Memories of Liloan
My grandfather knew the importance of family unity and he was always thinking about how to keep the family together. So growing up, obviously there was Liloan.
We used to go there every Sunday and it would be a family affair. You had the Morazas in one house, my grandfather and my family had another house, Louie Aboitiz and his family had another house and then right beside them was Hank Aboitiz. It was all the time the old people getting together, the young people getting together. You were growing up all the time doing something together.
So Liloan was a very important part of growing up. It helped the unity of the family.
01
The Houses
Tia Martina’s house had two sides with a staircase in the middle connecting them. The left side was Paquita and the right side was Joe and Isidro. After I was married, that was the “clubhouse” where everybody would go.
- Remy Moraza Romero-Salas
02
The 1930s
In the 1930s, Tio Ramon had a very active social life. Almost every Sunday during summer, he would give a big lunch at Liloan Beach for about fifty people – mostly top executives of banks and oil companies.
- Louie Aboitiz
03
The 1940s
When we returned to the Philippines after getting married and living in the United States for a while, Maria Aboitiz suggested to rebuild the house of my dad in Liloan for us to live in. We loved Liloan so much.
- Maria Luisa Aboitiz Canova
04
The 1950s
One of the best times of our childhood was the time we spent in Liloan. Growing up we spent our summers and long weekends like Holy Week in Liloan. The Moraza compound was made of Abuela Martina, Jose, Isidro and Paquita (my mother) and their families.
- Mari Lou Gonzalez Reinecke
05
The 1960s
Liloan was very, very happy times for everybody. We used to sleep together in cots outside, no aircon, no nothing, right beside each other and hearing the waves come in. It was so nice. We would go to sleep around 8 or 9 o’clock. If there was a nice girlfriend, hold her hand or something and then play spin-the- bottle.
- Jon Aboitiz
06
The 1970s
When I was around 13 or 14, my father bought a speedboat. It was called Txitxi. And oh, that was lots of fun because we would come with friends and go around in the speedboat and go skiing. We went all the way to Cat Island. But even before the speedboat, it was still a lot of fun. We were so free.
- Eukene Aboitiz
07
The 1980s
My Liloan memories are the tide pools where we would catch the mudskippers and the ever-elusive zebra fish. We would also go to Cat Island and look for cat’s eyes. Liloan even had sea horses. The water was still clean.
- Melissa Aboitiz
08
The 1990s
Memories that come to mind: Arriving at the house and going to the porch to kiss everyone gathered around a circle, peeling mani and drinking a cold beer, the hunchback selling budbud that came every Sunday, the sound of the ice cream bell every afternoon and running out to get a Pinipig Crunch or Twin Popsie, the sounds of the mahjong table, the floating bar, and the throwing of empty beer bottles onto the sand!
- Ana Aboitiz Delgado
