MACABEBE, Pampanga—Ancestors of the Zobel de Ayalas, owner of the country’s largest and oldest conglomerate, operated in the middle of the 19th century two alcohol and liquor plants here, Supreme Court (SC) documents and studies of Pampanga-based historians showed.
Margarita Roxas de Ayala was then 28 years old when she took over the management of the Destilería de Ayala, a subsidiary of the Ayala y Compañia. The Destilería established in 1860 alcohol and liquor plants in barangays San Esteban and Consuelo in this town, said historian and professor Charlene P. Manese, holder of a Master in Archaeology and Heritage at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain, and founding member of Pampanga’s Katipunan da ring Talasakiksik at Talaturung Kapampangan (Katatagan) Inc.
Ayala y Compañia acquired 4,000 hectares of nipa palm lands in Pampanga in the second half of the 19th century. The land eventually became the source of raw materials for liquor making to the Destilería de Ayala, Manese said in a lecture pushed by Macabebe Mayor Annette Flores-Balgan and Municipal Tourism Officer Catherine Flores to highlight the celebration of the town’s 441st founding anniversary last month.
Francis Musni, historian, museum curator and university professor, said Margarita, who died at age 54 in 1869, “was a direct ancestor of the founders of the vast Ayala estate.”
Manese showed a photo (sketch) of Margarita reportedly coming from the Ayala y Compañia, what is now known as Ayala Corp., which operates Bank of the Philippine Islands, Ayala Land Inc., Globe Telecom, Manila Water Co. Inc. and AC Energy Holdings Inc., and other prominent companies.
Ayala’s original company was founded in 1834 with the formation of a distillery owned by Casa Róxas, a partnership between Domingo Róxas and Antonio de Ayala, Musni said. The distillery was the maker of Ginebra San Miguel, which was later acquired by La Tondeña Inc. in 1929, he said.
The BusinessMirror recently visited San Esteban and its barangay captain, Jefferson Suing, who showed the cemented area along the river where boats used to dock. The boats were ferrying visitors, officials and workers of the old plant.
Suing said their village “is still fondly called ‘Alakan’ by Macabebe residents.” The Capampangan word alakan means a place where liquor is plenty or manufactured.
He and barangay security official Alexander Manansala also showed remains of “what looks like swimming pools where alcohol and liquor were stored before being shifted or treated.” There were cemented portions of pools still standing.
Suing said the former alcohol and liquor plant now holds fishponds operated by businessmen from Bulacan.
Councilor Taburung Yabut, a friend of Suing who frequents San Esteban, said in jest: “No wonder a favorite pastime of the people of Macabebe is drinking.
“I asked my lola and other old folk living far from San Esteban. They all said they knew about the liquor making in Alakan,” he said.
“Macabebe hosts one of the biggest number of Spanish creoles and European residents in the province. As a matter of fact, at the end of the Filipino-Spanish War in 1898, the governor general sent his family to Macabebe for refuge. In one account, the retreating forces of General Monet had in their possession copious amounts of wine and liquor stored in the convent in Macabebe and in some of the houses of the residents,” said Musni, whose roots are from San Esteban.
Balgan is reviving the historical area of San Esteban to promote the culture and heritage of the coastal town, Flores said.
The Ayalas reportedly sold a huge portion of the estate in Macabebe due to disputes and long court battles with local residents and businessmen.
“The San Esteban estate was becoming a headache for the Ayalas because of the cases and disputes they were facing,” said Musni, who gave a copy of a SC ruling penned on December 4, 1967 (GR L-15829) to firmly establish the early presence of the Ayala business empire in Pampanga.
“The Zobel family of Spain formerly owned vast tracts of marshland in the municipality of Macabebe, Pampanga province. Called Hacienda San Esteban, it was administered and managed by the Ayala y Cia. From the year 1860 to about the year 1924, Ayala y Cia. devoted the hacienda to the planting and cultivation of nipa palms from which it gathered nipa sap or tuba. It operated a distillery plant in barrio San Esteban to turn nipa tuba into potable alcohol, which was, in turn, manufactured into liquor,” said the background in the case.
“Accessibility through the nipa palms deep into the hacienda posed a problem. Ayala y Cia. dug canals leading toward the hacienda’s interior where most of them interlinked with each other. The canals facilitated the gathering of tuba and the guarding and patrolling of the hacienda by security guards called arundines. By the gradual process of erosion, these canals acquired the characteristics and dimensions of rivers,” it said.
“In 1924 Ayala y Cia. shifted from the business of alcohol production to bangus culture. It converted Hacienda San Esteban from a forest of nipa groves to a web of fishponds. To do so, it cut down the nipa palms, constructed dikes and closed the canals crisscrossing the hacienda. Sometime in 1925 or 1926, Ayala y Cia. sold a portion of Hacienda San Esteban to Roman Santos, who also transformed the swampland into a fishpond. In so doing, he closed and built dikes across Sapang Malauling Maragul, Quiñorang Silab, Pepangebunan, Bulacus, Nigui and Nasi,” it said. “The closing of the man-made canals in Hacienda San Esteban drew complaints from residents of the surrounding communities. Claiming that the closing of the canals caused floods during the rainy season, and that it deprived them of their means of transportation and fishing grounds, said residents demanded reopening of those canals.”
Image credits: Joey Pavia