Philippine Villas

POMP, PAGEANTRY AND GOLD:THE EIGHT SPANISH VILLAS IN THE PHILIPPINES (1565-1887)

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PQCS 33 (2005): 57-75
Dr. Luciano P.R. Santiago

A villa is a Spanish territorial classification as well as an institution. It is little known in the Philippines, even among historians, because it was sparsely granted in these parts during the Colonial Period. Though small in number, the villas were huge in significance as the centers for regional consolidation as well as, when linked together, the general dissemination of Spanish rule, commerce and culture in the archipelago. In current works, the term is usually, but inaccurately, translated as “village.” However, its closest English equivalent is “borough” (as in Marlborough).i In this article, we shall retain the Spanish word villa.

In the more than three centuries of Spanish domination in the Islands, only eight settlements or towns were raised into the status of a villa - one each in five major ethno- linguistic regions (Cebú, Bicol, Ilocos, Panay and Pampanga) and in three Tagalog provinces (Laguna, Tayabas [now Quezón] and Batangas). Thus, the eight Philippine villas were Cebú (founded 1565), Libón, Albay (1573), Vigan (1574), Arévalo, Iloilo (1581), Pila, Laguna (c1610), Tayabas, Tayabas (1703), Bacolor, Pampanga (1765) and lastly, Lipá, Batangas (1887).

Title and Privilege

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A Spanish villa is an honorary title, which carries with it certain privileges. The appellation comes with a coat of arms, a standard part of which originally depicted a territory fortified with a wall. In the 19th century, this medieval feature was discarded. In all his decrees, the king formally addressed the cities and the villas collectively as major divisions of the empire – “where the sun does not set.” ii

The villa is midway in importance and population between a city and a town. The first villas in Spain were organized in part to attract more residents to a selected place from the surrounding as well as distant areas. Like a city, they were entitled to an ayuntamiento or autonomous council though a city council is addressed as “Excelentísimo” (Most Excellent) whereas that of a villa, merely as “Ilustre” or “Muy Ilustre” (Very illustrious). In the Philippines, this privilege was dispensed with evidently due to financial constraints in the colony. In secular and religious functions, the villa’s representatives occupy a place of honor, which is towards the end of the line in parades and processions. iii

Villa and City

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A villa may also be declared a city or vice versa in special cases. The premier villa in the old Spanish Empire was “La Real Corte y Muy Heróica Villa de Madrid (The Royal Court and Very Heroic Villa of Madrid), the capital city. Madrid is likewise known as “La Villa del Oso y del Madroño” (Villa of the Bear and the Strawberry tree) referring to the animal and plant which used to abound at the ancient site - the images depicted in its coat of arms.iv

In the Philippines, the cities of Cebú and Vigan were also among the first villas. Together with Manila, Cebú and Iloilo (to which Villa de Arévalo was later incorporated) emerged as the three major urban centers in the Philippines propelled by world trade in the 19th century.

As in the case of Madrid, a villa may be conferred a distinctive appellation. It seemed that the Spanish enthusiasm for titles was imparted early to the Filipinos. Of the eight villas, half were given an honorific: “La Villa Fernandina” (Vigan), “La Villa Rica de Arévalo,” “La Noble Villa de Pila” and “La Muy Noble Villa de Tayabas.”

In the ecclesiastical realm, five Philippine villas, or a former part of them, became the seat of dioceses - two during the Spanish Period and three in the 20th century: Cebú (1595, elevated to archdiocese in 1934), Vigan or Nueva Segovia (1595, transferred from Cagayán to Vigan in 1758, archdiocese in 1951), Lipá (1910, archdiocese in 1972), San Fernando, Pampanga, originally a part of Bacolor (1948, archdiocese in 1975) and Lucena, formerly a barrio of Tayabas (1950). v

Méritos y Servicios

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As in Spain, the first five villas in the Philippines in the 16th and early 17th centuries, Cebú, Libón, Vigan, Arévalo and Pila were apparently selected because of two common denominators. They possessed extensive territory, influence and population at the time of the Conquest and they exhibited “méritos y servicios,” which in the colony consisted mainly in extending hospitality to the conquistadors, for whom the villa would be erected. The singular grant of a villa became an integral part of the process of coloniza-tion, which fostered the policy of attraction and recompense for cooperation with the Spaniards. The gentility and nobility of customs and traditions of the inhabitants of a locality, which further reflected its eminence and influence, enhanced its chances of being singled out as a villa.

The conquistadors allowed some degree of initial resistance, which was inevitable. But probably due to its fierce hostility towards the white men, Sulayman’s Maynila was bypassed as a villa. On the other hand, the neglect was compensated for with the elegant title “Insigne y Siempre Leal Ciudad de Manila” (“The Distinguished and Ever Loyal City of Manila”).

The Lure of Gold

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All the first six villas presided over bustling harbors in their territories. Connecting the dots that marked the villas in the colonial map of Luzon, the major island of the Philippines, it is no coincidence that one can also make out the “gold routes” of Northern and Southern Luzon, respectively: from the Igorot gold mines to Vigan (to Pangasinán) to Pampanga and thence to Manila; and from the Paracale gold fields to Libón to Tayabas to Pila and again to Manila.vi The Bikol gold path further coursed down South to foster and infuse the inter-island and Chinese trade in the Visayas dominated by Cebú and Panay, where Arévalo was sighted.

Hernán Cortés, the Conqueror of México, confessed: “I and my men are afflicted with a heart disease which only gold can heal.” Reflecting the Spanish lust for gold, the choice of the Philippine villas was connected to the precious trails and ports, which had been laid out by the Filipinos long before the Conquest. These had formed a solid basis for the villas’ sphere of influence and for good measure, it added to their drawing power. The Philippine villas were the geese that laid the golden eggs. The Franciscans were selected to administer spiritually the pioneer villas in Luzon because they seemed the most disinterested in worldly matters due to their strict vow of poverty. They were the only religious order, which from the outset renounced the ownership of haciendas in the Philippines.vii

Center and Periphery

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In the colonies, the Villa de Españoles, as the name implied, was primarily designated as a settlement for the Spanish pioneers.viii However, in the Philippines, Spain’s “farthest” colony, there were never large numbers of Spanish settlers at any one time. Thus, a Spanish villa in the Islands could not be conserved as such indefinitely. This was probably one of the reasons why in the first place there were only a few villas in the archipelago.

The titles “Noble” and “Muy Noble” given to Pila and Tayabas, respectively, indicated the fact that the villas, as juridical persons, were elevated to the nobility. In fact, as a distinct class, the Spaniards and their mestizo offspring as well as all their descend-ants in the direct male line, for whom the villas were organized, enjoyed the exemptions of the nobility from paying tributes and performing forced labor and personal services (tributos, polos y servicios). The Indios in the villas were not likewise exempted except, as in other towns, the members of the principalía who occupied incumbent positions in the local government including their primógenito or eldest son or male heir. ix In the late 18th to the 19th centuries, the last two villas, Bacolor (1765) and Lipá (1887) were no longer created with Spanish residents in the monarch’s mind.

Hence, in the beginning, the salient rationale for creating villas in strategic regions in the colony was to draw, like a magnet, early Spanish settlers and their descendants to a place of prestige, wealth and security, protected as it was by a detachment of Spanish and Filipino troops. As a Spanish enclave, the villa was initially “walled in,” physically or at least symbolically, either in concrete or with a palisade of wood, from the rest of the town that bore its name (as depicted in its original coat of arms). It paralleled the demarcation of the walled city of Manila (Intramuros) from its suburbs “outside the walls” (Extramuros) that comprised the greater province of Manila.

However, it appeared that in distant Philippine villas, in contrast to the walled city, the maguinoó or chiefly class retained the right to remain in the center together with the Spanish settlers since they were the original lords of the realm whose support was vital for the security and stability of the villa. In the church-plaza-town hall complex, bajo la campana (under the range of the sound of the bell), the Spaniards still occupied the prime spaces in-between with the principalía not far behind and the common people at the periphery. This was evidently the origin of the Tagalog terms taga-gitná (residents at the center) and taga-tabí (residents at the outskirts), which still endure to this day in former villas and old pueblos like Pila and Tayabas.

The Spaniards of the villa eventually intermarried with the local nobility, presumably “improving” the native stock with the so-called “hybrid vigor” and eventually breaking down the barrier between the villa proper and the town. The principalía, in turn, basked in the reflected glory of their place, which seemed to shine more brightly than an ordinary town. A villa evolved from a Spanish enclave to a “super-pueblo,” or the elite among towns, as it was ultimately regarded, harking back to its pre-hispanic status.

From the mid-18th to the 19th centuries, the Group of Chinese Mestizos (Gremio de Mestizos de Sangley), likewise manifesting its own “hybrid vigor,” loomed as the new commercial elite in half of the villas: Bacolor and all the three city-villas of Cebú, Vigan and Arévalo (as a part of Iloilo). Their district, called Parián, became the economic powerhouse of the salient centers. In contrast, the Chinese mestizos barely gained a foothold on the Bikol villa of Libón and the three Tagalog villas of Pila, Tayabas and Lipá. Stemming from the divide and conquer policy of the colonialists, and taxed twice the rate for the naturales (and half that for the Chinos), the wealthy mestizos nevertheless preferred to view this official measure more as a sign of social prestige than of oppression. From their ranks in the villa-cities of Cebú and Vigan rose two presidents of the Philippines in the 20th century: Sergio Osmeña (1944-46) and Elpidio Quirino (1948-53), respectively. x

Chronicles and Memories

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The title of villa was initially conferred by an appreciative governor-general but, as in nearly all colonial grants, royal confirmation was necessary and was, in turn, almost invariably given by the king. The first Philippine villa, Cebú, was founded by the first Spanish Governor-General, Don Miguel López de Legazpi and the next two, Libón and Vigan, by his grandson, Don Juán de Salcedo, in the name, respectively of Legazpi and his successor, Don Guido de Labezares. Salcedo was also the discoverer of the nearby gold mines of Paracale and the Igorots, the two richest in the archipelago, clearly linking the Philippine villas with gold.xi

The first four villas in the 16th century, Cebú, Libón, Vigan and Arévalo were permanently recorded in the annals of the Conquest. The next two, Pila in the early 17th and Tayabas in the early 18th century, have almost lost the memory of their unique status save for the fact that this was first inscribed in the title page of a book published at the time in their respective printing presses run by the Franciscan friars. Only the original royal orders of conferment to the last two villas, Bacolor and Lipá, are still extant in the Spanish archives but neither of the two at present possesses a copy of it. The decree on Lipá, together with the grant describing its coat of arms was published in the official newspaper, Gaceta de Manila in 1887.

With the transition to the American Regime in the 20th century, the Philippine villas lapsed into history totally shedding their official significance.

The capsule histories of the eight Spanish villas and two aspirant towns in the Philippines follow.

1. La Villa del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús de Cebú (1565): The First Villa

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The Adelantado Don Miguel López de Legazpi, inaugurated the first “Villa de Españoles” in the Islands in Cebú on May 8, 1565. It was the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel, his patron saint. Hence, he named the place La Villa de San Miguel. To guard it, he built the triangular walls of Fort San Pedro, which still stands today. Six years later, on New Year’s Day 1571, the governor changed the name of the first Spanish settlement to La Villa del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús (The Villa of the Most Holy Name of Jesus) in commemoration of the discovery of the image of the Child Jesus in the center. The statue had been gifted by Magellan to the queen of Cebú in 1521. It was worshipped in the meantime as an idol by the natives. In the same year, Legazpi further raised Cebú as the first Spanish city in the Philippines as well as its first capital. Both Magellan and Legazpi had been warmly welcomed by the chiefs of Cebú, then already a flourishing trade center in Asia, conspicuously bartering in gold. Sugbó, its ancient name, means “to wade ashore” - the way travelers and traders had to approach the island from their sea vessels moored farther away in shallow waters. xii

2. La Villa de Santiago de Libón (1573)

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The Adelantado’s grandson, Don Juán de Salcedo, as cited above, erected the next two villas in the gold paths North and South of the vast Luzon Island. When he learned about the fabled gold mines of Paracale from the natives of Laguna province in 1571, Salcedo lost no time in exploring the Bicol region in quest of the precious metal. But the locals strongly resisted his incursions to their territory. More determined than ever, he returned to the region in 1573. On the Feast of Santiago, the patron saint of Spain, he encountered on the banks of Bato Lake a prosperous kingdom known as Libong in the future province of Camarines where Paracale is located. Libong translates as “intricate” or “complex” apparently referring to its degree of social development. It eventually received Salcedo peacefully. Here he established the first Spanish settlement in Bicol with a stronghold of 80 soldiers and named it La Villa de Santiago de Libón. An imposing church made of bricks was built in the center. Libón was transferred to the jurisdiction of Albay in 1846. xiii

The original wealth and radius of influence of the place are reflected in its legend of the “golden bell.” During a Moro raid, the people hurriedly submerged the coveted bell in the Quimba River. When the marauders left, the bell was nowhere to be found and it was assumed that, for her own delectation, the river goddess had carted it to the underworld. However, in times of danger to the villa, the dutiful though greedy goddess would still peal the sonorous instrument to alert the people well ahead of time. Only with partial success did the Spaniards seek to replace the legend of the goddess with the cult of Santiago Matamoros (St. James, the bane of the Moors). xiv

3. La Villa Fernandina de Vigan (1574)

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“The Conqueror of Northern Luzón,” Don Juán de Salcedo likewise founded La Villa Fernandina in Vigan on the authority of Governor Labezares. Its indigenous name, Biga, refers to a plant (Alocasia macrorrhiza) with large heart-shaped leaves and edible stem. At once building a wooden palisade around the villa that led to the Igorot gold route, Salcedo named it for Prince Ferdinand, eldest son of Philip II. Surprisingly, the “war-like” though industrious Viguenses had taken kindly to the young conquistador. Ominously, Prince Ferdinand died in 1575 at the age of four and the following year, the 27 year-old Salcedo followed him to the next life. Suffering from a malignant fever reportedly after drinking impure water, he was nursed with gentle care by certain inhabitants of the villa but in vain. Before he died, Salcedo, in gratitude, had named them his heirs. But his estate had whittled down due to insufficient management. xv

At various times in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Pampango farmers and Ilocano and Pangasinense soldiers were deployed for the exploration of the Igorot mines but without much success. Probably as a result of this, Villa Fernandina was bypassed by the Spaniards in the 17th century in favor of Lal-lo, Cagayan where the seat of the Northern diocese of Nueva Segovia was established. It was Bishop Juán de la Fuente Yépez (1753-57) who officially shifted the center of the see to Vigan and petitioned the king to confirm the move. On September 7, 1758, the monarch obliged in a royal decree and moreover, declared Vigan a city.xvi As cited earlier, it was one of the only two Philippine villas, which also became a city, the other being Cebú.

Thereafter, several Spanish families settled in Vigan. The most prominent among them were the Burgoses who produced Padre José Apolonio Burgos, a luminous leader of the diocesan clergy. Their ancestral mansion still stands in the city center. No sooner had he earned two doctorates in the ecclesiastical sciences at the University of Santo Tomás in Manila than he was cut down for alleged complicity in the Cavite Mutiny of 1872. Not the Spaniards, however, but the Chinese mestizos with their entrepreneurial spirit hastened the economic growth of Vigan starting in the late 18th century. xvii

4. La Villa Rica de Arévalo (1581)

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The fourth governor- general, Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa arrived in Manila in 1580. The following year, while consolidating Spanish rule in Panay Island, he was seized with nostalgia for Arévalo, his birthplace in Old Castille, when he gazed upon the verdant plains and glistening shore near Otón in Iloilo. He named the promising place La Villa Rica de Arévalo (The Rich Villa of Arévalo) and declared it the capital of the province in 1582. Initially, it numbered several encomenderos as residents and a sturdy church and convent were built in honor of St. Anne, the Mother of the Mother of God. Its first parish priest, Padre Diego Vásquez de Mercado, rose to become the fourth archbishop of Manila (1610-16). xviii

Despite its auspicious beginnings, the place did not live up to the founder’s lofty expectations for it proved to be vulnerable to massive Muslim and Dutch attacks. It was virtually abandoned in favor of the adjacent Port of Iloilo, when the latter was fortified in 1616. As Iloilo continued to prosper, the villa went down in the colonial world. The former took over as the provincial capital in 1688 and Arévalo was absorbed by Otón town. In 1827, it became an independent municipality lasting as such till the end of the Spanish Regime. In the 20th century, it was incorporated to the modern City of Iloilo. xix

5. La Noble Villa de Pila (c1610)

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Even before the Spaniards arrived, Pila (an ancient Tagalog word meaning “soft stone”) was a religious, cultural and commercial center in the region surrounding the great lake, which came to be known as Laguna de Bay. The oldest written record in the
Philippines, a copper plate dating to 900 AD and found in nearby Lumbang, mentions the town and leaders of “Pailah” twice and “Puliran.” These possibly refer to Pila and Pulilan, respectively, the latter being the old name of the western portion of the lake near where Pila lies. According to oral traditions, from the center in Pinagbayanan and later in Pagalangan, the datu of Pila ruled over one of the biggest territories in the region, which extended as far as Talim Island, Tanay, and other lakeshore towns. The name of the chief was Gat Salyán Maguinto. His patronymic, which means “laden with gold,” alluded to the robust gold trade he presided over. Early elite Pileñas bore such names as Dalisay (pure gold) and Hilapo (high grade gold) appended to their Christian names. xx

The Franciscan chronicler, Plasencia (1589) further gathered that another datu of Pila, “with his own gold” purchased the new site in Pagalangan from another chief who had owned it and who thus moved to another place. The datu then farmed out the arable land among the nobles and the freemen who, in return, paid him an annual rent of a hundred gantas of rice. It was the only documented example of a pre-hispanic private estate (the equivalent of a Spanish hacienda) in the Philippines as distinguished from the communal lands. xxi

Unlike the adjacent town of Baé, Pila gave only minor resistance to the conquistadors in 1571 since there were no nearby hills for the people to retreat to. It was during the conquest of the province of Laguna that Salcedo first heard of the gold fields of Paracale farther South. When the Franciscans arrived in 1578, they took over the christianization of the town from the Augustinians. Pila, together with Lumbán, became the center from which radiated the Franciscans in their evangelization work in the provinces of Laguna and Tayabas. They first built a church of hardwood and bamboo dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. It took 18 years—from 1599 to 1617—for the stone edifices of the church and convent to be completed. The encomienda of Pila was so big that it had to be shared by two conquistadors, Andrade and Peñalosa. They built not one but two convents for the Franciscans indicating the large sums they had collected from the residents. xxii

Due to its wide influence, Pila was conferred the special title La Noble Villa in around 1610. It was the only Philippine villa erected in the 17th century. The Franciscans established in it the second printing press in the Philippines in 1611. The first Spanish-Tagalog dictionary, Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala was printed in Pila in 1613. (It was 25 years older than the first book published in the United States in 1638.) The title page of this work contains the earliest reference to “La Noble Villa de Pila.” It is not known exactly when the villa was erected. The local pastor, Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura, OFM, compiled the dictionary to facilitate the evangelization of the region where the language of Pila was regarded as one of the purest forms of Tagalog. Another authoritative dictionary of the language was put together also in Pila by Fray Francisco de San Antonio, OFM in the 1620s. xxiii

The Franciscans transfered their infirmary from Lumbang to the new villa in 1618. It remained there until 1673 whence it moved to Sta. Cruz, Laguna. During this period, a long list of intrepid missionaries retired and died there and were buried in the local cemetery. Archbishop Fernando Montero de Espinosa of Manila, newly arrived from México, expired in the infirmary in 1644. xxiv

Distinguished Spanish families in the walled city likewise settled in the villa and included the Thenorios, del Rios, Sarmientos, de Silvas, Caviedeses and Robleses. In the late 17th to the 18th centuries, they intermarried with the local nobility the most prominent of which were the Riveras, owners of the Hacienda de Sta. Clara. The estate appeared to be part of the pre-hispanic “hacienda” cited earlier. At the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the town center at Pagalangan had to be abandoned due to severe perennial flooding from Laguna de Bay. Not without opposition, the villa moved to Hacienda de Sta. Clara. Don Felizardo de Rivera (1755–1810), the eldest of the three brothers who owned the hacienda, drew up the gridiron plans for the new site based on the classical Spanish system of church-plaza-town hall complex. He is considered the founder of Nueva Pila. vi The town has been declared a National Historical Landmark (2000) and its church, the Diocesan Shrine of San Antonio de Padua (2002).

6. La Muy Noble Villa de Tayabas (1703)

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Tayabas came from the word bayabas , a sturdy fruit tree (Psidium guajava) whose medicinal properties are widely appreciated in the Philippines. Transplanted from México by the Spanish missionaries, it grew and spread like an indigenous plant in the archipelago. Affirming the preeminence of Tayabas town, the old province of Tayabas (now Quezón) was named for it. The first name and capital of the province was Calilaya (now Unisan). The capital was transferred to Tayabas town in 1620 when the Spaniards realized the cultural and commercial superiority of the town and its harbor (now Lucena City). From the land-locked Lucbán it had been separated in1605 and formed into an independent pueblo. The town’s wealth derived from its enormous stretches of rice fields, coconut plantations and trade with the gold-producing Bikol peninsula with which it was contiguous. Its customs, music and theater are recognized as some of the most vibrant in the region. xxvi

