GOing around Cebu’s colonial history in Parian

CEBU, Philippines — Now that we’re done going around Intramuros for PokeStops, it’s time to book a flight towards the historic Queen City of the South.

As the celebration of National History Month continues, we’re now going to explore a small part of Cebu City for more PokeStops. Specifically, we’re venturing to a portion of the city’s Heritage District as we discover its colonial history while playing Pokemon GO.

Just like before, it’s time to activate your preferred Adventure Effects, make sure you’ve got a stockpile of Pokeballs, pop your Lucky Eggs, Starpieces, and Incense, and ready up your powerbanks as we get to exploring Cebu’s colonial history in Parian.

Casa Gorordo Museum PokeStop

Our first stop for this PokeStop tour is none other than Casa Gorordo Museum.

If you’ve brushed up on your Spanish in Duolingo, you’d know that ‘Casa Gorordo’ translates to Gorordo House. True to that, the Gorordo family did live in this house-turned-museum for four generations.

One of the more prominent family members of the Gorordos was Juan Gorordo, the first Cebuano Bishop. Besides him, Boholano Congressman Margarito Revilles also married into the family by marrying Juan’s niece Cesarea Gorordo.

As for the house itself, it was built sometime in the 1850s and is a great example of a ‘balay na bato’ (which translates to house of stone) and ‘balay na tisa’, which refers to the traditional red clay tiles used for the roof.

During the Second World War, it was one of the few structures in the city that was left unscathed. The reason for that was that the house was turned into a Japanese Imperial Army officers’ club. Subsequently, the Americans also took over the officers’ club when they liberated the city from the Japanese before eventually returning it back to the Gorordo family.

Today, the house is managed by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., a non-governmental organization that acquired the house in the 1970s and later opened it as Cebu’s first public museum in 1983.

RELATED STORY: GOing around Intramuros for PokeStops

Yap-San Diego Ancestral House PokeStop

From one house-turned-museum to the next, our second PokeStop is the Yap-San Diego Ancestral House.

The house was built by Don Juan Veloso Yap together with his wife Doña Maria Sofia del Mar Florido.

It is considered to be one of the oldest surviving Chinese houses outside of China. That said, the distinction of being the oldest surviving house in Cebu is hotly debated by historians, with the nearby Jesuit House (which is also a museum) also vying for the same distinction.

Nevertheless, Yap-San Diego Ancestral House is now a museum after it was opened to the public in 2008. The house’s current custodian is Val Mancao San Diego, the 11th-generation descendant of the family.

Parian Warehouse PokeStop

If you’ve ever wondered why Cebu has no equivalent of a Binondo or any Chinatown in the city, that’s because most would consider the city itself as one big Chinatown — especially as temples and other Chinese influences are scattered all throughout the city. 

However, saying that Cebu has no proper Chinese district might be a bit distorted when Parian, a Chinese district with pre-colonial roots that was integrated into the city during the early Spanish colonial period, exists.

Now a barangay, Parian used to be the designated residential and business district for Chinese immigrants during the city’s infancy. Even before the Spaniards segregated the city, the Chinese gravitated to the area that would become Parian as there used to be a wide estuary wherein their boats could pass to load and unload their merchandise.

As for the warehouse itself, the structure was built during the American colonial period. Owned by a sibling of brothers, Lim Bonfing y Hermanos Inc. is an importing and exporting firm, with this warehouse nearly a kilometer away from Pier 3.

Lim Bonfing was also one of the signatories of a petition by Cebuano merchants opposing the Chinese Exclusion Act. Originally passed by the U.S. Congress in 1892, the law suspended Chinese immigration to the United States for 10 years, which extended to the Philippines as it was an American colony back then.

Maria sa Grotto PokeStop (Iglesia Filipina Independiente Parian Church)

Ever since the Spaniards introduced the religion to our archipelago more than 500 years ago, the Philippines became a predominantly Christian country. But besides Roman Catholicism, there are many Christian offshoots that have spawned since then, and one of them is the Iglesia Filipina Independiente.

Also known as the Aglipayan Church (named after their founder Gregorio Aglipay), the Iglesia Filipina Independiente is a nationalist church that was formed during the Philippine revolutionary times. It separated from the Philippine Catholic Church during the American colonial period in 1902.

The Aglipayans were the first and oldest wholly Filipino independent Christian church. Their formation was in response to the maltreatment of the Spanish friars towards Filipinos as well as partly to the deaths of Jose Rizal and the GomBurZa trio of priests (Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora).

As such, one could also say that the Iglesia Filipina Independiente is a living, breathing remnant of the country’s revolutionary past.

Moving on to the history of the PokeStop, as per local Aglipayans in the area, the church in Parian was small at the beginning. 

Vicente Yap Sotto, Sr., known as the Father of Cebuano Journalism, Language, and Literature and grandfather of Tito Sotto and Vic Sotto, supported the construction of the church in 1902. Sotto used the profits from his first self-written, self- directed, and self-produced Cebuano stage play, ‘Paghigugma sa Yutang Natawhan’  (translation: ‘Love for One’s Birthplace’), for the church’s construction.

Then in 1971, the Parian Iglesia Filipina Independiente church underwent a reconstruction which led to the current structure’s state today. According to Cebu City Councilor and former long-serving Barangay Tinago Captain Joel Garganera, there were plans to replace the current structure with a new one years ago but were stopped due to its local heritage value.

Colon Street PokeStop

Colon Street has two markers, an obelisk marker that is a Pokemon GO Gym and this one at the other end that is simply a PokeStop.

In this PokeStop is a Philippine Historical Committee marker, the predecessor of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. 

It reads: “Colon Street known also as the Parian, is the oldest street in the Philippines. It was built by the Spaniards who arrived at Cebu in 1565 on the fleet composed of the vessels San Pedro, San Pablo, and San Juan under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi.”

As such, Colon is considered as the oldest street in the Philippines, aptly so as it is located in the oldest city in the country.

However, that claim is challenged by historians Dr. Jose Eleazar Bersales and National Artist for Literature Resil Mojares. Bersales even went as far as to describe the claim as ‘the oldest fake news.’

Historical research showed no evidence to sufficiently back that claim, with archival maps that featured Colon only went back as far as 1873. Mojares even raised the idea that a street is made so long as a sufficient number of people pass through, thus there should have been pre-colonial streets as well.

Nevertheless, one thing is certain: Colon has been around for a very long time. Whether it is truly the oldest street in the country, however, remains a question for historians to settle.

GOing Around Cebu’s Colonial History in Parian

Just like Intramuros, Cebu City is full of historical PokeStops, and we’ve only featured a really small portion of this city.

That said, we hope this two-article series thus far has sparked your curiosity regarding the historical background of some of the PokeStops you spin. Or maybe you don’t even spin them yourself — you simply let the GO Plus+ do all the work.

Regardless, Pokemon GO is all about adventure, and we hope you’ve learned a thing or two for the places you might add to your travel itineraries.

Wondering where we should go next? We ask the same question as well. Wherever it is, we’re juicing up our powerbanks, dressing up appropriately for adventure (umbrellas are a life-saver, rain or shine), and making sure that our phones are running Pokemon GO.

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