarazona, in the province ofAragon, Spain. As a Recollectmissionary, he was first assigned inZambales, serving the towns ofIba and Masinloc, then was movedto the convent of the Recoletos inManila. He was then appointed asthe parish priest of Mabalacat, onNovember 30, 1875. Mabalacat bythen, was a primary “mission viva”of Upper Pampanga, an activecenter of mission work from whichthe needs of nearby visitas in Tarlacwhere administered. By 1897,during Fr. Bueno’s tenure, Mabalacathad a population of around 9,705souls, a substantial figure at thatperiod, a further affirmation of thetown’s primal role in convertingheathens and spreading the wordof God.

Fr. Bueno was the lastRecollect to serve Mabalacat, andhis term of 23 years was the longest.His controversial murder on July 10,1898 triggered much speculationsand unanswered questions to thisday. Over the years too, thecircumstance behind his death hastaken on mythic proportions,resulting in fanciful versions thatrange from romantic to theimprobable.

It is whispered about that thefamily implicated in Fr. Bueno’s

Murder Most FoulTHE CURSE OFP. GREGORIO BUENOThe gruesome execution of this66-year-old Recollect by a band ofrevolutionaries in Mabalacat spawnedtales of a curse and conflictingaccounts of his last hours: was hehanged, shot, dragged across townor hacked to death?By Alex R. Castro

death was the Tiglaos. Recently,a direct descendant of the Tiglaos—Sigfried Ranada (or YsaganiYbarra)—currently Mabalacat’shead of culture and arts, shed somelight on this tale of lust, mayhemand revenge.

The common version hadthese spicy details: a femalemember of the Tiglao family wentto see the parish priest to havesome religious articles blest.Instead, the priest supposedlymade overtures unbecoming of hishabit. Insulted, the woman fledhome and reported the incident topatriarch Don Marcelo Tiglao,who exacted revenge by orderinghis killing. Thus began the curse—that not only affected the town’smarch to progress, but also thefortunes of the Tiglaos (not tomention the rained-out graduationrites of the town’s high schools!).

Mr. Ranada pointed out thathis great grandfather Marcelo, whowas a municipal presidente, couldnot have possibly perpetrated thecrime because he was scheduledto meet with Aguinaldo’srevolutionary forces at that samehour. Friends loyal to Marcelo Tiglaopurportedly carried out the plot.

Over the years, the story tookon several versions, one so lurid,with enough characters to populateanother Jose Rizal novel! Thisversion had a beautiful Tiglao girl,a willing “dagis pisamban” (churchrat), engaging in a “dangerousliaison” with the priest, which ledto her getting pregnant. The girl’sfamily had the priest kidnapped byhoodlooms who beheaded him innearby Capas, Tarlac. The girlsupposedly delivered a baby girlwho grew up into adulthood and

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was adopted by a local Chinesefamily. Still another accountcentered on the motive of theTiglaos for the said murder. Itwas said that Fr. Bueno kept ahoard of gold somewhere withinthe church premises which thefamily’s patriarch was eyeing!

Even the curse of the padreunderwent several romanticpermutations. The curse utteredby Fr. Bueno was not reallymeant for the town—but for thefamily who instigated his death.Versions had the priest cursingthe patriarch either with deathfrom an incurable disease(cancer) and/or loss of familyfortune. To undo the curse, it wassaid, Mabalacat had to produceits own fourteen native priests!

Prof. Lino Dizon’s book,East of Pinatubo, includes anaccount of the Bueno murder,based on the historical writings

Fr. Bueno outside where he washumiliated in public before beingcharged with espionage and shotto death by a firing squad. At thetime of his death, Fr. Bueno wasalmost 66 years old.

The late revolutionary Lt.Emilio Dominguez, aMabalacat resident, claimed tohave been given a gruesomeaccount of Fr. Bueno’s finalmoments by an unnamedwitness, recounted to historianDaniel Henson Dizon ofAngeles. Through his windowthat was slightly ajar, this witnesssaw Fr. Bueno on a horse-drawncart flanked by two guards.Hours later, word of his executionreached him. It was said that Fr.Bueno was forced to stand in apit that was to be his grave, and,before being boloed to death,uttered his curse inKapampangan.

of Fr. Licinio Ruiz, anAugustinian Recollect. It wasreported that by 1897, the fervorof the Philippine Revolutionreached Pampanga and Tarlac,which resulted in the closing ofsome Recollect missions. Anti-Spanish sentiment was verystrong at that time and evenpriests were not spared fromreprisals: Fr. BaldomeroAbadia, of nearby O’Donnellmission for one, was killed byrevolutionaries.

When Filipinorevolutionaries succeeded intaking Tarlac from the Spaniards,word reached Mabalacat aboutSpain’s surrender at theMakabulos Headquarters inSan Miguel. A horde of angry,impassioned Mabalaquenorevolutionaries—incited by aprominent family of the town—stormed the parish and dragged

Dramatic though the turnof events may have been, it isinconclusive if the padre’s cursehas indeed come true. Mabalacattoday is a designated specialeconomic zone of Clark and thereare unmistakable signs ofprogress: the vital linking of thetown to the North Expressway viaSta. Ines, the booming of Dau,the burgeoning of prime realestate. But then again, there arehorror stories to tel l: thecontinuing plagues from Clark’stoxic waste, the devastation ofthe northern part of the town byMount Pinatubo, and many more.Whether Mabalaqueños like it ornot, the stigma of the curse willcontinue to be inextricably linkedwith its popular history.

First published in SunStar Pampanga.For comments, e-mail writer at<arcastro57@yahoo.com>

Fr. Juan Herrero was Fr. Gregorio Bueno’s compañero forjust a period of 5 months in 1885. From Mabalacat, he was sent offto Cavite where he became the manager of “Compania Fomento deLa Agricultura”. He, together with 9 other Recollect friars, were holedup in Imus, Cavite where they were shot to death by passionateRevolutionists.

The other unfortunate victim was Fr. Victor Baltanas de laVirgen del Rosario . Fr. Baltanas was born on 17 November 1869in Berceo, La Rioja Spain. After becoming a Recoleto on 24October 1886, he left on board the steamer Isla de Panay, andsailed to Barcelona. He continued his journey to the Philippines,arriving in Manila on 21 October 1891. No sooner had he unpackedwhen he was assigned to Mabalacat in late October 1891.

He was sent to Mabalacat as a young deacon to learn, strangelyenough, Tagalog basics. Indeed, an examination of extant canonicalbooks confirmed his presence in the town, assisting Fr. Bueno inhis daily ministerial grind —from administering holy oils and chrismsto performing sacramental rites. His assignment was not permanentthough, and he was shuffled from Mabalacat to Manila (wherehe received the Holy Order of presbyterate in 1892), Palawan (1894-1895), San Nicolas priory in Intramuros (1899-1902), back toTaytay, Palawan and then finally to Valencia, Negros Orientalwhere he served as assistant priest to Fr. Eusebio Valderrama.Finally, in October 1907, he became the parish curate of the RomanCatholic Church of Escalante town.

It was in Escalante town that he was hacked to death in thehead by an Aglipayan assassin, Mauricio Gamao, on the night of15 May 1909, succumbing to his wounds the next day. The murder,motivated by the schism between Aglipayans and the Roman CatholicChurch involving church property, was planned in connivance withthe town head, Gil Gamao—Mauricio’s relative, who was

Two more Recollects, both former assistants of Padre Bueno in Mabalacat, also suffered martyrdom

THE OTHER MURDERSIN THE CLOISTER

By Alex R. Castrosubsequently convicted byAlbert E. McCabe, anAmerican judge of the Courtof the First Instance, after a3-month trial in Bacolod.Mauricio Gamao, as well ashis cohort Gil Gamao, weresentenced to lifeimprisonment.

Fr. Baltanas died amartyr of the faith. Fr.Francisco E.Echanojauregui, parish priest of San Carlos who immediatelyattended to his dead fellow Recoleto in Escalante, described him in a1909 letter to the vicar provincial: “Americans, Spaniards and Filipinosall assure me that he was an authentic priest, a zealous curate withunblemished repute…Everyone attests to me that Fr. Victor wasincapable of raising his voice, not even to his boy-servant...his lifewas well ordered like that of a convent..This is to say he was anexcellent person, as an individual, as a parish priest and as a friar”.

The martyr of Escalante was interred in San Carlos, but his boneswere exhumed in 1995 due to acts of vandalism and robbery in thecemetery. These were then kept at the Colegio de Santo Tomas-Recoletos.

