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22
These days, the cities of San
Fernando and Angeles are the citadels
of economic progress in the province
of Pampanga and even in the whole
region. Being next-door neighbors,
they resemble twin towers jutting out
of a vast plain in the heartland of
Luzon Island. Their proximity to each
other, however, belies the differences:
San Fernando as the provincial
and regional capital is the political
hub sitting right at the busy crossroads
between the Central Luzon
provinces, while Angeles, nestled quietly
out of the way, is more conducive
to education and business. Not
too many people still remember the
filial bond that once existed between
the two cities.
Two-and-a-half centuries ago, in
1754, a new town called San Fernando,
named after a canonized Spanish king,
was carved out of two towns, Macasicu
(the modern-day Mexico) and Bakulud
(Bacolor today). In 1796, the new
town pushed its northern frontier farther
by clearing a forest teeming with
culiat, a woody vine (Gnetum indicum,
Lour) after which the barrio had been
named. The event set into motion the
long-running relationship between San
Fernando and Angeles, which began as
a mother-daughter or pueblo-visita
set-up that eventually evolved into an
aggressive rivalry.
An 1818 account, prepared by the
Ayuntamiento of Manila, presents a
rare geographical description of the
San Fernando-Culiat sphere. Done by
Yldefonzo de Aragon, the El
Comandante de Ingenieros (chief engineer)
of the Ayuntamiento, the report
mapped the roads and other
means of transportation linking various
settlements in the region, at that
time largely hinterlands. Indeed, the
colonial government then was seriously
preparing an economic blueprint for
the area, probably as an alternative to
the Galleon Trade and the Tobacco Monopoly
which the Spain was contemplating
to abolish. In his Ytinerario for
Pampanga, the chief engineer wrote:
(The pueblo of San Fernando) is located
in a vast plain and in the direction
of a river by the same name, comprising
in its jurisdiction the grand barrio named
Culiat, situated 34º northwest and distanced
by at least two leagues.
He estimated that the town was
around four miles away from the capital
of Bacolor, while the two other boundaries,
Sto. Tomas and Mexico, were a
league and half-league away respectively.
Even in those days, the chief engi-
American Historical Collection
The old road between San Fernando and Angeles
The he Pue Pueblo Pue lo
and and its its Visita isita isita, isita
cir circa cir ca 1818
1818
A Spanish engineer considered
the land between San Fernando
and Culiat as “of excellent
quality”
By Lino L. Dizon
neer already observed that “the said terrain
between San Fernando and Culiat is
quite elevated with some small hillocks,
but the land is very fertile and of excellent
quality,” which is why today it is considered
the safest, most strategic and fastest
developing area in the province.
He attributed this to the preponderance
of water sources and systems in the
area. “A tributary of the Bacolor River,”
he wrote, “stretches among those terrenes
as it bifurcates north and south, collecting
the waters of Arayat; and there are
some rivulets found in the vicinity that proceed
in the north by northwest direction
from the mountains.”
Jean Mallat, the French traveler who
visited Pampanga in the 1840s and who used
the Ayuntamineto report extensively
in preparing his monumental
book on the Philippines, mentioned
that “courses of water descending
from Mount Arayat are only streams
during the dry season, but become
impetuous torrents during the rainy
period. It is also during this period
that through the meeting of rains
with the rivers, is formed the pinac
of Candava, a great lake situated
east of the pueblo of Bacolor and to
the left of the great river (Rio
Grande)….”
It was common at that time to
measure distances between settlements
by the time spent in walking,
but the engineer made an exception
for the area because “even
during the dry season, water communication
between the towns of
San Fernando and Bacolor remains,
which is very deep, even today.”
He probably knew of other waterways
that had been silted or their
courses altered, a phenomenon
that would recur over and over,
most spectacularly after the eruption
of Mount Pinatubo.
Mallat was also fascinated with the
Gogo (Gugu) River, “which draws its
sources from the mountains by the
northeast.” Gogo (Entada
phaseoloides), Aragon (the chief engineer)
wrote in his report’s glossary, is a
climbing shrub found in many parts of
the Philippines whose bark is cut and
crushed by the natives to make jabon
(soap). Mallat, however, believed that
the river had been named after a different
kind of gogo, the kind “whose use
facilitates the washing of gold sand (arenas
del oro);” this plant, Mallat added,
thrived in the area, but he stopped short
of saying that the Kapampangans living
around the river practiced gold panning.
He did observe that the town benefited
from the river through a small tributary that
flowed far into the town’s territorial limits; this
tributary had an uncharacteristically lengthy approach
or embankment “where the natives fetch
their drinking water.”
Mallat had a high regard for the inhabitants
who “have dedicated themselves
to agriculture, raising large quantities
of palay, sugar cane and also indigo
(Indigofera tinctoria or añil) and corn.”
He made special mention of the soil in
Pampanga as very favorable in the cultivation
of indigo.
Yldefonzo de Aragon noted that there
was already a liquor factory operating in
Culiat at the time (1818). Even that early
in history, the small barrio of San Fernando
was well on its way to economic prosperity.