One of the most beautiful places I’ve been to so far is the Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan. We visited it last year, through the help of Tourism Officer Migz Gutierrez, and it was a wonderful experience.
Bagac, Bataan is about 3-4 hours drive from Manila (approximately 250 km) via Subic-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). Bagac is a 3rd Class Municipality in Bataan and it has 14 barangays and 29,090 population.
We first visited the sites in Bagac, Bataan including the Zero Kilometer Marker, Sta Catalina Parish Church, and Filipino-Japanese Friendship Tower before spending the afternoon at Las Casas.
The Filipino-Japanese Friendship Tower is located in Atilano Ricardo, Bagac. It was build by Rissho Kosei-Kai of Japan to acknowledge the reconciliation, peace and friendship of the Philippines and Japan.
Members of the Nayon Photographers’ Club (NPC) with Tourism Officer Migz Gutierrez (holding the motorcycle). Thank you very much Migz for the accomodation.
The Zero Kilometer Marker in Bagumbayan, Bagac marks the point where the Death March begun. Filipino and American prisoners of war (POW) march from this point in 1942. It has the same structure as that in Mariveles where a bayonet is thrust to the ground with a soldier’s helmet symbolically slung over the rifle butt.
The Sta Catalina Parish Church is located at Tabing Ilog, Bagac (heart of town). It was built by the Franciscan fathers in the 1600s and conforms to the Spanish tradition of building the church at the central plaza.