A trader from Naga, Cebu built this huge house which served as the administration office of the then Spanish authorities in Barili.

One of the grandest old homes in the town, it was built in the 1878 by Don Mariano Duterte Panares. Its architectural design was common for that period: rectangular shape structures made of coral stone and hard wood. Its windows, as well as its wall panels, are made of capiz shells.

This is where their family has lived, and because it was used as a Casa Tribunal or administration office by the Spaniards, this structure was surely a venue for social gatherings during that time.

A son of Mariano Panares, Bartolome, was town mayor in 1907.