Pila Historical Society Foundation Inc.
8. La Villa de Lipá (1887): The Last Villa
Brown was the color of gold in Lipá. Like Tayabas, Lipá was a relatively “late bloomer” of a town. It became a parish of the Augustinians in 1605. Its name refers to a vigorous tree (Dendrocnide sp.) worthy of its patron St. Sebastian who was pierced with arrows while tied to a great tree. The eruption of Taal volcano in 1754 entombed the heart of the town, which had to be transplanted to its present higher site. The new church of San Sebastián was finished only in 1790.xxxiv
Though indigenous to the Philippines, coffee was largely ignored by the early Filipinos. Its planting was introduced in Lipa by the Filipino-Spanish botanist, Fray Ignacio Mercado, OSA in 1674. But it was Don Galo de los Reyes, a prescient mayor of the pueblo for four terms (between 1808 and 1825), who spearheaded the widespread cultivation of the precious commodity. It provided the golden key that unlocked the gate of commercial success for the town unparalleled in the province and perhaps, even in the entire colony. Lipá emerged as the world’s prime supplier of coffee beans. In 1887 alone, it harvested 70,000 picos of the brown gold. Lipá’s fame was announced with flourish of trumpets in the Philippine General Exposition in Madrid in the summer of the same year. In recognition of the town’s economic pre-eminence, the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of her son, the boy King Alfonso XIII, elevated Lipá into a noble villa on October 21, 1887 and regaled it with a coat of arms. This was made public in the Gaceta de Manila on December 21 in time for the holidays. The royal order stated that the title was conferred on Lipá “in consideration of the great advances that the town has made in a brief period of time and to reward the work and virtues of its residents.” A corollary decree described the coat of arms that the new villa was authorized to sport: “It will be divided into three quarters, two in the upper half and the third occupying the whole lower half. The left upper quarter will represent virtue over a silver field with the attributes of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. The right upper quarter will represent work with the emblems of the anvil, hammer, etc. over a red field. The lower half over a blue field will bear the symbol of hard work with the figure of a man resting on a plough, a bull lying down on the ground and a mother embracing two children while sitting under a coffee tree. Above the seal will be a royal crown, below which is the inscription: Virtue and work are for the towns the sources of happiness.” xxxv
With characteristic exuberance, the people of Lipá welcomed the news of the royal decree and the coat-of-arms with a cavalcade of floats featuring the coffee plant as a bountiful icon. Also paraded was a supporting cast of farming implements, a milling machine and handsome boxes for storing coffee beans. Upper crust Lipeños began to live a life of astounding luxury. They became the patrons of the arts as well as handicrafts of precious stones and metals reflecting the treasured coffee of Lipá. Scarcely two years after it was declared a villa, an army of hungry insects known as bagombong invaded the local plantations and demolished its coffee industry altogether - from which it never fully recovered. xxxvi
In 1910, Lipá became the seat of the diocese, now an archdiocese, of the same name. xxxvii
Though indigenous to the Philippines, coffee was largely ignored by the early Filipinos. Its planting was introduced in Lipa by the Filipino-Spanish botanist, Fray Ignacio Mercado, OSA in 1674. But it was Don Galo de los Reyes, a prescient mayor of the pueblo for four terms (between 1808 and 1825), who spearheaded the widespread cultivation of the precious commodity. It provided the golden key that unlocked the gate of commercial success for the town unparalleled in the province and perhaps, even in the entire colony. Lipá emerged as the world’s prime supplier of coffee beans. In 1887 alone, it harvested 70,000 picos of the brown gold. Lipá’s fame was announced with flourish of trumpets in the Philippine General Exposition in Madrid in the summer of the same year. In recognition of the town’s economic pre-eminence, the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of her son, the boy King Alfonso XIII, elevated Lipá into a noble villa on October 21, 1887 and regaled it with a coat of arms. This was made public in the Gaceta de Manila on December 21 in time for the holidays. The royal order stated that the title was conferred on Lipá “in consideration of the great advances that the town has made in a brief period of time and to reward the work and virtues of its residents.” A corollary decree described the coat of arms that the new villa was authorized to sport: “It will be divided into three quarters, two in the upper half and the third occupying the whole lower half. The left upper quarter will represent virtue over a silver field with the attributes of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. The right upper quarter will represent work with the emblems of the anvil, hammer, etc. over a red field. The lower half over a blue field will bear the symbol of hard work with the figure of a man resting on a plough, a bull lying down on the ground and a mother embracing two children while sitting under a coffee tree. Above the seal will be a royal crown, below which is the inscription: Virtue and work are for the towns the sources of happiness.” xxxv
With characteristic exuberance, the people of Lipá welcomed the news of the royal decree and the coat-of-arms with a cavalcade of floats featuring the coffee plant as a bountiful icon. Also paraded was a supporting cast of farming implements, a milling machine and handsome boxes for storing coffee beans. Upper crust Lipeños began to live a life of astounding luxury. They became the patrons of the arts as well as handicrafts of precious stones and metals reflecting the treasured coffee of Lipá. Scarcely two years after it was declared a villa, an army of hungry insects known as bagombong invaded the local plantations and demolished its coffee industry altogether - from which it never fully recovered. xxxvi
In 1910, Lipá became the seat of the diocese, now an archdiocese, of the same name. xxxvii