00:00The San Jose Hospice is the oldest house of worship in the Philippines.
00:10It was built during the time of the Spaniards.
00:16It was named after St. Joseph who traveled with Mary to baptize the baby Jesus.
00:25Like the journey of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph,
00:30there were also many people who lost their homes because of the hospice.
00:49Kuya Beda San Jose will be the first to greet you upon entering the hospice.
00:56Welcome to the hospice.
01:01In 1964, Kuya Beda was the first to visit the San Jose Hospice.
01:17He was left by his mother outside this gate where a small hole in the wall can be found.
01:30There were no parents, no name.
01:35His mother gave him the name Beda and his last name.
01:43Did your mother give you your name?
01:46Not your mother?
01:47No.
01:48Then what is your last name?
01:50San Jose.
01:51So, San Jose is not the last name of your parents?
01:55No.
01:56No?
01:57No.
01:58No?
01:59No.
02:00She just gave it to you?
02:01Yes.
02:03We are all San Jose.
02:08If your last name is San Jose, that means you were born here?
02:12Yes.
02:14Here.
02:17Because we are all San Jose.
02:21From 1853 to the 1970s, this steel apparatus served as the first home for many children who were abandoned by their parents.
02:35The mothers here call it a turning cradle.
02:39This is where the babies are placed.
02:41There is light inside.
02:43It is called a turning cradle because when the babies are placed inside,
02:49you turn it like this.
02:51When you turn it, a bell will sound.
02:55That will be the signal for the mothers to come closer to the turning cradle
03:00and take the babies that were abandoned by their parents.
03:05According to Sister Leonor Palomar,
03:08this is where the mothers used to leave their babies.
03:15Some of the babies were just thrown into a bin.
03:19Like that?
03:20Yes.
03:21They were placed in a box of shoes.
03:23Yes.
03:24And some of them were thrown into the gate.
03:27Actually, we had a baby and we took care of it.
03:30It was left there.
03:31It was placed in a box and we put a scale on it.
03:35The parents were scared to see it.
03:38It was just left there.
03:40It was left there.
03:41It was left there.
03:42It was left there.
03:43It was left there.
03:45To avoid this incident,
03:47the mothers placed a steel cradle
03:50where the babies could be buried.
03:55For more than 120 years,
03:58this was the system of the Hospicio de San Jose
04:01to take the abandoned babies.
04:05This is one of the logbooks of this turning cradle.
04:09You can see here in this logbook
04:13the date and time when the babies were left.
04:19Even the identifying marks.
04:22Here it says sickly,
04:25very frail,
04:26Chinese features,
04:27healthy,
04:28hydrocephalus.
04:30Even the temporary name of the baby is written here.
04:35You can see that in the 1970s,
04:40in one month,
04:41three or four babies were left here.
04:46Here in this part,
04:48it is written if they were born
04:53and if they were buried.
04:56I am looking at this logbook
04:59from 1970 to 1976.
05:05Most of the babies left here in the turning cradle
05:10were buried by new parents.
05:17Hey!
05:21Hey!
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