Finally stepping off the Genesis bus at the home of Sen. Edgardo Angara in Baler, Aurora, one actually felt seasick, since the land trip involved rolling about as the bus followed the steep winding roads and bouncing along the unpaved sections.
Traveling to Aurora from Manila takes less time than it takes to go to Baguio, but the trip can be more taxing. When I mention the roads to Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, she protests: ?But notice that the bad sections are mostly those in Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya. We have only about a kilometer of unpaved roads inside our boundary!?
Still, if Aurora is to make good its bid to become the next big thing in Philippine tourism, improving the roads leading to the province is a must. Those younger and fitter might find the trip actually an adventure, but it was only after a quick nap and rest that I found myself ready to take in the sights.
One soon discovers that Aurora has plenty to offer the visitor: history and culture, lush forests, miles and miles of beaches, and good, plentiful fare, from grilled seafood to meats and vegetables cooked in coconut milk, fresh fruits and rice cakes and other delicacies.
Food played a big part in our itinerary because I had tagged along on with a group from Food Magazine, which regularly features ?hometown cuisine? of various provinces and towns in the country. The trip to Baler was on the invitation of Tootsie Echauz Angara, an ABS-CBN executive and wife of Rep. Sonny Angara, though we were joined later by the senator?s wife Gloria. Our group included food editor Mickey Fenix, food writer Louie Barcelon Locsin who is also the wife of Makati Rep. Teddyboy Locsin, ace photographer Sonny Yabao, and the magazine staff, including my husband.
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?YOU will see nature at its most pristine!? promised the senator as we were about to leave Manila. And true enough, once we began to climb the roads crossing the Sierra Madre, we glimpsed stretches of primeval forests, deep lakes, and a coastline of jagged rocks and booming surf.
Seen on a map, Aurora looks like a sliver of land caught between the mountains and the sea. ?Between sand and sierra? is how writer Nick Joaquin described the province in a biography of Senator Angara. It was once part of Tayabas Province, since re-named Quezon, even if Manuel Quezon, the first president of the Commonwealth, was born and grew up in Baler. The province of Aurora was founded only in 1979, in honor of Doña Aurora Quezon, civic figure and widow of the late president whose death in an ambush by alleged members of the Hukbalahap (together with her daughter Baby and son-in-law Philip Buencamino) became a national tragedy.
The Quezon family figures largely in Baler to this day. A statue of President Quezon, shown seated imperiously in an easy chair, dominates the plaza in front of the Baler Museum. Nearby is a small wooden house, the family residence of the Quezons. The birthplace and home of Doña Aurora is currently being refurbished, distinguished by a historic marker.
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STILL, for all intents and purposes the political scene in Aurora is today dominated by the Angaras, a family long dominant in local politics but which vaulted into national politics with the ascendancy of the senator. His son is the province?s lone congressional representative (a most hard-working legislator, I can assure you); his sister, the former congresswoman and women?s rights advocate, is governor; and his brother is Baler mayor.
But as Governor Bellaflor tells it, ?We have made it a family policy to keep out of each other?s business.? Still, each of the Angaras keeps in mind the family?s legacy of public service. This seems particularly true of the senator, who invited us to drop by the Aurora Technology Institute, owned and managed by a foundation run by the family, which offers scholarships to students taking short-term courses in subjects like computer, hotel and restaurant service, IT and mechanics. ?In just over two years of operation, we have already graduated five batches!? says the senator proudly, adding that many graduates have since found lucrative employment abroad.
The governor was away in Casiguran when we arrived, but dropped by for a chat on our last night in Baler. When she learned of our itinerary, she pooh-poohed our claims of having visited Aurora. ?There?s so much you haven?t seen!? she exclaimed. There was nothing we could do but promise to return, not just to visit more beaches, waterfalls and nature parks, but also to see for ourselves the many exciting projects that the provincial government has embarked on.
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BALER has an interesting place in Philippine history. For almost a year even after the end of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, a garrison of Spanish soldiers holed up inside the Baler Church, a stone structure whose walls strangely lean outward, making the church look like a ?V? with an extended base.
The last commandant of the Spanish hold-outs wrote that the reason they refused to surrender was that they could not believe claims that Spain had lost the war. So despite his men dying one by one from beri-beri and other ailments, they held out, subsisting on root crops and rice stores, and towards the end, on vermin and insects.
The ?Siege of Baler,? as that episode is known today, cemented the ties between Baler and the Spanish government, with descendants of the survivors regularly visiting the land that played such a big part in their forebears? lives. I?m sure they concluded, as I did, that the real reason the Spaniards camped inside the church was not fear of the Katipuneros as much as love for the land, a reluctance to leave a province so rich in natural wealth and hospitality.
