Bohol Towns

Brief History of the Establishment of Guindulman, Bohol

Bohol Island Hotels

By: Dr. Jes B. Tirol, Ph.D.
Historian

Proem
On July 3, 1768 the Royal Order that expelled the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) from all Spanish dominion was implemented in Bohol. At the time when the Jesuits left, the following were the towns existing in Bohol:

1.Baclayon	5. Inabanga	9. Malabohoc
2.Dauis	6. Loay	10. Tagbilaran
3.Dimiao	7. Loboc	11. Talibon
4.Hagna	8. Loon

It can be noticed that in 1768 the town of Guindulman did not exist yet. In fact it was only the fourth town established by the Augustinian Recollects in Bohol. The Augustinian Recollects was the religious order that replaced the Jesuits in Bohol.

Date of Creation
Guindulman, Bohol was once part of Jagna, Bohol. It was established as a town by Royal approval on May 1797. Since it was a Royal approval, it can be construed that the approval was only for the civil aspect of the town. It was only the following year, 1798, Guindulman became ecclesiastically separate from Jagna. The parish was advocated to Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion (Our Lady of Consolation/Comfort). The first parish priest is only recorded as Fr. Antonio. In all probability the priest was Father Candido de San Antonio, who shortly after arrival in Manila in 1797, was assigned to an unnamed curacy in Bohol.

~Dagohoy – Espeleta Conferences
Archbishop Miguel Lino de Espeleta became acting Governor General on May 31, 1759 when Governor General Arandia died.

To achieve peace in Bohol, Gov. Gen. Archbishop Espeleta personally went to the headquarters of Dagohoy (via Talibon Island) for conferences with Dagohoy. Gov. Gen. Espeleta promised Dagohoy and his men a general pardon, correct and stop Spanish corruption, and assign Filipino priests in Bohol. He also promised to reconstruct the Inabanga Church.

Dagohoy (real name: Francisco Sendrijas) also promised to tolerate Christianity in Bohol. In June of 1761, Archbishop Manuel Rojo replaced Archbishop Espeleta. Espeleta then returned to Cebu as its Bishop. On May 1771, archbishop Espeleta died.

~Dagohoy-Fr. Santa Barbara Conference
In the year 1768 the Augustinian Recollects replaced the Jesuits in Bohol. The Father Rector of the Recollects was Fr. Pedro de Santa Barbara.

Knowing the agreement between Archbishop Espeleta and Dagohoy, Fr. Santa Barbara lost no time in having a deal with Dagohoy. Fr. Santa Barbara went to Dagohoy’s headquarters for important conferences.

The Recollect Fathers were so careful that the relation was “so fine that after a short period from their arrival, they no longer need an armed force for the security of their persons.”

The Experiment
The coastal village of Guindulman was part of the town of Jagna. In 1797 it became large enough to become a separate town and parish. The requirement for a separate town was least 500 tributes or taxpayers.

When the town of Guindulman was created, it covered the areas now presently known as the municipalities of Guindulman, Anda, Mabini, and Candijay.

As a result of the Dagogoy – Santa Barbara conferences, an experiment was tried. Some of the monteses (the name used to refer to the followers of Dagohoy – JBT) were allowed to resettle in the Poblacion of Guindulman alongside the “Christian” residents. However, some disagreement occurred between the followers of Dagohoy (monteses) and the Christians. The monteses went back to the mountains. It was only in the 1817 when the monteses came back. However, they were made to resettle at Tugas (now:Tugas, Candijay) to prevent a re-occurrence of the previous dispute with the Christian of Poblacion, Guindulman.

The Name
We will determine how the Guindulman got its name. We will establish the etymology of the word “Guindulman” devoid of folktales and legends.

Dr. Cecilio Putong in his book “Bohol and Its People” has the following story: “Its is said that the town used to be called Guindulman, meaning overtaken by darkness. The story was that formerly there were only two towns organized in this part of Bohol, namely: Jagna and Batuanan (now: Alicia). Travelers starting from either these towns in the morning were sure to be benighted or overtaken by darkness in this place, hence the name, which later was changed to Guindulman.”

