Surigao Historical Society

04/09/2026

𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗔𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦

𝗦𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝘂𝗹𝗽𝗶𝘁𝘀: 𝗔𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝘀, 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗼𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺𝘀

4–5 June 2027 · Province of Dinagat Islands
This conference will be convened by the UP Office of the Vice President for Digital Transformation, UP Diliman Department of History, and the Surigao Historical Society.
In May 1967, two thousand white-clad followers of Valentin de los Santos marched on Malacañang armed with bolos and amulets, certain no bullet could touch them; police cut down thirty-three (Ileto, 1979). In 2023, four hundred bodies were exhumed from Kenya's Shakahola Forest, where a pastor's YouTube ministry had urged his followers to starve their way to Christ. A century and two oceans apart, the grammar holds — grievance, charismatic authority, sacred geography, the conviction that the world as it is cannot be the world as it should be (Cohn, 1970). Only the infrastructure has changed: from a mountain trail one can blockade to an algorithm one cannot. Philippine scholarship has mapped the first world (Ileto, 1979; Sturtevant, 1976; Cannell, 1999); global comparative work has mapped the second (Wessinger, 2011; Hall et al., 2000). The two rarely meet. This conference brings them together, treating Philippine cases as theory-generating rather than merely illustrative — and asks precisely what travels across cases, from a colorum cell to a Telegram channel, and what does not.
Philippine millenarian studies remain Luzon-centric — Banahaw, the Central Luzon colorum heartland, the Lapiang Malaya. The Visayan and Mindanao registers, among them the Pulahanes of Samar and Leyte who mounted the most durable early-American-period resistance (Sturtevant, 1976), receive far less attention than they warrant. The Surigao seaboard offers a case in point: the Surigaonon historian Fernando Almeda (1982) read the 1924 Colorum rising not as fanaticism but as peasant nationalism — Ileto's interpretive move for Luzon, made independently for the seaboard. Convening on the eastern seaboard corrects that, and invites scholarship attentive to the maritime and archipelagic cosmologies the mountain-centered literature has underplayed.
This international conference is a scholarly gathering that brings Philippine and global scholarship on millenarian movements into sustained dialogue — convened in a province building a new state college, and designed to advance that college even as it advances the field We invite abstracts that put Philippine millenarian studies and global comparative scholarship into genuine dialogue, across four tracks:
Sacred Geographies — mountains, islands, and networks as sacred space. How spatial cosmology migrates from the sacred mountains and apocryphal cities of Luzon, to the maritime cosmologies of the eastern seaboard (its island shrines and sacred springs), to networked space where geography seems to dissolve — and how climate displacement manufactures the new dispossessions that have always seeded such movements (Lanternari, 1963).
Charismatic Authority and Its Discontents — from babaylan to televangelist. The mutation of spiritual authority from the indigenous, often female babaylan, through the messianic peasant prophet, to the media-empire founder — centering the succession problem (Weber, 1978; Dawson, 1999) and the marriage of eschatology to prosperity-gospel finance, Quiboloy beside analogues in Lagos, São Paulo, and Seoul.
The State and the Threshold of Violence — Tayug (1931) to Shakahola (2023). How suppression, co-optation, and regulatory neglect shape trajectories — and how the state's own response can trigger violence rather than prevent it (Hall et al., 2000) — from Tayug (1931) and the Pulahanes, through the Lapiang Malaya dispersal, to the Shakahola prosecutions.
Digital Pulpits and Vernacular Categories — thin cults, algorithms, and kulto. Recruiter-less, compound-less “thin” movements that algorithms sustain, and the frameworks built for “thick” cults that cannot reach them (Wessinger, 2011) — paired with the Philippine vocabulary of kulto, sekta, samahan, and simbahan, and what it reveals that the Anglophone debate obscures.
Gender and climate run as cross-cutting threads through all four tracks.
𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗔𝗕𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗔𝗟
Graduate students are warmly encouraged.
Submit a 250-word abstract proposal (in MS Word Format) and short bionote to: [email protected]
Email Heading:
ABSTRACT PROPOSAL Sacred Geographies, Digital Pulpits_SURNAME,First Name
Deadline of abstract submission is on:
31 October 2026, 11:59 PM
Conference website: https://history.upd.edu.ph/.../sacred-geographies.../

09/05/2026

OFFICIAL STATEMENT on GE CURRICULUM REVISION

Statement of the Surigao Historical Society (SHS)
on the Proposed GE Curriculum Revision

We, the Board of Directors and the members of the Surigao Historical Society (SHS), strongly oppose the plan to integrate History and The Life and Works of Rizal into a single course within the Reframed General Education curriculum.

