FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 1

CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FERNANDO PAMPANGA

City of San Fernando, Pampanga

GENERAL EDUCATION

FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES

Module #1

MIDTERMS:

WEEK 1: Module 1 Lesson 1: San Fernando, Pampanga's Barangay Beginnings

WEEK 2: Module 1 Lesson 2: The Church of San Fernando and its Religious - Cultural Traditions / Module 1 Evaluation
WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 1: Great Fernandinos: Expressions of Excellence / Module 2 Lesson 2: Bayaning Fernandino
Module 2 Lesson 3: San Fernando Heritage District / Module 2 Lesson 4: Lutong Fernandino
WEEK 4: Module 2 Lesson 5: Himno Fernandino / Module 2 Lesson 6: Monumento Fernandino /
Module 2 Lesson 7: Teacher Heroism Day / Module 2 Evaluation
WEEK 5: Module 3 Lesson 1: Post - War to Martial Law: Prosperity and Struggle
WEEK 6: Module 3 Lesson 2: Mt. Pinatubo Eruptions and the making of a City: Isang dekada ng Pagbangon /
Module 3 Evaluation

WEEK 1: Module 1 Lesson 1: SAN FERNANDO, PAMPANGA'S BARANGAY BEGINNINGS

The development of San Fernando from the consolidation of the earlier matrix of barrios from Mexico
and Bacolor continued to evolve across time. Thus, the fine tuning of the city's boundary line was not
only affected by the two mother pueblos but also by the other neighboring villages. For instance, the
separation and reestablishment of the towns of Sto. Tomas and Minalin, and the creation of the new
pueblo of Angeles contributed in delineating the gray boundaries of the soon to become a
component city of Pampanga. It is in this process when the bangca-bangca villages of San Fernando
started to emerge as barangays

ALASAS - the barrio was among the new barrios created at the turn of the century. It
was officially registered in 1959 thus appearing as one of the known barrios before the
80's period. Hence, as an independent barrio, it is absent in the earlier reports and
surveys of barangays in the past for it was still then part of the older barrios of the city.

The barangay was named after the abun dance of Alásas (Ficus ulmifolia Lam.) of the
Bali- ti family growing commonly in the wild but only endemic in the Philippines.

Alasas was just a former sitio of San Isidro but when the population grew it prompted the barrio people
to separate their place hence creating a new barangay. It was formerly a farmland of atbuan and
asikan owned by the pioneering families of Ocampos, Pinedas, Mendoza and Alimurongs.

BALITI - this barangay is comprised of five (5) sitios which correspond to the present day
sub-barangay units called purok namely Maul (Purok 1 and 2). Pigalut (Purok 3),
Pisamban (Purok 5), Pangulu (Purok 6) and Purok 7 which corresponds to all the area
before the atbuan or sugarcane field.

HDP narrate that the area used to be a wild plain. The settlers cleared their lands that
was covered then by common trees coiled with black vines, but the task challenged their diligence.
Hence their clearings were impeded since most of their time was consumed in cutting down these

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strangling trees called baliti of the Ficus species. Because of too much effort exerted in clearing the
land the people opted to call this newly cleared barrio Baliti, not for the ill-natured plant, but for the
memory of that accomplished job.
This barangay was part of the vast atbuan owned by hacienderos from the Guecos, Nepomucenos
and Hensons. Original settlers include the families of the Hensons, Panlilios, Lacsons, Manarangs, Pa
mintuans, Lingats, Padillas, and Tolosas. The first known barrio lieutenant was Gregorio Henson.

In 1937, the barriofolks saw many changes in the tenant-landlord relation. Reforms were passed in
which big landed estates were liberalized, subdivided and sold to individual owners. Later, at the turn
of the 20th century, parts of these areas were donated to the casamacs of this barrio. Farmers
bondage started to loosen and the condition of life gradually improved. Soon thereafter, population
of the barangay grew rapidly with its old elementary school becoming one of the fullblown integrated
schools of the City. The replacement of cogon huts with light material houses took place eventually.
Private subdivisions, industrial plants, commercial areas and leisure resorts developed in the area in just
a short span of time thus making the place one of the fast developing barangays of San Fernando.

Today, the barrio is still known for its native production of the most sought aslam atbu in the prov- ince,
while the parish of Baliti which is the home of Virgen de los Remedios, the titular patron saint of the
Pampanga Province is periodically visited by various devotees coming from here and around the
province Barangay Baliti.

BULAON - is the barrio adjacent to the barangays of Calulut (northwest). Del Carmen (in the southend),
Malpitic, Maimpis, Quebiawan (on the eastern margin) and among the barrios of Mexico such as
Dalisdis in the south and San Rafael on the northeast boundary. It is apparently named after the sturdy
Balaun (var. Bulawun-molave or smallflower chastetree, Vitex parviflora Juss.) tree as the saying goes.

In the western part of this barrio is Malpitic a former sitio of this village. The foundation date of the barrio
is not clear although Historical Data Papers show that the barrio was established during the middle part
of the Spanish colonial government.

The barrio is pioneered by the original families of Castros, Severinos and Maximos later followed by the
Fernandos, Sisons, Canlas, Cerincos, Manalos, Manios, Juans, Pangilinans, Magtotos and Lambitos with
Eulalio Castro as the first known Teniente del Barrio.

In 1942 during the Japanese Invasion, this barrio became a battlefront were families stayed bravely at
their houses despite the threat of war. It was then the barrio became an important headquarters of
the guerillas. Many Japanese soldiers who made abuses were ambushed by these guerillas.

CALULUT - is one of the oldest barrios which occupy much larger atbuan and asikan in
the past. These ma- rangles were then subdivided into sitios of Mabalas, Pau, Patad,
Centro and Barriong Bayu. The place was named after a first class timber called Kalulut.
Simi- lar to the folk story of Bulaon's name origin. the old site of Calulut was said to have
a large Kalulut tree once growing in the area, where its cast of noontime shadow covers
as much as the soon to become centro (now a sitio, the barrio plaza). Botanically, the
tree is scientifically recognized as Artocarpus rubrovenia Warb, and also known as Obien in some
Kapampangan dialects.

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The families who pioneered this barrio include the Dayrits, Gomez, Sisons, Dungcas, Dizons, Gonzales,
Wijangcos, Romeros, Tuazons, Bundalians, Santos, Vergaras, Mallaris, Magtotos, Patawarans, Roques,
Masbangs, Sablays and Dela Cruz while the first known Teniente del Barrio was a certain Mang Nino.
In 1878, actions were made to create the town of Calulut but the effort failed to materialize due to
strong opposition from the parish priest of San Fernando.

It was also in these latter years of the Spanish admin- istration when the Insurrectos made this barrio a
backdoor escape where frequent skirmishes with the guardia civil and later by the guerillas against the
Japanese Imperial Army took place in the past.

On May 4, 1899, Philippine revolutionary troops led by Gen. Antonio Luna burned the Casa Municipal
of San Fernando, the town church and sev- eral houses to render them useless to the approach- ing
American forces. By June 16, due to the strategic location of the town, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo himself
led Filipino forces in the Battle for San Fernando. The plan to retake the town failed while Calulut fell to
the American control on August 9, 1899.

DELA PAZ NORTE - Dela Paz Norte and Dela Paz Sur were the offsprings of the old barrio of Dela Paz. In
the past, it was also known as Lunac which in Kapampangan means "soil where water passes or
stagnates". This description proves true, since a greater part of the Dela Paz Norte area on the
southwest end is topographically very low and food prone due to its proximity to the Pasig-Potrero River
that runs southwest parallel to the boundary of this barangay and that another old creek also runs
across the central areas of the two Dela Paz barrios.

It was in the 1950s when it was split into two thus paving the creation of two new barangays with
geographical name attachments such as "Norte" for the older original place on the north and the
Lipat-da- lan on the south with "Sur".

Oral history dictates that much of the old area in the past was at one time owned by a rich couple,
Mr. and Mrs. Francisco Torres of Spanish lineage. Their abode was then located in the present location
of Rich Town I. They had an image of Nuestra Señora Virgen Dela Paz, which they later entrusted to
their relatives and later kept by the barriofolks for safekeeping. The saint's image was said to be
miraculous that the barriofolks made her their barrio's patrun a patulunan and eventually naming the
barrio after this religious image.

DELA PAZ SUR - the place was once called Lipat Dalan which literally means "on the
other side of the road", and Masukal, "wasteland” which is apparently after the location
of the forested place on the other side of the now MacArthur Highway. It was then a
part of the old extent of the original Dela Paz barrio before it split up later on. The place
was later settled by farmers who planted rice and sugar cane. The development came
slow since most of the early settlers were not formally schooled. A few wealthy families,
such as the Torres couple hired farmers either as mangalis, tagapalut or sasakul (all workers and tillers
of sugarcane) who trav- eled by foot or by gareta (carabao sled) on unpaved muddy roads.

DEL CARMEN - this barrio is located in the eastern part of San Fernando delineating the
boundary of the city with the town of Mexico by Masamat in the west margin, bounded
by the barangays of Dolores in the north, Bulaon in the south, San Agustin and Que-
buiawan in the east.

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The barrio also started with farmlands of at- buan and palayan. Later on it was also planted with other
agricultural products like corn, balatung (mung beans) and kamuti (sweet potatoes) and irrigated by
pansols from a moderately flowing creek.
This creek also gave the relative placenames of much of the seven sitios namely: Mauli Tete ("bridge
at the downstream"), Mauli Tramu ("railroad at the downstream"), Centro I and Centro II, Pigulut ("riv-
er's back arc"), Pangulo ("headwater") and Dungan ("river shoreline"). The old barrio road was a muddy
dirt road, so no vehicles can enter this village. Later, the place was frequented by various vehicles:
carwahe used mostly by friars, calisin by the capitanes and ca- besas, and the onibus by the common
people.

Based on an anecdotal experiences barriofolks believed, the placename was after the miraculous ap-
pearance of the Mother of Sorrow, together with Saint Del Carmen (possibly the Nuestra Señora del
Car- men) seen on top of an acacia tree where the present Dolores Church now stands, accordingly
naming it Del Carmen.

The barrio's first known Teniente del Barrio was Mariano David an influential man who belonged to a
well-to-do family in the community. After the the land was surveyed by the government, agrarian prob-
lem was reaaranged, the church secured its parcel of land for the erection of its chapel which was
built initially with pinaud (nipa palm walls and roofings). Later it was rebuilt with concrete walls and
galvanized roofings and a convent was erected through the efforts of Fr. Dorondo Pesides. A Banio
was also erected by the friars, a bathing house made of stones and nipa roof. After it was long
abandoned by the friars, the place was later called a Bantayan, a popular place for punishing
criminals.

DEL PILAR - it was named after a patron saint (the Nuestra Señora del Pilar) that was quite
popular among the dev- otees. It was said that the saint was chosen among others, for
the eldest grand lady of the place was Indang Pilar, said to be very kind and wise.

The original site of the barrio was on the north- east boundary of the poblacion, south of
the elbowing section of the Ilug San Fernando (San Fernando River). It was said to have been founded
in 1850. Although, it was only after 10 years when the barrio was able to have its own Teniente del Barrio
in the person of Mariano Monumento.

During the Filipino-American War in 1898, the barrio was abandoned and this was repeated during the
time of the Japanese invasion. It was during the Libera- tion era that the barrio began to spring up to
progress, such that the temporary public market with its entrance located in this barrio was opened.

In 1946, most of the families of barrio San Felipe fled and migrated to this barrio for security reason. It
was only in 1958 when most of these families returned to their former barrio. On October 1950, a one
room school building was erected and this later offered complete elementary education. The lot of
the school came from the portion of a vast track of friar land.

Del Pilar is now part of the historic core of the City of San Fernando Heritage District with barangays
Sto. Rosario (at the center), San Jose (Panlumacan), San- ta Teresita (Baritan), Lourdes (Teopaco),
Santa Lucia and Santo Niño being promoted by the City's tourism office. It is in this barangay where
the Cuyugan-Baron House (Vivencio Cuyugan Road, Del Pilar) is located. Found in this place is the
residence of Vivencio Cuyugan y Baron, which was sequestered during the war and served as the
Municipal Hall of San Fernando during the Japanese oc- cupation and an American nightclub during
the Libera- tion years.

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DEL ROSARIO - named after the Nuestra Señora Virgen del Rosario. It was said that the Spaniards
brought the image of the saint to the place named after it.
The place was known by several names in the past as (a) Libutad for its "forest” condition sits in
the ‘middle of earlier barrios, (b) Agtas, and (c) Dalan, because the barrio road then served as the
main na- tional highway during the Spanish period). Today, Libutad still exists as a sitio (part of Purok 4)
of the new barangay where the founder-couple's house was believed to be erected. Another old sitio
called Sulok, "corner" can still be found that still serves as its name, for it is situated at the extreme corner
of the barrio. At present, the barangay is subdivided into four puroks.

DOLORES - Barriofolks here believe that the name Do- lores was favored due to the
miraculous appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mater Dolorosa on the top of a
tree found at the present site of the chapel, to- gether with Saint Del Carmen. It is said
that at one time the church of Dolores was the seat of the Catholic hier- archy in and
around San Fernando, managed by friars who also had their convent on the northern
part of the present chapel.

The establishment date of the barrio was in the year 1700 during the incumbency of Don Carlos
Feliciano as head of the barrio, who later was accorded the title Cabeza. The large tracts of land in
this barangay were said to be donated by a certain Doña Mercedes Santos Vda de Paras of the
famed Familia Paras. These areas include the present site of Dolores, Gemsville and Quebiawan. While
the site of the Good Sheperd Chap- el was bought by the Panganiban family, Don Tomás Paras Aguas
donated the land of the school and pio- neered the construction of the early set of classrooms that
time. Prior to this period, barriofolks had to send their children to the nearby school at Quebiawan from
1941 to 1943.

JULIANA - At the turn of the century, a certain Mariano Leon Santos (municipal
president of San Fernando from 1902-03) was one of the biggest land owners in San
Fernando. This barrio, which was just a small part of the family land, was named after
his daughter, Juliana Santos-Kerr.

In the early 50s, the barangay was integrated as part of Barangay San Jose. Later, a certain Mrs. Elena
Santos owned 52 hectares of land in this barrio subdi- vided it into three puroks and named this
subdivision as Juliana, in memory of her mother Doña Juliana San- tos, said to be an adopted daughter
of a rich couple of the Santos clan of San Fernando. However, it was not until October 24, 1961 that
the Municipal Council of San Fernando approved the petition through Resolu- tion No. 213 Series of
1961. The petition requested the separation of Sitio Juliana from its mother barrio, San Jose which was
prepared by JUSCAS (Juliana Subdivi- sion Community Association) led by the Barrio Coun- cilor Noy
Sanchez. It was either Sanchez or a certain Roman Henson who was said to have served as the first
barrio lieutenant of the new barrio.

LARA - this old village is one of the earliest barrios of San Fernando since its foundation
as a pueblo in 1754. Although it was noted among the Historical Data Papers that it was
founded in 1867, the barrio was already included among the populated places of only
24 barrios reported in an 1853 census.

Aside from the Gueco-Henson clan, this once sleepy barrio was also pioneered by the
Pinedas and Dizons and later by the De Leons, Singians, Manabats and Tarenios. They started to

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cultivate the lands with native crops for personal consumptions and later with atbu at pale, the
common cash crops of sugar cane and rice. The earliest known Teniente del Barrio was Aberto Pineda.

Lara, as a toponym, does not have a clear evidence of how the barrio got its name. The name of this
barrio was said to have been derived from the plant name Lára of the Capsicum family. Old barriofolks
still recall that "Long time ago, a pepper plant whose diameter was about three meters (one meter in
one of the HDP sources) grew in this place. It was such an extraordinary plant that when it died, the
place was named after it...

HDP documents noted the three early sitios of Lard, namely Casita, Lihitad and Macabacle. All of these
sitios no longer exist, although another one called Sitio Pulu is now a part of Brgy. Calibutbut of Ba-
color, Pampanga.

During the late period of Spanish administration, Lara served as a hiding place of the Revolucion arios.
And briefly during the Japanese occupation the place became an airfield making the old place of
the barrio school a garrison of sort. Sitio Palu was in fact known as Landing, a secret runway of
Japanese planes similar to the old Landing placename of Brgy. Maimpis. Shortly after the Americans
came, the barrio started to rebuild its community.

During the Marcos Administration, the first Self-Defense Units was also organized in Calulut on June 8,
1969 as an answer to the growing insurgency problems in the country. This was during the time of Jose
B. Lingad as governor of Pampanga from 1948 to 1951, where his administration was called "panawun
ning gubyernung dos-por-dos." the equivalent of an iron fist rule. Gov. Lingad personally organized this
CH- vilian Guards to neutralize the growing Huk insurgency. But later in 1951, these same Civilian Guards
impli- cated in the controversial Maliwalu Good Friday Massacre in Bacolor. Many of the families from
this barrio flee from nearby barrios such as Lard to seek refuge, Barangay Lara once again adopted
Bacolor townsfolk in the early years of 1990s when several episodes of life-threatening lahar inundated
much of the barangays of Bacolor. Hundreds of Bacoloreños from the barrios of Maliwalo and
Calibutbut resettled in this barrio. The school became a temporary tent city' until the establishment of
a permanent resettlement site at the higher grounds of Brgy. Calibutbut. Bacolor.

LOURDES (TEOPACO) - was formerly part of a much big ger real estate property of Don Juan Teopaco
which is Situated northwest of the poblacion of San Fernando This old property covers an area of about
51 hectares bounded by the Jose Abad Santos Avenue (former Olongapo Gapan Road) to the north,
B. Mendoza St. the east, V. Tiomico St, to the south, and Brgy. Sto. Nino to the west. The vast area covers
the location of Villa Barosa, Capati Subdivision (Macabacle), and Brgy. Lourdes which is commonly
referred to as Te opaco Subdivision From the old ancestral house of the Teopacos, forest clearings
started towards the north paving the way for farmlands to be tilled and later on for the erection of
numerous important establish- ments and institutions.
Don Juan Teopaco, a generous and benevolent man, donated several hectares of land as
future sites for schools, water works system, hospital, roads and other infrastructures. From these
donations, ten hectares was allotted for the Pampanga High School where the Bren 2. Guiao
Convention Center and Sports Complex is included, and three (3) hectares for the Pampanga
Provincial Hospital.

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MAGLIMAN - the placename origin of this barrio could have been from two possible
sources - one from an unfamiliar local tree and another from various Kapampangan
etymological derivations.

Oral tradition narrates that a century ago, the barrio was then called "guliman", after
trees with thick foliage which were abundant there. Thus, the place was then called
"Maguliman". Through the passage of time, the "o" from this was eventually omitted, thus making the
spelling of the barrio's old name to "Magliman".
On the other hand, its name may have been derived from a conjugation of the rootword liman.
Magliman (or mangaliman) is the verb used by an expecting woman when she asks a favor, usually
for sorghing to eat. But it can also be associated to Daglimas, that is, to get rid of the water" (from wa-
terclogged areas like bana, pinak, etc.) either by constructing a tabun (irrigation dam) or manually,
using a container; the objective is usually to facilitate the catching of fish.

This theory is bolstered by the presence of rivers and creeks in the vicinity of both Magliman barrios of
San Fernando and Bacolor, which had a long history of rice farming and fishing.

MAIMPIS - is a barangay located halfway north of San Fernando with a total land area
of 373 hectares divided into the following partitions: fifteen hectares of residential area
of about 6,755 population, twenty hectares of government property, and the rest as
farm- land of mostly atbuan. The area owned by the government is where most of the
regional offices and institutions of the government are located such as the DOH, DOTC,
DepEd, PhilPost, CHED, LTO, COA, DOST among others.

There are two major contentions as to the etymology of its barrio name. Firstly, it might be related to its
river culture beginnings, and second by the oral histories the people still have.

MALINO - during the earlier times, this place was cov- ered with palat (cogon grass) and big trees of
various species, that it was frequented by barriofolks of old Panipuan just to gather firewood. This
forested land people traversed the area where they saw a river that they started to call the place
"Malino" after the for- est river's clear water. This creek is one of the many networks of rivers found in the
northwest boundary of San Fernando. Thus, this barrio like Sindalan and Maimpis was apparently
named after the association of this barrio to the river's morphological character.

Malino is one of the earliest 24 barrios of San Fernando. But, for a time became associated with nearby
Panipuan that it was not in the 1903 census. Later, it was associated with Panipuan as reflected in the
1948 census bearing entry as "Panipuan Malino" although still distinct from the other Panipuan recog-
nized then as "Panipuan San Fernando".

Original families were the De Jesus, Patawarans, Corderos, Dayrits, and Gosuns. The first known Teniente
del Barrio was a certain Mang Juan, followed by Felipe de Jesus, Eusebio de Jesus, Julian Canlas (who
served twice), Mamerto Gozun and Te odulo Patawaran among others.

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MALPITIC - the name of Barrio Malpitic (also called as Palpitic) is probably an

abbreviation or corruption of the word malapitik, mala means "like" and the root- word
pitik means any of the following: (a) flick (with a finger): (b) carpenter's or boat carver's
line marker; (c) spark and its sound (as in ignition).

Malpitic was among the early founding barri- os of San Fernando. It is located adjacent
to Bulaon, Maimpis, Calulut and Del Carmen. It is very much associated with Calulut and neighboring
barrios that in 1878, actions were made to create the town of Ca lulut and in this plan the proposed
town would be composed of Calulut and the neighboring barrios with Malpitic among them. This barrio
was formerly a sitio of Bulaon which occupied the western part of the old territory.

PANDARAS - is located at the southwesternmost part of San Fernando. In the past, the barrio is claimed
by four towns, San Fernando, Mexico, Sto. Tomás and San Simon. This was based on Cadastral Surveys,
but the residents chose to be associated with San Fernando. Thus, the location of this barrio is located
at the meeting boundaries of the mentioned towns and the present city, Mexico on the northern part,
Sto. Tomas on the eastern section and San Simon on the southern end. Based on the latest census, this
village has only a total population of 1,800, with 347 living in Pirsa, the only sitio of this small barangay.

