BRIDGING THE GAP
The Hechanova Ancestral House in Jaro, Iloilo City
A remarkable structure found today not far from the entrance of the Gran Plains Subdivision in Jaro, Iloilo City is the Hechanova Ancestral House. The imposing residence was built in 1932 by Dr. Manuel Villalobos Hechanova and his wife, Montserat Ledesma Gamboa. Aside from being a medical doctor, Manuel was also a successful rice farmer and sugar planter.
The exceptionally large two-storey house, which became known in the past as "Balay nga Daku", sits on a sixty-five hectare farmland that has been developed into a housing subdivision in the 1970s. The ground floor is made of wood and cement, and functions as a garage and an all-purpose stockroom. The upper floor is all made of hardwood and consists of one large receiving room and three bedrooms, aside from a spacious kitchen. It has a touch of Spanish architectural design with a total floor area of 600 meters.
A point of interest in the house is the room full of plaques and certificates of recognitions, citations, honors and awards received by Engr. Hechanova for his valuable works and contributions as a professional and civic leader, both in the local and national levels.
Before the development of the area into a subdivision by the Hechanova family, the ancestral house was the only notable structure in it. Indeed, it was at that time an attention-getting building, with its white paint glistening in the sunlight amidst vast tracts of rice lands and some shanties that served as dwellings of the farm workers.
According to Engr. Ramon Hechanova, one of the scions of Manuel and Montserat, the ancestral house was made as headquarters of the resistance movement under Col. Macario Peralta during the Second World War. However, Peralta and the other Filipino officers were not able to stay long in the house because the Japanese got wind of their presence in it. The native fighters were able to escape through the back door of the house and by crawling on their belly in the rice fields away from the house.
Manuel and Montserat had nine children, namely: Jose Maria, a B.S. Commerce graduate; Ramon, a civil engineer; Rafael, an architect; Rufino, a journalist; Cecilio, a lawyer who, at one time, served as vice-mayor; Manuel Jr., a medical doctor; Carmen, fondly called Carmeling; Antonio, connected with the Negros Navigation Co.; and Luis, a priest.
Ramon, the second child, is the one residing and taking care of the ancestral house at present. He, together with his wife, Victoria Asuncion, a pharmacist, manages the Gran Plains Subdivision. They have four sons: Manuel III, a businessman in Manila; Ramon Peter, a businessman in the United States; Renato, a Commerce graduate and residing in San Pablo City; and, Roberto, a Mass Communication graduate who is working in Canada. All these four Hechanova siblings graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University where their father, Ramon, also finished his studies.