Bacólod Heritage Watch

[sugarboy]

araneta here (via varela)

[sugarboy]

Originally Posted by kyle@1008

There is an exhibit on negrense heritage houses in robinson's place bacolod ... it is part of the heritage month celebration,... Truly a must see for all you folks here in bacolod..

ato `to balay namon

[SugarFreak]

August 16, 2007
First family museum opens in Bacolod

SEE the glorious past inside the ancestral home of the prominent couple in Bacolod City - Raymundo L. Dizon and Hermilinda Ramos. And, believe it or not, their ancestral house located along Burgos Street in Bacolod is one rich in history of a loving and harmonious family.

Built sometime in the 1950’s, this house is now a museum called the Dizon-Ramos Museum, the very first private family museum the City of Bacolod ever had now.

At present, Bacolod and Negros has 3 existing museums: These include the Negros Museum, La Salle Museum and the one in Bacolod elementary. Bro. Roly Dizon, chairman of the J.R.R. Dizon Foundation said they have made use of the ancestral home for fear of letting it reach deterioration.

“We hope that whenever people visit here, they can be reminded of the past and take pride in our glorious past and then together build the future,” Bro. Dizon said as he also he relayed the vision of the newly-inaugurated museum. He said their house has a lot of stories to tell. He said he grew up here and moved over here from the house next door.

“I was 6 years old then when we started to live here. The most and strongest memories I had in the house was when I fell from the second floor. I was leaning over near the stairs when I suddenly fell, 15 feet from the top. I hit head first but only on a soft ground. Miraculously, I had no broken bones and no bruises,” he recalled.

He also remembered that his parents always love to hold receptions and parties inside their house. His father was a banker and a sugar planter who worked for the Philippine National Bank. Their house also reflects the architecture of the post-war Bacolod and a blend of neo-classic and modern.

Conversion of the house into a museum was only done early this 2007, or only a year after his mother passed away peacefully. The first floor of the house now contains the main exhibit which features a collection of a hundred pictorial reproductions. All try to capture the parallel history of Bacolod City and the Dizon-Ramos family.

The vibrant photographs came the period from 1937 when Munding and Ermy were wed to the present. The pictures were arranged chronologically by decades. Together they give the viewer a glimpse into the noble past of a City and the family.

The three bedrooms on the left side contain the memorabilia of the family and a small painting collection of famous artists notably Malang and Pachico. The second floor reflects the lifestyle of the family. The sala, bedrooms, study room and dining area reflect how the family actually lived.

The furniture is mostly made in twentieth century with a few pieces of antiques. The collections of crystals, porcelain paintings and jewelry came mostly from the extensive travels of the family, especially Brother Rolly whose work as a prominent national educator brought him to many conferences abroad.

Memorabilia of Popsie and Momsie, Rudy, Ray, Ging and Patching are also displayed in the bedrooms. Roly’s memorabilia include a vast array of academic medals and plaques. Ray and Roly have the rare distinction of two brothers who were given the Ten Outstanding Young Men award by the Philippine Jaycees.

The Museum stands as a living testimony to the commitment of the family of Raymundo and Hermelinda Ramos to tearing down the walls of social injustice and division, and building a city and a Nation truly united, free, just, harmonious, and prosperous.

“Our fervent hope and prayer is that we never forget our noble part so that together we will forge a great future for all Bacolenos and Filipinos,” Bro. Dizon said.(MELE)

[kyle@1008]

Originally Posted by sugarboy

araneta here (via varela)

you must be so proud, angkan yan ng mga guwapo...

Originally Posted by sugarboy

ato `to balay namon

yeah , I know I saw it..... so he was the municipal president you were talking about.. read the history..

[jaywalker]

Monday, August 27, 2007
Silay honors late Senator Locsin today

THE late Sen. Jose Corteza Locsin of Silay will be honored through a tribute at the Rizal Cultural and Civic Center, 4 pm; Monday. He was born on August 27, 1891.

