Monday, May 4, 2015

Ateca or Atea, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain Connection



I tried writing to a ‘community site’ on Facebook called “Ateca. La Agenda del Pueblo.” It was a long shot but nevertheless, I tried to connect with the Administrator at least who may be able to point me to more significant details pertaining to Fray Pedro Garcia dela Virgen delos Martires, the patriarch of the Atega clan in Mindanao.

SeƱor Pablo Blasco, the web manager, kindly responded to the private message (PM) and our exchange ran as follows:

My PM on April 19, 2015 (8:16pm):

I am from the Philippines. I have an ancestor named Fray Pedro Garcia dela Virgen delos Martires, a priest and naturalist sent by the government of Spain to the Philippines in the 1800s. I hope you can help me find my roots as the record of the Recollects show that Fray Pedro Garcia was from Ateca, Zaragosa, Spain.

Any information will be very much appreciated. My email is cel_12002@yahoo.com.

Thank you and God bless you.

Celerina Asuncion Atega Rosales-Amores

I got a response the following day at 1:01 am.

Hi Cel. I’ll work to help you. I’ll tell you.

I wrote back on April 20, 6:46am.

Muchas gracias.

His PM on April 21, 7:55pm:

Well, I’ve been doing some research and it seems that you have contacted me by mistake. Fray Pedro Garcia dela Virgen delos Martires, must have been born in ATEA, coincidentally ATECA near to town, and devotees of Our Lady of Martyrs.



I hope I helped you. Espero haberte ayudado a ti.

Pablo Blasco. Manager page

I responded on April 21, 9:04pm with “Thank you very much. You have given me a very good lead in my research.”

So, from time to time I check on Atea and Ateca online and hope that someday soon, I hit something significant. Yes, research is such fun, especially when along the way, you discover and rediscover not only other people or family, but yourself.



Mini-Reunion in April 2015


 Mama Virgie joined her cousins in a mini- reunion of the Atega clan in Butuan in April (will get exact date first) 2015. She said they had a good time and promised each other that they would meet at least once a year to catch up.

Note that Mama is in her early eighties, so I surmise that her cousins must be around 5 years older or younger than her. The rest of them are either in God's loving embrace, or at the brink of being summoned by St. Peter, or in retirement haven, looking forward to gatherings like this or ballroom dancing and Church activities to while away their time.

There was dancing, food and of course a lot of stories on the table. And the old folks, to include the not-so-old ones like the Mayor of Butuan himself, Dr. Ferdinand Atega Amante, Jr., had a good time. Laughter and remembrance highlighted the occasion.

The organizer of the reunion was 99-year old Juana Atega Montilla of Butuan. I still have to look her up in the family tree, though. Mama calls her Mana Juana. And she is among the old ones who knew my great grandfather, Juan Atega and Lolo Belo.

Among the things that Mana Juana pointed out was one of the details that I wrote in my blog about the historical account in the book of Greg Hontiveros. Hontiveros wrote that some priests, who were then taken ‘prisoners’ during the upheaval led by General Aguinaldo, stopped by the house of Juan Atega before they proceeded to Surigao where they would be detained for a time. 

Mana Juana said that Juan Atega’s house must have been prominent for it to be a halfway house for the friars who were highly regarded in their community. She wondered where this house could be.

Mama also promised to jot down notes on things she remembers from things past --something I have requested her to do long, long ago. Hope she can give me more details of how she and her sister Ansel took care of their Lolo Juan in his twilight years and how they looked at him helplessly as he rattled off instructions in Spanish, a language they never bothered to learn.

As Juan Atega was Juez dela Primera Istancia, he wrote his dispositions in Spanish. Maybe he learned the language formally or he was just forced by the situation to learn the same.


There is so much to uncover from my interesting family line. I hope that we can unearth more and know more about each other so that the succeeding generations do not have to search as much.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Law of Marriage in the Philippines

Note: This is a repost from the Philippine-Austrian homepage. It should help us understand the situation back during the time when Juan Atega was Juez dela Paz.

