Monday, April 24, 2017

44. 9 CRIMES INVOLVING KAPAMPANGANS THAT SHOCKED THE NATION

THE MAGALANG SERIAL-KILLER PRIEST (ca. 1813-1826)
Juan Severino Mallari, was a native priest, possibly of Macabebe who completed his religious studies at the University of Sto. Tomas in 1809. Thereafter, he was assigned as a coadjutor in Gapan, Lubao and Bacolor. The artistically-gifted priest  (he was an excellent calligrapher) was plagued by mental problems,  triggered by stressful episodes—first, by  a series of rejections from parishes he applied for—Orani, Mariveles, Lubao, port of Cavite and second, the strange malady that befell his mother. Thankfully, he was appointed as a cura of Magalang.

What happened next was the stuff of horror movies: over a period of 10 years, a series of unexplained murders took place in  Magalang -- a total of 57 murders! When the killer was finally arrested and identified, it was none other than the psychotic parish priest himself, Fr. Juan Severino Mallari! Spanish authorities hauled him off to Manila to be imprisoned , instead of committing him to a mental institution.

In his defense, Fr. Mallari claimed that he had murdered 57 of his parishioners "because he believed that he could by this means save his mother who, he persuaded himself, had been bewitched". The judge was not convinced. In 1840, after languishing in jail for 14 years, Fr. Mallari was executed by hanging --  the first Filipino priest executed by the Spanish colonial government, pre-dating the execution of the Gomburza priests by 32 years!

THE CASE OF THE SCHOOLGIRL MURDERESS (1929)
In 1929, a gruesome murder committed by a Kapampangan made the front pages of national dailies. It was shocking  enough that the offender was a woman, but worse still that she was but a teen-ager! Sixteen year old Avelina Teodoro, of San Fernando, confessed to the killing of  classmate, Constancia Pineda, also 16 years old, who was found dead from knife wounds in the school grounds of Arayat Elementary School.

During the investigation, police found blood stains on Avelina’s clothing and books.  When confronted, Avelina, at first, denied her role, pointing to Hilario Lugtu as the culprit. Two witnesses however, provided damaging testimonies. The first, Crisanto Reyes, testified that Avelina borrowed his single-edge penknife, which matched the size of the wounds on Constancia’s body. The same knife was later found in Avelina’s possession. Second witness Maximo Bundoc, also saw Avelina and Constancia on the day of the murder. Bundoc heard Avelina convinced  Constancia to go inside the toilet, where her lifeless body would be discovered.

It appeared that Avelina had indeed held a grudge against Constancia—she had been spreading shameful rumors about her, and opening her letters without her permission. This, Avelina confided to one Hilario Lugtu. Avelina alleged that Lugtu told her that “he will take care of Constancia”.

The teen killer was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus P1,000 indemnity to the deceased's heirs, a decision upheld and affirmed by the Supreme Court on 12 August 1930. Thus ended the sad, sorry tale of the young Kapampangan murderess, Avelina Teodoro, who tried to get away with murder, but got a life sentence instead.

THE PASUDECO SHOOTING RAMPAGE (1939)
On 12 July 1939, Pampanga was horrified with the news of the  murder of Pasudeco founder and president  Don Jose Leoncio (Pitong) De Leon, his associate Don Augusto Gonzalez and then provincial inspector Capt. Julian Olivas—all committed in the Pasudeco administrative office by the disgruntled Timbols of Mexico and their cohorts.

Brothers Carmelino and Gregorio Timbol, nephew Dalmacio and bodyguard Geronimo Buan had suddenly come to the Pasudeco office, demanding that De Leon and Gonzalez  sign a document that would give the planters 60% participation instead of the 55% they had at that time. When the two refused to sign, the Timbols drew their guns, and a commotion ensued. Pasudeco accountant Ambrosio Razon who heard the threats, immediately called the authorities.

