We headed off to Sarrat to visit Sta. Monica Church but along the way, we spotted a Marcos Museums and we didn’t hesitate to stop and check it out. In Ilocos Norte, there are many Marcos Museum and this is just one of them.

This museum which opens everyday from 8am till 5pm is just along the highway and it is easy to spot. This museum is the ancestral house of the Edralin, which is Ferdinand Marcos’s maternal side of the family.

Family portrait of the Marcos family

The president was born and lived here until they moved to Batac City when he was eight years old. His parents, Mariano and Josefa Edralin Marcos were all schoolteachers. The house is a traditional bahay na bato, a 2-storey structure with the ground floor for storage while the upper level is reserved for living quarters.

The old kitchen

There are many items on display some taken from the Malacanang Palace Museum as well as from the Malacanang of the North in Paoay. There are many old photographs of the family as well as documents and furniture.

The president with his nanny

Surveying and studying all the things you see in the Marcos Museum, you will learn that Ferdinand Marcos who was named after the Spanish king Ferdinand VII came from a well to do family. And it is not something new that he entered politics for his ancestors were already serving in politics and active in many revolutions.

Dona Joesfa and the president's youngest sister who is the grandmother of actor-host Paolo Bediones

The caretaker who also acts as a curator

The caretaker was very friendly and explains everything on display and what he knows about the Edralin-Marcos family. Renovated by Imelda Marcos for her husband’s 60th birthday, it was left abandoned during the fall of the Marcos Family.

Now, the Marcos Museum in Sarrat is one of the attractions in Ilocos Norte.

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After we had our hearty breakfast of Ilocano longganisa dipped in their native vinegar (now I’m drooling) in Balay da Blas where we stayed, we headed to the quite town of Sarrat which a few kilometers from the city proper of Laoag City. There are two main attractions in this town – The Edralin-Marcos Museum and the Sarrat Church.

Sta. Monica Parish Church and Bell Tower

Sta. Monica Parish Church or simply Sarrat Church is one of the most popular destinations in Ilocos Norte not just for its heritage and cultural significance but it was this same church that one of the most lavish weddings in the country happened. It was in June 11, 1983 that then presidential daughter Irene Marcos wed a member of the scion clan of the Aranetas, Greggy Araneta.

The wedding was one of the ways that the Marcoses showed their indulgence as they built the Laoag Airport and the Fort Ilocandia Resort and Casino just for the wedding. The sleepy town was transformed into a bustling village during the Marcos-Araneta Nuptials that many people compared it to the royal wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. And it doesn’t end there, for the church was badly damaged when a 7.6 intensity earthquake hit Sarrat which some say was a premonition of the inevitable downfall of the Marcos regime.

The town of Sarrat is important for the Marcos family since the president, Ferdinand Marcos was born in this town before they moved to Batac when he was eight. Fabian Ver who was also very active during the Marcos regime was from Sarrat. One of the guesthouses of Marcos is in Sarat which was abandoned for many years and now a government office.

Sarrat Church Bell Tower

Setting aside Marcos- Araneta weddings, Sta. Monica Church is no doubt a very lovely structure of Neo-classical and Baroque features. Its bell tower which was severely damaged during the earthquake is now fully restored. The façade of Sarrat Church is not intricate but is made of baked red bricks with some jars used as ornament. The church also faces a river in which during summer, huts were built for families along with balikbayans to have some nice picnic along the riverbank.

The river across the Church which also a preserved naure park.

The simple interior of the church

The interior of the church is also very simple, not a hint of glamor from the wedding that happened more than two decades ago. No tall pillar or sculptures inside, maybe the ornaments were all ravaged by the past earthquakes that the church succumbed to in the past.

Parish museum

Another structure that lies just next to the church is its Museum. It’s hard to miss this building for yet again, made of red baked bricks which always attract my attention. We missed the chance to visit the museum since it was a Sunday when we went there. I have read in one blog that the museum was once a trial court during the Spanish era.

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