The Franciscans transferred here their printing press from 1702-1703. In the first year, the press of the town, still simply called Tayabas, printed a funeral oration in memory of King Charles II. In the second year, it published the Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by Fray Domingo de los Santos, OFM. This time, in contrast to the first book, the title page refers to “La Muy Noble Villa de Tayabas” as the printing site. Like Pila’s, the Tagalog of Tayabas was considered a pristine form of the language. xxvii

To live up to its high title, the villa left no stone unturned. The parish church (now a Minor Basilica), dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, has the distinction of presenting the longest nave in the Philippines, a land replete with distinctive churches. The villa also built three impressive ermitas (chapels) in its hallowed environs whose fringes are further studded here and there with quaint crosses. Unique in the Philippines, these crosses were chiseled by native carvers from huge volcanic rocks disgorged by Mount Banahaw through the centuries. The volcano’s crater also collapsed in 1743 and the torrent of water it unleashed demolished the old and ushered in the construction of the present church. All made of stone and limestone, the government offices included the casa real for the Spanish alcalde mayor (governor), the casa de comunidad, “which has no peer in the land,” for the local officials and the schoolhouse generously endowed and supported by community funds. xxviii

Naturally, almost all the Spaniards in the province gravitated to the fabled capital. No higher homage was given to Tayabas than when Don Enrique de Borbón, Duke of Sevilla, chose to serve as the provincial executive (1893-94) with residence in the “Very Noble Villa” – as proud and picturesque as any villa in Iberia at the twilight of the empire. xxix

7. La Villa de Bacolor (1765)

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Although the Spaniards captured the province of Pampanga in 1571, the town of Bacolor, according to tradition, was not organized by the conquistadors themselves but the task was delegated to its former datu Don Guillermo Manabat in 1576. The noble convert offered his land at the center of the high plains (the meaning of Baculud) as the site of the church. In gratitude, the Augustinian missionaries selected his patron saint, San Guillermo Hermitaño (William the Hermit) as the titular of the church and parish.xxx

Among the early Filipinos, the Kapampangans were the most receptive of the Spanish culture and so the Spaniards regarded them as “the Castilians of the Indios.” By 1608, the Augustinians valued Bacolor’s church and convent as second only in magnificence to those of Manila and Cebú. The chronicler Fray Juán de Medina, OSA, singled out Bacolor in 1630 as “the best village not only in Pampanga, but in all the Islands.” With Guagua, it shared the honor of being the center of Pampanga in the 17th century. It began to serve as the sole capital of the province in 1746 and nine years later, it was officially declared as such.xxxi

The climax of Bacolor’s colonial history occurred during the British Occupation of the Philippines (1762-64). The conflict was an offshoot of the Seven Years’ War in Europe between England and France with the latter’s ally Spain. Even before the war, in 1760, there were already forty Spaniards living in Bacolor. Knowing the proven loyalty of the Kapampangans as well as the Tagalogs of the surrounding provinces, the leader of the resistance, Don Simón de Anda, after proclaiming himself the captain general of the Philippines, transferred the capital of the colony from Manila to Bacolor during the entire strife. Both the Gremio de Naturales and the Gremio de Mestizos de Sangley received and supported him with characteristic hospitality and enthusiasm. Anda appointed a prominent Kapampangan Don Santos de los Ángeles as his aide-de-camp. Another Pampango brave, José Manalastás of Candaba joined the Filipino-Spanish assault on an English stronghold in Manila. With a dagger in his hand, he wounded and nearly seized the Commander General William Draper but for the surge of reinforcements in the nick of time. On the other side, the Chinese in Guagua, allied with the enemy, offered a serious threat to the local defenders. But they were promptly repulsed before they could wreak havoc on the populace. The war finally ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 but the news did not reach Manila until May 31, 1764 whereupon the invaders withdrew.xxxii

It was fitting and proper that with the return of peace, the “enlightened monarch” Charles III of Spain (1759-88) raised Bacolor into the noble level of a villa by his decree of November 9, 1765. The honor came with a coat of arms bearing the motto Pluribus Unum Non Plus Ultra. The villa remained the prestigious capital of Pampanga up to the close of the Spanish Regime. It is noted that, for a relatively small place, Bacolor towers over others for having “produced more illustrious Filipinos than any other town or city in the country.” Sadly, the heroic town was nearly obliterated in the wake of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 – except for the upper part of the venerable church of San Guillermo de Bacolor. xxxiii

8. La Villa de Lipá (1887): The Last Villa

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Brown was the color of gold in Lipá. Like Tayabas, Lipá was a relatively “late bloomer” of a town. It became a parish of the Augustinians in 1605. Its name refers to a vigorous tree (Dendrocnide sp.) worthy of its patron St. Sebastian who was pierced with arrows while tied to a great tree. The eruption of Taal volcano in 1754 entombed the heart of the town, which had to be transplanted to its present higher site. The new church of San Sebastián was finished only in 1790.xxxiv

