The Augustinian Recollect Diego Cera (Graus, Huesca, Spain, 1762 — Manila, Philippines, 1832) is a good representative of the social-evangelizing work of the Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines. His contributions to universal culture have reached our days. In this IV Centenary (1621-2021) of the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino, his life “always on mission” and his dedication to the Filipino people encourage the missionaries of the present and the future.
Fray Diego and the population of Las Piñas have been so united that they even coincide in their year of birth and foundation: 1762. At the time that Diego came to the world in Graus, the Augustinians (the Order of Saint Augustine, not the Recollects) founded the neighborhood of Las Piñas under the patronage of San José and dependent on the Parish of Parañaque. In 1775 it became ecclesially independent and surrendered to the diocesan clergy.
After finishing the organ of San Nicolás de Intramuros, Diego Cera’s next assignment, Mabalacat, was brief: he served here from June 9, 1794, to May 22, 1795. On that date he is back in Manila, possibly because his destination to Las Piñas was already in the minds of his superiors.
Today a city of 600,000 inhabitants cocurated with the capital, in what is known as Metro Manila, Las Piñas was then a rural population of 300 families, 13 kilometers south of Intramuros along the coastline. The people were dedicated to the production and sale of salt, fishing, agriculture and small businesses, with a certain emphasis on embroiderers. At that time, it also had a certain reputation for being a refuge for criminals on the roads.
After a somewhat long and complicated process, finally on December 26, 1795, the Augustinian Recollects begin to manage this Parish. When proposing his appointment, the superiors argued that “no one better than [fray Diego Cera] to administer a Parish of such recent creation that absolutely lacks everything”.
The Augustinian Recollects had already requested this Parish without success in 1765, 1790 and 1794. They considered Las Piñas crucial due to its location, halfway between the capital and their hacienda in Imus. Addressing it would improve and strengthen communications with the capital.
Finally, in September 1795, the civil government and the Archdiocese of Manila delivered the new Parish to the Recollects together with its neighborhoods of Almansa, Pamplona, Pulanglupa, Talon, Zapote, Cut-cut, Fajardo, Manuyo and Ilaya. On December 26 effective possession is taken.
Fray Diego, upon arrival, found everything to do. A decent parish complex and minimal communication infrastructures were lacking. There was a lack of awareness of community and vision of the people. But the air of progress that he knew how to give with his work meant that in 1799 he had already established 180 more families, a growth of 60% in just three years.
It was fundamental that Fray Diego gave priority to the construction of infrastructures, specifically the road on which Diego Cera Avenue runs today (part of the general highway from Manila to Cavite) and the stone bridges to cross the Zapote and Las Piñas rivers.
The Pulanglupa Bridge over the Las Piñas River was completed in 1810 and links the region to downtown Manila to the northwest. We do not preserve the work of Fray Diego, since the current one is later and replaced the original of the Recollect missionary.
The Zapote Bridge, in the southwest, built in 1817, links Manila and Las Piñas with the Imus hacienda and the cities of Bacoor and Cavite. It has been a strategic place of the first order, as can be seen with two crucial battles to dominate it in two different wars.
On February 17, 1897, ten thousand revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo defeated the twelve thousand Spaniards of General Camilo de Polavieja here. Two years later, on June 13, 1899, 1,200 United States soldiers led by Henry W. Lawton defeated 5,000 Filipinos from the First Republic led by Guillermo Masangkay, Pío del Pilar, and Artemio Ricarte.
The Zapote bridge is preserved and has been a National Historic Monument since September 9, 2013. Restored, it is pedestrianized, since another concrete bridge was built next to it for road traffic.
Fray Diego, with his inventiveness, also became an expert in agricultural machinery for the Imus hacienda, which had plantations of palay (a type of paddy rice), fruit trees, sugar cane, and other crops.
The progress of Las Piñas with Fray Diego was indisputable, to the point that in 1804 the Government issued a favorable report to the Recollects due to the insistent desires that the Diocese was showing to take charge of the Parish again.
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