The History of Victorias (Philippines) - CHAPTER 4: CAPITANA TUTANG AND NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LAS VICTORIAS (BEFORE 1880)

During the last decades of the Spanish rule, Malihaw, as the village of Daan Banwa was called (read about the old names of Victorias in Chapter 22), grew and prospered with its inhabitants coming from the neighboring areas like Saravia, Manapla, and 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 mayors Sr. Esteban Jalandoni and Don Felix Montinola were from Iloilo. From Iloilo, the former moved to Bacolod, while the latter moved to the town of Saravia (now E.B. Magalona). Don Felix was born in Jaro, Iloilo, in 1864 but moved to Saravia in the 1890s (or earlier) with two of his unmarried sisters. In 1897, he married the daughter of Saravia's mayor (no less!).

Even some of the revolutionary Ilonggo fighters, who once fought against Spain, came to Negros Island to fight against the Americans. Elias Magbanua, from Pototan, Iloilo Province, brought along a few of his Ilonggo revolutionaries to join Negrense fighters in a stand against American soldiers at Sitio Guintabu-an in Saravia (now E.B. Magalona) on August 19, 1899.

While Daan Banwa was still a barrio, it switched several times from being 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 by the sea where people gathered in a popular shady spot along the Malihaw River bank during afternoons to exchange stories, argue and share opinions, spread gossip, and of course, flirt!

Daan Banwa was just a barrio of Saravia even before 1848, the year Bacolod became the capital of Negros Province. It was a village by the Malihaw River where inhabitants put up nipa huts, and survived on fishing from both the sea and the river, gathered seashells from the shore and fresh fruits from the nearby forest.

It somehow became a barrio of Saravia because of a 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 because Daan Banwa did not belong to any town, ordered that it be officially part of Saravia and that it should have its own capitan del barrio. An election was then held in the village and a certain 'Tomas' was elected to be its first capitan.

Around 1876, when the settlement grew in size and in population, it became a town and for three consecutive terms, Gregorio Conlu was the capitan.

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.

Gregorio Conlu and his wife Fausta Gosiaoco, popularly known as 'Capitana Tutang', sold tubâ (coconut wine) and other things like dried fish and fermented condiments at a small store at their home. 

And one afternoon, a couple noticed a paraw, a boat with outrigger that was common in the Visayan seas that time, coming into the Malihaw River and loaded with passengers. While its passengers remained on board the whole afternoon, they came to shore at seven in the evening, drank tubâ at Capitana Tutang's store, and left after half hour.

But when it was late in the evening when the couple's store already closed, the same men, numbering six, came back with bolos and robbed the couple by entering an open 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, after the commotion broke out, comisarios (village peacekeepers during that time like our present-day barangay tanod) came to the Conlu's house to apprehend the tulisanes. Sadly, they failed to arrest them. Instead, the tulisanes killed four of them and injured two villagers who also tried to help. 

During the robbery, Capitana Tutang had to surrender her earrings, diamonds and other jewelry, a comb, cash of 500 pesos, and some clothes. 

Since Daan Banwa was just a small village with nipa huts clustered together, the neighbors must have heard about the disturbance and came out to find out. Instead of another quiet night in the village where nocturnal insects were always heard alongside barking dogs, loud voices and screams broke the serenity of the evening.

Although they would have wanted to help, the villagers were helpless as the armed tulisanes took Capitana Tutang and her helper, Mikay, as hostages and were prepared to kill anyone who stood in their way. The Jalandoni memoirs specifically mentioned that diamonds and a comb were part of the loot, I assume they were rough diamonds, not of the Harry Winston quality whose brilliance blinds, but the ones roughly cut. The comb, on the other hand, was probably ivory and from China made of animal bones or bamboo that was expensive and treasured during those times like jewelry.

Capitana Tutan and Mikay were then brought into the paraw with hands tied. As the boat reached the mouth of the river, Tutang was asked whether they could swim; she answered "No". Their hands then were untied and both 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 likely from a neighboring island or worse, from the Negros island itself. During the past centuries, 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 was just happy that they were finally freed. She made it back to the shores of Daan Banwa by dragging Mikay, who couldn't swim. 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 did not 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 did not trust the local men who she thought were really after teaching Mikay anything other than swimming.

I believe Capitana Tutang was more than a grand dame of Daan Banwa than what the limited known town history is telling us. She must have been a very good storekeeper and businesswoman because hers must have been the biggest in the village that even bandits knew. She must have been also a champion swimmer who could swim from sea to shore in cold, dark waters while dragging someone with her. She was a witty, quick thinker who outsmarted the tulisanes and had more influence in Daan Banwa than her husband who was the capitan. Otherwise, why else would she be addressed as 'capitana'?

