Proem

There are many errors in the historical data that ought to be changed but we still continue to celebrate or commemorate as if it is correct.

One of this date is the Bohol Day on July 22.  Bohol was not created as a separate province on July 22, 1854.  The official decree creating the Province of Bohol still exists in the National Archives.  The date of the decree is March 3, 1854.

Another error is the date of the Sandugo between Chief Si Katuna and Gen. Miguel Lopez the Legazpi.  {Note: The General wrote his name as “Legazpi” and not “Legaspi”.}

The date found in the affidavit sworn to by Si Katuna before Notary of the Fleet Hernando Riquel is March 25, 1565.  It is not March 16 as wrongly written by historian Gregorio Zaide. [Note: Dr. Zaide corrected the Julian calendar to conform to the Gregorian calendar. However he committed an error of deducting the 9 days instead of adding it.]

Another Error

Prof. Emmanuel Luis Romanillos sent me a new discovered historical error.  It is about the errors in the marker put by the Philippine Historical Commission in 1953 in the left-front of Tagbilaran Cathedral.

Prof. Romanillos is a language professor at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon, City.  He obtained his Licentiate in Church History (Magna Cum Laude) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.  His licentiate (Master’s Degree) thesis was “The Beginnings of Christianity in Bohol 1565-1605”.

He is a former Augustinian Recollect Priest and the official translator of the Recollect records in the Cavite Monastery.  He speaks Sugboanon Bisaya, Tagalog, Chavacano, Spanish, Italian, and Latin.

He was my co-advocate in the Loay side during the adjudication on the correct site of the Si Katuna-Legazpi Sandugo.  The National Historical Institute declared that our contention was correct; the correct site is Hinawanan, Loay, Bohol.

The Tagbilaran Cathedral Marker

The marker that the Philippines Historical Committee put in place in 1953 has the following wordings:

“CHURCH OF TAGBILARAN – One of the six parishes founded in Bohol by the Jesuit Missionaries. 1595.  Turned over to the Recollects, 1768.  Original Church built by the Jesuits on this spot was burned, 23 December 1798.  Reconstructed and enlarged by Fr. Valero de San Pascual, 1838-1855; Fr. Lucas Corominas built the convent, 1872; Fr. Jose Sancho the tower, 1884-1888.  Fr. Escolastico Enciso improved the premises by placing iron cornices, tile flooring and chandeliers, 1884-1894.”

The 12 Errors

Here are the twelve (12) errors observed by Prof. Romanillos:

1. Tagbilaran was one of the nine, not six, parishes in Bohol founded by the Jesuits. The nine parishes are: Baclayon (1596); Loboc (1596); Dauis (1596), [Note: In my research it is 1697- JBT]; Jagna (1631); Inabanga (1726); Tagbilaran (1742); Dimiao (1750); Loon (1753); and Maribojoc (1767).
2. The year was 1596, not 1595. The first Jesuits Gabriel Sanchez and Juan de Torres arrived in Baclayon, Bohol on 17 November 1596.
3. To erase the misimpression that no convent ever existed before 1872, we must add the following; “Both convent and church were gutted by fire at 8:00 P.M. on 23 December 1798.”
4. Valerio de San Sebastian was parish priest in 1839-1855; not Fr. Valero de San Pascual.
5. Valero de San Pascual never existed. However, there was a Fr. Manuel de San Pascual, parish priest in 1835-1839 before Fr. Valero de San Sebastian.
6. The Cosas Notables de Tagbilaran, authored by Recollect parish priests of Tagbilaran, declares that the “present church was the work of the first Recollect fathers.” In the list of parish priests, there were five diocesan parish priests in the 1898-1855 periods that might have helped in the church construction.
7. Likewise, no record of the builder of the “kumbento” exists. The same Cosas Notables affirms; “The convent was the work of the first Recollects.”
8. The accurate surname of the parish priest of Tagbilaran in 1870-1875 is Lucas Coromina and not Corominas.
9. Lucas Coromina did not build the convent; he merely enlarged it notably in 1872 and roofed it with galvanized iron.
10. Jose Sanchez, not Fr. Jose Sancho, began the construction of the bell tower in early 1886, not in 1884. In 1888, Fr. Sanchez left Bohol because he was elected Superior of their San Nicolas Priory in Intramuros, Manila.  He was succeeded by Fr. Escolastico Enciso.
11. During Fr. Escolastico Enciso’s term the bell tower was finished and blest in April 1891 by the parish priest of Baclayon.
12. Enciso made the church embellishments in 1888-1894, not 1884-1894.

Comment

When more accurate historical data becomes available, we ought to change and correct the erroneous informations previously disseminated.  We cannot legislate historical facts.

The July 22 “Bohol Day” is just a legislated date for the sake of having a date to celebrate.  Bohol, together with Siquijor Island, was created as one separate province from Cebu on March 3, 1854.  It was named Provincia de Bohol (Province of Bohol).  It was a Politico-Military province whose governor should have a military rank of at least Captain. (By Jes B. Tirol)