During my revisit at the Oslob church, I was surprised that the unfinished cuartel was already cleaned up and light fixtures were already placed for spectacular lighting at night.

But what about these pink marble slabs used to patch up some gaps?

Their legacy can be found scattered around the islands from Luzon to Mindanao and in remote regions and localities in the Philippines.

Atop of a wooden door at the sacristy is a relief of a church that is unlike the present structure.

The Muslim slave raids in the middle of the 18th to the middle of the 19th centuries were indeed one of the darkest years of colonial Philippines. It is estimated that during this period, around 200,000 natives were abducted. Because of the ineffectiveness and lack of political will of the governing colonial power to stem these raids, and prior to 1848, the navy vessels were often outrun by the faster prahus, or, in the case of Bicol, refused the request of the mayors to arm their towns for fear that the townspeople will revolt against them, these depradations dragged on for more than a hundred years.

The pirate wind, locally called the habagat or the southwest monsoon blows between May and October. It intensifies in August and September of which the Ilanun (or Iranun or Lanun) and later, the Balangingi (Iranun and their captives who were integrated into their community living in the island of Balangingi) took advantage. These were the months that communities across Southeast Asia were afraid of.

Muslim slave raiding is one of the darkest history in the country.