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When the Americans took over the Philippines from the Spaniards, they had to consider the law of marriage. Should the law be changed or not? The following notes are from the Report of the Philippine Commission to the President. Vol. I. 1901, pp. 138- 141.
The Law of Marriage
The question of the validity of marriages performed by other persons than the parish priests has been much discussed in the Philippines. There have been mayn marriages of American citizens between themselves and of Americans to Spanish and Filipino women. The subject is if vast importance, involving, as it does, the legitimacy of issue and the validity of marriage. The law of marriage in the Philippines is a canonical law and nothing else. When a man wishes to get married he goes to the parish priest and the parish priest examines the woman and finds out whether she wishes to marry the man and what her race is - whether Spanish, Mestizo, Chinese, or any other - and then ascertains whether the fathers of both parties are willing that the marriage should be solemnized. The law which is in force in Spain and also in the Philippines in regard to marriages of natives, Spaniards, and Spanish half- castes, is that they can not marry without the consent of their parents or family unless they are 23 years of age; but this is not true in the case of Chinese Mestizos, who can marry at the age of 16 without the family's consent. This applies to both sexes. This privilege of the Mestizo Chinese, which was granted by the Pope had this object in view: The increase of this race, which is the race considered to be the most industrious. The priest then finds out if there is any impediment to the marriage and if he finds none he calls the banns openly in the church for three Sundays, and if no one makes any objection to the marriage the contractants are allowed to marry on the day following the third Sunday.
On the day for the wedding they take two witnesses, a man and a woman, who go to the church with them, and the priest reads a portion of the Scriptures and makes a short address, giving advice, and inquires of the witnesses if there is any objection to the marriage, and if there is none the ceremony is performed. The ceremony is usually performed just before mass, and the groom pays the fee both for the marriage and the masswhich follows. This money all goes to the church and not to the state. There is no license required. The state does not intervene in the matter at all. The marriage is purely under canonical law. An entry is then made by the parish priest or his deputy in the parish register and signed by the witnesses, and whenever a copy is taken from it such copy is an official document. There is no civil marriage in addition to the canonical marriage.
In 1889 the Civil code was published in the Philippines, and the people immediately began, after having been married in the church, to have a civil marriage performed. This did not please the clergy, and they used influence with the Colonial Minister and had him suspend the operation of the civil law in the Philippines. The civil law provided for two marriages, one in the church and one before a justice of the peace, but the marriage before the justice of the peace was not a true civil marriage, it was nothing more than a registration in the presence of a judge.
If the Spanish law is to be adopted the law of 1869 should be retained. That is a law of liberty in religion with refernce to marriage, and under that law marriages could be performed without inconvenience to any believers in the different creeds or religious sects which prevail in the Philippines. It is understood now that the parish priests will not marry anyone except Catholics.Protestants would have to be married by a Protestant clergyman. As the civil code is not in force ther is no existing law under which a Protestant clergyman can perform the ceremony of marriage. There is no legal mode by which Protestants can enter into the marriage relation. We inquired whether if a man took a woman and lived with her as his wife, had children by her, introduced her into society as his wife for a number of years publicly, the courts would hold that such circumstances made her a lawful wife. We were told that society might accept such a woman as a lawful wife, but in case any question arose in the courts they would not consider her to be his wife unless she could produce a copy of the parish register as above stated, and she would not have any civil rights regarding the property of the man with whom she had lived. It is therefore a matter of great urgency that regulations should be put in force by the military authorities, if they have the legal right to do so, which is not doubted, providing for the performance of the ceremony of marriage. In the United States generally marriage may be performed by every justice of the peace, every judge of a court, and every minister of the gospel of any church. a license must first be procured from the county clerk.
