Kay Leni Tayo: The Sumilao Farmers at Lakad ng Pamilyang Magsasaka

Upon learning about their planned 400-kilometer walk around the Philippines to help campaign for VP Leni Robredo and seeing that they would pass by Victorias City (Negros Occidental), I immediately contacted their Facebook page.

I asked whether they could stop by our Leni-Kiko Pagmamahal Center that's just situated along the national highway.

It was just wishful thinking when I messaged them. But fortunately, Mr. Minyong Agsaluna, the contact person who was traveling with the farmers, agreed to stop by Victorias.

And stop they did!

The group consisted of 17 Sumilao farmers (from Sumilao, Bukidnon) and the rest were officers and support.

The Leni-Kiko volunteers were happy to welcome them, even for just a short time, in Victorias City.

And even when we did not have funds for the campaign, we were able to give them some bottled water and snacks that they brought with them on their way to Bacolod City, where they would be met by a caravan and supporters as they walked to the Bishop's Palace.

The Sumilao Farmers must have covered most of their planned route by now of 400 kilometers on foot (2,000 kilometers caravan).

Maraming salamat sa Sumilao Farmers sa tulong sa pagkampanya para kay Leni, Kiko at Ka-TROPA. 😋

#AngatBuhayLahat

#GobyernongTapatAngatBuhayLahat

#Ipanalona10toParaSaLahat

#7KikoPangilinanBisePresidente

#KikoAngManokKo

#LetLeniLead

Philippine History: Chapter 18 - The Unseen Victoriahanons

Chapter 18. The Unseen Victoriahanons

During my research for this history blog, I came across some interesting stories that came to light. And I also came across other interesting stories that came out of the dark.

Sifting through the stories I gathered, I realized I was writing about Victoriahanons whom I could picture as a fellow citizen of this town, someone who walked down the street and someone whom we could meet, greet and socialize with on a sunny day in the neighborhood. But if they were the Victoriahanons whom we could see, are there Victoriahanons whom we could not?  

You have an idea what I'm talking about?😀

Yes, there were (or still are?) inhabitants of our city, a city that used to be town, that used to be a village and that used to be a rich, uninhabited forest. Uninhabited by noisy, gossipy Victoriahanons, that is. 

These Victoriahanons were already here even before the Negros Island came to be named Buglas, or even before a settlement at the mouth of a silty river came to be known as Malihao.

It's time we talked about one such unseen Victoriahanon, one that our mythical culture calls...kapre! 

Yes, that tall, hairy, dark creature of the night, usually living on an old tree that manifests itself to humans whom he wanted to befriend or pester. Known to be a smoker, a kapre puffs a long cigar made of rolled, dried tobacco leaves whose smell wafts to announce its presence to anyone unaware of its existence.

In an old school building in Victorias, named after Don Felix Montinola and the one that sat along the highway, stories about a kapre had been told over the years when it was still full of students during the day and inhabited by an unseen being at night.

When the janitor had closed all the classrooms and locked the school gates early in the evening, it was a matter of time when unusual sounds were heard from inside the school.

(Image credit: mythicalcreaturesguide.com)

On some mornings, when the Tío Mateo, the school janitor, opened the classrooms, the chairs would be scattered all over even though, the late afternoon before, he closed and locked the rooms behind him with everything in order and ready for classes the next day. 

The poor Tío Matéo (or Tio Mating to students) he must have had to rearrange the chairs again when this happened while cursing the resident unseen prankster. (Tio Mating succeeded Tio Serafin as the school's janitor).

Of all people in the school, he must have been the most vexed by Siyáno, a name one student said to be the name of the kapre; the student was known to have had a 'third eye', meaning she was psychic. 

That student was said to have encountered the kapre at the teachers' office at the second floor of the school on one early evening during an overnight event at the grounds. It must have introduced itself to her. She never stayed late at the school ever again.

On occasions, when passing by the school late at night, one would hear chairs being thrown around inside the school library that was on the second floor of the building standing next to the highway. 

In the 1970s, when vehicles were rarely seen passing through Victorias around midnight, it was almost quiet all around the school's neighborhood.

A policeman, Mr. Maeng J., who was patrolling the area just outside the school one late night heard noises coming from the library of the school. It was close to midnight and he could hear sounds as if chairs were being thrown around. At that time, people could watch late movies at the defunct Vic Theater, a cinema located at the building where LBC is now located.

