THE OLDEST TOWN IN BILIRAN PROVINCE will mark its 294th anniversary when it celebrates its first ever "Pueblo Day" on Sept. 10.

“We seek to reach out to our historic past to find inspiration for our present and future endeavors,” said Biliran Mayor Pablo A. Mejia III in underscoring the relevance of the occasion. Theme of the celebration is “Biliran: Hadto, Yana ngan an Tiarabut (Biliran: Then, Now and the Forthcoming).”

The municipal government has lined up various activities for the Boro-Biliran Festival from Sept. 4-10. Main attractions are an agricultural fair at the bus terminal, a field demonstration of traditional games and sports, and an exhibit of local memorabilia and heritage items at the Enage Ancestral House.

Government, youth, nongovernment and socio-religious groups will join an “anniversary build” activity to construct several houses for the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Village, which shall benefit poor families.

Cultural shows and socials will be held during evenings at the plaza.

Other activities include supplemental feeding for children, medical-dental consultations, mass wedding, playground demonstrations by local schools, and the 5th Mayor Kokong Mejia Tennis Cup tournament.

The pueblo (town) of Biliran was created on Sept. 12, 1712, when the island was then known as Isla de Panamao.

Panamao (read, pan-amaw) was described in the Alcina manuscript of 1668 as a heavy-duty net used to catch large species of fish, including tuna and mantas. It was also used to catch duyung, the sea cows that are now extinct.

The natives were accustomed to set the pan-amaw on land to catch wild hogs and other animals. This type of net is called the batung in our time.

"Biliran" might have been the Bisayan label for those six Spanish galleons that were built on Isla de Panamao from the 1580s to the early 1600s. But the name, which referred to the protruding, curve-angled “corner or edge of a boat,” failed to replace the borrowed words barko and bapor (steamboat).

The meaning of the word "biliran" underwent a lot of sea change since its mention as an entry in the ancient dictionary, "Vocabulario de la Lengua Bisaya," compiled by Fr. Mateo Sanchez, SJ, in Dagami, Leyte, in 1616.

This dictionary was published in Manila a century later, in 1711. By then, "biliran" had an additional meaning, “the furrow made by the plow.” The farm implement was popularized by the Augustinians in Leyte, who replaced the Jesuits in 1768.

The current interpretation of the word was proposed by the late Justice Norberto Romualdez a century ago. He theorized that the name Biliran was derived from a grass called borobiliran (lit., similar to biliran), which was used for making mats.

The original poblacion (town center) of Biliran pueblo was in Sitio Ilawod of Barangay Caraycaray, in the present town of Naval, along the river about “1.5 to 2 leagues” (5 km) from the sea.

A Moro attack on May 26, 1754, devastated the town. The raiders razed and destroyed all houses and planted fields, plundered and stole jewels from the church, and captured many inhabitants, except the gobernadorcillo (mayor) and the fiscal (treasurer) who had escaped.

The raiders also burned all the houses and destroyed the settlements of Caybiran, Mapuyo and Maripipi in other parts of the pueblo.

Biliran had its first resident parish priest when Don Gaspar Ignacio de Guevara was appointed curate of the San Juan Nepomuceno Parish on Oct. 10, 1765. Padre Gaspar, as he was known in local legend, was a secular priest who was born in Paranas, Samar.

Padre Gaspar was presumably aware of the devastating 1754 Moro raids when he accepted his parish assignment to Biliran. Among his first acts was the transfer of the poblacion from Caraycaray southeast towards the then forested foothills in the vicinity of the present Barangay Canila, about 8 km northeast of the present town center of Biliran.

But Padre Gaspar had his own delusions. He called the new settlement Albacea, the Spanish for “executor of the testament.” In the forest commune, he set up a sanctuary, enthroned himself in the “chair of Peter” with the royal throne in Biliran Island, and styled himself as the “first among the priests of the world.”

From his sanctuary, Padre Gaspar spread his doctrines, granted indulgences, spread news of miracles in the Leyte-Samar region, recruited and sent our disciples to incite revolts, conferred sacred orders, gave out offices, legislated, and threatened those who opposed him.

Together with an alcalde mayor (governor) of Biliran that he appointed, he fought against the Franciscan friars in Samar and the Augustinian friars in Leyte.

Padre Gaspar ordained sub-deacons and attracted a great number of followers, especially among the women. He also cordially treated and sheltered the Spanish alcalde mayor of Samar (which included Leyte until 1777), who also worked with him.

His influence was reportedly strong in virtually all pueblos of Samar Island, where women disciples set up sanctuaries and performed religious rituals with his blessing.

He also exerted influence in many pueblos of Leyte.

Padre Gaspar was captured and killed by Moro raiders sometime in 1774, after a decade of an event that this writer had labeled the “Biliran Religious Revolt” from 1765 to 1774.

Extant folklore and many place-names around Biliran Province provide details and nuances that point to Padre Gaspar’s career as a revolutionary, though heretic priest. Almost all barangay names in Biliran town have connections to his work.

It appears that Padre Gaspar experimented with commune society living. He might have imbibed the idea from the Jesuits in Samar before they were expelled from the Philippines in 1768. Around that era, Jesuits in South America conducted a similar utopian experiment among the Guarani Indians in the mountains of Paraguay.

The Jesuit experience was the theme of a critically-acclaimed feature movie, “The Mission,” which was released in 1986.

Millenarian movements that rose in the Leyte-Samar area during revolutionary times had fought against the Spanish authorities in the late 1880s, against the American colonizers at the turn of the previous century, and against Filipinos guerrillas during World War II. They adopted social structures similar to that of Padre Gaspar’s commune in the 1770s.

A modern-day manifestation of Padre Gaspar’s legacy is the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), incorporated in 1965 and now based on Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte. Its founding group of tambalan (traditional medicine men), who practiced their trade in Kawayan, Biliran, claimed to have inherited the miraculous cane of their saintly Padre Gaspar.

A pageant about the life of Padre Gaspar was originally planned to be presented during this year’s maiden festival in Biliran town. But lack of funds forced the organizers to defer the activity until next year, said George M. Plecerda, the mayor's secretary who serves as the unofficial guardian of his town's heritage.

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