There’s No Place like Home; There’s No Place like Bohol
Filed Under (Real Life) by s magazine on 01-04-2009
Tagged Under : bohol, cesar montano, cesar montano hometown
by Cesar Montano
It is not only because Bohol island is my home province that I love it so much. It also just happens to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Although I was born in Santa Ana, Manila City (August 1, 1962), every vacation of mine has been spent in Bohol since I was six years old. Home is Poblacion Landican in the municipality of Baclayon. It is by the sea. It is timeless in charm and beauty.
My mother Emma de Montano hails from Carles, a town in Iloilo, while my late father Genovevo Q. Manhilot was born and raised in Bohol. They had both migrated from the provinces to Manila.
Among my fondest memories of childhood is taking a bath in the baluarte, where the local lighthouse is also located, in front of the church of Baclayon. Built in 1595, this is said to be the oldest Catholic church in the Philippines. This church is particularly memorable to me because it was where I had proposed marriage to Sunshine Cruz, my future wife. It was October 1999. I was then filming the movie Muro Ami there. I was the lead actor in that project directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya.
The word “Baclayon” comes from the Visayan “baclay” which means “to walk”. Because the center of our town then and now has always been the church, people had to walk or to “baclay” to go there. In Spanish colonial times, wherever the church is located, that was the center of town. I was inspired to paint the church of Baclayon and that artwork is now displayed in my Bellissimo Italian Restaurant in Quezon City.
In Baclayon church, an old pipe organ was busted and in bad condition for several decades, as if forgotten by time. The daughter of Makati’s prominent Zobel-Ayala clan—Bea Zobel Jr.—heard about it and sent somebody to Austria to study for six years on how to repair it. In 2008, this guy came back to the Philippines to work on our pipe organ. Because of the Zobels’ generosity, music from the organ fills the church once again. In behalf of all Boholanos, I wish to thank Bea Zobel Jr. and her family for restoring this part of our heritage.
Find out more of Cesar Montano’s love for his hometown in the April 2009 issue of S Magazine.