Dispatched to the scene was the unarmed Capt. Olivas,  who tried to pacify the Timbols. He also warned them that the two Pasudeco bosses were under his protection, but as the constabulary officer headed for the door, the Timbols shot him several times and killed him. A melee ensued.  Buan shot Gonzalez in the chest, while Gregorio fatally shot De Leon while he was trying to run to the bathroom for cover. The Timbols made a quick get away through the window, but Pasudeco guards and employees succeeded in wounding Carmelino before they could escape.

The triple killing of Pampanga’s most affluent and influential businessmen and the provincial commander left the nation in shock. De Leon was an outstanding citizen and Pampanga’s first multi-millionaire industrialist,  while  Gonzalez, also a millionaire, was the brother of Bienvenido Gonzalez, UP President. Capt. Olivas had been cited for his bravery by Pres. Quezon.

Dalmacio Timbol and Geronimo Buan were shortly arrested, while the Timbol brothers surrendered to the police the next day.. On 20 April 1940, the Court of First Instance of Pampanga found Gregorio Timbol, Carmelino Timbol, Geronimo Buan and Dalmacio Timbol  guilty of three counts of murder. All, except Dalmacio were sentenced to death.

THE MALIWALU MASSACRE (1950)
The killings of peasants in Bacolor that has come to be known as the Maliwalu Massacre began with Captain Nonong Serrano,  a Captain of the Philippine Military who was also a commander  of the "Serrano Army", a private army that provided protection to  Jose B. Lingad, governor of Pampanga, right after he was elected in 1947. Tragically, Capt. Serrrano would be murdered by Huks, reportedly from Maliwalu.

Retaliation from the Serrano Army was quick. On Good Friday—7 April 1950—Serrano’s relatives and civilian guards descended upon Maliwalu and took nine farmers who were all executed. The rounding up of peasants suspected to be Huks continued and in all, 21 peasants were reportedly seized and summarily killed. It was former governor Pablo Angeles David who brought to light the bloody Maliwalu Massacre to  national consciousness, in rebuttal to the claim of  Pres. Elpidio Quirino that the Hukbalahap force has been decimated. This event would be a major contributing factor to the re-election bid of Lingad, who was blamed for the massacre. He was soundly  defeated by Rafael Lazatin in the 1951 governorship election. The Maliwalu Massacre ranks among the most prominent examples of state-perpetrated armed violence against  Filipino famers, along with the more recent Mendiola and Hacienda Luisita Massacre.

COSETTE’S  83-DAY KIDNAPPING ORDEAL (1964)
For about 3 suspenseful months, the whole nation was riveted to the news of the kidnapping of 15 year-old Cosette Tanjuaquio. The Maryknoll coed was staying in his uncle’s Loyola Heights’ home when, on 16 November 1964, she was snatched by 4 men where she was spirited away and just disappeared. A Php50,000 reward was put up by her distraught parents, Mr. & Mrs. Calixto Tanjuaquio.

The head of the Criminal Investigation Service (CIS) himself, Col. Benjamin Tolentino handled the Cosette case, which had a break only in 25 January 1966 when a counterfeit ring was uncovered. A member of the syndicate accidentally blurted out details of a “kidnapped girl”. This led to the dramatic rescue of Cosette who was found in a World War II air raid shelter next to a pig pen, on 7 February 1965. The dank, dirty pit, only 4 feet high, was accessible only through a narrow 2 ft. x 2 ft. crevice. It was, ironically, just 4 kilometers away from the Tanjuaquio’s Guagua home.

In 1966, the kidnappers—all Kapampangans-- were tried, proven guilty and sentenced by Judge Placido  Ramos. Orador Pingol and Nomer Jingco, the masterminds, were sentenced to death while followers Armando Morales and Angel David were given life sentences.  The judge recommended that the president commute the death penalty to reclusion perpetua for the reason that Pingol and Jingco never took advantage of the victim’s weakness in all the time Cosette was held captive,  hence they still had the “spark of divinity” that boded well for their rehabilitation.