The witnesses before us were asked what system they recommended for the Philippines. One of the most intelligent of them stated that it was his opinion that there should be practically established in the Philippines the law of 1869, prepared by Montero Rios. the reasons given for his preference for this law was that it treats all regions alike and does not give special privileges to the members of any church. By its terms persons who wish to be married shall give notice to the municipal judge of the district where they have their domicile. If both the contracting parties live in the same district they shall apply to the judge of that district, but if they live in two different districts they may apply to the judge of either district. This notice shall be given to the judge in writing in case both parties are able to write, and if not it may be signed by some other person. The judge then interrogates both parties in regard to this written notice which has been given, and if they both justify the written notice he shall publicely post on the doors of the court a notice of their marriage, which shall contain a clause asking all who know of any impediment to their marriage to bring it forward. This notice shall be put up twice for a term of eight days, in all sixteen days. If one of the contracting parties lives in another town or another province a copy of this notice shall be posted on the door of the court-house of the said town or province. If the contracting parties are foreigners or have not lived two years in the country they shall produce a certificate from the authorities of their own country showing that they are both single. In case one of the contracting parties is at the point of death these certificates shall not be necessary, but the marriage may take place at once without the necessary publication. In case of military men the certifications of the chief of the body to which they belong shall be sufficient. In case anyone raises objection to the marriage of either party for any cause whatever the person so raising the objection shall present a complaint, and this complaint shall be brought before the Promoter Fiscal of the court. The marriages shall be performed by the justice of the peace in the presence of two witnesses.
The justice of the peace or the municipal judge shall not perform the ceremony of marriage while any opposition to the marriage is pending. the ceremony shall not be performedd until the objection is investigated and either allowed or disallowed. The contradicting parties shall produce certificates of birth, and shall also, at the time of the marriage ceremony, produce certificates that no objection has been made to their marriage; and if they be minors they must also produce certificates of their fathers and mothers giving consent to the marriage. In case of orphans they must produce documents from their guardians or from their families cdertifying that they give consent to the marriage. If the notices of marriage are posted in the towns where the contradicting parties live, or in two separate towns, and six months pass without the marriage having taken place, the marriage shall not take place without a notice of marriage being posted for another sixteen days.
This law was never put into operation in the Philippines.
The process in force as the application of laws passed in Spain to the Philippines has been described to us as follows: The laws coming from Spain were some of them decrees passed in conjunction with the cabinet; others were laws dictated by the congress and the senate in Spain. When a law was passed in either of these ways the Colonial Minster ogt out a royal order, which he sent to the Governor-General at Manila with instructions to apply it to the Philippines. The Governor-General having received the law, if he saw fit, issued an order for its immediately taking effect, but if for any reason whatever he did not see fit put the law in force he wrote across the bottom that it should be published but should not be put in force, and it was then put in archives: and afterwards he sent a report and gave his reasons for not putting the law in force at once to the Colonial Minster.
It usually happened that when the Governor-General objected to putting the law in force nothing more was done with it. It so happened with regard to the law of 1889, and the parish priests continued to perform exclusively the marriage services. The action of the Governor-General in this particular case was taken at the instigation of the clergy. This inference of the clergy with the conduct of the Government was common.
The same course of action was taken with regard to the Penal Code, whis was suspended so far as it related to crimes committed by ecclesiastics. The question was referred to Madrid and the inquiry was made whether or not the Penal Code did apply to crimes committed by ecclesiastics, and up to the present time the question has never been answered.
It is perhaps unnecessary for us to express preference for any partiucular law regulating marriage. The law of Spain, of which we have given an outline, would suit the condition, habits, and customs of the Filipinos. Possibly, however, the ordinary marriage laws which prevail in most of our States would accomplish every desired purpose. It is understood that by an order of the military governor, issued at Manila in December, 1899, the text of which has not yet reached the Commission, suitable measures have been adopted.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Anselma "Ansel" Atega-Ruiz, the Lead Angel

