CLASS 1942
As they say it . . . “You can’t put a good man down.” And of course , “You can’t put a good woman down either, can you? The late Mrs. Guadalupe Condez Alcañeses – Cadiz was one of the most well known, respected and highly regarded citizens not only here in Sariaya but in the province of Quezon. Aside from being a brilliant professor in the field of Chemistry, she was once the soil chemist of Sariaya at the erstwhile Maximo Rodriguez Soils Laboratory at Muntingbayan. But she was most well known and given honors nationwide and abroad for her works in the advocacy for Family Planning and Planned Parenthood. This can be attributed to her being a good wife and a mother, as well as for being a role model and an achiever. Despite all of these, she remained a simple and humble person in her lifetime, good qualities which was imparted on her and her siblings by her father, Engr. Vicente Alcañeses. Simple living and having good relations with everyone truly made her the “Ate”, “Tiya” and “Ninang Puping” of a lot of people in Muntingbayan, and throughout Sariaya.
Through my late and erstwhile Sariaya Quadri- Centennial Foundation Inc. (SQFI) Mommy Juling Tan, I had the privilege of interviewing her one afternoon in April 2002 at their lovely Alcañeses Family ancestral house in Muntingbayan, care of my personal advocacy for documenting much of our eventful Sariayahin past. I was at awe at the way she brought us to the Sariaya of her much younger days during the prewar, wartime and postwar years, and even before she was born through the stories of her father Engr. Alcañeses, through her very absorbing story telling, and I was not prepared for the volume of information which she dished out for us with gusto, that I suddenly regretted not having learned steno writing, with only pen and papers in tow. As such, I resolved to return to her thereafter with a tape recorder for ease of information gathering, but was not able to do so in the immediate because of my then pressing SQFI commitments for the Agawan Festival of May 11 – 15, 2002.
It was only more than a year later, on the 7th, 10th and 14th of October when I was able comprehensively talk to her once again, and it was indeed a very rewarding and one-of-a-kind experience. I can truly say that I was so overwhelmed at the volume of golden knowledge that I obtained, as if I was in for an information overload if I was a computer, because everything was even supported by old documents, photographs, articles which she herself painstakingly researched and wrote, and even a Family Tree, told with much candor and aplomb of one who had gotten through a lot in life. It is not an exaggeration to say that I was almost made to ride the Time Machine of Herbert G. Wells, and transported back to a Sariaya that was definitely much more different than the one we are now living in. Hopefully, in my own raw manner of writing and dedicated research work, I can comprehensively bring about a better understanding of how life was lived in our then much more innocent community, according to the eyes, heart and mind of a highly esteemed person of her time.
Mrs. Guadalupe Cadiz was born on February 27, 1926, but her stories about Sariaya started even earlier than that. It was because she and her siblings grew in the very descriptively told life of their parents and grandparents about, how they led their lives in this place they called home. It is through these life stories that she was able to understand everything , as to how her beloved forebears met, started their family and how the great confusing maze of their family tree came to be.
Her father Vicente was an only child, and the Alcañeses family hailed from Barrio Concepcion, where his father, Policarpio had two younger brothers, Casimiro and Doroteo, the youngest who had the misfortune of dying at an early age due to chicken pox. Her paternal grandmother Praxides Gagasa, lived in the town, born of Evaristo Gagasa and Alejandra de Luna. Meanwhile, Casimiro Alcañeses married Praxides’ sister Ceferina who died early and they were childless, so he remarried, to Victoria Raymunda, and they had two sons, Benito and Briccio. Praxides and Ceferina Gagasa had another sister, Romana, who married Crispino Alcala then living in the house of the 1879 – 1880 Sariaya Gobernadorcillo, Don Lucio Rodriguez, and they accordingly had two children, Romana and Fructuoso.
The life story of Mrs. Guadalupe Cadiz’s mother, Irene, is vastly different in that her father, Gregorio Condez hailed from the town of Morong, Rizal, one of fourteen children. Because they hailed from a family of very humble means, their parents were forced to give their children to adoption. Because of that, the young Gregorio found his way to Sariaya and he became an altar by at the original old convent west of the church, now the St. Joseph’s Academy. Perhaps, accordingly due to her musical gifts, the then parish priest had him taught how to play the organ that he became the church organist thereafter. He later married Bernarda Rodriguez who accordingly had a house across the Mamala River, now the location of the Quiminiano Hardware Store. Irene was the youngest child and he had three elder sisters namely Felisa, Flora and Ulpiana. Felisa married into the Obnial Family, Flora to the Bobadilla Family and Ulpiana to the Ricohermoso Family.
The eventual marriage of Vicente Alcañeses and Irene Condez produced four girls just like the Condezes . . . Guadalupe or “Puping”, followed by Avelina or “Aveling” (November 11, 1928), Felicitas or “Felising” (March 5, 1932) and Carmela or “Carmeling” (December 28, 1934).
According to Mrs. Cadiz, her “Lolo Policarpio” was a very simple and hardworking man, traits basically ingrained in a person who grew up in Barrio Concepcion. This hardworking character further intensified with his marriage to her “Lola Praxides”, particularly when their only child Vicente was born on July 19, 1893. Because of his patience and perseverance, Policarpio Alcañeses was able to purchase a property then owned by her sister – in – law Romana Gagasa Alcala near the Keanuang River, just inside Muntingbayan across the Spanish bridge from Barrio Sampaloc at the western end of town, wherein ”Keanuang” is the Sariaya Tagalog term for carabao. This was where they built a small nipa hut, their very first home in the year 1902.
As described by her father, the area to the north of their property was still woodland and one can see screaming white monkeys frolicking and jumping from one tree to another. Likewise, there was still an abundance of deer and wild boar in Mount Banahaw and hunting for them was a happy diversion for the man of the house. Proof of this is the presence of dried deer antlers serving as decoration at the present house of the Alcañeses – Cadiz Family, memenots of her dear old “Lolo Policarpio”. He was a person who was not fond of dressing up for occasions, and this is obvious from an old photograph wherein wife Praxides was formally dressed up while he was garbed in simply and wore slippers. According to the story,. The old Policarpio had seven horses which he rented for farmers bringing their fresh produce to the town market then located at a property which is where the opulent , Art Deco style Gov. Natalio Enriquez house now stands.
