Concocting Beer-Brand Down the Jal-o

My cousins treated me yesterday to a strange mix they called Beer-Brand. Yes, Beer-Brand as in beer mixed in brandy and not Bear Brand Full Cream milk. The concoction was made of a couple of chilled bottle of San Miguel Beer Pilsen emptied on a pitcher with a long necked Emperador Brandy Light (about 750ml). The taste is passable especially if your tongue have just feasted on fresh oysters (talaba, taeaba) and steamed angel wings (diwal, diwae). The oyster is grown down the Jal-o but the angel wings are long gone when people started felling and destroying the mangroves. My cousins were just resourceful in having angel wings and oysters for bar chow (pulutan, sumsuman).

I seldom pay my parents' ancestral home a visit these days. I was prompted to trace my path there yesterday to pay my homage to my aunt who passed away at the age of 85 last January 25 in Hermosa, Bataan. Her remains was airlifted the other day and is set to be buried at the Calug-a Cemetery on Saturday, just about 13 kilometers from my place. Most of my cousins are based in Manila and Bataan but a few remained in Pinamunitan and Hulaton.

Historically speaking, Pinamunitan and Hulaton are parts of Balete. By 1888, Balete had an area of 15,525 hectares as reported in the Memoria dela Provincia de Capiz (May 9, 1888). There where 11 barrios, of which one named Rivera was being headed by my mother's grandparent, D. Mariano Perez as its Teniente around 1893. I'm not yet through going over the manuscript, Elecciones de Gobernadorcillos de Capiz, but initially, I discovered that the names of barrios in Balete by that time where not as they are today. For instance, Barrios Pulahan and Bulun-agan are now named Barangays Arcangel and Cortes while Barrio Tigbao and Barrio Sidman are presently named Barangay Aranas and Barangay Feliciano respectively. By initial analysis basing on the fact the heirs of Don Mariano Perez inherited a modest real property in Pinamunitan and Hulaton, I assume that they were once part of the Barrio Rivera that once existed as part of Balete around 1890's. Again, the manuscripts Memorias and Erecciones de Pueblos de Capiz, are rich with reports of boundary disputes during those times and even mentioned of some involving Balete and its neighboring pueblos like Batang and Banga. We could assume thus that in later part, Barrio Rivera was won by Batang or that it was reverted back to it when it preceded Balete in winning back its status as a municipality during the American period. That, however, needs to be verified.

Today, Balete has only a total land area of 11,760 hectares or almost 4,000 hectares short of its original territory when it was first established in 1804 by the Spanish Governador General. No one remembers Don Mariano Perez and his Barrio Rivera. My cousins are even without a memory to call their own of the rich heritage that was once prided by their forefathers. For sure, they still savor those fresh oysters down the Jal-o, but unlike their great grandparents, they are robbed of the possibility of harvesting those tasty angel wings to match their unique mixture of Beer-Brand. The Aklan Rivers Development Council made a profiling of the river some years ago. Up to now however, we are still in the dark as to what intervention they will be proposing to save our beloved Jal-o.