Cedie Lopez-Vargas welcomes lunch guests to the Boathouse.
Iloilo is a land of historic ancestral houses.
Many years back, I was in awe of the Nelly Garden in Jaro district, and I didn’t stop until I used it as concert venue in 2018 with Cecile Licad opening its concert series with an all-Chopin program.
The venue was just heaven-sent as it has a well-maintained 1928 New York Steinway grand.
Coming back and forth Iloilo for more concerts, I was always curious why another striking Iloilo landmark is called the Lopez Boathouse along Luna Street in La Paz district.
I finally got the chance to see how it looked inside when we flew to Iloilo and joined the lunch last November 24 with no less than Cedie Lopez-Vargas, the executive director of the Lopez Museum Foundation and daughter of Oscar Lopez, and Javier Vargas, the great grandson of Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr.
Don Eugenio, popularly known Don Eñing, was the brother of Don Fernando Lopez, Vice President to two presidents: Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and Elpidio Quirino.
The lunch host Cedie’s father Oscar was one of the four sons of Don Eugenio. Until his death in 2023 at age 93, Oscar was the patriarch of the Lopez clan.
Cedie was in Iloilo to grace the opening of the exhibit of the Lopez collection, The Patrimony of All, at the University of the Philippines Visayas. The Lopez Group Foundation, with the University of Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage, the Iloilo City government, with the support of former senator Franklin Drilon and Sen. Loren Legarda—is presenting The Patrimony of All: Ang Panublion Sang Tanan—Paintings from the Lopez Museum and Library Collection. The exhibit ongoing until April 25, 2025 is a survey of Philippine art masterpieces from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, by Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Juan Arellano and Fernando Amorsolo, from the Lopez Museum and Library collection.
Former senator Franklin Drilon (right), historian Ambeth Ocampo and the author in the Boathouse dining hall
Among the guests at the Lopez Boathouse lunch were former senator Franklin Drilon and wife Mila, popular historian Ambeth Ocampo, and Petty Benitez Johannot, the Benitez heir behind the concert series at the Benitez ancestral home MiraNila in Cubao, Quezon City.
How was the owner of Nelly Garden related to Eugenio Lopez and former Vice President Fernando Lopez, I got curious.
The pioneering industrialists, Lopez brothers (Don Eugenio Lopez, founder of the Lopez businesses, and former Vice President Fernando Lopez) were nephews of Don Vicente Lopez, who built the Nelly Garden mansion in 1928.
I’ve always been curious about the family ties between the late violinist Gilopez Kabayao and the Lopez family.
While Eugenio Lopez and Vice President Fernando Lopez represented the business and politicial achievers of the fourth generation of the Lopezes of Iloilo, there was another line in the Lopez family tree book described as “the dreamy, poetic, and lyrical kind.”
They were represented by their first cousins—the Lopez-Hofilena ladies of Hacienda Faraon in Cadiz, Negros, namely, Marcela Lopez de Kabayao and Honey Lopez de Panganiban, among others. From this lineage was born Gilopez Kabayao in 1929 in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. He grew up in a family of musicians in Hacienda Faraon.
Late ’30s party scene in the Lopez Boathouse
Considered a fine example of 1930s Art Deco, the Boathouse has a facade in the image of a ship, with portholes, like a ship docked in a quiet harbor.
Inside are winding stairways. I stepped into a room and the guide told me, “This is where Mr. Oscar Lopez used to stay when he was in town.”
I posed by one study table just to have a piece of memory of the erudite patriarch, who must have one of the most comprehensive libraries in the country. A music lover, Mr. Lopez would order concert tickets from me for the Cecile Licad recitals at Philamlife Theater in the late ‘90s. His ticket order by phone came with strict details, “I want tickets on the left side preferably near the stage. I want to see her hands while performing.”
Touring the rest of the house, you go to the top floor where you see a hanging stairway, a functional steel sculpture leading up to the tower. I espied Ambeth Ocampo threatening to negotiate the swinging winding stair, and I realized that doing a Tarzan at age 75 was simply not for me.
Lunch was served at the Boathouse living room for the visitors hosted by Cedie Lopez-Vargas.
In this Boathouse on this fine Sunday of November 2024, I saw the granddaughter of Don Eugenio Lopez (Cedie) and his great grandson (Javier “Marco” Vargas) and his wife, Tisha de Ocampo Vargas.
At the opening of the Lopez Collection, ‘The Patrimony of All,’ at the University of the Philippines Visayas: former senator Franklin Drilon (second from left), with, from left, former Tourism head Narzalina Lim, Mrs. Rosalie Trenas representing Mayor Jerry Trenas, UPV chancellor Clement Camposano and Cedie Lopez-Vargas
They were all in town for the opening of the Lopez Collection exhibit at the University of the Philippines Visayas.
