— witsandnuts

Before going to Bale Dutung in Angeles City, we bus-seated toured around the old houses in Bacolor and Guagua. We also went out to check the two of the oldest churches in Pampanga.

BACOLOR CHURCH, The Half-Buried Church

(An old photo of the church pre-eruption displayed in the mini-museum). Bacolor Church reminded me of Cagsawa Ruins in Daraga, Albay. As written near the church entrance sideways to the bell tower that survived:

San Guillermo Parish Church is named after the town’s patron saint. The church was originally constructed by the Augustinian friars in 1576 – also the town’s founding – with Fr. Diego De Ochoa, OSA, as the town’s first parish priest having been installed as such two years after. In 1880, the church was destroyed by an earthquake only to be rebuilt by Fr. Eugenio Alvarez in 1886. Lahar flowed from the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo which erupted into world notice on June 15, 1991, buried the church at half its 12-meter height prompting of its more than 50,000 town residents to evacuate to safer grounds in resettlement areas.

(L-R: Me fronting the half-buried church, one of our guides Ivan Man Dy doing the introductions, an image of Nuestra Senora del Rosario, retablos)