THE PARISH PRIESTS OF MANGALDAN
IN THE 19TH CENTURY
The parish priests of the 19th century stayed in the town for a considerable period of time unlike the vicars of the 18th century. In 1809, Fr. Lorenzo Martin succeeded Fr. Jose Reodriguez. Fr. Martin administered the parish for 13 years after which he was replaced by Fr. Pedro Hernandez Rama. Fr. Rama began the construction of the famous dike at the Tolong river remained in Mangaldan for only three years. On April 23, 1825, he was placed by the great Fr. Jose Torres.
Fr. Torres was the parish priest of Mangaldan for six years. One of the present barrios of Mapandan is named after him. He was succeeded in 1831 by Fr. Jose Mira, another great missionary. He exchanged assignment with his friend and another great man., Fr. Ramon Fernandez, mainly due to the unappreciative response of the people towards his work and effort. Fr. Fernandez replaced him on June 8, 1843.
Fr. Fernandez was perhaps the greatest missionary Mangaldan has ever known in terms of his contributions to the socio-economic progress of the town. His works were simply astounding. He completed the work on the irrigation system; built a bridge over the Angalacan river, constructed a road leading from the plaza of Mangaldan to the irrigation dike in the Tolong river from the very ground that was dug out of the main canal through which the irrigation flowed, and many others. He was also recognized as a medical doctor.
During the 17 long years that Fr. Fernandez stayed in Mangaldan, he had two assistants – Fr. Vicente Salas and Fr. Manuel Arin. On March 20, 1860, Fr. Arin, a very sickly man, succeeded Fr. Fernandez. Fr. Arin remained in Mangaldan for five years after which he went to San Fabian. He was replaced on November 24, 1864 by Fr. Juan Gutierrez who stayed in Mangaldan for nine years until he was replaced by Fr. Miguel Adan Gonzalez who was appointed parish priest on April 30, 1874.
For 14 years, Fr. Gonzalez administered the parish. On September 3, 1888, he was succeeded by Fr. Miguel Llambi – the last Dominican missionary to be appointed to Mangaldan as a parish priest. He was given an assistant on August 2, 1892 in the person of Fr. Casimiro Municha. Later, he was assisted by Fr. Benigno Jimenez, a Filipino secular priest. Fr. Llambi was the parish priest of Mangaldan until the years of the Revolution when he left with the Dominican Fathers for Hongkong and Fr. Jimenez eventually became the parish priest of the town.
(Mangaldan:1600-1898. Rev. Fr. Rafael S. Magno, Jr. Maramba Press. Dagupan City. 1981. pp. 74-76)
MANGALDAN IN 1869
Fr. Suarez portrays Mangaldan in 1869 as a busy but paradoxically, a very gloomy town. Although it occupies one of the choicest geographical locations in Pangasinan and notwithstanding the fact that the volume of traffic on its thoroughfares had been greater than any of the rest in the province, the people were generally sad and the tempo of their life and their activities was very dull.
Fr. Suarez describes that the tienda or the volume of trade in the town’s market during Saturdays was one of the largest in Pangasinan, in fact second only to Calasiao which then had the biggest tienda in the province. In those times, the market-place of Mangaldan was the town’s plaza which although not so wide was nevertheless well planned or designed.
The people earned their livelihood mainly from the cultivation of palay of which the town became one of the principal producers in the province. This benefit was largely due to the excellent irrigation canals which were built within the confines of the town under the supervision of the missionaries.
Aside from rice, the inhabitants also raised sugar cane, maiz, and abaca. Among the small industries in which they engaged were the production of alcohol, coconut oil, indigo-dyeing and the weaving of cloth fabrics. The people of Mangaldan were then the only ones in the whole province who had conserved the use of looms. They were widely known in the province for their salakots or tacocos. But what really made them very distinctive was the temper of the steel with which they forged their campilans and all kinds of pointed instruments and sharpened arms… In those times, the best horses in the province were found in Mangaldan and in San Carlos.
The Mangaldanes celebrated the feast of their Patron, St. Thomas Aquinas, on the 28th of January instead of on March 7th. This was because the latter date always fell within the “Cuaresma” or the Lenten season.
(Mangaldan:1600-1898. Rev. Fr. Rafael S. Magno, Jr. Maramba Press. Dagupan City. 1981. pp 66-68)
