MINIATURES

  The Immaculate Conception Cathedral at Pasig For this year's visita iglesia bike rides, we decided to undertake a cultural mapping of the twelve early visitas (chapels) mentioned by Fray Gaspar de San Agustin in his work Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas 1565-1615 . The document states: "Not far from one of the mouths where this bay drains is the town of Pasig, about three leagues from the city of Manila, upstream, a convent is dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It has a voice and vote in the Chapters. It is a very large poblacion and is divided into twelve visitas: San Nicholas, Pinagbuhatan, Polo (San Miguel), Palatiu, Meybunga, Sagad, Angono, Bamban, Malinao, Tipas, Mandarala, and Botin (Buting)." It has been quite a revelation to learn that the history and uniqueness of two or three of these visitas are not well known, even to the communities where they stand. Naturally, what we are tracing are not the original structures, as they no longer exist...

Professor Marre In my ongoing research into the double murder case and subsequent trial of Juan Luna in Paris, I encountered one of the defense witnesses, Eugène Aristide Marre, a distinguished French linguist and expert in Malay and Malagasy languages. Marre served as a professor at the École des langues orientales vivantes and was a member of the Société Asiatique de Paris. He earned prominence through his translations of medieval Arabic mathematical treatises, including Khélasat al Hisáb (The Essence of Calculation) by Behâ-eddin Mohammed ben al-Hosaïn al-Aamouli, written in 1846 and published in 1864, and Talkhīṣ ʿamal al-ḥisāb (The Summary of Arithmetic Operations) by Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi, published in 1865. In addition to his academic contributions, Marre served as a primary school inspector in Brittany and, as an officer of public education, authored numerous works on Arabic and Indian mathematics. His scholarly interests extended beyond mathematics to Oriental poet...

Heavy Rainfall In the first week of July 1896, a storm lingered to the north of the Philippines. It originated in the Marianas and moved toward the Philippine Sea, drifting northward in the general direction of the Ilocos Region. This provided compelling evidence for the Katipunan narratives that, in the weeks or even months leading up to the Philippine Revolution of 1896, the rains were uncommonly heavy. A tropical depression was recorded as early as May, and it was said that a Katipunan meeting in Pasig took place during a downpour that same month. According to an article in a Spanish newspaper, the Lieutenant of the Guardia Civil in Pasig had noticed unusual gatherings of men late at night in the towns of Mandaluyong , San Juan and Pasig. However, on July 5, 1896, the date in question, intense rainfall across Luzon, driven by the southwest monsoon ( Habagat ), hindered the lieutenant's ability to conduct follow-up investigations or intelligence work due to the severe weather. An...