When someone he knew came along after watching a late-night  movie at Vic Theater, he asked him to stop and listen to the noises. His friend was surprised to hear the very unusual sounds that should not be happening but was coming from the inside of the school library. It was close to midnight and the students had long gone as school had been closed hours before. 

"Who could be inside throwing chairs around?", they both asked themselves. Not wanting to be involved with whatever that was making those noises inside the school, they both walked away.😱

Other than the chairs being thrown around, on rare nights, the school bell would ring continuously. The normal ringing of the bell would just be in intermittent intervals to signal the start or end of classes. 

But on those nights when the bell rang, it was as if someone pressed the button and left his fingers longer than it should. So, who would be brave enough to go up the dark stairs to the second floor of the school and turn the power off to stop the ringing? 😱 Someone had to. Fortunately, Tío Mateo lived nearby.

But do you know that Siyano, the academic kapre, was actually captured on film? 

In a rare black-and-white photo that used to be in the collection of the school registrar, a towering man, whose height reached the second floor of the school, was seen posing with the students of the school as they were being photographed at the main entrance. 

The kapre was wearing white pants, a white shirt and a black belt, and was casually leaning on the school building which was to his left while giving a weak smile. His face was round and dark, and looked humanoid. I should know; I saw that photograph! 😱

More than a decade ago, I asked the lady who owned the photograph whether I could see it again. She said it was borrowed by a former teacher who never returned it. (I know the teacher; I'll try to ask him to give it back so I can share it here. 😊)

So, what happened to Siyano? It was said that it lived in a kamunsil tree within the school grounds, so they had it cut down. From then on, they noticed that the disturbances and noises disappeared. 

Although the scholarly kapre was kicked out of school, it would have been interesting if the old janitors had told stories about their own encounters with the kapre!😁 

Aside from a kapre as our unseen Victoriahanon, do you know that there were (or still are?) engkantos around our town?

One scary story is about a domestic help, Violeta, a young woman who came from the hacienda of a landed family here in Victorias. 

She was just working for a few days when, on a Sunday noon, Violeta was sent to the public market to buy something. But as she was passing through the Victorias public plaza, she said there was a man who befriended her.

Violeta came back with the merchandise she bought but seemed to act strangely. She complained that the man who befriended was outside and wanted her to go with him. Everyone was alarmed. Could someone have molested her while she went to the market?

Suddenly, everyone in the house realized it was more than just a common admirer she brought to the house along with the merchandise. Because when they asked her where the man was, Violeta pointed outside and there was nobody there, only passing vehicles, but no gentleman, nor an admirer with flowers.

This was the time when Violeta's cousin, who was also part of the household, shared with everyone that Violeta could see engkantos and that this was not the first time one followed her home.

Still complaining about her unwanted follower, Violeta would suddenly growl with her facial expressions changing. When she was given a holy rosary, she threw it away because it was 'hot' when she held it.

While her fellow household help teased the unseen engkanto standing outside the house, telling the engkanto that they needed some boyfriends, too, Violeta remained quiet at the corner with her eyes widened with fear. 

It was only then when a religious member of the house brought out a bottle of holy water and sprinkled it over Violeta while she was being held to subdue her resistance. A few sprinkles of the holy water were also made by the window to drive away whatever was out there menacing Violeta.

After a moment, Violeta's normal voice returned. She went back to being a shy girl from the hacienda with no memory about what happened.

Was she temporarily possessed by the engkanto? She earlier said the man who befriended her was standing next to the big, tall tree at the Victorias public plaza when they met. 

And how about duéndes?

Those are little elves, or dwarves, that live in a mound, an old house or even trees. They only manifest themselves to a few. Some duéndes are good to humans and some are mischievously bad. They are generally described as small creatures with big pointed hats or pointed shoes, with long beards for old-looking duéndes. 

Duéndes are elementals, those creatures that live and exist in nature; specifically, duéndes can be labeled as earth spirits. The word came from the shortened Spanish term 'dueño de casa' or owner of the house.

One such place in Victorias where many have experienced duéndes is in the old Gabaldon buildings of the Victorias Elementary School.

(A Gabaldon building that shows an elevation 

and a hollow space underneath the classroom
(Photo credit: wikimapia.org)

The school building is called a Gabaldon building, named after Mr. Isauro Gabaldon, a former Assemblyman, who drafted the bill in 1907 to put up school buildings around the Philippines during the American colonial period. The buildings were designed by Mr. William Parsons using the elements of the native Philippine hut, the bahay-kubo, and they are protected under the law from being altered, demolished or relocated.

