By Ramon
Dacawi
BAGUIO CITY -- The historic but
long-neglected former monastery built by the Dominican Order on a promontory at
the south-west end of Baguio will be 99 years old on May 23.
Reason enough for the
Baguio Heritage Hill Committee to mark its inauguration with a forum
tentatively set on March 28, to bring to the fore a study made by the architecture
department of the University of the Cordillera on how to preserve the edifice
that is a part of the city’s history.
The committee
headed by mayor Mauricio Domogan and former city architect Joseph Alabanza
decided to have the UC study presented for the community to appreciate the
significance and background of the building and to provide recommendations to
enhance the restoration plans and work to be done by the city.
Inaugurated on May 23,
1915, the stone building was built under the supervision of Fr. RoqueRuano of
the Dominican Order (Order of Preachers), a civil engineer from the University
of Santo Tomas in Manila.
In his research
towards the preservation of the edifice and its surroundings, Ruben Cervantes,
deputy city environment and natural resources officer noted that Fr. Ruano
based his plan on “Spanish Dominican baroque architecture and infused his
knowledge in designing earthquake-proof buildings.
The design,
Cervantes noted, considered the lack of water on top of what would become
Dominican Hill and had the rooftop serving as a water-catchment facility,
making the building the first earthquake-resistant structure and with
rain-harvesting feature to be erected in Baguio.
The two-story concrete
structure was built by local folks, Chinese and Japanese
expatriates living in the then Mountain Province, Benguet and Baguio,
Cervantes said.
“The massive stone an
concrete walls still stand, a tribute to all the Ilocano and Pangasinan carters
whose water buffaloes and oxen dragged on sleds each stone and bag of lime up
that hill,” wrote Baguio girl and anthropologist Patricia Afable in her book
“Japanese Pioneers in the Northern Philippine highlands”.
In 2003, Afable and
her cousin, Kathleen Okubo, visited the monastery on the hilltop the old
Ibaloys called “Tuel”, describing the experience as “a small pilgrimage to the
highest and largest of the construction jobs on which our grandfather, Teruji
Okubo, was chief carpenter”
Cervantes said
that a month after its inauguration, the Dominican Order had the
building used as a boarding house and college called “Colegio del
Santissimo Rosaro”.
With only six students
in 1917, the edifice was reverted back to its original use as a vacation house
for members of the Dominican Order or New Province, Cervantes said.
From 1940 to 1945, the
Dominican Hill and house were converted into a refugee center for priests,
nuns, active sisters, lay and secular members of the New Province from around
the country, Cervantes added.
The Japanese
forces then used the building and compound as a prison camp, with the
roofdeck serving as a look-out tower. The building was damaged during the
carpet bombing by the American forces on March 15 and 16, 1945 and in the
battles fought towards the liberation of Baguio iin April that year.
Reconstructed in 1948,
the building was restored as a vacation house of the New Province , according
to Cervantes’ research. In 1973, the New Province sold the property to the
Diplomat Hotel, Inc. which operated it as a hotel.
It was eventually
taken over by the national government, through the Presidential Management
Office. Then President Gloria Arroyo then assigned the building to the
city government and the adjoining forested meditation area of the Dominican
priests to the Sandiganbayan.
By then, the
building had been vandalized by souvenir and scrap material hunters. Guards
employed by the city also reported diggings within the compound by treasure
hunters. The local government has repaired what remains of the inside, making
it available for conferences.
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