Vicente Alcañeses accordingly started his schooling in the year 1901, along with his other classmates like Maria Albufera Ocampo, Justiniana Ocampo Jumawan, Aniana Palomera, Eriberto Alcance Dedace, and Marta Religioso, who were among the very first Sariayahin students of the American Thomasite teachers, and the old wooden Municipio then served as their school. Mrs. Cadiz had a story to tell about how every Monday afternoon, according to his father Vicente, their teacher said . . . “Let us go to the pool!” They then proceeded to the said pool located at the water – filled sunken portion of a much smaller park. They were then pushed there one after the other by their teacher, most likely because they seldom took a bath in those days. Vicente accordingly only had two sets of clothes which he used while in school. They were then still learning the rudiments of English and during the roll call for attendance, the young Vicente would say “Hershey”, instead of “Here Sir!” Hershey Chocolates according to an old National Geographic Magazine article was started in the 1903 year by its creator Mr. Milton Hershey, in Pennsylvania, USA. His favorite subject in school was geography so he was very familiar with the latitude and the longitude, even the comparison regarding the size of countries and their respective capital cities.
Before the year 1918, Sariayahin students at the Public School can only enroll up to Grade 4 and after that, they had to go to Lucena by way of horseback riding or the calesa, and then rent their board and lodging in there. Accordingly, Vicente Alcañeses stayed at the house of Doña Celestina Varela who helped him finish his elementary schooling by 1909. That year was unforgettable for Sariayahins since in January, an off season typhoon struck that was said to have caused landslides from the 50 hectare area of the old Mount Banahaw crater. Large volumes of water, mud and rocks flowed from it causing the massive flooding and the destruction of the old iron bridge at Sadyaya River, now the Lagnas River. The horror of such a calamity was felt by the Alcañeses family that they feared for their safety in their small hut. By the following year, 1910, they had it reconstructed with wood, bigger in size, and with two stories. The flooring at the ground floor was made of long wooden planks from the entrance to the backdoor as was in vogue during the old days. That year, Vicente was then in high school at the San Antonio de Padua, a catholic school for males run by Fr. Amado Alandy of Tayabas, the first Filipino parish priest of Sariaya, but he later transferred to the San Juan de Letran in Manila.
Those were the days when there was still no effective land transportation from Sariaya and the roads were truly bad and there were only two ways to reach Manila. The first was by way of a calesa ride to the port of Castañas where the passengers rode boats coming from Marinduque, Pagbilao and Cotta in Lucena. They travel the rest of Tayabas Bay through the waters between batangas and Mindoro and then sail north through the South China Sea along the Cavite shoreline before entering Manila Bay en route to Manila. The other way is by riding the calesa to the town of Bay in Laguna, then at its Laguna de Bay shoreline, they rode boats sailing through it to the Pasig River and into Manila.
Studying in Manila is truly difficult and there was even a time when Vicente had to stop schooling for lack of material resources and had to return back home for a temporary vacation. Sometime in 1914, he walked his way to the cockpit which was then behind the de Guzman family residence at Muntingbayan and from there heard the stories being told by “Haring Ponse”. He was addressed as such because he lorded it over the then famous “Moro Moro” comedy stage plays in town, usually held during the town fiesta in September. The plot was accordingly always about a Christian Princess kidnapped by Muslims and her rescue by her lover, a Christian prince, and the actors wore costumes, shouting in memorized verses, with the sword fight scene or “Estukadahan” being the highlight, the sound backdrop being provided by rented “Banda ng Musiko”. The stage was made of wood, complete with curtains and bamboo ladders that accordingly were erected at the eastern side of the municipio at the corner of Mabini and Bandholtz Street now the main street of General Luna. Yet, “Haring Ponse” was even famous for his uncanny way of predicting the future which he dished out in verses. When he was then asked when the just started World war I in Europe would end, he accordingly said that . . . “Ito ay titigil, pero magsisimula uli”. This was a puzzlement to the Sariayahins of those days, but we know now that it was a reference to the even bigger World War II. Other predictions of “Haring Ponse” shared by Mrs. Guadalupe Cadiz as told by her father included the . . . “Kapag umunat daw ang sampalok, mangliligaw na raw ang mga babae sa mga lalaki”. Old people attested to the fact that the tamarind fruit was more curved like a letter “C” in the past and that now, it has become more elongated. Nowadays, a lot of our women behave far from the norm of the traditional “Maria Clara”. Another prediction of “Haring Ponse” said that “Magpapantalon ang mga kababaihan” . . . and as such these two predictions seemed to foretell the emancipation of the Filipino women. Among the other pronouncements of “Haring Ponse” as told by Mrs. Cadiz through her father’s recollections were “Magiging papel ang pera”, when the denomination of those days was the coin, “Lilipad ang bapor” that foretold the coming of the airplane, and “Wawalisan ang kalsada” in those days when the streets were of dirt that accordingly elicited so much amusement to the townspeople, which actually predicted the concreting of streets. “Haring Ponse” even dared those who did not believe him with “Kapag ako’y namatay na at hindi nagkatotoo ang aking mga hula, hanapin ninyo ang aking libingan, inyong tadyakan, at sabihing ako ay mayabang!” Old people of nowadays said that they heard about him, yet have not see him in person, a mystique that Mrs. Cadiz’s father Vicente was able to see and hear in his own words.
