Three hundred and forty-four years ago, Spanish Franciscan friars, 39 years after having established Christianity in Malinao in 1619, planted the Cross on a virginal land near the shore north of Malinao. The land was luxuriant with a gabi-like plant named Tigbi. Hence, the friars called the place Tigbi, which evolved into Tivi and, then, finally to its present name Tiwi.
This place began as a barrio of Malinao before it was formally organized as a politically independent pueblo in 1696. As a pueblo, it was governed by a gobernadorcillo. As a Catholic parish, it was administered by a secular priest under the then Diocese of Nueva Caceres, now an archdiocese. In its primeval stages, it had some 1,105 houses, a parish church, a community-funded primary school, and a cemetery outside the town proper. The church of San Juan Bautista in Tabaco City is one of the most stately religious structures in the province of Albay. According to the Estado Geografico Estadistico Historico written in 1805 by Father De Huerta, the recorded history of the city began in 1587 through the missionary work of the Franciscan Fathers.
The church, one of the only two declared sites in Bicol Region, was categorized by the National Museum of the Philippines as a National Cultural Treasure of the country. Its marker was unveiled on June 22, 2012 A church dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the city’s patron saint, was first built in Tabaco in 1616 by Fr. Pedro De Alcareso. The construction of the present church started in 1864 and was completed in 1879. The Tabaco Church is unique among Philippine churches because the stones used to build the church bears the distinct marks of the Masons. The Daraga Church was built by Franciscan missionaries in 1773 when the present town of Daraga was but a barrio of the older town of Cagsawa. The catastrophic eruption of Mayon Volcano on February 1, 1814 destroyed Cagsawa, Budiao and three other towns and killed almost 2,000 people. Today, only the belfry of the old Cagsawa church remains as a mute testimony to Mayon’s treacherous wrath. The survivors of the 1814 eruption chose to relocate to Daraga. This was then approved by the Governor-General on October 4, 1814 and implemented on November 7,1814.
The 17th-century church built on top of Santa Maria Hill overlooks the slopes of Mount Mayon. According to architects of the National Museum, its facade had to undergo restoration because of its badly deteriorating state brought about by age. |