Daily Archives: 19 June, 2011

Rufino Pabico Ancestral House (Daet, Camarines Norte)

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Rufino Pabico Ancestral House

The Pinyasan Street Dancing and Marching Band Parade, along Vinzons Ave., had now passed us by and, before leaving, Lee, TJ, Bernard and I decided to drop by the two-storey, maroon and white  Rufino Pabico ancestral house, the only remaining relic of early 20th century architecture in Daet.

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On hand to welcome us was the 75 year old Francisco Pabico Timoner, the grandson of the original owner. Mr. Timoner, I would later learn, is a retired General Manager of  the Camarines Norte Electric Cooperative (CANORECO) and a acquaintance of my father-in-law, Mr. Manuel L. Sta. Maria, retired Deputy Administrator of the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

Francisco Temoner at the grand staircase

Built in 1917 and the scene of high-society balls in the 1930s, the grand Rufino Pabico house was still well-preserved.  Within its well-manicured front yard is an octagonal fountain.  Like many typical bahay na bato (stone houses), it has a masonry ground floor and a wooden second floor.  Arches are predominant in front; from the ground floor colonnaded front porch, with its fluted square columns, all the way up to its second floor sliding capiz (oyster shell) windows, its arches decorated with intricate lacy (calado) woodwork.  That same woodwork can also be found above the windows and in the eave fascias. Between the window sill and the floor are ventanillas with sliding wooden shutters for additional ventilation.

The well-preserved interiors

The interiors are just as well preserved.  The grand stone staircase, with its marble steps, still has its rococo-style carvings while the alternately dark and  light-hued hardwood floor still retain their shine.  The ceiling is covered with wood carvings.  All these are complemented by a Cornish piano, pre-war chandeliers, wall paintings, vintage family photos and antique wooden furniture including silohiya (wickerwork)-covered chairs.  Novelties here include a now-unused wood-fired stove and a free-standing antique, enamel-covered cast iron bathtub.

According to Mr. Timoner, during World War II, the house was used as a headquarters for the Japanese Imperial Army and, later during the Liberation, by American forces.  In 1995, a strong typhoon partially destroyed the house but it was soon restored to its original look. The house hit the limelight when it was featured in an article at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, written by our media colleague Amadis Ma. Guerrero.  Since then, it has been included in the list of places to see in Daet as well as in the province.  On June 19, 1997, the house was conferred the “Provincial Cultural Treasure Award,” as indicated by a plaque installed at the porch wall.   During the 2009 Pinyasan Festival, the Daet Kiwanis Club, the Daet Senior Citizens Federation and Reina Daetena hosted the Grand Tertulia de Daet at this house.

Rufino Pabico Ancestral House: Vinzons Ave., Poblacion, Daet, Camarines Norte

Pinyasan Festival 2011 (Daet, Camarines Norte)

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Pinyasan Street Dancing Competition

My last visit to Camarines Norte literally hit two birds with one stone as we covered the 150th birth anniversary of National Hero Jose Rizal (June 19) and the Pinyasan Festival (June 15-24) which coincided with Daet‘s 428th foundation anniversary and the quadricentennial of its St. John the Baptist parish.  Daet Mayor Tito Sarion, who was a town councilor in 1993, started the town’s Pinyasan Festival. Back in the1990s, while attending a Philippine Travel Mart Convention, Tito conceived of the idea of promoting a local festival in honor of the Formosa pineapple, the sweetest variety among home-grown pineapples in Camarines Norte and a major fruit product. The festival has significantly boosted the popularity of the pineapple (its other potentials then only known by local farmers and traders) and fortified industries related to it.   Today, foreign firm Sunzu Agri-Development, Inc. has a pineapple processing plant at Brgy Caayunan in Basud while another newly-established agro-industrial firm (Flora Farms Integrated, Inc.) in Brgy. Pamorangon in Daet has ventured into the production of food and other products derived from pineapple. There is also a Pineapple Island Resort-Hotel (Calasgasan, Daet), a new bus firm (Pineapple Gold Express) and countless newly created food recipes that include pineapple as ingredient.  Neighboring Basud town and local cooperatives, with the help of the local government and national agencies, have created new fiber products and the popular pineapple pie,  a contribution to the One Town One Product (OTOP) program, harnessing local creativity in to exploring product possibilities extracted from the fruit and sustaining a now major industry.

