Tucked within Laguna are fragments of history that offer a glimpse of what life was like during the Philippines’ colonial past. These are ancestral houses and other historical structures that can be found in what was once a barrio of Biñan — now Santa Rosa City.
They are being kept alive by two local heritage advocates, Lucky Ian Solomon and Jodel Sarmiento. However, behind these preservation efforts lies a constant struggle to keep the city’s history intact.
History of the history preservers
Sarmiento, 32, himself was born and raised in an ancestral house. His ancestors, Felix and Vicenta, built the house sometime between 1910 and 1920.
Meanwhile, 42-year-old Solomon was a staffer of the late historian Nonia Tiongco, first working alongside her under the city government. Solomon later followed Tiongco when she founded the Santa Rosa Studies Center in 2008, which sought to broaden understanding of the city’s history.
