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This lovely and seemed to be helpless creature mostly found in Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines, can rest even in your palm!

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Philippine Tarsier can be found in Bohol, where the majestic Chocolate Hills are also found. Most of the locals even huge crowd of foreigners flank in the Island of Bohol just to witness this minute creature. However, this tiny-carved creature is already considered as an endangered species. 

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Philippine Tarsier is a member of the approximately 45 million year old family of Tarsiidae.

Like all y, the Philippine Tarsier’s eyes are fixed in its skull; they cannot turn in their sockets. Instead, a special adaptation in the neck allows its round head to be rotated 180 degrees. The eyes are disproportionately large, having the largest eye-to-body size ratio of all mammals. 

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I f you want to see this human-fist-sized animal, then, get yourself to the beautiful islands of the Philippines in Bohol in particular!

In the 1920s, Carl Guthe of the University of Michigan conducted an anthropological exploration  and recovery of artifacts particularly Asiatic tradeware ceramics in some of the islands in Visayas and in Mindanao (Guthe 1927, 1929; Evangelista 1969). Guthe reports of several types of burials associated with grave goods, usually pottery. He focused on the collection of Asian tradewares such as Chinese celadon and blue and white porcelain as well as other non-Chinese but evidently imported Asiatic ceramic wares. One of the islands visited and explored by Guthe was Bohol where several sites were found to have yielded the Asiatic ceramics which was of special interest to the expedition. The sites in Bohol were found in the following locations: Clarin-Inabanga area northwestern Bohol and along coastal areas in the south starting from the Tagbilaran – Dauis area to the Anda peninsula in the southwestern edge of the mainland (see Fig 1).

Figure 1: Map of Bohol showing multiple sites surveyed by Carl Guthe (based on University of Michigan Philippine Expedition Map, 1922-1925)

In the years following World War II, archaeological studies in the Philippines focused more on early Philippine societies and culture (Ronquillo 2001). Research on this topic was spearheaded by H. Otley Beyer right before and after the war when he carried out collecting activities from 1929 to 1941 and then salvage and rehabilitation work from 1945 on (Evangelista 1969). With the volume of eastern tradeware ceramics that Beyer observed in the course of his work, he coined the term “porcelain age” (Bayer 1947 in Hutterer 1973) to refer to that period of extensive trade and contact between the Philippines the east which Bayer recognized to have been from as early as the 9th century to as late as the 17th century AD. This period, also known as the age of trade and contact, has now been established to have started around the 10th century AD and increased in intensity sometime in the 15th century (Junker 1994; Bacus 2004).

In the 50s, explorations and archaeological excavations concerning prehistoric sites in the Philippines were actively undertaken with Wilhelm G. Solheim II and Robert B. Fox in the lead. The excavations at Calatagan in Batangas were a major archaeological project at the time (Fox 1959; Ronquillo 1983). The site yielded imported 14th to 16th century Chinese and Siamese ceramics which implies it has either directly or indirectly participated in trading with these states. In the ‘60s, another concentration of pre-colonial habitation and burial sites in Santa Ana Manila yielded artifacts which also included tradeware ceramics dating from the 11th to the 14th century AD (Locsin and Locsin 1967;Roquillo 1983).

It was in the 1970s that archaeological activities throughout the Philippines became even more intensified as Filipino archaeologists now started to get more actively involved and initiated archaeological explorations and excavations along with their foreign counterparts (Ronquillo 1985, 2001).  Unfortunately the boom in archaeological activities that yielded interesting artifacts which appealed to both archaeologists and antique collectors also boosted pot and treasure hunting activities. Along the Tagbilaran strait’s Dauis-Mansasa portion, pre-colonial burials rich with grave goods such as Asian tradeware ceramics, beads, and jewelry items were reportedly discovered and illegally excavated by pot and treasure hunters in the 1970’s (this information is based on personal interviews with Dauis locals particularly Ms. Regina Loquellano and Mr. Baltazar Fullido). Pot and treasure hunting had gone out of control at the time prompting locals who had not been involved in the diggings to request for the government to intervene. Eventually in 1974, five diggers were convicted for violating Republic Act No. 4846 (or the Cultural Properties Preservation and Protection Act) in Criminal Cases nos. 689 and 804  (Apalisok 1992: 60-67). But even as early as the Spanish period, Alcina (1668: 323 – 325) reports the looting of grave goods by Spaniards from burials discovered when laying the foundations of the Dauis church and convent. The volume and value of artifacts collected from the sites in Dauis and Mansasa as well as some ethnohistoric reference to a society existing in the area by early chroniclers (Lopez de Legazpi 1565; Loarca 1582; Combes 1667; Alcina 1668) may have fueled the creation of the myth or legend of the “Kingdom of Dapitan”.

Tirol (2009), a local historian based in Bohol, wrote an article regarding the Kingdom of Dapitan (which he also refers to as the Bo-ol Kingdom) and was published in a local newspaper. Here he cites Combes in Blair and Robertson and stated that the polity reached its peak in the 16th century under the joint rule of the brothers Dailisan and Pagbuaya (see also Apalisok 1992; Tirol 2003; Catubig 2003). He also points out that it was then the center of a thalassocratic trading network which involves control over several settlements in the nearby islands of Leyte and Negros and reaching as far as the “Butuan kingdom” and a settlement in Davao Oriental. Tirol, in the same article, utilized the ethnographic information from another group of Boholanos — the Eskaya — whose ancestors, they claim, arrived in Bohol sometime in the 7th century AD. It is further claimed by that same source that the inhabitants of the Mansasa-Dauis settlement arrived in Bohol in the 13th century AD with the new arrivals (the inhabitants of the “Dapitan Kingdom”) only able to make peace with the earlier ones (the Eskayas) about a century later. However, as with any story that comes down to us by word of mouth, some elements may have been deleted or added and a tale is created, one which naturally reflects the biases of its authors (Ben-Amos 1971; Bascom 1965; Oring 2008).

 Though this author respects the oral traditions of the Boholano Eskaya group, it will be safe to say that the account of the coming of the inhabitants of this “Dapitan Kingdom” (in Tirol 2009) may not be too accurate and will not suffice as source for actual proto-historical data. The narrative of the origins, development, and demise of the “Dapitan Kingdom” being of Lutao origin, reaching its peak in the 16th century, and being abandoned after a devastating attack staged by Ternate with the support of their Portuguese allies (Apalisok 1992; Hellingman 2002; Catubig 2003; Tirol 2003, 2009) – the story’s elements could safely fall under the category of legend. Legend, as defined by Bascom (1965), is a form of prose narrative folklore that is held as true by its narrator and his audience, is set in the recent past, can be both secular or sacred but less of the latter, with the principal characters being human and appear to be non-fictional or historical (see also Oring 2008).

So far, it is only the raid by Ternate that has clear ethnohistoric back up from an account by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi which includes reference to a date that narrows down the time of the raids to have happened sometime around 1563. In his Relation of the Voyage to the Philippine Islands, written in 1565 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi wrote about what one Bornean pilot related to him and his experiences in the islands he had visited:

This latter was a man of experience, and versed in different dialects; and he informed me of much regarding this region that I wished to know. Among other things he told me that, if the Indians of this land avoided this fleet so much, I should not be surprised, because they had great fear of the name of Castilla. He said that while we were among these islands no Indian would speak to us; and that the cause for this was that about two years ago, somewhat more or less, some Portuguese from Maluco visited these islands with eight large _praus_ and many natives of Maluco. Wherever they went they asked for peace and friendship, saying that they were Castilians, and vassals of the king of Castilla; then when the natives felt quite secure in their friendship, they assaulted and robbed them, killing and capturing all that they could. For this reason the island of

Macagua was depopulated, and scarcely any inhabitants remained there. And in this island of Bohol, among the killed and captured were more than a thousand persons. Therefore the natives refused to see us and hid themselves--as in fact was the case. (Lopez de Legazpi 1565; see also Scott 1994: 165)

Loarca has also referred to these raids when he wrote about a contagious disease experienced by the inhabitants in Panay:

In this island of Panay, the natives say that none of them ever had bubas until the Boholanos (who, as was said above, abandoned Bohol because of the Moluccans) came to settle here, since then some natives have caught it (Loarca 1582: 66 cited in Scott 1994: 117).

