When the government submerged Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija in 1973 to create a lake that fed what was touted then to be the second largest dam in Asia, more than 1,300 residents yielded to the plan and rebuilt the town on a mountaintop.
The façade looks like a place of worship for antichrists—a leaning statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a hanging, almost falling, inverted cross. Inside the church, on an elevation are a fit-for-royalty chair, a vigil candle, a rostrum and the purple-curtained tabernacle. Looking up, one would see the blue sky and clouds—as the ceiling had parted.
All seven passengers in the van-for-hire the Inquirer took in Mati City on Thursday had the same thing in mind—to reach either Baganga or Cateel.
