The Young Grown Ups – Part II; Marcos slept at the house

Marcos statue around 1987 before it was blown up. This was in the highway between Baguio and La Union.

When I was a kid I was watching this commercial on TV where a former beauty queen was pitching a product, and the last scene was that of her kid showing how healthy he was. Could’ve been margarine or Milo or vitamins, I don’t remember, but what I do remember was my cousin, watching with me saying, look at him – looks like Marcos. He sure did. That was the first time I learned that Marcos was popular with the ladies.

Before the war Marcos knew this lady in San Narciso, Ching Versosa. Beautiful and rich. During the war years he went into hiding from the Japanese and somehow found himself in San Narciso, perhaps because he knew Ching was there. She arranged to have him go into hiding at the home of Julita Firme, #9 in the photo of the previous blog entry, because their home was in the farm far away from town. A small modest farmer’s home away from the eyes of the Japanese forces, it was a perfect hiding place. People knew each other in town, so it wasn’t difficult for Ching to ask this of Julita and her family. Sometimes he would also hide in the neighboring town of San Antonio.





Lola Carmeling, my grandmother Lola Pinay’s sister, was an avid mahjong player. She lived in the same house as mom who remembers Lola Carmeling hosting mahjong playing. During the weekends Marcos would sometimes come over to play! When the players would hear airplanes overhead, they would quickly disperse and run. When the playing extended late into the night he would sleep in the house. So there it is – Marcos played mahjong and then slept in the house.

Years later the president would not forget Julita Firme, Lola Carmeling, and even mom when she went to go see him. One time Lola Carmeling, upon seeing him after several decades, was so happy that she just naturally blurted Hoy, Andy! He was president at the time. If I ever get to it, I’ll post that picture of Marcos and Julita Firme at a table in Malacanang Palace having dinner. Of course that picture is also in the book.

The Young Grown Ups – Part I; Guerilla Leader and War Hero

Here’s a group picture of some of the young adults in San Narciso taken about 1935 (click on the photo to make it larger). Lola Pinay is #10 and you can see mom in #17 and Auntie Luz #16. Note that there are only two guys here, and one of them, #4 Lolo Jose Firme, was deaf and mute. So that leaves #1, Atty. Ceferino Firme Evangelista, with a huge advantage among all these pretty women. More on him later, but kidding aside I like this picture because it shows many of the people I’ve always known as old in the prime of their lives.

Lolo Jose was the only brother of Lola Pinay (she had four sisters) so his disability was especially unfortunate. I remember him as a craftsman working on furniture, and he even built that proverbial better mousetrap – a design with a spring loaded door that closed to capture the mouse alive that he would show to us kids. He was away from home for several years because he was taken by American missionaries to study reading and sign language in Manila. That’s why mom still knows the sign language alphabet to this day. In his older years he was blown away by the modern way of sign language of not explicitly spelling each word. Admitted he never learned it, but then again there was no one there to use it with. For a living he cut people’s hair and made salakots, the traditional Filipino farmer's hat, but didn’t charge them if they didn’t have any money.



The other guy is the photo is Atty. Cef. Finished law school in Manila and practiced in San Narciso. Settled with his family in San Antonio, but because San Narciso was larger and had more judges and courts, he was there during the weekdays. When the war broke out he became a guerilla leader fighting against the Japanese. There were escaped British soldiers, captured guerillas, and sacrificing lives to fight the enemy – I’m not going to repeat the stories here so buy the book! Atty. Cef was a true war hero. He left a young wife, Esta, and two kids, Ceferino Jr. and Ruth. Esta was taken out of town to a prison and the kids were left with Lola Pinay to take care of, despite the fact that she wasn’t the closest blood relative. It was just that Lola Pinay was financially better off and she also didn’t have to take care of Lolo Satur, away during the war, in the household. They weren’t the only kids who were raised by Lola Pinay. Other relatives not so well off left their kids with her. She also supported, with rice and food, the guerillas that would come down from hiding in the mountains.

Mom and Auntie Luz became close to Cef Jr. and Ruth since they had to babysit them. Cef Jr. turned out to be a doctor and Ruth a nurse.


Later picture of Cef Jr. and his mom Esta. This may have been when he graduated from medical school.

In the next blog entry, #9 features in the story of Marcos hiding in San Narciso. I just couldn’t put the ex-president’s name and the words “war hero” in the same title lest search engines find it, so I’ll save that for the next blog entry.


