Minglanilla, Cebu: Historical Notes

( copy-pasted from POINT CEBU )

( Note: This version of the history of Minglanilla is culled from a website ( pls click above).. The reader may note some differences from another version which I posted here earlier ( see archives, September 9, 2009) where the first parish priest was named Fr. Fernando Sanchez not Fernando Lopez. This version also has the date of the Fiesta wrong. The parish celebrates its Fiesta on August 21 and 22, not August 22- 23. the 21st in honor f the parish's 2nd patron Sr. San Roque and on the 22nd in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary its patroness, not Sacred Heart of Mary as written below...
As I have learned from the parish's records, the First Parish priest was Fr. Fernando Sanchez, who came from Minglanilla, Spain...
As of this date, the town and the parish still has to come up with an authentic, well researched official version of its history...)

Location: 15.4 kms.
Area: 7,196 hectares
No. of Barangays: 19
Town Fiesta: August 22 - 23
Patron Saint: Sacred Heart of Mary
Places of Interest: Old parish church - classic, neo-Roman in design, Campo Siete forestral area, White caves

Historical Notes

Father Fernando Lopez, Minglanilla’s first parish priest, is credited as the founder of the town in 1858. Nicolas Lopez, Miguel de Burgo and Jose Alonso worked together in the construction of the church and the cemetery. It roads and bridges were built by the same Fr. Lopez together with Fr. Magaz.

There were a number of capitanes who headed the town during the Spanish era. The first capitan was Hilario Castañares. During the American regime when the town headsman was called president, the first to serve as such was Canuto Larrobis. The first to be elected municipal mayor was Gregorio de la Calzada.

Buat was the former name of Minglanilla. It was probably due to the fact that it was the place where early settlers dried (buad/buat) their sea catches. But in 1858, it was renamed Minglanilla by Fr. Lopez, after a place in Spain.

The town suffered setbacks, among them during the Philppine Revolution and World War II. In January 18, 1905, insurrectos burned down its municipal building and looted many houses. This unforgettable and lamentable event is commemorated by a street named 18 de Julio (18th of July). In 1942, its poblacion was razed to the ground by the Japanese in retaliation of the presence of the guerrillas in the town.

A popular legend explains the name of a barangay in Minglanilla. It is puzzling that Barrio Linao is so-called when there is no body of water in this locality. Linao in Cebuano means lake/bay. The legend goes:

It is told that Linao before was a bay, favorite place for Chinese traders to anchor their frigates. At first the natives were afraid of the slit-eyed, fair-complexioned foreigners that they fled inland.

To attract the inhabitants to trade with them, the Chinese left their merchandise on the shore and sailed away. Soon enough, the natives got the wares and exchanged them with precious stones. The barter went on with honest natives always repaying the goods with valuables.

On days, because there was no wind at all, the boats could not set sail. To raise wind, the boat’s captain decided to make his dog dance. This was an act of sacrilege on the part of the anitos or native gods, who sent strong winds, lightning, thunder and heavy rains which inundated the place. The frigates sunk and all the Chinese drowned.

The following day, the bay was no more. Instead, there was a wide plain where Linao stands today.

A big socio-religious event in Minglanilla which attracts not only people from adjacent towns but also from Cebu City and farther, is the Sugat. Sugat in Cebuano means meeting. On Black Saturday night, a public dance is held at the Church Plaza to witness the re-enactment of the “meeting” of the risen Christ and his mother. Their images, borne on richly-decorated carrozas, meet amidst joyous songs and the presence of child angels suspended by wires.

^{Reprinted from the book: Cebu In Legend and History
By: Lavilles de Paula}

new buildings and establishments

New buildings and establisments are sprouting in town !

Celes the Minglanillero

They call him Silis, or Celes as in Celestino ? Whatever is his real name , they just call him that...
I use to see him strolling around Plaza Maria fronting the Chuch. I was still in high school when I first saw him and heard stories about him and why he became like that..

He was younger then, in his early twenties.They said he bacame like that because he impregnated a girl somewhere in Mindanao and refused to marry her. The girl resorted to witchcraft to punish him for what he did. That's why he became like that.

He became a familiar character in town, walking alone without seeming to care whats going on around him. Like a hippy. wearing blue jeans and sometimes with a piece of towel hanging above his shoulders, he strolls around picking scraps of food from garbage cans and drinking leftover sofdrinks from customers of sari-sari stores and carenderias.

So familiar were we all of his presence that nobody seemed to mind him at all, behaving as if he's not even there. Being non-violent, he wasn't to be feared. Being healthy looking, he wasn't even to be pitied.. He was just there.

Now, 30 or so years after. he still roams the streets doing the same thing, scavenging for food, walking around without a sense of purpose. A little bit older now, he seems to blend more fully with the place and crowd ...

Celes the madman don't seem to look mad anymore. He goes around without saying a word.
People who know him say he's no longer insane. They say he's trying to maintain his madness to escape the responsibilities of life.... "He's one helluva lazy bastard", they say of him.

Who knows whats on his mind? Who cares? As long as he doesn't hurt anyone, nobody seems to mind . He's just there. He blends well. No need to call the authorities. No need to give him anything. No need to pity him.

He doesn't seem to need anything, even acts of mercy from the religious ones. No need even to pray for him; for his safety, for his enlightenment, that he might receive or continue to recieve the graces necessary for his state of life...or whatever it is they pray for people in need.

He's not in need and nobody needs him. Hes just there.

Celes the madman? Celes the hippy? Someone told me that his family name is Caballero. So, that's who he is, Celes Caballero. But no matter what, he's just plain Celes to me, a Minglanillian, a Lumad Minglanillahanon - a Minglanillero.

Celes the minglanillero, the man who's just there. Simply there.

eskina macaraya, road to cadulawan

This place is locally known as Eskina Macaraya, named after Felipe Macaraya who owned the big house right at the corner of this road to the mountains of Cadulawan... Officially, and known only by a few oldtimers, the road is supposed to be named E. Geonzon Street, but nobody ever calls it that...

The place has been known for other names such as, Eskina ila Tirso, after Tirso Unabia who lived and owned an electronics shop on the other side of the street opposite Felipe Macaraya's house. Eskina sa Patsa, after the name of a local teeenage gang who used to hang around the short riprapped fence sorrounding Noy Tirso's Shop. There was even an attempt by the gang to christened the place Yarok Eskina. Yarok, meaning gulp, because of the group's penchant for drinking... But the name Macaraya stuck, even until now when Noy Felipe is long time gone and his house is already owned by someone else. Noy Tirso is gone too. The Patsa boys have all grown up to becaome grandfathers.

This used to be a quite and peaceful place, except when the local boys got drunk, but the people in the neighborhood did'nt seem to mind, after all they knew who those kids were - their own children and the children of their neighbors !...

Nowadays, no local boys hang around the street corner anymore, the place has become a terminal of sorts for habal-habal motorcycles. We, the old residents of the place, Patsa members or not, have become strangers in our own street. The habal-habal drivers don't even know who we are. They don't seem to mind if we are the descendants of the owners of the parcels of land donated to make this street possible.

Crimes are being commited here. Crimes unheard of in the past such as snatching, robbery, swindling are happening in this once peaceful place....Al of them committed by motorcycle-riding men.

What do the habal-habal drivers think all these?..Do they mind ?

Who are these drivers anyway? Why is the local gevernment allowing them to roam our streets?...And this thing is supposed to be illegal ?