We believe this integration will consequently denigrate the academic value and depth of both subjects.

Amidst the proliferation of historical distortion and misinformation (commonly known as “fake news”) on social media, and the troubling rise of fanaticism, the need for college students to study the past has never been greater.

As young adults, college students are presumed to be more discerning and critical in their appreciation of historical narratives. They are at a pivotal stage to effectively apply the lessons of the past toward the goal of nation-building.

We call upon the institutions and individuals responsible for this curriculum revision to act with prudence and wisdom.

Salamat karadjaw!
Surigao Historical Society
09 May 2026

30/04/2026

AN MGA SUBA NAN SURIGAO
The River Remembers: Waterways as Witness to Surigao's History

Repost from Surigao Historical Society Website
22 August 2025
Visit the SHS website: wwwDOTsurigaohistoricalsocietyDOTorg

Long before roads, rivers connected Surigao’s people.
They carried salt and stories, priests and rebels, memories and mourning.

Along these waterways flowed not just commerce—but culture, conquest, and continuity.

The Rivers That Made a Region
The Surigao River, fed by the mountains of Mainit and Sison, winding its way into the coastal plains, has always been more than a body of water. It was the lifeline of early Surigaonons—used for fishing, drinking, ritual, and movement.

Rivers like Jabonga’s tributaries, flowing into Lake Mainit and reaching the coastal lowlands, acted as natural highways. These waterways connected upland communities, such as the Mamanwa, with lowland traders and eventually, foreign forces.

To understand Surigao’s history, one must follow the current.

Barter, Bamboo, and Bloodlines: The Precolonial Era
Before Spain arrived, Surigao’s rivers teemed with banca traffic. Indigenous traders used them to transport salt from Cantiasay, pottery from Jabonga, resins and forest products from upland Agusan, and dried fish and woven mats from the coast.

Rivers were also ancestral borders—respectfully crossed with ritual. Some riverbanks held burial sites, or were believed to be guarded by nature spirits.

In this world, rivers weren’t just useful—they were sacred.

Crosses Upstream: Rivers and the Missionary March
When the Jesuits and later the Recollects entered Caraga, they followed the rivers inland. Colonial evangelization depended on these natural arteries to:

Reach isolated visitas like Jabonga, Mainit, and Taganaan
Carry supplies for mission outposts
Transport baptized natives and church records

However, rivers were also ambush zones. During Moro raids, boats were overturned, priests were attacked, and churches burned down near riverbanks. The same rivers that brought friars also witnessed bloodshed and loss.

Resistance and the River Frontier
In times of conflict, rivers became frontlines. Rebel leaders and communities used river systems to evade Spanish troops, transport contraband arms, or hide refugees.

After the Colorum uprising of 1924, colonial forces monitored river routes for signs of regrouping rebels. American authorities, too, recognized that the rivers remained unmapped corridors of power and escape—a symbol of the land’s independence.

Waters of Memory: Today’s Rivers as Heritage
Today, many of Surigao’s rivers are still essential for livelihood, but face pollution, illegal logging run-off, mining siltation, and damming threats. Yet for older Surigaonons, these waterways remain repositories of memory—places of baptisms, childhood swims, funeral processions, and ancestral connection.

Rivers hold the story of Surigao itself—from ancient barter routes to battlegrounds, and from sacred rituals to modern resource struggles.

HALA KUNO...
Tan-awa an listahan... uman na suba an kuyang? Haman diri an imo paborito kaligoan? Nan, kadumdom pa kaw nan ijo panlaba sa kasubaan? Pagsan-is-is nan ijo kaldero na na-uling na an labot sa sugnod? An pagsansubay nijo kan crush na nanlugod aka n@m4kl4d hhhhaha? An hapit kamo kalumos kay nag cutting class? O an ijo pagpahubas, solb an paniudto kay arang na gabot, hayuan, kagang!

Explore Further, Engage DeeperThis story is just one of many hidden within the pages of Surigao Across the Years.

To explore more visit: wwwDOTsurigaohistoricalsocietyDOTorg/surigao-book

Click here to know the Editorial Team, Copyright and Authorized Digital Use Statement.

29/04/2026

Gold, Greed, and Glory – Surigao’s Mining Boom

Repost from Surigao Historical Society Website
28 August 2025
https://www.surigaohistoricalsociety.org/surigao-book/2025-aug-articles/2025-aug-28-gold

“Veins of gold, veins of unrest. Where the earth bled wealth and wounds.”

