Aside from Vigan, Ilocos Sur, another town specifically its town plaza and the ancestral houses surrounding it was declared by the National Historical Institute on 17 March 2000 as a National Historical Landmark.

Having studied at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos from freshman in 1973 till I graduated in 1978, Pila has a special spot in my heart. On my first taping day for Precious Hearts Romances “Lumang Piso Para sa Puso”, I left Quezon City at 12:15 pm. Already, memories of Pila started to flashback on my mind. However, I tried hard to set aside the scenes of the past as I wanted to concentrate on my driving. First, on my mind was to focus and confirm if the notorious traffic going to the south courtesy of the widening of the South Expressway has already vanished. As soon as I hit Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), the traffic was already heavy specially the stretch from the corner of Timog Avenue to portion near the Camp Crame. It was a good 30 minutes. However, after Camp Crame the traffic was already smooth except for the area near Guadalupe bridge.

I was still in the vicinity of Magallanes village, the entry of South Luzon Expressway at 1:00 pm. Traffic on the stretch from Magallanes to Sucat was a breeze even as the workers of the DM Consungji Inc. are working on the extension of the Skyway. Their activities would cause a slow down as you enter Alabang. However, the stretch from Alabang to Calamba – which is the final exit of the South Luzon Expressway was already devoid of traffic as I was travelling at 120 Kilometers per hour. I exitted Calamba at 1:30 pm.

My speed slowed down when I was traversing the portions of Calamba up to Los Banos. But since it an early afternoon with the heat of the sun possibly giving a temperature of about 34 degrees centigrade, there were fewer cars on the highway.

I passed the last choke point of Los Banos at 1:45 pm. I passed by the towns of Bay, Calauan, Victoria swiftly. Finally, I was already making a left turn to the direction of the municipality of Pila and when I looked at the watch, it was 2:10 pm. I parked at side of the red-colored municipal building of Pila at exactly 2:15 pm. Two hours drive for a distance of 80 kilometers, not bad.

While I was parked in the town hall parking lot, slowly memories of Pila entered my mind. The first thing I noticed was the still intact ancestral houses around the town plaza. You see, same as in the other old towns of the Philippines which were spanish settlements, the lay out of the town plaza is very noticeable: on one end of the plaza is the municipio (Municipal Hall) on the opposite end of the plaza is the catholic church. The two other sides of the plaza (its also known as town square, though in reality is is a rectangle) are the heritage houses which are still intact and being used by the descendants of the former owners who are without doubt the old rich of the town.

But, instead of the all-weather gravelled town streets of Pila in the 1970's, the streets at least around the town plaza are already cemented!

I also realized that I already passed through a new highway from the town of Bay, locally it is called as the diversion road since, the highway literally made a diversion from the old road that linked the poblaciones of Bay, Calauan Victoria and Pila. I remembered that everytime I go to Pila, the public transport will pass by the town centers (poblacion) of towns. With the diversion road, travel is a lot faster as it skipped the passing inside the town centers.

I now realized that everytime I went to another town farther than Pila, the town of Nagcarlan where I had my farm practice in a piggery known as Dimayuga Farms, I passed through the old road, which I now recall, was known as provincial road.

I visited the town of Pila maybe four times in the 70's. But, I could no longer recognize which house did I visit. I am sure in those visits I passed by the old provincial road, not the new diversion road. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to further explore the town and to discover where I used to visit, the house of my ex-girl friend in college! !

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