After finishing high school at San Juan de Letran in 1916, Vicente went to college at the University of Santo Tomas where he took up Civil Engineering and eventually graduated in the year 1921. Yet in between his studies, he was able to earn his keep as Assistant engineer in the Bureau of Public Works from 1918 to 1920, and as to the reason why he was able to do it, Mrs. Cadiz said that she had no inkling, and perhaps, they had a vastly different set of qualifications for job opportunities back then, since such would not be possible at present, most especially when it comes to engineering works. After three years of work at the said office, Vicente Alcañeses was among nine hopefuls who took the board examinations between June 9 – 10, 1923 and thereafter was among the only two who passed it, along with a certain Mike Garcia. On August 24, 1923, they were formally declared as fully certified civil engineers and he was given the so called Diploma # 96.
Despite his job at the public works, he was still able to render his services to his beloved hometown and became a member of the old socio civic organization “Kapisanang Muling Sumilang”, who commissioned the “Kapampangan” turned prewar “Sariayahin” monument – furniture – toy maker Mr. Eusebio Cortez to build the Dr. Jose Rizal and “Glorita” monuments at the newly enlarged town park, which was inaugurated in august rites during the Rizal Day celebrations of December 30, 1924. It was also around that time that Vicente accordingly became smitten with the lovely Miss Irene Condez, a smart lady who was fluent in the Spanish language and who was then well known in town as a piano teacher. She got her musical talents from her father, the town organist Mr. Gregorio Condez. In those days, when a child said that he / she learned playing the piano from the “Maestra’, it was Miss Condez who was being referred to. Mrs. Cadiz said that when they wrote letters to each other, it was in that most romantic of languages. They eventually married on January 21, 1925 and lived with their Lolo Policarpio and Lola Praxides at Muntingbayan who were then getting advanced with age. Soon, Engr. Alcañeses left the government and worked free lance, and from 1925 to 1936 became the consultant on the “strength of materials” of the Municipio for his vast knowledge and experience in the said field. In 1936 – 1937, he accepted the job of being the manager of the electricity and the water services in town and his office was accordingly where the present toilet is located. It was the right time to settle in sariaya for he and Irene were then raising their four children. “Maestrang Irene” continued to teach piano lessons at home and was able to purchase a good Rachals piano in 1925 while serving as organist for the Santa Teresita church choir. Mrs. Cadiz told that his father was so practical with money, a trait he earned from her Lolo Policarpio, which she described as “maarimunhanin” . As an example, she told that when riding the LTB Bus to Manila, he would walk from their Muntingbayan residence to the cemetery area to save one centavo. Then on the return trip, he would alight at the cemetery to save another one centavo and then would walk home thereafter. This was the Sariaya that young Puping and her sisters were born to and lived in . . . . . . .
The coconut boom years apparently started in 1914 with the discovery that aside from being used in the cosmetics and margarine industry, copra oil particularly its nitroglycerine component is an important ingredient for the manufacture of explosives. That year, Germany was flexing its war machine in Europe starting World War I and the big demand for copra oil was cashed in by coconut producers particularly the wealthy plantation owners of Sariaya. They planted even more coconut trees, purchasing more land for coconut farming in the process and they had so much money, that they turned their attention to the renovation of their old ancestral houses by brilliant and foreign trained Filipino architects like Andres Luna de San Pedro and Juan Nakpil, as well as Spanish architects like Juan Hervas and Abelardo la Fuente. Among the opulently beautiful residences in town dating from that period were those owned by Don Catalino Rodriguez, the heirs of Doña Florita Rodriguez, the Gala – Rodriguez house, Gov. Maximo Rodriguez, Dr. Simeon Rodriguez, Don Lucio Rodriguez, Gov. Natalio Enriquez, Dr. Wenceslao Rodriguez and Don Emiliano Gala, among others, while the iconic Sariaya Municipio was built by Juan Arellano.
In the early 1930s, there was the “Leaf Miner” infestation as told by Mrs. Cadiz though the stories of her father Vicente, which destroyed the coconut plantations such that the playful use of slingshots to harm the birds who feed on the pests was prohibited. Scores of coconut tree owning families, particularly the small time coconut farmers were adversely affected , the drop in the worldwide price of copra notwithstanding. By 1932 however, the coconut industry made a comeback and the coconut boom years had a second wind which resulted in the 1930s being the golden age of Sariaya. In the year 1933, the Alcañeses Family decided to fortify and beautify their residence such that the exteriors were concretized, yet the wooden interiors dating from the year 1910 were maintained. The unimagined prosperity that the town’s landed gentry enjoyed rubbed in on the whole community such that being Sariayahin in those days was accordingly synonymous with being wealthy, smart and ostentatious in the eyes of people from the nearby localities. This was highlighted by the holding of the May time San Isidro Labrador fiesta as well as the very lavish three – day town fiesta celebration in honor of Sariaya’s miraculous icon, the 18th century likeness of the medieval crucifix of Burgos, Spain locally known as the Santo Cristo de Burgos or the “Mahal na Senyor” which accordingly came from Spain. Also included in the three day procession of this one – of – a kind celebration were the San Francisco de Assisi, the town’s patron saint and the Niña Maria, a priceless small icon owned by Sariaya’s rich spinster philanthropist Doña Margarita Rodriguez. Grand ballroom parties facilitated by the town’s social organizations were the norm in those days, particularly the most awaited Valentine’s Day party at the park institutionalized by the Cupid’s Club. It featured well coiffed ladies dressed in formal evening gowns together with dashing gentlemen in tuxedos and sharkskin pants sashaying to live orchestra Big band music provided by local and Manila – based orchestras until the wee morning hours of the next day. Also featured in this grand occasion likewise attended by distinguished guests from other localities and Manila were well choreographed “Comparsa” dances by young men and women in fancy costumes, as well as the Cupid’s Club Muse, chosen from among the town’s fairest. Yet as Mrs. Cadiz said, attending or even going to the park to ogle at the said proceedings have not been ingrained in their family since they lived by what she said was a “Spartan Existence” of simple living which they adapted from their Lolo Policarpio.
Engr. Vicente Alcañeses ceased to become a Municipal employee in 1937 and in the following year 1938, his mother Praxides Gagasa died at the age of 65. His father, Policarpio Alcañeses had died earlier and as such, he solely became responsible for looking after their properties, particularly those located in Barrio Concepcion.
Guadalupe and her siblings were raised by their parents in a simple and organized environment, where good manners and right conduct were prominent. They grew up God fearing, with much regard for self respect and propriety, and respect for the rights of others, while living a life full of music. Their father was a great influence in their lives, whose policy was self discipline and responsibility even at a young age, yet given grace and nurture by being attuned to the arts, particularly in music which they got from their mother Irene Condez. She amusingly remembered that when it came to music, it was their father the disciplinarian who was more strict than their mother who actually gave them piano lessons. Accordingly, he would always place a slipper near the piano while she learned its rudiments, though it was never used when she committed mistakes, but only as a warning for her to make good in her musical studies. They also had strict schedules when it came to studying their lessons before sleeping at night because in those days, local electric service was only from six in the evening to six in the morning of the next day.
She started her schooling with the traditional Caton Cristiano in the early years of the 1930s, with their school building being an old house just across the street from their residence, and their teacher was Mrs. Eulalia Cadorna. They were taught the alphabet, a little reading, writing and counting, with prayers said in the Spanish language, that she already knew from her mother early on. Then she started her formal schooling at the st. joseph’s Academy where her teacher in kindergarten was a Canadian nun, Sister Friedien, who taught the alphabet, numbers and singing. Her grade one teacher was another Canadian whom they addressed then as Mother of Good Counsel. From grades two to six, her teachers were not nuns but lay persons, and because she was good in class, she emerged as the valedictorian in grade six in the year 1938. In high school, all their teachers were again nuns like Sister Theodere, a Canadian, Mother Fredberd, and the most famous nun in the school, Mother Mildreda von Herzen Jesu of Germany, her teacher in Physics.
Unlike most children her age, they were not allowed to roam around town, and they only played at home or in the house of relations, like the Rondollo family just a few houses to the east of their residence. Aside from going to school during weekdays, they can only go out of the house when they go to church on Sundays, or when they join processions like that held during Good Friday. They can only leave their house and go to far places with their parents, like when they went to the foot of Mount Banahaw on April 12, 1937 along with other town mates. They were not allowed to play on the streets which were then of asphalt but during full moons and when there are no classes, they played “Tibig” in front of their house after the last bus trip of the Laguna Tayabas Batangas Bus Company or the “LTB” at eight in the evening had passed by.
Their house was the western edge of town, near the cemetery area and so funerals passing by were just commonplace to them. She became very conscious about the different kinds of funerals , particularly those of the rich people which were first class when the mournful pealing of the church bells or the “Plegaria” can be heard, and the priest accompanied the funeral to the cemetery. She remembered the funeral of Don Lorenzo de Villa, the Sariaya Presidente (Mayor during the American period) of 1929 as a good example of that. The humble townspeople, most especially those coming from the barrios have no funeral cars or carriages, but only people who carried the coffins of their dearly departed with the help of bamboo poles tied to them. However, rich or poor, the people, especially the womenfolk wore black dresses as a sign of mourning.
During the lavish town fiesta celebrations, unlike most Sariayahins who can afford having costly preparations for days, they only had simple preparations, and during the San Isidro Labrador fiesta of May 15th, they only had a few decorations together with the traditional “bagakay”, just enough to help celebrate the occasion that is. During Christmas, their family went to church mass and then, they four girls went only to the house of their relations to kiss the hands of their elders. The fatherst that they had gone to was the house of their aunt Felisa Condez - Obnial , the eldest sister of their mother. During the may time festival of flowers in honor of the Virgin Mary or the “Flores de Mayo”, they dress up as “Sagalas” just like during the Mayflower celebration of their paternal relation Miss Asuncion Villadiego Cadiz on May 21, 1939. They were likewise “sagalas” during the Mayflower celebration of another maternal aunt, Mrs. Ulpiana Condez Ricohermoso. This was the way of life led in Sariaya that the young “Puping” and her sisters grew up with in the late 1930s up to 1940 and 1941.
Because of the large coconut plantations and high grade coconuts harvested in town, Sariaya served as one if not the center of the coconut industry in the province of Tayabas during the pre war years. This must be the reason why the National Coconut Corporation (NACOCO) complex was built at the eastern edge of town at what is now the Marichi Subdivision, taken from the names of Mariano, Marta and Concha, all scions of the affluent Rodriguez clan of Sariaya. It was a training center for the processing of coconut parts to serve as livelihood for everyone, like soap from the ash of burned coconut parts, coconut preserves, slippers and door mats from coconut fiber, among others. As such, a lot of people form other localities and provinces came to Sariaya to avail of the trainings and their influx served as added income for enterprising Sariayahins who converted parts of their residences into rented board and lodging places for the purpose. In the year 1940, the Chairman of the Board of Directors , General Manager, and the owner of the property where the NACOCO was built the twice erstwhile town mayor (“Presidente”) of Sariaya, who eventually became twice Tayabas Provincial Governor, Don Maximo Rodriguez. He was well respected as he was very influential not only in Sariaya but in the whole province, and was even the choice, along with his wife Doña Martinita Gala, of the then Tayabas Province First District Representative Manuel Luis Quezon to be his and his bride Aurora Aragon’s wedding godparents during their Hongkong nuptial. Mrs. Cadiz remembered that during the Commonwealth period when she was still in the elementary and high school at the SJA, they were asked to line up the streets to cheer the arrival of the First couple who were habitués of Sariaya long before she was born. They stayed at the beautiful mansion of Gov. Maximo Rodriguez, and when the third floor of the house where the first couple stayed when in Sariaya was lit at night, then the people would say . . . “Aba, ay naari pala ang Kastila!” Gov. Rodriguez was even very instrumental in the said “surrender “ of the dreaded “Kapitang Kulas” then known as “Ang Kilabot ng Sierra Madre” from the mountains in the year 1936.
