Baao Historical & Cultural Society

Easter Sunday Salubong

2011-05-12T08:09:00.000+08:00

See more photos (courtesy of Mia Barandon Bulalacao)

Estudiantinas de Baao (photos by Bernadette De Los Santos)

2011-04-12T14:50:00.009+08:00

The Estudiantinas started in the pre-war years as a rondalla ensemble that accompanied the Soledad procession on Good Friday. Composed mainly of young students (hence, the name), they played the traditional music of the Soledad composed by Jorge Barlin II, Jose Fajardo and Betty Gonzaga. Today, under the leadership of Bernadette De Los Santos et al., the band has incorporated other kinds of musical instruments to augment the dwindling number of string instrument players. Beyond playing music, the association has fostered friendship, discipline and religious devotion among the youth of Baao.

Click on this link for more photos of the Estudiantinas by Bernadette De Los Santos.

Photos of Baao Lake (courtesy of Michael B. Gaite)

2011-04-12T03:45:00.012+08:00

Click on this link for more photos of Baao Lake by Michael B. Gaite.

Baao Lake is a shallow freshwater lake located in Baao, Camarines Sur in Bicol Region, Luzon, Philippines. It has an estimated surface area of 177 hectares (1.77 km²) and reaches an average of only 1 meter deep. During summer months (March-May), the surface area of the lake shrinks leaving only one third of its original size, about 60 ha (0.60 km2). The lake is fed by local run-off and several small rivers, the most important of which is the Tabao River, which flows from another lake, Lake Buhi. The water from the lake then drains west into the Bicol River.

Burikbutikan: Arts Exhibit & Poetry Reading

2011-04-03T16:20:00.011+08:00

"A group of Baaeño visual artists, converged with Bikol Poets/Palanca Awardees Kristian Cordero & Frank Peñones Jr. at the Cafe des Artes on April 2, 2011. An art exhibit, local music and poetry reading were held, featuring the works of prime Baaoeno writer, Luis G. Dato. congrats everyone..I am looking forward to more events like this.I hope we can radiate this to the younger genS. iselebrar ag suportahan a tunay na dunong ag talento ka taga Baao." - Bernadette de los Santos

Links to photos of the event:

courtesy of Wheng Bricia-Briones

courtersy of Bernadette de los Santos

Baao Children’s Choir Wins NAMCYA 2010

2011-03-31T03:20:00.002+08:00

In the recently concluded 2010 National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) National Final Competitions held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Baao District Children’s Choir from Baao, Camarines Sur, led by Conductor Virgilio Briones, was victorious in the Children's Choir Category, winning 1st place and the Best Interpretation Award of the contest piece “Salve Regina,” composed by Alejandro Consolacion. The NAMCYA Children's Choir Competition was chaired by Maria Lourdes-Hermo.

Links to other songs of the choir:
“A Choral Flourish”
“Laudamus Te”
“Salva Regina” (contest piece)

Angel growing up in the Philippines

2011-03-31T02:35:00.001+08:00

Burikbutikan: Showcase for Artists of Baao

2011-03-22T06:49:00.008+08:00

BURIKBUTIKAN: Baao artists now have a place to showcase their works in the gallery housed at the Cafe des Artes, Villa Esperanza, Barrio San Nicolas of Baao, Camarines Sur, Philippines.

http://burikbutikan-bidibidi.blogspot.com/

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Newly Recorded Marian Song: "Ina"

2010-10-15T08:43:00.004+08:00

This is a recording of a song composed by Felipe Fruto Ll. Ramirez, SJ, in honor of INA, Our Lady of Penafrancia. Floyd Tena of the Ateneo de Naga University Choir sang the piece. Prof. Joseph B. Reburiano orchestrated the music. The song is part of the repertoire of liturgical music published by the ADNU Choir in the CD "Kamurawayan sa Dios" to commemorate the 300th Anniversary of Our Lady of Penafrancia and the 70th Foundation Year of ADNU.

Featured Songs: "Ina" and "Hesus, Tinapay nin Buhay"

The World of Fr. Bernas

2010-05-26T08:43:00.003+08:00

See Fr. Bernas' blog at:

The World of Father B

http://web.me.com/jbernas/BernasWorld/Welcome.html

Bidibidi's Interview at ANC (Part 1)

2009-10-24T23:21:00.000+08:00

Bidibidi's Interview at ANC (Part 2)

2009-10-24T23:02:00.004+08:00

Baao Fiesta 2009 in Las Vegas (August 8)

2009-08-15T11:27:00.002+08:00

The Baaoeno expatriates in the U.S. celebrated the pintakasi last August 8 in Las Vegas, Navada.

Click on the following links to see photos and video of the affair:

Angel Martires' photo album

Angel Martires' video clip

Tony Martires' photo album (Aug 8)

Tony Martires' photo album (Aug 9)

Totie Mesia's Blog

"Finding My Roots" by Marj Mesoga Palencia

2009-04-26T10:50:00.006+08:00

About Finding My Roots

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” -- Jane Howard, "Families"

Hello! My name is Marjueve Mesoga Palencia, a Philosophy and Humanities Professor at Far Eastern University (FEU), Manila, Philippines, and I am doing a genealogical research on the following families which have originated from Baao, Camarines Sur, Philippines, namely:

1. Juan Palencia and Paula Sta Maria Dato (b. 1820)
2. Francisca Palencia and Vicente Sta. Maria Dato (b. 1824)
3. Francisco Palencia and Patricia Esplana (b. 1900s)
4. Venancio Palencia and Margarita Bricia (b. 1900s)
5. Carlos Andres Esplana and Vicenta Asuncion Barrameda (b. 1800s)
6. Cerapio Barrameda and Ambrosia Vargas (b. 1900s)
7. Cornelio Breboneria Mesoga and Fortunata Bascuña Baesa (b. 1900s)

This site aims to present the genealogy of the above mentioned families which spans two hundred eleven (211) years of eight generations from 1798 to 2009. The family tree contains more than 5,000 names. Many living family members still reside in Baao, Camarines Sur, while others have settled elsewhere.

This site is primarily for the family members so that we may learn more about our family history, about each other and about our own selves. It is hoped that this will allow us to keep track of each other’s families as well as the new members of our expanding family and hopefully bring us closer together.

Click this to go to the site:

"FINDING MY ROOTS"

As most of us have experienced a “diaspora” of some sorts, family members leaving home for reason of work, opportunity or necessity, this tracing of our members makes some sense. This genealogy may also contribute to tie together the many loose ends in the family.

While the web makes it easy and convenient to share information, trace and interact with one another in spite of the great physical distances between and among family members, the same technology allows exploitation of the available information about an individual. This site respects and supports the right of individuals to privacy. Hence, this site has suppressed the personal details of all living family members. If you find any information here that you feel violates your right to privacy, please notify the webmaster by e-mail.

A genealogical research such as this never really gets finished or completed. It is always ongoing, without having to mention the errors or missing links and details on the family trees. If you are a family member, you can greatly help enrich our family trees by requesting membership to this site on the right menu button of this page, or by sending me an e-mail. I would be glad to get in touch with you.

Brief Background of this Family Research

In the 1960s, poet laureate Luis G. Dato started to chronicle the big families residing in Baao, Camarines Sur. He got these family trees published in the Baao Town Fiesta Souvenir Programs annually until 1966. At that time, there were just a few hundred names.

For the Palencia Reunion in May 22, 1971 at San Roque, Baao, Camarines Sur, Ernesto B. Palencia started to chronicle the descendands of Jorge Balayboa Palencia and Genoveba Bagaporo Malonda.

Then in 2000, Mr. Ernesto B. Palencia expanded his research to include all the Palencia in Baao, with Juan Palencia and Paula Sta Maria Dato (b. 1820), Francisca Palencia and Vicente Sta. Maria Dato (b. 1824), Francisco Palencia and Patricia Esplana (b. 1900s), and Venancio Palencia – Margarita Bricia (b. 1900s) as points of reference. As a result, the annual family reunions held every summer grew bigger and bigger.

The Esplana Family Tree which was started by Luis G. Dato, with the family of Carlos Andres Esplana and Vicenta Asuncion Barrameda (b. 1800s) as point of reference is now expanded by Ernesto B. Palencia and Marjueve M. Palencia.

Recently, we have started to document the family members of Cerapio Barrameda and Ambrosia Vargas (b. 1900s) and Cornelio Breboneria Mesoga and Fortunata Bascuña Baesa (b. 1900s).

To date, we have documented more than 5,000 family members and the family tree is available on this site and at MyHeritage.

Please request membership to the site to gain full access.

Thank you for visiting.

“No matter where you live, brothers are brothers and sisters are sisters. The bonds that keep family close are the same no matter where you are.” -- Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005

Semana Santa sa Baao 2009 A - Miercoles Santo

2009-04-13T06:39:00.004+08:00

Semana Santa sa Baao 2009 B - Viernes Santo

2009-04-13T06:38:00.002+08:00

Semana Santa sa Baao 2009 C - Soledad

2009-04-13T04:44:00.005+08:00

Remembering Papa Manuel

2009-03-30T21:25:00.006+08:00

By Aida B. del Rosario

When did we, his immediate nieces and nephews, start calling him Papa Manuel? I've never thought of this before because it was just so. Children are followers and are not supposed to ask questions. Maybe it was because he was an idealist, a perfectionist and very strict like a pope that the family teased him by calling him Pope (Papa in Spanish) Manuel. Or is it short for papay, a title before the name of an uncle in Baao. There were times when I heard whispers from friends – Is he her father? - when they heard me say Papa instead of tio or tiyong. There are two answers to that question: Biologically – no, emotionally – certainly yes.

I can't remember when I learned that Papa Manuel was born prematurely, that he had a wet nurse because his mother died after giving birth, that he was so tiny, he had to be kept warm with a rubber hot water bottle; that he was left-handed and had to learn to be right-handed when he entered the seminary because in those days, this was considered not only as an abnormality that is frowned on but also the belief that the left hand is the devil's instrument or something like that.

I've read years ago about how difficult it is to change from left to right-handedness, that it could create behavior problems since it was ingrained in the fetal brain. Did the devil do that??? Whenever I see someone writing with the left hand, like President Barack Obama, Papa Manuel comes to my mind. I strongly believe that his short tempered behavior may be the result of being trained to be “perfect”!!! His irritable behavior made a negative impact on priests and others who were affected by it. I know that many despised him and it worried me.

The earliest memory I have of him was in Salvacion, when I asked my Lola (Grandma, his stepmother) what those two furry animals are and where they came from, as she allowed me to feed them with kangkong. She said that they are cuneos (rabbits) and Papa Manuel brought them for us, the same answer I got at different times when I asked what “these” are (uvas - grapes) or “that" (manzanas -apples); the Hershey's kisses and the Almond Roca were just dulces. Those were some of the goodies that appeared when he came to visit his parents. I've always wondered where he got those rabbits.

When he became the Rector of the Peñafrancia shrine, he made Papa move our family to Naga. We stayed in one of the big rooms of the combento. It was surprising to find bats almost everywhere especially inside the dark shrine. They were exterminated with the renovation and the shrine was painted inside and out in preparation for the silver jubilee of Our Lady of Peñafrancia.

The silver jubilee celebration was the biggest event I've ever experienced. My parents were greatly involved with the food preparation, while I helped with setting the very long table. After the high mass, the Papal Nuncio and the bishops in red robes and other dignitaries congregated in the big hall of the convent, socializing while waiting to be seated for breakfast, which was closer to lunch. It seemed as if all the bishops in the country left their diocese to come to Naga. Had I kissed all the bishop's rings, I could have accumulated enough indulgences to last a lifetime.

He started to travel to the US and Europe in the 1950s to raise funds for a church renovation or to build a seminary. He usually had something for us on his return, like my first camera from the US, a filigreed golden butterfly brooch from Spain, a small bottle of perfume from France, and my favorite – a pin with a dangling tiny golden bell that tinkled when I moved; it had an etching of St. Peter's Square and Basilica around it.

After I left the country, I realized that Gubat Sorsogon, Virac Catanduanes, and Calbayog Samar all had beautiful beaches and I wondered if he had the influence to get those appointments so that his nieces and nephews could vacation there. I had my first airplane ride from Virac, alone in a small plane that jumped through air pockets, to return home in time for our teenage group's party in San Nicolas. The scariest storm I experienced was in Gubat. I thought we would be blown away in the night with the nipa hut we were occupying near the seashore. After I passed the nurses' board exams, he invited me to the town fiesta in Calbayog. He introduced me to the medical director of the new hospital, who was also from Bicol (Sorsogon), who offered me a job there. I bet Papa Manuel had something to do with the offer I couldn't refuse.

I heard from my brother that he had visited remote barrios and islands by motorized banca, where the people had not seen a priest, much less a bishop; that he baptized and confirmed children and old people.

He visited me when I was in Minnesota and again in Canada, either on his way to Rome to attend Vatican II or from there going home.

He was in Rome when I wrote that I was getting married. He immediately replied that he was coming to officiate at the wedding. His wedding gifts were three crucifixes, one for each bedroom for a new house and a crystal bead rosary, all “blessed by the Pope” he said. The next time he came to visit me, I had two children. Although he was now their lolo (grand-uncle), I preferred that they call him Papa Manuel. It broke my heart to see him walk with a limp, with his arm (can't remember if it was the right or left) in a sling. This was the result of a stroke while he was in Rome. His speech was slurred but understandable. He always had a chewing gum to keep the saliva flowing to help his speech.

We went to Mt. Rainier, a popular tourist spot here. It was summer, (July) but the mountain was covered with snow, “...just like the Alps.” he said. My sister Salve and his priest attendant made snowballs and threw them to each other. Before he left, two of my friends asked him to bless their new house and he did, limping through the rituals.

Sadly, I became a big disappointment to him by getting divorced. He came for the last time. As soon as his volcanic sermon started, I went into a survival stance by bowing, and repeated in my head - “Lord, forgive him for I don't know if I can; forgive him for he knows not that there was a wedding but no marriage, that if I continue to be both father and mother to my three children and stay married, it would be suicide and that is a sin, so which is the bigger sin - divorce or suicide; and I don't want my kids to go through what I went through – losing my mother and step-mother before their children were grown; that I was wedded to one who was so sure somebody like me will never get a divorce no matter what.” I can't remember what was said before and after “...sayang ang pinag-aralan... you went to the best Catholic schools...” Life is full of irony, so I had to learn to smile with the punches.

My favorite funny story was told by my brother and male cousins who have served him at Mass – that he would get very upset at any little mistake and would scold them in Baaeño right there at the altar while his head was bowed, and since nobody else could understand the language, the other servers thought he was saying a special prayer.

When I was at UST, he came to visit me at the Nurses' Home. The Spanish nun-dorm-matron, who had never been face to face with a bishop, could hardly talk to tell me to go downstairs pronto, pronto! Since I was the only one there, I thought there was a medical emergency. With pursed lips, she signaled me with her eyes to the waiting room. And there was Papa Manuel pacing faster than an expectant father. Before I could kneel to kiss his ring, he had started to scold me - “Ono ta mala mong uban na pasini?” (Why did it take so long for you to come here?) What else could I do but to listen, that he had to hurry back to the seminary, that I better hurry and tell him what I needed for my graduation. Can you imagine seeing a bishop in a white flowing garb, walking from the seminary located at one end of the huge campus to the opposite end where I was!

That was my beloved Papa Manuel. There are many more stories, like bringing a green mango for me from the Philippines when I was in Canada. Maybe next time, I'll tell you how he got through customs inspection.

I used to feel bad and intensely frustrated that I was not available to take care of him, who anticipated my needs and gave me so much for a better future.

I am most grateful for the chance to have filed the fingernails and tied the shoe laces of the specially made boots of “the little bishop that could.”

Historical Note:

I thought it best to include the following note to show the inaccurate online news reports: The Second Vatican Council was opened on October 11, 1962 by Pope John XX111 (after four years of planning since 1959). There were four sessions. The last three sessions were in 1963 - 1965 presided by Pope Paul V1 ( following Pope John).The final session opened - September 14, 1965, and closed - December 8, 1965. Papa Manuel could have had the stroke after 1964 because that was the year I was married.

Oldest Filipino Bishop Laid to Rest

2009-03-30T21:19:00.004+08:00

MALOLOS, Bulacan, March 27, 2009— The country’s oldest bishop and the only living participant to the Vatican II, Bishop Manuel Del Rosario, was laid to rest Friday at the crypt of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, here.

The ceremony was led by the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams with Cebu Archbishop Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal, Caceres Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legazpi, Balanga Bishop Socrates B. Villegas, Daet Bishop Gilbert A. Garcera, Calbayog Bishop Isabelo C. Abarquez, Kalookan Bishop Deogracias S. Iniguez, Batanes Bishop Camilo D. Gregorio, Virac Bishop Manolo A. Delos Santos, Malolos Bishop Emeritus Cirilo Almario, Malolos Bishop Jose F. Oliveros and several other bishops as concelebrants.

In his homily, Archbishop Adams praised Bishop Del Rosario for being “a priest for 70 years, a bishop for 53 years and a Christian for the past 93 years.”

He added “now our brother, priest and bishop has gone ahead of us” and “death has come close to us again.”

He said “when someone we know dies the thought of their living in another dimension strengthens us in our sorrow.”

He added “we cannot but think of the life of our brother bishop, Bishop Del Rosario, who in so many ways had faith in his existence serving God – as a priest and as a bishop.” He said the late bishop never wavered “in his trust with our Lord God as Bishop Manuel is a child of God.

He concluded by saying the late prelate is “the exponent of hope” for “even in his illness, he served the Lord.”

The country’s oldest and one of the world’s oldest bishops died peacefully at Yanga Hospital in Bocaue, Bulacan early Monday morning after contracting pneumonia.

From CBCP News http://www.cbcpnews.com/?q=node/8073

In Paradisum: A Tribute to Bp. Manuel Del Rosario

2009-03-30T21:11:00.001+08:00

Sacris Solemnis: A Tribute to Bp. Manuel P. Del Rosario

2009-03-26T00:36:00.009+08:00

A Tribute to Msgr. Del Rosario

2009-03-25T08:38:00.005+08:00

To All the People of Baao:

Bishop Manuel Del Rosario was born in Salvacion, Baao, Camarines Sur, according to some written articles about him. We should therefore honour him for his achievement and his service to the catholic church in the country, especially in Salvacion where he was born and the whole of Baao and the country. He should be in our history book to be honoured and remembered in his death. Our sympathy and condolences goes to his his immediate family and to the church he loves.
May he Rest in Peace with our Lord!

Antonio Badiola & Family

+ Bishop Manuel P. Del Rosario (1915-2009)

2009-03-24T04:48:00.009+08:00

te	Age	Event	Title
1 Jul 1915	0	Born	Baao
25 Mar 1939	24	Ordained Priest	Priest of Sorsogon, Philippines
24 May 1955	40	Appointed	Coadj. Bp. of Calbayog, Philippines
24 May 1955	40	Appointed	Titular Bishop of Zerta
25 Jul 1955	40	Ordained Bishop	Titular Bishop of Zerta
25 Jul 1958	43	Succeeded	Bishop of Calbayog, Philippines
11 Dec 1961	46	Appointed	Bishop of Malolos, Philippines
11 Mar 1962	46	Installed	Bishop of Malolos, Philippines
15 Dec 1977	62	Resigned	Bishop of Malolos, Philippines
23 Mar 2009	94	Died	In Malolos

A 1957 Photo of Children's Party to Celebrate Fred Perdon's 5th Birthday

2009-02-25T16:25:00.003+08:00

An old photo, taken at the Imperial's residence in Santa Cruz, of a children's party to celebrate Fred Perdon's 5th birthday on 18 December 1957. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Christmas in Baao 2008

2008-12-31T08:00:00.005+08:00

This video features various Christmas trees with nativity scenes at the Barlin Park in Baao, Camarines Sur. The video clips were taken in 29 December 2008.

