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Region 8: Eastern Visayas ••• Northern Samar NORTHERN
SAMAR Northern Samar was well known in colonial times because it was the first landfall sighted by galleons returning to Manila from Acapulco after a long trip that lasted between four to six months on the average. The promontory named Capo Santo Espiritu was the first landmass sighted by homecoming ships. On this promontory was posted a lookout to await the return of the ship, the economic and fiscal lifeblood of the colony. As soon as the ship was sighted news of its return was quickly relayed until it reached Manila. The ship was vital to the life of the colony because it carried the situado, a silver subsidy that paid for the expenses of running the Philippines; it also carried goods from Spain and Mexico, like olives, wine, sherry, beans, books, as well as royal dispatches and legislation, letters patent, royal appointments, personal letters, money gained by merchants. And more importantly it carried passengers returning to Manila or settling for the first time or being assigned to the Philippine frontier of the Spanish empire.Sometimes, galleons would drop anchor at the safe harbor formed by the islands of Batag and Lauang at the Palapag River mouth, where a royal naval station was established. Galleons were repaired in a sheltered cove on Lauang, called Calomotan, or at times would lay over while waiting for a favorable wind. Civil and church dignitaries, who may have come with the trip, were feted in Palapag, a village upstream, by the hospitable people and their parish priests while they rested from the long ocean voyage and regained strength for the last leg of the trip to Cavite Puerto. Northern Samar was strategically located along the San Bernardino Strait, the shortest exit from the Philippines. The strait’s waters, however, was treacherous especially during seasons of the habagat so that sometimes galleon ended up in its watery embrace. Nonetheless, Samar was in the crossroads of international commerce for almost three centuries, a contrast to the image of the island’s present image as economic backwater. The island of Capul, northwest of Samar, was a way station for the galleons. Here they would refill the ships freshwater supply before sailing across the ocean. Early Jesuit Mission. The Jesuit mission in Samar began in 1595, when Frs. Francisco de Otazo, Bartolomé Martes, and Bro. Alonso founded the Tinagon mission. Chirino (1604a, 322–24) writes of this first mission: “They [the Jesuits] arrived at the western side of the island of Ybabao, which was eastward of the archipelago, at a village called Tinagon, and arrived there very opportunely for their purpose since at that time a plague prevailed in that part of the island, causing the death of many people.” (See Western Samar, Tinago for details). Today the journey to Palapag is by road
and pumpboat. From
Catarman, a well-paved highway leads to Rauis from whence one
hires a pumpboat for a short trip to the island of Lauang or
for a longer trip to Palapag, upstream.
It takes a good 45 minutes to reach Palapag and it advisable
to visit it during high tide to avoid having to walk through
mud as boats find it hard to dock beside the riverbank at low
tide.
In this inland town in northern Samar
coast was the second residence founded by the Jesuits. Residence or residentia (in Latin
and in Jesuit usage) referred to a central house where the religious
superior lived and where the members of a community returned
after visiting and ministering to different places.
The residential was also the place for the periodic meetings
and spiritual retreats of the priests. In 1597, When the Jesuits began evangelizing
the area, they encountered a bellicose people, not too ready
and open for conversion.
They were unlike the people of the western coast. In fact, these people who called their
land Ibabao, that is, the land above, looked down on the other
islanders as lacking in courage. A number of outstanding missionaries
worked and died in Palapag. On 1 Jan. 1617, Fr. Gabriel Sánchez
, co-founder of the Bohol mission with Juan de Torres died and
on 12 Dec. 1626 Fr. Manuel Martínez died. Before 1649, the Jesuits had built a
church complex consisting of church, residence and fortification.
That year (1649) Palapag was the scene of the Sumoroy
revolt, one of the sporadic revolts that would erupt during
colonial times. Fr.
Miguel Ponce, rector of Palapag, was killed by Sumoroy, the
castellan of Palapag because Fr. Ponce had denounced
his practice of concubinage. The subsequent attack and sack of the church complex signaled
a revolt that spread throughout Samar, the neighboring island
of Mindanao and the Bicol peninsula.
The real cause of the revolt was Gov. Fajardo’s
unpopular conscription of Visayan labor for the Cavite shipyard.
