MEMORY AND HISTORY

• Introduction

• Early on, I was fascinated by people who went to venerate the image of the
Immaculate Conception etched on the wall of the Cotta. Once I talked with a
woman. She made her child touch the image. She came from Esperanza. Agusan
del Sur. Came just to make a pilgrimage. She always remembered people doing
that. Understandable. Ozamiz was the capital of the old Distrito de Misamis,
extending from Misamis Occidental to Misamis Oriental, to Bukidnon, maybe to
Esperanza. Her ancestors must have left her with this memory.
• The Recoletos, Jesuits and the Revolution

• In 1770, there was already a complete line-up of Recoletos in what would

become parishes in Misamis a few years after the Jesuits were expelled;
Jesuit Father Ducos had led a flotilla to repel pirates and built the Cotta.

• There were complaints against what we call strictly civil authorities in

Misamis Occidental then living in Manila to be far from perceived dangers.
• Fortunately the friars left behind were instrumental in laying out not only
the churches but the streets of towns, municipal buildings, plazas, the
kiosks, canals, rice paddies, canals, etc.

• The Jesuits were rehabilitated in the early 1800's and by 1849 they
wrangled from the Queen of Spain a decree to have Mindanao their area of
evangelization. The Recoletos made a great uproar and in turn in 1862
wrangled from the Queen a decree that they take over some parishes in
the province of Morong, starting with Antipolo.
• That infuriated the Archbishop of Manila and the secular
clergy who were already in possession of many of his
parishes. Much verbal and written disputes ensued resulting
in the Trece Martires of Cavite, Gomburza, the writing of Noli
and Fili. My theory is that Jesuits, unjustly blamed for many
things, remotely caused the Revolution.
• However, that is only theory devoid of any scholarly basis.
What is not theory is that many of the churches and parish
houses which came into the possession of the Recoletos in
the Archdiocese of Manila were reinforced by them. And the
hardwood came from Misamis Occidental. Fray Jose Abad of
Aloran wrote in 1892 that he had bought $5000 worth of
hardwood chopped chiefly from Tangub, to add to what had
been sent to Manila.
• The Revolution was fortunate. Some of that hardwood stayed
in Aloran. The first Bishop-Prelate, Patrick Cronin, of Ozamiz
used what remained, and too heavy to be hauled away by
the Aglipayans, to build the Cathedral.
• The Revolution was unfortunate. The Recoletos exhorted the
faithful to go and fight por la fe y por la patria. A whole
boatload was shipped to Manila, but when they got there
everything was over. And they walked around. And they
imbibed the revolutionary spirit. And they invited Father
Gregorio Aglipay. And he came. And he established his
Church. And the Recoletos left.
• And the Columbans found only ten Catholic families.
• Jesuits and the Recoletos: they left us with our identity and our
memory. To honor them we requested the City to name the empty
spaces beside the Cotta which the Local Government agreed. One
side: Plaza de los Jesuitas. The other: Plaza de los Recoletos.
• Jesuits and the Recoletos: in order that we would not forget and
die, they left us with our memory.
• Cotta and the Virgin

• Our identity will always be marked by the Cotta and the Virgin on its wall.
Unfortunately, it belongs to the government.
• Nevertheless, I tried to re-popularize the devotion to the Virgin of the Cotta. We
started as a Christian settlement around it and we will survive by going back to
it; specifically to the little huts of our ancestors around it. We do a pilgrimage
by going back to the values, the faith, and the devotions they taught us in
those huts. These are our true heritage.
• The original Virgin of the Cotta was a statuette of the Immaculate
Conception brought by the Jesuits and placed in the Chapel of the Cotta.
This was transferred to the church of the Misamis Parish. Unfortunately, this
was lost or stolen during the Martial Law Years. I had a replica made in
1991 and installed in front of the Cathedral.

• My interest on the value of the Church Heritage was a by-product of our

taking seriously Pope John Paul II's vision for the new millennium.
Indications of this can be culled from his documents and talks.
• Festival of the Huts

• Parallel to this starting in 1997, I wrote a yearly

•
• Pastoral Letter urging our people to go back to the ways of
•
• our ancestors fostered in their nipa huts built under the watchful eyes of the Virgin on its wall of the Cotta.

• Nipa huts of light materials like bamboo and amakan, as a shield from heat and rain defined a simple faith-
filled lifestyle. Perishable structures, simple Christian lifestyle, this is our real heritage. We have to make
sure that the present generation must seek to incarnate it in new models of thought and of life.