3. Sugarlandia treats
Heritage houses and food tours, all ticked on the list. How about the operating sugar mills? There’s a couple worth the visit.
Did you know that the 1918-established Hawaiian-philippine Company (HPCO) in Silay is the oldest operational sugar central in Negros Occidental? Modern equipment may have replaced the old ones, but there are artifacts functioning to this day: the steam locomotives are used to transport sugar cane from the haciendas and the “Molino de Sangre,” the (carabao-powered) traditional mill used to extract sugarcane juice to make muscovado. Both are still engaged by the Jardinedavis owned company.
In Victorias City is a company said to be the largest sugar producer in the country and one of the largest millers in Asia— the 1919-founded Victorias Milling Corporation (VMC). While sugar is VMC’S gem, there is another treat within the estate that will give the art-loving Catholic one sweet rush— the St. Joseph the Worker Chapel, a masterpiece in modern Philippine art and architecture, and listed as an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum.
Inside the earthquake-proof church, artist Alfonso Ossorio’s mural of an angry Christ is an imposing piece at the altar, thus the chapel’s namesake The Church of the Angry Christ. The artworks’ colors are still as vibrant as it was on the day it was created, thanks to a specially formulated paint —Carbon carbide ethyl silicate No.14. Equally as breathtaking are the mosaics by Belgian artist Bethune using chipped glass, the mural covering the church’s rear wall, which is still in its original form, and religious images carved out of wood. Most noteworthy is that each and every figure in the artworks is “Filipinized.”