WALA LANG
… there’s no place like home.
Believed to be the Philippines’ oldest surviving homes are the Jesuit house in the Parian district of Cebu City and the Ordoveza house formerly in Majayjay, Laguna and now in Bagac, Bataan. The former, incorporated in a hardware bodega, has an inscription, “Año 1730” but parts of it could be at least a hundred years older—Ming Dynasty coins were found in its foundations. The entrance façade is of stone from ground to eaves and the original tile roof is Chinese style with upturned ends.
HERITAGE HOMES – The Jesuit house of Cebu City (photo from Google images)
The Ordoveza house of Majayjay, Laguna is also dated by an inscription, to 1744. It has been dismantled and the reconstruction is now at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. A massive house, its layout makes it like a gigantic bahay kubo with entered via stairs leading up from the outside and with just a few but super-large rooms. A tiny space beneath a wide floor plank was described as hiding place for one person during a dire emergency like a bandit raid.
HERITAGE HOMES – The Ordoveza House in Majayjay (photo from Ordoveza House Facebook page)
An ancestral home of the Jacinto family was on a Malolos riverside. It probably dated from the early 19th century, being a transitional type. There was the usual cantilevered volada but the inner walls were thick masonry from ground to roof. Without the narrow passage, it would have looked like a Vigan house. Living quarters were on the second floor, with the sala overlooking the street, then the stairs and dining area. It was one large space with no internal divisions. The kitchen was behind and then the azotea at river edge. An elderly lady lived alone in the house and I learned later that the place was demolished after she passed away.
Sin and ancestral homes
No descendant admits it, but the origin of a great fortune is often a crime—illegal gambling in this case. I found out by accident that the builder of some Bulacan cousins’ ancestral home was a jueteng lord. He really wasn’t big-time, just a simple and respected barrio capo. It seems that he, the godfather, drew winners while on a raft on the nearby river, the easier to dump evidence overboard before the authorities could paddle over.
Anyway, my cousins’ home, one of the largest in the area, was a long rectangular house perpendicular to the street, one of those Central Luzon homes built like a train, one carriage after another.
The silong was low, an open bodega. A cement and wood stairs led up to the balcón that opened onto the home’s middle “carriage,” a pasillo and silíd with aparadors and an altar—it doubled up as a prayer room with kneelers and all. To the left was the home’s first section, a large multipurpose room (formal reception and family room during daytime, bedroom at night). To the right was the home’s third section, the dining room. Beyond that, floored in bamboo split in half was the kitchen, and last an open-air batalán from which a narrow bridge led to the común. Larger homes of the same type are more common in Pampanga where there would be separate sections or “carriages” for praying, keeping processional santos, for boys and for girls, etc.
HERITAGE HOMES – The Ordoveza house in Las Casas Filipins de Acuzar, Bataan (photo from Orbit News Online by Ric Gonzales)
The Bounty of the Seas
Malabon’s December fiesta has brought me there several times, courtesy of Ramon “Monchet” Lucas whose family manufactures Rufina Patis. Both Malabon and Navotas have numerous heritage homes dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries. One has Fernando Amorsolo murals on walls and ceiling (the artist was reportedly making ligaw to a resident beauty). Another has floors, walls of varnished narra and exceptional Art Deco furniture. Unfortunately, the two cities and their homes suffer from frequent flooding caused by the rising sea and blockage of natural drainage with land reclamation.
DPWH solves flooding problems by raising street levels, which of course does no good to people’s homes, ancestral or not. Vicente Roman “Mike” Santos decided on the ultimate solution. He dismantled his Navotas ancestral home built in 1917 by his grandfather business tycoon Don Roman Santos, numbered every last beam, joist, and floor plank, loaded them onto 20 trucks, hauled, and reassembled everything in Antipolo. There, 137 meters above sea level, the three-story house stands proud, high, and dry.
Sugar Baron Mansions
Sugar barons outdid themselves in building grand homes among others in Negros, Iloilo, Pampanga, and Manila. In Negros, I’ve been to the Montillas’ Hacienda home in Ubay, Pulupandan; the 1880 Casa Grande (also known as the Claparols Mansion) in Talisay near Bacolod; “The Ruins” that was the Mariano Lacson home also in Talisay; the Bernardino Jalandoni home by the national highway in Silay; and the 1880 Balay Negrense built by Victor Gaston. American period homes. exemplified by staff houses constructed for sugar mill executives, are still in use at the Victorias Milling Company compound, by the St. Joseph the Worker Chapel, better known as the “Church of the Angry Christ.”
Casa Grande was built by Gen. Aniceto Lacson, revolutionary leader who declared Negros independent. He formed the Cantonal Republic of Negros in November 1898 but surrendered to the Americans three months later. Now owned by his Claparols descendants, the house stands proud amid sugar cane fields but is a damsel in distress—part of the caida is on the verge of collapsing. “The Ruins” is what it says, the concrete stairs and walls of a 10-bedroom house that remain standing after it was burned by guerillas during World War II
The Bernardino Jalandoni and Victor Gaston homes are museums. The former is a squarish house with living quarters on the second floor, fully furnished in early 20th century style. It was built in 1908 and occupied by the family until the 1990s when heirs arranged for it to be a museum. The Victor Gaston home is also furnished as lived-in. Unlike older homes I’ve visited in Luzon where the family slept together on mats laid on the main room floor, later homes like these two were built with numerous bedrooms, greater importance being placed on privacy.
Fortunes from sugar and other products account for some Central Luzon homes. The partly vanished Arnedo home in Sulipan, Apalit (Pampanga) is described as being effectively two mansions, one for guests and one for the family and entertainment (it was also a casino). Bacolor had really grand houses but I had been to just one before Mt. Pinatubo’s lahar descended. The Malig house was ancient, occupied by an old lady. As I recall, the comedor was the largest room, attesting to the excellence of Pampangueño cuisine. Antique thieves had been active and a large marble-topped table was chained to a beam via holes drilled through the floor.
