Rizalistas of Rongot.

Iglesia Sagrada Familia.

The text which accompany my photo essay was written by my friend Dennis Villegas a well known journalist and researcher. You can find his original articles about the Rizalistas of Rongot in the Philippine Online Chronicles (part 1 - part 2 – part 3 - part 4).

The town of Calamba, in the province of Laguna - by virtue of having been the birthplace of Dr. Jose Rizal - has become a pilgrimage site not only for those wanting to pay homage to the Philippine National Hero, but more importantly for the Rizalistas who worship Rizal as God.

Calamba is said to be the new "promised land" where God Rizal shall establish His kingdom after the old world has been destroyed in the apocalypse. At the very center of this kingdom will be the barrio of Rongot, presently Calamba's poorest community, but which will eventually be the New Jerusalem.

This is the belief of the religious sect called Iglesia Sagrada Familia, a small but intensely dedicated group of Rizalistas found in Sitio Rongot, Calamba, Laguna. Led by a vibrant old lady named Gloria Bibat, 84, the Iglesia Sagrada Familia worships Dr. Jose Rizal as God. They call Rizal not as Dr. Rizal but as Amang Rizal (Father Rizal) or simply Amang Doctor (Father Doctor).

Sitio Rongot is located in the remotest portion of Calamba, and is hardly accessible by vehicles. Isolated from the rest of Calamba by a narrow five-kilometer dirt road, only one vehicle can pass through it at a given time. In the unfortunate case when two vehicles meet head-on, one has to give way, retreat, and find the part of the road wide enough for both to pass through. The road is rough and dusty during the dry season, and wet and muddy during the rainy season.

The sitio, however, receives a few visitors every Sunday, mostly students from the Manila universities who are taking Rizal courses and are assigned to interview the Rizalistas. Aside from these students, very few tourists ever care to visit Rongot. In fact, there is really nothing much to see, save for the mystical Mount Makiling beyond the horizon, and the Laguna de Bay just at the edge of the barrio.

Despite its promise of becoming a Holy Land someday, Rongot is at present an impoverished community. Most residents eke out a living by fishing, farming, raising ducks, or gathering kangkong and talbos ng kamote from the marshes. In fact, Calamba townspeople sometimes call the Rongot people as "magka-kangkong" (people who gather kangkong).

Like most rural towns in the Philippines, Rongot exhibits an ambience of quietness and stillness. The only sounds one can hear are the soft winds from Laguna de Bay, the muffled noise of little children playing near the lake, and from time to time, the occasional barking of neighborhood dogs from a distance.

People go about their daily lives in a relaxed and unhurried manner: the men gathering vegetables from the marshes, women tending to their little babies, young lads playing board games on benches, and old folks relaxing under the shade of trees - whiling time away. Around the village one can see numerous small wooden houses, old empty boats docked along the bay and, on the bay itself, green water lilies that grow abundantly.

(Text: Dennis Villegas).