Small-Town Paradox

(Getting to know Bayambang better)

What kind of town is Bayambang?

The answer is evident in its history. Records show that it is a kind of town where heroes would take refuge, the kind where a deputy general named Antonio Luna would case and scope, there to perhaps brainstorm preliminary military tactics with his band of revolutionaries, and would eventually be declared by his superior Gern. Emilio Aguinaldo, as the budding republic's 5th capital. Historian Jaime Veneracion speculates that Aguinaldo, Luna, et al. chose to stop by at Bayambang for it was a town friendly to the revolutionaries.

That is not surprising, for after all, the place had a reputation for pocket rebellions, as per Rosario Mendoza Cortez’s account in her book, “Pangasinan: 1572-1800” (1974): first, as a “flashpoint of the first anti-Spanish revolt led by Andres Malong in October 1660” and that of “the second Pangasinan revolt in 1762-1764 led by Juan dela Cruz Palaris, a revolt surpassing all revolts in the history of Northern Luzon in terms of scope and duration.” Another account would say that this is the reason why almost no Spanish-era houses survived in the town because of the resultant burning and pillaging following these revolts.

While it is true that the town today appears to be just another one of a series of insular, nondescript towns where travelers going north routinely pass by or briefly stop over, it has also attracted its fair share of enterprising businessmen in the colonial era (e.g. Smith Bell & Co., etc.)

It is largely a rustic town, a major producer of rice, corn, onion, and various delicacies made out of these. Formerly, it was also a major source of freshwater catch of all kinds, thanks to the 2,000-hectare Mangabul Lake, which unfortunately has been buried in lahar after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 15, 1991, but has nonetheless left a legacy of buro-making, among other delicacies. The binasuan folk dance, which requires a delicate balancing act involving drinking glasses, is also reputed to have originated in Brgy. Sancagulis, this town.

But in the face of this agrarian background, it is easy to forget that Bayambang is also an old university town, specifically a long-time training ground for generations of the country's best teachers. Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus used to be called Central Luzon Teachers' College and before that, Pangasinan Normal School, and this institution of learning pioneered a number of unsung 'laboratory experiments,' so to speak, in the field of education.  Founded in 1922, it put up the country’s first Child Study Center, the first pre-elementary school or kindergarten, and the first Opportunity Class for exceptional children. In 1953, it became the seat of the Philippines-UNESCO National Community Training Center (PUNCTC) where scholars from all over the Philippines and the world came together to learn about the socioeconomic realities in the town’s interior barangays as a kind of benchmarking activity. In 1962, it also became the venue of the First National Institute in Physical Education and Recreation in the Philippines. Old-timers even say PSU also pioneered in the area of nutrition education.

It is only expected that PSU has a long list of educators who were and are experts in their rarefied fields. Today, PSU-Bayambang is the site of a Food Innovation Center that was put up in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology. FIC is a place where food research is being done to find alternative means of taking advantage of local farmers’ bumper harvests. In fact, upon the prodding of Mayor Quiambao, Manila-based One Document Corporation headed by Jorge Yulo signed a Memorandum of Agreement with PSU on December 19, 2017 to establish a partnership for this purpose.

From the foregoing, it can be gleaned that even though nothing else much seems to happen on the surface, Bayambang makes some quiet but deep impact. Bayambang Central School, the town's public elementary school, is reported by one Manila Times news item as Pangasinan's oldest, having been established in maybe at least 1915. This reflects the fact that Bayambang is relatively an ancient town side by side most other towns in the country, tracing its founding to April 5, 1614, when an outpost called Malunguey of Binalatongan parish (in the present San Carlos City) became a visita, indicating a degree of independence and thus a distinct identity as a governed locality.

Bayambang apparently is also a bastion of Catholic faith. The people's devotion to their patron, St. Vincent Ferrer, is no less than remarkable. One can say it is a town of San Vicente Ferrer devotees. In the old parish church's Prayer Room can be found an authenticated relic of the saint, a reputed miracle worker. In the third year of 'Paskuhan sa Bayambang,' the country's biggest animated Christmas display according to no less than its maker, the Rosario family of Cubao COD's giant Christmas display fame (circa 1970s), the winged saint from Valencia, Spain (he was actually a Dominican priest), is credited for saving a nearby house on fire and for sparing the church itself from wartime bombs dropped by Japanese forces. There are, of course, an entire host of similar stories around town, and it begs for a book compilation.

One curiosity is the Bubon nen San Vicente, an ancient well along nearby M.H. del Pilar St. whose water runoff, locals believe, has healing properties. In a coffeetable book on the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Church by local historian and former PSU dean, Dr. Clarita D.G. Jimenez, Subol na Pananisia, a woman named Marcelina Malicdem of Brgy. Tanolong says that her parents, in 1928, stumbled into a wooden image of St. Vincent Ferrer floating on a river there, and the image has proven to be miraculous to her family since then.

                                                                                                                     

Another interesting side note: One Spanish priest who served the parish in the early 1700s, Fr. Lorenzo Fernandez Cosgaya de la Concepcion, wrote the first-ever Pangasinan-Spanish dictionary here, and the original copy is now found in a museum in London, which according to historical accounts, Jose Rizal must have perused while on his European 'sojourn.'

Bayambang, it must be noted further, used to have a large territory, and so its history won't be complete without noting that this includes the former barrio of Bautista (now a neighboring town), where the lyrics of the national anthem were written by Jose Palma, and the former barrio of Camiling (now a town in Tarlac), the home of Rizal's muse, Leonor Rivera, and former President of the United Nations General Assembly, Carlos P. Romulo. It is only logical that Bayambang is a town where Rizal often visited via the old Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan or on a horseback (he was a "most wanted" man back then) to court the elusive 'yes' of the love of his life, whether she was staying in Camiling or in Dagupan.

Bayambang is the hometown of these other notable personalities: Atty. Geruncio Lacuesta, a former Manila mediaman who is considered today as “the father of Philippine cycling”; former University of the Philippines Vice-President for Public Affairs and now Commission on Higher Education Chairman, Dr. J. Prospero ‘Popoy’ E. de Vera, today a popular resource person on political matters and other topics in the trimedia; Sr. Mary John Mananzan, RGS, a world-renowned leader in religious, feminist, academic, and activist circles; and Christopher Q. Gozum, the director of Anacbanua, the first full-length film in the Pangasinan language which is an internationally acclaimed arthouse film about his native Pangasinan. Showbiz personalities Wendell Ramos and  Donita Rose trace their lineage to the town’s Ramos clan. Of course, there is the renowned ‘philanthropreneur’ Dr. Cezar T. Quiambao, who is the current Municipal Mayor.

Bayambang is apparently a town where rabid patriots lived while breathing fervent Catholicism, and a rustic town where significant experimentation and pioneering feats are nonetheless attempted and made, creating silent ripples.

References: Prof. Clarita D.G. Jimenez’s unpublished coffeetable book on Bayambang’s history and its people and Subol na Pananisia, the town’s first coffeetable book, which traces the history of the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Church.