The facade of the fortress-church of Capul in Northern Samar

For so many years, I’ve been wanting to visit the Capul fortress-church complex in Capul Island, Northern Samar but it was only last weekend that I finally made it. And I was in awe of the structures.

The fortress church of Capul guarded the embocadero, the passageway from the Philippines to the Pacific Ocean. The galleon, the lifeblood of the colonial economy, passed this way on its annual trip to Acapulco, hence, the strategic importance of this islet off the Samar Coast.

- Rene Javellana, author, Wood and Stone for God’s Greater Glory

It is unsure when the Jesuits arrived in Capul, but Javellana posits 1610 according to data that the Jesuits were working in Capul that year. The first structure was made of wood and light materials and was an important mission with Calbayog as its visita.

Not much is known when the church and the surrounding wall were built or when it was finished but in 1768, the last Jesuit priest of Capul, Fr. Esandi died on one of its ramparts during a Moro raid. After the Jesuit expulsion,of the same year, the Franciscans took over.

The bell tower was built in 1781 by Fray Mariano Valero and repaired the church. In 1869, it was made a separate parish. In 1898, the Franciscans opened a gate at the side wall facing the sea with its entrance arch pediment bearing the order’s seal and year.

One of the rooms of the cuartel which has been cleaned

Pieces of marble have been used on the wall

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. The place looked good and the local government unit is really seeing the value of this structure to local tourism as well as heritage consciousness.

However, there seems to be some overlooked, though minor, thing: pink marble slabs used in place of coral stones where the latter has been pried off.

To the casual observer, this might be negligible but for keen eyes, the pink marble slabs is quite incongruous to the overall look. In the first place, why use these type of material when there are readily available cut coral stones sold commercially? Will this be corrected?

The only steel church in Asia, San Sebastian was inaugurated in 1890.

The Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines can be credited with building many of the wonderful Spanish colonial era churches in the country. Their legacy can be found scattered around the islands from Luzon to Mindanao and in remote regions and localities in the Philippines.

Masinloc Church in Zambales has a beautiful polychromed entrance to the choirloft

In Metro Manila, the church of San Sebastian rises in splendor and boasts the title of the only steel church in Asia. It was buit in reaction to the various calamities, from fires, typhoons and earthquakes that devastated the previous structures. Elsewhere in the metro, there are the churches of Sta. Cruz, Manila and Las Piñas with its unique bamboo organ, the only one of its kind.

Zambales, one of its first evangelized areas  has Masinloc church with its beautiful polychromed entrance at the choirloft. There is also Sta. Cruz, Iba and Botolan.

Scattered in a few municipalities in the provinces of Batangas, Cavite (Kawit and Imus), Bataan, Tarlac and Ilocos Sur (Vigan) are Recollect built churches.

The Recollect built fortress-church in Cuyo, Palawan is the biggest in the country

Palawan as well as its satellite islands of Cuyo, Agutaya and the Calamianes have impressive structures that served not only as houses of God but also for defense against the Muslim slave raiders. These fortifications and fortress-churches are still standing today.

The Recollects built the church in Romblon in the 18th century.

The island provinces of Mindoro, Romblon, Masbate and Marinduque (Boac) also have these fortress-churches as well as several ruins (in Mindoro) standing proud (or what remains of it) and bearing the inconsequent renovations of priests and parishioners.

In the Visayas, they have founded and erected several stone churches. After the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Recollects took over and added porticos in Bohol as well as started many new towns. Negros and Siquijor were two bastions while northeastern Cebu was handled by them.

Jimenez Church in Misamis Occidental is considered the best preserved religious heritage structure in Mindanao.

In Mindanao, one of the order’s precious and most valued areas of the Recollects until the Jesuits took over upon their return, managed to have very few extant samples. Jimenez in Misamis Occidental, with its stunning painted dome is the best preserved religious heritage structure in the island.

A relief at the portal's top at the sacristy. This is said to be how the previous church looked before the current one. It is interesting to note the style of the belfry's dome carried on to the present structure

The door that opens to the sacristy. Note the relief of a church at it's lunette.

The sacristy of Carcar Church has a simple wooden two-door portal that opens outside. Simply decorated, what makes this interesting, however, is the relief of a church at it’s lunette that is so unlike the present structure. Lorens Gibb told me that this might be how the edifice prior to the present one looked like. If this is true, then we now have visual proof of the previous church.