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 with the tulisanes and hide in the kisame, remember? 

Going back to the capitana, when she and Mikay finally reached the shore that dreadful night, they knelt and prayed. Tutang believed they were able to escape unharmed because of 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 ecstatic his wife and helper were freed and safe but still shaken from the traumatic ordeal, about what happened to them and that she wished to buy an image of the Virgin even though they lost cash and valuables.

That night, the people of Daan Banwa did not have a good night's sleep. The events were like scenes from a movie: four dead comisarios bathed in blood from bolo hacks, all lying on the dirt; a capitan hiding in a kisame; a kidnapped 'first lady'; two injured villagers being attended to; and a bunch of scared townspeople carrying their lighted torches trying to get a sense of what just happened to their village. 

After four months, Capitana Tutang went to see her relatives in Bacolod to ask their help in buying the image of the Virgin, where a generous cousin, Eulalia Villasor, gave her 250 pesos. Tutang 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. (In the Jalandoni memoirs, it was Capitan Gorio who ordered the statue from Barcelona, Spain).

Eleven months after Tutang's miraculous escape from the tulisanes, the image arrived and was placed at the altar of the small church in Daan Banwa, alongside their patron saint, San Casimiro. The image was patterned after the image of the Nuestra Señora de Las Victorias, or the Our Lady of Victory, who was the Virgin to whom Pope Pius V attributed the victory of the Christian forces over the Ottoman turks at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571.   

Once the image was installed at their small church, the veneration to the Our Lady of Victory started. (The 1953 compilation and the Jalandoni memoirs describe the statue as that of the Virgin Mary with no mention of the Child Jesus).

When 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 Tutang that image because, one, it was a popular choice, and two, her escape from the ordeal that night must have been a victory as well. So, the current image of the Virgin at the present-day Our Lady of Victory parish church is, indeed, the Our Lady of Victory as venerated by Pope Pius V and the Christian forces in 1571. So, from ten thousand kilometers away in Greece at the Battle of Lepanto and 300 years since that victory, the Virgin became the patroness of a small settlement in Las Islas Filipinas that flourished along the river that flowed out to the sea.

Months later, two captives of the Moro raiders, one from Calatrava and another from Escalante, escaped and took refuge in Daan Banwa. They both recounted a story about their captors attempting to enter the mouth of Malihaw 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 holding a lance. Upon seeing the intimidating vision, the raiders retreated and instead went up north to Manapla where they continued their atrocities on coastal villages. That was where the two escaped.

The story reached a Visayan priest, Crispino Hinolan, who was in charge of small barrio chapels within Saravia. Upon hearing this, the priest asked the capitan of Daan Banwa to gather the townspeople for a meeting where the priest conveyed his belief that it was a Marian apparition, a miracle where the Virgin protected Daan Banwa from the Moro raiders and the atrocities they planned to do.

And that day, to immortalize the village's gratitude to the Virgin, Malihaw was renamed 'Nuestra Señora de Las Victorias' with the approval of its inhabitants. They must have unanimously approved it as, during those times, the friars and priests were influential and the majority of the people were Catholics. The change of name was approved by the provincial governor but he shortened it to 'Victorias'. A novena was then held to solemnize the momentous occasion. 

Capitan Gorio and Capitana Tutang were of Chinese ancestry and were probably from Iloilo, considering their surnames Conlu and Gosiaoco, and the valuables mentioned such as rough diamonds, gold earrings, and a prized comb that she brought with her.

With her amazing story, Capitana Tutang should be immortalized in our Victorias history with a bust, although her image would be difficult to recreate as there might be none lying around. 

Señora Fausta Gosiaoco represented the indomitable spirit of the women of the past that should be emulated by the present generation: bravery, resilience, and wavering faith in God.

Years later, in 1882, Capitan Gregorio Conlu was succeeded by Mariano Conlu, who was nicknamed 'Uban' because of his white hair. Unfortunately for the town, there was animosity between the two Conlus which caused the villagers to relocate themselves, diminishing the population and the income of Daan Banwa, and consequently, reducing it into a barrio of Manapla.

(This is not 'Daan Banwa', but this is a typical scene of a village in the 1880s Philippines where neighbors gathered to socialize, argue, gossip, and flirt. 

Photo credit: Pump Park Vintage Photography-Alamy Stock Photo)