Written by: Prof. Rolando Borrinaga
Judge Antonio Abilar, Beinvenido Granali,
the late Alberto Bago and Jose Gahum
The history of the town of Naval goes much deeper into the form �Bagasumbol to Naval� theme that our folklore, folksongs, the 1961 Naval Centennial Celebration, and the first published history written by the 1966 Naval Municipal Historical Committee would make us believe to have started around the 1850�s.
We claimed that there was already an unclaimed village in the year 1600, the one that had been described by Jesuit priest Fr. Chirino as the nearby base of the spanish shipyard and other workers in the first known spanish shipyard in the Philippines on ISLA de PANAMAO (the present Biliran Island, the PANAMAO refereed to an ethnic fishing net), and which was ministered by Jesuit missionaries based in Carigara in 1601. We postulate that the site of this village was located in the present SITIO ILAWOD (a SITIO is a cluster of a few houses, ILAWOD refers to the seaward portion) of barangay Caraycaray, along the southern bank near the mouth of the Caraycaray river; in this village by the Jesuits in 1601; and that the shipyard was located at the nearby Sabang beach across Inagawan Point.
On September 10, 1712, having qualified the population and infrastructure requirements, the natives submitted a formal petition for the creation of Panamao (Biliran) as a separate pueblo and parish. This pueblo of Biliran included the settlements in the different areas and islets of Biliran Island, excluding Maripipi Island. On this regard, we postulate that the POBLACION of Biliran pueblo was located in the present Sitio Ilawod, on the same site that we postulated as the village base of the workers of the spanish shipyard on Panamao island in 1600, or 112 years earlier.
To support our claim for sitio Ilawod as the poblacion of Biliran pueblo, we argue that the LANTAWAN or watch tower on this site was erected along before 1712, as the A PRIORI- Spanish requirements for this pueblo�s formation.
On May 14, 1735, a government document published in Manila directed the natives residing in Biliran pueblo to have �peopled� (HAN POBLADO: attained the required number of 500 tributes) its territorial jurisdiction within five years. This document appeared to be the conditional government recognition of the people�s petition for a pueblo wayback in 1712.
On October 10, 1765, a government document published in Manila appointed a certain Don Gaspar Ignacio de Guevarra as Curate of San Juan Nepumuceno in Biliran pueblo.
Probably early in his tenure as Cura, Padre Gaspar transferred the poblacion site of Biliran pueblo (at Sitio Ilawod) to a hilltop site in the present barangay Hugpa of Biliran town, a distance of about 15 kilometers from sitio Ilawod. As a result of this poblacion transfer, the old poblacion site (in sitio Ilawod) became known as BINONGTUAN.
The remaining villagers or the leader of the old poblacion (in sitio Ilawod) who did not follow Padre Gaspar, were later discribed as BAGASUMBOL or �obstacles� to enemies who waged territorial border disputes against their �deserters�, and �usurpers� in the poblacion in Albacia which had been established by Padre Gaspar. BAGASUMBOL may also refer to �whatever great victory or conquest� that our forebears might have achieved.
The geographical area that is Naval was reduce to the status of a visita of Biliran pueblo. However many residents of this visita also transfer their abodes to more elevated location two kilometers northeast of the old poblacion (in Sitio Ilawod). They named their new settlement as Caraycaray (ripples produced by river water cascading downstream).
The Naval folklore, folksongs, and of the late 1800�s owes its beginning to Fr. Juan Inocentes Mangco Garcia, who was the assistant parish priest of Biliran pueblo from around 1848 to 1861. By then, the pueblo of Biliran had been to the pueblo in 1828. And the place that would become Naval (the area around poblacion in sitio Ilawod) was already called Bagasumbol.
Struck by the flatness and the fertility of the land, Padre Inocentes as Fr. Garcia was commonly known to folklore, invited his relatives and friends from Dimiao, Bohol and Danao, Cebu to come and settle in this place.
The new wave of migrants on an area near �tubod� (spring), some two hundred meters north from the town plaza of Naval and three kilometers northwest of the village Bagasumbol (Sitio Ilawod), the old poblacion � turn � visits of Biliran pueblo. They were followed by other migrants from Panay and Negros.
The name Bagasumbol, which was perceived to sound war-like, was changed to the more peaceful name NAVAL, in 1859.
On May 26, 1860, Naval was separated from Biliran, but operated as an independent parish only of September 1860. On July 31, 1861, Msgr. Romualdo Ximeno, Bishop of Cebu, officially declared Naval as an independent parish. In August 1861, Fr. Santos de Santa Juana took up formal residence as the first parish of Naval, and served the town for 21 years until 1882.
On September 23, 1869, Naval was officially recognized as an independent pueblo.
Fr. Inocentes was known to have named the new pueblo as Naval, in honor of its adopted patroness, the Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, whose miraculous intercession assured the Spanish victory over the Dutch Navy during the historic �La Guerra Naval de Manila� in 1646. The senior author, however, poring into additional documents, theorized that Padre Inocentes, while he looked up to the historic Naval victory in Manila as his model, may have entertained the idea of memorializing the successful defense of Bagasumbol, which he had led as the assistant parish priest of Biliran against three waves of Moro attacks on this settlement. This was supposed to have occurred in the 1830�s, but most probably this occurred between 1858, the latter being the benchmark year for the cessation of the Moro attacks in the Visayas.