Though indigenous to the Philippines, coffee was largely ignored by the early Filipinos. Its planting was introduced in Lipa by the Filipino-Spanish botanist, Fray Ignacio Mercado, OSA in 1674. But it was Don Galo de los Reyes, a prescient mayor of the pueblo for four terms (between 1808 and 1825), who spearheaded the widespread cultivation of the precious commodity. It provided the golden key that unlocked the gate of commercial success for the town unparalleled in the province and perhaps, even in the entire colony. Lipá emerged as the world’s prime supplier of coffee beans. In 1887 alone, it harvested 70,000 picos of the brown gold. Lipá’s fame was announced with flourish of trumpets in the Philippine General Exposition in Madrid in the summer of the same year. In recognition of the town’s economic pre-eminence, the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of her son, the boy King Alfonso XIII, elevated Lipá into a noble villa on October 21, 1887 and regaled it with a coat of arms. This was made public in the Gaceta de Manila on December 21 in time for the holidays. The royal order stated that the title was conferred on Lipá “in consideration of the great advances that the town has made in a brief period of time and to reward the work and virtues of its residents.” A corollary decree described the coat of arms that the new villa was authorized to sport: “It will be divided into three quarters, two in the upper half and the third occupying the whole lower half. The left upper quarter will represent virtue over a silver field with the attributes of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. The right upper quarter will represent work with the emblems of the anvil, hammer, etc. over a red field. The lower half over a blue field will bear the symbol of hard work with the figure of a man resting on a plough, a bull lying down on the ground and a mother embracing two children while sitting under a coffee tree. Above the seal will be a royal crown, below which is the inscription: Virtue and work are for the towns the sources of happiness.” xxxv

With characteristic exuberance, the people of Lipá welcomed the news of the royal decree and the coat-of-arms with a cavalcade of floats featuring the coffee plant as a bountiful icon. Also paraded was a supporting cast of farming implements, a milling machine and handsome boxes for storing coffee beans. Upper crust Lipeños began to live a life of astounding luxury. They became the patrons of the arts as well as handicrafts of precious stones and metals reflecting the treasured coffee of Lipá. Scarcely two years after it was declared a villa, an army of hungry insects known as bagombong invaded the local plantations and demolished its coffee industry altogether - from which it never fully recovered. xxxvi

In 1910, Lipá became the seat of the diocese, now an archdiocese, of the same name. xxxvii

Epilogue. The Last Aspirants: Biñán and Santa Rosa (1898)

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The elevation of Lipá as a villa rekindled the fascination for villas of hispanophile members of the elite elsewhere. The last two aspirants for the honor were Biñán and Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

The Dominicans had carved out the Hacienda de Biñán in three phases in the town of Tabuco (now Cabuyao) from 1641 to 1677. Sta. Rosa, originally called Bukol or Burol (hill), formed part of the bigger hacienda, comprising more than half of its total area. Named for the great banyan tree, the friar lands of Biñán were allotted for the support and maintenance of the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomás. As a new pueblo, the coveted estate was separated from its matrix in 1688 with the reorganization of the province of Laguna. Four years later, on August 30, the feast of its patroness, Sta. Rosa also became an independent town but maintained its close ties with Biñán. The people of these haciendas viewed their religious landlords as usurpers of their communal lands. In their grievances, they even gained the support of the fiscal of the royal audiencia in the early 18th century. The simmering conflict broke out into the widespread Agrarian Revolt of 1745 in Central Luzón with Biñán as a major site of the unrest. But the friar estates continued to prevail. xxxviii

In the first phase of the Philippine Revolution in 1896-97, Biñán and Sta. Rosa together with Cabuyao and Calamba, hosted the Spanish counter-insurgency troops in stockpiling and transporting military and food supplies. They also organized provisional hospitals for the Spanish wounded in the battle against the Filipino revolutionaries in neighboring Cavite. The temporary Spanish victory led to the signing of the Peace Treaty of Biac-na-Bató on December 14, 1897. xxxix

By January 19, 1898, the provincial board of Laguna, supported by the head of the Dominican order, submitted a formal recommendation to the governor-general to reward the pueblos of Biñán and Sta. Rosa jointly with the lofty status of a villa with the title “siempre fiel y leal” (ever faithful and loyal). They obviously demonstrated these civic virtues to the colonial government. The Laguna council further cited the twin towns’ “agricultural, commercial and industrial importance” in the province. But too late the loyalists. The final act in the upheaval was soon set in motion. The Spanish-American War was declared in April 1898 and the following month, Aguinaldo rose up in arms again. The Spanish crown tumbled down into the tropical dust and ashes of the Second Phase of the Revolution. Under the circumstances, the application of Biñán and Sta. Rosa that had been duly noted was permanently shelved in the archives where it can still be found at present. xl

Endnotes

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i “Villa.” Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europeo-Americana (EUIEA). (Bilbao: Espasa-Calpe, 1929). 68: 1273.

ii Sinupang Pambansa (The National Archives) (SP). Cedularios (1758-1829) & (1797-1808). passim

iii Fernando González-Doria. Diccionario Heráldico y Nobiliario de los Reinos de España. (Madrid: Bitacora, 1994) pp. 338 & 343; EUIEA. 68: 1280-82; Félix de Huerta, OFM. Estado Geográfico, Topográfico, Estadístico, Histórico-Religioso de la Santa y Apostólica Provincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas. (Manila: Amigos del País, 1865). pp. 15-16. In the grand procession of the Franciscans (as described here) in honor of their martyrs in 1630 in the walled city, the delegates of La Villa de Pila were accorded the place of honor at the end of the solemn line just before the Venerable Orden Tercera.

iv SP. Cedularios. passim; EUIEA. 68: 1273.

v Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Phil. 1986 Catholic Directory of the Phil. (Manila: CBCP, 1986) pp. 150, 326, 336, 468 & 516,

vi Jaime F. Tiongson. “The Paracale Gold Route.” MS 2004. (Courtesy of the author); W. H. Scott. The Discovery of the Igorots. (QC: New Day, 1987) pp. 9-40.

vii Tiongson. “Paracale;” Simpson-Gómara. The Life of the Conqueror by his Secretary. (Berkeley, 1965). p. 58 quoted in Scott. The Igorots. p. 9; Lorenzo Pérez, OFM. Origen de las Misiones Franciscanas en el Extremo Oriente. (Madrid : OFM, 1916). pp. 15-16 & 128-129.

