The House of the Dulay Mendoza Clan of Marikina Valley, a Lakan Dula Heritage

The house, with the smell of dama de noche at night, with grape vines, an old basketball court and balete tree -- is the official residence of the hereditary leader of the Dulay Mendoza Clan of Marikina Valley. It is found in the poblacion of Marikina near the old municipal hall and the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned, also known as Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados or Ina ng mga Walang Mag-Ampon, Marikina City, a Roman Catholic church and the home of an image of the Virgin Mary venerated locally, which has received Papal recognition. After the Papal recognition, the image stayed in the Dulay Mendoza Clan house for one week, with daily novenas and rosary, culminating into a street mass before it was returned to the nearby Our Lady at the Abandoned Church. After the street mass in front of the clan house, the hereditary leader of the Dulay Mendoza clan served the worshippers led by former Philippine Vice Presidential  candidate Bayani Fernando, Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro and former Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando, with dinner of waknatoy (a native Marikina dish) and other native dishes. Until now, the image has never stayed for one week to any house near the church again.

The image of the Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados inside the nearby clan house at the poblacion of Marikina in Isabelo Mendoza St., San Roque, Marikina City with the reigning Dulay Mendoza Family on their ordinary  house dresses. From left to right: Sofronio Dulay ll, Arlene Dulay Alcazar ll, Arlene Uy Corral l, Katreena Marie Dulay and Sofronio Dulay l.

The future clan leader, Sofronio Dulay ll
 was declared prom King at the Marist School
graduation ball held in a .hotel in nearby Ortigas.

Poblacion is a Spanish word which means the center of civilization. In Spain, a poblacion is composed of an old Church, a plaza, a municipio and the ilustrado families around the church. This is the same pattern the Spaniards did in the in the Philippines. The ilustrados (konyo in today’s term) are usually the descendants of the prayle, guardia civil, native nobility, governadorcillos, principalia and the kabise or chinese businessmen. They are usually good looking, rich, politically connected, educated and cultured.

The clan house is found in Isabelo Mendoza St., San Roque, Marikina City in the barangay where the house of the owner of Hacienda Marikina, the Tuason family, exists even today; and  the street where one can also find the Shoe Museum and famous fallen century - old Acacia tree, the old municipal hall (now occupied by the Red Cross), the Butiki Park, the Isabelo's Secret, and the Teatro Marikina; ancestral houses of the Mendozas of the lineage of Don Benito Mendoza, the founder and first gobernadorcillo of Marikina, and where you can hear the church bells of the nearby  Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados.

The unity of Dulay and Mendoza families in Marikina Valley was mentioned partly by J.Antonio Mendoza y González, in  Daluyan : A Historical Dictionary of the Streets of Manila, Printed by NHI, as follows:

“The Tioco family was a very rich and generous family from Old Tondo. They owned numerous fishing boats in Tondo and Malabon. Siblings Balbino Tioco and Romana Tioco were illustrious citizens and famous Tondo benefactors of the 19th century.

Balbino’s son Maximiano was kidnapped in the late 19th century and ransomed for 3 “kaings” of gold. Maximiano was married to a spanish mestiza Marciana Félix (same Félix family as Joji Félix Velarde and Conchita Félix wife of Felipe Calderón of the Malolos Constitution)

Maximiano married Teodorica Ylo (The Cabangis family are also descended from the Ylo’s) They bore 5 children, Nemesio, Salvador, “Beot”, Guadalupe (married to Don Eduardo Barretto), Consuelo (married to Dr Rufino Mendoza, son of Don Isabelo Mendoza de Villablanca, a direct descendant of the spaniard Don Benito Mendoza, first gobernadorcillo of Mariquina in 1787. Benito’s (daughter?) Juana Mendoza Cerbito married Ceferino Dulay, a patriarch of the Rajah Lakandula/Dulay clan.

Long after the family had left Old Tondo for the plush villages of Makati and other parts of Manila, there remains Calle Romana* in honor of Romana Tioco, and Calle Tioco* in honor of Balbino and Romana, two personages of the same family in gratitude for their inexhaustible generosity to Tondo. (J.Antonio Mendoza y González)".

The clan house is the place where the “Dine with the Ancestors Rituals” are being held among the key descendants of Lakan Dula. The "Dine with the Ancestor" ritual is a tradition exclusively among the descendants of Lakan Dula from all over the archipelago whenever they visit the clan house of Lakan Dula  descendants in Marikina Valley. It is done with grapes, red wine served in the 16th century plate passed over from Lakan Dula household to David Dula y de Goiti, to Petre Dulay, to Ceferino Dulay and now to Sofronio Dulay l, and in the future to Sofronio Dulay ll -- the bloodline of the eldest sons of Lakan Dula descendants. The ritual starts with grapes on two antique plates from the household of Lakan Dula and a bottle French red wine on top of an antique baul, lighting of a candle lamp,  and an antique bayonet used by Ceferino Rivas Dulay when he was still in the guerilla movement against the Japanese army. Free wheeling talks with reigning and secretive clan leader Sofronio Dulay l will happen while partaking with the grapes and red wine. One of the rituals which include the world renown arnis guru Bambit Dulay  was televised in a popular national TV show, I - Witness, hosted by a well known TV host Sandra Aguinaldo on January 2018 entitled "Kaharian ng Tondo", with around a million views now in the You Tube. 

The Dulay Mendoza Clan of Marikina Valley was specifically mentioned in the ancient genealogy of the Gatbunton Clan of the Kingdom of Tondo. In the clan house, visitors can also find what the folks are calling the "ANG ALAMAT NG MESA NG MGA ALKALDE" because the last Four Elected Mayors of Marikina has dined in that table: Bayani Flores Fernando, Marides Reyes Carlos, Del Reyes de Guzman and Marcy Reyes Teodoro.

The clan house has been a favorite shooting venue for indie films, tv drama series, documentaries mostly about Lakan Dula and the Kingdom of Tondo, commercials and student projects on Noli Me Tangere and El Felibusterismo. Some folks in the neighborhood fondly call the house as "bahay ni Rizal or bahay ni Lakan Dula" because of its antique ambience. It is also the corporate office of the CDM Foundation which main concern is to consolidate the descendants of Lakan Dula scattered in the whole Philippine archipelago and in other countries, and to do further research on the Kingdom of Tondo Manila and the Lakanate of Lawan. It is also the office of Marikina News Facebook Group with 176,000 members and the Ceferino and Juana Dulay Children, Grandchildren and In - Laws (Dulay Mendoza) FB group, the main Facebook group exclusively of the reigning family of the descendants.

ANG ALAMAT NG MESA NG MGA ALKALDE. The last Four Mayors of Marikina has dined in this table: BF, MCF, Del at Marcy. Tonight, in the same table are the bets of the UP College of Law in the moot court national debate national competition, three of them which include Sofronio Corral Dulay ll (Esdee), Julia Chu (both third year law students) and Sophia Garduno (second year law student) and their trainers. Esdee, Julia and Sophia were selected by the College of Law from among their students.The national competition will be held late this year...may the legend and luck of this table give the bets of UP College of Law the lucky marching order. Sa 176,000 souls na kasama natin sa Marikina News Fb Group, please give these three young souls the good luck wish they need on their way to the national competition. Update...they won eventually the national competition and represented the Philippines in an international debate held in Hong Kong which they won major awards.