Rough Groove

2 Du houses in San Nicolas, Cebu City, 2

I ventured in the old district of San Nicolas and found two ancestral houses said to be owned by the Du Family. Click the link for Part 1.

Just a block away from the other Du house is another ancestral bahay na bato, left. Bigger than the previous, the upper part might have been renovated many decades ago as can be seen in the way the wooden portion is constructed. I’m not sure, though, if which is older. But looking closer, one cannot miss the stone foundation. Where the thin cement coating has deteriorated, the same coral blocks can be seen.

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2 Du houses in San Nicolas, Cebu City, 1

I was at San Nicolas early this morning to take photos of the church there for a future post in my Simbahan blog and while walking around, I saw two ancestral houses in the bahay na bato style within a block of each other and a stone’s throw from the church compound. I was told that these are owned by the Du family who now reside just beside the other house. As of now, these are rented out to Chinese businessmen.

The house, left, is said to be older than the original stone church in the area that was destroyed many decades ago. As the man that I talked to put it, it was where the men who constructed the church used to stay while erecting it. However, with no visible year of construction outside, and as I’ve not really asked the Du family about the history of the houses or read about this area, this has yet to be verified.

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simbahan.net

I’ve always been fascinated with the colonial period and heritage churches of the country and even before doing the Facades book project for San Agustin Museum, which, by the way, will be launched this 30 August during the International Book Fair, I have already traveled and started documentation work on the existing old churches. Alarmed by the current condition, seeming neglect and lack of sense of history by most people wherein such structures are being demolished, renovated to the point of losing its charm and identity, and thus our heritage, I’ve been planning of making a site dedicated on Philippine heritage churches and other related structures like colonial era cemeteries, forts, watchtowers and convents.

Simbahan is this site wherein I will be featuring these structures in order for people to know the rich built patrimony that we have but sadly, slowly losing. There is a need to know what we have and what we have lost so that we will know what will be preserved and/or restored. Such lofty ambitions but I think with this attempt, I can make a difference. As of now, it’s more of a blog but I will add more information into it and come up with a content managment system (CMS)-type of site using Wordpress. Like salagubang.net, for the meantime, posts are once a week.

Independence Day 07

Lest we forget that more than a hundred years ago, our forefathers offered life and limb, sacrificed themselves on the altar of heroism to attain the freedom that we enjoy now. A year short of a hundred and ten years, that freedom is still alive but with current mindset and general apathy, this momentous event is in danger of just becoming a hollow yearly no-work/no-class holiday represented by wreath laying at national shrines, flag displays, expected speeches on nationalism and of being Filipino. At the otherside, crass commercialism abounds with the usual mall sale madness, trips to out of town sorties for a short vacation and just plain I-don’t-care-attitude.

The struggle for our freedom, it seems, still continues.

One of my photos has been featured in Pinoycentric for their Independence day post.

Infanta flagellant-penitents, 4

Continued from Infanta flagellant-penitents, 3

Break of dawn as the first rays of the sun is piercing the sky and already a throng of curious onlookers have gathered ogling at the spectacle of skirted men with floral hoods flagellating themselves as blood oozes out from rows of neatly lined cuts. Some are leaving the group to walk the streets to the church, bow their heads, kneel and supplicate while others just came from doing that. At a given signal unknown to me, one by one, the men started walking to the other direction following the highway north.

What a scene! The first golden rays of the rising sun touching the earth and grasses and leaves still wet with dew as the flagellants, now a seeming throng, are trudging along a narrow dirt road with the saturated colors of the flowers and green hoods contrasting with the brown skirts and bloodied backs. Their individual panghampas swinging in every direction, unsynchronized but strangely choreographed. A few vehicles and people followed with those in the cars snapping photos.

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