In the quaint town of Calape, Bohol, six sisters used to be known as Dolfo's Angels. This fond tag was inspired by the hit TV series, Charlie's Angels, about young, sexy and intelligent women who led secret lives as agents and crusaders for a man they worked for, admired and only talked to but have never met.

They were Melou, Cheche, Tetess, Ann-ann, Tata and Bebeth, the six daughters Adolfo Yap Ruiz, who married Anselma Atega, my Mama's sister.

Dolfo was of Chinese roots, and born to a pretty, petite mestiza, Paz Yap Ruiz.

Among my cousins, I am particularly close to the Atega- Ruizes because we were in the same age bracket. That is why I remember that I waited for summer breaks excitedly because then, they will be visiting from Bohol and we would surely have fun together, whether it is in Cabadbaran where Lolo Belo and Lola Tering lived, or in Butuan, where I lived with my own family.

My Ruiz cousins were quite popular in their place, especially during their high school to college years in the 1980's to the early 1990's when their house would be a favorite look-see especially for young men who were brave enough not only to admire them from a distance, but pay them a visit. And they did have not just a few admirers especially in Cabadbaran where we would go like a pack and people called us 'mga apo ni Belo.'

But before the Dolfo's Angels came to be, there was the original lead angel in Dolfo's realm--Anselma Atega.

She was named after Anselma Duro, her father Belo's mother, the first wife of Juan Atega. Not much is known about her grandmother as she died relatively young. Lola Imay, as they called her, was from Maug, Butuan City.

Ansel, as she is called, was the middle child, and the youngest of the 3 Atega girls of Belo and Tering Atega, the two others were Alice (+) and Virgie.

She was one who was relatively shielded from the realities of the war period because she had been a frail child.

A teacher by profession, she is a beauty consultant at heart. Ansel never compromised on things that some women would take for granted-- putting on moisturizers, sunblocks, and what have you, even when she is dead-tired or busy.  And how she looks now is enough evidence of her efforts to look physically flawless.

Ansel is now in her late 70's but she can pass for someone younger than her age-- the trials and triumphs of her life perhaps only reflected in her eyes when she talks of things past and of people she loves.

(to be continued)


Monday, April 6, 2015

Virginia "Virgie" Atega Rosales, Everyone's Big Sister

Virgie is the second child of Belo and Tering Atega. The beautiful and kind Alicia, the eldest child, died of complications from tetanus when she was 12. From that time on, Virgie assumed the role of big sister in the family.

Fondly called 'Inse' by siblings Ansel, Egoy and Oscar, she is also 'Inse' to her cousins from the Gancino-Chan and Gancino-Ortiz and Gancino-Pagaran side whose mothers were sisters of her mother, Tering. Her younger Atega cousins call her "Manang" or "Nang."

Yes, Virginia is her full but she discovered that her real name is Berlin, a name registered by her Tio Pinsoy, either in Church or at the Civil Registry.

This came about as she was preparing to leave for the United States after retiring as grade school teacher and she had to authenticate her travel documents.

Virgie has always been protective of her brood. As a young girl, she would make sure that the perpetually hungry Egoy ate his fill, even when there was not much food to go around during the war. Virgie recalls an instance when Egoy was crying while they were trying to escape from Japanese soldiers who were after the Ategas, she had to dunk her brother's head inside a rice pot so that his mouth was stuffed with boiled rice and he made no sound.

As Ansel was an asthmatic as a child, Virgie would be the one to help her mother with all household chores, so much so that they are very much alike when it comes to standards of cleanliness in the house.

Virgie was a healthy girl with a ready smile. As peace time came after the Japanese occupation, she was often asked to do errands, not only because she was of nimble feet and easily got to where she was told to go, she also had this likeable air about her that even the otherwise fearsome Japanese soldiers were somehow taken by her chubby-cheeked charm.

Because she was her mother's favorite errand girl, especially after Alice died, a neighbor mistook her to be a hired hand in the household. She thought that perhaps, because her sister Ansel was mestiza-looking and she was a sickly child who can barely help out, they don't see her moving about with chores as much as she does. She somehow harbored some remorse over the fact that she did most of the work for her younger siblings but later on understood that the times called for it.

Virgie went to Silliman University in Dumaguete City to take up Nursing but was soon advised to shift courses when her vision failed the required 20/20. Silliman was where most of the Atega children studied. She was with her cousin Edel Atega Amante that time and he later on finished Law there. She and Edel shared many secrets, especially about the latter's love affair with the lovely daughter of the Montalbans. Edel was also her so-called romantic bridge to Polon, his a cockpit buddy, who was to become her husband.

Virgie recalls her Uncle Anoy (Mariano Atega) encouraging them to finish school. Her own father was not a model in that area, having been known to run away from home when 'forced' to go to school. Belo, as he himself confirmed, thought it better to hie off to the forests with his Tio Andres than go to school. There was even an instance when his father Juan, then a Judge, sent police to catch the wayward Belo, to put him back to class. But he was never caught, he proudly said, as he had even risked his life once and jumped towards a boat as it was moving away from the dock just to evade the policemen who were chasing him.

