During the last decades of the Spanish period, the Daan Banwa settlement grew and prospered with its inhabitants coming from the neighboring areas like Saravia, Manapla or even from Panay island.
In the 19th century, migration from Panay island to the Negros island was not only common; it was encouraged so as to populate the island with industrious hands and fortune-seeking people. Even the former Victorias mayor, Don Felix Montinola, who was elected in 1934, crossed the Iloilo Strait and settled in Saravia. He was born in Jaro, Iloilo in 1864 but moved to Saravia (now E. B. Magalona) in the 1890s (or earlier) with two of his unmarried sisters. In 1897, he married the daughter of the mayor (no less!) of Saravia.
Even some of the revolutionary fighters against Spain in the Negros island were Ilonggos who joined Elias Magbanua and his Negrense fighters in a stand against the American soldiers at Sitio Guintabuan in Saravia on August 19, 1899. (Read my blog about Elias Magbanua here).
While Daan Banwa was still a barrio, it switched several times from being a part of Saravia and Manapla because its population and income were hardly enough for it to be recognized as a town. It must have been a sleepy village near the sea and river where people gather in a popular shady spot during cool afternoons to exchange stories, argue and share opinions, spread gossip, and of course, flirt! 😃
Daan Banwa was a barrio of Saravia even before 1848, the year Bacolod became the capital of Negros Province. It was just a village by the Malihao River that happened to have a settlement of nipa huts whose inhabitants survived on fishing from the river, gathering shells from the shore, and harvesting edible fruits from the forest.
It became a barrio of Saravia because of a reported crime. A deadly quarrel happened between two neighbors that ended up one killing another. The crime had to be reported to Himamaylan, then the province's capital, where the governor, upon learning that the crime had to be reported to the capital as it was not part of any town, ordered that Victorias be officially part of Saravia and that it should have its own leader. An election among the villages was conducted and a certain 'Tomas' was elected.
(This is not 'Daan Banwa' but this is a typical scene of a village in 1880s Philippines where neighbors gather to socialize, argue, gossip, and flirt)
Photo credit: Pump Park Vintage
Photography-Alamy Stock Photo)
Around 1876, when the settlement grew in size and in population, it became a town and for three consecutive terms, Gregorio Conlu was the capitán. During his term, an unfortunate event happened - an event that somehow became fateful to both the inhabitants and the small town that eventually became a municipality and later, a city.Photography-Alamy Stock Photo)
Gregorio Conlu and his wife Fausta Gosiaoco, popularly known as 'Capitana Tutang', sold tubâ (coconut wine) and probably other things like dried fish and fermented condiments at their home. And one afternoon, the couple noticed a paraw, a boat with outrigger and common in the Visayan seas, coming into the Malihao River and loaded with passengers. While its passengers remained on board the whole afternoon, they came to shore at seven in the evening, drank tuba at Capitana Tutang's store, and left at half past seven.
But when it was late in the evening with the couple's store already closed, the same men, numbering six, came back with bolos and robbed the couple by entering through a window. Capitan Conlu and his clerk, Alfonso Pechera, were able to evade trouble by putting out the light (there was no electricity then) in the store and went up the attic of the house to hide. Although Capitana Tutang was left sitting at the table frozen in fear, she was not hurt by the tulisanes. Instead, they killed four comisarios (peacekeepers during that time like our present-day barangay tanod) who later came to the house to apprehend the bandits and injured two villagers who also came to help.
Unfortunately for the couple, Capitana Tutang had to surrender her earrings, diamonds and other jewelry, a comb, cash of 500 pesos, and some clothes the tulisanes liked, and although their neighbors came out of their homes because of the commotion, no one was able to help as they were all threatened by the bandits who escaped using Capitana Tutang and her maid Mikay as hostages. As the Jalandoni memoirs specifically mentioned that diamonds and a comb were part of the loot, I thought these were rough diamonds, not the Harry Winston quality whose brilliance blinds, but ones cut roughly, and the comb was probably ivory, which made me wonder if it was a special comb from China made of animal bones or bamboo.
Both hands tied, Tutang and Mikay were brought into the paraw until they reached the mouth of the Malihao River where Tutang was asked whether they could swim. When she said 'no', their hands were untied and were thrown overboard because they already served their purpose as hostages. Because the tulisanes were only after cash and valuables, and were not interested in capturing women and children to sell as slaves, they were most likely from a neighboring island or worse, from Buglas (Negros island) itself. (It was the fearsome Moro raiders from Mindanao who were notoriously known to kidnap women and children because they were more expensive commodities to sell.)
A good swimmer, Capitana Tutang made it back to shore while dragging Mikay, who couldn't swim, with her. They were thrown out at a spot where the waters measured a little more than eight feet.
