The sad event that pulverized most of the centuries-old churches in Bohol and Cebu last Tuesday, October 15, 2013 calls to mind the collapse of San Rafael Parish Church on June 14, 1990. Not to be taken as of equal weight with those declared National Cultural Treasures, the total destruction of the Balete Church by a 6.3 earthquake that jolted the Panay Island more than a decade ago has afforded the faithful of Balete a new face for their Catholicity.
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| The rubble of a ruined Balete Church, June 1990 |
With the new structure forming as part of the facade of the Baleten-on community, the younger generations are without clue of the rubble underneath the modernized plaza of the Balete Church. Children of today are robbed of the pastime of pulverizing chips of bricks that toddlers of old used to polish their nails. Blocks of bricks and broken coral stones were everywhere in the vicinity of the St. Rafael Church and the convent. Old folks used to tell that they were remnants of the older St. Rafael Church that was destroyed by a strong earthquake or (
by burning--the town of
Balete was laid to waste during the Filipino-American War) during the American time. The ruins were eventually demolished on the order of the local ordinary when the Church of Kalibo was rebuilt with the supplemental blocks of bricks and coral stones from Balete forming an integral part thereof.
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| The Church of Balete in 1890, with belfry and convento all in light materials. |
Without a church, a broken community farther besieged by pockets of skirmished was more of a burden to the new masters. The authorities so decided that the religious and civil affairs thereto were routed back to Batan. Only sometime in 1939 when a concrete church was constructed that the parish of St. Rafael the Archangel was reestablished with then Rev. Fr. Paterno Valguna as its parish priest. Precisely that the parish archive holds records of baptismal, wedding and death only beginning November 1939 up to present. Beyond that, one has to refer to Batan Parish or that of Banga for those proximate to that particular parish.
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| The new church stands (Photo, courtesy of Charms Dear) |
The new church building now stands silently witnessing the multi-faceted activities taking place in a fast changing Baleten-on community. At its appointed time as in days of old, it tolls its bells to invite the parishioners to cease awhile and turn their attention to the divine. It tolls its bells to convey solemnly that a faithful has gone ahead to join the venerable dead in a new heaven and a new earth beyond the now congested public cemetery.
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