Rizal's execution on December 30, 1896, stands out in stunning detail in a reproduction four feet high and 6 feet wide of a negative that was bought by a Filipino American for only a quarter of a dollar at a five-and-dime store in California two years ago.

The rare photograph is the highlight of an exhibit opened to the public in Cavite, hotbed of the revolution against Spain, coinciding with the 131st birth anniversary of the father of the uprising, Andres Bonifacio.

Viewing the exhibit is a journey back in time which industrialist Geronimo de los Reyes, Jr. hopes Filipinos will undertake, so that lessons from the past might be applied to the present for a better future.

"Sometimes we seem to be without a direction as a people, "says de los Reyes, whose collection of about 3000 prints features various aspects of a turn-of-the-century Philippine culture that every Filipino can take pride in.

There where the churches, constructed in what was then known as earthquake baroque over a dozen of them serving the people within Intramuros alone. Their ornate interiors were matched only by the charm of the cobbled streets and stone houses of the Walled City, Binondo and Escolta street and the picturesque suburbs in Manila.

And there were the people - the shy women with their eyes lowered, wearing transparent handwoven blouses and alluring wraparound skirts; the children with doleful expressions, wearing the same loose pants and long-sleeved shirts worn by their equally doleful fathers.

In some prints, American soldiers in their felt campaign hats and woolen shirts look out from the 6th artillery tent encampment at the Luneta or manned a cannon pointed at Filipino troops, mounted on Fort San Antonio Abad-now site of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. In another print, a white carabao pulled a cart laiden with American cartridges.

The exhibit includes photographs of Bagobo musicians in Davao, female igorot weavers, Manila hemp cutters, horse grooms at the Manila Country Club in Pasay, Piña cloth weavers in Iloilo and vendors hawking water from bamboo tubes. Jones bridge wa still the Bridge of Spain, the Manila Cathedral still had its bell tower and carabaos walk the streets of Ermita.

Equally rare are the photographs of National Heroes and their love ones-the "boy general" Gregorio del Pilar addressing katipuneros: Emilio Aguinaldo's wife Hilaria del Rosario on horseback.

Over 2000 of the photographs were taken by the US photo news service Underwood and Underwood. Another 100 were by American professional Photographer A. Honiss.