In the past, this barangay was once a part of barrio San Felipe and was separated only in the late
1940s by virtue of RA No. 2370. The barrio name including the river which bear the same name may
most likely been called after the adze or adze-like tool, daras, an ancient tool used for making the old-
fash- ioned, canoe-type boat known to old Kapampangans as balutu (which is also an adopted
placename in one of the old barrios in the towns of Concepcion and Victoria of Tarlac Province). This
makes sense, since according to one barrio accounts of San Felipe (the mother barrio of the then sitio
Pandaras), the place was cleared using an adze or daras locally termed as pindara or pindaras, literally
"cleared by the use of an adze". Moreover, the daily cleaning and tending of marangle is traditionally
termed as dadara (var. da- daras, dadala).

It was said that there were only eleven families that pioneered the place bearing the following
surnames: Mercado, Tiglao, Cordero, Quiambao, Fajardo, Cat- acutan, Pineda, Calaguas, Guinto,
Miranda and Baluyut. Most of them were ortelano (farmers) and manasan (fishermen) with some
businessmen, car- penters, and barbers. It was said that most of these pioneering families came from
San Matias, Pau (also known in the past as Sto. Rosario Segundo) and Pulu from the area now mostly
part of Santo Tomas town. Primary industries aside from farming and fishing were livestock, like duck-
raising. In the late 1950s to early 1960s, when the barrio was still a sitio of San Felipe, the place was
acknowledged by the then mu- nicipal administration as a “special barrio" and as such a Teniente del
Barrio was assigned to head the barrio affairs.

PANIPUAN - is a placename of at least two barrios, one in San Fernando and the other
in the town of Mexico. These barrios were all once part of the old Mexico pueblo. The
split came apparently when San Fernando was carved out of Mexico and Bacolor in
1754. Hence it is one of the earliest barrios of the City.

Its toponym may have been derived from several terms such as (a) pipaniplan or pipalutan (the place
for harvested ricefield); (b) pipanipunan which means "a collecting area” or “a place of gathering";
(c) the root word puapu, a kind or type of a paduas (fishing implement with hook, string and rod) used
for fishing or for frog catching since the place conveniently had several headwaters of small rivers and
creeks; and (d) the plant ipo, ipu (Antiaris toxicaria (Pers.) lesch.), a term common to Kapampangans,
Tagalogs and Bisayas; 127) the latter possibility is supported by an HDP account. The first settlers were
led by a certain Chinese named Vicente. He married a Filipina, and together with the rest of the

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pioneering residents cleared the place. During the clearing period, they came across a group of big
trees with straight trunks and branches which Vicente referred to as “panipuan" thus naming the place
after this. Apparently it seems, these trees are ipu trees common in the wild. It was said that these trees
were not cut down instead they let them grew until they matured and dried up later on.

The original families of this barrio include the Sanchez, Dayrits, Dizons, Guiaos, Masbangs and Rey- es.
The earliest known Teniente del Barrio was Gregorio Dizon.

PULÚNGBULO (OR PULUNGBULU) - located on the northeastern section of Sapang Balen

Creek originat ing from Angeles City. Its name came from the com pounded words
pulung ("forest of") and bulu (Schiz- ostachyum lumampao [Blanco) Merr., a local
species of bamboos usually used in the production of sawali and sasag walls). Thus for
a time the place was also known for its sawali-making and weaving industry.

This barrio is one of the oldest barrios of San Fernando and originally included the southernmost barrio
of Angeles City - the other Pulungbulo.

SANTO ROSARIO (POBLACION) - which is San Fernan- do's historic poblacion, is surrounded by the
barrios of San Jose, San Nicolas, Lourdes and Sta. Teresita. The history of this barangay is intertwined
with the history of the city as well. When the city started as a pueblo, Sto. Rosario was already a
settlement located between the churches of Bacolor and Mexico. They are approximately "three
leagues away from each other with continuous rows of houses between them. The area was just a sitio
of the poblacion of Mexico that time and located near the river, which was one of the upstream areas
of the old region of Betis River now partly called Ilug San Fernando.

QUEBIAWAN (KEBIAUAN) - is another barrio near Malpitic and Maimpis. Its name
obviously came from the noun kebyawan (var. quebiauan; its old Kapampan- gan
rootword cabiao [kabyo] is where the old name of Cabiao of Nueva Ecija is derived
from) meaning "a place where sugar cane juice is extracted." The process uses
rotating cylinders locally known as atlu bola, collectively called salipit, which were
made of either wood or stone. Historically, Pampanga was the coun- try's number
one supplier of sugar together with Ne- gros in the 19th to 20th century. HDP narrates that an old
sugarcane extracting plant was once located in this barrio.
In its structure which is said to be near the old chap el then has a big steel caldero placed with
an ado be made embornal as its chimney. It became a center of processing harvested sugarcane
into sugar product not only to the imme diate residents but also to the neighboring barrios, Hence, the
place became famous for its service as ke byawan. The old barrio was then composed of two ma. jor
areas of population concentration which later on became the basis of division of two separate barrios
Quebiawan and San Agustin.

SAGUIN - the Philippines was once recognized as the number one exporter of bananas
in the world. It is no wonder why Barrio Ságuin was named after this fruit. This herbaceous
plantain was called plantano by the Spaniards, who saw a similarity to the plane tree
that grew in Spain; it was said that the early barriofolks of Saguin later adopted this
Kapampangan plant term due to the abundance of bananas growing in this area.

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SAN AGUSTIN - the old barrio was then called Talimun- doc (var. Talimunduc,
Talimunduk) due to its hilly terrain with lush bushes and trees. Legend has it that the
people saw an image of San Agustin on top of this hilly area and that they brought the
image home and renamed their barrio after this religious image.

The land was said to be owned in the past by the Hizon and Rodriguez families.
Pioneered by about five families, the population started to grow so that when there were about twenty
families, the Rodriguez clan, founded it into a barrio. On the other hand, other HDPs narrate the
foundation of the barrio by seven families with the Medias, Apolonios, Malingcads and Davids at a
time when the place was still unexplored. The old land area was later on surveyed but unfortu- nately
fell in the hands of a few landed families such as Captain Cristino Singian and Captain G. Hizon among
others.

SAN FELIPE - this barrio derived its name from its adopted patron saint, San Felipe de Neri. Although
another image is also kept by barriofolks, which is San Felipe de Venicio brought by Moises del Rosario.
Join- ing the other patron saint image which was later on or- dered to be made by Gregorio Policarpio,
both images are now housed at the chapel of the barangay.

The barrio was once a part of the town of Mexico as early as 1581. The barrio started as an agricultural
land supporting traditional livelihoods which include the kaingin system of farming, fishing and palduan
production of panutsa or muscovado cakes).

Pioneering families were the Castros, Cuyugans, Singians, Aguases and Lopezes who owned large
tracts of land. Other families who settled in the areas were the Magtotos, Canlases, Del Rosarios,
Mallaris, Basilios, Yutucs, Manalotos and Vitals. The couple Don Ricardo de Castro and Dona Angela
Singian for- merly owned much of the land of this barrio.

SAN ISIDRO - An early descendant of the David Fam- ily is believed to have given the barrio. It was due
to a mysterious sighting of San Isidro walking through the thick bushes in the wilderness thus the name
San Isidro came to be recognized.

The former name of the barrio was Agtas, after the Kapampangan term which means "the first clearing
up of idle land". Historical Data Papers show that the foundation period occurred during the early part
of the 17th century, way ahead of the foundation of the city as pueblo in 1754. It was said that the first
families to settle here were the Davids which up to now the barriofolks owe their influence and charity
for this barrio. It is one of the oldest barrios for it belongs to the first batch of barrios which comprise the
early pueblo San Fernando. It was Damaso Cunanan who served as the first Teniente del Barrio.

SAN JOSE - (PANLUMACAN) - this barrio was named in honor of San Jose, its patron saint. In the past,
the barrio was known by its old name Panlumacan. In the 1732 diccionario of Fray Diego Bergaño, the
rootword of this term is lumac, defined as follows:
"LUMAC. (pp.) Adjective, defeated morally/formal- ly, not like saul, which means defeated
materially. Active verb and its constructions, to defeat, over- come, over rule, like a superior insisting
on his own opinion, although the subject, or inferior has his reasons. P. 2. the one over ruled, or defeated
thus..."

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Hence, the conjugated name means a place of defeat" or a "place of submission to something that
may be of authoritative or of prevailing power. Conse- quently indicating or possibly hinting significant
early skirmishes likely between the Revolucionarios and the Spanish forces or with the Huks reprisal
during the turbulent years of the 1940s and the 1950s, considering that the place is an old intersecting
corridor between Mexico and San Fernando.

SAN JUAN - the barrio acquired its name after its patu- lunan a Apung San Juan. The
barrio is composed of a long strip of land formerly divided into sitios namely: Palawi,
Minangun, Galac and Magliman, which is now an independent barrio. It is located
part of the south- west boundary of the City, with barrios Magliman in the west, San
Agustin, Dolores and Santa Lucia on the east and the Bacolor boundary on the south
end.

Palawi (var. Palaui; with common placename origin with barrio Lawi of Capas town). The place which
also had its creek named Palawi River was pos- sibly derived from the old palaui word which means
"going/close to contamination," a term ordinarily used to refer to various stocks of grains such as pále
(rice, Oryza sativa L.) and balatung (Mung bean, Vi- gna radiata), or even pulbura (for gunpowder or
fire works), ápi (shell lime) etc. However, available HDP data states that the place was derived from
being wet or having irrigation for crops like a paranum.

Minangun is synonymous to a rising slope along a river bank, which means a high road or cause- way
because of its high elevation. This makes sense since Palawi is a 'body of water? The nearby area could
have been a talangpas (high bank) or an embankment where the place was known to flood prone
area in the past.

Galac was said to be an unpopulated area except for a couple of houses owned by farmers who
worked in it in the past. The place might have been named after the type of small snake called
Geulacga- can or from a specie of wild tree called Galacgac.

It was said that the barrio as a whole is one of the old villages when San Fernando was created. Thus
aside from appearing in the 1853 census, there are ar- tifactual remnants of old stone foundations of
houses that were once seen located on the sides of the old barrio road, which the old residents call
Dalan Matua.

The history of the barrio is overshadowed by the biographical history of its prominent families. As such,
the infamous Hilario family shares one of its illustrious sons in the person of Pampanga Revolution- ary
Governor Tiburcio Hilario. His name was not only known as among the recognizable figures in Pampan-
ga politics but also became an associated byword with Dr. Jose Rizal's visit in Pampanga during the
Spanish Administration

The barrio originally had one road connecting with the old Dalan Matua that leads to Cabalantian,
Bacolor and later another local road was opened now simply called as the Provincial Road. During
the American Occupation another road was also opened leading also to Bacolor now known as the
National Road where the PASUDECO is located running accross the boundary of Brgy. Sto. Niño. It is
the short-cut road from Gugu Bridge, Bacolor to Palawi, San Fernando built in 1873.

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SAN NICOLAS (BULUSAN) - this barangay was named af- ter San Nicolas de Tolentino,
the patulunan a malasantu of this village. It is known by its old name Bulusan, a "place
free to the pasturing of carabaos". However, the toponym literally indicates that the
place is where flowing water is collected which possibly justifies its riverside
topography.

It is also mentioned in an old testament that it was once a part of a territory possibly under the do-
minion of Nobles Manduquit and Liqueo's children and of Gat Maitim's. The testament is the
controversial "Last Will" of Prince Balagtas who is said to be the first ruler who established and
consolidated the so-called Kapampangan Empire to include all regions in Luzon from Manila to
Cagayan Valley in the north between the years of 1335 to 1380.

Old Bulusan was among the first barrios of the City. It originally had three sitios: Libutad, Salapungan
and Tagulud. Libutad is said to be the barrio proper, while Salapungan literally means the "crossroad"
of the village and, Tagulud is synonymous with talimunduk which indicate the place was elevated with
hilly land- scape. Its present area is located near the boundary of Brgy. Dolores.

SAN PEDRO CUTUD - is one of the southernmost barangays of the city located between the barrios of
Sta. Lucia and San Nicolas in the north and shares bound- aries with the towns of Bacolor in the west
and Sto. Tomás in the south. It is the smallest barangay in terms of land area for it was only once a part
of Barangay Sta. Lucia. Apparently, this piece of land area was the ety- mological background on why
it was previously called as Cutud, which means the "cut part" or "divided por- tion". Soon, the patron
saint's name was added to its official barangay name instead of replacing the older one. The barrio is
one of the pioneering towns report- ed in 1853 census with its name appearing San Pedro only.

SANTA LUCIA - the barrio is named after its patulunan a Sta. Lucia. In the past, the barrio
being along the Ilug San Fernando, one of Pampanga River's major down- stream
tributaries was frequented by commercial ves- sels called casco. Several warehouses
of sugar and salt were built along the coast.

In the past, the place was a thickly covered forest. It was pioneered by a certain
Vicente by clearing parts of the area. Soon other settlers resided in the area making it a sitio of their
own. The first known Teniente del Barrio was Jacinto David.

Sta. Lucia is bounded by the barangays of Sto. Niño on the north, Del Pilar on the east, San Juan on
the west and San Pedro on the south. San Pedro was once a part of this barangay before it was
separated as another independent barangay. Sta. Lucia is composed of fifteen puroks, three of which
belong to Mansgold.

SANTA TERESITA- for the longest time this barrio was known as Baritan. Its name was derived from a kind
of grass, green forage, or horse-fodder known as barit (tall grass with violet flowers), sakate or kumpay,
which proliferated in the area due to the pipita (waterlogged areas) landscape. The landscape
extended up to the old place of Ponduan. Through the years, this waterlogged area turned into a
residential land under barrio San Jose. On February 9, 1960 under the leadership of Mayor Jose C.
Quiwa, a special session was conducted by the then Municipal Council approving a resolution
separating Baritan from its mother barrio San Jose. The resolution was prepared by the then Councilor
Tranquilino Aquino and the newly created barrio was renamed Sta. Teresita, in the same period when
barrio Teopaco was renamed Lourdes.

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Prominent families and personalities include the Aquinos, Pinedas, Serranos, Bituins and Dionisios.
Ernesto Pineda who became a policeman for 35 years served as a barangay Captain who made
several improve- ments on roads and public infrastructures for the barrio.

Today, Sta. Teresita is divided into puroks and is part of the historic core of the City of San Fernando
Heritage District with barangays Sto. Rosario (at the center, the poblacion), San Jose (Panlumacan
area), Lourdes (of the old Teopaco subdivision), Santa Lucia and Santo Niño. Among the heritage sites
found in Sta. Teresita is the old building of St. Scholastica's Academy, the third Benedictine school in
the Philippines. Formerly known as the Assumption Academy, it was established in June of 1925 in the
house of the Singian family. The first high school was eventually added. On March of 1930, the first
secondary graduates of the Assumption Academy were presented. Due to the large number of
enrollees, and the zeal of its biggest benefactor, Monsignor Pruden- cio David, the school was
relocated to its second site in 1931, and ownership of the school was passed on to the Benedictine
Sisters in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II, the building was used as a military hospital. In 1966,
the school was renamed St. Scholastica's Academy of Pampanga and was later transferred to a bigger
site in 1972, leaving the old building without occupants.

SANTO NIÑO - its patron saint is Santo Niño del Viejo where the barrio toponym is named
after. It is among the earliest barrios of San Fernando when it was found- ed in 1754. It
is part of the kabalenan thus making it a significant part of the historic core of the City
of San Fernando Heritage District with barangays Sto. Rosa- rio, San Jose, Lourdes, Santa
Lucia and Sta Teresita (of the old Baritan area). It is located on the eastern side of the
poblacion area, bounded by the barangays of Dolores (north), San Juan (west) and
Sta. Lucia (south). Among the his- torical and heritages that can still be found erected in this barangay
include:

Pampanga Provincial Capitol (NHI-Declared Site) located at the Capitol Boulevard. It is the seat of
gov- ernment of the Province of Pampanga. The original building was constructed after the provincial
capital of Pampanga was transferred from Bacolor to San Fer- nando in 1904. It was the site of the
major battle be- tween guerilla forces and the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The current
building dates back to the 1930's

Presidio (NH1-Declared Site) - at Artemio Macali no Street, it was among the buildings built in 1907 by
William E. Parsons when the property of the current Provincial Capitol was acquired. It used to house
the courts of Pampanga before serving as the Pampanga Provincial Jail.

Old P.H.S. Building also known as the Provincial High School Building (LGU-Declared Site). Soon to house
the Kapampangan Cultural Center built by the Foundation for Lingap Kapampangan - Save
Pampanga Movement

San Fernando Train Station (NHI-Declared Site) - Inaugurated on February 23, 1892 by Manila Railroad
Company. Jose Rizal disembarked from this station to visit his friends in San Fernando to recruit members
of the La Liga Filipina on June 27, 1892. During the Death March in April 1942, it was the ending point
of the long walk from Bataan from where Filipino & American prisoners of war were carted to Capas,
Tarlac en route to their final destination, Camp O'Donnell, Tarlac. Restored in 2011 by the Tourism
Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority in cooperation with the City Government of San Fernando,
Pampanga.

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PASUDECO Sugar Central (LGU-Declared Site).. Finished in March 1921, it was the first Filipino-fi- nanced
sugar center in Pampanga. Built through the initiative of Pampanga Sugar Development Company, it
was constructed by the Honolulu Iron Works. It is considered an important symbol of San Fernando's in-
dustrial heritage.

PASUDECO Staff Houses and Commissary - part of the PASUDECO sugar central and also considered
among the important Industrial Heritage Structures and Sites of the City.

SINDALAN - this barangay sits at the near central part of the City's general vicinity. It is
bounded by the barangays of Calulut and Malpitic (east), Baliti (north), Dela Paz Norte
and Dela Paz Sur (west), and Del Rosario and San Isidro on the south end. Formerly it had
old sitios locally named as: Pangulo, Luban, Mayanatis and Lipit. Pangulo refers to a
certain headwater of a river or creek. Luban is where the barrio proper is located:
Mayanatis was apparently named after the abundance of anatis fruit bearing trees (var atis, Annona
squamosa L.) and Lipit for the "very small parcel of land"

The village is among the barangays that is joined by rivers and creeks. The Sapang Sindalan River,
which is a major tributary of Sapang Balen from Angeles City, runs thru the southeastern part of San
Fernando joining the Sapang and Kabalasan (or Mabalas) River. The current of these rivers and creeks
"bends and slows down halfway through Sindalan as it flows to barrio Calulut, thus gaining a
meandering shape- marked by old bar- riofolks as sinandal and the place of river bend as sindalan.

This village is among the earliest barrios of San Fernando. The original families were the Hizons. Hen-
sons, Dizons, and Magtotos, while the first known Teniente del Barrio was Don Florentino Hizon. A certain
Don Ciriaco Henson was at one time built his residential house which was then considered as the
biggest among the houses found in the barrio that time before it was transferred to Manila during the
Liberation years leaving only the concrete ruins of its posts and stairs.

In 1878, actions were made to create the town of Calulut. This new town would be composed of
Calulut and the neighboring barrios which include Sindalan. This plan did not materialize due to some
political and socio-religious conflicts.

Sindalan was once a sleepy barrio and was only known before for its vast tracks of atbuan. But the
location of the barrio is strategic, with MacArthur Highway, a national road that runs across the vastness
of its atbuan, socio-econonomic development came in unimaginable pace. The eruption of Bunduk
Pinatubu con- tributed much to this progress, since thousands of residents from lahar-stricken areas
resettled in various places such as in Barangay Bulaon thus making Sindalan's road intersection a choke
point for moving people which later on contributed to Sindalan's potential intensification of commerce
and socio-political influence. The mas- sive population movement and expansion in barrios with
resettlement sites translated Sindalan into a promising first class barangay and making the surrounding
areas blooming with a new growth of commerce and trade towards the northern segment of the City
in general. Brgy. Lourdes where it accommodates Pampanga High School and the Division Office of
DepEd Pampanga.To date, the barangay's population grew dramatically, mak- ing it one of the most
populous barangays of San Fernando in a matter of short time. Countless commercial and industrial
establishments and residential subdivisions mushroomed in numbers making the area as one of the fast
developing and most progressive barangays of the City

TELABASTAGAN - although located on the southwest end of Palungbula, this barangay is the
northernmost ba rangay of the City in reference to the MacArthur Highway, Barangay Calibutbut of

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 15

Bacolor is located on the west margin of this barrio with barrios Lara and Saguin on the south and Baliti
on the eastern boundary.

In the past, the area was occupied by vast tracks of atbuan, with casamacs, sugarcane farmers, as
pio neering residents. It was said that the place was formerly owned by a certain Apung Juana Dinalan
from Baliti, This landlord started to clear a portion of land starting from Sua (a place named after the
proliferation of local pomelo trees), up to the present city boundary of Angeles and San Fernando The
extent of this area started to change beginning in 1898 when the MacArthur Highway was constructed
and opened to public transporta- tion. Old folks say that the place was named after the initials of the
people who helped Apung Juan in dearing the original place although some linguistic provenance
suggests a different origin. Prefix tela- means "like" or similar and bastagan refers to a certain frame or
mounting for stretching cloth. Thus it may literally mean as a bastidor-like frame used in weaving fishing
nets or dase ebus (native mat made of palm leaves of Corypha utan Lam.). Some old folks associate
its origin to the early game venue of jueteng.

Telabastagan is divided in several sitios and puroks, among them are old small villages which include
Sitio Looban, 301, Sitio Calibutbut and Marlboro Sitio Looban was said to be one of the oldest since the
old road in this area was said to be the original route that connects the old camino real, official roads
of Bacolor and Porac with San Fernando and Culiat (now Angeles City). Marlboro which partly
occupies the old area of Sua, was named after the famous road bearing this commercial cigarette
brand leading to barrios Calibutbut and Lara. It was named as such after a certain wealthy Calibutbut
resident started to develop a horse grazing land in his farmland in the early 70s, literally raising wild
horses and other animals. Sitio 301 is named after the e provincial jail station located in the area. Sitio
Calibutbut however started as an informal resettlement of residents who flee from the onslaught of
lahar in the 90s which joined the earlier barriofolks in the area. This area is then a part of the long stretch
of house on stilts built along the Sapang Aslam where it was also known as the Baltangan, houses along
the crossing of dirtroads along it. On the other hand, 301 is now a known sitio where the San Fernando
City district jail is located.

WEEK 2: Module 1 Lesson 2: LIFE AND FAITH: THE CHURCH OF SAN FERNANDO AND ITS RELIGIOUS -
CULTURAL TRADITIONS

Like all towns in the Philippines established during the Spanish period, the town of San Fernando was so
planned as to have at its center, the Church with its plaza, and right in front of it, the municipio or
municipal hall. While the social, political and economic concerns of the town were all centered in the
municipio, the more personal, moral and spiritual concerns were the domain of the Church. The
liturgical calendar of the church with all its rituals and observances, provided a year-round schedule
of activities in and around the church. Up to the present, these activities are still observed and have
become deeply entrenched traditions that help identify the Fernandino soul.

San Fernando was founded as a parish in 1754. It was placed under the advo- cation of Nuestra Señora
de la Asun- cion (Our Lady of the Assumption) al though as a town itself was named after and in honor
of Fernando VI, king of Spain and placed under the Patronage of Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castille
and Leon who was himself canonized in 1671. The town (city) fiesta is cele brated on May 30

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 16

SAN FERNANDO
When this town was founded and placed under the patronage of San
Fernando not all people really knew who he was. In fact, even up to now
most people are sua Prised to find out that San Fernando is indeed King Fet:
nando III of Castile! Born in Valparaiso in Spain in the year 1199, Fernando's
parents were King Alfonso 11 of Leon, and the saintly Lady Bereguera, still a
young man when he became King of Castile, San Fernando soon became
one of the most-loved mon archs of all time, spending his entire life in the
service of God. Even during his lifetime, he was already known as "the saint,"
so much so that after his death San Fernando became the object of public
veneration.

THE CHURCH OF SAN FERNANDO

The church of San Fernando has a long and colorful history. The first structure of wood and
thatch was built on this site in 1755 by the Augustinian friars under the patronage of San Fernando, King
of Castile. Its first cura parroco or parish priest was Fray Sebastian Moreno, O.S.A. The construction of
the present style church started in 1788 under the supervision of its first secular cura parroco, Fr. Manuel
Canlas and a committee composed of the principales of the town under the leader- ship of the
gobernadorcillo, Bernabe Pamintuan. The church was completed in 1808 and was rededicated to Our
Lady of the Assumption. However, this church was destroyed in 1828 and was later restored by Fr. Pedro
Medina and Fr. Antonio Redondo, who had paintings done on the ceiling and the majestic dome built.
During the Philippine revolution, President Emilio Aguinaldo viewed the revolutionary army under
Pampanga's General Maximino Hizon from the windows of the convent beside this church. That was in
Octo- ber 9, 1898. Seven months later, the church and the convent were burned on orders of General
Antonio Luna. Rebuilt after that, it was destroyed again in 1939 by a great fire. The present church was
rebuilt by a famous son of San Fernando, architect Fernando Hizon Ocampo, who also rebuilt the
Manila Cathedral during the time of Cardinal Rufino Santos, the first Filipino cardinal. Pope Pius XII
elevated the church of San Fernando into a cathedral in 1948 when it be- came the seat of the newly
created Diocese of San Fernando. In 1975, the diocese was elevated by Pope Paul VI to the
Archdiocese of San Fer- nando. Monsignor Cesar Ma. Guerrero, D.D., became San Fernando's first
bishop. The Most Reverend Emilio A. Cinense, D.D. of Guimba, Nueva Ecija followed him as bishop and
became the first archbishop of the Archdiocese. He was succeeded by the socially-committed and
very intellectual Most Reverend Oscar V. Cruz, D.D. of Balanga, Bataan in 1978. The third archbishop
of San Fernando was the well-loved and highly respected Most Reverend Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D.
who was followed by Archbishop Florenti- no Lavarias, the fourth and current Archbishop.

San Fernando's Cathedral of the Assumption was rededicated as the Metropolitan Cathedral
of San Fernando on December 11, 1998 on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of San Fernando's
creation as a di- ocese. The Most Reverend Antonio Franco, D.D., Papal Nuncio to the Philippines,
presided over this very memorable event. As one enters the cathedral today, one's attention is
immediately captured by the bigger-tha
n-life statue of Our Lady of the Assumption above the altar in front. On the right side is the stately image
of San Fernando in his knight's vestments, holding a crucifix on one hand and a globe on the other. To
the left of the main entrance is the traditional baptismal chapel, which has now been converted into
a devotional chapel with the statue of the Cristo Nazareno as the main focus. On the opposite side
and to the right of the main entrance is the huge statue of the Crucified Christ whose feet are always
covered with sampaguita garlands offered by countless devotees. Since more than ninety percent of
the people of San Fernando are Catholics, the first most important event after a child's birth would be
baptism, done either at the Met- ropolitan Cathedral or in any of the many parish churches of San
Fernando. In this most important sacrament, signifying pu- rity or cleansing from sin and devotion to
God, the child is baptized solemnly into the Catholic Church. He is given his or her baptismal Christian

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 17

name. Confirmation, also known as the sacrament of the Holy Spirit and officiated only by the bishop,
gen- erally consists of the imposition of hands by the bishop praying that the Holy Spirit may come
down, and the anointing of the chrism of salvation as he signs the forehead with the sign of the cross.
Confirmation is usually scheduled on or before special occasions and is now done only when the
grown-up child or young adult can fully understand the significance of this sacrament. The Feast of the
Immaculate Conception on December 8 is a favorite date for the children's first Holy Communion.
Weeks before the event, the Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession is scheduled. It is always a
charming sight to see little girls and boys nervously trying to memorize the list of sins they are to confess
to the priest. A community breakfast immediately fol- lows the ceremonies.

Whether it is a grand wedding at the cathedral or a simple one in a smaller parish church in San
Fer nando, the Sacrament of Matrimony that binds a man and a woman for life in a lawful marriage
and gives the grace to discharge their duties, will always be the most memorable event of a couple's
lives. Understandably, the church of San Fernando is in its most joyous atmosphere when it is time for
the Ordination of its new deacons and priests! For this assures the continuation of the spreading of the
Gospels and the service to the people of God. At the end of one's life, one returns to the church to
receive her final blessing. Although this is una- voidably a sad occasion to gather family, relatives and
friends, the Church never tires in reminding the people that death is not the end, but the beginning. Or
a rebirth. But this time, it is one's birth to eternal life which should therefore be a joyous event
nonetheless! Indeed, from birth to death, the church is ever present all throughout the life of the people
of San Fernando. With the sacraments spread throughout his life, and especially with the liturgical
observances all year round, it is only to be expected that the Church's practices naturally become a
tradition with a very Kapampangan flavor Baptismal Traditions. Baby Camila Therese wearing the lace
baptismal gown which her mother Gabrielle Gomez Manaloto wore for her own baptism 22 years
earlier 1st Holy Communion of Marita De Leon Hizon and Elsie V. Hizon.

METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL OF SAN FERNANDO

Brief History (This is the official account published by the
Rectoral Council of the Metropolitan Cathedral of San
Fernando in all the Fiesta souvenir programs yearly.
Among the main sources of this account include Fr.Pedro
G. Galende, OSA's “Angels in Stone” and "Philippine
Church FAÇADE” and Prof. Regalado Trota Jose's "Curas
de Almas" Volume Three.)

San Fernando was founded as a parish in 1754. It was

placed under the advocation of Nuestra Señora de la
Asuncion (Our Lady of the Assumption) although as a town
itself was named after and in honor of Fernando VI, king of
Spain and placed under the Patronage of Saint Ferdinand
III, King of Castille and Leon who was himself canonized in
1671. The town (city) fiesta is celebrated on May 30. The
first visita (chapel) was built by the Augustinian Friars in
Barrio Dolores. The Church was made of wood, bamboo
and nipa thatches. In 1756, a new church built with bricks and stones were constructed in the present
poblacion in Barrio Santo Rosario. The original church then was built by Fr. Sebastian Moreno, OSA, who
was then prior-vicar in 1756. The work was continued and completed by Fr. Mariano Alafont, OSA, and
parish priest in 1781. The church was placed under the advocation of Our Lady of the Assumption.
SHARE In 1788, the new parish priest, Fr. Manuel Canlas, first secular cura parroco and a
capampangan, started the construction of what became the foundation of the present church
building. Fr. Canlas requested the gobernadorcillo at that time, Don Bernabe Pamintuan, to call for a

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general assembly to discuss the construction. In 1808 (this was after the parish was returned to the
Augustinians), after 20 years of construction, the San Fernando town church was completed owing to
the generous donations of the parishioners and the former parish priest, Don Manuel Canlas, who
allocated a modest fund for its construction, a Its ceiling was painted with trompe l'oeil murals (similar
to the ceiling murals of San Agustin Church in Intramuros and the Apalit Church), apparently by the
Italian painters Giovanni Divella and Cesare Alberoni or their students. The newly-constructed church
then was rededicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. As a sign of gratitude to Fr. Canlas, the
parishioners, led by the prominent families of that time, commissioned the painting of Fr. Canlas' portrait
which was then displayed in the church sacristy. More than a decade after its construction, the church
must have been at least partially destroyed (the cause of which is unknown) because in 1828 the then
parish priest sought authorization to have it rebuilt. Again, subsequent restorations were carried out: in
1854, the prior and parish priest, Fr. Pedro Medina, OSA, led its restoration and in 1886, the then prior Fr.
Antonio Redondo, OSA, did another series of restorations. It was Fr. Redondo's restoration work that
completed the interior painting and the addition of the majestic dome. The church measures 70 meters
long, 13 meters wide and 11 meters high. The interior belongs to the Tuscan Order. The hexagonal four
storey bell tower tapers up in uneven levels and alternates with blind and open recesses of the arched
and segmented type. The round, majestic dome rising from the rotunda of the transcript is reminiscent
of the Baroque style with some renaissance touches.

It was only on December 11, 1998 that the Cathedral solemnly dedicated by the Most Rev,
Oscar V. Cruz, DD, then On October 9, 1898, General Emilio Aguinaldo and his cabinet visited San
Fernando staying at the convent which has been converted into headquarters of the Philippine
Revolutionary Army General Aguinaldo viewed the Philippine Revolutionary Army. General Aguinaldo
viewed the Philippine Revolutionary Army from the windows of the convento. A few months after his
historical event, on May 4, 1899. General Antonio Luna ordered the burning by the Philippine
Revolutionary Army of the convent and the church at Jodock in the afternoon of that day. It was done
so in order to render both the church and convent useless to the already approaching future occupier,
the American troops. The church was later constructed and finished in 1924 only to be burned again
by a big fire on February 9, 1939. What remained of the Church and that which was restored thereafter,
was practically almost destroyed during the Second World War. After the war, reconstruction of the
church was initiated under the leadership of Msgr. Prudencio David, then parish priest. Architect
Fernando Ocampo, the Father of Philippine Architecture, supervised the reconstruction. Architect
Ocampo was himself a native son of San Fernando, from the barrio of Sto. Rosario. In 1950, a huge
balustrated portico (porte cochiere) was constructed hindering the architectural design and facade
of the church. Only the triangular pediment is clearly visible. already President of the Catholic Bishops'
Conference of the Philippines and the Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, DD, A Metropolitan Cathedral is
a church duly established as the seat of an Archdiocese, formally consecrated and dedicated to
liturgical celebration for public worship, and officially designated as such in confirmation of the
preminent pastoral office of the residential Archbishop (Canon 1165, no.3). The Metropolitan Cathedral
of San Fernando's territorial coverage is composed of Barrios Santo Rosario (Poblacion), Lourdes and
Santa Teresita; Sitios San Antonio Tinajero del Pilar and Ponduan San Jose (decree of Archbishop Oscar
V. Cruz, May 2, 1987.) The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Fernando serves as the Mother Church in the
Pastoral Ministry of the Archdiocese, immediately under the office of the residential Archbishop of San
Fernando, managed and ministered in his (Archbishops's) name by a Rector duly appointed by the
Archbishop himself. The Rector is further assisted by the Vice-Rector and other priests who may be there
assigned too. The church became a Cathedral when San Fernando was established as a new Diocese
separate from Manila on December 11, 1948, through the Apostolic Constitution Probe Noscitur. It then
comprised the provinces of Pampanga, Bataan, Zambales, a part of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. The
Cathedral was placed under the titularship of Saint Ferdinand and under the patronage of Our Lady
of the Assumption. The Most Rev. Cesar Ma. Guerrero, JCD, DD, a native of Intramuros in Manila was
its first bishop. The beautiful and majestic image of the Our Lady of the Assumption, under whose

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 19

patronage the church was placed and dedicated, is venerated in the middle niche of the Sanctuary
and main altar. This statue, like the many other statues found inside the cathedral is reputedly done by
the great master carver Maximo Vicente, Sr. The right side altar houses the classic and lovely image of
Saint Ferdinand, clad in his guerrero image in armor an armed with the crucifix, the very symbol of the
faith the he staunchly loved, promoted and defended. The left side altar houses the sweet image of
the patroness of Pampanga, the Virgen de los Remedios , whose "crusade of charity and penitence,"
initiated by the first bishop, Most Rev. Cesar Ma. Guerrero, was meant to cure and give remedy to the
social ills and agrarian unrest in the province during the mid and late 50's The Diocese was elevated
into an Archdiocese on March 17, 1975. The new Archdiocese comprised the whole province of
Pampanga and Bataan with two suffragan dioceses, namely, the Diocese of Tarlac and the Diocese
of Iba (Zambales). A few years after, Bataan was separated from the Archdiocese to become the
Diocese of Balanga with then Auxiliary Bishop of San Fernando, Most Rev. Celso N. Guevarra, DD, as its
first residential bishop. The Diocese of Balanga automatically became then a suffragan of the
Archdiocese of San Fernando. Thus, the Cathedral became a metropolitan Cathedral. The incumbent
bishop, the Most Rev. Emilio A. Cinense, DD, a native of Guimba, Nueva Ecija, became its first
Archbishop. He was succeeded by Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, DD, and a native capampangan
from the town of Sta. Ana on March 14, 1988. The other antique images presumably done also by
Maximo Vicente and/or by other masters are found in the many niches and mini altars in the Cathedral:
Our Lady of Lourdes, San Francisco de Asis, San Roque, San Judas Tadeo and many more.

THE ASSUMPTION
Before World War II, when the church of San Fernando was still known as the Church of the
Assumption, one of the most solemn and beautiful processions in San Fernando was on August 15, the
Feast of the Assumption. A high mass would be celebrated in the morning, and in the evening a grand
procession would be held. For the occasion, the exquisite ivory image of the Virgen Asuncion or the
Assumption under the care of the family of Don Tomas Paras of San Fernando was always used. Atop
her antique silver carroza, delicately decorated with azucenas, sampaguitas and paku leaves, and
wearing the fabulous dia- mond jewelry of the Paras family, the im- age looked as glorious and
awesome as any representation of the Assumption of Our Lady should be. Men in their best barongs
or in their cerrada suits and women in their lovely embroidered panuelos and baro't saya
accompanied the Virgen Asuncion through the main streets of San Fernando carrying flickering
candles, praying the ro- sary and singing beautiful Marian songs in Spanish.

VIRGEN DE LOS REMEDIOS, PATRONESS OF PAMPANGA

If there is one event that Fernandinos always look forward to in
September, it is the traditional re en actment of the canonical coronation of
the image of the Virgen de los Remedios every September 8. When the Most
Reverend Cesar Ma. Guerre- TO, D.D. became the first bishop of the Diocese
of San Fernando, he immediately identified the most pressing problem of
Pampanga as the peasant unrest against the feudal system fuelled by a
communist ideology. There seemed to be much piety, Bishop Guerrero realized,
but there was little charity. "Aqui en Pampanga hay mucha piedad, pero poca
caridad," he said. In response to this felt need, the good bishop es- tablished
the Cruzada ning Pamanisi at Lugud (Crusade of Penance and Charity) in 1952.
They chose the image of the Virgen de los Remedios in barrio Baliti, San Fer
nando, Pampanga as the image that would accompany the Cruzada across
the province. The idea was for the Virgen de los Remedios to visit all the parishes
of the province, from the big churches to the smaller capil las or chapels.
Throughout the year therefore, novena prayers in honor of the Virgen were held, and well-at tended
processions marked the transfer of the image from one parish to another. Virgen de los Remedios Little
by little the tradition of do nating all the alms and goods collected from the previously visited parish to

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 20

the next parish grew. The Kapampangans learned to share more and more, and the Cruzada vis its of
the Virgen de los Remedios became cause for rejoicing After the first year of the Cruzada however,
the people of Baliti refused to lend the image any further, saying that one year was simply too long to
keep their belov- ed Virgen away from them. Thus, Bishop Guerrero immediately ordered a replica to
be made by Victoriano Siongco of the Catholic Trade Center in San Fernando Many people didn't
even realize that it was a different image that was used for the sec ond year of the Cruzada, since the
replica was so well- made and looked exactly as the original.

It was this replica that was canonically crowned on September 8, 1956 with over 70,000
Kapampan- gans witnessing the historical event. Msgr. Egidio Vagnozzi, the Pope's emissary, performed
the canonical coronation. This precious replica of the Virgen de los Remedios is now enshrined
permanently in the chapel next to the Chancery or Bishop's Residence in Barrio San Jose, San
Fernando. It is brought out only once a year, on September 8, for the re-enactment of the canonical
coronation. In the meantime, two other replicas were also made, to be used for the Cruzada in the
northern and southern parts of Pampanga to solve the problem of the extremely slow pace of the
Virgen's provincial visits. The image of the Virgen de los Remedios is always accompanied on these
provincial rounds by the image of the Santo Cristo del Perdon, the Crucified Christ, Lord of Pardon. In
the past, re-enactments of the canonical coronation were held in whichever town the Virgen was
visiting around the time of the September 8 anniversary. Since the worsening floods in Pampanga after
the eruption of Mount Pinatubo however, the Archdiocese decided to hold the re-enactment
alternately be- tween San Fernando and Angeles. These two towns, now both cities, have the facilities
to accommodate the big congregations that gather for the occasion, and because these two towns
are not usually flooded during the monsoon season. Re-enactment of the canonical coronation of the
image of the Virgen de los Remedios every September 8.

CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

The United Methodist Church, Central (Rev.

Constancio V. Mercado Memorial) is one
of the oldest Protestant Evangelical
churches in the Philippines. We are
celebrating today, October 17, 2021, the
121st Founding Anniversary of UMCC,
thereby making the year 1900 as the year
when it was founded. Historically, we know
that Mexico United Methodist Church in
Mexico, Pampanga is older by a few
months, and that two great Methodist
Church landmarks in the Philippines,
namely the Central United Methodist Church at T.M. Kalaw Street and the Knox Memorial United
Methodist Church both in Manila, proceeded us. The latter two were founded in 1899. The church was
first called the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Comity Agreement of all protestant denominations in
the Philippines had designed the Methodist Episcopal Church to work in Central Luzon and the other
denominations to other parts of the country. The Methodist Church of America that brought this to our
country has its roots from the church of England in 1789. The history of our Church is also the history of
Methodism in Pampanga. Our former Church Historian, Pastor Horacio S. Mendoza, from whom we
owe much of this historical information wrote: "The Church has a beautiful past that gives a bright hope
for the future. The official journals state that the first missionary in Pampanga was a certain Miss Isabel,
a Presbyterian. The preaching of the Gospel in Pampanga started in 1900. Rev. William G. Fritz arrived
in 1901 and began the tremendous work. When he returned to the United States, the work was taken
over by the Exhorters who voluntarily, willingly, and wholeheartedly continued to win souls. These were

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Agripino Yutuc, Telesforo, Pineda, Arcadio de Ocera. Rafael Mendoza, Manuel Rodriguez, Tomas
Lazatin, Pacifico Panlilio, Vicente Cunanan, and Juan Macaspac.

Dr. William a Brown arrived in 1902. In his report to the District in 1903, he said: "For the love of Christ, the
Filipinos worked steadfast and harvested plentifully. In the past two years the 12 exhorters had delivered
1,000 sermons and held 600 Christian services within the 400 places in the province." when Dr. and Mrs.
Brown went back home to the United States in 1904, the work was placed on the shoulders of Pastor
Juan Macaspc, Arcadio de Ocera, (who later became District Superintendent for 16 years), and
Prudencio Tuazon and the previously named Exhorters. From San Fernando, the Gospel reached as far
as the barrios of San Felipe, Del Pilar, Palawe, Quebiawan, Cabalantian (Bacolor) San Bartolome (Sto.
Tomas), Pau, and San Isidro. The persons who worked for the Lord were Juan Macaspac, Arcadio de
Ocera, Rafael Mendoza, and Prudencio Tuazon. Pastor Mendoza was assigned in Magalang. The lot
where the present building of the United Methodist Church, Central (UMCC) stands was purchased in
1908 for a price of Four Thousand Seven Hundred pesos (P4,700.00) at the instance of Rev. Edwin L.
Housley. the old building was constructed in 1916 near the Baluyut bridge. The parsonage was a two-
storey building behind the church. Before 1916 the services were conducted at the church made of
bamboo and nipa at the Ponduan Asucal. The Housley's dedicated themselves also to the work of the
Lord. they established a Bible Institute on October 21 to November 2, 1907, for ne male and female
workers. In the period from 1910 to 1924 was full of activities. In 1940, the word "Episcopal" was dropped
from the name of the church. It was simply named "The Methodist Church." Then in 1968 it was renamed
"The United Methodist Church" owing to the merging of the denomination of the Evangelical United
Brethren Church and the Methodist Church in the United States. Today the church is known as
the United Methodist Church Central (Rev. Constancio V. Mercado Memorial) at the capital City of
San Fernando, Pampanga.