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Another Buhay na Masiramon

2008-10-23T23:25:00.003+08:00

The place in this poem is my lolo Jose's farm in Salvacion, the paradise of my childhood, while the last stanza has a connection to Betty Gonzaga and friends in San Nicolas -- Aida B. del Rosario

Evensong

Well seasoned woman in solitude
awaits the solace of twilight
wistfully chanting of rice fields
full of ripe grain, of reapers in
wide brimmed hats hurrying to get
ahead of ravenous resident birds

Red and yellow tomatoes jealous of
green guavas sweet and heavy on
bent branches, many more are in
baskets, much more than coconuts
piled high by dwarfish Dencio

Gooey pure chocolate oozing from
Grandma's hand-turned millstones
Thick cocoa drink pouring on
children's puto, making merienda
a brown muddy brew

Chaperones gossiping at weekend
socials. Girl with handkerchief or fan
signals to puppy-love, first-love or
last-love or catch the eye of big boys
with songs and a guitar - harmonizing
practicing for moonlight serenading

-- Aida B. del Rosario

Click this to watch the music video:
"Buhay Masiramon"

2008-10-21T19:40:00.002+08:00

Para sa Mga Burak sa Heidelberg
(To the Flowers of Heidelberg)
Ni Jose Rizal
Itinaga Baao ni P.B. Robosa

Pasadto kamo banwaan ko, dayuhan na burak
tagak sa raran kin mga nagbabaklay, iwinarak,
sa lomlom ka sirong kin azul na kalangitan,
sadto na an mga payaba ko pinag-iiningatan
iluyap ninyo, pagarang-arang kanakong rogan,
kining arayo pero di nalilingaw sa mga binayaan

Pasadto kamo, ag mabareta bago magliwanag,
kung kamo ka sirang ka aldow ibinubuklad,
sa pangpang ag agnow ka Neckar na ararom
sadto siya nakatindog, nang-guiguiromrom
pamumula sa tagsibol, darang kolor na magayon

ipa-ngusip ninyo kun pag-abot ka saking ramrag,
ayaton kaninyo an hamot na kaninyong ambag,
habang luway na pina-iirongog “o ika, payaba ko”
siya man nagririmo-rimo, sa itaas ninyo tinotono,
kantang pagkaboot, sa sadiring bisara nya guinibo

kun su silaw ka ramrag aboton na su kaitaasan,
tuktok Koenigsthul kalayuwan kin kaliwanagan,
namumulaag na silaw ka aldow mang-guisong na,
sa patag, kadlagan ag kakahoyan nanbubuway na,
ining lagalag, sabat man tulos an silaw na dara,
na sadto banwaan man nya, minabulos biyaya.

isabi ninyo ku kamo luway na pinili ag pinutlan,
ku sya nag-agi-agi sa sadit ag matulid na a-agian,
sa rugbang torreng tuda ko panahon na nakaagi,
sa Neckar na may kadlagan, malimpoy na sabi.
Sabiyon su kanyang mga panambitan ag sinabi
pauno kamo luway-luway, tinulid, ingat na inani,
sadto kanyang libro isinuksuk ag pinagkahigo,
sa mga lumang pahina, kamo niyang itinatago.

Hatudan, hatudan, magayon na burak kin Rhine,
an biyong pagka-boot ko sa ngamin na nabootan,
katoninongan sa banwaan kong kinamondagan,
sa kababaihan-katangihan, kusog sa kalalakihan.
Ipagtaratara diaday, sa mga payaba kong marhay
sa ngamin, kabilugang banal, pauulian ka buway

Pag-abot sa baybayon kan pinayabang banwaan
matam-is na arok na pinamate di paglingawan,
ipatiprak sa pakpak kin angin na nakapalibot
tanganing su ngamin na inonra, ginalang, binoot,
mamate sa mga pisngi ninda--arok kong pina-abot.

Tibaad makaabot kamo sa banwaan kong tinubuan
dara pa gayon ag tinkad ninyong kolor na namasdan,
ta arayo kamo sa ragang kinabuklatan, nang-alisngaw,
namarong na amot, tibaad dagos nang naoda, nanlasaw.
An hamio ninyo, kalag ninyong tunay, di maisusuway,
di malilingangawan kan langit kun sari kamo nabuway.

A Simple Life, Two Friends

2008-10-12T09:49:00.006+08:00

Excerpts from the speech delivered by Vic Ramirez Jr. at the Silver Jubilee Night of the Kausaran sa Ikararay ka Baao (Kaiba) held at the AFP Auditorium, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, on February 5, 2005. Vic served as first President of Kaiba, after its predecessor—the Metro-Manila Baao Association—was reorganized.

Please click on these links:

For the entire speech click on this link:

A Simple Life, Two Friends

Buhay Masiramon

2008-10-09T21:26:00.015+08:00

"Buhay Masiramon (Sa Poultry ni Isko)" -- sung by the Trio Los Mamboleros (Betty Gonzaga, Manny Gaite, and Gil Llorens); music and lyrics by Betty Gonzaga and J. Barrameda; recorded in 1989.

This music video is dedicated to the fond memory of BETTY IMPERIAL GONZAGA, who appears in this clip as a one year-old child being entertained with a bird in a cage by his father Angel Gonzaga (husband of Paz Buena Imperial). The pictures (of late-1930s vintage) were taken at the residence of Pilar Imperial Arroyo (now the Ramirez's ancestral home) in Del Rosario, Baao, Camarines Sur.

The humorous lyrics of the song tell the story of Isko (guess who?) who used to spirit out the sickly chicken from his father's poultry in Del Rosario to be cooked and served as "sumsuman" (ginataan na adobo) for his barkada's drinking session in Kalangkawan (San Nicolas). The song celebrates the carefree and jovial life of young people in Baao.

2008-10-07T20:21:00.006+08:00

The First of the Monicans

On April 2, 1950 SMA graduated its first batch of High school students, arrayed here in regal Elizabethan gowns and sat for this nearly 60 year-old photo. From the original 24, less than five survives today.

Left to right front row:

Liliosa Bigay-Aquino
Lourdes Bucela-Robosa
Monina Arroyo
Lilia Barreta
Helen Barrameda-Buena
Ofelia Magadia-Pilar
Ester Borja-Bibonia
Victoria Badiola-Briones
Remedios Imperial-Bernales
Rosa Baliuag
Liliosa Fajardo-Obrero
Isabel Gonzaga-Fajardo
Antonia Bigay-Lopez Dee

Left to right back row

Generosa Badiola
Concepcion Quintan-Badiola
Carmen Bañaga-Dimayakyak
Jovita Imperial-Garsiso
Romana Sanchez-General
Solidad Muños
Rufina Bibares-Balindan
Florentina Revilla-Bigay
Socorro Tirao-Badiola
Aurora Benosa-Zamudio

Concepcion Baesa-Razon

2008-09-28T18:04:00.006+08:00

Padre Ochoa, Padre Inciong and The Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes in Baao

Fr. Aquilino De la Torre Ochoa was assigned as Coadjutor to Padre Inciong in Baao for four and a half years and was responsible for giving the town our own Lady of Lourdes Grotto. How it came to be he recounts in his “Talambuhay”, an autobiography written in Tagalog verse. He was born in Indan, now Vinzons, Camarines Norte this is why his tagalog is sprinkled with Bikol words. When he was ordained priest his first assignment was in Baao and was here during the waning years of the 1930's. Baao's Lourdes Grotto became the first of many of his accomplishments.

“ COADJUTOR SA BAAO SI PADRE OCHOA”

Ang kura sa Baao si Padre Florencio Gonzales
Balitang-balita mga coadjutor hindi makatiis
Mahaba na ang isang taon, coadjutor agad na aalis
Hindi magkaunawaan, pagsasama hindi matiis

Sa aking pagdating matapos sa kura ay mag-pugay,
ang kanyang ugali at hilig aking pinag-aralan,
nang mamasdan kong sa ahedres mahilig makilaban,
magkakasundo kami larong ahedres muli at muling naglalaban

Kaya sa tuwi-tuwina matapos ang hapunan
Ang tablero ng Ahedres dinadala sa aming harapan
Tinatalo ko siya, tinatalo din niya ako.
Pagdating sa hatinggabi saka kami naghihiwalay

Isang ping-pong table ang aking ipinagawa
Upang mapaglibangan ng mga kabataan
Nang Makita ni Padre Gonzales, siya ay natuwa
Kaya’t nagpaturo sa akin sa bola ng ping-pong pagpatama

Hindi naman mahirap si Padre Inciong Gonzales turuan
Hindi nagtagal ibig niyang palaging may kalaro
Kahit sa mga kabataan at sa mga kapaparian
Kaya’t liban sa Ahedres, ping-pong kanyang nauyunan

Nabalitaan ko araw ng kanyang kapanganakan
Hinding-hindi pa siya nagdiwang ng kanyang kapanganakan
Sa aming inasalto, kaarawan ng kanyang pag silang
Isang banda ng orkestra kasama ng taong bayan

May mga dalang pagkain, alak, litson at pulutan,
Maikling palatuntunan, talumpati, tula, awit at sayaw
Si Padre Florencio Gonzales, katuwaan nag-uumapaw,
Napilitan siyang mag-tapat na si Padre Ochoa ang may kagagawan

Nang makuha ko ang tiwala ng Paring Kura
Ano man sabihin ko sinusunod niya pag-daka
Sa tabi ng patio, may nakatambak na bato lumang asoteya
Kung ibig mong malinisan, papatayuan natin ng Groto

Sabi niya kung kaya mo ikaw ang bahala, gawin mo na
Kaya ako nagpasimulang usapin ang maga Hijas de Maria
nang aking balak, magpatayo ng Groto
Wala naming sumasalungat, lahat ay sang-ayon

Kailangan ng isang arketekto, gagawa ng plano
Bantog noon si Barcenas at eskultor Neglerio
Subalit ang mga ito, mga propesyonal eskultor-arketekto
Mahal ang kanilang bayad, sa dyaryo at honorario

Naghanap ako ng larawan ng Groto sa Lourdes
Sinikap kong puntahan mga simbahan may Groto ng Lourdes
Sa Naga, Iriga, Guinobatan, Quezon City hanggang Baguio City
Inisa-isa kong puntahan at ako ay gumawa ng plano

Sapagkat kailangan ng pera upang makagawa
Isang “Fund Raising” kailangan isimula
Naisipan kong isang Velada makapaghanda
Upang sa fiesta ng bayan ipakita sa madla

Upang maging magaan humanap ako ng kasama
Si Guinoong Jorge Barlin, mahilig sa musika at kanyang “Sabrina”
Isang melo-drama at komedya, kumuha ng mga artista
Sa bahay ni Tomas Guevara inihanda ang numero sa kaarawan

Dumating ang kapistahan ng Patron ng Baao
Maraming dumalo galing sa ibang bayan
Punong-puno ang liwasan na pag-bibeladahan
Kaya’t sa kahilingan ng marami, inulit sa kaarawan

Sa awa ng Diyos, ang “Fund Raising” naging matagumpay
Nabili ko kaagad ang kasangkapan sa Groto’y ilalagay
Mga semento, hollow blocks, kabilya at iba pang kailangan
Punto ng lumang asoteya aking pinalinisan

Nag-hanap ako ng isang panday-kantero
Marunong gumawa sa kahoy at semento
Sa awa ng Diyos nakatagpo din ako
Naging katulong siya nina Barcenas at Neglerio

Ang aking plano sa Groto ay susundin
Ako ang arketekto at artista paman din
Ang kantero na upahan ko ako ang susundin
Hindi ang sino paman dahil sa Mahal na Birhen

Sapagkat ang pera hindi magkakasya
Kailangan ng donasyon ng larawan ni Birhen Maria
Kaya’t si Guinoong Julian Barrameda pinakiusapan ko
Na kay Neglerio magpagawa ng Lourdes at Bernardita

Maganda ang larawan na gawa ni Guinoong Neglerio
Nang Birhen de Lourdes at Bernardita de cemento
Si Neglerio ang nagayos ng larawan, sa Groto itinayo
Gayon din si Bernardita nakaluhod sa malayo

Sa apat na kanto nitong “Asoteyang Groto”
Pinalagyan ko ng parola tigta-tatlong ilaw
May mga donantes din na mga Maestro at mga Maestra
Kaya’t ang Groto sa Baao, ay naku kay ganda

Wala akong panahon sabihin sa inyo lahat
Ang Groto ng Lourdes sa Baao, tunay na nakakagulat
Kung kayo may panahon sa kabikolan maglakad
Tumigil sa Baao, Groto ng Lourdes inyong mamalas

Apat at kalahati din ako sa Baao
Sa tabi ng Kura na mahirap na kasamahin
Sa Naga ako dinala, Coadjutor sa katedral
Kura si Mons. Penilla at Vicario Heneral.

2008-09-27T10:58:00.002+08:00

THE CHARGE OF THE HORSEMEN
AT THE BATTLE OF AGDANGAN
P.B.Robosa

Ahead! Down the hill the horses led
to rise again on another hillock
lit by the morning light the sun bled
and revealed to the enemy our attack.

Ahead! The blue shirts advanced
and came the sound of rifles readied
disturbing the silence of the ground
drowning the charge of our steeds.

Charge! And we headed to the center
and fifty muzzles pointed to the riders
and the horsemen rode as if unaware
the guns loaded, fingers at the triggers.

Crack! And a screen of smoke erupts
and our chests heaved with scarlet
we steadied, legs steeled to the stirrup
and then rolled down, giving in, death.

Like leaves we fall on desolate ground
plucked from flowers to be transplanted
no glory, no monuments to be found
amidst faith and longings unrewarded.

I was born into the love of a happy home
and heart gladdened by the wakening land,
rearing to be free to trace its destiny alone,
to draw paradise on earth with my hand.

To ends that God, History point the way,
the way of peace, and pride, and purpose,
ends songs are wrought and heroes made,
ends where lives are gave and joys repose.

I, to boundless hope these ends followed
bearing honor, life, and my soul unafraid
bearing it for all the countless tomorrows,
for my end, my home and sweet tender grave.

2008-09-26T16:37:00.000+08:00

Our SMA Days
P.B. Robosa

We were young and we were free
we'd walk the gate and into the end
it looked old and bare but it was cheery
crawl through a hole, smelled the floor
cracked the old desk covered with scrawls

We're proud but we knew how to have fun
brave the horrors of the grotto under the moon
plant crops in the morn or haul sand in the sun
we'd jump the high window and bang the bell
stole fried bananas on sticks and cursed like hell

We pretend joy and we pretend sorrow
liked a storm on occasion but during summer
hated math and physics but the ballyhoo
said “Good Morning Miss”to a sour face
eyes strained reading but quick for a little lace

We were all yours as we were all there
said goodbye in the end but never lost touch
We return and sing “Hail, Dear Alma Mater”
Passed the make shift gate and the gray halls
We've had laughter, light and loved in these walls

Baao Church and "Convento" Before the Fire of 1971

2008-09-25T12:20:00.002+08:00

Some readers were wondering if I have a good photo
of the Church and "Convento" before it was permanently
altered by fire and the subsequent rehabilitation.
This I think was how "Padre Inciong" envisioned
the church and the patio when it was being
rebuilt during his time.

The Baaoeño talents behind the SMA Alma Mater Song

2008-09-24T11:49:00.007+08:00

During my college years and I was away from Baao for years, one song that stirs up nostalgia in me is the SMA Alma Mater which I sang for years in school with my classmates. Later, I would hear it either being played briskly or sonorously by the school band or sung during alumni homecomings. The lyrics are so simple but elegant and the melody so catchy that I had no problem memorizing it in Grade two. A fellow alumni revealed in later years that he was using it in other schools which did not have a graduation song as a kind generic alma mater song, all he had to do was replace SMA's with the name of the school.

The lyrics of the song was written by Baao's poet laureate Luis G. Dato on the occasion of the graduation of SMA's first graduates, among whom, my mother, Lourdes Esplana Bucela-Robosa was a member. The words were set to music by one of Bicol's foremost musician's of the time, the famous Marcial L. Briones of the King's Orchestra fame.

Luis G. Dato and Marcial L. Briones

SMA Alma Mater Song

Hail dear Alma Mater, thee we honor

Proudly in the dawn we raise thy banner

Santa Monica, Sweet Alma Mater

With thy praise thy loyal sons and daughters

Fills the land wherever they may roam

Alma Mater, Alma Mater never

Shall thy glory wane but shine forever,

Joyous to thy call we come and rally,

Far or near, from mountain, shore or valley,

For in thee our spirits finds its home

Chorus:

Santa Monica, O Santa Monica

In thy fold a true and valiant band

Through the years whatever time may bring us,

Alma Mater, we shall ever stand.

L.D.

SMA's 70th Birthday

2008-09-24T10:24:00.009+08:00

In 2010, the SMA community plans to celebrate the school's Diamond Jubilee, five years shy of the costumary 75 years. The reasoning behind is that it is common practice now and perhaps there is truth in in the maxim that "a good idea now is better than a great idea tomorrow" and everyone seems to be enthusiastically behind it. I myself could have waited for the beatification of Mo. Consuelo Barcelo, who in 1939 along with a sister companion went to the Bicol Region looking for a place to put up a school. SMA would have been blessed with a co-founder with title of "Blessed" before her name. The other hero of the founding of SMA is Rev. Fr. Florencio Gonzalez or fondly, "Padre Inciong" who did not let the chance to slip of having the Augustinian Sister's first school in the Bicol Region put up in Baao. He started the school on his own expense at the then huge sum of P18,000.00 so it could open immediately the next school year of 1940.

Padre Inciong at the time of SMA's opening and as a young priest.
The school's main building being built by Vicente Fernandez

and workers. The name of the school was "Colegio of Baao"

Padre Inciong (far left in eyeglasses), his Coadjutor
Padre Ochoa and the pioneer Sisters pose with
SMA pupils. The school's name, "Escuala Parroqial
de Baao"(the school building still lacked its window panes)

Rare Photo of the Pioneer Sisters

The SMA building during its glory days

This photo of SMA students and pupils was taken
November 30, 1941, 15 days before the Japanese entered
Baao.

25th Anniversary Picture of Feliz & Rosario Guevara

2008-09-23T09:07:00.008+08:00

Row 1: Rosario Barlin Guevara, Rosario Serrano Guevara, Felix Guevara, Gregoria Guevara
Row 2: ______, Angelina Serrano
Row 3: Conching Luzentales, Amparo Guevara Bernas, Cleotilde Guevara Martires, Rosario Obias Serrano, Nena Baesa?
Row 4: Maricoy Bernas?, Agustina Barlin Gumabao, Jose Serrano.

This picture was posted originally on the Barlin Yahoo group webpage by Angel G. Martires.

Group Picture of SMA Students in 1952

2008-09-20T11:13:00.005+08:00

Courtesy of Grace B. Roldan, sent to Barlin Yahoo group.

Resuene Vibrante

2008-09-07T20:02:00.001+08:00

"Himno a la Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia" composed by Maximo Heguera CM in 1924; supplemented with Bikol lyrics by Bp. Timoteo Pacis CM, Jesus Esplana and Sohl Saez; sung by the Schola Cantorum of the Holy Rosary Major Seminary in Naga City; choral arrangement by Lorenzo Jarcia III; recorded and published by the Caceres Music Ministry in 1989. Video images of the Traslacion and Fluvial Processions.

Baao Town Fiesta 2008 Video

2008-08-26T09:22:00.001+08:00

2008-08-24T16:03:00.003+08:00

New Information on Baao’s Early Years
P.B.Robosa

In trying to bring new light on the origin of Baao, a new mystery has come up regarding the patronage of St. Bartholomew to the town from the onset of the town’s foundation in 1590. The question begs attention as a few years back the Municipal Government, in want of a date to call as its Foundation Day for the purposes of registration to the National Government, the adoption of a Municipal Seal and the distribution of a Foundation Day bonus for the LGU employees, has designated August 23 as the town’s Foundation Day. This was in deference to the Town Fiesta of August 24 which by assumption was the town’s conversion and thus foundation (see Sifting Through Perceptions: A Fresh Look at Baao’s Beginnings this blog) but said date was set a day early to retain a civic and official identity apart from that of a purely a religious holiday.
Fortunately, this did not rule out the possibility of replacing it with a date that would be more historically accurate and better documented that future research might yield.
At present, no document has surfaced providing information when or at what point in its history the town of Baao recognized the patronage of St. Bartholomew. The oldest mention of the Town Fiesta on August 24 in Baao was in 1911, the search for older document before this date has been ongoing ever since.
An older document mentioning the patronage of the church of Baao has just recently surfaced, Danny Gerona, in his book "Canaman Through Four Centuries" cited a document dated 1595, a mere five years after the 1590 foundation of Baao, the document is a petition to the Spanish Governor General Francisco Tello signed by Fray Francisco de Villarejo, comisario provincial of the San Gregorio Province for permission to build churches and convents in towns under the Franciscans. It mentions that some parishes have already built there churches, which had, according to this document, “already obtained license in writing and others only by word”, These churches were:

San Francisco de Cazeres, San Joseph de Milauir, San Phelipe de Minalaba, San Pedro Canaman, Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion de Quipaio, Santiago de Ligmana, Santa Cruz de Nabua, San Antonio de Iriga, Santiago de Libon, San Pedro de Polangui, San Miguel de Baao, San Juan Bautista de Camarines(Camalig)

The possibility that a mix-up of names was already explored but proved highly unlikely and thus we have a mention of Baao under the patronage of St. Michael in 1595. This opens an entirely new mystery to the history of Baao.

