Reminisce: Remember When

A TRIBUTE IN HONOR AND MEMORY OF ÑORA PURING BALLESTEROS, A TRUE CAVITEÑA BY HEART AND SOUL

Photo c/o : Historia Caviteña

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Reminisce: Remember When

by Purificacion N. Ballesteros

More and more of the young people who had listened to my tales of Cavite Puerto’s glorious past, would suggest to me to write down my personal experiences encountered inside the mini-replica of Intramuros, the walled town of Cavite, before my memory fades away in a haze and be lost forever.

Cavite Puerto today is familiarly called PN (read the signboard en route to Cavite Puerto), because of the presence of the Philippine Naval Base in that place. It would make me cringed and a little bit angry, for fear that Cavite Puerto will be known as PN, and the historical place will lose its name to PN forever.

To enter Cavite Puerto from San Roque, passing through the Isthmus of Rosario, 

the pedestrian entered the center gate of Porta Vaga and steps into the old world of Cavite town, the capital of Cavite Province.

At the turn of the century and during the American occupation, the Navy Yard and all the shores of Cavite, including Sangley Point were under the guarded eyes of the US Marines, whose barracks, was the second largest outside the United States. The first was located on Corregidor Island of which the ruins could still be seen today.

The stranger who would venture to enter the gate, will have to think twice when confronted by the facade of the fortress and the stern posture of marine guards.

The buses, cars and calesas which entered Cavite will enter thru the left side of the wall and exit on the right side. I vividly remember when the Japanese planes bombed Cavite at half past noon of December 10, 1941 and the air raid siren bansheed and made me scampered up to the azotea and watched as the planes, like silver fishes in the bright sky over the Navy Yard, dropped bombs over the place.

Cavite was almost empty of its residents, as the Americans ordered all of us to evacuate to nearby towns after the Pearl Harbor incident on December 7, 1941. We return in the morning to attend to the needs of our navy workers who were part of the families residing inside the Puerto. When the bombs hit the houses, we ran towards the fort of Porta Vaga to take refuge. We huddled together against the wall as the earth shook. Afraid that the Japanese pilots would spot the bridge that separates Cavite from San Roque, the Antonio sisters, Simeon Macalindong and many others managed to cross safely to San Roque.

Life inside Cavite was serene and peaceful. The people were neighborly, for everyone knew everybody. Many prominent families live there. The Puerto has two public schools, the Cavite Primary and the Cavite Elementary School, formerly the Cavite High School, situated near the mansion of Don Maximo Inocencio, one of the XIII Martyrs. On its place today stands the Dra. Olivia Salamanca Memorial Hospital. Don Julian Felipe lived across the primary school on P. Zamora Street. We always saw him station himself near the door every morning and afternoon, seated on a vienna chair, fanning himself with a large anahaw fan. Each morning during the flag-raising ceremony in the school yard, the Maestro listened carefully as the Philippine National Anthem is sung, and woe to the teachers and pupils when he heard the anthem not being sung correctly! He would cross the street right into the school yard and make the teachers and children repeat the singing of the national anthem where he himself conducted.

The lone Catholic school was the Academy of the Sacred Heart managed by the German sisters of the Benedictine Order, OSB from 1924 to 1941. The academy was the former San Juan de Dios Hospital and was also known later as the school of La Sagrada Familia run by the Sisters of Charity.

The nuns and the school children were called “Cuca.” You probably would ask what Cuca means? Simple, cockroaches. Why? The Academy of the Sacred Heart was a massive Spanish type convent with many rooms. The wards were converted into classrooms. The gates was of heavy wood and the knocker was of brass as big as a man’s fist. The sister porter holds the key to the door about five inches long. The Benedictine nuns go to mass very early in the morning, walking single file to the Ermita Church. They return by way of the Paseo del Reparo to take a whiff of the morning breeze and exercise. At 7:30 am, the gates are opened to admit the school children. At lunchtime and at the end of the day, the school children are let out through the same gate and resembled cockroaches locked inside a cupboard too long and stampeded when released. The name stuck today. Some years ago, the “Cucas” organized themselves and formed the Academy of the Sacred Heart Alumni Association. The first president was the late Ms. Natividad Nazareno, succeeded by Doris Rosal, Paquita Medina, Melita Robles, Esther Escalante, Carmen Arce, Mameng Rodriguez, Lulu Oropesa, Josefina Afable, Luz Valentin, and at present Paz Nicolas de Guzman.

The academy for sometime admitted boys to study in the convent. They were Amorante Plan, Chin Ping, Eddy Tirona, Ramon and Tony Afable, Bing Ramirez, Eugenio Domingo, the Basa brothers, George de Guzman, and the late Delfin Montano to name a few.

Trece Martires Street was the main street with many accessorias of Castillian style. 

Several restaurants, barbershops, stores and Chinese businesses were located there. The bar near the Navy Yard was owned by the Crawfords patronized by the American servicemen. The Kilala’s Hat Store, Fuji Bar, Lejarde’s Pawnshop, Sra. Maria Yuste’s famous dress shop and the farmacia of Victoriano Luciano, one of the XIII Martyrs of Cavite, managed by his brother Joaquin were located in the Ermita area. Houses near the San Pedro Church had stone arches and walls of bricks. The street were of cobbled stones and you could hear the clip-clap of horses passing. The children would gather loose horse shoes in the morning and play a game with it. A player threw a horseshoe upon a protruding large nail or cabilla buried in the soil. The player scores a point when he, from a distance of three meters, made his horseshoe hugged the iron nail. The Americans played the game on the right side of San Pedro Church beside the large building of Admiral Theatre.