LUCILA LALU’S  JIGSAW MURDER (1967)
28 year-old Lucila Lalu was a probinsyana from Candaba who, in 1957, went to Manila to try her luck in the big city. In a few years, she had became the common-law wife of policeman Aniano de Vera, and established 2 businesses: Lucy’s House of Beauty, and a nightclub, the Pagoda, in Sta. Cruz. On 28 May 1967, Lalu disappeared and two days later, policemen found her dismembered body in two separate areas—her torso along EDSA near the Guadalupe bridge, and her legs at the corner of Rizal Ave., and Malabon St., Her head was nowhere to be found.

The initial suspects were rounded up: Florante Relos, a waiter at the Pagoda and Lalu’s lover,  Aniano de Vera, the 42 year old estranged partner who was the last person ot see Lalu on May 28,  and Jose Luis Santiano, a dental student boarder at Lalu’s parlor.  Relos was released after finding no evidence against him, and de Vera was identified as the one with the strongest motive to kill Lalu-- he had threatened her and Relos after discovering their affair.

Then shockingly, two weeks after Lalu’s death, Santiano confessed to the crime to investigator Sgt. Ildefonso Labao. He alleged that on May 28, Lalu tried to seduced him. In rejecting her advances, Santiano claimed to have accidentally throttled her to death.  Then, he chopped up her body and disposed the parts, including her still-to-be-found head that he threw in a creek near Sct. Albano Q.C. The sloppy investigators had not bothered to check Santiano’s room because Labao said that “they did not consider it important”.

Two days later, Santiano recanted his confession, and the case was even more muddled when “mystery witness” Dr. Nora L. Ebio came forward to testify that Santiano was coerced by Labao into owning up to the crime. When Santiano’s room was finally checked, the door was found to have been forced open, Found inside were bloodstains on the floor, kitchen knife, razor blade and a woman’s stockings—supposed pieces of evidence that the fiscal found so unconvincing, he had the NBI take over. Today, the Lalu chop-chop murder remains an open case.

THE CRIME AGAINST MAGGIE’S VIRTUE (1967)
Maggie de la Riva was already a rising star of  TV and films, when the most despicable crime was committed against her virtue.  On 26 June 1967, while en route back to her New Manila home from  a TV appearance, she was intercepted by a group of young men and taken to the Swanky Hotel in Pasay City where the helpless 25 year old was tortured, punched and then raped. The perpetrators included  by Basilio Pineda, Jr., Eduardo Aquino, Rogelio Cañal and Jaime Gomez Jose, a combo player and the son of a well-to-do doctor from Pampanga, Dr. Jose Jose.

After the dastardly deed was done, the group dumped de la Riva in front of the Free Press building where a taxi driver took her home. There, the sobbing Maggie told her mother of her rape. It was only a matter of time before the assailants were found.

First to fall was Jose, arrested near his Makati home. All his co-conspirators were captured in succession. Brought to trial, one of the suspects, Pineda said that they “wanted to teach her a lesson” after she allegedly almost hit their car. He then offered  her P1,000 to do a striptease act, to which de la Riva supposedly complied. The court found this story incredulous, and handed out a guilty verdict for the crime of kidnapping with rape. Judge Lourdes San Diego meted out death sentences by electrocution on 2 October 1967.  The accused later appealed, but lost, with the Supreme Court upholding the RTC decision in 1971.

On 17 May 1972, Jose, Pineda Jr. and Aquino were executed in the electric chair in Muntinlupa, despite a last-minute plea for mercy by Jose’s mother in Malacañang. The fourth convict, Cañal, had died of a drug overdose in 1971. Jose, pale and dazed, was the first to die, in the electrocution that was witnessed by his father. His last words were: “Avoid bad companions and obey your parents”. Their deaths provided closure to the tragic De la Riva episode, considered as one of the most sensational cases in post-war Philippines.

