Roots

of our
Faith
A brief historical account of missionary
work in Leyte from 1595 onward

By Emil B. Justimbaste
Copyright © 2016 by the author
All rights reserved

No part of this book maybe reproduced in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
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tion storage or retrieval system, except as may be
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Requests for permission should be

addressed in writing to:

Emil B. Justimbaste
Cataag Compound
Ormoc City
Leyte, Philipines
 Roots
of our
Faith
A brief historical account of missionary work
in Leyte from 1595 onward

By Emil B. Justimbaste
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
Introduction

T
his is not supposed to be an independent piece. It was not
intended to be in the first place. But now it must be able to
stand on its own because if it does not come out like that, it
will never see the light of day for a lot of readers who might find the
material worth reading and studying. Well, first, this is supposed to
be part of a bigger volume that would include a follow-up narrative
about the formation of Palo Diocese to be done by another author.
But it appears that the assigned person did not do his job either
because he has lost his heart for it or could not find the time to do
it. Or maybe he simply lost interest. That was supposed to be the
second part.
The third was supposed to be on the formation of the different
parishes of Leyte, probably beginning with Carigara, being the
oldest, and so on. And the fourth part was supposed to be a narrative
on Leyte’s bishops because they, too, are part of the history of the
diocese, and they certainly played major roles in its growth.
The entire volume would have been a historical landmark of
sorts where one can begin to understand how this diocese came to
be and, perhaps, anticipate its direction. But that now seems to be
wishful thinking. So the author is left to justify why this piece.
Now let me state that this piece is not a result of some in-
depth historical analysis. It is simply a historical narrative that tries
to trace the beginnings of Christianity in our part of the world and
the circumstances that surrounded them. Historical developments,
as we shall see in this account, follow their own logic. Things happen
for a reason, so the cliché goes. They do in our case. For instance,
some circumstances explain why Miguel Lopez de Legazpi preferred
to settle in Cebu rather than Cabalian, or why he was forced to move
his headquarters to Manila a few years later for reasons that had to
do with his enforcing the cruel encomienda system.
There were also circumstances that can exlain why the Jesuits
chose the Pintado islands as their first mission in the Visayas, when
the Augustinians were, in fact, the first missionaries who set foot in
Leyte, first with Magellan and then Legazpi. Probably you can call
it the logic of circumstance, if there is such a term. In this account,
we try to follow this logic as it would have been impossible for the
author to discern the deeper motives of the men who were largely
responsible for the historical events. But in many cases, motives
can be explained in their many letters and pronouncements. These
4
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
provide us glimpses into their inner selves and explain their actions.
In this account, we begin with Miguel Lopez de Legazpi rather
than Ferdinand Magellan because it was Legazpi who left a greater
impact on us. It was he who established the colony, set up its intial
colonial structure, appointed people to man them and established
the mechanism to sustain them. His interventions would leave deep
imprints on the colonized people that would create irreparable
changes on the economy, culture and ways of governance.
It was in this context that our Catholic religion was introduced,
by the Augustinians, initially, and then by a succession of different
missionary orders that left their imprint on the lives of the natives
in ways that reshaped the thinking and modes of behavior of their
converts, totally alien to what they were accustomed to centuries
before their conversion. Indeed, the impact of Catholicism could be
only described as thorough. More than 300 years of such pervasive
influence left no traces of what they were before such a conversion.
Even the langauge and literature of our forebears are gone, and we
are left groping with a strange heiroglyphic-like characters called
‘baybayin’ in our puny efforts to understand them.
This volume is an effort to understand the impact of such
convernsion, tracing the critical pathways from Legaspi’s time as he
sowed the seeds of colonialism in parts of Leyte and Samar, bringing
along his warriors and preachers to these islands, to the mid-20th
century when the church heirarchy found enough reasons to create
an independent diocese centered in the town of Palo sometime before
the Second World War.
Like any human institution, the Catholic Church was also
subject to secular influences. It rolled with the times so to speak,
suffered when the communities it served were hungry and sick,
fought with them when the Moros from the south invaded the coasts
of Leyte and Samar, but had to defend itself when some local leaders
rebelled against its ministers. Until the last days of the 19th century,
many of its ministers were up against a new religion, espoused by a
fiery revolutionary who wanted to turn the churches in Samar into
Aglipayan sanctuaries.
But let us begin our story with the conquistador Miguel Lopez
de Legaspi.

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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH

Part 1
The conquistador and his navigator

M
iguel Lopez de Legazpi1 and his men were getting hungry
and desperate when they anchored in Cabalian on the fifth
day of March, 1565. Their earlier search for food had been
futile, and they were met with hostility by the natives wherever they
landed.
After sailing
for 62 days from
Spain, they made
it to the islands
called ‘Ladrones’,
anchored for 11 days
in an unsuccessful
bid to provision
themselves, then
set sail again for
11 days, till they
were finally within
sight of Filipinas.
They anchored in
the beautiful bay of
the land known as
‘Cibabaw’ (Samar),
made contact
with the natives
and again tried to
negotiate for food.
In the historian
Medina’s2 account,
‘the natives
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
showed themselves very well satisfied at everything, and agreed to
everything without repugnance or opposition.’3 He said the natives
promised Legazpi the food ‘generously and willingly,’4 which the
latter probably understood in the Castilian palabra de honor.
They waited till the next day, believing that the natives would
be true to their word, ‘since the promise had been made with so many
appearances of affection.’5 Sure enough the natives came, but brought
no more than one cock and an egg, saying they were collecting the
other food in their towns. The best present they gave Legazpi was a
suckling pig and a piece of cheese which, unless a miracle happened,
was impossible to feed the entire fleet.6
So after five days, Legaspi set sail again, rounded the southern
tip of Cibabaw, and went some 30 leagues (144 kilometers) west, then
anchored on a bay they named San Pedro. Here as in the previous
two landing sites, they had tried to make friends with the natives,
cultivate friendship with the nephew of Tandayag and went through
the customary blood compact with the hope of getting provisions
through barter. Because the young man demonstrated friendship,
they had no reason to doubt his sincerity. So Legazpi sent him home
with plenty of gifts, hoping he would return with the chief of the
place. But the nephew of Tandayag did not return and Tandayag
himself never showed up. So he sent Captain Martin Goiti in his
frigate down the coast of the island to find out if there were better
ports to anchor.7
In the meantime, he went ashore with Frs. Andres de Urdaneta8
and Andres de Aguirre and some troops, took formal possession of
the place they knew as Tandaya9, with Fr. Aguirre saying the mass
after that. They went farther inland to a village called Congiungo
and there found the natives as hostile as ever. ‘They were drawn up
in squares according to their custom, and by their cries demanded
battle.’ The natives were not impressed or convinced with the
explanations of Frs. Urdaneta and Aguirre, who spoke through
the interpreter Geronimo Pacheco. They answered back that ‘the
Castilians’ words were fair, but their deeds evil.’10 So Legazpi turned
back and as soon as he did, the natives showered them with stones
that had him worried for a moment. So his troops fired a few warning
shots with their arquebuses11, causing the natives to fall back.
Now he faced the same problem in Cabalian (now San Juan)
in the southern part of the island. When Captain Martin de Goiti
returned and informed him of ‘a large settlement, with many
ricefields, herds of swine and Castilian fowls,’ he set sail at once to
7
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
Cabalian where he thought things would turn out better. News of his
kindness and generosity had travelled fast, so that upon his arrival in
the bay near Cabalian, his boat was surrounded by barotos and small
boats of all kinds, swarming with curious natives, with Camutuan,
son of the village chief Malitic, leading the bunch.12
Legazpi treated him with all due courtesy, but upon the young
man’s insistence for a blood compact, Legazpi instead offered his
own son, the alferez, to perform the act, saying he would make the
blood compact if it was Malitic himself who was present. But Malitic,
like Tandaya, never showed his face to Legaspi. Thus, the expected
blood compact between Malitic and Legazpi never materialized. In
the meantime, the natives, who were suspicious of the intentions
of the Spanish intruders, collected their food stocks and precious
belongings and began leaving the village, leaving Camutuan
hostaged by Legazpi. The latter, in his desperation, was thinking of
using extreme measures to get their much-needed provisions.
However, he did not want to decide by his lone self. He wanted
to decide with the consent of his men and the missionaries, especially.
So he called a council of war and explained the issue. Was it right to
use violence upon the natives that they were supposed to befriend?
‘It was permitted the Spaniards, in order to sustain life, to take food by harsh
means, since kind measures did not suffice,’ he had argued. He wanted
to buy the food that they need with money, but the natives would
not sell. After he spoke, he ordered everyone else to express his own
opinion.13
Thereupon, Fray Andres de Urdaneta arose and spoke first,
‘as was his custom, because of his experience and because all the Spaniards
regarded him as a father, from whom must originate the remedy.’ He
explained that natural law made it imperative for them to seize
provisions by whatever means available because after all the intent
of the expedition was for the ‘good of those barbarians.’ It was wrong
to refuse the Spanish fleet the food which it needed, which meant
taking up arms was justifiable ‘since by no other way had any remedy
been found among those unreasoning barbarians.’14
Urdaneta’s message was the signal for Legazpi to use force to
get his provisions. Legazpi immediately ordered Martin de Goiti to
land with 50 well-armed soldiers. When he came face to face with
the natives, Goiti announced the articles of peace through interpreter
Pacheco, and declared that, ‘if they did not accord with what was so
reasonable to all, then they should prepare for war.’ But before the natives
could react, Goiti’s troops fired their arquebuses, scattering the
8
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
natives in fright. ‘Being so little used to them, their terror was so
great, that without awaiting more, they abandoned the shore and
the village, fled to the hills, and allowed the soldiers to collect the
swine that were found there, and the fowls and rice that they could
not carry away.’15
‘And so they went, and we made a fine festival, killing for meat
on that same day about 45 swine, with which we enjoyed a merry
carnival – as payment of barter were given to the chief whom I had
with me,’ wrote Legazpi to the king. The payment was accordingly
given to Camatuan who accompanied him to Limasawa and
introduced him to the local chiefs in the neighboring islands.
After that, Legazpi sailed with his fleet for Butuan, then
Bohol and Cebu. It was the second week of March, 1565. The actual
possession of the lands discovered and subjugation of the natives
started in earnest in 1571, six years after their encounter with Legazpi
and his soldiers. The rule of the encomenderos would begin when
Legazpi gave his men territories from whose settlers they would
collect tributes.

9
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH

Encomiendas

W
hen Spain granted encomiendas to its faithful soldiers and
officials in its colonies in the east in 1503, it simply wanted
to reward them for services well done. By definition, an
encomienda was ‘a right conceded by royal bounty to well-deserving
persons in the Indies, to receive and enjoy for themselves who should be
assigned them.’ But the encomenderos, the term used for those given
charge of encomiendas, had a corresponding obligation to provide
‘for the good of the Indians in spiritual and temporal matters, and of
inhabiting and defending the provinces where the encomiendas should be
granted to them.’16
When it started in the islands, the first beneficiaries were the
aging officials and soldiers who came with Legazpi in 1565 and did
actual fighting against recalcitrant natives in their initial attempts
at subjugation and pacification.17 Leaving one’s homeland for an
uncertain future in a foreign land that was largely unexplored and
uncharted was a very risky enterprise. The boat trip alone which
took several months in often rough seas was enough to cause one’s
early demise or at least a lingering illness that eventually resulted in
death. Thus it became a royal policy to reward the men who went
with the conquistador on such voyages.

’The tributes paid to their encomenderos by the natives were

assigned by the first governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, in the
provinces of Vicayas (Visayas) and Pintados, and in the islands
of Luzon and its vicinity; they were equal to the sum of eight reals
annually for an entire tribute from its tributario. The natives were
to pay it in their products – in gold, cloth, cotton, rice, bells, fowls
and whatever else they possessed or harvested.’18

Besides collecting tributes from the natives, encomenderos

10
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
were urged to cultivate the land and induce the natives to do the
same, to make the land productive. They were likewise encouraged
to raise livestock either by themselves or in company with the tribal
chiefs in their jurisdiction.19
But more than the issue of rewards, the encomienda system had
a bigger role to play in the subjugation and conversion of the natives.
In a colony where settlements were days away from each other, with
their respective populations living far from village centers, it seemed
reasonable to the colonial officials to deploy their most faithful
soldiers to the farthest stretch of the new colony, to remind the
natives of their status. The presence of encomenderos with soldiers
armed with arquebuses would serve the purpose. Their mere sight
left the natives with very little options but to submit themselves to
tribute collection. Part of the tributes would provide support to the
missionaries in the building of parsonages and churches.20

Encomiendas in Leyte

Leyte had its first experience of the encomienda system on

January 25, 1571 when Legazpi assigned the 2,000 Indians first
reduced to Juan Martin; 2,000 to Juan Vexarano, Lazaro Bruzo,
Alonso de Henao, Francisco de Sepulveda, and Pedro Sedeño; 1,500
to Juan de Trujillo, Juan Fernandez de Leon, Lorenzo de Villasaña,
Gaspar de los Reyes, and Martin de Aguirre. About seven months
later, on September 5, 1571, he added one more encomendero to the
list when he assigned 2,000 Indians to Francisco de Quiros. Then the
next day, he assigned to the above mentioned villages and environs
of Maracaya, Omoc (Ormoc), Calbacan (Cabalian), and the rivers of
Barugo, Palos (Palo), Vito, Mayay, Vincay, Inunanga (Hinunangan),
Zuundaya, Cabalian, Minaya and de los Martires, and the villages
of Sugut (Sogod), Canamocan (Inopacan), and Ilongos (Hilongos).21
The list would however change years later during the period
1591-93 when the assignment of villages and tributaries became
clearer. Thus Leyte-Leyte had Don Pedro de Oseguera collecting
606 tributes from a population of 1,504 natives. Dulag had Francisco
Rodriguez de Avila getting 482 tributarios, from 1,928 persons.
Pedro Sedeño collected tributes along the river of Tambolo from 563
tributarios, representing 2,252 persons. Carigara had Juan de Truxillo
having 434 tributarios, representing 1,736 persons. Barugo had
Alonso de Henao getting 414 tributes from a population of 1,656.22
Abuyog had Gaspar de los Reyes collecting 304 tributes from
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
the river of Abuyo and to the town of Ybabao Samar), representing
1,216 persons. Palo had Pedro Hernandez collecting 490 tributes
from 2,000 persons. Dulag had another encomendero in the person of
Domingo de Saucedo collecting the 613 tributes, representing 2,442
persons. Another part of Abuyog named ‘Abuyo Ebito’ had Gaspar
de Ysla getting 435 tributes from 1,740 persons and those of Zebu. In
the southern pacific part of the island, in the village of Hinundanga
(Hinunangan), Francisco de Abito collected 400 tributes from 1,000
persons. In Tilan, Francisco de Sepulveda collected 140 tributes. 23
These encomiendas were everywhere in Luzon and the
Visayas, and they were accordingly very profitable, ‘both by the
amount of their tributes and by the nature and value of what is paid
as tribute.‘ According to the royal laws and decrees, the encomienda
lasted for ‘two lives,’ which may however be extended to a third life.
Thus, encomiendas were often inherited or passed on to the son of
the original encomendero or to a favorite relative. But after that, it
was vacated and assigned to somebody else.24

Encomendero abuses

Barely two years after the encomienda system was installed

in the country, reports of abuses by the encomenderos and their
soldier-enforcers surfaced, raising questions about its justness and
appropriateness. First to air these abuses were the Augustinians
themselves who arrived with Legazpi in 1565. Their spokesman was
by Fr. Diego de Herrera.25
In his account before the royal council of the Indies in Spain
where he was sent to report, Fray de Herrera began by relating how
the pacification and the establishment of colonies was done.
‘A captain goes with soldiers and interpreters to the village of
which he has had notice only, or to one that has been pillaged by other
Spaniards. The people are told that if they wish friendship with the
Castilians, they must immediately give them tribute. If the people
acquiesce, then they consider the amount that each man must pay,
and they are compelled to pay it immediately.’26
Or they would make the following announcement: “Take heed
that I am your master, and that the governor has given me to you to
protect from other Spaniards who annoy you.” There is no mention
of God or the king, nor an explanation why tributes were being asked.
‘Then they immediately demand the tribute, each one the amount
he can get without any limit.… If some of the people do not wait for
12
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
the encomendero in order to agree to give him the tribute, their homes
and village are burned… No attention is paid to the instruction or
given aid to the religious for it. On the contrary, they have hitherto
opposed us going out or building houses among the Indians.‘27

Fray de Herrera continued:

‘Many slaves have been sold and many others have been
retained who have been enslaved and captured illegally and
unjustly. Some, in order that they might be made use of, and might
not be taken from their owners in order to return them to their own
villages…. Since the coming of the Spaniards to this land, there has
been another kind of slaves who have sold themselves very cheaply
in times of famine in order to live during the famine – the father
to his son, the brother to his brother, the uncle to his nephew, and
others likewise – in which he who bought showed charity to the one
purchase.’28

As a result of these ravages, many islands and villages were

accordingly ‘devastated and almost wiped out, partly by the Spaniards
or because of them, and partly by famines of which, or at the beginning
of them, the Spaniards were the reason; for either by fear or to get rid of
Spaniards the natives neglected their sowing, and when they wished to sow
then anguish came upon them, and consequently many people have died of
hunger,’ something which historians seemed to have overlooked or
glossed over.
These acts only served to isolate the early colonizers from the
natives. But the Augustinians were more worried about their loss of
honor and reputation. Wrote de Hererra:

‘We Spaniards are held in ignominy in this country and our

name is held in abomination, as is even the most holy name of the
Lord, and we are considered as the usurpers of others’ possessions,
as faithless pirates, and as shedders of human blood, because we
ill-treat our own friends, and harass and trouble them; while many
acts of violence and force are used toward them both to their own
houses and to their wives and daughters and possession, and they
themselves are ill-treated by word and deed.‘29

Nothing happened from de Herrera’s report to the royal council

in 1573. One could assume that the report was blocked on purpose
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
by the king’s advisers, some of whom may have had relatives and
friends who were appointed encomenderos. Some 10 years later, the
first bishop assigned to the Philippines, Fray Domingo de Salazar30,
made his own report on the encomienda abuses along with other
important matters in the colony. Here are some excerpts of that
report:

‘The tribute at which all are commonly rated is the value of

eight reals, paid in gold or in produce which they gather from their
lands; but this rate is observed like all other rules that are in favour
of the Indians – that it, it is never observed at all. Some they compel
to pay it in gold even if they do not have it. In regard to gold, there
are great abuses because as there are vast differences in gold here,
they always make the natives get the finest. The weight at which
they receive the tribute is what he who collects it wishes. And he
never selects the lightest.
‘Others make them pay cloth or thread. But the evil is not here
but in the manner of collecting; for if the chief does not give them as
much gold as they demand, or does pay for as many Indians as they
say there are, they crucify the unfortunate chief, or put his head in
the stocks – for all the encomenderos, when they go to collect, have
their stocks, and there they lash and torment the chiefs until they
give the entire sum demanded from them. Sometimes the wife or
daughter of the chief is seized, when he himself does not appear.
Many are the chiefs who have died of torture in the manner in
which I stated.
‘I saw this soldier in the town of Caceres, in the province of
Camarines, and learned that the justice arrested him for it (for killing
and Indian and crucifying him and hanging him by the arms) and
fined him 50 pesos – to be divided equally between the exchequer
and the expenses of justice – and that with this punishment he
was immediately set free. Likewise I learned that an encomendero
– because the chief had neither gold nor silver nor cloth with which
to pay the tribute – exacted from him an Indian for nine pesos, in
payment of nine tributes which he owed; then took this Indian to the
ship and sold him for 35 pesos.
‘What the encomendero does after having collected his tributes
in the manner stated, is to return home; and for another year he
neither sees nor hears of them. He takes no more account of them
than if they were deer, until the next year, when the same thing is
repeated.”31
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH

Somehow Bishop de Salazar’s report reached the ears of the

king, who also wrote him back on March 17, 1583, expressing his
concern regarding the situation in the Philippine encomiendas.
Pardo de Tavera cites this letter in full:

‘We are informed that in that province (of Filipinas) the

Indian natives are seen to be dying, on account of the bad treatment
inflicted on them by the encomenderos; and that the number of the
Indians have been so diminished that in some places more than a
third of them are dead. This is because the taxes are levied on them
for the full amount, two-thirds more than what they are under
obligation to pay, and they are treated worse than slaves, and as
such many are sold by some encomenderos to others; and some are
flogged to death; and there are women who die or break down under
heavy burdens.
‘Others and their children are compelled to serve on their
lands, and sleep in the fields; and there they bring forth and
nurse infants, and they die bitten by poisonous insects; and many
hang themselves, and are left to die, without food; and others eat
poisonous herbs. And there are mothers who kill their own children
when they are born, saying that they do so to free them from the
sufferings which they are enduring. And the said Indians have
conceived a very bitter hatred to the name of Christian, and regard
the Spaniards as deceivers, and pay no attention to what is taught
to them; accordingly, whatever they do is through force. And these
injuries are greater for the Indians who belong to our royal crown,
as being under (official) administration. “32

According to Pardo de Tavera, the king renewed his instructions

to the viceroys and governors to enforce the laws for the natives,
at the same time urging the bishops and ecclesiastics to use their
influence for this same purpose.33 This explains why soon after this,
the bishops and other theologians of the bishopric convened and
came out with an official stand on the issue of encomienda abuse.
Three major points stood out in that meeting. First, no
encomendero was allowed to collect tributes unless the natives
became Christians first. If they were given adequate religious
instruction and the encomendero fulfilled his duties, then they (the
natives) were ‘bound by conscience and justice to pay them.’
Second, in return for tributes collected, the encomendero was
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
obliged to provide the natives with ministers to instruct and care for
them, to see that they are not ill-treated.
And third, the encomendero should not behave as if he was the
master or lord of the natives, but that he was supposed to be their
‘attorney, tutor and protector.’34
The general junta of Manila also convened on April 20, 1586
on this issue in accordance with an edict issued by the Audiencia in
Spain. The junta came up with a memorandum to institute reforms.
It pointed out that many encomenderos did not provide ministers
of instructions as stipulated by the bishops. Up to the time of its
meeting, there were encomiendas that were ‘peaceably paying their
tributes for 15 years or more without having seen a minister or heard
one word about God. The natives could not understand why they
were paying tributes, ‘unless it be by sheer violence…and force of soldiers
and arquebuses, and by compulsion.’
The same junta decided to send Fr. Alonso Sanchez35 as
an emissary to Madrid, ‘bearing a suitable memorial to the home
government, stating the needs and wishes of the colonists.’ 36
But even after the king had ordered his viceroys and governors
to enforce the law, the encomenderos were still violating them with
seeming impunity, abusing their privileges as their predecessors did
decades earlier. Morga’s Sucesos graphically reports on these abuses.
He wrote that encomenderos generally disregarded the
schedule of tribute collection, thus wrecking havoc on the local
economy. Most of the time, they did it fraudulently. They collected
from minors, the lame, the poor, the dead and the fugitive – ‘their
oppressions in this respect being well known.’
They employed the natives to ‘build their houses and large vessels,
grinding rice, cutting wood, and carrying it all to their houses and to
Manila, and paying them little or nothing for their labor. They also used
them for their own work for many days without pay.’
They often acted like judges and executioners at the same time,
administering justice in their village, arresting and whipping the
natives during the collection of the tribute, besides committing other
notorious acts of violence.
They neglected their duty of instructing the natives or anything
pertaining to it. They were supposed to share part of their collection
to the missionaries who preached in their encomiendas, but they did
so grudgingly. In this regard, they were often at loggerheads with
the missionaries, and natives were the losers by it.
Although not authorized to remain longer than to collect the
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tribute, they spent time in the villages nonetheless, causing a ‘great
burden to the Indians because of the annoyances and requirements of services
and contributions with which they afflict them, and which constitute the
only purpose of their going.’ In a word, they had become a nuisance in
the lives of the native population.
At other times, they sent collectors who were ‘very unworthy
and have no compassion on the cause of the Indians, whom they afflict and
maltreat worse even than do their masters, and do them more harm.’37

Resistance against the encomenderos

The native population did not take this oppressive situation

passively. In the last two decades of the 16th century, sporadic spurts of
rebellion erupted with the encomenderos and their armed collectors
at the opposite camp against the native population. In Cebu, the
natives killed the encomenderos and their collectors, and held their
women in captivity for a long time until the alcalde of the province
came to their rescue with some 60 soldiers. Some were killed in the
ensuing fight, and those that were captured were hanged.
In nearby Leyte, encomenderos in Abuyog and Dagami were
killed by the natives.
In Cagayan, Gaspar de Ayala in his letter to King Felipe II
said the entire province rose in rebellion against the encomenderos.
They had become so bold and daring that they entered the city of
Segovia to kill and rob. An officer Captain Martin de Barrios slain
while he was collecting tributes together with soldiers. But it was
the encomendero Don Rodriguez Ronquillo who was blamed for
the uprising. The Spanish authorities arrested him and put him in
prison where he died.
The year earlier, the native leaders had already plotted a
rebellion of this sort to drive away the Spaniards back to their
homeland, wishing to regain control over the land once ruled by their
forefathers. As a result, the alcalde had to beg for reinforcements.
Later master-of-camp Pedro de Chaves arrived with four or five
ships and 60 soldiers, with supplies and ammunitions. In the
ensuing skirmish against the natives, the latter were beaten back,
and their leaders captured. Their chief, who was called Magalate,
was ambushed by his own men after a reward was offered for his
capture or death. Seven or eight others were hanged and beheaded,
and their property confiscated. Many others were exiled, some from
their villages and others to Nueva España.38
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The colonial authorities had to re-examine their strategies in
keeping the colony pacified, and this is where religious orders came
in handy. For Leyte, the lieutenant governor and the encomenderos
in the province wanted the Jesuits to preach there. Leyte had a
population of 70,000 then of which 30,000 paid tributes. But its eastern
parts were in rebellion against the encomenderos. So the colonial
government deemed it ripe for missionary work. As for the Jesuits,
their superior Father Pedro Sedeño himself had chosen Leyte and
Samar. He had been eyeing both islands for some time. Besides, the
18 encomenderos who shared Leyte between them were anxious for
the missionaries to come.39 In fact, it was the encomendero Cristobal
de Trujillo, ‘a man of eminent piety’, who took care of the Jesuits and
built their first house in the island in July 1595.40

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Part II
Early Jesuit Missions

W
hen Fr. Pedro Chirino41, three other Jesuit priests and a
brother arrived in Carigara, Leyte in July 1595, they were
impressed by the abundance of natural resources of the
place. He would write about these some six years later in what is
considered one of the most important historical resource of the era,
Relacion de las Islas Filipinas. Immediately evident to Chirino was
the marked division of the island into two distinct regions or districts
separated by a mountain ridge (which he called ‘Carigara’) running
from north to south, providing a ‘remarkable inequality and variety
in its temperature and seasons.’ The ridge, he reasoned out, explained
the two distinct seasons, so that when half of the island’s inhabitants
were sowing, the other half was harvesting. That way, there were
two harvests in a year, which were both ‘very abundant.’ Compared
to Manila where Chirino had been earlier, the temperature in Leyte
as in other parts of the Pintados (Visayas) was not so hot, even if the
island was said to be two degrees nearer the equinoctial line.
Villages were mostly situated near ‘a large grove of palm trees’
and ‘full-flowing rivers,’ their source of drinking water and natural
bathing pools. Here in these villages, the natives raised cows from
China , fowl, deer, hogs and planted fruit trees, rice, vegetables
and various root crops, while the sea teemed with fish. Since fish
constituted an important part of their diet, native settlements tended
to be near the coasts. Those palm trees and huge trees, some with
trunks as large as 12 brazas42 in circumference, according to Chirino,
gave shade to the roads and trails from one village to the other,
‘providing a comfort and refreshing coolness indispensable for those
of us who must travel on foot for lack of any other convenience .’ He
added that ‘throughout the island, the roads traversed groves and
forests, with foliage so cool and abundant that even at high noon, the
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sun caused us no annoyance.’

He noted that the inhabitants were ‘honest, simple, and
intelligent’, and possessed two ‘good and laudable’ qualities. One was
their generosity and hospitality to travellers, which he had probably
experienced in his many travels. He said they had no need of wallets
or provisions because wherever they went, they were sure of being
‘welcomed, sheltered and offered food.’ The second admirable trait
was the natives’ sense of fairness which was shown in their pricing
of an essential commodity, like rice. Whether the harvest was good
or bad, the natives never took advantage of the situation. They sold
their rice at fixed rates, Chirino observed. Such qualities were not
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found only among the Pintados but in many places in the colony he
had visited. 43
But another Jesuit who visited Leyte in Chirino’s time, Fr.
Diego Garcia, had a more negative view of the island.
‘The climate of this land is excessively hot and oppressive.
Mosquitoes and poisonous vermin abound; snakes as thick as good-
sized beam; vipers which, though small, are so popisonous that a
few survive their sting; a great many crocodiles, here called cayman
or buaya, which in some of the missions devour quite a number of
people. Travel is mostly by water, with the usual attendant perils.
Where one can go by land it must be on foot, because up to now
there are no mounts to be had in the Visayan islands. And even if
there were, the roads are so steep in places that there is no going on
horseback; one must clamber. When the ground is level, the mire is
so deep, especially during the rainy season, which is the greater part
of the year, that horses would simply get stuck without being able
to move. In fact, our missionaries must do their travelling not only
on foot but barefoot.’44
In the same volume, Chirino talks about the sagacity and
keenness of the natives when it came to the trading of their goods,
which ‘they applied themselves to all gainful pursuits – and not in the least
to agriculture and to the breeding of animals, regularly carried on for the
profits thus made.’ They had great harvests of rice, their main staple
food, but also of cotton with which they clothed themselves and
which they wove quantities of clothing. He said Spaniards saw this
as an opportunity to make money for themselves, ‘and they were not
mistaken,’ said Chirino, citing the case of one encomendero who had
amassed a fortune of 150,000 pesos in a few years from his collection
of tributes from clothing alone. 45
In a separate volume, Chirino writes of the civic order and
political government in some of these villages and about the
difficulties in gathering the natives in permanent villages. The
natives lived near their farms where they cultivated crops which they
had to guard from thieves and wild animals. Thus, an entire village
might consist of several separate settlements that were constantly
in full battle gear as the natives guarded themselves against their
neighbors. This created the impression that the natives were very
warlike and hostile. There was not one person or lord who ruled
over the rest who might live under his protection, but all chiefs of
clans asserted their authority in their respective territories, each one
having his own followers, and ‘fortified himself, keeping up an attitude
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“The [image] showing St. Dominic beneath a star holding a lily and a book, the
usual symbols of this saint, and clad in the white habit and black cloak of his
order, seems to be of oriental workmanship, differing vastly from contemporary
Spanish and Mexican cuts of the same type. The clouds, for instance, are char-
acteristically Chinese, and the buildings in the background more reminiscent of
eastern temples than European churches.” (Project Gutenberg)
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of defense.’

‘Consequently, they were usually at war with one another,

neighbors against neighbors – perpetually engaged in petty warfare,
with ambuscades, violence, robbery, murders, and captures’ wrote
the missionary.
‘Very seldom if ever did any of these bands become friendly
and live in the same neighbourhood or village, and aid each other
and combine against enemies. Even rarer were the lords who ruled
large towns, such as Cebu, Manila, Cainta and very few others. To
this must be added the fact that those who were able to remove from
the vicinity and danger of such turmoils, and flee to the mountains
to spend their lives, and would there build their houses and, close
by, cultivate their groves and fields.’46

The Jesuit missionaries found this situation in many of their first

mission stations in Leyte, but in a more extreme case in Alangalang,
an interior village a few kilometres from Carigara. According to Fr.
Cosme de Flores, the first missionary assigned there, the people lived
in rural hamlets, ‘in rugged, inaccessible and mountainous localities. ’
The houses were at considerable distances from one another, ‘without
any order, or any trace of streets or village, placed along the banks of rivers,
surrounded by their grain-fields and groves’ of coconuts and palm
trees. De Flores anticipated that this would become a problem in his
mission of evangelization.47
Fr. Mateo Sanchez who was assigned to Carigara in 1603, would
later write about similar conditions to the Jesuit Fr. General Claudio
Aquaviva. He said it was impossible to organize large towns in
Leyte, no matter how hard the missionaries tried because the people
had to live near their sources of food. Their relatively backward tools
of production left them barely enough surplus food to last till their
next harvest of rice or other staple crops, even if they supplemented
it with hunting and fishing. With only a long knife or bolo as a farm
tool, they made a little clearing in the forest, ‘dug holes in it with a
bamboo stick, dropped two or three grains of rice in each hole, and covered
them up again with the foot. Having done this, they had to protect what they
had sown from birds, rats, wild pigs, and thieves, and to keep it from being
choked by the lush weeds and creepers that sprang up almost overnight.’ 48
According to Sanchez, that situation explained the great
reluctance of the natives to leave their small clearings and live in the
town centers. How could they make a living in such towns? They
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Old church ruins in Binongtoan, Carigara

could not possibly make shoes or sew clothes because everybody

went barefoot in those years and every family sewed its own clothing.
To be sure, the husbands would not leave their wives and children
by themselves while they worked in their farms.49
Moreover, living in the town had its disadvantages: forced
labor, arbitrary punishments from their Spanish masters, the
continual calls to act as bearers and oarsmen for encomenderos and
missionaries because there were no pack animals. Initially, it was
deceptively easy to convince the datus to persuade their clans to
construct their huts and live in the town centers, but it was another
matter to make them stay, said Sanchez. 50

First Jesuit missions

The Carigara mission where the five Jesuits51 began their

evangelization work in 1595 was not exactly virgin territory. Years
earlier, the Augustinian Fr. Alonso Velasquez, who was assigned
to Leyte in 1580, was reported to have visited the place and the
settlements of Barugo, Leyte-Leyte, Palo and Dulag, villages which
the Jesuits had targeted. Though his visits to these towns may have
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
been few and far between, Velasquez built a small chapel in the
ancient site of Carigara in Binong-tuan, a settlement close to the
riverbanks upstream. Another Augustinian, Fr. Sancho Maldonado,
assisted him, but died on June 29, 1592, three years before the Jesuits
came. The visits of Fr. Velasquez stopped when the Jesuits arrived.52
According to Fr. Agustin Maria de Castro, it was also the
Augustinian Velasquez who started a mission in Dulag before even
the Jesuits came, establishing a school and a church there.53
Chirino and his companions landed in northern Leyte, near the
village of Carigara in the morning of 16 July, the day on which the
feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was celebrated in Spain.
The priests said mass on the beach and Brother Garay received
Holy Communion. They erected a cross to mark the day and place
of their landing, and proceeded on foot to Carigara, presumably a
site farther from where they landed, where they were welcomed by
Cristobal de Trujillo, encomendero of the region. Apparently he was
a descendant of the first encomendero of Carigara, Juan de Trujillo,
who was awarded the encomienda by the conquistador Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi in 1571.
Trujillo at once called an assembly of the people and
surrounding villages to announce the arrival of the missionaries
and arrange for the construction of a residence for them. There was
already a chapel in the town, which would do as temporary church.
Leaving del Campo, Flores and Garay at Carigara to study Visayan
and organize catechism classes, Chirino and Pereira sailed east and
then south along the coast of the island to find a place for a second
mission station.54 Returning two weeks later, they were pleasantly
surprised to see their house already finished, after many of Trujillo’s
subjects worked on it ‘with incredible haste.’55
On the second week of August, he and Fr. Pereira were
ordered by the Jesuit Vice-Provincial Antonio Sedeño to proceed to
Cebu, while Frs. Juan del Campo and Cosme de Flores remained and
undertook the study of the native language ‘with great fervor.’56
Said, Chirino, ‘the post at Carigara was the first where the society
began the mission villages of this province. It was there that we said the first
mass, and celebrated the first feast with great solemnity in honor of the holy
cross. There too occurred the first baptism, when with my own hands …as a
beginning to this new Christian community, I baptized a goodly number of
children already capable of reason. ‘
Evidently, the baptism of new-born infants was not practiced
here. It was customary for the Jesuit missionaries to provide religious
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH

Ruins of the old Dulag church

instructions first to the catechumens before baptizing them. In this

task, Frs. Juan del Campo and Cosme de Flores devoted themselves.
In the process, they also learned the language of the natives ‘in a very
short time, especially Fr. Cosme who spoke it with masterly skill.’ When Fr.
Del Campo was assigned to Dulag, he was replaced by a newcomer,
Fr. Mateo Sanchez. ‘Both pursued their task of winning souls for Christ
so attracting people that soon in Carigara, a flourishing Christian church
began to appear,’ wrote Chirino.57
When Encinas took charge of the mission in Carigara with
Brother Alonso del Brazo as his companion, the mission expanded to
three other villages: Leyte, Barugo and Samputan. Encinas and Del
Barco visited all four every month. During their stay in each village,
daily mass was followed by Catechetical instruction in the church.
Encinas, taking his cue from Chirino, put the principal truths of the
creed and several hymns into the verse of the traditional Visayan
folk songs. These achieved instant populalrity, especially at Carigara,
where they sang Encinas’ composition not only at mass but in their
houses in the evening. Encinas also started a day school for boys at
Carigara, with a Filipino schoolmaster who taught reading, writing
and music. By 1597, two-thirds of the population had received
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
baptism.58
The chapel built in the 1580s at Binongtuan by Augustinian Fr.
Alonso Velasquez was replaced with a bigger structure under Frs.
Chirino, del Campo and Flores, but this was completed during the
time of Frs. Sanchez and Encinas, the second batch of missionaries
after that of Chirino. A major renovation of the same church started
in 1605 and completed in March 1608, when Fr. Alonso Rodriguez
was the rector of the Carigara residence. At that time, it was said to
be the biggest and most beautiful in the islands. However, a month
later, on April 7, 1608, it was burned down along with the Jesuit
residence during the Muslim raid led by Rajahs Buisan and Mura.
After the raid, the Jesuits and the civil authorities persuaded
the residents to transfer the town site north nearer to the coast. Later
the people began settling down at a place called Punong, and the
missionaries under Fr. Luis Gomez directed the construction of
a new church in 1608 on the spot where Chirino and the pioneers
planted the cross in 1595.59

Dulag

Chirino and Pereira had found Dulag, an important village in

the eastern coast, a suitable location for their second mission station.
Thus, just more than a month after the establishment of the mission
in Carigara, on August 20, 1595, Frs. Alonso Humanes and Juan
del Campo sailed to Dulag to set up a new mission. Like Carigara,
the natives of Dulag lived far from each other in their small farms
because that was how they made a living. Their farms dictated their
lifestyle. In a bid to attract the natives to live in a common settlement,
the Jesuits constructed a church with the help of Spaniards who lived
in the area and were presumably part of the encomienda structure
there. It was completed on September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of
our Lady, to whom it was dedicated with pomp and festivity. But
while natives crowded the church on the day of its inauguration as
well as on subsequent Sundays and other feast days, they ultimately
drifted away and returned to their farm settlements.60
Humanes did not lose hope. To cover the expansive territory,
he and del Campo went on a series of methodical tours to cover their
extensive territory, which had a population of around 10,000. In
every village and settlement, they set up a cross and a chapel and
gathered the people together for instruction. ‘If they were concentrated
in larger communities near Dulag, he could devote to their instruction the
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH

Part of the Dulag church ruins

time he spent in travelling. He picked out eight possible town sites and
proposed the idea to the encomenderos. They opposed it vigorously, for such
a shift in population would mean that some would lose tribute payers to
others, since the tributes were collected on a territorial basis. Humanes
had to desist from his plan, at least for the time being, but this question
of gathering people into towns was to remain a major issue between the
missionaries and the encomenderos of Leyte for some years to come.’61

‘They baptized no one, even if he asked for it, because Humanes

did not believe in mass baptism. He wanted to wait until they knew
the language better so that they could assure themselves that the
catechumens had the proper disposition. It was not until Christmas
eve of 1595, three months after their arrival, that they baptized
their first converts in the church of Dulag. Of the 45 who received
baptism, many were children, and most of the adults were servants
and bearers attached to the mission. Before baptizing them, the
fathers made it clear to each one that they were not to ask for the
sacrament unless they understood what it meant and really wanted
to receive it.’62

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In 1596, Brother Denis Marie joined the mission and Father del
Campo left. Humanes continued to insist on a long and thorough
catechumenate. In 1597, he baptized only 190 altogether, and of these
80 were children and sick people in danger of death.
With the church finished, they made a preliminary census of
the population, and started catechism classes, then organized a school
following Chirino’s model in Tigbauan. Some 60 boys, mostly sons of
datus, were selected from three encomiendas of eastern Leyte – Palo,
Dulag and Abuyog. Classes were held in Christian doctrine, reading,
writing and music. However, Humanes improved on Chirino’s idea
by having the boys live in the Jesuit compound itself. The school at
Dulag was thus the first seminario de indios or boarding school for
natives to be established by the Philippine vice-province. It was a
completely free school, the living expenses of the boys and the salary
of the school master being paid for out of the annual stipend received
by the missionaries.

‘The success of this school is due to the exact observance of

the regulations and the disposition of everything. They have their
house and dormitory in fine order, and a chapel in which they meet
for prayers and reading. When the signal is given they rise and
go to the chapel under the supervision of the older ones who are
17 or 18 years of age. Then they go to Church to hear Mass before
which something about our Lord is told to them. They have classes
of reading, writing, singing and drawing. Their food is ample and
they have time for play. They have classes again in the evening,
sing the Salve and recite the rosary. Before going to bed they recite
the litany and have some reading. It is the frequentation of the
sacraments that transforms their hearts. The feasts of the Blessed
Sacrament have been celebrated in the pueblos and in Dulag with
special solemnity at which four seminarians gave declamations on
the Sacrament. At Christmas one of the brothers made a belen which
aroused the admiration of all, and one of the seminarians explained
the meaning of the feast.’ So wrote Fr. Francisco Vaez, the Jesuit
Provincial in Mexico after visiting the school.63

He said the seminarians of Dulag ‘were imbued with good morals
and solid virtues, and gave their aid to Ours in explaining the Catechism to
the more ignorant people and those of the lower order… for whenever Ours
went where these people exerted the diligence, they found all the people
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prepared to receive baptism.’64
Explaining the usefulness of the boys, he wrote that ‘wherever
Ours go where these pupils have exerted their diligence, they find
all the people well prepared to receive baptism, to be initiated into
it by baptism. In advent and at the feast of the nativity, we baptized
more than 700 persons. We have baptized in all from last year to the
present date, 2,020 or more.’65
Otazo, the superior of the residence in 1601, expressed great
satisfaction with the progress the seminarians were making. ‘I am
amazed,’ he told the Jesuit Superior Garcia, ‘at their ability to absorb
what they were taught. I have often considered how they would measure
up to Spanish boys, and it seems to me that European children are by
no means their superiors in understanding and judgment.’ Two years
later, he began sending them to the villages to assist in the post-
baptismal instruction of neophytes. They gave a very good account
of themselves.66
After Jesuit Vice-Provincial Diego Garcia made his first visit of
the Visayan missions in October 1601, he was also impressed by the
boarding school in Dulag. So he asked his friend Governor Francisco
Tello for a government subsidy for it, and had no difficulty in getting
what he asked for, subject to the royal confirmation. The grant,
signed on October 13, provided that ‘100 pesos, oro comun, and 200
fanegas67 of unhulled rice be disbursed each year to the fathers of the Society
of Jesus. If at the end of four years, royal confirmation is not received, it
shall cease.’ The grant enabled Garcia to place the Dulag boarding
school on a firmer footing and to reorganize it along the lines he had
founded at Antipolo.
The building was enlarged to include dormitory, refectory, and
private chapel for at least 30 boys. These were chosen from among
the ruling families of the region and given an intellectual formation
which would fit them to be teachers and leaders of their people. The
length of time they spent in the institution apparently was not fixed
though it took several years. The annual Letter of 1605 mentions a
few 17- and 18-year olds, but the majority must have been younger
than that. New boys made a general confession of their past life and
received Holy Communion on the day of their entrance.68
In this residence, from the month of June 1598 to January
1599, more than 100 catechumens were solemnly baptized after
they prepared themselves very carefully for the sacrament. During
the two weeks of advent and Easter in 1601, more than 700 were
baptized, and from the Easter of the previous year, 1600, more than
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The pre-World War II cathedral of Palo

2,020 persons were baptized – ‘and all this with great fervor, eagerness
and esteem for the new law which they profess with holy baptism.’ 69
But it would not be long before the Jesuits closed down the
residence and transferred their base to a safer interior village –
Dagami. The continuous moro raids of the islands coastal towns in
the early 17th century had weakened its role as a Jesuit center.70

Palo

In October 1596, Frs. Cristobal Jimenez71 and Francisco Encinas

set out on foot from Dulag to Palo by way of the eastern shores,
escorted by one of the leading principales, Don Alonso Ambuyao,
and four others. By nightfall the party was in the Tacoranga (the
present-day San Joaquin) River. A boat took them to Ambuyao’s
house where they were warmly received. The next morning the
missionaries continued their trek until they reached Palo, a settlement
located on the bank of a beautiful river, on October 20, celebrating
their arrival with a mass.
A number of natives were on hand to welcome them, but the
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priests soon realized that only two houses, both owned by servants of
the encomendero, made up the whole settlement. Soon, the welcome
party left the priests and went their separate ways back into the
hinterlands where they lived. It was like Dulag all over again, only
that its population seemed to be even more dispersed. Some boys
who had been to the Dulag school for boys offered to help them and
teach them the language.72
Encinas was called to Carigara soon afterward, to be replaced
by Brother Gomez as Jimenez’ companion. When he had learned
enough Visayan to make himself understood, Jimenez started on a
tour of his mission. At first, the people suspected him to be a tribute
collector, and so refused to open their doors or invite him inside
their dwellings. When an epidemic struck the village, a lot of people
got sick, giving him an idea. He looked for the best herbal medicine
practitioners in the area and paid them to learn their craft. He knew
they were not quacks. They had found effective remedies by trial and
error. But their fees were high. If they cured a person of a fatal disease,
they charged him his rate as a slave. They charged comparable fees
for instructing anyone in their craft. After he acquired native healing
skills, he did not charge any fees. That was his entry. He baptized
only a few, mostly infants, but he made a lot of friends.73
After the epidemic, a church was constructed and the natives
were gradually persuaded to live in the designated settlement. Palo
began to grow. On August 15, 1598, the new church was inaugurated
and dedicated to Our Lady. Many Spaniards who were in charge
of tax collection attended the inauguration. As main celebrant,
Humanes, the superior of the Leyte mission, solemnized the baptism
of the most influential man in the region, Don Juan Kanganga, whom
the Spanish government had appointed petty governor of Palo. Don
Francisco Rodriguez de Ledesma, the Spanish alcalde mayor of
Leyte, stood as baptismal sponsor. All the datus of the surrounding
country came with their retainers to see the neophyte christened
Don Juan Kanganga, and afterward performed a ceremonial dance
in front of the church to celebrate the occasion. Don Juan was of
great assistance to the missionary in choosing suitable town sites
where the clans could be brought together. But here as in Dulag, the
opposition of the encomenderos made it slow and difficult work.74
In Chirino’s report, the mission was ‘one of the finest and best
regulated in all the island, thanks to the labors of one of our fathers who
helped the natives construct good houses. The Christian doctrine is taught
every day to the children in all the villages; and so many of them attend this
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exercise. ‘75

When Jimenez left, Fr. Alonso Rodriguez took his place. In one
of his letters, he wrote: ‘We held a mission at Paloc; and the method of
teaching the doctrine by decurias76 so aroused the enthusiasm of all that
within 10 days many learned the prayers and gained all the necessary
knowledge for baptism. Such was the emulation among them.’ Fr. Melchor
Hurtado wrote that in San Salvador (Palo) , during the celebration of
the Christmas feast, almost 800 infidels were baptized, and that the
confessions and communions were such as might be expected back
in Spain – ‘so many that the fathers could not attend to them all.’77

Ormoc

The station seemed to have been visited earlier by Augustinian

missionaries judging from the attitudes of the natives toward the
Jesuit mission founders, Frs. Alonso Rodriguez and Leonardo Scelsi.
In Chirino’s account, the natives were ‘friendly and docile’ and received
the missionaries with ‘much affection and pleasure.’ Chirino was also
quick to attribute the ‘gentleness and kindness’ of the missionaries as
factors that influenced the natives to behave thus. The governor of
the place also received them ‘with much joy,’ and made arrangements
on the spot for his conversion. The rest followed his example.78
But it was the children that impressed the missionaries the most.
They would later serve as their bridge to their elders who refused
conversion because they would not abandon their polygamous
relationships.

‘Some of the youngest children were exceedingly bright; and it

was indeed a marvel to see the mass served, with grace and address,
by a child who was scarcely able to move the missal. Many of the
children also helped us greatly in catechizing and instructing their
elders and in preparing them, and even urging them to receive holy
baptism. This was done by a little child of only four years old, who
seeing his father somewhat lukewarm in this respect, had cause
him to entreat us urgently for baptism. They not only fulfilled this
office with their parents but even interceded with us in their behalf,
urging that we should not delay in granting this favour…though
so young and recently planted. Nearly all of those people were
converted to Christianity without much difficulty.’ 79

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The missionaries’ creative approach to evangelization led
them to develop certain principles that later became the Jesuit ratio
studiorum or pedagogical code. The catechism course was divided
into grades, where each grade had to learn a part of the catechism,
progressively more difficult, and pass an examination on it before
going on to the next grade. Each student had to write down the lesson
from dictation on a piece of bamboo reed80, repeat it orally, and then
to commit it to memory. After the memory period, the strips were
laid aside and the lesson was recited either individually or in unison.
Finally a discussion period was devoted to getting the catechumens
to put the lesson in their own words by answering questions on it.81

‘In some places they are assigned on one Sunday the lesson
they are to learn for the next; in others without being assigned a
lesson, they are questioned as to what they know. In some districts
as here in Ogmuc are formed as many classes as there are divisions
of the Christian doctrine, from making the sign of the cross to the act
of confession, and each student, whether child or old man, continues
to advance as he learns, until he takes his degree and is graduated
– that is, until he knows the doctrine…Not only do they as good
students write their lessons – mainly in their own characters, and
using a piece of a reed as a book of memorandum, and an iron point
as a pen; but they always carry with them these materials, and
whenever one ceases his labors, whether at home or in the field, by
way of rest, he takes his book, and spends some time in study. Such
is the fervor and zeal of these eager students,’ wrote Chirino. 82

He called it a ‘school of celestial theology’ because of the eagerness

and enthusiasm that the students showed when they attended their
classes and recited their lessons. He said ‘it is a cause for praise to God to
see old men become again children and the chiefs made humble – all learning
with eagerness and delight and perseverance the Christian doctrine, and
writing, repeating, studying, reciting and singing it.’ The baptism which
usually followed these instructions was received ‘with as much joy, as
do students the degree of doctor or master,’ he added.83
One of Rodriguez’s biggest challenges in this mission was
how to convert to the faith a principale who was keeping three
women. Rodriguez approached the problem from the principale’s
point of weakness, and concentrated his efforts on converting the
woman he loved most. When the woman was baptized, and went
to live with another Christian woman, the principale resolved to
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become a Christian himself. In time, he did and he took the Christian
woman as his wife and dismissed the others, giving each a piece of
land on which to live. Not long thereafter, his followers also became
Christians. From May 1597 to April 1598, Rodriguez counted 584
converts in Ormoc alone. All the other natives, he said, were greatly
inclined to join the faith. 84
A church was completed in this mission, ‘one of the finest in that
island, through the diligence and labors of Fr. Alonso Rodriguez who spent
a long time there.’ 85

Alangalang

Fr. Cosme de Flores visited the village of Alangalang from

Carigara on October 23, 1596. He knew the situation of its people
and how they made a living in scattered clan settlements. It was very
much like Carigara and the other missions, only that it was located
in the interior part of the island and was accessible only on foot. Of
these hardships, Fr. Francisco Vaez wrote: ‘They go afoot through the
rivers, the pools, the marshes, the water often reaching to their navels and
the sun burning above them.’86 Much work had to be done to put these
settlements together into bigger compact villages. He was chosen
because of his knowledge of the language and the ‘esteem and affection
in which he was held by the Indians.’ Accompanying him was Brother
Pedro Diaz.87
He probably assumed that if he had a church built first, he
would be able to gather the scattered settlements into a compact
town or village. So one of the first things Flores did was to invite the
natives, the Spaniards living in the place and the encomendero to a
conference of sorts to discuss his idea of building a church. When
they agreed, they set about building it and on a Sunday, June 15,
1597, it was finally finished and dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity.
Vespers were sung and 18 persons were baptized. Only this number
was deemed ready for baptism, although many others were eager
to be accepted into the faith and constantly badgered Flores to teach
them the tenets.88
A Spaniard, Lucas de Rivas, who was in Alangalang at the time,
witnessed the labors of this exceptional missionary. Writing a a letter to
the Jesuit superior in Cebu dated September 10, 1597, he said: ‘Father
Flores would leave Alangalang on Monday, say Mass in Tinga (Tunga)
on Tuesday and return. On Wednesday he would go to Ugiao, say Mass on
Thursday and spend the night at Salog (Jaro). Having said Mass there on
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Friday, he would return to Alangalang. On Saturday he would say Mass in
Tambo and return to Alangalang in the evening. On the following Monday,
he would go to Lingayon and so on through all the barrios, preaching in each
and never resting.’89
Flores followed an exacting schedule, visiting five or six of the
villages of the mission, but his health was not up to it. He died on
September 8, 1597 at the age of 28. But before he did, he brought
together the people of two villages into the town – one 300 households
and the other 500 households - the ‘first notable success’ in the Jesuit
plan of success of bringing the dispersed population of Leyte. 90
Fr. Tomas de Montoya who took over from Flores wrote of the
liturgical services in Alangalang: ‘As a result of the good music that we
have in the church, the divine services are celebrated with much solemnity,
and to the great satisfaction of the natives. Many solemn baptisms and
marriages have been celebrated which were attended with great fervor,
especially by the inhabitants of one village, who in this respect had the
advantage of the others.’91