Maria,Tala sa Karagatan Music Video with Images of the Soledad Procession in Baao

2008-08-22T08:06:00.003+08:00

Ama Niamo Music Video with Images of Baao

2008-08-21T08:30:00.002+08:00

2008-07-29T22:20:00.002+08:00

Msgr. Manuel P. Del Rosario: The Second Baaoeño Bishop

From P.B.Robosa's "Baao Vignettes"

At forty years old, Msgr. Del Rosario became the youngest consecrated Filipino Bishop of his time and the local newspapers dubbed him “The altar boy who became bishop”. Again the Baaoeños had cause to be proud because in the Bicol region, only three places have the distinction of producing among it flock two bishops of the Catholic Church, a rare honor that speaks well of the strong religiosity of the townspeople.
Manuel P, Del Rosario was born on July 1. 1915 at Salvacion, Baao, Camarines Sur, the youngest of five children of Jose Del Rosario and Modesta Platon. He was studios and intelligent that he finished his elementary and intermediate at Baao Elementary school in only five years instead of the normal seven years. At the young age of twelve he was in enrolled by his father at the Provincial Normal School in Naga purportedly so he would become a teacher, but being the youngest and the smallest of the students, he couldn’t stand the manual aspect of the extra curricular activity of cutting grass, so in the middle of the year he got sick. After two months or so of absence, the Principal of the school was still willing to take him in so he could finish the First year, but by this time, the boy preferred to be a full time altar boy. Baao’s then Parish Priest, Fr. Florencio “Padre Inciong” Gonzalez, was able to convince his father to enroll the boy instead in the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary the following year of 1928, from which the boy eventually graduated from in 1932.
From 1932 to 1936, the Bishop of Caceres, Msgr. Francisco Reyes, sent him to study and finish his college education at the University of Sto. Tomas, from where he received his Licentiate in Philosophy. He continued to the UST Central Seminary from 1936 to 1939 to receive with honors his Licentiate in Sacred Theology, and on March 25, 1939 was ordained Priest in Naga City under the hands of Msgr. Pedro P. Santos, then the Bishop of Caceres after the death of Bishop Reyes.
The young priest was immediately assigned as assistant Diocesan Economo, then for a few months, coadjutor of the Naga cathedral then later as Diocesan Economo and coadjutor of the Parish of Iriga. During the War years, he served in important functions in the Diocese of Caceres as Economo, Censor, Rector of the Peñafrancia Shrine and Diocesan Secretary.
In 1949, he became Diocesan Consultor, Vicar forane of Catanduanes and Parish Priest of Virac. The following year, he was appointed Vicar Forane and Parish priest of Gubat, Sorsogon and remained in this post until 1955. On July 25, 1955, he was appointed coadjutor Bishop with the right of succession to the Bishopric of Calbayog, Samar and at that time he was the youngest Filipino priest ever to be consecrated bishop. In the same year, he became Apostolic Administrator of Calbayog and remained there until 1958 when he became Bishop of Calbayog. In 1961, he was appointed as the First Bishop of historic Malolos and took possession of the same on March 4, 1962. On December 15, 1977, because of a stroke, he retired as Bishop.
Among his achievements that can be seen today is the present form of the Peñafrancia shrine which he caused to repair when it was dilapidated after the Japanese occupation. His improvements on the Cathedrals of Virac and Calbayog along with its Bishop’s Residence and on Gubat’s church. He caused the construction of the Carmelite convent and the Immaculate Conception Seminary both in Guiguinto, Bulacan, He also created new parishes in both Samar and Bulacan Very few people know that Msgr. Del Rosario was one of the few prominent Filipino Clergymen of his time that was being eyed to become Cardinal. Today we could only surmise, if Bishop Del Rosario became Cardinal, if not for the untimely stroke. Baao could have the singular distinction of producing not only the First Filipino Bishop but also the First Filipino Cardinal. But history, if not busy repeating itself, sometimes plays tricks. It played a trick involving both Bishop Barlin and Bishop Del Rosario. If Bishop Barlin fought Aglipay that was spawned by the Philippine revolution that had its first seat of Government in Malolos, 65 years later, his “kabanwaan” would take the Episcopal seat of Malolos. I do not know if our poet Laureate Luis Dato noticed this connection but during this time he wrote a poem about Malolos. Strange indeed sometimes---this, History.

2008-07-05T14:52:00.005+08:00

The Minasbad: Utility and Artistry in a Bicolano Blade.
From P.B. Robosa's "Baao Vignettes"

Our thanks to kindred spirits from Iriga and elsewhere who graciously linked this site with theirs. This piece could be of interest to them.

In my study of native decorative design, one object stands out as a permanent but unheralded example of Bicolano craftsmanship and artistry, the ubiquitous Bikol farm implement, the minasbad. This tool that was once surely a weapon in the days of old, is our local version of the Chinese broadsword and has its most beautiful expression in the Rinconada area. Here, a number of craftsmen from Iriga still make the highly decorated wooden sheath and the distinctive hilt of an animal figurehead made of elegant Carabao horn. Some are still sold ornamented with the traditional trimmings of a cloth or abaca sash and cow hair tassel. Seeing these masterpieces made using the traditional Malay forge and a minimum of handmade tools is an education in ancient blacksmithing, metallurgy, engraving, and carving. The handle-figurehead alone can be made into a variety of possibilities from animal heads, parts and other shapes. When I had one made, the elderly craftsman told me that I could have the pick of ten different species of animals on the hilt but I choose the traditional hound’s head for my minasbad. I did not stop there though and started collecting a few other examples until the increasing cost and my wife’s strange stares stopped me.

As a boy, I heard many stories about the minasbad and admired examples of them made by my Uncle Leopoldo "Papa Dodoy" Bagaporo de los Santos who was an expert in bolo craft. I heard the story that he learned blacksmithing in Iriga while growing to manhood there during WWII. He used unique but tried and tested techniques on every stage of the work in coming out with a bolo that was always an individual work of art. Aside from producing bolos in all its forms, he occasionally experimented with other materials and I have seen bolo parts made of aluminum, bronze and stainless steel and all of them engraved with distinctive decorations. It’s a pity that today only a few examples of his work exists in the collection of family and friends, and again, displaying this obscure skill and craftmanship would be outdated today in the age of cellphones and globalization.

There are still a handful of us though who marvel at the weapons and fighting skills of the ancient Bikolano and no weapon elicit more discussion among us than the minasbad. My knowledge of minasbad lore include how the blade measurements is taken to fit the length of the arm of the bearer, that it must balance on your finger when held in the middle and that the test of its sharpness and the skill of the bearer is proven when the blade can decapitate a Carabao in one stroke. It is told that the Cimarones carried it with pride like a badge when dealing with the lowlanders and how the lowlanders would use their own minasbad to hand articles to the Cimarones, a precaution against a sudden slash that could chop off an arm. I knew that the hair ornament was meant to wipe off blood from the blade after an engagement and that the pointed ears of the hound on the handle was meant to pummel and the teeth-like serrations on the base of the blade was to saw away in close quarter combat.

I also fell in love with the minasbad’s undulating shape, the back of the blade having curves like that of a woman’s in a sinewy “S” ending at the tip shaped like the end of the spoon. It is this part of the weapon that reveal its utilitarian side, this unusual tip is perfect in the harvest of Abaca, the blade lacked a pointed end that would otherwise damage the pith of the Abaca plant.

The minasbad’s use as a farm implement is also versatile. You could clear a path with it, cut small branches, cultivate, crop bamboo or even cut down a small tree. It is fortunate for the minasbad that though it would have been essential to the ancient Bicolano warrior in war is today in peace, still an indispensable tool of the farmer, thus saving this artifact from oblivion. So important could have been this object to its owner that enough time was also spent in the care and ornamentation of not only the handle but the blade and the sheath. The most distinctive part of the minasbad or any other bolo manufactured in Rinconada is the Carabao-horn handle. This type of carved handle is totally non-existent elsewhere in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, in the Bicol region, I believe it is found only in Rinconada.

The grip is reinforced by ribs around the handle that also served as ornamentation and the pummel is formed by the head of an animal usually that of a dog or a hound with its fangs opened in a contorted grin. In what is supposed to be the forehead, the end of the tang is locked in bronze forming a little crown parallel to the points of what would be pointed ears. The appearance reinforces our connection to the Malay archipelago as it appears very similar to their garuda sculpture. The other design elements on it show both local and foreign influences, the scale-like and triangular siko-siko patterns are certainly indigenous but the curved and counter-curved lines on the surface of the sheath and on the brass fasteners are definitely a Spanish flourish. The Spanish baroque element is more pronounced however on the blade that the pattern even ends in a floral design. This somewhat strange design element for a weapon is common to other cultures like the Japanese who add flower patterns to their swords. The “S’ curve of the blade is similar to that of Chinese broadsword as well as the sheath construction, suggesting that the original design could be Chinese. This wouldn’t be impossible because iron working in Bicol during pre-Hispanic times was the best developed in the Philippines.

But time has undoubtedly added embellishments to the minasbad. You can see some of them today furnished with a brass hand guard similar to a cavalry saber or more commonly the hand guard of a Japanese Samurai sword. Time has also taken toll on the crafting of the minasbad as many examples now appear mass produced and of sloppy manufacture. You can still acquire well-made ones but at serious cost suitable to a discerning collector, and admirers are but a few and the survival of this inherently Bicol artifact and its fine nuances are at risk

The story of this Bicol blade dates back to Philippine pre-history. The noted Philippine historian William Henry Scott mentions in one of his books that the pre-Hispanic Bicol language contained the most numerous and highly specialized words pertaining to warfare signifying that our ancestors were probably occupied if not skilled in the activity. The first Spaniards in the region noted the gallant bearing of the Bicolanos as they were the ones possessing the best and most complete armor and weapons. Undeniably, the centuries of Moro threat could have had a hand in the development of the Bicolano martial spirit and weapons technology. During the height of the problem, when the Bicolanos asked for succor from Manila, the impoverished government simply instructed the Bicolanos to manufacture bladed weapons as a measure against the Moros, perhaps the minasbad was manufactured in large numbers and was looked upon as the match for the Moro kris and it was during this time that it acquired its pre-eminence as a weapon and its storied repute.

2008-06-16T22:30:00.004+08:00

1,234 Days of Fear: The Japanese Occupation in Baao
P. B. Robosa from "Baao Vignettes"

Last December 14, 2007, sixty six years had passed since the conquerors from the Japanese Empire disturbed the cheery and peaceful life of the people of Baao. The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 spearheaded the Japanese juggernaut in the Pacific and on December 12, five days later, they reached close to home in Legaspi. In the early morning of December 14, the Baaoeños awoke to the sound of the Japanese advance forces slamming their way through the Bicol region. On December 18 and 19 along the national highway, the town saw a continuous flow of Japanese armaments and personnel going towards the direction of Naga, heralding almost four years of occupation.
Initial reaction was slight as Filipino-American forces chose to avoid engagement and instead moved northwards to regroup. Government employees prepared to abandon their posts and readied themselves and their families for as yet uncertain future, some of them raiding whatever was left of the town coffers. The local government disbanded or resigned in anticipation of a possible brutal take-over. For a while, the town was almost deserted as initial fear grew into panic and most of the residents moved into the outskirts of the town. The fear of the Japanese later subsided as Japanese propaganda and good public relations began to take its effect and most of the towns people needed return to the ”poblacion” to buy and sell needed foodstuff and commodities. In a few months, a semblance of a local government was reorganized and in Baao, the respected Tomas Guevara was persuaded to take the difficult job of steering Baao through the subsequently difficult years. History proved that the choice was a godsend because Mayor Guevara proved to be a match for the dangerous situation that was thrown to his lap. His mettle in dealing with the arrogant and unpredictable Japanese was responsible for saving unnamed but valuable Baaoeño lives.
When the Japanese promises proved false and the war resulted in the eventual downturn in the economy, the Baaoeños had to fortify themselves to years of scarcity, uncertainty and depravation. The fortunate few who retreated to the mountains could live off the land but still food was scarce because the men who tilled and planted were either scared to work, were being held in Japanese prisons or were forced under the employ of the Japanese. An adventurous lot had joined roaming guerilla bands to harass the Japanese, while a few took advantage of the situation and simply resorted to banditry and extortion. For everybody, food and money was scarce, thus danger could come from anywhere, from the shameless bandits impersonating guerillas to the abusive and undisciplined Japanese soldiers. Thus, a life in town was safer and was endured by some in order to protect their property while living under the menace the enemy. The scarcity of manufactured goods lead some enterprising citizens to try their hands at making such necessities as soap or oil and going into trades like weaving and wine making.
In the end, Japanese brutality brought up its worst as the war turned disastrously for them. Although the Japanese were always swift in meting punishment to guerillas or anyone suspected of having ties with the underground as demonstrated by the execution of Baao’s Chief of Police Eusebio Dato, who, early in the occupation, was found aiding the guerillas, the anticipation of sure defeat and annihilation began to dull their reason. As American planes started to bring damage to their positions and causing casualties among their ranks, maddened and crazed Japanese burned more than 70 people including women and children inside houses in Agdangan on October 17, 1944 in what will be one of the war’s documented cold-blooded atrocities by the Japanese against Filipino civilians. At these point, further Japanese crimes in the form of summary arrests and kidnappings was the order of the day and not a few prominent Baaoeños and Chinese residents became victims of this reign of terror, causing most of the people to avoid the town altogether. Japanese retreat was followed by American planes harassing them and not a few of this American bullets and bombs found their mark not on the enemy where they were intended, but on the local civilians. However, relief was felt among the people that the long awaited end to the war was near. The war ended in Baao officially on April 15, 1945 when American advanced scouts reached Baao. Though the town was half deserted, the news of the arrival of the Americans was greeted with jubilation.

We are fortunate that this period of our History was recorded so close after it happened by one of those who experienced the war and modern readers will be delighted to read the following account. Although some dates disagree now with statements given by persons who had first-hand experiences or were closer to the event than the writer who recorded this dates, may I reprint the following without alterations from the Baao Fiesta Souvenir Program of 1946.

Local Chronology of Events
By Pablo B. Esplana, Bureau of Education
1946

1941

December 12-at 2:00 A.M. Japanese forces landed at San Miguel, Caramoan. Camarines Sur and simultaneously at Legaspi. Albay. This is probably the first Japanese to land on the Philippines.
December 14-at 5:38 A.M. A division of Japanese forces passed in Baao with complete war armaments.
December 18 to 19 A continuous flow of Japanese cavalry units passed Baao. The Bicol Region is completely overrun.
December 25 - Japanese forces landed at Atimonan, Tayabas.

1942

April 10 - Municipality of Baao raided by guerilla forces. The Treasury Department said to be ransacked
April 19 - The Municipality of Iriga was raided by Guerilla forces, some Japanese were killed and the Japanese position in Alatco burned.
May 1 - Naga was raided by guerilla forces under Capts. Flor Miranda and Gordinker. Naga fell in the hands of the guerilla. Governor Villafuerte and M. Crescini fled to Tinambac. Naga commercial district burned.
May 9 - A unit of about 16 Japanese trucks re-enter Naga from Legaspi in the afternoon same unit was harassed by a guerilla unit at Waras River. The fight lasted for about one hour. Many Japanese soldiers were killed including one officer. About sixteen Filipinos were either killed or wounded. Houses on both sides of the road from Waras to San Nicolas. Iriga, were burned by the Japanese.
May 12 - Camarines Sur recaptured by Japanese forces. Provincial and Municipal Governments formally organized, with Capt. Tuneyosi as Director of Japanese Military Administration.
July 17 - Local Guerilla detachment under Lieutenant Wenceslao and Lieut. Estrada captured at Salvacion, Baao.
Nov. 30 - Baao chief of Police Mr. Eusebio Dato executed by the Japanese soldiers, at the Suspension Bridge Naga, Camarines Sur.

1943

In first month of this year, a bandit terror disguised as guerilla under Capt. Amado Bueta and Lt. Juan Bueta terrorized the mountains of Baao, believed to have killed at least 21 innocent civilians. In last months of same year, a guerilla unit under Sgt. llagan was routed by P.C. in Himaao Public School llagan was killed.

1944

May 29 - Work on Japanese Military preparations begun. Laborers were taken from every Municipality in Rinconada.
June 20-Mabatobato Japanese position attacked by guerilla unit of unidentified group. Some Japanese were killed.
October 17 - Agdangan was burned with around 100 civilians, mostly women, children and old people were burned, Barrio Lieuts, from San Isidro. and Agdangan Neighborhood President were killed.
October 21 - Fifty U.S. planes raid Mabatobato, Anayan, Pili and San Jose. Pili around 500 Japanese soldiers killed.
Nov. 20. The Cari of Rufino Bayrante. in San Francisco. Baao. raided by Japanese forces from Iriga in an effort to trap Dioscoro Asetre alias (Big Boy). Two unidentified persons, male and female. were killed.
December 30 U.S. bombers raid Naga railway and machine-gunned Iriga. Naga station was completely destroyed.

1945

Jan. 13 - a column of about 600 Japanese soldiers on way to the north from the south was met by 4 U.S. raiders at Baao, About 50 of the soldiers were killed. Two Civilians, one a Chinese (Cha) was killed
Jan. 15 - Four U.S. planes raided Iriga, Baao Pili and Naga, Fifteen civilians were killed or wounded in Baao at Maglapid's residence on the road leading from Baao to Nabua.

Jan. 16 - A bigger squadron of U.S. raiders attacked Iriga. Baao, Pili, and Naga. Eight bombs were dropped at the Baao Railway. One civilian (Isidoro Bulalacao) was killed and two were wounded
Jan. 17 -Jap soldiers kidnapped Mr. Juan Badilla and Chinese Diogna, Pana. Arnado and Valeriana Bravo, a Filipina.
Jan. 20 - Japanese soldiers kidnap Dr. Dominador Barreta, Santiago Barretta. J. Barono. S Amilano, P. Blando, M. Botor, Mericia Badiola and her sick husband, with R. Martirez.
Feb. 22 - Japanese soldier kidnapped Martin Badiola, P. Silvestre, C. Bustilia, T. Bersa, A. Bulalacao, N Laut.
March 13 - Sunday as usual for several Sundays Japanese market car came to barter farm products with textiles and others. This day around 50 Japanese solders went with the market car and raided San Vicente killing C Bulalacao. Two others, Tomas Biseno and Fabian Bacsain, were killed in the afternoon, in Del Rosario.
March 25 - Blue Eagle Guerilla harassed Japanese forces at Agdangan, Report made by Commander Juan Guevara states 49 Japanese soldiers killed One B1ue Eagle soldier was wounded.
April1 Last appearance of Japanese market car in Baao, American forces landed at Legaspi, Albay.
April 7 - Japanese soldier abandon Iriga. Pawili Bridge blasted by Japanese.
April 9 - Camarines Sur guerilla harassed Japanese in Naga.
April 12 - Iriga was subjected to a heavy machinegun raid. The Japanese evacuated it earlier, some civilians were killed.
April ??? - Naga was subjected to a heavy raid, Bombs and machine guns were used. Naga Educational area was destroyed. Many Japanese soldiers were burned.
April 15 - American Advance scouts (suicide forces) reach Baao. Civilians jubilant.
April 22 - Baao Municipal Building was burned midnight of this day.
April 29 - Main body of U.S. forces reach Baao. May 5 - PCAU organized the local Municipal Government in Baao. Vice Mayor Francisco Barretto was appointed Acting Mayor and schools were opened.
Sept. 30 - 158th infantry 2nd battalion, under Col. Sandlin leave for another destination probably Japan.

2008-06-04T16:00:00.005+08:00

Answers to some welcome comments

May I answer some comments from our readers.

from j.a. Carizo:

“This is an interesting entry. But I just wonder: If the entry on the Chinese interaction is true, how come I haven't seen Chinese residents in the area? And almost all of the surnames of the locales (since post World War II) are not Chinese-sounding surnames?”

Well, contrary to common perception, Baao has many Chinese residents and business people(read “A Spark Into the Darkness:The Life and Death of Dr. Dominador UyBarretta) My side of the Esplana Family have many stories of Chinese migrants to the town assuming the Esplana family name to integrate smoothly among the people. This example of integration is probably the reason the Chinese is seamlessly assimilated into the population and also this is why very few of their original names survive. From the same aforesaid article above, you will find that many of the Chinese doing business in Baao before the WWII were among those taken by the Japanese and never returned. I have found traces of the Chinese in Baao not only in its pre-Hispanic history but during the last century when they migrated to the town intermittently in waves.

From “paula abdul” :

This site appears to have only entries from Paulix Robosa when it is supposed to be from and/or for the "Baao historical and cultural society." Isn't this too presumptuous? Does this organization really exist? Who are the members, anyways?

Word of advice: just make it a personal blog, minus the pretense. It wont hurt.

Some entries are also from Fr. Ramirez and A. del Rosario. Yes, there is a “Baao Historical & Cultural Society” composed of many people not only those mentioned above and anyone interested in Baao History and Culture, barring objections, is considered a member. However, much as we like that many would contribute to this site, we are still in the process of calling attention to it and soliciting contributions. Your comments are not only welcome but also a big help. I am afraid I would be presumptuous if I would put the History and culture of Baao on a personal site of which I have several already.

From “ali-ponga”

“Do you know why our area is called “Rinconada”? I've done some research and couldn't find an explanation.

Take a map of the Bicol region, and using a ruler, trace a line following the Bicol river from Bato Lake to Bula. Then with the same ruler, trace a line from Bula then to Baao, on to Buhi, double back, by-pass Iriga and Nabua but end at Bato. By connecting your lines, you will find that you have created a triangle or three corners. In English, the Spanish “Rinconada” means “cornered”or “little corner”.

Keep searching and Enjoy!

P. Robosa

2008-05-26T19:43:00.006+08:00

Something interesting about the name "Baao".

A friend, who read this blog, told me something interesting about the name Baao. After consulting some of his Chinese friends, he found that the term "Bao" pronounced "baw" in Chinese means variosly as "to stand out, to bulge or to protrude". While the term "Baao" pronounced "ba-aw" in chinese means "to be abundant, to be filled, plentiful or not lacking". My friend, with equal enthusiasm, easily convinced me that this could be another likely origin of the name of our place, as in the Bicol region, particularly in Baao's Mawacag site a rich cache of chinese porcelain was found by pot hunters, one of only a handful of sites in Camarines Sur. This would suggest an ancient and lively interaction with the Chinese. Could the chinese, during their constant visits, marked the name from their own tongue to describe a place that could have been rich and abundant in resources as a lakeshore habitat could have been before the Spanish arrived.

2008-05-25T13:29:00.003+08:00

Baaoenos Bravos

A reader was surprised to hear about some of the revelations here of Baao history particularly of our resistance to the entry of foreigners to our region, against the Spanish (according to Gaspar de San Agustin), our vigilance against the Moros, the Americans ( in the Battle of Agdangan), and of recent history, our defiance of the Japanese ( which I will have a chance later to publish some of my writings on the topic here). These all seemed to the reader all too out of character for the Baaoeños. I would have shared the same disbelief if I am as uninformed as I was two decades ago. I grew up thinking that we were a people too far removed from written Philippine history except for the connections formed by the little quaint stories about the past I lovingly coaxed from my elders. The image of our local hero, Bishop Barlin, contributed to the idea of the Baaoeño character as God-fearing, law-abiding, and loyal--docile even. Although this may be true, it is only one side of our character, Barlin, for his part, was some sort of a revolutionary, the Spanish both feared and loved him, the Americans tried to use him but he ultimately went against them and he sided with the then unpopular stand of defending the rights of the Catholic Church against the Philippine Independent Church. which the revolution canonized as the badge of nationalism. In him, I see another side the Baaoeño, they are trailblazers, adventurous and intrepid, or if not, in the words of the priest-historian Fr. Jose Castaño who stayed in Baao for ten years, “a people possessing an impetuous character”. I sympathize with the reader who as I am only beginning to see a glimpse of the Baaoeño character through the struggles of our people throughout history, and I assure our readers that the Baaoeños posses a collective character that is more astounding and inspiring than what we had ever known of them.

2008-05-11T09:40:00.001+08:00

Timeline of Baao History
Paulix B. Robosa from “Baao Vignettes”

The following is a reconstruction of the history of Baao based on various existing sources and documents found locally and elsewhere. The earliest year the village was referred to was in Fray Gaspar de San Agustin’s 1698 Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas, lo temporal por las armas del Señor Don Fhelipe segundo el prudente y la espiritual por los religiosos del orden de nuestro padre San Agustin. On page 355, Libro 2, the villages of Baao, Bula and Naga put up a protracted resistance to the entry of Spanish colonizers upon their arrival in 1576. This suggests that even before 1590, Baao was organized enough to mount resistance against foreign invaders.

1590 – Fr. Peter Baptist, Father Custodian of the Franciscans in the Philippines journeys to the Bicol region and founds several villages with the encomienda Bao among them.
1591 – Baao is first mentioned in an official document as the village of Bao in the census of 1591. The census describes Bao as an encomienda of the heir of the Spaniard Sebastian Perez and is a visita or visited by a friar from Nabua. Baao population - seven hundred four.
1597 – Fr. Peter Baptist is martyred in Japan and will eventually be canonized as St. Peter Baptist making Baao distinct as one of the few towns in the Philippines founded by this martyr-saint.
1611- A strong typhoon is recorded
1656- Baao is again mentioned in an official document in the tablas capitulares or acts of corporation of the Franciscans as a visita of Bula and continued to be mentioned as such until 1793.
1678- Official government taxation in the region begins
1679- First mention of a priest administering to the town by the name of Fr. Alfonso Caparros from the “Catalogo geographico… (1877) of Rev. Fr. Eusebio Gomez Platero
1684 - Construction of a church made of wood on the site where the town transferred from Layoan. The site was located at a place where rivers Langday and Bay once flowed together and met. The former chapel in Layoan was made of nipa and bamboo.
1691- Strong typhoon.
1693 – Gomez Platero mentions another priest who administers to the town at this year, Fr. Matias Guadalupe
1696- A cholera epidemic and a strong typhoon are recorded.
1698- Strong typhoon
1700 – Locusts devastate the region.
1702 – A strong earthquake is recorded for two days and two nights.
1705 – A cholera epidemic is recorded and news of a Moro invasion
1706 – Church destroyed by a strong typhoon
1709 – Cholera epidemic
1711- Strong earthquake
1713 – Epidemic of unknown cause
1714 – Strong typhoon for two days and two nights.
1716 – Don Gonzalo Gumabao becomes the first recorded Teniente del Visita of Baao and serves up to 1718.
1719 - Don Cipriano de Torres becomes Teniente del Visita and serves up to 1721. He also serves again in 1723, 1729 and in 1741.
1720 – A new church was built of stronger materials until the town moved to its present site.
1722 – Don Luis Martines becomes Teniente del Visita.
1724 – Don Mariano de Nieves is Teniente del Visita and an epidemic ensues.
1725 – Don Luis Martines becomes Teniente del Visita again and serves up to 1727.
1728 – Don Eustaquio Mariano is Teniente del Visita and a strong earthquake is recorded.
1729 – Don Cipriano de Torres is Teniente del Visita and a cholera epidemic breaks out on this year.
1730 – The position of Teniente Segundo is instituted.
1731 – The village under Don Justino Eusebio moves to its present site and a church of stone began to be constructed.
1732- Don Josep de los Reyes is Teniente del Visita and serves as such in1737,1738,1742, 1747 to 1751,1758 and again in 1774. Altogether he served a total of ten years as Teniente of Baao.
1733 – Don Luis Martines is Teniente del Visita and serves up to 1736.
1739 - Don Philip Dimaague (Dimalacao?) is Teniente del Visita and a strong earthquake is recorded. Don Philip Dimalacao serves again in 1761 and 1769.
1740 – Don Diego Tomas de Aquino becomes Teniente del Visita and an epidemic ensues.
1743- Don Bernardo de la Trinidad is Teniente del Visita and serves up to 1745 and again in 1766.
1746 – Don Alonso del Espiritu Santo becomes Teniente del Visita and news of Moro invasion arrives this year.
1747- Don Josep de los Reyes is Teniente del Visita and serves up to 1751 when a Cholera epidemic ensues.
1752- Don Melchor Angel is Teniente del Visita and crops are destroyed by swarms of locusts this year.
1753- Don Lazaro Quilbano is Teniente del Visita and Bula, the village to which Baao is connected as a visita becomes independent of Nabua to which it was also connected as a visita.
1754 – Don Pablo Ramos is Alcalde de Naturales and serves as such again in 1756, 1759,1762 and in 1767. This year the region experiences a rice shortage.
1755 – Don Jose Tomeo is Alcalde de Naturales and serves as such in 1757, 1760.
1756 – Don Pablo Ramos is Alcalde de Naturales and locust swarm devastates crops.
1757 – Don Jose Tomeo is Alcalde de Naturales and a Moro raid reaches Nabua.
1758 – Don Josep de los Reyes is Alcalde de Naturales and Cholera reaches the town along with news of a Moro invasion.
1763 – Don Fernando del Sacramento is Alcalde de Naturales and a death of a member of the Baaoeño Principalia is recorded in an incident in Nabua.
1764 – Don Florentino Atigo is Alcalde de Naturales.
1765 - Don Ventura Guillermo is Alcalde de Naturales and will serve again in 1770 and 1781. The province is devastated by plague.
1771 – Don Alfonso Caceres is Alcalde de Naturales and will serve again in 1791. This year Baao is mentioned in church records as independent of Bula in ecclesiastical matters with a certain Fr. Jose Jesus de Maria as curate.
1772 – Gomez Platero mentions a curate or parish priest for the town in the name of Fr. Jose Jesus de Maria.
1773 – Don Florentino Simon is Alcalde de Naturales. Trouble ensues with neighboring town of Nabua regarding the capture of a group of Nabua fishermen by the Baaoenos, Commissioners are sent from Naga to keep the peace.
1775 – Don Alejo de los Reyes is Alcalde de Naturales. He will serve again in 1780, 1783, 1789, 1793 and in 1798.
1777 – Don Manuel Alejo is Alcalde de Naturales.
1778 – Don Francisco Elomena is Alcalde de Naturales. Locust swarm devastates crops.
1779 – Don Ventura Antang is Alcalde de Naturales and will serve again in 1784. Plague is reported.
1781 – Strong Typhoon
1782 – The title of Alcalde de Naturales for the town chief is replaced by Gobernadorcillo to end the problem of mistaking it for Alcalde Mayor which was the title of the Provincial Governor. Don Pedro de San Juan is the first Baaoeño Gobernadorcillo.
1783 – Plague is reported
1785 – Don Francisco Mattheo is Gobernadorcillo and will serve again in 1788 and in 1792.
1786 – Don Pascual Uriel is Gobernadorcillo.
1787 – Don Felipe Lumaad is Gobernadorcillo. Strong typhoon reported.
1790 – Don Fernando Benjamin is Gobernadorcillo. Baao population 1,770 families
1792 - Don Francisco Mateo is Gobernadorcillo. Baao population: 1,939 families.
1793 – First Parish priest of Baao in church records appears by the name of Fr. Domingo de Palencia. Baao becomes independent of Bula as a “visita”, It can be presumed that Baao at this point becomes a “Pueblo Civil” or township. Baao population: 1,947 families
1794 – Don Juan Dimacatin is Gobernadorcillo.
1795 – Don Calixto Lopez is Gobernadorcillo. Recruitment of young men for the army is recorded this year.
1796 – Don Gil Benjamin is Gobernadorcillo. Locust swarm and plague are reported.
1797 – Don Pedro de San Juan is Gobernadorcillo and Rev. Fr. Jose Fuensalida is Parish priest.
1799 – Don Manuel de San Esteban is Gobernadorcillo and Rev. Fr. Pedro Antonio de Santisima Trinidad is Parish priest.
1800 – Don Alfonso Caceres is Gobernadorcillo. Strong typhoon and plague reported.
1801 – Don Antonio de San Jose is Gobernadorcillo and Fr. Jose Diaz del Rosario becomes Parish priest and serves for 21 years, one of the longest terms as Parish priest of the town.
1802 – Don Vicente Marcelo is Gobernadorcillo.
1803 – Don Roque Raymundo is Gobernadorcillo.
1804 – Don Francisco Alfonso is Gobernadorcillo.
1805 – Don Teodosio de Sta. Ana Bagaporo is Gobernadorcillo and government recruits young men to be sent to Manila.
1806 – Don Policarpio de Sto. Domingo is Gobernadorcillo. This year 28 Baaoeños are recorded captured by people from Nabua allegedly for rustling carabaos.
1807 – Don Blas Candelaria is Gobernadorcillo.
1808 – Don Temoteo de San Jose is Gobernadorcillo. In September of this year a boundary dispute erupts between the people form Baao and people from Nabua. Scores on both sides are recorded killed in the incident including members of the Principalia. Names of two Mesia brothers emerge as heroes. The incident reaches the provincial government and was unresolved for years to come.
1809 – Don Pedro de San Juan is Gobernadorcillo.
1810 – Don Juan de San Pascual is Gobernadorcillo.
1811 – Don Geronimo de Leon is Gobernadorcillo. In June a strong typhoon is recorded and in October a strong earthquake is recorded ruining the bell tower of the church which remained unrepaired until the 1850’s.
1812 – Don Inocencio de Los Reyes is Gobernadorcillo and serves up to 1813.
1814 – Don Anselmo de Sta. Rosa is Gobernadorcillo and debris from the eruption of Mayon Volcano reaches the town.
1815 – Don Vivencio Ignacio is Gobernadorcillo.
1816 – Don Mario Evangelista is Gobernadorcillo.
1817 – Don Juan Magtarayo is Gobernadorcillo.
1818 – Don Inocencio de San Simon is Gobernadorcillo.
1819 – Don Mariano Lucas is Gobernadorcillo.
1820 – Don Antonio de San Bruno is Gobernadorcillo.
1821 – Don Mariano Imperial is Gobernadorcillo and a cholera epidemic reaches the town.
1822 – Don Vicente Ambrosio and Don Francisco Jacinto becomes the town leaders with the title of Alcaldes and Fr. Lazaro de la Cruz becomes an interim Parish priest for 11 years. An order from the colonial government arrives in June ordering the election of two alcaldes in two voting.
1823 – Don Pedro Arroyo and Don Antonio Soriano becomes alcaldes.
1824 – Don Mariano Lucas and Don Gil G. Gumabao becomes alcaldes.
1825 – Don Francisco Tiburcio becomes alcalde.
1826 – Don Anselmo de Sta. Rosa becomes alcalde.
1827 – Don Juan Totanes becomes alcalde.
1828 – Don Ambrosio Bagaporo becomes alcalde.
1829 – Don Mariano Doroteo becomes alcalde.
1830 – Don Rafael Imperial becomes alcalde
1831 – Don Antonio Soriano becomes alcalde and plague is recorded.
1832 – Don Manuel de San Antonio becomes alcalde.
1833 – Don Gil G. Gumabao becomes alcalde and Fr. Tomas Franco becomes interim Parish priest.
1834 – Don Guillermo Bernardito becomes alcalde and young men are taken from the town to serve as sailors to guard against moro attacks. Fr. Thomas Antonio Guadalajara becomes interim Parish priest.
1835 – Don Geronimo de la Fortuna becomes alcalde. Recruitment of young men to fight against the moros continue. Fr. Tomas Manso becomes interim Parish priest.
1836 – Don Francisco Gumabao becomes alcalde. Fr. Antonio Estevez becomes interim Parish priest.
1837 – Don Claudio de San Luis becomes alcalde. Fr. Francisco de Madrid becomes Parish priest.
1838 – Don Rafael de los Angeles becomes alcalde.
1839 – Don Juan de Sta. Ana becomes alcalde.
1840 – Don Raymundo de los Santos becomes alcalde.Typhoon is recorded.
1841 – Don Juan Agustin Esplana becomes alcalde.
1842 – Don Pascual Soriano becomes alcalde.Recruitment of young men continue.Fr. Francisco Roque become Parish priest.
1843 – Don Alejo de Sto. Domingo becomes alcalde.
1844 – Don Domingo de San Miguel becomes alcalde. A strong typhoon is recorded. Fr. Juan Ramos becomes interim Parish priest and replaced by Fr. Andres Barrachina.
1845 – Don Domingo Nunez becomes alcalde. Governor General Narciso Claveria visits Bicol.
1846 – Don Gregorio de Sto. Tomas becomes alcalde.
1847 – Don Juan de San Pedro becomes alcalde.Fr. Francisco Cabrera becomes Parish priest
1848 – Don Antonio Fermin becomes alcalde. Parochial convent is rebuilt under Fr. Cabrera.
1849 – Don Maximo Guevara becomes alcalde and serves up to 1850. The Decree of Narciso Claveria is inforced in Baao and Baaoenos begin to change their names into names beginning with the letter B.
1850 – Jorge Imperial Barlin, the future first Filipino Catholic Bishop is born in Baao to Mateo Alfonso Barlin and Francisca Imperial. Parish church is repaired and repainted under Fr. Cabrera.
1851 / 1852 – Don Lucas Placido Sanchez becomes Alcalde
1853 – Don Fulgencio Bona Purificacion becomes Alcalde and a Tribunal of stone is erected in the town.
1854 – Don Francisco Felices Imperial becomes Alcalde.
1855 – Don Mateo Alfonso Barlin, father of Mons. Jorge I. Barlin becomes Alcalde.
1856 – Don Antonio Babeda Ignacio becomes Alcalde. A typhoon is recorded in the month of October. Fr. Andres Barachina become Parish Priest.
1857 – Don Juan Bolivar Reyes becomes Alcalde. A typoon is recorded in the month of November.
1858 – Don Francisco Fajardo becomes Alcalde.
1859 – Don Damiano Sanchez becomes Alcalde.
1860 – Don Juan Badilla becomes Alcalde.
1861 – Don Francisco Barrameda becomes Alcalde.Fr. Severino Pastoral becomes interim Parish Priest.
1862 – Don Tomas Guevarra becomes Alcalde. Fr. Romualdo de Madrilejos becomes interim parish priest for seven months and Fr. Prudencio de los Santos for two months until the appointment of Fr. Jacinto Franco who will serve for seven years.
1863 – Don Juan Arroyo becomes Alcalde. Order comes from the government increasing the duration of the term of the Alcalde to two years.
1864 / 1865 – Don Jacob Imperial becomes Alcalde. Earthquake is recorded.
1866 / 1867 – Don Santiago Mesia becomes Alcalde.
1868 / 1869 – Don Juan Gumabao becomes Alcalde. Fr. Ignacio Garcia serves as interim parish priest for six months until the arrival of Fr. Jesus Gonzalez who will serve for three years.
1870 / 1871 – Don Juan Baliuag becomes Alcalde.
1872 / 1873 – Don Mariano Barrameda becomes Alcalde. Fr. Isidro Pons becomes parish priest.
1874 / 1875 – Don Bartolome Ballesteros becomes Alcalde.
1876 / 1877 – Don Liberato Bigay becomes Alcalde and a flood inundates the town. Fr. Pablo Gomez become parish priest. Fr. Eusebio Gomez Platero, famous Franciscan historian serves as interim parish priest.
1878 / 1879 – Don Marcelino Barrameda becomes Alcalde and transportation from the town to Naga improves with the completion of the Pawili Bridge. Fr. Vicente Rojo becomes parish priest.
1880 / 1881 – Don Fulgencio Sanchez becomes Alcalde.
1882 / 1883 – Don Juan Bernas becomes Alcalde and a cholera epidemic breaks out. Fr. Carlos Cabido becomes parish priest.
1884 / 1885 – Don Nicolas Beltran becomes Alcalde. Fr. Mariano Herrejon becomes parish priest until replaced by Fr. Mateo Atienza interim for five months and then Fr. Juan Ravalo serves a month as priest in-charge until the appointment of another famous Franciscan historian, Fr. Jose Castaño who will serve for ten years in the town.
1886 / 1887 – Don Eulalio de Austria becomes Alcalde.
1888 / 1889 – Don Genaro Bañaga becomes Alcalde and a cholera epidemic is recorded this year. In September, a corporal of the Civil Guard reported to his Alferez Comandante in Iriga that printed materials subversive in nature was being circulated in the town. Members of Baao Principalia; Don Nicolas Beltran, Don Eulalio de Austria and Don Damian Sanchez were implicated with the distribution of Tagalog translations of the writings of the propaganda movement.
1890 – Don Ignacio Arroyo becomes Alcalde for a year.
1891 / 1892 – Don Pedro Badong becomes Alcalde. Fr. Joaquin Manteca becomes parish priest.
1893 / 1894 – Don Mariano Bañaga becomes Alcalde.
Maura Law Effective 1895 Gobernadorcillo changed to Capitan Municipal
1895 / 1897 – Don Juan Guevara serves as Alcalde for three years. In September of 1896, a reign of terror erupts and some of Baao’s principalia are arrested and imprisoned.
1898 / 1899 – After the declaration of Philippine Independence, Don Paulino Bernas is appointed by the Aguinaldo government to serve as Alcalde. Because of the succeeding war with the Americans, Baao became camp ground to passing Filipino troops with Spanish prisoners heading for Albay
1900 – On February 25, this year, the battle of Agdangan is fought by the Bicolanos including Baaoeño soldiers and officers against three companies of invading American soldiers, because of this the town was almost deserted until peace was restored. The Americans appoint Don Fulgencio Sanchez Alcalde and Don Eugenio Dato Teniente alcalde from April 1900 to June of 1901.1901 – In June 1901 the first elections under the American government was held for the positions of Alcalde and Teniente alcalde.

Apostles of Baao

2008-05-05T14:42:00.007+08:00

During the Holy Week services in Baao, especially during the Holy Thursday liturgy reenacting the "Washing of the Apostles' Feet", the roles of the twelve apostles are played by several reputable men of Baao who are traditionally chosen for their good moral character, if not for their closeness to the Parish Priest. Unless one resigns or is incapacitated, the 'office' of an apostle is held for life.

Click for more pictures: Group: 1, 2, 3, 4. Individuals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

2008-03-13T08:40:00.002+08:00

Sifting Through Perceptions: A Fresh Look

at Baao's Beginnings

An excerpt from "Baao Vignettes"

by P.B.Robosa

Authors’s note: So that a new Municipal official seal could be submitted to the National Government, it became a matter for the local government to establish and clarify once and for all the town’s foundation date .I was one of those invited to provide some explanation to the question and in the process finally appreciated the extent or lack thereof of our knowledge of our past. In looking at our past, we are provided an opportunity to appraise our origins and along the way look into ourselves. Having done so, we can understand our actions and reactions to the changes and struggles we continue to face.

In the early months of 1889, Lt. Jose Taviel de Andrade of the Civil Guards went on inspection tour of the towns of Southern Luzon. A talented artist, his inspections produced illustrations of the towns he visited and one among these was that of the town center of 19th century Baao. His illustrations from Baao bore three vignettes; a squatting man with a child, a bell tower and a scene of the town “poblacion” showing a cross at the center of a group of palisaded houses.
A modern commentary of this illustration presumes that the cross was intended to commemorate the town's still unverified founding by St. Peter Baptist in the twilight of the 16th century. Carefully read, the commentary echoes the opening passages on the work on the history of Baao by the Franciscan scholar Fr. Felix de Huertas who implies that the circumstances regarding the foundation of the town is unconfirmed. This statement has gained much acceptance with writers but is in direct contradiction to the Catholic Church’s pronouncement that the Franciscan saint did indeed found the town in 1590.
Although, to modern historians, the town’s foundation date marks only the start of the town’s recorded history, the 1590 foundation date is, nevertheless, significant as the formation of the town as a religious and political unit during the Spanish regime. Be that as it may, between Huertas and the Catholic Church, whom do we believe? Is their a way to verify which of these claims is correct?
Published in 1865 and widely available, Huertas’ Estado Geografico, Topografico, Estandistico, Historico-Religioso de la Provincia de San Gregorio Magno, has become a popular reference source for the historical records of Philippine towns. Aside from being based on the Franciscan records Huertas had available to him, his concise chronological presentation of his data makes his book a handy source especially for amateur historians.
Baao’s own Luis Dato in his attempt to provide clarification to the unrecorded origin of Baao readily quotes Huertas even as he pointed out that Huertas’ claims contradict data by that of another Franciscan author, Eusebio Gomez-Platero. While Huertas cites the tradition that Baao was founded in the time of Peter Baptist, he discards this information and puts forward a latter date that agrees with his records and his strict definition of a “foundation”. Because of Gomez-Platero’s biographies on Franciscan priests serving in Bicol towns, we are lead to doubt Huertas’ records when the village had priests administering to it years before the village Huertas’ claims became an independent religious unit. Thus later, Dato unable to be sure of Huertas’ and Gomez- Platero’s claims left the question of the town's origins to “the assiduity of future local historians.”
Up until recently, except for the Catholic Church's uncompromising statement on the foundation of Baao as recorded in their directory, there was no authoritative source available to be found of the “foundation” of the town. In Dato’s time, this lack of definitive source led him to write in resignation that Baao’s origins “are shrouded in myths and legends”. Although his statement holds true when we speak of pre-Hispanic Baao, other documents that have come to light today if that if we are to speak of the formation of the town at the time of Spanish conquest, this statement quite mistaken and needs correction.
What are then the available data, at present, of the origins of the town? Except for Huertas’ difficulty in agreeing with the established assertion of the Church, there is really no significant opposition to the 1590 date. The problems Huertas encounter are due to two reasons: First, although the tradition of St. Peter Baptist's founding Baao is firmly established by his sources, the documents to which he decides to give credence rather than tradition, mentions Baao only in 1656, sixty-six years later than the traditional date of 1590. Second, he is honest about his uncertainty of the meaning of the term “foundation” as to whether this happened during the conversion of the people or, during the time the town formed its own civil or religious unit.
Because of existing documents that were once unavailable to him, we may now be able to smooth out some of his difficulties. Regarding documents mentioning Baao at the earliest time, Huertas’ sources are antedated by documents found in Blair and Robertson's The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. The books reprints the original and translations of the documents "The Status of Encomiendas, 1591" and Bao or Baao was already mentioned as an encomienda with more 700 inhabitants a year after the 1590 traditional foundation. This invalidates by 66 years Huertas’ claim the town was first mentioned in documents.
Regarding Huertas’ qualification for the foundation of the town as to whether foundation was to mean during the conversion of the inhabitants or, by Baao’s formation into a separate religious and political unit, the following excerpt below appears to give us the answer:

King - His majesty has another encomienda also) Nabua by name, numbering one thousand and eighteen whole tributes, or four thousand and seventy-two persons. The villages of this encomienda are near together. They used to have four ministers, for they visit the two following encomiendas. There are in Nabua two Franciscan friars.
Bula: Dona Maria de Ron - The village of Bula belongs to Dña. Maria de Ron. It is four leagues from Nabua. It has two hundred and six whole tributes, or eight hundred and twenty four persons. It is visited from Nabua.
Bao: Minor son of Sebastian Perez - These fathers of Nabua visit also the encomienda of the minor son of the late Sebastian Perez, called Bao. It has one hundred and seventy tributes, or seven hundred and four persons. Like Nabua, the capital, it used to have four friars, but now has not more than two. These encomiendas are not well administered but five religious would be sufficient for it.
Buy: Sebastian Garcia - likewise these fathers of Nabua visited and instructed the encomienda of Buy, which belongs to Sebastian Garcia; but they can do so no longer. It is two leagues from Nabua, and can receive instruction from no other place. It has three hundred and twelve tributes, or one thousand two hundred and forty-eight persons, who will receive instruction, when Nabua the capital, has the said five ministers.
The document, aside from negating Huertas’ sources, also render somewhat erroneous the statement that Baao's "conversion" cannot be considered as a “foundation”. How can the conversion of the people and village of Bao qualify as the time of foundation of Baao? Using even Huertas’ own criteria, a convincing argument can be made to reconcile both events.
An “encomienda” in the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Philippines is a royal charge to a person (in Baao’s case a Spaniard named Sebastian Perez) to collect tributes from the inhabitants of a village. In exchange, the “encomendero” must provide protection, justice and instruction to the faith while he and his heirs maintain the encomienda. Thus, if Baao was converted and was an encomienda in 1590, a rudimentary civil and religious unit was formed with the intent to provide order, justice, instruction including catechism and rites of the Catholic faith. This would sufficiently satisfy Huertas’ own definition of a “foundation”, the formation of a political and religious unit under the Spanish crown.
The above passages in addition, by supporting Baao's foundation in 1590, also overturn what we now know as misconceptions of Baao's origins. For instance, because of Dato’s use of parts of Huertas in his frequently reprinted “Brief History of Baao”, when he commences with Baao as a “visita” of Bula, Baaoeños in general assume that Baao was originally a part of Bula like a modern barrio connected to a “Bula poblacion”. If we follow this line of thinking but pushing back time 66 years before, Baao, Bula and Buhi, were originally once “Barrios” of Nabua.
The Spanish dictionary defines "visita" as a religious term referring to a village with a chapel where services where periodically performed by a visiting priest. The priest so assigned makes scheduled visits to the place because of the difficulty posed due to the lack of roads and conveyance between these inland villages. Unlike modern “Barrios” which are originally “Sitios” which are found within the boundaries of and later to be carved out from existing municipalities, Nabua, Bula, Bao, and Buy were all originally separate encomiendas with no clear boundaries and separated by great distances.
Politically, since there was no defined boundaries of the encomiendas or visita, being a visita would not mean affiliation or continuity with another, as do modern barrios to town centers but affiliated simply religiously, by being "visited" from one place due perhaps to proximity or convenience. Let us repeat this line from the Account of Encomiendas to clarify this arrangement:
“likewise these fathers of Nabua visited and instructed the encomienda of Buy, which belongs to Sebastian Garcia; but they can do so no longer. It is two leagues from Nabua, and can receive instruction from no other place.”
Thus, being an encomienda, Buhi like Baao, from the beginning was not part of any place but was an independent village on its own. Also from this example, it appears that the “visita” stage was simply part of a process that each village might undergo or might lose depending on the conditions and availability of clergy that would be able to administer to the village. Take the cases of Buhi and Bula; Buhi a decade earlier was administered from Nabua but in 1591 was not, Baao became independent of Nabua when it became a “visita” of Bula even if the latter was still also a visita of Nabua. It was not 100 years later that Bula became independent of Nabua.
But what is most remarkable when we study these passages is that it gives us a hint to what it was like during Baao's conversion. Note that while the other encomiendas in the list were being "visited" by friars from Nabua, Bao is mentioned, to have recently had its own friars. We know from records that Nabua,. Bula and Buhi were founded a decade or more earlier than Baao and should have reached a degree of stability at this time, Baao was reportedly not visited by friars but "used to have four but now has no more than two". What happened in Baao prior to 1591 that required the services of four friars and still required two a year later? Was the 1591 account simply reporting the aftermath of a mass conversion of the people of Baao in 1590?
It is likely that Baao as a separate civil or religious unit may have regressed or was neglected in the years following its conversion like Buhi in 1591 though converted 20 years before. These lapses may have accounted for the loss of records of the town in Huertas' sources. The 1591 document is a clear picture of the formation of Baao, a year after its conversion and a record of the establishment of Spanish government and religion. From that point, Baao entered the gates of recorded history and the Baaoeños ceased practicing their native culture and religion.
How true then is the tradition that Baao was founded by Saint Peter Baptist? Huertas mentions the tradition that “the town was founded in the time of our Holy Custodian Fr. Pedro Bautista" which covered the period in 1590 to 1591 when St. Peter Baptist was elected custodian of the Franciscan Missionaries in the Philippines. Beloved by the Franciscans, St. Peter Baptist is the subject of many stories and legends. But according the Saint’s biographers (Gomez-Platero's Catalogo Biografico and Sta. Inez's Cronicas) in 1590 he traveled to the Bicol region and founded several villages with Bao among them. He stayed in the region until 1591 when he returned to Manila to assume guardianship of the Manila convent. He finally sailed for Japan in 1593 as envoy to the court of Taicosama, dying there later in 1597 as a martyr.
None of his biographers though, specifically mentions details of him founding Baao and most were writing many years later after the supposed event. It is important to note though that all the same, his biographers agree to the dates regarding his travels particularly the years 1590 and 1591 when he was in Bicol. Accordingly, it would indeed be plausible that he passed by Baao or if he did not, caused his brother Franciscans to convert the Baaoeños in 1590. If these events are true as the Church believes and claims them to be, indeed St. Peter Baptist had a hand in the conversion of the Baaoeños and in so doing founded the present day Municipality of Baao which today accepts 1590 as its foundation year.
We might not know for sure if the Cross that was in the center of Baao in 1889 did indeed honor St. Peter Baptist, but he was much endeared to his brother Franciscans, it would be uncharacteristic for them to let the opportunity slip for creating another legend for a great man.

2008-03-13T01:06:00.001+08:00

Baao and Ockhams’s Razor

While in discussion with two of my colleagues at USI, one teaching Philosophy and the other History, the latter brought up the subject of place-names and said that almost all places now seem to have a local legend as to how a place-name came to be and added this was the fault of the Americans who taught us to read and write about this stories. Incredulously I checked my files and but found this not true as my Spanish sources also contain explanations of the origin of place names but comparing the Baao history of Luis Dato with that of the Spanish historian Felix Huertas which are two popular sources, I found something interesting about the two. While Dato actually used Huertas as his source, it was only he who wrote about of the possible origins of the name Baao giving us three theories the first two being widely accepted:

1. Baao comes from the shape of the early settlement which was shaped like the backside/carapace of the turtle which in local vernacular referred to as a "ba-oo".

2. The name Baao came directly from the aforementioned reptile which in large numbers inhabits the lake.

3. The name came about due to the penchant of the inhabitants of eating left over rice locally called "bahaw".

Huertas, however, writing much earlier using Franciscan records mentions none of these, although he does so with other places. In Huertas’ 1855 Estado, the pertinent line referring to the origin of the town reads, “ Antiguamente, estuvo situado a la orilla de la laguna del mismo nombre, en el sitio llamado layoan.”. Translated it reads: In ancient times, (the pueblo of Baao) was situated in the banks of the lake of the same name, in the site called layoan.
This puts forward some questions like, which came first, the name of the lake or the name of the settlement? Did the name Baao came from the name of the Lake Baao or vice versa.
Which is connected with theory number two, did the lake or consequently Baao came from
an alleged preponderance of turtles in the area?
A year ago, I went to see these places mentioned by Huertas, The Lake would really be shallow to be able to see Layoan otherwise the place would be under water and indeed the banks would accommodate an ancient settlement that would have been widely spread out to give room for living space. About two kilometer south is sitio Mawacag, the ancient burial site that yielded a cache of Chinese porcelain giving proof to the site as a pre-hispanic settlement. If the Lake was named after the turtle, the reptile is now difficult to find now largely replaced by field rats. The ancient binanuaan site a circular mound overgrown with brush and bamboo is east of Layoan and would be too small to contain a village but most likely the site of a town center, a chapel or a market place, but again the lake would really be shallow for the mound to be of any use for human activity but from afar would look like the backside of a turtle just like any island would look in flat water. I understood why the village kept moving east up to the present site, if Layoan was inundated, binanuaanan was not, if binanuaanan was flooded the present site was not and I understood how Dato could make sense of all of these and came up with a believable theory.
Then my friend, the Philosophy teacher introduced me to William of Ockham and his scientific precept called Ockham’s razor. Ockham’s razor is a fundamental principle of modern science and philosophy which said that one should not assume the existence of more things than are logically necessary and the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one. A theory, using this principle, can be stripped down of the unessential with a metaphorical “razor” to reveal what would be the most likely explanation.
Using it on the Baao place-name and starting with the bare essentials, Baao was first used in a census document in 1590 with the spelling of “Bao”. The first time the place was indicated in a map was in Murillo-Velarde’s 1733 map but the village was not identified but the lake which was marked as “Laguna de Bao”.
We should remember that Bao or Baao is the name of a place not a group of people thus we can safely discard Dato’s number three theory that Baao came from the behavior of its people of eating cold rice, which anyone could do anywhere.
Now, is the name referring to the lake or the village? Before the Spaniards came there was no Baao as village, the inhabitants dwelt on the banks of the lake, only when they were converted did the people gathered in one place within reach of the church and the tribute collectors. The early settlement of binanuaanan, the one resembling a turtles back would be used only years later after the “encomienda” or “visita” Bao was already mentioned in documents.
Although it is not enough that Huertas mentions it and Murillo-Velarde used it, they are believable sources that say Bao came from the name of the lake. Common sense and experience will tell us that the natural tendency of place names being created and catching on is the presence of a prominent landmark. Notably, in the case of Lake Bao, a lake that is uniquely shallow. Thus, the theory that in ancient times, the place where the people on the banks of Lake Bao inhabited and which became a village to be called Baao is the simplest explanation that would result to satisfy Ockham’s principle. We now would find ourselves then trying to answer the question, from whence did the name Bao come from? Was there a abundance of turtle in the lake? To be simple again, let us assume there was not, and say that the name came from the description of the shallow lake, which in local dialect is variously “ababow” and “mababow” or a description of the banks “ibabow” all would be closer in phonation to the spelling of “bao” than “ba-oo”, a closer one would be the Tagalog “bao” which is unlikely as the Bicol equivalent is “soro” or the Baaoeño “abab”.
The simplest explanation then for the source of the name of Baao is that in on the banks of a shallow lake {mababow) inhabited a group of people which the Spaniard unified into a village which they called “Bao” from the name of the lake. The name was carried whenever the people moved eastward to avoid the constant flooding and in four centuries the Municipality of Baao became better known than the lake from where it got its name.

A Poem by an Expatriate

2008-02-12T17:01:00.000+08:00

. . . . . . . . . .THOU SHALL NOT

Scrutinizing the satellite map of my native
. . . . .town in another continent was like
. . .investigating the crime scene
. . . . .of a teenager's sin

Here once stood the house where my Lolo
. . . . .chastised me with words that started
. . . . .with: Are you a boy or a girl?
when he caught me tiptoeing to my room to
. . . . .check my new hairstyle - the shortest
. . .cut that was, and the most modern
. . . . .outfit I was wearing called
. . . . . . .pedal pushers

Here is the main road to the town proper or
. . .going the other way, out of town to the
. . . . .cemetery - the detour destination
. . . . .for young bicycle riders
. . .on moonlit nights
the same road where I learned to ride a bike
. . . . .an unthinkable act by a well-bred
. . . . .girl; bicycle riding with boys
. . .one moonlight night

. . .Went to confession
. . . . .not sure what commandment was
. . .broken but did penance for disobedience

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .- Aida B. del Rosario

2008-01-22T12:48:00.000+08:00

The Cold of January

Imagine being so warm again
Hot chocolate simmering on the stove
sounds so inviting to the steaming polutan
I'll eat my crisp tuyo slowly to last till tomorrow.

I promised myself some hot coffee later
and hurry inside till the fog turns to snow.

Now I forgot I'm too old to be this happy
My body smarts from the heavy blankets
and your grin after so much mischief
as I tease your frozen fingers clumsily.

I enfold you and lead you to a little dance
working up a sweat on that sweet warm skin.

Let's do this every year in the cold
until that time when the cold front fades
or the weather breaks to rain and puts puddles
to the floor.

leaving us these intentions and recollections
of the warmth of this world.

A Christmas tale by P.B. Robosa

2007-12-09T06:04:00.001+08:00

Some years ago, for Christmas, I wrote a story as a Chirstmas gift to my wife, I gave her the copy of my first draft and vowed to elaborate it later when I will be able to publish it in a book along with my other stories. Well, the book is still a dream and the first draft remained untouched but its almost Christmas and I'm happy to share it with you.

The Tree of a Thousand Years
By: P.B.Robosa

Do you remember the story that the sky was once close to the earth? This was true. The sky was close to the earth and it was held by a tree that only lives for a thousand years. So for every thousand years or so the sky was in danger of falling down to earth and crushing everything on it, except of course, that their will be another tree ready to hold it up again. This would happen at the end of the year and at the beginning of the next so people then would wait quietly and anxiously at the end of the year, to the last minute, then broke in celebration on the first minute of the next year if the sky didn’t fall.
Nothing has yet seen this tree and many tried. It was said that a rainbow should point the way because its center is believed to be the highest part of the sky so perhaps the tree is there. So whenever a rainbow appears many would head out to its center. Finding the tree would be a great quest but also of enormous rewards because many believe that at the tree’s feet, gushes all the waters of the earth and from this the purest. From its branches, all fruit and flowers of the earth, even gold and silver, sprout and blooms. But best of all anyone who reaches it will have their hearts desire fulfilled, Once under the tree, one fears no ill weather, no hunger, no thirst, no loneliness and no pain. It would have been a great find for anyone indeed.
The bird Sayong wanted to see this tree and like many others he set out one day at the most beautiful of rainbows. The problem with Sayong was that he couldn’t fly like other birds because he was weighted down, endowed with many things because he was a peacock. He had a beautiful crown, shiny iridescent coat of feathers and a most wonderful tail that looked like it was studded with jewels. Sayong was encumbered by these trappings and a haughty and heavy heart that did not know how to love. So like the others he walked towards the rainbow.
After a while many have fallen back and discontinued the journey and only the most determined continued including Sayong. By nightfall the rainbow was gone and many others travelers and those that were left sat around a fire to keep warm. Sayong sat beside a tired Rooster who was staring at his crown. “My dear peacock,” said the Rooster, “you have such a beautiful crown.” “Do you get much praise from it?” “Yes I do,” said Sayong, “In fact I would give it to anyone quite easily because the endless praise it gets has become quite annoying.” “I would love to have them,” answered the Rooster quickly, “because that is why I am here, to look for praise which I have never had in my life and I fear I will die without it.” “I will give it to you if give me something in return.” said Sayong, “what do you have that you can give me?” Well they say I only have character, would you take some of my character?” “All right, said Sayong, taking off some of his crown and giving it to the Rooster for some of the Rooster’s character. At once Sayong felt some of his character and began to smile at himself.
The next evening at the fire, Sayong sat beside a tired looking Owl which kept looking at his iridescent feathers. “Did you get much learning my dear peacock? Your feathers are quite marvelous they look like the garment of a great philosopher.” “Yes,” answered Sayong, “I get much prestige from it but since the Rooster gave me some character last night I seem to feel no use for them.” “Prestige--you say?” retorted the Owl, “that is what I’m here for, I only have wisdom but I do not get much prestige, would you trade some of your coat with some of my wisdom?” “Gladly.” said Sayong.
On the next night, Sayong met a lonely looking white dove who kept looking at his tail feathers. “You have such beautiful tail feathers,” said the dove, “I wish I was born with some of them so I will not look so plain but beautiful like you. Sayong now with some character and wisdom offered “Would you like some of them, I’ll be glad to give you some.” “Really,” said the dove, “but I can only give you back some love which is all I have.”
“What is that?” Asked Sayong who did not know what love was. “No matter I’ll take it anyway, here are some of my tail feathers.” continued Sayong. Suddenly he felt very light and for the first time Sayong tried his flightless wings and he began to fly. He flew high up into sky and he was so happy he flew and flew and flew. At the very highest he did not feel the cold that was beginning to freeze his feathers, raindrops and wind began to buffet him but he continued on flying until at last he felt very tired and began his descent. A soon as the clouds parted from below him he saw a most majestic tree in front of him. It glittered with all manner of good things and Sayong immediately knew what it was and he headed for it.
Sayong perched on one of it branches and the tree moved feeling his presence. A voice from the tree began to talk. “Do you know where you are dear bird? You are in paradise and perhaps you are already dead for no one enters here alive.” “It does not matter anymore” answered Sayong “I am happy because I have found the tree of a thousand years.” The voice answered from the tree “The tree of a thousand years is the downfall of men, it is here that my Master was betrayed by the first man and woman who were lured and corrupted by its beauty. Up to this day it corrupts the world by its empty promises, that is perhaps why you are here. Yet my Master brings hope into the world by sending his son to destroy these promises and replace it with the promise of hope, no longer will men look from outside of themselves for nourishment, sustenance and freedom, but if they looked very hard, these they will find in their hearts.” And Sayong understood that his quest has ended and he stayed in paradise perched on the tree of a thousand years with his beauty, character, wisdom and love.
Everything came to pass in the world and a child was born to end all endless quests, and men most not look elsewhere but into their own hearts. The Rooster ever since was praised by men who removed its crown, the Owl had prestige but never got to show it because it came out only at night, the Dove never liked his tail feathers and today it has become symbol of love. Sometimes we never know what we will get until we stop wishing for it and we wait, What is true is that there is always joy in giving, whether it is a loving father giving his son away out of love, giving one’s life for others, or a Peacock giving all that he is about so he may truly feel real joy and freedom. We should remember these lessons at Christmas that it is not what we receive that gives us joy but what and when we give. To this very day we decorate the Christmas tree to remind us of another tree that holds up the sky and bears all things beautiful, why don’t we let it stay there till the New Year, lest the sky fall.

The End

2007-12-01T11:11:00.000+08:00

The Year 2007 is marked in history, albeit quietly, as the Centennial of the First Philippine Assembly, the incipient Philippine Congress of the First Republic in Asia. In October 16, 1907, on it opening day, right after William Howard Taft formally opened the proceedings, Bishop Barlin was given the floor to deliver the invocation or opening prayer. Nationalist historians dismiss this event as an American colonial tool to pacify the Filipinos, but curiosly, among its first topics on its opening day was the subject of Philippine Independence and from point of view of an American journalist simply saw it as a significant event in the History of the Filipinos, thus he wrote:

"It was Father Barlin who made the invocation at the opening of the First Philippine Assembly in 1907 --- a little incident in world history the full significance one hardly grasps. In a setting of Oriental Fanaticism, where life is held at naught, where man has no right that may not lose overnight, where his liberty, his home, his family are his, only as long as they are not wanted by another more powerful than he, there had come into existence an island people with Christian ideals, in whose land our own America had laid the foundation of democracy. Here, in 1907, the Bicol bishop, Father Jorge Barlin, gave the opening invocation at the first Oriental assembly of the people, by the people, and for the people".

Invocation for the First Philippine Assembly
October 16, 1907
Delivered by Msgr. Jorge I. Barlin

Translated from the original Spanish by P.B. Robosa

To You, Greatest and Omnipotent Creator, the only Magnificent King, Who reigns over the Universe with Eternal Majesty as the only Lord God. Who has created it with Your Power, You have put it in order with your knowledge, You support it with Your kindness, and You control it with Your Providence; to You, Voice of God in the highest, on whom the light of intelligence existed from all eternity, and with it you enlighten all men born to this Earth; to You, fountain of knowledge, whose eternal commandments are just and honest for all men, governments, families, societies, countries and nations, for the tribes and the kingdoms; to you Father of Light, from whom descends generosity and perfect gifts; counsel and impartiality; prudence and strength; to You on whose hands are the riches and the glory, the opulence and justice of all nations; to You, for whom the rulers govern with wisdom, the lawmakers decree just laws, the princes and heads of states order good things and the judges administer justice; we invoke You now on this great day of our history, on the day when the Filipino nation, a nation that acknowledges and adores you, is assembled for the first time to deliberate on its future destiny.
Pour upon these noble representatives the abundance of Your gifts, light over their intelligence, firmness in their wills, straightforwardness, nobility and determination in their acts, prudence and tact in all their decisions; so they may decree what is good and useful for the country, that which would contribute for its well being and greatness, that which would make it tread its way always towards the path of real human progress, until it reaches the summit of liberty and independence where dwells the noble and great nation, to which you have trusted the continuity and accomplishment of the work for its moral and political greatness. Bless also, Omnipotent God, that country under whose protective shield you placed the direction and safeguard of our social life, peace and liberty. For the perception and practice of justice, you have made this country great and strong, you have exalted it with majesty and power over other nations; endeavor, Lord, that while fulfilling the mission you have trusted it with, make the Filipino nation great and contented among other nations of the Earth, AMEN.

Let us commemorate the yearnings and the hopes of the Filipino nation so eloquently laid out by our "kabanwaan" and continue to pray for our Nation, our government and our leaders that they may return to the guidance of God's wisdom and follow His will.

Rizal's words in Baaoeño

2007-11-09T12:35:00.000+08:00

In an answer to a challenge from one of my students from Rinconada who is attending my class on Rizal who commented that Rizal is too intellectual and the youth has difficulty in relating to him, I wrote the following translation of Rizal's "Last Farewell" in simple Rinconada/Baao Bicol to see if indeed Rizal's words would be too alien to the youth. In the process, I discovered the beauty and capacity of our own dialect in expressing Rizal's lofty thoughts and feelings.

Pinaka-Oreng Pa-aram
Ni Dr. Jose P. Rizal
Itinaga-Baao ni P.B. Robosa

Paaram ragang kinagis-ngan, potos kin kaliwanagan
Perlas sa dagat subangan, na-uuda tang kamurawayan
masingaya kong dara, patapos na ag mamundong buway,
kun tibaad kuntana ini mas makintab, lab-as ag sagana,
itatao man diyaday tolos-tolos para sa kanimong karayan.

Sa lugar kin labanan, sa init ka labo-labong sinabatan
dali tolos kong ibubuklad, ining buway kanimo idudusay,
maski sari man, puon tanom, sa takay o sa lubid bitayan
patag man o talbungan kin binitay , labanan o kasakitan
dyaday man a buway, itatao kun ayaton ka banwaan.

Ngamin ko babayaan pag langit bumuka ag nag aninag
senyas ka tapos ka ngitngit sa silaw ka bagong ramrag
kun kulang a pagkapula kuyan na namumulaag mong aldow
ibulos ag iluyap a pula ka rugo sa kanakong mga ugat,
itugma sa nagpupuon mong aldow na mabukang liwanag.

Pangitorogan ko, ko ako igin pa, padagos angan nagdakulo
pagitorogan angan nagin tawo, nagkukusog angan nagtalubo
Namapandawan ka, kanamong perlas ka sirangan dagat
oda lua a maitom mong mga mata, tulid a kiray sa angog
di nagmomundo o nagngongorot, oda mantsa kin pagkasupog.

Anap-anap ka kanakong buway, mawot ko angan pa man
Tara! babaoy kana kalag ko na sumusuway ag babayaan,
Tara! Aba-a nang raay na mauda tanganing ika mabuway,
mag-raan ta tumindog ka, nakaasag sakanimong kalangnitan,
sa raga mong malumok, magturog tuninong uda katapusan.

kun usad na aldow, ika maka-koko, sa kanakong linubngan
nagtatarok kaiba sa mga doot usad na bumobukang burak
irokot mo kanimong mga ngabil ta ako kanimong inarkan
ag mamatean ko sa angog maski sa irarom kan lubungan
a maimbong mong inga-inga, pagpayaba mo mamamatean.

Pabayaeng a aninag ka bulan roktan ako kin luway-luway,
togote na ako kumintab sa mga silyab ka bagong sirang
a na angin pababayaeng magoyop-oyop kin kamunduan
ag minsan kun agko tumogpa, sa krus ko, usad na gam-gam
pabayaeng maghingalo, ag magsiwit kin katoninongan.

Sa init ka aldow, paalisnga-wa pagkabasa ka tubig uran
tanganing agrangay ko sa langit, paitaas man darahon,
Ludok na inabot kining buway ko, bayae a iba pagtangisan,
pagsinarom ka apon ag saka ako ipinapangadyi man
Banwaan, tabi ipagnayo-ngayo na sa Dios ako magingalo.

pangadyi mo man su ngamin na ma-irak na nauda
su ngamin na nag-agi kin di maisip na mga kasakitan
para sa mga ina ta, na di matapos a na mga panambitan
para sa mga ilo, mga balo ag mga rakop na pinasakitan
pag-arangan man Banwaan, yana kanimong katalingkasan.

Saka kun gab-i matawoban na kin riknum a kamposanto,
oda nag aantabay kundi mga guiraan na sanang gayo,
di pag ribuka a na muraway o bugawon a na misteryo.
Ag kun marungog mo a na tunog kin gitara o harpa,
ako yan payaba kong Banwaan, kanimo na nagkakanta

Pag ining linubngan kanako, di na basang mabisita
ni ono na basang krus o bato na natutudang tanda
ipaarado mo sa para-oma angan a raga iluyap niya.
A abo ko bago malopa na ag di na mapakinabangan,
bayaeng mapino ag maging polbo sa ragang kaiwasan.

Ang-gan sa di na kaipuwan na ako man marumruman
lilibutun ko an maiwas mong langit, bukid o patag
maludok ko ikang kakantahan ang-gan ika mananok
sa kolor, ta-mis ag ugong ka kanakong panambitan
sa pagkabo-ot ag pagmangno, sa kanimo na oda kataposan.

Payaba kong Banwaan, ika na kanakong kamondoan
Filipinas kining buway, ironga ining kanakong paaram
babayaan ko kanimo, mga kag-igin, mga nabotan.
Lugar na uda mga uripon, ana kanakong pai-iiyanan
kun sari a pagtubod buway saka Dios a kag kahadean.

Paaram, mga kag-igin, mga ngod, mga parte ko buway
mga kayamon ko sa pobreng baloy na naroromroman
mamuya kamo na ako umaabot na sa ka-ingaloan
paaram nakagnirit na dayowan, kaiba ko sa kamuyawan
paaram sa ngamin na nabootan, a pagraan kapa-ingaloan.

Moro raids---in Baao?

2007-10-11T09:18:00.000+08:00

Some readers found my commentary on the image of 19th Century Baao surprising, if not hard to believe. What Moro raids? Moro raids on a place so far inland?
Moro raids were indeed a real danger for almost a century in the Bicol Region not excluding the town of Baao. Moros or Muslim raiders would wreak havoc on the coastal and inland towns of Bicol in search of loot and Christian slaves to be carried away to be sold or traded. Many of these towns, after being raided, would not recover and would disapper from the map. In the Rinconada area I can only assume that this raiders either entered the area from the Bicol river upon entering San Miguel Bay or through a land trail through one of the many gaps along the mountain range west of the region beside the China Sea. There are many accounts that the raids reached inland towns.
One of these recorded accounts, about the measures against them, was the one observed by Fr. Gomez-Platero then parish priest of Baao who recorded that sentinels(which were called with the Hispanized-Bicol word"bantayes") would roam the main streets of Baao ready to give the alarm.
A local account in Nabua recorded the intance when the Moros reached one of there outlying Barangays and the people took refuge in the parish church which was protected with "lantakas" or small cannons installed specifically for this purpose.
The failure of the provincial government to provide protection to the people, even after repeated petitions, elicited simply the province-wide instructions to make bladed weapons, bows and arrows and the setting up of an alarm system with sentinels and lookouts. The Battle of Tabgon Bay is almost unknown to our students but it was a Bikolano victory over these raiders. The threat of the Moros only ended in the close of the 19th Century upon the arrival of the steampowered launch which could easily outrun and shoot their "vintas" out of the water.
This happened more than a century ago and I still remember my Grandmother when as a child when misbehaving would silence me, "Paluway, marungog ngani ika kin mga Moro".

The Philippine Colors

2007-10-05T09:50:00.000+08:00

A reader of this blog from Amsterdam, Peter Praggs, who studies flags, insists that I've got to make some modifications on my painting below. He writes " not only was the sun depicted with a mythogical face but also the stars, and why is the Blue field on top if it was a time of war". I must disagree.

First, the painting is an interpretation of an event based on eyewitness accounts and the only part of the account I reconstructed is that it shows the dead and wounded being carried from the battle field on carabao drawn sleds and these casualties are being replaced from the rear, their comrades taking up the rifles where they fell and firing away. there was no mention of flags but by the gallant way the Bikolanos opened the fight and by military practice this is not impossible.

Second, from the accounts of the Americans, the flag captured is usually a personal battle standard, the Philippine flag was at its infancy and no rules was laid out as to its dimensions, size of the fields and proper color, but I depicted the Philippine flag from what I know from Aguinaldo's instruction, which was in use in the Bicol Region already at this time. someone did told me of the mythological faces on the stars, but I need to look into this.

Third, the practice of putting the Red field on top in times of war was suggested to Pres. Quezon when he laid out the practice of using the "Official Philippine Flag" in 1919. Although some historians who favor Aguinaldo, now insists that at the Battle of Alapan in 1898, the flag was carried into battle with the red field on top.

All these fascinates about history, its in the past but you do not run out of interesting things.

"The Philippine Colors are Removed from the Battlefied at the End of the Battle of Agdangan" by P.B.Robosa

2007-10-03T16:59:00.000+08:00

Oil on canvas, Unfinished, dimensions 6ft x 9 ft, First Exhibited at "Exploring Expressions" P.B. Robosa's First One Man Show, UNC Museum. On permanent display at the Museum of Baaoeño Memory, St. Monica Academy, Baao, Camarines sur.

The 19th Century Image of Baao by J. Rizal's Bodyguard

2007-09-12T11:13:00.000+08:00

Ten years ago, on my occasional visits to the Ayala museum, I came upon the exhibit entitled "The Two Joses", a show celebrating the works and the friendship of Jose Rizal and his one time companion and bodyguard, the Spanish Lieutenant of the Civil Guard, Jose Taviel de Andrade. At a time when photography was impractical, Andrade, a talented artist, recorded his travels through graphite sketches and gave us the only extant image of Baao (so far) in the 19th century. During his visit to the town on May 30, 1887, he made the above sketch. A major pictorial zone of the sketch appears to be the town center showing at the background a roofed structure surrounded by a high fence. Houses appear to be scattered around this structure. Could this be the town marketplace? On the foreground appears to be a mound decorated with plants and a Cross planted at the center. Could this be a town memorial/monument to a Christian town or to the town founder St. Peter Baptist?

The sketch make the village appear fortified against some danger, could the above sketch of a timber and grass bell tower be also an alarm system? The age of the Moro raids on the region was at its end, is this Baao--still fortified and prepared for a Moro raid?

Could this poignant scene of a bony man and child reflective of the prevailing condition of the village at that time, depressed and impoverished or is this a random scene picked by Andrade of the people of the town?

2007-09-11T13:01:00.000+08:00

Waiting for Christmas
and the Lost Trees of Baao Park

This happy love of forgotten years,
shadowed beneath drooping leaves
of the rain trees and fire trees of old
could you not stay and bear the cold

A little time more, in a heart's quickstep
join me on this vigil, in sleepy depth
the stars are beaming and the sun is lost
the bell tolling now for the day's ghost

bursting stars flowing behind clouds
of pale white angels with golden crowns
and the crystal moon brings silvery sheen
on this windy chill of September again.

The tranquil trees huddle in whisper
as we dream of them to again reappear
swaying stronger and stronger till December
but we awake as the cheap lights flicker.

A Model for Generations.

2007-07-02T10:21:00.000+08:00

BEA IMPERIAL SAW: WRITING HISTORY HERE AND NOW

History is written in hindsight, but history is created here and now. It is at the most welcome triumph of one of the daughters of Baao, Bea Imperial Saw that compelled me to write about her. Like all Filipinos I followed lightly but later on was transfixed to the TV set as the drama unfolded at the PBB House. Real life is really as dramatic if not more so than fiction. Characters that you see most of the time played from a script appear and happen in real life. I write history to find and show examples of heroism and admirable character so that they may be taught to the young in the hope that someday these are the kind of people they grow up to. Bea surprises me because in my lifetime I saw in her the traits that I only pick from my readings and sometimes make believe that they are inherent in my heroes. Unlike popular celebrities, Bea did not get to the hearts of the Filipinos because she was beautiful or one who knew how to sing, dance and act, but got to it because of her strength, fortitude and childlike humility all of them played out in front of a national audience. Her reactions towards the actions and counter-reactions of her anti-theses Wendy and the one I forgot already, plays out in my head and would be unforgetable through the years. It's like watching Manny Pacquiao slugging it out, except this time it was wits, feelings, words and actions instead of fists. It will be of no surprise that someday, if not one of these days, some writer would label her as the epitome of what is good, true and beautiful about the Filipina youth and worthy as a model of character for our troubled times. If Bea doesn't do a Nora Aunor later in life, again Baao is blessed with a Baaoeno of national stature to be added to our growing pantheon of worthy Baaoeno personalities. I may not be there to write about her so I'm taking my chance now.

Independence Day in Baao

2007-06-10T03:30:00.000+08:00

The Spectacle of Independence Day Parades in Baao
P.B.Robosa

One of my fondest memories of youth in Baao are the yearly parades done to commemorate our Independence Day. I‘ve calculated the length of almost three decades that such a parade with floats, tableaus and participants with period costumes would remind or shock onlookers about vignettes of our history. My youthful interest then was aroused by the blood and gore that some scenes were played and made out of charcoal and red paint. I was too young to appreciate the historical details and significance of each display but today I could hold a short lecture for each of them to our unaware youth. Asking around, I learned that it was once a contest among Baao’s many organizations and interested individuals. I remembered my late father telling me stories of once he and his friends constructed a lumber, plywood and cement WWII tank with a bamboo barrel. The barrel was supposed to fire carbide gas explosions occasionally during the parade, but the “gunner” couldn’t come up with a good blast along the way, up until the “tank” reached the end of the parade when, in grand finale, a successful detonation split the bamboo canon in two.

These parades were held during the incumbency of the late Mayor Paulo L. Briones and probably participated in by civic minded organizations manned by members who were probably war veterans or who were used to or educated by such enactments. It was the heyday of Tito Dato and the ember days of Luis Dato, authorities both of our local and national histories so they probably had a hand into this. These efforts of our people in commemorating our struggles is truly remarkable and deserves not only our admiration but perhaps a revival of this practices to replace the present uninspiring celebrations of June 12. Jun Ramirez suggests we compile a wish list for Baao and definitely I’m including this on my list.

When construction workers were excavating the Barlin monument for its renovation, they found a marble plaque that read,” Dedicated to the Historic and Cultured People of Baao”, a part of the monument no doubt but is an apt description of the people of this town, let us live up to it, let us continue to be “Historic and Cultured”.

