MASBATE

General Information

Capital Masbate City

Land Area 4,151.78 sq. km.
Population 892,393
Density 4,151.78/sq. km.
Divisions 21 municipalities
1 component city
Political

Voters 477,701
Governor Antonio T. Kho
Vice Jo Kristine “Kaye”
Governor Revil
Board  Emilio Marc
Members Barsaga
 Alfredo Alim
 Lovely Abapo
 Dennis Placer
 Jamon Espares
 Dionnie Lopez
 Jason Arevalo
 Randy Vasquez
 Albert Vincent
Chu
 Hamilcar
 Arregadas

MAJOR INDUSTRIES

Large farming, livestock/poultry raising. Along its coastal areas, fishing industry, cattle raising,
manufacturing, cabinet making, ceramics, garments, handicrafts, metal crafts, precious metal
mining.

SOURCE OF LIVELIHOOD

Cottage industries, copra making, fishing, beef processing, furniture and cabinet making, ceramics,
garments, handicrafts, metal crafts, and small-scale mining.

LIVING WAGE

12,000.00

IMPORT/EXPORT PRODUCTS

• Import: cement, rice, vegetables, alcoholic beverages, gas, household equipment, lumber • Export:
livestock, marine/aquatic products, copra, gold

LANGUAGES

Minasbate (mixture of Cebuano, Hiligaynon/Ilonggo, Waray-Waray and Bicolano), Tagalog, and

English

TRADITIONS AND BELIEFS

Close family ties and religiosity are important traits for survival in an island or group of islands that lie
in the typhoon path. A persisting traditional practice is the pamalaye. Beliefs on god, the soul and the
afterlife are strongly held by Masbateños. Associated to these, there are annual rituals like the
Bantigue Fiesta which draws devotees of Saint Felomina from the Visayan provinces, pabasa, and
Flores de Mayo. Side by side with these are held beliefs that beings such as the kalag, aswang,
duwende, tawo sa dulom, and mambabarang who can influence human lives for good or ill live
around them in mounds of earth (including termite nests), old trees, and on mountaintops. Even the
religious believe in supernatural forces. Faith healers and spirit mediums, who use herbs and
massage to treat physical ailments, are popular.

RELIGION
91% Roman Catholic (2014, Diocese). Other religions include Protestantism, Islam, and Iglesia ni
Kristo.

FESTIVALS

• Rodeo Masbateño (April) • Lapay Bantigue Festival (last week of September) • Pagdayaw Festival
(June 11-13) • Tribu Himag-ulaw Festival (February 17-22) • Bagat-Dagat Festival (June 24) •
Pagdulang Festival (November)

ATTRACTIONS

• Bontod Sandbar • Halea Nature Park • Borobancaso Island • Balangingi Island • Animasola Island
Rock Formation • Naboctot Island • Catandayagan Falls • Porta Vega • Paraiso de Palani

POPULAR FOOD

• Beef tapa • fish tapa • pastillas de leche • pusit (dried squid)

