Mataasnakahoy: Recovering from the Abaca Decline in the 1920s

This article is the 3^rd of a series based on a history of Mataasnakahoy written in 1998 by Ceferino Capuchino¹. In the previous installment, we already talked about how Mataasnakahoy was settled by immigrants from towns and communities surrounding Taal Lake; how the coffee industry went from boom to bust; and how, to make up for the decline in the coffee plantation industry, Mataasnakahoy turned to planting abaca for its fiber.

In time, Capuchino related, even the abaca plants started to die out, prompting the farmers of Mataasnakahoy, led again by the Templo and Silva families, to replace these with coconuts and lanzones. The seedlings were brought in from San Pablo and Alaminos in Laguna and Tiaong in Quezon. This was around the year 1925, just a few years before Mataasnakahoy formally separated from Lipa to become a distinct municipality.

Through the initiative of certain individuals and families, Capuchino went on, Mataasnakahoy was spared from the effects of the decline of the abaca plantations. One Agapito Templo introduced the planting of a variety of coffee called excelsa² along with cacao. One will recall from the previous chapter that the variety of coffee during the boom years of the 19^th century was arabica.

The Tibayan family, meanwhile, was the first to introduce planting of robusta³ along with, of course, excelsa and cacao in their properties.

The barrios of Santol, Manggahan, Bayorbor, San Sebastian, Nangkaan, Calingatan and Bubuyan, on the other hand, were planted to coffee, cacao and coconuts through the initiative of Pedro Malaluan, Mariano Mendoza, Felix Landicho, Alejandro and Alfonso Magpantay, Saturnino Lescano, Dalmacio and Herminio Tibayan, Segundo Paran, Francisco Silva, Francisco Recinto, Felix Lacdao, Lauro Tiquiz, Segundo Dimaculangan, Amando Matanguihan, Basilio Ticatic, Julian and Segundo Matanguihan, Melanio and Esteban de Leon and Catalino Mendoza.

At the height of production, Capuchino wrote, as many as 20 large trucks each week were being used to ship bananas, coconuts, copra, lanzones along with, presumably, coffee and cacao, from Mataasnakahoy. Agriculture, thus, was Mataasnakahoy’s primary source of livelihood.

Although a small “town⁴” in Batangas, it became known in the province for its produce, which also became the reason for the improvement of the standards of living of its citizens. Many were able to build better houses and send their children to schools.