            It could be inferred from Loarca’s passage that some of the displaced Boholanos had also settled in Panay and probably in other nearby islands, and still others might have remained and settled elsewhere in Bohol.

On the name Dapitan and the term Kingdom

            Local historians in Bohol commonly use the term Dapitan Kingdom to refer to the pre-colonial polity in the Dauis-Mansasa area and which Tirol (2003, 2009) also refers to as the Bo-ol Kingdom. In the ethno-historic record left by Combes (1667) however, he states that 

The Dapitans were a people who inhabited a closely hemmed-in strait between the island of Bohòl and that of Pànglao, and possessed the two shores of that strait. They conquered the Boholàns in a war, and assumed their name and territory.

            Combes further states that these people only adopted the name Dapitan after they had settled in the place that still carries the name to this day. It must be noted that in the earlier accounts of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1565) and Loarca (1582), both of which are quoted above, the people from the island of Bohol held to be victims of the 1563 raids are referred to as Boholanos rather than Dapitans or Dapitanons.

It would also be interesting to explore the meaning of the word “Dapitan”. In the Cebuano dialect, the term has its root in the word “dapit”. Depending on how it is pronounced, the word has definitions that are quite related. When pronounced as da’pit (daPiht), it takes on the form of a noun which means “a certain place” or a preposition which implies “proximity to a certain location”. When pronounced as ‘dapit (Dah.pit) it takes on the form of a verb and means “to invite”. The morpheme “an”, when suffixed to roots in Cebuano words transforms the root words into a venue where a certain action takes place with that same action likely to take place again in the future. Thus analyzing the term Dapitan, this author concludes that Dapitan somehow points to a certain location and it is most likely the location where this group of people had moved into and not the place where they had come from. Thus it can be suggested that Dauis-Mansasa polity or settlement be the terms used to refer to that pre-colonial community in the same Dauis-Mansasa area.

Moving on to the issue on the usage of the term kingdom in reference to the Dauis-Mansasa settlement; in the archaeological discourse, the term can be inappropriate in that the settlement, with what little knowledge has come down to us of its existence from ethnohistoric accounts and those artifacts recovered from the area, lacks the qualifications that passes the polity as a kingdom. What then qualifies a society as a kingdom? By definition, a kingdom is a form of government that is headed by a sovereign ruler or monarch (a king or a queen) whose role as head of state sets him or her apart from other members of the society (www.oxforddictionaries.com; Bouvier and Rawle 1914). In archaeology, a kingdom is a type of state which is an advanced, systematized, and centralized society with a ruler and his elites (or nobility) and with subjects numbering to several thousands (Renfrew and Bahn 2008). Another important factor that qualifies such state as kingdom in Archaeology is that this society must have had permanent structures, buildings, and monuments. Examples of such states that existed in Island Southeast Asia prior to western colonization in the 16th century were the Indianized and Buddhist Kingdoms of Srivijaya and Champa (Munoz 2006).

In establishing that contrary to the belief that a kingdom had existed in the Dauis-Mansasa area and instead, a different type of society had existed in the area; it would lead us then to speculate what type of society it was.

