By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The call for me to travel to the Province of Antique was made two days before the actual travel day. I was forced, in a way, to say yes since I was the only available person to do what was supposed to be done there.
That is, to discuss things regarding an agricultural program to be implemented in the several municipalities in the province. I was glad of course for the opportunity. It is my first opportunity to travel by plane after the COVID 19 pandemic was declared.
If the travel day was not on a Thursday, I may have missed my bus trip to Manila because I was late by about 3 minutes because I caught a taxi whose driver does not to go beyond 40 km per hour. No amount of prodding from me did not make him drive faster.
He said we was very careful because every little scratch that happens to the taxi while he is driving, is his own accountability. He is always made to pay for its repair during his immediate next rest day. I can only squirm in my seat, and uneasily fidgeting; praying that I will be able to catch my bus. Fortunately, it was a Thursday and traffic was light. Also, that it was not a “rush day” for travelers thus the driver can afford to depart 3-5 minutes after the scheduled time to wait for additional passengers.
I got to the airport a shade earlier than 5:30am. It was a good time to be in the airport as passengers were sparse. Checking in was a breeze. Am talking about the NAIA 2 terminal where all PAL planes used to depart-whether the destination is local or international. Now only planes for local destinations are allowed to depart from there.
While in the waiting lounge, and barely one minute to the supposed boarding time, were tersely told that the departure of planes bound for Basco, Batanes and San Jose, Antique will be delayed because of bad weather conditions. I told my seatmate that it should not be case. Batanes is too far out from the typhoon that entered PAR. Antique maybe affected but unlikely to be battered. I thought I might miss my meeting/conference that will start at 9am. My travel might be entirely fruitless.
But only about 20 minutes after the announcement, we were told to board the bus that will ferry us to the small PAL aircraft, with a full capacity of 86 passengers, waiting for us. Heaving a sigh of relief, with grins of satisfaction, we all dutifully lined up, showing discipline like those of small kids- not a single case of attempted jostling and complaint- and silently marched out the door to the waiting bus.
Unlike in my many boarding of planes, I was amazed that I could hardly hear any murmur as we load up our hand carries in the cabins above and settle into our reserved seats. Could be that people from Antique are better disciplined than most of us, although I could not tell whether most of the passengers were from that province or not.
My plane seatmate was in her late seventies or early eighties. She was a retired teacher in the U.S. She is visiting her province alone despite her advanced age since her husband left this planet earth just a few years back; her only child is busy in her work. Brave old lady!
It was so nice to be talking to that lovely old lady. She was a former teacher in the elementary grades. She told me stories about how difficult it was to handle students in public schools in the U.S. as many of them were not so disciplined or respectful. So she transferred to another school run by a religious group. She found more peace in there, teaching until her retirement.
When we reached the airport, I saw it was named Evelio B. Javier airport. The name rings a bell of course. He was the youngest governor at 28 years old when he was first elected for that position, a congressman too, and he was a popular critic of the then President FEM. A school in Tuba, Benguet, along Kennon road was even named after him. He was later killed in an ambush, attributed to his political opponent in the province, when was only 48 years old.
I mused, when I saw the unobtrusive condition of the airport building, that it is unfair to have a small, gloomy-looking, one-storey building to be named after such an accomplished man. Roving around the center of San Jose later showed that his place in the history of the Province is already secured. Their main park in front of the provincial capitol building contained his bronze statue, and a concrete mural loudly proclaiming his name, together of course with his painted half façade.
Being in one of the four provinces in Panay island, I remembered in history that the so-called ten Bornean datus landed in the island. So I got curious and I asked around about this. This led me to visit their tourist office and their very good library. Their museum is planned to be established but it is not yet in place. I got one whole day to talk to people and read some old books and clippings in their library.
Their tourism office staff as well as the library staff were so kind to help me and provide me necessary materials to pore over. They patiently answered my probing questions. Thanks a lot to them.
I would like to share a very little slice of their history. I can give a longer version but this little bit will suffice for this article. Their history is also an important component to the history of the entire country, as we are also of Malay stock.
A writer from Iloilo, pointed to a town in the province, San Joaquin, as the town where the datus and their families were supposed to have first landed. To me, it is a claim that is hard to defend, even just looking at the map where San Joaquin is (I did pore over the map of Iloilo and Antique). Unfortunately, no historian from Antique so far had tried to refute the said claim.
With my little knowledge about this matter that I learned earlier and glossing over some of the old articles of historians, I found these: That the island, Panay, was bought by the datus from Datu Marikudo and his wife, Maniwantiwan with a golden salakot, and other precious jewelries and ornaments. They then divided the islands into three “sakups”: Hantik (now Antique), Akean (now Aklan and Capiz), Irong-irong (now Iloilo). Most of the datus and their families actually settled shortly in Hantik.
Datu Sumakwel, considered as the wisest among the 10 datus, ruled Hantik. He established Malandog, recognized as the first Malay settlement in the country. It is now merely a barangay in the present-day municipality of Hamtic. Soon after, he ruled the whole island.
The stature of Datu Sumakwel and the positions and power he wielded in the whole island of Panay should be material to the determination where the datus first landed. The establishment of their Binirayan festival, which commemorates the landing of the Bornean datus, may later prove useful in their quest for the relevant rectification.
Antique has a land area slightly smaller than Benguet’s but it has more municipalities (18) Antique’s capital is San Jose de Buenavista but locals just call it San Jose. It has the largest population of more than 65 thousand as of 2020 census, among the 18 towns of the province. It has an area of 48.56 km2 which is even smaller than that of Baguio.
It is interesting that in 2014, the first rice terraces outside of the Cordilleras was discovered in Antique. Christened Antique Rice Terraces, they are believed to be dated at least 200 years old.
As I am part of a group that crafted an agriculture enhancement program in the province, I am expected to be back to Antique soon. **