1. Atty. Ceferino Firme Evangelista
2. Encarnacion Fontecha-Tajon
3. Soledad L. Firme Damaso (Lola Soling)
4. Jose Labrador Firme (Lolo Jose)
5. Modesta Labrador Firme
6. Azucena Firme Adamos-Fuertes
7. Librada Delos Reyes-Aquino
8. Virginia Fortaleza-Fernandez
9. Julita Firme
10. Josefina L.Firme-Farrales.(Lola Pinay)
11. Adelina Labrador-Aquino.
12. Elisa Fortaleza Firme Fontelera
13. Moning Aquino-Pampo.
14. Felicidad Labrador-Eugenio
15. ---------- Bernardino-Fernandez
16. Luz Firme Farrales-Villanueva
17. Minda Firme Farrales-Bello
18. Carmelita L. Firme Maranon (Lola Carmeling)
19. Florencio Fernandez Adamos
20. Rosalina Galvez
21. Cleopatra Adamos-Carbonel (Auntie Cleo)
22. Amanda L. Fernandez-Adamos

The Photographers in Town

Before the war there were three photo studios in San Narciso. Lola Pinay patronized two of them, the Dimalanta Studio and the Minora Studio. Most, if not all, of these pictures are from them. Mr. Minora was Japanese and this was before the war. Since she was just a kid mom doesn’t know how he came to town, but he was well established and had been there as long as she could remember. He was an older gentleman, perhaps in his late forties at this time, single and with no kids, and spoke Ilocano with his Japanese accent. What she does remember is that Mr. Minora would bury one centavo coins around one of the coconut trees in his property. Whenever the kidz in the ‘hood would find Minora-san away from his house, they would dig up these coins. Mom doesn’t know why he did that.

When WWII broke out the occupying Japanese took Minora-san and he was never heard of again. I’d like to know whatever happened to him, if any of you out there know. A good guess is he was held as an interpreter and to gather information. I just finished the book Illustrado (winner of the Man Asia Prize) by Miguel Syjuco, a Filipino writer, and there’s a story about the protagonist’s family’s Japanese gardener, Yataro, who had been with them since before the war. When the war broke out, he turned out to be a spy and became a leader of the local occupying forces. He did, however, save the family from atrocities. Having just read the book maybe that’s why I’m curious about whatever happened to Minora-san.

Dolls arrived from Lolo Satur in America. Auntie Luz had Elizabeth, a rag doll, and mom had Shirley Temple, made of porcelain whose eyes could open and close. The tree next to Auntie Luz looks like a balimbing, although mom insists what they had in the backyard were chico and kamias. Maybe someone can identify the tree.

Going Deep into the Labrador Lineage

The Labrador line in my ancestry ranks among the most distinguished and accomplished. And having my cousin Virgilio “Gov” Labrador related through this line, and him being a journalist by profession and historian by avocation, I asked him to write something about my great-grandmother, Beatriz Labrador (mentioned in my mom’s book in Chapter 1), and the Labradors of San Narciso. The pictures below are of Beatriz Labrador and my great grandfather Agustin Firme, taken around 1930.

Once again, thank you Gov for telling us more about the Labradors and some history on San Narciso. He provided the rest of the text.






Your great-grandmother Beatriz Labrador was born in San Narciso around the 1880s and died in 1948. She was the second child of Juan Labrador and Modesta Felarca. Her other siblings were: Ciriaco Labrador (the oldest and my great-grandfather), Isadora Labrador, Simplicio Labrador and Juana Labrador. Their father Juan Labrador was a “gentleman farmer” as our grand aunt Aurea Labrador described him and her father Ciriaco. Lola Aurea who was also mentioned in your mom’s book was the first cousin of your grandmother Josefina Labrador Firme, or nana Pinay (later married to your grandfather, Saturnino Farrales).

Below is the only surviving handwriting of all the children of Juan Labrador that I have found. It has the signatures of all the siblings on an official legal testament distributing among all the children the properties of their late father Juan Labrador after his death in 1918.



The full document is written in Spanish, but basically it lists down all the properties of Juan Labrador and how they were apportioned by mutual agreement to all the children. If you look at the signatures of the siblings, they are written in elegant strokes which show that they were all well-educated and fluent in Spanish (as Lola Aurea was too). The extent of the family’s holdings was also impressive as it took five pages to list down all the properties. The properties listed in the document were extensive in size as well as dispersed all over the town of San Narciso and neighboring San Felipe. This tells us that they were relatively well-off (considering that Juan, their father, who bequeathed the properties to the children probably inherited only a fraction of his father’s properties which also had to be divided among his siblings).

Going back a couple of generations from your great-grandmother Beatriz, I found some documents in the National Archives in Manila that shows her grandfather, Dionisio Labrador listed as the parent in an official roster of students in a village primary school run by Don Juan Vigils in San Narciso. The document is dated February 3, 1846. According to the official history of San Narciso published by the Municipal government of San Narciso in the Official Town Fiesta Guide in 1997, the area now known as the town of San Narciso was initially settled in 1807 by immigrants from Paoay, Ilocos Norte. Since this village school roster was 31 years from that date of first settlement, we can safely assume that Dionisio Labrador, the father listed, and his family were one of the first settlers in San Narciso. Curiously, the town name of “San Narciso” which this document bears was only officially decreed in 1846 by the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria. Previously the town was called “Alusiis” which is Ilocano for “restless.” According to legend, the immigrants from Paoay arrived by boats through the South China Sea and came across the mouth of the raging river that is now Macolcol in barangay Alusiis and said “ni, nag-alusiis met daytoy nga karayanen” (how restless this river is!) This document therefore was one of the first official documents using the official name of the town founded by these hardy Ilokano immigrants as “San Narciso.”


Dionisio Labrador is listed above in the sixth line with his son, Manuel Labrador. The document is a list of students with their parent’s name. Signed by the teacher Don Juan Vigilla dated February 3, 1846.


The influence of the Labradors in early San Narciso was evident in this other document dated December 1849 which I found which lists Eulogio Labrador as one of the endorsers of Don Miguel Cuaresma for mayor (in Spanish, Governadorcillo) .



This is a document submitted to the Governor-General of the Philippines endorsing the appointment of Don Miguel Cuaresma as mayor of the town of San Narciso. Signed by Manuel Lucas and Eulogio Labrador dated December 1849. (Note: don’t be put off by the traces of typewritten text in the document. The document was written in flimsy paper and the typewritten notes are on the back page (hence it’s shown backward here). The typewritten notes are authentication notes (with their official seal) made by the National Archives of the Philippines attesting to the veracity of the document.

Eulogio Labrador listed in this document had a son named Estanislao Labrador and again according to the official town history, Estanislao was the treasurer of the Katipunan during the revolution against Spain in the 1890s and subsequently was member of the town council during the provisional Philippine government under President Aguinaldo in 1899. Estanislao Labrador had several children, the most prominent of whom was Alejo Labrador, who later became justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Alejo Labrador is probably the most illustrious Labrador from San Narciso. He had a distinguished career that began as a summa cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines Law School and bar topnotcher. He was representative to the 1935 Constitutional Convention and was the first representative of the lone district of Zambales to the Philippine Legislature under the Commonwealth government (the precursor of the current Philippine Congress). During the Japanese occupation, he served as Secretary of Education. He married Conchita Magsaysay sister of the future President of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay of Castillejos, Zambales.

Your grandmother, nana Pinay, and Lola Aurea were second-degree cousins of Alejo. When President Magsaysay assumed office in 1957, many of our relatives were invited to join the staff at Malacanang Palace because of the connection with Alejo (who was now the brother-in-law of the President). Alejo’s son, Julius Labrador ,who still lives today at 78 years old in Manila, was quite an entrepreneur and started many companies in real estate, logging and electronics. Again, a lot of Labradors from San Narciso joined the Labrador Group of Companies including my father, Manuel, who started as a shop foreman in the PACES electronics factory in Quezon City and worked himself up to become President of the Group known by its acronym LaDeCor (Labrador Development Corporation).

Lola Aurea as mentioned in the book distinguished herself as the private nurse to President Quezon during the Commonwealth period and World War II. As the private nurse of the family, she joined the Quezon family in their travels all over the world and escaped with the family from Corregidor island during the war to the US where she eventually settled. She used to regal us with her stories of countries she visited as part of the official Quezon entourage. As this was before the jet age, it was very rare at that time for anyone to be so well-travelled. She had been to many countries in Europe and Latin America and being part of the official family she had a rare glimpse of some notable world figures such as Winston Churchill, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Carlos Romulo and later President Eisenhower. She even saw Hitler during an official visit by then President of the Commonwealth Quezon to Berlin in 1936.

Now, like the “restless” immigrants from Paoay, Ilocos Norte 200 years ago, the Labradors from San Narciso have now been dispersed all over , especially here in the US, where they can be found in Hawaii, California, Nevada and many other places.

Where in the world is San Narciso?

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Where in the world is this town anyway?

About sixty miles northwest of Manila is the coastal town of San Narciso. The South China Sea borders it to the west. The Philippines is divided into three geographical regions – Luzon, Vizayas, and Mindanao, with Luzon being the northernmost island and where San Narciso is. Subic Bay and Olongapo are only twenty miles away, although as a kid that drive seemed to take ages. Before they left, the large presence of Americans in the Subic Naval Base and the Angeles Air Force Base led to a relatively large number of Filipinos from that area, including San Narciso, serving in the U.S. military or working as civilians in the bases. My dad was one of them. There’s a rich history of Americans in the area that dates back to before WWII.

To the south of San Narciso is San Antonio, where there used to be a small U.S. naval base. More on that in the book and perhaps in another blog entry. To the north is San Felipe. I think the Spaniards have plenty more saints than towns and that’s why they weren’t afraid to use them all.



The three mile trip to San Felipe used to mean the karitela. In the photo is a karitela (no, not the karitela referred to in the second blog entry that led to Nadadael ti dayaw ) that lola Pinay and mom used for going to San Felipe. Lolo Satur, after all, came from San Felipe. It was Lola Pinay who was from San Narciso. This karitela, horse and cart, was purchased by lolo Satur for his brothers to make a living. Mom here is three months old. To the right is one of her cousins from the Cava side, and to the left is lola Emilia Firme.

The Makolkol river had to be crossed to get to San Felipe. I have fond memories of swimming in the river with my siblings and cousins and of one particular event that lola Aurea (again, more on her later) sponsored – a kite derby at the Makolkol. I had never seen such fancy kites before then. I haven’t seen the Makolkol after Pinatubo erupted, but my understanding is that it became a path for the lahar, the muddy volcanic ash and debris, to flow out to sea. The eruption is what finally drove out the U.S. military from the area.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom at age 2.

At 4 years old. Note the watch and the tiara.

At 9 years old in a traditional Filipino dress, the terno.

Happy Birthday, mom! Today is mom’s birthday. As I mentioned in the previous post, mom has many pictures because lola Pinay had them taken and sent to lolo Satur who was overseas in the U.S. Navy. The one of mom at two years old looks like it had been painted over with color. Note the necklace and white stockings. The other two were taken in the front yard of the San Narciso house where the photographer was asked to take them.

Kids in the San Narciso 'hood

Here’s a picture of the tough neighborhood kids, known to wreak havoc all over town creating despair among parents and local officials. Don’t be fooled by the innocent looking faces and gorgeous smiles.

This was taken around 1937 in San Narciso.

For suspense I won’t point out all the names until the end of this post. Some clues, however. Not a very flattering picture of my mom on this one. #11 and #9 are siblings and currently live in the San Francisco area. #4 and #6 are also siblings – look at the smile of the pretty kid in #6. Contagious. I’m smiling as I write this. #2 and #10 are siblings, the only ones dressed up in more than their Sunday best. There are Firmes, Labradors, Adamoses, Farraleses and others.

Mom doesn’t remember the actual event but believes this was a birthday party, either her’s or Auntie Luz’s. The reason why mom has many pictures is that Lolo Satur was away in the navy. Lola Pinay had pictures of the kids taken and sent to him. In addition to that, Lola Pinay just loved pictures in general. In her older years she would make scrapbooks out of pictures of actors and actresses she would cut out of the newspaper society pages.

Lolo Roding Labrador (although I used to call him uncle because he seemed too young for a lolo) is in this photo. He turned out to be a cook for the rich and famous. Dad watched his first Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game with Lolo Roding because then-manager Tommy Lasorda gave Lolo Roding tickets after being impressed with his cooking while a guest at his employer. When I last saw him in the Seattle area in the 1980’s, he was the cook for some magnate and was living in a house with his family in the magnate’s huge, sprawling, gated compound. He hated the nuisance from the Canada geese in the compound, one time taking out his shotgun to drive them away, but of course he was told by the magnate to stop it.

Lola Moding Labrador and mom grew up together and remain close confidantes up to this day. She and Lolo Roding were orphaned early in life and so they lived with mom’s family. Smart and very pretty, she had many admirers in her time. Including Americans during the war. I have to ask mom or her about that sometime. There’s more about her in the book.

