Bacolor, Pampanga

Bacolor Pampanga
Originally uploaded by daphnelaura

On our way home from Subic it was imperative that we pass by a little town in Pampanga which has very deep sentimental value to my mother. The parents of my mother hail from Bacolor, a quiet little town deep within the province of Pampanga. It was unfortunately completed devastated by the Mount Pinatubo eruption. Whole villages were buried under lahar and alot of families were affected by this natural calamity. We entered this ancient church in the outskirts of Bacolor, the San Guillermo Parish Church. As you can see from the picture only the top part and the towering belfry is visible, the rest has been buried under concrete lahar. Yet once you enter its premises, the altar is still intact and a certain solemnity reigns within its midst. It was a poignant moment for my mother as she prayed in the church. My mother was born and raised in Manila but she remembers going to Bacolor both as a child way back during the second World War era and when she was still single to visit her relatives there. Her father (My grandfather who I never had the opportunity to meet) died in the 1940s due to an incurable disease and he was buried somewhere in a cemetery behind the church. A resting place which was itself buried under the ash fall of the lahar during the Mount Pinatubo eruption. It was a relief to see that Bacolor seems to be on its way to making some progress, building up again from the ashes of that terrible tragedy which inflicted them. It was a brief but very nostalgic side trip for the whole family. =)