Wow! This building could have come in the usual white and/or off-white paint and still look good! While many provincial capitols in this country come with many pillars for a façade, this one has only two! But its a big building nonetheless. And I think that color is not common amongst provincial seats of government. Let’s just say its modernized – although I know from a lot of hardware stores that those off-something non-traditional colors are cheaper to have and the fad these days. So we can fairly say, this one is a bit 'updated' hehe. One of the few (if not the only) capitol where the walls are right on the very sides of main thoroughfares. Call it the need for more road space in an ever progressing city!
I like it that they maintained the presence of that usual window material that the province is named after – capiz shells. Very reminiscent of the beautiful houses of bygone years. Hey I think those big letters are made of metal (probably brass). And not to be left out by the city hall with twice the number of pillars, this capitol also has a second floor terrace with transparent glass! Oh ha! It even looks like a coffee shop at some mall hehe. Hello Ayala Terraces! Hey I noticed those window grills seem to emulate the window designs over at the church! Nice one for “blending, consistency, uniformity” since these edifices stand around the very same plaza anyway. To the mayor though, please don’t do that at your city hall. It may look ugly hehehe!
I went inside, and my childhood memories that capitols are fantasy halls like in that ballroom where Cinderella danced was challenged hehe. Most capitols do still have those very wide spaces for a lobby. But not in the Capiz Provincial Capitol. Practicality in an ever-growing province has won over fantastic wide spaces of nothingness. Here, you can’t even tell if there is a lobby anymore. They have converted just about every available space into offices, stairs here and there, ATMs, bulletin boards, attendance paraphernalia and just about everything that your modern office may need. But not haphazardly, mind you! Most offices are glass-walled so you can see who is working, snoozing, chatting or playing solitaire on the PC hahaha! This is a government institution yes, but it looked clean to me everywhere! Even if there were so many folks transacting business everywhere – because I came at a busy time and day. Hmm, like the city hall, this capitol is also now 3 floors instead of the usual 2!
Hey there is big marker that says this capitol celebrated its centennial way back in 2002. But there is also a smaller marker that says erected 1911. It took our forebears a decade to put up their Capiz Provincial Capitol. And I smiled in agreement that the provincial board was composed of just three people – the governor, the treasurer and the ‘third member’.
Now I was able to get some ‘connect’… listen to this… the province of capiz was enacted as such in 1901, they labored to be able to put up a capitol building and it materialized in 1911 where together with that, they also put up the monument to Jose Rizal in its front yard. See the beauty of roaming around?! I did not have to read a history book to learn some things of our past. This plaza must have been such a wonderful place in 1911 and the years that followed!
Alright, I asked some capitol personnel where I could find the ancestral house of late President Roxas. They pointed me in towards where the capitol faces. Its somewhere in the area where I got off my trike ride! So I started walking back there, but saw many things else along the way!
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