The good news that is Erica

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

WHILE WE continue to reel from the series of bad news—disasters, heinous crimes, bombing of innocents, accidents, price increases, etc.—that have sprung on us as 2011 began to unfold, we have not been bereft of good news.

The case of Catherine Erica Buenaventura was a big ray of sunshine that came during these crazy weather days. And it was not just about her, it was about so many people that were part of the miracle that slowly unfolded. Women and men of science and medicine, people and institutions in the service of the sick and needy, individuals who quietly gave of themselves financially, bodily, unselfishly without thought of rewards, and parents and next of kin who, armed only with faith that God would deliver the near impossible, never gave up.

Here was a frail little girl, all of three years, who could just have been slowly decimated by a deadly ailment—end-stage liver disease—and could have been given up as near dead. Erica was also suffering from portal hypertension or an increase in blood pressure in a system of veins within the stomach intestine, spleen and pancreas. She had malnutrition and bleeding in the veins and around the esophagus, both complications related to portal hypertension.

When I received notice from The Medical City (TMC) about Erica’s case, I didn’t think twice and went to the press briefing. The venue was full of medical personnel in their white jackets. So many of them, I thought, just as many as the media people present. Dr. Alfredo Bengzon, chair and CEO of TMC, gave the opening statement.

Here was a first. The first pediatric liver transplant on a Filipino child to be performed in the Philippines. The first to be performed by an all-Filipino team of doctors.

Two simultaneous operations took place on Jan. 7. Erica’s diseased liver was removed entirely. A part of her 18-year-old uncle Jefferson Llantino’s liver was also removed, after which it was grafted to where Erica’s liver used to be. The entire procedure took almost 24 hours, from 7 a.m. of Jan. 7 to the early morning hours of Jan. 8.

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Wanted: website for ML victims-claimants

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

INQUIRER JAN. 15 banner headline: “$1,000 for Marcos victims.”

In the story: “A federal judge in Honolulu approved on Thursday the distribution of $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by thousands of victims of torture, execution and abduction under the Marcos regime. The distribution provides the victims their first opportunity to collect something since they sued in 1986. Each eligible member of the class-action lawsuit will receive $1,000 under the plan approved by US District Judge Manuel Real.”

And so two nights ago I pulled out from my steel drawer the thick folder on which I had written in big, thick letters in 1993: “PROOF OF CLAIM of MA. CERES P. DOYO, Journalist. Re Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos, Human Rights Litigation, MDL 840, CLASS ACTION.” Below it I had scrawled, “Mailed, July 19, 1993” and “9539 claimants.”

The folder was inside a clear plastic envelope with a missing zip lock. I couldn’t help thinking that had my house gone under the 2009 “Ondoy” flood, as many Metro Manila homes had, these documents would have become flotsam. I found them dry and intact but yellowed.

Inside were supporting documents (news clippings, publications) and my personal account on what I had gone through during the martial law years. Letters/notices from the law offices of Robert A. Swift and Rodrigo C. Domingo were also inside. I received the latest one last month.

My experiences were nothing compared to what thousands had suffered. Many of them, I was told, did not, could not, file a claim because to recall the torment and torture they had suffered was like reliving their suffering all over again. Nothing could compensate their loss and pain.

But why did I file? (So did the editor in chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.) It was to bolster the claims of 10,000 or 9,539 victims to be exact. The compensation I will receive, my journalist’s mite, will not go to my pocket.

And so as of today, it’s supposed to be just a breath away, the $1,000 or P44,000 for each of the 9,539 claimants (now reportedly reduced to 7,526) seeking compensation for the human rights abuses they suffered during the martial law years under Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The amount looks like a miserable pittance or “loose change” compared to the claimants’ claim against the Marcos estate that is in the billions of ill-gotten/hidden wealth. But no one is protesting, because: One, there should be more where it’s coming from and this amount is just the first tranche, so to speak. Two—and this is even more important—this is not about the money but a historic victory that would vindicate the human victims of an evil reign. But yes, the money is also important especially for those who are poor and infirm who have long waited for justice to come their way.

