Fabrica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the ecclesisatical organism, see Fabrica ecclesiae

Fabrica is a barrio (now called barangay) in the province of Negros Occidental, in the Republic of the Philippines. It was formerly the biggest barrio in the Philippines, and one of the most cosmopolitan area in the Visayas.

Fabrica was internationally famous since the early 1900s up to the year 1976, as the site of the largest lumber company and sawmill in the world, the Insular Lumber Company (ILCO), owned by the Americans. ILCO produced hardwood lumber which was well-known the world over, and was exported to the United States, Australia, and to many other countries in the world, bringing in dollars to the Philippine economy.

Fabrica was also the generic name of the barrios of Fabrica, Paraiso, and Central Lopez, where a sugarmill was located, making the area the most industrialized in Negros.

Compared to the many barrios and places in the Philippines in the early 1950s and 1960s which were underdeveloped and stagnated in poverty due to poor agricultural crops, Fabrica was the most developed in terms of infrastructure, water system, electricity and lighting facilities. At that time, majority of the towns and barrios in the Philippines did not have running water, electricity and lighting, and infrastracture that Fabrica had.

Fabrica also had Insular Lumber Company Hospital (ILCO Hospital), at that time considered the most modern hospital in Negros Occidental and the Visayas, and one of the country's most modern hospital, staffed by American doctors and nurses.

The place has also funeral parlors, when the idea of having a funeral parlor was not yet in vogue in the early 1960's.

During its long boom years from 1910 to 1976, Fabrica had two large moviehouses, a cockpit arena, a number of medical clinics, drugstores, two private secondary schools (the Holy Trinity Academy run by the Augustinian nuns, and the Faraon Institute), compared to many towns and barrios in the Philippines that did not have a movie house, hospital, private high school, medical clinic, and other amenities. It has also a vocational school teaching dressmaking and tailoring, the Jean Jacquet Institute, run by an American. Holy Trinity Academy and Faraon Institute continue to exist up to this day.

Fabrica was also the only barrio in the Philippines that had its own post office / postal service, with its own zip code like that of a town or a city. Fabrica was also linked to the rest of the Philippines by the two telegraph companies, operated by the former Radio Communications of the Philippines, Inc. (RCPI) and the Philippine Telephone and Telegraph Company (PT & T).

During the 1950s to the 1970s, Fabrica was also the commercial and industrial center of the province of Negros Occidental and the Visayas. Mnay Chinese businessmen had invested and put up stores in Fabrica, especially in Barrio Paraiso, which separate Fabrica by the big and navigable Himoga-an river system, linked by a big steel bridge traversing the national highway. The bridge, which is considered a landmark, still exists at present. It was constructed by the American engineers during the American occupation in the Philippines. On the other hand, many Americans, who were ILCO executives and their families, stayed in the American compound, which was part of ILCO industrial complex.

Among the well-known Filipinos who were born and reared in Fabrica are Gilopez Kabayao, the internationally-famous Filipino violinist and virtuoso, and Ramon Bagatsing, the former congressman of Manila who became Manila's legendary mayor during the Martial Law years in the Philippines.

However, during the 1976 when the Insular Lumber Company closed its operations in Fabrica due to the scarcity of mahogany and other hardwood, the barrio became a ghost town, with its glory and grandeur of the good old days becoming a memory.