The mission of Bauan was founded as a visita of Taal in 1590. It was administered by the Augustinians from 1596 --- when the first church was built at the slope of Mt. Maculot along the southern shores of the Taal Lake --- until the end of the 19th century. Another church was built in 1667 probably under the supervision of Fr. Jose Rodriguez (OSA) when it was relocated to Durungto. The church was again relocated in Lonal (or Loual) in 1671 by Fr. Nicolas de Rivera (OSA) who probably had a new structure built. The last relocation was in 1692 (or 1690) in its present site during the administration of Fr. Simon Martinez (OSA) who probably had a new church built that was damaged during the typhoon of 1694. Fr. Ignacio Mercado (OSA) had this rebuilt from 1695 to 1697. The church again suffered damages and was replaced by a stone structure during the administration of Fr. Blas Vidal (OSA) from 1700 to 1710. Fr. Jose Vitoria (OSA) --- who also introduced the cultivation of indigo in Bauan --- initiated building the present church in 1762 that was continued until 1856 during the administrations of Fr. Jose Trevino (OSA) and Fr. Hipolito Huerta (OSA). It was completed under the supervision of Fr. Felipe Bravo (OSA) in 1881. From there until 1894, final decorations were supervised by Fr. Moises Santos (OSA) and Fr. Felipe Garcia (OSA). The church is said to be the most artistically built in the province of Batangas during that time. Father Bravo was also an imminent botanist who put up a museum of natural history and collected rare books that were lost when the church was razed by fire during the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1898. The church was probably rebuilt and again destroyed by fire in 1938. It has been restored since then.
The Krus, the Dingin, and the Subli
Five years after the establishment of the ecclesiastical mission of Bauan, a giant cross made of anubing (i.e. a local hardwood) was found in a dingin (i.e. a sambahan or place of worship) near the village of Alitagtag that was said to have protected people of Bauan from pestilence, locusts, droughts, volcanic eruptions, and Moro raids. Based on a document found in the Bauan Cathedral Archives in 1790, Castro y Amoedo stated that the cross was made in 1595 from a very strong post of a demolished house and erected in the village of Alitagtag to drive away a plague of ghosts. The cross was described as 2.5 meters in height with a 1 meter crosspiece. It featured a golden sun embossed with a human face with radiating rays where the arms intersect (shades of anito worship). The cross was also said to walk around the village (perhaps while driving away the ghosts) and that water gushed from one of its arms.
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The miracles attributed to the cross attracted many devotees and a decision was made to move it to the bigger Bauan parish church. However, one priest tried to bring the cross to his church in the capital town of Taal but was prevented from doing so when “the sky became cloudy, and it began to thunder and emit dreadful lightning bolts”. Before its enshrinement in Bauan however, the cross has decreased in size because devotees has chipped away pieces of the cross that were made into miniature replicas and were worn as necklace talismans. A Fr. Manuel de Zamora was also reported to have cut more than 1/3 from the foot of the cross (that were perhaps made into more miniature replicas) and distributed in Manila where a number of miracles were reported. What was left is what is being venerated today in the Bauan church.
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The town, the church, and the cross were later moved to a place called Dungarao to escape the violent eruptions of Taal Volcano, then to Loual (or Lonal) , in an unidentified place in 1689, and finally to its present site near the sea in 1690 (or 1692). Today, the people of Bauan pay homage to the cross by dancing the subli. It is said that the subli preceded Christianity in the Philippines and is in fact a (pre-Spanish?) religious ritual. And people still go the dingin or sambahan (where the cross was first erected) to pray.
Source: Thomas R. Hargrove’s “The Mysteries of Taal: A Philippine Volcano and Lake, Her Sea Life and Lost Towns”.
PHOTOS (top to bottom):
(1) BAUAN, BATANGAS. The Holy Cross of Alitagtag is enshrined and venerated in the church. The Alitagtag mentioned here is actually a barrio of Bauan whom I have mistaken to be the town. That is how I missed the cross.
(2-3) ALITAGTAG, BATANGAS. I went to the church of Alitagtag with the intent of finally seeing for myself its famed holy cross. I found a cross on the right corner of the lobby but was told that the real one is at the nearby Nagbukalan Shrine.
(4-6) NAGBUKALAN SHRINE, ALITAGTAG, BATANGAS. The holy cross displayed at the Nagbukalan Shrine in Alitagtag, Batangas is said to have been found the well beside the shrine. I thought I finally had the right cross until I learned that the real one is in Bauan. I’ve been also told that the holy crosses of Bauan and that of the Nagbukalan Shrine are magkapatid.
