August 15, 1733 - Fr. Olalde is Assigned to Argao

(The church of Argao as it may have appeared in the late 1800s)

August 15 is the the 277th anniversary of Fr. Ignacio de Olalde's appointment as the first Cura Parroco of the parish of Argao, Cebu.

To this very day, Fr. de Olalde remains almost a mystery. Local historians cannot even agree on his very name: was he surname OLALDE or OLAVE? Both are Spanish surnames, although Olalde has a much better claim as it is an old Basque family name. Olalde means "side" or the "cabin area", where ola refers to foundry or cabin while alde stands for side or region. The surname first appeared in the Arrasate-Mondragon region of Guipuzcoa, Spain in the fifteenth century.

On the other hand, Olave as a surname has a more difficult history to trace. Although is believed to also be of Basque origin, its meaning and origin remains a mystery to this day. As Olalde appears more frequently compared to Olave, it is very highly probable that Argao's first parish priest was an Olalde.

Before Fr. de Olalde was appointed as Argao's founding spiritual father, he was probably one of the priests assigned to the Carcar mission tasked to minister to the various vicarias or vice-parishes of the parish of Carcar, Argao being one of them. Although Argao was established as a separate town in 1608, it remained a vice-parish until 1733, a scenario that is not clearly explained in old Spanish records. However, in 1733, the prominent men of Carcar petitioned the Augustinian fathers of Cebu to return the priests assigned to Carcar who were, apparently, spending more time in Argao than in their mother parish. And so, on August 15, 1733, Fr. Ignacio de Olalde was appointed to take control of the newly created parish of St. Michael the Archangel. However, from 1733 until about October of 1735, Fr. Olalde did not stay for long in Argao.

This was, of course, understandable as there was no church in Argao yet. So Fr. Olalde probably stayed in the house of one of the principalia of Argao while overseeing the construction of the church. Stories passed from generation to generation state that the making of the Argawanon delicacy torta dates to this time, when the demand for eggs was high due to the need for a cement-type of component that the white in the egg produced. It is most probable that Fr. Olalde was the one who insisted that the yolk from the eggs not be thrown away and instead be used as an ingredient for the new pastry, torta de Argao.

Other stories from the time of Fr. Ignacio de Olalde include the carving of the first ever San Miguel statue from one of the older trunks of the Sali-Argaw tree, which remained in the possession of the people of Argao until the 1970s when it was allegedly stolen by the goons of Imelda Marcos. Another story states that before the Argawanon natives were allowed to hear mass, they first had to present a block of coral stone to be used as a building material for the church.

It is not known when Fr. Olalde died, but his term of office was listed as having ended on June 22, 1737, barely four years after he was assigned to Argao. As most parish priests in those times served for life, it is very possible that he died in the town of Argao.

The Pelicans of Argao

(The pelicans of Argao: Top, drawing at the Casa Real. Below, coral stone carving at the church)

Like most of the town’s heritage structures, the church and the old municipal building, better known as the Casa Real, are filled with artistic symbolisms that mean so much if only one takes the time to reflect on what they stand for.

A very interesting drawing on the Casa Real, which is duplicated as coral stone carvings on the lower portion of the church’s exterior portion of the archway of its main door, is that of a bird, which, according to most experts, is that of a pelican.

The pelican, throughout history, has been always associated with self-sacrifice, an allusion to the fact that the mother would sometimes feed its babies with its own blood if food is nowhere to be found. Because of this action, the pelican became a symbol of Jesus Christ’s passion as well as of the Eucharist. The pelican also was believed to kill its young, only to resurrect them using its own blood, another analogy of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

The depiction of pelicans in the Casa Real and the St. Michael Church of Argao are very clear reminders to the leaders of Argao, both in the church and the government that they should act like the pelicans: sacrifice their self-interests for the good of the people.

The Strong and The Mighty

I was walking by the highway in Argao one night and I saw this old woman getting ready to display her fish by the side of the rode. By tradition, many people in the countryside do this: they farm and then go down to the lungsod to sell their farm produce; similarly, fisherfolks catch fish then sell their bounty at the market.


The old woman had the look of someone who has been fishing and selling for as long as she could remember. And, without a doubt, she was obviously also someone whose family has been involved in this practice for many generations.


