Arrivals and departures in Philippine history

Newspapers recently featured the homecoming of former Presidential daughter and sister Kris Aquino, who has been living abroad for health reasons. She has been battling multiple autoimmune diseases and so moved to the United States to seek advanced medical treatment and specialized care not readily available in the Philippines. She has shared updates on her health journey with her fans through social media, so her return stirred attention. Another arrival of a group of prominent people, however, caught the public eye. The British group Duran Duran was flown into Manila to perform exclusively for the President. Their presence was of course not supposed to be made public, but, in the age of instant reporting (and karma), pictures and reports of the multimillion private performance started appearing online forcing the Palace to do damage control.

Most Filipinos like reading the “who’s who” arriving, and leaving, the Philippines. While this type of hype is now often limited to actors and actresses, it was not always so. If one reads old newspapers, columns were dedicated to enumerate the “important” men and women who arrived in the Philippines, or those who left our shores for abroad.

The Gaceta de Manila in an 1865 edition reported that due to bad weather, the trip of Fray Francisco Lopez from Manila to Tacloban, Leyte, took twenty-one days to complete. Many now know that he was the father of Trinidad Lopez, who later married Daniel Romualdez. Together, they established the Romualdez dynasty of Leyte whose members played, and continue to play, various roles in Philippine society. One member currently sits as President of the Philippines whose sister is a Senator. And their first cousin is the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

On June 14, 1875, the newspaper El Comercio listed another batch of passengers arriving in Manila. Arriving  through the steamship Mactan from the Visayas were the following: Don Dionisio Zayas; Don Vicente Elio; Don Enrique Fabricio, his wife, 2 girls, and a maid; Don Manuel Resinas y Robles; Don Ramon Torres, with a sister; Don José Burgos, with a servant; and various natives and Chinese. Another ship, the Corregidor, entered Manila from Cebu and Albay, with the following passengers: Don Andrés Molina, Don Adolfo Besican, Don Enrique Lainé, and a Chinese. Finally, the Esmeralda, coming from Hong Kong, had Don Antonio and Don Maximiano Paterno; and 202 Chinese. Among these names mentioned, only the last two, Antonio and Maximiano Paterno, were historically significant. While the others probably have an entry or two in history, they do not merit enough significance to appear in most biographical indices. And, notice also that only men were mentioned. Women were simply listed as “wife” or “daughter” or “maid” while non-Spaniards were listed simple as “Chinese.”

In 1912, the paper The Cablenews-American reported the arrival of Philippine resident Commissioner to the United States (and later President) Manuel L. Quezon from Nagasaki, Japan, in Manila. Aside from Quezon, several Americans were also in the ship, including Judge Carter Johnson; Colonel Henry Bayard McCoy, customs collector for the Insular government; and J.L. Manning, the treasurer of the Insular government. This report listed truly prominent men, unlike those in the Spanish period who simply listed the Spaniards and rich people. Col. McCoy, for instance, had commanded the First Colorado Regiment and had captured Fort San Antonio and raised the American flag on August 13, 1898.

While ordinary Filipinos devoured these columns listing arriving and departing passengers in the past, listing down passengers in newspaper today would most likely no longer attract much attention. Besides, social media is already enough for most to be updated about the coming and going of their politicians and favorite stars.