A couple of weekends ago, I found myself doing my first long drive in months. I wasn’t a passenger but the driver when the wife and I went on an excursion with neighbors-friends, one of whom arranged for our lunch at Ugu Bigyan’s Potter’s Garden in Tiaong, Quezon. We had two options to get there – one via the scenic route through Rizal’s backdoor that takes one to Teresa, Tanay, Baras and Pililla in Rizal, Pakil, Pangil, Paete, Lumban, Pagsanjan, Sta. Cruz and San Pablo in Laguna, the other via C-6, SLEX and STAR Tollways taking us through southern Metro Manila, Laguna, and Batangas. We took the latter route as it was faster (shorter travel time by an hour) and it allowed us to test our newly installed Autosweep RFID’s for the two tollways we used along the way.
The photo below was taken by my wife upon my prodding. I had not seen an arch as we traversed Sto. Tomas, Batangas and Alaminios and San Pablo, Laguna. These were all along Asian Highway 26 (AH 26) or the Pan Philippine Highway System. The arch marks entry/exit to/from the Provinces of Quezon and Laguna. This one, however, looks like it is Quezon's.
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| Welcome arch of the Province of Quezon |
Arches like the one in the photo used to be the landmarks between towns and provinces. They usually featured history, products and/or attributes of the city/town. I personally liked the big bat in the middle of the arch of Paniqui town in Tarlac and the castle features of Castillejos, Zambales. There are fewer archs nowadays partly because the highways department embarked on a nationwide road widening program that resulted in many arches being demolished. This was simply because the openings under the arches were narrow compared to the widened roads.
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