(7) CUENCA, BATANGAS. Cuenca was established as a town at around 1875 or 1876, and as an independent parish in 1879. The church was built before 1879 when Fr. Guillermo Diez (OSA) had the convent constructed. Fr. Dionisio Ibanez (OSA) had the convent enlarged and the cemetery built in 1887. The church was probably rebuilt, renovated, or repaired because a temporary church was built by Fr. Mariano Calleja (OSA) between 1893 and 1898 who, with Father Ibanez, also promoted the cultivation of cocoa in the area. I passed by this church on my way from the town of Alitagtag.
He is the web that connected us together: from his childhood friend Winan and the boy who ran away but came back; to poet and loyal friend Ayet and the days of LAHAR; and Verjun during the siege in the lost church of Puncan; and the folk artist husband-and-wife team of Tolits and Tita and the legend of Mingan; and Reggie and that riotous overnight concert in Amoranto; and Jun’s first novel of a one million five hundred seventy-five thousand and three hundred forty-nine stars; and Sir Ben who dared us to stop dreaming and start writing; and Cesar’s travel journal, Minalungao and stories from Iraq; and Kimat T. Amianan for the now lost poetry and the friendship that withstood the challenge of time.
His first Palanca brought us together in an impromptu gig in a garage, then later a despidida lunch of bulalo and San Mig Lights in a Caanawan restobar, which gave birth to the idea of a local creative writing workshop and the pedro_bucaneg group, now inactive after a hot start-up burst, and lately being revived by the 4 burats.
Then a second Palanca.
And another night.
For the love of his poetry…
In retrospect, it was the image of a vengeful Bona scalding her idol with boiling water that offered deeper and richer metaphors. Nora Aunor swam effortlessly back and forth between the elements of water in her life and on the screen: selling drinking water in train stations at an early age to fetching water in the slums to bathe her idol. The element flowed freely from poverty to servitude to retribution. The name of her hometown Iriga originated from the Nabua dialect, “I raga”, meaning “there is land”, alluding to the higher grounds where the pioneers settled to escape the wrath of the great floods. Nora's pair of shoes were enshrined in an empty aquarium and the thought of sedimentary remains came to mind. Resting on pebbles, the pair of shoes might as well have found its place on a dry riverbed, with Norman Maclean's famous last words in his memoir, "A River Runs Through It", carved on the rocks: "I am haunted by waters." Excerpted from the 2004 Palanca winning essay “Devotion”; read by Louela Orden-Frias.
Baka sakali iyakan mo ito.
Pero alam ko hindi.
Last 2 stanzas of the poem “Ang Totoong Dahilan Kung Bakit Limang Araw Akong Mawawala” published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine in March 1993; read by Verjun Dilla.
Bilin mo’y matatagpuan na lang kitang
nahihimbing sa ilalim ng mga tulay o
sakayan ng bus; paalala mo’y palagi
kung iipunin ang palahaw ng mga sanggol
at ingay ng mga kumakalam na sikmura,
at kapag sa aking bintana may nakita
akong anino sa mga kalsadang hindi
matapos-tapos, patatahimikin mo lahat
at patatahanin ako.
Excerpted from the poem “Ang Binatang Hindi Dumudungaw sa mga Bintana” published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine in 31 July 1994; read by Reggie Gaboy.
Ang naaalala ko lang noon ay palagi kong inaabangan sa komiks kung ano ang mangyayari kay Bakekang, ang paborito kong nobela. Lalo na noong manganganak na siya at hindi tiyak kung ang isisilang niya ay magmamana sa kapangitan niya o sa isa sa dalawang Amerikanong sumiping sa kanya (isang itim at isang puti) o halo ng lahat ng ito. Hinihila ko ang mga araw. Ang tagal niyang magbuntis. Gusto ko na siyang manganak. Excerpted from the Filipino essay “Patotoo sa Pelukula ng Batang Nagpakasakit”; read by Tita Martin-Circa.
Anak, ang aklat pala ni San Pedro ay listahan lamang
ng mga nawalang labada: ang pulang medyas
na sa Baguio mo pala naiwan. Napulot, binenta, hiniram
at naiwan na naman at mula Iloilo ay nakarating
sa Pangasinan. Third paragraph of the poem “Para sa Iyo na Trenta Anyos na ng Umibig” published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine in 31 March 1996; read by Ayet Blancas.
Up until the age of twelve, I turned to the Encyclopedia Britannica merely for reference. But I knew they were special. They were unlike the illustrated books I read at school or those that my father bought for me. I suspected that the dark leather-bound covers compiled secrets of vital importance. On its pages, I tracked down alphabetized and indexed information, the uninitiated mind perpetually on the verge of new discoveries. Each time I reached out to pull a volume, I grew taller. I carried its immense weight with a mixed sense of pride and a vague melancholic feeling that I would no longer be the same when I put them back on the shelf. I will be transformed. I will no longer be ordinary. I will carry secrets inside me. I will have powers no one will know about. Knowledge will be my refuge, my armor and my weapon when the world turns itself against me. Excerpted from the 2007 Palanca winning essay “Lost in Childrensville”; read by Fely Rose Manauis.