Tunga

The expansion of the Jesuit missions to the villages of Tunga,

an interior village of Leyte, and the neigboring island of Panamao,
the ancient name of Biliran, appears to have been memorable to the
Jesuit chronicler Chirino for the events that triggered them.
Tunga in the pre-Jesuit years was a sanctuary for thieves,
murderers, ‘witches’ and women of ill repute. Separated by thick
forests and marshes from its neighboring villages, the colonial
authorities found it difficult to go after them. There were 12 criminals
who were roaming in bands in the mountains and trails. The only
persons who could soothe the rising anger in the parties concerned,
reconcile their differences and restore friendly relations between
them were the Jesuit missionaries. The matter had to be settled
immediately for the island of Leyte as the people were well-nigh in a
state of insurrection, and the bandits were in their heyday. 92
Fortunately, the missionaries were able to convince them to
amend their ways, and in no time ‘they were asking for protection,
pardon and penance,’ except for one who was accused of killing
Humbas. Wrote Mateo Sanchez: ‘He was the beginning, and as it were,
the source of all this disturbance. …In truth, it will be very difficult for him
to effect a reconciliation with the parties concerned and obtain a pardon, on
account of their rank and wealth; for the murdered man (whose name was
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Humbas) was one of the most noted and valiant Indians in the island, and
always had been, and was at that time, governor of the village of Ogyao.’93
So the missionaries approached one of the sons of the murdered
man, Don Philipe Tipon, a baptized Christian, ‘an excellent man, greatly
attached to us and well instructed, and informed in the Christian religion.’
The Jesuit Sanchez promised to reconcile the conflicting parties and
settle the affair in a peaceful manner. Thus started the mission in the
interior village of Tunga.94

Biliran

The mission in Panamao, the ancient name of Biliran, was

presaged by a different set of circumstances. The island, which is
separated from Leyte on its northern tip by a narrow strait, used to
be thickly forested that the Spaniards put up a shipbuilding facility
there because of its good supply of timber. Thus, the area was
populated by ship workers and their families. One of the workers
was a Spanish-speaking negro who brought his wife along. One day,
the man was sent on an errand by his captain. When he returned by
nightfall, he discovered his wife was with another man who was said
to be young and good-looking. Maddened by jealousy, the negro
rushed at the young man with a lance, killing him and wounding his
wife, whom he left for dead.
It was for this reason that they sought the help of the
missionaries in Carigara. To settle the matter, Fr. Francisco Vicente
was sent to the island. In his report, he did not say anything about
the murderous affair but wrote only about the initial success of
his mission in the island. He said that on reaching the island on
Saturday before the last Sunday of Advent in 1602, his group was
welcomed by the captain ‘with much affection and kindness.’ It was a
large population that was there, consisting of both natives as well as
Spaniards. He was able to talk to them immediately and convinced
them to build a chapel, which was finished in a day’s work. So on the
morning after his arrival, he celebrated the mass and ‘preached to them
on matters related to sin and its injurious nature.’ He said they were all
‘deeply moved, and resolved to ask’ him for confession. Thus began
the mission in Panamao.95
By the year 1600, about five years after the Jesuits set foot in
Carigara, their five missions had expanded to 25 towns or town
centers, with each one having a church, and baptized 4,946 natives
out of an estimated total population of 24, 500, or about 20 percent of
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the population.
Jesuit missions in 1600 in Leyte96

Mission Towns Churches Christians Population

Ormoc 3 3 646 4,000
Palo 5 5 1,200 6,000
Dulag 8 8 1,400 8,000
Carigara 4 4 1,100 2,500
Alangalang 5 5 600 4,000
Total 25 25 4,946 24,500

After the visit of Jesuit Vice-Provincial Diego Garcia to the

mission, he remarked that the missionaries cheerfully endured the
difficulties and privations in so far as food, lodging and medical care
was concerned. He told Gov. Tello when he returned to Manila,
that he had lived in five provinces of the Society both in Europe and
America, but in none of them had he seen such poverty as in the
Leyte missions. The 16 Jesuits stationed there had no other means
of support except the 800 pesos and 800 fanegas97 of rice given them
as their annual stipend by the encomenderos, for in accordance with
the policy of the Society they accepted no fees whatever for Masses,
marriages and burials. Out of this income they had managed to feed
and clothe themselves, build and furnish their houses, pay and feed
the bearers and rowers when they went about on their missionary
expeditions, and support the dozen or so boys who lived with them
in each house and were being trained as catechists.98
However, the love of God and the zeal for souls have often
been able to impart a surprising elasticity to the most tenuous of
means, and so it was in this case. It was surely an echo of what the
missionaries themselves told Garcia when he added in his report to
the general that

‘…these hardships are not really as formidable as they appear.

The climate is hot but healthy, provided one lives temperately; the
poisonous vermin rarely do harm to Europeans; and a readiness
to rough it makes the difficulties of travel, the dangers at sea, the
unpalatable food and the poor lodgings bearable. Without this
readiness, of course, those who are sent here will hate this kind of
life.’

The ‘residencia’
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Having completed his tour of inspection, Garcia summoned
all the missionaries of Leyte to a conference in Palo. The conference
began on 6 January 1600 with 26 Jesuits attending, lasting for almost
a month during which daily meetings were held. Garcia began by
promulgating the decrees of the fifth general congregation and
commenting on the more recent ordinances of the fathers general. He
then announced an important communication which had recently
been received from Rome. The Jesuit Fr. General Aquaviva was
worried that that the missionaries might have spread themselves
too thinly over a wide territory, a concern Chirino had express in
his letters. In particular, Garcia questioned the wisdom of assigning
Jesuits in small groups of two or three to isolated mission stations,
thus depriving them of the safeguards of community life. So he
directed that no new mission stations be opened for the time being,
and that the missionaries in existing stations be withdrawn to a few
central residences, each of which should consist of not less than six
members. The towns deprived of a resident priest could be taken care
of from the central residence by the missionaries going out in pairs at
regular intervals on a circuit of the surrounding district. Hence the
birth of the residencia.99

Moro Raids

THE Spaniards - and mostly likely the Jesuit missionaries

- knew the moros were intending to raid the Pintados (Visayan)
islands. Slave trading was a profitable enterprise at that time, and
to the moro tribes in Mindanao, the market in nearby Borneo was
just too tempting to resist. Moreover, the Pintados had become the
sworn enemies of the moros after they embraced Christianity and
allowed themselves to become subjects of the Spanish king. Given
their widely dispersed settlements, they had become easy targets for
more organized and better armed moro marauders.
The confirmation came on May 29, 1602 when men of Juan
Juarez Gallinato, the purveyor general assigned near San Buangan
(Zamboanga) captured a Lutao native from the place and subjected
him to interrogation. This was witnessed by one Antonio de Alarcon,
commander of the patrona, while Pedro Navarro, the encomendero of
Baybay and Canamucan (Inopacan) served as interpreter. Evidently
his years of stay in Baybay had enabled him to speak the language
fluently.
The Lutao native who identified himself as Saliot, a freeman
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and a native of the place, said he was sent by his chief called Bato to
pose as a merchant and bring with him fowls, wax and fish to trade
in the port where the Spanish fleet was anchored, find out where the
entire fleet was, who was in it, what sort of ships these were, and
who was expected to come. But unluckily for him, he was captured.
He also disclosed that there were about a hundred ships in the
river of Mindanao, both large and small, which were intending to
plunder the Pintados, Oton (in Panay) and whatever regions they
could find. A large number of men were going with these vessels
because they took a hundred fighters from each village. Some of the
leaders were Silonga, Raxamora and Buwisan. Liguana, chief of
Taguima, and his sons were going with him, and all the chiefs of his
country. Thirty-five vessels were going from San Buangan, Tragima
and Basilanban, and would be sailing in 10 days from that day, Saliot
said.
Another spy named Onarano, who was captured and
interrogated also by Gallinato with interpreter Navarro, likewise
made startling revelations. The spy, also a Lutao from the village of
Lumian near Jolo, said that the king of Jolo was helping the Mindanao
Muslims in their fight against the Spaniards. They were preparing
a great fleet to attack the provinces of the Pintados and against the
Spaniards. Onarano said that he had heard from other subject of
the kingdom of Jolo that, as long as the Spaniards remained in the
aforesaid kingdom, all the natives will rise up against them.
The interrogators also found out that the moros were no longer
acting by themselves only but were in some sort of alliance with
other Muslim groups outside Mindanao. Onarano said some 50 ships
were sailing from nearby Maluco and Ternate (Indonesia), besides
the Sangils and Togolandans who were brought by Buwisan, said
to be master-of-camp to the one called Captain Lant. He added that
the groups from Mindanao had 40 large caracoas, 20 carangailes and
bireyes, in addition to one caracoa from San Buangan (Zamboanga)
and Tagima. If the Spaniards were to be found in Jolo,they were
going to be attacked, if not they would plunder in Pintados, Cebu
and Oton, said the captured spy. The assembled Moro fleet was
scheduled to leave in 10 days.100

Buwisan captures Fr. Hurtado

But the Moro raids of the eastern coast of Leyte did not happen
in 1602 but toward the end of 1603. As early as August that year,
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Moro bladed weapons of war

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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
talks had begun to circulate that the moros would be coming. So the
alcalde of Cebu ordered the corregidor of Leyte to make preparations
in the coast of Dulag. To comply with the order, the latter gathered
all the Spaniards in the island, consisting mainly of tax collectors, and
mustered whatever force he could have to fortify the area. They put
up some earth works, stayed in the area for two months, and waited.
No raid came. They thought Buwisan and his fleet headed straight
for Balayan, repeating his performance the previous year. Confident
that they would be safe, they disbanded the hastily organized troops.
Fr. Otazo, the Jesuit superior of the residence, called for the other
priests who were out in the field to a conference in Dulag. Fr. Melchor
Hurtado, who was in the interior village of Dagami, arrived in Dulag
on the 28th of October.
Very early the next morning, a fisherman who went out to sea
saw the outlines of various vessels in the horizon and immediately
ran back to the village, shouting that the moro raiders had come.
The people of Dulag lost no time in packing their belongings and
scampered for the nearby forests to designated hiding places.
Hurtado and the boys from the boarding school joined the fleeing
group, while Otazo took the ciborium with the Blessed Sacrament
and headed for the forests too.
But the women and children slowed down their flight.
Moreover, the rain made it easier for the Magindanaus to track them.
Very soon, the moros were on them. Hurtado managed to hide inside
the hollow part of a large tree. A moro warrior who had captured a
woman saw the priest in his hiding place and was about to strike him
with his kampilan when he recognized him as a priest. So he brought
him to his commander Buwisan who was delighted, knowing the
Spaniards were going to ransom him.
The raiders ransacked the town, carried away altar vessels
and vestments from the church, dumping armfuls of clothes and
books from the mission house on the shore in order to pick out what
they fancied most. Jubilant warriors came out of the woods with
captives.101
Buwisan called one of the captives, the fiscal of Dulag, and gave
him a flag of truce, saying he would be back in Dulag in a week’s
time. On Oct 31, he burned the church and the entire town and sailed
north. He sacked Palo and Lingayon, which had been abandoned by
its inhabitants, and burned the churches there, intercepted a frigate
bound for Cebu with tribute rice from Samar, and captured two
Spanish tribute collectors who were on board, before returning to
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Dulag.
The Leyte datus were waiting for him. They handed their gold
and bells in return for the natives the moros had captured, then
Buwisan talked to them about their situation. He said this would not
have happened if the natives of Pintados did not subject themselves
to the Spanish king, who was powerless to defend them. He was not
able to protect the people of Panay, Mindoro and Balayan. What was
the sense in keeping such an alliance? he asked. On the other hand, if
the Pintados and Mindanaus were united against the Spaniards, the
latter, who were fewer in number, could do nothing against them.
The datus, who had been badgering against tax collection
instituted by the encomenderos, listened intently. There was
wisdom in Buwisan’s words. Finally, they sat down and had a blood
compact with him. Only then did Buwisan turn the prows of his
fleet for home.102 This was the first of several raids of this village and
neighboring coastal settlements.
A year later, Hurtado103 was freed by Silonga, the most powerful
of all Mindano datus, along with two other Spaniards and some
natives – without ransom. This after the priest showed conviction
of his faith in front of Silonga himself, eventually becoming his
honoured guest and constant partner in discussions about religious
beliefs. Before his release, Hurtado was treated like an honoured
guest in Silonga’s camp, given slaves to attend to his needs, and
provided with good food.104
But even with Silonga’s eventual conversion to Christianity,
the moro raids of Leyte and other Pintado islands continued, this
time perpetrated by other Muslim groups in Mindanao emboldened
by Buwisan’s example. In 1613, Dulag was raided twice, capturing
natives that numbered more than 400, their houses burned and
fields ravaged, and several churches desecrated and destroyed. Near
the end of that year, a Mindanao leader called Pagdalanum came
with 37 ships, raided the village and proceeded to Palo where he
captured the rector of Dulag, Fr. Pascual Acuña.105
When the authorities learned of this, they sent a fleet in pursuit
of Pagdalanum whom they found hiding in a cove in the coast of
Caraga. Pagdalanum was hit on the second volley from the ship’s
artillery, causing the moros to retreat. The priest was rescued soon
after that.106
In 1629, Datu Ache, Jolo’s most influential datu, swept north
for the counterblow, following a raid of Jolo by Spanish-led armada
led by Capt. Cristobal de Lugo. He led his armada first to Camarines
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Sur, where he burned a galleon under construction. From there he
worked his way southward, harassing the coastal towns of Samar,
Leyte and Bohol. Nowhere did he meet with any resistance save at
Carigara, where Fr. Melchor de Vera had fortified the church and
mission house, and at Baclayon, where the resolute readiness of the
Boholanos forced him to retire without a fight.107

Moros behead priest in Ormoc

After some two decades of inaction, the Magindanaus found a

new leader in Cachil Kuralat (Sultan Kudarat) and once more put out
to sea in their predatory ships, with some 1,500 men. They roamed
the southern Visayas, plundering and taking prisoners where they
could. First was Dapitan, then Maribojoc and Inabanga in Bohol,
then Cabalian and Sogod in southern Leyte. Then finally, the west
cost of Leyte, Baybay and Ormoc. It was in the latter village which
the Mindanaus dealt the most devastating blow.108
This was the third such raid, the first two being in 1605 and
1608. Before that Ormoc raid, Murillo wrote about the raiding parties
of Joloans and Camucones in the year 1629 that ravaged the islands
overpowered the islands, robbing, destroying and desecrating
churches, causing the natives and fathers a lot of suffering. Fr. Ignacio
Acevedo, who was praying the Orate Fratres in Bincay of Dagami,
witnessed how the people ran away from the church where he
was praying, fleeing for their lives. He was barely able to save the
vestments and was in grave danger as the moros were closing in. At
this time, Fr. Juan del Carpio was travelling from Sogod to Cabalian
(by boat) that he barely touched land. The moros confiscated his
vestments and precious vessels he left behind.109
But the December 3, 1634 raid is provided with more details
by the Augustinian missionary Casimiro Diaz. That Sunday, the
Magindanaus arrived with 18 vessels near the shores of the village of
Ormoc, leaving behind the rest of the fleet in Baybay. Some 50 native
warriors went out to resist them, but outnumbered, they gradually
retreated to a small fort they had earlier constructed following the
example of Fr. Melchor de Vera in Carigara. They thought they
would be able to resist the pirates there, being encouraged there by
their minister , Fr. Juan del Carpio110, of the Society of Jesus.
But their courage was no match to the enemy’s cunning and
numbers. Seeing that the church stood on a higher ground than the
fort, the marauders entered it and positioned themselves there, so
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that the native warriors could not reach them with their shots. They
planted three pieces in a convenient place at the church, in order to
do great damage to those in the fort. At that vantage position, the
moros started firing at the native warriors trapped inside the small
wooden fort, while the latter could not return fire.
Others of the moro contingent uncovered the roofs of nearby
houses to gather bundles of thatch, fastened together what wood and
bamboo they could gather, and pushing this contrivance toward the
fort, they set it afire. The fire burned a quantity of rice and abaca, and
the men inside were choked by smoke. The local warriors, seeing
that fire had caught the inner timber-work of the small fort, saw only
two options: continue fighting and burn to death or surrender. They
chose the second option.
Some 200 were captured, to be sold to slave traders in
places close to their territories in Mindanao. But when they came
to the missionary priest, Fr. del Carpio, a contest arose as to who
should have him. The Spaniards would pay a handsome price for
any Spaniard caught in battle. But when they referred the issue to
Corralat, he ordered his men to behead him. He had earlier vowed
not to bring any Spaniard alive, a promise he made to Mohamet
when he became seriously ill. Thus, del Carpio was beheaded and
his head was brought to the moro king as present. Then they sacked
and burned the village and its church. From there, they sailed out
and also destroyed the villages of Soyor (Sogod), Biñangan, Cabalian,
Canamucan (Inopacan) and Baybay.111
Fr. Francisco de Luzon was in Sogod in 1634 when a squadron
of 22 vessels of Corralat were preying on the islands of Bohol and
Leyte. But he was able to escape Corralat’s fury.
Other moro tribes joined the thriving enterprise of the
Magindanaus, conducting their own raids of helpless coastal villages
in the Visayas and even the southern parts of Luzon. One of these
groups originated from the small island of Jolo which could hardly
mobilize 3,000 armed men. They had once paid tribute to Spain but
later rebelled and killed all the Spaniards in the island. One of their
datus, a Datu Achen, was often compared to the most destructive
African pirates because of his ferocity in the high seas.
He and his troops once attacked a shipyard in Camarines
where galleons were built. After the usual robbery and murder, he
captured many natives and Spaniards and traded these in the islands
south of Jolo, carrying away artillery and firearms, with which he
strengthened his defences in his own country.
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One of the prized captives seized during this period was a
Jesuit Father Giovanni Domenico Bilanci, a native of Naples, Italy
who was on a journey near Hinundayan. This was in 1632. They
brought him to Jolo and then the usual ransom note was dispatched
to Manila. With it came a letter from Bilanci himself.112 He died in
captivity , in 1655, at 60 years old. He served as a priest for 30 years.113
In the last decade of the century, the Joaloans were joined by
moros from Tawi-Tawi, Lacay-Lacay and Tuptup. They mustered
some 60 vessels and divided their forces into smaller squadrons as
they sacked and burned the villages of Poro (in Camotes Is.), Baybay,
Sogor (Sogod), Cabalian, Basey (Samar), Dangajon, Capul in Northern
Samar and Guinobatan, Albay. They killed a Spanish Captain Gabriel
de la Peña, captured another official of the same class, Ignacio de la
Cueva, and the Jesuit Father Buenaventura Barcena.114 Not content
with what they found in the coastal villages, the marauders even
went to the mountains in pursuit of the missionaries and captured
all the natives they chanced upon.115
The moro raids did not stop at the close of the 17th century.
In the middle of the next century, two more major raids of Leyte’s
coastal towns in the west are recorded citing the valiant resistance
of the native defenders, frustrating the moro raiders. In the month of
February 1754, some 2,000 moro warriors attacked Hilongos and for
11 days laid siege to its fort built earlier. But the local warriors held
on and made various sallies to prevent the moros from building their
own trenches, with the Jesuit missionary acting as their adviser. The
death of many moro warriors discouraged the latter from continuing
their siege, even as the locals did not lose any of their fighters.116
From Hilongos, the moros proceeded to another progressive
settlement also in the western coast, the village of Palompon. This
happened on June that same year. During this time, Palompon
had already built its stone church that also served its residents well
during moro depredations. Here the moros suffered losses which it
did not experience in earlier raids. Although a lot of native warriors
were killed in this raid, the defeat of the moros taught them a stern
lesson they would not forget. That was going to be the last moro raid
in the island. 117
The moro raids decidedly had adverse effects on the Jesuit
missions. When raids happened, fields were devastated, houses
burned, fishing gear destroyed, the land ravaged and families forcibly
separated because the captives were sold in the slave markets of
Borneo and nearby lands. These compelled the missionaries to change
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plans and fast track courses of action they would not have otherwise
taken. The building of stone fortifications and churches happened in
the years when the moros were rampaging in the Pintados islands.

Bancao Revolt

WHILE the moro raids came with increasing ferocity, the

Jesuits had to face rebellion at home. In Bohol, Tamblot had erupted
against his Spanish masters, mobilizing hundreds of followers in
several villages. Apparently, the movement of Bancao118 in Leyte was
timed with that of Bohol. But the natives of Carigara , the center of
rebellion, and five other neighboring villages became impatient, and
revolted without waiting for the result in Bohol.
In his younger days, Bancao was the ruling chief of Limasawa
in 1565 when Legazpi arrived Leyte, receiving with friendly welcome
the Spanish conquistador and the Spaniards who came to his island,
supplying them with what they needed. For that act, Philippe II sent
him a royal decree, thanking him for the kind hospitality which he
showed to those first Spaniards. He was baptized and, although a
young man, showed that he was loyal to the Christians. But as the
years went by, he found it harder to accept the onerous tributes which
he and his people were being forced to pay. He longed for his younger
days when they were free from such burdens and worshipped their
own deities in their ancient rituals. The Spanish historians would
interpret the rebellious act as an offshoot of Bancao’s desire to rule
as king of Leyte.
The rebellion erupted when Bancao was already in his 70s. He
had to have alter egos who would carry the torch of rebellion so to
speak. There was his son, said to be a product of the Jesuit seminary
of Dulag, and another man called Pagali who acted as the priest of
his re-instituted religion. Like the Christian religion which taught
belief in miracles, Bancao and his followers believed that they could
change the Spaniards into stones by just repeating the word ‘bato’
(the Visayan word for ‘stone,’ thus immobilizing them. Women who
dressed in white and children were also taught to fling handfuls of
earth on their enemies, and they would turn into clay. That erased
the fear that the natives had of the Spaniards.
Alarmed, the Jesuit missionary in Carigara at that time, Fr.
Melchor de Vera, sailed for Cebu to ask for help. The alcalde of Cebu
dispatched Captain Juan de Alcarazo, who equipped an armada of
some 40 vessels, filled with Spaniards and natives friendly to them.
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When the armada arrived in Carigara, Alcarazo joined forces with
the group organized by Leyte’s alcalde. When Bancao’s men saw
Alcarazo, they fled to the hills, leaving Bancao with his family and
some slaves in their little chapel. They had reasons to fear because
they knew Alcarazo was responsible for suppressing the Tamblot
rebellion in Bohol earlier.
The enraged soldiers followed the fleeing rebels and killed
those who were caught, not even sparing the women and children.119
An unknown number of rebels died, frustrated that their attempts to
turn the Spaniards into clay or stone had failed. The others survived
by fleeing. When the Spaniards found the chapel of Bancao, they
encamped there for some 10 days, not knowing where to find the
rebel leader. One day they saw an old man being carried by some
slaves on their shoulders. Immediately he was killed by a soldier,
not knowing that it was Bancao himself. With that discovery, they
beheaded his dead body and impaled his head on a stake to teach
the natives a lesson.
His second son was likewise beheaded and a daughter taken
captive. To inspire greater terror, the captain ordered three or four
more rebels shot and one of their priests burned – ‘in order that by the

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light of that fire, the blindness in which the diwata had kept them deluded
might be removed.’ The Spaniards also cut off the head of one native
who had earlier robbed Fr. Vilancio, broken to pieces an image of the
virgin, and kicked a crucifix. His head was set up in the same place
where he committed the sacrileges.120

Church building and expulsion

DESPITE the persistent moro raids and the constant threat

to their lives, the Jesuit missionaries continued with the missionary
work in the villages they started to evangelize in 1595, expanding
their mission stations. In fact these raids compelled them to build
churches with bricks, stones and hard wood as if these were intended
to last for more than a hundred years, beyond their lifetimes. Today,
we can still see the ruins of most of the structures that they built, a few
of them remodelled by the missionaries that followed their footsteps,
testaments to their zeal and dedication to the work of evangelization.
A report on the religious estates in the island of Leyte during
the years 1637 to 1638 showed 20 mission stations in the villages
of Leyte, Palompon, Ormoc, Baybay, Hilongos, Maasin, Sogod,
Cabalian, Liloan, Hinundayan, Abuyog, Dulag, Dagami, Burauen,
Palo, Tanauan, Jaro, Alangalang, Carigara and Barugo.121
Some 18 years later, in 1655, the Jesuit residencia in Dulag
was transferred to the interior village of Dagami presumably to
protect it from the marauding slave traders of Mindanao. The
residencia administered nine other villages besides Dagami, namely,
Malaguicay (Tanauan), Tambuco (Julita), Dulag, Bito, Abuyog, Palo,
Basey, Guiuan, and Balangiga, these last three in the neighboring
island of Samar. There were six fathers in the Dagami residence who
visited the said villages. They were Carlos de Lemos, Diego de las
Cuevas, Francisco Luzon, Laudencio Horta, Juan de la Calle and Jose
de Leon.122
The residencia of Carigara retained its status. Under its
jurisdiction were the villages of Leyte, Jaro, Barugo, Alangalang,
Ormoc, Baybay, Cabalian. Sogod, Hinunangan, Panaon and Luca. In
this residencia, were also six priests, namely Juan de Avila, Juan de
la Rea, Pedro Carlos, Cristobal de Lara, Andres Vallejo and Antonio
de Abarca.123
In another account, it said this residence had 2,000 tributos
that were paid in wax, rice, and textiles of abaca, which were called
‘medriñaque’ and ‘pinayusan.’ The six religious also included in
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The Church of the Immaculate Conception of Guiuan that the Jesuits built in 1700
before its destruction by Yolanda in 2013

their rounds the shipyard of Panamao (Biliran) earlier opened by

a missionary from Carigara. Panamao had a convenient port and
plenty of good lumber for shipbuilding.124
Like Carigara, the residence of Dagami had 2,000 tributos paid
with the same products as the former, except for Guiuan which paid
in palm oil (coconut?).125

Juan de Ballesteros

EVERY mission station had its own heroic soul that rose to
the challenges of the times. Many of them were Jesuit priests who
bravely faced martyrdom rather than abdicate and escape from their
responsibilities. The names of Juan del Carpio and Melchor Hurtado
easily come to mind, besides the old pioneers like Chirino, Humanes,
Sanchez and others who had to literally cut through thick jungle
underbrush to preach to the catechumens.
But there was one individual in Carigara who won a special
place in the hearts of the Visayans - Juan de Ballesteros.126 He was not
even a priest or a brother of the Jesuit Order but a simple donado (lay
brother). He left his birthplace in Spain, Badajoz, when hardly more
than a boy, to join the army under General Acuña in the islands.
But sometime after his arrival, apparently his mind changed about
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The church that the Jesuits built in Borongan in 1710

becoming a soldier and instead volunteered to help in the Jesuit

missions as a donado, then was subsequently sent to Leyte. Here
he immersed himself in the community and became for all intents
and purposes a Visayan, wearing the local garb and even speaking
like one. He served in every conceivable capacity as cook, sacristan,
porter, gardener, tailor, schoolmaster, nurse. He helped construct
many of the mission chapels and residences, going with the villagers
to cut timber in the hills, and by dressing stone and mixing lime
with them, taught them these arts. With the chapel and house of the
mission finished, he would help build the homes of natives. ‘In short,
there was no labor or hardship that he did not share with them.’127
In addition to these duties, he piloted the sailboats of
missionaries when they sailed back and forth between the Visayas
and Manila. One of the things he always brought back from these
trips was sheet music. ‘He taught the Carigara schoolboys the
villancicos (Christmas carols) and folk dances of his native land, and
did it so well that at the festivities held in Manila for the canonization
of Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Javier, it was the Carigara
dance ensemble that carried off the palm. Needless to say, not even
the word of the king ran in the towns and villages of Leyte as did the
word of Juan de Ballesteros.’128

Stone church building

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THE moro raids in the early 17th century probably hastened

the missionaries’ timetable for building stone churches. At the onset,
the churches built in the first mission stations were hurriedly-made
buildings of wood and thatched palm roof, only a little different
from the dwellings of the natives. But the raid on the Carigara station
in 1629 gave its rector, Father Melchor de Vera129, a very compelling
reason to construct fences and palisades that could withstand the
onslaughts of moro depradation. Here they built some bastions and
stone fences that could defend the images and sacred vessels, as well
as the natives with the priests. To survive, the mission stations had to
be made of stronger stuff. So De Vera broached the idea to his fellow
missionaries who had no other option but to follow suit.
By 1634, Ormoc had its fortifications half completed but not
quite strong enough to withstand the siege of the moro invaders.
Local warriors and many of its people were subsequently captured
and sold in slave markets in Borneo. Tanauan and Dagami followed
suit years later. But it was the Tanauan mission that felt the urgency
because of its coastal location. It thus became the first fortified
church complex in Leyte in the way that Hilongos became a century
later. A Chinese immigrant, Juanillo Siengco, who was familiar with
building stone houses in Luzon, arrived in Tanauan in 1661. He was
then employed to oversee the building of the church and convent
surrounded by a stone wall. This was completed more than 40 years
later in 1704, most likely supervised by a different man. On the wall
of the church were inscribed the words: ‘Siendo gobernadorcillo
Josef año 1704 y siendo Cabeza de Bgy Ignacio Talogdog’130.
Other Jesuit missions followed. From buildings initially
made of wood, bamboo, and palm thatch, not much different from
the native dwellings, the Jesuits constructed ones that were made
of mortar, stone and brick or coral, tiles and hardwood. Barugo,
according to unpublished documents in the archives of San Agustin,
had a fortification with three bastions (baluartes) protecting its
church and convent, plus four more near the beach to protect the
town. The natives themselves helped in gathering the materials for
their construction.131
In Dagami, the Jesuits, assisted by the natives, built their
church of stones, bricks and mortar on a site that was higher than the
houses of the residents. But this was destroyed by strong typhoons
and later rebuilt by the succeeding clergy.132
In Sogod, located in a large cove in the southern part of Leyte,
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there were still remnants of a primitive stone fabrication site used to
build defenses around the settlement in the early 1700. They built a
church and baluartes of stone, but these were destroyed during the
moro raids.133
These resulting complexes of buildings, centred around the
Jesuits’ dwelling, became the focal point of the community. By
the third decade of the 18th century the Jesuits had built a string of
fortified churches among island communities.134
In the words of the Jesuit historian Horacio de la Costa, this is
the ‘Philippine Jesuits’ great age of church building, finishing and
decorating.’ Below is a list of churches in the islands of Leyte and
Samar built during the period.