During the Second World War in 1941-1945, the Japanese occupied the town and the church building
which was placed at their disposal was used as their barracks. in their retreat in 1945, the
Japanese bombed the Baluyut Bridge which caused great damage to the church building and
parsonage and church records. The church building was repaired little by little to start worship
service under Rev. Pedro C. Lusung, assisted by Bro. Horace Mendoza. The American soldiers also
assisted in the church revival and that was the beginning of the dual services, one in English and
another in Pampango. The modern church building as you see it now was constructed on February 19,
1969, in memory of Rev. Constancio V. Mercado who was the Minister of the church from April 1935
until his death on June 13, 1939. This was made possible through the benevolence of the members and
the generosity of the Mercado Family who also provided financial support. (Rev. Constancio V.
Mercado is the father of the late Bishop La Verne V. Mercado and Deaconess Phoebe Mercado.) The
church building was inaugurated on December 14, 1969. the Church continued its growth and more
and more people came to know the Lord and accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior. For this
reason, the Methodist members of the UMCC spread through many barrios evangelizing the people
therein. This gave way to the birth of five daughter churches namely: The Aima UMC in Barrio San Felipe,
the Immanuel UMC in Barrio Palawe, the Wesley UMC in Barrio Pau, the Church of the New Covenant
in Barrio San Isidro, and Masantol UMC in Masantol, Pampanga. In 2006, through the generosity of our
members here and abroad, the Church acquired a lot at St. Jude Subdivision, City of San Fernando,
where a new Parsonage was constructed in June 2010. Costing 1.6 million pesos, it consists of three
cottages intended for the Pastor and one or two deaconesses and their families.

The church underwent a slight physical renovation and was air-conditioned in 2008. A donation of one
million pesos by the Mercado family helped finance these renovations. In 2012, a beautiful new altar
was constructed and from then on decorated with beautiful exotic indoor plants by very generous

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 22

spiritually rich and mature church members. together with these blessings is the Ecumenical
Kindergarten School which for the last 49 years has been our faithful arm for witness and outreach
programs, ably administered by the Pastor and the School leaderships.

IGLESIA NI CRISTO

Felix Y. Manalo, born on May 10, 1886, in Taguig, Philippines, was

baptized in the Catholic Church. In his teenage years, Manalo
became dissatisfied with Catholic theology. According to the
National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the
establishment of the Philippine Independent Church (also called
the Aglipayan Church) was his major turning point, but Manalo
remained uninterested since its doctrines were mainly Catholic.
In 1904, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, entered the
Methodist seminary, and became a pastor for a while. He also
sought through various denominations, including the
Presbyterian Church, Christian Mission, and finally Seventh-day
Adventist Church in 1911. Manalo left Adventism in 1913 and
associated himself with atheist and agnostic peers.

In November 1913, Manalo secluded himself with religious literature and unused notebooks in a friend's
house in Pasay, instructing everyone in the house not to disturb him. He emerged from seclusion three
days later with his new-found doctrines. Manalo, together with his wife, went to Punta, Santa Ana,
Manila, in November 1913 and started preaching. He left the congregation in the care of his first
ordained minister and returned to his native Taguig to evangelise; there, he was ridiculed and stoned
at his meetings with locals. He was later able to baptize a few converts, including some of his
persecutors. He later registered his new-found religion as the Iglesia ni Cristo (English: Church of Christ;
Spanish: Iglesia de Cristo) on July 27, 1914, at the Bureau of Commerce as a corporation sole, with
himself as the first executive minister. Expansion followed as INC started building congregations in the
provinces in 1916, with Pasig (then in Rizal province) having two locals established. The first three
ministers were ordained in 1919.

By 1924, INC had about 3,000 to 5,000 adherents in 43 or 45 congregations in Manila and six nearby
provinces. By 1936, INC had 85,000 members. This figure grew to 200,000 by 1954. A Cebu congregation
was built in 1937—the first to be established outside of Luzon, and the first in the Visayas. The first mission
to Mindanao was commissioned in 1946. Meanwhile, its first concrete chapel was built in Sampaloc,
Manila, in 1948. Adherents fleeing for the provinces away from Manila, where the Japanese forces
were concentrated during World War II, were used for evangelization. As Manalo's health began to fail
in the 1950s, his son Eraño began taking leadership of the church. Felix Manalo died on April 12, 1963.
Within the span of 49 years of his administration, INC had 1,250 local chapels and 35 large concrete
cathedrals.

In City of San Fernando, Pampanga, the Iglesia ni Cristo Locale was built last 1919. It is located along
the B. Mendoza St., Brgy Sto Rosario, City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Recently the Locale was
renovated last 2006. The renovation restored it’s sparkling beauty and this megastructure rose in the
skyline of San Fernando, Pampanga.

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 25
CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FERNANDO PAMPANGA
City of San Fernando, Pampanga

GENERAL EDUCATION

FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES

Module #2

MIDTERMS:
WEEK 1: Module 1 Lesson 1: San Fernando, Pampanga's Barangay Beginnings
WEEK 2: Module 1 Lesson 2: The Church of San Fernando and its Religious - Cultural Traditions / Module 1 Evaluation
WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 1: Great Fernandinos: Expressions of Excellence / Module 2 Lesson 2: Bayaning Fernandino
Module 2 Lesson 3: San Fernando Heritage District / Module 2 Lesson 4: Lutong Fernandino
WEEK 4: Module 2 Lesson 5: Himno Fernandino / Module 2 Lesson 6: Monumento Fernandino /
Module 2 Lesson 7: Teacher Heroism Day / Module 2 Evaluation
WEEK 5: Module 3 Lesson 1: Post - War to Martial Law: Prosperity and Struggle
WEEK 6: Module 3 Lesson 2: Mt. Pinatubo Eruptions and the making of a City: Isang dekada ng Pagbangon /
Module 3 Evaluation

WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 1: GREAT FERNANDINOS: EXPRESSIONS OF EXCELLENCE

Letras y Figuras by Alvaro Jimenez

The Philippine art scene is populated by some of the
most brilliant artists ever to have come from the
Kapampangan region. Immediately, the names of
National Artist Vicente Manansala (Macabebe), Galo
Oc- ampo (Sta. Rita), E. Aguilar Cruz (Magalang) and in
contemporary times, Claude Tayag (Angeles), come to
mind. With the deft stroke of their brush, these artists have captured the imagination of Filipinos,
effectively articulating their feelings in their art-truly, visual feasts for our senses. Complementing the
achievements of our pantheon of painters, are San Fernando's own master artists, illus- trators, and
sculptors of the past and present, whose artistic contributions to Philippine art, deserve no less than our
recognition and respect.

IRINEO MIRANDA (b. 1896/d.1964), the Dean of Philippine Illustrators, was an

early graduate of the University of the Philippines' College of Fine Arts,
finishing in 1916. He honed his craft under Fernando Amorsolo, and soon, he
was earning illustration commissions from Pacific Commercial Company,
doing product labels and advertisements. So good was he, that in 1918, he
was appointed to the faculty of U.P. where he taught his forte-cartooning--
along with decorative painting and commercial design. He would stay on
for over forty years in the academe. He continued to get projects, illustrating
covers for Graphic, Liwayway and El Debate magazines. In his time, he was
also a top-notch water-colorist and a political cari- caturist. One artist known
for his prodigious output of bucolic landscapes and idyllic scenes is the
largely unknown.

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PATRICIO SALVADOR (b. 17 Mar. 1911/d.?). A 1931 graduate of

Pampanga High, he pursued an art course at the U.P. School of Fine
Arts, taking only a year to learn and master painting basics. Soon, he
was dividing his time between commercial art and landscape
painting. He was still painting in the mid 1990s at his humble home on
Teopaco St. His small work, “Ricefields”, painted in oil in 1943 now
hangs at the Jorge B. Vargas Filipiniana Museum at the U.P. whom she
has three children: Fatima, Emil and Marcel, all painters in their own
right.

BRILLANTE MENDOZA y Manguerra (b. 30 Jul. 1960), the youngest child of

Pastor Ocampo Men- doza and Gervacia Maguerra of San Isidro.
Mendoza's win for the film “Kinatay” was unprecedented, but his training
and creative artistry, prepared him for his future success in international
cinema. After Assumption High School, he pursued a Fine Arts de- gree,
major in Advertising, at the University of Sto. Tomas. A Mowelfund grant in
1983 allowed him to study film at Ateneo de Ma- nila University in 1983. A
year later, Men- doza got his big break as an Art Director for Peque
Gallaga’s “Virgin Forest”, earning him a nod for Best Production Design.
In due time, he became a much-sought after designer for films and
commercials. In 2004, he was offered to direct, "Masahista” (The Masseur),
a feature film notable for its Kapampangan-speaking stars, Jaclyn Jose
and Coco Martin. The small production caused a sensation abroad by
winning Best Picture at the 2006 Torino Film Festival in Italy. Then, in 2009,
“Lola” won the award for Best Film at the 6th Dubai International Film
Festival. His latest film, a 2012 Nora Aunor starrer, "Thy Womb”, competed at the 69th Venice
International Film Festival. So far, Brillantes Cannes win is the highest honor ever received by a Fili- pino
in the world of filmmaking.

FIDES CUYUGAN ASENSIO (b. 1 Aug. 1931) who is considered as an institution

in Philippine Opera for the last five decades, ranking as one of the most
versatile performers in the country. A librettist-lyr icist first and foremost, she
is also a well-known TV, Stage and Movie actress, and a gifted coloratura
soprano. Born to Dr. Gervacio Santos-Cuyugan (San Juan, San Fernando)
and Jacinta Belza, she was schooled at the Philippine Women's University
and earned degrees in English and Music She also holds an Artists Diploma
in Voice at the Eurythmer Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia U.S.A. As a
librettist-lyricist, she penned the opera "Mayo-Bisperas ng Liwanag" based
on Nick Joaquin's "May Day Eve" as well as "Larawan at Kababaihan,
Maskara ng Mukha" She is best known for essaying the roles of Sisa in the
opera, "Noli Me Tangere" Dra. Luisa vda. De Bustamante in "La Loba Negra"
and Juana la Loca in the ethno-opera, "Lapu-Lapu". Among her awards are:
1989 Best of the Phil ippine Profile of Achievement as Performing Artist; 1990
and 1993 Asia Opera Award, and 1999 Aliw Awards Foundation's Gawad Siglo ng Aliw Honorees. The
acclaimed diva is married to Atty. Manuel D. Asencio Ir., with whom she has two sons, Dennis and
Manuel II.

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 27

ZOILO HILARIO y Julao of San Juan (b. 27 Jun. 1892/d. 13 Jun. 1963) wore many
hats: lawyer, jurist, researcher, parliamentarian, civic leader, orator--- but his
talent as a poet and playwright is etched deeper in the minds of his audience.
Adept in three languages-English, Span- ish and Kapampangan-Hilario never
failed to delight, amuse and entertain. His first book of poems was in Spanish,
but before he passed away, he came out with his Kapampangan poem com-
pilation - "Bayung Sunis” (New Rhythm), which contained his researches on
Kapampangan poetry and orthography. He wrote many plays, many with
nationalistic and pa- triotic themes: "Anak ning Katipunan", "Bandila ning
Pilipinas", "Reyna ning Malaya” and “Juan dela Cruz". His appointment by
Quezon as a member of the National Language Institute to repre- sent
Kapampangan speakers was a boost to the province. Zoilo Hilario y julao When
Hilario retired from his legal career as a judge of the Court of the First Instance
in Tarlac, he published “Bayung Aldo" (New Day), collected works in Kapampangan. On the occasion
of his 90th birth anniversary, a bust and National Historic Institute (NHI) marker were unveiled in San
Fernando and Bacolor, as a way of honoring his achievements.

FERNANDO OCAMPO y Hizon (6.7 Aug. 1897/d. 10 May 1984) was the son of
Basilio Ocampo and Leondia Hizon. His grandfather, Anacleto, was a former
gobernadorcillo of San Fernando. He finished his A.Bſat the Ateneo in 1914,
finished Civil Engineering at the University of Sto. Tomas, their took up
Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Architects Juan Nakpil and
Andres Luna de San Pedro (Juan Luna's son) were contemporaries. He pursued
advanced studies at the American Academy in Rome, then joined the firm of
Ballinger and Perrot in Philadelphia in 1922. Returning to the Philippines in 1923,
Ocampo was employed at the Bureau of Public Works. With Tomas Arguelles,
he formed his own architectural firm in 1928. In 1930, he founded the U.S.T.
School of Fine Arts and Architecture and was a Board Exam member from 1929-
1930. His achievements were hon- ored with a Gold Medal of Merit from the
PHilippine Institute of Architects in 1953.

DAVID JIMENEZ y Lim (b. 29 May 1939) grew up in Brgy. Lourdes and
attended local schools before hieing off to De La Salle University in 1955 for
his business administration course. He became a banker for 30 years,
serving Commercial Bank and Trust Co., and the Bank of the Philippine
Islands. Jimenez is the founding president of the San Fernando Heritage
Foundation, incorporated in 2003. Among the foundation's projects was
the 2008 publication of the book, "Mount Pinatubo: Triumph of the
Kapampangan Spirit”. Jimenez was instrumental in spearheading and
facilitating the donation of the bell house by the Philippine Jaycees, to
display hree century-old bells brought down from the Metropolitan Ca-
thedral belfry. He also called for the preservation of the Leaning Water
Tower in Teopaco Subd., now a landmark of the city. His passion to preserve cultural heritage earned
him an award as Out- standing Fernandino for Heritage Preservation in 2010.

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 FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES 28

WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 2: BAYANING FERNANDINO

TIBURCIO HILARIO – Tiburcio was born on August 11, 1853 in barrio San Juan,
San Fernando, Pampanga. His father was Anastacio, better known as "
Mariang Barindi". He has two siblings who were Isabel and Cecilio. Upon
the early death of his mother, Tiburcio and Cecilio were left in the
supervision of their sister, Isabela. Tiburcio, following his brother's footsteps,
finished his Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1869 and graduated with a
Bachelor's Degree in Civil Law. Shortly after his graduation, Tiburcio married
Martina David of Bacolor with whom he had two (2) children: Filomena and
Ceferino. Because of his first wife's early demise, he courted a goodlooking
Spanish mestiza, Adriana Sanggalang. Their subsequent marriage gave
him his third child, a son, Zoilo Jose.

Everyone who met him remembered his intelligent eyes. His face showed
a few pock marks. He was taller than the average Filipino of his generation
and was slightly built but wiry. He sported crew-cut hair, known as alfonsino
and he loved to wear an adolfo hat. His brother, Cecilio, was one of the
first founders of masonry in the Philippines, the fraternity which was the first organized vehicle of the
Propaganda Movement. Tiburcio was then included in the triangle of his brother in San Fernando which
became one of two lodges which materialized (the other was Francisco Joven's in Bacolor) out of the
eight original triangles initially formed in Pampanga.

On June 12, 1892, during Rizal's second return to Manila, he visited Central Luzon leaders to invite them
to be members of La Liga Filipina, a society of patriotic Filipinos who would work for the development
and progress of their country. Among those visited by Rizal in the course of the organization of the
league were him and his brother Cecilio. He came to their ancestral house in San Fernando and stayed
there on many occasions. In fact Rizal left many of his writings and books under the care of Tiburcio.
These visits changed the lives of the two brothers. From legal defenders, reformers and propangandists,
they became rebels and leaders of the revolution.

His life was endangered because every time Rizal came to Hilario's house, the whole household and
all the buildings and garden were searched by the Spaniards. There was a time when his daughter did
not succeed in burning all the books when the Hilario's house was searched so the Spaniards got hold
of some of them. They arrested Tiburcio and imprisoned him. It was mere luck that he was not
persecuted.
He, together with his brother, was imprisoned in Bacolor and was later exiled to Siasi, Jolo while Cecilio
was sent to Balabac. From Siasi and Balabac, they were sent to Bilibid prison with the intention of
making them testify against Rizal during the latter's trial, but thay refused to testify against the hero.
Although Tiburcio failed to prevent his own exile, he succeeded in saving two of his closest friends, Don
Leandro Ibarra (a lawyer from Lubao, Pampanga, who later became the Secretary of the Interior in
the Cabinet of General Emilio Aguinaldo) and his cousin Marcelo H. Del pilar ( who was once an Official
De Mesa (clerk) in Pampanga), from the same fate.

Tiburcio Hilario was later elected as the (Evolutionary Governor of Pampanga by the town presidents.
He stands out as the brains of the revolutionary movement in Pampanga. He chose General Maximino
Hizon as the head of the military arm and Aurelio Tolentino, the playwright revolutionary, as his
propagandist to convince the people of the province of the justice of the cause of the revolution in
that province.

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During the Luna-Mascardo confrontation in April, 1899, it was also Tiburcio Hilario who met General
Luna and pleaded with him to restore peace and unity at acrucial moment in the history of the nation..
he requested a bevy of beauties led by Nicolasa Dayrit and Pampanga's Red Cross President, Praxedes
Fajardo, to bring flowers and to kneel before General Luna. The women knelt before him on the steps
of the convent in Bacolor on April 24, 1899, to dissuade the fiery General from violently confronting
General Mascardo.

Governor Tiburcio Hilario, at the same time sent three emissaries to convience General Mascardo to
submit himself to Luna's authority as chief of staff. In the end, Mascardo appeared in Betis to inform
General Luna that he was willing to follow the latter's orders.

Tiburcio was also responsible in transporting the emprestitos to General Luna for the cause of the
revolution. The sum of money that governor transported amounts to One Million Silver Pesos which was
made up of voluntary contributuions from Pampanguenos, war bonds, and the aid given by Chinese
residents in that province. The transfer was formally made at Santos residence in the presence of many
witnesses. By giving the emprestito to the general (which he did with Aguinaldo's permission), he hoped
that American's would be convinced of the Filipinos' determination to achieve their independence.
One day in early 1903, Tiburcio Hilario fell ill. Everyone thought he had cholera and his doctors treated
him for that disease. His health, however, continued to fail and Capitana Matea Rodriguez Sioco and
Don Manuel Escaler requested a famous Manila Physician, Dr. Santiago Barcelona, tp proceed to
Bacolor to treat him. Dr. Barcelona diagnosed his case as Scarlantina (Scarlet Fever), the only known
case in medical history in the Philippines.

Surrounded by his family, Tiburcio died on February 18, 1903. The great and rich of Pampanga came
to his funeral but the bulk of those who attended funeral were the common people of the barrios
whom he had helped, befriended, and loved. His funeral was a fitting tribute to a life of service during
one of the most turbulent phases of Philippines History.

Tiburcio Hilario's historical significance derives from his civilian leadership in his province. During his brief
stint, he implanted the seeds of liberalism in Pampanga preserving, even in times of war, the human
rights of the Filipino people. He also strictly followed international law during that critical period of the
revolution. He was even one of the few people who were able to hold a prominent position at a time
when Filipinos were hardly given the opportunity to have a voice in their government. The revolutionary
leader of Pampanga left a legacy of great love of country and a deicated concern for the common
mass.

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PEDRO ABAD SANTOS - Pedro was born January 31, 1876 in San
Fernando to parents Vicente Abad Santos and Toribia Basco (native of
Guagua), while Jose was born 10 years later, on February 19, 1886. But
it was the younger Jose who achieved greater prominence because he
would become the country’s Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and
suffer high-profile martyrdom during the Japanese occupation. Pedro,
on the other hand, would be increasingly marginalized from civil society
as he went farther and farther left in his political ideology. While both of
them had the same mission in life, which was to improve the condition
of the masses, they held opposite view on how to attain this. Thus, Pedro
Abad Santos and Jose Abad Santos attempted to impose on history
their separate ideologies, representing revolution and evolution,
respectively, as means of securing change in the existing order.
Pedro finished Bachelor of Arts in the University of Santo Thomas; he took
up law and was admitted to the bar in 1906. During the Philippine-
America war, he became Chief of Staff of Gen. Maximino Hizon’s
Command. He was captured and charged with guerilla activities, for
which he was meted a death sentence. He joined Hizon, Apolinario
Mabini, Artemio Ricarte and Melchora Aquino in exile in Guam; upon his return, his death sentence
was commuted to life imprisonment. US President Theodore Roosevelt pardoned him later. He joined
politics, first running as municipal councilor and later as representative of the province’s second district;
in 1992, he joined the independence mission to the United States headed by Speaker Sergio Osmena.

His brother Jose also passed the bar, in 1911. He was given a license to practice law in the United
States. Unlike his ascetic and celibate brother, Jose married a town mate, Amanda Teopaco, with
whom he had five children. He became the first Filipino corporate lawyer of the Philippine Natiopnal
Bank, Manila Railways and other government agencies. In quick succession he became Attorney
General and then Secretary of Justice, and ultimately Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during
President Quezon’s term.

Meanwhile, Don Perico, as Pedro was now being called, ran as Governor and was defeated, although
he was gaining popularity as a champion of the poor, offering free legal assistance and helping
organize labor organizations.

In 1932 when the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) was outlawed by the Supreme Court, Don Perico
founded the Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PSP). Two years later, together with his assistants Agapito
del Rosario, Luis Taruc, Lino Dizon and others, he organized the Aguman ding Talapagobra ning
Pilipinas (ATP) into the Aguman ding Maldang Talapagobra (AMT), similar to the general workers’
unions in Spain, Mexico and France, which advocated the expropriation of landed estates and friar
lands, farmers’ cooperative stores and the upliftment of peasants’ living conditions. On November 7,
1938, during the anniversary of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, members of the PKP and the PSP held
a convention at the Manila Grand Opera House where they declared their merger as the Communist
Party of the Philippines. Crisanto Evangelista was elected president, Pedro Abad Santos Vice President,
Guillermo Capadocia secretary general.