viii Jaime C. de Veyra. “Primera Villa de Españoles.” En JC de Veyra y Mariano Ponce. Efemérides Filipinas. (Manila: IR Morales, 1914) pp. 1-3; Martin J. Noone, SSC. The Discovery & Conquest of the Phils. 1521-81. (Manila: Historical Conservation Society, 1986) pp. 404-05, 420 & 434. Noone consistently but erroneously translated Villa de Españoles as the “Spanish town ” (in quotations) of Cebú, Libón & Vigan.

ix The natives of “La Noble Villa de Pila,” for example, were not exempted from tributos, polos y servicios. Luciano PR Santiago. "When a Town Has to Move: How Pila (Laguna) Transferred to its Present Site (1794-1811)." Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society. (PQCS) 11 (1983): 93-106; “The Roots of Pila: A Secular & Spiritual History of the Town (900-Present).” PQCS. 25 (1997): 125-155. SP. Padrones de los Vecindarios de los Pueblos. Gremio de Naturales & Gremio de Mestizos (Varios pueblos). Passim. Eliodoro G. Robles. The Phils. in the 19th Century. (QC: Malaya, 1969) pp. 72, n.33 & 257, n. 2.

x “Tribunal de Mestizos.” Guía Oficial de las Islas Filipinas para el año de 1894. (Manila). pp. 736-37; E. Wickberg. “The Chinese Mestizo in Phil. History.” Journal of SE Asian History. 5 (March 1964): 62-100.

xi Scott. The Igorots. pp. 9-11.

xii Gaspar de San Agustín, OSA. Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas. Ed. M. Merino, OSA. (Madrid: CSIC, 1975) pp. 45-50, 177-179, 191-192 & 327-328; Noone. Discovery & Conquest. pp. 75, 322-25 & 404-05; de Veyra. “Primera Villa.” pp. 1-3.

xiii San Agustín. Conquistas. p. 398; Scott. The Igorots. p. 9;Noone. Discovery & Conquest. pp. 411-12 & 420; Félix de Huerta, OFM. Estado.

pp. 258-259.

xiv Damiana L. Eugenio. The Legends. Phil. Folk Literature. Vol. 3. (QC: UP office of Research Coordination, 1996) pp. 448-449.

xv San Agustín. Conquistas. pp. 401-403 & 462-3; Noone. Discovery & Conquest. pp. 417, 434 & 442; Emma Blair & James Robertson. The Phil. Islands 1493-1898. (Cleveland: Clark, 1903-09). 3: 73 & 276; 15: 51 & 34: 382.

xvi Scott. The Igorots. pp. 9-40; Luciano PR Santiago. “The Death of Bishop Juán de la Fuente Yépez: Binmaley, 1757.” Ilocos Review. 18 (1986): 128-133; LPRS. “Doctor Don Juán de la Fuente Yépez, 14th Bishop of Nueva Segovia (1753-57).” Journal of the Immaculate Conception School of Theology (Vigan City). 7 (2005): 116-130; Pablo Fernández. History of the Church in the Phil. (Manila: National Book Store, 1979) p. 32; Ricardo Magdaleno. “Audiencia de Manila.” Títulos de Indias. (Valladolid: Archivo General de Simancas, 1954). Catálogo XX. p. 421.

xvii Luciano PR Santiago. "The Filipino Doctors of Ecclesiastical Sciences in the 19th Century (1801-71)." PQCS. 13 (1985): 34-50.

xviii “Chronological List of the Governors of the Philippines 1565-1899.” BR. 17: 285-312; San Agustín. Conquistas. pp. 376 & 545.

xix Ibid.; Rex S. Salvilla. A History of West Visayas. (Iloilo City: WVHRFI, 1998) 1: 28, 37 & 57.

xx San Buenaventura, OFM, Pedro de Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala (La Noble Villa de Pila: Impreso por Tomás Pinpin y Domingo Loag, 1613) pp. 482, 574, 686; San Antonio, OFM, Francisco de (Pila +1624). Vocabulario Tagalo. (QC: Pulong, ADMU, 2000) p. 208; Postma, Antoon. “The Laguna Copper-plate Inscription (LCI): A Valuable Document,” National Museum Papers 2 (1991):1-25; Rizal Province. A

Political History. (Pasig: Rizal Cultural Commn., 1967) pp. 4 & 324; Lee Vance. Tracing your Phil. Ancestors. (Provo, Utah: Stevenson, 1980) 2: 514-517.

xxi Tenazas, Rosa C.P. A Report on the Archeology of the Locsin-University of San Carlos Excavations in Pila, Laguna 1967-1968. (Manila, n.d.) pp. 16 & 20; Juán de Plasencia, OFM. "Customs of the Tagalogs: A Relation." (Nagcarlang, 1589) in BR. 7: 175.

xxii Huerta, OFM, Félix de. “Villa de Pila” in Estado Geográfico, Topográfico,Estadístico, Histórico-Religioso de la Santa y Apostólica Provincia de San GregorioMagno. (Manila: Amigos del País, 1865) p. 137; Scott. The Igorots. p. 9; BR. 5:89& 8:96-141.

xxiii San Buenaventura. Vocabulario; & San Antonio. Vocabulario.