Guiuan, Samar – 1700

Borongan, Samar – before 1710
Dagami, Leyte – 1714
Tanauan, Leyte – 1714135
Umauas, Samar – 1714
Abuyog, Leyte – 1718
Catbalogan, Samar – 1760136

Two of such complexes made their mark in their respective

town’s history for having repulsed the moro attacks with minimal
casualties. In the fortified church of Hilongos, the natives and their
minister valiantly resisted the moro siege lasting for 11 days without
any casualty, while in that of Palompon, the siege lasted for seven
days because on the eighth, the moro invaders left with their dead
and wounded, frustrated by the stubborn resistance of the residents
inside the fortified church.137 Both showed that without the stone
fortifications and the equally strong determination of its defenders,
the mission stations would not have survived the moro onslaughts.

Expulsion

THE blood of their martyrs, their heroic sacrifices, their vaunted

success in the conversion of natives to Catholicism, and their selfless
dedication in their missionary work were apparently left out of
consideration when the Spanish king decided to terminate the Jesuit
Order in the Spanish territories throughout the world in the middle
of the year 1767. Ever since they started speaking against the abuses
of the Spanish authorities and the encomenderos, the Jesuits were
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marked. But it was not just the Jesuits who used the pulpit to criticize
Spanish civilian authorities. Other orders did as well. They were also
accused of having an illicit communication with the English general
during their occupation of Manila. However, these charges were
by no means the deciding reasons for their expulsion. There were
other more compelling reasons – and this did not happen only the
archipelago. The series of events took place in the European capitals.
The most compelling ones had to do with their alleged
involvement to oust the Bourbon family that sat on the thrones of
European capitals. The chaotic events before 1767 that led to violent
riots apparently sealed their doom.138
On June 23, 1767, the Spanish King Carlos III wrote to the
government of Naples on their findings about the Jesuits, explaining
why they should do something drastic about the Order. First, he
said the Jesuits incited people to rebellion, using the pulpits and
distributing seditious leaflets that opposed royal authority, not
only in Spain but in Portugal and France as well. Even the nuns
in convents and nunneries were not spared in their subversive
activities, insinuating that they used the confessional to instill their
ideas against the kings and his ministers.

‘They complained of all the decrees that were issue on account

of the government offices and dignities not devolving on their
partisans and the followers of their school; they murmured against
all the measures of the government, because they had no part in
these as opposed to their ideas and advantage.’ Thus wrote the
King.139

In the same letter, he lambasted the Jesuits for their ‘laxity of

morals, their sordid commerce, their intrigues and cunning.’ Everything
written against them were accordingly verified and found convincing.
Finally, he said the Jesuits hated the house of Bourbon and were
averse to the ‘family contract’, which probably meant the continuing
rule of the Bourbons in the thrones of Europe. He noted their
partiality to the English as against the French, and their friendship
with Protestant princes, preferring them to the Catholics, acts that
the king found to be ‘abominable and contrary to the spirit of religion, of
honor and of humanity.’140
Finally as a result of this investigation, and partly of the
growing alarm and distrust felt against the Jesuits, especially as they
were securing new privileges from the Holy See, Carlos III issued
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decrees dated at El Pardo, February 27, 1767, for the banishment of
the Jesuits from Spain and the Indies. ‘The measures to be taken by the
persons commissioned to carry out the banishment of the Jesuits in España
and the Indies, and to take possession of their goods and estates.’141

‘It was directed against 6,000 Jesuits scattered in Spain and

the New World; they were carried away by force, insulted, confined,
and crowded on the decks of vessels. They were devoted to apostasy
or to misery; they were surprised in their houses, despoiled of their
property, their books, and their correspondence; they were torn from
their colleges or their missions. Young or old, well or sick, all were
obliged to submit to an ostracism of which no one had a secret. They
departed for an unknown exile; under threats and insults, not one
let a complaint escape him. In their most private papers there was
never found a line which could make them suspected of any plot.’142

The expulsion order took effect in the Philippine Islands on May

19, 1768. After 187 years, Jesuit missionary work in the Philippine
Islands was finished. The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III was put
into effect, and 148 Jesuits were prepared for the long return voyage
to Europe and exile from the King’s domains.143
Then on October 4 that same year, a commander of the royal
navy, Don Pablo Verdote, took charge of rounding up the Jesuits in
Leyte and conveying them to Manila. The first residencia to be closed
was that of Ugmok (Ormoc). In his report describing the turnover,
Verdote wrote:
‘On October 4, I sailed the transport under my command into
Ugmok Bay. On the 5th, I went ashore at the town of Ogmuk. I had
with me the Reverend Father Fray Francisco Martinez of the Order
of St. Agustin. Upon reaching the residence of the reverend father
missionary of the town, I sent for the petty governor, his officials and
the principal citizens. When they were all assembled in the house
in the presence of the said Jesuit father, I read to them the decree of
the King our lord and caused it to be translated in their language.
Their unanimous reply was that they obeyed and accepted the royal
orders of His Majesty. I then proceeded to make an inventory of the
gold and silver vessels and the arms belonging to the church of the
said town in the presence of the above-mentioned persons, who have
affixed their signatures below.’144

Fr. Luis Secanell, the last Jesuit priest in Ormoc, then turned
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over the mission to Fray Francisco, and having packed his few
personal belongings followed Commander Verdote to the waiting
transport vessel. There were other Augustinians on board, and
as they coasted southward, touching briefly at each mission, the
Augustinians went ashore while the transport gradually filled with
Jesuits. At about the same time Commander Francisco de la Rosa of
the sloop San Francisco de Asis was gathering the Jesuits of northern
and western Samar, eleven altogether.
As a tribute to the last Jesuits in Leyte, de la Costa has compiled
their names and the parishes that they served in 1768, the year of
their expulsion.

Dagami Residence
Juan Miguel de la Cuesta, rector and parish priest of Palo
Aloys Knapp, parish priest of Dagami
Juan Tronco, Parish priest of Burauen
Jose Paver, parish priest of Basey
Giuseppi Silvestri, parish priest of Dulag
Pedro Ciseda, parish priest of Balangiga
Peitro Patelani, Parish priest of Tanauan

Carigara Residence
Pedro Nicolas Garcia, rector and parish priest of Carigara
Jerome Ketten, parish priest of Alangalang
Rafael Rivera, parish priest of Jaro
Richard Callaghan, parish priest of Barugo

Hilongos Residence
Bernabe Limia, rector and parish priest of Hilongos
Luis Secanell, parish priest of Ormoc and Baybay
Hilario Balza, parish priest of Palompon
Joaquin Romeo, parish priest of Sogod, Hinundayan and
Cabalian
Pedro Baeza, engaged in the ministry
Tomas Monton, parish priest of Maasin145

In sum

Had the missions been undisturbed as some of those in Luzon

were, life could have been a lot easier for the missionaries as well as
for the natives they were providing instructions to. But in Leyte, there
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were external factors that were beyond their control, and the internal
dynamics of an underdeveloped economy that had clans and their
families in constant movement, resisting attempts at resettlement in
town centers that converged on the church and Christian doctrine. In
the early years of their missionary activities in Leyte, Chirino could
not help but compare them to his experience in Taytay, Rizal where
the townspeople gathered every Sunday and holy day of obligation
for mass, solemnly celebrated with music and accompaniment of the
organ, in which the Tagalog spent many hours in the morning; and
for doctrine and catchism every afternoon. A bell rung at the hour
of vespers, calling the people to gather in the church. It was a signal
for the children to go forth through the streets of the place, bearing
the cross, and singing the doctrine. The adults followed behind the
children, and all entered the church.146 Such villagers had become
like novices of the Order in the manner that their religious routines
were conducted.
But in Leyte where the situation was vastly different, the Jesuit
resettlement strategy was not completely successful. For one, the
modes of making a living of the native population had not progressed
much from the hunter-gatherer ways. Where there was agriculture,
these were no more than small clearings that produced no surplus
food, which they supplemented with food gathering, hunting and
fishing. It was a system that was vulnerable to wild animals, insects
and thieves. Thus, the natives resisted invitations to live in more
organized pueblos attempted by the Jesuit missionaries, not even
after they introduced new tools and plants. The settlements thus
became mere weekend towns where people gathered for the Sunday
mass, some trading and the usual cockfighting.
Moreover, by compelling the people to live in compact
settlements, the Jesuits concentrated people within the narrow
confines along exposed beaches, coves and waterways. Here they
were within easy reach of the authorities and priests to use them as
carriers of heavy cargoes, boat rowers and laborers in public works,
causing them to miss the more important work of food production,
food gathering, hunting and fishing.147
The more urgent reasons were the unpredictable moro raids
of coastal settlements starting in the early 1600s. To be sure news
of moro depredations and their dire consequences travelled fast
in these settlements by word of mouth. Fear of the moros further
increased the resistance to live in pueblo settlements, prompting the
missionaries to travel to the settlements over wide areas either on
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foot or by small boats to preach the gospel. ‘No wonder, then, that for
almost a century the native population resisted living for extended lengths
in the reducciones.’148
Yet, despite these difficulties, it is no small wonder that the
early Jesuit missionaries were able to establish 20 missions out of
which were erected 16 parishes, reaping thousands of converts in the
process. A systematic study has yet to be undertaken of the impact
of these missions on the lives of Leyte natives during the period, but
the ancient stone structures and whatever remains there are attest to
what must have been their unshakeable faith and dogged persistence
in the preaching of the gospel.

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Part III
Augustinian period

F
or sure, the Augustinians who took over the 16 parishes and six
mission stations left by the Jesuits in 1768 did not find the task
an easy one. The towns in question had barely gone beyond the
stage of hunting and food gathering, and their agricultural system
was still in its infancy as the missionaries would later describe. The
transfer was so sudden, and there was hardly any time to formally
turn over the functions the Jesuits had in their respective parishes,
let alone introduce their lay leaders and helpers in the task of
evangelization. The Augustinians were caught flatfooted.
One of its prominent members, the eminent historian Agustin
Maria de Castro, saw for himself the appalling conditions of the
villages, and could not help but compare such conditions to those of
more affluent communities they were used to.

‘In the Bisayas, we are like in limbo, with very little news of
the world. There are no Gacetas or Mercurios,149 and neither do they
want nor take these there … Through all these you have the Indians
who ordinarily live in the forests, mountains and wilderness, about
three or four leagues away from the church. They come [to town]
only on Sundays to hear mass and to play the roosters [cockfighting].
The two [existing] roads are bad, the sun is burning, the cloudbursts
are many, the sandbars of the rivers are dangerous, the horses are
few and bad, for which it is better to walk on the water, and the
canoes and bancas are very flimsy and weak,’ wrote de Castro. 150

This is exactly the same condition of the land that the early
Jesuit missionaries experienced more than a century before. In the
same letter, de Castro complains about the heat, the winds and the
‘very extensive cloudburst that make exit from the house almost impossible.’
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Early Augustinian missionaries in the Philippines

He felt that the situation was ‘dark and melancholic,’ what with its
hurricanes and furious typhoons, thunders and ‘formidable rays of
lightning’ responsible for killing a lot of natives every year, plus a
‘thousand other intemperances.’151 He probably had the unfortunate
experience of the island during its monsoon season, a time of
torrential rains and floods.
The land, de Castro continued, had plenty of snakes in all
shapes and colors, while the rivers, seas and lagoons were ‘full of
very carnivorous caimans or crocodiles.’ Likewise there were scorpions,
centipedes, mites and other poisonous vermin with killer bites
everywhere, and unrecognizable diseases that were ‘rebellious and
incurable.’
Augustinian Provincial Fr. Joseph Victoria, writing from
Manila on October 1, 1770 after his tour of the island, shared similar
observations on the land and its inhabitants. He wrote that the land
was barely cultivated. There’s ‘not a place where the plow has entered,
because even planting for their own food was done by the hand, and in
the towns they do not have something to guard the dispersed lives from
supreme damage to their souls and to their bodies.’ The lack of roads and
of people using them ‘has turned the province into a lingering forest.’ As
for the people, they like living in the mountains. They are not trained
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The church of Hilongos showing its old entrance and bell tower

on any skills that can give them employment.152

Still de Castro remained optimistic, noting that the land was
‘fertile and productive, for rice, for cows and pigs, or oil and coconut wine.’
There was plenty of beeswax from the forests, abundant lumber,
cacao, tobacco, cabalonga seeds, a lot of abaca and other species. Like
Chirino more than a century earlier, de Castro observed the range
of high mountains that divided the island into two distinct regions,
causing a diversity of climate. In the ports of Hilongos and Carigara,
shipbuilding was in progress, but he felt disappointed since the
natives could not be convinced to live in town centers, but preferred
the wilderness and thick forests.153
But a greater source of disappointment for de Castro was the
unfriendly and almost hostile attitude shown by the natives to them.

‘They made bad faces at us and would run away from the white
habit [of the Augustinian priest]. And though we tried to caress
them and give them allowed items according to the instructions that
we took, these were not enough. Especially the children of six to
twelve years, they see us as something strange and they run like
deer away from our view. And if at all we continue to approach
them, and if perhaps they could not be reached and they were
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The Maasin cathedral today traces its past to Spanish colonial days.

brought by force to our presence, we could see them cry, or they

throw themselves on the floor, or bite [us], or pull their hair and
defend themselves hopelessly, and show other extremes of sorrow
that caused our admiration. This happened in all towns.’154

He found out after some investigation that it was the handiwork
of the babaylanes155 who had announced that the new priests with
white habits had orders to capture the boys and send them to Europe
where they would be used as baits for fishing or as food for the tigers
of the king of Spain.

‘This is something that is believed by the Indians, and the

others… It was a very bad greeting for us, and for an entire year we
had to suffer a lot,’ said an exasperated de Castro.156

As if their troubles were not enough, the Augustinians had

to contend with the continuing moro raids or the fear of them, as
there are no records of them having faced the raiders. Victoria in his
letter however claimed that in Leyte alone, the moros captured more
than 2,000 natives in 1768. In some places, their priests had to use

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The Sto. Niño xhurch of Tacloban in 1944

the baluarte as sleeping quarters since their convents were burned

down. ‘I have observed in seven hard continuous months of my [previous
pastoral] visit, which goings and comings were attended by risks from the
Moros, the continuing prodigious fear of navigation, and the large expense,’
Victoria wrote.157
As if to confirm the words of his superior, De Castro in the
same letter said the land is always full of moros from Mindanao and
Jolo, capturing many boats of Spaniards and natives which, in a year,
more than 60 were taken. Although some of the towns had been
fortified with baluartes armed with cannons, there were not enough
of these structures to ward off the moro attacks. Even if they were
able to fence the churches and convents and gather the residents
inside such walls, the enemy could start a conflagration by throwing
lit arrows which could burn those trapped inside if they did not give
in to the assault. ‘Many thousands of Indians have been taken captive, and
for which reason the best lands in the Bisayas are almost uninhabited. There
is not a town that had not been taken and defeated by these damned pirates
in Leyte,’ wrote de Castro.158
Notwithstanding these initial reactions, the Augustinians did
not baulk from the new responsibilities, although in some towns,
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The church in Alangalang during the Second World War

no Augustinian could not be sent immediately after the Jesuits left.

For instance, Burauen did not have a priest for three years before
an Augustinian was assigned. One explanation was the sore lack of
priests because before the Jesuits were expelled, the Augustinians
already had their own share of parishes in other provinces. In a
survey of the archipelago before 1759, the Augustinians were already
in 10 provinces, with 89 ministries.159
Moreover, the language problem that had to be overcome. The
Provincial had to pair off those with knowledge of the language with
newly ordained priests in order to cope with the demand in Leyte.160

Status of churches

At that time, Leyte already had 11,000 tax-paying residents.

It was under the diocese of Cebu ecclesiastically, but politically
under Catbalogan’s jurisdiction. Ten of its towns already had stone
churches in their varying stages of completion and disrepair. These
were the towns of Palompon, Ormoc, Hilongos, Cabalian, Dulag,
Tanauan, Palo, Dagami, Carigara and Barugo.
In Palompon, the church was buttressed by artillery pieces in
defense against the pirates. Here as in everywhere else, the Spaniards
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The church of Baybay City

collected taxes from people who were very poor. 

Ormoc’s stone church was unfinished. Like Palompon, it
possessed a sea port well-defended from pirates. 
Hilongos had stone walls and artillery pieces surrounding the
church. A large portion of these walls and baluartes are still intact.
Maasin during this period was still a visita. It had no church
or houses for storage of provisions but instead maintained a small
baluarte, with artillery pieces of medium bores, evidently to ward
off Muslim attacks. 
In the Pacific side of the island, the town of Cabalian had a
baluarte made of stone armed with small artillery. 
The town of Dulag, like Cabalian, also faced a “very dangerous
portion of the coast.” By this time, Dulag already had a church, rectory
and well-armed and fortified walls of stone. Because of these, Muslim
pirates never succeeded in their invasion despite several attempts. But
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in addition to the existing defenses, the Augustinian Father Barbasan
had two more baluartes built in San Jose and Kalbasag, The priests
employed the services of a local sculptor named Tampil to create
altars, altar pieces, and images to enhance the old church. They also
opened a road going to Burauen.161
In Abuyog, Fr. Jose Herrero and then later Fr. Cipriano
Barbasan, repaired the church, convent and municipal building.162
Tanauan with some 700 taxpayers, had a church, rectory and
fortifying walls all made of stones, well stocked with military and
logistic provisions. 
To the north of Tanauan was the town of Palo, with some 700
taxpayers. Its church dedicated to the Transfiguration was “beautiful
and richly decorated with wrought silver and frills.” The rectory was also
“good and the surrounding stone walls ... well-equipped with arms.” They
rehabilitated the ancient buildings, constructed wooden schools in
the town and four more in the barrios, as well as built roads going to
Tanauan and Alangalang.163
In the interior part of Leyte was Dagami, with also about 700
taxpayers. It had a stone church dedicated to St. Joseph, “big, beauti-
ful and well and richly decorated,” the walls fortified, armed and pro-
vided with logistics. The Augustinian Fathers Jose Montenegro and
Francisco Martinez restored the ancient buildings and ordered the
construction of some municipal schools.164
Some two hours walk away from Dagami was the town of
Burauen, another mountain town skirting a volcano. It had a present-
able church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Its 600 taxpay-
ers were perceived to be unsociable and hostile, and disliked living
in groups. It did not have a priest for three years. The Augustinians
took charge of the parish in 1769, appointing Fr. Lorenzo Molino as
parish priest. Another priest replaced him in 1788, Fr. Cipriano Bar-
basan, who at first built a small church of light materials and then
later of wood.165
Salug (Jaro) also had a “presentable wooden church” dedicated to
St. Matthew. This was “well-provided with brass bells and rich decora-
tions.” Jaro always had priests assigned. During the time of the Au-
gustinians, the inhabitants produced great quantities of abaca out of
which they made various items and fine fabrics, in addition to lots
of cacao, kabalonga nuggets, wax and rice. People raised livestock in
sufficient quantities that during a town census, they counted some
200 heads of cattle, a good number of sheep and goats, as well as

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carabaos, which were used to plow the rice fields.166 Salug was also
fortunate to have been ministered for some years by the celebrated
historian and bibliographer, the famous author of the book Osario
Venerable, Fr. Agustin Maria de Castro.167
Alangalang, half an hour by horseback (from Jaro) going to the
coast, had 500 paying tributes. It used to have a big wooden church,
strongly constructed, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, “well-decorat-
ed with wrought silver and other ornaments”. The rectory, which was
strongly constructed, at same time also served as a baluarte. 
Carigara, a town located near the coast on the northern part of
the island facing Samar, was an important population center of some
900 taxpayers. Its church was “very big and beautiful” and dedicated
to the Holy Cross. It had “plenty of wrought silver, fine ornaments and
rich with relics, among them a Lignum Cross (lignum crucis) which is au-
thentic and very special”. The posts of its church were made of molave
wood, considered among the best in the Philippines. The rectory was

The system of instruction started during the Augustinian period continued dur-
ing the time of the F ranciscans. Children were required to attend the cartilla or
else they received some form of corporal punishment. Girls were separated from
boys.

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made of stone, large and sturdy, with its fortifications well-armed
with cannons, rifles and adequate ammunitions. 168 
The parish included a visita called Hileyte (now Leyte-Leyte)
some three hours away by sea. It was once a thriving settlement, un-
til the moro raids devastated it.
The last town Leyte turned over to the Agustinians was Baru-
go, an hour away by horseback from Carigara. Its 400 taxpayers were
said to be “bad people, but very rich and abounding with wines, oil, wax,
cacao beans, rice and fish.” Its church was made of stone but unfinished
and was protected by a fortification made of stone. The priests came
irregularly, but four of them were assigned here: Fathers Francisco
Martinez, Ignacio Collazo, Cipriano Barbasan and Juan Nanclares.169 
Among the towns where the Augustinians left their mark was
Tacloban which became a pueblo in 1770, two years after the Jesu-
its left. By then the town was a visita of Palo although it was still
under the political jurisdiction of Basey. By 1823, moves to transfer
the cabecera to Tacloban had started, until finally by 1830, the town
was designated as the cabecera of Leyte. Here the Augustinians con-
structed a wooden church and a convent made of mixed materials, as
well as municipal schools and four other schools that served the en-
tire province. They also opened up a road going to its mother town
of Palo, making it thus more accessible to the rest of the province
befitting a provincial capital.170
The Augustinians had inherited pueblos still populated by
clans and family groups dispersed in small settlements and largely
empty town centers. The Jesuits patterned the pueblo designs after the
Spanish models: streets running in straight lines, opening towards a
plaza; at the center of the plaza was the church and ‘colegio’ (school);
houses of the natives in separate groups to diminish danger of fire.
Unfortunately, the natives refused to live in the towns, preferring to
live near their clearings. So one of the objectives the Augustinians
tried to accomplish was to bring people closer to the town centers
where preaching and the collection of tributes would be much easier.
The reduccion was a century-old Jesuit problem that needed solution.

AUGUSTINIAN FRIARS IN LEYTE171

(List made in 1778)
Abuyog Fr. Tomas Sanchez, O.S.A.
Barugo Fr. Antonio Pardo, O.S.A
Burauen Fr. Jose Herrero, O.S.A.
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Carigara Fr. Antonio Pardo, O.S.A
Dagami Fr. Jose Herrero, O.S.A.
Dulag Fr. Tomas Sanchez, O.S.A.
Hilongos Fr. Manuel Santos, O.S.A.
Maasin Fr. Nicolas Jacques, O.S.A .
Ormoc Fr. Manuel Santos, O.S.A.
Palo Fr. Ignacio Collazo, O.S.A.
Tanauan Fr. Francisco Martinez, O.S.A.

Perhaps another great contribution of the Augustinian

missionaries that has been largely overlooked was the introduction of
work animals in the population’s subsistence agriculture. Provincial
Joseph Victoria after his first tour of the island advised his priests to
‘secure the entry of sufficient animals to work the land from other
provinces and, towards this end, to introduce the use of the plow
and other mainstream implements.’172 Their use in agriculture most
likely led to increased productivity and more surplus commodities
that allowed the native population to devote more time in the town
centers, thus gradually populating the once empty pueblos. Although
it was not exactly the work of his missionaries but of the civilian
authorities, but since they were often the most influential persons in
the parishes, they could have easily introduced the changes far more
effectively than the native gobernadorcillos or the cabezas.
The observant Victoria also saw the need for a sort of a public
school system. In the same letter, he urged his missionaries ‘to
put up schools for boys and girls in imitation of the other towns
administered by my Province, where they hardly find subjects who
do not know to read, and many could write.’173
The next few years saw a good number of primary schools
emerging in the towns of Abuyog, Alangalang, Barugo, Baybay,
Burauen, Dagami, Hilongos, Jaro, Cabalian, Maasin, Ormoc, Palo,
Sogod, Tacloban and Tanauan.174 But the great sweeping changes
in the economic and social life of the population would take place
during the time of the Franciscan missionaries in the eastern part of
the island and the secular priests in the west, on a much larger scale,
beyond anything that the missionaries had to offer.