That night, as I passed her, I saw several municipal law enforcement people talking to her. It turned out that she was being asked to leave because she had not secured a mayor's permit and other permits needed for her to sell in the streets.
While I applaud the town of Argao for being strong and vigilant in matters of taxation, I believe, idealistic as I still am, that people like this old woman should not be made to pay for permits. She and her family, I am sure, make barely enough to eat three meals the following day. And yet here is the government, trying to get its claw into whatever measly amount people like the old woman make.


And yet there are people like the Sesaldos who own a huge store near the market who scatter their garbage and other foul dirt all around town. And what is being done? Nothing. Nothing is done because, according to the official line in the local government, they had tried to get near the store of this Sesaldo guy but the men from the LGU were met with hired goons with shotguns. And the people from the government? Well, they simply backed away.


People get poorer sometimes because the government simply does not care. And people like the Sesaldos simply get away with making the town dirty because the political leadership in Argao is weak.


So where is justice here?

THE FOUNDING OF ARGAO, CEBU

This year, Argao, Cebu, celebrates its 400th anniversary as a pueblo. For a while many people have always been unsure of the exact year of Argao's founding. If the town was founded in 1608, why was it only made into a parish in 1733?

It is unfortunate that the earliest towns established by the Spaniards do not have any record left pertaining to their foundation. However, Argao's celebration of its 400^th anniversary is right on track. It was indeed established as a pueblo, or a town, in 1608, but was also settled by people long before the Spaniards came. Archaeological finds in the municipality indicate that the town was already settled as early as 500 A.D.

We know for a fact, based on the writings of early Spanish missionaries, that the early Argawanons, like the early Cebuanos, had a flourishing civilization. Early Spanish observers believed that Cebuanos, Argawanons included, were mostly of the Indo-Malay stock; many wrote that the inhabitants of Cebu, Bohol, and Negros were most probably from the Islands of Macasar (which is now Makassar, a city in central Indonesia and the capital of the Sulawesi Selantan Province, in the southwestern portion of the island of Sulawesi (Celebes), on the Makassar Strait) or from Borneo as they were much closer to them and not far from the Moluccas and in ancient times they had better relations and communications with them.

They traded with their Asian neighbors. Many of the pottery and jewelry found in grave sites around Argao came from the Chinese and the Borneans.

Based on the observations of the missionaries, the early Argawanons were more corpulent than the Tagalogs. They had flat noses and round faces, and looked much like the Chinese and the Japanese. Everyone wore earrings, and children of both sexes from age one or two had their ears pierced.

All men wore bahag, while women wore skirts. The members of the datu class wore their skirts below the knees, while the slaves wore theirs above the knees. They liked to wear ornaments. They buried their dead together with priced possessions like beads and gold.

The early settlements in what is now Argao were scattered and few. In fact, only the barangays of Tulang, Mompeller, Taloot, Bulasa, Bogo, Talaga, Canbantug, Mandalikit, Panadtaran, Capio-an, Colawin, and Lengigon have shown signs of settlements from way before Spanish colonization.

The earliest reference of Argao is on November 3, 1571, when it was assigned to Hernando de Monroy to be part of his encomienda. It became a vicaria, or a vice-parish (an area similar to a parish in size but not yet advanced in its development sufficiently to be elevated to the position of a parish), of Carcar in 1599 and then established as a pueblo in 1608. It, however, remained a visita of Carcar because the town was deserted of people and there were only about eight to ten households in the cabecera or poblacion. Sometimes, the town's population swelled in number, and then the next few years would again see its population drop. This means that, as one of Carcar's visitas, the priests in Carcar would visit Argao from time to time to administer religious ceremonies.

In 1733 the principales of Carcar demanded that the priest the Father Provincial had assigned to Argao be returned to Carcar as it was older and Argao was just a visita. With the recall of the priest stationed in Argao, there seemed to be only one solution to solve this problem. So, on October 16, 1733 the Church of Argao was officially founded with St. Michael the Archangel as its patron saint and administered by the Augustinians.

This year, Argao is already 400 years old from its establishment as a pueblo or town in 1608. It is already 437 years old from the time it became part of Monroy's encomienda in 1571. It is 409 years old since it became a vicaria in 1599. And it is already 275 years old since it became a parish in 1733.

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This article is part of the Argao 400 Genealogy Project.