Since these buildings were constructed with an elevation above ground of about four feet, they had hollow spaces beneath them for purposes of cooling the building as cool air goes underneath it as well as to prevent rising waters from entering a building during floods.

But one such Gabaldon building at the Victorias Elementary School became notorious for duéndes. Students would see 'small creatures' underneath the buildings, including tales of seeing dwarf white horses! On occasions, the students would light candles and offer food to the 'inhabitants' living under these buildings.

As the school grounds were mostly open during weekends, tales of weekend ambulant vendors who made the space underneath the Gabaldon buildings a public dump were widely known. This, of course, became a Monday ritual to most teachers who had to send students to sweep or clean up the mess as the smell would fill the classrooms from the human excrement deposited underneath them.

And one such story was about a student who was asked by a teacher to sweep the smelly space, which turned out to be the student's traumatic introduction to the underworld.

According to the story, the student went down to the dark, dirty space (some very young students could squeeze under without stooping) with a 'bukog nga silhig' (walis ting-ting) and had already started his chore when he realized he was not alone. 

Standing a few feet from him, a few 'small creatures' that looked like 'old men' were watching him as he swept. The duéndes must have appreciated the clean-up as they were probably suffering from the bad odor as well. 

Shocked and frozen in fear, the student at first did not realize what he was seeing. And since he, too, had heard stories about these mysterious dwellers, he then recognized what they were and unfortunately came to terms with the fact that this scary moment was some lesson he never expected to learn at school.

Dropping his thin broom, he rushed out still stooping knowing that bumping his head at the wooden flooring above him would prolong his stay in that unwanted space.

The student would have planned to devote his vocal chords to singing Lupang Hinirang that morning. Instead, he ended up screaming "Ma'am! Ma'am!" so loud that other students around were startled.

The incident left the kid traumatized that he never went back to school for days and had to be brought to an 'albularyo' for healing as the faith healer believed the duéndes must have done something to him other than manifesting themselves. 

Although we wouldn't know if the poor student finished his elementary years at Victorias Elementary School, what we do know is that the duéndes living in those Gabaldon building must have learned their ABC's and all nursery rhymes all those years, although they probably knew they wouldn't get their diplomas even if they showed up at the graduation rites. It would have been one story to tell if duéndes actually attended the commencement exercises and even received medals for their supernatural academic achievements.  The space under the buildings had been cemented since.

Our hometown was not ours in the first place; we were not its first inhabitants.

Let's remember, more than a hundred years ago, this place we now call a city was a thick forest full of those acacias, lunók and other tree species endemic to this island. Just imagine those tall trees spread all over when there were no roads, no houses, no buildings, and no município. 

(Man encountering engkantos)

(Photo credit: JBBallaran, deviantart.com)

Just big trees all over the place. 

And you have an entire settlement of engkantos, kapres, tikbalang, and even mythical creatures living in the ancient Malihao and Magnanud Rivers. Remember Maria Makiling and her engkanto admirers? Unfortunately for us, what's left are primitive creatures in Victorias. You should be able to spot them when you see them on the street or at....😊 

Those unseen beings were the original Victoriahanons. The unseen Victoriahanons who took care of this land before we all came along and ruined it for them.😠

So, do you also have a scary story about the unseen Victoriahanons or the engkantos in Victorias?😱

Chapter 19. The current seal of Victorias City has an error

Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang                                                 Victorias"

Philippine History: Don Felix Montinola and The Victorias Municipal Hall

Juan and Ysidra from Spain

Felix Montinola y Lozada was the fifth child of Benito Vasquez Montinola and Quintina Villa Lozada. Benito Vasquez Montinola, born in 1827, was the grandson of Juan Montinola and Maria Ysidra de Fuentevilla. Juan was said to have been a captain of the Spanish soldiers assigned to Iloilo at that time, while Maria Ysidra was a lady from Spain. 

Juan and Ysidra were probably betrothed to each other when Juan left Malaga, Spain, and sailed to the colony in the Pacific in 1781 (or earlier?). Juan must have had invited Ysidra to join him when he finally settled in Iloilo, a charming city in one of the beautiful islands in Las Islas Filipinas, where she could hit the beach and enjoy fresh seafood any day of the week! Their first of five children, Manuela de los Dolores, was born in Jaro, Iloilo, in 1781.

From Jaro with love

Born on February 16, 1864, also in Jaro, then a city separate from Iloilo during the Spanish period, the young Felix Lozada Montinola crossed the Iloilo Strait and settled in the old town of Saravia (now the Municipality of E.B. Magalona) in the northern part of Negros Occidental in the Philippines.