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Part V
Franciscan years

T
he Franciscans arrived in Leyte at a time of significant economic
and social changes driven by forces quite independent of local
developments. They also left amid great political upheavals
brought about by events related to the country’s struggle for its
colonial independence.
Borrowing the words of David Prescott Barrows175, the period
between 1837 to 1897 ‘was one of economic and social progress, and
contained more of promise than any other in the history of the Islands…
Revolution and separation from Spain came at last, as revolutions usually
do, not because there was no effort nor movement for reform, but because
progress was so discouragingly slow and so irritatingly blocked by
established interests that desired no change.’176
The rapid economic changes in agriculture did not begin
when the Augustinians introduced the plow and the carabao. For
one, there are no records showing that indeed production in rice
or corn shot up, but it was in the cultivation of abaca and tobacco
in certain parts of the country where things had improved and the
changes were officially recorded. Such changes occurred after the
1837 opening of the Manila port to foreign trade. Up to this time,
the country did not produce for the foreign markets but simply
for domestic consumption. Besides Manila hemp and tobacco, the
demand for sugar and coffee also increased, while that of copra also
rose in prominence.177
Barrows said in 1810, the entire imports of the Philippines
amounted in value only to 5.33 million dollars, but more than half of
this consisted of silver sent from Mexico. In 1831, the exportation of
hemp amounted to only 346 tons. But six years later, after the export
market opened, production increased to 2,585 tons. By 1858, the
exportation of hemp had risen to 412,000 piculs, or 27,500 tons. Of
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this amount, nearly two thirds, or 298,000 piculs, went to the United
States.178
But in addition to the inauguration of the country to foreign
trade in 1837 and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, American
historian James Leroy adds the role of foreign traders in the country’s
growth towards the ‘modern era.’ He said the traders introduced
agricultural machinery and advanced money to the producers,
providing production ‘the chief stimulus to the opening of new areas of
cultivation, the betterment of methods of tilling and preparing crops for the
market, and the consequent growth of exports.’179

Growth in agriculture

Leroy points out that the American and English trading houses
had nurtured the sugar and hemp crops into existence. These firms
were established in the islands even before the opening of the Suez
Canal brought the Philippines into closer touch with Europe. These
could have influenced the subsequent opening of the ports of Iloilo
and Cebu to foreign trade in 1856, thus bringing the opportunities
of foreign trade even closer to the provinces. The era of the galleon
trade which brought their silks and cotton to Acapulco, erstwhile the
monopoly of Spaniards, was brought to a close. It was time to expose the
country’s other products to the world. Thus started Philippine exports.180
In Leyte during this period, the English firms Warner Barnes
and Smith Bell put up buying stations for hemp in major town
centers, with their main bodegas located in the new provincial
capital of Tacloban. At the same time, they set up a network of
traders, principally Spaniards and Chinese, in some major towns, like
Carigara, Palompon, Ormoc, Baybay, Maasin and Malitbog. In the
Western coast of the island, there were the Muerteguis of Palompon,
the Aboitizes of Ormoc, the Morazas of Baybay and the Escaños in
Maasin and Malitbog who bought hemp from local producers and
sold their products in Cebu. Eventually the Aboitizes and Escaños
went into the shipping industry, as they expanded their businesses
outside the island.181
The Franciscan Felix de Huerta wrote that indeed the native
population in 1865 traded their hemp in the towns of Carigara,
Tanauan, the cabecera of Tacloban and Manila, besides a little of
coconut oil and copra.182 He said the cultivated lands, made fertile by
countless rivers and creeks, also produced rice, tobacco, some cacao,
sugar cane, palawan and some vegetables in a few areas. Its forests
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Franciscan missionaries in the Philippines in the dying days of the Spanish regime

were abundant with several kinds of good lumber and building

materials, palms, rattan, brick-making materials, game (wildlife),
gold-bearing veins and sulfur (in Burauen) even listing the wood
species that were still abundant during the period, accounting for
the relative prosperity of the times. 183

Local government

But while rapid changes took place in the economic sphere,

the political system which the Spaniards maintained in the country
had basically remained unchanged. In 1850 there were thirty-four
provinces and two politico-military commandancias. In these
provinces, the Spanish administration was still vested solely in the
alcalde mayor, who until after 1886 was both governor or executive
officer and the judge or court for the trial of provincial cases and
crimes.184 In Leyte, the title of ‘alcalde’ was changed to ‘comandante
politico-militar’ from 1866 to 1898 when the name was shortened
to ‘comandante.’ Evidently the governor also had powers over the
guardia civil and other armed volunteers of the government.185
During this period, the basic unit of government administration
was the pueblo which, apart from the center called the poblacion,

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The population thrived mainly on the cultivation and trading of abaca, a commod-
ity already being exorted in the 1860s.

included large areas of small scattered settlements. The center of the

pueblo was the church and the convent of the friars, and around them
grew the market, trading shops of Chinese or Spanish merchants,
and the more durable houses of prosperous natives and mestizos. By
1860, the government had started to construct municipal tribunals or
town house, jails, and the small though important schoolhouses.186
At the head of the town was the ‘gobernadorcillo’ and a council,
with each consejal representing a barrio. Here the friar, who in nearly
every pueblo was the Spanish curate, ‘continued to be the paternal
guardian and administrator of the pueblo. In general, no matter was too
minute for his dictation. Neither gobernadorcillo nor consejales dared act
in opposition to his wishes, and the alcalde of the province was careful to
keep on friendly terms and leave town affairs largely to his dictation. The
friar was the local inspector of public instruction and ever vigilant to detect
and destroy radical ideas. To the humble Filipino, the friar was the visible
and only representative of Spanish authority.’187 It was not unusual to
find the curate presiding over the elections of the gobernadorcillo
every two years. His blessings were needed in the confirmation of
the winner. This condition made the elected native gobernadorcillo
beholden in many ways to the cura and dependent on him for his
decisions.188
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In the entire Philippine colony during the period, the members
of the religious orders constituted the largest group numerically, as
well as the most influential, element of Spaniards in the Philippines.
‘The general rule in the provinces was that only one white man, the friar-
curate, was to be found in a town.’189

Vicaria de la costa oriental

It was into this setting that the Franciscan friars assumed

parochial responsibility for the towns in the eastern part of the
island, while in the coastal towns in the west, secular priests, many of
which were newly ordained, took over. The Franciscans replaced the
Augustinians in 1843 following a Royal Decree issued on October 29,
1837.190 They took over 16 parishes with a population of 99,094, out of
which 22,573 were tribute givers. In his report, de Huerta prepared a
summary of the status of each of the parish only in the vicaria oriental,
as the vicaria occidental went to the secular priests assigned by the
Cebu diocese to which Leyte belonged. De Huerta’s description of the
towns gives us an idea of their respective status then.

PUEBLOS TRIBUTOS. ALMAS

Palo 2,535 10,944
Dulag 1,499 7,035
Barugo 1,340 7,654
Abuyog 984 6,363
Burauen 1,588 6,330
Tanauan 3,005 12,953
Dagami 3,126 13,034
Carigara 2,637 9,116
Tacloban 1,024 5,426
Hinunangan 1,338 5,140
Jaro 1,361 5,600
Leite 703 3,404
Babatngon 283 1,060
San Miguel 323 1,338
Malibago 130 646
Tolosa 697 3,048
Total 22,573 99,091191

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Population in Leyte had increased considerably. Roads,
designed for horse-drawn carriages, had become passable, and
wooden bridges were built over rivers. Moro raids had practically
ceased as population centers became busy trading outposts.
Starting from 1850 onwards, large barrios, previously the visitas of
larger towns, were starting to become pueblos in their own right, a
development spurred on by the growth in population as well as in
agriculture and commerce. In the account of Artigas, four such visitas
separated themselves from their mother pueblos in 1851: Alangalang,
Babatngon, Jaro and San Miguel. Tolosa followed in 1861, declaring
itself independent of Tanauan. There were similar developments in
the western section of the island as we shall see later.192
One of the first tasks the Franciscans devoted themselves to
was in the restoration and repair of churches and convents. In the
account of Huerta, nine of the churches in the vicariate were made
of nipa: Tacloban, Babatngon, San Miguel, Barugo, Tolosa, Abuyog,
Alangalang, Jaro and Leyte. In Burauen, a visita of Dulag until 1844,
the church was wooden and was later rebuilt by the Franciscan Fr.
Francisco Lopez. Barugo’s church was rebuilt into one made of stone.
In Tacloban, Fr. Aniceto Carral started to construct a stone church.193
In Dulag, Rev. Fr. Francisco Rosas added a new sacristy to its
church that was 168 feet long and 51 feet wide. In 1853, Rosas built a
convent made of stone after his sacristy project. Two years later, he
was replaced by Fr. Juan Ferreras, 28 years old.194
Tanauan’s church was a solid stone structure built and finished
by the Jesuits in 1704. It used to be 228 feet long and 42 feet wide. The
Franciscan Fr. Francisco Paula de Marquez made adjustments here.
In order to conceal the disproportionate length, the friar constructed
a beautiful chapel 42 feet long and of the same width near the part
where the gospel was preached. The convent, also made of stone,
was repaired and roofed in 1850 by Marquez. Both convent and the
church were surrounded by stone walls of regular thickness, with a
bastion at each of its four corners built in defense against the moros.
In 1855, these walls were already deteriorating.195
In Palo, the solid church structure that was 180 feet long and
60 feet wide and built by the Jesuits earlier was installed with a new
roof in 1850 during the time of Fr. Agustin de Consuegra. He also
built two thick pillars that served as towers at the corners of the main
portal. The parochial house that was a part of the large rectory of the
Jesuits, also made of stone, was given a new roof by Fr. Consuegra,
besides making the five retablos and repairing the choir loft. He
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made a new marble baptismal font, and around this a big patio, with
colourful round niches with the way of the cross.196
Fr. Pantaleon de la Fuente continued the work of Consuegra
on the Cathedral’s towers, repairing the church and installing a
large clock at the left tower built by Jose de Altonaga of Manila. He
also ordered from Spain chandeliers, candelabras, gold chalices and
exquisite vestments that made an otherwise provincial church look
opulent.197
In Carigara, the Franciscan pastor of Carigara, Fr. Jose Hilarion
Corvera initiated major repairs and renovation of the church in
1859, upon the instructions of Cebu Bishop Romualdo Jimeno. The
renovation, directed by maestro Remigio Tecson, went on for 20
years and was completed only in 1879. In 1866, the altar, which was
moved from the northern to the southern side, was inaugurated,
and a plaque bearing the year was etched over one of the entrances
facing east. The facade of the church, which used to face south, was
transferred to the north. The walls and columns raised in 1608 were
left untouched since they were still sturdy. This was the church
that saw the celebration of the third centennial in 1895 under the
Franciscan Fr. Bernardino Rebolledo.198

Primary education

With the threat of moro raids removed, the missionaries could

now focus their efforts towards making up for what was lost in the
earlier times. It was during the Franciscan years that the population
tended to congregate in town centers. The reduccion that was in
the drawing boards in the early Jesuit years was coming to fruition.
Schools, which rose during the period of the Augustinians, flourished
and schooling was strictly enforced.
Before 1865 primary education was only a ‘shadow.’ But with
the royal decree of 1863, establishing a plan of primary instruction
in the islands, education got a new lease on life. The aim was for
the natives to ‘develop spiritually and intellectually’ with the use of
the Spanish language. Such a decree placed the supervision of the
schools under the priests. In one of its regulations, separate schools
in all the villages for boys and girls were required. Attendance was
compulsory for specified ages. Tuition as well all the equipment
were free for the poor. As for the adults, attendance was compulsory
on Sundays, and laymen were assigned to teach them.199
During this period, the task of educating children fell to the
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hands of the priests apparently because they were the only ones
sufficiently capable of providing instruction to the natives in the
towns and villages then. In the provinces, every village had its public
schools in which instruction was obligatory. Failure to attend school
meant harsh fines or lashes. An example of such a system is related
by the older folk of Alangalang who must have been products of
such a system or their parents and grandparents were.
At the time of the Franciscans in that town, children aged seven
to nine years old had to go to school. If a child was absent, the parents
were fined and the child lashed. Discipline was very rigid. All sorts
of punishments were allowed. For instance, an offender was made
to stand for hours with both hands stretched and one leg extended
forward without touching the floor.
The subjects were the cartilla (A B C), the offricier (15 mysteries);
the Tres Añejos (Holy Trinity); the catechismo (Catechism); the Kanitor
(Fundamental Subjects )the Amigas de los Niños and the Doctrina
(local version). The learning rote was by memorization. Pupils were
able to read but it was doubtful if they understood the meaning of
what they were reading. Proficiency on the subject was tested in an
oral examination.
If a pupil was able to read the cartilla, he was given an oral
examination of the whole book. If the examiner believed that he
was showing satisfactorily, he was allowed to move on to the other
subject. If not, he was to stay indefinitely on that particular subject
until he mastered it. Thus, it was not unusual to find a slow pupil
staying seven or more years in the same subjects.
Only the Spanish language was allowed in the schools. Teachers
did not have any special qualification except a working knowledge
of Spanish and a mastery of the subject matter. Moreover he had to
be close to the priest. The teachers acquired their knowledge from
the friars themselves or from years of study in the seminaries.200
But in the account of James Leroy, there was very little difference
in the educational systems before 1863 and after that. He noted that
before 1863, the daily lessons began and ended with cathechism and
other religious books, with very little else in between. The primer
was the only textbook. The non-religious instruction was given by
village natives, who could read, write, and cipher to a limited extent,
but commonly knew little or no Spanish. They were paid whatever
slender pittance by the friar-curate, who supervised or personally
conducted the work with the catechism. The schools were just as
good or just as poor as the friar-curate made them, since everything
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was left to him.
After 1863 up to the American period, the catechism remained
the chief feature of daily work in the primary school, often relegating
all else to an insignificant place - much depending upon the
preparation, at best a scanty one, of the teacher. ‘The badly printed and
cheap little I50-page text-book prescribed by the government for the schools
was reader, writer, speller, arithmetic, geography, history of Spain and the
world, Spanish grammar (often not taught because the teacher knew little
of it), and handbook of religious and moral precepts (many pages). A glance
at this book will reveal how pitifully inadequate was the ordinary Filipino
child’s schooling at the best; for often not even this textbook was in use,
no copies being on hand, or the teacher being equipped only in the local
dialect.’201
Because the school system taught nothing else but religious
subjects, the natives’ understanding of their environment and the
world around them barely inched forward. That probably explains
why they would become susceptible to similar doctrines espoused
by quasi-religious movements that emerged in the later years of the
Franciscan era.

Vicaria de la costa occidental

WE can only surmise here why the Royal Decree issued on

October 29, 1837, ordering the Franciscans to take over parishes
left by the Augustinians in Leyte. could not be implemented in the
western part of the island. Like the latter, the Franciscans were also
affected by developments in Europe that discouraged religious
orders from coming to the Philippines during the period. Under the
so-called ‘enlightened despotism’ of the eighteenth century, the Church
had primarily become an instrument of the crown to preserve its
subjects in their loyalty and direct their activities in accord with the
royal interests. In the Philippines, this meant the subjection of the
friar orders to royal and episcopal control, which the orders detested
because since the beginning, they only had their provincial superiors
to report to and whose orders they followed. 202
With the arrival of Governor Anda in 1770, Archbishop
Sancho de Justa’s blow against the independence of the orders
was supplemented by Anda’s demand that all friars submit to the
requirements of the Patronato Real. The resisting Augustinians were
marched as prisoners under military guard from Pampanga to Manila
because of their refusal to subject themselves to the archbishop of
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Manila. Anda took away large numbers of parishes to be turned over
to the Filipino secular clergy. Suddenly, there were many times more
parishes in need of priests than the relatively small Filipino secular
clergy could possibly fill.203
Undaunted, the archbishop opened a seminary in the old Jesuit
University of San Ignacio. He proudly announced to the king that in
the space of one year, he had trained sufficient priests to take over
all the vacant parishes. But what sort of training it was could be
seen later as the quality of his seminary’s products left much to be
desired, not only academically, but also morally. This was seen in
the bishop’s own letters to his newly ordained clergy, lamenting and
castigating their disgraceful conduct.204
As seminaries were gradually opened not only in Manila
but in the provinces, the professors had to be chiefly the ill-trained
graduates of Sancho’s crash-program, and the few but well-trained
Filipino priests of the previous half-century were swallowed up in
the unfit or even scandalous mass. Over the next half-century not
only would untrained Filipino priests hold on to the parishes which
had been taken from the religious orders, but more and more other
parishes would be handed over to them, ready or unready, worthy
or unworthy. 205
Another Jesuit historian noted that the seminaries of this period
were ‘very deficient. The faculty was generally recruited in a haphazard
fashion, the studies were meagre. Moral Theology seems to have been the
main fare for the men approaching ordination. The discipline was casual.’
In Cebu where seminarians from Leyte were sent for their studies,
seminary life before 1868 was ‘bastante languida’ (fairly lethargic)
while another writer was quoted as saying ‘the seminary left much to be
desired - like all seminaries of the Philippines - in the intellectual, economic
and especiaIIy in the moral order.’206
The case of the two curates in Palompon, being one of the major
causes for Ormoc’s petition to request to become independent of the
former as its visita, is a fine example of this situation. For several
years, Ormoc did not have a cura after the Augustinians left during
the period that the Franciscans assumed parishes in the eastern
part of the island. So the task was left to the priests of Palompon, a
smaller pueblo. Every time the priests Mateo Samson and Florentino
Antonio visited Ormoc, they were properly esteemed by the Catholic
parishioners. But on their part, whenever they visited the priests in
Palompon, they were badly treated. That was not the only issue.
There were others more serious.
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The church of Malitbog today

So in 1839, the parishioners wrote a lengthy petition stating

their reasons, reserving the longest section to criticize the two curas,
Samson and Antonio. The letter went the rounds of the ecclesiastical
and government authorities of the period, up to the colonial
authorities in Manila. Finally, 11 years later in 1851, Ormoc became
an independent parish, freed from the tyrannical disposition of the
hated curates.207

Early secular clergy

Were Samson and Antonio products of the crash courses under

Archbishop Sancho? We can only guess. The Congregation of the
Mission, known as the Paules, had arrived in Manila in 1862, but
it was only on January 23, 1867 that the Paules took charge of the
San Carlos Seminary in Cebu. The order was tapped because of their
experience as formators of the clergy in Europe.
Some of the early graduates of San Carlos were Prospero
Esmero, ordained on September 28, 1873, Enrique Carrillo, ordained
on August 13, 1876, and Gregorio Ortiz, ordained on June 3, 1882.
The three were from Ormoc. In the next decade, two more would
follow: Juan Miroy and Flaviano Daffon.208
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The church of Matalom today (Photo courtesy of Msgr. Bernie Pantin)

The list of parishes in the western towns with their respective

parish priests in 1885 and population should give us an idea of the
clergy, some of whom may have been natives of Leyte. It was not
unusual to find priests, who were natives of Cebu, Bohol or Samar,
assigned to Leyte during this period. For instance, Servando Secane,
ordained on September 22, 1860 and assigned to Hindang in 1885,
was from Cebu.209

Pueblos Parish Priests Almas

Biliran Bartolome Pecson 4,841
Naval Maximo Congson 6,985
Palompon Eduardo del Pilar 5,691
Villaba Pantaleon Veyra 2,388
Quiot Prospero Esmero 2,201
Ormoc Lino Codilla 15,923
Merida Same  
Albuera Leoncio Faelnar 1,982
Baybay Dionisio Noel 9,857
Hindang Servando Secane 4,543
Inopacan Same 2,898

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Hilongos Lucas Sanchez 11,850
Matalom Genaro Cañada 3,764
Bato same 2,594
Cajaguaan same 1,249
Maasin Felix Magno 13,954
Macrohon Tomas Logronio 5,956
Malitbog Andres Congson 7,462
Sogod Ramon Abarca 4,237
Cabalian Lucas Seno 8,680
Hinundayan Manuel Corcuera 3,258210

It would be safe to assume here that the

priests listed above were products of the San Carlos
Seminary in Cebu under the administration of the Paules in 1867
since during this period, there was no central seminary yet in Manila
or elsewhere. In the historical data papers of Baybay, Padre Noel was
only the third secular priest after Juan Pautan and Lucas Sanchez.
In Villaba, Padre Genaro Cañada was the second priest next to
Vicente de Veyra, the first secular priest that ministered the town.211
Both Pautan and de Veyra are not in the 1885 list either because
they must have been reassigned to other parishes under the Cebu
diocese, or they were dead by this time. Fr. Leonardo Celesdiaz, the
acknowledge founder of Bato and Matalom, is likewise not found in
the list. He is said to have built Matalom’s stone church while serving
as its municipal capitan. He died at the age of 99 years in 1883.212
Felipe Redondo y Sendino’s “Breve Reseña…” printed in 1886
was just that, a short summary of the status of the parishes of the
entire Cebu diocese. The section on the vicaria occidental in Leyte
only gives us an overview of the conditions of the parishes written
about, with very brief descriptions of the general features of the
churches, convents, cemeteries and establishment of each parish.
Cabalian became a parish on January 15, 1861 after it separated
from its mother parish of Malitbog. It had a church of stone but
with nipa roofing, and a convent made of wood also roofed with
nipa. It had a visita called Himatagon whose church and convent
were made of light materials, but whose floors were made of wood.
Liloan, Himay-angan, San Francisco and Pintuyan in the island of
Panaon were also its visitas. All of these had churches made of light
materials.213
In 1890, the priest assigned to the parish, a Fr. Lucas (Sanchez?),
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repaired the convent with hard wood and logs provided by the
faithful as payment for marriages, confessions and baptism, while
labor was said to be without pay. Two years later, the curate Fr.
Enrique Carillo reconstructed the church, using limestone and hard
wood. Labor was likewise free. These were supposed to protect the
inhabitants during moro raids.214
Sogod, which became a parish on April 8, 1869 after it gained
independence from its mother parish of Malitbog the year before, had
a church made of light martials and a convent also of light materials
but in deteriorating condition. It had three visitas, one of which was
Bontoc, which is now an independent town. But in its old site, Sogod
had church walls made of stone constructed by the Jesuits.
Malitbog became a parish on April 11, 1850 after it separated
from Maasin in December 1849. Its church had posts with transepts,
stone walls and galvanized iron roof, while its convent was made of
wood, roofed with nipa. It had four visitas, including Barrio Triana
of Limasawa, the site of the first mass, all of which had chapels made
of bamboo and nipa.
Macrohon, which used to be a visita of Maasin, became a parish
on September 15, 1862. Its church had a base of stone, a partition
made of strong wood one fathom in height and nipa roofing, while
its convent was made of wood, roofed with nipa, and a square of
some dimensions.
Maasin, an old parish having been established in 1755 yet, had
a stone church with a transept and tiled roof. Its convent was made
of stone and roofed with galvanized iron. It had a school that was
connected to the church.
Matalom became a parish on March 14, 1861, after it separated
from its mother parish of Hilongos the year earlier. Its stone church
was newly constructed, roofed with tiles and had a wooden floor.
It was equipped with one cannon. The first part of its tower, also
made of stone, was yet unfinished. Its convent was made of wood
and roofed with nipa.
Hilongos is considered the oldest parish in the vicaria occidental
of Leyte as it was established before 1737, with its record of deaths
dating back to August 2, 1754. It had a stone church with tiled roof
and a presbytery that spanned more than six fathoms, and had a new
bell tower separated from the church. Its convent had 10 columns
made of limestone, and between these columns were partitions made
of hardwood called pampango. It served as the rectory of the Jesuit
residence before the order’s expulsion. According to Redondo, both
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the church and convent were constructed by the Jesuits, but the bell
tower, looking like that of Matalom, was made when Fr. Celesdiaz
was parish priest of Hilongos.
Hindang, which became a parish on March 14, 1861 after it
separated from its mother parish of Hilongos, had a church whose
base had two meters of stone and wooden walls and partitions, and
roofed with nipa. While its convent was also made of wood and
roofed with nipa.
Inopacan, which used to be a visita of Hindang, became
a parish on December 16, 1885. It had a church made of bamboo
and roofed with nipa, and a convent with walls and partitions of
pampango and nipa roof.
The ancient settlement of Baybay became a town in 1620 but
was established as an independent parish on February 27, 1856
after it separated from its mother parish of Palompon. Baybay
used to be one of the early mission stations frequented by the Jesuit
missionaries assigned to Ormoc in 1597. Like Ormoc, it suffered from
the absence of priests after the Augustinians left the western section
of the island to assume more important posts in the diocese of Cebu.
In all likelihood, Juan Pautan, the priest cited in the historical data
papers as the first in Baybay, came here in 1856. Its church was made
of stone walls and tile roofing, and its convent had strong wooden
posts.
Albuera, which used to be a visita of Ormoc, became an
independent parish on June 19, 1868. At the time of Redondo’s report,
its church was still made of light materials, roofed with cogon, while
its convent was dilapidated.
Ormoc, which used to be a visita of Palompon when it had no
priests, became an independent parish on December 21, 1851. Its
church was made of stone but without a transept and roofed with
nipa, while its convent was made of wood and also roofed with nipa.
This was attached to the church.
Isabel parish, which used to be known as ‘Quiot’ and also a
visita of Palompon, was established on June 6, 1877. Its church was
made of wood. Redondo said nothing about its convent.
Palompon, which used to be a visita of Hilongos, became a
parish on November 12, 1784. Its ancient church which was made
of stone with one cannon, was burned down according to stories
handed down, and it was roofed with nipa. As for its convent, there
still existed some parts of the burnt structure, but at this time, it
occupied the second floor of the sacristy.
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Villaba, which used to be annexed to Palompon, was established
as a parish on August 9, 1884. Its convent and church were as yet
temporary by the time that Redondo wrote his report.215
While nothing is mentioned about the role of the secular clergy
here in the early education of the natives, it can be assumed that they
somehow made efforts to follow the royal decree of 1863 on primary
education. The existence of a school attached to the church in Maasin
is a case in point. In Baybay, the priest Padre Vicente Coronado was
remembered as the supervisor of maestros municipales during his
time, with seven maestros under him.216
Cabalian also had its own primary school in 1892, the first one
organized for boys and girls, under the teacher named Anastacio
Castulo. The pupils were taught religion, music, reading, writing,
arithmetic, and Spanish.217
In the other parishes, they probably they had in lesser degrees
as most of them were only newly established in 1885. The churches
and convents would have been their immediate concerns before
anything else.