The photos used in this series were taken between 2005 and 2008 as the author visits this church from time to time. Special thanx to Lorens Gibb Lapinid for the assistance in 2008. Philippine churches, especially prior to the middle of the 19th century, were mostly built under the direction of the parish priest who often has no background in construction. Thus we have edifices that are often at the mercy of the elements. What happened to the previous structure in Carcar might have suffered the same fate as natural calamities might have caused it’s deterioration or eventual destruction. However, this might be an oversimplification as the town was one of the richest and thus, might be able to afford a more strongly built church. But age might also be a factor.

1860 (or 1859 as written inside some parts of the church), the start of construction of the present church already saw the decline of muslim slave raiding in Luzon, the Visayas and northern Mindanao. In Cebu, the decisive victory of Oslobanons in 1813 already hindered these raiders in venturing into the area. Prior to that, however, these slavers were just a sad part of daily life. Thus, we have churches built that function not only to cater to the spiritual needs of the people but fortifications to keep watch of invaders as well as a stronghold where the populace run to whenever another raid happens in the town.

The church relief on the door is built more like a fortified edifice. It’s octagonal belltower is massive and tall. At four tiers, it doubles as a watchtower. Interestingly, the style of the dome has been carried out into the present structure. It’s single nave has windows that are small and high strung where defenders can take positions and take on surrounding enemies. The roof is tejado, or tiled. It might be typical but it cannot be burned compared with cogon roofing.

The façade is simple. Decorative columns run from base to top of second level with the triangular pediment found at the third. It’s center has a niche for the patron. The minimal baroque embellishments decorate the pediment and the top of the main portal. Note that just like the belfry’s dome, this portal decoration has been carried out into the present.

Either structures are interesting and beautiful.

The walls of a ruined church in Lagonoy, Camarines Sur overlooking the river. Below one window can be found the year 1768. Bicol suffered heavily from the Muslim slave raids of which, this church most likely met its fate and was abandoned. The current church, probably 19th century is located a couple of meters inland.

This 3 part post is an introduction to the Muslim slave raids focusing on the middle of the 18th – middle of the 19th centuries in the Philippines. It is important to understand and put into context the different watchtowers, fortresses and fortress churches that can still be found in the coastal areas of Luzon and the Visayas. Read Part 1 | Part 2

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 social and economic costs were incalculable as town populations were affected (or even abandoned) and during the habagat months, no one ventured out into the open for fear of being captured.

Like every situation, it also brought something good out of it. As coastal towns were abandoned, new ones were formed inland. Roads were opened instead of depending solely on waterways. With the Spanish friar the only Spaniard representing the colonial government, he became not only the priest but the town’s leader and captain. During this period, several so called friar-soldiers rose of which Fray Julian Bermejo of Boljoon is known for the “telegraphic stations” he constructed running the whole length of southeastern – southern Cebu starting in Carcar down to Santander. These watchtowers were manned by appointed native sentries who, upon sighting the dreaded prahus of the raiders signaled the next station with flags, smokes, horns or fires triggering an alarm system down the coast and telling the local fighters to prepare and arm themselves.

There were other reactions to these slave raidings of which several fortifications were built. We have the fortress-churches of Miag-ao in Iloilo; Danao, Argao, Boljoon in Cebu; Boac in Marinduque; Guiuan, Laoang and Capul in Samar; Agutaya, Cuyo, Cagayancillo in Palawan; several watchtowers that can be seen in Ilocos, Bicol, Samar, Leyte, Negros, Cebu and other Visayan islands. Fortified settlements also cropped up with thick walls to drive out invaders. Unfortunately, most of these structures are in great danger of being lost forever as they lay crumbling and disintegrating. There is no clear cut plan to save these remnants of our people’s struggle to live.

Read Part 1 | Part 2

To further understand this important but forgotten part of Philippine (and perhaps Southeast Asian) history, The following are perfect references:

Warren, James Francis. The Sulu Zone 1768-1898 THe Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1985.

Warren, James Francis. Iranun and Balangingi: Globalization, Maritime Raiding and the Birth of Ethnicity. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 2002.

JAVELLANA, Rene B., S.J. Fortess of Empire: Spanish Colonial Fortifications of the Philippines, 1565 – 1898. Makati City: Bookmark, Inc., 1997.

A crumbling watchtower at the coast of Oslob, Cebu constructed in the early 19th century. A series of these structures were built by the “soldier-priest” Fr. Julian Bermejo as telegraphic stations that alerted the communities of impending Muslim slave raiders.

This 3 part post is an introduction to the Muslim slave raids focusing on the middle of the 18th – middle of the 19th centuries in the Philippines. It is important to understand and put into context the different watchtowers, fortresses and fortress churches that can still be found in the coastal areas of Luzon and the Visayas. Read Part 1 | Part 3.