2007 Holy Week Images of Baao

2007-04-15T14:24:00.000+08:00

01 Apr 07 Domingo de Ramos
02 Apr 07 Lunes Santo
03 Apr 07 Martes Santo
04 Apr 07 Miercules Santo
05 Apr 07 Hueves Santo
06 Apr 07 Viernes Santo
07 Apr 07 Sabado de Gloria
08 Apr 07 Domingo de Pascua

Historical Marker to Barlin's Birthplace

2007-04-15T14:07:00.000+08:00

On the occasion of the centennary of Bishop's Jorge I. Barlin's ordination to the episcopacy, this monument was set up mark the place in Del Rosario, Baao, where this illustrious bishop was born. [Click for more photos: 1, 2, and 3]

Vox Bustinera - Renown Sculptor from Baao

2007-04-15T13:44:00.000+08:00

This wooden statue of St. Joseph by Vox Bustinera, renown sculptor from Baao, now graces the corridor of Loyola School of Theology. Von's famous wood carvings of the Stations of the Cross are also displayed at the Church of the Gesu of the Ateneo de Manila University. [Click here for more photos]

The Imperial Family Tree

2007-03-13T01:46:00.000+08:00

The Imperial Family Tree has now been posted on the Internet. The "tree" is based on the mimeographed list (vol. I) distributed during the Imperial Clan Reunion in 30 March 1978, and supplemented by the list coming from the Intia Family (Sept 20, 1998). If I'm not mistaken, the genealogy published in 1978 was a "labor of love" of the late Luis G. Dato, poet laureate of the Philippines, whose mother as an Imperial.

"A Spark into the Darkness" An excerpt from "BAAO VIGNETTES"

2007-03-03T23:03:00.000+08:00

A Spark into the Darkness: The Life and Death
of Dr. Dominador Uybarreta

By: P.B. Robosa

I first heard the name of Don Uy Barretta while I was a member of a committee reviewing nominations to awards for outstanding Baaoeños. Back then, he did not call much interest in me as the committee was then more interested in other personalities or most of us were of the younger set who was unfamiliar with him or his story. The next time I came across the name was when I found an old list of Baaoeño army veterans and guerillas and among the list of casualties was the name of Dr. Dominador or Don Uy Barretta. This came to me as unusual as I’ve never heard that there was a Baaoeño guerilla doctor who died in WWII and immediately got me on the way of finding more about him and his remarkable story.

The Japanese were into the last days of their occupation of the Bicol region and Gen. McArthur had landed in Leyte. To weaken them in preparation for the liberation of the region, American planes were raiding Japanese installations and strafing retreating Japanese convoys. Emboldened Filipino guerillas stepped up operations and Japanese reactions were severe and brutal. Using local collaborators as informers, the Japanese heightened arrests and interrogations of suspected guerillas in a futile but determined attempt to capture and execute them.
In the early months of 1945 when Japanese casualties from American raids were high, the Japanese soldiers retaliated with intensified searches and arbitrary arrests. The first to disappear in these vicious Japanese measures were two local Baaoeños and the Chinese residents Dio-gna, Pana and Amado. All arrested were being taken to the Japanese Headquarters in Pili whose personnel were responsible for the Agdangan massacre months before.
In the twilight of February 4, the Japanese with the help of a masked informer, began to round up a second group of Baaoeño residents and started for the forested barrio of Salvacion. This barrio, on the skirts of Mount Simurai is where most Baaoeños had evacuated to wait out the end of the war. Like most Baaoeños who owned property in the poblacion but fearing Japanese atrocities, the young brood of the family of Mr. Cosme Uy Barretta stayed in the house of a relative in this barrio. Their house in the poblacion was periodically visited and guarded by the elder male members of the family to protect it from looters. The Uy Barretta’s stayed in the house of Ambrosio Baroño and at this house the raiding Japanese with their informer came knocking to look for Dr. Don Uy Barretta.
The Japanese excuse was that they needed a doctor to treat their wounded. Not suspecting anything wrong, Dr. Uy Barretta’s elder brother Santiago told them that his brother was at their residence in the poblacion and with a companion, Jesus Baroño, went with the Japanese to look for him. It was dark when they arrived at the house and with insistent knocks the house was opened by Dr. Uy Barretta’s companion, Feliciano Babilonia. As the Japanese began to search the house, Babilonia hid himself on the opposite side of the creek behind the house and only after a while returned to peep through the upstairs window to see the Japanese truck leaving with the doctor with them.
That night, the Japanese continued rounding and picking up others, like Messrs. S. Amilano, P. Blando and M. Botor, they arrested Mr. Perfecto Palma who was sick with dysentery. Seeing him being led away, his wife of 13 days, Mericia Badiola Palma volunteered to accompany him. The arrests that night also included Engr. Rufu Martirez whom they came upon awakening from sleep in one empty house they searched.
Mrs. Mericia Palma narrates that they were taken to a house in Pili which appeared to be used at the time as a temporary prison. Upon arriving, they met a group of prisoners which was being led away by Japanese soldiers and an officer. A while later, Mrs. Palma then saw the soldiers return with out the prisoners and the officer in the motions of wiping his sword of blood. It became clear to her that executions were taking place nearby.
While inside the house, Mrs. Palma counted 15 prisoners including themselves. For five days these prisoners endured interrogation, abuse, torture and the constant anticipation of death. Despite suffering no worse bodily harm than slaps to her face, she however, could not silently endure the sight of the suffering of her fellow prisoners and the inhuman treatment accorded by their Japanese captors. Coming only to ease the suffering of her ailing husband, she soon volunteered to feed all the prisoners herself. Thus, she witnessed personally the brutal torture the prisoners were made to endure.
By the questions constantly being Dr. Uy Barretta, Mrs. Palma gathered that he was being forced to confess being a supporter of the guerillas. Hung from the ceiling with only his thumbs to support his body weight, he was swung to and fro by his torturer and with each swing a wooden club was slammed into his chest. This torture lasted until the torturer exhausted himself and Dr. Uy Barretta will then be carried to his cell with his chest swollen and badly discolored.
After five days of interrogation, Mr. Palma helped by the fact that he had papers proving that was once an employee of the Japanese Mitsubishi company, convinced his captors of his innocence and along with his wife and Santiago Uybarreta was released. Not waiting any longer for the promised Japanese truck to take them to Baao, the three hiked the 15 kilometer or so distance to Baao on foot to the surprise of their families who thought they would never come back. As for the rest, they would never to return and the whereabouts of their deaths are not known to this day.
The search for Dr. Uy Barretta commenced as soon as the hope of his family that he will be released faded. Mr. Cosme Uy Barretta enlisted the help of Baao wartime Mayor Tomas Guevara to intercede for him with the Japanese authorities but as the war of liberation raged they came up with no information about him. The question of what really happened to him remains unanswered to this day and, Dr. Don Uy Barretta is officially listed as a “casualty of the Resistance’.
Is there truth to the Japanese suspicion that the doctor was a member of the resistance for which reason he was being made to confess during his torture and apparently the grounds the Japanese had to have him executed? His companion during the night he was taken away, Feliciano Babilonia affirms that although he had no official affiliation with any guerilla group he was constantly called upon to treat guerilla sick and wounded in an undisclosed place. Perhaps it is for this reason that the doctor would often take overnight fishing trips to nearby Lake Baao both as means for alibi and avoiding encounters with the Japanese.
Whether he was an active supporter of the guerillas in their operations with the Japanese or merely obeying an oath to help those in need either friend or foe we will never know. What we can be sure, nevertheless, from his actions that he did not hesitate to help civilians, guerillas and even the Japanese who used this reputation of his in their ruse to capture him. What was known of Dr. Uy Barretta before his arrest and death?
Dr. Dominador Uy Barretta was a bright young man and a scion of a wealthy Chinese-Baaoeño Family engaged in business in Baao. Equipped with the best education that could be afforded by his family, he trained to be a Doctor at the University of the Philippines graduating in 1943 in the height of the Japanese occupation the country. In the early days of the war right after the bombing of Manila when transportation and communication to the provinces were in shambles, the young student had his taste of the hardships of war when he made a 400 kilometer hike to Baao from Manila to the astonishment of his worried family.
Years later, returning home to Baao after his graduation, he quickly set up a simple clinic in the family residence and treated all kinds of ailments and wounds without the benefit of medical supplies and medicine. Using only available resources, he treated infected wounds with maggots he cultured himself and used traditional herbal medicine for common aches. The later part of the war saw an escalation of violence and with very few doctors around, his makeshift clinic became swamped with patients. Some of his patients were the survivors of the Agdangan massacre who endured grueling walks or boat trips across the Baao Lake to come to him for help. Later, those who received his services were the pitiful victims of American stray bullets discharged during strafing runs against the Japanese.
In life, his willingness to help others might have been the very cause of his death. While there were other doctors around who may have aroused the suspicion of the Japanese, Dr. Uy Barretta was singled out for arrest possibly due to the treachery of the Filipino informers who could very well have known of his activities.
Because he provided aid to the Filipino resistance, his death therefore in the hands of the Japanese comes as no surprise. But what surprises us is the horrible fate that befell so promising a life, the fate that Dr. Uybarreta may very well have known would come to him if his actions were discovered. His death at the young age of 26 for which perhaps he accepted in the end as a final sacrifice in war comes as a spark into this chapter of darkness in our history. That spark, all the more made bright by his deeds while he was alive should guide our youth to the ideal that risking a comfortable life, even a promising future, for the opportunity to serve those in need truly makes life and death heroic.

CBCP Pastoral Letter on Bishop Jorge Barlin

2007-02-06T00:29:00.000+08:00

To commemorate the centenary of Bishop Jorge Barlin's episcopal ordination (1906-2006) the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines issued this Pastoral Letter:

Bonus Miles Christi

One hundred years ago, in 1906, the grace of the Episcopacy was granted to the Filipino people in the person of a Bicolano born in Baao, Camarines Sur, Jorge Barlin, who took as his Episcopal motto: "Bonus miles Christi" -- A Good Soldier of Christ. It was the first time after three hundred years of Christianity in the Philippines that a Filipino was given such a dignity—certainly, a milestone in the Philippine Church History, an event worth remembering and celebrating....
[click on the title to see the full text].

Llanderal's Photo Album: Holy Week in Baao

2007-02-05T17:12:00.000+08:00

Jasper L. Llanderal has published online two photo albums of the Holy Week in Baao. One album contains a collection of pictures he has taken of the passion play, the Cenaculo, on the street and church patio of Baao. The other holds a collection of pics of the Estudiantina rehearsing and playing music during the Soledad. The photo on the left (taken from the second album) shows a singer consoling the Sorrowful Mother with a song. The photographer from Cagayan de Oro City is the husband of Azon Gaite.

Blog Dedicated to Luis G. Dato

2007-02-04T22:27:00.000+08:00

Stephen Cenon Dato Talla has published a blog in honor of his grandfather and poet laureate LUIS G. DATO. The blog contains the curriculum vitae of Chong Luis, his reflections on poetry writing, and several of his photos (one of which has been borrowed for this post). Click on the link below to visit Stephen's blog:

Luis G. Dato

2007-01-17T06:55:00.000+08:00

The Museum of Baaoeno Memory

The Museum of Baaoeno Memory sucessfully opened last December 29, 2006 amidst a strangely stormy weather. The room where it was located was earlier damaged by Reming and thus the museum opened with repairs unfinished and water from the bad weather dripping into the museum spoiled the otherwise significant and momentous occassion. There are plans to move the museum into a bigger place closer to the library. Calls have been made, specially by the SMA principal for donations of possible museum pieces in the form of household, farm implements, clothing articles, rare baaoenaina publications and photographs. The Museum is still currently improving its present set-up in time for the PAASCU visit as it is one of the best feature of the SMA library and a fine example of the Alumni collaborating with the school for the betterment of the local community. The Museum will also serve a s a venue for community extension as instruction aid to non-SMA students of Baao. The first activity of the museum slated for 2007 and sponsored by SMA batch 1983 is a workshop on finger painting for the SMA arts club members and other interested parties to be scheduled this February.

Remembering Our Own Baaoeño Heroes

2006-11-29T22:45:00.000+08:00

Baaoeño Heroes

Bonifacio Day brings our mind back to our heroes specially those we were made familiar with in school. Many Baaoeños though do not realize that our town has it lists of heroes too. Many among our compatriots are men who risked or sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of an ideal like liberty and freedom. Some of them simply exemplified greatness in their fields and taught others the capacity of the Filipino race. This is the heroism of Jorge Barlin when he broke the glass ceiling imposed by foreigners on our race. So too would Luis G. Dato do in his skill in the borrowed English language. Unlike Barlin and Dato though, more like Bonifacio, are Baaoeños who are heroes dying with clenched teeth and spilling blood in defiance of an enemy. I will not distinguish heroes from martyrs or victims because in the end, we will always remember their pointless death especially in war. My list of Baaoeño Heroes is still incomplete but it goes way back into history:
1. The ancient Baaoeño warriors who fought the Spanish in the 16th century (according to Fray Gaspar de San Agustin)
2. The Baaoeños led by the Mesia Brothers who fought neighboring Nabua in the Baao-Nabua boundary dispute in the 19th century.
3. Bishop Jorge I. Barlin
4. The Baaoeño Principalia who were arrested in suspicion of conspiracy in the Philippine Revolution.
5. The Baaoeño officers and soldiers under Gen. Ludovico Arejola who fought the Americans in the Battle of Agdangan and elsewhere.
6. Luis G. Dato, known in Philippine Literature as one of the earliest Romantic Filipino poet in English
7. The innocents of the Agdangan Massacre.
8. Eusebio Dato, Baao’s Chief of Police under the Japanese who was found clandestinely aiding the Guerillas. He was arrested, tried and executed at Colgante Bridge, Naga City. There was once a proposal in the City government to rename the bridge in his honor.
9. Dr. Dominador D.Uybarreta, young wartime doctor of Baao whose unselfishness to aid the sick and wounded earned him the suspicion of the Japanese. He was tortured and executed somewhere in Pili.
10. The soldiers from Baao and various guerilla outfits formed in Baao which would harass the Japanese during the war.
There will be other heroes and I will continue the list.

Liturgical Music Studio

2006-10-22T11:32:00.000+08:00

Visit my new blog:

Liturgical Music Studio

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In remembrance of the 62nd Anniversary of the Massacre of Agdangan

2006-10-20T07:02:00.000+08:00

October 17th 1944

A dusty gray smoke
replaces the promise of
immaculate clouds of a new day
in the land scorched by the sun.
No one foresaw the fate of
doomed families, an end so grim
to stumble upon.
The sword unseeing, thrusts
and slashes with abandon
and lives cut down
like sheaves of grass and
left to prosper on fallow fields.
All to appease the vengeful,
bitter heart of the conqueror.
The old resigned to the falling
of the embers from the roof,
shield their wrinkled worn faces
with their bony arms,
and the young and the strong
let out suffering cries
and writhe in pain and wriggle
to be free of binding ropes as babies
are tossed to the bayonets
and the holocaust.
And a day passes to memory
from the infamy war

A Halloween Story in Baao

2006-10-17T04:35:00.000+08:00

A Ghost of Fire

An Old Ghost Story set in Baao

Though we have no equivalent of a Halloween night in the Philippines, stories about fiery ghosts are heard in the town. With just a few details missing, we have a story like that of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". These stories, I suspect arose from our proximity to a lake which would on occasion discharge the phenomenon we call in the vernacular as "santelmo". In Physics, "santelmo" or "St. Elmo's fire" is a ball of methane gas evaporating from a stagnant body of water like a marsh, lake or ricefield. Static electricity could set it aglow and the glowing ball would float eeriely on the surface of the water or ground were the wind would take it. I've heard of local farmers play with it by fanning it to make it move to any direction. To the unfamiliar, it would be a ghostly apparition, thus the stories we hear as children about ghosts that we might meet on the road at night. The following story was found published in a pre-war American magazine among a compilation of legends from the Philippines. The story was reprinted recently in the Philippines in a thick compilation of Philippine Legends. What other stories about Baao are hiding among the countless American publications about the Philippines I wonder.

Paulix Robosa

Once upon a time their lived in the town of Baao two robbers who were accustomed to attacking people who went past their hut, for in those days the government was weak. One day, a Tagalog merchant went to the robbers to sell them some clothes. The robbers offered the merchant good food and bed for his siesta. When they saw that he was sound asleep, they killed him and threw his body into the river. The night after the merchants death, people in the neighborhood heard a hoarse voice saying over and over again ”Give one half of my money to my family.” Chance travelers were terrified, for the spirit would whisper to them too. Finally the officials of the town asked the priest to exorcise the spirit. When he had performed the rites, the voice became silent. However at night a fiery man would walk about the town between the hours of seven in the evening to six in the morning. The inhabitants were so frightened that they ate their last meal of the day at Four o’clock, after which they shut up their houses tightly until the next morning. One time a traveler arrived in Baao about eight in the evening. As he passed the church, he saw the fiery man coming toward him. In terror he whipped up his horse and tried to get away, but the ghost caught hold of the reins and stopped the horse. The ghost turned into a real man and said, “Please tell the officials about the two robbers near the town. They killed a man secretly and took away his money.” Then the figure disappeared forever. In the morning the traveler hurried to the tribunal and told his story. The police captain sent five strong men to capture the robbers. Their guilt was proven and they were put into prison for a long time

Ama Niamo

2006-10-08T22:09:00.000+08:00

Click on AMA NIAMO to listen to the music composed by

A Story for the Feast of St. Bartholomew

2006-08-27T04:55:00.000+08:00

The Legend of the Lost Statue of St. Bartholomew

This is an old story about Baao’s patron saint, which I calculate, based on the generations that have heard it, to be more than a hundred years old. The story was told to me by an 80-year old neighbor who as a child, heard it from one of my great grandmothers who also narrates that she heard it from her own grandmother. In my childhood, I’ve heard parts of the story told to me by my parents. It’s been a while since I received a tip from a relative that in Nagcarlan, Laguna, there is indeed a statue of St. Bartholomew containing an inscription of “San Bartolome, Baao, Camarines”. I still do not have the time and resources to verify the truth on this. The following is the story as I heard it from my neighbor who has since passed away.
Paulix Robosa

There is a legend that has been preserved unto this day which is of small significance to our town. Whether this is true or not, I can only say one thing for sure, that nobody has ever exerted effort to prove it.
There was a time during the Spanish period when thunderstorms were very frequent. On one occasion, lightning struck the steeple of the town church which was then entirely built of wood and immediately caught fire. As the thunderstorm was at its worst, no one dared came out and come near the church. The small wooden church would be quickly consumed by the fire were it not for an astonishing but timely intervention by our Patron saint. It is said that as the fire raged, people could see, amidst the flames, our Patron Saint locked in battle with the fire. Soon as the fire subsided, it was found that the church was only partly burned and the statue of the saint only showed slight burns from the fire.
Despite the slight damage suffered by the church, the Parish Priest decided to build a new church in its stead. After completion of this new church it was also decided to replace the old singed statue of St. Bartholomew. So the day came when a perfectly new statue was placed in the altar, to everyone surprise the next day, this new statue showed the burnt marks found on the old image. An even bigger surprise came when the people found out that the old statue is nowhere to be found. The statue seemed to have disappeared angered it was thought, by being abandon by the people.
News later came that a statue of St. Bartholomew was found floating in waters somewhere in the Tagalog provinces and that the inhabitants who found it had difficulty pulling it out of the water because of its great weight. Now the statue they say can be found in one of the churches in one of the towns of this region.
Very few people now know of this story but this is very old and was told to generations within the town of Baao.

Satellite Images of Baao

2006-07-07T21:51:00.000+08:00

Here are various satellite images of Baao taken from Google Earth. Click on the links below: Riconada District * Baao Poblacion * Baao Catholic Cemetery * Baao Central Public School * Baao Lake * Baao Parish Church * Baao Public Market * Baao Train Station * Diversion Road * Ramirez Residence * Agdangan * Buluang * Del Rosario * La Medalla * Salvacion * San Francisco * San Isidro (Oras) * San Jose * San Juan * San Nicolas * San Ramon * San Vicente * Santa Cruz.

A poem for the Centennial Birth anniversary of Luis G. Dato

2006-07-04T13:47:00.000+08:00

A Poem for My Home

I’m home in my own little patch of heaven,

a simple clump of cool peaceful green

encircled by blue horizons and air

interrupted by cream-colored concrete

toasted warm by the vibrant sun

and chilled in the pale orange evenings.

From its skies shower fragrant drizzle

that stir like the poems of Luis Dato,

or buffet like storm and lightning

worthy of the compatriots of intrepid Barlin.

Thus here, scattered among its days

are brave heroes and wise men born

By its lakeshores today as long ago

a determined people carves out a living

as they would a kingdom,

themselves prince and princesses

and lords and ladies with castles on the hill.

