Pantabangan-Bonari Masonic Lodge No. 203

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It was not your usual fellowship that happened on December 30, 1973 at the house of Eugenio Bitantes of Memorial Lodge No. 90. It was something else. Before that, stories were rife that the brethren were planning to put up a Masonic lodge in Rizal, Nueva Ecija. And so it happened. On that eventful day prior to the new year, the brethren formally discussed the creation of a new lodge that led to 43 Master Masons in good standing from Memorial Lodge No. 90 and Narra Lodge no. 171 to submit a petition for dispensation to form a new lodge to be named Bonari Lodge. MW Ruperto Demonteverde issued the requested dispensation on February 18, 1974. However, the lodge failed to meet the requirements and failed to get the nod of the Grand Lodge during the ANCOM but its dispensation was extended nevertheless. The lodge was able to be granted its charter after a favorable recommendation during the 1975 ANCOM, and eventually requested that its name be changed to Pantabangan-Bonari to avoid confusion which was approved. 

MW Teodoro V. Kalaw constituted the lodge on June 21, 1975 after which the following officers were installed: Basilio Ng Tian Kee as Worshipful Master, Eugenio Bitantes as Senior Warden and Marcelino Guerzon as Junior Warden. The brethren hold their their meetings every Second Saturday of the month in a property that was purchased sometime in the early 1980s.  

Bonari came from old names of the town of Rizal: BO for Bonobon when Rizal was still a sitio of the said town, NA for Nazareth which is the old name of Rizal when it was made into a barrio of Bongabon, and RI for Rizal as it was converted into a municipality. Pantabangan refers to a town near Rizal which hosts a dam and a reservoir. 

NOTE: This article was excerpted from the book "Philippine Blue Lodges (Heritage, Heraldry & Heart)" that was published by MW Abraham N. Tolentino in 2017.

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