In his book, Scott (1994:165) mentions that the surviving chief Pagbuaya led the crossing over to Dapitan of five hundred slaves, taking into account of course the possibility of exaggeration in numbers as Scott also cautions. But what catches our interest here is Pagbuaya’s relationship to the people who had migrated with him to present-day Dapitan. Of their status as slaves, this reminds us of the common social structure in protohistoric Philippines (Scott 1994: 127-137; Jocano 1998:153-186). The description of the Dauis-Mansasa settlement in terms of its political situation seems to point to the society as being a chiefdom – a complex coastal society engaged in international and inter-island maritime trade which was common in the Philippines by around 15th century. Many such communities had been studied intensively and extensively which makes it possible to picture out what these societies were like – how its inhabitants had lived, worked, and died or at least how they were buried which often tells us a great deal about the social structure that existed at the time (see Fox 1959; Locsin and Locsin 1967; Junker 1993, 1994, 1999; Bacus 2000).

The Artifacts: What were Collected?

            As already mentioned above, the site of this Dauis-Mansasa polity was illegally excavated in the 1970s. In connection to this, some locals from Dauis and an antique collector were interviewed to obtain accounts of what had been discovered as well as gain the people’s perception of the site. How had the locals interpreted the finds? Given the absence of trained professionals or archaeologists at the time to explain to them what the artifacts could mean and the disorganized nature of the diggings, with diggers interested only in graves which yielded porcelain and other goods that are valued by collectors, this may have impacted on what the people think about this prehispanic settlement in terms of its wealth and the nature of its inhabitants.

According to locals who were interviewed, some of the diggings were financed by wealthy individuals from Tagbilaran and Cebu. In an area along the coast at the Tagbilaran (Mansasa) side of the strait, an excavation was carried out by a prominent family. It was said that it is from this excavation that a golden “necklace” was found with the burials. However, this is not a first-hand account and aside from that golden necklace, no information about other grave goods was known by those interviewed. Witnesses Regina Loquellano, 77 years old, and Baltazar Fullido, 66, related that there were two locations at Dauis where diggings were concentrated. One was at an area around Circulado Street (south of the church complex) and the other was located at Napo Beach (west of the church complex).

Figure 2: Sketch (unscaled) of Poblacion Dauis showing the reported locations of ancient burials.

Ms Loquellano lives along Circulado Street while Mr Fullido lives nearby. The area around Circulado had once been a coconut grove. According to them, the burials were extended burials and the bones were interred directly to the ground, there were no coffins. Mr. Fullido however, mentioned he remembers a jar burial but the size of the vessel was small and he concluded that the remains must have belonged to an infant or a small child. Potteries were associated with the burials with some pieces covering the face; others were placed at the middle part (what used to be the abdomen) and some on the lower extremities (the legs) of the skeleton. Other pottery items were placed beneath the bones. The items that were sought after by the pot hunters were the porcelain wares. Common finds included celadon, blue and white porcelain as well as stoneware vessels with some reported to contain bones (see pictures below). According to Ms. Loquellano, she recalls a neighbor who had dug up a collection of elephant figurines (one adult and several calves), green in color, probably celadon; also, a set of plates in various sizes with a uniform blue and white design. She also recalls small covered boxes or jars possibly porcelain trinket boxes. She also remembers jars or vessels with dragons designed on the covers. Other items which the interviewees described were vessels with spouts. They also related that in the Napo area, large deep plates were recovered. These may be what Ms Loquellano’s sister, Flora, 64 years old, recalls as referred to by the locals as “luwa-anan sa hari” or a vessel “where the king spits”. When asked if they can recall local earthenware pieces with the grave goods, they said there were graves with only this type of ceramics. It was never mixed with the porcelains. Such graves which yielded only earthenware were referred to as the poor man’s grave. When asked if they had noticed a certain arrangement in the graves in terms of those which yielded such prestige goods as imported porcelains and those which only contain local pottery or earthenware, they could not recall as the diggings were haphazard and people only paid attention to graves which yielded those high-priced porcelain.