Two Mabalacat frailes—Fr. Juan Herrero and Fr. VictorBaltanas—thus shared the same sad fate as their superior, Fr.Gregorio Bueno, meeting their hapless deaths in the hands ofFilipinos in an uncanny parallel manner— all happening in the heat ofthe Revolution and a religious schism, and with influential familiesinvolved.

For comments, e-mail writer at arcastro57@yahoo.com

Fr. Victor Baltanas

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Around the middle of October 1897, a band of Capampanganrevolutionaries staged a lightning raid on Bo. Talimunduc (now Brgy.Lourdes Sur), Angeles, Pampanga. They were Katipuneros fromthe barrio of Tibo, Mabalacat and they were led by a captain. Theywere all on horseback and they entered the Angeles boundarythrough an area in the foothills of the Zambales Mountain Rangeknown as Pati by the Aetas, in the sitio of Mangga, Bo. Sapangbato.On their way to Angeles town proper, they passed the barrios ofAmsic and Pampang and succeeded in recruiting young men. In

TheExecutionof Román Payumu By Daniel Dizon y Henson

The true-to-life account of an Angeles peasantwho escaped death by firing squad in 1897

under the most unusual circumstances, thusunwittingly starting a religious cult

that endures to this day

The late Bishop Celso Guevarra allegedly told a story aboutan incorrupt body found inside the Capas church when the altarwas being renovated sometime in the 1930s. It was that of aSpanish priest whose identity nobody knew at the time.Apparently they resealed the tomb and built the new altar on topof it, or so the story goes. Is it possible that it is the body of thesaintly Recollect missionary Fr. Juan Perez de Santa Lucia, parishpriest of Capas in 1845-64? Fr. Perez founded Patling (laterrenamed O’Donnell) and for 19 years championed the rights ofthe Aetas against exploitation by the Spaniards. He even joinedthem in prison in Bacolor where authorities took them on suspicionof keeping contraband tobacco during the tobacco monopoly.He attended to victims of cholera which took his life at age 47.Journalist Felipe del Pan called him the “Apostle of the Aetas.”

On the altarof theH a c i e n d aR a m o n achurch inP o r a c(left) ist h ec a r v e dimage ofw h a tseems tobe a

group ofsemi-naked

Aetas beingcomforted by a

priest atop a rockduring a great flood.When asked to identifythe priest or the

Incorrupt body inCapas crypt

The flood,the Aetasand the

unknownmissionaryProgram and the National Museum. Initial results point to a bigsettlement that flourished in pre-historic times but was abandonedor destroyed just prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1571.

The church, built by either the Augustinians or the Filipinoclergy during the period when the Spanish missionaries wereexpelled from Pampanga(1772-1791), is a well-preservedstructure that is unique for its central tower.

The carved image apparently is a later creation but obviouslyin commemoration of a much earlier incident, probably a greatflood occurring on the plain, or the overflowing of a river at thefoothills of the Zambales mountain range, which is prominent onthe carving.

historical event depicted inthe woodcarving, the oldfolks in the village could onlyshake their head.

Hacienda Ramona,formerly Dolores, is locatedon the foothills of MountPinatubo, near the PoracRiver. It is the site of theongoing archaeologicalexcavations conducted by theUP Archaeological Studies

the town itself, they crossed through Henson Street and fell uponBo. Talimunduc where a group of young men voluntarily joined theKatipuneros, firmly believing in the righteousness of the KatipunanRevolution that was then converging into Pampanga from theprovinces of Bulacan, Bataan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.

Upon learning of this Katipunan raid, the Spanish Cazadores (orHunters, as the Spanish Army infantrymen were known then) andMacabebe Guardia Civil soldiers, then stationed at the La CasaTribunal (Municipal Building or town hall) sprang into action and

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rushed to Bo. Talimunduc. There they found a number of youngmen dressed up in traveling clothes, but the Spaniards were toldthat the Katipunan band had already fled towards Bo. Capaya, aboutsix kilometers to the southeast. So, a platoon of Cazadores andMacabebes rushed to Bo. Capaya in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, theseven dressed-up youngsters were arrested and their arms tied withrope in miquit-a-sicu fashion (tied elbows meeting at one’s back)—the Spanish military method of tying up prisoners, that wasguaranteed to produce intense and continuous pain in the shoulders,elbows and chest. They were then taken to the town of Baculud(Bacolor), then the capital of Pamanga, where the provincial jailwas located. They were never heard from again, even to this day.However, two were identified: Cornelio Manalang and CrispuloPunsalan.