As told by Mrs. Cadiz, Gov. Rodriguez was likewise very instrumental in the construction of the very first barrio school building at Barrio Morong therough the assistance of his good friend, Congressman Isauro Gabaldon, the legislator from Nueva Ecija who was responsible for the institutionalization of the Gabaldon Elementary School buildings nationwide. He likewise personally shouldered the schooling of some deserving Sariayahins, like Mr. Leoncio Cadiz, the young Guadalupe’s future husband. It was a very peaceful, prosperous and happy Sariaya that Mrs. Cadiz, her siblings lived and breathed in during the closing years of the 1930s and the first two years of the 1940s, and their family, together with the whole community were unprepared for what was yet to come immediately thereafter . . . . . . . .
When the Japanese invaded the Philippines on December 8, 1941, the Feast day of the Immaculate Conception, the young Guadalupe was in fourth year high school at the SJA and their entry into Tayabas province was rudely made when they bombed the ports of Atimonan and Mauban towns along Lamon Bay, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and the din of Japanese cannons were clearly heard here in Sariaya. As such, the townspeople, particularly those who owned landholdings fled to the countryside just like the Alcañeses family who went to barrio Concepcion. Unlike a lot of their town mates, they were lucky in the sense that their house was not looted and burglarized by opportunistic people who saw it as an opportunity to do their evil intentions. In February of 1942, Guadalupe and her classmates like Eufronia Villadiego and Victoria Vendiola Idea were declared as “automatic graduates” of Class 1942 just like their peers nationwide. She was awarded valedictorian while Victoria Idea was the Salutatorian.
Sariaya was not a hotbed of dissent against the Japanese and the town remained relatively peaceful despite the initial panic that ensued immediately after the arrival of the Japanese. However, there were gallant town mates who enlisted as soldiers and fought against the Japanese in Manila and Bataan like Samson Solis, Alexander Africa, Ruden Zaportesa, “Amain” Obordo, Demetrio Cadiz, the elder brother of Leoncio, and others who accordingly died during the infamous “Death March” to Capas, Tarlac. It was said that Demetrio was hit by machine gun fire at the back and even got sick with dysentery and his death infuriated the younger Leoncio to hate the Japanese do so much, yet he was powerless to do anything and had to go along with the new order prevailing in town, as dictated by the invaders and the local collaborators or the “Makapili”.
In those days of indoctrination of the youth to sow hatred for the Americans and the Filipino guerillas, all able bodied young people, male and female alike, were required to participate in mandatory early morning drills at the Sariaya Elementary School grounds after being awakened before dawn by the sound of “Bandillo” or announcements. They proceeded to the said venue carrying bamboo spears to participate in the marching drills that were institutionalized during that time. It was called “Its Ne San Se Go Rok Hits Hats”, or Niponggo / Japanese language equivalent of counting from one to eight to give the cadence for the marches. This was necessary to generate much desired sympathy for their cause of a “Greater East Asia Co –Prosperity Sphere” where they would be the key player and dominant in all aspects. As such, some of the young people with leadership abilities like the young Guadalupe, Leoncio Cadiz, Sesinando Alcantara Jr., his younger sister Flordeliz Alcantara and others became prominent in the said indoctrination drills. The coming of the Japanese and the actions of the Makapili had an adverse effect on the established order of life in Sariaya, the wide economic gap between the “Taga Gitna” wealthy and influential residents and the “Taga Tabi” ordinary residents who reside in the periphery of the town. As such, the “Taga Gitna” had no choice but to relate with the “Taga Tabi” and had to adjust to the prevailing conditions of life, or otherwise had it difficult, with their very own survival at stake. As such, and in this case, the Second World War served as the great equalizer.
Towards the end of 1943, the relatively peaceful co - existence in Sariaya felt the first pangs of uneasiness when in October, listening to the radio was prohibited and so, the Alcañeses family hid their radio in their ceiling. It must have been done to stop the flow of information about the supposed return of the American forces who were forced to leave the Philippines in 1942 greatly highlighted by General Douglas McArthur’s now famous statement . . . “I shall return!”. After this, the Japanese forced all able bodied male residents, rich or poor to dig ten feet deep tank traps from Barrio Tumbaga to Barrio Pili to prevent the so – called rumored arrival of American tanks from their ships to set anchor along the Tayabas Bay coastline between Sariaya and Lucena. It was December 1943 when the townspeople became horrified with the discovery of three bodies in the recently dug tank traps. They were Dr. Wenceslao Rodriguez, the physician son of Don Catalino Rodriguez, Ador Vallecer, and Eusebio Cortez, the “Kapampangan” monuments maker who designed and built the “Glorita” and Dr. Jose Rizal park monuments. This incident accordingly started the so called “reign of terror” in Sariaya that sowed fear in the hearts of the townspeople. It was also the time when Leoncio “Usyo” Cadiz left town to join the Guerillas along with a certain Jose “Pepot” Eleazar from Lucban.
On February 8, 1944, another fearful incident occurred, most especially the womenfolk when news broke that all professionals will be abducted between four in the afternoon to seven in the evening to be incarcerated at the SJA and the Sariaya Elementary school. Vicente Alcañeses planned to escape and dressed in three layers of clothing, left the house and went to the cemetery area, where he met an acquaintance who was known as a fanatic Makapili. When asked as to his destination, the agitated head of the family lied about going to their Barrio Bucal property to harvest rice. Thereafter, tension was further experienced when the town Presidente Dr. Sinforoso Rodriguez was killed by the guerillas due to miscommunication. He was replaced by the Japanese government with Severino Belarmino and after a few months, a known Makapili, Mateo Mendoza was sworn into office. The townspeople were always vigilant most especially between sundown and dawn of the next day, particularly that there was no electricity in town by then. At home, everybody cowered in the darkness and talked in whispers, just as others peeked outside broken capiz windows to see the marching group of Japanese soldiers and the Makapili, the latter wearing an upturned “bay-ong” over their heads with holes for eyes, and they serve as the pointers of the people to be arrested. There as so much atrocities and abuses committed by the Makapili against their very own countrymen, and many innocent people were condemned to their deaths. The prisoners were then brought to the garrison and were subjected to punishments to answer the interrogations. Those who were sentenced to die were accordingly herded to the “killing fields”, the area of today’s Marichi Subdivision where they were accordingly made to dig their own graves before being shot and bayoneted to death.