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An adventure with God in Mynmar

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

CAREER-WISE, everything was going roses for her: a series of job promotions, a hefty salary and a responsible position in a bank, great challenges to prove herself. There was no stopping her rise in the corporate world.

And then she made a sudden, radical shift to NGO work with all its challenges, lived a simpler lifestyle and made do with less money. Yet, she experienced much more joy. Going from corporate chic to a back-pack life, as she called it, the possibilities also seemed endless.

Carol Daria is a Catholic lay missionary who has been working among the youth in Myanmar for almost five years and with Fondacio-Asia, the spiritual community to which she belongs, for some 20 years. An accounting and industrial relations graduate, Carol continues to be amazed at the mysterious ways she had been led to where she is now.

Fondacio is an international Christian community, “a school of the Gospel, at the service of the world.” It has a status of “private association of the faithful” and is listed in the Vatican directory under new communities and movements.

Present in 20 countries, Fondacio gathers and animates people from different sectors of society – youth, students, professionals, poor, elderly, married couples and families. It is involved in works of evangelization, formation and development. (Visit www.fondacio-asia.org.)

This is how Carol describes her missionary work in Myanmar: “The mission that was entrusted to me is to help the Church form young people to become leaders at the service of the Church and society. Today, I am responsible for the formation program for the youth.”

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Black Nazarene, the morning after

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

O, POONG Hesus Nazareno…

It is now also a tourist attraction, this recent annual orgiastic, mesmerizing ritual that saw millions of devotees, males mostly, taking to the streets on their bare feet with only their salty towels to protect them from the sun and intermittent January rain. If you’re a tourist in search of exotica and a faith experience, this one was good enough if you can’t be at the true-to-life crucifixions in Pampanga during the Holy Week.

Christmas Day was just two weeks ago and New Year’s Day a week ago, and already the harbinger of dolorous but colorful Holy Week-bloody Jesus carrying his cross was out on the street. A great way to jolt many from their post-holiday stupor.

Until yesterday, several days after the Jan. 9 feast of the Black Nazarene, people continued to flock to Quiapo Church in Manila, the home of the venerated statue that, according to police reports, had some 7 million devotees showing up for the procession from the Quirino Grandstand (where the statue had been taken the day before) and back to the church of St. John the Baptist, also known as the minor basilica of the Black Nazarene. The procession lasted 17 hours. Not four or five, for that short distance. Indeed, the number of people and the procession hours have more than doubled over the years. And this was no longer a one-day but a three-day event culminating at midnight of Jan. 9.

The streets of Manila were once again filled with the odor of sweat and clogged with steaming bodies clad in crimson. Many fainted on the wayside, not a few clambered and walked on the sea of heads and hurled themselves on the carroza carrying the statue and found themselves tossed in the air like pizza dough. But all that waving, rubbing and throwing back and forth of white towels, all that fainting and moaning were part of the tableau, so to speak, as was the main attraction, the Black Nazarene, and its many doll-like clones borne in procession in the urban haze.

No deaths this year, only 700-plus injured and fallen ill. And mounds of garbage. But, most of all, renewed faith for millions.

Unlike in the past years, this time I did not see (on TV) streamers of the feast’s earthly patrons—department stores, hopia bakers, fast food joints, restaurants, drug stores, etc. But as usual, in the crowd were self-styled bearded messiahs crying in the urban wilderness, Jesus look-alikes wearing scarlet robes, faux long tresses and crowns of thorns. You cannot not have them.

I had watched this Quiapo spectacle up close only once, many years ago when I went with some photojournalists to shoot. The crowd then was not as frightening as what we’ve been seeing in the recent years. Quirino Grandstand was not in the itinerary then. For safety, we decided to perch on the high concrete island near Plaza Miranda. You either joined or ran away from the force of bodies cascading in your direction. You had to decide whether to flee or faint and be engulfed, slow-mo, by the surging tide.

One could be carried away by all the heaving, pushing, fainting and humming of bodies. There is something surreal about the ocean of faces gazing up with that look of hope alloyed with silent desperation. It is awesome. There is an unseen force that propels, there is a spirit that pushes the crowd to move like a river desperately seeking a direction, like lava exploding to break free.