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Part VI
In a period of conflict

D
issent arising in the last two decades of the 19th century in
Leyte may be traced to events unfolding within the social
fabric of the body politic. If there were external factors
involved, these could have been only secondary. At least two internal
factors were evident. First, the continued exaction of tributes on the
powerless population, with the attendant cruelties, and second,
the violence inflicted on harmless quasi-religious pilgrimages that
pricked the alarmed civilian authorities.
The guardia civil called them ‘dios-dios’ because they were
involved in activities that were of religious and political nature, and
that they claimed to be God’s representatives on earth. The guardias
used the term in their reports to their superiors, a term subsequently
adopted by the authorities in their official communications.218
The earliest incidence reported was that of Tanauan in 1862
during the regime of Governor Francisco Herrera Davila and the
town Gobernadorcillo Ramon Nonato Mercado. A woman known
as ‘Benedicta,’ was able to attract many followers from Burauen,
Palo, Dagami and other towns. They went on a pilgrimage at night
to the mountain known as Pobres, carrying her on a chair, each of
them bearing a lighted candle as in a religious procession. One of
her followers, by the name of Mariano, had spread the word that
a great deluge was coming and that the only safe place was in Mt.
Pobres, which was even higher than Amandiwing, a mountain peak
located in the interior parts of Jaro and Burauen. There many of their
followers stayed for more than six months, so that the authorities
had to use armed force to make them return to the lowlands.219
The movement would surface again in Jaro in the year 1888.
The dios-dios, who came in large numbers, alarmed the authorities
as they seemed to disturb the public order, resulting in the arrest of
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some of their more important leaders. Some were publicly whipped
during Sundays at the door of the church under the watchful eyes
of the guardia civil and the cuadrilleros. One of these leaders was a
certain Fruto Sales who found a stream that accordingly sailed all the
way to Europe. He sold small banners that supposedly protected the
buyers from pestilence.220
Under interrogation, Fruto Sales admitted that he was a 26-
year old jobless drifter, twice guilty of rape. imprisoned six months
for the first and three months for the second offense. He was able to
cure a certain woman with a herb called lacdan. He said he was not
a mediquillo (healer) but seemed to be trying to become one since he
was arrested in Alang-alang receiving medicinal herbs from Angel
Flores.221
That same year, Francisco Gonzalez, a native of Samar who
appeared to capitalize on the credulous masses, published a booklet,
announcing his ascendance to the throne and the appearance of
the magnificent city of Samareño. But in January, the guardia civil
discovered his followers selling banners and slips of paper with
prayers. The booklet instructed that the banners must be possessed
and the prayers recited every morning at 6:00. Both banners and
oracciones were supposed to preserve the people from sickness and
also from harm in a coming revolution. The slips of paper were even
signed by persons who claimed to be medicos titulares (titled doctors).
Later, Gonzales, who became known as Rey (King) Francisco,
issued cedulas to persons who accepted his rule. Prayers on the
booklet invoked Jesus, Mary and Joseph for deliverance from the
plague (“Libranos del peste”). Slips of paper with the initials SORS,
whose meaning nobody could explain, were distributed by a follower
of Gonzales to persons who were willing to be part of the community
(empadornado en el padron del Dios-Dios ). Available at one peseta each,
the slips of paper were supposed to be an effective safeguard against
epidemics.222
When the governor of the Visayas, Francisco Luno, learned
of these, he did not regard them as political threats but just minor
aberrations. He said the most notable evil in the case of Francisco
Sales was his collecting of fines and taking advantage of the
ignorance of the mountainfolk. As for the latter, their only violation
was unauthorized assembly. He said the dios-dios movement was
all over the Visayas, except Cebu. It was a phenomenon that was to
be viewed with serenity.
Luno looked at the activity as the reenactment of old religious
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practices with prayers invoking Jesus and Mother Mary. He said
this aberration was due to Catholic doctrines badly misunderstood
and modified according to the traditions, character, habits, customs,
geography and topography of the island. Since the culture was
primitive, the activities had taken the character of superstition. No,
these were not heresies, Luno told the governor general. They were
more like fetishes.
True, Luno said, the parish priests were alarmed, but since the
people showed no violence, they were not a threat to the regime. So
he ordered no crackdown, saying they could tighten their vigilance
over groups in case they threatened the integrity of the state. But he
made exception to the people who were making illegal solicitations.
They should be punished, he said. The origin of the evil was religious
ignorance and confusion, clearly the problem of the parish priests.
Luno suggested to the priests that they temporarily leave
their parishes in the towns, preach the Gospel where it had not
yet been heard, and draw the lost sheep back to the flock. He had
communicated with the governor of Samar who told him that events
like these could not be considered as against the state.223

Dios-Dios persecuted

But Leyte’s governor, Luis Prats, had a different view of these

developments. He knew of what happened in neighboring Samar
the years before, so he did not take the dios-dios movement lightly.
Contrary to the policy of his superior Luno, he castigated many of its
leaders, arrested and imprisoned them, and blacklisted its members.
Thus, from May 1889 to May 1890, guardia civil patrols broke
into a few clandestine meetings. Based on the testimonies of the
accused, the guardias usually arrested people while they were going
about their daily activities: buying food, selling abaca in the town or
attending their crops. Many were arrested in October and November
of 1889.224
Most of them were first jailed at their pueblos, then sent to
Tacloban for interrogation by Prats himself. After the ordeal, he sent
the prisoners to Manila or to a penal colony.
The arrest of Faustino Ablen, aged 36, and seven other
companions on April 5, 1890 in the mountains of Mahilawon above
Barrio Patag was part of this repressive pattern instigated by Prats.
Others in the group were Cayetano Ablen, 35; Victor Ablen, 20;
Saturnino Ablen, 15; Pastor Caliwan, 23; Cayetano Caliwan, 26;
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Lucio de los Santos, 22; Tranquilino de los Santos, 16; and Martinito
Doroja, 55. Lt. Benito Marquez, a guardia civil assigned to Ormoc, was
Ablen’s arresting officer, with the bailiff Tranquilino Recias. Rufino
Villafuerte and Leberato Dasona serving as guides. Confiscated from
Faustino were three books written in Bisaya, three rosaries, a crystal
flask with a certain liquid, a knife and some money.225
The eight were brought to Tacloban a few days later for
investigation which started on April 10, 1890. The questions asked
were standard for all of them. What were their respective names, ages,
civil status, places of residence? Were they aware of the reasons for
their arrest? What were they doing in the house of Cayetano Caliwan
during the time of their arrest? What were the books and leaflets
confiscated used for? Did they buy oracciones from Francisco? Were
they involved in the activities in the mountains between Ormoc and
Merida in December the previous year? Did they know Fruto Sales,
Francisco Sales and Angel Flores?226
They all admitted their names, ages and residences, stating
they were farmers and that they could neither read nor write.
They explained that they only wanted to help Cayetano Caliwan’s
daughter who was sick, and that’s why they were in his house at the
time of their arrest. The books that were confiscated were important
in the practice of their Christian religion. They denied that they paid
money to buy oracciones or that they knew Francisco and Fruto
Sales and Angel Flores. They also said they knew nothing about the
gathering in the mountains between Ormoc and Merida the previous
year. The eight suspects were released apparently after finding that
they did nothing wrong.227
In the meantime, the governor required the gobernadorcillo,
the principalia and the parish priest to issue certificates of conduct
for persons arrested. This happened not only in Ormoc but in all the
towns where there were suspected members of the dios-dios. All the
towns were placed under a sort of martial law with the principalia
and friar curates segregating the dios-dios from non-dios-dios.”228
Certificates could contain positive or negative information.
Some certificates even stated that a few people were actually
responsible citizens but their ignorance or their desire to make money
made them vulnerable to deceivers. The majority of these conduct
certificates, however, were issued for persons labeled “vagos,
indocumentados, sin domicilio fijo” (vagrants, undocumented
or without fixed residence), most of whom were also accused of
having taken part in secret meetings of the dios-dios. A bad conduct
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certificate was as good as condemnation to prison or exile. So no
matter how ignorant the detainees were of the charges against them
or no matter how much they denied their involvement in dios-dios,
they were usually deported.229
Even if the members of the movement did not take up arms
against the authorities, Prats was deeply concerned because the dios-
dios activities hindered the authorities from collecting taxes and
reaching a right quota of people for compulsory labor. In spite of
exhortations by the parish priests and warnings and punishments
for the cabezas, many people still refused to come down from the
uplands, resulting in a deficit in the coffers. This put pressure on the
local authorities, who in turn vented their ire on the population living
in the hinterlands. It needed but a little spark to ignite a rebellion.230
More than a decade later, Faustino Ablen would figure in the
more deadly pulahan movement and cause serious trouble to the new
American regime. The repressive measures instigated by the Spanish
authorities and the local elite would trigger retaliatory actions from
the now awakened mountain folk

Oppressive taxation

Beside the quasi-religious dios-dios, other events would fuel

the simmering popular resentment against the colonial authorities.
According to Alangalang senior residents when interviewed in the
early 1950s, the laws passed during those times were ‘inhuman.’
Anybody found to have no identification papers landed in jail.
Those not going to church regularly were whipped in the eyes of the
public, and those who did not profess to be Catholics were labelled
as heretics and had to hide because the cuadrilleros ran after them.
When one was caught stealing, he was paraded around the
town followed by a cuadrillero with his whip. At each corner, the
culprit was ordered to shout about at the top of his voice,”Don’t be
like me. I have stolen. I am a thief!” Then he was made to lie on his
belly, and whipped on his back until he was bloodied.231
But the most repressive of all measures was the tax collection
imposed on the majority, a grim reminder of the hated encomienda
system. As in all pueblos during the period, the responsibility of
collecting taxes fell on the cabeza de barangay who was accountable
to the gobernadorcillo and delegado de rentas. In cases when the
cabeza was unable to collect taxes, his property was confiscated –
which did not remedy the situation. The gobernadorcillo, in turn, had
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to answer to the curate who represented the Spanish authorities in
the towns.
This was dramatically illustrated in Dagami. The Franciscan
Padre Manuel Cassanova was enraged because the gobernadorcillo
then, Fabian Perido, was not able to meet collection targets. This
prompted Cassanova to announce the matter publicly during a
Sunday sermon inside the church, castigating Perido and the other
officials for their failure. The latter lost his temper and threw his
hat at the priest, as he denounced the Spaniard for his tyrannical
actuations.232
Years earlier in 1878, Dagami was visited by the provincial
officials of the Spanish regime who used the cruellest means to
enforce tax collection measures on the people. First, it was the
commissioner for collection, Gonzalez del Solar, who came in May
that year. Like many Spanish officials of his stature during the
period, he committed all sorts of abuses, collecting and managing the
funds the way it suited him, procuring poultry and livestock without
paying for them, and abusing helpless women. But in the beginning
of July that same year, as he was going down the stairs of the convent
where he stayed, he received a strong blow at the last step, causing
him to fall, but he lived to tell his story, naturally blaming the locals
for the incident.233
When Comandante Politico-Militar Jose Fernandez de Terran
heard of this, he arrived in the town on July 6, 1878 with a squad
of cuadrilleros. Then he gathered past and present gobernadorcillos
from the towns of Salug (Jaro) Alangalang, Palo, Tanauan, Tolosa
and Dulag, placing them at the entrances of the streets, with orders
not to let anyone pass. He immediately summoned the heads of the
barangays using a bayug234, and when they arrived, he chided them,
punishing those who had not settled their accounts which were more
than twenty in number. At dawn the next morning, the cabezas were
formed in two lines, and made to perform military drills to march
in step at the sound of a drum. At the slightest mistake, they got
clubbed and punished.
The military drills lasted for at least three hours, going around
the distance of about five hundred feet. Sweating and drenched with
mud, they were ordered to clean the tribunal as the cuadrilleros
watched over them. On the third day of their punishment as they
were made to run at the sound of the drum, one of the cabezas,
Simon Lobrigo, suddenly fell to the ground dead. Feeling something
had gone wrong, the governor suspended his cruel exercises and
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imprisoned the cabezas for three weeks incommunicado.
A public official named Pedro Galan tried to complain against
the excesses of the Governor but ended up with having broken
teeth. In the complaint drafted by Miguel Molina, Pedro Galan was
punished because he did not cooperate with the governor and failed
to supply him with the virgins that he wanted during his stay in the
town.
The cuadrilleros, meanwhile, confiscated agricultural products
every night, with instructions to arrest the people found having them.
A good number of houses near the Quilot river were abandoned as
many people had left the town. Some women who had just given
birth died as a result of their exposure to the elements and lack of
food.
Gobernadorcillo Patricio Mauro and three other town employees
were taken to Tacloban after being beaten, each of them tied to a
carabao. The first one died in jail at the capital where no one was
allowed to visit, nor a relative to administer medicine. For the five
months that such cruelties took place, no one was able to plant or
look for food for their subsistence, resulting in the death of many
inhabitants from hunger.235
The brewing unrest and seething anger against the Governor
finally died down when Terran was transferred to Romblon. Just
as in Leyte, he was mostly remembered there for his tyranny and
cruelty. Today, Dagami’s senior folks still recall their parents and
grandparents talking about “han panahon ni Terran.”236 It is not
farfetched to assume that similar cruelties may have been inflicted
by Spanish officials in other towns of Leyte during this period.

Revolutionary mood

When the Katipunan-led revolution erupted in Luzon in 1896,

the province waited in anticipation. But nothing of the sort happened.
The breakout happened two years later in 1898 after Gen. Emilio
Aguinaldo and 27 other leaders returned from their Hongkong exile
to renew their fight against Spanish tyranny. News of their declaration
of the Philippine independence on June 12, 1898 in Kawit, Cavite
spread quickly to other provinces, Leyte included. Changes were
first felt in the Catholic Church when the Spanish friars in the island,
considered the de facto representatives of the colonial government
in the province, started to vacate their posts in favour of the secular
clergy. In Tacloban, as early as 1894, Padre Fabian Avelino, a Filipino
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secular, took over. He also became the rector of the Palo cathedral
in 1898 after the Franciscan Fr. Pantaleon de la Fuente left in 1898.237
Quite appropriately, the breakout took place at the Tacloban
bilibid prisons where persons accused of sedition were held. The
news of Philippine Independence triggered the mass jailbreak of
prisoners led by one Alejandro Planas, a suspected rebel. Armed
with a knife, he freed himself and the other prisoners, shouting:
“Viva la Republica Filipina!” This stirred up the local population,
forcing the Spanish Governor of Leyte, Fernando S. Juarez, to turn
over the control of the province to a commandante (major), Gabriel
Galza, a son of Europeans but born in the Philippines. That gesture
seemed to appease the rage of the locals against the Spaniards. They
were allowed to leave without any unpleasant incident.
Filipino regime was soon established amid great rejoicing, with
the new Philippine flag hoisted. A procession was at once organized
‘amid loud hurrahs and enthusiasm of the people and revealed their
overflowing happiness for the glorious emblem that they then deliriously
waved.’238
Catalino Tarcela, a former capitan municipal of Abuyog, had
usually presided over the hoisting of the Spanish flag being the
capitan municipal of Tacloban. This time, Vicente Diaz, Astorga
and Pabilona joined in lowering that flag and raising the Filipino
flag sewn by the wife of Diaz. A huge demonstration was held amid
gunshots, followed by speeches. Tarcela promptly resigned his
position as Diaz was acclaimed as provincial governor, which he
politely declined. Thus, a quick election was held and Tarcela chosen
as governor. Pastor Navarro was appointed as delegado de justicia,
Daniel Romualdez as delegado de policia, Innocencio Mariano as
delegado de rentas provincial, and Simeon Espina as auditor de guerra.239
How the elections were held, the historian did not disclose. But
in Tarcela’s case, 77 persons affixed their signatures to a document
that was going to be sent to Aguinaldo as proof of his election in
the new revolutionary government. 240 But that was going to be a
temporary arrangement. Changes would be introduced soon after
the arrival of Aguinaldo’s generals in the island, Ambrosio Mojica241
and Vicente Lukban.242
The first of Aguinaldo’s leaders arrived in December 1899,
about a year before actual hostilities against the Americans started.
Since Lukban was also the politico-military governor of Leyte, he
sailed to the island on January 17, 1899 on board the San Nicolas.
Here he was awaited by his own men: Esteban Aparri, his secretary
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in Leyte, Francisco Enage, Claro Pimentel, Juan Merchant and Jose
Memeige, all of which would benefit in his subsequent appointments.
As soon as he settled himself, Lukban proceeded to issue his first
proclamation to Leyteños on the necessity of establishing the republic,
the importance of unity and the threat of American domination.243 As
in his other issuances, these were written in Spanish which the non-
Spanish speaking natives would not initially understand.
Another of Lukban’s unpopular action was his tolerance of the
abuses of his close friends, the two brothers Emeterio and Francisco
Enage, in manipulating elections that enabled them and their friends
to assume power against the wishes of many local people. Through
Lukban’s machinations, Emeterio replaced Tarcela as governor of
the province, while Francisco ensured that Felix de Veyra became
the municipal president of Maasin, much to the chagrin of the local
population. In a letter drafted by two groups of protesters addressed
to the Secretary of War Antonio Luna in Manila, they said Emeterio
and de Veyra named the persons who were allowed to vote even if
by law they could not vote or that they were not old enough to do
so. Luna would later invalidate the results when Mojica assumed the
generalship in Leyte, as Lukban was confined to Samar.244
When Mojica arrived on February 14, 1899, he and his staff at
first stayed in Tacloban. Acting fast, he declared the elections null
and void and made appointments in Tacloban, with Jaime C. de
Veyra as secretario provincial. Seven other officials were appointed
with him. When the threat of the American invasion became clearer,
he transferred his residence to Palo on February 27, using the old
convent as his seat of government. The priest at that time, Padre Juan
Pacoli, had to move to the house of Manuel Mora, also known as Inse
Minak’s house, until the Americans occupied Palo on February 1,
1900, forcing Mojica and his government to evacuate to the interior
of the island.245
Mojica’s military adventure against the superior Americans
did not last long. By the middle of May, 1901, he surrendered in
Baybay, with most of his troops. In the same month a year after, his
remaining officers also gave up, concluding the short-lived resistance
against American occupation in the island.
However, it was not going to be an easy transition in Samar
island with the anti-cleric certified mason Vicente Lukban in
command of the resistance movement. Earlier, the Franciscan
friars left the island together with Spanish officials for Iloilo before
embarking for Manila in 1898, aware of his masonic beliefs. Late in
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November 1899, when Aglipay had formally thrown off Episcopal
authority in the Philippine Assembly, Lukban summoned all the
priests of the island to a meeting in Catbalogan. Here he attempted
to persuade the secular clergy to withdraw their obedience from
the ecclesiastical governor, Father Pablo Singzon, and support the
now-excommunicated Aglipay. Unsuccessful in his attempt, Lukban
confiscated the church of Catbalogan, expelling the priests from their
conventos, and converting the buildings into schools, even if school
buildings already existed.246
Then he ordered the local authorities not to recognize the
jurisdiction of the priests over their parishes, and manipulated the
provincial council of Samar to reorder the parishes and reassign
parish priests without reference to ecclesiastical authority. When
the priests protested against this usurpation, Lukban threatened
them. On 6 December, he forced them to sign their acceptance of his
schismatic intervention. Apparently all the priests were threatened
into signing, but as soon as they were able to do so, all abandoned
the island of Samar and assembled in Tanauan. Here they wrote a
collective protest, saying their signatures were obtained by force.
They also protested against Lukban’s confiscation of church property
in both Leyte and Samar, which they sent to Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.
In this way, he isolated himself from the clergy and could not get
their support in the all-important resistance against the American
occupation in Samar.247
The Americans likewise showed a deep mistrust for the clergy
as shown in a circular circulated among its troops in the course of
their occupation of the islands. Issued on December 4, 1901, just
more than two months after the Balangiga massacre, Gen. Jacob H.
Smith tagged the native priests as members of the most ‘dangerous
class’ along with the wealthy middle class because ‘he (the priest)
is usually best informed, besides wielding an immense influence with the
people by virtue of his position. He has much to lose, in his opinion, and but
little to gain through American supremacy in these islands.’

‘It is expected that officers will exercise their best endeavors

to suppress and prevent aid being given by the people of this class,
especially by the native priest. Wherever there is evidence of
this assistance, or where there is a strong suspicion that they are
thus secretly aiding the enemies of our Government, they will be
confined and held. The profession of the priest will not prevent his
arrest or proceedings against him. If the evidence is sufficient they
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will be tried by the proper court. If there is not sufficient evidence
to convict, they will be arrested and confined as a military necessity
and held as prisoners of war until released by orders from these
headquarters.’248

As a result of such a policy, at least five priests were arrested

and brought to Calbiga for detention and tortured in January 1902.
This included the saintly Fr. Donato Guimbaolibot of Guiuan and Fr.
Jose Diasnes of Catarman. Fr. Bartolome Piczon of Catbalogan died
in that detention due to “water-cure” torture.249
The capture of Lukban in the forests of Samar on February
19, 1902 and the establishment of the civil government on June 17,
1902 would not change the situation drastically for the priests as the
Americans occupied churches and convents for other uses, often
showing disrespect for sacred images. When the American Bishop
Thomas Hendrick who became Cebu’s prelate in 1903 visited the
clergy in Samar, the priests made an appeal to him to do something
to uplift the miserable condition of the faithful, and, in particular, to
lift the bandos imposed by the American government, which made
life difficult for the Samareños.250

Pulahan

After a few months of peace, war would be resurrected between

the Americans and disgruntled peasants who refused to participate
in the earlier conflict under the leadership of Aguinaldo’s illustrado
generals. The leaders this time came from the most unlikely section
of the population – the marginalized dios-dios largely made up of
unshod, unlettered peasants. Others who did not surrender with
Lukban in Catbalogan also took up arms to begin a new type of
warfare that was to redefine the military textbooks of America’s
veterans of the Indian wars and the recent Philippine insurrection.
In our history, they became known as pulahans.
The movement gained momentum in Samar in 1902 after
surrender of Lukban and others. Some of the insurrectos did not
want to surrender and joined the pulahans. A member of the old
revolutionary army related that when the insurrectos under the
command of Capt. Eugenio Daza were gathering in San Sebastian to
be shipped to Catbalogan, for the peace conference for the surrender
of Lucban, a sergeant of Daza’s group, Cipriano Amango, escaped,
stole a boat from San Sebastian and made his way to island of
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The pulahan leader from Ormoc Faustino Ablen with his captors in Dagami on
June 11, 1907

Parasan. There he contacted people who did not surrender to the

Americans. With his recruits, he went to Gandara and contacted
Papa Pablo Bulan.251
In the early part of October, 1902, more than 100 dios-dios
members from Samar arrived in the island of Biliran. According to
the American report, the group “burned, pillaged, robbed, and killed
to their heart’s content, and then made a determined attack on the small
detachment of constabulary stationed at the town of Naval.” But they were
repulsed and the attacks persisted for several nights in succession.
Although the constabulary had lost several men, both killed and
wounded, they held the band off until Leyte Governor Peter Borseth
arrived on the scene with reinforcements. A vigorous campaign was
again waged, and after about six weeks, the island was cleared of
the dios-dios. This time, however, those who were not killed or
captured, made their way across to the island of Leyte, instead of
returning to Samar, and, working along down the coast, arrived in

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the vicinity of Ormoc.252
It was here that they made contact with Faustino Ablen,
erstwhile leader of the dios-dios who was arrested during the Spanish
regime. By this time, Ablen had his own armed band and a semblance
of a military structure. The cholera epidemic that was raging then
only served to encourage the group of Ablen who used their oraccion
and anting-anting (amulet) to cure the affliction. The town proper
of Ormoc was cordoned so that nobody could enter or leave it, but
that did not deter the dios dios leaders from practicing their healing
powers, using them to gain more adherents and sympathizers.253
In July 1903, Ablen expanded his base of operations to Leyte’s
lowland towns in the eastern section, such as Burauen, Dagami,
Tabon-Tabon, Pastrana and Tolosa, where he had gained plenty of
adherents. Here many pitched battles were fought by the pulahanes
against the Americans and their local boleros who were used as
frontliners. The pulahans were known to be supported especially by
the predominantly peasant population, using their keen knowledge
of the mountainous terrain to baffle the enemy and often resorting to
ambuscades to harass the latter.254
Unlike Lukban, Ablen did not bother the native clergy. Even in
the policy statements of the American colonial officials in Tacloban,
there were no special references to the clergy, that it would seem
that the church was finally left alone to her own devices during
the period of the pulahan. Ablen’s capture on June 11, 1907 in the
mountains of Dagami ushered in an era of peace in the region that
saw the organization of a new colonial government under American
designs. A new era in church administration was also about to start.

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Part VII
In the wings of Calbayog
The beginning years of the American occupation, on the first
decade of the 1900s especially, were years of adjustment. Peace had
just begun to settle in Leyte and Samar after the capture of the pulahan
leader Faustino Ablen in 1907. Although the provincial government
of Leyte had been organized as early as 1901 as Gen. Mojica was
fleeing from the forces of the occupying troops, it was only after 1907
when peace was beginning to be felt, and the economy was well on
its path to progress.
As in the last decades of the Spanish regime, hemp continued to
be the country’s principal export crop, followed by copra and sugar.
The exportation of this commodity during the fiscal year 1911 was
165.64 million kilos as compared with 170.78 million kilos during the
previous year. The exportation of this product to the United States
suffered a considerable decrease, having fallen off to two-thirds of
the quantity sent the previous year, 99.30 million kilos shipped in
1910, while in 1911 the amount was only 66.54 million kilos.
On the other hand, the amount of copra exported during the
year, amounting to 115.60 million kilos, was slightly higher than
in 1910. Exports of this commodity to the United States increased
considerably, the report said. The exports of sugar likewise showed
a considerable increase in 1911 compared to the previous year. From
more than $7 million worth in 1910, it went up to more than $8
million in 1911.255 Such developments resulted in greater economic
activities in the province.
Changes were also evident in the government sector. While on
the surface the American colonial administration made it appear that
the native leaders were being given bigger responsibilities, the more
important branches of government were never assigned to them.
The authorities  had retained the Spanish administrative divisions,
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Calbayog’s first bishop Msgr. Pablo Singzon (left) and his succssor Msgr. Sof-
ronio HacbangSofronio

the “provinces,” but had attempted to introduce the principle of

local autonomy. In practice, modern colonial governments placed
the district or provincial administration directly under the head
of the colony and fill the chief post of responsibility with a trained
appointive official. But in the case of the Philippines, which had
suffered so much from the evils of too much centralization and
autocracy in the previous centuries, they decentralized and created
provincial governments which were ostensibly autonomous but
with very limited powers.256
Such local governments were never entrusted with important
branches of the service or utilized by the insular authorities as local
agents. Education, constabulary, forests, mines, lands, and posts
were committed to insular bureaus with headquarters in Manila and
representatives in all parts of the islands. At first, roads and similar
public improvements were constructed by the provincial boards, but
in 1905 the office of “supervisor “was abolished and provincial road
work entrusted to district engineers of the insular Bureau of Public
Works. The place of the supervisor on the provincial board was taken
by the division superintendent of schools. Local boards of health also
were abandoned in favor of sanitation by the Bureau of Health.257

‘These arrangements indicated a failure of the plan of

decentralized provincial governments, and a disposition not to
entrust them with any real powers. The Reorganization Act made
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a decisive change toward administrative oversight by providing
that the Executive Secretary should have general supervision over
the provincial treasurers and provincial administration, review the
action of provincial boards in assessing the land tax, and approve
all appointments to the subordinate personnel of the provincial
governments, ‘ wrote Barrows.258

The Philippine Commission had originally adopted the

“pueblos” as the basis of municipal governments. But the plan laid
down by the Municipal Code of 1902 was too ‘elaborate and artificial,’
required too many paid officials and was too expensive for the
average town. To save on costs, some towns were reverted to their
‘barrio’ status and once more attached to their mother town. This
happened in Leyte as in the cases of Pastrana and Tabontabon, to
name two. In the entire country, the number of towns decreased to
only over 400. Many former town centers were thus left without local
officials; buildings and plazas were neglected. ‘The whole civic spirit,
which with Filipinos centers in their locality, was hurt,’ noted Barrows.259
Yet a stubborn, seemingly unchanging feature of the province
was its road infrastructure. In the previous centuries, people
travelled by boat. Hence majority of the town settlements were near
the coasts. But these modes of transportation gradually changed
as interior towns that produced a lot of hemp and copra needed to
have good roads to bring the goods to the trading posts in the coastal
commercial centers. The new government was aware of the need
to maintain the roads. By its own admission, roads constructed or
repaired by the insular government and turned over to the provinces
and municipalities became absolutely impassable in two to three
years. ‘The soft places in the road develop, the rock sinks in spots, and soon
the continued traffic cuts through the shell of road material, and the puddle
made by the depression of the road surface soon becomes a sink pit, in which
the road material for the whole width of the road sinks and is lost.’260

‘The luxuriance of vegetation is such that, unless prevented,

a whole road is likely to be obliterated in the course of six months
by encroaching vegetation. The rainfall is often so torrential in its
nature that it is very difficult to figure on the maximum amount of
water to be drained. The path of an unusual typhoon or a combination
of two typhoons at the same time may cause a downpour of rain
amounting almost to a cloudburst at some unexpected point, with
resultant loss of road or bridge or whatever construction lies in the
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way.’261
‘With few exceptions, the condition of the roads throughout
the archipelago is lamentable and is growing worse from day to
day. What were good and passable roads three years ago are now
quagmires in the rainy season,’ the report of the Commission
continued. This was true in Leyte and neighboring Samar.262

On July 13, 1906, the so-called road law was passed, authorizing
provinces and municipalities to compel every person liable to the
payment of a cedula to work for five days in each year on the roads
or pay a commutation in cases when they were unable to work. But
there was widespread opposition to this scheme, which reminded
people of the Spanish colonial days.263 The road problem would
continue well into the 20th century and would plague local officials,
traders, students and everyone using the road system.

