Masbate, officially the Province of Masbate (Masbateño: Probinsya san Masbate; ), is an island province in the Philippines located near the midsection of the nation's archipelago. Its provincial capital is Masbate City, the most populous in the province. The province consists of three major islands: Masbate, Ticao and Burias.
Masbate is at the crossroads of two island groups: Visayas and Luzon. It is politically part of Bicol Region in the latter. However, from a bio-geographic and socio-ethno-linguistic perspective, Masbate is grouped in the former.
History Early history Masbate is one of the oldest settlements in the Philippines. Archaeological records show that Batungan (in Mandaon) and Bagumbayan (in Palanas) were major settlement sites during the Bronze Age (4000-1000 BC). The development of bronze metallurgy in Southeast Asia coincided with an increasingly hierarchical society, firmly based on agricultural village settlements. It was these crucial changes, the introduction of new technologies, new social forms, and a new economic base, which culminated in the foundation of the proto-urban settlements of the 1st millennium AD. A fine stone chisel from Mount Batungan is dated to the twelfth century BC. Of the age of Philippine neoliths, it is only possible to say that polished stone adzes from Masbate have been dated from 2710 BC to AD 179.2 Kalanay (in Aroroy) was an island site from 1000 BC to AD 850 (early metal). Masbateño burial jars and a small pottery skull box found in caves dated to the beginning of the Christian era. Exquisite gold work represents wealth in both an economic and an artistic sense: all sorts of wrought or moulded ornaments and jewellery demonstrate both the availability of the raw material and the skill of the artisan: finger rings, earrings, headbands, pendants, and pectoral ornaments, heavy chains with interlocking serrated edges, light filigree work, delicate necklaces of fine twisted wires, 12-millimeter beads composed of 184 separate granules soldered together, thin hammered sheets for decorating grosser objects like earplugs or the visages of corpses, and a charming little snail of unknown use. Productive mines in Benguet, Butuan, Masbate, and Paracale were in operation and gold being panned in riverbeds all over the archipelago when the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century.
Spanish colonial era In the Spanish period, San Jacinto on Ticao Island was an anchorage point for the Manila-Acapulco-Manila galleons. The course as described by the standard pilot's guide of Cabrera Bueno was substantially followed by nearly all the galleons. The largest variations were in the height at which the eastward crossing was made and in the course laid off the coast of the Californias.
The successive stages were as follows: from Cavite on Manila Bay out through one of the bocas, generally between Mariveles and Corregidor; thence SSW, keeping well clear of Fortun to the left and high Ambil to the right; past Cape Santiago on the Luzon Coast, and E between Mindoro and Maricaban; by the Punta de Escarceo ("Tide Rip Point"), where currents run strong, and under Isla Verde, outside Subaang Bay, within which there was a fair anchorage in case of need; SE past the islets of Baco, with a good channel off Calapan; SE by E down the Mindoro coast by Punta Gorda de Pola; E by SE between the Tres Reyes and the Dos Hermanas; thence by the wide boca between Marinduque and Banton, out onto the tablazo, or open water, above Sibuyan; SE by E between Burias and Masbate; turning ENE around the Punta de San Miguel and the Punta del Diablo; coasting around the east side of Ticao to the anchorage at San Jacinto; clearing from thence and working out seaward with the monsoon; E right leagues, with the dangerous Naranjo Pass to starboard and Calantas Rock to port; NE by N and then ENE seven leagues around Capul; NE with the Sorsogon coast to port and San Bernardino to starboard and NE by E seven leagues to the Embocadero, with San Bernardino now to port and the island of Biri to starboard. At this point, according to Cabrera, “the rapid currents require skillful pilot work.” The galleon was now in the open sea.
From the chronicles of the early years of Spanish colonization, a relación (report) about Masbate first appeared in Fray Martín de Rada's letter dated July 1569 to the Viceroy of New Spain (now Mexico). He mentioned that in a place called Masbat there were plenty of gold mines. Other later documents such as Diego de Artieda Chirino’s Relación (1573) and Andrés de Mirandaola's letter (1574) refer to a place called Masbat or Masbad. It wasn't until 1582 that Miguel de Loarca wrote about a place called Masbate. Governor-General Miguel López de Legaspi founded encomiendas on the island and gave these to six of his soldiers garrisoned there, and these men formed families.Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico, de las Islas Filipinas By Fr. Manuel Buzeta and Fr. Felipe Bravo, Volume 1, Published Madrid :(Impr. de J.C. de la Peña) 1850-1851.(Quote: "Del mismo modo que en Cebú habia fundado una poblacion de 50 vecinos á la cabeza de los cuales dejó un religioso Agustino; en la de Masbate otro con seis soldados para custodiare ; en la que nos ocupa otro con otros 4 soldados , á fin de que cada uno de ihos religiosos cuidase de la conversion de sus naturales á la verdadera religion de Jesucristo, coronando los esfuerzos de aquellos primeros operarios evangélicos los mas brillantes resultados.")