Mr Fullido, who had participated in some of the diggings, also mentioned that they had recovered gold “links” which they discovered in the Napo beach area, these finds however were rare. Some of the jewelry, he said, was found to be not of pure gold. Mr Fullido also shared that similar tradeware ceramics as those found in Dauis were discovered in Talibon by farmers as they plowed their field. Like Dauis, Talibon is a coastal town. It is located in the northwestern part of mainland Bohol.

Another interviewee is an antique collector – Mr. Hermogenes Ungab – who, during his interview, showed their collection of artifacts from the Dauis area. These included several saucers with cracks, probably damaged during digging; stoneware vessels one of which, he claimed, was a burial jar; and a blue and white porcelain plate (see below). There were also two shell jewelry item which could have been either a child’s bracelets or a pair of earrings. Mr. Ungab also related that he used to have beads but these were no longer available. According to him, the beads were green, red, and black in color; some were circular, but he remembers the green ones as elongated.

Figure 3:  Underglaze porcelain deep plate with faded fish design in the middle, probably Sukhothai ware (15th century), property of Mr. Fullido

Figure 4:  Late Yuan or Ming Dynasty plate (14th to 15th century), Ungab collection

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Figures 5: Two shell jewelry items, possibly a child’s bracelet or a pair of earrings, Ungab collection

Figure 6: Wide-lipped, brownish black stoneware allegedly dug-up with bones inside, Ungab collection

There are also several artifacts from Dauis and Mansasa which are currently at the National Museum – Bohol Branch. These include two ceramic ear discs with perforations from Bingag, Dauis and a gold filigreed bead (possibly part of a necklace or chain). There are also features transported from Guiwanon, Baclayon (located less that 2 kilometers or 1.76 km from Mansasa). These features were the submerged parts of two posts, however these are yet to be dated and yet to be studied further. Several ecofacts are also in the care of the museum. These include the complete skeleton of a female, excavated from Mansasa and a left human mandible associated with the perforated ceramic eardiscs (below) from Bingag Dauis.

Figures 7: Ceramic ear discs with perforations found at Bingag Dauis (National Museum – Bohol)

Figures 8: Base of two wooden posts from Guiwanon, Baclayon (National Museum Bohol).

An artifact, allegedly a remnant from the ancient settlement, was also donated to the museum by a local from Dauis who claimed to have recovered it along the beach in Dauis, buried in the sand. This is a wooden slab with relief carving. It appears to be from a later period however, but as with the posts mentioned above, this has not been thoroughly studied and analyzed yet.

Figure 9: Undated wooden relief carving discovered in a beach in Dauis (Bohol Museum – Bohol).

Figure 10: Detail of anthropomorphic figure in the carving

Interpretations and Conclusions

            An interpretation of what the Dauis-Mansasa polity would have been like could not possibly be done based on ethnographic or ethnohistorical accounts alone as five centuries had passed since this polity ceased to exist. Ethnohistoric records referring to the polity meanwhile are not firsthand accounts or descriptions of the settlement. These were written after the settlement was abandoned. Legazpi’s account, for example, only centered on the raids because these had direct effect on his diplomatic mission; Combes’ and Loarca’s on the other hand only relates second hand accounts while Alcina’s only reports the discovery of burials with rich grave goods (and this report was also a second hand account). The information from these accounts are however helpful but it will not suffice to give us an accurate picture of the nature of this Dauis-Mansasa polity.

What would fill the gap is an archaeological investigation of the sites (if still possible) and an analysis of the artifacts as well as the ecofacts that are still currently available for study. Unfortunately, most of the sites had been disturbed and many finds can no longer be traced. However, a few artifacts can still be found and studied (for example, those shown above). From these few samples of what had been recovered and a description of what were lost, one could picture out one aspect of that society — trade. Apparently, Dauis-Mansasa polity had participated in the porcelain trade with China and most likely with Sukhothai (Thailand) and probably with Annam (Vietnam) as well.

