Batong Buhay Lodge No. 27
The Name
Batong Buhay means living stone. It comes from the Tagalog words bato, stone and buhay, living.
The Lodge
This lodge was initially founded as Bagumbayan Lodge No.352 under the jurisdiction of the Gran Oriente Español. It was organized in December 1913 in Manila by Patricia M. Cruz, Amado Soliongco, Primitivo R. Cruz, Cirilo Dizon, Ruperto del Castillo, Antero de Sala, Jose Cruz, Gorgonio Molina and Ignacio Dichangco, most of whom, if not all, came from Walana Lodge. It was chartered on May 18, 1914.
When the union of Masonic forces in the Philippines was forged in February 1917, Bagumbayan Lodge transferred its allegiance to the Grand Lodge of the Philippine Islands and was issued a new charter as Bagumbayan Lodge No. 27. It surrendered its old charter to the Gran Oriente Espanol.
The transfer to the Grand Lodge of PI did not sit well with many members of Bagumbayan Lodge. The Grand Lodge of PI, founded by American lodges, was using the American ritual. Also, because of cultural and language differences full fraternization between Filipino and American Masons was not possible. The older members of Bagumbayan Lodge had grown up in a Spanish milieu; their manners, their personalities and even their faults were quite Latin. Their values differed diametrically from those of the Americans and although they had acquired a smattering of the English language, they spoke a brand of English that was barely comprehensible to the Americans.
On July 17, 1919, the Gran Oriente Espanol deputized Mariano Tenorio to reestablish its lodges in the Philippines. Within a year Tenorio succeeded in setting up four lodges. Then in the early months of 1921, he convinced several members of Bagumbayan Lodge to return to the fold of the Gran Oriente Espanol. Patricia M.Cruz, Jose Elchico, Jose M. Cruz, Francisco de Asis, Balbino Avelilla, Esteban Dayo, Emilio Dominguez, Simeon Serdenia, Ruperto del Castillo and Maximo R. Santiago founded Bagumbayan Lodge No. 352 on Katubusan St. in Manila and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Gran Oriente Espanol.
The Grand Lodge of P.I. protested the reestablishment of the lodges of the Gran Oriente Español. When the later turned a deaf ear to its protest, Grand Master Edwin E. Elser issued Edict No. 4 declaring all the lodges chartered by the Gran Oriente Espariol in the Philippines to be "illegal, spurious, irregular and clandestine." In obedience to the Edict, Bagumbayan Lodge No. 27 expelled all it members who assisted in the organization of Bagumbayan Lodge No. 352. After having rid itself of undesirable members, leaving only the live force, the living stone, ready for the builders use, the lodge changed its name to Batong Buhay.
The lodge these days meets at the Temple of Jacobo Zobel Lodge in Makati City. Among its better-known members are Generoso Asuncion, Norman Cases, Alexander Costales, Reynaldo Paz, Antonio San Luis, Reinaldo A. Ceneno, Ben Maturan, Lini Hernando and Ricardo T. Misa.
Location : Makati City