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ULAP's silver lining

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P.Doyo

THE ANSWER is in the clouds. That is, if one is to go by the name of this organization run primarily by women and say the word with tongue in cheek.

“Ulap” literally means cloud, but for the women who want to start over, go on their own and bravely forge ahead, Ulap means Ugnayang Lakas Patungo sa Pag-unlad. Here the meaning of Ulap translates into something like “a gathering of strength towards progress.” It sounds awesome, but for those who are decided to eke a better future for their families, it should mean precisely that.

Brigida “Virgie” Apuyan Arteta, 49, has been a member of Ulap for eight years now. It was Ulap, a people’s organization based in Legazpi City in Albay, that gave her hope, strength and courage to start over and move on after a failed marriage.

Virgie’s case is not unusual. After their five children were born, her husband, a construction worker, began to look elsewhere. “Nagbalik siya sa pagkasoltero (He went back to being a bachelor),” Virgie says in crisp Bicol and sans pain in her voice. She laughs the laughter of the liberated.

By Virgie’s own account, she had done her legwork and gathered enough evidence of her husband’s infidelity. To the police precinct she went and had her complaint blottered. She even sought help from the Public Attorney’s Office. Parties involved came face-to-face in a meeting but there was no mistaking the fact that the marriage had already smashed against the rocks.

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Ralph and social action in time of terror

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

HERE’S A great quote for New Year from Wendell Berry, conservationist, poet, philosopher, Christian writer, teacher: “When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

I wrote a 2008 New Year piece on Berry’s “The peace of wild things” and received inspired reactions from readers. It was a dark and difficult time and Berry’s words just seemed to come down softly like a shawl of clean rain. 2010 has not been an easy year for many, the poor especially, and December brought with it a final dose of tragedies and other shocking matters.

There is a time to grieve and a time to celebrate. Celebrating the life of Msgr. Ralph Crisol Salazar are his co-workers in social action circa the late 1970s and early 1980s. He passed away on Christmas Eve 2010 in the United States. He was 65.

Monsignor Ralph’s ashes were brought home and a two-day wake was held here in Metro Manila, after which his ashes were brought to Legazpi City where he had served in various capacities as a priest. Burial is tomorrow after the 9 a.m. Mass at St. Gregory the Great Cathedral where he once served as pastor.

I have no hesitation in writing about someone’s passing in my first column piece for 2011. Not if it is about a person whose life and work had an impact on the so-called “PDO” (poor, deprived and oppressed, a catchphrase during the martial law years).

Monsignor Ralph’s co-workers in social action who learned about his passing immediately came together to pay their respects. This may sound commonplace but it isn’t.

Long after Ralph (let me do away with the Monsignor) had ended his term as executive secretary of the National Secretariat of Social Action (Nassa) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the staff during his watch continued to be a family in many ways. Something was forged during his watch and long after they had left Nassa to move on to various service fields and bigger involvements, the media, etc., many of them maintained their bond. They—okay, we—call ourselves X-Nassa and we meet at the drop of a hat, that is, four to five times a year, to share stories and jokes, discuss the latest issues and, most of all, eat. Regular venue is the home of Maring Feria in Bel-Air, Makati.

Ralph rarely attended the get-togethers as he was busy with pastoral work in Albay, and later, the US, but he was present at our big 2009 gathering for him. Bishop Julio Labayen, chair of Nassa during Ralph’s watch, is present most of the time.

I was not a Nassa employee and therefore not close to Ralph but I did some writing projects for Nassa under his supervision (I have kept the publications) and think of myself as part of the X-Nassa family. I am almost never absent from the regular reunions.

In Ralph’s time, I remember going to the printing press to collect hundreds of copies of “Iron Hand, Velvet Glove,” a publication on military abuses. Nassa partnered with a human rights group in the documentation and publication of “Iron Hand.” Shortly after I had loaded the stuff in my car and driven off from the press, about a dozen plainclothesmen with firearms flagged me down. Guns were trained on Nassa writer Chit Estella and me. We were being brought to Camp Crame. It was night time.