The Cazadores and Macabebes were rushed to Bo. Capaya insearch of the rebel band found the barrio deserted, the inhabitantsaving fled for fear of Spanish reprisal. However, in an outlying fieldthey found a lone farmer tending his baritan (a small field plantedwith a special grass called barit, which was sold and fed to calesahorses). The farmer was Roman Payumu, the humble zacatero (agatherer and provider of animal feed like grass, for horses). Althoughan illiterate and ignorant family man, he was very industrious and agood provider. He was a deeply religious man with an intense faithin God. After selling all his barit grass to calesa drivers in themarketplace every evening, he made it a point to pray in the HolyRosary parish church. When the quinario devotion, leading to thefeast of Apung Mamacalulu (Merciful Lord—the statue of theDead Christ or Our Lord of the Holy Sepulchre), was institutedon October 23, 1897, he quickly volunteered to serve as aregular cargador of the Apu during processions. He was morepopularly known by his nickname, Duman.

Finding the barrio of Capaya completely deserted, theCazadores and the Macabebes ganged up on Duman. He wasbrusquely interrogated regarding the band of Katipuneros thathad entered Capaya and he whereabouts of the entire barriopopulation. Poor Duman, knowing nothing about the incidentconsidering that his baritan was located quite far from thevillage, answered that he did not know what the soldiers weretalking about. Immediately he was branded a liar and wasaccused of being a Katipunero himself! The Macabebes tookturns in hitting him with their rifle butts in the head, chest andback to force him to talk, but Duman only wept in pain andinsisted on the truth—he knew nothing! The soldiers continuedto beat him up until nothing came out of his mouth, nose andears but blood. Exasperated, the soldiers tied his elbows inmiquit-a-sicu fashion, and with a long rope tied around hisneck, the bloodied Duman was taken on foot to the town tribunalto be further interrogated. Once inside the municipal jail,Macabebe soldiers mercilessly beat him up with bamboo clubsto extract revolutionary information from him, but to no avail.No food or water was given him.

About noontime on October 25, 1897, the second day ofthe quinario devotion of the Apung Mamacalulu fiesta, theCapampangan assistant priest, Padre Vicente Lapus, was sentto the prisoner by the then Spanish parish priest of Angeles,M. Rev. Padre Rufino Santos, OSA, to hear his last confessionfor he had been sentenced to death by firing squad thatafternoon. Padre Lapus tried his best to console the condemnedprisoner and succeeded in enabling him to make a lastconfession, and to accept his fate with complete resignation tothe Divine Will of Duman’s patron, Apung Mamacalulu.

Roman Payumu a.k.a. Duman was fetched by the soldiersat 2 p.m. His elbows tightly tied behind him, he was led outsideto a firing squad led by the Cazadores lieutenant, the Spanishcorporal named Cabo Moreno and two Macabebe Guardias Civil.The Spaniards wre both armed with Model 1895 German-

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designed Mauser rifles, Caliber .30 loaded with five-bullet clips each.In 1897 this Mauser rifle was considered the best military rifle in theworld. The Macabebe soldiers both were armed with Model 1889Spanish-made Remington rifles, Caliber .43, single-shot. At thattime, the Remington rifle was the premiere breech-loading rifle.

As a last request, Duman asked the lieutenant if he could prayand say good-bye to Apung Mamacalulu inside the church. Hisrequest was granted and the death squad walked to the church;however, the church was closed for the siesta (Spanish traditionalnap from 1 to 4 p.m.). The execution grounds were behind thechurch, and beyond were vast sugarcane fields stretching far up tothe town of Porac. Desperate to be saved from execution, innocentas he was, Roman Payumu decided to pray near the reclining statueof Apung Mamacalulu and the closest he could get was at the lastclosed door of the church (facing the present Parish Hall). TheSpanish lieutenant allowed Duman to kneel outside this door wherehe tearfully implored the Apu to save him from the firing squad—astupid, impossible petition. This must be the reason the Spanishand Macabebe soldiers broke into a loud laughter. In an intenseand desperate outburst, the simple-minded peasant suddenly criedout:

“O Apu cung Mamacalulo! E mu cu pu rugu acaquet, pemalu dacu pu at penumbuc! Ala cu mang pung bitasang casalanan! Ngenipu paten da cu pa!