In those few remaining years before World War II, socialism was sweeping the Kapampangan Region.
The Socialist Party even went as far as fielding candidates in local elections. Pedro Abad Santos’ stature
was reaching mythic proportions. He has known to have the biggest collection of Marxist and Soviet
literature in Asia. He often advised peasants to keep all harvest and promised legal assistance if sued
by landowners.

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The paths of Pedro and Jose Abad Santos crossed in a dramatic public confrontation on Valentine’s
Day in 1939, when President Quezon accepted Pedro’s invitation to a farmer’s and worker’s rally in San
Fernando, Eager to please the troublesome peasants’ hero and assured by Pedro’s Brother Jose who
was then Secretary of Justice, President Quezon came to the public gathering. Don Perico introduced
the Presidents as “ a friend of the masses and the poor” and admonished his listeners “to plant in your
heart what he will say”. Just as Quezon was rising from his seat, Don Perico enumerated the peasants’
grievances, accused judges and fiscal of being pawns of rich landowners, and then turned to his
brother Jose, who was seated beside the President, and challenged him as Justice Secretary to clean
up the courts. Unable to hide his contempt for Jose’s peaceful temper and methods, Pedro added, “
the Secretary cannot help us if he just sits in his office.”

When the war broke out, the Japanese jailed Don Perico and other communist leaders at Fort
Santiago. Secretary Jose Abad Santos, on the other hand, was left behind by the evacuated President
Quezon to head the caretaker government. He was arrested by the Japanese in Carcar, Cebu,
subjected to grueling interrogation and asked to swear allegiance to the Japanese flag. Justice Abad
Santos told his captors: “to obey your command is tantamount to being a trailor to the United States
and my country. I would prefer to die than live in shame”. He was taken to Parang, Cotobato and then
to Malabang, Lanao del Sur, where he was executed on May 2, 1942. He had told his son, Jose Jr., “not
to cry and to show these people that you are brave. It is a rare opportunity to die for one’s country.
Not everybody is given that chance.”

Pedro Abad Santos, meanwhile, had been released from prison due to his failing eyesight and stomach
alignment, and was instead put under house arrest in his nieces’ residence, right beside that of the
leader of the puppet government, Jose P. Laurel. He reportedly asked Laurel to allow him to return to
his people in Pampanga to die, which Laurel granted. Ka Roberto Datu of Abelardo Dabu’s Squadron
in the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMP), fetched Don Perico; they escaped by boat through
Bangkusay in the Tondo area, made their way to the Manila Bay and into Pampanga River. Pedro
Abad Santos stayed in the residence of the Manansala family in Alasas Village in San Isidro, town of
Minalin where he died on January 15, 1945, three years after his younger brothers’ execution.

JOSE ABAD SANTOS - Jose Abad Santos was born on February 19, 1886, and was raised in Pampanga
at the height of the Philippine Revolution against Spain. Part of the first generation of Filipinos sent to
study in American Universities, Abad Santos returned with a law degree and honed his formidable legal
mind as legal counsel for the Philippine National Bank and the Manila Railroad Company.

He served as Secretary of Justice under various American Governors-General, first under Governor-
General Leonard Wood from 1922 to 1923. During the “cabinet crisis” of 1923, the Filipino members of
the cabinet, Abad Santos among them, relinquished their posts to protest Governor-General Wood’s
handling of the Conley Case.

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He was subsequently re-appointed to the Justice portfolio in 1928

and served under Governors-General Henry L. Stimson, Dwight F.
Davis, and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. until his appointment as
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1932.

In 1938, Abad Santos was appointed Secretary of Justice for the

third time by President Manuel L. Quezon, who had long trusted
Abad Santos because of his remarkable legal expertise and
steadfast temperament. Quezon had often sought his advice on
matters of state, and Abad Santos additionally served as chief writer
for President Quezon’s speeches and statements.

On July 16, 1941, Abad Santos was re-appointed to the Supreme

Court by President Quezon. War broke out on December 8, 1941,
the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, and the Japanese
invasion of the Philippines. The Commonwealth Government was
informed it would have to evacuate Manila, which would be
declared an Open City to spare the population from enemy
bombardment. At the same time, the evacuation of the
government required the reorganization of the Philippine government to address the situation. This was
undertaken on December 22, 1941, when the Commonwealth War Cabinet was organized by virtue
of Executive Order No. 396.

On December 24, the elderly Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña retired, giving President Quezon the
opportunity to appoint a new Chief Justice. President Quezon appointed Abad Santos as Chief
Justice, hours before the Commonwealth War Cabinet evacuated Manila for Corregidor. In the
reorganization under Executive Order No. 396, Chief Justice Abad Santos was appointed Secretary of
Justice and Finance. That afternoon, the Commonwealth War Cabinet took the S.S. Mayon to
Corregidor.

President Quezon and Vice President Sergio Osmeña had been re-elected to a second term in the
November 1941 elections and had fled to the island fortress of Corregidor to take refuge from the
incessant Japanese bombing raids. On December 30, outside Malinta Tunnel, Abad Santos
administered the oath of office to Quezon and Osmeña for their second term as President and Vice
President.

On Chief Justice Abad Santos’ 56th birthday on February 19, 1942, the Commonwealth War Cabinet
prepared to leave Corregidor, to establish the government in unoccupied areas of the Philippines. On
February 20, 1942, aboard the submarine Swordfish, President Quezon and his War Cabinet, including
Abad Santos, set out for Antique. The enemy forces had yet to occupy the Visayan Islands. They
reached San Jose de Buenavista, Antique on February 21, then Iloilo on February 22. From there they
traveled to Bacolod City on February 23, Guimaras on February 24, and back to Bacolod on February
25.

It was in Negros Oriental that Abad Santos demonstrated his unwavering patriotism: when President
Quezon invited the Chief Justice to join his government-in-exile in Washington, D.C., Abad Santos
replied, “If you will excuse me, Mr. President, I prefer to remain, carry on my work here, and stay with
my family.” President Quezon would appoint Abad Santos as his “delegate”–effectively Acting
President of the Commonwealth Government.

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Abad Santos bade goodbye to the President for the last time in Zamboangita Point and returned to
Bacolod. From Bacolod, Abad Santos and Manuel Roxas flew to Dumaguete on April 5, 1942, where
they parted ways—Roxas flew to Mindanao, and Abad Santos proceeded to Cebu by boat to oversee
the civil government in the area.

On April 10, 1942, upon hearing the news of the fall of Bataan, Abad Santos evacuated to Naga, a
town south of Cebu City. Upon learning that the Japanese forces had landed in Cebu, he planned to
return to Negros by way of Toledo, a port town on west coast of Cebu, but this route had been blocked
by the Japanese. Abad Santos and his men were captured in the hinterlands of Barili, Cebu on April
11, 1942.

(His last days and his execution are discussed at length in a separate briefer.)

When he declined to take an oath of allegiance to Japan, or to cooperate with the Japanese
government, he was ordered executed. On May 2, 1942, the date he was to be killed, he spent his last
moments with his son Pepito (Jose Abad Santos Jr.), reminding him not to cry. “Show these people that
you are brave. It is a rare opportunity for me to die for our country. Not everybody is given that
chance.” Before he left his son for the last time, he instructed Pepito to take care of the remaining
members of his family. His last words were: “Tell them to live up to our name. God bless you, my son.”

The country’s finest leaders of the Commonwealth era are often presented as a troika: Manuel L.
Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, and Manuel Roxas. All had stellar political careers, achieved supremacy
through the legislative and executive spheres of power, and had served as President. Yet all were
robbed of the glorious martyrdom in the make of Jose Abad Santos, who died in defiant service to the
country. One of his successors, Chief Justice Manuel V. Moran called Abad Santos the “counselor of
the nation.” While his tenure as Chief Justice may have been short and his stint as acting President has
often been relegated to dusty history books, Jose Abad Santos, to those who turn to his life, patriotism,
and selfless sacrifice, is an exemplar of fidelity to the Filipino nation.

NICOLASA DAYRIT - Nicolasa Dayrit, a Pampango beauty, not only

spent long hours to help minister to the sick and the wounded
revolucionaries but she also played a major role in appeasing
General Antonio Luna during his near fatal confontration with
General Tomas Mascardo.

The woman of the province proved their high sense of patriotism

while the men exerted effort to bind and unite their armed forces.
To the revolutionary leaders, the welfare of the Republic was greater
than that of any man. Gov. Tiburcio Hilario met General Luna first
and pleaded with him to restore peace and unity at a crucial
moment in the history of the nation.

He requested a bevy of beauties led by Nicolas Dayrit and

Pampanga’s Red Cross President, Praxedes Fajardo, to bring flowers
and kneel before General Luna. The women knelt before him on
steps of the violently confronting General Nascardo.

Nicolasa dayrit was born to Don Florention Dayrit, a Cabeza de barangay and Dona Antonia
Pamintuan and married to Dr. Vicente Panlilio. She died of heart attack, partly due to her sadness. This
was on April 12,1945 at age of 71.

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ADRIANA SANGALANG - HILARIO - A good example to wives of present day

Filipino leaders is Adriana Sangalang Hilario. The wife of Governor Tiburcio
Hilario, the Architect of the Philippine Revolution in Pampanga, she
wholeheartedly embraced her husband’s mission to free Pampanga from its
colonial masters.

Adriana Sangalang Hilario was born on September 8, 1868 in manila. Adriana

was not given a formal education. Through her own iniatiative, however, she
learned to read and write by using a pointed bamboo stick, writing on a
banana leaf. Reading became her greatest passion.
Adriana Sangalang Hilario became the first lady of the province. She helped
collect voluntary contributions, feed soldiers, nursed the sick and the
wounded, led the distribution of provisions for families of the wounded and
dead soldiers and cooperated with Red Cross Officials under Praxedes
Fajardo in their own work.
She was forever grateful to God for her good fortune of marrying an exceptional model of a man . in
memory of Don Tiburcio she wore black until she died on December 12, 1946.

VIVENCIO CUYUGAN - Bail was set for two hundred thousand dollars. But
the Filipino community rallied to his defense. They hired one of the
greatest criminal lawyers, Clarence Darrow, to plead his case. He was
soon acquitted and decided to return to the Philippines afterwards.
While in jail, Cuyugan was subject of newspapers in both Philippines and
Chicago. He was now returning home, a celebrated hero.

A short while after his arrival, in 1927, Cuyugan was appointed municipal
vice-president of San Fernando. He would later be elected to the same
position in 1931, and later, the first mayor of San Fernando under the
Philippine Commonwealth, the first Socialist in the Philippines to be
elected mayor.
Vivencio Cuyugan was one of the voices of the oppressed, a mission he
had lived for even while in Chicago. Here, he became the defender of
the laborer, the landless and the peasant farmer. Although part of the
upper class, he was also able to identify himself with the lowly and soon
joined socialist movement leader, Pedro Abad Santos, in creating the
Socialist Party.

As mayor, Cuyugan dared to go against big economic interests in the town. In another celebrated
incident, he went after PASUDECO, the biggest sugar central in Central Luzon, for dumping waste into
the San Fernando River and polluting it.

Then councilor, and later mayor of Manila, Manuel C. dela Fuente was one of those who sided with
these big economic interests and commented adversely to Cuyugan's action, calling a "no-brain"
mayor. And just like a repeat of his Chicago experience, Cuyugan immediately challenged de la
Fuente to a personal duel. De la Fuente accepted. But when the appointed hour of the duel
approached, de la fuente was a no show, running off the batangas to seek the invention of Jose P.
Laurel.

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When the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the town, Cuyugan resigned as mayor and together worth
other Socialists, who included Luis Taruc, Mayors Castro alejandro and Mariano Sampang, Apung
Banal and others, founded the Hukbong Bayan Laban Sa Hapon (Hukbalahap). He served as its first
Commander-in-Chief. But due to a stroke, he was forced to turn over the helm of the guerilla
movement to Luis Taruc. Meanwhile, the Japanese used the sequestered Cuyugan Residence as the
temporary seat of the municipal government, since the municipio was burned down. This adds to the
historical significance of the house.

His life was endangered because every time Rizal came to lilario's house the whole household and all
the buildings and garden were searched by the Spaniards. There was a time when his daughter did
not succeed in burning all the books when the Hilario's house was searched so the Spaniards got hold
of some of them. They arrested Tiburcio and imprisoned him. It was mere luck that he was not
persecuted.

After the war, Cuyugan was reinstated as mayor of San Fernando, but was soon replaced due to his
uncompromising position in defense of the continuing struggle of the Hukbalahap. He lived in semi-
retirement after this save for few incidents. He was asked to testify against Claro M. Recto on charges
of collaboration, but refused saying "over his dead body". He was also imprisoned for six months in 1953,
during the term of President Ramon Magsaysay, on the charge that he was one of the leaders of the
Communist Party Cuyugan died in 1971.

We may have lost the Abad Santos house, but there are many more structures worth saving in the city
of San Fernando, such as the residence of Vivencio Cuyugan. Each edifice has its own story to tell. And
little known accounts such as these make us value our historical and cultural heritage more than ever.

WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 3: SAN FERNANDO HERITAGE DISTRICT

As we veered away from NLEX entering San Fernando City, we were greeted by two gigantic malls
that stood like sentinels along Jose Abad Santos Avenue (formerly Olongapo-Gapan Road). As the
provincial capital of Pampanga, San Fernando has its share in Philippine history. Remnants of a long
and colorful past are still intact particularly in the barangays of Sto. Rosario, San Jose and Sto. Niño.

MUNICIPIO DE SAN FERNANDO

The first casa municipal was built in the present site in
1755 out of stone and thatch. It was burned by the
Philippine Revolutionary Army on orders of Gen.
Antonio Luna, on May 4, 1899. The building was again
reconstructed in 1917, during the term of municipal
president Antonio Abad Santos and under the
supervision of district engineer EJ Halsema (March 12,
1882–March 15, 1945), replacing the 1874 building
burned by Luna. Again burned during the Japanese
invasion of the town, the municipal government was
temporarily transferred to the residence of Vivencio
Cuyugan in Barrio Del Pilar. After the war, the present
City Hall of San Fernando was reconstructed using the
original adobe stonework.

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The pre-war history of San Fernando can be retraced starting from the Spanish era and short-lived
revolutionary government period to the American government period. On July 17, 1754, Don Josef
Bersosa, on behalf of the Augustinian cura parrocos of Bacolor and Mexico, presented a petition to
Governor-General Pedro Manuel de Arandia for the creation of a new pueblo from the aid towns. In
his petition, Bersosa said that the towns had grown so much in size that the former had 1,300 taxpayers
while the latter had 1,600 taxpayers. As a result of this, the said priests could barely attend to the spiritual
needs of such a great number of parishioners. This was also due to the great distance between the
churches of Bacolor and Mexico which was three leagues away from each other through a street lined
by a continuous row of houses leading from one church to the other.

The Capsule-marker was laid on January 3, 2000 at the entrance of the Municipio. San Fernando
became the 99th City of the Republic of the Philippines on February 4, 2001 by virtue of Republic Act
8990. The City of San Fernando prides itself as the home of numerous personages in Philippine history,
among whom include socialist leader and assemblyman Pedro Abad Santos, war hero and former
chief justice Jose Abad Santos, revolutionary heroine Nicolasa P. Dayrit, poet and legislator Zoilo S.
Hilario, senator and father of the concrete pavement Sotero J. Baluyut, revolutionary governor Tiburcio
T. Hilario, and celebrated prewar journalist Amando G. Dayrit.

The Municipio was restored in 2003 by Mayor Rey B. Aquino.

METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL OF SAN FERNANDO, PAMPANGA

We’ve learned from our travels that one of the best ways to discover a historical district is to visit its
church. In 1755 the first structure of wood and thatch was built on this site by the Augustinian friars under
the patronage of San Fernando III, King of Castile. Fray
Sebastian Moreno, O.S.A. was its first cura parroco. On
October 17, 1757, townsfolk petitioned the governor-
general for exemptions from tribute to enable them to
build the church and convent. It was transferred to the
care of secular priests in 1788. The construction of the
present style church started during the same year
under the supervision Fr. Manuel Canlas, its first secular
cura parroco, and a committee composed of the
principales of the town. They were led by
gobernadorcillo Bernabe Pamintuan. Construction was
completed in 1808. The church was rededicated to the
Assumption of Our Lady. The church measures 70m.
long, 13m. wide and 11m. high. The round majestic dome rising from the rotunda of the transept is
reminiscent of the Baroque style with some Renaissance elements. During the Philippine Revolution of
1898, President Emilio Aguinaldo viewed the Philippine Revolutionary Army from the church’s convent.
On May 4, 1899, the church and convent as well as the first Casa Municipal located in front of the
church were burned under the orders of General Antonio Luna. Another fire destroyed the church in
1939. The current church was designed by Fernando H. Ocampo, the same architect of the
reconstructed Manila Cathedral in Intramuros. In 1948, it was elevated to a Cathedral when it became
the seat of the Diocese of San Fernando, canonically created by Pope Pius XII.

In 1975, the diocese was elevated by Pope Paul VI, to Archdiocese of San Fernando. Its first bishop was
Monsignor Cesar Ma. Guerrero, D.D. He was followed by the Most Reverend Emilio A. Cinense, D.D.,
who became its first archbishop. He was succeeded by the Most Reverend Oscar V. Cruz, D.D. in 1978.
The third archbishop of San Fernando is the Most Reverend Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D. Pamp, and the
current is Most Rev. Florentino Lavarias, D.D.

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SOTERO BALUYUT BRIDGE

Across the Cathedral next to the Municipio is the Baluyot Bridge. Formerly known as Puente Colgante,
the iron and stone bridge was destroyed during the Philippine-American War in 1899. An arch bridge
of reinforced concrete designed by Sotero Baluyot replaced the old bridge. It was bombed during
World War II and has been restored. Today, the bridge is a historic landmark in the city.

Sotero Julao Baluyut was born on January 3, 1889, in San

Fernando, Pampanga. His parents were Leoncio Baluyut
and Casimira Julao. In 1904, Baluyut was given the
opportunity to study at the expense of the government in
the United States. After he studied in Santa Ana Central and
High School in California and the University Summer School
of Illinois, he obtained a bachelor's degree in Civil
Engineering from the University of Iowa. In 1911, Baluyut
returned to the Philippines, where he went to work for the
Office of Public Works as an assistant engineer in the
provinces of Pampanga and Cavite. Afterwards, from 1912
to 1919, he was district engineer for the provinces of Isabela,
Antique, Ilocos Norte, Bulacan and Pangasinan. He also
worked on the San Jose-Santa Fe Road. In 1920, he became an engineer for the Pampanga Sugar
Development Corporation.

In 1925, Baluyut was elected governor of the province of Pampanga. He was re-elected three years
later. During his term of six years as governor, he was responsible for the construction of many schools,
hospitals, roads and bridges. One of the larger projects that was realized in his term was a long paved
road straight through the province. After his second term, Baluyut was elected in 1931 and re-elected
in 1934 as a member of Senate from 3rd Senatorial District. In the Senate, among other things, he
enacted the law which led to the establishment of National Electric Power and Development
Corporation. At the end of 1937, Baluyut was elected governor of the province of Pampanga for a
third term. He was appointed as Secretary of Labor from 1938 to 1940 while serving as governor. He
became Secretary of Public Works and Communications from 1951 to 1952.

HENSON – HIZON HOUSE

The Henson-Hizon House is a Spanish colonial period bahay-na-bato built by the couple Don Saturnino
Henson y David, who was gobernadorcillo of San Fernando and first tesorero municipal and Maria
Lacson. Although built by Saturnino Henson y David and Maria Lacson, Henson-Hizon House is now
owned by Pablo Panlilio y Dayrit and Dolores Arguelles. Before that though, the house was inherited by
Juana Henson y Lacson, the eldest daughter of Saturnino and Maria. Juana was married to Florentino
Hizon. Henson-Hizon House was inherited by Vicente Hizon y Dizon, Juana and Florentino’s son, before
it was sold to the Panlilios. The Henson-Hizon House is a heritage house in the City of San Fernando,
Pampanga, Philippines. This Bahay na Bato of the Spanish colonial period was declared a Heritage
House by the National Historical Institute on 27 January 2003 by virtue of Resolution No. 3, S. 2003.

Next to the house is a monument dedicated to the heroic efforts of Nicolasa Dayrit, a local heroine
who helped the wounded and sick Filipino fighters during the Filipno-American War.

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LAZATIN HOUSE
The house was built in 1925 by the couple Serafin Lazatin y
Ocampo, president of the San Fernando Electric Light &
Power Company (SFELAPCO), and Encarnacion Singian y
Torres. During the Second World War, it was appropriated by
the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as a residence of its 14th
Army Commander, General Masaharu Homma, in San
Fernando, Pampanga. It has a Ghost-Story within this house.
This ancestral house, which exemplifies the type of Bahay na
Bato architecture prevalent during the American colonial
period was declared a Heritage House by the National
Historical Institute on January 27, 2003 by virtue of Resolution
No. 6, S. 2003. Presently, this ancestral house and majority of
SFELAPCO is still owned by the surviving members of the Lazatin family.

CONSUNJI HOUSE
Next to the Lazatin House is the residence of Don Antonio Consunji, Gobernadorcillo of San Fernando
in 1892, who was removed from office by Spanish authorities because of his presence during the visit
to San Fernando of Dr. Jose Rizal. Don Antonio became presidente municipal of San Fernando during
the Philppine Revolution from 1898 to 1899.

SANTOS – HIZON HOUSE

Santos-Hizon House is a Victorian-style house. It was built by Teodoro Santos and Africa Ventura. Maria
Salome Hizon bought the house from the couple. During the Philippine Revolution, Maria Salome was
a Red Cross volunteer. Ramon Hizon, Maria Salome’s brother acquired the house. Ramon gave the
house to Augusto, his son, as an inheritance.