1. Lydia Firme Fontalera
2. Minda Farrales Bello
3. Marshall Eugenio
4. Rudy Labrador (Lolo Roding)
5. Alberto Labrador Platero (Abet)
6. Modesta P. Labrador Espiritu (Lola Moding)
7. Catalina Aquino
8. Esperanza Eugenio Milan (Auntie Panching)
9. Florencio Fernandez Adamos (Uncle Waying)
10. Luz Farrales Villanueva
11. Cleo Adamos Carbonel (Auntie Cleo)
12. (Uncle Amang) Eugenio

Lolo Satur and Lola Pinay

Here’s a picture of my mom’s parents, Saturnino Fontecha Farrales and Josefina Labrador Firme. Gorgeous picture right after their wedding, isn’t it? This was taken in 1929 in Manila at Sun Studios. Note the 1920s style flapper dress – straight, loose, bare arms, and indicative of the new woman of that age. The white stockings and bright necklace are classic for the roaring twenties. Lola Pinay was a modern woman, having graduated nursing from the University of the Philippines during the early years soon after the program started. Lolo Satur, then in the U.S. Navy, was home on shore leave. I find it unsettling to see him so young and with a perfect set of two eyes – I’ve always remembered him having one glass eye that he would remove to wash in the sink every morning. Here she was twenty-five years old and he maybe three years older.

Navy men weren’t exactly in the highest echelons of society even in small town San Narciso because they didn’t go to college. This despite the steady income.

The story is that lolo was home for shore leave and staying in Manila with some Farrales relatives. Inang (although that’s mother for Ilocano, that’s what we grandkids called her) was staying in the same compound because she was related to the in-laws (Madarang). She already finished nursing and was working. It was raining that day when lolo offered to pick up inang from work using a karitela (single horse-drawn carriage with two wheels). She was surprised. Because of the rain the driver put up a partition between him and the passengers to cover them, and lolo promptly… kissed her. Nadadael ti dayaw (ruined virtue), so they had to get married.

Fast forward one year and mom appears, then five years later Auntie Luz appears, the time difference between them a function of the shore leave interval. Uncle Jovelo appeared twelve years later because of the war.

So there you have it, brothers, sisters, cousins, kids, nieces and nephews – you’re all here because of someone’s ruined virtue!

From Sea to Shining Sea

Hello everybody. This blog is about the book that my mother just published where she tells of her experiences growing up in the Zambales, Philippines starting before WWII up to the present time in California where she is now. Growing up I was always fascinated by her and my dad’s stories when they were kids in San Narciso, especially the ones during the war and Japanese occupation. With the help of many she finally has these stories in a self-published book. Here’s the blurb from the back cover.

MINDA FARRALES BELLO was born in San Narciso, Zambales, a rural coastal town in the Philippines. Her book recounts stories of growing up as a child in an idyllic setting, going through her early teenage years during the war, recalling the ultimate sacrifice of a guerrilla town mate, and meeting a then unknown Filipino war hero who went on to occupy center stage in Philippine government in later years. While living in fear she found humor during the Japanese occupation and thrilled at welcoming the Americans who arrived by ship along Zambales shores during the U.S. liberation. A small town girl, she moved to the big city of Manila for her college education where she met new friends and developed relationships. She married a long time friend with whom she has five children. Her family moved to the U.S. following the declaration of martial law in the Philippines and wrote of life as an immigrant and how she survived difficulties and challenges that came her way.

This collection of stories explores the rich and colorful life experiences from one shining shore in the Philippines to another in America.

This blog is a supplemental to the book where I will post other pictures not included in the book and perhaps provide more details. Gov, the editor, didn’t want the book to have the feel of a photo album, but mom wanted to have more pictures. More pictures! More pictures! Why can’t it be like Clinton’s autobiography where he put pictures from every stage of his life? And so the book is the negotiated result. The good thing is that I will now be able to post the pictures.

This blog will also be a forum for you to comment. Of course your comments would be more relevant if you’ve actually read the book – order your copy now! Here’s your chance to argue or disagree or add details to the stories. I urge you to share pictures (if you can; I'm still learning the details of blogging).

First things first – the book would never have been done without the labor of love, as he described it himself, of Gov Labrador. Mom recorded the stories and Gov painstakingly edited and put them to paper. He and spouse Jackie and son Carlo all took part in the task. Gov is the family historian especially on matters Labrador, so if you’re dying to get verification on facts, rumors, tsismis, ask him. You might be surprised to find that delectable, juicy stories that make good for telling around with that San Miguel in hand aren’t true at all. But back to the book. Thanks and appreciation are due to him and his team.

The front cover is a picture when she was 15 or 16, post WWII when Americans were still hanging around the country. They had jeeps and trucks, perfect for decorating for use in the town fiesta as a float. Must’ve been a generous officer to let the locals have use of military vehicles. The unidentified soldier was the driver of the truck. Mom was one of the princesses of the royal court in the town fiesta and the driver got to meet all of the young ladies. He also drove them around town taking pictures and this one he gave to mom. Looking back she thinks he was just interested in the young locals. I wasn’t there so I don’t know.

More later. To order the book, send me an email.