In this impoverished rural corner of the Philippines, traditional one-room thatch houses are giving way to modern brick homes with glass windows, tiled roofs and giant courtyards -- the product of a housing boom fuelled by remittances from overseas workers.
As the northern Philippines marks the 100th anniversary year of the first batch of its sons who went to work abroad, a fresh flood of greenbacks is swamping this sleepy village by the shores of Billoca lake, triggering furious development.
Large houses in shades of mint, ecru, cream, or old rose threaten to swallow up the paddy fields. Farmers gleefully oblige the newly rich by selling their plots for up to 12 times what they worth before the construction frenzy.
"This was only the first big house to be built. Now you see them all around the lake," says Rodolfo Ramos, whose uncle built his 150,000-dollar dream home five years ago on a one-hectare (2.47-acre) lot of rice paddy and woods.
His uncle plans to retire here soon after decades serving as steward for navy ships based in the US port of San Diego.
"He was poor once, just like us. His family lived in a one-room bamboo shack with a wood-burning stove," Ramos tells AFP. "Without the US Navy they would have stayed that way."
Various cousins and neighbours have also sought their fortune abroad, from caregivers in Canada to domestic helpers in Hong Kong and Spain; part of the army of four million Filipinos who now work abroad sending back an estimated eight to 24 billion dollars back home every year.
Even Ramos' 24 year-old eldest son has joined the exodus, one of tens of thousands of Filipino seafarers on the world's merchant fleets.
Tax rates on land south of the lake has risen four-fold over the past year because of the huge demand.
"We bought this place for 1,300 pesos (23.21 dollars) a square meter (10.764 square feet) and we considered ourselves lucky. Now land around here goes for 1,800-2,000 (32.14-35.71 dollars) per square meter," says Rizal Parbo, who runs a garden and landscaping business that caters to the newly wealthy neighbours.
A nephew who works at a Hawaii hotel put up the capital.
Josephine Silao's elder sister, based in southern California, had one side of a hillside carved out so she could build a sprawling bungalow close to the north-eastern shore of the lake.
Twenty-six major Philippine banks have followed the gravy train by opening branches in Laoag, the capital of Ilocos Norte province, said the governor, Ferdinand Marcos.
"I would venture to say that if you want to buy dollars, they would be cheapest here because of the volume of remittances," Marcos tells AFP.
"Some families have not one but two members abroad," he says. "The result is beautiful houses, plus they also start businesses, which is good."
Trapped in a dry, narrow coastal plain on the north-western section of the main Philippine island of Luzon, the people of the Ilocos region caught the travel bug early on and blazed a trail that millions have followed.
The first workers sailed off to work in the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii in 1906 from Salomague, a forlorn port 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Manila, says Ferdinand Dumlao, a special assistant to the Ilocos Norte governor.
"That is how we set our foot in Hawaii, and now we are a strong political force in Hawaii," Dumlao says.
He says the governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, many of whose constituents are the descendants of the Ilocano plantation workers, plans to visit the Ilocos region on January 7 next year to unveil a centennial marker at Salomague Point.
Ramos says his grandfather Nicomedes Galacgac was among the first Billoca residents to work the Hawaii cane fields. His younger brothers Alberto and Victorio soon followed him, and another brother Pelagio also went after World War II. The eldest and the youngest prospered and never returned, but the fun-loving Alberto had kidney surgery and returned to a life of poverty here.
"Grandpa Kides was the first. Ox-drawn carts hauled their luggage to the port. They said this road was a mere dirt path at the time," Ramos says, gesturing to the concrete highway outside.
Aside from escalating property prices, Ramos says the new wealth has also boosted agricultural output in these parts.
"Now that local folk are going abroad, capital is more readily available. Before we used oxen and our bare hands, but now tractors and other farm implements make the work less burdensome," he adds.
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