Walking along the wood carvers road

As I step foot on Paete, stores filled with wooden and resin sculptures has received my eyes. I’m at the town’s center where roads crossed paths.  As I am not yet familiar to the streets, I looked around and see the town’s church and decided to start from there.

On the road to the church, I gaze and took photos upon the shops display. I even saw a porch with carved wooden furniture’s on one of the houses. I guess having wooden carved furniture is a common thing here for the town is known as the wood carving capital of the Philippines.

I passed an alley going to the church’s side door which as luck would have it, was opened that time. The church of Saint James the Apostle seemed reasonably old. I was surprised to see so many religious sculptures inside lined on both sides at the entire length of the wall. It’s not a matter of numbers but the spacing of the images is somewhat short compared to the other churches I’ve visit. It’s like having a parade of images inside.

From there, I asked a few local town people for directions going to the shop owned by Justino Cagayat Jr ., also known as Mang Paloy. I’ve known him because he was featured several times on the national news two years ago as the man behind the official wooden statue of Pedro Calungsod. Pedro Calungsod is the second Filipino Saint canonized in Rome on October of 2012.

His shop is far so I have to ride the jeep. Unfortunately, the shop was closed when I got there. I ended up having a chat with the owner of the shop beside it. Danny informed me how to find Luisito Ac-Ac, another famous sculptor of Paete.

Store of Danny Austria

So, I ride a tricycle going to Mr. Ac-Ac’s place only to find out that his shop is only a stone’s throw away from the town church. I regret that I have not learned it sooner because his shop is just along the road where I first walked and could have saved time.

Carving of Luis Ac-Ac, #28 J. V. Quesada St., Paete, Laguna, Philippines

Feeling a bit tired, I thought of having a drink first at a nearby store before meeting Mr. Ac-Ac and request for an interview. Not anticipating the arrival of a group of students on their educational field trip with a plan to take photos of Mr. Ac-Ac and his artworks. They beat me to him. Luckily the teachers called them to hurry up on taking pictures for the bus will be leaving soon.

When the students were gone, I approach Mr. Ac-Ac feeling nervous for I will be requesting for an unscheduled interview. But as soon as I introduced myself that uneasy feeling disappeared. I realized that he is a very welcoming and responsive person. He asked me how I found his place. I told him that I asked people for where would I find the most experienced and talented sculptor in town, and they lead me here. He joked on the most experienced as the oldest sculptor in town.

He allowed me to take photos inside his small gallery. His unique sculptures have made a fan out of me. Here, I picked-up information about him on paper cut-outs of publications that featured him in the past. “Luisito Ac-Ac is a multi-awarded sculptor who has done over a thousand pieces and are collected by art enthusiasts even from the US and Europe. He was labeled as Sculptor Par Excellence. He is the artist who sculpted the Jubilee Cross for the World Youth Day in 1995. Some of his prominent artworks are exhibited at the Philippine consulate in San Francisco, USA.”

After taking photos of his latest work, we resumed our talk about his most recent exhibit at PHACCI and Pinto Art Museum. Sadly I’ve never been to those places before so I could not relate that much. Aside from wood carving, Mr. Ac-Ac can also make sculptures of ice which he said is a lot easier for it does not need a lot of details. At present, Mr. Ac-Ac is at the age of 62 years and still active in wood carving. I see him as a man of humility and he’s passion as a sculptor will never fade. I am very pleased that I met him.

As I was about to leave town, I passed by another interesting store. It sells wooden pigs and sculptures of children playing a native Filipino game. In my youth days we called it luksong baka.

The tour around Paete is really special. It gives life to Filipino culture and arts. It can help children to dream and to desire to become great artists someday.

The town of Paete is located at the northeastern part of Laguna Province. Along the shores of scenic Laguna de Bay. About 2 to 3 hours of travel from Metro Manila.

For inquiries on Luisito Ac-Ac’s unique items, portrait and religious items, call or send a message at +63906-340-0390 or email to marygrace_acac@yahoo.com


Have you ever been in a place whose residents’ are artists? Please tell us your experience.