Bohol also has local products to offer that may have been traded and even exported too. These could have included forest and agricultural products such as rice, coconuts, local wine (tuba) and possibly civet cat musk (see Scott 1994: 71-76); and more importantly, earthenware potteries and salt (Yankowski 2007, 2008). Yankowski (2008) provides us with data of petrographic comparison between archeological sherds from a metal age burial in Ubujan District, Tagbilaran and several samples from modern centers of pottery production in Bohol namely: Valencia, Calape, Talibon, and Alburquerque. In her study, it shows that neither of the local samples and the archaeological sherds matched. This hints pottery trading possibly with nearby islands such as Negros which are known producers of earthenware pots. However, the burial was from a much earlier date during the metal age (Yankowski 2005) and the local ceramic industry might have already developed by the time the Dauis-Mansasa polity was engaged either directly or indirectly in the international porcelain trade around the 14th century AD (or possibly earlier in the 13th century) up until the 15th century when it fell victim to the raids perpetrated by Ternate, probably for the purpose of obtaining slaves. 

Dauis also had two industries that may have developed during this time of international maritime trading. These two industries are weaving and jewelry making (specifically gold working). Of the two local industries in Dauis, the weaving industry is already non-existent. Local weavers are said to have eventually ceased their operations when cheaper, imported cloth was introduced in the 1970s (Luspo 2011). The locally produced cloth was called hinabol or habol and it was weaved from a cotton plant which grows locally in Dauis. On the other hand, goldworking is no longer a widely practiced profession today. As Bohol has no local source of gold, some goldsmiths from Dauis have migrated to areas in Mindanao where gold can be found and continued their trade there (from a personal interview with Jesus Penales Jr, a goldsmith’s son). If goldworking was already developed in the Dauis-Mansasa polity, given the reports that gold jewelries were found with some of the burials, it might also suggest inter-island trade contacts with those areas which have local sources of gold such as Butuan but this is yet to be confirmed with more evidences.

The location of the settlement along the Tagbilaran Strait is also strategic. As a port town, it could have played host to merchant ships especially during stormy seasons. In this way the chiefs may have imposed fees on those who wished to anchor at their harbor. It is also just about three to four kilometers away from the mouth of the Loay-Loboc river meaning, the Dauis-Mansasa settlers could have also traded with the foreign merchants and it would have been easy for them to then trade the imports with upriver communities particularly Loboc or that Dauis-Mansasa could also have been the place where local and foreign merchants meet, it could have been what locals refer to as tabo-an. In other words the the Dauis-Mansasa polity was most likely an entrepot of foreign goods such as porcelain and its inhabitants could have acted as middlemen for these visiting merchants. Thus we see here a picture of the classic coastal trading community common in protohistoric Philippines (Hutterer 1973; Junker 1993; Scott 1994).

Also, what were reportedly discovered in the Dauis-Mansasa area were burials and burials often prove to be good sources of information about a society’s culture and its structure. In the Santa Ana site, for example, the imbalanced distribution of luxury grave goods implies the existence of elite or of different statuses among members of that society (Miksic 2006). Grave goods are good determiners of wealth and status. Though cultural meanings of such goods can be hard to interpret, other factors such as its source (or its rarity) and the complexity of its manufacture and acquisition can be used to measure prestige or the value of these goods (Barretto-Tesoro 2003) and then use this to gain a general understanding of the structure of the society from which these burials belong. The arrangements of the burials can also reflect segregation of people from various classes within the society. For the reported sites at Dauis and Mansasa, most this information had already been lost. There were references to poor men’s graves or those graves which only contains possibly locally-produced earthenware potteries but these graves could also have belonged to an earlier period. If the latter is the case, the information from such graves could also have yielded vital information concerning the early development of the polity.

