Pampanga Sugar Development Company - History of PASUDECO Compound (Campamento)

History of PASUDECO Compound (Campamento)

In the late second decade of the 20th century, when several hectares of farmland were being developed in the two barrios of Santo Nino and San Juan of the Municipality San Fernando, Pampanga in order to build a modern sugar central and a new residential community, no one probably thought that someday a natural calamity would occur and bury the area under heavy volcanic ashes and destroy most of what would be built over the years such as concrete roads, railroads, buildings for administrative offices, warehouses, laboratories, recreational facilities and housing for the families of permanent regular employees of the sugar central. Today the site is like a forest deserted by human beings and inhabited by wild animals, birds, snakes and insects. No one seem to care to at least trim the cogon grass and shrubs growing in the area and make use of the fertile land. It is interesting to note though that many people say that it was a miracle that a religious landmark, the Shrine of the Virgin Mary (Grotto) in the north side of the Campamento Park survived the tremendous amount of water, volcanic ashes and “lahar” that flooded then most of the towns of Pampanga including the PASUDECO Compound. To some the Grotto serves as a Chapel of Silence for meditation, devotion to the Virgin Mary and praying to the Supreme Being for his bountiful blessings.