Author’s Note: I am reproducing here a series of articles that appeared in my SISAY KITA? column in the Catanduanes Tribune under the pseudonym “tataramon.” Part 2 was in the October 18, 2023 issue.

Editors’ Note: We thank the author and THE CATANDUANES TRIBUNE for allowing us to feature this article, Part 2 of a series of 4. THE CATANDUANES TRIBUNE is a monthly print and online publication. It was founded in 1981.

In Part 1, we gave a broad overview of the 1936 aerial photo of Virac poblacion. Attention was called to the southwest-to-northeast columnar layout of three major clusters of settlement namely Ilawod, Colawan and Taytay arranged in a series and separated by two plaza complexes, the twin centros of town that remain our basic points of reference in imagining Virac up to the present.

The plaza complex is a colonial legacy from the Spaniards. It is the geographic center of a community consisting of an open space – the plaza – around which were built structures of governance, mainly the church and the seat of the local government. These two were typically made to face each other, with the plaza between them, symbolizing the church-state unity of the Spanish regime. Around this sprawl, residences were built in radiating or concentric patterns. The creation of this set-up was the main strategy for the Spanish reduccion (pacification, subjugation) of the Filipino natives. It was meant to facilitate both political control and religious conversion of the people, which reinforced each other.  

As it happened, two plaza complexes materialized in Virac. The municipal plaza complex was the primary one that developed when the Kastila occupied Virac around which materialized Ilawod and Colawan which therefore were the first settlements of “reduced” and Christianized Viracnon natives. In 1936, it was dominated by the parish church, the munisipyo and the old elementary school. The plaza itself was (and still is) the one true plaza of Virac. But it would not have been called Plaza Rizal then; there was no Rizal monument standing there. It was merely a large square of grassy lawn bordered with huge trees and defined by a low concrete fence. Old photos showed that this space was used for military training drills by the students of the Catanduanes Standard High School. In 1941, they held in this plaza the first graduation ceremonies with Camarines Norte governor Wenceslao Q. Vinzons as guest speaker. Vinzons became a major leader of the guerilla resistance against the Japanese but was arrested and executed by the enemy. The church that faced the southwest (as it does now) was yet the Spanish-styled building with the tall belfry on its right side. On the other side of the façade was the convento which had a balcony that faced the patio. This would later be extended backwards along the church nave to become the Immaculate Concepcion Academy up until its demolition together with the old church in 1969 to give way to the modern parish church building.  The patio was fenced with corral adobe in a series of triangular forms that are still in place. The lawn was plain grass expanse interrupted only by a bare cross at the middle. The three sculptural monuments that dominate the patio up to this day were yet to be built in 1936. The Cristo Rey would be inaugurated some three years into the future, on October 29, 1939, followed shortly by the Virgen Milagrosa in November 29, 1939. The Lourdes grotto would take its turn two months after on February 11, 1940. In less than two years, this trio of holy images would witness the Japanese bombing of Virac in December 12, 1941.  They too would have been imposing and steadfast presence when the guerillas used the church and patio as center of operations when they assaulted the munisipyo used by the Japanese as garrison, and liberated Virac from the foreign invaders in early February 1945.

Back then, the munisipyo was a two-story structure of wood built opposite the church, its back almost at the seashore. In 1936 when the photo was taken, Marcos Arcilla was the sitting mayor of Virac. During the war, Joaquin Surtida served as town administrator. The munisipyo completely burned down during the guerilla attack killing all the Japanese soldiers inside plus some prisoners. Their carcasses were dumped into a nearby well on the right side. It was too on this side where the old public market was located, then referred to by the folk as “rilansi.” On the other side of the munisipyo was a robust stone adobe building that housed the elementary school. This would have been where some Viracnon youth took classes conducted by the Japanese. The building would survive until the late seventies. It housed the Provincial Schools Division Office and later on the first years of operations of the Virac Central School. It fell into disrepair when it was abandoned. Esperanza, then a recent arrival in town used it as shelter together with her son then called “Philip.”  Eventually, this building would be completely demolished (in those days of utter disregard for heritage) to give way to a new Philippine National Bank that later would become the quarters of the Sangguiniang Bayan ng Virac.  

The municipal hall was rebuilt into a new handsome structure, with a fountain in front featuring the statue of a native woman in patadiong vending fruit. There was too a well-kept lawn of Bermuda grass fenced by low well-trimmed plant hedges. In the nineties, a new municipal building was built on the front of the old, the garden and fountain altogether obliterated. Now, the current municipal administration has plans to restore the old munisipyo that will open up to the boulevard facing the sea. 

