Street named after Bacolod's urban planner
Bacolod now has a street in honor of the man who is considered by local historians as one of the first urban planners and builders of was once the Pueblo of Bacolod in Negros Occidental, Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, main author of the ordinance naming the street said.
The Sanggunian Panlungsod this week approved on third and final reading the ordinance naming the street marked Road Lot 4 and Road Lot 9 in the Reclamation Area bounded on the north by the property of the Bacolod Commercial and Industrial Park, on the south and west by the property of SM City-bacolod and on the east by the Bacolod BAYS Center, Manokan Country, the Vendors Plaza and Barangay 10 as "Father Mauricio Ferrero, OAR Street".
The ordinance was co-authored by Councilors Dindo Ramos as chair of the Committee on Laws, Ordinances and Good Government and Kevin Daniel Ramos as chair of the Committee on History, Culture and Arts.
Bacolod and even Negros Occidental's history is tied to the life and work of Fr. Ferrero, in fact, 38 years of our history. He was the foremost planner and builder of our communities whose works withstood the test of times Fr. Ferrero as a man with great achievements a man with a great mind should be remembered well for his great contribution to what Bacolod is today and in general the Recollect Order for their great contributions to the development of Bacolod and Negros Occidental, Batapa-Sigue said.
Quoting local historian, the ordinance stated that Fr. Ferrero's work include the 120 years old San Sebastian de Bacolod Cathedral completed in 1888, the first stone fort in Bacolod known as Puerto San Juan, now known as Provincial Jail, which was finally completed in 1890, and the biggest convent in the island of Negros, now known as the Bishop's Palace, known for having no nails but what was called cuña or the Hiligaynon tarugu. The English term is "wedge".
During his time, he built what the community needed such as the depositario de cadavers or mortuary chapel to segregate the dead with contagious diseases, which is now the Adoration Chapel beside the San Sebastian Cathedral and a cemetery across the present Western Visayas Regional Hospital at Lacson Street for Catholics, the tribunal or the town hall where the gobernadorcillo held sessions in hearing cases and issuing decisions, along with modest place for the alguacil of Bacolod who guarded the tribunal, where we have the PCIB and the nearby Plaza Mart today. The tribunal was thus important for the over-all operation and governance of Bacolod since all processions on important religious events began here where attendance was checked and ended at the convento where the cura parroco, the gobernadorcillo, and the principalia held sessions on important matters.
Prior to Fr. Ferrero's plans, Bacolod was a hodge-podge of nipa, bamboo and wooden structures without defined streets. He laid out the streets of Bacolod, with the tribunal and the Casa Real across the church and the convent. He designated the locations of the structures of the church, convent, tribunal, Casa Real, school and the houses of the principalia around the plaza. The church and convent was an entire block; no other structures were constructed around it. The market place was located in today's corner of Gatuslao and Galo. The church block extends towards the Mambuloc Creek. The church yard occupied half of today's plaza. There was no road in front of the church.
To complete his plan for Bacolod, Fr. Ferrero opened the road that went out of Bacolod in the south in what is today Araneta Street and towards Mandalagan in what is today's Lacson Street . The south road, called Calle Real, extended all the way to Sum-ag and hence to Bago, while the north road went all the way to Talisay. The original road from Bacolod to Bago and Talisay passed along the shoreline stretch of what is today San Juan Street. He also constructed a road from the plaza, to the fort, the one we know now as Gatuslao Street but only until the fort. This road was extended only in 1926 to reach the Provincial Capitol which was being constructed then.
In 1895, the Recollect Provincial Chapter decided to open a high school in Negros . There were many contenders – Hinigaran, Binalbagan, Marayo, Talisay, Valladolid , Pulupandan, and Escalante-all wanted the school in their parish but Fr. Ferrero was able to convince that Bacolod would be the best site for the Recollects' Colegio de San Jose . The Colegio opened its doors in Bacolod on July 1, 1896, but it closed in 1898 when the Negros Revolution broke out and was not reopened. The Recollects came back to Bacolod on May 25, 1962 to start what is now the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos.
Fr. Ferrero did not only leave a mark in Bacolod but in the whole province of Negros as historians believe that perhaps of greater importance than his visible structures was his work for the development of Negros as he was not only the parish priest of Bacolod but also the vicar for southern Occidental Negros. In 1889, Fr. Ferrero left to Fr. Inocente Lamata, the parish priest of Inayawan, his historical sketch of the progress of Negros since the Recollects came to this island based on the reports of the different parish priests sent to him and his plan for the island.
He was assigned to Bacolod in 1871 when he was only 27 years old as our Bacolod 's first Recollect parish priest and he served this parish for more than 38 years. He died in 1916 at the age of 72 years with more than half his lifetime and almost his entire priestly life spent in the service of the church in Bacolod.