Train to Libmanan: A heritage tour

By Doods M. Santos

“You should have more trees”

What do trees have to do with a heritage tour? Read on.

While I’ve been on many guided tours, my only experience in leading one was when, before the pandemic, I conducted heritage walking tours of Naga City based on Carlos Ojeda Aureus’s masterful fiction Nagueños. On two other occasions, I got to drive National Artist Virgilio Almario aka Rio Alma and columnist Randy David around Naga City. They had both asked to visit Ina at the Basilica and the grave of former Naga mayor and DILG secretary Jesse M. Robredo, aside from the usual churches, schools, and plazas. I cannot forget Randy’s comment after our short drive around the city – “You need more trees!” I agreed.

Anyway my interest was piqued when I first saw the University of Nueva Caceres (UNC) Museum’s post about the Train to Libmanan Heritage Tour from my blogger daughter in Quezon City. At last, a local heritage tour!

The idea of this heritage tour was the brainchild of UNC Museum Curator Juan Paolo Suzara. It all started when UNC museum volunteers needed greater exposure to heritage concepts as part of their academic requirements. Paolo guided the students to see heritage structures, first to places such as the GSIS building in Naga City, the many churches, and old houses. But not enough heritage structures were open to the public to study in Naga. An eventual partnership with the Libmanan LGU sparked the possibility of a collaboration, and the heritage tour was born in the summer of 2026.

The River Connection and Handiong

Aside from wanting to ride the train after many years, I was keen to visit this town that birthed a medical doctor who became the provincial governor, Dr. Jose M. Bulaong. He overthrew the deeply entrenched Villafuerte dynasty albeit temporarily in the 1990s and served with integrity. I was also interested in revisiting this largest riverine town in Camarines Sur, as I had interviewed senior citizens about the Bikol River for Sumaro sa Salog (SULOG)’s “Salba Istorya Salba Buhay” riverine project there in 2017. It was then when I first met the late Pepe Umali, a passionate heritage advocate. He gave quite convincing arguments that the long narrative poem called Ibálong originates in Libmanan rather than in Albay, as its author, Spanish friar Bernardino Melendreras had been parish priest of the town for 18 years. Pepe pointed out that one of the 26 riverine barangays in Libmanan is named Malbogon Island, the name of the legendary home of the witches Hilan and Laryong in the Bikol poem. There is also a rice variety called hinandiong in Libmanan, long recognized as the rice granary of Camarines Sur. A year later, SULOG and Pepe’s NGO Libmanan for Reform, Accountability, Transparency & Empowerment (LIBRATE) collaborated in staging Sari Saysay’s musical play “Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw kan Salog” in a Libmanan public school. I quite admired the efforts of Pepe, Art Cantos, and Sheryl Baricante in progressive thinking and cultural advocacy.

With all these in mind, I tried to reserve slots for the heritage tour which was always fully booked. Fortunately, slots opened up for June 13, and we joined a group of 17 from Naga City on what the UNC Museum now also dubs The Hernandez Travel in honor of UNC’s founder. In our group were several architects who are also teachers and heritage advocates, particularly those who have been working for years to save the oldest and only civil structure still existing in Naga City, the Correo. This Correo is now in danger of being Imelda-style tucked away from sight behind yet another commercial establishment in a highly-urbanized city.

Jaq, a grandson of Libmanan luminary Dr. Jaime Hernandez, joined us on what proved to be a nostalgic tour for him. His grandfather used to take the motorboat, erstwhile called kotokoto because of the noisy chugging sound it made, between Libmanan and Naga on the Bikol river when he was enrolled at the Camarines Sur National High School. Dr. Hernandez eventually served in national positions under three Philippine presidents in the 1950s.

Train to Libmanan

Tour organizer Paolo met our group at the PNR station at 9 am. It was not a scenic ride like the train rides in other countries, as frosted glass windows obstructed the view of the countryside. Curious about the itinerary markings above the doors of the commuter train coach, the hubby took a close look, chuckling when he saw the word “Alabang.” The coach was obviously a hand-me-down from the commuter train system in Manila. Well, repurposing should be good enough for a country like ours, plus we all fully understand why in the Philippines, there is need for security on train windows. The memory of stones, trash, and feces being thrown at trains along the way are too painfully disgusting. Have Filipinos not evolved enough through the decades to refrain from such vulgar practices, I wonder.

Heritage Structures

We arrived at our destination in less than an hour. The Libmanan train station, built in the late 1920s, was literally the first stop of our tour. Its benches are made of old train tracks, and vintage signs adorn the station’s stone-and-rubble masonry walls. We were served a refreshing melon drink while Paolo gave us a short orientation after which he turned us over to the LGU team led by Art Cantos. I was pleasantly surprised to see that heritage advocate-playwright Art was our tourist guide; he in turn was tickled pink to meet his Hernandez cousin in our group. Art, who serves as Co-Chair of Libmanan Mayor Edelson Marfil at the Municipal Tourism Culture and the Arts Council, welcomed us with humor and elan. Two air-conditioned vans ferried us to our next few stops, the Libmanan Cathedral with its century-old decorated bricks still intact, and the Libmanan mural that encapsulates the town’s history. Decades-old trees provided welcome comfortable shade near the structures and along the sidewalks.

