The Vinzons Heritage Education Museum in Vinzons, Camarines Norte is located inside a fully-restored Gabaldon Building.
Its main hall, Tacboan Hall, houses objects that tell the heritage not just of Vinzons but of the entire Camarines Norte province. The hall’s name harks back to the town’s old name from 1581 to 1624, before it was renamed to Indan. In 1946, the town changed its name again in honor of Bintao. But who is Bintao?
Galleries
Aside from Tacboan Hall, there is also a gallery dedicated to the lawyer, writer, activist, and politician Wenceslao “Bintao” Vinzons. Vinzons is the Father of Student Activism in the Philippines and was martyred during the World War II. The town is named after him.
Fun facts about Wenceslao “Bintao” Vinzons: There is a hall named after him at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He became the third editor-in-chief of UP’s student publication, Philippine Colegian. The publication’s office is now at the Vinzons Hall.
Abel Icatlo, the curator of Museo Bulawan, wrote of Bintao in an opinion piece published by the Inquirer in 2019:
Vinzons endeavored to face up to the greatest odds and the most stern realities confronting him in order to hold aloft the torch of freedom, the dignity of the Filipino, and the value of national salvation. He was a martyr and a hero, a student of noteworthy diligence, a prolific writer, a brilliant orator, an intrepid student leader, an eminent politician and statesman, and an outstanding intellectual.
There is also a gallery that showcases why Vinzons is the rice granary of Camarines Norte. Vinzons has a total land area of 9,060 hectares. 21.53 percent of this is used for planting rice and other crops. Because of the rice plantation in the town, many of their notable products are made from rice.
Some of the snacks Vinzons is proud of :
Hinalo (brown kakanin in the photo below) is made from glutinous rice flour, muscovado sugar, and coconut cream and topped with fried peanuts.
Angko (white kakanin) is a mochi-like snack made from glutinous rice flour filled with either peanuts or sweetened coconut meat.
Camarines Norte’s version of tikoy (orange). I am not sure, but this could be because there are many Filipino-Chinese families in Camarines Norte. Even Bintao had Chinese blood.
Angko (white), hinalo (brown), and tikoy (orange) made in Vinzons town. | Photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
Lusong is a traditional instrument used to pound and grind rice, banana, cassava, etc. | Photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
Angko, is a mochi-like snack made from glutinous rice and filled with peanuts or sweetened coconut meat. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
There are food dioramas in one of the galleries at the Vinzons Heritage Education Museum. They of course feature the town’s products like angko. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
Barikulkol is nipa palm wine made in Vinzons and sold to provinces like Laguna and Quezon, where it is used in making lambanog. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
There is also a Calaguas Hall that showcases the flaura and fauna in the Calaguas Group of Islands, the town’s main tourism attraction that boasts of pristine, clear waters and virgin islands. Also displayed in the gallery are two large tanks with live fish.
If you’re a numismatist, you will love that they also display coins from 1700s and 1800s that were retrieved from a shipwreck near Vinzons.
Coins believed to be from the 1700s and the 1800s that were retrieved from a shipwreck. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
An old map of Vinzons is displayed at the Vinzons Heritage Education Museum. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
An original document signed by Wenceslao “Bitao” Vinzons at the Vinzons Heritage Education Museum. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
Even the stamp collection of Vinzons’ descendants are displayed at the Vinzons Heritage Education Museum. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
Gabaldon Building and Vinzons Pilot Elementary School
The Gabaldon Building at Vinzons Pilot Elementary School that houses the Vinzons Heritage Education Museum was constructed in 1930. If you are a Filipino who studied in a public school, you have probably seen a Gabaldon Building in your alma mater, maybe even attended class in one of the classrooms there. They are named after the Filipino-Spanish legislator Isauro Gabaldón, who, during the American Rule, advocated for a law that provided for the funding of modern school buildings throughout the country.
Vinzons Pilot Elementary School was first called Indan Elementary School when it was built in 1914, thus the inscription on the façade. | photo by Rey Anthony Ostria, visitbicol.com
In 1946, when the town’s name was changed to Vinzons, Indan Elementary School was renamed to Vinzons Elementary School. In 1970, the school was finally renamed Vinzons Pilot Elementary School when the schools division superintendent envisioned a model school for quality learning.
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