I had the presence of mind to insist on being brought back to the printing press to make calls. After all, the Arrest Search and Seizure Order (the dreaded Asso) was not for me but for Al Senturias, my boss in the human rights group. I thought, once I stepped into Crame I would never get out. It was Ralph and Sr. Christine Tan, RGS (both in the board of the human rights group) that came to the rescue and extricated us from the clutches of the military. I drove home shaken but relieved. Sophie Lizares-Bodegon, head of Nassa’s research, publication and documentation who was on top of the “Iron Hand” project had to be more conscious of her own security.

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Christmas news story: Aquino among the Mangyans

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

SOMETHING GROUNDBREAKING and historic happened on December 15. But there was no mention of it in the national media. No news stories, no photos, no TV coverage.

But so what. For the community of Hanunuo, Gubatnon and Ratagnon (Hagura) Mangyans of Occidental Mindoro it was a day they will never forget. President Benigno Aquino III flew to Magsaysay town to make the day very special. The Mangyans awaited his coming with bated breath and the sight of the descending helicopter with the President on board added to the excitement.

I was not present, but I am writing about the event because the Mangyans are a special people. I have stayed in their communities and written stories about them, although not these particular Mangyan groups that the President came for.

December 15 was the day of the awarding of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) which the Mangyans and their supporters, particularly the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM), have been waiting for the last 15 years. The long and arduous struggle began in 1995 and many living Mangyans elders did not think they would live to see this day. In fact many of the elders who had presented proof of their ancestral domain claim have either died or are weak and sickly.

When the Mangyans learned that the CADT would at last be awarded to them, they made a request that would be rebuffed again and again: that the President come to hand over to them the CADT and for him to behold the joy on their faces. The Mangyans were told that this was not going to happen. They were simply not on the radar screen.

But as the cosmists might say, when you desire something good so intensely the universe will conspire to make it happen.

An FMM, Sr. Cho Borromeo, had saved the phone number of then presidential candidate Noynoy in her cell phone’s contacts folder during the campaign period. Sr. Cho does not work with the Mangyans but gives spiritual retreats all over the world. (We became close friends while spending months together and experiencing Asian spirituality in India many years ago.) But her heart and soul belong to the forlorn and forgotten.

Upon learning from her fellow nuns that the Mangyans had been rebuffed, she called the number that she had saved. It was suntok sa buwan. Maybe an aide would answer, she thought. No answer. Again and again she dialed. Then someone answered the phone. “Is this the President?” she asked. “Yes,” the President answered. Sr. Cho shook in her shoes.

Let’s cut to the chase. The President said, yes, he will come, but could the awarding be moved a day later?

And so it was that Aquino was among the Mangyans on that auspicious December day written in the stars. He flew by helicopter to Magsaysay town and was met by Mangyan elders wearing G-strings and head gear.

Said Aquino:

“Sa paggawad natin ng CADT sa grupong Hagura ngayong araw, hindi lamang lupang ninuno ang ibinabalik natin sa kanila. Higit sa lahat, patunay ito sa pagkilala natin sa lahat ng Mangyan bilang mahalagang pangkat ng ating lipunan; makabuluhang bahagi ng ating kultura at kasaysayan.

“Tulad ninyo, naniniwala rin akong hindi lamang ito isang paggawad. Isa itong pagpupugay sa inyong tapang upang maibalik sa inyo ang lupang ipinagkait sa inyo nang mahabang panahon. Ngayong hawak na muli ninyo ang lupang ipinamana ng inyong mga ninuno, umaasa akong patuloy kayong magiging katuwang ng pamahalaan upang pangalagaan ang kinabukasan ng mga susunod na Mangyan; ng mga sumusunod ring mga Pilipino.

“Nawa’y maging hudyat ang araw na ito sa mas matibay na ugnayan nating lahat sa pagtataguyod ng mas maliwanag na bukas para sa marami pang henerasyon.”

Hagura is the organization to which three Mangyan tribes belong. It covers 14 sitios in Magsaysay and three in San Jose. It was set up in 1995 to consolidate efforts to acquire legal right and develop the ancestral domain of the three tribes.

According to the FMMs, Mangyans’ ancestral domain is delineated not by municipal boundaries but by the location of the tribes. In the past the three tribes in Hagura were one tribe until they were given different names by the settlers.

