Baras as a town in Rizal province may be unfamiliar to most, but not to a number of movie-TV actors and production people who have shot a project or two over the years in that quaintly named locale. 

Fernando Poe Jr., Eddie Garcia, Mina Aragon, Vilma Santos, Sharon Cuneta, Mark Gil, Piolo Pascual, Richard Gomez, Robin Padilla, Bong Revilla, Janice de Belen, Rhian Ramos, Ruby Ruiz, Ronnie Lazaro and Epy Quizon are among the country’s major stars who have stepped on Baras soil for a movie or TV series. 

Gerry de Leon, Eddie Romero and Ishmael Bernal are among the National Artists for Film who have helmed movies in Baras. 

The town’s name does not refer to the horizontal round bar firmly attached between two strong poles and used for exercising the hands, arms and legs by hanging them at the horizontal bar and executing all sorts of maneuvers that the hands, arms and legs can handle. The “baras” (a Tagalog word) can be built on a few square meters of land at the front or back yard of homes in the city or in the provinces.

But then the town’s name, according to online references, could have originated from “Barahan,” which refers to a place of anchorage for boats plying the lake Laguna de Bay (Lawa ng Bae in Tagalog). Others point to Padre Francisco Barasoain, a priest during the Spanish era who the townsfolk liked.

Baras is a settlement that moved into various areas around Laguna de Bay during the Spanish era because the territory was periodically invaded, if not by the indigenous Aetas, then by the early Chinese settlers in the archipelago. Some invaders would simply burn the settlement to expedite their takeover of the relatively developed territory. American and Japanese soldiers marauded the town, too.

Baras used to occupy the forest area in Rizal province, which came to be known as Boso-Boso in the town of Tanay. That area eventually came to be known as Masungi Georeserve. 

Sometime in the 17th century, Baras earned the fine luck of getting permanently established in a piece of land along the lake and on some parts of the Sierra Madre mountain range. 

Baras’ natural terrain consists of low-lying flatlands along the coastal portion dipping into the Laguna de Bay, stretching northward to the inland plains and valleys of its midland area, then elevating further north to the rugged uplands forming part of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range.

Baras is a fourth-class municipality located 49 kilometers from Manila, 12 kilometers from Ynares Center, Antipolo City, 14 kilometers from SM Taytay. 

Though there are now subdivisions, resorts, some private schools, some department stores, a Jollibee, and possibly a McDonalds and Shakey’s in Baras, the town is still considered rural.

A cultural treasure

Baraseños (the people of Baras) must be a strongly religious people. When they were still in Boso-Boso, they were able to build an adobe church, the Nuestra Señora de la Annunciata Parish Church, which still stands today, though it has undergone repairs in the 1990s. In their new land some seven kilometers away from Boso-Boso, the Baraseños constructed San Jose Parish Church, which on 10 May this year the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) declared a “national cultural treasure.”

That place for worship is the oldest and most notable landmark in Baras and is actually officially the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Joseph. It enshrines the miraculous venerated image of San Jose de Baras. 

The Church was built by the Franciscan missionaries in 1682, the same year the town was transferred to its present site. It was completed in 1686 and was dedicated to Saint Joseph, the town’s patron saint. It is known for having fruit-eating bats on its roofs that are supported by wooden trusses. The roof has no ceiling (and this is not rare, since the old Angono church in Rizal province has no ceiling, too.) The Baras Church is so iconic and shots of its facade has been integrated in international and local films, TV series and commercials.

The Baras church is built in a mixture of fortress-style and barn-style Baroque architecture. It is notable for its dark, simple and sparse qualities that are typical of Franciscan mission churches built during the 16th century. Its simple facade is given a decorative touch mainly through the stream of balustrade trimming its triangular pediment, as well as the chequerboard pattern of brick and stone on the pediment’s upper portion, which indicates an addition to the original and much lower stone pediment.

The structure has not been plastered, exposing the adobe bricks on which the church was made.

The historian Fr. Félix de Huerta, OFM’, wrote in the Estado Geográfico that in 1849, the church and its convent were repaired, painted and cleaned under the supervision of  Fr. Tomás de Sisante, OFM. 

A commemorative marker on a front wall of the church states that the structure was renovated in 2006. In that renovation, the present altar, sanctuary, sacristy, church interiors, façade, grotto, roof and columbary were preserved. Some years after that restoration, Bishop Francisco de Leon of the Diocese of Antipolo declared Baras Church as a Diocesan Shrine. It is believed to be the oldest church dedicated to San José in the Southern Tagalog region.

