by
Msgr Lope C Robredillo, SThD
Vicar General, Diocese of
Borongan
NOT
LONG after he anchored in Tubabao island, Orás, on Feb 13, 1565 and eventually
established the seat of his government in Manila, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi
parceled out the entire archipelago among encomenderos;
and the tiny hamlets near Orás river fell under the encomienda of Tubig and Sulat.
Nevertheless, the villagers had their first significant encounter with
Spanish culture through the Jesuit priests who founded a missionary base on
Bacod (formerly a bungto, but now
part of Dolores river bed) in the late 1590s.
From Bacod, the Jesuit ministering it often visited the riparian hamlets
along Orás river and those near the seashore, introducing their inhabitants to the
rudiments of Catholic faith, involving themselves in the concentration of these
hamlets into larger villages, and helping the settlers defend themselves from
Muslim raids.
When the Franciscan missionaries took over in
the work of the Jesuits in 1768, one of the
programs that they had inherited
was the reduccion, in which they
encouraged inhabitants to transfer and dwell in the village of Orás from their
scattered tiny hamlets so that faith, culture, and governance could be easily
fostered. Their efforts did not come to
naught, since by the early 1800s, it was already numbered among the visitas (barrios) under the jurisdiction
of Paric (now, Dolores). By this time,
it had its own tenientes and alguaciles, who helped govern the
natives. Its existence as a visita is confirmed, for example, in a
letter of Francisco Castilla, gobernador
politico-militar de Samar, dated
June 20, 1844, stating that “near the visita
of Orás, jurisdiction of Paric, nine vessels and nine balotos of Moros docked” on Sept 13, 1843.
But the formation of Orás as a pueblo owes to the zeal of the parish
priests of Tubig (Taft)
who were relentless in their determination to organize
it in keeping with a town plan, and set up a church of mamposteria, a large church plaza, a convento, a walled cemetery, and a tribunal. In particular,
Father Manuel Lozano, parish priest of Tubig, led in the construction of a
stone church, which was 41’40 m long, and 13’20 m wide. (Unfortunately, this was demolished in 1963 to
give way to the present church.) In
1886, it had a wooden convento that
stood in the lot now occupied by the Holy Cross Academy building, measuring 10
m by 9 ½ m. In creating the bungto, the missionaries made it a point
to place the church, the rectory and the church plaza at its center; and the
more prominent men were allowed to raise their houses around the complex.
Since, in addition to the putting up of these infrastructures
that were required for the creation of pueblos,
the Christianized inhabitants were now capable of supporting the life and
ministry of the parish priest, the separation of Orás as a pueblo from Paric was recommended, and was approved as an
independent pueblo by the
Governor-General on December 13, 1849,
while its erection as a parish was declared on August 31, 1863. As a pueblo, it had a limited number of
officials: gobernadorcillo, teniente
primero, teniente segundo, juez, and
alguaciles. In early 1890s, however,
the town officials already included teniente
mayor, teniente de policia, teniente de semetera, and teniente de ganados. It also
had a principalia, the town’s
aristocracy.
Still,
on account of the scarcity of Franciscan missionaries, it was not until May 18,
1864
that the Superior of the Franciscans gave the approval to erect it as a
parish under the patronage of St Peter of Alcantara. Even so, the pueblo had no pastor of its own; it was serviced by the parish
priest of Tubig. On June 23, 1870,
however, the Bishop of Cebu appointed Father Fernando Esteban as the first
parish priest. He came to the bungto in 1875 and served until
1879. He was succeeded by Father
Bernardo Tapiol (1879), Father Ildefonso Dominguez (1884), Father Ramon Amoros
(1885), Father Candido Esguerra (1890) and Father Eustaquio Paniagua (1896), who
was the cura until the Revolution.
The people of Oras were engaged in agriculture
and fishing. The plains were planted to
rice, coconut, abaca and palawan. Products, like coconut oil, abaca and abaca
cloth, rice and
dried fish, were transported to Catbalogan via Ulot river and
other towns in the eastern littorals. It was Father Esteban who embarked on the construction
of a road from the town to Paric. In
1886, there were 4 Chinese who dominated commerce in the poblacion, 5 in 1892 and 4 in 1894. Even before his official appointment as pastor
in 1890, Father Esguerra was in the parish after the untimely death of Father
Amoros; and from 1885 to 1887, he built two schools, one for boys and another
for girls. Of course, sometime in the
early 1860s, the Franciscans put up a primary school, maintained by the caja de comunidad. With the help of Orasnons, the same Father
Esguerra likewise made canals in the poblacion
to facilitate the flow of waters to the river and to protect houses from
inundation during heavy rains.
The town, which is sometimes called Yorás in
Spanish documents, is located at 12”9 latitude on the east coast of Samar. At the time it was established, the pueblo, on the north, was bounded by
Palapag, on the west by Catubig and mountains, on the south by Paric, and on
the east by the Pacific Ocean. By 1859,
its best known visitas or barrios
were Japonan, Jambo, Alibangbang and Gamay.
In late 1880s, Gamay, like Lapinig, came under jurisdiction of the
parish of Palapag. Meawhile, the villages
of Binalhag, San Eduardo, Concepcion (formerly, Binuangan) and Tangbo were
raised to the status of visita. Tubabao island was originally part of
Dolores. In 1864, the entire pueblo had a population of 3,028, and in
1884, 4,527. Many Orasnons died in the
cholera epidemics of 1876 and 1882, but particularly in that of 1883, when Oras
was the tenth pueblo on Samar island with
highest mortality.*