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected].
HERITAGE HOMES – The Jesuit house of Cebu City (photo from Google images)
The Ordoveza house of Majayjay, Laguna is also dated by an inscription, to 1744. It has been dismantled and the reconstruction is now at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. A massive house, its layout makes it like a gigantic bahay kubo with entered via stairs leading up from the outside and with just a few but super-large rooms. A tiny space beneath a wide floor plank was described as hiding place for one person during a dire emergency like a bandit raid.
HERITAGE HOMES – The Ordoveza House in Majayjay (photo from Ordoveza House Facebook page)
An ancestral home of the Jacinto family was on a Malolos riverside. It probably dated from the early 19th century, being a transitional type. There was the usual cantilevered volada but the inner walls were thick masonry from ground to roof. Without the narrow passage, it would have looked like a Vigan house. Living quarters were on the second floor, with the sala overlooking the street, then the stairs and dining area. It was one large space with no internal divisions. The kitchen was behind and then the azotea at river edge. An elderly lady lived alone in the house and I learned later that the place was demolished after she passed away.
Sin and ancestral homes
No descendant admits it, but the origin of a great fortune is often a crime—illegal gambling in this case. I found out by accident that the builder of some Bulacan cousins’ ancestral home was a jueteng lord. He really wasn’t big-time, just a simple and respected barrio capo. It seems that he, the godfather, drew winners while on a raft on the nearby river, the easier to dump evidence overboard before the authorities could paddle over.
Anyway, my cousins’ home, one of the largest in the area, was a long rectangular house perpendicular to the street, one of those Central Luzon homes built like a train, one carriage after another.
The silong was low, an open bodega. A cement and wood stairs led up to the balcón that opened onto the home’s middle “carriage,” a pasillo and silíd with aparadors and an altar—it doubled up as a prayer room with kneelers and all. To the left was the home’s first section, a large multipurpose room (formal reception and family room during daytime, bedroom at night). To the right was the home’s third section, the dining room. Beyond that, floored in bamboo split in half was the kitchen, and last an open-air batalán from which a narrow bridge led to the común. Larger homes of the same type are more common in Pampanga where there would be separate sections or “carriages” for praying, keeping processional santos, for boys and for girls, etc.
HERITAGE HOMES – The Ordoveza house in Las Casas Filipins de Acuzar, Bataan (photo from Orbit News Online by Ric Gonzales)
The Bounty of the Seas
Malabon’s December fiesta has brought me there several times, courtesy of Ramon “Monchet” Lucas whose family manufactures Rufina Patis. Both Malabon and Navotas have numerous heritage homes dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries. One has Fernando Amorsolo murals on walls and ceiling (the artist was reportedly making ligaw to a resident beauty). Another has floors, walls of varnished narra and exceptional Art Deco furniture. Unfortunately, the two cities and their homes suffer from frequent flooding caused by the rising sea and blockage of natural drainage with land reclamation.
DPWH solves flooding problems by raising street levels, which of course does no good to people’s homes, ancestral or not. Vicente Roman “Mike” Santos decided on the ultimate solution. He dismantled his Navotas ancestral home built in 1917 by his grandfather business tycoon Don Roman Santos, numbered every last beam, joist, and floor plank, loaded them onto 20 trucks, hauled, and reassembled everything in Antipolo. There, 137 meters above sea level, the three-story house stands proud, high, and dry.
Sugar Baron Mansions
Sugar barons outdid themselves in building grand homes among others in Negros, Iloilo, Pampanga, and Manila. In Negros, I’ve been to the Montillas’ Hacienda home in Ubay, Pulupandan; the 1880 Casa Grande (also known as the Claparols Mansion) in Talisay near Bacolod; “The Ruins” that was the Mariano Lacson home also in Talisay; the Bernardino Jalandoni home by the national highway in Silay; and the 1880 Balay Negrense built by Victor Gaston. American period homes. exemplified by staff houses constructed for sugar mill executives, are still in use at the Victorias Milling Company compound, by the St. Joseph the Worker Chapel, better known as the “Church of the Angry Christ.”
Casa Grande was built by Gen. Aniceto Lacson, revolutionary leader who declared Negros independent. He formed the Cantonal Republic of Negros in November 1898 but surrendered to the Americans three months later. Now owned by his Claparols descendants, the house stands proud amid sugar cane fields but is a damsel in distress—part of the caida is on the verge of collapsing. “The Ruins” is what it says, the concrete stairs and walls of a 10-bedroom house that remain standing after it was burned by guerillas during World War II
The Bernardino Jalandoni and Victor Gaston homes are museums. The former is a squarish house with living quarters on the second floor, fully furnished in early 20th century style. It was built in 1908 and occupied by the family until the 1990s when heirs arranged for it to be a museum. The Victor Gaston home is also furnished as lived-in. Unlike older homes I’ve visited in Luzon where the family slept together on mats laid on the main room floor, later homes like these two were built with numerous bedrooms, greater importance being placed on privacy.
Fortunes from sugar and other products account for some Central Luzon homes. The partly vanished Arnedo home in Sulipan, Apalit (Pampanga) is described as being effectively two mansions, one for guests and one for the family and entertainment (it was also a casino). Bacolor had really grand houses but I had been to just one before Mt. Pinatubo’s lahar descended. The Malig house was ancient, occupied by an old lady. As I recall, the comedor was the largest room, attesting to the excellence of Pampangueño cuisine. Antique thieves had been active and a large marble-topped table was chained to a beam via holes drilled through the floor.
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected].