Insular-Yebana Cigar Plant: One last look and then goodbye

I've passed by the INSULAR-YEBANA CIGAR PLANT building since I was a kid but never paid much attention to it.  Because it was located along the commercial/industrial area of Governor Pascual Avenue in Barangay Acacia, I regarded it as just another plant or factory that has made Malabon its base over the years.

But when I learned about the big Tabacalera factory that used to operate in Barangay Hulo during Spanish times, it was only then that it registered in my mind that cigar and cigarette-making really used to be such  big business in Malabon.  Judge Salvador Sevilla, in fact, stated that "These cigar makers were the pride of Malabon at that time and in the years following up to the time the cigars business lost in its competition with the highly advertised American cigarettes." 1

That realization made me look at the INSULAR-YEBANA CIGAR PLANT structure with renewed interest.  One of these days, I thought, I'll get around to finding out more about it, in light of Malabon's cigar-making history.

Then my husband came home last week with news that the INSULAR-YEBANA structure will soon be demolished because the whole compound had been sold, so I figured I'd better go and have one last look before they tear it down.

Goodbye to one of the last few remnants of Malabon's cigar-making past.

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The INSULAR-YEBANA TOBACCO CORPORATION was established in the 1930s.  Its first factory was located at the corner of M.H. del Pilar and Cobre streets in Barangay Tugatog.  During its peak, INSULAR-YEBANA was said to be the number one native cigarette maker.  Some of its popular cigarette brands were "Liwayway," "Empress," "Quiapo," and "La Yebana."  The company used to grow their own tobacco in Ilocos and Isabela which were brought to the plant for processing.

INSULAR-YEBANA's cigar factory stopped manufacturing in the 1970s, while its cigarette factory closed down in 1989.  After the tobacco business, INSULAR-YEBANA went into real estate and warehousing, with different businesses renting warehouses within the INSULAR-YEBANA compound.  The above facade is the only remnant of its tobacco operations and the rest of the structures found in the compound are all leased warehouses.  Now that the property has been sold to a mall developer, the different businesses will be moving out and that vintage facade will soon be gone for good -- to become just another one of Malabon's historical memories.




1   History of Malabon-Navotas, by Salvador Sevilla, Santos Tiangco, 1976.




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