As the days went by, the situation went desperate many people left town for the countryside in fear. The young Guadalupe remembered how one day she looked out of their window after hearing loud voices of many people and she saw a group of about a hundred Makapili walking on the way out of town. When asked where they were headed to, the answer was to Tokyo which amused them to no end, for how can people on foot reach the Japanese capital overseas? Not too long after that, they heard loud shots in the direction of the town cemetery and they learned that Filipino guerillas who were tipped about the planned escape were already there lying in wait to seek vengeance on the traitors, and a lot of them were killed instantly. Thereafter, they saw that dynamites were being placed by the Japanese soldiers at the old Spanish bridge near their house to be exploded in order to prevent the rumored arrival of the Americans from the west. So their father Vicente herded them out of the house and led them to the house of their Tiya Felisa Obnial at Mabini street opposite what is now Treat Haus. After that, he went back to the house, opened all the windows to release the pressure of the explosion and collapsed on the floor everything that will fall down. Then he hurried to the house of the Mamuyac family near the Mamala River and waited for the blowing up of the bridge while having a sharp eye on their house to the west, afraid that the posts would buckle with the impact. However, when the eleven o’ clock explosion took place, the house proudly withstood the destruction of the bridge, and his engineer’s intuition saved their beloved home for posterity.
The worst was not yet over for one night, a few day’s thereafter, the beautiful house of Gov. Maximo Rodriguez who had already fled to Laguna as he was the target of Japanese abduction burned in flames, and the conflagration spread westwards, southwards and eastwards from the town park thus destroying huge blocks of ancestral houses, the second largest in Sariaya’s history. These desperate attempts of the Japanese to slow down the advance of the liberating American and Filipino guerilla forces came to nothing, with the advance of the American First cavalry Division from the east, based in their camps at Barrio Kalumpang in Tayabas. From the west, a new metal contraption, the pontoon bridge was placed over the bombed Spanish bridge and the American tanks and supplies managed to get through for the eventful liberation of the town sometime in March of 1945.
Everyone was jubilant despite the hardships and the destruction during the “reign of terror” period and despite the big fire of 1944, Sariaya was still lucky that it escaped the fate of towns like Tayabas, Mauban, Atimonan, San Pablo, Laguna and others who lost a lot of their built heritage in the war. The people tried to pick up where they left off and worked so hard to rebuild everything, and a lot of the members of the rich landed gentry left town and pointed their toes to Manila and abroad. Sometime June to September of 1945, the erstwhile guerilla Leoncio Cadiz went back to Sariaya and that was how he and Guadalupe crossed paths once again, and that time courted her though her parents did not approve of the relationship for she was to enroll in a BS Chemistry course at the UST the following school year. Meanwhile, Engr. Alcañeses went back to government service and became the district surveyor for Southern Luzon. Not too long thereafter, sometime in 1946, Leoncio was summoned by Don Maximo Rodriguez to be with him in Manila and he sent him to college, and he later adopted him as if he were his own son. This development gave him more time to pursue not only his studies but also his honest intentions for Guadalupe, and accordingly, they became closer to each other.
In 1950, the ever brilliant Guadalupe Alcañeses graduated Magna Cum Laude from UST and her family was so elated and proud of her achievement. That same year, Doña Martinita Gala, the wife of Don Maximo died and in his grief, he decided to go to Spain on vacation, asking Leoncio to join him but he politely refused. At the same time, Guadalupe was planning to go the United States but her father did not approve of it. These two developments paved the way for fostering an ever closer relationship between Guadalupe and Leoncio and not too long thereafter, he asked for her hand in marriage. Don Maximo Rodriguez, who was the wedding godfather of Engr. Vicente Alcañeses and Irene Condez in 1925 greatly approved of their relationship, and from Spain, he asked his nephew Mariano Rodriguez to serve as his proxy during their marriage in September 9, 1950, and even allowed his expensive Pontiac to serve as the wedding car. Leoncio and Guadalupe were married at the UST Chapel and Mrs. Rosa Rodriguez Buendia served as the wedding godmother alongside Mr. Mariano Rodriguez. The new couple lived at Muntingbayan and were responsible for bringing up the next generation in the family, for it was only Guadalupe who married among their siblings. Avelina who graduated Summa Cum Laude from UST and the youngest, Carmela, were both called by the Lord to his service and they became nuns. After graduation from college, Felicitas on the other hand chose to likewise stay in Sariaya and was the one who looked after the welfare of her ageing parents.
Three sons were born to the couple in the 1950s, Vicente or “Vini” (1951) who was named after his grandfather, Noel (1953) and Vivencio or “Kimi” (1956). Mrs. Guadalupe Cadiz balanced her being a wife and motherhood to her career as a teacher of Mathematics and Physics at the St. Joseph’s Academy. Because of her inherent brilliance, the nuns of SJA sponsored her studies in the College of Education at the Luzonian Colleges in Lucena because they wanted her to become the School Principal. She was good in both English and Spanish and the title of her dissertation was “The Honorable Maximo Rodriguez, The Man And His Contributions To Education”. In this extensive research work on the life of her “Ninong Mimong”, she interviewed Mrs. Eufemia Rodriguez, his second wife, Atty. Eduvigio Antona, Mr. Mena Quinto, an erstwhile reporter of Tayabense News at the Manila Tribune, Mr. Jose Valderas Sr. who served as the erstwhile secretary of the good governor, Judge Sixto de la Costa of Mauban who was the Don’s good colleague and “compadre”, Mrs. Segunda Nieva of Sariaya, and others. She even had an exclusive and extensively detailed interview about how the good Governor Rodriguez became very instrumental in the surrender of “Kapitang Kulas” in 1936 which is a most important document that she herself wrote.
