Groups ask Aquino help to save Rizal mother’s house

A PORTION of the roof of the Alberto Mansion in Biñan, Laguna, collapsed last week. RAFFY LERMA

BIÑAN CITY—A civil society group is banking on the power of social media as a last-ditch effort to preserve the original structure of the ancestral house of Teodora Alonso, mother of national hero Jose Rizal, in this city.

On Facebook, a picture of the 200-year-old house, locally known as the Alberto Mansion, showed a part of its roof that caved in on

Oct. 16. It came with the message urging netizens to “share” the photo online “until it reaches our government leaders.”

“This is the beginning of the end of this historic house. All our efforts down the drain,” said Dr. Rosauro Sta. Maria, director of the local cultural group United Artists for Cultural Conservation and Development (UACCD) that started the Save the Alberto House Movement in 2010.

Heritage advocates and the Biñan city government have opposed the planned transfer of the Alberto Mansion to Bagac, Bataan, after the house’s  present owner, Gerardo Alberto, closed a deal with Jose “Jerry” Acuzar, who owns the heritage resort Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar.

But from 2010 to 2011, Sta. Maria said the house has been “demolished from the inside and its parts transferred to Bataan. (With) no ceiling, no floor and its foundation dug and exposed, it was inevitable for the house, now left only with its shell, to go down.”

It was reported that the replica of the Alberto Mansion was the latest addition to Acuzar’s collection of the Spanish-period mansions. Some original wood planks, as well as the original door and stairs, were used when the house was recreated in Bataan.

After the roof caved in, the local police had cordoned off the house perimeter and prevented street vendors from putting up flea market stalls as they used to every afternoon in front of the Alberto House.

Rommel Mahalin, team leader of the Biñan Emergency Response Unit, said the rundown structure might collapse any time because it lacked support from the interior.

City engineer Wilfredo Alintanahin said they have issued a notice to Alberto to immediately reinforce the house.

But Sta. Maria believed the city government could only do so much. In 2011, Biñan allotted P20 million for the supposed expropriation of the house, but which did not push through due to lack of response from the owner, he said.

“And now after the flood (caused by the August monsoon rain) hit Biñan, we understand if the city government cannot make (the preservation of the house) a priority,” he added.

“Our call now is for the President to step in. At a stroke of his pen, the NHCP (National Historical Commission of the Philippines) can do something to repair and restore the house,” said Sta. Maria, albeit with a hint of doubt since Acuzar happened to be a brother-in-law of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. Ochoa, who is a close ally of President Aquino.

Although what was left of it was the hollow structure, Sta. Maria believed keeping the house on its original location is an important cultural heritage of Biñan.