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. In the Philippines, the prahus, sea vessels of the raiders, can number at an average of 40 – 50 with 2,500 – 3,000 armed raiders. In some years, the number of these boats reached 70-80 or at one time, a 100!

In the entire Southeast Asia, or where the slave raidings stretched from New Guinea to even as far as the Bay of Bengal, the brunt of the pillage and destruction was directed in Hispanized Philippines. The prahus usually travel from their base in Sulu and Balangingi and cross the Sulu Sea to Balabac in Palawan. They then follow the coast up until the Calamianes and cross to the Cuyo Islands to stock on food and other provisions. From there, once they reach the Sibuyan Sea, Romblon, Marinduque, Mindoro, other Visayan islands and southern Luzon were easy pickings. These areas suffered the most of all places in the country. They even had forward bases in Masbate, Burias and Mindoro where they launched their raiding activities venturing to Cavite and at a time, even rowed up near the capital, Manila. Sometimes, in search of captives, they head up north into the Ilocos, round off Cagayan and then to Bicol.

During December to March, the amihan or the northwest monsoon takes over and the raiders now use it for their return to Sulu with their captives. Samar and Leyte were frequently raided. Bohol, Cebu and Negros weren’t spared. Because of these slaving activities, much of maritime trade collapsed. In Leyte and Samar, trade with Manila was at a virtual standstill for decades. Churches and communities were burned and sometimes these towns were abandoned and the people fled to the interior. In the Visayas Islands, with not much to go inland, fortifications were built.

The slave raiders really were not picky. Fishermen and trading vessels were “fished” out at sea. Town fiestas and other major religious activities were favorite times since the people, lost in the revelry, were easy to capture and at a great number. Families were torn asunder. Men, women, children of different age from as young as 6 to as old as 50 were captured. Spaniards, foreigners and clergy were ransomed at great cost. The natives were sold in Sulu to work in the fields, forests, seas and mountains or bartered off to other merchants for other Asian markets. That’s why, a captive from Bicol can be brought to Borneo or to Indonesia where the chance of returning to one’s home was almost impossible. The sickly and elderly, unfortunately, were traded to some fierce forest tribes in Borneo, specifically the Dayaks who use human sacrifices for their many rituals.

One unique thing about the slaves, specifically those deployed in Sulu was that, unlike slaving in the rest of the world, they enjoyed relative freedoms, as long as they converted to Islam. Most of the time, their masters treated them well and if they don’t find their present master good, they can request to be sold to another. They can even win their freedom or purchase it. Women slaves were treated better and some even made it to be concubines of high ranking Muslims. Because many of the captives were literate, oftentimes surpassing their masters, they were highly valued because of their skill and were given high status in the household and most of the times, given a bigger role in the business. That’s why, at the peak of the raidings, integrated captives made up more than 40% of the population of Sulu. For most, their lot was better there than suffering under the yoke of Spanish abuses, backbreaking labor and taxes. Consequently, those captives also were employed in the raiding, often leading the prahus to their former communities and with their knowledge of timing during religious celebrations, proved to be devastating.

The Muslim slave raids had its peak during the early 19th century. By 1848, the beginning of the end of these piratical raids started with the introduction by the Spaniards of gunship steamboats that attacked the raider’s main base, Balangingi where many were captured and kept in Zamboanga. By the 1860s, these prisoners and their families were exiled to Isabela where they worked the tobacco fields in the hope that, with their dispossession and conversion to Catholicism they will eventually abandon their slaving way of life.

Read Part 1 | Part 3

Tanon Strait between the southern tip of Cebu and the southwestern side of Negros. During the height of the Muslim slave raids in the 19th century, this was usually the homeward route taken by the raiders with their captives back to Sulu.

This 3 part post is an introduction to the Muslim slave raids focusing on the middle of the 18th – middle of the 19th centuries in the Philippines. It is important to understand and put into context the different watchtowers, fortresses and fortress churches that can still be found in the coastal areas of Luzon and the Visayas. Read Part 2 | Part 3

If not for the strange confluence of events in the middle of the 18th century, a volcanic eruption in Mindanao and a shift in the food and drink preferences in China and Britain, respectively, Sulu wouldn’t have risen into an international emporium and thus become the center of Euroasian trade. The Muslim slave raids that has engulfed the country and most of maritime Asia wouldn’t have been as wide and as devastating as before that time. It has precipitated one of the darkest history in the region and all because of the British’s insatiable need for a mildly addicting beverage, tea.