In the same year de Rada wrote of Masbat's gold mines, another Augustinian, Fray Alonzo Jiménez, landed in Burias and baptized its chieftain Buaya, thought to be the very first christening in Luzon. Fray Jiménez also built a church on Burias before he sailed on to Ibalon in 1570. By 1575, Masbate had become a priority in the Augustinian Missionary Memoranda. Fray Francisco de Ortega reported on the pillaging activities of a pirate named Caxabic in the islands of Masbate and Burias. By 1600, the Spaniards had developed Mobo as a galleon shipyard and San Jacinto as a strategic port. In 1605, Masbate was officially an Augustinian Mission and it is first prior was Fray Francisco Guerrero. Masbate had about 250 tributes and 1000 Christian natives. In 1609, Fray Pedro de Arce, bishop-elect of Nueva Cáceres, ceded spiritual administration of Masbate to the Mitra (secular clergy). On May 28, 1682, bishop-elect Dominican Fray Andrés Gonzáles petitioned King Charles II of Spain to revert some curacies of Nueva Cáceres to the charge of religious communities. The petition was approved in 1685 and by 1687, the first Augustinian Recollect missionaries had sailed for the port of San Jacinto to begin the Recollect Mission in Masbate. In 1700, Fray Ildefonso de la Concepción established the settlement of Uson as a visita of Mobo. The town of Masbate was established in 1791 by Fray Manuel de la Virgen del Tremedal.
The jurisdiction of Nueva Cáceres embraced the entire provinces of Camarines and Albay, as far as and including the islands of Ticao, Masbate, Burias, and Catanduanes; the province of Tayabas, as far as and including Lucban; and in the opposite coast of Maobàn, to Binangonan, Polo, Baler, and Casiguran. At one time, it was governed by The Most Illustrious Lordship Doctor Don Ysidoro de Arévalo, who was bishop-elect. Records show he enjoyed a yearly stipend of 4,000 pesos in common gold, in conformance with a royal decree. Likewise, a payment was made from the royal treasury, in virtue of a decree by the supreme government and the council of the royal treasury dated October 2, 1723, 200 pesos, for priests of the choir, at 100 pesos each, as assistants of the aforesaid illustrious lord. Another payment was made of 400 pesos, assigned to this church by the royal decree, dated at San Yldefonso on August 19, 1736; for the pay of singers, sacristans, and doorkeepers, and other expenses for worship and for the [care of the] building of the church. It likewise had a contribution of 232 pesos, 4 tomins, which was paid in 6 quintals of wax, 100 gantas of coconut-oil, and 4 arrobas of Castilian wine, in conformity with another royal decree dated February 21, 1705.
The administration of Masbate was given back to the Mitra after the Recollects left Masbate in 1794. All in all, over 60 Recollect missionaries were assigned to Masbate for a period of over 100 years. Masbate became a separate comandancia político-militar in 1846. In 1864, it was declared a separate province from Albay. After a devastating typhoon in 1908, Masbate was annexed to the province of Sorsogon. It finally gained status as a separate province on December 15, 1920, by virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 2934. In Rafael Bernal's book: México En Filipinas, Masbate was listed among other places which include Cavite and Pampanga, as areas where there were large concentrations of Mexican immigrants to the Philippines.(In Spanish) Mexico En Filipinas By Rafael Bernal(Page 117)(Quote: "Sabemos que muchos grupos mexicanos obtuvieron tierras en Lu/ón, en Masbate y otros sitios de Pampa nga, lo mismo que en Cavile. Esta gente, como era lógico, al poco tiempo se perdía entre el pueblo filipino, casaba con mujer filipina, aprendía un nuevo idioma, lina nueva vida y unas costumbres nuevas, peto enseñaba también parte de bis suyas.")
20th century During World War II, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and turned Masbate into a hub for sexual slavery which they called "the military club". A "comfort station" was built by the Japanese in the province, where young girls and teenagers were forced to become "comfort women", and routinely gang-raped, brutalized, humiliated, and murdered by Japanese soldiers for entertainment. The Japanese occupation was resisted by local Masbateño guerrillas under Captain Manuel Donato up until April 1945 during the Allied liberation by which the guerrillas controlled much of the province.
Geography
The province lies roughly at the center of the Philippine archipelago, between latitudes 11°43′ north and 123°09′ east and 124°5′ east. It is bounded on the north by Burias and Ticao Pass, east by San Bernardino Strait, south by the Visayan Sea, and west by the Sibuyan Sea. Relative to mainland Bicol, the province faces the southwestern coasts of Camarines Sur, Albay, and Sorsogon areas. Masbate covers a total area of .
The general surface configuration of the province ranges from slightly undulating to rolling and from hilly to mountainous. In each island, the rugged topography is concentrated in the northeastern portion and gradually recedes to blunt hills and rolling areas in the south, southeast, and southwest.
Administrative divisions Masbate comprises 20 municipalities and one city, all encompassed by 3 congressional districts.
City municipality District Population Area Density Coordinates km2 /km2 Aroroy 2nd 86,168 41 Baleno 2nd 26,096 24 Balud 2nd 38,124 32 Batuan 1st 15,086 14 Cataingan 3rd 50,327 36 Cawayan 3rd 67,033 37 Claveria 1st 43,693 22 Dimasalang 3rd 26,192 20 Esperanza 3rd 18,568 20 Mandaon 2nd 41,262 26 Masbate City † 2nd 95,389 30 Milagros 2nd 57,473 27 Mobo 2nd 38,813 29 Monreal 1st 26,614 11 Palanas 3rd 26,222 24 Pio V. Corpus 3rd 23,236 18 Placer 3rd 55,826 35 San Fernando 1st 23,057 26 San Jacinto 1st 30,372 21 San Pascual 1st 46,674 22 Uson 3rd 56,168 35 Total 908,920 892,393 4,138.56 550
Demographics
The population of Masbate in the 2024 census was 910,813 people, with a density of .
Language
There are four Visayan languages and one from Luzon, spoken in the province.