Visita iglesia routes for Holy Thursday

I was a guest at Shop Talk on ANC this afternoon. The topic today was visita iglesia and Pia Hontiveros asked me to suggest some routes for Holy Thursday. Many people have been asking why seven churches. That custom of visiting seven churches on Holy Thursday is said to originate from the early Christian practice of visiting the seven great basilicas in Rome.

As I mentioned in the show a while ago, we should try to visit heritage churches so that we get a glimpse of Philippine culture while we pray. These centuries-old churches form an inherent part of our national identity, and we must thus endeavor to preserve them for future generations of Filipinos. If you remember, we came out with a petition to the CBCP to stop the further defacing of Philippine heritage churches late last year.

Anyway, I'm posting my suggestions here for day trips around and near Metro Manila. You can also check out my destination index if you have a particular province which you want to visit or if you want to read more details about the churches I mentioned below.

In the City of Manila, check out the Manila Cathedral, San Agustin, Binondo, Sta. Cruz, Quiapo, San Sebastian, Malate and Sta. Ana. You can go further by visiting San Pedro Makati, Guadalupe and Pasig. Check out this list of heritage churches in Metro Manila for the rest.

Pampanga is an emerging visita iglesia destination. Take the San Simon exit and backtrack to the Apalit Church which is the silver dome you see from the NLEX. Then cross over to the other side and drive to the town of San Luis. Then pass by the San Fernando Cathedral, the half-buried Bacolor Church, Betis Church and its ornate white and gold retablo and marvelous wall to ceiling murals, and Lubao which is Pampanga's oldest town church. If you have time, include Angeles City, Sta. Rita or Minalin.

In Bulacan, pass by Barasoain, the Malolos Cathedral, San Rafael and Angat (although there's an explosion of gold leaf inside and new ceiling murals which do not match the original simplicity of the church).

The Laguna de Bay Loop is a very popular route. Make sure you pass by the churches in Pila, Longos (Kalayaan), Paete, Pakil and Mabitac in Laguna; and Tanay, Baras, Morong and Antipolo in Rizal.

Then there's the Mount Banahaw Loop which brings you to the provinces of Laguna, Quezon and Batangas. You can start with San Pablo, followed by Nagcarlan and Majayjay in Laguna; then to Lucban, Tayabas and Sariaya in Quezon; and finally San Juan in Batangas.

In Batangas, also check out the Cathedral and Carmelite Convent in Lipa, San Jose Church, the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Batangas City, Taal Basilica and Caysasay Shrine in Taal, and Balayan Church. You can go further to Cavite and visit the churches in Maragondon, Silang, Naic, Tanza, Kawit and Gen. Trias.

To those who have been asking how many basilicas we have in the Philippines, the answer is twelve: Agoo, La Union; Piat, Cagayan; Malolos, Bulacan; Manila Cathedral, Quiapo, San Sebastian and Binondo in Manila; Batangas City and Taal in Batangas; Tayabas, Quezon; Penafranacia, Naga City; and Sto. Nino in Cebu. You can also visit churches in the list of national cultural treasures.

Anyway, I might be in Pampanga this Holy Week checking out the violent rituals, panatas, and other Holy Week traditions. To give you a glimpse of what to see, here's a video from the Center for Kapampangan Studies:



Related entries
Visita iglesia to our heritage churches
Pisamban... the churches of Pampanga
Visita iglesia aroung Laguna de Bay
Metro Manila and its old churches
Visita iglesia Bohol
Holy Week practices in the Philippines

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If you notice, most of our retablos are white with gold details. That's a very unique Filipino characteristic in our Spanish colonial church altars. The sad part is some priests feel they have Midas' Touch as the article puts it and paint the entire thing gold. It's horrible what they did to Argao in Cebu, Tanay, and Orion in Bataan! I hope priests put it in their heads that churches are Church property and not their own personal property. They are simply caretakers and not the owners who can do whatever they want with it.
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Angat Church heritage disaster on PDI front page
I was horrified when I saw the cover photo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer today (5 April 2007). What they did in the Angat Church was horrible! Those murals do not match the simplicity and historicity of the heritage church! Why do we have to copy murals in the Vatican? We have our own Philippine Baroque to be proud of. The sad part about publishing that heritage blunder on the front page is it will give the wrong impression to parish pastoral councils that it's a cool thing to do to their own heritage churches.