HISTORY

Masbate is one of the oldest settlements in the Philippines. Archaeological records show that
Batungan (in Mandaon) and Bagumbayan (in Palanas) were major settlement sites during the
Bronze Age (4000-1000 BC). The development of bronze metallurgy in South-East Asia coincided
with an increasingly hierarchical society, firmly based on agricultural village settlements. It was these
crucial changes, the introduction of new technologies, new social forms, and a new economic base,
which culminated in the foundation of the proto-urban settlements of the 1st millennium AD. A fine
stone chisel from Mount Batungan is dated to the twelfth century BC. Of the age of Philippine
neoliths it is only possible to say that polished stone adzes from Masbate have been dated from
2710 BC to AD 179.2 Kalanay (in Aroroy) was an island site from 1000 BC-AD 850 (early metal).
Masbate burial jars and a small pottery skull box found in caves dated to the beginning of the
Christian era. Exquisite gold work represents an old Philippine wealth in both an economic and an
artistic sense: all sorts of wrought or molded ornaments and jewelry demonstrate both the availability
of the raw material and the skill of the artisan – finger rings, earrings, head-bands, pendants and
pectoral ornaments, heavy chains with interlocking serrated edges, light filigree work, delicate
necklaces of fine twisted wires, 12-millimeter beads composed of 184 separate granules soldered
together, thin hammered sheets for decorating grosser objects like earplugs or the visages of
corpses, and a charming little snail of unknown use. Productive mines in Benguet, Butuan, Masbate,
and Paracale were in operation and gold being panned in riverbeds all over the archipelago when
the Spaniards arrived. During the Spanish regime, San Jacinto in Ticao Island was an anchorage
point for the Manila-Acapulco-Manila galleons. The course as described by the standard pilot’s guide
of Cabrera Bueno was substantially that followed by nearly all the galleons. The largest variations
were in the height at which the eastward crossing was made and in the course laid off the coast of
the Californias. The successive stages were as follows: from Cavite on Manila Bay out through one
of the bocas, generally between Mariveles and Corregidor; thence SSW, keeping well clear of Fortun
to the left and high Ambil to the right; past Cape Santiago on the Luzon Coast, and E between
Mindoro and Maricaban; by the Punta de Escarceo, or “Tide Rip Point,” where currents run strong,
and under Isla Verde, outside Subaang Bay, within which there was a fair anchorage in case of
need; SE past the islets of Baco, with a good channel off Calapan; SE by E down the Mindoro coast
by Punta Gorda de Pola; E by SE between the Tres Reyes and the Dos Hermanas; thence by the
wide bocana between Marinduque and Banton, out onto the tablazo, or open water, above Sibuyan;
SE by E between Burias and Masbate; turning ENE around the Punta de San Miguel and the Punta
del Diablo; coasting around the east side of Ticao to the anchorage at San Jacinto; clearing from
thence and working out seaward with the monsoon; E right leagues, with the dangerous Naranjos to
starboard and the shoal of Calantas to port; NE by N and then ENE seven leagues around Capul;
NE with the Sorsogon coast to port and San Bernardino to starboard and NE by E seven leagues to
the Embocadero, with San Bernardino now to port and the island of Biri to starboard. At this point,
according to Cabrera, “the rapid currents require skillful pilot work.” The galleon was now in the open
sea. From the chronicles of the early years of Spanish colonization, a relacion (report) about
Masbate first appeared in Fray Martin de Rada's letter dated July 1569 to the Viceroy of New Spain
(Mexico), Marquis de Falces. He mentioned that in a place called Masbat there were plenty of gold
mines. Other later documents such as Artieda's Relacion (1573) and Andres de Mirandaola's letter
(1574) refer to a place called Masbat or Masbad. It wasn't until 1582 that Miguel de Loarca wrote
about a place called Masbate. In the same year that the Augustinian Fray de Rada wrote about
Masbat's gold mines, his fellow Augustinian Fray Alonzo Jimenez landed in Burias and baptized its
chieftain Buaya. This baptism is said to be the very first baptism in Luzon. Fray Jimenez also built a
church in Burias before he sailed on to Ibalon in 1570. By 1575, Masbate had become a priority in
the Augustinian Missionary Memoranda. Fray Francisco de Ortega reported on the pillaging
activities of a pirate named Caxabic in the islands of Masbate and Burias. By 1600, the Spaniards
had developed Mobo as a galleon shipyard and San Jacinto as a strategic port. In 1605, Masbate
was officially an Augustinian Mission and its first prior was Fray Francisco Guerrero. Masbate had
about 250 tributes and 1000 Christian natives. In 1609, Fray Pedro de Arce, bishop-elect of Nueva
Caceres, ceded the spiritual administration of Masbate to the Mitra (secular clergy). On May 28,
1682, bishop-elect Dominican Fray Andres Gonzales petitioned the King of Spain to revert some
curacies of Nueva Caceres to the charge of religious communities. The petition was approved in
1685 and by 1687, the first Augustinian Recollect missionaries had sailed for the port of San Jacinto
to begin the Recollect Mission in Masbate. In 1700, Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion established the
settlement of Uson as a visita (barrio) of Mobo. The town of Masbate was established in 1791 by
Fray Manuel dela Virgen del Tremedal. The jurisdiction of Nueva Caceres embraced the entire
provinces of Camarines and Albay, as far as and including the islands of Ticao, Masbate, Burias,
and Catanduanes; the province of Tayabas, as far as and including Lucban; and in the opposite
coast of Maobàn, to Binangonan, Polo, Baler, and Casiguran. At one time, it was governed by his
very illustrious Lordship Doctor Don Ysidoro de Arevalo, who was the bishop-elect. Records show
that he enjoyed a yearly stipend of 4,000 pesos of common gold, in conformance with a royal
decree. Likewise a payment was made from the royal treasury, in virtue of a decree by the supreme
government and the council of the royal treasury dated October 2, 1723, 200 pesos, for priests of the
choir, at 100 pesos each, as assistants of the aforesaid illustrious lord. Another payment was made
of 400 pesos, assigned to this church by the royal decree, dated at San Yldefonso on August 19,
1736; for the pay of singers, sacristans, and doorkeepers, and other expenses for worship and for
the [care of the] building of the church. It likewise had a contribution of 232 pesos, 4 tomins, which
was paid in 6 quintals of wax, l00 gantas of coconut-oil, and 4 arrobas of Castilian wine, in
conformity with another royal decree dated February 21, 1705. The administration of Masbate was
given back to the Mitra after the Recollects left Masbate in 1794. All in all, over 60 Recollect
missionaries were assigned in Masbate for a period of more than 100 years. Masbate became a
separate politico-military command province in 1846. In 1864, it was declared a separate province
from Albay. After a devastating typhoon in 1908, Masbate was annexed to the province of Sorsogon.
It finally gained status as a separate province on December 15, 1920 by virtue of Commonwealth
Act No. 2934. (Source: Province of Masbate website)

GETTING THERE
Getting there and away Air: PAL Express flies from Manila to Masbate City (45 minutes) daily at 4:45
a.m. The same plane returns to Manila at 6:15 a.m. Bus: There are bus services between Masbate
and Manila, Bicol mainland and Cebu. Roro and Isarog have several daily services from Cubao and
Pasay to Masbate (16 to 18 hours), with several departures between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Buses
depart Masbate for Manila (16 to 18 hours) between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. All Manila-bound buses
travel via Pilar in Sorsogon and Pio Duran in Albay. Roro has regular bus services from Masbate to
Cebu (8 to 12 hours). Ferry: Masbate has ferry connections with Sorsogon, Albay, Samar, Cebu,
Capiz, Romblon, Roxas City, Burias Island, Ticao Island and Quezon province.

SEAPORTS AND AIRPORTS

• Seaports: Masbate City Port, Aroroy Port, San Jacinto Port on Ticao Island, Lagundi Port on Ticao
Island, San Pascual Port on Burias Island, Claveria Port on Burias Island, Mandaon Port,
Dimasalang Port, Cataingan Port, Cawayan Port, Placer Port • Airport: Moises R. Espinosa Sr.
Airport, Masbate City