The 1930s marked a dazzling chapter in Surigao’s history. The remote northeastern province—known for its quiet coastlines, forested hills, and deep tribal memory—was suddenly catapulted into the international spotlight as one of the richest untapped gold frontiers in the Philippines.

Beneath the surface of rivers and mountain slopes lay a treasure that would attract foreign capitalists, awaken local prospectors, and unsettle the very soul of Surigao. This was a time of sudden wealth, societal shifts, and promises forged in glitter—but tempered by loss, exploitation, and a looming war.

A Land Stirred by Gold Fever
The gold rush in Surigao began modestly. In remote areas like Nonoc, Placer, and Tubod, local knowledge of gold-bearing rivers had long existed. Chinese immigrants and enterprising Filipinos began small-scale panning and surface mining in the early 1930s. Their success stories, whispered through markets and waterfronts, sparked interest far beyond Mindanao.

As prices of gold surged globally during the Great Depression, Surigao’s mineral wealth attracted American mining investors eager to exploit untouched territories. According to Surigao Across the Years, the first major foreign mining applications poured in by 1934, targeting vast tracts of land and displacing native operations almost overnight.

“The golden promise outpaced the province’s soul.”

From Pioneers to Powerhouses
The first to strike were not corporations but independent diggers—Filipino and Chinese migrants with little capital but bold determination. They unearthed the first signs of a mother lode.

But their operations were quickly overtaken by large-scale American companies such as the Mindanao Motherlode Mines and Pacific Mining Company, who arrived with machinery, engineers, and legal title.

They transformed Surigao’s natural landscape into an industrial zone - constructing ore mills, airstrips, wharves, and roads in record time. What took locals years to build by hand was now overpowered by bulldozers, drills, and dynamite.

The once-rural settlements of Nonoc and Placer became boomtowns built on glitter, shadowed by silence—filled with laborers, clerks, engineers, and gamblers. The promise of gold blurred lines between law and opportunity.

Displacement, Inequality, and the Cost of Progress
With gold came growth—but not for everyone. Ecological destruction was swift: forests cleared, rivers clouded, mountains gouged. The mining boom brought wage labor and commerce, but also displacement of indigenous peoples, loss of ancestral lands, and widening class divisions.

Local customs and power structures were eroded by the entry of corporate interests and foreign capital. Surigao became both a gold mine and a battleground of values—between tradition and modernization, between stewardship and extraction.

The influx of outsiders created tension and competition for jobs, land, and influence. Some locals grew rich. Many others remained spectators to the wealth pulled from their own soil.

“It was a time when the earth spoke riches - but in tongues only outsiders understood.”

Boom Before the Storm
By the late 1930s, Surigao was a leading producer of gold in Mindanao. Investors spoke of decades of prosperity ahead. But history had other plans.

With World War II approaching, shipments slowed. American firms withdrew or downsized. Workers left. When the Japanese invaded in 1941, the golden age of Surigao’s mining halted abruptly, leaving behind rusting machines, abandoned shafts, and ghost towns.

The glitter faded—but its legacy endured, in both scars and memories.



Five Questions to Spark Your Curiosity
1. How did Surigao’s gold deposits become known to the world in the 1930s?
2. Who were the early local and foreign players that shaped the mining industry?
3. What changes did the gold rush bring to towns like Nonoc and Placer?
4. How did the gold boom impact Surigao’s environment and social fabric?
5. What lessons does Surigao’s mining history offer about wealth, power, and sustainability today?

Explore Further, Engage Deeper
This story is just one of many hidden within the pages of Surigao Across the Years.

To explore more: Interact with the book through Artificial Intelligence (AI): Visit the customized GPT by Open AI HERE https://chatgpt.com/g/g-682ce3a91d28819193f810e4e19a359f-surigao-across-the-years and the Book Section of the Surigao Historical Society HERE https://www.surigaohistoricalsociety.org/surigao-book

Click here https://www.surigaohistoricalsociety.org/surigao-book/copyright-and-authorization to know the Editorial Team, Copyright and Authorized Digital Use Statement.

Photo: AI Generated.

27/04/2026

The Pipers Arrive: Establishing the American Education System in Surigao

Repost from Surigao Historical Society Website
03 December 2025
https://www.surigaohistoricalsociety.org/surigao-book/2025-dec-articles/2025-dec03-thomasites

The Cartilla's End: Confronting a Legacy of "Blessed Ignorance"
For centuries, Spanish rule in Surigao—and indeed across the archipelago—had prioritized spiritual conversion over widespread secular learning, resulting in a lamentable educational environment. Under the Spanish system, education came to a dead-stop after the basic instruction provided by the Cartilla. This deliberate colonial policy sought to keep the Indios in a state of "blessed ignorance" so that they would be easier to handle. While Jesuit efforts, particularly those of Fr. Luengo, did lay the foundation for elementary education, resulting in schools in all eleven parishes and 16 out-stations by the end of Spanish rule, there was no secondary school or college in the entire province when the Spaniards departed.

