Negros Occidental: Around the historic center of Silay City

Silay, Negros Occidental is one of the heritage cities of the Philippines. Its historic center was declared by the National Historical Institute as a National Historical Landmark. While twenty-eight of its ancestral houses were declared Heritage Houses, the most number of declared structures anywhere in the country.


Several of these houses are open to the public as museums including the Victor Fernandez Gaston Heritage House, Manuel Severino Hofileña Heritage House and the Bernardino Lopez Jalandoni Ancestral House among others. I had visited the Gaston House (Balay Negrense) in a previous trip. So I wanted to visit the other two museums.

After visiting the Delicacy Barter Market and having breakfast, we proceeded to the Jalandoni House to visit the museum there. The first floor features an exhibit on Silay's heritage houses while the second floor is the Jalandoni House itself.



We dropped by the Silay Church or the San Diego Pro-Cathedral but I wasn't able to take too many photos inside since there was a wedding going on. But in front of the church is a really nice view of Rizal Street where a row of ancestral houses can be found.

Walking around Silay is like walking back in time. I wonder if there is a Silay heritage walking map available for those who want to explore the city on their own. Maybe in the future, some of the houses can be converted into bed and breakfast establishments for those who want to experience living in an old house. Now that the Bacolod Airport is in Silay, these adaptive reuse options become all the more viable.

Silay has a good example of adaptive reuse in fact - the Maria Ledesma Golez House is now a branch of RCBC. And what's good about it is that the signage is very subtle, not the overbearing pylon signs you usually see in banks.


Getting into the Hofileña House is a bit tricky. It requires an appointment and is said to be dependent on the mood of the house's current resident, Ramon Hofileña. More than the house, people visit the Hofileña House to view the impressive art collection of Ramon Hofileña. He's got works of various National Artists including Napoleon Abueva, Fernando C. Amorsolo, BenCab, Jose T. Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Vicente Manansala and H.R. Ocampo among others. And even more, in his collection are works of our nation's heroes including a school project of Dr. Jose Rizal and sketches of Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo.

But more than these priceless works, there are some (in)famous paintings which have always been talking points of any visit to the Hofileña House. What these are, you'll have to find out and visit the house for yourself. So next time you fly to Bacolod, make sure to stopover and experience Silay.

Negros Occidental: Delicacy Barter Market in Silay City

Early in the morning in Silay City, Negros Occidental, at the Silay Public Market, a unique exchange of goods happens. Known to locals as the Delicacy Barter Market, this is where the friendly tindera gets her snacks and kakanin to sell in offices, homes and other places as far as Bacolod City.

The practice originated from the family delicacies of Silay's old clans. Each family had a particular delicacy. And the household staff who prepared them would trade the leftovers with that of other families. Thus the barter of delicacies.


Today though, it has evolved into a unique trading system which is quite complicated to the onlooker but understood by the sellers and suppliers. Each tindera has her suki supplier. So she gets all her goods from a single supplier. The supplier is responsible for getting other goods from other suppliers. Thus the exchange of delicacies. They have a system in place already. And at the end of the day, the tindera would come back and pay her supplier. And the supplier will take care of paying the other suppliers.


At the Delicacy Barter Market, you'd find native kakanin and local delicacies, as well as popular snacks and sandwiches. So if you happen to arrive in Silay City early in the morning, why not swing over to the Delicacy Barter Market at the Silay Public Market to get your local delicacies and snacks at bargain prices!

Part 2: Around the historic center of Silay City

Negros Occidental: Road trip from Himamaylan to Victorias

Negros Occidental is one province I haven't really explored. Except that trip to Mambucal when I was still a kid, and a more recent visit to Silay City some years back, I've only really been to Bacolod City. So I decided to explore Negros Occidental before our family reunion in Bacolod.

Since I only had a few hours after the welcome breakfast prepared by our relatives, I decided to rent a car to speed up things. We drove down south as far as Himamaylan and made our way north to look for some interesting stuff. Along the National Highway was this continuous stream of sugar cane trucks. Negros is one big sugar plantation and all you see on both sides of the road is sugar cane.

The first old church we passed by was Binalbagan Church built in 1937. Except for the retablo, most of the church has been renovated. And it was such a hassle to get to it no thanks to a presidential visit. I was shocked that they stopped traffic on the National Highway just to let her convoy pass. So we had to make a lot of detours. In fact, she arrived in town exactly when I was standing in front of the church.

Anyway, from Binalbagan, we went to the next town which is Hinigaran. The Hinigaran Church, completed in 1858, is one of the best-preserved Spanish colonial churches in Negros Occidental. I was quite impressed with its well-preserved exterior. But inside was a different story.

While most of the interior was intact, I was surprised that they were doing some renovations, trying to mimic some European church since they had a large tarpaulin of a church interior they were trying to imitate. These priests really need to realize that our churches are not European! They are Philippine Baroque to be exact, a folksy style only found in the Philippines. Let's keep our churches Filipino please!

Hinigaran is a favorite stop as well thanks to Mila's royal bibingka which you could buy from Mila's Restaurant along the National Highway. Another favorite is the creamy buko pie which is quite different from the ones in Laguna and the rest of the Southern Tagalog since they really put in a lot of cream.

While we were having lunch at Mila's Restaurant, the presidential convoy passed by again. And there she was in a coaster with windows open, waving to everyone like a queen.

