Gala Pinoy Redux

There’s something inherently sad about abandoned buildings, well, for me at least. It’s like something has been lost that will no longer return. On the other hand, I also couldn’t help but imagine how the building would have looked in its heyday.

So you can imagine how I felt when I finally saw what many people refer to as the Ruins, located in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

You can’t? Okay, let me tell you a story instead.

A Primer on the Ruins

Before it collapsed into ruins, the structure was the mansion built by the sugar baron Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson. It was built to very high specifications, employing A-Grade concrete. You can even still see at the entrance some of the molds used to create the balusters.

The molds used to make the balusters.

The floors of the mansion were also built with quality in mind. Made of 2-inch thick hardwood, the wood didn’t burn when Filipino and American forces initially tried to burn the mansion down during World War II. They wanted to prevent Japanese forces from turning the mansion into a headquarters. It was only when the Fil-Am troops mixed 2 drums of gasoline and 4 drums of used oil did the wood burn. Even then, it took 3 days before it turned to ashes.

Built to last. Even as the mansion burned down, the concrete walls still stand today.

Then there’s the attention to detail. Even the pipes that were used to channel the electric wires were hidden in the ceiling. Frikkin’ impressive I should say.

Even today, you can easily get a feel of how grand this structure is. It’s definitely bigger and better looking than the modern houses in the nearby subdivision. The mansion was indeed built to last. Plus, it has an expansive lawn and a fountain at the entrance. The middle class don’t have expansive lawns, much less fountains. Well, unless if you have a leaky faucet that is. But I digress.

An example of the Ruins’ timeless elegance can be seen on this photo.

Stories Behind the Ruins

The story behind the Ruins is that it was built by Don Mariano in memory of his departed wife Maria Braga who died while giving birth to their youngest child in 1911. It’s the sort of love story that made some people refer to the mansion as the Taj Mahal of the Philippines. Like we have Elvis, Paris, and Jun Pyo of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the mansion is also the story of how powerful sugar barons were before the country’s sugar cane industry collapsed in the late 1970s during the Marcos-era. And the mansion is an enduring symbol of how huge the gap was between the rich and the poor even in the early 20th century. Keep in mind that it was built during the time when majority of Filipinos could only build houses made mostly of bamboo and nipa, and most Filipinos still unloaded their browns in outhouses.

To learn more about the history of the Philippine sugar cane industry–which the sugar baron Don Mariano was a part of–I recommend you check out this link about the Philippines’ sugar cane industry.

Sugar barons, a lost love, Word War II, the Philippine sugar cane industry. Indeed if the walls of the Ruins could talk, I’d love to have a lengthy conversation with them.

This post is a part of my Bacolod travel chronicles. Click on the link for more Bacolod-related posts.