Led by Sumoroy, rebels attacked Bobon, Barugo, Catarman, and
Catubig whose churches the rebels burnt. Several attempts to capture Sumoroy
and his men were fruitless, until the following year 1650, when
driven by troops from Zamboanga and surrounded in his mountain
lair north of Palapag, Sumoroy, while escaping was killed by
his own men who sought clemency from their pursuers who had
outnumbered them. It seems that by this time, Palapag
had repaired parts of the complex as it is reported that the
convento of stone and wood also served as a fortress. Ignacio
Alzina, famous author of a history of the Visayas, spent much
time here where he was assigned as rector.
We infer that most of Alcina’s history was written
in Palapag. Jose Delgado in Historia sacro-profana (1754, 239-40) reports that Palapag had a fortress, which Delgado
describes: “Palapag
in Eastern Samar has an old wall with its bulwarks and blockhouse. It has a few iron cannons.” When the Palapag church was completed
is unknown. Certainly the Jesuits left a stone church, for Huerta
wrote, “The church, under the advocacy of Our Lady’s
Assumption, has a solid fabric, and was built by the Jesuits.
They too built the parochial house.”
Sendino (18840 describes the church as having a thatch
roof. 1769: Slave raiders attacked Palapa
during which many died.
The church may have been damaged by the attack. In 1843, the Franciscans who took charge
of the parish, after the Jesuit expulsion in 1768, repaired
the church and convento; then in 1846 they refurbished the altar. Heritage sites: The solidly-built Jesuit church structure
is now a ruin. It
stands beside a new parish church built in the 1980s. By then, the Jesuit church had lost its
roof, ceiling, and other appurtenances in a typhoon. The damage
was so extensive the parish decided it was not worth the cost
of rebuilding, especially since the town’s fortune had
waned substantially. The ruined Jesuit church is cruciform,
its façade flat and articulated with engaged Doric pillars.
It has a central door whose capstone bears the Society’s
colophon. There is an inscription on the doojamb difficult to
decipher. This may have been a memorial stone to commemorate
the date of construction and reads, “Mes de [ ] 8, siendo
Cap.n Dn Pedro de Alcan [ ] Ao.” It has entrances at the
transept crossing. No bell tower, though probably there was
one but now long gone. Remnants of a fort exist especially to
the rear of the church and to the right of the façade
where the foundation of bastion exists.
The fortification’s perimeter may have extended
to the cemented plaza in front of the church.
Catarman and Bobon are all coastal towns
and easily accessible through a cemented highway that follows the
northern coast.
In 1596, the Jesuits founded Catarman
and for many decades it remained a visita dependent on Palapag.
Catarman’s church is reported to have beeen burnt and
looted during the Sumoroy revolt (1649) In 1768, when it was ceded to the Franciscans,
Catarman counted no more than 430 tributes. Fray Nicolás
de Herrera was the first Franciscan pastor. The Jesuits left no permanent church.
In 1865 Huerta (295–96) wrote that the church and convento,
which also served as a school, were of wood.
In 1886, Redondo (228) reports that the church was no much
better, in fact, a wooden structure with a nipa roof and in disrepair. The convento was likewise of similar material.
By 1649, Bobon had a church and a mission
house although it remained a barrio of Catarman. It was one of the sites visited by the
Jesuits from Palapag. It would remain so throughout the 18th century.
The 17th century church and mission house may have been of nipa
and bamboo.
On 4 August 1863, Bobon was separated
as a town from Catarman. Huerta reports that the town church and
convento were of nipa. On 13 Jun 1866, Bobon was elevated to
the status of parish by the bishop of Cebu under the advocacy of
Santo Niño. Redondo
reports (1886, 228) that although the town church was of bamboo
and palm thatch, stones and wood had been accumulated for a new
construction, however, for lack of funds, work could not begin.
Located on an island of the same name
at the mouth of the Palapag River, tradition has it that in 1680
three native principales of Palapag—Cajundic, Surahan, and
Anodanod— founded Lauang. In the 1700s, the town remained a visita
of Palapag until it became an independent mission sometime in the
18th century. Lauang figures in the narrative of the discovery of
the Palaus, when in 1710, the Jesuits Jacobo Duberon and José
Cortil journeyed in search of the Palaus. They passed Lauang on
the way and on 30 November came in sight of the islands of Sonsonrol.