xxiv Huerta. Estado p. 139; Gómez Platero, OFM, Eusebio. Catálogo Biográfico de los Religiosos Franciscanos de la Provincia de San GregorioMagno de Filipinas desde 1577. (Manila: Sto Tomás, 1880). passim; BR. 35:111, 289 & 317 & 37:162.

xxv Archives of the Shrine of San Antonio de Pila. Libros Canónicos de Bautismos (1729-88), Matrimonios (1752-1834) y Entierros (1755-1833) passim; Archives of the Rivera Family (Pila). “Manga Huling Habilin at Calooban” (1792, 1810, 1856, 1872, etc) Passim; SP. Erección de los Pueblos de la Provincia de la Laguna (1740-1846). legajo 48 (now tomos I y IV) passim.; LPR Santiago. "When a Town Has to Move;” “The Roots of Pila;” “Pila: The Noble Town.” Treasures of Pila. (Makati: Pila Historical Foundation & NCCA, 2003) pp. 16-20. It was in writing this series of articles on the history of Pila that this author became interested in the topic of villas.

xxvi Huerta. Estado Geográfico pp. 224-28; Gregorio Zaide. Catholicism in the Philippines. (Manila: UST, 1937) p. 74; Juán Álvarez Guerra. De Manila á Tayabas. (Manila: Miralles, 1878).

xxvii Lourdes Díaz-Trechuelo. Grabadores Filipinos del Siglo XVIII. (Sevilla: Esc. de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1962) p. 27, no. 52; Regalado T. José, Jr. Impreso (Makati: Fundación Santiago & Ayala Fdtn. 1993) pp. 94, no. 272 & 96, no. 279; Álvarez Guerra. De Manila.

xxviii Ibid; Manuel Buzeta y Felipe Bravo. Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico de las Islas Filipinas (Madrid: Peña, 1851) 2:448; Susi ng Tayabas. Alaala ’88. (Tayabas: Basilika Menor, 1989); J.G. Cayron & Grace Barretto. “A Preliminary Archaeological Survey in Tayabas, Quezón.” UP Archaeological Studies Program, 2003. MS (courtesy of the authors).

xxix Wenceslao Retana. Índice de Personas Nobles y Otras de Calidad que han estado en Filipinas desde 1521 hasta 1898. (Madrid: Suárez, 1921) p. 23.

xxx Robby Tantingco. “Bakulud/Bacolor. Jewel in the Crown.” Singsing. 2:2 (2003): 6-7 & 30.

xxxi Ibid.; Pedro Galende, OSA. Angels in Stone. (Manila: Formoso, 1987) p. 186; Lino Dizon. “Bacolor as the center of Phil. History 1762-64.” Singsing. 2:2 (2003): 27; San Agustín. Conquistas. pp. 490 & 626; Mariano Henson. The Province of Pampanga. (MS, 1955). p. 82.

xxxii Conrad Myrick. “Some aspects of the British Occupation of Manila.” In Gerald H. Anderson, ed. Studies in Phil. Church History. (Ithaca & London: Cornell, 1969) pp. 113-130; “Anda and the British Invasion.” BR 49: 132-37 & 148-49; Dizon. “Bacolor.” pp. 8 & 27-28.

xxxiii Ricardo Magdaleno. Títulos de Indias. (Valladolid: Archivo General de Simancas, 1954). Catálogo XX. Audiencia de Manila. p. 409 (184-154 & 184-155); Galende. Angels p. 185; Tantingco. “Bakulud/ Bacolor.” pp. 6-7. As the capital of Pampanga, Bacolor was officially replaced by San Fernando, originally a part of old Bacolor, in 1881 but this was not carried out.

xxxiv Galende. Angels pp. 92-93.

xxxv Ibid. p. 94; Pablo Fernández, OP. History of the Church in the Philippines (1521-1898). (Manila: National Book Store, 1978) p. 225; Manuel Sastrón. Batangas y su Provincia (Malabong: Asilo de Huérfanos, 1895) p. 162; Práxedes Villa. “Kapé: How Batangas Coffee Made a Mark in the World Market.” Batangas. Forged in Fire. (Makati: Ayala Fdtn., 2002). p.140; Gaceta de Manila. 21 Dic. de 1887. p. 805.

xxxvi The National Library. Gallery of Art and History. Catalog of Paintings, Sculptures and Historical Objects. (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1938) pp. 35-36; Sastrón. Batangas pp. 162-63; Práxedes Villa. “Kapé” p. 142.

xxxvii Diocese of Lipá. 50 Years 1910-1960. (Lipá: Diocese, 1960). n.p.

xxxviii Fernández. History of the Church p. 269; “Maikling Kasaysayan ng Bayan ng Sta. Rosa at Biñán.” Outstanding Lagunense Makiling Awards. (Sta. Cruz, Laguna: Cáritas, 1979) pp. 93 & 97; Nicholas P. Cushner. Landed Estates in the Colonial Philippines. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Southeast Asia Studies, 1976) pp. 58-59 & 67-70.

xxxix Gil G. Gotiangco, Jr. Laguna 1571-1902. The Making of a Revolutionary Milieu. QC: UP MA thesis, MSS 1980) pp 117-120; Teodoro M. Kalaw. Ang Himagsikang Pilipino. trans. V. Almario. (Manila: NHI, 1989) pp. 197-201.

xl Sinupang Pambansa. “Año de 1898. Expediente sobre que se conceda a los pueblos de Biñang y Sta. Rosa (Laguna) el título de Villa con los dictados de “Siempre fiel y leal.” Erección de Pueblos – Laguna. 1815-98. vol. 2, folios 410-439v; Kalaw. Himagsikan. p. 199.