Locsin started as a municipal councilor of Silay. He was elected member of the Negros Occidental Provincial Board and later became governor of the province (1925-28).

The construction of the Provincial Capitol started during his term.

He became representative of the first district of Negros Occidental (1928-31); and was elected delegate to the constitutional convention of 1935 wherein he was chosen chairman of the Committee on Utilization and Conservation of National Resources.

President Sergio Osmena appointed him secretary of the Dept. of Health and Public Welfare (1945-46).

He served as senator from 1951 up to 1957 wherein he was chairman of the Committee on Health and of the Committee on Accounts.

His committee membership included finance, public works, agriculture, rules, government survey and reorganization.

The Silay senator authored the Flag Ceremony Law, appropriated a bigger amount for the increase of teacher salary and enacted a fitting celebration for Rizal’s birth.

He became chairman of the National Economic Development Council from 1958-1961. He advocated “Filipino First Policy” and headed the National Productivity Board of the Phil.

In 1961, he was the acting secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and elected governor of the Phil. Constitution Association in 1967.

The Locsin-Corteza clan will be officially acknowledged during the program by Mayor Jose L. Montelibano and the city officials.

[SugarFreak]

Another viewing offered to Bacolod residents is the Dizon-Ramos Museum that was blessed and inaugurated Wednesday at Burgos Street in Bacolod City. It is located at the ancestral home of the late Raymundo Dizon and Ermelinda Ramos and displays a photographic record of the family, its members and their accomplishments, and collections of art pieces by the couple and their children. The museum is open daily, except Mondays. A donation of P10 for minors and P30 for adults will be welcomed for its maintenance. Brother Roly Dizon, foundation president, is asking other Bacoleños to also put up their own collections of memorabilia.

[Yatco_8]

nice.. growing museums in bacolod....

guys, dba ung katabing lot ng negros museum is underconstruction? is that an expansion of the negros museum?

[kyle@1008]

no dude , I think that's the COA building... correct me if I'm wrong...

[Yatco_8]

what is COA anyway?

[SugarFreak]

huh,,,mayron ba? when it that started of construction? beside the main building or across the street?

[kyle@1008]

COA is commission on audit.... yup zyanz there's a new building besides the negros museum,.... too many constructions around town for all of us to keep up...

[SugarFreak]

^grabe na gid ya overtaking...at the back lots/areas of the museum is the another preparation for the big projects; commercial complex, nightlife haven, IT Park, etc., etc...as i guess only

btw, as i know there are 4 museums now in our province; balay negrense, negros museum, USLS, and the new is Dizon-Ramos museum....correct me if am wrong...

[Yatco_8]

grabe na ksi ung developments sa bacolod, we cant catch up na.... bacolod, the dragon has awakened na tlga.... in chinese beliefs, once the dragon is awakened, naku, lagot ung mga tao.... so we can relate it to bacolod... bacolod is now very fast in terms of developments... faster than any other cities in RP...

[SugarFreak]

August 29, 2007
Manila orchestra coming to Bacolod

The Manila Symphony Orchestra is coming for a one-night concert in Bacolod City at the Santuario de La Salle, University of St. La Salle, on September 5 at 8 p.m., a press release from organizers said.

They are brought to the city through Prudential Guarantee-Bacolod, to coincide with the company's 20th year anniversary.

Fresh from their successful performances at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the orchestra will repeat the same program of Beethoven Leonora Overture, Grieg Piano Concerto, and Tchaikovsky symphony No. 5 with its conductor Helen Quach and pianist Cristine Coyiuto.

The venue seats only 890 and tickets are priced at P500 and P1000. For more information on the concert, interested parties may call the Office of Prudential Guarantee-Bacolod at Tel. Nos. 434-5445 and 434-6954, the press release added.*

[kyle@1008]

excerpts from...

Marriage of the old and the new
By Lala Rimando




In Negros Occidental, a few minutes away by boat from Iloilo, heirs of wealthy
landowners have banded together to preserve their old mansions and to make
these ancestral houses available for public viewing at a minimal cost of 30
pesos.