Although we don't know how old Mikay was, it made me wonder why Tutang didn't allow her to take swimming lessons from the men in the village when Daan Banwa was just next to a river and a beach! She probably didn't trust the local men who she thought were really after teaching Mikay anything other than how to swim.😆
I believe Capitana Tutang was more than a grand dame of Daan Banwa than what the limitedly known town history is telling us. She must have been a culinary expert like Nora Daza because she had a popular store where even bandits patronized, a champion Palarong Pambansa-caliber swimmer who could swim from sea to shore in cold, dark waters while dragging someone with her, a witty, quick thinker who outsmarted the tulisanes, and had more influence in Daan Banwa than her teniente-del-barrio husband. Otherwise, why would she be addressed as 'capitana'? And for all we know, Capitan Gregorio Conlu, with all due respect to his contribution to the old town, was 'under the saya'. He was the one who left his wife behind among the tulisanes and hid in the kísame, remember?
When Tutang and Mikay finally reached the shore that dreadful night, they knelt and prayed. Tutang believed it was a miracle and being a devotee, she believed it was the Virgin Mary who saved them. So when they got home, she told her husband, who must have been relieved but still shaken, about what happened to her and Mikay. She also shared with him her wish to buy an image of the Virgin even though they just lost their money.
That night in Daan Banwa must have been dramatic scenes from a telenovela: four dead comisarios bathed in blood from bolo hacks and lying on dirt ground, a teniénte del barrio hiding in a kísame, a kidnapped 'first lady', two injured villagers, and a bunch of helpless townspeople carrying their lighted torches around trying to bring back order to their village.
After four months, when she went to her relatives in Bacolod to ask their help in buying the image, a generous cousin, Eulalia Villasor, gave her 250 pesos. She then visited Saravia's parish priest, Fr. Hilarion Narro, whom she told about her wish to purchase the image. The priest then helped her by sending a letter to Spain to order a statue of the Virgin Mary. (In the Jalandoni memoirs, it was Capitan Gorio who ordered the statue from Barcelona, Spain).
Eleven months after Tutang's escape from the tulisanes, the image of the Virgin arrived and was placed at the altar of the church in Malihao alongside the statue of San Casimiro, their patron saint. The image was called Nuestra Señora de las Victorias or Our Lady of Victory, and this was the start of the barrio's veneration to the Virgin. (The 1953 Compilation and the Jalandoni Memoirs described the statue as that of the Virgin Mary with no mention of the Child Jesus. The current Our Lady of Victory statue, however, shows the Child Jesus standing on the right side of the Virgin.)
The statue that arrived from Spain was the Our Lady of Victory, a statue with the child Jesus on the right side of the Virgin. Upon the victory of the Christian forces over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, Pope Pius V attributed that victory to the intercession of the Virgin through the praying of the Holy Rosary during days of the battle (The Our Lady of Victory is also known as Our Lady of the Rosary). When Capitana Tutang ordered her statue from Spain, the veneration to the Our Lady of Victory was already more than 300 years old and the statue maker probably sculpted her that image because, one, it was a popular choice, and, two, Capitana Tutang's ordeal over the tulisanes must have been a victory of sorts as well. So, the current image of the Virgin is, indeed, the Our Lady of Victory as venerated by Pope Pius V and the Christian forces in 1571. So, from 10,000 kilometers away in Greece and 300 years since the victory, the Virgin became the small settlement's Mother founded along a river and near the sea in Las Islas Filipinas.
Months later, two captives, one from Calatrava and another from Escalante, of the Moro raiders, escaped and took refuge in Malihao. They recounted stories about their Moro raiders attempting to enter the mouth of the Malihao River but was met by a beautiful woman standing on the front bow of a banca holding a sword while a robust man stood behind her and held a lance. Upon seeing the obvious threat, the raiders retreated and instead went up north to Manapla where they continued their atrocities on coastal villages. That's where the two made their escape.
This story reached a Visayan priest, Crispino Hinolan, who was in charge of Saravia. He asked the capitán to gather his people for a momentous announcement. That occasion, where past and present capitánes as well as the townspeople were assembled, was where the Catholic Church publicly recognized the miracle and the legendary story on the Malihao River.
And to immortalize their gratitude to the Virgin, Malihao was renamed 'Nuestra Señora de las Victorias' with the approval of the townspeople. They must have unanimously approved it as, during those times, the friars and priests were influential and the majority were Catholics. The change of name was approved by the provincial governor but he officially shortened it to 'Victorias' instead. A novena was also held to solemnize the feast.
Capitan Gorio and Capitana Tutang were of Chinese ancestry and were probably from Iloilo, considering their surnames Conlu and Gosiaoco, and the valuables such as rough diamonds, gold earrings and a prized comb that she brought with her.
Capitana Tutang should be immortalized in our history with a bust or a monument (although it would be difficult as we may not have any portrait of her lying around) at Daan Banwa, not as a public servant, but because she represented the admirable spirit of our past that should be emulated in the present: bravery, resilience, and unwavering faith in God. 🙏
In 1882, the capitan that succeeded Gregorio Conlu was Mariano Conlu, who was nicknamed "Uban" because of his white hair. There was animosity between the two Conlus which caused the villagers to relocate elsewhere, diminishing the population and income of the town and consequently reducing it to a barrio of Manapla.
Chapter 5. Should the town have been called Salvación and not Victorias?
"Ang Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang Victorias"
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