IN VALLADOLID
An iconic church

History Notes WITH MODESTO SAONOY

The facade of the Catholic parish church in Valladolid is being cleaned up to reveal the cut corals and stones that characterize this Spanish vintage religious and history structure. It is an icon not only for this town but for the province of Occidental Negros. It is one of the largest stone structures that still stands today, a church that evokes many historic events.

Alcalde Mayor Manuel Morquecho scoured the island of Negros to find out its state of development. The island was a corregimiento for almost 300 years until he was appointed as Alcalde Mayor of Negros in 1849, seven years after the government of the island was elevated to Alcaldia.

After his visit, he reported that the area of what is to become Valladolid was a “frightful desert”. It was not a desert in the sense of hot, barren soil but he referred to its people who he considered were without any “civilized” living.

Indeed, it was populated by Aetas who came from Inampulugan, the island west across Guimaras Strait. In fact, in earlier sketches of the island of Negros, what is now Valladolid was known as Inampulugan, possibly due its natives and its closeness to that island. Morquecho, who is considered to have identified many places that would eventually become towns and cities of Negros, directed the foundation of Valladolid.

We have no extant record of the pueblo’s tenientes but a parish can only be created when there is already an established and functioning civil government. The church and its needs were provided budget by the government, but the people also pay tribute to form part of the church expenses. However, most often, the tributes were insufficient. Thus, the town of Valladolid was created first to pave the way for the establishment of a parish.

On August 9, 1851, the parish of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was founded for this town and in May the following year, Recollect Fr. Celestino Romero arrived as its pastor. Fr. Romero laid out the plans for the town in consonance with the rules of the time. The town square is surrounded by the church and the government building right across the church. The school was adjacent to the church and the houses of the ilustrados on the other side. Unlike in other towns, the public market in Valladolid was on the same street as the church.

Morquecho wrote that one year after the town was established, it had “developed with vigor and freshness”. The population had risen to 600 taxpayers. The number of tribute payers indicates that, indeed, Valladolid was bigger than other towns earlier founded.

The reason for this rapid growth of Valladolid was that it became the landing point for immigrants from Panay. Its shorelines, in those days, were very close to Inampulugan so that it was easy for immigrants to come to Valladolid by small boat.

The town, however, was merely a stop-over. Immigrants then moved inland since Bago to the north of Valladolid and Tinubagan and Marayo to its south were already occupied by earlier settlers. The lands towards the mountain areas were without owners. The immigrants moved there to create the inland towns of Mang Kas (La Carlota), Antipolo, Lapak (Bungahin and later La Castellana) and Odiong (Magallon) that were occupied by natives.

Valladolid, however, was not prepared to deal with the influx of people who lived in temporary shelters while they looked for places to work and settle. Soon, sanitation became a serious concern and diseases inflicted the population, mostly of dysentery. There were periodic outbreaks of malaria as the nearby forests were cleared and released malarial mosquitoes into the town.

Like other towns, it suffered from cholera and smallpox that killed hundreds by the week.

The opening of more lands for sugarcane cultivation offered work opportunities. New arrivals were recruited to work clearing new lands or working in the cane fields. This relieved Valladolid of population pressure. By then, however, the town was already a prosperous pueblo. The huge church and later a magnificent convent, then the biggest in Negros, represented the prosperity of the town.

A succession of Recollect priests from 1863 till the end of the Spanish rule constructed this church. It rivaled in size and strength to those of San Sebastian in Bacolod and San Juan of Bago.

Although Valladolid was not an active participant of the Negros revolution of 1898, it was the center of the Aglipayan religious revolt in 1903 and became the seat of the Filipina Independiente Ecclesiastical Governor of Negros, Lorenzo Paloma. He was a Catholic parish priest of Valladolid, who joined the IFI at its founding and converted the town folks to the new religion.

The choice of the IFI or the Aglipayan church of Fr. Paloma as its top official, and Valladolid as the site of its authority in Negros, are evidences of the town’s prominence and prestige at the time.*

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