8.
I am now writing this down with my right eye patched.
Fired ten shots and missed all.
I thought it would be enough to serve as my final payments.
I thought I could come out clean.
Before I went to see the doctor I watched movies
went out with friends, shopped, struggled to write
cleaned my desk, replenished my garden with new plants
read books – and it is amazing
it is amazing that all the while, I was looking at the world
so clearly with a bullet lint, with specks of gunpowder on one eye
and I did not even know it.
Tomorrow they will remove the bandage.
I wonder how my right eye will react to the sudden light
I wonder how it will look at the world and what it will see.
Excerpted from the poem “Guns” from the “Father Poems” anthology published in 2004; read by Kimat T. Amianan.
PHOTOS (top to bottom): (1) His sister Lannie receiving the Palanca grand prize in his behalf (photo was taken by Lannie’s husband). (2) Tungsten candles dance while (3) Jun and Vee play the kubing. (4) The Friases, (5) Verjun Dilla, (6) Reggie Gaboy, (7) Tita Martin-Circa, (8) Ayet Blancas, (9) and Fely Rose Manaois. (10) Clockwise from left: An autographed copy of “Devotion”, a folio of his works, a clipping from the Sunday Inquirer Magazine circa 2004, and the invitation to his 2007 victory party.
JUANA is on her way to fetch water from the river when the Japanese finally came to Baloc. “So these are the mighty conquerors”, she mused as a column of dusty tanks and trucks passed by carrying small men with small eyes in drab olive uniforms. Except for the guns, they seemed harmless but with their arrival came a pall of unbearable sullenness in the barrio. She quickly turned back to their dampa. Her friend should know.
“I’m worried about Juana”, a shirtless middle aged man said to his wife who is preparing the sinaing for lunch. The wife paused to look at their daughter rush into the abong-abong near their house that serves as the Aglipayano chapel. Juana has been spending most of her time there ever since the santo was brought in. It is where she eats her meals that she says she shares with the santo. She roams the forest everyday to pick fresh flowers for the altar. And they can hear her talking to somebody they can’t see. But they are too afraid to stop her.
A few months after the war, Juana suddenly became ill. All the albularyos that came failed to cure her. “Sinaniban,” they all agreed as they watched Juana’s body contort in periodic spasms, as they tried to discern the strange words she utter. They and the neighbors came to hold vigil and say the novena. But one night when everybody strangely fell asleep, Juana disappeared from her sick bed. They found her the next day prostate before the santo, arms spread like a cross and in deep trance. A week later, she started healing the sick.
One day, Juana’s father and some neighbors are huddled under a kaymito tree. “If it won’t rain today, the rice crop will be lost. Where will we get food?” they worriedly tell each other. “Go and bring out the santo!” commanded Juana who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. The terrified men did as told, too scared to argue with the young woman. When they brought back the santo after carrying it in a prusisyon all over the barrio, it rained hard. It did not stop for 5 days.
And so the sick and those who believed came, seeking Juana’s cure and blessing, lighting red candles to bring their prayers to the santo. And yet another drought came but the santo would not budge as they tried carrying it for the prusisyon. “Go home,” Juana said, “The rain will come tonight”. It did for the next 5 days. And the faithful multitude increased…
BERTONG LANGIS never failed to attend San Geronimo’s feast day in Baloc ever since Olan came to work for the prophets. But it’s more for the pulutan that Olan’s wife prepared so well and the bottles of Colt 45 chilled in the basin of a washing machine. It was only recently when he came in the spirit of the panata (and curiosity), walking to the 3 churches of the Aglipayanos, Father Ahyong’s sect, and the Catholics who share the same patron saint. The highway is clogged with people and stalls. The churches are crammed with the faithful. But the star of the fiesta is Juana’s santo where the mass of believers slowly inch their way from the churchyard gate, inside the church, to the altar to touch the image and say thank you and ask for more favors.
PHOTOS (top to bottom): (1) The faithful inching their way to the Aglipay church (2) while those inside are crammed as they pay their devotion (3) to the image of San Geronimo. (4) Vendors and stalls of red candles, (5) Sto. Ninos, and (6) rice cakes litter the church compound and compete for attention. (7) The faithful also come to Fr. Resty Ahyong’s breakaway sect and (8) Baloc’s Roman Catholic church.
NOTE: This story is fiction but Juana is a real person.
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