Nabotas, Balayan, Batangas: Historical Data
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| Historical data from the National Library of the Philippines. |
Full transcription of the so-called “Historical Data” for the barrio of Nabotas, Balayan, Batangas, the original scanned documents at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections not having OCR or optical character recognition properties. This transcription has been edited for grammar, spelling and punctuation where possible. The original pagination is provided for citation purposes.
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HISTORY AND CULTURAL LIFE OF NABOTAS
PART ONE: HISTORY OF NABOTAS
Nabotas is only a small barrio situated on the shores of Balayan Bay. It got its name from its river when once it overflowed the whole place.
During the Spanish regime, the place was a mere forest. Only several huts owned by the salt-makers could be found.
When the Americans came, some fishermen began to settle the place. For forty-three years, the place was only a part of Santol, which is only a sitio of Canda.
During the Japanese occupation, evacuees from the neighboring provinces of Cavite and Quezon evacuated to the place, of which until now it is still inhabited by different kinds of people. It also became the hiding place of some American soldiers and guerrillas.
1947 came, the first time in its history when a school was being organized. The teacher, with the help of the district supervisor – Mr. Felimon Dizon, and one landowner-philanthropist Doña Marutza Lopez – succeeded in organizing the school.
Now, with the industrious population of three hundred sixty-seven, in has progressed much with the six years establishment of its school of which sooner or later it will become a regular barrio.
1. Present official name of the barrio – Nabotas
2. Popular name of the barrio – Nabotas
b. Present name – Nabotas
c. Derivation and meaning of the name
Now, to make the name sound more cheerful, [the] vowel “u” was changed to “o” as being called Nabotas.
3. Date of establishment – September 1, 1947 when a school was organized.
4. Original families – There were no original families because before, this place was not inhabited at all. The oldest settlers were the Ramos and Carandang families.
5. List of tenientes – 1947 to 1951 – Mr. Benito Salazar, 1951 to 1953 – Mr. Estaban Garcia.
6. It is a lone barrio without any sitio.
7. It has no historical sites, structures, buildings, old ruins, etc.
8. Important facts, incidents or events that took place:
a. During the Spanish occupation.
b. During the American occupation to World War II
Since the place was owned by a rich landowner, by the year 1918, when the price of sugar was high, a sugar mill was erected in the locality. It was operated by carabaos or cows.
A wine factory was also erected during this time, extracted from the nipa juice.
Fish ponds were also erected during this time. Experts from Rizal, Cavite and Pampanga were hired, yet it was not a success because of the swift current of the floods that often overflowed the whole place.
c. During and after World War II.
During World War II, two American soldiers and several guerrillas hid beneath its nipa groves.
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Liberation came. There was a landing of American soldiers in Nasugbu. The people began to evacuate from the place. Yet, there were still some who were left in their homes. The poblacion was strictly guarded by the Japanese by the guerrilleros at Binambang River. It was the night of February 18, 1945 when a company of Japanese soldiers passed through the place. They passed a house where there was an old man and beheaded him. When they reached the Binambang River, a battle took place. Several Japanese soldiers were killed while some Filipino Guerrilleros were slightly hurt in their foxholes. It was 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon of the next day when another battle was fought in the same spot near the place. How loud was the roaring of guns and machine guns. The same result – the enemies was heavily damaged. At this time, for fear of the enemy, no human being could be sighted at the place. For almost five or six weeks, it became an empty place under the sun.
Just after the Holy Week, the people began to return to their homes, making fishing the rampant industry of the whole vicinity. The people lived in plenty because of their big catch of fish every day. Almost every family was hoarding thousands of pesos from their sales of their big catch during moonless nights.
September 1, 1947 came, when the present lone teacher was appointed to organize classes. Early in the morning of that day, she assembled all the people in one place, convinced them to erect a building for their children, and organized the Parent-Teacher Association with Mr. Hilarion Guevarra as the first president. In the meantime that the building was being erected, as a pioneer, she held her classes under the shade of trees during hot days, or at other times under the warm canvass, or under the low house during rainy days. How can one imagine the hardships encountered. No building, no desk, no table, no chair, no blackboards, nothing could be sighted by the pupils, except the devices prepared by the teacher, but no place wherein to display them. But, despite these hardships, school was finished. Everything was [a] success. It was December 25, 1947 when a typhoon visited the place, uprooted the trees, destroyed the school building and drowned nine natives. That was a hard blow unto the teacher and the barrio folks. Again, the classes were held under the shade of trees. By the following year, the school building was repaired by the two hundred pesos shared on the typhoon damage.
As the people are influenced by politics, they are always united and blinded to one principle. They always belong to one party and stand for it whether it is right or wrong.
