History of Pila

For almost a quarter of a century, from 1812 to 1835, Filipino secular priests served for the first time as the acting pastors of Pila due to the shortage of Franciscan priests. These native men of God were: Padres Lorenzo Samaniego (1812-16); Pedro de los Santos (1816-19); Pedro Alcántara (1819-26); and Rudecindo Aquino (1826-35). They worked in almost perfect harmony with their parishioners except for “two or three” contras who tried to obstruct their efforts to finish the construction of the stone church. The work was apparently accomplished during the term of Padre Alcántara. A Chinese mestizo priest, he was the baptismal godfather of Padre Pedro Peláez when he was still the coadjutor of Pagsanján. In his 1819 report, Alcántara mentioned the interesting fact that it took two hours by horseback from Pila to reach the provincial capital of Sta. Cruz. (43) This is hard to imagine in this fast age of motor travel.