Speaking for the Dead

"It is human nature to look to the past, to the road we have travelled, to what has so far defined us. But only by leaving our past behind, can we then push onward, into an unknown tomorrow, into the dawn of a new future, into the light of a new beginning..." - Mohinder Suresh, Heroes character

The above quote is a fitting one for people like me. People who find joy in poring over old, crumbling records of long-dead people. People who love to stroll around scary-looking cemeteries to look at tombstones of relatives. Genealogy has always been a way for the living to reconnect with the dead.

Many people have a hard time understanding where they are going because they have yet to penetrate the secrets of the past. While it is true that we should not get stuck in the past, knowing of our past and our family's journey through time gives us a very good perspective of life.

Besides, if we don't seek the dead, who will sing their songs? Who will tell their stories? A colleague of mine told me dismissively once that he finds no use for old Spanish-era church records because they don't tell you anything. I have always used church records as my primary genealogical tool, and I have proven that, contrary to this colleague's pronouncement, I have gleaned a lot of people's stories in these records. Bits and pieces, true, but stories nonetheless. And, as I have already said, if I did not bother to go through these files, who will know about them?

In a death record in Argao, in 1894, a certain Don Jose Saady caught my eyes. It obviously caught my attention because it was the first Arabic-sounding surname I encountered. He was described as a Catholic coming from Monte Libano, and was said to have been Syrian. Monte Libano is actually a mountain range in what is now modern-day Lebanon. He died because of a brawl with Domingo Camajalan. He was also Argao's Justice of the Peace at that time.

Who was this Syrian who became one of Argao, Cebu's last juezes de paz? He was further described as being married to someone, but his wife was not identified. Was she somewhere else? Did Don Jose Saady have kids left with his wife, who might have descendants today? He was buried in Argao's cemetery, so I can only imagine what his family must have felt back in Lebanon, not being able to visit their father's grave. Or perhaps they visisted later? We cannot tell.

The dead awaits our help in speaking for them. They who have gone to a hopefully better place can no longer tell their tales, so why not speak on their behalf?

ARGAO GENEALOGY SERIES: ARGAO POLITICS, A FAMILY AFFAIR

People whose faith is in the monarchial system believe that the right to rule is hereditary. A birthright. In this system, only representatives of one or a few families can morally represent a group of people, or a nation.

Anachronistic and elitist though it may sound, such system, or a semblance thereof, exists in Philippine politics. Since the proclamation of the first republic in 1898 by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, those who followed him were his relatives by blood or marriage, or both. Though not from one ruling family, the Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and other elected officials of the Philippines have, since 1898, been related to each other, others many times over. (For further discussion on this, please read RP Politics: A Family Affair).

A case in point is Argao, a coastal town in southern Cebu, which reveals a similar, if not more pronounced, pattern. Out of approximately 4,000 unique families in the municipality, only about 170 families have ever held both hereditary (Spanish-era cabezas de barangay) and elective positions, or about 4.25% of the total families. Even the town’s church officials in the nineteenth century were from four families only.

Spanish-era politicians of the town were culled from the principalia, or the native aristocracy. Its cabezas de barangay were related by both blood and marriage. For instance, in the Birondo family, Don Salvador Birondo was the nephew of Don Bonifacio Birondo; in the Lucero family, Don Jose Lucero and Don Juan Lucero were brothers who were later followed by the next generation, Dons Leandro and Justiniano Lucero (sons of Don Jose Lucero) and Don Anacleto Lucero, son of Don Juan Lucero, while Don Jose Lucero Villanueva was their first cousin; Don Tiburcio Ceballos, who was also a Fiscal of the San Miguel Church, was married to a Flores, who was a niece of Don Hermoneges Flores; Don Tiburcio Ceballos’s first cousin, Don Vicente Espina, was also the Church Fiscal and a cabeza; Dons Julian and Feliz (Felix) Sabado were brothers, while Don Gutardo Remonde was their nephew.

Intermarriage among the principalia and their children was also very common. For example: Don Claudio Albarracin’s son, Rafael, married Veronica Camello, who was the niece of Don Eufracio Camello, whose own daughter Manuela Camello married Don Esteban Mendes (Mendez). Don Lucas Albotra’s daughter, Bonifacia, married Vicente Rubia, who was the son of Don Julian Rubia. And, of course, there are several intermarriages between the Lucero and Quintanar (Kintanar) families.

