Paete, Laguna is my hometown: it is where my roots are, and wherever life takes me, which is not far, just 112 kilometers away in the city called Manila, the intention is to go back to this small town where my late father and mother lived, and my grandparents, great grandparents, and ancestors lived too, eking out a living from the huge Laguna de Bay, the rice fields, the wood carving shops, and the coconut-and-lanzones “kaingin” in the Paete part of the Sierra Madre mountains called “Humarap.”
Since the time I was able to look up and around, make sense of where I am, I have wondered why there were three wooden crosses in that part of the mountain overlooking the small town proper. They called it Tatlong Krus and May Krus, alternatively. Officially, it was Sitio Sta. Ana, Barangay Ermita now. Back then, when “barangays” were not yet invented by the first President Ferdinand Marcos, the place might have been called Barrio Sta. Ana, or more colloquial, “Santana,” as my mother used to say.
The clear explanation is that Paete folk are religious, taking this quality to the highest level. The 3 crosses are physical images of Calvary, where Jesus and the two thieves were crucified.
In my early years, it took no brainer to notice that Paete is an overly religious town, with its residents dutifully devoting their lives around their highly clannish and exclusive churches. The main churches which are very much active today are the Roman Catholic Church and the Aglipayan Church also called the Iglesia Filipina Independiente.
Both the Romanos and the Aglipays, as they are called, come out in droves every year for their own versions of the Holy Thursday and Good Friday processions. Paete being a town of artists, artisans and woodcarvers, it has produced the best “santos” in the country, with the art and tradition of woodcarving dating back from the time of Dr. Jose Rizal, the great Laguna intellectual from Calamba.
These religious images are paraded around the town during those Holy Week days. Dramatic skits were played with local actors voicing the parts of the Virgin Mary, Veronica, etc. while the wooden “santos” were made to move in actual scenes, such as when Veronica wipes the face of Jesus while carrying the cross. Later, she will show her handkerchief with three images of Jesus, wounded and wearing the crown of thorns.
For Paeteños, the influx of tourists, balikbayans, etc. during Holy Week becomes a yearly event and an opportunity to sell their food and handicraft products, such as the paper mache or “taka” which are brightly painted decorative horses, carabaos, etc. that also double as toys for the children.
As a boy growing up in the 1960s, I had wanted to visit the Tatlong Krus which is near the farm lots of my father and my mother’s parents in Sta. Ana. It took years before this visit happened, because we transferred residence to the more progressive town of Biñan, and later to Malate and Sampaloc, Manila.
Tatlong Krus now is no longer the Calvary image of logs made into cross. The wooden crosses have been replaced by concrete, the park was developed with assistance a couple of years ago from TIEZA, and there is a concrete altar where priests celebrate mass every Holy Week.
It is also a popular tourist destination up in the mountains of Paete, and can be reached by cars and jeepneys, tricycles and motorcycles through the San Antonio-Longos road in Kalayaan town, and the Feeder Road in Paete.
Farther down the road is the huge farm of Matteo and Sarah Geronimo, and still farther, two renewable energy corporations are constructing wind energy facilities to convert wind to electricity.
Near Tatlong Krus, I am developing my own farm. It is a place in the mountains where rain comes 10 months a year, and the temperature at night is just like Baguio during December to March.
May Krus, finally I am home.
Paete’s Tatlong Krus and ‘Humarap’
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