New Diocese created

THIS was the situation when Calbayog was declared the seat
of a new diocese independent of the Diocese of Cebu to which Samar
and Leyte belonged since 1595. On April 10, 1910, Pope Pius X issued
the Papal Bull “Nova Erigere Dioceses” separating from Cebu and
creating the new Diocese of Calbayog embracing Leyte and Samar.
Two days later, Msgr. Pablo Baeza Singzon was appointed bishop of
the new diocese. He was 59 years old.264
There could have been no other more likely candidate. Since
1903, Singzon had been a candidate for bishop when he was cited
by then Apostolic delegate to the Philippines Archbishop Giovanni
Battista Guidi as the ‘best of the native priests’ in the country and
entitled to a see as a bishop. At that time he was already the vicar
general of the Cebu Diocese under Bishop Thomas Hendrick.265
Bishop Singzon was born on January 25, 1851 in the town of
Calbiga to Demetria Baeza and Esteban Singzon, the eighth of ten
children and the youngest of four sons. Since childhood, he was
already being tutored by Franciscans Antonio Figueroa and Antonio
Sanchez and later by the secular priest Andres Congson, one of the
earliest secular priests in Samar. Because of his aptitude, his parents
enrolled him at the Seminary College of San Carlos in Cebu on
November 9, 1866 at the age of 15. The following year, the Vincentian
fathers would assume the administration of the seminary.
He was ordained a priest in 1877, well before the outbreak
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One of the early Thomasite teachers Mary Scott Cole and students, Palo, Leyte,
Philippines, ca. 1902, from the Harry Newton Cole papers

of the Philippine revolution. His appointment as vicar general of

the Cebu diocese by Archbishop Thomas Hendrick, an American,
reinforced the perception that he was favoring the Americans in
the conflict between the Filipinos led by Gen. Vicente Lukban, Gen.
Emilio Aguinaldo’s man in Samar, and the American occupation
forces.. He was consecrated bishop in the church of San Francisco of
Manila on June 12, 1910 in the presence of Apostolic Delegate Msgr.
Ambrosio Agius and the bishop of Cebu Msgr. Juan P. Gorordo.266
One of the first things that Bishop set himself to do was to
put up a seminary. Five years earlier in August 1905, the Vincentian
fathers had consented to open the Colegio de San Vicente de Paul
in response to a petition of some of its prominent citizens. Two
Vincentian fathers, Frs. Gregorio Tabar and Leonardo Sainz, came
from Cebu accompanied by the vicar general then Pablo Singzon and
the rector of the San Carlos Seminary, D. Pedro Julia. The school was
solemnly inaugurated and opened on September 19, 1905.267
When Singzon became bishop, one of his first acts was to
convert this college into a conciliar (minor) seminary under the
Paules. He did this by a decree dated June 29, 1910 from Manila
and confirmed in the First Diocesan Synod held on May 1911. That
very year, he had his seminarians in Cebu come to Calbayog. There
were 11 in 1911. The seminary was first established in the big parish
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house, an old Franciscan convent. Since they were few in number,
it was large enough. But as the numbers increased, the bishop
purchased an adjoining building and enlarged the space by adding
new structures.268

UNDER Cebu, Leyte had only two vicariates, physically

divided by the large mountain range straddling over the entire
length of the island. Under the new diocese, however, six vicariates
were created in Leyte, with each headed by a vicar forane assigned to
the town that served as the seat of the vicariate. The six vicars forane
sat in the board of consultors.
First was the Vicaria Oriental with the seat in Palo. Included
here were the parishes of Tanauan, Tacloban, Tolosa, Pastrana,
Dagami, Tabontanon, Burauen, Dulag and Abuyog.
For Vicaria del Norte, the seat was Carigara, Leyte’s ancient
capital. Under this vicariate were Alang-Alang, Jaro, Babatngon,
Barugo, Capoocan, Leyte, Naval, Almeria, Maripipi, Biliran, Caibiran
and San Miguel.
Across the mountains in the northwestern part of the island
was the Vicaria Occidental Norte, with Ormoc as the seat. Under
this were Palompon, Villaba, San Isidro del Campo, Quiot (Isabel),
Merida and Albuera.
Still in the western side of the island was the Vicaria Occidental
del Sur with the seat in Matalom. Under this were Inopacan, Baybay,
Hindang, Hilongos, Bato, Maasin and Macrohon.
And finally at the southern most tip of the island was the
Vicaria del Sur, with Malitbog as the seat. Under it were Banday,
Sogod Norte, Cabalian, Liloan, Hinundayan and Hinundangan.269

Catholic schools

THE first decade of the new century also saw the new
colonizers seriously giving attention to public education. But unlike
in the previous centuries when the friars were an integral part of the
system, this time education became an entirely government matter
supervised by the newly organized Bureau of Education under
American control. It featured three courses or grades: primary,
intermediate and secondary.
In the primary grades, one of the principal aims was to enable
the pupil to understand, read, and write simple English. Knowledge
in figures or arithmetic was also important to equip the student skills
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in business dealings. Added to these were subjects of geography,
sanitation and hygiene, government, and standards of right conduct.
Training was also provided in some manual occupation to enable the
pupil to better earn a livelihood in later years. The average student
however never got beyond the primary school.
In the intermediate grades, six courses were offered. A general
course led to high school. A trade course prepared the student to
earn a living as an artisan. A farming course engaged the pupil
chiefly in gardening and agricultural work. A course in teaching
prepared the pupil to become a primary teacher. Thus, many native
primary school teachers were products of this course. A course in
business prepared students for office positions. And a sixth course
was designed specifically for women - a course in housekeeping and
household arts. In the United States, they had only one course, with
instructions similar for all pupils. This provision was a distinguishing
feature of the Philippine educational system at that time. This was
introduced here because only one in 200 pupils enrolled in all the
schools of the Philippines passed beyond the intermediate grades.270
With the Bureau of Education in 1902 came thousands of
American teachers in addition to the ‘Thomasites’ earlier deployed.
For every province one superintendent was appointed, and in
1904 came the district supervisors, each in charge of a supervising
teacher. The year saw the completion of the system of primary
schools, adequate to give to every child a brief training of three or
four years. Here the most advanced pupils of the American teachers
were employed as primary teachers under close supervision and
hundreds of schools opened in rural barrios where the population
had no opportunities of learning.271
In his own observation, the educator Barrows said: ‘Since the
establishment of the Bureau of Education, nearly 14 years ago, a great
public-school system has been developed. This achievement has been made
possible only through persistent struggles against adverse conditions.
Buildings and equipment have had to be renewed and teachers have had to
be trained. The people, in general, have had to be educated to appreciate the
value of the public schools, and their interest in them and their readiness
to support them is in distinct contrast to the apathy which existed at the
time the system was founded. Their change of attitude is an indication of an
intellectual awakening which scarcely finds a parallel in history.’272
In Palo, the first high school of Leyte province was opened on
November 13, 1903. Classes were held at the Guasa family residence
volunteered by the owners so the school could operate. Its first
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The Tacloban Catholic Institute, renamed St. Paul’s College in 1945, became
Divine Word University in the ‘70s. It was founded by Bishop Sofronio Hacbang
in 1929.

principal was a certain A.A. Bear, and the first teachers were J. L.
Fiske and Walter Marquardt, who would later figure as directors of
the Bureau of Education in Manila. In 1905, the principal was George
H. Satterthwaite, assisted by teachers Elmer Latson, Dr. Elmer, Mr.
and Mrs. Carpenter, a Mr. Chamberlain and a Miss Hultmann.
Morning assemblies were held at the spacious hall of the casa real, or
municipal hall, fronting the town plaza and the cathedral.273
But the strongly Catholic community of Palo did not take too
kindly on this. In 1906, the town curate Padre Juan Pacoli and mayor,
Capitan Acebedo, started the Centro Catolico, an organization that
vigorously campaigned against the public school for being ‘godless,’
as religion was not taught there. As a result, the school’s enrolment
went down, forcing the Americans to move to Tacloban.274 The town
did not have a high school in the next 20 years.
Two other Catholic schools were established elsewhere in
Leyte during Singzon’s time as bishop of the diocese of Calbayog,
in the growing towns of Ormoc and Maasin. In 1914, the parish
priest of Ormoc, Padre Ismael Cataag, initiated the putting up of
Colegio Nuestra de Guadalupe, tapping the Sisters of the Compania
de Jesus to manage it. 275 It offered the Kartilla (kindergarten) and

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the primary grades. But in the latter part of 1928, enrolment came
in trickles, forcing the sisters to abandon the institution. So Padre
Cataag went to Manila to discuss the problem with the Benedictine
sisters, who fortunately agreed to come in 1930. That year, the school
was renamed St. Peter’s Academy. Today it is known as St. Peter’s
College, with the Benedictine sisters still running it.276
The next year, Bishop Singzon founded the Colegio de Nuestra
de la Asuncion de Maasin Leyte. This was run at first by the sisters
of the Beaterio de la Compania de Manila.277 But apparently this
closed down because 13 years later, another Catholic school would
be founded by Singzon’s successor also in Maasin.
Death overtook Bishop Singzon on August 11, 1920 after he
became fatally ill. He was 69 years old. A much younger bishop
succeeded him three years later. Sofronio Hacbang was born in
Calbiga, Samar on December  8, 1887. He was ordained a priest
on January 22,  1911 when only 23 years old. Seven years later, on
November 8, 1918, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Calbayog
and likewise titular bishop of Anemurium. At 30 years old, he was
probably the youngest bishop in his time. Three years after the
death of Bishop Singzon, he was appointed Bishop of Calbayog on
February 22, 1923. He was only 35 years old.278
Two years after his installation, in 1925, Bishop Hacbang
separated the ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical students in the
Colegio de San Vicente de Paul, and insisted that all seminarians live
in the seminary. The school continued to be run by the Vincentian
fathers until 1928 when the seculars took over, while the Paules held
on to the seminary to take care of the priestly formation until 1968.
The Colegio de San Vicente de Paul eventually became Christ the
King College, considered the pioneer Catholic institution of learning
in the island of Samar.279 It is presently managed by the Franciscan
fathers.
Hacbang has been credited with the founding of four Catholic
institutions in Leyte during his stint as bishop. On June 5, 1924, more
than a year after his installation, he founded the Holy Infant School
in Tacloban, with the Benedictine sisters managing it.280 This is now
a college.
That same year when he went to the San Francisco, California,
he met Alfredo Palencia, a native of Palo, Leyte who expressed keen
interest on having a Catholic school in his town. Apparently he was
able to convince the bishop on the need for such a school because
when Hacbang returned, he authorized Fr. Juan Pacoli, Palo cura
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parocco for 39 years, to use the parish funds for the project.  The
school was named Leyte Central Academy since the town lies in the
heart of Leyte. This was in 1926.
The first school corporation was subsequently formed with
Rev. Fr. Pacoli as head. The other members were Don Juan Palencia,
Municipal Treasurer, Pedro D. Sevilla, Don Marcial Acebedo,
Ricardo Mendiola, Municipal President and Fr. Ignacio Mora. Fr.
Marcial Dira, coadjutor of Pacoli, became its first firector. The group
authorized Mendiola to secure government permit to operate, but
the permit came only after the war on July 1, 1946.281 It is now named
St. Mary’s Academy.
Two years after that, on February 20, 1928, Hacbang went to
the south of Leyte to found another school – the Instituto de San Jose.
In June that year, elementary and secondary classes were opened.
At the start, the school was managed by the secular priests with the
late Father Sofio Mandia as the first school director. Later, as in the
case of Ormoc, the Benedictine sisters were asked to run it. In 1947,
the school was renamed Saint Joseph Junior College, and in 1949, it
became the Saint Joseph College. Since 1972, its administration has
been turned over by the Benedictine sisters back to the diocese of
Maasin.282
But the most prestigious institution founded by Bishop Hacbang
was the Tacloban Catholic Institute, which later became a university.
This was in 1929. For this task, he was helped by prominent men
of letters and the government, with the likes of Justice Norberto
Romuladez, Sr., Leyte Governor Bernardo Torres, an educator before
he joined politics, Congressman Juan Perez and Educator Martin de
Veyra, all of which had impeccable Catholic credentials. In the ‘50s,
it became St. Paul’s College under the SVD tutelage and in the ‘70s, it
was transformed into a university.
Bishop Hacbang also tried to set up a minor seminary at the
convent in Palo in 1927, with Fr. Consorcio Poblete as rector. This was
an attempt to address the problem of distance and inconvenience for
seminarians coming from Leyte who had to travel across bad roads
to Calbayog. But for some reasons, the seminary folded up after
three years. 283
For someone who rose to prominence at the very early age of
30, dying early was not expected. But the hand of death came on
April 3, 1937, the year when Leyte would become a separate diocese.
Bishop Hacbang was only 49 years old.284
More Catholic schools would be built in the future. What the
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two bishops did was perhaps blaze the trail and ignite the fire of
Christianity once more through the establishment of schools. After
all, the church had been involved in the teaching of the youth since
the early days of the Jesuit missionaries even up to the time of the
Franciscan friars in makeshift huts or structures annexed to the
conventos. The two bishops did not rest content with the ways that
the new government did it in an era of church-and-state separation.
They saw in Catholic schools a tool to further Christian beliefs and
practices, opportunities that did not exist in public institutions.
The year 1935 saw fundamental changes in governance as more
Filipinos were empowered to assume higher positions in government.
It would not be long before full independence would be granted by
the country’s American mentors. It is not farfetched to assume that
the mood must have caught up with the Church heirarchy. Through
the years, the number of local priests had multiplied, and the
population almost doubled. The task of spreading the Word seemed
even more urgent. Likewise a more decentralized administration of
Church matters became a growing necessity. Two years later, a new
diocese was born in Leyte.@

Endnotes

1 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was born in Zubarraja in Guipuzcoa in the

early part of the 16th century, of an old and noble family. He went to
Mexico in 1545, where he became chief clerk of the cabildo of the city
of Mexico. Being selected to take charge of the expedition of 1564, he
succeeded by his great wisdom, patience and forbearance, in gaining
the good will of the natives. He founded Manila where he died of
apoplexy August 20, 1572. Navarete says that Legazpi was 59 years
old when the fleet set sail in 1564. [Emma Helen Blair and James
Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume
II, p. 83]
2 Fray Juan de Medina was born at Sevilla, and entered the Augustinian
convent of that city. On reaching the Philippines, he was assigned
to the Bisayan group, and was known to those natives by the name
‘the aposle of Panay.’ A zealous worker, he was wont to preach to
his flock in three languages – Bisayan, Chinese and Spanish. He was
minister at Laglag in 1613, at Mambusao in 1615, at Dumangas in
1618, at Panay in 1619, and at Passi in 1623; prior of the convent at
Cebu in 1626 and definitor in 1629. After 23 years of missionary work,
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
he asked to return to spring. He died while at sea in 1635 three years
later after he was prevented to make a trip earlier due to bad weather.
Medina composed many things, but only his work on history and four
volumes of manuscript sermons in Panayana have survived. [1629
– 1630, Medina’s Historia, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXIII, p.
121.]
3 Ibid, p. 144.
4 Ibid
5 Ibid
6 de Legazpi, Miguel Lopez, “Relation of the Voyage to the Philippine
Islands, – 1565,” Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson,
The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume II, p. 196
7 Op cit, Medina, pp. 202-205
8 Andres de Urdaneta was born in 1498 at Villafranca de Guipuzcoa.
He received a liberal education, but, his parents dying, he chose a
military career; and he won distinction in the wars of Germany and
Italy, attaining the rank of captain. Returning to Spain, he devoted
himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, and became
proficient in navigation. Joining Loaisa’s expedition, he remained in
the molujccas, contending with the Portuguese there, until 1535, when
he went back to Spain. Going thence to Mexico (about 1540), he was
offered command of the expedition then fitting out for the Moluccas,
but on terms he could not accept. Villalobos was given command
in his stead, and Urdaneta later (1552) became a friar, entering the
Augustinian order, in which he made his profession on March 20,
1553 in the city of Mexico. There he remained until the fleet of Legazpi
departed (Nov 21, 1564) from La Navidad, Mexico for the Philippine
Islands. Urdaneta accompanied this expedition with four other friars
of his order. He was appointed prelate of those new lands, with the
title “protector of the Indians,” he also acted as the pilot of the ship.
In the following year, he was dispatched to Spain to give and account
of what Legazpi had accomplished. The mission accomplished, he
wanted to return to the Philippines, but he was dissuaded from this
step by his friends. He came back to Mexico where he died (June 3,
1568), aged 70 years, Urdaneta was endowed with a keen intellect,
and held to his opinions and convictions with great tenacity. To his
abilities and sagacity are ascribed much of Legaspi’s success in the
conquest of the Philippines.
9 Tandaya was probably the northern part of Leyte island.
10 Op cit, Medina, p. 148
11 The  arquebus  (sometimes spelled  harquebus,  harkbus  or hackbut;
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
from Dutch  haakbus, meaning “hook gun”), or “hook tube”, is an
early  muzzle-loaded  firearm  used in the 15th to 17th centuries. In
distinction from its predecessor the hand cannon, it has a matchlock.
Like its successor the  musket, it is a  smoothbore  firearm, but was
initially lighter and easier to carry.(Wikipedia)
12 Op cit., Medina, p. 149
13 Ibid, p 151
14 Ibid, p. 152
15 Ibid, p. 153
16 Op cit, Blair and Robertson, Volume II, p. 54
17 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume VII, p. 16
18 Morga’s Sucesos, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson,
The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XVI, p. 158
19 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume VI, p 172
20 ‘The Augustinians received also one-fourth of the tribute from the
villages while they are building churches; and 200 pesos furtes
[i.e., teal-real pieces] and 200 cavans [the cavan equals 25 gantas
or 137 Spanish libras] of cleaned rice for four religious who heard
confessions during Lent. Fifty cavans of cleaned rice per person
seems to us too much. It results that each friar consumes 12 ½ libras
of rice [the chupa is ½ ganta or 3 litros] daily, 13 times as much as any
Indian.’ [annotation by Rizal in Morga’s Sucesos, Blair and Robertson
Volume XVI, p. 154]
21 This was extracted from a portion of the original document by Pablo
Pastels, S.J., and is given by him in his edition of Colin’s Labor
Evangelica (Barcelona, 1904) pp 157-158). In the testimony given
by Fernando Riquel in the city of Manila, June 2, 1576, and which
was taken from government record, appears an attested relation
of the encomiendas which were distributed among the original
conquistadors of Filipinas. [Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXXIV, p.
304-308]
22 “Account of the Encomiendas” (1591-1593), Emma Helen Blair and
James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume VII, pp. 127 – 128,
23 Ibid, p. 129
24 ‘The rapidity with which many of these encomenderos amassed great
wealth in a few years is known, and that they left colossal fortunes at
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
their death. Some were not satisfied with the tributes and with what
they demanded, but made false measures and balances that weighed
twice as much as was indicated. They often exacted the tributes in
certain products only, and appraised the same at what value they
wished.’ [Annotation by Rizal, Morga’s Sucesos, Blair and Robertson,
Volume XVI, p 158]
25 Fr. Diego de Herrera was born at Recas, Spain, and entered the
Augustinian order in 1545. He was in Mexico when Legazpi’s
expedition was organized. He was one of the four Augustinians who
accompanied Fr. Andres de Urdaneta to the Philippines. When the
latter returned to Mexico, he left Herrera as prior of his brethren;
and in 1569 Herrera became superior of the mission, with the rank
of provincial. He immediately went to Mexico, and brought back
reinforcements of friars to the Philippines. For the same purpose, he
went to Spain in 1573; returning thence with missionaries, they were
wrecked on the coast of Luzon where they were all slain by natives.
This was on April 25, 1576. (Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume III, p. 52)
26 Augustinian Memoranda, unsigned and undated but probably
compiled by Augustinians missionaries circa 1573. [Emma Helen
Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493
– 1803, Volume XXXIV, pp. 273-281]
27 ibid, p. 278
28 Ibid, pp. 279- 281
29 Ibid
30 Domingo de Salazar was born in Labastida (in Alavese Rioja) in 1512.
He joined the Order of St. Dominic in 1546 at Salamanca; and at 40
years of age he went to Mexico. In 1579, he was first appointed first
bishop of Filipinas, and took p0ossession of his seat in 1581. In virtue
of the bull Fulti Praesedio, promulgated by Gregory XIII, he erected
the principal church of Manila into a cathedral church on December
21 of the same year. Immediately thereafter he held the first council,
being assisted by both the secular and regular clergy. In 1591, he
returned to Acapulco and Mexico, whence he went to Spain in 1593.
He died in Madrid on December 4, 1594, and was buried in the church
of Santo Tomas of his order. – Pablo Pastells, S.J.
31 ‘Memorial regarding occurrences in these Philippinas Islands of the
West, also their conditions, and matters which require correction;
written by Fray Domingo de Salazar, bishop of the said islands, in
order that his majesty and the gentlemen of his royal Council of the
Indies may see it.’ Salazar’s letter of 1582 was found in “Simancas
– Eclesiastico; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del

112
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
arzobispo de Manila, vistos en el Consejo; años de 1579 a 1599; est.
68, caj. I, leg. I.”
32 Abuses of Encomenderos, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume IX, p 165
33 Ibid
34 Op cit, Volume VII, pp.280-281
35 Alonso Sanchez was born at Mondejar in 1547. He became a Jesuit
novice on June 18, 1565 at Alcala. In 1579, he went to Mexico, and, two
years later, with Bishop Salazar, to the Philippines. He was sent to
Macao in 1582 to receive for Felipe II the allegiance of the Portuguese
at that place. Stanley, in his edition of Morga’s Sucesos says: ”The
library of the Academy of History, Madrid, contains a Chinese copy
of a chapa, by which the mandarins of Canton allowed a Portuguese
ship to come and fetch Padre Alonso Sanchez and the dispatches
from Machan (Moluccas).” In 1586, Sanchez was commissioned by
the governor and the Spanish inhabitants of the Philippines to go to
Rome and Madrid in their behalf. He died at Alcala on May 27, 1593.
Sanchez wrote mainly about missionary affairs and the relations
between the Philippine colony and the crown of Spain. (Emma
Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands,
1493 – 1803, Volume V, p.28)
36 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume VI, pp. 158, 189
37 1597-1599 Morga’s Report, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume X, pp. 96-97
38 Letter of Gaspar de Ayala to King Felipe II, Emma Helen Blair and
James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume VII, pp. 120-123
39 de la Costa, Horacio, The Jesuits in the Philippines: 1581-1768, Harvard
University Press, 1961, p. 145
40 Chirino, Fr. Pedro SJ, Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, Roma, printed by
Estevan Paulino, in MDCIV; also see Emma Helen Blair and James
Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume
XII, p. 224
41 Pedro Chirino was born in 1557 in Osuna of Andalucia. He graduated
in both civil and canon law at Sevilla and entered the Soceity of Jesus
a the age of 23. Having been appointed to the mission in the Filipinas
in place of Fr. Alonso Sanchez, he arrived here in 1590 with the new
governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. He acted as missionary to the
Tagalogs and the Pintados (Visayas), and was superior of the Jesuit
colleges at Manila and Cebu. He cultivated the friendship of Esteban

113
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
Rodriguez de Figueroa, whom he advised to found the college of San
Ignacio and the seminary of San Jose in Manila. On July 7, 1602, he left
Cavite for Acapulco by the vessel ‘San Antonio’ with appointment by
visitor Diego Garcia as procurator of the mission at both the royal and
pontifical courts. He obtained a decree from Father General Claudius
Aquaviva, by which the mission in the Filipinas was elevated to a
vice-province, independent of the province of Mexico. His Relacion
was written in 1603. On July 17, 1606, he returned to Manila. He died
on September 16, 1635. His most important manuscript, entitled
Primera Parte de la Historia de la Provincia de Philipinas de la
Compania de Jesus, was kept by Pablo Pastells, S.J. (Relacion... p. 169)
42 12 brazas is roughly equivalent to 30 meters
43 Op cit. Chirino, pp. 280-282
44 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 182
45 Ibid, pp. 187-188
46 Chirino’s Relation, 1604-1605, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume. 13, p. 90-91
47 Ibid
48 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 291-292
49 Ibid
50 Ibid
51 Frs. Pedro Chirino, Antonio Pereira, Juan del Campo, Cosme de Flores
and Brother Gaspar Garay
52 “Carigara, in hoc signo vincis,” Leyte 400 years of Evangelization, A
souvenir program published by the Archdiocese of Palo in July 1995
53 Artigas, pp. 271-272. But According to Bishop Salazar, “It has never had,
and has not now, any instruction.” [Relation by Salazar, 1588-1591,
Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume VII, P. 47]
54 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 146
55 Op cit, “Carigara…”
56 Op cit, Blair and Robertson, Volume XII, pp 224–225
57 Ibid, p. 284
58 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 161
59 Op cit, “Carigara….”
60 “Dulag: The Cross Over the Fort of Virtue,” Leyte 400 years of
Evangelization, A souvenir program published by the Archdiocese
of Palo in July 1995
114
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
61 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 159-160
62 Ibid
63 For further readings on this, see Leyte, 400 years…
64 From letters of Fr. Francisco Vaez, June 10, 1601, to Rev. Fr. Claudio
Aquaviva, SJ General , Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XI, pp. 217-
220
65 Ibid
66 Op cit, de la Costa, pp. 287-289
67 Equivalent of 1 fanega
68 Op cit, de la Costa, pp. 287-288
69 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XIII, p. 60
70 Op cit, “Dulag…”
71 Christoval Ximenes (Cristobal Jimenez) was born in 1573, and entered
the Jesuit order in 1588. Coming to the Philippines in 1596, he spent
32 years in the Visayan missions; he died at Alangalang, in Leyte,
December 3, 1628 at 57 years old. He was noted as a linguist, and
composed various works, religious or poetical, in the Visayan tongue’
one of these was a translation of Bellarmino’s Doctrina Christiana
(Manila, 1610) [From letters of Fr. Francisco Vaez, June 10, 1601, to
Rev. Fr. Claudio Aquaviva, SJ General , Emma Helen Blair and James
Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume
XI, p. 211]
72 “Palo: Towards the vast Pacific,” Leyte 400 years…
73 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 160
74 Op cit, “Palo…” Also see De la Costa’s The Jesuits in the Philippines,
p. 161.
75 Op cit, “Chirino’s Relation, 1604-05,” p 59
76 Decurias: alluding to a custom in Spanish schools of placing the pupils
by tens, or sometimes smaller numbers, under the charge of the most
competent of the older students, under the supervision of the master
of the school. [“Baptisms in Paloc,” Emma Helen Blair and James
Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume
XIII, p. 98]
77 Ibid, p. 164
78 Of the entrance into Ogmuc, “Chirino’s Relation,” Emma Helen Blair
and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume XII, p 290.
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
79 Ibid, p. 291
80 Reed – the interior pellicle of bamboo, used in eastern lands as a
substitute for paper
81 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 162
82 Op cit, “Chirino’s …” Volume XIII, pp. 95-96
83 Ibid
84 “Ormoc: The cross in the land of good signs,” Leyte 400 years of
Evangelization, A souvenir program published by the Archdiocese
of Palo in July 1995
85 Op cit, “Chirino’s …” Volume XIII, p.171
86 “Annual Letters by Vaez, 1599-1602,” Blair and Robertson, The
Philippine Islands, Volume XI, p. 220
87 Op cit, “Chirino’s…”, Volume XII, p. 289
88 “Alanglang: The Cross in the Interior,” Leyte 400 years of Evangelization,
A souvenir program published by the Archdiocese of Palo in July 1995
89 Ibid
90 Op cit, de la Costa, p.62
91 Op cit, “Chirino’s Relation…” Vol umeXIII, p. 50
92 “Tunga,” Chrino’s Relation 1604-1605, Volume XIII, p. 176
93 Ibid
94 Ibid
95 Ibid, pp. 178-179
96 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 187
97 In the old system of Spanish measures, 1 fanega was divided into 12
celemines and is equivalent to 56.4 litres. This last equivalence varied
from place to place but was generally of between  53 and 56 litres for
most provinces.[ http://www.historiaviva.org/cocina/medidas_v2-
ing.shtml]
98 Op cit, de la Costa, p 182
99 Ibid, p. 183
100 Testimony of Juan Juarez Gallinato, “Pintados Menaced, 1599-1602”,
Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XI, pp. 292-301
101 Op cit, dela Costa, p. 292-295. Also see Artigas y Cuerva , Manuel,
Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte, Impr. Cultura Filipina, Manila, 1914
102 Ibid, p. 292-295

