LAVISH HERITAGE: BALIUAG’S RUSTIA HOUSE
Worthy of being preserved and even declared an important property, this house is a treasure, a silent witness to the development of one of the historically prosperous towns of Bulacan. And today, a fortress witnessing the world’s worst pandemic yet
For many everyday commuters in pre-COVID-19 Baliuag, a big bahay na bato across the main terminal of its eponymous bus company on Gil Carlos Street in the barangay of Poblacion in this town in Bulacan is an ordinary sight. But behind the noticeable damages the house incurred throughout its existence and the visual clutter brought about by businesses renting its first-floor spaces is a heritage that dates back to the 19th century in Spanish colonial Philippines.
Owned by the Rustia family, whose relative co-founded the famed Rustan’s Department Store in the 1950s, the house was most likely constructed in the second half of the 19th century. It is one of very few extant Spanish-era houses in Bulacan, just north of Manila.
Other notable houses of that period that still exist to this day include the Gonzales House, which became the town’s municipio in the early 20th century to the 1970s, and the Carlos House in the adjacent barangay of Tibag.
The Gonzales House was declared an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum of the Philippines in 2015 while a petition for the declaration of the Rustia House is pending with the same cultural agency since 2013.
Aside from being architecturally important, this house is also historically significant as it was owned by the father of Don Emilio Rustia, a Baliuag ilustrado. His son, Emilio, was the municipal
mayor from 1922 to 1925 and Bulacan provincial governor from 1941 to 1943.
Guardian dogs
As with other bahay na bato- type structures of that period, this house, owned by one of Baliuag’s land- owning elite, is what anthropologist Fernando Zialcita said should be aptly called bahay na bato at kahoy — a first story made of cut stone and the second floor of wood.
The Rustia House has a media agua, big second-floor windows with shutters using latticework frames made from capiz shells, wooden barandillas or balusters on the ventanillas and a high-hip tisa (clay tile)
roof.
A section of the roof still has the tisa
roofing while most of it has long been replaced with galvanized iron.
It has an extended corridor or flying wooden gallery in a side fronting Gil Carlos Street which is supported by pillars of adobe and an azotea at the back which was later converted into a room.
The second level is divided into four spacious living rooms. Its restroom, also of stone and wood, is connected by a walkway behind the house.
The zaguan has the images of the Santo Intierro and Mater Dolorosa which are used during the famed Holy Week processions of the town.
One of the house’s interesting features is the cast cement sculptures of two guardian dogs by a side portal. Another one nearby came from the family’s
house in the town’s Piel village.
These sculptures, noticeable from the high stone gate and akin to the guardian lions in Chinese culture, were most likely installed in the 1920s.
Geometric style
bahay na bato the late 19th centuries and is characterized by minimal surface decorations such as “shells in squares and diamonds on the window panels and friezes with simple, neoclassical motifs.”
In fact, simpler designs adorn the portal of the house — Ionic columns flanking it decorated with a festoon and two different types of flowers.
The bahay na bato of the 19th century to the early 20th century, notes Zialcita, “marks a high point in the development of a truly urban Filipino style (which) took note of both earthquakes and climatic conditions and was thus eminently secure and comfortable.”
He added that the “beauty of many a house from that
period
resides in its proportions and its balancing of empty with filled space,” characteristics that the Rustia House possesses.
Survivor
Worthy of being preserved and even declared an important property, this house is a treasure — a silent witness to the development of one of the historically prosperous towns of Bulacan and today, a fortress witnessing the world’s worst pandemic yet.
It survived the test of time and brushed off the recent typhoon which passed by the area and caused damage to properties.
In a town that fast losing its cultural identity due to commercialization and neglect, the protection and preservation of this house and all other remaining heritage structures should be put forth.
Baliuag has considerably lost its heritage houses through demolitions in the past but hope remains.
Preserving heritage is instilling pride, holding on and giving importance to a place’s identity. As one saying goes, “Ang bayang walang pagpapahalaga sa kultura ay parang taong walang kaluluwa (A town that doesn’t value culture is like a person without a soul).”
THE Rustia House, a bahay na bato, in Baliuag, Bulacan.