Revisiting the History of Balete


























I was privileged to do research at the National Archives of the Philippines for a couple of times. The first was in the year 1998 when Balete was considering to celebrate the "centennial" of the so-called "El Teroteo de Agtawagon", erroneously translated as "The Battle of Agtawagon Hill". That visit proved to be a wind of change that set the direction of the festivity away from that mythic scene. The outcome of that visit showed otherwise.

Balete was a Hispanic Philippine pueblo which initially dates back to 1826. It was one of the 33 pueblos in the province of Capiz. It had a total land area of 15,525 hectares. A report recorded in a manuscript Memorias showed that the Baleten-ons' total cultivated areas yielded to about 200 cavans of palay per season or cropping. An epidemic caused by cholera was recorded to have caused the lives of a total number of 144 people in the year 1882.

Those were the approximations per the 1998 research based on a number of manuscripts found and were subjected to textual analysis. Now that I had the opportunity to visit the Archives again (I was attending to a different task this time, but elected to do one-day research as I had the luxury of time), I requested to have access into some bundles of manuscripts which I failed to consult in 1998. The effort proved to be fruitful. Not only that it was a ripe one, but it is also a sweet one!

So watch out for my report on this development. I assure you that it will be of vital importance to the historicity of the Baleten-on community.

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