Fire razes Palanca-bantug ancestral home in Victorias
VICTORIAS CITY - The iconic ancestral house of the Palanca and Bantug families, the previous residence of former Victorias City mayor Remedios Bantug, was razed by fire at around 1 a.m. Sunday at Osmeña Avenue in Barangay 1 here.
Arson investigator Fire Officer I Stephen Pedrajas said the house was made of light materials where the fire developed in the room of Jun Bantug, according to caretaker and security guard Neil Cartagena.
The caretaker told the arson investigator that when he smelled something bad, he checked on the rooms and he found the fire was already spreading fast in the room. He hurriedly ran to get the fire extinguisher but he was not able to contain it.
He immediately called up Bureau of Fire Protection for assistance.
The fire was uncontrollable and it destroyed the house including valuable paintings of Manansala and other famed artists, the statue of Lady Veronica, one of their patron Saints, documents, memorabilia, among others, Pedrajas said.
They are still investigating the exact time of the fire as they were in Cadiz City when they received the fire call in Victorias.
They have responded to a fire incident in Cadiz City.
The firetrucks of Silay City, E.B. Magalona, Victorias Milling Company Fire Brigade, the Victorias City Risk Reduction Management fire truck have first responded to the fire incident.
The land area is around 900 square meters.
The fire was contained at around 2:08 a.m.
“But we arrived at 2:30 a.m. We hurriedly travelled back to Victorias from Cadiz City. We have cordoned the area as it was necessary for the investigation. We cannot yet divulge the cause of the fire until we finish the investigation,” Pedrajas said.
They have checked the area and burned documents were seen in the area, paintings that were very valuable to the family and antique belongings, he said.
Victorias City Mayor Francis Frederick Palanca said the incident was really a loss to the family.
The Palanca-bantug siblings lived there before and the memories of the family were shared there.
They gathered there every Christmas, summer, fiesta, the birthday of Lola Remedios, All Souls and All Saints Day, they held some consequential meetings there, the mayor said. “Since we were small, we stayed there. There were 12 Palancabantug siblings and had so many children and grandchildren. All the memories were spent there.”
There were seven rooms in the said house.
It was a house that everybody in the family felt dear to, the mayor added.
“I feel so bad. I saw Manong Rey Bantug and Manang Cynthia who also felt bad about the incident. We lost a lot of things but the memories were very valuable to us. There were Manansala paintings (collections), also the statue of Lady Veronica where every Holy Week, the family includes the statue in the yearly procession,” he said.
“The house has many memories, many jokes were exchanged there, we have so many bonding as a family. There were many Philippine presidents, senators, and politicians who came there before. A lot of Victoriahanons also go there because the former mayor Remedios Bantug was a person who was synonymous to help,” he said.
He said he woke up about 3 a.m. and saw many missed calls on his phone. “I saw the incident in the social media and immediately went there and the house was destroyed.”
He said he wants this matter to be investigated.
The city has three serviceable fire trucks. But they responded to the fire call in Cadiz. There was also a firetruck assigned in the CDRRM office, but the driver went to Bacolod to send off a patient.
Moreover, the family planned before they will make the ancestral house as a museum.*