TAT’s All, Folks!

8 April 2006, Saturday
Alaminos, Laguna

It started as a regular lazy summer day. Asking how my aunt will spend the afternoon, I was told that she and her colleagues will be doing the way of the cross around the barangays of Alaminos. Apart from the four barangays around the poblacion area where we live, there are another 13 barangays that have their own chapels or tuklong as they are locally called.

I wanted to try out something new this Holy Week, and I’ve wanted to go around Alaminos for the longest time. I thought that joining my aunt in this alternative way of the cross would be hitting two birds with one stone.

In an open-air jeepney with my aunt’s group of 50 to 80-year old women, I was definitely able to go around Alaminos. The whole sojourn reminded me of going around the barangays in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro (minus the ricefields), and in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental (minus the sugarcane fields).

My town, with its surrounding barangays, is your typical Philippine hometown. Going around the barangays shows the visitor a glimpse of huge tracts of land where fruit trees are planted; public central schools with buildings emblazoned with past and present politician-donors; chapels/ tuklong beside homes and/or barangay halls where groups of people gather for discussions and sometimes, even a game of cards.

As one goes inward, the roads get narrower and more dusty. However, retired public school teachers who joined us kept exclaiming how much improved the roads are now compared to when they were assigned to this or that barangay. One said, “at least now there are actually roads! We used to walk in mud, and had no easy means of transport.” Passing through barangays where huge pastel-colored houses lined the narrow road, one of them kept exclaiming how these were OFWs’ homes that rarely had any occupants. She said that instead of depositing in banks, OFWs pour their savings on building big homes, complete with Italian marble and fountain stands adoring the front yard, so that their money could not be borrowed.

Midway through our pilgrimage, we stopped twice and had a picnic of freshly-picked pineapple, home-cooked nata de coco and sampaloc (tamarind), inside our jeepney and in the middle of the road. Out came recycled plastic forks (some bearing Jollibee signs), cut table napkins, the works! We all bit into the sweet pineapple and juice just squirted down to the jeepney floor. What a reprieve from the heat!

And what about the chapels or tuklongs we visited? Some clearly bore signs of OFWs’ contributions. Marble floors, pastel-colored façade, ornate decorations. Others were simple places for worship, with one located inside a poultry farm. The saints who represented the barangays we visited were all mostly antique statues. I appreciated how the old statues mingled with the new surroundings, how their small size contrasted with large mosaics, how one chapel had different costumes for the saint in a transparent cabinet near the altar. I was transfixed by the wooden sculpture of the devil crushed by San Miguel’s feet. The hand carving was great, and the statue itself looked older than that of San Miguel (St. Michael Archangel) himself.

Each step of the pilgrimage preceded with all of us kneeling in the middle of each chapel’s altar in humble supplication to Christ’s Passion journey. I now embarrassingly remember how I asked my aunt if we were going to ride in an air-conditioned vehicle; and other inane questions about whether it would be a comfortable journey or not. This was, after all, The Way Of The Cross. The heat, the dust, the sometimes unsavory smell, the glimpse into different kinds of poverty, the call to genuine worship that is collective and communitarian – this was to be my Cross for that pilgrimage. And what a small cross to bear!

For all the disregard we sometimes place at traditional practices such as the way of the cross, there is still much to be learned if one creatively seeks a way to interject it with faithful discernment. This pilgrimage is one that sets out as a journey, a procession through various life-stages (if one prefers to make analogies). It is also a reminder that faith should never be static. It is lived, sometimes walked, at other times making us run out of breath as we pursue the hope that always accompanies faith.

I did not just accomplish my twin objectives of doing something new this Holy Week and finally going around Alaminos to get a taste of local culture. I also learned to embrace both my paternal and spiritual roots more. And with the feminist in me talking – learned it with and through women who were not just older than me, but who lived wisdom through their experiences.

DIRECTIONS (For those who may wish to similarly take this alternative way of the cross):

Coming from the main church in the plaza, go towards Hidden Valley route beside the municipal hall. Go straight to Brgy. Del Carmen chapel (1). Go back until you reach the road that leads to Hidden Valley. Right across is the Brgy. San Pedro chapel (2). Exit back to main plaza, head towards the highway going to San Pablo. Stop at Brgy. San Benito chapel (3). Go back to road leading to Alaminos. Stop at Brgy. San Agustin chapel (4).

Turn left on the new Calabarzon road. Stop at Brgy. San Gregorio chapel (5). Then move back towards Brgy. San Roque chapel (6). Head back and enter Sta. Rosa road. Stop at Brgy. San Miguel chapel (7), then Brgy. Sta. Rosa chapel (8). Going back towards exit leading to Mercury Drug, turn left on road leading to Palma. This road is immediately after a bridge. Stop at Brgy. Palma I, Pamilya Sagrada chapel (9), inside a poultry farm. Turn right opposite the dirt road that leads to Lipa. It is a narrow road that leads to Brgy. Palma II, San Isidro Labrador chapel (10).

Go back and head towards Alaminos Water District exit. Turn right on the highway towards Sto. Tomas. Enter inner left road at first major intersection. Go towards Brgy. San Juan chapel (11), then Brgy. San Ildefonso chapel (12). Go back, and turn left right after San Ildefonso arch. Exit on highway intersection towards Sto. Tomas. Stop at Brgy. San Andres (13). Head back to Alaminos poblacion. Say the last station at the Nuestra Senora Del Pillar church (14) in the main plaza. Alternatively, this could be the first station; and Brgy. San Andres as the last station.