I LOVE MY PARISH

Banga’s history started long before the coming of Spanish colonizers in the Philippines but its history of devotion to St. Joseph began in 1581. In the book “Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas” by Gaspar de San Agustin, OSA., one may read this: 

“Recibiose el convento de Aclan, encomienda de Antonio Flores en la provincia de Panay, con la advocacion de San Juan Bautista. Tiene seis visitas muy grandes y pobladas: cuatro en la tierra adentro y dos en el rio, que es muy caudaloso. Llamanse las cuatro primeras: San Jose de Banga, San Pedro de Polo, Santa Catalina de Hinsonogan y San Nicolas de Tolentino de Anangui. Las dos del rio son: Santo Tomas de Villanueva de Macato y San Ignacio Martir de Tangalan. Fue Aclan antiguamente tan grande que el solo tuvo mil tributarios, y por esto se llama el pueblo Calibo, que significa mil, porque el nombre de Aclan es del rio. Fue el primer ministro que se puso en Aclan el P. Fr. Andres de Ibarra.”

Jorde’s work confirmed that Fr. Andres Ibarra started his mission in 1581: IBARRA (Fr. Andres) …Destinado en 1581 a la conquista espiritual de Aclan (Panay), consagrose con ardiente celo a la conversion de aquellos naturales, encaminando a este santo fin todos sus esfuerzos hasta lograr la sumision y obediencia de aquel pueblo salvaje. 

With these written accounts, it may be said that BANGA has the oldest devotion to St. Joseph at least in Aklan which started in a chapel until a parish was erected. It is significant to take note that during that year (1581), the parish church of Manila was eventually raised into a cathedral, being a new diocese, suffragan to the Archbishopric of Mexico. 

Among the six chapels mentioned under the Parish of Kalibo, only BANGA did not change its name as well as its patron saint when its chapel was elevated into a parish. Unwritten tradition provides that the location of the present parish church was not the original site of the chapel/church of San Jose de Banga, and it is also interesting to notice that Malinao, Aklan was once part of Banga’s territory wherein its present parish church is also under the patronage of St. Joseph. 

With regard to Banga’s foundation date as pueblo or town, it appeared in the Catholic Directory that it was established in 1745 (compared with that of Malinao, Aklan which was established in 1798). Juan Fernandez’s Monografias de los pueblos de la isla de Pan-ay mentioned Banga as a recent town that had always belonged to the Diocese. Fernandez was unable to visit it to gather data because of the Philippine Revolution of 1896-1898. Banga was said that it also appeared on the Murillo Velarde map. 

Most probably, due to the creation of pueblo or town belonging to the territorial jurisdiction of the Parish of Kalibo, a new landscape of churches was formed as being featured in an old sketch (map) found in the archives of LGU Numancia, Aklan which was believed to be a true copy of the original sketch (map) dated June 6, 1865. It was indicated in the sketch that the respective churches bear the name of their pueblo or town: Kalibo, Banga, Malinao, Lezo, Numancia and Makato. Except for Kalibo, whether or not those five churches including that of BANGA were already a parish prior to or during that year (1865), one could only speculate. 

In fact, when the Parish of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Banga, Aklan celebrated its Bicentennial Anniversary in year 2017, its definite, accurate and precise founding year was never mentioned in its souvenir book particularly in the History section. Thankfully, the souvenir book included the Excerpts from the Minutes of the Seventh (7th) Regular Session of the Sangguniang Bayan of Banga, Aklan (2016-2019) when it approved Municipal Ordinance No. 2017-02 where one of the whereases stated: WHEREAS, the Banga Parish of St. JOSEPH, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary was established on March 19, 1817, during the incumbency of the late, Fr. FELIPE TORRES, as the first Parish Priest. How did the council come up with this statement at least institutionalized the year 1817 as the foundation year of the parish of St. Joseph in Banga, Aklan. Fr. FELIPE TORRES was also duly acknowledged as his name did not appear in the available records of parish priests assigned in the Diocese of Kalibo. The council also made a declaration or to that effect that Banga’s Municipal and Religious Fiesta is held every March 19 in reverence to St. Joseph. 

The year 1817 in relation to the parish of St. Joseph is not new as it was mentioned in the history written by the late Msgr. Raul B. Gonzales: 

“In 1817, a church was constructed at the foot of Manduyog Hill, where the seat of the town was transferred in 1781.” 

Whether or not the said church constructed was a parish, one could only speculate. But it is reasonable to reckon the year 1817 as the foundation year of the parish of St. Joseph in Banga, Aklan based on this account as its history continues. How San Jose de Banga started as a visita (chapel) and how it is now called the Parish of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary only prove Banganhons’s deep religious-historical devotion to St. Joseph. 

Take note that in 1581, the visita (chapel) was named simply as San Jose de Banga (St. Joseph of Banga) and not as St. Joseph, the Worker. In the Roman Catholic Church, the feast of St. Joseph falls on March 19, the traditional day of his death. It follows that the feast of San Jose de Banga should be observed and celebrated on March 19 being the “only” feast day of St. Joseph then. It was in 1870 that Pope Pius IX declared St. Joseph as the patron of the Universal Church and assigned another feast in his honor. In 1955, the said feast however was replaced by Pope Pius XII when he established the Feast of St. Joseph, the Worker on May 1. For some reasons, there came a time when the parish of Banga, Aklan adapted this recent development and celebrated its patronal and parochial fiesta on May 1. There seemed to be no harm that the celebration was transferred to such date as the term “San Jose de Banga” is broad enough to cover any title of St. Joseph –Patron of the Universal Church, Patron Saint of workers, of carpenters, of travelers, of the dying and of a happy death. But later, a decision was made to celebrate the parish fiesta on its former date –March 19. In 2015, the said decision was made firm and final when the parish church was dedicated and reconsecrated by no less than the Bishop of the Diocese of Kalibo, Jose Corazon T. Tala-oc, D.D. to St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose proper feast day falls on March 19. 

Sources: 

Bicentennial Anniversary, St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1817-2017), Souvenir Book 

Diocese of Kalibo (1976-2001), “The Vintage Years”, Kalibo, Aklan 

Dumol, Paul, PhD, Grace Concepcion, PhD and E.J. Ofilada, The Pueblos of Panay (Retrieved from https://crc.uap.asia/2020/08/15/Panaypueblofoundationdates 0815/) Perez, 

Elviro Jorde, OSA, (1901) “Catalogo Bio-Bibliografico De Los Religiosos Agustinos De La Provincia Del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus De Las Islas Filipinas Desde Fundacion Hasta Nuestros Dias”, Establecimiento Tipografico del Colegio de Sto. Tomas San Agustin, 

Gaspar de, OSA, (1698) “Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas 1565-1615”, ed. Pedro G. Galende, Manila: San Agustin Museum 

Disclaimer: The researcher is not a historian. He just attempts to state the facts using available and verifiable data and organize them according to the means and methods he learned from his years of studies. He believes that the best evidence which can show the accurate year the parish was established as well as its designated title or name is no other than the official document or decree issued and promulgated by Church authorities for the creation or erection of the parish. In its absence, the researcher relies on the data he gathered and welcomes anyone to provide him reliable and relevant data.