Virgie eventually left Silliman to go to the University of San Carlos in Cebu where she graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Education.

Dumalagan was her first teaching assignment. From Butuan proper, it was an obstacle course getting to the area in the late 50's to the early 60's when public transportation was very scarce. She took what we now call the 'habal-habal' to get to the school where she taught.

Later on, she would be transferred to Bading Elementary School in Barrio Obrero where she spent most of her teaching years up to the time she retired.

(to be continued)

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Of old photographers, photographs and memories

(This is my contribution to an up and coming blogsite from Gleaner Alumni which will be launched before the 2015 Butuan Fiesta.)

I regret not even remembering their names or getting to know them more as I would a teacher, friend, neighbor or family but these self-effacing storycatchers played an important role in our lives. My parents would talk to them like old friends, as they discussed why a photograph or two had to be taken.

For family pictures, we would be introduced one by one to the photographer,  our ‘ranking’ in the family thoughtfully explained. The photographer then would do the blocking as to who goes to the left, right, center, stay at the back or take to the floor in a pose. Like a maestro or director, we followed his lead as he bade us to smile and look at the camera.

Through pictures, photographers helped us tell stories in our community. They would be among the few who got invited to occasions that mattered and had the rare chance to be near ‘places of honor’ in public events.

At a time when selfies and groupies were not among the sub-cultures of the young, photographers or ‘kodakers’ as an aunt jokingly referred to them, were part of our personal milestones, be they weddings, funerals, anniversaries, graduations, reunions, and other gatherings.

Old photographs make us recall and perhaps understand not only people and happenings of the past, but also help us reach out to an individually unique memory or feeling captured at that precise moment when the camera froze an experience, emotion or discovery in picture form.

One of my favorite photographs done in old Kodak fashion was of my paternal grandmother, Asuncion “Ating” Calo Sanchez vda. De Rosales. She married a Montilla before my grandfather, Pio Bokingo Rosales with whom she had four children, namely Sesenio, Josefa, Modesto and lastly, Apolonio, my father. She had two daughters from her previous marriage. Her bloodline can be traced further back to the Villanueva-Sanchez clan.

Lola Ating always wore her Filipiniana finest, that is, baro’t saya complete with accessories from paeneta to pamaypay when she heard mass. She would always make her way through the center aisle to seat herself in the front pew of the St. Joseph Cathdedral  -- a place directly in front of the altar that she had summarily marked as her own. She did this every time she went to Church. During times when the rites had already started and somebody else had occupied her marked seat, she always found a way to ‘claim her place’. Fortunately, as far as I can remember, nobody among those whom she squeezed out of “her Church seat” took offense, probably in deference to an octogenarian, one who was oddly garbed in traditional regalia in an ordinary Sunday. In the meantime, you can bet that we, her escorts, can only bow our heads as we pleaded for understanding.

I had suggested to my single-minded grandmother then that maybe, it would be best to simply pass by the side whenever we entered the Church but  she would just censure me with a piercing look.  I did this every time the situation calls for it.  And she gave me the same look with a little scolding after mass every time.

Lola Ating always had that place of honor at the center when our family pictures were taken. More often than not, we took the flying geese ‘V’ position with Lola as the lead goose. 

She never smiled for the cameras, by the way. So that she always had this serious, sullen look even during happy occasions. Even the painting that was done of her, which unfortunately got lost during one of the floods in Butuan, was beautiful yet unsmiling. So I thought that maybe, that was the picture-taking norm she kept in her generation. Because when my Lola Ating smiled, she had the sweetest look that lighted up her extraordinarily deep-set dark grey eyes.

There was also this set  of photographs of my siblings with our Atega- Ruiz cousins from Bohol together with  our maternal grandmother Teresa “Tering” Gancino Atega that I really like. A roving photographer at the old Butuan Plaza took them sometime during the 70’s when most of us were just in grade school and the eldest siblings, Kuya Nestor and Ate Melou, were in high school.

