Exploring My Own Cebu

While the rest of the Filipinos are celebrating the conclusion of Ramadan, I made a little exploration of my own about my faith. It’s not a pilgrimage of sort nor it was a promise I made early on but then I am always fascinated by the physical representation of the Catholic religion. I am of course referring to the old Spanish churches that are still standing today perhaps to serve as living reminders of our colonial past and our conversion from animism to the Christian belief.

I left the house early and drove 60 kilometers down south. I’ve passed by the southern towns Cebu before but I have never ever stopped to visit any of the churches there. My dad was born in Samboan and he grew up in Badian. Back when I was younger, we made a few trips to the south to visit our relatives and dad’s friends.

Cebu is one of the oldest provinces in the country. With its deep historical, cultural and religious past, Cebu still has some of the old colonial structures worthy to be included as a heritage.

A little past 9am, I reached the old town of Argao, turning towards the pueblo’s coast and into its newly restored complex. There was an arch erected at the town boundary with a slogan welcoming everyone to the ’heritage’ town. Argao is one of the oldest towns in Cebu having been founded as a pueblo in 1608. It started as an encomienda and thus prospered with the erection of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and the construction of a commercial port and the railway station that stretches all the way to Danao.

The Church of St. Michael the Archangel

I entered the town plaza through an entrance at the back of the church. Half of the gate was swung open and I walked through it towards the plaza. At the center of the old block, I looked around and was a bit drawn back to the Spanish era. I imagined myself being transported to the 18th century wearing my rayadillo uniform of light blue and white with my bayonet-tipped gun.

I made a brief 360 and saw La Iglesia de San Miguel Arcangel with its bell tower standing few meters away though its connected by a small structure that served as quarters of the bell ringers before. The church is facing the coast, just like any other Spanish church so that villagers could always check for any danger of attacks from the open sea.

The church has its own perimeter wall, though rather low but then its a demarcation that I also noticed at the Baclayon Chruch in Bohol. The walls have interesting details, some reliefs depicting stations of the cross and some spanish emblems.

Outside of these walls is the town plaza. This, along with Argao’s Hall of Justice and the Municipio were restored through the efforts of the local government and the then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who hails from the place. The municipio still has its old form. It’s the typical stone house of the 18th century.

Municipio de Argao

The Hall of Justice

The Town Plaza

I imagined how it was back then when Spanish friars used to be the rulers of the land and that our ancestors rendered ‘polo’ to build structures like this. Cebu has more than a dozen old churches made of stones and hard wood. There must have been thousands and thousands of Cebuanos who toiled under the sun for several years just to build the pueblo’s municipio, plaza y iglesia. The fruits of their ‘forced labor’ had at least survived the test of time.

I left Argao after checking the details of the church interiors. I wont be using any architectural parlance but in my knowledge, the Baroque-Rococo church is but comparable to the Baclayon church with its painted ceilings, elaborate retablos, choir loft and pulpit and all. The icons in this church’s retablo were painted with gold, much to the dismay of the historians and the preservationists. I was surprised too as to why the parish priest decided to paint the old images with gilt.

I drove a little further to the south, passing through the laid-back towns of Dalaguete and Alcoy. These two towns have old Spanish Churches too but I decided to go to Boljoon and visit their stone church. Boljoon is but 40 kilometers south of Argao. It used to be part of Carcar but with the establishment of the town in the 17th century, Boljoon prospered and grew. It has become important to the Augustinian missionaries that a church was then decided to be built at the time when the pueblo was created.

With its location, Boljoon was often attacked by Muslim raiders. It scared the settlers away. The church was handed to Jesuits but was later on returned to the Augustinians. One particular priest however decided to fortify the town by building dozens and dozens of watchtowers to warn the villagers of any attack and to protect the town as a whole.

When I arrived at the Iglesia de Nuesta Senora de Patrocinio, I was a bit disappointed of the condition of the heritage site. Compared to what I’ve seen in Argao, the church of Boljoon is in dire need of preservation. I saw some restoration projects on the belfry. But when I looked at the church facade, the entire section was white and it seemed like it was painted with nalcrete. I could not find the real surface of the stone church.

I went inside the iglesia to look at it’s interiors. It’s a bit eery and queer. The nave is quite longer than the church in Argao, the paintings at ceiling were quite similar to that of Baclayon but only of different color theme. But I was relieved that the icons and the retablos were not painted with gold. However, the icons looked deteriorated. Just like in any other churches, the Patrocinio has a choir loft, a pulpit, and retablos at both ends of the transept.

I didn’t stay long inside the church. There’s a lot of preservation works to do. Much must have to be done to restore this structure to its old form. A lot of tourists and pilgrims may be dismayed if the church would be left to rot with time.

I roamed around the church yard and saw a wood and stone structure detached from the church. It used to be a catholic school in the 1900’s.

The Watch Tower with Bells

Opposite the school, at a corner fronting the open sea is the watch tower. A priest, Father Bermejo had ordered dozens of these structures to be built, especially along the Ilihan Rock to fortify the town. Only one of these bulwarks remained today. Church bells were placed on top of the remaining tower. The door was half open and I went inside to see if there’s anything worth taking pictures of.

Inside, the structure was rather empty except for the wooden flight of stairs leading to the bells on the second floor.

But the tower was rotting away. The walls were filled with graffiti and bearing greek symbols and dates and names. While inside, I felt like there’s a force that wanted me to rush to the door and ran away from it. The tower was neglected.

In all honesty, I felt the sadness when I left the church complex. I was expecting something more breath-taking and fascinating. But I was disappointed with Boljoon. Seeing the church is like seeing it after a Muslim raid. The church had seen a lot of raids, a lot of attacks and destructions. The Patrocinio knows that it is rapidly decaying. I hope people will not leave it in ruins.

I left Boljoon. I passed by Argao again. I returned to the city hoping for another exploration anytime soon.