MARK DIZON,  SERIAL EXPAT KILLER  (2010)
28-year old computer technician Mark Dizon ranks as one of the most prolific serial killers in the country, with 9 murders attributed to him, three of whom were expats whom he targetted. Dizon befriended  foreign nationals in Angeles City to gain their trust, offering to fix their computers. Once Dizon gained access to their homes, he shot them, stealing their electronic gadgets and equipment, in the process. His victims included Canadian Geoffrey Bennun and girlfriend Abegail Helina (bodies found on July 12), British James Porter and companion Melissa Madarang (found July 16), American Albert Mitchell, his Filipina wife Janet Andrenada, plus their 3 housekeepers. A massive manhunt was launched by the police, and in the afternoon of July 27, Dizon was finally captured in San Fernando, La Union. Found in his possession was a caliber .38 revolver with eight bullets, a laptop, and a cellular phone . A family friend of the Mitchell's recognized the suspect as a Facebook friend of the Mitchells' daughter. Dizon is incarcerated at the Angeles City jail without bail, and is charged for nine counts of murder, filed in three separate cases of five-count murder and two double-murder charges.

THE EDEJER FAMILY MASSACRE (2013)
In the late afternoon of 21 September 2013, in a quiet subdivision in Angeles, seven members of the Edejer household were gunned down by a group of men who forced their way into the residence. Initially, the fatalities numbered 6—Corazon (47, the mother), her 19 year old son Kenneth, housemaid Teresita Camiling, 40, workers Nelson Dominico, 17,  and Benigno Villanueva Jr., 52, and a woman identified only as Kay-kay (20). The 42 year old father, Nicolas Edejer, a fish trader, sustained a gunshot wound in his head, and was taken to a nearby hospital, only to  succumb a day later. Spared was the 9-year old Edejer son who arrived from school, after the incident.

A safe believed to contain cash was brought down by the  killers to the garden. It was subsequently abandoned after they failed to open it. The band of criminals escaped using the Edejer pick-up truck. A “Task Force Edejer” was organized by Sr. Superintendent Oscar Albayalde to track down the killers, but a year after the massacre, investigators remain clueless, and the case still has to be solved to this day.

SOURCES:
MAGALANG SERIAL KILLER PRIEST
Tantingco, Robert P., Peanut Gallery. “Magalang’s Serial-Killer Priest”
 THE SCHOOLGIRL MURDERESS
Graphic Magazine, October 1929 issue
 PASUDECO SHOOTING RAMPAGE:
‘The Life of Jose de Leon y Joven by Jose N. de Leon III’, Performance Printing Center
Criminal Case Nos. 6294, 6295 and 6296, The People of The Philippines, Plaintiff vs. Gregorio P. Timbol, Et Al, Accused
Newspaper excerpts taken from ‘In Memoriam Don Jose Leoncio de Leon y Hizon and Don Augusto Gonzalez y Sioco’, News (Press) Clipping, Philippines Today and Tomorrow, Volume 1, Year 1939, Clipping Bureau
 MALIWALU MASSACRE
Singsing Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1: “BRavehearts: Kapampangan Rebels, Radicals and Renegades Who Changed Philippine History
 COSETTE’S 83 DAY ORDEAL
Source: “Rescued”, by Jean Pope, The Sunday Times Magazine, 21 February 1965, pp. 18-
 LUCILA LALU JIGSAW  MURDER
“Luckless Lucila and her House of Horrors”, by P. A. Zapanta, Sunday Times Magazine, 2 July 1967. pp. 10-15.
“The Barrio’s Lucia to the City’s Lucila”, by P.A. Zapanta, Sunday Times Magazine, 9 July 1967. pp. 18-19.
 MAGGIE DE LA RIVA
“Maggie, A Rare Kind of Virtue”, Sunday Times Magzine, 16 July 1967, p. 22
“Heroine in a Real-Life Tragedy”, by Benjamin V. Afuang, Sunday Times Magazine, 16 July 1967, pp. 26-31
“My Case Has Started A Revolution,”Maggie de la Riva as told to Jean Pope, Sunday Times Magazine, 13 August 1967, pp. 18-22.
“Life with Mother”, by Jean Pope, Sunday times Magazine, 20 August 1967, pp.”18-2
 Additional Photos: http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/05/17/1972-the-rapists-of-maggie-dela-riva/
 Thanks to: Jason Paul Laxamana for the tip
Photo: Punto! Central Luzon
 EDEJER FAMILY MASSACRE
6 Killed in Massacre at Home of Pampanga Fish Trader, by Tonette Orejas, INQInquirer Central Luzon September 21, 201
Photo source: Justice for Edejer Family FB Page,
FILIPIKNOW.NET, Castro, Alex R., 10 Notorious Crimes That Shocked the Philippines, http://www.filipiknow.net/sensational-crimes-in-the-philippines-1960s/

