One such example is the Lopez house in Cadiz, which was first built by the family’s patriarch Gil Villanueva Lopez in the late 1800s. It was refurbished and expanded by his descendants over the decades.

The late violinist Gil Lopez Kabayao and his pianist-sister Merceditas, who belong to the third generation, grew up in the house. Although the clan derived its money from vast tracts of land planted to sugar, many of its members were also musically inclined.

Unlike other houses in the area, the Japanese didn’t turn their ancestral home into an army barracks or, worst, a brothel during the war. Maria Makiling “Blondie” Ascalon Millward, niece of Kabayao, who wasn’t born yet in the ’40s, attributes this to the fact that the family’s musical talent impressed Japanese officials.

Source:  http://2016.mb.com.ph/2016/06/26/the-houses-that-sugar-built/#BM9akAf23A0ZJPCP.99