Redondo (1886, 226) reports the oldest
parish records (marriages) dated to 1733 and has the signature of
the Jesuit Egidio Olban. A 1750 document requests that the townspeople
be allowed to build a church because they had to take a long journey
to Palapag to fulfill their Sunday obligation. Legend says that the Jesuits planted
a row of dita (quinine) trees along the perimeter of Lauang,
facing the Palapag River. St. Michael, the town patron, appeared
on one of these trees to signal his desire that the church be built
at Lauang and not at Rauis, the opposite bank. Delgado reports that
“the town of Lauang is defended by a bulwark, built over a
rock 20 varas (yards) high. On the rock the church and residence of
the missionary has been built. In 1768, Franciscans took charge of
Lauang and separated it from its mother parish (Huerta, 308; Redondo
y Sendino, 226). Between
1783 and 1851, Lauang was civilly part of Guiuan then of Borongan
from which it was separated in 1851. From 1842–52, repairs on the church
and convento were done (roofs of these structures were renovated by Fray Sebastián
de Almonacid); but was it the Jesuit built church being repaired?
Certainly a church and convento stood in Lauang during the
late 18th century, but was it made of stone? Is it the same one
that we find today? Huerta is ambiguous on this point. He
talks about “the church, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel,
is made of rubblework and so is the parish house.” Huerta
reports no other work on the church by the Franciscans. He implies
that the fabric goes back to the Society as Almonacid’s work
did not alter the church structure much. After Almonacid other work
was done on the church. Around 1855, a baptistry, now demolished,
was added to the nave during the incumbency of Fray Angel Pulido.
Under the same friar both church and baptistry were paved
with azulejos (glazed blue tiles), the altars regilded, and
a belfry constructed. In 1869, fire damages the church (Redondo 1886, 226) 10 August 1899, the secular priest Don
Wenceslao Singson accepted the curacy of Lauang; he reported that
a sum of 616 pesos, 57 centavos, and 3 octavos were needed to repair
the church. In the early 1900s, the belfry built
by Fray Pulido was ruined but in 1926 was repaired. Heritage sites: If the church façade shows a variation
of a common colonial type where vertical and horizontals are defined
by engaged columns and horizontal moulding. In the central section, the horizontals are softened by the
retablo-like structure that connects a central niche bearing the
image of St. Michael, the church’s titular, with the lower
members. Scrollwork and a niche for the statue
of the Virgin decorates the otherwise austere pediment. Two rectangular niches flank the central
door. In these niches
are images of Sts. Peter and Paul.
A striking feature of the façade are the arrowhead
decorations of the main door and central niche of the upper register. Renovations on the fabric are noticeable:
the upper structure of the bell tower is completely modern, entrances
to the transept were modified, and an independent structure parallel
to the epistle side of the nave was demolished to make way for an
expanded convento. Nothing
remains of the original retablo.
It is uncertain when these renovations were done. In recent times, the baptistry built
by Fray Pulido was demolished and the walls of the old church were
pierced by new doors. On the side of the rock on which the
church stands are remnants of a fortification consisting of wall
and bulwark, probably the same bulwark referred to by Delgado.
Catubig, an inland town, lies on the
banks of the Catubig River, a waterway that empties near Rauis and
the traditional passage to the town. Also called Cagninipa (after an aquatic palm) is located south
of Palapag. Although
the Jesuits evangelized the town beginning in 1597, Jesuit practice
did not assign a resident missionary to Catubig, but rather through
most of the 16th and 17th century, pairs of
Jesuits would visit the settlements and missions under the jurisdiction
of the Palapag residentia. The Jesuits must have been agressively
evangelizing Catubig, even receiving negative reactions from the
inhabitants, such that on 11 October 1649, the Italian Jesuit Damiani
Vicenzo was killed by natives in Catubig.
Between 1770–75, Huerta opines,
the Franciscans moved the town from the old site presently called
Las Navas to a new site, because of a Muslim raid. During this raid the town was burnt, many
died, and about 500 enslaved. Huerta infers the date of transfer
from the diminution in tribute, from 510 in 1768 to 300 in 1775. Huerta’s statement is something
of a perplexity because Catubig is closer to the coast than Las
Navas, arguably then a more exposed site.
However, the decision may have been caused by a ancient folk
practice where sites or even dwellings that suffered disaster or
setbacks were abandoned. In 1777, new Catubig became an annex
of Palapag; and in 1784 was placed under Lauang’s jurisdiction. In 1790, Fray Juan de Plasencia (namesake
of the famous Franciscan pioneer who founded the towns of Laguna
in Luzon and the first resident Franciscan pastor) arrived. This
same year he built a new church of wood.