Never before was there a celebration of a barrio fiesta, though almost nine per cent of the people grasp the Roman Catholic [religion]. The first mass was held in school, March 26, 1949 and the second was on March 20, 1950 which were sponsored by the Balayan Catechist Club.
9. There were neither too many lives nor much properties destroyed during the last two wars.
PART II
10. As soon as a child is born, the parents at once select a sponsor of their child. They are not at once baptized when they are several months old. From the oldest child of the family, they still wait for several children to come and have them baptized at the same time. They make the preparation an elaborate one, inviting many people to attend the party. After several years, these children become grown up men and women, and now is their chance to look for their life-partners. Most of them do not follow the throbs of their hearts, but their parents’ wishes. This is a traditional custom handed to them from generation to generation. The marriage ceremony often takes place in the Roman Catholic Church. When one dies, almost everybody attends the funeral and even gives help to the bereaved members of the family.
11. The barrio folks have their own myths, legends, beliefs, interpretations and superstitions.
They believe in tigbalangs and piritays “that often mislead them in the nipa groves.” There is an old farmer who has been working in his fields for many years. But whenever he is benighted, he loses his
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way home and spends the whole night outdoors. A boy who used to take food to his father who was working in a nipa grove, once lost his way home and was found in the wilderness. After two days. There is also the adventure of an old couple who went to pay a visit to their relatives who resembled them to “piritays” and “tigbalangs.” When the man sensed that they were only haunted, he fired at once his revolver in the air, and the same moment the ghosts instantly disappeared with the loud noise.
| 12. | POPULAR SONGS | ||
| a. |
1. Pangkat 2. Kundangan 3. Parang Bankang Nasa Tubig 4. Si Doña Maria 5. Tiririnding | ||
| POPULAR GAMES | |||
| b. |
1. Singsing-singsingan 2. Sulot-sulot Bandol 3. Habilin na Galong | ||
| AMUSEMENTS | |||
| c. |
1. Hep or Bapor-baporan 2. Karagatan 3. Bukas at Sarang libro | ||
13. Puzzles
1. Ang ulan kina Juan ay hawot, kina Pedro ay karneng manok, saan ka papanhik? - (sa hagdan)
2. Mag-inang baka, may anak na tig-isa, ilang lahat sila? (tatlo)
3. May isang barkada, dalawa ang anak at dalawa rin ang ama, bumaril ang tig-isa, ilang lahat ang binaril nila? (Tatlo)
RIDDLES:
1. Alin dito sa gubat, nasanga ay walang ugat? (Sungay ng usa)
2. Ang baka ko sa Maynila, abot dito ang unga. (Ugong)
3. Matanda pa ang nuno ay hindi pa naliligo. (Pusa)
4. Dalawang tindahan sabay binuksan. (Mata)
5. Dalawang Kastiila namimintana. (Uhog)
14. Proverbs:
2. Ang bayaning susugatan, nag-iibayo ang tapang.
3. Kapag ang tubig ay matinding, asahan mo at malalim.
4. Ang lumakad ng marahan, matinik man ay mababaw.
5. Ang lumakad ng matulin, matinik ay malalim.
15. METHODS OF MEASURING TIME:
3. By the position of the shadows.
c. They count the number of days of every month by clinching a fist.
16. FOLKTALES:
There is the story of the old man in the barrio. It so happened when he was still young – when there was still the sugar mill and the wine factory. The place needed to import more laborers from neighboring towns. Those laborers stayed in the place for one week and went home only on Sundays.
One day, a group of four laborers came from Bauan. They were given a house wherein to reside for the whole week. Yet, it was still a big house where no one lived. Of course, there must be a division of labor among them four. One was the clean the rooms, one was to cook, one was to get water, and still the other was to get fuel.
When they were about to eat, a voice was heard from the ceiling.
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“Should I drop this now?” Everyone was astonished! That cook who was a little bit afraid, answered, “Drop it whatever it may be.” What do you think was it? It was the parts of a big human body – two legs, two big legs! Where did they come from? All of them except the cook ran away. The voice from the ceiling said again, and again the cook answered. And the hands fell. The third time the voice said and the cook answered the same. And the main body fell. At last, the voice repeated the same and the cook answered the same, and what fell? A very big head fell. All the parts were attached to the main body and then there was life. It began to move. Now it was the real person of a very big and strong man. It got up from where it lay. Now it was ready to fight to the end.
They fought for several hours. It was almost midnight when the fight ended. The cook was almost exhausted, but at last he won. Then, the ghost stood and said, “Go down below the stairs and dig there the jar of gold that I buried when I was still living. That is yours, because you are the most daring of men.” That same night, he took the gold and went home.
PART III
17. Information on books and documents treating of the Philippines and their owners. None.
18. The names of Filipino authors born or residing in the community, etc. None.