The plaza itself would take on changes after 1936. According to old folk, there materialized at the center of the plaza a pergola that was used as a band stand for public concerts or for formal balls such as the annual rigodon de honor. It also served as platform for political rallies. It would be demolished when the original Rizal monument and the stage were built. By this time, people must have started calling it Plaza Rizal. A new concrete fencing was added and the quadrangle below the stage was paved with cement. This was the plaza the post-war generations knew up until the 90s when the Rizal monument was replaced by another (the current unheroic starved statue). The quadrangle would later be covered by a humongous roofing that obliterated the once airy and foliaged ambience.

Plaza Lizaso formed the core of a secondary plaza complex that must have developed much later than the municipal sprawl, during the time that the island became a sub-province of Albay in the early years of the American occupation, politically administered by a Lieutenant Governor. The plaza proper was an open space that now is occupied by the Virac Center Mall. It was named after the Don Jose Lizaso, a Spaniard from Albay who as Permanent Commissioner was the representative of the alcalde mayor (provincial governor) of Albay in the island of Catanduanes.  He married into the Aguilar clan of Virac. Accounts said that Don Jose hosted the Crown Prince of Japan who was rescued from a shipwreck somewhere in the north of the island. Having taken care of the prince and caused his safe return, he was supposed to have been gifted by the Japanese Emperor with a golden hen with seven golden chicks. 

This plaza complex radiated around what appeared to be the huge molave tree that is still standing in place now. This casts doubts on the present claims that this tree was planted by Deogracias Belmonte of Calolobon, who in 1936 was the serving Lieutenant Governor. More likely, it was planted during the Spanish period. In the 1936 photo, it already appeared like a “century tree” that it is referred to now. Behind this tree (where the crumbling JMA Memorial Building is now) was the casa del gobierno where old folk said were the offices of the sub-provincial government, including the post office. The casa del gobierno was the only built structure that was directly hit and damaged by the Japanese aerial bombing in December 12, 1941. Standing right on the Plaza Lizaso space was a building that this writer failed to identify; it might have been a facility of the sub-provincial government or a school. In the 70s, the Virac Youth Center would be built on this site as part of the building frenzy of the Alberto regime. It housed the basketball paliga of that period and various other socio-cultural and political functions. It was venue of the very first search for Mutya ng Virac in 1977. It fell into disrepair until demolished to give way to the current mall.

On the left side of the molave was a large building that must have been what would later be called the lumang sinehan to differentiate with the bag-ong sinehan built in the early 70s (JMA cinema) at the back of the JMA Memorial Building. In the 1936 photo, it looked new and upbeat. It was the center of commercial entertainment of the Viracnons of that era. By accounts of old-timers, it showed featured films churned out by LVN and Sampaguita studios, plus an occasional Hollywood movie. Back then, a movie was supplemented by live acts of magic, bodabil and acrobatics, with accompaniment by live musicians. My mother related to me that in the grand panic to evacuate during the Japanese bombing, she was able to ride a truck among whose passengers was Tiyong Pedro the magician at the sinehan. In one of the poundings from the sky, they all had to jump down the truck and find shelter. She saw the magician dive into a lab-ugan ning karbaw together with a sack-full of the implements of his trade. When he emerged from the muck, he looked more like a clown masked with filthy sludge and floating about him were cards, paper flowers, scarves and other bric-a-brac.

The lumang sinehan would burn down later (probably immediately after the war) and my own mother was among the panicked audience. She vividly recalled how the dogs trained to do tricks as part of the live shows barked furiously as they burned with the theater, apparently trapped in their cages. It was the end of an era of live variety stage shows of the bodabil genre. According to Efren Sorra, who was a toddler during the war, the old elementary school near the munisipyo served as cinema for some time. The Virac Elementary School was by then relocated to the oma just off San Roque and later became the Virac Pilot Elementary School in 1965. Meanwhile, the burnt movie house was restored to become the sinehan ni Dadoy where in 1967 (or 1968? I was then in grade one) we paid 25 centavos to watch The Sound of Music.

POSTSCRIPT: There was yet another plaza that I failed to mention in the Tribune article, the Plaza Washington, which in the 1936 photo was merely an expanse of space at the border between Rawis and Sta. Elena now occupied by the Sports Gym. But it was not yet a major plaza complex in 1936.

Header image: stylized digital watercolor of modern Virac (original photo: Travel Trilogy)