In 1805, Fray José Mata built a stone church, which
was ruined in no time for lack of care in its construction, probably
during an earthquake. In 1838 and the years following, Fray
Agatón Martínez built a new church of wood. Around 1865, Huerta writes that the
ruins of the old Jesuit church could still be seen: “The church,
under the advocacy of St. Joséph the Patriarch, was constructed
of stone at the old site where today are left some remains.”
In 1886, Redondo reports that stone
church in the revivalist style was being built, though not yet completed:
89 yards long, 22 width, and 21 in height.
Capul belongs to a cluster of islands
(Dalupiri [San Antonio], Destacado [San Vicente], Naranjo) on the
San Bernardino strait guarded the embocadero, the gateway
toward the Pacific Ocean, through which the Acapulco galleon sailed. Because of its strategic location,
a lighthouse was constructed on the highest peak on the island. The lighthouse completed in the 20th
century is still functional.
One etiological legend has it that Capul is a corruption of A-Capul-co. Long time ago, it is said the galleon
would dock at the island to provision itself with sweet and fresh
water that gushed from an underground stream in a sitio south of
the población. A sailor whiled his time by carving the name
“Acapulco” on a rock. In time, the letters a, c,
o abraded—and left behind the letters “capul,”
hence the town name. But from old, the townspeople called
their island “Abac.” They spoke a distinct language,
not the Waray of Samar or the Cebuano of western Leyte, or the Bicol
of the Bondoc peninsula, but a language whose closest relation is
found in the islands south of Zamboanga. The people call their language
“Abacnon.” It
is probable that the inhabitants of Capul descended from migrants
from the south who used the island as base of operation for slaving
raids, or as oral tradition in the island suggests a refuge from
those fleeing an abusive sultan in Mindnaao. The Jesuits may have reached the island
in 1610,. This is the earliest date when we have evidence that the
Jesuits were working in Capul. In 1616, A church was built, probably
a provisional one of wood and thatch. Capul at one time was considered an important
house so that had as its visita Calbayog on Samar’s western
coast. Capul was a
strategically important mission, although its population was never
very big, 884 souls says Huerta in 1844. Heritage sites: The church of Capul is dedicated to St.
Ignatius Loyola and is surrounded by a square fort with bulwarks
of dissimilar designs. Both Jesuit sources and Huerta claim that
the stone church traces back to the Jesuits but its date of completion
is unknown. So too is the date of the fortress. In 1768, Certainly, the fortress or
parts of it had been standing by this year, for it is reported that
Fr. Esandi, the last Jesuit priest of Capul, was killed on its ramparts
by slave raiders. He never read the order of expulsion because when
word reached Capul, Esandi was already dead. In 1768, October, Capul fell under the
responsibility of the Franciscans who assigned Fray Joaquín
Martínez as the first pastor. In 1781, Fray Mariano Valero repaired
the church and built a bell tower. A tribunal of stone and a school
of primera enseñanza were established by the Franciscans.
On 18 November 1869, Capul was created
a parish in conformity to the episcopal decree of 12 September 1864.
There were subsequent repairs on the church, for the townspeople
still remember an altar in the neo-Gothic style. In 1898, The Franciscans opened a lateral
gate along the fort’s walls, and embellished this with the
Franciscan emblem. In 1947, the neo-Gothic altar was apparently
destroyed when a typhoon hit the church. In c. 1987, The church suffered destruction
when a strong typhoon ripped the roof, ceiling, and part of the
convento. The church was subsequently repaired but is pretty much
an empty shell, save for a very new altar and renovated sanctuary. In 1988, The baptistry to the gospel
side of the nave, the sacristy behind the sanctuary and the convento’s
second floor above it, needed repairs. The old choir loft was removed
during the repair of the single-naved church. Heritage sites: The Capul façade is Spartan,
its only articulation are engaged pilasters and a split pediment
around the central door. Since
the church façade forms part of the defensive wall, artistic
decorations may have been deemed unnecessary and so were omitted. Much of the fortification, including the
bastions remain. On
the northeast bastion an iron cannon is still mounted. From this bastion has a clear view of Samar. Near the church complex is a small chapel,
probably a mortuary chapel.
On the slope of a hill south of the church complex is a watchtower
of rubble. |