Credit must go to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples who processed the claims and the FMMs who assisted in the surveys and explained the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) to the Mangyans in order to make them aware of their rights. The nuns climbed mountains, crossed rivers, slept in the open, ate what the Mangyans ate and, most of all, listened to the people’s sentiments. And as Aquino himself admitted in his speech, it was a nun’s persistence that brought him into the midst of the men and women of the great forests.

A battle has been won, but the Mangyans will not rest easy because of threats to their domain such as illegal logging, commercial mining, creeping pasturelands, and fighting between the military and the communist rebels. The Mangyans must not lose what they fought for and won.

Indeed, Christmas came early for the Hanunuo, Gubatnon and Ratagnon Mangyans. I have posted a photo of the President with the Mangyans in my blogsite.

And so as I partake of forest ferns and wild honey (my yuletide fare), as I quietly bask in the afterglow of Christmas night, I remember the time I spent among the Alangan Mangyans many years ago, in their hallowed grounds where the stars shone brightly and the wind whispered songs to the trees while I listened to ancient tales narrated by the fireside.

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'The Masses are Messiah'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

LAUNCHED LAST week was Karl M. Gaspar’s latest book, “The Masses are Messiah: Contemplating the Filipino Soul.”

I was asked to write a blurb for the book’s back cover. After looking at the title I was discombobulated. But I thought I’d try. How does one distill into five sentences the essence of a book that was several years in the making and took the author over mountains and valleys, across rivers and seas and into the heart and soul of the people of our islands?

Anyway, let me quote myself: “Profoundly Pinoy! A must-read for both the actives and contemplatives of this planet. Somewhere on these pages you might recognize your own journey into your own soul, and beyond—from masa to misa to mystic to messiah. Karl has explored the amazing wilderness that is the Filipino soul and discovered gems so raw and so priceless. We are a spirituality gifted people and we should know it.”

Karl introduces us to his scholarly opus by dissecting the book’s title in Chapter 1. The title is from a poem written by poet-revolutionary Emmanuel Lacaba (1949-1976) who was killed in the prime of his youth.

The road less travelled by we’ve taken—/And that has made all the difference:/ The barefoot army of the wilderness/ We all should be on time./ Awakened, the masses are Messiah./ Here among the workers and peasants our lost/ Generation has found its true, its only home.

It was not lost on Karl that the poet’s name was Emmanuel which means God with us, Jesus the awaited Messiah that we sing about during this Advent season.

After hurdling the first chapter you can hurtle through the succeeding ones. From the chapter “Stories of Spiritual Journeys” Karl draws many tantalizing elements for his thesis. The stories gave him a window to what he calls the IBS (indigenous belief system) that would be in the core of his research.

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Where advent means waiting with joy

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

THEY come from different walks of life and circumstances—each with a special life story to tell. Somewhere, sometime, at a certain point in their lives, they had reached what looked like the end of the road. For most of them, there was no one and nothing left except a last painful stretch of a life that had yet to be spent.

To whom will they go while they wait?

The residents of Anawim, Home of God’s Poor, have indeed found a place at last. Here, in the sunset of their lives, they wait for the final call to the great beyond. For these elderly and poor—materially and otherwise—everyday is Advent, a beginning.

Anawim is Hebrew for “the poor of the Lord,” often mentioned in the Bible.

Advent, the opening season in the Catholic liturgical calendar, means a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ, or Christmas. But not many people, the elderly poor especially, have the privilege of waiting with joy and peace in their hearts. And in a special place at that.

Nestled on a sprawling five-hectare property in Barangay (village) San Isidro in the outskirts of Montalban (Rodriguez), Rizal, the Anawim home is run by the Anawim Lay Missions (ALMS) Foundation Inc., the “mercy mission” of the Light of Jesus (LOJ) Community. LOJ is a Catholic charismatic group founded by lay Catholic preacher and author Bo Sanchez.

Marisa Chikiamco, LOJ missionary and former center directress, recalls how in 1993 the LOJ community acquired this property on hilly terrain. Sanchez simply stated the home’s vision: “Anawim will open its doors to whoever God will send.”