These pictures never fail to give us a good laugh. They get posted, cropped or in full,  intermittently in our individual Facebook accounts during Throwback Thursdays, Flashback Fridays or during birthdays and special occasions when we tag and greet each other in the spirit of fun.

In fact, we have creatively made groupings and fond monikers as follows (1) whose legs were crossed ala Lola Tering -- “X-Women”, (2) whose eyes were biggest and brightest during the shoot – “Flashlights”, (3) who had the fullest lips –“Busngi”, (4) whose legs were set apart with abandon – “Tikangkang”, (5) who looked like she was just pinched by her mom, (6) who looked like she just cried, (7) who looked sick,  and other hilarious interpretations we can think up from the pictures. And certainly, when my female cousins and sisters have the chance to look at the pictures together, we would laugh until we tear up and have belly-ache.

Also taken at the Butuan Plaza were pictures of me and my mother—one as we were walking while I was eating probably popcorn, another one with both of us sitting on a concrete park bench—my Mama looking beautiful and proper in her A-line dress and sunglasses and me, looking like a sleepyhead despite my big round eyes. I assume this was after we heard mass from the Cathedral which is situated just across the area.  I must have been about 3-4 years old then, just about the age of my granddaughter now.

In the background of these pictures was old Butuan viewed from the City Plaza – with lamp posts and manicured plant boxes, a water fountain and varied food stalls at the other side of the street.

Well, there are a lot of other photographs in my family’s keeping—some in fading black and white or sepia print outs, newer ones in color and some in digital form—each of them saying a thousand and one words, each one representing memories to last beyond one's lifetime.


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Thursday, April 2, 2015

On the trail with numbers, dates and stories


Part of the work that I do involves investigative reporting. In my line of work, numbers, dates and stories provide rich trails of information that can lead to conclusions of different kinds.

Taken collectively, they can be the highway towards the most coveted truth. Because in more ways than one, truth-seeking can be a very arduous process especially when you are trying to dig data and memories that date more than a hundred years back.

That is why I have much admiration for historians like Greg Hontiveros of Butuan and my own sister- in- law Dr. Ikin Amores, an Oxford socio-anthropologist, who have made the study of history and culture their life’s work.

As for this little personal research project commissioned by my mother, I have started plotting relevant dates and numbers which may have a bearing on the identity of our Juan Atega. Alongside these figures are questions which I hope can be answered through personal inquiries and even more research.

Some of the hypotheses here actually open the discussion on the Juan Atega lineage and may lead to knowing why his name does not figure much in Atega genealogy.

*  Padre Pedro Garcia de la Virgen delos Martires was born on September 1, 1840 in Ateca, Zaragosa, Spain. He joined the Recollects in June 3, 1860 when he was just 20 years old. He was sent to Butuan four years later in 1864.  He died in Cebu on December 1883 at age 43.

Padre Garcia converted entire tribes of Manobos in the hinterlands of Tungao and Antongalon. He was said to own vast tracts of land from Cabadbaran to Carmen in Agusan del Norte.  He must have done so by ‘marrying’ into big, landed native families and siring children from their daughters.

Acknowledged as a naturalist by Spanish authorities, Padre Garcia had a special interest in Philippine plants which he studied and featured in European fairs.

My Lolo Belo also told me once about the Ategas’ love for nature – such that he would join his Tio Andres when he would commune with ‘supernatural beings’ in the forests and they would be gone for days in any given year. He never saw his Tio's 'friends', he said, but he surely felt their presence.

It is also worth noting that the Ategas are descendants of proud Manobos and maybe other tribes in Agusan, thus, the inherent love for flora, fauna and the seeming obsession to own land as a birthright.

* Padre Garcia was 25 years old when one of his sons, Andres, was born on November 9, 1865. Andres died on February 19, 1937 at 72 years old.

* Juan Atega was Gobernadorcillo in 1898. This must have been the same period when he was Juez de Primera Istancia or Juez dela Paz. We don’t know yet as to what degree or qualification he had to merit the post.