After lunch at an al fresco restaurant named Al Fresko, we proceeded to the Hernandez-Dilanco ancestral house, a bahay na bato with a spacious garden. Built in the 1920s, it was clean, airy, and very well-kept, with many old photos and mementos on display. Its maintenance could obviously be attributed to the fact that the family’s descendants, senior citizens all, still resided there. The young ‘uns got a look and taste of lemonsitong kastila, unfamiliar to them, but which this oldie recognized as a flavoring for leche flan.

Other houses on the tour itinerary were the Miraflores-Callos and Aureus-Mariano ancestral houses. History buffs will recognize the Aureus name; Leon SA Aureus, along with Elias Madrid of Canaman, Camarines Sur, led the guerrillas based in Tangcong Vaca against the Japanese invaders during World War II.

Toasted Siopao and Baligang Muffins

Clockwise from top left, the Libmanan Municipal Hall; inside the Hernandez-Dilanco house; decorative herons and ornaments on the Roldan-Morales house; religious objects inside an ancestral house (credit: exteriors by Sol Santos Jr.; interiors by UNC Museum)

A highlight of our trip was a visit to Art’s own green home, with an image of Oryol near the gate and eye-catching life-sized paratakot or scarecrows in the garden. Art said the scarecrows would be used in Arjanmar Rebeta’s upcoming film “Sayaw nin mga Salampati” (Dance of the Pigeons) based on a Palanca-awarded story. Art served us a treat of 3N toasted siopao – apparently this Bikol delicacy was first formulated in Libmanan rather than in Naga – and delicious homemade balígang muffins.

Intermittent rain prevented us from visiting a Marian pilgrimage site being built in the Bulalacao hills. Instead, Art showed us a film clip of the project, with its three crosses and small domes figuring the beads of the rosary.

We also visited the old Post Office, its wrought iron grills still intact. We thought, with a twinge, how the old Post Office in Iloilo had been preserved as part of a museum, and how the old Post Office in Naga still confronts the perils of commercialism and urbanization. We then took a look at the munisipyo, picturesque in its streamlined art deco style. It struck me as having more character than the newer structures beside it. Colorful paintings of Handiong and Oryol adorned the walls of the Tourism Office.

At the town plaza, we saw the statue of “Lolo Brown,” a replica of National Artist Napoleon Abueva’s bronze sculpture of Dr. Jaime Hernandez. Trivia from Jaq who did the obligatory pose before his grandfather’s statue: Jaq’s ears and back of the head were the model for Abueva’s rendering of the grand old man from Libmanan, as he had to base the sculpture on a 2D photograph.

Our last stop was at the Roldan-Morales summer mansion, built in the 1930s by a priest for his parents. Abandoned and decrepit, the outer structure somehow remains standing. It was at this leg of the tour where the hubby got his fix. As a young lawyer attending court hearings in Libmanan, he had always been fascinated by that old four-story house, with its stylized ornamentation and herons instead of gargoyles on its ramparts. Was it haunted, he wondered. We were allowed inside to see the details of its crumbling innards, and I heard some of the group murmuring Tabi tabi apo to the spirits on our way in. While I admired the façade and its decorations, the reek of guano inside was a bit too much for me. I also noted how one tourist ducked the bat gliding above her head. Nevertheless, it was a fascinating experience for the group and should not be missed.

Art was an amazing tour guide and storyteller. He knew his stuff, with notes as back-up in case he had to double-check historical dates and names. I figure he also had a sense of noblesse oblige, as a descendant of the prominent Hernandez-Dilanco family. He repeatedly told us that the advocates have been trying to convince the LGU to purchase heritage structures such as the old Post Office and the Roldan-Morales house for repurposing as museums and cultural centers.

As we set off in a van back to Naga, we gave the Libmanan team our warm congratulations and thanks, and wished them godspeed in their tours and advocacies.

Teach You a Lesson

A post on Facebook bills three groups, Naga Tourism, UNC, and the Libmanan LGU as being behind this heritage tour, but UNC and the Libmanan LGU obviously carried the ball on this one.

Pride of place – check!

Heritage advocacy – check!

Importance of local structures – check!

Shady trees for walking tours – check!

Methinks Libmanan could teach Naga City a lesson or two about local tourism, heritage advocacy, and urban trees.

The Hernandez Travel: Libmanan Heritage Tour is available every Saturday. Coordinate directly with the UNC Museum for bookings and inquiries.