In Saravia, he met and married the mayor's daughter (no less!) in 1897. Dorotea Gopulco Magalona was a daughter of Don Carlos Ledesma Magalona and Doña Agapita Gopulco Magalona. Doña Dorotea had seven siblings; she was also a cousin of Enrique B. Magalona. When Don Felix married, he was 33, while she was 24. (Enrique B. Magalona later became the town mayor of Saravia and a senator of the Republic of the Philippines. He was the grandfather of the late rapper, Francis M.).

And speaking of crossing from the Iloilo Province and into the Negros Island, migrating from Panay was not uncommon at that time. Even a number of Ilonggo soldiers made the same trip and joined Elias Magbanua in Sitio Guintabu-an in the old Saravia on August 19, 1899, to help revolt against the Americans that time. Some of the soldiers, after their successful excursion to Negros, must have stayed behind and settled in the old Saravia.

When he moved to Saravia, Don Felix brought along two of his unmarried sisters, Encarnacion and Priscila. 

Don Felix and Doña Dorotea (Lola Teang to her grandkids) had eight children, who were all born in the old Saravia. But when the kids were grown and in order to be closer to his haciéndas situated at the north, the family decided to move to Victorias, then a growing, small town.

                    (Don Felix in his favorite pose)

Alcalde de Victorias

Don Felix was a quiet, dignified gentleman, always with his hands at the back when standing or walking about. On his free days, he'd visit his friend Sebastian Gonzaga, who had a home along the southbound side of the main highway in Victorias. Señor Gonzaga's house had a pharmacy in front and a small courtyard at the back (this spot is now occupied by a bank). The two friends would pass the morning playing chess and talk about the current events in their young town and province in Spanish.

When Don Felix became the ninth town leader of Victorias in 1934, he immediately started working on constructing the municipal hall, an idea he originally envisioned even before he became mayor - to build a municipal hall of Victorias that was worthy of its status.

Don Felix and President Quezon

When he became the municipal mayor, as part of his efforts to raise funds to build the municipal hall, Don Felix traveled to Baguio City to join President Manuel L. Quezon and other mayors. There, at a mountain resort caressed by fresh pine breezes, Don Felix asked the President's help to realize his dream for the town. 

His project cost about 30,000 pesos, a huge amount in the late 1930s. But with the help of President Quezon, local haciénderos and businessmen, as well as the people of Victorias at that time, Don Felix's dream, became a reality. (So, if you're a descendant of a Victoriahanon who lived here in the 1930s, your lolo or lola must have contributed to the construction of the município.).

(Mayor Felix Montinola, center and with hands at the back, posing with other mayors;
President Quezon stands to his immediate right.)

In the 1930s, traveling wasn't exactly as comfortable and speedy. It took him about three days to reach Baguio City: a boat ride from Bacolod to Manila, and a long car ride up the Mountain Province. With the roads that would eventually become the national highways not as wide, paved, and efficiently routed as they are now, sitting in a car that would pass through the Luzon countryside with pre-WWII roads was more of a sacrifice than a journey, especially if you were 73 years old! Yes, the things Don Felix at his age had to do just to make his vision for Victorias a reality!

Palacio municipal de Victorias: a statement and a tribute to Spain

In 1933, when the Provincial Capitol of Negros Occidental was completed in Bacolod City on the land previously owned by the Gonzaga family, its scale, grandeur, and beaux-arts architecture, not before seen on the island at that time, impressed those who had seen it up close, including Don Felix. 

Being the richest province in the Philippines in the early 20th century, Negros Occidental could afford to build its Provincial Capitol, which was more of a statement rather than just a huge office for public servants. 

This was where Don Felix got his vision: to build a 'palacio municipal' or municipal hall for Victorias, an edifice whose scale and architecture would serve as a statement for the young town, a message for all its visitors, and a source of pride for all Victoriahanon. 

Don Felix was proud of owning how the municipal hall would look like. Inspired by the Palacio Reál de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid) in Spain where his ancestors came from, he envisioned a stone building with an imposing facade and appearance that would awe and impress anyone standing before it. Following a few characteristics of the royal palace was Don Felix's way of paying tribute and homage to Spain.

Madrid's Palacio Reál also lent Don Felix the idea of placing a coat of arms that rests at the center of the building that is slightly elevated than the rest of the body. The municipal building's ground floor does not touch the ground because, being the preeminent public structure of the town, it had to be elevated above the earth by a few steps. Just like royalty, it is above everyone else.