OLD SAN FERNANDO TRAIN STATION

San Fernando City station or simply San Fernando station is a defunct railway station of the PNR Northrail
line of Philippine National Railways. It is situated in San
Fernando, Pampanga. Historically, the old PNR train
station was the site of a stopping place for Filipino and
American prisoners of war during the Bataan death march
in 1942. The station is a historical landmark in the City of
San Fernando in Pampanga, the Philippines. The station
has been closed since the ending of northbound rail
services by Philippine National Railways in 1988. The station
was inaugurated by Governor-General Eulogio Despujol
and Bernardino Nozaleda, the Archbishop of Manila, on
February 23, 1892. On June 27, 1892, José Rizal
disembarked from this station to meet some recruits for La
Liga Filipina and again the next day en route to Bacolor. On April 1942, during the Bataan Death March,
the station served as the ending point for the 102-kilometer (63-mile) march from Bataan, from which
Filipino and American prisoners-of-war were carted to Capas in Tarlac en route to their final destination,
Camp O'Donnell. It was closed, along with all other PNR Northrail stations, in 1988, when the North Main
Line ceased its services.

PAMPANGA HOTEL
The Pampanga Hotel is a heritage house in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga in the Philippines. The
building was originally the residence of Asuncion Santos, a daughter of Don Teodoro Santos, Sr.

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(Dorong Tola), who married Andres Eusebio. It later became the first site of the Pampanga High School.
The building later became the site of the Harvardian College, then the Pampanga Hotel and
Panciteria,. It is now the Pampanga Lodge and Restaurant. One of the oldest structures in the
Poblacion. It held the distinct honor of hosting Gen. Douglas McArthur for one night.

PAMPANGA SUGAR DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (PASUDECO)

The Pampanga Sugar Development Company built the first Filipino-financed sugar central in
Pampanga, Philippines. It was incorporated in April, 1918. The Pasudeco Sugar Central was finished in
March, 1921, to serve as a central purchasing and processing company for the surrounding sugar
plantations. Financed by the Pampanga Sugar Development Company, it was constructed by the
Honolulu Iron Works. Its existence became a catalyst for the exponential growth of San Fernando, the
capital of the rich sugar-producing province of Pampanga. On July 12, 1939, two of the founders, Jose
de Leon and Augusto Gonzalez, as well as Constabulary Captain Julian Olivas, were gunned down at
the administrative offices of Pasudeco. At that time, de Leon and Gonzalez were the two richest men
in Pampanga and the biggest Pasudeco shareholders.

WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 4: Lutong Fernandino

Many Kapampangan cooks have parlayed their extraordinary skills into setting up eateries, snack
shops and restaurants, serving an array of delectable dishes to please any palate, to suit any budget.
Nowhere is this more evident in San Fernando, which, since
the halcyon days of the 1930s, was a favorite destination
place of people who want to tickle their taste buds with
original lutong Fernandino".

For the best pancit in town, one went to the "Panaderia y

Panciteria de Andrea David", which was located near the
Railroad Station. It was the official caterer of the 1st
Pampanga Carnival in 1933, and its selling points included
courteous service, excellent cuisine, with moderate charges.
Along Felix del Pulgar St., Emerenciana Dizon ran her own
"Carinderia, Cafeteria & Panciteria". For excellent Chinese
fare, one could also visit Pampanga Hotel.

In the '50s through the '60s, “Rendezvous” was a restaurant of choice, along with Kits Luncheonette
and “Pampangueña's." For special needs, one could also engage the services of Francisco Singian
Dayrit and Rosalia Dizon, whose catering business was much in demand for weddings, graduation and
birthday parties.

"Lutong Fernandino" would come of age in the next decades, and the resulting proliferation of eating
places around the city--from roadside carinderia to posh resto bars-- is a testament to the efforts of
many men and women with a knack for kitchen mores and a taste for the good life.

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EVERYBODY’S CAFE and its ubiquitous diner-inspired sign has

become San Fernando landmark, and favorite stop for many
travellers passing by San Fernando along Macarthur Highway.
The idea to open a roadside cafe was thought by couple
BENITO MERCADO SANTOS and CARMEN NOGOY back during
the 40s. The first step was to think of a name for their café,
neutral name that's neither pro American nor pro-Japanese,
Alex teacher-friend, Ponciano Siccion, came up with
"Everybody's Cafe--a place for everybody. With a name in
place, the couple set up shop near the municipal hall until a
space was made available along the newly-developed
Consunji Street. They started with ten tables, donated glassware and a menu that includes merienda
items like pancit luglug and 30 centavo mami soup. As it expanded its menu, the café slowly gained
a reputation for serving authentic Kapampangan cuisine In the 50s, Diosdado Macapagal would drop
by at the Poblacion branch to eat and have a quick change before going to his miting de avance. In
1967, a second Everybody's Café building was put up, which gained more patrons mostly from
Pampanga High and Assumption students with a shoestring budget. The list of customers now include
Dña. Aurora Aquino, Pres. Cory Aquino and her children, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and even
celebrities Gretchen Barretto, Lito Lapid and Nanette Inventor. Today, Everybody's Cafe has become
an institution, not only in San Fernando but in the Philippines. It has introduced to a nation such special
Kapampangan treats as "adobung kamaru" (mole crickets) a perennial bestseller of the house. Betute
(stuffed frogs), taba ng talangka, paksiw na bangus, murcon (Kris Aquino's favorite lumpiang papaya,
kare-kare, bringhe, embutido, paella, tsokolateng binatirul. leche flan made of gatas damulag
carabao's milk) --all are staples in the café's menu which now has more than 35 dish entries.

A similar enterprise anchored on Kapampangan cooking

was conceived by MARITEL O. NIEVERA, in the midst of the
Pinatubo devastation. Holding fast to her faith in the future
of her embattled province, she initiated a drive to make San
Fernando a showcase of successful recovery by putting up
"Ituro Mo, Iluto Mo", a restaurant that promises every guest a
classy Kapampangan dining experience. It proved to be a
hit. She then went further by establishing CABALEN, the first
Kapampangan specialty restaurant chain in Manila,
captivating discriminating food lovers with authentic native cooking from the province. Through her
fine restaurants, Nievera continues to promote widescale interest for Pampanga's culinary arts, while
showcasing the Kapampangan woman in her best light.

Cabalen paved the way for the establishments of other Kapampangan restaurants, San Fernando
born and bred RICCO OCAMPO, owner of several lifestyle stores, diversified into the food business and
opened "Mangan", a Kapampangan culture restaurant, to complement his earlier "Kitchen", both in
Manila malls.

Other culinary experts have chosen to specialize in pastries and desserts that have earned them a
measure of fame and fortune. GUADALUPE SINGIAN y Quizon, is one such Kapampangan, who has
made a small, but brisk business out of her family specialty-espasol that sweet, chewy flour-based
delicacy dusted with rice powder. Her mother, Ines Samson Quizon, had been an espasol maker in the
1920s, and she passed on her recipe to her daughter. "Apung Uping" in turn, entrusted the recipe and
the business to her granddaughter, Marie Jaicar Singian Carreon, who opened a shop in 2006. Her

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lola's espasols are a regular pasalubong favorites, sent everywhere around the world, from the U.S.,
Australia, Canada, Guam to Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hongkong and Dubai

Ensaimadas are another pastries closely associated with

Kapampangans, and certainly, the mos fluffy and most delectable
come from the kitchen of SALUD SANTOS y Dayrit (b. 7 Feb.
1883/d.1970), who can whip up a delicious spread of exquisite
international dishes with a flick of her ladle. She married a widower,
Demetrio Santos. But her marriage was shortlived; she too was widowed
not long after, left with three children to care for. The hard-working Salud
assembled a fleet of carromatas and calesas and embarked on a
successful transportation business. With a comfortable life, she found
time to take cooking lessons from Paris-educated Rosario Hizon
Ocampo.

The earliest known record of the word SISIG can be traced back to 1732, and was recorded by
Augustinian friar Diego Bergaño in his Vocabulary of the Kapampangan Language in Spanish and
Dictionary of the Spanish Language in Kapampangan. Bergaño defines sisig as a "salad, including
green papaya, or green guava eaten with a dressing of salt, pepper, garlic and vinegar." It is
commonly accepted that the use of the pig's head in the dish came from the excess meat from the
commissaries of Clark Air Base in Angeles, Pampanga. Pig heads were purchased cheap (or free) since
they were not used in preparing meals for the U.S. Air Force personnel stationed there during the
American Occupation of Luzon and Visayas. Aling Lucing became popular when she grilled the pig's
ears and to add her use of the cheeks to accommodate the bigger demand, she introduced to the
market the first Sisig Babi last 1974.

The story goes that MRS. LOLITA O. HIZON neighbor, a meat vendor, had
some unsold pork at the end of a market day and, not wanting to let
these spoil, asked Mrs. Hizon’s help in cooking them. Mrs. Hizon came
up with a formula to cure the meat; she revised the traditional
Capampangan pindang (fermented pork), causing the pork to acquire
the unique salty – sweet taste that we have all come to love. She called
it “Tocino”, derived from a Spanish delicacy that is sweet. Eventually,
she refined the formula and the processing procedures that caused the
birth of Pampanga’s Best Tocino – The Original version of what has now
become a national favorite. So, what started out as just a neighborly
gesture to help a friend has turned out to be the cornerstone of a
business and a staple item in the Filipino breakfast table. When Mrs.
Lolita O. Hizon, is asked what she thinks is the secret behind her success
she says, It’s love and compassion; and I believe it is more of a divine
plan. All these years, I see a visible hand guiding us always for a purpose. I would say it is Divine
Providence – that is the secret. Today, Pampanga’s Best, Inc. is a multi-million meat processing
corporation, operated and owned by the couple, Mr. Angelo D. Hizon Jr. and Mrs. Lolita O. Hizon, and
their twelve children. It manufactures eleven core products – Tocino, Hotdogs, Longaniza, Ham, Bacon,
Tapa, Burger Patties, Corned Beef, Embotido, Barbecue, and Nuggets.

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WEEK 4: Module 2 Lesson 5: HIMNO FERNANDINO

Himno Fernandino, the official hymn of the Municipality of San Fernando, Pampanga, was written by
Geronimo F. Del Rosario, Sr. and produced by Meynardo G. Lansangan.

Himno Fernandino

San Fernando, balen cung tibuan

Dai cang mal, niting capampangan
Mangatatag, biasat matenacan
Kapanayan at sulu ning tagimpan.

Gintung butil ning berding dayatan

Ilang tanda ning licas mung yaman
Ding batwin mung keca mipamisan
Ilang kecang cawil at sandalan.

CORO:
Balen cung tibuan, San Fernando
Sale ning Capampangan, Ica ing bucud macasiduan
King salu cu maingat pecasimpan
Luid ca balen cung tune palsintan.

(Inst.TONO I)
Fernandino Lahi cang marangal
Dayang pantas ning liping aslagan
Mapuri ca at tune uliran
Sandigan at duyan king calayan.

(Ulitan CORO)
TALETE

Dangalan cu king uli mu

Ing mate cung Fernandino.

WEEK 4: Module 2 Lesson 6: MONUMENTO FERNANDINO

The entire sculptural pays tribute to the town’s colorful history and cultural
heritage.

The Penitent and the Girl with a lantern: This component of the sculpture
depicts the unique cultural contribution of the City of San Fernando. The
penitent reflects the town’s deep sense of religious fervor, with its colorful
and festive week-long commemoration of the passion of Christ done
amidst an array of evening processions, cenaculos, pabasa, and
salubong, the celebration culminates in a spectacle of devotees who
actually have themselves nailed on a cross.

The Girl with the lantern depicts the season in which San Fernando has
been nicknamed the Christmas Capital of the Philippines, for it has been

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made famous by the unique lighted and dynamic “parols” its artisans have woven into the season. The
Lady with the Torch: San Fernando is steeped in history, and this component particularly pays tribute
to its significant role during the wars which befell the region, during the Philippine Revolution, the
Philippine-American War, and World War II. The image takes reference of the image Inang Laya, and
our motherland. In actual history certain females in San Fernando, have had significant role in shaping
the history of the town and our country in general.

The Early Settlers or the Katutubo of the ancient roots of the Kapampangan ancestry traces its history
from Bornean Settlers, who migrated to the rich plains of Central Luzon and thus founded our early
Riverine communities along the several rivers crisis crossing the town. The image would also like to take
in reference the symbolical Inang Kalikasan which focuses on the efforts done by the community to
address environmental concerns especially after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

The Bangkero: This sculptural depiction specifically focuses on the most recent history of San Fernando
and its people, how it has coped after the deluge brought about the flood waters and lahar which
has plagued the town near the point of desperation, and how for the past decade it has awakened
into a progressive city, through hard work and perseverance. The figure holds both, an oar (sagwan)
and a shovel (pala) to depict the duality of the struggle of its people, the figure staring a star with a
vision and a mission to rebuild and prosper once again.

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EVALUATION: 75 points

Congratulations!

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CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FERNANDO PAMPANGA

City of San Fernando, Pampanga

GENERAL EDUCATION

FERNANDINO HISTORY, CULTURE AND VALUES

Module #3

MIDTERMS:

WEEK 1: Module 1 Lesson 1: San Fernando, Pampanga's Barangay Beginnings

WEEK 2: Module 1 Lesson 2: The Church of San Fernando and its Religious - Cultural Traditions / Module 1 Evaluation
WEEK 3: Module 2 Lesson 1: Great Fernandinos: Expressions of Excellence / Module 2 Lesson 2: Bayaning Fernandino
Module 2 Lesson 3: San Fernando Heritage District / Module 2 Lesson 4: Lutong Fernandino
WEEK 4: Module 2 Lesson 5: Himno Fernandino / Module 2 Lesson 6: Monumento Fernandino /
Module 2 Lesson 7: Teacher Heroism Day / Module 2 Evaluation
WEEK 5: Module 3 Lesson 1: Post - War to Martial Law: Prosperity and Struggle
WEEK 6: Module 3 Lesson 2: Mt. Pinatubo Eruptions and the making of a City: Isang dekada ng Pagbangon /
Module 3 Evaluation

WEEK 5: Module 3 Lesson 1: POSTWAR TO MARTIAL LAW: PROSPERITY AND STRUGGLE

Traces of the atrocities of World War II would not and should not
stay for long in a major town like San Fernando. Together with the
rest of the nation, this town which has earned a niche as a
bubbling center of commerce and trade, the province's hub of
knowledge, education and culture, and seat of the provincial
government, did not sit on its ass. Fernandinos with the able
leadership of municipal officials got mobilized. Harnessing
collective efforts of a motivated citizenry and various
stakeholders, the town's political leader at the time Mayor
Rodolfo Hizon, led one and all to leave no stone unturned as they
struggled through the rubbles of chaos and economic woes,
conquering hopelessness and depression, and visibly obvious
physical destructions.

Through the years, growth and development was evident. The post-war mayors that followed Hizon
did their significant contributions as well: Rodolfo P. Hizon (1946-1955): Mariano P. Castro Sr.(1955); Dr.
Miguel G. Baluyut (1956-1959); Dr. Jose C. Quiwa (1960-1967); Mr. Levi Panlilio (1967-1969): Atty. Virgilio
Sanchez (1969-1971), Luis Gopiao (1971).

LIST OF LOCAL CHIEF EXECUTIVES OF THE CITY OF SAN FERNANDO

2013 – Present Hon. Engr. Edwin D. Santiago
2004 - 2013 Atty. Oscar S. Rodriguez
1995 – 2004 Dr. Jesus Reynaldo B. Aquino
1986 - 1995 Atty. Paterno S. Guevarra
1983 - 1986 Atty. Virgilio L. Sanchez
1981 - 1983 Atty. Vicente A. Macalino
1980 - 1981 Col. Amante S. Bueno (OIC)
1972 - 1980 Armando P. Biliwang
1969 - 1971 Atty. Virgilio L. Sanchez
1968 - 1969 Levi Panlilio
1960 - 1967 Dr. Jose Quiwa
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1956 - 1959 Dr. Miguel Baluyut

1946 - 1955 Rodolfo Hizon
1938 - 1945 Vivencio Cuyugan
1935 - 1937 Urbano Dizon
1932 - 1934 Jose Valencia
1928 - 1931 Antonio Abad Santos
1922-1927 Jose Valencia
1917 - 1921 Antonio Abad Santos
1904 - 1907 Don Francisco Hizon

Capping the post-war leadership was Mr. Luis Gopiao in 1971, until the advent of another period in the
political life of the country - the Martial Law Era, when Mr. Armando "Mando" P. Biliwang took over as
mayor in 1972 until 1980. Mayor Mando was known as an anti-communist fighter and led the citizens
to defy the creeping New People's Army (NPA) strength in San Fernando.

The pre-martial period set two distinct political developments: 1) The dominance of two political
parties: Nacionalista Party and the Liberal Party; 2) a prevailing Cold War between communism and
democracy.

Affiliation of local political leaders with the party in power in the national leadership inevitably meant
more support to the local government initiatives and projects. It's either you are a Liberal or a
Nacionalista. There was also a phenomenon known as "turncoatism”, a term coined when politicians
shifted to the party in power, to the party where they could have more benefits.

The two competing ideologies resulted into problems on peace and order. Communist infiltration was
something to reckon with. Leaning to either one of the two ideologies was a risk. Support for the
national government was support for democracy. To make it in the election then, was to be in tandem
with the likes of Manuel Roxas, Ramon Magsaysay, Diosdado Macapagal coupled with a balancing
act of dealing with the "Beatles” or communists. The "Monkees” were said to be CIA assisted
organizations to combat the Beatles. The two political realities through were no absolute determinants
to dichotomize the winnable and loser in an election. There were times, when citizens proved the worth
of their minds and hearts in favor of the welfare of the town and province unmindful of any ideology
or political party. Violence was inevitable. At one time, there were 222 unsolved murders including a
Vice Governor, Mayors, Councilors and Barangay Captains.

Though occasional calamities, man-made or otherwise would reverse the desired expectations San
Fernando is largely an agricultural town, as a rice, vegetable and sugar producer. PASUDECO, a sugar
mill corporation which started operation sometime in January 1918 continued to be a corporation
providing the biggest private employment in the town. This strategic location and conducive climate
to business, however, has gradually transformed the town from being agriculture-oriented to an
emerging bustling urbanized city in Central Luzon. One can witness the commercial establishments
that mushroom in the suburbs: small stores and convenience stores to world class sophisticated malls,
from the simple carinderia to the awesome restaurants to the gastronomic delight of gourmets - tourists
and local folks alike showcasing Pampanga cuisine (making the whole province earn the title as the
culinary capital of the country.

The biggest single event that really carried San Fernando to economic prosperity in the American
Period was the opening of the Pampanga Sugar Development Corporation (PASUDECO) in 1921. The
idea of a locally owned sugar central, to rival the American-owned Pampanga Sugar Mills (PASUMIL)

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in Floridablanca, was hatched in the San Fernando

residence of Gov. Honorio Ventura of Bacolor. It was the
brainchild of big-time Kapampangan sugar planters Jose
Leoncio De Leon, Augusto Gonzales, Francisco Liongson,
Serafin Lazatin, Tomas Consunji, Francisco Hizon, Jose
Henson, and Manuel Urquico. Built by the Honolulu Iron
Works, PASUDECO served as the central purchasing and
processing company for the surrounding sugar plantations
in the province. At the time, the prevailing arrangement
between PASUDECO and the sugar planters was 50-50
percent, that is, the milled sugar was equally divided
between the landowners that planted it, and the central
owners that processed it.

Right after the declaration of Martial Law, part of the reorganization made was
the division of the country into regions. This started on September 24, 1972. San
Fernando became the regional center of Central Luzon, housing all regional
offices of government agencies in Central Luzon. With a population of more
than ten million to take care of in the region, the regional offices were made
to settle in Maimpis, a barrio of San Fernando. As the regional center, a
meteoric growth in business, in education, in tourism and others naturally
followed. More people more interactions of people of varying orientations
expanded the horizon of San Fernando in all angles.

WEEK 6: Module 3 Lesson 2: MT. PINATUBO ERUPCTION AND THE MAKING OF THE CITY: ISANG DEKADA
NG PAGBANGON

It was called a cataclysmic event, the

second Century. Experts said it had the
potential engulf large areas of Central Luzon
including San Fernando, at the time,
Pampanga's premier town, with lahar and
other debris. Fearful officials in Manila
thought it was best for the local residents to
abandon the province and relocate
elsewhere. Such was the grim scenario that
shrouded our beloved San Fernando,
Pampanga, following Mount Pinatubo's
eruption in 1991. Dormant for more than 500
years, Pinatubo, which lies some 70
kilometers northwest of San Fernando, suddenly awakened in the early summer of 1991 and unleashed
in escalating fashion the fury that had bottled up in its belly.

Pinatubo's activity reached a high point on June 12, 1991 when it spewed high into the sky a giant
cloud of ash, rocks and gases that reached a height of over thirty kilometers and covered an area
about 400 kilometers wide, according to experts' estimates. At the end of the activity, an estimated
seven billion cubic meters of pyroclastic materials and some three billion cubic meters of ashfall lay on

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the slopes of Pinatubo and nearby highlands, ready to slide down as lahar to the surrounding towns
and cities whenever it rained.

The late Director Raymundo Punongbayan, at the time, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology
and Seismology, said in various forms that even if only half of the volcanic sediment on the slopes of
Pinatubo got dislodged during rains, areas to the low-lying areas, it would still take up to ten years for
affected areas to experience destructive lahar flows. Several towns of Pampanga were listed by
Punongbayan as "at risk”. The gravity of Pinatubo eruption's impact was not lost on the people of San
Fernando. What are we to do in the midst of such great devastation and the threat of more damage
from the mud and ash fall sitting on the mountain's slopes?

It didn't help at all that the decisions and actions from national officials in Manila have been tentative.
Obviously they saw little reason in spending on repair and rehabilitation projects that anyway would
most likely be washed away later by new lahar flows.