116
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
103 Hurtado administered Dulag until 1609, was selected procurator for
Spain, and returned to the Islands in 1615 to become the third Jesuit
Provincial. He died while in Loboc, then the capital of Bohol, on
August 26, 1655. He was already 70 years old. [Redondo y Sendino,
Felipe, Breve resena de los que fue y de la que es la Diocesis de Cebu
en las Islas Filipinas. Manila: Establecimiento Tipografico del Colegio
de Sto. Tomas., p. 36]
104 Op cit, Blair and Robertson, Volume XII, p. 165. Also see de la Costa,
p. 296.
105 Fr. Pascual de Acuña came to the islands in 1605, went with an armada
to Mindanao in 1607 as chaplain, and on the hill of Dalacalag, on the
coast of Dapitan, he baptized many. In 1615, he became rector of
residence of Dagami, and while he was in the town of Palo, he was
captured by the Mindanaos for a year and a half. He was released
by a moro leader, who was a friend of Alonso de Pedraza, mayor
of Cebu, and sent as a gift to his people to Cebu where the bishop
ordered him to proceed to Manila to represent the damages suffered
by the Visayas islands. He died on May 3, 1645 after ministering in
Cavite. [Op cit, Redondo, p. 36]
106 Op cit, Artigas y Cuerva
107 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 323
108 Ibid, de la Costa, p. 324
109 Op cit, Redondo, pp. 38-39
110 Fr. Juan del Carpio, of the province of Avilla, came to the islands with
Fr. Alonso Humanes in 1615. He was 51 years old and labored in the
Visayas for 18 years. [Redondo, p. 39]
111 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXV, p. 153 - 154, still on the raid of
Ormoc, Related by Casimiro Diaz, OSA
112 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXIX, pp 95-96, raid of Cabalian, 1634
113 Op cit, Redondo, p. 40
114 Also in September, 1665, in Sogod, Fr. Juan Bautista Larrauri and
two of his companions managed to escape from the moros who were
pursuing him in 24 caracoas, but they captured Fr. Buenaventura
Barcena. Another companions crossed the mountains to Cabalian.
On the 20th of the same month, three vessels of the moros (called
‘loangas’) from Lake Malanao reached Cabalian and captured
Larrauri, and then killed him near the island of Panaon. Barcena died
in his captivity in Tawi-tawi that same year. [Redondo, p. 39]

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115 “Moro Pirates, 1691-1700,” Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XLI, p. 313
116 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XLVIII, p. 47, author said to be a Jesuit
priest, Hilongos raid of Moros, Feb 1754. In a rare pamphlet published
at Manila in 1755, apparently written by one of the Jesuit missionaries
in Leyte
117 The details can be read here: Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XLVIII, pp.
37-49. This relation was evidently written by some one of the Jesuit
missionaries in Leyte, and perhaps even an eyewitness to the events
related. The villages mentioned in the pamphlet that was circulated
in Manila seemed to have been those in charge of the Jesuits.
118 Bancao must have been then at least 75 years old at the time of this
revolt. Fr. Casiniro Diaz OSA said that Bancao was ‘very old and
decrepit.’ He also said Bancao was desirous of becoming king of the
island of Leyte. [Murillo Velarde’s Historia de Philipinas, Emma
Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands,
1493 – 1803, Volume XXXVIII, pp. 92-93 ]
119 ‘For with the enemy came many women clad in white, and many
children, in order to pick up bits of earth and scatter them on the
wind as the demon had told them – believing that if they did so the
Spaniards would fall dead.; but the terst of this proved proved very
costly to them. The demon had also promised them that he would
resuscitate those slain in battle; but when they carried some of the
dead to his temple for him to do this, he replied with ridiculous
excuses that he could not do it.- Casimiro Diaz OSA,
120 The account is from Murillo Velarde’s Historia de Philipinas, fol. 17,
18; Diaz adds some additional notes. [Op cit, Velarde, pp. 91-94]
121 “Religious Estate 1637 – 1638,” Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXVIII, p. 151
122 “Jesuit Missions in 1655,” Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXXVI, p. 55
123 Ibid
124 “Jesuit Missions in 1656,” Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXVIII, pp.
90-91
125 Ibid
126 Ballesteros was a native of Badajoz and came to these islands as in
1605. He was assigned to Ternate, then Cebu, stopped by Carigara and
then went with a small armed force to Mindanao. He was appointed
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a coadjutor brother by the Jesuits in 1620 at 45 years of age, assigned
to Looc, the capital of Bohol then, and in 1657 to Manila, and then
returned to Carigara. There he died on August 16, 1646.[Redondo, p.
40]
127 Op cit, de la Costa, pp. 316-317
128 Ibid
129 Melchor de Vera was born in Madrid in 1585, and after being received
into the Society in 1604, went to the Philippines in 1606, where he
labored in the missions of the Visayas and in Mindanao. He was a good
civil and military architect, master of arts in Canons, minister of the
College of Manila, Rector of Carigara, Dapitan and Zamboanga . He
planned and directed the building of the fortifications at Zamboanga
in 1635, and constructed the church of the Jesuit residence in Cebu
where he died on April 13, 1646 at 61 years old. [Redondo, p. 40]
130 Op cit, Artigas y Cuerva, p. 244
131 Ibid
132 Ibid, p. 265
133 Ibid, pp. 362-364
134 Javellana, Rene, S.J. “The Jesuits and the Indigenous Peoples of the
Philippines,” The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773,
Vol. 1, pp. 418
135 The date ascribed to the Church of Tanauan differs from that of the
church inscription. The latter is most likely the correct date.
136 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 517
137 See the full account of the moro raid of Palompon here: Emma Helen
Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 –
1803, Volume XXVIII, pp. 37 - 49
138 The systematic destruction of the Jesuit order by the Bourbon kings
and their European allies took place between 1759 and 1773. The
Jesuits were expelled first from Portugal (1759), then from France
(1764) and finally from Spain, Naples, Parma and Malta (1767 – 1768),
all these amidst unproven accusations that the Order was putting
together a formidable army in their Latin American territories which
was already 60,000 strong and which could certainly be used to
enable ‘those nasty Italian monks’ to realize their old dreams of world
domination. Despite the efforts of Pope Clement XIII Rezzonico (1758-
1769) to resist such negative perceptions, his sudden death under
mysterious circumstances on 2 February 1769 and the subsequent
election on 19 May 1769 of the new Pope Clement XIV Gangarelli
(1769-1774) seems to have brought matters to a head. (De Lucca,

119
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Denis, The Contribution of the Jesuits to Military Architecture in the
Baroque Age, Brill, 2012, p. 315)
139 Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume L, p. 269 – 274
140 Ibid
141 Ibid
142 “1764-1800 Expulsion of the Jesuits,” Emma Helen Blair and James
Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume
L, p. 287. It is known that the Society of Jesus was more than a
religious association, in reality a great mercantile company, from the
very short time after its institution until its extinction by Clement
XIV. Its vast commercial transactions in Europe, American and the
Oceania furnished to it immense wealth; and infatuated with their
power and dominion which they exercised over the minds of their
ardent followers; having gained possession as they had done of the
confessional and directing the consciences of kings and magnates; and
strengthened by the affection (which they exploited with great ability)
of women – upon whom they always have exercised, as they still do,
a magnetic influence – the Jesuits considered themselves absolute
masters of the world; and they devoted themselves to intervention in
political affairs, managing with cautious political dealings in almost
all countries, according to the degree in which these concerned their
particular purposes. Their insolent and illegal acts, this despotism,
their ambition, the iron yoke with which they oppressed both kings
and peoples; their disputes with other religious associations, who
could not look with pleasure of the predominance and wealth of
the new society which so audaciously gathered in the harvest from
the fertile vineyard of the Lord; their dangerous maxims in regard
to regicide, their demoralizing system of doctrine, their satanic pride
and insatiable greed, their hypocrisy and corruption: all these raised
against them a unanimous protest. Mistrust of them awoke in kings
and peoples; men of sincere purpose and true Christian morals
were alarmed; and on every side arose enemies of their order, and
irrefutable proofs of their abominable aberrations were brought
forward,”[Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, ii, pp. 142-146; Emma
Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands,
1493 – 1803, Volume L, p. 275]
143 Op cit, de la Costa, p. 592
144 Ibid, p. 592
145 “Members of the Province, 1768”de la Costa, Fr. Horacio, The Jesuits
in the Philippines, pp. 606-607
146 Chirino, Pedro, SJ., “1601-1604, Chirino’s Relation, “ Emma Helen
120
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Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 –
1803, Volume XII, p. 257,
147 Javellana, Rene, S.J. “The Jesuits and the Indigenous Peoples of the
Philippines”, The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773,
Vol. 1, pp. 418
148 Ibid
149 Newspaper or its equivalent
150 de Castro, Fr. Agustin Maria, OSA, Relacion sucinta, clara y veridical
de la Toma de Manila por la Escuadra Iglesia, as cited by Manuel
Artigas y Cuerva
151 Ibid
152 Carta de Obispo de S. M. Informando lo que se le ofrece las hostilidades
y grandes daños que causan los Moros Tirones y Camucones en las
provincias Visayas, Archivo General de Indios, Sevilla Audiencia
de Filipinas – Duplicadoos de el Presidente y Oidores – Años 1745 –
Estante 197 – Cajon 4 – Legajo 2. As cited by Artigas y Cuerva
153 Op cit, de Castro
154 Op. cit, “Relacion…”
155 The  babaylan  in Filipino  indigenous  tradition is a person who
is gifted to heal the spirit and the body; a woman who serves the
community through her role as a folk therapist, wisdom-keeper and
philosopher; a woman who provides stability to the community’s
social structure; a woman who can access the spirit realm and other
states of consciousness and traffic easily in and out of these worlds; a
woman who has vast knowledge of healing therapies”. Leny Strobel
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babaylan)
156 Op cit, de Castro
157 Op cit, “Carta…”
158 Op. cit., “Relacion…”
159 “1728-1759 Survey of Filipinas,” Emma Helen Blair and James
Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume
XLIV, p. 145
160 Op. cit., “Carta…”
161 Op cit, Artigas, p. 275-276
162 Ibid
163 Ibid, p. 340
164 Ibid, p. 266
165 Ibid, p. 259
121
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
166 Ibid, p. 237
167 Ibid, p 356
168 Op cit, De Castro
169 Op cit, Artigas, p. 244
170 Ibid, pp. 368-369
171 Braganza, Fr. Vicente, in an unpublished typrewritten document
172 Op. cit., “Carta…”
173 Ibid. There was an old law issued by Felipe IV at Madrid, on March
2, 1634, and again, Nov 4, 1636, where he told the church hierarchy
‘to take measures and give orders in their diocese for the curas and
missionaries of the Indians by the use of the noblest means, to order
and direct all the Indians to be taught the Spanish language, and
to learn in it the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more
capable of the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith, may profit for their
salvation, and obtain other advantages in their government and mode
of living.’ As with many royal decrees, this was not strictly followed.
[Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine
Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XLV, p. 184]

On May 10, 1770, Nov 28, 1772 and Nov 24, 1774, the king again issued
decrees for the establishment of schools for the Castilian language
in all the Indian villages, so that they may learn to read, write and
speak Castilian, prohibiting them from using their native language,
and appointing for it teachers in whom are found the qualifications of
Christianity, sufficiency, and good deportment that are required for
so useful and delicate an employment. [Ibid, p. 221-222]

Finally in, 1839, the king issued another decree requiring that primary
instruction be obligatory for all the natives. The parents, guardians,
or agents of the children were to send them to the public schools from
the age of seven to the age of 12, unless they proved that they were
giving them sufficient instruction at home or in a private school. Those
who did not observe this duty, if there was a school in the village at
such a distance that the children could attend it comfortably, would
be warned and compelled to do so by the authority with a fine of
from one-half to two reals.[“Royal Decree of 1839,” Emma Helen Blair
and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume XLVI, p. 97]
174 Artigas y Cuerva. Data taken from the unpublished manuscript titled
“Los Agustinos y el progreso material de Filipinas” (The Augustinians

122
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
and the Material Progress of the Philippines), by Father Mariano Ysar
Recio
175 David Prescott Barrows was born in Chicago, June 27, 1873. Though
of New England ancestry, he was born in Chicago, and grew up on a
ranch in California in an era. After graduation from Pomona College
in 1894, he continued his studies in the fields of anthropology and
political science at the University of California, at Columbia, and at
the University of Chicago, where in 1897 he was awarded the Ph.D.
degree in anthropology at the age of twenty-four. William Howard
Taft, President of the Philippine Commission, appointed the youthful
Barrows Superintendent of Schools in Manila. During the following
nine years he made noteworthy contributions to the improvement
and extension of education in the Archipelago, to an understanding
of the special difficulties presented by the diverse ethnic elements,
and finally to the stabilization of relations with the various primitive
tribes. In 1903 he was appointed General Superintendent of Education
for the Islands, and instituted much-needed reforms before his
resignation in 1909. During this period, he traveled throughout the
Archipelago, and became closely acquainted with the pagan and
Mohammedan as well as the Christian elements of the population.
Important by-products of these nine years of intimate experience
and diligent study were a number of articles containing valuable
anthropological data, and an authoritative volume, A History of the
Philippines.
176 Barrows, David Prescott , “Progress and Revolution. 1837-1897,”
Progress during the Last Half-Century of Spanish Rule, p. 259
177 Ibid, pp.259-260
178 Ibid, p. 260
179 Leroy, James A., Some Comments and Bibliographical Notes, The
Philippines, 1860-1898, in Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume LII, p. 112
180 Ibid, Leroy, p. 113. Spanish traders being too, few, and utterly
untrained in the ways of competition, and Spanish ships being scarce
in the Orient, foreign traders and foreign ships gathered the bulk of
the business even in the face of useless and annoying restrictions, until
finally these foreigners had broken down the barriers sufficiently to
enter and take a hand in actively fostering agricultural development
in the Philippines. Hence, the opening of the Suez Canal only gave
a new turn and a great acceleration to a movement that, as regards
Philippine internal development, may more logically be dated from
I815, the year of the last voyage of the galleon. In one sense, indeed, the
opening of the Suez Canal tended to lessen, relatively, the influence
of foreign business and banking houses in the development of the
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 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
Philippines, in that it led to direct steamship connection with Spain,
awakening interest at home in this hitherto neglected colony and
bringing to the Philippines for the first time in three hundred years
more than a mere handful of Spaniards. After the early adventurers
and encomenderos had disappeared, the number of Spanish civilians
in private life was few indeed, numbering the favored merchants
who had shares in the galleon trade-monopoly, and an occasional
planter, descended perhaps from a family of encomenderos rooted
in the Philippines.
181 Mojares, Resil, Aboitiz Family and Firm in the Philippines, Cebu City,
1998, p.
182 De Huerta could not write about the towns in the western coast
of Leyte since it was the secular clergy which took over from the
Augustinians.
183 De Huerta, Felix, Estado Geografico, Topografico, Estadistico,
Historico-Religioso De La Santa Y Apostolica Provincia De S. Gregorio
Magno (1855), Binondo: Imprenta de M. Sanchez y C. 1865
184 Op cit, Barrows, p, 261
185 Artigas y Curva as cited in ‘Odyssey…’, an English translation of
Artigas ‘Reseña…’
186 Op cit, Barrows, pp. 262-263
187 Ibid
188 Eleccion de Gobernadorcillos – Leyte, B# 118 – SDS 14589, Bundled
Documents, National Archives, Manila
189 Op cit, Leroy, p. 115
190 Huerta, Felix de: ‘Los habitantes de esta isla fueron convertidos a
nuestra Santa Fe por los PP de la Sagrada Compañia de Jesus quienes
la administraron hasta el año de 1768, en cuya epoca paso a cargo de
los RR. Agustinos, y estos cedieron su adminstracion a esta apostolica
provincia de S. GREGORIO el año de 1843. Confirmado por Real
cedula de 29 de Octubre de 1837, siendo los pueblos administrados
por los religiosos Franciscanos, los siguientes.’
191 The parishes in the eastern part of Leyte turned over to the Franciscans
with their respective tribute-givers (tributos) and population (almas)
in 1843. Op cit, Huerta, p. 362
192 Compiled from Artigas’ “Reseña…”
193 Compiled from Huerta’s article
194 Op cit, Huerta, p. 358
195 Ibid, p. 363

124
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
196 Ibid, p.356
197 Sevilla, Andres, “The Cathedral of Palo,” A thesis presented to the
philosophy professor, College of Liberal Arts, Sacred Heart Seminary,
March 1956, pp. 12-13
198 “Carigara, In Hoc Signo Vinces,” 400 years of Evangelization, Souvenir
Program, 1995, Carigara, Leyte
199 Op cit, Blair and Robertson, Volume XLVI, pp. 15-16
200 Alangalang Historical Data Papers, compiled by public school teachers
in 1952, in microfilm at the National Library, Manila. In Dagami, a
senior citizen Visitacion Dico recalls that her father, Leopoldo Dazo
Dico (1886–1972) was a product of the cartilla system during the
Franciscan days. According to Dico, those living in the barrios had
to walk to the town to go to school. The priest was so strict that the
students were made to lie with their faces down on the bench, and
they were given lashes when they could not memorize their prayers.
Leopoldo, who was only 8 to 10 years old then, had to wear three to
four layers of pants to avoid the pain. In his old age, he could still recite
prayers in Spanish, write his name and read sentences in Spanish, but
Visitacion says that reading comprehension was not taught. [From
the coffeetable book “Dagami, 400 Years of Faith,” published by the
Dagami Heritage Society, 2011]
201 LeRoy, James A. “The Friars in the Philippines,” Political Science
Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Dec., 1903), pp. 671- 672
202 Schumacher, Fr. John, S.J., “Syncretism in Philippine Catholicism Its
Historical Causes,” Philippine Studies Vol. 32, No. 3 (1984), p. 257
203 Ibid
204 Ibid, p. 259
205 Ibid
206 Cullum, Leo A. S.J., “Diocesan Seminaries in the Philippines,”
Philippine Studies Vol. 20, No. 1 (1972): pp. 65-66
207 Archival documents source: Erecciones de los Pueblos, 2-2-B/0119 –
Leyte, 1823-1896
208 Seminario de San Carlos Yearbook, undated; from the collection of the
late Asisclo Fiel
209 Estado General de la Diocesis de Calbayog, TIP de Colegio de Sto.
Tomas, 1919
210 De los Pueblos del Arzobispado de Manila y de los Obispados
Sufraganeos de Nueva Caceres, Nueva Segovia, Cebu y Jaro, Con
Expression de los Nombres de Sus Curas Parrocos, en el año 1885

125
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
211 Historical Data Papers of Baybay and Villaba, compiled and written
by public school teachers in 1952
212 Written in a stone marker outside the church of Matalom.
213 Op cit, Redondo, pp. 203 - 211
214 Cabalian Historical Data Papers, compiled by the public school
teachers of Cabalian, Leyte in 1952, in microfilm at the National
Library, Manila
215 Op. cit., Redondo
216 Baybay Historical Data Papers, compiled by the public school teachers
of Baybay, Leyte in 1952, in microfilm at the National Library, Manila
217 Op cit, “Cabalian…”
218 Marco, Sophia, “Dios-Dios in the Visayas,” Philippine Studies,
Volume 49, First Quarter 2001, p. 42
219 Op cit, Artigas, p. 372
220 Ibid, p. 357
221 Op cit, Marco, p. 58
222 Ibid, p. 55
223 Ibid. pp. 56-67
224 Ibid, 57
225 “Sedicciones y Rebellones”, Bundled Documents, #10564, 1-17-
A/0018, Leyte, National Archives, Manila
226 Ibid, “Sedicciones…”
227 Ibid, “Sedicciones…”
228 Op cit, Marco, p. 57
229 Ibid
230 Ibid, p. 62
231 Alangalang Historical Data Papers, compiled and written by public
school teachers in 1952, in microfilm at the National Library, Manila
232 Dagami Historical Data Papers, compiled and written by public school
teachers in 1952, in microfilm at the National Library, Manila
233 Op cit, Artigas, pp. 265-269
234 Bayug is a hollow cylindrical shaft with an opening and hung with
another piece of wood to produce a loud sound.
235 Op cit, Artigas
236 ‘Han panahon ni Terran’ means ‘in the time of Terran.’

126
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
237 Palo Historical Data Papers, compiled and written by public school
teachers in 1952, in microfilm at the National Library, Manila
238 Op cit, Artigas, p. 380
239 Ibid
240 Taylor, John R. M., Philippine Insurgent Records, Exhibit 1367
241 Ambrosio Mojica, a native of barrio Buna, Indang, Cavite, was born
on May 3, 1853, to a middle class couple, Anselmo Mojica and Isidra
Rodrin. He was 43 years old when the Philippine Revolution broke
out, several years older than the majority of revolutionary generals
who were in their early or late twenties. Mojica commanded a large
group of volunteers and drove the Spaniards away from the town of
Alfonso, Cavite and from Balayan, Batangas. Having seized power
from the Spaniards in Indang, he was elected, by popular acclamation,
revolutionary capitan municipal and military commander of the
town. Like General Wenceslao Viniegra, military governor of
Zambales Province and later of Camarines, Mojica was given the
rank of brigadier-general upon his appointment as military governor
of Leyte. When peace was restored after the end of the Philippine-
American War, Mojica was appointed justice of the peace of Indang.
He died at the age of 55 in 1908.[Source: Benedicto Q. Mojica, vice
mayor of Indang, Cavite.]
242 Vicente Lukban was born in Labo, Camarines Norte on February
11, 1860 to Agustin Lukban and Andrea Rilles. After his elementary
education in his hometown, he proceeded to Manila and enrolled at the
Ateneo de Manila and later, at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. He
was employed as oficial criminalista in the Court of the First Instance
where he became acquainted with Marcelo H. del Pilar, Doroteo Jose
and other patriots. In 1894, he was inducted into the Masonic Lodge
adopting the name “Luz del Oriente” and cofounded Lodge Bicol in
Camarines with Juan Miguel. Arrested for his involvement with the
Katipunan, he was tortured and incarcerated in the Bilibid prison
and was only released on May 17, 1897 after the Governor-General
granted amnesty to political prisoners. Lukban joined the forces of
General Emilio Aguinaldo and became one of the close circles of
revolutionary leaders. He was one of the signers of the Pact of Biak
na Bato in December 1897 and was among the Filipino leaders who
went on exile to Hong Kong. On October 29, 1898, General Aguinaldo
appointed him Comandante Militar of the Bicol region through which
capacity he organized the local militia, settled political disputes and
collected war contributions for the revolutionary government. On
December 21 of the same year, he was promoted General of Samar
and Leyte. [Sources: Agoncillo, Teodoro A., History of the Filipino
People, R.P. Garcia, 1975; Quirino, Carlos., Who’s who in Philippine
127
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
History, Manila Tahanan Books, 1995; Zaide, Gregorio F., Great
Filipinos in History, Manila, Verde Book Store, 1970]
243 Imperial. Reynaldo H., Leyte, 1898-1902, The Philippine American
War, Office of Research and Coordination, University of the
Philippines, Diliman, QC, 1996, pp. 46-47
244 Op cit, Taylor
245 Op cit, Palo Historical Data Papers
246 Schumacher, John N. SJ, Revolutionary Clergy, Ateneo de Manila
Press, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Metro Manila, 1981, p. 141
247 Ibid
248 Smith, Gen. Jacob, “Circular, Headquarters Sixth Infantry Brigade, No.
6,” Tacloban, Leyte, P. I., December 4, 1901, Philippine Commission
Reports, 1902
249 From The official website of the Diocese of Calbayog. http://
dioceseofcalbayog.org/index.php?subj=2&page=1&articles=93
250 Ibid
251 Arens, Richard, SVD. “Early Pulahan Movement in Samar,” Readings
in Leyte Samar History, Divine Word University of Tacloban, 1970
252 J. H. Grant, Provincial Governor, Philippine commission Reports,
Tacloban, Jan. 15, 1903, pp 839-841
253 Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department Fourth Annual Report of
the Philippine Commission Part I, 1903, Washington: Government
Printing Office: 1904, p. 840
254 Ibid
255 Report of the Philippine Commission, 1911, Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1912
256 Barrows , David P. “A Decade of American Government in the
Philippines 1903-1913,” World Book Company Yonkers-on-Hudson,
New York, 1914, pp. 16-17
257 Ibid
258 Ibid
259 Ibid
260 Report of the Philippine Commission, 1908. Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1909, Pp. 275-276
261 Ibid
262 Ibid
263 Ibid
128
 ROOTS OF OUR FAITH
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1. “Account of the Encomiendas” (1591-1593), Emma Helen Blair and

James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Volume VIII
2. “Dagami, 400 Years of Faith,” published by the Dagami Heritage
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3. “Simancas – Eclesiastico; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes
del arzobispo de Manila, vistos en el Consejo; años de 1579 a 1599; est.
68, caj. I, leg. I.”
4. 1597-1599 Morga’s Report, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume X
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XXIII
6. 1764-1800 Expulsion of the Jesuits, Emma Helen Blair and James
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8. Agoncillo, Teodoro A., History of the Filipino People, R.P. Garcia, 1975
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19. Chirino, Fr. Pedro SJ, Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, Roma, printed by
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