By Leonardo Micua

 

FRIDAY morning, I was still groggy and my eyes dreamy from lack of sleep after translating and editing the night before to beat our news deadline.

With nothing in mind, I decided instead to write about Villasis, my hometown, where I traced my roots and visit to pay my respects to my late parents and relatives and, as a dutiful citizen of Pangasinan, to pay my land tax to the municipality in advance.

Villasis is a town lying on the northern side of the Agno river. It’s alluvial soil from the Agno delta is suited for agriculture. It produces rice, corn  and yes, tobacco, the burly type which is sun-dried and no longer need to be placed in earthen tobacco barns in order to give it an aromatic flavor, and plenty of vegetables.

My late friend, former Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr., once named administrator of the Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration during the early years of Martial Law, once told me burly is an important component of smokers’ cigarettes.

It is burly that makes the cigarettes to continuously burn. The other component is the Virginia and Turkish leaves, he once said.  Today, Villasis farmers dry their burly leaves gathered from their plantations under their thatched houses.

Speaking of vegetables, Villasis produces plenty of eggplants during the dry months. For this, the town was catapulted as the eggplant capital of Pangasinan if not the whole country.

Every year,  the town celebrates the colorful Talong Festival, to give acclaim to its being the nation’s biggest source of “pinakbet” vegetables. The celebration was started by the incumbent mayor, Nonato Abrenica, and continued by his wife who succeeded him.

He continued again when the baton was handed to him by the electorate of Villasis,

We, residents, including our forefathers, still could not figure till today where the name  Villasis came from. But we heard that the town’s former ancient name was “Panduyucan”, which was later on transformed to Villasis.

With Abrenicas at the helm of Villasis, the town is now bursting at the seams in economic development. Nonato first built the Villasis municipal hall, replacing a pre-war municipal hall that was used partly during the term of then Mayor Ramon Costales to host a pioneering high school in 1964.

The  now Don Ramon Costales Memorial National High School is the best legacy from Mayor Costales, one of the best mayors Villasis ever had.

Mayor Ramon took over from Juan Dizon who, as mayor, presided over the death of the then Villasis cattle market then held weekly around the municipal hall, the plaza and extending as far as the church’s property to the west.

Because of unstable peace that reigned in my town during my boyhood,  cattle traders opted to do business in adjacent Urdaneta. Urdaneta has since become a major trading area because of its large livestock market, and its strategic location as the crossroad from east to east to west and north to south of Pangasinan.

Those were the days when may barrio (now barangay) Bacag had no electricity and during the night, all households depended on kerosene lamp for lighting.

Since the Abrenicas took over the helm of the town, big establishments and industries came to Villasis. College graduates of the town didn’t have to go far looking for jobs as  employment in these establishments and industries are reserved for qualified residents.

Of course, my good friend Monching Morden also made his mark as mayor of Villasis for nine years. So with my ninong and good friend of my late father, Mayor Alfonso Ragasa, the first mayor to stage a comeback after his retirement and succeeded.

Now, how I came to Dagupan City dated back more than 50 years ago after my school days, when I wanted to breath fresher air away from the turbulent days of activism in Manila!

It was in Dagupan where I built my home, and never left it, except after some work assignments in Manila, Pampanga, Baguio and La Union, but was always in the city to spend my weekends with my family.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments