Hilario Sunico

It is unknown why Hilario and his brothers took on 'Sunico' as their surname, instead of following the usual practice at that time of either taking on a surname from Governor General Narciso Clavería's 'Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos’ or using 'Chanuangco', the family patriarch's name (concatenation of Chan Uan Co).

Hilario's foundry, Fundacion de Hilario Sunico, was well-known during the Spanish times. Most of the bells in the churches and cathedrals in Luzon like the Binondo church and the Malate church were cast in it. Two of the three famous Balangiga bells, which were taken from Eastern Samar and brought to the US as wartime loot, are said (undocumented claim) to have been cast in his foundry. His foundry also took part in the making of the Tutuban station in Paco, Manila (built in 1887). The wooden building that housed the foundry still exists (nos. 19 - 20 Jabonero St, Binondo, Manila), as well as the Sunico family house. Later, he took in his brothers to work with him (the foundry’s name reflected this change: Fundicion de H. Sunico y Hos, short for Fundicion de H. Sunico y Hermanos). He inherited the foundry from his father, Chan Uan Co. He became Gobernadorcillo of Binondo. He was the basis (in some accounts, he shared this distinction with another person) for the character ‘Kapitan Tiago’ in Jose Rizal’s ‘Noli Me Tangere'.

In 1904, he owned a shipping vessel named 'San Jose' (registration number 171411; registered home port Aparri).

Binondo Sunico Tree Custodian