Proem

When Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. announced his candidacy for Vice President of the Philippines, I wondered if the people of Tagbilaran City will be interested with some trivia information.  The first Mayor or Gobernadorcillo of Tagbilaran was Calixto Marcos.

Tagbilaran Became a Town

On February 9, 1742 Governor General Gaspar de la Torre signed the decree creating the new town of SAN JOSE DE TAGBILARAN.  It was separated from its mother town of BACLAYON, BOHOL.

On July 4, 1742 by “viva voce” or “voice vote”, at the town hall of Baclayon, General Don Francisco Antonio Calderon de la Barca, the commander of the Spanish forces for the Visayas and Iligan, supervised the election.

On July 12, 1742 the elected officials were installed by General de la Barca in Tagbilaran.

The following were the first officials of the new town of Tagbilaran:

Gobernadorcillo (Mayor) ———————- Don CALIXTO MARCOS

Teniente (Lieutenant) ————————– Don Ignacio Malimpin

Aguacil Mayor (Chief of Police) ———– Don Lorenzo Verano

Escrivano (Clerk/Notary) ——————— Don Andres Estanislao

Juez de Sementera (Arbiter for Farms) —- Don Mariano Tomas

Juez de Palmas (Arbiter for Coco trees) – Don Josef Tanquiron

During the Spanish era, a town has two aspects, the religious and civil.  The name San Jose de Tagbilaran means that the parish or religious aspect had “San Jose (St. Joseph) as the Patron Saint, and “Tagbilaran” is the name of the place that is part of the Parish.

In the beginning the Parish was handled by the Parish Priest of Baclayon for lack of priests.  It was only in 1748 when a separate priest was assigned in Tagbilaran.

What Happened to Calixto Marcos?

Among the six (6) names of the elected officials, it is only the family name “Verano” that I have encountered in Bo-oy District and he was a “balikbayan”.  All the rest are no longer found in native family names of Tagbilaran.

The main duty of the Gobernadorcillo was to enforce the orders of the Parish Priest and to collect the taxes.

One of the reasons cited for the creation of the town of Tagbilaran was that the farmers gave their contributions to the “rebels in the mountains”.

If it was the case, then we can assume that the first elected officials of Tagbilaran did not gave the taxes to the Parish Priest but to the “rebels in the hills” most probably to Calixto Botero, who was later on recognized by Francisco Dagohoy as his sector leader for Tagbilaran.

Naturally the Spaniards will be angry and Calixto Marcos has to flee.  The question is, where did Calixto Marcos flee?

Could Marcos reach Ilocos?

If you want to flee you must go as far as you can.  I know that you could not imagine that a Boholno will reach the Ilocos region.

However, consider the following case: In the middle part of September 1943, during the Second World War, a Major Ferdinand Marcos arrived in Tubigon, Bohol on his way to Mindanao.  He came from the Ilocos region.

If Ferdinand Marcos from the Ilocos region would reach Tubigon, Bohol, is it not possible for a Boholano to reach the Ilocos region?  We can conjecture that perhaps the Boholano Calixto Marcos was an ancestor of Ferdinand Marcos.  We all recognize that Boholanos have a homing instinct.

Enrique de Malacca

It is now recognized in history that the first to circumnavigate the earth was not Sebastian del Cano, a captain of Ferdinand Magellan.  It was Enrique de Malacca.

Enrique de Malacca was the slave of Ferdinand Magellan.  He is known in Cebuano local history as “Makiyong”.

As a young boy he was captured by pirates and brought to Malacca.  There he was bought by Ferdinand Magellan and brought to Portugal, then to Spain.  He was brought by Ferdinand Magellan during his expedition.

When Magellan’s fleet arrived in Samar, Enrique or Makiyong could not yet understand the language.  Upon reaching Cebu, Makiyong could already understand the language and served as an interpreter.  However, he could not pinpoint from where in the Sugboanon speaking places did he came from.  It is possible that it was Bohol.

Accidents in History

There are many instances in history that a person will accidentally return to his place of origin without intending to do so.

If my theory or conjecture has a grain of truth that somehow Calixto Marcos was an ancestor of Ferdinand Marcos, then can we consider Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a “favorite son” of Tagbilaran and Baclayon? (By Jes B. Tirol)