The national sport of the Americans is baseball and no wonder many Caviteños were good at it. A large diamond baseball park was inside the navy yard. The Caviteños usually play here against the Americans. Bleachers were located at the side of the fence where people could watch. We roared and applauded for hits and homeruns made by the Caviteño players.

At the Plaza San Pedro, former Nard Guerrero, Andy Salim, Seny Rosal and their barkada would play baseball and when the ball would land at our azotea and I would throw it back to them.

Cavite produced great baseball players, like the Oncinians, Armando and son Benny, the Caguias, who played for Canlubang. The late Armando Oncinian played baseball in 1940 when the Philippine Olympic Team played a series of games with Japan’s best. Emperor Hirohito and Armando posed for souvenir picture in Japan and the picture saved his life when the Japanese Kempetai ransacked his house and arrested him as a guerilla suspect. The Japs saw the picture and set him free.

During those days, the value of one US dollar was 2 Philippine pesos. We would troop to the US Navy Yard and the kind marines would let us for the commisary and service club and Jim Boo, former owner of Pagoda Restaurant would generously scoop ice cream in a double-sized cone for two centavos together with a piece of red apple or Baby Ruth that cost two cents as bonus. There were no Jollibee or McDonalds during those days. The bark of Ñol Chanong Salazar will have us kids scamper to his side to buy buchi, the best we ever ate at one centavo each. Or we would troop to Mang Abe’s stand at the corner of Cine Eden to buy one centavo delicious mantecado and ube ice cream for dessert with the navy yard workers who just had had their lunch at the nearby Chinese restaurant at six centavos per meal.

On a Saturday night when the moon was full, kids would gather at the nearby Sto. Domingo Church ruins and play pantintero, tumbang lata, luksong-tinik or just biked along Paseo del Reparo. Sometimes they watch movies at the open air theatre at the marine barracks for free. On our way home, we would hear the music strains of the Dreamland Cabaret of Eddie Hart playing “Harbor Light.”

On Sundays, masses were said early at Ermita Church and  

San Pedro Church at 8:00 am.

Chin Ping served as sacristan to Padre Pedro together with Manolo Nicolas while Ñol Chong was the Sacristan mayor. He would ring the Angelus at six and eight o’clock at the Ermita while Manuel would rung the bell at San Pedro. The bell used by Ñol Chong in Ermita is now at San Roque Church. It was retrieved from the ruins of the Ermita Church during the Japanese occupation by the father and son Pedro “Chinit” Tan and Ricardo Tan of Barrio San Jose. The bells were returned to Padre Pedro in 1946.

In the month of May the Puerto celebrate the Flores de Mayo. Each day, little girls wore white dresses and carried little baskets of flower filled with calachuchi, cadena de amor, gumamela, ilang-ilang and mileguas. Kids would gather at the patio of the Ermita Church and the strains of the organ music played by Ñora Amparo Rivera and her daughter Buen Torres and the de Leon sisters at the choir singing the “Reina de Cavite” and the “Salve Regina” after the novena and rosario cantada, we strewed flowers at the altar of the Nstra. Sra. dela Soledad, with Padre Pedro Lerena officiating.

During the santacruzan, the young men ogled at the beauteous young girls and sagalas. The beautiful Caviteñas were Irene de Castro, Doris Yustew-Rosal (whose mother was the best dressmaker during that time), Caring Ruiz-Maigue, Susana Jose and Cely Tirona. The local boys were henerales, moro-moros and Rey Constantino. One or two beauties from Manila were invited by Doña Matsay Osorio, who was usually the hermana mayor.

The month of December brings many memories to mind. On Christmas, kids would go to their ninongs and ninangs for the usual “pamasko” and would be given a handful of ten and twenty centavos. Very seldom did the Caviteños buy shoes at the department stores in Manila, but have it custom made. If we needed shoes for the holidays we go the Chinese shoe maker Hop Hsing on Trece Martires Street at five pesos a pair. The shoes were durable and of good leather that it was handed down to the next sibling when outgrown.

Our noche buena and media noche were not complete without an order of tamales from Ñora Rosa of the famous “Bukol” Domingo Family. The regular variety is twenty five centavos and the special ones at fifty centavos.

During the fiesta days of November, there were the tio vivos at ten centavos a ride. As the fiesta nears, we scrimped four centavos from our baon to enjoy the rides five times together with a bag of pop corn and twin popsicles.

Nobody could stop the Caviteños deep devotion to the Soledad. The last fiesta before the war, that I vividly remember, was struck by a typhoon. However, the procession went on with the beautiful ladies all dressed up. It was long and Padre Pedro was behind the carroza of the Soledad.

The darkest day was upon us on December 10, 1941. After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Air Force bombed Cavite Navy Yard and Sangley Point, wrecking havoc on Cavite Puerto. Thus the residents of Cavite Puerto abandoned the town which was totally destroyed. The Spanish houses, schools and churches were never rebuilt to its former glory. Many residents of Cavite failed to return after the war but they never fail to come back during fiesta days. Time to visit their relatives and old friends, to rekindle past memories and to give homage to the Blessed Virgin, the NUESTRA SEÑORA DELA SOLEDAD DE PORTA VAGA. (The End)

PHOTO CAPTION: Second from the right, is the late Ñora Puring Ballesteros. This picture was taken on June 5, 1998 after a program commemorating the Centenary of the Philippine National Anthem in honor of its composer Don Julian Felipe. Above inset, is a picture of Ñora Puring in 2007. 

-- Founder Junn Evangelista (Young)