A salute to 50 golden years of Angeles, Pampanga
MANILA, Philippines - Last Sept. 5, Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center staged the musical spectacle O Bayang Mahal at Teatro Maximo in our school at Angeles City, as a tribute to its 50th cityhood anniversary. Pampanga Governor “Nanay” Lilia Pineda, Lubao Mayor Mylene P. Cayabyab and Angeles City Mayor Ed Pamintuan were the special guests.
Angeles, Pampanga has been a tourist destination since 1899, for more than 50 years since the First President of the Philippines Emilio Aguinaldo raised the original Filipino flag on the first anniversary of Philippine Independence from Spain from his office in the Pamintuan ancestral house.
In 1903, the American government cut short Philippine Independence and started colonizing the Philippines after winning four battles in the Visayas and Mindanao where Filipino soldiers valiantly fought. US President Theodore Roosevelt, through an executive order, established Fort Stotsenberg as an Air Force base in Barrio Sapang Bato. Simultaneously with the Dec. 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes bombed the Fort, paralyzing all airplanes. During the Japanese Occupation of the 1940s the destructive force of Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) under the guise of patriotism (but actually championing communism) went on a killing spree, pitting the farmers against the rich sugar hacienderos. This was tamped down by President Ramon Magsaysay when he encouraged rebels to lay aside their arms and receive land grants in Mindanao.
Rebuilt as Clark Field Airbase, hundreds of American soldiers were flown in from the Vietnam War for hospitalization or R&R. In 1975, Anne Drake, the principal of the Clark Defense schools, invited OB Montessori to set up a preschool to serve the growing number of American families. The Lacson Mansion at Sto. Entierro was the first site. Filipinos enjoyed shopping at Nepo Marts for PX goods sold by the wives of American soldiers. The 1990 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption displaced thousands of families and burying houses to the ground of Pampanga, Zambales and Tarlac. Eventually the Angeles to Olongapo road became the destination of curious tourists in addition to shopping.
Since 1899, Angeles, Pampanga has been well known as the place where first Filipino President Emilio Aguinaldo kept office at his ancestral Pamintuan house. Originally known as Kuliat, it was the large sugar plantation of Don Angel de Miranda (hence the name “Angeles”), which was divided into four districts of Rosario, Cutcut, Pampanga and Pulung Anonas.
Ilustrado families owning vast sugar plantations supported numerous churches visited by tourists to see rich carvings of the altars and holy statues from Betis. Their banquets, many claim, had the “best in Philippine cuisine,” and lasted for three days.
Angeles is one of the highly urbanized cities in the province of Pampanga. It’s a haven for the culinary arts, visual arts, culture and entertainment.
