CULTURAL TREASURES

OF MABALACAT
MCC101: Mabalacat Studies
 CULTURAL TREASURES OF MABALACAT

What’s there to see in Mabalacat City? Is there

anything that will excite a visitor? This underrated
northern town of Pampanga will surprise you if you
know where, when, and how to look!
1. RECOLETOS
LEGACY
 RECOLETOS LEGACY

•Mabalacat was the only town in Pampanga

administered by the Recollects.
•The rest of the province were administered by
Augustinians.
•The Recollects were the only Spanish missionaries
who dared evangelize the thickly forested, head-
hunters-infested northern areas.
 RECOLETOS LEGACY

•Fr. Juan Perez de Sta. Lucia, the priest who built the
world-famous Bamboo Organ of Las Piñas, was an
ex-parish priest of Mabalacat.
2. LUBENAS
 LUBENAS

•Pampanga and Tarlac are few of the remaining towns

that still do it.
•Mabalacat can claim to have one of the most
traditional, most elaborate versions.
 LUBENAS

•Almost all of the 27 Barangays set off their

respective lantern processions every night from
December 16-December 24 (nine days or novena,
corrupted to “lubenas”).
•It is culminated on Christmas Eve in a grand
assembly called Maitinis.
3. PASTORELA
 PASTORELA

•Mabalacat is one of the last (if not the last) remaining

parishes in the Philippines where, during each of the
nine simbang bengi (dawn masses).
•The choir sings Kyrie (Greek - Lord Have Mercy),
Gloria (Glory), Credo (Creed), Sanctus (Santo),
Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) and other Latin hymns.
 PASTORELA

•These are sung with such operatic flourish and

musical melodrama you would want to wake up the
next dawn and experience it all over again.
4. PENITENTS
ASSEMBLY
 PENITENTS ASSEMBLY

•The whole province explodes with tens of thousands

of flagellants and all kinds of penitents during the
Holy Week, but the biggest gathering occurs in
Mabalacat in he early morning hours of Good Friday.
•They come from all directions, causing traffic jams
before converging in the parish church patio.
 5. PUNI
FESTIVAL
 PUNI FESTIVAL

• From the church patio, hundreds of penitents proceed to

various roadside shrines (called "puni") where pious
ladies chant the pasyon and the penitents prostrate
themselves for a ritual of whipping and prayer.
• Local artists make an effort to turn these puni into works
of art and again, if local organizers invest more time and
money on these little shrines, they can create a puni
festival that will invite comparison with the Belenismo of
Tarlac.
6. CARAGAN
FESTIVAL
 CARAGAN FESTIVAL

•Aetas were once reviled as headhunters and today

they are marginalized as peddlers and beggars, but in
Mabalacat they are given the credit due them--as
founders of the original settlement, led by their
leader named Caragan.
 CARAGAN FESTIVAL

•This fact is memorialized in a modern festival which

has become too popular for its own good, focusing
too much on pomp, pageantry and politics at the
expense of ethnic correctness.
•A little tweaking and this celebration can become
again the genuine cultural treasure that it was.
7. APU SHRINE
 APU SHRINE

• Mabalacat has its own Santo Entierro image, shrouded in

as much mystery and mysticism as the Apung Mamacalulu
of Angeles City.
• Owned by Vicenta Dizon and with the Sacay family as
caretaker, the antique image has its own private chapel
which can become a public shrine like its more popular
counterpart--if and when the owner and caretaker
decide they are ready for the influx of pilgrims and
tourists.
8. LOLA NOR’S
 LOLA NOR’S

•Once a backyard eatery behind the church, now an

elegant restaurant along the highway, Lola Nor's
authentic Kapampangan cuisine has put Mabalacat on
the radar of culinary tourists.
 LOLA NOR’S

•It should push its cultural advocacy one step farther

by featuring Mabalacat's great but little-known food
products (e.g., putung babi, Apung Nanang's pindang,
etc.), as well as Aeta culinary traditions like binulu
dishes, in recognition of the Aeta cultural legacy in
Mabalacat.
9. CLARK AIR
BASE
 CLARK AIR BASE

•Today, Mabalacat claims about ¾ of the Clark

Freeport Zone, which is the main reason our town
qualified as a city and the reason it is one of the
richest cities not only in Pampanga but also in the
Philippines.
 CLARK AIR BASE

•The history, culture, society, mindset, worldview,

values and lifestyles of Mabalaqueños have been
shaped by the overwhelming presence of the United
States military base (the largest in the world at one
time), making them (and Angeleños) unique among
Kapampangans.
 CLARK AIR BASE

•Pinatubo's eruption in 1991 erased all that, but we

are now more resilient and self-reliant as a result.
The ashfall buried not just our landscape but also
our passivity and colonial mentality!
10. HERITAGE
STRUCTURES
 HERITAGE STRUCTURES

•Mabalacat is older than its more heritage-sensitive

neighbor, Angeles, but it doesn't seem to have
anything to show for it.
 HERITAGE STRUCTURES

•Things will soon change because the city has laid the
groundwork for the creation of a culture zone
(heritage district) that includes a restored Municipio,
the Gabaldon-style elementary school, the train
station, several old houses, stalls for living traditions,
a museum and other attractions that will capture
public imagination.