Premier freedom shrine 2nd home to caretaker

KAWIT, CAVITE—Even with his eyes closed, Jose Vales knows every nook and cranny of the house—from the secret passages that lead to hidden rooms to the pull-out pot holders mounted on the walls.

“I know the sounds of the footsteps on the floor and have gotten used to the presence of spirits from the past walking around,” said Vales, who has been a utility man and then museum aide at the Aguinaldo Shrine here for the past 28 years.

He knows just when the muebles (furniture) need dusting or the lawn requires mowing, said Vales, 69, who started working here after losing his job at a cigarette factory.

Even after his retirement four years ago, Vales is quite happy to continue doing his old chores for free as he says the routine is already in his system.

“This is already like my second home,” he says as he carefully takes down the dirty drapes, replacing them with clean ones for the 113th Independence Day celebrations here today.

The 166-year-old bahay na bato (colonial house) is the ancestral home of Emilio Aguinaldo, the country’s first President. Every year, government officials come here to raise the Philippine flag to commemorate the proclamation of Philippine independence from Spain on June 12, 1898.

At the Liwasang Aguinaldo, the park fronting the shrine, 100 Philippine flags are hoisted during the celebrations.

Museum curator Angelo Aguinaldo, who is a fourth-generation grandson of Emilio Aguinaldo, says the number of spectators from Kawit and from other parts of Cavite who witness the flag-raising at the balcony can reach 3,000 each year.

Expected to lead the commemorative rites early today is President Benigno Aquino III, the second President to deliver an Independence Day speech here since Joseph Estrada. Trade fairs and free concerts will be featured until evening.

“Every morning after attending to our small farm, I come straight here to help out with the chores,” said Vales.

He would not reveal how much his salary was when he retired, except to say that it was just enough to support his family.

Memories of Aguinaldo

Vales said he never expected he would end up working at the shrine, much less get very much attached to the old house.

But the Aguinaldos were not really strangers to him, he said. As a young boy, he remembers his grandfather, a war veteran from Kawit, taking him whenever there were gatherings at the house.

He said he first saw Emilio Aguinaldo, who is referred to by old folks in the community as Don Emilio, on the balcony.

“He was good-looking, not too tall, fair-skinned and always stood ramrod straight,” Vales recalled. His memory of the country’s first President is that of a man wearing all-white, including a white hat, waving to people on the street.

Taken for granted

Carla Sarinas, 27, took her 10-year-old nephew, who is on vacation from Bicol, to the shrine. She said that even though she lives in the neighborhood she rarely gets the chance to see the inside of the museum.

On ordinary days, the Aguinaldo Shrine receives an average 375 guests a day. The peak season is from August to February when visitors, consisting mostly of students, go on educational tours. During weekends, visitors are usually families taking their kids to the museum and the park.

Angelo Aguinaldo observes that most of the visitors are from Manila schools and only a very few come from Cavite.

“Perhaps it’s because we often tend to take for granted the things that we already have or which we know exist around us,” he said.

Promoting local history

This is the reason why the Cavite Association of Historical Sites and Museum—of which the Aguinaldo Shrine, being one of the oldest in the country, is a part—and the Cavite Tourism Board are active in a campaign to promote local history.

Parts of their efforts include devising a module with the local Department of Education that would incorporate local history in the Hekasi (heograpiya, kasaysayan at sibika) subjects.

The groups also encourage schools to take their students for a visit to local historical sites and museums first before exploring those of other provinces.

To develop a strong sense of nationalism, “people need to know their local history, too—the history of their town and the heroes who hail from their place,” Angelo said.