The reason for Sison

By Emmanuelle

The town straddles the gate to and from the Cordilleras, or the far and the really North. And I do not only refer to the lay of the land, its people or the weather.

The land seems flat and dry as it lies astride the Marcos Highway, but take one of its ribbons of barangay roads! Any which one leads to inner sitios winding through curves and streams, up-down hillocks to deepening greens. And the mountain shadows beyond.

The weather lies somewhere between a little less warm and more than a little cool. It is no wonder. At this point, a traveler reaches the end of the seemingly endless flatlands, starting   from the expressway though the rice and sugar fields of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Pangasinan. And at this point in Sison, this traveler either turns left on to the sea and the surge of the northern wind, or turns right and zigzags up to the hug of the fog and the piney air. Or what’s left of the fog. And the air.

For the meantime, she sees Sison. And a lesson – the reason for Sison.

At a time when there was no Sison, there were these migrant native tribes so inclusive, so independent of each other. Some tribes settled on what was formerly the eastern part of San Fabian and decided to fuse together to become a town in 1867. A Spanish military official named it Alava in memory of his home province in Spain.

Migrants also developed ranch areas in the north and east of Alava to form the township of Esperanza, while ranchers along the east of the Aloragat River organized themselves into the township of Labayug. Esperanza and Labayug became the centers of the Special or Insular Government from 1900 to 1907. From 1907 to 1918, both towns fused together to become Artacho, named after the then Provincial Governor.

Sometime in 1918, a bill was signed into a decree by General Leonard Wood fusing Alava and Artacho into one bigger municipality, that their merged territories and revenue collections may be able to sufficiently maintain a single municipal government. That bill was sponsored by the late Senator Don Pedro Ma. Sison.

So, this was the reason for the name Sison. It was not originally from the words season, reason or fusion.

Every 13th of the month, I find a reason to dare the gods. Aimless and without direction, I just let the gods whisper the way. The gods must have whispered – this is the season for Sison.

I walked into the municipal quadrangle so early in the morning, when employees were still singly trickling in. Monoblock seats were being aligned in three perpendicular rows in front of a newly constructed two-storey blue-and-white building. I sat and watched. Two hours later, vans in military convoy order arrived.

And I, who was no reporter, became witness to history – the most simple rite ever – the blessing and inauguration of the new Sison Police Station.

There was no microphone or speakers to disturb the solemn air or to silence the chirps of the birds high up in the trees surrounding the station. And I listened to the raw and real voices of the men who guard the safety of the lives and properties of the people of the provinces of Region 1. And Sison.

PC/Supt Leopoldo N. Bataoil, Regional Director, and PC1 Rodelio Samson, Sison Chief of Police. And the Mayor Dionisio M. Lagmay. Also present was the newly appointed Pangasinan PNP Provincial Director Isagani R. Nerez.

The PNP building was made possible through the joint funding and initiative of the Philippine National Police under the leadership of Director General Arturo C. Lomibao, then PNP Chief and P/Supt. Bernardo L. Reamon, Jr. Samson’s predecessor, and the Sison Local Government Unit (LGU) under the Lagmay administration with the support of the Sangguniang Bayan.

The after-program atmosphere was low-key. Just coffee in the morning. And a light coke for me.   

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/feelings/)

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