From there, we proceeded to Valladolid. The Valladolid Church is also of Spanish colonial vintage. It was twin bell towers. But just like many of our heritage churches, the interior has been modernized.

Bago City still has a few of its grand old mansions. One of those homes is the Gen. Juan Anacleto Araneta Mansion which is a National Historical Landmark. The grand ancestral house is now home to the local museum.

The Bago Church has a very unusual Neo-Gothic facade, built by the Augustinian Recollects in 1891. But again, the interiors have been modernized. The city plaza was the site of the historic proclamation of the Republica de Negros on November 5, 1898. This event is commemorated annually with the Al Cinco de Noviembre.

From Bago, we crossed Bacolod to get to Talisay City. There are two houses worth visiting there. One is the Lizares Mansion or the Balay ni Tana Dicang which is now a beautiful period museum and art gallery.

The other is the ruins of the grand mansion of Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson which is simply known as The Ruins. They have a restaurant there as well so if you like to have lunch or dinner amidst its old walls, that would be a great option. It's actually hard to get to and the roads are a bit bad. But see what proper conservation and marketing can do to promote the shell of an old house?

Anyway, since it was getting dark, I skipped Silay as well. Besides, you need a full day to explore this wonderful heritage city. And I've done it before. I'll try to visit Silay again when I get back.

Our last stop for the day was the Chapel of the Angry Christ inside the compound of the Victorias Milling Corporation. Did you know that the UP Chapel was originally designed for the Ossorio family? But I guess it doesn't matter now since the current chapel is itself a work of art.

The central figure of the vibrant altar murals is an image of Christ with a burning heart, standing on skulls and a serpent. It's that image from which the chapel gets its moniker since the church is actually dedicated to St. Joseph the Worker. These murals were painted by Alfonso Ossorio. Around the church are mosaics that were made using broken soda bottles.

I rushed back to Talisay City to attend an event at Balay ni Tana Dicang. But I decided to take that photo of The Ruins before it got really dark.

Negros Occidental: Silay, the Paris of Negros

Silay City, this genteel and elegant town north of Bacolod was once an important commercial hub thanks to the introduction of the horno economico (sugar mill) by Yves Gaston, a Frenchman turned Silaynon. What Bacolor was to Pampanga (Athens of Pampanga), Silay was to Negros (Paris of Negros) since it was the cultural and intellectual hub of the province.

I began my day by taking a walk to the Provincial Capitol of Negros Occidental which was just a few minutes from our house. This magnificent structure was designed by none other than renowned architect Juan Arellano and was declared a national historical landmark in 2004. Indeed, it is one of the most monumental provincial capitols ever constructed in our country. Sigh! Reminds me again of the current state of Philippine architecture. Our government engineers don't know the meaning of aesthetics and build structures that simply have four walls and a ceiling! The less materials you use, the more goes into the pockets... Oh well!

From the capitol, I took a jeep that would drop me off further down the road where jeeps and buses to Talisay, Silay and other northern towns and cities are located. The trip was about thirty minutes and costed me only PHP10. Now that gas is so expensive, prices like these make you want to commute even more. The only thing I didn't like about it was the heat and the drivers stopping too long to attract passengers. In fact, it became so annoying when they'd even back-up to try to lure passengers!

As soon as you exited the city limits of Bacolod, you saw vast fields of sugar cane on either side of the road in Talisay City and then Silay. Sugar really made Negros a very prosperous island which explains why there are so many cities in both provinces, one highly-urbanized city and 12 component cities in Negros Occidental and 5 component cities in Negros Oriental.

I knew we were in Silay when the surroundings changed. If not for the jeepneys and other vehicles, you would think you are in another country.

I took a walk around the town and checked out the different houses. At the center of town was the San Diego Pro-Cathedral and its clock tower. Along the main street were old homes and shophouses. Wow! They don't make buildings and houses like this anymore. The designs were so intricate and grand!

Actually, the City of Silay has the most number of NHI-declared heritage houses, twenty-four if I'm not mistaken. A distant second to Silay is San Fernando, Pampanga with four. The numbers are not conclusive though. It simply shows which cities are most interested in heritage since San Fernando, I would have to admit, will not stand a chance if compared to towns like Sariaya in Quezon, San Juan in Batangas and San Miguel de Mayumu in Bulacan. At the same time, the numbers show how slow it takes the NHI to declare structures! With the speed these structures are demolished, the NHI must match that speed if it is to protect what remains of our national heritage after most of it was flattened during the liberation.
A visit to Silay would not be complete without passing by Balay Negrense, the Gaston Ancestral House which has been converted into a museum. There is another house open to the public, the Jalandoni Ancestral House, but I didn't have much time since I had to go back to Bacolod to prepare for my late afternoon flight.

Back in Bacolod, I finished some concerns with the house and I was off. On the way to the airport, I passed by the Bacolod Memorial Park to visit the graves of my grandparents for the very first time. Sigh!

The PAL flight was one-hour delayed. Just great, I shouldn't have rushed. Hehe! And now, I'm back in Manila. I've done a lot of travelling in the Visayas, it's time for a break. I got free AirAsia tickets to Cambodia during their anniversary promo last December (of course we still pay for taxes and insurance so it amounted to about PHP4500). So for next two weeks I'll be blogging about my backpack trip to Cambodia and Laos. But Mindanao here I come coz I was able to purchse the PHP1 tickets of Cebu Pacific. I'm off to Zamboanga and Davao later this year!