This intellectual void was the landscape inherited by the first American administrators.

Harbingers of the American Dream
The transition from Spanish to American sovereignty brought an immediate and dramatic shift in colonial strategy. Following in the wake of the soldiers, the first Americans to arrive in Surigao in 1901-1902 were teachers, nurses, and prospectors, almost immediately seeking to establish a public education system.

These pioneer American educators became popularly, though indiscriminately, known as the "Thomasites," a moniker derived from the troop-ship USS Thomas which transported the first large group of teachers to the Philippines in August 1901. The subsequent American teachers who came aboard various transport vessels were all generally referred to by this apostolic name.

The Thomasites were driven by a missionary zeal to spread the American way of life and culture, acting as "new evangelists" in the predominantly Catholic province. Upon arrival, they found an educational vacuum. Makeshift schoolhouses were in the hands of "decrepit, old men and women who did not know any other language except the local dialect" and had no concept of modern education.

The American response was drastic and immediate. They quickly replaced these elderly locals with young people. In almost every case, they were "compelled to take young men and women of absolutely no previous preparation who in many cases could scarcely read and write in their own dialect". The arduous task then began: turning these raw recruits into instructors capable of teaching in a "strange and foreign language" (English).

The Pipers’ Call and the People's Choice
Despite the Thomasites' dedication, their early efforts faced significant hurdles. Attendance was initially poor due to cholera and smallpox epidemics, the lack of carabaos (forcing children to work in the fields), and "Church opposition" in towns where Catholic priests had already opened their own schools. Furthermore, the ongoing nationalist resistance meant American troops occupied many school buildings, disrupting instruction.

However, the American educational push, backed by a philosophy that recognized the Filipinos' "tremendous potentials" and viewed American teachers primarily as "supervisors," quickly gained momentum. This new education offered the Surigaonons "deliverance from the bo***ge of poverty" and the prospect of social and economic upliftment. Having suffered under centuries of Spanish oppression and witnessing the failure of the Filipino struggle for independence, the populace quickly embraced the change. The "innocent folks simply followed the Pied Pipers of the American dream".

5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity
1. From Cartilla to Curriculum: The Spanish colonial government ensured "blessed ignorance" by limiting education to the basic Cartilla. How did this history of educational suppression impact the capacity and willingness of the first generation of Surigaonons to embrace the comprehensive American public school curriculum, which aimed for total Americanization?

2. The Double-Edged Sword of the Thomasite Mission: The American teachers were described as "new evangelists" spreading American culture. Was the immediate and widespread acceptance of the American system in Surigao a genuine reflection of cultural preference, or a pragmatic choice for "deliverance from the bo***ge of poverty" offered by the new economic opportunities attached to this education?

3. The American and Spanish Educational Legacies: Despite the American success, the Spanish Jesuits were praised for laying the foundational structures of elementary education in the parishes before 1898. How do the modern educational institutions in Surigao reconcile these two distinct colonial educational foundations in defining their institutional heritage?

4. Language and Identity: The first local teachers were forced to adopt a "strange and foreign language" (English). How did the forced adoption of English as the medium of instruction during the American period accelerate the erosion of local dialects and traditional forms of writing, such as Baybayin (or Suwat Bisaya), in favor of a new, nationalized Filipino identity?

5. The Piedmont of Progress: The Americans quickly established the Provincial High School, unlike the Spanish. How did the American commitment to creating a centralized, modern education center in Surigao City permanently shape the geographic distribution of power, opportunity, and status within the province, separating those who lived bajo de las campanas (under the church bells) from those in the interior?

Explore Further, Engage Deeper
This story is just one of many hidden within the pages of Surigao Across the Years. To explore more: Interact with the book through Artificial Intelligence (AI):
Visit the customized GPT by Open AI HERE https://chatgpt.com/g/g-682ce3a91d28819193f810e4e19a359f-surigao-across-the-years and the Book Section of the Surigao Historical Society HERE https://www.surigaohistoricalsociety.org/surigao-book

Click here https://www.surigaohistoricalsociety.org/surigao-book/copyright-and-authorization to know the Editorial Team, Copyright and Authorized Digital Use Statement.

Photo: AI Generated.

09/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HxRkdP1po/

09/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CMhGPTf3t/

09/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/18EmLj9SKQ/

03/03/2026