LUCENA CITY—When workers at a school construction site dug up what looked like a concrete door and several adobe slots near Saint Ferdinand Cathedral last month, a noted local archivist called on religious leaders and government officials to conduct a joint exploration to preserve what may be another link to the Quezon capital’s past.
Carlos Villariba, 46, photo curator of the Quezon Gintong Yaman Museum, says that based on historical records of the city, the workers could have struck at a cemetery that existed during the Spanish period.
“I’m not suggesting that it could be another Spanish-era underground cemetery just like in Nagcarlan, Laguna. What I’m sure of is that there was a cemetery near the church based on an old record,” Villariba says.
This explains why a joint exploration should be done, involving experts, to find out what’s beneath the planned school, he says.
To bolster his theory, Villariba showed the Inquirer a photocopy of a research study (from documents written in Spanish and translated into English) conducted by Sr. Pilar Peñafort (Daughters of Charity) at the Franciscan archive on the life of a local religious icon, Hermana Fausta Labrador.
Granja’s buildings
Peñafort’s study states that after Lucena was created into a “pueblo” (town) in 1879 from being a barrio (village) of nearby Tayabas town, a Franciscan priest Mariano Granja used all his savings to build a church, convent, courthouse, school for boys and girls, and a “cemetery made of stone.”
Granja built the first Catholic church in Lucena from 1882 to 1884, according to a Philippine Historical Committee marker.
The church became what is now known as the St. Ferdinand Cathedral, located in the heart of the city. It lies adjacent to Maryhill College, formerly Maryknoll Academy, which was built in 1938.
From his collection of black-and-white photos that mirror Lucena’s rich history, Villariba presented a magnified photo of the old church which he secured from the archives of Ateneo de Manila University. Two boxes lying in front of the church looked like coffins.
The curator notes that the present public cemetery in Barangay (village) Ibabang Dupay was opened only in the 1930s.
School construction
Immediately adjoining the church was another structure which, he says, houses the convent and the school that Granja built. Part of the area is now the location of the three-story building of Maryhill College.
Villariba says he discovered the ancient ruins when he noticed the construction signboard declaring that what was being demolished at the right side of the cathedral was an old canteen.
“I talked to the contractor and reminded him that what they were knocking down was not simply remnants of an old school canteen but an old edifice which was much older than the cathedral,” he says.
He says the workers have told him that they also discovered an underground concrete opening and several adobe slots. “I immediately conducted initial investigation and saw for myself the concrete opening and other unmistakable ruins of an old edifice,” he says.
Villariba, a mass communications graduate of Enverga University in 1986, got hooked on local historical records through photos and writings when he was involved with a group of Quezon old-timers a couple of decades ago. The group wanted to put up a memorabilia to preserve and showcase the province’s historical treasures.
Church action
That intimate relationship with the past was rubbed off on him by his father, Cesar Villariba, a former member of the Batasang Pambasa during the Marcos regime and known historian of Lucena and Quezon.
On April 24, Villariba informed Bishop Emilio Marquez, head of the Diocese of Lucena, about his theory on the excavated ruins. The next day, Marguez went with him to inspect the site.
“One of the priests who joined us shared my theory that the discovered ruins could be the former cemetery built by Father Granja,” Villariba says.
Marquez says he is open to any further exploration. “The Church welcomes any further exploration of the site. If the efforts will result to any links with the past, we have to preserve it,” he says.
The bishop has already requested the building contractor to temporarily cover the excavation site pending the next course of action. Several iron sheets now separate the covered ruins from the main project site.
Bong Diaz, executive assistant to Lucena Mayor Barbara Ruby Talaga, says the local government would extend all help and cooperate with the Church and all concerned government agencies on the preservation of the city’s historical landmarks.