Casapsapan Beach

Casapsapan Beach is famous for its unbeatable fine sand and crystal clear waters which will give you a relaxing feeling . Located in Brgy. Ildefonso, Casiguran, Aurora, offers a magnificent view of the brilliant sunrise where one can watch the sun rising slowly from the eastern horizon almost as big as winnower. Its inherent and idyllic beauty such as the white sand beaches, clear-blue sparkling waters, and five hectares of virgin mangrove offers everyone extreme pleasure and blissful satisfaction. You can experience the feeling of not wanting to leave the place anymore.

A HISTORICAL TOUR AROUND BALER, AURORA

THE SIEGE OF BALER

Who would have thought that this simple yet elegant Church in Baler made a huge contribution in the history of the Philippines? This historic church was originally built in 1611 and more commonly known as the major site of the Siege of Baler which happened back in 1898 to 1899.

During the 1896 Philippine revolution, Filipino rebels joined american forces against spanish rulers. Back then , the town of Baler was stationed by spanish military forces headed by Captain Enrique de las Morenas y Fossi. He led to strengthen and fortify the church compound in Baler’s town against any possible attack . At that time , the church was the only stone building in town.

Filipinos counted the days and made several attempts to get the spanish to surrender . When the siege continued , spanish ran out of food and water supply. Spaniards suffered from diseases such as dysentery , beriberi and fevers.

Only around thirty Spaniards survived in the 11 month Baler siege out of fifty spanish men who entered the church. The spanish survivors were called Los Ultimos de Filipinas in spanish which means The last Ones of the Philippines.

MANUEL LUIS QUEZON

The town’s greatest son, the late President Manuel L. Quezon. Manuel Quezon is generally considered the second president of the Philippines, even though he was the first to head the Commonwealth of the Philippines under American administration, serving from 1935 to 1944. Emilio Aguinaldo, who had served in 1899-1901 during the Philippine-American War, is usually called the first president.

Quezon was from an elite mestizo family from the east coast of Luzon. His privileged background did not insulate him from tragedy, hardship, and exile, however.

Early Life

Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina was born on August 19, 1878, in Baler, now in Aurora Province. (The province is actually named after Quezon's wife.) His parents were Spanish colonial army officer Lucio Quezon and primary school teacher Maria Dolores Molina. Of mixed Filipino and Spanish ancestry, in the racially segregated Spanish Philippines, the Quezon family were considered blancos or "whites," which afforded them more freedom and higher social status than purely Filipino or Chinese people enjoyed.

When Manuel was nine years old, his parents sent him to school in Manila, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) away from Baler. He would remain there through university; he studied law at the University of Santo Tomas but did not graduate. In 1898, when Manuel was 20, his father and brother were accosted and murdered along the road from Nueva Ecija to Baler. The motive may have been simply robbery, but it is likely that they were targeted for their support of the colonial Spanish government against the Filipino nationalists in the independence struggle.

Entry into Politics

In 1899, after the US defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War and seized the Philippines, Manuel Quezon joined Emilio Aguinaldo's guerrilla army in its fight against the Americans. He was accused a short time later of murdering an American prisoner of war, and was imprisoned for six months, but was cleared of the crime for lack of evidence.

Despite all of that, Quezon soon began to rise in political prominence under the American regime. He passed the bar exam in 1903 and went to work as a surveyor and clerk. In 1904, Quezon met a young Lieutenant Douglas MacArthur; the two would become close friends in the 1920s and 1930s. The newly-minted lawyer became a prosecutor in Mindoro in 1905 and then was elected governor of Tayabas the following year.

In 1906, the same year he became governor, Manuel Quezon founded the Nacionalista Party with his friend Sergio Osmena. It would be the leading political party in the Philippines for years to come. The following year, he was elected to the inaugural Philippine Assembly, later renamed the House of Representatives. There, he chaired the appropriations committee and served as majority leader.

Quezon moved to the United States for the first time in 1909, serving as one of two resident commissioners to the US House of Representatives. The Philippines' commissioners could observe and lobby the US House but were non-voting members. Quezon pressed his American counterparts to pass the Philippine Autonomy Act, which became law in 1916, the same year that he returned to Manila.

Back in the Philippines, Quezon was elected to the Senate, where he would serve for the next 19 years until 1935. He was selected as the first President of the Senate and continued in that role throughout his Senate career. In 1918, he married his first cousin, Aurora Aragon Quezon; the couple would have four children. Aurora would become famous for her commitment to humanitarian causes. Tragically, she and their eldest daughter were assassinated in 1949.

Aurora Quezon was born to Pedro Aragon and Zeneida Molina on February 19, 1888 in Baler, a remote coastal town in Tayabas which is now Aurora Province. When the President died, she turned down the pension awarded to her by the government, so that the money be used for war widows and orphans. Even the Communist-led Hukbalahaps, who spread terror through the mountains of Central Luzon, could find no word to say against Aurora. And on the morning of April 28, 1949 , She and her daughter baby were assassinated when she left her home to open a new hospital. It was such a tragic death when a gunfire emerged on the road targeting her vehicle. Mrs Quezon, her daughter and Bernardo, Mayor of Quezon were killed instantly. And after the assassination the province was named after her memory.

The house is still standing on an average sized corner lot. A noticeable wooden house wrapped with nipa roofs. The house looks like an old traditional Filipino style homes. At the back it has an open area connecting to a small garden.