This joint effort is best demonstrated in Silay City, about 14 kilometers from
Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental. The Silay Heritage Foundation
is in charge of restoring and preserving ancestral houses, and promoting
significant insights into the history and legacy of the lifestyle of the
Silaynons. It has up to 31 ancestral houses now all considered national
landmarks.

I recently visited two museums, the Bernardino Ysabel Jalandoni House and the
Balay Negrense (Victor Gaston House), where curator-guides explain the
intricacies of these opulent hundred-year-old residences. In structure, the
two-story Jalandoni House is similar to old houses in Manila’s Spanish-era
"walled city" of Intramuros, in the northern town of Vigan, and in Laguna
province. The ground floor, for example, serves as the "parking space" for
carriages and storage room for crops.

What makes Silay’s old mansions different was the lifestyle of its residents.
In its heyday, Silay was known as the "Paris of Negros." The señoritas and
señoritos would regularly visit Europe for vacation and shopping, and brought
home various ornaments and furniture for the house. No wonder one can find
things such as a 19th century wash stand, ceramic pitcher, and basin from
Europe, Luis Quince Style table lamp of baccarat crystal, and embossed steel
trayed ceilings molded in Germany.

Also displayed are the gowns and jewelry that came all the way from Paris,
where the favorite couturiers of the moneyed hacenderas were. Apparently, for
entertainment of the hacenderos, performing artists from Europe would arrive in
ships that docked at the 1.7-kilometer Silay Pier, then the longest in Asia.
(Silay was the capital of Negros Occidental before the pier was transferred to
Bacolod City).

What would strike some people today as amusing was how old-style and aloof the
parents were from their children and how the males were separated from the
females. At the Balay Negrense, for instance, the boys’ rooms are located on
the first floor and the girls’ rooms on the second floor. Segregation is also
evident in the main stairway that leads into the dining room. Midway, it forks
into two -- the left side for the males, the right side for the females.

At the dining table, the kids stayed at the separate round tables so that they
didn’t disturb their parents while eating. When there were guests, the
children were not to be seen in the "sala" [living room]. That’s why the
children’s rooms have connecting doors so they can move from one room to the
next and chat among themselves, in hush-hush voices.

Shock and awe from chapel

If there is one testament to the extent of the wealth generated by the sugar
industry, besides the Lopez’s media, power and utility assets, it would be
the Saint Joseph the Worker Chapel in the compound of the Victorias Milling
Corp. located north of Silay City.

Victorias, though now going through financial restructuring, remains the
biggest and most efficient central (where sugarcane is processed into sugar) in
Negros. Its founder, Miguel Ossorio, an American creole who was encouraged by
the Negrense hacenderos to put up a factory in that district in 1919,
envisioned Victorias as a well-integrated community where workers had benefits
from womb to tomb. Ossorio put up a housing community, a hospital, schools (the
first Don Bosco technical school was built in Victorias to supply technically
skilled workers for the factory), and a cemetery. The chapel, completed in
1950, was built to meet the community’s spiritual needs.

People from Victorias proudly point out the mosaics at the chapel’s outer
walls, featuring broken pieces of plates and old beer and whisky bottles.
Apparently these were contributed by the community. Children were particularly
helpful in gathering and sorting the glass fragments.

Be prepared to be shocked when you enter the chapel. The murals on the walls
and beams are nothing like the passive portraits in many Catholic churches.
Staring right at you are images in flame-like shapes and psychedelic colors
like glowing orange, pink, magenta, deep blue, and bright yellow. From the
fiery hands of the Father descends Jesus Christ, who sits over a snake and a
green skull (symbolizing triumph over sin and death). Jesus, whose heart is
aflame, extends his arms in an awesome all-embracing choose-me-or-not-at-all
gesture. His face is craggy and fearful, but his eyes, on closer look, show
gentleness.

On the beam nearest the congregation appears a triangle with a bulging carnal
eye, the type with a steadfast and penetrating gaze that seems to follow you
wherever you are. The entire sight is disquieting, dramatic, and mystical.