Sunday, April 16, 2017

43. 12 KAPAMPANGAN ASTRONOMICAL TERMS

Ancient Kapampangans were guided by the sun, moon and stars in their everyday life. They fished when the moon was full and reckoned time by the position of the sun. At times, they also saw other strange, celestial apparitions in the sky--comets, eclipses and streaking earth-bound lights—that left them awestruck and in fear. They soon believed that these ominous sights, too, affected the course of their future and their destinies. As they gazed up the skies, they began giving names to these complex, astronomical events, terms that we seldom use today.

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PICTURE SOURCES:
Taclang Batuin: Singsing Magazine
OTHER SOURCES: 
Singsing Magazine. Romancing the Kapampangan Language. Vol. 4, No. 2.
Kapampangan dictionary, as compiled by Fr/ Diego Bergano.OSA

Monday, April 10, 2017

42. 7 BEST HOLY WEEK DESTINATIONS IN PAMPANGA (aside from Cutud)

This week, all roads will surely lead to Cutud, and so for a change, why not avoid the madding crowd, take the road less travelled, and discover these little-known Holy Week events in Pampanga:

Photo courtesy of Ivan Anthony Henares
The PASYON SERENATA of Brgy. San Basilio in Sta. Rita (Holy Wednesday evening). You’ve heard the pasyon, you’ve heard the serenata, but I’m sure you haven’t heard the pasyon serenata, which is the Holy Week version of this unique Kapampangan fiesta spectacle. It’s a showdown between two brass bands and their respective choirs who try to outperform each other by chanting the pasyon to the tune of classical operas. They play all night long, one page at a time, until they finish the whole book. The sight and sound of betel-chewing barrio folks singing the entire history of salvation in Kapampangan and to the tune of Verdi and Puccini will blow you away. Despite their guegue it’s a performance worthy of a concert hall instead of some dusty road in a remote farming village.

Photo: Maleldo king Pampanga FB Group
The GRAND ASSEMBLY OF PENITENTS in Mabalacat City (Good Friday early morning).
It’s a scene straight out of a Cecil B. DeMille movie: hundreds, maybe thousands, of half-naked flagellants and cross-bearers in flowing red robes, brought together by sin and tradition, converge in the church patio for an orgy of suffering, self-mutilation and penance. The number of penitents makes you wonder if flagellation, like circumcision, is a rite of passage among boys in Pampanga. (It also makes you wonder why Kapampangans, usually vain, would want to lacerate their skin and flesh and disfigure their pampered bodies.)

Photo by Reuters
The CENACULO of Brgy. Lourdes in Angeles City (Good Friday late morning).
The passion play is performed by actors who I suspect are thugs, stevedores and butchers from the nearby Pampang market, because they chase the actor playing Jesus and beat him up with such realism and violence the poor guy often ends up in the local clinic. It even has a live crucifixion which tourists from Clark and Koreatown must pay an entrance fee of P200 to see.

