LIFE
Memory in stone: Sariaya municipio up for national recognition
Sariaya’s stately Art Deco municipal hall has stood for nearly a century as a witness to the town’s history and transformation. Now poised for national recognition, the landmark embodies a heritage that its people fought to preserve — and hope to carry into the future.
Literature on Sariaya’s history and heritage is abundant, covering the town’s former and present sites, illustrious families and built heritage — most notably its grand ancestral houses.
More recently, attention has turned to its American-era municipal building, as the provincial government, through the Quezon Provincial Heritage, History, Culture and the Arts Council, spearheads efforts to have it declared a National Cultural Treasure.
Completed in 1931, the municipio is among Sariaya’s many Art Deco structures. It belongs to the Asingan type of municipal hall designed by Juan Arellano, a scheme first used for the now-demolished American-era municipio of Asingan, Pangasinan.
Apart from those in Asingan and Sariaya, municipal halls of this type can also be found in Calumpit, Bulacan and Jaro, now a district of Iloilo City. The municipal hall of Tanauan, Batangas, features a related design. In these buildings, Arellano applied his design philosophy of indigenizing foreign architectural forms, often embellishing them with local motifs interpreted in the Art Deco style.
On the Sariaya municipio, this approach is evident in the stylized banana-leaf motifs and what appear to be geometricized coconuts adorning the façade. The building exemplifies the zigzag moderne style of Art Deco, distinguished, according to architect Gerard Lico, by its “lavish attention to detail and embellishment.” Its defining features include stepped, ziggurat-like forms and zigzag ornamentation. The municipio’s ziggurat-like façade is crowned by a central tower, whose upper section is flanked by a pair of sculptures depicting identical maidens.
The building was among the heritage structures saved by advocates from possible damage or demolition in 2015, when a road-widening project was undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Construction history
Construction began on 23 October 1930 and was expected to be completed within 240 days. The project was undertaken because, according to the Bureau of Public Works, “the present one has been found inadequate for the needs of the community.” The old municipio was most likely located near the town plaza.
Gregorio Malinis of Lucena Ciity served as contractor for the new building under a P59,500 contract. The government supplied him, free of charge, with 1,100 barrels of tested cement for its construction. The project’s total allocation was P80,000, funded through a loan from the Insular Government. Of this amount, P2,000 was set aside to purchase the site.
The property was most likely owned by the Rodriguez family, who also owned the adjacent grand American-era residence now known as the Emralino-Rodriguez Ancestral House, or simply the Pink House.
By the end of 1930, the building was reported to be 15 percent complete.
Originally scheduled for completion on 20 June 1931, the municipio was officially completed on 3 July 1931, during the term of municipal president Hilarion Valderas.
Federico Ilustre
In the postwar years, two two-story wings were added to accommodate Sariaya’s growing needs and the municipal government’s expanding offices and services. The additions, designed in sympathy with the Art Deco character of the original building, were executed by Federico Ilustre, then consulting architect of the Bureau of Public Works.
Among Ilustre’s other works are the Government Service Insurance System Building and the now-demolished Veterans Memorial Building on Arroceros in Manila, as well as the Philippine Coconut Authority Building and the Quezon Memorial Monument in Quezon City.
In the 1960s, the municipio underwent repairs during the administration of Mayor Andres Remo. The restored building was inaugurated on Bonifacio Day in 1963.
The old municipio is now largely unoccupied following the construction of the new Sariaya Municipal Hall, located about a kilometer southeast of it. The new building was inaugurated in November 2025.
Only the post office, library, Regional Trial Court and Office of Senior Citizens Affairs remain in the old building, which the local government and the DPWH plan to restore.
Restoration will proceed once the relevant cultural agencies approve the development plans to be submitted by the local government. Upon completion, the building will house a museum and a revitalized public library.