Since the mural was done on the sacristy of a fairly small chapel, it naturally
commands attention. My companion, who is with Victorias, explained that the
painter, Alfonso Ossorio, Don Miguel’s son, wanted to challenge the
worshippers, stir vigilance and defy complacency, lukewarm attitudes, banal
sentiments, and "ready-made" pieties.

Alfonso’s work in this chapel has been featured in various international
magazines and now stands as a landmark in the history of liturgical art. "Life"
magazine referred to it as the "Church of the Angry Christ." Alfonso became a
world-renowned artist who settled in his estate called The Creeks in East
Hampton, New York. He later became a patron for struggling artists such as
Jackson Pollock, who also became internationally acclaimed. Alfonso, now
deceased, has always been referred to as a Manila-born artist whose fortunes
were generated from his family’s sugar mill in Negros.

Not just sugar

Among the Negrenses, the halcyon days were cut short when Ferdinand Marcos
turned the tables against the sugar barons and appointed a crony who
monopolized the export of sugar to the United States. What followed was the
darkest period for the Negros and Iloilo sugar barons as the US favored imports
from nearer South America than those that came all the way from the
Philippines.

Nowadays, even if sugarcane-laden trucks still ply the roads, the people of
Negros have learned to be less dependent on sugar. At my friend’s family
hacienda in Kabankalan City, where three sugar mills that used to be owned by
Spanish companies still exist, their house, located in the middle of the
plantation, has tall sugar canes on one side, and on another, a soon-to-be
opened residential complex. The total land area for sugar plantations all over
the province has decreased.

The recently concluded Panaad Festival, held in Bacolod City’s
eucalyptus-lined 25-hectare park, is another indication of lesser dependency on
sugar. Cutflowers and ornaments, processed foods, high-value crops, exquisite
handcrafted items, oysters and other seafood, and tourism spots for those
inclined to go on eco-tourism adventures were showcased.

While sugar is no longer the fabulous moneymaker that it was, the ancestral
houses endure.

And tourists still pose for a picture with steam locomotives imported in the
early 1900s to move the sugarcane from the plantations to the mill. But modern
lifestyles have become inevitable. Cities in Negros Occidental now boast of new
government halls with high-tech gadgets and offices that can rival, or even
outdo, government offices in Metro Manila.

In this part of the country, there is a happy marriage of the old and the new.

[kyle@1008]

Originally Posted by sugarboy

ato `to balay namon

oh btw, I remember you were trying to convince your family to turn that house into a museum,..the dizon-ramos house has been turned into one,..your is more impressive and along the same street, how's that coming, that would be agreat place for tourists...

[sugarboy]

Originally Posted by SugarFreak

Another viewing offered to Bacolod residents is the Dizon-Ramos Museum that was blessed and inaugurated Wednesday at Burgos Street in Bacolod City. It is located at the ancestral home of the late Raymundo Dizon and Ermelinda Ramos and displays a photographic record of the family, its members and their accomplishments, and collections of art pieces by the couple and their children. The museum is open daily, except Mondays. A donation of P10 for minors and P30 for adults will be welcomed for its maintenance. Brother Roly Dizon, foundation president, is asking other Bacoleños to also put up their own collections of memorabilia.

this is right next door to our place. so many memories in the Dizon house. during my youth, i would climb up the wrought iron grills separating our house from Lola Ermie's to spend the afternoon playing with the kids of her kusinera. ahhh the simple joys of playing hide and seek, tumbang preso, piko (hopscotch). later in the afternoon we would climb up the santol tree to have a snack. that, or shoot some indian mangoes with a slingshot.

Originally Posted by kyle@1008

oh btw, I remember you were trying to convince your family to turn that house into a museum,..the dizon-ramos house has been turned into one,..your is more impressive and along the same street, how's that coming, that would be agreat place for tourists...

right next door actually kyle. as for your question, sad to say, guerra mundial pa kami. very sad.