MT. PINATUBO TIMELINE:

10-15 million years ago: BIRTH OF A VOLCANO

The 4 km-deep Manila Trench under the West Philippine Sea (formerly South China Sea) suddenly
slipped and plunged 100 km deeper into the earth’s mantle, creating magma that pushed upwards
until it broke through the earth’s crust west of Pampanga. The resulting eruption created a new
volcano—Mount Pinatubo.

1 million-45,000 years ago: ANCESTRAL PINATUBO

The original Pinatubo, called Ancestral Pinatubo, was a mega volcano—but it was a gentle giant
compared to today’s more petulant, smaller Pinatubo. Instead of huge, messy explosions, it had long,
continuous quiet eruptions. Ancestral Pinatubo released enough pyroclastic materials to elevate large
areas of Luzon. All of Pampanga, Zambales and Tarlac, and parts of Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Bataan
and Pangasinan are standing on these ancient sediments.

Mount Arayat last erupted 600,000 years ago. This eruption partly overlapped with the continuous
eruptions of Ancestral Pinatubo.

35,000 years ago:‘MOTHER OF ALL ERUPTIONS’

A huge eruption, “the mother of all Pinatubo eruptions” (it was 10 times larger than the 1991 eruption),
destroyed Ancestral Pinatubo and blanketed the region with 325 ft of volcanic debris.
This eruption, which lasted decades, maybe even hundreds of years, is the Inararo Eruptive Period,
named after the village in Porac where scientists found the ancient deposits that yielded data on the
eruption. Gap between the last Ancestral Pinatubo eruption and the Inararo eruption: 10,000 years.

The dark-skinned Aetas first came to Luzon 30,000 years ago. Originating in southern China, they
crossed the shallow channel between Luzon and Taiwan and walked southward to central Luzon
where many of them stayed. About 4,000 years ago, the brown-skinned Austronesians arrived, pushing
the Aetas to the mountains.

Pinatubo’s eruptive history is composed of long stretches of repose alternating with spurts of volcanic
activity, with the size of eruptions and the gaps between eruptions progressively diminishing.

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17,000 years ago: Pinatubo erupted again, burying more areas in Pampanga and Tarlac. The
elongated outcropping on the Bamban side of the Sacobia River, where Calumpang and other
villages stand, are pyroclastic-flow deposits from this eruption, called the Sacobia Eruptive Period.
Gap between the Inararo eruption and the Sacobia eruption: 18,000 years.

9000 years ago: Another eruption sent lahars to areas that would eventually become the towns of
Lubao and Floridablanca. This is called the Pasbul Eruptive Period. Gap between the Sacobia eruption
and the Pasbul eruption: 8000 years.

6000-5000 years ago: Pinatubo’s next eruption, called the Crow Valley Eruptive Period, buried much
of Tarlac, including the area now occupied by Hacienda Luisita. Gap between the Pasbul eruption
and the Crow Valley eruption: 4000 years.

3900-2300 years ago: Pinatubo erupted again, burying the entire area that is now Clark Field. Scientists
refer to this event as the Maraunot Eruptive Period. Gap between the Crow Valley eruption and the
Maraunot eruption: 2700 years.

The southern towns of Macabebe, Masantol, Sasmuan, Minalin and Lubao were under the sea, with
Guagua (Uaua) as the spot where the rivers flowed into the sea (uaua means “mouth of river”). The
ancient shoreline extended to Porac, where the early Austronesians established large settlements,
around the place now known as Hacienda Dolores. The large prehistoric settlement existed in the
Porac highlands because of its proximity to this ancient shoreline.

800-500 years ago: THE ERUPTION WITNESSED BY OUR ANCESTORS

Called the Buag Eruptive Period, it occurred about 1300 A.D., or more than 200 years before the
Spaniards came. Lasting several decades, it created the steep summit that would be blown off by the
1991 eruption. It also sent lahars to southern Pampanga that pushed the original shoreline from
Guagua to the present shoreline in Masantol 15 km away . The eruption forced the inhabitants of
prehistoric settlements in Porac to flee to Lubao and Floridablanca using ancient Aeta trails (present-
day SCTEx).

In c. 1380, as Pinatubo’s eruptions were underway, Madjapahit prince Balagtas and his noble kins from
Java and Borneo sailed to Luzon. Balagtas’ children and in-laws eventually founded Bacolor, Apalit
and other ancient towns in Pampanga. They most likely witnessed the volcano’s dome-building
eruptions.

Ethnographer Robert B. Fox, in a 1952 article in The Philippine Journal of Science, theorizes that the
name pinatubo refers to the mountain as the origin of all the life-giving rivers in Pampanga and
Zambales. The more popular explanation, however, is that pinatubo refers to mountain as having been
“grown”—bolstering the theory that our ancestors witnessed Pinatubo’s dome-building eruptions.

Balagtas’ grandson Pansomun (christened Fernando Malang Balagtas) left a last will before his death
in 1589, describing in great detail the old Kapampangan territory, which extended from the present-
day Nueva Vizcaya and Pangasinan in the north to Bulacan in the south, Bataan and Zambales in the
west and Aurora in the east. The eventual rulers of Tondo and Manila (Lakan Dula and Rajah Matanda)
at the time of the Spanish Conquest in 1571, descended from Salalila, brother-in-law of Balagtas.

The name Bacolor came from the old Kapampangan word makabakulud, “elevated,” because it was
originally higher than its surroundings. The Buag eruptions produced lahars that elevated these

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surroundings, making them higher than Bacolor, so that in the next eruptions (1991), the lahars went
straight to Bacolor, making the town elevated once again. Gap between the Maraunot eruption and
the Buag eruption: 1600 years. Gap between the Buag eruption and the 1991 eruption: 500 years.

1571-1898: THE AETAS KNEW

Proof that the Aetas witnessed the ancient eruptions is the existence of an Aeta myth about the spirit
of the sea Bacobaco, in the form of a giant turtle, being pursued by three spirits, Blit, his brother Wasi
(spirit of the wind) and Aglao (king of the spirit hunters). In the story, Bacobaco climbed to the peak
of the mountain where he started digging a hole: “Bit pieces of rock, mud, and dust fell in showers all
around the mountain. Bacobaco howled so loudly that the earth shook. The fire that escaped from
his mouth became so thick and so hot that the pursuing party had to run away. After three days of
continuous thunder and throwing of rocks, mud, and ashes, all was quiet again but the lake was now
filled with rocks and mud covered everything. On the summit of Pinatubu was a great hole, from which
smoke could be seen constantly coming out.”

This account was recorded in 1915 as a paper submitted to Prof. H. Otley Beyer, with the title The Origin
of Pinatubu Volcano (A Negrito Myth). It is the earliest known reference to Pinatubo as a volcano.

The parallel Kapampangan myth of the rock-throwing battle between mountain deities Sinukuan (of
Mount Arayat) and Namalyari (of Mount Pinatubo) may also hint at the Kapampangans’ memory of
Pinatubo’s prehistoric eruption.

… BUT THE SPANIARDS DID NOT

When the Spaniards sailed into Pampanga in 1571, the Buag Eruptive Period had ended about 80 years
earlier. With the lahars over, the river channels in Pampanga had stabilized and the Spaniards found
large Kapampangan populations in Betis (7000 inhabitants), in Macabebe (2600) and in Candaba
(2000), many of whom were probably evacuees from the areas near the volcano.

No single volcanic activity was recorded throughout the Spanish Colonial Period.

The first-ever mention of Pinatubo in historical documents is in Fray Domingo Perez, OP’s Relation of the
Zambals (1680): “The road is over sandy ground which is very large and full of rocks left by the river
which flows from the mountain of Pinatuba (sic).”

R. von Drasche in Datos para un studio geologico de la isla de Luzon (1878) described soil samples
from Porac as “spongy, brilliant white trachyte pumice,” and that the pumice clasts increased in size
towards the Zambales mountains.

1899-1950s:… AND THE AMERICANS WERE CLUELESS

In 1903, the United States established its two largest military installations abroad (Clark Air Base and
Subic Naval Base) on the east and west sides of Pinatubo, not knowing it was an active volcano. The
Philippine government signed an agreement in 1947 to give the US the right to keep their bases for 99
years (until 2046).

In 1925, Capt. H. A. Myers of the U.S. 26th Cavalry, who led an expedition to Mount Pinatubo, reported
seeing tropical forests, deep canyons, rock formations, etc. that were “incomparable with anything in
the Philippine Islands.” He also saw “the Pinatubo Crater—it is beyond description with its walls rising
shear from 500 to 2000 feet.”

The Americans established Camp Sanchez (named after a Filipino officer in the U.S. Cavalry) which
served as a starting point for American soldiers and their families who went horseback-riding to the

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mountain. Eventually they expanded the camp to include cottages, a golf course and other rest-and-
recreation facilities to take advantage of the cool temperature similar to Baguio’s.

When the Japanese occupied Clark Field during World War II, the Americans and Filipino guerillas used
Mount Pinatubo as an observation post to spy on Japanese planes taking off en route to Corregidor
and Bataan.

One of these guerillas was the future Philippine President, Ramon Magsaysay, who named his
presidential plane Mount Pinatubo—the same plane that figured in the fatal crash on Mount
Manunggal in Cebu in 1957.

1960s-1970s: In 1966 the RP-US Bases Agreement, signed in 1947, was renegotiated, resetting the
agreement’s expiry date from 2046 to 1991.

In mid-1970s, Pinatubo was revealed for the first time as an active volcano, but the data was not
publicized. Scientists from the engineering firm Ebasco Services, Inc., hired by the Marcos government
to make a geological evaluation of the Bataan-Pinatubo area in connection with the proposed
Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), discovered through radiocarbon-dating three previous Pinatubo
eruptions: 8,050 years ago, 2,330 years ago, and 635 years ago—which roughly coincide with the dates
that PHIVOLCS would establish 20 years later.

1982-1990: WAS IT THE P.N.O.C. OR THE EARTHQUAKE?

To help ease the country’s energy crisis, the Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development
Corporation (PNOC-EDC) started hydrothermal explorations on Mount Pinatubo in 1982. Also
investigated were the hot springs in Porac, Sapangbato and Patling (Capas).

In 1986, the survey was halted following President Marcos’ ouster by the People Power revolt. In 1988,
during President Cory Aquino’s term, PNOC-EDC returned to Pinatubo to start the drilling, despite
protests from the Aetas.

In March 1990, PNOC-EDC abandoned the project after the drilling pipes melted because of the high
acidity of the underground fluids. The pipes had reached a vertical depth of 2.7 kilometers before
melting. As it turned out, they were just 3.3 kilometers away from the magma chamber.

Pinatubo has three magma chambers located 6 km beneath the mountain: the main chamber
located beneath the ridge connecting Pinatubo and Mount Negron, a second chamber directly
beneath Mount Negron, and a third chamber beneath Pinatubo’s northwest slope—directly under the
crater lake that formed after the 1991 eruption, which means this magma chamber supplied the 1991
eruption. The total capacity of these three magma chambers is 125 cubic kilometers

Four months after PNOC packed up, on July 16, 1990, at 4:26 P.M., a magnitude 7.8 struck Central
Luzon, with epicenter in Digdig, Nueva Ecija.

The quake produced a ground rupture from Dingalan, Aurora to Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija (a distance of
125 km) and a new sub-fault that cut across Baguio City. It destroyed the Christian College of the
Philippines in Cabanatuan City and several hotels in Baguio City, including the Hyatt Terraces Hotel. A
total of 1621 people died in the quake.

At 6:10 P.M., less than two hours after the Luzon quake, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck the
Pinatubo area. It was not an aftershock from the Luzon quake, but a separate quake from one of the
local faults located around Pinatubo—the first indication that Pinatubo had awakened.

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The local quakes were the sign that magma seeped through cracks and entered the third magma
chamber below Pinatubo, destabilizing it. It continued collecting within the chamber and rising until it
hit the chamber’s ceiling where it stopped.

On August 3, a landslide occurred on the northwest slope of Pinatubo, accompanied by rambling

sounds and “black and grey smoke from a fissure,” according to Sister Emma Fondevilla, a Franciscan
nun working with an NGO called Lubos na Alyansa ng mga Katutubong Ayta ng Sambales (LAKAS) in
Poonbato, Zambales. Sister Emma went to PHIVOLCS the next day to report the incident. PHIVOLCS
did not make any ground assessment, only a quick helicopter survey, after which it issued the following
memo: “Preliminary findings indicate that the phenomenon is not related with any volcanic activity.”
Nothing more was heard from PHIVOLCS until April, 1991, barely two months before the eruption.

November 1990-February 1991: BAD TIMING

The United States and Philippines governments were rushing negotiations to extend the 1947 bases
agreement, scheduled to expire in September 1991. The Philippine negotiating panel led by Raul
Manglapus was seeking an annual rent of $825 million for only a seven-year extension, while the US
panel headed by Richard Armitage offered only $360 million for 10 to 12 more years. The collapse of
the negotiations seemed imminent.

The Americans were rapidly losing interest in their military bases because of the impending end of the
Cold War (the Soviet Union would collapse in December 1991). Three events in 1990 also made the
Americans feel they had overstayed their welcome in the country: (1) in May, the New People’s Army
assassinated two US servicemen outside Clark, causing a lockdown on US personnel for several days;
(2) in July, the magnitude 7.8 Luzon earthquake rocked the military base; and (3) in October, the base
workers voted to strike, forcing another lockdown.

April 2, 1991: Aetas on the Zambales side of Pinatubo heard explosions and Americans at Clark on the
Pampanga side saw a white plume rising from the mountain. On April 5, Sister Emma Fondevilla went
to PHIVOLCS once again to report the incident. This time, a PHIVOLCS quick response team put up a
temporary monitoring station at sitio Yamut (7 km from the summit on the Zambales side). It also
installed a seismograph which promptly detected more than 400 high-frequency volcanic
earthquakes.

The volcanic earthquakes indicated that magma had breached the ceiling of the magma chamber
and was rising and pushing the overlying old magma deposits clogging the vents from previous
eruptions. The steaming was the result of magma overheating the same hydrothermal system that the
PNOC had tried to tap.

The Americans realized for the first time that their two largest military bases, Clark Air Base and Subic
Naval Base, were in harm’s way. A team from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) set up a
Pinatubo Volcano Observatory (PVO) on Maryland Avenue at Clark. Clark officials later invited the
PHIVOLCS team to join their American counterpart at the PVO.

May 23, 1991: Three weeks before the eruption, both PHIVOLCS and the USGS were still unsure if an
eruption was imminent, due to lack of baseline information (Pinatubo was erupting for the first time in
recorded history)—which led to public confusion and disappointment. When PHIVOLCS finally issued
a simple warning system and a hastily prepared hazard map, many sectors responded with apathy,
skepticism and outright hostility. Angeles City officials boycotted a PHIVOLCS briefing and accused
the scientists of hurting the local economy and muddling the bases negotiations. Clark officials, on the
other hand, designed an evacuation plan to move 15,000 Air Force personnel and their families from
Clark to Subic.

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Magma continued to rise, searching for the ancient conduits to the surface and fracturing rock layers
to clear its path. The PVO monitoring devices at Clark felt this underground activity as quakes: high-
frequency quakes meant magma was forcing its way through solid rock, while low-frequency quakes
suggested magma was getting closer to the surface. But it was still possible for the rising magma to
encounter a rock layer that it could not crack, in which case all volcanic activity would cease and
Pinatubo could go back to sleep for another hundred or thousand years.

First week of June, 1991: PHIVOLCS and USGS observed a bulge on Pinatubo’s slope—a tell-tale sign
that magma was now just below the surface. They raised the alert level from 2 to 3 (“eruption possible
within two weeks”). The information was relayed to Clark officials so they could evacuate the
Americans out of harm’s way at a moment’s notice.

June 9-10, 1991: Alert level raised to 5 (“eruption in progress”) after the PHIVOLCS monitoring team at
Poonbato in Zambales reported billowing ash clouds going down Maraunot River, which subsequent
aerial reconnaissance revealed to be another false alarm. It was too late: the next morning, national
dailies screamed “Pinatubo erupts!” and 16,000 Clark personnel in 6000 vehicles evacuated to Subic
Naval Base, which was already bursting at the seams with its own 14,000 Navy personnel and their own
families. Left behind at Clark were 10,000 Filipino base workers, who were five days away from pay
day. Also left behind to protect the base were 960 security personnel plus 1300 Philippine Air Force
troopers under the Clark Air Base Command (CABCOM).

June 12, 1991 8:51 a.m.: Pinatubo produced a “cauliflower cloud” of steam and gas that shot up to
the blue sky at the speed of 1300 feet per second, causing pandemonium among Filipinos celebrating
Independence Day. The blast lasted 38 minutes. “As soon as the large explosive eruptions began on
June 12,” said PHIVOLCS Director Punongbayan, “the volcano spoke mainly for itself.” He cautioned,
however, that it was not yet “the big one” and that Pinatubo was just “clearing its throat.”

According to the London-based newspaper The Guardian, Clark officials raised a nuclear alarm after
200 servicemen abandoned the underground bunkers where cruise missiles were stored, instead of
clearing the ventilation shafts jammed with volcanic ash. They reportedly fled through an underground
tunnel leading to the telecommunications facility called the “Elephant Cage.” The US Embassy insisted
only conventional, not nuclear, weapons were stored at Clark at the time of the eruption.

Saudia Airline 747, flying from Dhahran to Manila, developed engine trouble after sucking in volcanic
ash, prompting the Airline Operators Council (AOC) to instruct planes to stay clear of Pinatubo by at
least 50 nautical miles. Not realizing the danger, President Cory Aquino flew by helicopter from
Zambales to Pampanga to take a closer look of Pinatubo and visit evacuation centers on both sides
of the volcano.

Off the coast of Samar, a low-pressure area was born, which meteorologists named Diding
(international name: Yunya).

10:52 p.m.: Pinatubo produced another column of ash and steam 24 km high in just 30 seconds (most
volcanoes shoot up to 17 km in 3 to 5 minutes). “It is difficult to conceive how such a rise rate might be
possible,” said J. Scott Oswalt of the US Navy. In just 21 hours, low-pressure area Diding had developed
into a full-blown storm and 8 hours later into a typhoon—the first typhoon in the Philippines for 1991. No
typhoon was supposed to develop in that area (southwest instead of the usual southeast of the so-
called tropical upper tropospheric trough or TUTT), and no typhoon was supposed to develop that
rapidly. The first magma to come out of Pinatubo on June 12 merely “cleared its throat.” The vent-
widening process would continue through the series of eruptions on June 13 and 14.

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June 13, 1991 8:41 a.m.: Another ash column 24 km high shot up in the sky, almost a repeat of the
previous day’s visual spectacle. PHIVOLCS Director Punongbayan said, “This is already the big bang. I
can’t see any other eruption that will exceed this.”

June 14, 1991 1:09 p.m.: Vertical eruption 21 km high, covered by clouds from the incoming typhoon
Diding, now spotted near Bicol packing 195 kph winds.

June 14, 1991 2:10 p.m.: Another vertical eruption 15 km high. Pyroclastic flows seen along Maraunot
River in Zambales and O’Donnel River in Tarlac.

June 14, 1991 3:15 p.m.: Vertical eruption and another pyroclastic flow, this time along Sacobia River
near Clark and Mabalacat.

June 14, 1991 6:53 p.m.: Vertical eruption reached 24 km.

June 14, 1991 11:20 p.m.: Another vertical eruption 21 km high. Volcanologists wondered how long the
volcano could maintain this pace: Was the volcano close to exhausting itself, or was its energy level
building up to a climax? Diding’s clouds had totally covered Pinatubo, so scientists instead relied on
barographs, seismographs, satellite images and ground-based radars to monitor the eruptions.

USGS-PHIVOLCS team discovered that the size of the magma chamber below Pinatubo was 3 to 5
square km (compared to Mount Saint-Helens’ 1 km), which meant Pinatubo’s eruption could be 9 to
15 times stronger than Mount Saint-Helens’ eruption.

June 15, 1991 2 a.m.: USGS-PHIVOLCS team at Clark saw what they initially thought was a fissure on the
Pampanga side that ran from the summit to 1000 feet down the volcano’s slope. It raised fears that a
lateral eruption could blow in the direction of Pampanga.

June 15, 1991 5:55 a.m.: Pinatubo produced a humongous cloud that was 12 km high but 10 km wide—
the equivalent of an F-5 tornado. It appeared that the crater had widened but actually it was just
pyroclastic flows bursting horizontally. However, it was the start of Pinatubo’s Plinian eruption, named
after the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, who died when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.

June 15, 1991 8:10 a.m.: Another eruption produced a 12-km ash column. The pattern of eruption had
now changed from shooting tall vertical column to “fountaining,” which indicated that the ejected
volcanic materials were now becoming denser and heavier and loaded with large volumes of debris
(rock fragments, pumice, silica, ash, gases, etc.).

June 15, 1991 10:27 a.m.: Another eruption (ash column: 15 km). Storm clouds from the approaching
typhoon Diding now totally obscured Pinatubo.

June 15, 1991 11:17 a.m.: Scientists, unable to view the volcano due to clouds, knew another eruption
was in progress after witnessing pyroclastic flows along river channels. PHIVOLCS’ last working
seismograph at Clark’s Mactan Gate stopped, indicating pyroclastic flows had reached Sacobia River,
raising fears that Clark Air Base and Mabalacat could be swamped with superheated gases like what
happened to Pompeii. The scientists and the last US Air Force security personnel evacuated to
Pampanga Agricultural College (PAC) in Magalang.

June 15, 1991 11:58 a.m.: Eruption, obscured by clouds.

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June 15, 1991 1:15 p.m.: Eruption, obscured by clouds. Because Pinatubo was shooting up faster than
the column could rise, the column collapsed under its own weight, raining tons and tons of ash and
rock fragments all over Pampanga, Zambales, Bataan and Tarlac, and turning day into night.

June 15, 1991 1:42 p.m. : BIG BANG: Pinatubo gave one colossal blast, which reached a mind-blowing
height of 35 km and spread out into a canopy 400 km in diameter. It plunged Central Luzon in total
darkness. The ash fall was so thick it created a curtain that blocked light and sound. Residents were
mesmerized by the eerie silence and by flashlights and headlights not able to penetrate the darkness.