O Dios co, balicdan yu cu pu caring mata yung mapamacalulu….Ticdo cayu sana pu queng quecayung pangaquera at lualan yu cu

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pu!... Cambe yu cung caulan matalic at ibalut yu cu pu qng quecayungmal a mantu at iligtas yu cu pu, at sabe yo pung isambulat deningmacamate canacu!”

(“Oh my Merciful Lord! Can’t you see me, they clubbed and hitme in spite of my innocence! Now they’re even going to kill me! Ohmy God, turn your merciful gaze upon me! Please arise from yourrecline and come out to me!... Embrace me tightly and enfold mewith your holy robe and save me, and cast away my executioners!”)

More laughter from the firing squad soldiers. But unknown tothem, Padre Vicente Lapus was standing right behind the door,listening and watching from the door crack. (This was how theabove prayer of Payumu was recorded for posterity.)

The impatient Spanish lieutenant barked: “Puñeta! Todo estolo qu haces es ya de masiado! Levantate!” (“Damn it! This is allgetting too much! Stand up!”) Knowing no Spanish, Dumanremained kneeling and weeping. Without warning, a Macabebesoldier grabbed his arm and forced him to stand up, yelling:“Putanaida mo! Ticdo na ca canu! ‘Pa na ca ning alte!” (“Son of abitch! He said stand up already! Lightning will strike you!”) Losinghis balance, Duman fell and again the Macabebes pulled him upand dragged him to the execution spot, which was the corner churchwall before reaching the present sacristy door.

As the condemned man limped forward, he felt that the ropetying his elbows had become loose from the manhandling and hadstarted to slide down! His hands now suddenly free, he beganrunning towards the sugarcane fields behind the church (now theHoly Angel University campus). The startled executioners stoodparalyzed for some moments as Roman Payumudashed away at full speed! The Spaniards werethe first to react, frantically loading their rifles,aiming at the escaping prisoner just ten feet awayand then firing shot after shot! The bewilderedMacabebe Guardias Civil followed suit and startedfiring deadlier Caliber .43 bullets at their fellowCapampangan. Considering the tested accuracyof these then world-class rifles of hitting bullseyetargets at a distance of 200 yards (roughly 600feet!), it was incredible how these well trainedprofessional officers and soldiers could havemissed their taget, starting from a distance of onlyten feet, and after initially firing a total of about20 shots at their escapee.

Some 100 feet inside the dense sugarcane

field, Duman fell into a luctun trap (these were pits, one squaremeter wide and two meters deep where young still-wingless locustscalled luctun were driven into by groups of peasants during locustinfestations; later these trapped locusts were cooked into sinigangor candied with mascovado sugar). The hole was full of dried leavesand trash, under which Duman hid himself. His right heel bled froma minor bullet wound. A few minutes later the Spaniards organizeda large search party and minutely combed the fields behind thechurch, thrusting their bayonets in all the luctun traps they cameacross. They searched all the way to Bo. Siniura, Porac but failed tofind Roman Payumu who was, all the while, hiding only about ahundred feet behind the church!

At midnight, he slowly emerged from the pit, covered with redants, and proceeded to hide in an outlying village where he remaineduntil June 1898 when the Spanish Army Forces in Pampanga weredefeated by the Capampangan Revolutionary Armies of Gen.Maximino Hizon, thus liberating the entire province from Spanishrule since 1571.

From all indications, the circumstances leading to the escapeand salvation of Roman Payumu from certain death cannot beexplained through reason alone. Although the events were of thisworld and participated in by humans, certain inexplicable aspectsappear to mysteriously linger within some of the events themselvesthat were undeniably out of this world, hence impossible to explainin physical terms. It is in these “out-worldly realms” of said eventsthat those who knew of the mysterious salvation of Roman Payumupresent no alternative but to wholeheartedly accept Payumu’s own

personal but downright simple explanation tothe said phenomenon: the divine interventionof Apung Mamacalulu!

Duman returned to his old zacaterolivelihood and remained an ever-loyal cargadorof Apung Mamacalulu to a ripe old age until hisnatural death. The true-to-life story of RomanPayumu’s salvation from a firing squad andsubsequent search therefore became the basisof Angeles City’s Fiesta nang Apu celebrationsevery last Friday of October, starting from thefirst Apu fiesta on October 28, 1897. At thesame time, the extraordinary Payumu incidentspread like wildfire not only in Pampanga butthroughout Central Luzon. I signalled the

beginning of an intense populardevotion to Apung Mamacalulu formillions of devotees until the presenttime, many of whom truthfully attestto the innumerable personal petitionsand favors granted by the Apu.