The Dauis-Mansasa polity is obviously not as urbanized as neighboring Cebu; though it may have been progressive, it may not have been too powerful otherwise it would not have fallen victim or at least suffered such great losses during the series of raids staged by Ternate and its Portuguese allies against coastal communities in various islands in the Visayas in the 1560s.  Still, it was part of the extensive international and inter-island maritime trading network that flourished in the coastal areas of the Philippines from around the 10th century AD until the 16th century. Also, the Dauis-Mansasa polity may not be the only lowland community in protohistoric Bohol to have welcomed foreign traders into its port. The reported discovery (by Mr Fullido) of a cache of porcelain at Talibon suggests that area could have been the site of a settlement not unlike that of Dauis-Mansasa. Just the same, the concentration of sites discovered by Guthe along the southwestern coast of mainland Bohol may also indicate that perhaps similar communities had existed in this part of the island but the one at the Dauis-Mansasa area may have been more urbanized, considering its strategic location between the two islands of mainland Bohol and Panglao.

With what information gathered from interviews and research in the course of writing this paper, it is apparent that conducting further studies on the subject on the Dauis-Mansasa settlement as well as the early polities of Bohol is much needed.  On the Dauis-Mansasa polity,also referred to  as the “Dapitan Kingdom”, much had been said and written about it but these often need more intensive and extensive research to back up claims. Many local heritage advocates are enthusiastic in learning more about this society that flourished before the coming of our western colonizers and this should be encouraged. It would help if experts from the National Museum, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), University of the Philippines (Archaeological Studies Program) can work hand-in-hand with the Local Government Units involved, Boholano heritage advocates and historians, and the locals of Dauis and Tagbilaran (particularly Mansasa) in understanding and promoting this cultural heritage. 

Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the help extended by the following persons in the course of writing this term paper. Misses Flora, Regina, and Teresita Loquellano, Ms. Evangeline Bulawin, Mr. Baltazar Fullido, Mr. Hermogenes Ungab, Mr. Jermaine Basio, Mr. Troy Anthony Garcia, and Mr. Jesus Penales Jr. and also Mr. Charlemeine Tantingco of the National Museum – Bohol Branch; Mr. Marianito Luspo of the Office of the Cultural Affairs and Development (Holy Name University); Atty. Jaime Jimenez, Atty. Allan Coloma, and Ms. Belinda Bullecer of the Dauis Local Government Unit. Without their cooperation and support, this paper would not have been completed.

by:

Athena Garcia – Vitor

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Bohol is known to be an oval-shaped island where many ancient memorials can be found throughout the island from rock formations to mammal species aged 45 million years and the massive stone watchtowers were built by the Spaniards in the 18th century.

One of the most important events ever recorded in Philippine history was the famous Blood Compact between the two different races . During the 16th century, the brown and white races with different nationality, culture,, civilization and religion forged a “Treaty of Friendship” sealed by chieftain Datu Sikatuna of Bohol who swore by his ancestral Bathala and Anito and the Spanish Captain Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, representing the King of Spain who sought New World with the cross and sword. They performed the blood compact on March 16, 1565 aboard a Spanish vessel by collecting a few drops of blood from their own arms and mixed them with wine and drank as sign of their friendship. It is the first international treaty of friendship between Spaniards and Filipinos. The treaty of friendship is commonly known as “Sandugo” which means “one blood” . The blood compact was took place on a coast of Bohol, now a Tagbilaran district..

On April 15, 1565, the Spanish Captain Miguel Lopez de Legaspi took possession of the Bohol Island in the name of the King of Spain. Legaspi moved to Cebu to conquer and attack continuously with bombs to burn about a hundred natives’ houses and claimed Cebu as for Spain.

After the treaty, Spanish rule reigned for some 302 years and people have submitted to Spanish rule. It was a rule bathed with sweat and tears, as native sons worked hard labor in building grand regal churches. The native sons attempted to free the motherland from the chain of Spanish domination that resulted to a more blood shedding

Between the 8th century and the late 16th century, the Philippines were under the rule of Chinese merchants whom had introduced their primary religion of Buddhism.  However, when Ferdinand Magellan arrived in 1521, the Philippines has gone through drastic changes. The Buddhism religion immediately replaced by Roman Catholicism and also Chinese culture was replaced by European cultures during the Spanish rule.