Photo courtesy of Ivan Anthony Henares
The EXTREME PENITENTS (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday).
They’re all over Pampanga, but it takes luck to catch them—the cross-bearers who carry electric posts and huge banana trunks (seen in Brgy. San Agustin in Magalang), the women cross-bearers, the transvestite cross-bearers, the cross-bearers who tie a samurai around their waist with the tip pressed against their chin to keep their heads up, and the cross-bearers who are tied together to the same cross so that they can take turns carrying it (seen in Dau). In Brgy. Pampang, Angeles City I saw a cancer-stricken mother carrying a cross while her entire family prayed the rosary and followed her around. And then there are the dreadful magsalibatbat, who crawl on the road for miles, rubbing their skin continuously against the concrete until they’re all bruised and covered with dirt. Those who look for actual crucifixions can also try Brgy. Telapayung in Arayat, where they are more private and more heartfelt.

Picture courtesy of Jerry Punzalan Sagmit
The TANGGAL of Guagua (Good Friday).
This is the ritual where a life-size statue of Jesus with moveable neck and joints is taken down from the cross and laid down and dressed up to become the Santo Entierro (The Interred Christ). The town’s Velez-Zaragoza clan performs the elaborate ritual with the same care and solemnity as I imagine a family would prepare a departed member for burial. In the past, parish workers closed all church doors and windows and banged metal to simulate the eclipse and the thunderclaps that supposedly accompanied the Crucifixion, and to arouse the same fear and awe experienced by the Jews. Today, we just rely on the rhetoric and theatrics of the Sieta Palabras speakers.

Picture courtesy of Ivan Anthony Henares
The PASO of Bacolor (Good Friday).
The entire province quiets down as night falls on Good Friday, when parishes hold hushed processions of their heirloom santos, led by the Santo Entierro and the Mater Dolorosa. They’re all happening simultaneously: the candlelit carrozas of Arayat which transport you back in time, the sweet sound of violins playing Stabat Mater in San Fernando (added attraction: rose petals thrown from the balcony of the Rodriguez Mansion), the pomp, pageantry and piety of Sta. Rita reminiscent of Lino Brocka’s Tinimbang ka Ngunit Kulang, the breathtaking beauty of the Mater Dolorosa of Guagua, and the grandeur of the Santo Entierro of Sasmuan. But if you have to attend only one, make it Bacolor, the colonial capital of the province, whose old families, driven away by the lahars of the 1990s, make a sentimental journey back home to accompany their respective paso (float). Tradition dictates that they wear black, cover their heads with pointed hoods, hold icons of the crucifixion and walk barefoot (probably a legacy from ancestors in Seville, Spain). The antiquity and craftsmanship alone of the santos and their silver-plated carrozas will make your jaw drop.

Picture courtesy of Dr. Raymund Feliciano
The UNUSUAL BIYERNIS SANTO PROCESSION of Sasmuan (Good Friday)
Unusual because the grim procession of the dead Jesus and His grieving Mother is followed by a grimmer procession of magdarame (flagellants and cross-bearers). Sasmuan is the only place I know where this strange mix of the folk and the orthodox is allowed. Parish priests often make an effort to eliminate cultural practices to purify the theology of church rituals. For example, the pasyon mustn’t replace the Bible, the puni mustn’t compete with the visita iglesia, and the penitensya musn’t keep people away from the sacrament of confession. But Kapampangans have stubbornly stuck to their folk traditions, and the archdiocese is now finding ways to compromise.

This is Pampanga, where church piety collides with folk defiance, where the holiest days of the year are celebrated in the unholiest manner, where the charming and solemn rites of the Church coexist with the raw, bloody, but ultimately more exuberant rituals of the common folk.

First posted by Robby Tantingco on his facebook page, 21 March 2016.
ROBBY TANTINGCO is the Director of the Center for Kapampangan Studies and Vice President for External Affairs of Holy Angel University. He is the author of "Destiny and Destination" and "Pinatubo: The Volcano in our Backyard" which won a National Book Award. He also wrote the story of the film, “ARI: My Life with a King”, a language advocacy film that won Best Story and Best Screenplay awards from the 2016 Metro Manila Filmfest, Gawad Urian and FAMAS for Best Story.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

41. DR. R. FELICIANO'S 14 FAVORITE LENTEN IMAGES IN PAMPANGA

DR. RAYMUND FELICIANO is a clinical pathologist who currently teaches pathology subjects at St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City. A resident of Angeles, his roots are in Mabalacat. He, however, is a doctor  with a unique passion. For over three decades now, he has been taking pictures of our Holy Week traditions--santos, religious processions, churches, Lenten exhibits--all over the Islands, from back in the days of analog photography to the age of digital cameras. 