She graduated from the Luzonian Colleges with a degree of BS Education in 1958 and not too long thereafter, she became a faculty member, and taught Chemistry in College. The year 1958 also saw the eventual retirement of her father from his Engineering job at the age of 65. In 1960, she gave birth to a lovely baby girl which was greeted with much elation by the family and they named her Virginia Gemma. She went on teaching at the Luzonian Colleges that eventually became a university and she got promoted as the Head of the Science Department. It was in 1964 that the ageing “Don Mimong” established the Don maximo Rodriguez Soils Laboratory along Burgos Street which was just across their residence. Because of her training in Soil Analysis at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, she became its resident soil chemist and its operations went on even after the good old Don died that same year. In 1965, she gave birth to her fifth and youngest child, Grace, and from then on, she resigned from her teaching job and became a full fledged housewife, yet remained being the resident soil chemist of the soils laboratory, which continued its operations until the early 1970s. That decade saw two sad episodes in their life, with the death of their mother Irene in 1972 and that of their son Vivencio in 1975, yet great family support and camaraderie, nurtured with love, respect, discipline and faith in the Lord sustained all of them to overcome the trials and survive through it all.
Aside from being an achiever all her life, Mrs. Cadiz had that continuous gift for research, gaining knowledge and sharing it for the good of everyone, most especially with the town that she loved. She was one of the very first recipients of the “Quezon Medalya Ng Karangalan” in the year 1970 for Active Cooperative Leadership, which brought great honor for Sariaya. Her dedicated works for the Family Planning Program in Sariaya and in Quezon did not go unnoticed and she was elected as the President of the Family Planning Organization all throughout the Philippines. Because of this, she was sent to different conference and symposium venues in Asia such as Jakarta, Indonesia in 1976, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia in 1977, and in Thailand, Korea and Bangladesh in 1979. In 1982 and 1983, Mrs. Cadiz attended as a delegate to the International Conference On Family Planning in London, United Kingdom. In 1982, she went to Los Angeles, California, USA to accept an award for her Carnation Company. It was so because in the whole Philippines, it was only at their Barrio Concepcion property that a dairy farm was established for the project then called “Baka – Unlaran”.
In the year 1984, tragedy again struck their family with the death of their great mentor, model and inspiration, their beloved father Engr. Vicente Alcañeses, at the ripe old age of 90. At that time, she was even hard at work making a Gagasa Family Tree with her relations Miss Vener Reynoso and Mr. Alfredo Rondollo. In February of that year, their research yielded a total of 170 family members who were descended from their forebears, Mr. Evaristo Gagasa and wife Alejandra de Luna. It was so opportune that they had already started on that project because her father, Engr. Alcañeses then the oldest living link with their past was able to share a lot of information on the family advocacy. Everything was indeed so timely as if they had not started on it, the project would not have been that possible anymore as four other old Gagasa relations died that year. Two years thereafter, in 1986, Mrs. Cadiz attended yet another family planning conference which was held in Singapore.
By the end of the 1980s, all of their children have finished their studies, pursuing different careers here and abroad, and some have already married and were raising their own families. They have good relationships with their children in law and it greatly helped that early on in their respective marriages, Mrs. Cadiz advocated among them the importance of good communication within the family. By then, both she and her husband have reached senior citizen status and have fairly and comfortably settled themselves to be doting grandparents to their grandchildren. Then Mrs. Cadiz was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she was subjected to chemotherapy which had helped her recover and be free of it. But as a consequence, she had to slow down on her erstwhile highly active lifestyle and remained at home most of the time, which was a big change from her usual high profile existence. This was done to avoid the stress of traveling and being exposed to pollutants and pathogens that might compromise her health once again. Whatever, she had recovered in time to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in 1990, and were so glad to be blessed with it despite her frail health.
In the following years, she still received achievement awards for her dedicated service to the community, such as that for Cooperative Leadership here in Sariaya in 1995, and in her valuable contributions to the International Planned Parenthood Federation which was given to her in Manila. Despite her then less active lifestyle, her involvement in community affairs continued through the late 1990s and this was even more evident during the 1996 – 1997 fight against the South Luzon Expressway Extension Project which was to pass through Mount Banahaw watershed areas at Barangay Mamala I. Because of their connections with the Soil Scientists of UP at Los Baños academe, a study was conducted revealed the great possibility of the watershed area destruction because of the trees to b cut in the process, which would have adversely affected Sariaya’s water supply. Chemical pollutants that will be incorporated care of various industries that will be established there will go directly to the “aquifer” and will kill streams and rivers. These findings were shared with the “Kapatiran at Alyansang Alay sa Kaunlaran ng Bayan – Quezon or (“KAAKBAY Quezon”) made up of various religions, sects, Non Government Organizations, People’s Organizations, and other concerned organizations, under the leadership of the then fiery assistant parish priest Fr. Raul L. Enriquez. These grievances were made known to the authorities and therefore, the project was scrapped.
On September 9, 2000, Mr. and Mrs. Cadiz celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary which was a most joyous occasion for the Alcañeses – Cadiz family and their relations, but six months later, on march 27, 2001, Mr. Leoncio Cadiz succumbed to cancer which brought much grief to the family. At his wake, Good Shepherd Sister Polly Enriquez, a scion of the old wealthy Gala – Rodriguez family told the grieving widow an untold story that she herself was so surprised to learn. It was back again to the horrifying last days of the war, during the “reign of terror” in the Sariaya of 1944, and the news of the forthcoming arrival of the Americans and their Filipino guerilla allies out to liberate Sariaya at all cost sowed panic in the increasingly becoming nervous Japanese and their Makapili cohorts, that a rumor circulated about their plan to burn parts of the town.