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Blood under the bridge

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

THE SUPREME Court’s verdict is out, and it is final. Webb et al., accused and convicted for the crimes of rape and murder now known as the Vizconde massacre, have been acquitted and are walking free after spending 15 years in prison.

One of the things that bothered me about this case (and I have not heard it being stressed enough) is that the suspects, who became the accused in this case, were identified in 1995 or thereabouts, some four years after the crime happened in 1991. Four years is a long time, enough time for the real rapists and murderers to cover their tracks and produce believable alibis in case someone squealed on them and they became the suspects. It is also enough time for the evidence to get cold and for potential prosecution witnesses to conveniently lose their memory or vanish from the face of the earth.

Although the seven former convicts were acquitted, questions remain in people’s minds. But in the judgment of the seven justices who voted for acquittal (as against the dissenting four and the inhibiting four), the seven convicts could not be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

Well, only God and the people around each of them at the exact time and immediately after the crime was committed could say if the acquitted did or did not commit the crime of the decade. Two decades later many of us ask: What should we believe?

If there is one person who is “morally certain” of the guilt of the acquitted—then and until now—it is Mariano Mison who was head of the National Bureau of Investigation in 1995 when Task Force Jecares was formed. I had a long interview with him at that time and found his “If only I could talk” statement most puzzling. When the accused were convicted in 2000, I tracked down Mison (then already retired) and sprang his 1995 statement on him. He remained steadfast in his belief (bolstered by fearful “silent witnesses”) and did not entertain doubts that innocent young men may have been sent to prison. And, yes, he talked. No more “if only.”

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'The only way is up'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

CONGRATULATIONS TO the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) and the villages in Negros Occidental where the ram pump was introduced and changed the lives of so many people in need of clean and continuous water supply.

AIDFI won first prize in this year’s BBC World Challenge, a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level. Now on its sixth year, World Challenge, its sponsors say, is about championing and rewarding projects and businesses which really make a difference. The sponsors are BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell.

Last year Filipino kariton “street teacher” Efren Penaflorida was honored as a CNN hero, and now a Philippine entry won in the BBC challenge. These two giant global media networks now have the Philippines in their rosters of grassroots greats.

AIDFI’s ram pump was among 800 nominees from all over the world. From the 800 nominees 12 finalists and three winners were picked. The two runners-up were Peru and Guatemala. The Philippine entry received a $20,000 grant and the two other winners got $10,000 each.

The sponsors are pleased to say that this year’s 12 finalists again “raised the bar for sustainable enterprises that are putting something back into their communities. They are all boosting livelihoods and improving living standards without wrecking the environment.” The competition showcased finalists from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas and provided inspiration. Viewers were urged to choose one from the 12 finalists as their favorite.

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Taal: A Marian heritage site like no other

Philippine Daily Inquirer/FEATURES/Lifestyle/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

NO OTHER town in Batangas is like Taal. Walking down its streets is like walking down through history.

Declared a heritage town by the National Historical Commission, Taal offers many come-ons.

There is the basilica of Saint Martin of Tours, known to be the biggest in Southeast Asia; the Spanish-era structures and homes of great Filipinos; the lake and its active volcano; the exquisite calado embroidery on piña and jusi that has become world-famous.

Choose from an array of heritage museum-homes, among them the homes of Marcella Agoncillo (she sewed the first Philippine flag), Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio (the forgotten heroine of the revolution), the Apacible and Goco homes and the grand mansion of Leon Agoncillo.

Huge basilica

The imposing Basilica of St. Martin of Tours is Taal’s centerpiece. Declared a national shrine in 1974, its façade bears a resemblance to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Its tabernacle is made of silver and is said to be the only one of its kind in the Philippines.

The original structure was built in 1575, in the place now known as San Nicolas. In 1754 the basilica was destroyed by the Taal volcano eruption.

Rebuilding of the current structure took nine years (1856-1865) under parish priest Fray Marcos Anton and Spanish architect Luciano Oliver.

Intricate designs, many in chiaroscuro style, adorn the church ceilings and walls. Painted images of the four evangelists (Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) occupy the lower portion of the dome. Sts. Peter and Paul have special places on the ground level. The basilica has been undergoing a vigorous clean-up and restoration in preparation for this month’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

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