Almost all Boholano writers agree that the base word or root word of Guindulman is the Bisayan word Dulom or Dom, which is taken to mean darkness or moonless night.

The explanation of Dr. Putong is plausible. However, there are defects in the explanation. First, town of Batuanan was actually proposed as a town on 5 February 1828 and finally approved on 9 December 1831. Therefore Batuanan was created as a town 34 years later than Guindulman. So the story could not be true.

Second, Dr. Putong’s explanation of the word Guindulman has a grammatical defect. In the Bisayan language, when an event or action usually or repeatedly happens in a place, the suffix to be used is “. .anan”. The suffix “. .an” is used when the event happens only once in a place.

The single event may be for a short duration or for a long continuous time.
The word Guindulman, with is suffix “..an”, signify that the event of being benighted happened only once. If it were a repeated event, the word should be Guindulmanan. As an illustration, consider the word bato, which means stone. If one puts some stones in a place at one time, the word to be used is batoan. Only the suffix “..an” is added. If the intended meaning is a usual place where some stones are put in place, the word becomes batoanan. The suffix use is “..anan.”

The question is – - – If being benighted usually happened at the particular place, why was it called Guindulman instead of Guindulmanan? There must be a better explanation.

The Diccionario Español-Bisaya (1885) by Father Juan Felix de la Encarnacion has two entries for the word dulom:
Dulom – Luchar cuerpo a cuerpo. (To wrestle, to struggle, body to body)
Dulom – Oscuridad que media desde que se pone el sol hasta que sale luna; cualquiera oscuridad. (Darkness from sunset until the moon appears; any kind of darkness).

The most fitting root word for Guindulman is the dulom that means to struggle body to body. It signifies an event that would allow the use only of the “..an” suffix. The prefix “Guin..” means acted, acted upon, or covered by. By attaching the affixes to the root word dulom, the new word would be Guinduloman. It signifies that the meaning of the root word happened only once. The Bisayan language allows the shortening of the word to Guindulman.

When the town of Guindulman was established, it was composed of Christianized and non-Christian Boholanos. Evidently there was conflict or struggle, body to body, between the Christians and the non-Christians.

The non-Christians were dismayed and went back to the mountains. The event of the conflict was the Guindulman, which means a place where there was a struggle, body to body.

Another indication that Guindulman signifies struggle is the word Tabajan. The present town center (poblacion) of Guindulman has a place called Tabajan and Sawang. The word Sawang means town plaza or the plaza near the church.

The root word of Tabajan is the word Taba. The dictionario Español-bisaya defines Taba as, to divide; to share; to sell a part or the whole or a worked out of farm. With the addition of the suffix “..han”, the word Tabajan means dividing line or the apportioned part.

This indicates that the town center of Guindulman was divided between the Christians at Sawang and the non-Christians at Tabajan. Even today there is still some kind of animosity between the resident s of Sawang and Tabajan even though the townfolks could no longer recall the original cause of the animosity.

The Cause of Conflict
The establishment of the town of Guindulman in 1797 was trial implementation of the agreement of Dagohoy and Father Santa Barbara. The Christians non-Christians were made to live near each other. The result was a struggle for domination.

Considering the rules at that time, the establishment would have been for both the civil and religious aspects of the town.

Juan Felix de la Encarnacion,”Diccionario Español-Bisaya “, Tipografia De Amigos Del Pais,Manila,1885.

Father Antonio was in charge of the religious aspect of the town. The struggle was on the control of the civil aspect. The non-Christian followers of Dagohoy had their chosen leader in the person of Ignacio Arañez.10 Naturally the followers of Dagohoy would not agree if he would not be made the Gobernadorcillo (Mayor). Since no agreement could be reached, the followers of Dagohoy went back to the hills. Of course not all monteses were able to go back to the hills. They were persuaded to come down again only in 1817 but chose to resettle at the present-day Tugas, Candijay, Bohol.

However, the names of places like Guindulman, Tabajan, Sawang had already become permanent.

Therefore the name Guindulman is an eponym or a name taken from a significant event.

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