All I remember was my Lolo Belo telling me that his father was a Judge and he also slept with a book for a pillow. This was after he noticed that I made a pillow out of a novel I was reading then. Lolo Belo also told me that the land from the Butuan Post Office up to the Philippine Offset Printing House used to be theirs. But because he was young, he did not know how the property was sold or ceased to be theirs.

* Another significant date is January 6, 1899 which was the Feast of the Three Kings. This was the same date when Juan Atega, on the advise of a Jesuit priest, Fr. Nebot, hoisted the Pontifical flag of the Vatican in lieu of the Philippine flag (of Aguinaldo). That was the time when the Spanish government was leaving Mindanao and a transition government was put in place with Juan Atega as gobernadorcillo and later on Mayor of Butuan.

My mother said that she was told that her Lolo Andres called the three sons of his brotherJuan, the three kings. This somehow connected the memory of the flag hoisting with the fond moniker for the three boys. I know that linking the  moniker with a significant date is a long shot but the urge to do so is just strong when I wrote this blog entry.

*  The first American Governor of Agusan Frederick Johnson married Remalda/Romualda Atega Calo in 1910. Johnson is credited for introducing sanitation and hygiene to  Butuan natives who were reeling from the cholera epidemic that hit Agusan and other parts of the country in 1902. Born in 1872, Johnson died of cancer in September 13, 1913 in his native Denmark. He was only 41.

Why are Johnson and Calo significant in the quest for Juan Atega? It is because Johnson was the first husband of Juan Atega’s second wife, Remalda Calo.  It is of record that Remalda Calo married Juan Atega (after Johnson) but they had no children. No date was given as to when the union was, but of course, the timing of this second marriage of Juan must have been after 1910. I can only surmise that Juan married Remalda around 1913 or at some date when Johnson had already left the Philippines.

Remalda was Juan's first cousin as their mothers were sisters.

*  In the Ategas’ old tradition, an able brother or male relative takes care of  the interests  and members of the clan as necessary.  I am tempted to wax biblical about this but I think that would be pushing it too much. But anyway, such may have been the case of the union between Andres Atega and Juana Noja. When Andres became concerned that the lovely Juana, first cousin of his wife Roberta, was in a relationship with a foreigner, he pursued her relentlessly. (Reference: Moses Atega blog, Taken from the Water). He reportedly did not want the lovely pioneer of the American school system to simply fall into a foreigner’s hands.  Andres Atega actually sired children among sisters (e.g. Ibays and Curatos), just like his father, Padre Garcia did with Josefa and Canuta Azura Atega.

I can only surmise that Juan Atega must have been concerned with Remalda Atega Calo that he also took on the ‘responsibility’. This must be aside from the fact that Remalda must have been an outstanding beauty who caught the eye of the then widowed Juan.  Juan’s first wife, Anselma Duro, had already died, leaving him with three young sons, namely Conrado, Isabelo and Florencio.

Some online accounts from old folks and other Ategas indicate that in one way or another, Juan took care of Remalda’s children by Frederick Johnson.

Ironically, it was supposedly Andres who suggested taking Juan’s boys under his wing (for them to live at the Dakung Balay) for fear that they might not be treated well by their new madrasta.

I also remember my Lolo Belo telling me that his Tio Andres actually had the power to ferret the truth out of people and make women fall in love with him. He only had to be in the same room with a woman and the magic just happens.

* There is an online account that Juan Atega died in 1938. This was a year after Andres died. There are also accounts that Juan Atega died in 1948. This was two years after one of his grandsons, Oscar Atega, the son of Belo, was born. 

If we were to reconstruct the birth of Juan based on Andres’ timeline, he may have been just a little bit younger or older than Andres. Remember that they were born of sisters whose ages should not have been far from each other. So, Juan must have been in his 70’s also when he died. But if Juan Atega died in 1948, then he may have been younger than Andres.

* If  Isabelo Atega was born on April 1901 (or September 1901 as he says), then he must have been around 12 years old when his father, Juan Atega, remarried and left them to the care of his brother, Andres Atega, at the Dakung Balay where they grew up.


I honestly do not know where this trail will lead me but I am comforted by the fact that little by little, Juan Atega is revealing himself through the power of story.