Aside from the Parish Priests, who were assigned from other towns and provinces and were usually Castellan, there were several lay people who were working for the church in Argao. The first group were the Fiscals of the Church and between 1866 to the late 1880’s first cousins Don Tiburcio Zamora Ceballos and Don Vicente Villafuerte Espina alternated every other month as Fiscals of the Church. Later on, they were replaced by Don Melecio Gonzaga and Don Jose Villamor, the former replacing Don Vicente Espina upon his death in 1880 while the latter was replaced by Don Juan Villamor. It is interesting to note that these Fiscals of the Church were also, at the same time, serving as cabezas de barangay, and thus were members of the town’s principalia.

Like the position of Fiscal, the position of Sacristan Mayor or chief sexton of the Church seemed also a life-long appointment, and only ended when the Sacristan Mayor was already bedridden or dead. Between 1863 up to the early 1900’s, when their names were mentioned, the Sacristan Mayores of the San Miguel Arcangel Parish were Don Felipe Cabrera Lucero, who alternated with Don Filomeno Albarracin every other month. Upon Don Felipe’s death, his nephew, Don Mariano Lucero, the Church’s trusted gatekeeper, or described as portero, temporarily filled in his post in the early 1880’s but was later filled full-time by Don Felipe’s only son, Don Numeriano Dias Lucero, and then Buenaventura Lucero, who was one of the last Sacristan Mayores listed in the records of the Church. Just like the Fiscals, the Sacristan Mayor position seemed to have been a monopoly of two members of the hereditary principalia, the Lucero and Albarracin families.

Don Manuel Ceballos, the nephew of Don Tiburcio Ceballos and Don Vicente Espina, was the organista of the Church. He also later became Argao’s second Municipal President.

With the turn of the 20th century, and the coming of the Americans, Argao’s ruling class simply changed titles, but the same families held elective posts. Many of the former cabezas de barangay stood for local elections and became municipal presidents, vice-presidents, and councilors. Some families even managed to extend their political dominance elsewhere. Don Alejandro Ruiz, the first American period chief executive of the town, had a brother, Don Antonio Ruiz, who was also Sibonga’s president. A Lucero descendant went to Ronda and promptly became its first municipal president and later on followed by two sons and a granddaughter.

As already mentioned above, the former church organist and nephew of two former fiscals and cabezas de barangay, Don Manuel Ceballos, became president of Argao after Alejandro Ruiz.

Of the total 34 Presidents, Mayors, and Vice-Presidents/Mayors of Argao, 24 belong to the five main political dynasties of the town. These big dynasties are Kintanar, Lucero, Miñoza, Albarracin, and Ceballos-Espina, which have produced an average of five members who have held (or still hold) chief executive positions.

The Kintanar family has produced two Vice-Presidents, one Mayor, and the caretaker official after the 1986 People Power Revolt. It shares wartime Mayor Jose Lucero Kintanar, and his brother Jesus Lucero Kintanar, with the Lucero family, itself producing two Vice-Presidents and one Vice-Mayor. Another Mayor, Antonio A. Almirante, Jr., was a Lucero descendant, as was Vice-Mayor Anacleto K. Bajenting, married to a Lucero first cousin of Mayor Jesus and Jose Lucero Kintanar.

Incidentally, the head of the guerilla forces of southern Cebu during the Second World War, Hilario P. Davide, was married to a second cousin twice removed of the Japanese-sanctioned government of Jose Lucero Kintanar. The Albarracin family produced two brothers, Lorenzo and Jacinto, who became Presidents (one of whom was a former Vice-President of the other), while their sister, Vicenta, became Argao’s first female Vice-Mayor. The Miñoza family has produced two Presidents (one of whom married a Lucero), one Mayor, and one Vice-Mayor, Azucena Miñoza Sesaldo, who, apart from being the daughter of a former Mayor, is married to another past Mayor, Daniel Sesaldo. The Ceballos-Espina family has produced two Presidents, one Vice-President, and the current Mayor, Edsel A. Galeos. Needless to say, all these belonged to families who formed the hereditary and elected principalia of Spanish-era Argao, and were related to each other in complicated and many ways.

Truly an amazing display of the resilience and continuity of political families in the town of Argao, Cebu. Some people call political dynasties evil and corrupt. Believers in the theory of divine right to rule say that people will choose those whose blood has been tried and tested through time.

Whether this is true or not, this illustration on Argao’s political families is another reminder of how interesting Philippine politics is.

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Text (C) 2008 Todd Lucero Sales, Genealogist and Project Officer, Argao 400 Genealogy Project.