They would sit barefoot in the dewy summer grass

and watch at the end of day, their children, the slow,

steady flowering of their dreams.

Then shades of evening roll over

the oranges yellows and purples of a fading sunset

darker now under the waxing moon,

at the moment in shadows never alone,

in this little heaven we have known.

The Uglification of the Town Plaza

2006-07-01T11:26:00.000+08:00

The rapid development of Baao has brought about contrasting results (see Images of Baao). On the one hand, some historical sites have been renovated (e.g., the Barlin Monument). On the other hand, some areas have deteriorated (e.g., the Town Plaza).

The town plaza used to be a spacious green park in the middle of the town. But now the area has been considerably reduced by new structures built there by the municipal authorities. The result is congestion. Moreover, some parts of the park have become a junkyard for cars and machines, etc. Food stalls have been allowed to squat on the public domain.

Before, at any vantage point in town one can see the beautiful mountain ranges of Caranday and the lofty peak of Ki-Agang, But now, the view is partially blocked by the high roof constructed over the social hall and the basketball court. Even the municipal building can no longer be seen from afar.

Baao sorely needs of a town planner who will take into consideration the environmental needs of the community… someone who can keep the town GREEN and CLEAN.

A poem by P.B. Robosa

2006-06-22T12:37:00.000+08:00

Grandpa and the Gabi

Grandpa cooks and eats every
part of the gabi,
savors each kind in any cooking,
consuming the roots, the stems
up to the best part,
the large waterproof leaves.
I even saw him enjoying
the fragrance of the gabi flowers.
He patiently rolls the young leaves
into cylinders and ties them
with the stem and before the rice cooks,
steams them over its surface,
later adding shrimp paste and masticating
each singularity of the plant
with his fingers
down to its very core.
I, his grandson laughs
at his innocent, frugal folly.
Stems and discarded leaves cover my plate--
I doubt the parts are edible.
I, his grandson was not yet old enough
to eat like a goat.
I will grow up in a world
tired of nibbling at the leaves
and fears the bite of the acid beneath
and throws the plant away.
Maybe I will be one to retrieve
the rejected plant from the garden,
patiently tear the leaves to small pieces,
and discover its distinct forgotten taste.

A poem by P.B. Robosa

2006-05-15T12:55:00.000+08:00

Keeping Time

My grandmother never had much,
slender frame and thin gray hair
sang old lullabies and danced
through afternoon siestas
and wiled away time playing cards.
I still remember her calloused fingers
as she puffed on the senorita
toward her chest and out again,
watching time’s rhythm
with the melodies from the old radio
and fresh wind from the window.
I remember how she used to put pillows
on her lap for my afternoon naps.
Nothing felt better than drifting
to sleep wrapped in one of grandma's hands,
listening to her cracked, aged voice
singing, "sleep, oh, baby."
So warm, I thought I would never feel cold
again.

Holy Week 2006 Photo Albums

2006-04-18T22:19:00.000+08:00

Cenaculo staged at the church patio last 12 April 2006 (Wednesday). Click on the following links for more photos of the Holy Week 2006 taken by Felipe Fruto Ll. Ramirez, SJ:
[1] Domingo de Ramos; [2] Miercules Santo; [3] Viernes Santo; [4] Soledad; [5] Domingo de Pascua; [6] Images of Baao; [7] Medical Mission

Requiem for the Dead at the Battle of Agdangan

2006-04-16T07:20:00.000+08:00

In memory I was a fool deceived by
flighty passions and arrogant dreams.
Running with charlatans in uniforms
reveling in brave talk of revolution.
So marched I to the clangor of battle
death calls dressed in bold adventure

The sun must rise in the east, they say,
bring a fiery sunrise to this doomed land
where flowers never bloom and flourish
on infertile fields undisturbed by graves,
mourned and unlamented by our tears.
Water and till it with blood to let it live?

Content then I was already of my rest,
glad of my lot and place seeking only
that the land enfold me with abundance
as I pay it my love and constant labor
following the ways of my ancestors
in this land of kindness and beauty.

Fate inevitably revealed trumpet calls
from ominous clouds from the west
threatening to lay waste my fields
where my hand had lovingly borne
seeds from my table and flowers bloom
on land once laid bare and unsown.

Banners bloodied beneath Simurai
at the stairway to clouds we battened
against the intruder overwhelming
with pen, paper, bullets and Krags.
I stood with teeth and fist and fought,
‘until shot and blades our belly opened

Is there not valor in simply to love?
To clasp and embrace what is dear.
Isn’t courage a fight for lost causes?
for treasured but long lost freedoms,
for struggles to grow strong and better
for that end-greatness was our quest.

To see in my land, my children beloved
warmed soft by gold, glowing sunbeams,
running free in the fields of the fallen
over grass blown by unfettered wind,
on earth held not by might and power,
but by those who loved and tilled her.

Memory die away lost to the grave,
words, deeds finally pass and fade
So, stranger by the road, recall then
that day that I lost all, but saw at last
my sunrise, my grass green and warm
as I fell at the Battle of Agdangan.

P.B. Robosa

The Museum of Baaoeño Memory

2006-04-07T19:19:00.000+08:00

Name and Address

The Museum will be called "Museum of Baaoeño Memory/Museo ng Pang-alalang Baaoeño/Museo kan Pangiromdom Baaoeño/ Museo kin Pangrorom Taga Baao. It is located at the Second Floor of the Coop Building of St. Monica Academy, Baao, Camarines Sur.

Organizational Structure

The museum will be a joint project of the St. Monica Academy and the SMA Alumni Association with a continuity clause that it will be maintained by the Spirit of 78/82 with Mr. Paulix Robosa as its Curator even if the batch is no longer the SMAAA host. SMA shall provide the site of the museum and The Spirit of 78/82 through Mr. Paulix Robosa as volunteer curator will undertake the duties of such position for the proper operation and maintenance of the same. The curator will organize appropriate activities for the promotion of Baaoeño arts and culture and will link with appropriate government agencies for grants and other sources of funds.

Museum Objectives

1. The collection and exhibition of Baaoeñana materials and artifacts i.e photographs, historical and cultural documents, literature, visual art works.

2. The promotion of Baaoeño arts and culture through occasional exhibits featuring museum collection and Baaoeño artists and artworks.

3. The acquisition of archival materials regarding Baao and its people from sources all over the Philippines and the world, and to make them available to students and researchers.

Tentative Dates of Opening

June 29,2006/August 23, 2006/ December 8, 2006

Another Poem by Luis G. Dato

2006-04-05T22:15:00.000+08:00

Day In the Farm
by Luis G. Dato

I’ve found you fruits of sweetest taste and found you
Bunches of duhat growing by the hill,
I’ve bound your arms and hair with vine and bound you
With rare wild flowers but you are crying still.

I’ve brought you all the forest ferns and brought you
Wrapped in green leaves cicadas singing sweet,
I’ve caught you in my arms an hour and taught you
Love’s secret where the mountain spirits meet.

Your smiles have died and there is no replying
To all endearments and my gifts are vain;
Come with me, love, you are too old for crying,
The church bells ring and I hear drops of rain.

Projects: Agdangan & Dato Monuments

2006-04-01T21:58:00.000+08:00

Our projects are receiving quite an attention, from an e-mail of a Baaoeno expatrate living in the U.S. who heard about the project in Agdangan, I sent the following reply:

"The project at Agdangan has taken years to evolve, It's started when I researched an unrecorded battle that took place there and it's called The Battle of Agdangan. This research was given an award by the National Historical Institute ( if you looked around my house, the large painting I had on the wall depicts this battle) For a while, the Municipio and I commemorated it every February 25 instead of the Edsa revolution which falls on the same day. This commemoration was forgotten because of changes in local politics and also because it was confused with the Massacre of Agdangan which is an entirely different event and falls on October 17. I hesitated requesting an official marker from the NHI (although they already agreed) because we still have no official site to place the future marker. So to make this happen (This would make Baao again as a historic site) and to stop the confusion between the "Battle" and the "Massacre" we decided to put a Monument commemorating this two events with two markers one for each said event. The monument will be called "The Monument of the Victorious Fallen" with the statue of the an Angel of Victory between two walls at right angles forming a "V". On one hand she holds a sword to indicate the Battle of Agdangan marker, on the other hand she holds a torch for the Massacre marker. Both markers will be placed on the wall/leaves of the "V". The Barangay council of Agdangan has already designated a place and it is supported by the Mayor and we placed a tentative date for the inauguration on October 17, 2006, the 62nd anniversary of the Massacre of Agdangan. We estimate the monument to cost around 1,000 dollars."

About the Barlin Centennial, we're at the one month countdown. We're now preparing the Program and making list for those to be invited as participants, feel free to make suggestions. The mayor was about to start constructing the marker except for some last minute consultations with Tyong Tiday who needs to ask permission to the owner of the lot. Anyway everything came out positively except for this minor delay and he asks for some modifiactions on the marker which we are having made now. We would like to have him play a major role in our unveiling of the Luis G. Dato monument sometime in July, so we have informed him about this because he was one of those who organized a testimonial for the late poet when he was alive.

Thank you. Paulix Robosa

Wartime Photo of Baao #2

2006-03-17T23:42:00.000+08:00

The other picture of Baao which Harold L. Brodhead took was the Catholic parish church. For this photo he wrote a simple caption: 'Baao, Philippine Islands - Baao Church'. Note the fence with huge balustrades around the patio. The old convento which was destroyed by fire in 1966 is partly visible in the picture. And so is the grotto of Lourdes. The neo-baroque facade of the church with its twin belfry is a pre-war (1920s) construction, but the thick walls made of lime and ladrillos originate from the Spanish era. See more of Harold's Wartime Photos published in the internet.

Wartime Photo of Baao #1

2006-03-17T22:38:00.000+08:00

Harold Laubach Brodhead (b. 1924 and d. 1959) from New Jersey was a technician 5th grade of the 158^th Infantry “Bushmasters”. He partici- pated in the liberation campaign of Luzon (15 Dec 1944 - 4 July 1945). While passing through Baao he took this picture and wrote the following caption: '1945 Baao, Philippine Islands, Flips and carts, many lived in the carts and toured the islands.' "Flips!" - that was how the American soldiers condescendingly called the Filipinos. Harold was obviously misinformed about the use of the carreta. After the war he joined the occupation forces in Yokohama, Japan. See more of Harold's Wartime Photos published in the internet.

Poems about BAAO by P.B. Robosa

2006-03-15T07:08:00.000+08:00

Rignos Waves

From the window pane
rice fields stretch and shimmer
westward slivers a path
out of gaze along the winding vale.
Ancient farmers gave names
to winds from certain places
with a sense of the invisible
that I first felt and remembered
Sea from the blue sky,
thousands of sparrows dappled its face
I didn't know that there
was a word for life's desires
To leap out of itself
Now looking down and
swooping past my window
and I stand still in wonder.

Around My House

To the east sits steady
Ki Agang’s throne
A splendid blue volcano
where the sun slips in at dawn

The south sprawls a cacophony
of people, friends and kin
clump of trees and concrete
to lose cares in the busy din.

The vast north open boundless
where soothing breeze begin
and Simurai skims the clouds
and the road to dreams open

Sunsets to the west bodes peace
and balmy tranquility sleeps
at Baao lake where my people began
with God’s glory, grandeur, and gifts.

At Barlin Park

Summers end at Barlin park
beneath St. Bartholomew’s
I’d climb the stone bulwark
slippery and wet with dew
and see the town anew

then I would jump free
to the soft grass below
on scraped hands and knee
as others would follow
and roll away triumphantly

and the monkey bars will call
and we clamber up the device
arm over arm we’d crawl
through a gauntlet of pipes
till at last our breath sufficed

no one remembered home
and we wished for the rain
scanning the clouds that roam
as we cleared the grass of grain
where last summer we had lain

come at last the first raindrops
from skies turning grey and dim
I’d close my eyes to the drops
till water reach grass tips rim
and lift me off a carpet of green

The Death & Burial of Msgr. Jorge Barlin

2006-03-14T13:47:00.000+08:00

The original Spanish article was published in the review El Santisimo Rosario, vol. XXIV (1909) p. 722; English translation by Felipe Fruto Ll. Ramirez, SJ.

The Illustrious Msgr. Jorge Barlin Imperial
Dominican tertiary, first native bishop of the

Philippines

In this Review, we said something about the life of this renown prelate, a Dominican tertiary, who had lived defending us and died loving us. Now we shall say something about his death in order to mourn him and beg our readers to pray for his soul.

The illustrious Filipino prelate was not yet old. He was born in Baao on April, 1850. He was every bit a ‘Spaniard’ and a Dominican. He was consecrated bishop of Nueva Caceres on June 1906. When he came to Rome in May of this year 1909, for the purpose of making an ad limina visit, he became grievously ill in the Eternal City and suffered with great courage until he died on the fifth day of September in the college of the Spanish Dominican fathers at Via dei Condotti [see photos], comforted by all the sacraments and the special apostolic blessing sent by His Holiness Pius X.

Vested in episcopal regalia, his body was waked in the church. The day after his death, a solemn funeral Mass was celebrated. The Reverend Father Jeronimo Coderch, Consultor of the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and assistant to the Most Reverend Master General of the Order of Preachers, officiated. The aforementioned Reverend Father General Jacinto M.^aCormier intoned the final prayers of commendation for the dead.

Various cardinals, bishops, superiors general of religious orders, secular priests, and devout members of the Roman nobility attended the funeral.

The cadaver of the virtuous Dominican bishop was placed on an elegant funeral car and brought to the cemetery of Campo Verano, and laid to rest in the chapel owned by the Dominican Fathers in that cemetery.

May the illustrious prelate rest in peace!

A Poem by Luis G. Dato

2006-03-13T16:32:00.000+08:00

The Spouse

Rose in her hand, and moist eyes young with weeping,
She stands upon the threshold of her house,
Fragrant with scent that wakens love from sleeping,
She looks far down to where her husband plows.

Her hair dishevelled in the night of passion,
Her warm limbs humid with the sacred strife,
What may she know but man and woman fashion
Out of the clay of wrath and sorrow—Life?

She holds no joys beyond the day’s tomorrow,
She finds no worlds beyond her love’s embrace;
She looks upon the Form behind the furrow,
Who is her Mind, her Motion, Time and Space.

O somber mystery of eyes unspeaking,
O dark enigma of Life’s love forlorn;
The Sphinx beside the river smiles with seeking
The secret answer since the world was born.

A poem by P.B. Robosa

2006-03-13T14:02:00.000+08:00

To An Old Statue of Barlin

I'm seen all around as everyone knows
on my shoulders the birds launch to fly,
and my feet are crowded with swallows,
the last stop to the place where they die.

My pillow is the moon slowly rising,
and the wind sprinkle my clothes with sand,
these eyes that seek out what meaning,
to the torn and forgotten toils of my hands.

my pulse muffled and chained and mellow,
someday it will burst out through this cast
like flowers planted amidst grass down below,
someday picked, like names from your past.

Till then, I'll hide my soul in this rock,
With the spit and scratches in the paint,
And yield to the flood of your neglect,
With my proud demeanor well spent.

And you may cover me then with darkness,
sweep my base with a flick of your wrist.
Under my shadow, this accursed harness--
To watch over you and all that there is.

Barlin Centennial

2006-03-13T12:08:00.000+08:00

The Centennial of the Episcopal Ordination of The First Filipino Bishop, Jorge I. Barlin of Baao, Camarines Sur.

June 29, 2005 - June 29, 2006

On the Late Morning of June 29, 1906, inside the University of Santo Tomas at what was then the Dominican Church of Sto. Domingo, multitudes gathered under drizzly weather on an event never seen by Filipinos in three centuries of Catholicism. The event was the Consecration of the Bishop of far away Caceres on whose elevation to the purple ended the centuries-long yearning of the Filipino Clergy for recognition of their capacity to reach the fullness of the priesthood. Msgr. Jorge I. Barlin's consecration ended too a turbulent period in Philippine Church History that wrought havoc on the changing Filipino conciousness of nationalism, it ended the question of whether the Filipinos can truly be trusted to govern themselves, if not yet politically then ecclessiastically. Bishop Barlin's role as Apostolic Administrator has proved his capacity to hold his flock together even amidst the onslaught and encroachment of a Nationalist Church fast gaining favor among Filipino minds resentfull of any foreign influence. His consecration too was also a beginning; the Filipino began to find that they can live well enough with even the foreign heritage of their past and yet retain the nuances of their race, that they can live in harmony, albeit uneasy, among nations, the hierarchy of the Universal Church and all that was brought by the birththroes of the 21st century--- and yet maintain their Filipino identity.

April 23, 2006 1:00 pm at Baao Covered Social Hall

Local Conference: "The Consecration of Bishop Barlin and its Impact on Philippine History and Filipino Identity."

To be followed shortly by the unveiling of the Bishop Barlin Birthplace Marker

Brought to you by:

BAAO LGU + SMAAA + Spirit of 78-82 + Baao Historical Society

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/09/06]

2006-03-09T23:31:00.000+08:00

Paulix, Understandably, you're already committed to push through your Barlin Conference Souvenir Program by May. Then you should. As you say, that won't close our option to still do a Kaiba Barlin Centennial Yearbook. We'll see. Nonetheless, do email to me your BCSP ad solicitation letter please. Yours, -- Jun Ramirez

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/08/06]

2006-03-09T23:29:00.000+08:00

Tiyong Jun, I misundesrtood completly after I read your letter a second time. You mean't to marry the Centennial Book with the Kaiba newsletter not separate it. From my reply I mean't we cannot compromise and make midstream adjustments with the Conference souvenir program we have already started working on and which we cannot delay release not later than May to be over with it and devote ourselves to our other objectives. What i also meant about the Kaiba Yearbook/Barlin Centennial Book is make it a separate publication, a much better one than what we have planned and set into motion here. But to make it worthwhile back it up with research and wait for whatever materials that may come up from the activities this year. Thanks Again. – Paulix B. Robosa

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/06/06]

2006-03-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

Paulix, Thanks for your reply. Just some clarifications: * Barlin Centennial Book and Kaiba Souvenir Program. My idea is to marry the two, not to publish separately. Instead of page ads, line ads (but same revenues for Kaiba,) hence, less printing cost of ads (notice: in past souv progs much of the cost of print would go to ad pages); savings on ad printing goes to printing of non-revenue pages for articles (only the names and addresses of advertisers will be printed, so that in one page there may be a hundred names.) The line ads can sell because of the quality of the hard-bound, glossy, colored, book of collector's value. The Barlin group (call it, say, the Barlin Centennial Committee chaired by you, or, if you will, the Baao Historical Society run by you as Executive Director) should also sell ads and be allowed to keep say 70%, and 30% goes to 'share in printing cost.' If the Barlin Group has other attached selling orgs under it, e.g. SMAAA, then its 70% share may be split in whichever way desired. If we can have more accurate costings we can refine the revenue and cost sharing scheme. * Conference. I noted you already plan to cut down the sessions to just half-day. Good. I recall i once attended a Lenten recollectionin our parish. Not truly exciting topics to listen to. But after each 30 min. topic/talk the participants were treated to classical music played by a live string quartet. We lasted thru five talks without noticing it. * I have gotten a txt from Fred saying he's on his way here; will see if i can have a chat with him. Got to sign off now. Keep the mail going. -- Jun Ramirez

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/04/06]

2006-03-09T23:16:00.000+08:00

Tiyong Jun, The Centennial is generating quite a stir now in Naga when they heard of our preparations. Danny G. is very interested and the Seminary Museum is helping me get one of their historian priests to be among the speakers, USI is sending people and everyone I talk to in Naga wants to attend (serious? needs to be seen.) Your right, maybe we had more time if we started last year when it would really be a centennial, to bad I have only this year to get a go at these. I'm now looking at half day conference with Danny Gerona and Fr. Rex Alarcon, we will try to see if we can do away with some of the plans anyway nothing is definite yet but I'm afraid we will have to push through with the souvenir program as letters and solicitations have been sent and the target for its publication is at a latter date anyway and it will be our only source of fund for the Conference. GOOD IDEA for the Kaiba Souvenir Program I'm all for it and we will have enough time to gather more materials, its good if they can even sponsor my research on Barlin this whole year so I can write a definitive biography and a more extensive compilation of source materials that are now disappearing(its 100 years old) Naga is really working on their June 29 celebration but as things appear they'll probably come to me for some materials. The museum idea suddenly lost support from the USI brass, they are now thinking of improving their own "dead museum" when they saw what the students was about to bring to SMA (Why do we give away good Ideas that others can use for their own)But no matter I have plentyof materials to spare only I regret I lost 15k for the mounting and framing, I"ll see Fred today. Thanks, see you Easter -- Paulix B. Robosa