Catanduanes

About

Catanduanes (; Tagalog pronunciation: [kɐtɐndʊˈɐnes]), officially the Province of Catanduanes (Filipino: Lalawigan ng Catanduanes), is an island province located in the Bicol Region of Luzon in the Philippines. It is the 12th-largest island in the Philippines, and lies to the east of Camarines Sur, across the Maqueda Channel. Its capital, and most populated town is Virac. Catanduanes had a population of 261,169 people as of the 2024 census. The province comprises Catanduanes (mainland or main island), as well as the outer islands of Panay, Leyte, the Palumbanes group of islands (Porongpong, Tignob, and Calabagio), and several small islets and rocks. The province is also home to various mollusc fossil sites, notably the second-oldest ammonite site in the Philippines. These sites contain certain species of ammonites that are found nowhere else in Southeast Asia. Because of the province's importance and rich geologic history, scholars have suggested that it could be named a UNESCO Geopark Reserve. In the early 20th century, Catanduanes was a sub-province of Ambos Camarines and later, of Albay. It became an autonomous province in 1945. Congressman Francisco Perfecto filed House Bill No. 301, which separated the province from Albay; the bill was approved on September 26, 1945, and signed into law by President Sergio Osmeña on October 24, 1945. Remigio Socito, previously the Lieutenant Governor, was appointed the first Provincial Governor. When elections were held in 1947, Alfonso V. Usero became the first elected Governor. On April 15, 2022, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11700, declaring Catanduanes province as the Philippines' abacá capital.

Catanduanes's earliest recorded name was Isla de Cobos. This was the name given to it by the Spanish conquistadors, early in 1573, when they came upon several tribes on the island who were living in the thatched huts that the tribal people called cobos. “Catanduanes” comes from the words tandu, a native beetle, and samdong, a native species of tree, both of which were found throughout the island. People often referred to the island as katanduan or kasamdongan, meaning ‘a place where the tandu and the samdong tree thrive in abundance.’ The pronunciation of this word by Spanish-speaking people led to the coining of the Hispanicized version, Catanduanes.

Rulers (datus) from Borneo settled on the island of Panay. Their descendants then migrated throughout the archipelago and became the first settlers in Catanduanes. The island was raided more than once by the Moros, who lived on the island of Mindanao. As a result of these destructive raids, many records of the past were destroyed or lost.

In 1573, Juan de Salcedo arrived in Catanduanes while hunting for pirates. During this period Salcedo would conquer the natives of the region. Three years later, a galleon expedition from Acapulco was shipwrecked near the island, and the survivors were either killed or enslaved. This event is commemorated at the Batalay Church in Bato, a few kilometers outside the capital town of Virac.

The evangelization of the island started twenty years later, when the Spanish soldiers, after subjugating the Bicol mainland, returned with Franciscan missionaries. The missionaries, armed with the cross and backed by the sword of the conquistadors, evangelized the entire population, beginning with southern tribes, and meeting little resistance. From 1600 to 1857, the colonizers established nine local centers of government through the establishment of parishes: Caramoran (1601); Pandán (1650); Viga (1661); Panganiban (1663); Virac (1775); Bató (1830); and San Andrés (1853). The 1818 census showed that there were 7,411 native families in Catanduanes and they were guided by 150 Spanish-Filipino families. Of which the Spanish-Filipino families were distributed among these towns: Virac (91), Calolbon (3), Eiga (3), and Payo (17).

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.