Historical Sources:Don Mariano A. Henson, A Brief History of

the Town of Angeles, First Edition, Angeles,Pampanga, Ing Katiwala Press, San Fernando,Pampanga, July 1, 1948.

Acquaintances of Roman Payumu:Don Jose Ma. Fermin Ganzon y Gonzales, Oral

Narrations made to the author between 1935 and1953, #464 Sto. Rosario Street, Angeles,Pampanga.

Dona Ma. Carlota Concordia Henson y LeonSantos de Ganzon, Oral Narrations made to theauthor between 1935 and 1960, #464 Sto. RosariStreet, Angeles, Pampanga.

Don Jose Pedro Henson y Leon Santos, OralNarrations made to the author between 1942 and1944, #770 Sto. Rosario Street, Angeles,Pampanga.

Don Ricardo Nepomuceno, Sr. y Paras, OralNarrations made to the author, 1959, Sto. RosarioStreet, Angeles, Pampanga.

Story completed September 11, 2003, #2Badjao Road, Villa Gloria, 2009 Angeles City. Authormay be contacted at (045) 322 4176.

Below, Angeles Convento; left, Apung Mamacalulu

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Excerpted from Ethnography of theNegrito-Aeta Peoples: A Collection ofOriginal Sources (1915) by H. OtleyBeyer

Long, long ago, ten-thousands upon ten-thousands of full moons before theappearance of the first man on this earth,all of the land bordering the sea, was ruledby the mighty Aglao, the king of the “SpiritHunters.” These spirits were powerful andnumerous. Their chief recreation was totransform themselves into the form of livingmen and to spend their time hunting deer,unless Agalo needed them to drive away theircommon enemy, the terrible spirit of the sea,Bacobaco who, you know, makes the stormsand the waves. Bacobaco was also extremelyfond of deer’s meat and sometimes he wouldtransform himself into an enormous turtleand suddenly appearing on the shore of thesea, he would sally forth into the huntinggrounds of the “Spirit Hunters” and gorgehimself with deer to the neck. Aglao wouldgreatly resent this, but he was powerlesscompared to this monster. How could heface Bacobaco who carried his thick shieldon his back, and who threw fire from hismouth.

However, one day, he consulted Wasi, thespirit of the wind, and Wasi whispered intohis ear “Why don’t you ask Blit, my brother,to help you? He is the only one capable ofkilling Bacobaco, for if he hits even the tip ofhis tail or a toe of one of his feet, it will be

Other than the rock-throwing battle between Sinukuanand Namalyari, there was no other myth or hint aboutan active volcano in the Kapampangan Region-- except this 1915 account

The Origin of Pinatubu Volcano (A Negrito Myth)

By Jose N. Rodriguez

The Origin of Pinatubu Volcano (A Negrito Myth)

enough to kill Bacobaco.”Agalo followed the advice of his friend

and Blit was also an enemy of Bacobaco,readily consented to undertake the work andto do all he could.

The following day the huge turtleappeared again, but Blit was quite ready forhim this time. But as he carefully placed anarrow to his bow, the wonderful Bacobacosaw him and immediately hid his whole bodybeneath his shield. The arrow struck exactlyat the place where his head had been thrustforward only a few moments before.

Bacobaco bellowed in so terrible amanner and so much flames escaped fromhis mouth that Blit only remembered torecharge his bow when the Sea Spirit wasalready near the lake at the foot of MountPinatubu. Again, Bacobaco escaped injuryby hiding himself under his shield. Heimmediately jumped into the lake but thewater was so clear, that Blit could see him atthe bottom. Finding the lake a useless placeof refuge, he climbed the Mount Pinatubuin exactly twenty-one tremendousleaps. When he hadreached the top, he atonce began to dig abig hole into themountain. Bit piecesof rock, mud, dust,and other thingsbegan to fall inshowers all around

the mountain. During all the while, hehowled and howled so loudly that the earthshook under the foot of Blit, Aglao and hishosts. The fire that escaped from his mouthbecame so thick and so hot that the pursuingparty had to run away.

For three days the turtle continued toburrow itself, throwing rocks, mud, ashesand thundering away all time in deafeningwars. At the end of the three days hestopped, and all was quiet again in themountain. But the lake, with its clear water,was now filled with rocks, and mud coveredeverything. On the summit of the Pinatubuwas the great hole, through which Bacobacohad passed, and from which smoke couldbe seen constantly coming out. This showedthat although he was already quiet, he wasstill full of anger, since fire continued to comefrom his mouth.