Guadalupe’s then future husband “Leoncio” who had joined the guerillas secretly went back to town and was so surprised to learn from somebody that the wife of Don Maximo Rodriguez, Doña Martinita Gala , was summoning him to go to their mansion. Puzzled about the information since she did not know him and had no previous association with the rich residents whatsoever, he found a way to go to the old Doña’s home just south of the park which by then had been abandoned already by the good ex Governor because he was on the watch list of the Japanese. By then, a lot of his town mates had already gone to the countryside fearing for their safety, and he had to carefully elude the hail of bullets from Japanese sentries posted at the church belfry who were shooting at suspicious people out on the streets. Inside the mansion, he found three old women lying in bed, Doña Martinita herself, with Doña Irene Herrera and a guest, Doña Jovita Tiangco of Laguna, together with some thirty children that included the then still very young Sister Polly Enriquez herself. The three women and the children had to get out of the town out of fear for the circulating rumors of fire to be started by the Japanese, and as such, Leoncio with some guerilla companions had to return under the cover of darkness, for there was no more electricity. to get them out. That very night, with much dread and care, he and his companions bought folding beds or “Tejeras” for the old women and they managed to get everyone out of the mansion fast and in silence, going south into the direction of either Pili or Tumbaga. Out in the safety of the southern countryside much later, they looked northwards and saw the bright blaze of a big and fast spreading fire in the direction of the town. Accordingly, it was at the very house of Don Maximo Rodriguez that the fire started, set by the Makapili who accordingly threw pails of gasoline at the entrances and the stairs of old houses to prevent the escape of their occupants.
With Sister Polly’s story, Mrs. Cadiz finally learned the true reason as to why Don Maximo Rodriguez took a great liking for her departed husband, which she kept asking him in the old days but he refused to answer directly, and kept her in the dark until that very day at his wake. According to her, another very important document that got lost at the Rodriguez mansion during the fire of 1944 was the old telegram being kept by the good couple that came from President Quezon himself telling them of his desire for them to stand as godparents during the Hongkong wedding with his cousin, Aurora Aragon.
The following year, 2002, proved sad once again with the death of her younger sister, Felicitas or “Felising”, of SJA Class 1948, likewise due to cancer, and as such, the dreaded disease proved to be a medical reality in their family and that everyone involved should take extra care and precaution as they live their highly accomplished and advocated lives.
Just like during the successful fight against the South Luzon Expressway Extension Project that would have destroyed the watershed area of Mount Banahaw’s Sariaya slopes at Barangay Mamala, Mrs. Cadiz and her family’s connections with the UP at Los Baños academic community was once again at the forefront of assisting in the address of local environmental concerns when on the wee hours of the morning of October 12, 2001, half of the big old Acacia tree at the church patio fell due to rotting. This mute witness to Sariayahin history is an important town landmark and its widely arching branches and great canopy cover has contributed a lot in the scenically beautiful character of the town’s heritage center, and as such, it was fitted with a marker in 1978 by the National Museum. Greatly thankful that the unfortunate natural incident happened at that time and not during the daytime when it would have resulted in untold horror among the SJA students and the church going public, the towns people still felt sad that this beautiful Acacia tree was reduced to a shadow of its former self, and yet there was still much concern and fear that the remaining half of the tree still standing might likewise fall down and cause great harm.
With the help of Dr. Letty Pacardo who was then the head of the Department of Environment and Natural resources at UP Los Baños, and the wedding godmother of Mrs. Cadiz’s daughter Gemma and her husband, Dr. Rolando Padre who both graduated from the same premier state university, a thorough inspection in order to save the remaining half of the Acacia tree was done. To finance the project, it was the students of the SJA who were the ones given important information on the immediate care for the Acacia tree, who initiated a fund raising campaign, followed by the Parish Council on Economic Affairs (PCEA) of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish who likewise raised the same amount, and as such, the whole Sariayahin community continued the fund raising campaign and eventually, the remainder of the Acacia tree was saved for the future generation.
Mrs. Cadiz continued to assist the Sariayahin community as an important resource person for visiting academicians and media people who find interest in our towns inherently unique cultural heritage. Among them were the group of Mr. Victoriano Manalo, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila together with students from the UST who earlier had an eventful visit to the erstwhile Sariaya Museum then located at the house of Mr. Juanito Alvarez along Rizal corner Valderas street extension. She likewise entertained the group of Mr. Caloy Mansueto of the now defunct RPN Channel 9 together with staff members of the Quezon Provincial Tourism Office when they did a documentary about Sariaya for a cultural program on television. In February 2003, a UP Diliman History Class led by Prof. Ferdinand Llanes had an educational field trip in town and the last part of their activity was a visit to Mrs. Guadalupe Cadiz at her residence in Muntingbayan. They were well received by her and were given a tour of the house, including the telling of heirloom Sariayahin stories. She even regaled them with piano playing on their old Rachals owned by her late mother Mrs. Irene Condez Alcañeses, while the jolly professor sang a Kundiman song to the delight of everyone. This good natured and whole hearted sharing of herself with visitors who knock at their door so they can talk and relate with her proved so endearing to everyone.
For the four afternoons between April 2002 and October 2003 that she patiently accommodated my desire to document in writing the Sariaya that she lived through during her prime, and even the Sariaya of her forebears, the priceless information being greatly supported and embellished by old photographs, beloved memorabilia, all types of historically relevant articles, either self written or clippings from newspapers and magazines, and even a very old copy of the broadsheet “El Debate” that cost five centavos on October 19, 1919, accordingly kept by his father which was considered subversive for its time, all I can give in return is this self written life story which I painstakingly did for posterity, and likewise, for the love of Sariaya.
Perhaps, one of the last recipients of her good natured and very accommodating person was the interdisciplinary UP Sariaya Community Empowerment Research Team who made her one of their ultimate resource persons for their local heritage based studies hereabouts, in late 2007 to early 2008, if I was not mistaken. Not too long thereafter, she finally called it a life and departed to the great beyond.
It was indeed a great privilege to meet and relate with you Mrs. Guadalupe Alcañeses – Cadiz.
Thank you very, very, much “Tiya Puping”, wherever you are . . .