La Presa de Campana: Constructing the Narrative of a Dominican Legacy in Calamba, Laguna

In Spanish colonial Philippines, a number of structures were constructed for various purposes such as churches, cemeteries, bridges, watchtowers, fortifications, and lighthouses but little is known about the religious contributions to engineering and irrigation. This paper proposes a contribution to knowledge in this field, particularly water engineering as literature on dams and irrigation systems is scant. This attempts to construct the history and heritage of the Campana Dam in Calamba, Laguna using available archival documents from the Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas (AUST). These documents have to be mined for information that would shed light on this forgotten but equally important aspect of Spanish era infrastructure. The stories that will be culled from the documents are significant particularly on how we view the other structures the Regulars built during that time apart from the usual religious edifices.