Dagohoy Rebellion

Francisco Sandijas, aka 'Dagohoy'

After more than a hundred years under the Spanish rule, the natives of Bohol were no longer happy with the way they were being treated by their supposed protectors.

Forced labor in the building of public infrastructures like churches, bandala, excessive tax collection and payment of tributes and injustices committed by Jesuit priests had taxed their patience to its limit. A relatively small incident would trigger the longest revolt in Philippine history in the small island of Bohol.

One day in 1744, the Jesuit priest Fr. Gaspar Morales, curate of Inabangan (Inabanga today), ordered a constable named Sagarino to capture a man who had abandoned his Christian faith, considered a crime in those years. The brave constable pursued the fugitive who resisted and instead killed Sagarino. His corpse was brought to the church of Inabanga but Fr. Morales would not give his blessing and refused to give him a Christian burial because Sagarino died in a duel.

Francisco Sendrijas (later known as Dagohoy), brother of  Sagarino, and chief of his barangay was aghast and called on his fellow Inabangans to rise up against the priest and other oppressive Spaniards. The killing of the priest of Jagna, the Italian Fr.Giuseppe Lamberti, on January 24, 1744 signalled the start of the rebellion. Fr. Morales was next to be killed. More than 3,000 natives followed Dagohoy to the hills of Danao where he established a free government. The number rose to more than 20,000 when the rebellion spread throughout the entire Bohol.

Bishop Miguel Lino de Espeleta of Cebu, who exercised ecclesiastical authority over Bohol, tried vainly to mollify the rebellious Boholanos. The Bol-anons remained steadfast in the mountain redoubt, beating Spanish forces sent against them.

Twenty Spanish governors-generals, from Gasper de la Torre (1739-45) to Juan Antonio Martinez (1822-25), tried to quell the rebellion but they failed. In 1825, when General Mariano Ricafort became the governor-general of the Philippines, he ordered  Alcade-mayor Jose Lazaro Cairo to Bohol at the head of 2,200 Filipino-Spanish troops and several batteries, invaded Bohol on May 7, 1827.

Dagohoy's commemorative bust

The brave Boholanos resisted fiercely with their indigenous weapons but Cairo won several engagements. However, he could not quell the rebellion. In April 1828, another Spanish expedition under Captain Manuel Sanz landed in Bohol. After more than a year of hard campaign, he finally subdued the patriots. By August 31, 1829, the rebellion had ceased.

Governor Ricafort, with chivalric magnanimity, pardoned 19,420 survivors and permitted them to live in new villages at the lowlands. These villages are now the towns of Batuanan, Cabulao, Catigbian, and Bilar.

As for Dagohoy himself, local historians claim that the name 'Dagohoy' is the contraction of the terns 'Dagon sa hoyohoy' (amulet of the breeze). Folklore accounts say that Dagohoy possessed the ability to appear and disappear at will - 'sama sa hoyohoy'- when the Spaniards were chasing him in the hills and mountains of Danao. He outlived his enemies and his rebellious legacy was carried on by his descendants.

Reference: Concepcion Historia de Philippinas, translated  in  Blair and Robertson, Vol. 28, pp. 328- 331