Mayor Tito Sarrion

This year is the 19th edition of the festival and this would be my first Pinyasan. Our three-day (June 17-19) visit to Daet didn’t extend to June 23, the day of the Grand Float Parade, but we did get to see the Miss Pinyasan/Miss Daet 2011 beauty contest and the Street Dancing and Best Marching Band Competition the next day. We had just returned from our Calaguas Islands tour when Bernard, Lee, TJ and I were invited to cover the beauty contest’s Coronation Night.   From the Bagasbas Lighthouse Resort (where we were booked), we were brought first to the Terrace Grille for dinner.  Here, we espied the candidates and guest Ms. Universe runner-up Ms. Venus Raj as they were about to leave and met up with Daet Mayor Tito Sarrion.  The pageant proper was held at Provincial Gym.  Ms.  Abigail “Abby” Ortega was crowned as Miss Pinyasan.  Runners-up were Ms. Renei Victoria Almoneda (Miss Daet, also Best in Swimsuit, Festival Costume Design and Evening Gown), Ms. Nicole Anne C. Gange (Miss Tourism and Miss Photogenic), Ms. Princess Joy Burce (First Runner-up), and Ms. Erika Bianca “Ekaa” Lasay (Second Runner-up).

Miss Pinyasan/Miss Daet 2011 winners
The next day, all four of us had our lunch at the K Sarap Snack Bar along Vinzons Ave.  Right after lunch, we went out along the Vinzons Ave. (and, later, to the First Rizal Monument) to watch the Street Dancing and Best Marching Band Competition.  The winners of the Miss Pinyasan (minus First Runner-up Ms. Burce) and town officials in a float (led by Mayor Sarrion) also joined the parade.  There were also a number of karetelas bedecked with pineapples and flowers.  The winners of the Street Dancing Competition were Barangay Cobangbang (first), Barangay 7 (second) and  Barangay Lag-on (third).  In the elementary school level, the Best Marching Band Competition winners were Talisay Elementary School (first), Daet Elementary School (second) and Gregorio Pimentel Elementary School (third), while at the high school level, the winners were St. Francis Parochial School (first), Tulay na Lupa National High School (second) and San Roque National High School (third).
 
Best Marching Band Competition

First Rizal Monument (Daet, Camarines Norte)

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First Rizal Monument

One of the highlights of our last visit to Camarines Norte (aside from the Pinyasan Festival) was the celebration of our National Hero Jose Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary. Daet figures prominently in this nationwide celebration because it is the site of the first and oldest monument erected in honor of Rizal (though he never set foot in the town) in the country (antedating, by 14 years, the more famous one built in Luneta in 1912) and in the world.

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Last June 19, some 1,500 youth of the province, all belonging to various schools and organizations, joined a mass floral offering at the First Rizal Monument, all vowing to keep the libertarian ideals of Rizal alive and to help contribute in nation-building.  A history forum, with Prof. Danilo M. Gerona of the Ateneo de Naga University, was also held there.

Plaque

The monument, at the corner of Justo Lukban and Magallanes Iraya Sts., at Rizal Square, Kalayaan Park (the park was said to be the site where the Katipuneros held their ground during the April 14-18, 1898 uprising), in front of the old municipal hall (now the Daet Heritage Center), is a 3-tiered, 20-ft. high stone pylon designed by Lt.-Col. Antonio Sanz, a soldier-artist and revolutionary head of the local government, and Lt.-Col. Ildefonso Alegre.  It was built through the financial contributions of the townsfolk of Camarines Norte and the Bicol region.  Oral accounts say that the base contains a time capsule containing the list of contributors to the project while some quarters and treasure hunters believe that there were buried treasures around it.

The groundbreaking for the construction of this sparsely decorated but impressive and majestic monument, near the bank of the Daet River, was done on December 30, 1898 (just two years after Rizal’s death), in observance of the first-ever Rizal Day (the first province to do so), decreed on December 20 by then Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo, and completed sometime in February 1899, shortly after the outbreak of the Philippine-American War. Its foundation is believed to have been made with mortar and coral stone taken from the demolished old Spanish jail where many patriots, in April 1898, were tortured and executed. The monument is rather unique as it does not bear a sculpted image of Rizal, unlike other monuments today.

Inscribed on the square podium, surmounted by a two-level triangle (the last one tapering off to a point), are Rizal’s popular novels, “Noli Me Tangere 1886” and “El Filibusterismo 1891,” and “Morga 1889,” a tribute to Antonio de Morga, author of Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, an important book on the Spanish colonization of the Philippines written in 1609 and later annotated by Rizal. Ironically, the Rizal Monument came to be known as “Morga Monument.”  On the sides of the triangle is a five-pointed star, an eight-rayed sun and the Spanish phrase A Jose Rizal (“to Jose Rizal”) and at the top used to be the all-seeing eye.  The front face contains a black metal plaque, from the then National Historical Commission, declaring it a National Historical Landmark in 1961. The monument has pronounced Masonic elements possibly because Rizal, Emilio Aguinaldo, Sanz, Gen. Vicente Lukban (head of Revolutionary forces in the Bicol Region) and many of the financial contributors were Masons. Today, the image of the First Rizal Monument is incorporated in the provincial and municipal (of Daet) insignias.