BILIRAN, an island-province in Eastern Visayas, was known as Isla de Panamao (Panamao Island) in early Spanish chronicles. An early Visayan dictionary (ca. 1612) described panamao as a native fishing net.

Panamao Island was the site of the first large-scale Spanish shipyard in the Philippines. A Jesuit chronicler, Fr. Francisco Colin, wrote in 1663 that six galleons were built here before the facility was transferred to Cavite around 1604.

Panamao was still the name of the island when another Jesuit, Fr. Francisco Alcina, wrote his famous manuscript about the islands and people of the Bisayas (Leyte and Samar) in 1668.

Alcina noted that the mountain found northwest of Panamao was an active volcano ''throwing out fire--especially on very dark and stormy nights.''

The name ''Biliran'' appeared for the first time in a 1712 document containing a formal petition for the recognition of Biliran Island (no longer Panamao) as a new pueblo. Thus, the name was probably changed sometime between 1668 and 1712.

Panamao Volcano presumably erupted in 1669, a milestone year in Tacloban history associated with a rain of ashes in this village in eastern Leyte. The ashfall could only have originated from this volcano since Mt. Mayon, the other nearby volcano mentioned in the Alcina manuscript, was not eruptive at that time.

The name of Biliran could be associated with the catastrophic eruption of Panamao Volcano.

''Biliran'' (not borobiliran, which is a different species) is the name of a native grass used for weaving mats.

The late Justice Norberto Romualdez theorized that Biliran Island was probably named after the plant but did not explain why.

Biliran grass was probably the vegetation that immediately flourished in the swampy and lahar-devastated settlements left by the islanders who sought refuge elsewhere.

The word biliran was probably first used by the returning natives to refer to the altered geography and later adopted as new place-name.

The other possible motive for changing the name was the natives' fear of their nature gods and spirits, whose wrath they perceived from the disastrous volcanic eruption.

Aside from their rituals and offerings, the native priests could have resorted to the cultural practice of name-switching in the hope that the vengeful spirits would become confused and lose track of the object or subject of their ire.

Dalutan Islet, a tiny land mass two kilometers off the Agta Beach Resort at the base of Mt. Panamao in Almeria town, is a testament of the native attempt to appease the gods and spirits of Panamao.

Dalutan is the native word for ''place of offering.''

Thus, Biliran became the new name of the island. But the old name, Panamao, was retained to identify and, perhaps, memorialize a mountain that had caused much misery to the natives in the late 1600s.

Now, Panamao is a much-publicized mountaineer's destination. It looks majestic and serene on clear and sunny days. It is also full of myths and legends that continue to be told among the natives.

Its fiery past can now be told.