Work had started to restore the bell tower and perimeter walls of the 207-year-old St. Anne Parish Church in Piddig, Ilocos Norte. —LEILANIE ADRIANO
LAOAG CITY — When Fr. Lorenzo Torreflores witnessed the closing of the dilapidated St. Anne Parish Church in Piddig town, Ilocos Norte province, in September 2014, he said he and the town residents anguished over the loss of the 207-year-old Baroque church.
The town engineer ruled that the church was no longer safe for occupancy, with its wooden trusses heavily deteriorated and its foundation weakened.
But it wasn’t the end for the church. This week, work started to restore the bell tower and perimeter walls and to retrofit the church’s buttresses and roofing.
Bishop Renato Mayugba, of the Diocese of Laoag, along with representatives of the town government and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), led the groundbreaking ceremony on March 22 for the church restoration project. The repairs were expected to be completed in January next year.
Witness to devastation
“The church has witnessed so much devastation over the course of time,” Mayugba said.
“It’s now our time to put in our faith, to endure and cooperate with one another, to continue the living faith of our ancestors through this church restoration,” he said.
Piddig residents built the church for the Augustinian friars in 1810.
Piddig, 21 kilometers from this capital city, was a former “visita” (a community with a chapel) of neighboring Dingras town. In 1798, Piddig was established as a town.
As one of the oldest in the province, St. Anne Parish Church was part of the colorful history of Piddig, where the Basi Revolt began in 1807, said Carminda Arevalo, NHCP deputy director for administration.
The revolt was triggered by a Spanish decree prohibiting the local manufacture of “basi,” the local wine, after the Spanish colonial government expropriated its trade. The revolt spread, but was immediately quelled.
Base against Americans
During the Filipino-American war, a five-member team of Filipino guerrillas used the church as a base to repel American attacks.
An earthquake toppled the top section of the bell tower on March 19, 1932.
During World War II, the convent and the sacristy were burned, leading to the destruction of its parish records. The church’s facade and its interior were restored in 1965.
The convent was later repaired and converted into a parochial school, the St. Anne Academy.
Fr. Carlito Ranjo Jr., head of the diocese restoration committee, said it took at least two years for restoration experts to study the structure and the materials used to determine the best way to approximate the original design and makeup of the church. —Leilanie Adriano