Ilocos Norte expedition

When I got the invitation to visit Ilocos, the first thoughts that instantly came to mind were things associated with Ilocanos: The Marcoses, the tobacco, and the popular Ilocano dishes such as pinakbet, papaitan, longganisa, empanada and bagnet. My favorite vegetable – the saluyot – was also used to describe the Ilocanos.

Ilocanos are also known for their frugality, industry, cleanliness and even heroism. Historical records have it that many of them died for their country during the Spanish times and World War II.

I had been to Ilocos Sur once when I was a kid when my elder brother, a merchant, brought me with him in Vigan and in some Ilocos Sur towns in his Ford van.

The sounds of cattle-driven karetelas, the smell of tinubong (ricecake cooked in bamboos), the images of ancestral houses in Vigan and gun/bolo-totting men in town plazas and marketplace, have remained fresh in my mind up to this day.

But our invitation today was to tour Ilocos Norte, a sister province of Ilocos Sur, a place I heard so much about but never visited. So, I readily accepted the invitation to validate and experience what I heard and read about the province.

Evening fell over Laoag City when we arrived there on board a PAL jet plane after a pleasant 45-minute flight from Manila.

Our media group of eight being seated at the forefront of the plane started to disembark first and then walked our way to the arrival section of the airport building, the only place well-lighted in the area. Beyond that was all darkness except a few scattered lights seen from the horizon.

Soon the sounds of Ilocano dialect pervaded the little room crowded with arriving passengers waiting for their luggages. Being an international airport servicing 18 international flights a week coming from various cities of China and Taiwan, the Laoag International Airport, aside from being very small, does not function like one. There is no baggage conveyor or carousel and everything is done mano-mano or by hand.

Waiting for us outside the airport was a coaster of Fort Ilocandia Resort Casino/Golf and Country Club, our host for the next three days and two nights.

A 10-minute drive brought us to the Fort Ilocandia, where Arlene de Guzman, the pretty and gracious sales and marketing director of the resort/casino welcomed us at the impressive lobby of the hotel.

The highlight of our evening activities was a dinner at the La España, Fort Ilocandia’s Spanish restaurant. A quartet playing Spanish musical selections serenaded us as we ate. We also celebrated during the dinner the birth anniversary of former Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) general manager Nixon Kua, now a columnist and broadcaster, who headed our group.

The next morning, our half-day tour begins after breakfast with visits to Paoay, Batac, San Nicolas and Laoag.

The topography of Ilocos Norte is hilly. Birds still dominated the skies, forests and farms that are planted to rice, corn, onion, sugarcane or cotton. On display or piled up infront of the houses along the highways are products of cottage industries like pottery-making, woodcarving and furniture-making. Ilocanos are also engaged in cloth-weaving and blacksmitting. What impressed me most is the cleanliness and orderly of the surroundings in towns and even in farms. Here you can’t find a single rundown house or squatter shanty.

Our first stop was San Nicolas, a town noted for its thriving earthware and blacksmitting industries and a popular restaurant named Dawang. It offers authentic Ilocano foods like the papaitan, dinuguan, binaligtad and others. It was there we took our hearty breakfast.

Our second stop was Paoay home to the Malacañang of the North overlooking Lake Paoay, once President Marcos’ summer residence. The big house, now being managed by the Department of Tourism (DoT), and frequented by foreign and local tourists, is in state of disrepair.

Then we drove to Paoay Church. With its blend of Spanish and Oriental architecture, Paoay Church is now included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. Construction of the church started in 1704 and completed in 1894. Its three-story tower was used as observation post by Katipuneros and by the guerrillas during the Japanese occupation.

After Paoay we begun our city tour of Laoag. Highlights of the tour was the Sinking Belltower, which has sunk to the ground because of its weight. Its halfburied entrance door once allowed a man on a horseback to enter. Beside the Cathedral of St. William is the plaza complex with its historical Abolition of Tobacco Monopoly Monument, Ilocos Norte Capitol, and the Ilocandia Museum.

The Tobacco Monopoly Monument was built in 1882 as a gesture of thanksgiving to the Spanish King, Alfonso XII for ending the tobacco monopoly which from 1872 up to 1881 gave the Ilocanos untold miseries as they were obliged to plant no other crops except tobacco.

The Ilocandia Museum of Traditional Costumes is located northwest of the provincial capitol of Laoag, and houses traditional costumes of Ilocanos and ethnic tribes of North Luzon.

One thing noticeable in Laoag is the presence of so many banks located almost every corner of the downtown. Ms. De Guzman who was with us, volunteered the information that Central Bank records show that the biggest concentration of saving deposits in the whole country is found in Laoag, a proof that Ilocanos know how to save for the rainy days.

Close to noontime, we proceeded to Batac that keeps the airconditioned Marcos Museum and Mausoleum where the body of President Ferdinand Marcos is displayed.

Inside is dark except for the lighted glass-covered remains of the late President. The continuous playing of religious music adds to the somber mood of the place.

A visit to the public market of Laoag to buy pasalubong concluded our three-day tour. We bought bagnet, duhat wine which is noted for its healing properties, basi, longganiza and rice coffee.

[ Tobacco Monopoly Monument Wiki | St. William Church Wiki | Sinking Belltower Wiki ]