A photography buff since his high school days at Chevalier School, Dr. Feliciano was inspired to travel  by watching Susan Calo-Medina’s TV show “Travel Time”.  He started in 1987, and began toting his instamatic cameras to interesting places where he took pictures of provincial scenes. But when he got hold of Ricky Jose’s book, “Simbahan”, he decided to focuse on religious subjects—and has not stopped since. The results of this lifetime undertaking are hundreds of santo photos compiled in over 50 albums and donated to the Center for Kapampangan Studies of Holy Angel University in Angeles City. 

After having seen thousands of processional santos, he has come up with a list of his 14 favorite, best-looking Semana Santa images that he shares with us, in this blog.
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The San Pedro statue of Lubao rides a spectacular carroza of the chariot-type. 

Arayat's antique "Manalangin" features a chalice-bearing angel dressed in short pants.

Angeles' "Macagapus" was carved in 1834 with Valentin Tuason as the original owner. It was passed on to his Nepomuceno heirs.

The Senor Desmayado  of Guagua was commissioned by one of the town’s leading citizens, Don Tiburcio Dyco. It was carved in 1882 by the accomplished sculptor, Sotero Dionisio Garcia of Quiapo, Manila.

The small Paciencia image of Guagua is owned by the Familia Cabrera and is a certified antique. 

Porac's Tercera Caida (Third Fall of Christ) comes from the Santa Catalina Parish of this old Kapampangan town, and is known for its complete, well-proportioned character images.

The antique image of Sta. Rita's La Veronica is owned by the Familia Pineda, a prominent family of the town, which also owns a Third fall of Christ paso.

"Macapacu Qng Cruz" or the Crucifixion is also known as Santa Misericordia. It was commissioned in 1907 by Dna. Francisca Evangelista. It was inherited by Leonora Panlilio, and passed on to her present descendants.

Angeleños take pride in their own “Apung Mamacalulu”, or the Lord of Mercy, depicting the image of the dead Christ. It was commissioned by Fr. Macario Paras between 1828-1838, carved by an artisan named Buenaventura.

The spectacular calandra of Sasmuan that contains the body of the dead Christ is owned by the Mercado family. 

Mabalacat's Sta. Maria Jacobe is an antique image that was transported to Pampanga from the Visayas, by a family member when he came to work here, where it was known as Sta. Salome.

The Sta. Salome of Angeles is a transformed image of La Veronica--which is equipped with two heads-- made in 1835 for Vicente Dison. It is still with the Dison descendants.

The antique image of Sta. Maria Magdalena of Arayat is from the prominent Santos-Medina-Samia family.\,who own a host of other processional images like San Juan and Santo Entierro.

The century-old San Juan of San Simon in Pampanga is a short, stocky image that is a fixture in the Good Friday procession of the town.

Hailed as one of the most beautiful Dolorosas in the country, the antique ivory Dolorosa of the Limson Family of Guagua.  Its earliest could be traced to Diego Limson (ca. late 1850s-early 1860s) who married Severina Jingco.

PHOTO SOURCES: 
Tercera Caida: Reichardt Dino, (flickr name: asky)
Paciencia: courtesy of Jerry Punsalan Sagmit
Magdalena: courtesy of Arwin Lingat, (flickr name: pampanga)
Dolorosa: courtesy of Dr. Dindo Limson Juco
Crucifixion, Sta. Jacobe: Alex R. Castro
All others: courtesy of Dr. Raymund Feliciano (flickr name: emongfeliciano)