But now, you do not see the smokecoming out of the Pinatubu Mountain any

longer, and many believe that the terriblemonster is already dead; but I think thathe is just resting after his exertions, andthat some day he will surely comeoutof his hiding place again for a heartymeal on deer, and then, woe be to us.

JUNE 15, 2004: THE ERUPTION’S 13TH ANNIVERSARY

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1,614,942 Size ofpopulation in Pampanga Province (21towns including the capital city of SanFernando and excluding the charteredcity of Angeles)

263,971 Total population ofAngeles City

221,857 Total population ofthe City of San Fernando, the biggest townin the province

16,147 Total population ofBacolor, the smallest town in terms ofpopulation (its residents having fled toresettlement sites in San Fernando,Mabalacat and other towns)

Mabalacat The biggesttown in Pampanga which is not yet acity, with a population of 171,045, obviouslyhelped by the highly urbanized barangay ofDau

Lubao The next biggest town(pop. 125,699), followed by Mexico(109,481), Arayat (101,792).

1960s Decade that saw thefastest population growth rate in Pampanga,at 3.54%

307,639 Number ofhouseholds in Pampanga

5.25 Number of persons perhousehold in Pampanga, which is higher thanthe national average of 5 persons perhousehold

22 Median age ofKapampangans, i.e., half of the populationin Pampanga is below 22 years old

Men slightly outnumber women inPampanga: for every 100 women there are102.57 men

58.56% Percentage of voting-age population (18 years and above)

60.7% Percentage of theeconomically active population (15 to 64years old)

35.4% Percentage of thedependent population due to youth (0 to 14years old)

3.9% Percentage of thedependent population due to old age (65years old and above)

412,218 Number ofKapampangan women capable of child

By Robby Tantingco

88.3% KAPAMPANGANS7.6% Tagalogs.06% Ilocanos, .05% Visayans

and 2.22% Other Ethnic Groups

IN PAMPANGAThe latest from theNational Statistics Office(NSO) showsKapampangan menoutnumber women butthey are less educated,don’t get married, andthose who do, die aheadof their wives

bearing (reproductive age group, 15 to 49years old)

41% Percentage ofKapampangan population who finishedelementary school (Men outnumber womenin this category)

30.96% Percentage ofKapampangan population who finished highschool (Men again outnumber women here)

14% Percentage ofKapampangan population who went on tocollege (Now, it’s women who outnumbermen)

0.18% Percentage ofKapampangan population with post-baccalaureate degrees or into post-baccalaureate studies (Again, womenoutnumber the men in this category)

49.69% Percentage ofPampanga population who are married(Practically half of all Kapampangans aremarried)

42.54% Percentage ofPampanga population who are unmarried(single)

7.77% Percentage ofPampanga population who are widowed,separated, annulled, or have unknownmarital status

SINGLES Single menoutnumber single women in Pampanga(54.24% to 45.76%)

WIDOWED Widows faroutnumber widowers in Pampanga (76.93%to 23.07%), which means more husbandsdie ahead of their wives

Angeles 263,971

San Fernando 221,857

Mabalacat 171,045

Lubao 125,699

Mexico 109,481

Arayat 101,792

Guagua 97,632

Candaba 86,066

Floridablanca 85,394

Porac 80,757

Apalit 78,295

Magalang 77,530

Macabebe 65,346

Masantol 48,120

Sta. Ana 42,990

San Luis 41,554

San Simon 41,253

Minalin 35,150

Sta. Rita 32,780

Sto. Tomas 32,695

Sasmuan 23,359

Bacolor 16,147

Singsing is published quarterly by TheJuan D. Nepomuceno Center forKapampangan Studies of Holy AngelUniversity, Angeles City, Philippines.For inquiries, suggestions andcomments, please call (045) 888-8691loc. 1311, or fax at (045)888-2514, oremail at rptmt@yahoo.com. Visitwebsite at www.hau.edu.ph/kcenter.

Editor: Robby TantingcoEditorial Assistant: Ana Marie VergaraStaff: Kaye Mayrina-Lingad, JoelMallari, Erlinda Cruz, Anton Prima,Sheila Laxamana, Arwin Paul Lingat

Population by Town

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