VOLCANO VERSUS TYPHOON: In an amazing coincidence, the eye of Typhoon Diding was only 70 km
from Pinatubo’s crater at the moment of the paroxysmal eruption. Pinatubo’s vertical eruption
punctured and then overwhelmed and disorganized the typhoon’s cloud system, until the typhoon
dissipated into a mere storm. Diding’s cyclonic winds, however, rotated and dispersed the volcanic
debris, carrying the ash meant for northern Zambales to the Subic area, and the ash meant for southern
Zambales over to Pampanga and Tarlac. Diding’s rains soaked the volcanic debris, doubling the
weight of ash and giving it a cement-like consistency. Lahars flowed in all river channels emanating
from the slopes of Pinatubo—a phenomenon that happens when heavy rains accompany a volcanic
eruption, turning pyroclastic flows into lahars almost simultaneously.

June 15, 1991 2:00 p.m.: ASH FALL: Pumice, the light-weight, frothy solidified magma, rained down
intermittently as sand and pebbles, until 2:45 p.m. Starting 3:00 p.m., pumice rained continuously,
together with wet ash which fell as mud, ruining windshields and causing roofs to cave in and trees to
snap.

June 15, 1991 3:39 p.m.: EARTHQUAKES: The earthquakes began—not the swaying motions of tectonic
quakes, but the sharp, hard jolts of volcanic quakes, occurring every two or three minutes and
measuring at least magnitude 4.5 each. They were caused by magma fracturing rocks as it rose, and
parts of the mountain collapsing into the widening crater. PHIVOLCS later announced on radio that
the quakes had become tectonic, i.e., local faults around the volcano were slipping because
underground rocks were adjusting to a rapidly emptying magma chamber.

PHIVOLCS geologist Ronaldo Arboleda said, “We are now thinking of a worst-case scenario.”
In the absence of monitoring devices and communications systems, horrific rumors spread, including
about a nuclear explosion at Clark, a three-mile fissure that would result in a lateral blast that could
wipe out Pampanga, and the emptying of a huge magma chamber that would lead to the collapse
of the entire province into the void.

June 15, 1991 4:25 p.m.: The earthquakes suddenly intensified, registering magnitude 5.6 and above.
This was caused by the disintegrating vent and the multiplying fractures on the mountain slopes. Below,
the magma chamber continued emptying until it completely exhausted itself and started caving in.

June 15, 1991 5:40 p.m.: A Tokyo-bound Boeing 747 flying at 29,000 ft over South China Sea
encountered Pinatubo ash. Upon landing, inspectors discovered all four engines had been damaged
beyond repair and had to be replaced. Another Boeing 747 flying from Narita to Singapore also
encountered ash and coarse pumice which forced it to land in Taipei.

June 15, 1991 6:30 p.m.: Two large earthquakes indicated the collapse of the summit dome, which
plugged the vent, created the caldera and signaled the start of the four-hour waning phase of the
eruption.

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June 15, 1991 8:00 p.m.: Despite the waning of the eruption, PHIVOLCS expanded the danger zone,
“primarily out of concern about pyroclastic flows and a lateral blast,” according to PHIVOLCS Director
Raymundo Punongbayan. It meant that even residents of previously safe towns like Magalang, Capas,
San Fernando, Guagua, Sasmuan, Lubao, Dinalupihan, Olongapo City and San Antonio had to
evacuate. The announcement triggered panic and massive evacuations.

June 15, 1991 10:30 p.m.: Climactic eruption ended. Pinatubo’s peak had been reduced from 5725 ft
to 4872 ft, and had left a 3.5 km caldera. Ash fall and earthquakes continued throughout the night
with diminishing frequency and intensity. All in all, Pinatubo’s paroxysmal eruptions lasted five hours:
the intense Plinian phase from 1:42 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. (with ash/pumice fall) and the intense earthquakes
phase from 4:25 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (with pyroclastic flows), ending with the summit collapse that plugged
Pinatubo’s throat.

June 16, 1991: Survivors of the eruption woke up the next morning to scenes of utter devastation, similar
to the aftermath of a nuclear explosion or at least a blizzard, except that the snow would never melt.
President Aquino declared a unilateral ceasefire with the New People’s Army (NPA) so that food
caravans could be sent to Central Luzon unhampered.

June 17, 1991: 5000 US dependents were shipped to Cebu by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
on its maiden voyage—part of the US evacuation plan involving an armada of 21 warships transferring
17,300 dependents of US Air Force and US Navy servicemen to Cebu, where they were picked up by
chartered and military flights to Guam en route to mainland United States. Untold stories of separation
and heartbreak were matched only by happy endings between American troops and their Filipino
girlfriends.

July 10, 1991: First lahar flows spotted in the Pasig-Potrero River in Porac.

July 11-26, 1991: The monsoon and typhoon season sent more lahars down the Porac-Gumain, Pasig-
Potrero, Abacan and Sacobia Rivers, which buried villages in Floridablanca, Concepcion, Mexico,
Sasmuan and Lubao towns and sent hundreds of thousands of people in evacuation sites. The
humanitarian crisis was already unprecedented in Philippine history and it was just the second month
of the first of five years of disaster.

July 17, 1991: The United States and the Philippines issued a joint announcement that Clark Air Base
would be closed by September, 1992. The US had simply lost interest in renting a useless military base,
and the Philippines had lost all bargaining chips in offering a devalued property, and neither wanted
to pick the tab for an expensive rebuilding. But they did propose a new treaty, the Treaty of Friendship,
Cooperation and Security, which would give the Americans 10 more years to remain at Subic.

August 11-21, 1991: Abacan and Sacobia rivers alternately carried fresh lahars to Mabalacat, Bamban,
Concepcion, Angeles and Mexico. One lahar episode killed 31 residents in Concepcion and
produced 55,000 new evacuees.

September 4, 1991: PHIVOLCS declared the Pinatubo eruptions officially over. Secondary explosions,
which occurred when water came in contact with pyroclastic deposits on the volcano’s slopes,
continued to occasionally darken the sky and rain mud and ash on rooftops.

September 7-15, 1991: Lahars killed 19 in Bacolor, destroyed 800 homes and sent 68,000 residents to
evacuation centers.

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September 16, 1991: Despite President Cory Aquino personally leading street demonstrations to lobby
for the ratification of the treaty, the Philippine Senate voted 12-11 to reject the treaty, ironically on the
very same day the hundred-years-old bases agreement was set to expire.

September 17, 1991: Since the bases agreement had lapsed as of September 16, the Americans were
already staying illegally on Philippine soil as of this day. They did promise to pull out by March 1992,
then revised to December 1991, and revised again to Tuesday before Thanksgiving Day 1991.

November 26, 1991: The US flag was lowered for the last time at Clark Air Base.

December 27, 1991: President Cory Aquino issued a formal notice to the US government to vacate
Subic Naval Base by end of 1992, after negotiations broke down when US officials refused to answer
questions about the presence of nuclear weapons on base.

April 4, 1992: A large secondary explosion diverted the headwaters of Abacan River to Sacobia River,
ending lahar flows in Angeles City and worsening those in Mabalacat, Bamban and Concepcion.

July 6-14, 1992: PHIVOLCS raised the alert level to 5 after observing a lava dome emerge from the
crater lake, indicating that magma had reached the surface and that technically, Pinatubo was in
fact erupting again. Because the lava dome continued growing for the next three months, alert level
5 remained which meant Pinatubo was erupting for three months. “It eroded the high level of
credibility we had earned in 1991,” PHIVOLCS Director Punongbayan said.

August 20, 1992: The first of 62 lahar episodes in 1992, triggered by a series of strong typhoons such as
Asyang, Konsing, Ditang, and Gloring. By the time the monsoon season ended in November, 67,600 of
the total 68,000 Porac residents had evacuated, while 70% of Bamban’s population had resettled
elsewhere.

November 24, 1992 : The US flag was lowered in Subic. It was the first time since 1571, when Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi’s conquistadores killed “the brave youth of Macabebe” and started the pacification
of Pampanga, Manila and Luzon, that no foreign military forces were present on Philippine territory.

October 5, 1993: A secondary explosion diverted the headwaters of Sacobia River to Pasig-Potrero
River, reducing the lahars flowing to Mabalacat and Bamban and doubled the lahars going towards
Porac, Bacolor and San Fernando.

July 10-31, 1994: Lahars flowed repeatedly down Pasig-Potrero River , burying large areas in Mancatian
in Porac and Maliwalu, San Antonio, Cutud, Duat and Potrero in Bacolor.

July 27, 1994: PHIVOLCS lowered the alert level to 1, after see-sawing through 1993 and 1994.

August 6-7, 1994: Lahars jumped the banks of Pasig-Potrero River and flowed dangerously close to
Sapang Ebus, which led to Taug Creek which fed both Abacan River and Sapang Balen of Angeles
City. Schools and universities conducted evacuation drills in case lahars swamped the city.

September 22-23, 1994: Lahars breached an upstream section of Gugu Dike and buried Manibaug
and Mancatian in Porac. The next day, lahars buried more barangays in bicolor, leaving only
Cabalantian and Calibutbut (out of 21 barangays) not ruined by lahars.

September 20, 1995: After President Fidel V. Ramos said that Kapampangans “should stop protesting
and do sandbagging instead,” 20,000 Kapampangans held a prayer-protest rally in front of Capitol to

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appeal to President Ramos to release funds to build the dike necessary to protect the capital town of
San Fernando.

October 1, 1995 : Typhoon Mameng dumped 337mm of rain on Pinatubo which triggered lahars over
a 14-hour period, burying Cabalantian where at least 550 residents were killed. The rest of the
barangay’s 13,000 residents were trapped on roofs from dawn till late afternoon. Four Huey helicopters
from Clark and Villamor air bases flew to and from Cabalantian 26 times to pick up more than 800
victims from rooftops. The tragedy showed that dikes were ineffective against lahars, and Congress
moved to suspend future appropriations and projects for Pampanga, claiming that Kapampangans
had already received more money than they deserved and had foolishly wasted it on useless dikes
and corrupt contractors. Instead, the national government planned to relocate all affected
Kapampangans to Palawan, Mindoro or Mindanao and call the huge resettlement site “New
Pampanga.”

December 8, 1995 : President Ramos released P500 million for the dike on the eastern side of Pasig-
Potrero, intended to protect San Fernando. When the towns on the river’s western side protested,
President Ramos released an additional P400 million for a parallel dike. Finally, another P555 million
was released to complete what would be called the Megadike—actually a pair of parallel dikes, one
to protect San Fernando, Angeles, Bacolor, Sto. Tomas and Minalin, and the other to protect Porac,
Sta. Rita, Floridablanca, Lubao, Sasmuan and Guagua.

January 27, 1996: Construction of the Megadike began.

For more facts about Mt. Pinatubo, kindly visit and watch the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Jc5beizfU

The government had a chance to set in motion a program of evacuation, relief and resettlement,
engineering interventions and rehabilitation, but it balked. The elections during the year following the
eruption further blurred whatever vision there was for the Pinatubo-ravaged areas.

ln Congress a different idea was being talked about. Why not declare Pampanga, including its capital
San Fernando as no longer livable and relocate its residents to another part of the country that lahar
could not reach? But Fernandinos, and for that matter the people of Pampanga, have been through
similar daunting challenges of natural and man-made disasters and calamities before. With our
indomitable spirit and keen instincts for survival, we have always managed to pull through and moved
forward.

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and its muddy aftermath have affected hundreds of thousands
of central Luzon's residents in varying degrees, depending upon the specific hazard and their physical
vulnerability to it. For purposes of accuracy in assessing the social and psychological impact of Mount
Pinatubo on the population, the effects of the volcanic eruption are discussed separately from the
effects of lahars and floods.

Ash fall from Mount Pinatubo's eruptions in June 1991 affected about a million people, half of whom
were from the province of Pampanga. A quarter of a million people remained displaced 1 week after
the first major blasts, of whom about 3 percent were in formally organized evacuation camps
(Department of Social Welfare and Development, unpub. disaster monitoring report, September 28,
1991). Tens of thousands of central Luzon residents fled to Metro Manila, and about 30,000 of these
took refuge in the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City. Though generally harmless in areas far from
Mount Pinatubo, wet ash fall from 5 to 50 cm deep caused 189 deaths in areas near the volcano when
roofs collapsed under its weight (Magboo and others, 1992; Spence and others, this volume). Ash fall

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also damaged public structures that housed social services. Ninety-eight hospitals and health centers,
18 public markets, 13 municipal buildings, and 70 other government buildings were destroyed
(Department of Public Works and Highways, 1992a).

While relocation might look to some people as a tempting way out of the dire landscape in the
Pinatubo aftermath, it also posed a real danger of obliterating the Kapampangan identity from the
face of the Earth.

The Kapampangan, including the Fernandi no, has the ability to adapt quickly as easily to wherever
fate might lead him to. That is both advantage and a disadvantage. If the Kapampangan were to
abandon his lahar-threatened hometown and establish new roots elsewhere, the possibility is high that
once he gets comfortable in his new location he will eventually get assimilated and unlearn the
Kapampangan ways. The threat of the Kapampangan getting dispersed, divided, and diluted into
their new surroundings was real.

So in the Pinatubo aftermath we just had to save the savable. The suggestion that the people of
Pampanga be relocated while nature took its course simply was not acceptable. The people of San
Fernando did not waste time in rejecting the idea. Having resolved that, one of the first we did in San
Fernando to shore up the town's defenses against further damage from lahar and floods resulting from
the changed landscape not to mention occasional Pinatubo eruptions that were of smaller magnitude
compared to June 12 spectacle-was to close ranks and organize ourselves. At first there was hesitation
from some of the prominent members of the community, but eventually there formed a unity of thinking
to save our town from the seasonal lahar flows. Soon was born the Save San Fernando Movement, or
SSFM, which had in its ranks leaders of the local business sector. The move gave birth to the SSFM.

First on the SSFM agenda was attending to immediate needs of the victims of lahar and floods for
decent resettlement and livelihood opportunities in their new locations. By working together to provide
these things or looking for individuals and organizations willing to lend a hand, SSFM was able to give
Pinatubo victims in San Fernando, including those who fled to the town which still had a thriving
economy, a pathway for their eventual return to normalcy.

Save San Fernando Movement may have made an impression on other towns in Pampanga. Similar
organizations subsequently sprouted around the province. This led to the logical formation of the
province-wide Save Pampanga Movement, or SPM. Among the tasks the SPM adopted was to
harmonize and monitor efforts to fight lahar, raise funds, and lobby for stronger structures.

A defense structure against lahar flows, the St Ferdinand Dike, that the SSEM initiated with modest
financing eventually got a boost with a donation of P2 million from SPM. The St. Ferdinand Dike, which
later attracted contributions totaling P16 million from various sectors, became a focal point of a
cooperative undertaking to save San Fernando. Even school children learned to sacrifice a portion of
their allowances-that's as low as five centavos, or ten centavos-in favor of the tail dike.

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Two million of the Countrywide Development Fund that was

budgeted to my office then as a member of the House of
the Representatives. Later, President Fidel V. Ramos,
apparently touched by the community spirit and
magnanimity of the people of San Fernando and of the
Mega members of SPM, extended a P50 million financing for
St. Ferdinand Dike. That was later boosted by another P75
million from the National Government. Another interesting
project initiated and financed by the SSFM was the desilting
of rivers and smaller water ways around the town. The
objective was to keep the water flowing and prevent the
waterways from becoming catch basins for mud and lahar flows. The desilting project had such an
impact that the flow of waterways in such towns as Masantol, Macabebe. Minalin, Sto Tomas, and
Mexico eased up, preventing their rivers from overflowing, President Ramos must have been
encouraged by these initiatives by SSFM and SPM and the people of Pampanga in general, that he
eventually signaled the go-ahead for the construction of a major infrastructure that would act as a
protective dike to prevent lahar flows from reaching low-lying areas of the province. The structure later
came to be known as the FVR Megadike which stretched from Porac, Sta. Rita, Guagua, Bacolor and
San Fernando. A community that was on the verge of extinction by natural calamity and government
fiat was thus saved.

A NEW CITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES IS BORN

With stability restored, San Fernando became attractive again to businesses and to individuals and
families looking for a safe and peaceful place of abode away from the cacophony of Metro Manila.
In five years until the year 2000, the population of San Fernando increased by fifteen percent to more
than 221,800 people with a literacy rate of 98.79%.

The town's economy, which was nearly ruined by the Pinatubo eruption, became livelier as more
industries and commercial establishments were added to the list topped by the long-established
Pampanga Sugar Development Company. The labor force in 1995 stood at some 65,000 individuals.

Just before the Pinatubo eruption, San Fernando was already being recognized as a progressive town
with an economy second only to Cebu. And although the average family income in San Fernando
was only around half of that in Metro Manila, it was already estimated at around P 135, 000.00. In 1996,
the annual revenue of San Fernando reached P 130 million, a big increase from about P 53 million 1993.

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As early as 1996, there were already

suggestions that San Fernando's status be
elevated from a municipality into a city.
More and more Fernandinos felt that not
only had San Fernando met all the
criteria to became a city, it could also
have a better chance of growing the
local economy and opening more
livelihood opportunities for its residents if it
was a city.

When the Sangguniang Bayan passed a

resolution on January 8, 1997 calling for
an initiative in congress for cityhood for
San Fernando, it still surprised some sectors of the community. For one, former Mayor Virgilio “Baby”
Sanchez felt that such move was premature and actively opposed it. He gave two reasons for his
opposition: there was no public hearing conducted by the municipal council before it passed the
cityhood resolution and the town had just been ravaged by lahar and the task of rehabilitating the
affected barangays needed undivided attention and financing from local government.

Still, cityhood beckoned. After all, more than half of the world's population now live in cities attracted
not just by the lights and the flurry of activity but also by the higher job openings, educational institution,
health facilities and avenues for arts and cultural pursuits.

Cities may also be identified with squalor and noise but the prospect of living in more active
neighborhoods makes living in them still worth it. In the case of San Fernando, cityhood offers the
potential for a much faster local government response to the community's needs and therefore a
better chance of growing the local economy to make it more capable of raising the residents'
standards of living.

“When the Sangguniang Bayan resolution was presented to me as the member of the House of
Representatives representing the Third District of Pampanga which includes San Fernando, I promptly
filed a corresponding bill. On April 27, 1997 I filed House Bill No. 9267 proposing the creation of the City
of San Fernando. The proposal was later re-filed as House Bill No. 1397. In that bill, I submitted the
following argument for the conversion of San Fernando into a city.”
– Hon. Congressman Oscar S. Rodriguez.

"The conversion of the Municipality of San Fernando in Pampanga into a component city has long
been overdue. Being the capital town of the province and the regional center of Central Luzon, the
Municipality of San Fernando has developed into a highly urbanized metropolis.

"As of September 1995, San Fernando has a population of 1,933,025 with 35,982 households. Literacy
rate is at 98.79% and the labor force is estimated at 665,000. The home of giant lanterns, the town
radiates with its technically skilled people and professionals.

“Despite threats of lahar devastation since Mt. Pinatubo's eruption in 1991, the municipality has
remained a bustling economic growth center with its average annual income of P62,434,937.77 which
substantially exceeds the minimum income requirement of P20,000,000.00 provided for in Section 450
of Republic Act No. 7160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991.

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"Maintaining P55 billion worth of investments, coupled with the strategic linkage to the Manila-Clark-
Subic Economic Triangle (MCSET), the municipality of San Fernando's conversion into a component
city is very significant sustaining national economic growth and progress."

The corresponding bill in the Senate was filed four months earlier by then Senator Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo, who would later be swept to the presidency of the nation through a people power revolt
against then President Joseph Estrada who had been impeached by the House of Representatives.

After a series of thorough deliberations on the bill at the committee on Local Government or the House
of Representatives, the cityhood proposal was finally approved by the committe on December 9, 1998.
This was followed by a public hearing in San Fernando where a majority of the committee members
heard and queried a large number of local sectoral leaders and representatives about their true
sentiments on cityhood for San Fernando. There was a resounding expression of support for the bil,
even it some apprehensions were also aired by a few.

On December 4, 2000, the final version of the cityhood

bill was signed by House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella,
with the version at the Senate signed on December 13,
2000 by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. The signing
paved the way for referendum on the legislative
measure, which was held on February 3, 2001.

The City of San Fernando, Pampanga, was officially

created on February 4, 2001 by virtue of Republic Act No.
8990.

The significant gains over a broad spectrum of activities

achieved by the City of San Fernando since its
conversion from a municipality has demonstrated the community's capability to attain high goals.

With its population having grown to 285,912 residents (as of the latest official census in 2010), more
businesses have been attracted to set up shop in the city. Today the City of San Fernando is home to
large shopping malls and supermarkets, such as SM City Pampanga, SM City San Fernando Downtown,
Robinsons Mall, Walter Mart, PureGold and SNR Membership shopping.

San Fernando remains as an important sugar-producing area, on account of the major sugar
producing plant in the region, PASUDECO, being located here. There are also other manufacturing
companies in the city such as Universal Robina Corporation, Zuellig Pharma Corporation, Nestle
Philippines, Petrophil, Mondragon Industries, Asia Brewery, and Del Monte Corporation. And major
bottling companies such as San Miguel Corporatio, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Cosmos and Metro
bottling are located in the city.

The City of San Fernando is a first class component city and it is the capital of Pampanga. It is also the
regional center of Central Luzon as it is located 67 kilometers north of Metro Manila and fifty kilometers
east of Subic Bay Zambales. It is well known not only in the country but also in some parts of the world
as the Christmas Capital of the Philippines for its giant lanterns.

In view of all of these, highlighted by its increasing population and its potential for economic growth
and development, it is now time for the City of San Fernando to have its own representative in the halls
of Congress.

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EVALUATION: 75 points

Congratulations!

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