12. NEW YEAR’S DAY in BATAAN

NEW YEAR’S DAY IN BATAAN

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano

01 January 2017

When I was a child, my parents would always bring me and my siblings to parks and historical places during weekends and holidays. Now that I have my own family, I always insist on continuing the tradition every Christmas vacation, summer and semestral breaks. My bilas or my wife’s brother-in-law invited us to visit their relatives in Hermosa, Bataan for their family reunion and New Year’s lunch. We decided, however, to leave early and visit Mt. Samat in Pilar town where the Dambana ng Kagitingin was located and drove for another 51 kilometers south to Mariveles where the Kilometer Zero (KM 00) of the Death March was erected.

Researching on the etymology of the names of the eleven towns and one city of Bataan province reveals fascinating historical facts, stories, legends and versions. It is interesting also to note that Bataan is one of the provinces with no “saints” as the name of their local government units. One, however, has religious inclination – the Municipality of Pilar named in honor of its patroness, the Nuestra Señora del Pilar or Our Lady of the Pillar, a name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in connection with an ancient Spanish tradition that she appeared to the Apostle James the Greater (son of Zebedee; died 44AD) as he was praying by the banks of the Ebro at Zaragoza, Spain. Mary is often depicted carrying the Christ Child on her arms resting above a pillar, sometimes carried by angelic cherubs. Pilar town was founded on March 10, 1901 during the American Occupation.

Mariveles, on the other hand, got its name after a legend. Let me refer to the book of John Foreman, The Philippine Islands, 3^rd Edition printed in 1905. “About the beginning of the 17th century one of the Mexican galleons brought to Manila a family named Velez, whose daughter was called Maria. When she was 17 years of age, this girl took the veil in Santa Clara Convent, and there responded to the attentions of a Franciscan monk, who fell so desperately in love with her that they determined to elope to Camaya (now a barangay of Mariveles) and wait there for the galleon which was to leave for Mexico in the following July. The girl, disguised in a monk´s habit, fled from her convent, and the lovers arrived safely in Camaya in a hired canoe, tired out after the sea passage under a scorching sun. The next day they went out to meet the galleon, which however had delayed sailing. In the meantime the elopement had caused great scandal in Manila. A proclamation was published by the town-crier calling upon the inhabitants to give up the culprits who are under severe penalties for disobedience. Nothing resulted, until the matter oozed out through a native who was aware of their departure. Then an alderman of the city set out in a prahu in pursuit of the amorous fugitives accompanied by a notary and a dozen arquebusiers. After searching in vain all over the island now called Corregidor, they went to Camaya, and there they found the young lady, Maria, on the beach in a most pitiable condition, with her dress torn to shreds and by her side was the friar, wearied and bleeding from the wounds he had received while fighting with the savage natives who disputed his possession of the fair maiden. The search-party found there a canoe in which the friar in custody was conveyed to Manila, while the girl was taken by the alderman in the prahu. From Manila the sinful priest was sent to teach religion and morality to the Visayan tribes. The romantic nun was sent back to Mexico to suffer perpetual reclusion in a convent.” From these events, arose the names of Corregidor (Alderman) Island, which lies between the rocks known as Fraile (Friar) and Monja (Nun), while the place where the lovers were found took the name Mariveles (Maria Velez). Founded as a pueblo by a Franciscan Friar in 1578, Mariveles, was part of the Corregimiento of Mariveles, including Bagac, and Morong, Corregidor and Maragondon, Cavite. The Superior Decree of July 1754 declared Mariveles' independent from Pampanga province.

The original name given to the town of Hermosa was Babuyan, which means “a place of many pigs” due to the abundance of wild boar which roamed the area in olden times. The town, founded in 1852, was renamed to Llana Hermosa, a Spanish term which means “beautiful plain.” Another version came from a popular local legend. A group of Spaniards first came to this place, surprised and amazed they exclaimed, “Que Hermosa! Que Hermosa!,” when they saw some pretty maidens with long, black hair washing clothes and bathing in the brook. The boys who accompanied their sisters repeated what they heard from the Spaniards and upon returning home they chanted again and again what the Spaniards exclaimed. When the next group of Spaniards visited the place, they asked for its name. The folks didn't understand Spanish but answered "Hermosa, Hermosa" and this was recorded in the Spanish documents as the name of the locality.

On the way to Hermosa to my bilas’ family reunion, I requested that we drop by Dinalupihan town where the monument of the famous Battle of Layac Junction is situated. According to Jose Reyes’ History of Bataan, the name of the pueblo founded in 1865 came from the festival rights of Aeta pygmies to commemorate their idol Indianalo, the goddess of hunting and bountiful harvest. Indianalo was paired with the Sanskrit word jann, meaning “paradise”. Indianalopijann was the name given to the land that the Aetas received from their goddess which translates to “Indianalo's paradise.” As time progressed, the name Indianalopijann turned into Dinalupihan. The name Dinalupihan also means "empty lands", coming from the Spanish terms din, a, and lupia. It referred to the fact that it failed to produce little revenue while it was an estate of the Archdiocese of Manila during the second half of the 18th century. There are two other theories of its name origin. It is believed to have come either from the word dulu meaning “end” or directly dinalupihan meaning “an assemblage of centipedes”.

I browsed the net for the word origin of Bataan in Wikipedia in the list of Philippine provincial name etymologies. The name is an evolved form of batan, a word of obscure origin, which was the indigenous name for the land across the water from Maragondon, Cavite also rendered in early Spanish accounts as Vatan. The term batang has cognates across various Austronesian languages, mostly being a word that means "the main part of something," such as "trunk" or "body". On a more abstract level, the term means "the most important or pre-eminent thing." Reflexes of “batang” in some Austronesian languages also lend support to the possible interpretation "land bridge," given the term's usage related to elongated, trunk-like shapes. The use of batan for the province's namesake may therefore be related either to: (1) its conspicuousness within the Manila Bay area, given the topographic prominence of its two high peaks - Mount Natib, and Mount Mariveles which dominates entrance to Manila Bay or (2) its elongated shape and topography, which resulted from a plateau being formed between the two aforementioned volcanic peaks.

New Year's Day, which is January 1, marks the start of the year in the Gregorian calendar. It is a public holiday in many countries and is celebrated worldwide. Touring historic Bataan is my own special way in observing New Year’s Day. Knowing the background of names of places gives us a glimpse of the history of a locality. I always believe that increasing historical consciousness would result to a disciplined and nationalistic Filipino youth ever ready to face the challenges of this millennium.