Artists can release their creative juices in a new church. But let's respect our forefathers and the artisans who built the heritage churches by keeping theirwork intact, without the explosion of gold leaf and murals which weren't originally there to begin with.

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Ivan About Town was named Best Travel Blog at 2007 Philippine Blog Awards! I found out about it from text messages of fellow finalists Bikoy and Karlo who were there at the event. It was depressing not being able to attend since I had wanted to meet fellow bloggers whom I've known only through their blogs. But it was physically impossible for me to travel from Batangas City to Makati in time for the event.

Again, my heartfelt gratitude goes to the organizers, judges, volunteers and fellow bloggers who made this event a great success! Do let me know when the next Pinoy bloggers' gathering is. My appreciation goes as well to all of you who take time to read what I have to say. Let's all travel around the Philippines! It's such a beautiful country! Thanks again!

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Today, I was at Intramuros again. I had invited my brod Bikoy Villanueva to join me and my tokayo, Ivan ManDy around Manila. We met up at the Bahay Tsinoy Museum where we got a lecture on Tsinoy History 101. From there, we walked towards the San Agustin Church since I was going to meet with Fr. Pedro Galende, director of the San Agustin Museum, regarding the plans to reconstruct the Second Monastery. It turns out, the San Agustin issue was a false alarm. The photos which circulated among cultural workers on the net are from an old design idea that never became a plan.

I mentioned to Fr. Galende that they should not have displayed those design ideas on the second floor of the museum. Anyway, the blue prints of the current plans are now on display on the first floor, an exterior reconstruction that was approved by UNESCO itself. The current design came about from several technical working group meetings with representatives from the National Museum, NHI, NCCA and IA and HCS members.

Fr. Galende was very receptive. He in fact wants feedback on the current design if there are any and requested me to relay the same to him. I posted the current plans above (there are several panels in San Agustin) for everyone's information.

From San Agustin, we decided to walk towards the Binondo area. While we were on the Jones Bridge, we saw the Pasig River Ferry docked in the Escolta Station and rushed to check it out. The next station, Sta. Ana, was just 30 minutes away so we decided to hop on board. We spent PHP25 each one-way.

There are several proposed stations along the Pasig River from Del Pan Bridge close to the mouth of the river up to Sta. Elena in Marikina. At the moment, four are already operational namely Escolta, Sta. Ana, Hulo and Guadalupe.

We weren't able to take photos during the more scenic part of the ferry ride because of security concerns. I wonder what the paranoia is all about, all these restrictions on taking photos of Malacanang. During my ferry rides in Bangkok and Singapore, I was able to take photos of the Grand Palace and Parliament House respectively. That's why I found this restriction especially absurd since after Malacanang, the river becomes black, the stench of the water becomes unbearable, and from old colonial buildings, you see the Pandacan Oil Depot, warehouses, factories, squatters and garbage among others!

From the Sta. Ana Station, we walked a few meters to the Sta. Ana Church, a national cultural treasure. The retablo is among the best in Metro Manila. In fact, I believe it's the most intact church complex in Manila with its convento and all.

After that brief tour of the church, we rushed back to the station to catch the ferry back to Escolta only to wait for thirty more minutes since the ferry was late. I hope they are able to perfect the arrival and departure times especially when more stations open. We went to the nearest Chinese restaurant along Escolta for dinner. I was craving for hot and sour soup so we ordered a bowl. We also had some siomai, beef spareribs and fried rice.

After dinner, since I was craving for dumplings, we went to Dong Bei to munch on their popular dumplings, pancakes and noodles. While we were eating, we found out our vehicles were locked inside the Bahay Tsinoy. And since they had an alarm system, we couldn't get them until the next day! So all of us had to commute home. Oh well!

Thanks to Bikoy for our photos in San Agustin and the Pasig River Ferry. Check out Bikoy.net for his account of our trip.

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