In 1851 during the twenty years of Father Vicente Belloc's service, Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery was also built

under his personal supervision. It had been said that the Underground Cemetery was built exclusively as burial ground for Spanish Friars and missionaries. It is interesting to note however that in the later years it also served as the meeting place for the Filipino revolutionaries that raised arms against the "Spanish Conquestadores" in the Philippines. For whatever reason/s he had in mind, the distance between the Nagcarlan Catholic Church and the Underground Cemetery was set a couple of kilometers away from each other contrary to what have been seen in other Roman Catholic Churches built during those early years. Traditionally during those early years of colonialization, cemeteries were built as part of the landscape of the Catholic Church itself! As previously noted, Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery was also used by the members of the "katipuneros" as their secret meeting place during the early part of their revolt against the Spaniards. The historic "pact of Biac-Na-Bato" was first planned by Pedro Paterno and General Severino Taino of the "Maluningning Command" during their secret meetings held at Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery in 1897. It was also recorded that Emilio Jacinto the brain of therevolution, "Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangan Katipunan Nang Bayan" was captured by the Spaniards in Nagcarlan after he was wounded in an encounter in Majayjay, Laguna in 1898. During the several hundred years that followed, the stories about the existence of a "hidden tunnel of the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery" circulated and never ceased to depart from the minds of the believers. Words have been passed from generations after generations of Nagcarlenos about the hidden tunnel somewhere in the very heart of Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery that connects behind Sainth Bartholomews Altar of the Roman Catholic Church in Nagcarlan. Words unendingly chronicled that the Franciscan Father Vicente Belloc who supposedly had the first hand knowledge of the secret tunnel, protectively carried the secret of the underground tunnel to his grave. To this date, many in Nagcarlan still believe and adhere to the "hearsays" that if one can locate "the Jewel of Nagcarlan", "the Hidden Tunnel of Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery" that connects below the Altar of Nagcarlan Catholic Church, he might also be tracking his way up to the summit of the Legendary Mount Banahaw!

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