And 80 years ago, after it was completed, the municipal building of Victorias became more than just a building that housed public service offices; it was one Victoriahanon's statement about his young town's place in the political and economic landscape, not just in the province, but in the whole country as well. 

That time, when the surrounding spaces in the young town were grassland, wooden homes, and trees, a huge structure made of stone, standing with exaggerated proportions in all of its dimensions made everyone stop in awe.

Before it was horribly painted forest-green and white (a shade that reminds me of a laundry powder), the ivory color of the municipal building reflected the red-orange hues of a setting sun as it faces northwest. Today, with those cheap-looking colors, there's no more semblance of the 'old world' character this historic building used to display.😂 

Who paints Roman columns green?! Or who paints royal palaces super-white?

Kabukî guid tulokon sang hitsura sang city hall naton.😡 

(They might as well throw in red paint 

to make it Christmas-sy.😒)

And they painted the coat of arms green?! It is the freakin' symbol of the town for crying out loud! Instead, they made it look like a Christmas decor. SMH.😖 And while they're at it, why didn't they just put Christmas lights around it so we could put wrapped gifts under?😕

(This old photo of the municipal hall shows its original classy and classic look with the prominence of the town's coat of arms and the twin Roman-Tuscan columns in stucco-ivory color that attracted one's attention. Now that the columns and coat of arms are horribly painted green, they are hardly noticeable as the dark color subdued their appearance. Sigh.😢)

Columns: a message in Roman architecture

Aside from its height, one character of the municipal hall that catches one's attention is the twin columns that followed the Roman Tuscan design.

During the Roman times, those meters-high, round, solid columns were not put there right in front of a building as decoration or a structural support; they were statements. As they were carved from huge stones and sourced from the far reaches of the Roman empire, they were costly and very difficult to transport to Rome where they eventually became part of an emperor's capricious building or another rich Roman's villa, using hundreds, or thousands, of workers and slaves in the process. The erected Roman columns' message: We are powerful and have vast imperial resources; so, we can afford these! 

Although I'm sure no slave worked on the columns of Victorias, nor was a solitary solid rock used for one, the engineers and workers still had a tough time perfecting the twin columns that greeted visitors to the building. 

One story I heard about the columns is this: The column on the left before it was painted over, bore two dents from bullets, the rustic remains of which left two brown trails that flowed downwards like tears of a tragic past, tragic because these holes were made during World War II. 

How I wished they should have left the bullet holes untouched as they were genuine trails of history and should have been worn by the municipal hall as a badge and a part of the Victoriahanon history that should be told.

Don Tuting Jereza and the two municípios

The late Don Agustin M. Jereza executed Don Felix's plans. He was a graduate of civil engineering at the University of Iowa and a nephew of Don Felix, being a son of Don Felix's older sister, Valentina. 

Agustin 'Tuting' Jereza was the man behind the actual construction. He was also the one who constructed the município of Saravia. That's why the municipal hall of E.B. Magalona looks like a miniature version of Victorias's. With Saravia's town mayor a cousin of Dona Dorotea at that time, a ready architectural design was already on hand; they just had to reduce the scale.

Don Agustin's contribution to Victorias also included his help in the development of the town's educational system. A few years after Don Felix's death, he helped the Montinola family found the Don Felix Montinola Memorial Institute in 1951 by lending the curricula, experience, and expertise as well as the teachers of the University of Southern Philippines, a university Don Agustin founded in 1927.

Born an Ilonggo mestizo, died a Victoriahanon

Don Felix died peacefully at the Montinola family's ancestral home in Victorias City, surrounded by his family on September 25, 1949. He lay in state for days on the second floor of the município he built before being finally laid to rest at the Montinola family's mausoleum in E.B. Magalona, Negros Occidental, Philippines. 

During the wake at the second floor of his município, his beloved Victoriahonans came to view his remains, while officials and politicians from the province and neighboring towns as well as ordinary citizens joined his family at the requiem mass and funeral.

(Victoriahanons paid their respects to the late municipal mayor when he lay in state on the second floor of the municipal hall he built for them)

Although he was born in Jaro, Iloilo, it was in Victorias where Don Felix left his legacy. He was born as an Ilonggo mestizo, but he died as a real Victoriahanon.

(Tio and Lola Teang were buried next

to each other in Saravia where he settled

in when he first arrived in Negros island.)