Originally Posted by kyle@1008

you must be so proud, angkan yan ng mga guwapo...

i didn't know that . pinsan kita kyle!

[kyle@1008]

cheers

[SugarFreak]

Originally Posted by sugarboy

this is right next door to our place. so many memories in the Dizon house. during my youth, i would climb up the wrought iron grills separating our house from Lola Ermie's to spend the afternoon playing with the kids of her kusinera. ahhh the simple joys of playing hide and seek, tumbang preso, piko (hopscotch). later in the afternoon we would climb up the santol tree to have a snack. that, or shoot some indian mangoes with a slingshot.

i think it has a several ancestral house along to that burgos street included the newly inaugurated dizon house as a museum...lols

[kyle@1008]

another world class negrense...



Success Stories: Christine Sicangco: Lady of the Lamps

When Christine Sicangco established Christine Sicangco Lighting Designs, Inc. (CSLDI) in Bacolod in November 1994, it was to put into practice her extensive experience in lighting design. It was a tough decision - the concept was relatively new in the country, and there were no local practitioners she knew of who could be role models to relate and benchmark with. With a complement of seven workers and four administrative staff, Christine set up shop in a 170-square meter area on the third floor of a family-owned building in San Juan Street, Bacolod City.

CSLDI handles architectural lighting design and consultancy and specializes in the design and manufacture of various lighting fixtures. The line consists of table lamps, wall sconces, floor lamps, and pennants or hanging lamps. Various colors of handmade paper are crafted to serve as shades and, when combined with either ceramic, steel, wood, or stone lamp bases, provide a unique lighting concept.

Christine prescribes the appropriate intensity of light, and suggests the most energy-efficient and aesthetic lighting design for a given space or setting. She worked as a lighting designer for New York-based lighting design companies, Horton-Lees and Johnson Schwing Hammer.

As such, Christine was able to put together a portfolio that includes lighting designs for places like the Chase Manhattan Bank, the National Geographic Society, and the BASF headquarters. She has also done lighting designs for showrooms of famous designers Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, J. Crew, Barney's, and Jill Sanders.

Within a year, CSLDI had built a client base consisting of such establishments as Nature's Village, the Bob's Restaurant chain, the Philippine National Bank, and the Bacolod Bargain Square Mall. After operating for more than a year, Christine began to set her sights on markets abroad, but she did not know where to start. Through the seminars she attended, she learned that exporting meant producing in bigger volumes.

At that time, CSLDI's monthly capacity ranged from 100 pieces each of lighting fixtures and shades - not enough to export. Through her sister, who manages a furniture company, Christine learned about the MPEX program of the Department of Science and Technology's Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI). The MPEX program provides consultants to companies that need just a little push in order to get going in markets abroad.

The consultants suggested a design for a 400-square meter factory building specifying the materials to use, and prepared a floor plan identifying the different sections. Furthermore, they advised Christine to provide individual worktables for the workers to minimize distractions, and incorporate finishing operations within the factory to contain the spread of toxic fumes.

A design for a spray booth was also prepared. The expenses she incurred for the consultants' three-day stay with the company - about P5,000 - was a pittance compared to the tremendous impact of the P35,000 worth of government assistance extended by TAPI. CSLDI moved into its new premises in 1997, a 700-square meter building standing on a portion of a family-owned three-hectare property in Sitio Bito, Barangay Estefania Villamonte in Bacolod City.

Now, 95 percent of the company's products are exported. The biggest buyers are from France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium. The lampshades also reach such places as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Beirut, Canada, the US, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Sales figures from 1997 - the year when CSLDI broke into the world market - doubled, from over P2.3 million to P4.1 million in 1998.

However, Christine realizes that just as a company may experience birth pains, its growth could also be uncertain. At the moment, the company gets its handmade paper materials from only one supplier in neighboring Iloilo province.

She plans to produce her own handmade paper in the near future, and has already attended a training program on handmade paper making organized by the DOST provincial office.

Christine is also exploring other materials to serve as lamp covers: though she is researching into the potential of fiberglass, her goal is to eventually use glass