Fr. Huerta wrote in his chronicles that in the baptistry of the church was a piece of the cross that the first Franciscan missionaries planted in Baras. That fragment of the cross is said to be miraculous, though Fr. Huerta was careful not to elaborate on it because the miracles were not yet proven during his time. 

The main retablo of the church has two crosses. The cross at the main altar is said to contain a relic from the true Cross of Jesus found in Jerusalem by St. Helena; above that is a woodcarving of St. James the Great, the first patron saint of Baras.

On the left wall of the church is the cross that contain the fragment of the 1595 cross planted on Baras soil by the Franciscan missionaries.

There are a lot of interesting objects inside the church, such as the altar made of a single stone and holy water fonts made of rough stone with blue and white ceramic bowls. 

Outside the church is a statue of the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús with another holy water font made of rough stone. In the baptistry, a smaller baptismal font has an image of San Juan Bautista baptizing Jesús.

Wide, long steps of gray stone pavement lead to the spacious front area of the church. That frontage alone is so cinematic that it has been used in scenes of films and TV series.

The Baras Church is one of those churches that easily makes one feel they had gone back in time. It might not be grand, but it has retained so much of what it was since its construction.

Happily, the Barasenos and the Diocese of Antipolo continue to take care of the San Jose Parish church, preserving it for future generations. They are likely to double, or even triple, their efforts at maintaining the church as a result of its being declared “national cultural treasure.” That status entitles the church to financial support from the NCCA in the maintenance of the church.

The status does not mean the government has come to own the Baras church or any religious structure bestowed the status of being a national cultural treasure. The diocese where the structure or object is located remains to be its owner. (An entire church may have not been declared “national cultural treasure,” but an object inside it may have been so declared, such as a painting inside the Angono Rizal church which depicts St. John’s baptism of Christ. The declaration transpired just last month.)

Films shot in Baras

Meanwhile, the first Filipino film ever made and most likely the oldest film shot in Baras is La Vida de Jose Rizal (The Life of Jose Rizal). It was directed by Albert Yearsley in 1905. The film was a short film on the life of the national hero. 

In 1961, Gerardo “Gerry” de Leon filmed Apollo Robles in Baras, headlined by Fernando Poe Jr., Mina Aragon and Carlos Padilla Jr. It’s actually a radio serial written by Susanna C. de Guzman and was a big hit in the early 60s. The fiction is about a quite obedient medical student (the then-young and stunningly handsome FPJ) who turned boxer because his mom wants him to be a doctor while his dad is obsessed with watching him fight on the boxing arena. Apollo’s sultry sweetheart was the ravishing Mina Aragon in her teens.

What Eddie Romero filmed in Baras is Black Mama, White Mama (1973). It’s a story about a Black prostitute and a white revolutionary who formed an uneasy alliance when they are busted out of prison, then pursued by guerrillas, bounty hunters and the Army.  

In 1986, it was Richard Gomez’s turn to experience Baras ambiance as the lead actor in Super Islaw and the Flying Kids, a folksy fantasy film. Super Islaw was a crippled boy granted mystical powers because of his good heart. He used these abilities to protect the innocents of his town, battling supernatural beings that include vampires.

In 1990, FPJ returned to Baras for the movie Kahit Konting Pagtingin (1990) in which he paired himself with Sharon Cuneta who had begun to be known as the country’s Megastar. 

In 1989, Ishmael Bernal directed Vilma Santos, Gabby Concepcion, Zsa Zsa Padilla and Eric Quizon in Pahiram ng Isang Umaga, which is about a woman’s frantic last days in life and her efforts to reconcile with people she once loved but had to let go.

In 1991, Eddie Garcia portrayed Mayor Meliton Geronimo, a public official in Baras who dedicated his life to fight illegal drugs and criminal activity in his town. The movie was directed by Jose N. Carreon.

Ronnie Lazaro and Mark Gil starred in Ishmael helmed in Baras by Richard Somes in 2010. The film is about an ex-convict who returns to his neighborhood not knowing that the place he once knew is set to awaken his past. 

Piolo Pascual portrayed a doctor mourning the death of his wife in Silong (2015) while doing his best to maintain the family’s ancestral house. As he drives home one day, he finds a badly beaten and bloody woman (Rhian Ramos) on a deserted country road and takes her home to nurse her back to health. Directed by singer-turned filmmaker Jeffrey Hidalgo, Silong was the non-competing closing film in Cinemalaya 2016. That was the year the film festival had a competition for short films.

Regal Films first editions of its horror fantasy Shake, Rattle, & Roll franchise film series had episodes shot in Baras.

So, when in Baras, one can relish both the religious and the secular by visiting here and there.