Years after its 1991 eruption, the wrath of Mount Pinatubo continued to be felt. A case in point was the San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor, Pampanga. On September 3, 1995, after days of torrential rains, a raging lahar flow from the slopes of the previously thought dormant volcano buried the town about six meters deep.
Buried but not quite by Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption: Bacolor Church and its story of survival | Pampanga
After the lahar flow solidified, it raised the ground twenty feet up, nearly swallowing the parish church in half as more than fifty thousand people from surrounding communities fled to safer ground.
Despite occasional lahar flows occurring following severe rains, the townspeople of Bacolor banded together to salvage what remained of their parish church.
Residents took turns excavating the original retablo and other century-old statues of saints from the solidified muck, and soon after, they poured new concrete on the church's elevated floor, thus constructing a new church out of the buried one.
A formidable foe of nature
A bastion of the faithful’s spirituality, San Guillermo Parish Church also served as an emblem of resiliency as evidenced by the many forces of nature it had faced since it was originally built by the Augustinians in 1576.
After countless poundings from typhoons and tremors, the church finally bowed down to a strong earthquake in 1897. It was soon quickly rebuilt, complete with a central nave and well-illuminated cruciform with windows. Inside, churchgoers could be seen kneeling in front of the central retablo when attending Mass and reciting their prayers. On given occasions, they listened to special announcements from the priest who stood on the pulpit, which was highly adorned with gold leaves.
Designed in the Baroque style of architecture and in honor of the town's patron saint, San Guillermo Ermitaño, the church also came with its own monastery, which was momentarily transformed into a headquarters by Simón de Anda, the Spanish Basque Governor of the Philippines, when the British attempted an invasion of Manila in 1762.
Bury me not
What could have been a bane that spelled the end of the church's existence had instead given San Guillermo Parish Church a deeper meaning for its parishioners by embodying the inseparability of faith and perseverance.
As I entered the church through its arched doorway, now only half as high as it once was, I immediately sensed an aura of mystery and solemnity. The ceiling of the church, which in most old churches towers greatly, appeared nearly reachable here, as if the church itself were squeezing the visitors' preexisting spirituality closer and making the whispers of prayers less muffled.
On the right wing of the church where the old convent was located was now transformed into a museum displaying recuerdos from the church's history, religious icons, as well as images of the town of Bacolor and the church taken after Mount Pinatubo erupted.
Outside, I saw a couple of ladies throwing coins into a well. Despite my skepticism about such things, I plucked a five-peso coin from my pocket, made a wish, and flipped it up backward into the well.
I walked toward the outer walls of the church at the back where the extent of the lahar flow appeared more obvious. The sight took my emotions all over the place as I thought about the townspeople's determination to restore the church from its ruinous state.
Considering everything that Bacolor Church had been through, it probably wasn't a coincidence that it was used as a setting for the 2010 ABS-CBN primetime series May Bukas Pa. Because, as the title suggests, there will always be another day to soldier on, just as the people of Bacolor and San Guillermo Parish Church had shown.
