As heroes go, Boholanos have several in whom they can take pride but perhaps, save for Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, no one is held in a position of near-reverence as Francisco Dagohoy.
From the handful of facts listed in history books, we know that he was a cabeza de barangay of Inabanga. A position equivalent to that of today’s barangay captain. He was from the barangay of Pasanan. And they say his real name was Francisco Sendrijas.
We know that he led thousands of Boholanos to rise up against the Spanish colonial government. We know that the revolt he led was sparked by the refusal of the Jesuit curate of Inabanga and Talibon, Fr. Gaspar Morales, to give his brother Sagarino a Christian burial. We know that the name Dagohoy is likely from Dagon sa Hoyohoy (literally “amulet of the wind”) and that sometimes he was more fully described with the forbidding phrase “Dag-um ug dagook, inubanan sa hoyohoy” (or lyrically: a dark sky rumbling with thunder, and a windstorm). We know that the uprising began in late January of 1744 with the assassination of Fr. Guiseppe Lamberti, the Italian curate of Jagna. We know that for 85 years, from January of 1744 to August of 1829, Boholanos lived as a free people because of the leadership and inspiration of Dagohoy.
But we also know that people believed he could ride the wind, as his nom de guerre suggests. We have heard that he could leap from hill to hill, that he could slither through the tiniest crevices of a cave, like the snake trabungko, and that he could disappear or appear at a whim. We have also heard of how he is said to have died at the advanced age of 101 because of the bite of a rabid dog on his way back from a hunting trip.
Much of Dagohoy’s life is shrouded in mystery and legend. What isn’t in the history books is passed on only in oral tradition that gives rise to questions of credibility and accuracy. And in most tales of Dagohoy’s exploits, not enough emphasis is ever made of how he administered the province and of how important a factor his familiarity with the surrounding terrain of interior Bohol was to the success of his campaigns. In its place, we have stories of his unnatural powers.
Now, believing that Dagohoy had superhuman abilities needs some extreme stretching of the imagination. For sure, Dagohoy was a man, with the same limits and failings that come with being human. And subject to the same laws of nature and physics as you or I. But such must have been his proficiency at using the terrain to his advantage that the people of his time truly believed that he had a dagon sa hoyohoy, which was said to have granted him the power to glide on the wind, and the lana (oil) and the mutya (talisman) from a trabungko. The lana, when wiped all over the body, was said to restore one to his youth and the mutya enabled one to be visible in pitch-black darkness. Dagohoy is believed to have had other charms as well.
But Dagohoy was renowned even then among the colonial forces made up of Spanish soldiers and Filipino conscripts for his mastery of guerrilla warfare.
Imagine how dispiriting it must have been for the colonial forces trying to fight and track down troops of relentless Boholano freedom fighters in unforgiving terrain, only to discover at every turn that their quarry had vanished. Imagine how frustrating it must have been for tired troops to be hot on the heels in pursuit of Dagohoy only to see that one bearing his unmistakable likeness is already many hills ahead, streaking through the forest.
For this purpose, the hill ranges, caves, and forests of northern Bohol proved invaluable in the Boholanos’s fight against foreign domination. Of special interest among these are the mountain fastness and the many caves of Magtangtang in the present-day municipality of Danao. (It is said in legends that Dagohoy put on his shield and armor at the plateau of Taming – which means “shield” – and took them off to retire from battle at his headquarters in Magtangtang – which means “the act of removing”.
It was in Magtangtang that Dagohoy established his seat of government. And from it, too, he fought those who sought to again enslave the island and its people.
The place is an obvious choice. The mountain ramparts of southeastern Inabanga in Dagohoy’s time and now the western part of Danao, would make a formidable fortress for any one of a military mind. With sentries stationed along the summits of the mountain range that surrounds the valley of Magtangtang, it would be close to impossible even now for enemy troops, on foot or on horseback, to surprise and overwhelm those who settle in its plains. And with trenches and a ready ammunition of great, heavy rocks to throw at the enemy, Dagohoy and his followers had found and made themselves the perfect stronghold.
Foremost among the sanctuaries of Magtangtang was the cave of Caylagan, now renamed the Francisco Dagohoy Cave, which is accessible only by a precipitous foot path. Within the safety of the cave, Dagohoy and his followers could stay indefinitely, for at one end of the cave was an opening that permitted them to lower and raise bamboo tubes to obtain water from the Wahig River or to get rations.
Southward, Taming, which is also in Danao, screened the rebels from the attacks of the Spanish soldiers and their conscripts. And several kilometers northeast of Magtangtang, a steep cliff, a river, and forest trees gave sufficient cover for Boholanos from colonial forces coming from the town of Talibon. A watchman would survey the forest for approaching hordes of enemy soldiers and, at their advance, he would warn his comrades to cross the river and seek cover. The cry to cross, “Tabok! Tabok!”, gave the place its name.
It can be assumed that it was because of his use of guerrilla warfare that Dagohoy was ascribed his supernatural powers. The strategies he employed against the Spanish forces as he attacked or withdrew from them must have made it appear to people that he could indeed turn invisible, bound from hill to hill, or ride the wind, as the tales of his prowess tell us.
Dagohoy may have never had these powers, but with his headquarters nestled in the near-impenetrable defenses of Magtangtang, it is easy to imagine how Dagohoy, his captains, and his followers, without supernatural aid, and in spite of an inferior armory, held off the once-and-would-be conquerors for close to a century and liberated a province and its people for many generations.
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