As early as 1590 Spanish chroniclers have already recorded a major Muslim raid in Northern Mindanao and the Visayas. But the raids from the late 16th to the middle of the 18th centuries, were not as extensive compared to the succeeding decades. This period, especially the later part was tied up with the rise of the Maguindanao Sultanate that employed the unique raiding talents of a sea/river dwelling people, the Iranuns in the coasts of Ilana Bay in Western Mindanao and upstream to the banks of Lake Lanao. This to fulfill the need for manpower to support trade with regional markets. After the Maketering Volcano erupted signaling the decline of the sultanate, these intrepid people relocated to Sulu due to hard economic times.

Tea has been consumed in China for centuries but when it was introduced in Britain in 1610 it took about 115 years to become popular. In 1750, the demand was so high that estimates of legal imports was around 40 million pounds and has displaced ale as the national drink. The commodity was imported by the English East India Company paid with silver from its colony in India, but in the long term, economically unviable. The British doesn’t have trade items that interested the Chinese and thus, they set their eyes in other parts of Asia. Beyond this point, most western accounts are silent on the pivotal role of Sulu in this trade.

Muslim Mindanao has always been a challenge for the Spanish colonizers. It was here that their hold was tenuous and shaky, if not unsuccessful and have been despised by the Muslims. After the British Invasion of Manila in 1762-64, a consequence of the Anglo-Franco Seven Years War with Spain dragged into the conflict by reason of an alliance with the latter. The Muslims of Sulu and the British found a more or less common ground.

Fortunately, Sulu was at the right place and with the relocation of the Iranuns, at the right time. Its strategic location made it the conduit of the Chinese-Indian/British trade. Britain by way of the East India Company traded with the Sultan of Sulu providing rich fabrics, utensils, other items and in succeeding decades, English manufactured steel products from knives to even the Mindanao kris to opium in exchange for camphor, pearls, bird’s nest, tripang (sea cucumber) and other forest/marine products that were highly coveted in China. These they traded for tea.

With skyrocketing demand for trade, the need for manpower to harvest the countryside, mountains, forests and seas became critical. And thus, with the Iranuns talent, they were once again deployed to harvest people not only in the Hispanized islands of the Visayas and Luzon but it spread across a wide swath stretching from New Guinea in the east to as far as the Andaman Islands in the West.

Read Part 2 | Part 3

Located front-right of the church of Oslob, just outside the perimeter stone fence and near the sea, at the intersection of Calle Aeternidad (Eternidad?) and the end of Calle Aragones, an unfinished building made of coral blocks stand. This unfinished structure was the cuartel, intended for the Spanish soldiers or guardia civil. It was started by Fray Juan Jose Aragones (1848 – 1854, 1859 – 1861) during his second term of service in this municipality. While it was not finished by Fray Aragones, work continued but remained unfinished until the end of Spanish Occupation.

Conquest and colonization of the archipelago was not an easy task for the ruling Spaniards as they have made not a few enemies who were intent of sabotaging their efforts. Not only are the enemies limited within the country but outside powers like other European colonizers were lusting to expand as well. To cite a few:

• hostile tribes who refused Spanish rule like the Caraga of Surigao and some mountain tribes in Cagayan have to be fought off or prevented from attacking the established settlements and towns
• with the rise to power of the Sulu Sultanate aided in part by the British and the flourishing of Batavia (Jakarta in Indonesia) as center of trade, and thus the need for more human capital led to the Muslim slave raids during the onset of the habagat (southwest monsoon) in the 17th and 18th centuries and thus affecting greatly the development of many coastal towns in Luzon and the Visayas and some parts of Mindanao
• the British, Dutch, Chinese and local pirate attacks (the latter was more of taking advantage of the fear brought out by the Muslim slave raids) were constant threats

Spanish interests and the gains made in Christianizing the inhabitants have to be protected and thus, a series of forts, fortified churches and convents and a string of watchtowers were erected across the country.

Of these structures, only those made of stone and mortar mostly survive today. Unfortunately, except for some major forts and a few watchtowers which are still in good condition, many have been demolished to give way to modern constructs. Several are crumbling, like the one from Daanlungsod in Oslob (pictured above) and rotting as these are overgrown with vegetation and further weakened. The Linapacan fort in Northern Palawan is an example. Subject to the elements, those found at the coasts are at the mercy of the advancing sea or in the case of a fort in Zambales, eventually covered with lahar. A few still are titled together with the land to foreigners and resort owners who convert it into rooms for paying clients.

There is a need to preserve what remains of these fortifications as these are a part of our rich colonial past.