Cedie told us she had very little memories of the Boathouse. “I spent more of my teenage summers at Nelly Garden, as the Boathouse was serving other purposes at that time.”
From her father Oscar came the account that it was called Boathouse as the design evoked the image of a battleship, complete with portholes. For indeed, the elongated veranda of the house looked like a boat’s viewing deck. The tower extends up to a fourth-floor observation area.
Built by architect Fernando H. Ocampo in 1935, the Boathouse was inaugurated just in time for the baptism of Don Eñing’s only daughter, Presentación, who would become Mrs. Psinakis. The godparents were then President Manuel Quezon and his wife, Aurora Reyes Recto.
Jaro city itself was born in 1937 with the signing of the charter by President Quezon after the National Assembly created the four cities of Iloilo, Cebu, Zamboanga and Davao.
For Vargas, the masterpieces from the Lopez collection, now on view in Iloilo, represent her parents and grandparent’s collection which are rich in history.
Says she: “The opening of this exhibition feels like the fulfillment of something deeply meaningful and significant. I feel deeply the weight of responsibility entrusted into my hands for the care and preservation of the museum collection, guiding it with dedication and reverence, until the time comes to proudly turn it over in to the hands of the next generation of stewards.”
I asked her if her parents or grandparents had a hand in the invitation to American diva Beverly Sills who sang at the Meralco Theater in 1969. She was accompanied by the then fledgling Cultural Center of the Philippines orchestra under the baton of Maestro Luis Valencia. (In 1982, this orchestral ensemble became the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.)
Vargas recalls: “Yes, I remember Beverly Sills coming to Manila in 1969 and watching her perform at Meralco Theater. She may have been a favorite of my grandfather (Eugenio Lopez Sr.) who enjoyed music and cultural performances. I was about 10 years old at that time and was tasked with entertaining her (Sills’) daughter who was about my age.”
Marking the opening of Lopez collection exhibit at UPV, she told her listeners that it was with great pride she was representing the two institutions that embody two of the “passions of my family: the Lopez Museum and Library, for its commitment to the preservation and promotion of Philippine arts and culture, and second, the Lopez Group Foundation, for its unwavering mission to continuously build and nurture the shared history and patrimony of the Lopez family with Iloilo.”
She said: “My father, our beloved Oscar Lopez, shared his father, Don Eñing’s belief in the primacy of Philippine art and culture. The result is the now impressive collection of Filipino paintings and Filipiniana rare books, manuscripts, and maps. But what is more impressive is that with the dedication and hard work of my forebears, we and future generations of Filipino youth will still be able access these collections, not just as a celebration of cultural history and art, but of cultural preservation and an enduring spirit of nationalism.”
As audiences filed into the UPV Performance Hall and immersed themselves in portraits of times past, she remembered her father’s words about the importance of recognizing, appreciating and nurturing their Iloilo roots. “We have never lost our affection for the city of our childhood. So, we take every opportunity to participate in the development of the province. Projects like this are only the beginning of what we would like to be a continuing process of investing in human development in our hometown. Development in the end is about developing people, and we in the Lopez Group want to put our resources in the service of improving the quality of life, so that the next generation of Jaro children can live better, happier, more productive lives.”
As for the Lopez heritage houses, this footnote is in order.
The Lopez Boathouse in La Paz was declared a National Heritage House by the National Historical Commission on March 13, 2002. The Nelly Garden was declared a national landmark in 2004 by the National Historical Commission.
Then what came to mind was Don Eñing Lopez being portrayed by actor Armando Goyena in the 1995 film Eskapo by Chito Rono. It is about what the Lopez family went through under the Marcos regime after the declaration of Martial Law. I interviewed Goyena during the Eskapo presscon at Meralco Theater and got a moving thank you letter from the actor after the story ran in Philippine Star.
Cedie Lopez-Vargas (second from left) and her son, Javier (Marco) Vargas (second from right)—representing the Lopez heirs from two generations—and Javier’s wife Tisha (third from right), with exhibit visitors Maricel Montero and friends
Finally, today, I see real faces who represent the fourth generation of the Lopez family in Iloilo. Javier (Marco) Vargas, the great grandson of Don Eñing Lopez, looks good beside his young wife Tisha. His mother, Cedie, is kept busy greeting exhibit opening guests.
I did three concerts at Nelly Garden in 2018 and 2019. In the Licad recital, the entire Kabayao family led by Mr. and Mrs. Gilopez Kabayao were in attendance.
With those events in the past, and this visit to Iloilo, I now have a good overview of the Lopez family in Iloilo City through the two distinct heritage houses—The Lopez Boathouse and the Nelly Garden.
I am happy to have shared their grandparents’ love for music and the arts.
