Going back to 16th-century Spanish colonialism

Traversing the Orient magazine, which is printed in Bangkok and circulated in Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Manila, features interesting and unique places found in different countries.

Publisher Amy dela Cruz requested former Governor Chavit Singson to help her feature Vigan in one of its forthcoming issues. Nobody, nobody but Governor Singson could have been a better host and tour guide of Vigan, the place of his birth and childhood, and where he served on and off as governor since 1972.

The day started with a tour of the Baluarte, a 70-hectare span of rolling hills and flat grazing land, which Governor Singson developed as his semi-private enclave. Being an animal lover, he has a mini zoo inside. Among his collections are his exotic butterflies, peacocks, pelicans, cockatoos, and other species of exotic, colorful birds, tigers, elks, deers, gazelles, ostriches, a camel, toy ponies that pull the small chariots, an orangutan named Ruffa, pythons (most impressive was the anaconda), wild black boar, and other rare animals.

Governor Singson shares his love for animals with Vigan’s residents by having an animal show twice a day, free of charge to everyone who wishes to watch. We saw mostly students and young people attending the show.

After posing with a tiger named Tom, we hurried off to see the old part of town before it got dark. As we walked down the narrow cobblestone-paved Crisologo Street, I felt like I was transported back to the Spanish era sans the dreaded guardia civil.

Most of the city’s heritage houses are clustered here and along the adjoining streets. The heritage structures retained much of the patina of Spanish colonial architecture, surprisingly escaping the ravages of World War II in the Philippines. As one goes around the area, its colorful colonial past is evident everywhere — rightfully earning its inclusion in the prestigious Unesco World Heritage prohibits in December of 1999.

There are many antique and souvenir stores around the area. The centuries-old houses, churches, plazas, public buildings (the restored City Hall and Court of Appeals), and the cobblestone streets of Vigan are breathing the heritage of the country’s colonial past and gloriously preserved for posterity. During Governor Singson’s tenure, he made a decree that prohibits modernization of the façade of the colonial buildings and ancestral homes. They can be restored to their old glory but not architecturally changed on the outside.

Vigan was established in 1572 by Juan de Salcedo. It was later called Ciudad Fernandina in honor of Prince Ferdinand, the son of King Philip II of Spain, and became the seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia.

As we went around the narrow streets where horse-drawn calesas were still a popular mode of transportation, we noticed the locals still doing pottery and tiles the old- fashioned way in their homes. This explains the famous Vigan tiles and burnay making (pottery), which are still a source of income for some families. There is also the famous inabel, handloom weaving, which is now used by famous couturiers specializing in Filipiniana wear.

For dinner, Governor Singson brought us to the Plaza Square where we ate on the street in front of their famous Café Leona. Here, we feasted on fresh salmon sashimi and Vigan delicacies such as bagnet, Vigan longanisa, pinakbet, and delicious thin-crust vegetarian pizza. As we sat there enjoying our meal complete with Spanish colonial ambience, we noticed quite a number of Americans at the other tables. Governor Singson explained that Vigan will soon be the site of the yearly Balikatan, a counter-terrorism training effort between the Philippine soldiers and the US military to fight Al Qaeda and the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. Many of the American soldiers have arrived, which helps boost the tourism of the city.

On our way home after dinner, Governor Singson showed us more ancestral houses and as I feasted my gaze on the massive 16th-century brick and plaster houses with capiz windows and ventanillas, I felt an overwhelming sense of history that only Vigan, the last surviving colonial town in the Philippines, could instill.