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Region 8: Eastern Visayas ••• Leyte Hilongos Lore
has it that in the 12th century (1100s), Amahiwan, an Ilongo from
Iloilo, conquered neighboring barangays on Leyte’s western
shore and extended his territory to the present limits of Inopacan,
Hindang, Bato, and Matalom. He formed a settlement and named it
Hilongos, because its inhabitants were Ilongos. In
1710, the Jesuits created a residence there. In 1737, according to Redondo (1886, 207), Hilongos was already
a parish before this year. However, Braganza (table 5) claims that
Hilongos became a parish only in 1737. This date corresponded to
the establishment of the town (Tantuico, 41). 1754
was the date of the oldest parish books (deaths) as of 1884. In
1768, the Jesuits ceded Hilongos to the Augustinians. In 1774–79, the Augustinians established schools in Hilongos.
In 1784, Palompon, a Hilongos visita, became an independent
parish. In
1862, Manicar led a revolt at Barrio Sta. Margarita. In
1873, Leovio Magia led a revolt. Unlike the towns of eastern Leyte,
which were ceded to the Franciscans in 1843, the towns along Leyte’s
western coast fell one by one under the seculars. Heritage
sites: Church complex—The present church’s
bell tower is attributed by Redondo to a secular Don Leonardo Celis-Díaz,
a native of Cebu. The building of the church fabric itself is disputed.
Did Celis-Díaz build it or did he merely repair an older
structure left by the Jesuits? Oral lore claims that the church
and the ruined convento behind it are from the Jesuits; but Repetti
reports otherwise. Certainly, there must have been some permanent
structures when Hilongos became a residence. It
is quite clear that the church complex underwent major renovations
over the centuries. The
original church, now incorporated as a transept, was a single-nave
structure whose main door was also the gate to a bastioned fortification. Some bastions and walls of that fortification still remain. The main nave of the church is a modern
construction, and the bell tower build by Fr. Celis-Diaz is an independent
multi story structure, now plastered over with Portland cement. The
church interior is completely new in contrast to the convento which
may have been completed in the 19th century. The convento guards many of the church’s antiques including
silver vessels from the 18th century. |
