Banate, officially the Municipality of Banate (, , ), is a municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the , it has a population of people.
The town's economy is primarily based on fishing and agriculture, with extensive areas devoted to rice, sugarcane, vegetables, beans, coconut and bananas. Banate is well known for Kasag (crabs), krill or shimp paste called ginamos, and the fresh fish, which local entrepreneurs distribute not only to the provincial capital and nearby inland towns but also as far as Manila.
History
Banate during the Pre-conquest Period
The settlement in Banate is of ancient origin. It was among the ancient organized territories of the Confederation of Madja-as in Panay (also called by the ancient Bornean migrants, the island of "Madya-as"),Cf, Sebastian Santa Cruz Serag, The Remnants of the Great Ilonggo Nation, Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Store, 1997, p. 21. which the Spaniards found when they came to the Island. It was known to Spanish missionaries during the earliest dates of the colonization as Bobog.Cf. Archivo Histórico Hispano-Agustiniano y Boletin Oficial de la Provincia del Smo. Nombre de Jesús de Filipinas, 1922: Imprenta del Monasterio de El Escorial, Vol. XVII (Enero-Junio de 1922), pp. 292-293. The Spanish Augustinian historian, Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, mentions it in an account about Dumangas and other coastal towns of the island, where in ancient times there was a principality and trade center that had the most illustrious nobility in the whole island of Panay. Bobog (Banate), Araut, Anilao, and Hapitan were among the ancient coastal civilizations in Panay."También fundó convento el Padre Fray Martin de Rada en Araut- que ahora se llama el convento de Dumangas- con la advocación de nuestro Padre San Agustín… Está fundado este pueblo casi a los fines del río de Halaur, que naciendo en unos altos montes en el centro de esta isla (Panay)… Es el pueblo muy hermoso, ameno y muy lleno de palmares de cocos. Antiguamente era el emporio y corte de la más lucida nobleza de toda aquella isla...Hay en dicho pueblo algunos buenos cristianos… Las visitas que tiene son ocho: tres en el monte, dos en el río y tres en el mar...Las que están al mar son: Santa Ana de Anilao, San Juan Evangelista de Bobog, y otra visita más en el monte, entitulada Santa Rosa de Hapitan." Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A., Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565–1615), Manuel Merino, O.S.A., ed., Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas: Madrid 1975, pp. 374-375.
There are theories that settlers from the powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern-day Indonesia (which influenced much of Southeast Asia) arrived in Banate in around 600 A.D., during the second wave of migration from the Sulawesi Island of the southern archipelago of Southeast Asia. First, the most northern part of Iloilo, Estancia, was settled. Some migrants moved to Batad, Balasan and Carles. Then, Ajuy was settled, and from there communities spread to inhabit the present Conception and San Dionisio area. In time, communities of Ajuy spread upland to populate the hamlet of Sara. The families of Sara spread to Lemery. Other families inhabited the coast of Bobog (Banate-Viejo), and traversed the mountain now called San Rafael. Some families settled near the River Jalaud. Others moved further South and settled in Irong-irong and finally stopped at Ogtong. These independent coastal settlements were engaged in fishing, and settled near rivers.
The Maragtas of Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro mentions that the area near the Alakaygan River was among the first areas to be exploited by the early Malay settlers for agriculture. In these places they cultivated the land, planting kauayan, mabulo, hidiok, bagtikan, sibukao, buri, niog, kulo, kalamansi, paray, batad, kahangkugui and other seed, which they brought from Borneo.Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro, Maragtas. Janiuay: 1854 (translated in English by Esther Abiera, et al., and currently in the Library of the University of Michigan), pp. 17-18. Alakaygan and Bubug (Bobog), which gave its name to the ancient society and where the future Spanish population would develop, were among the first settlements established by the Malays in Panay.Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro, Maragtas. Janiuay: 1854 (translated in English by Esther Abiera, et al., and currently in the Library of the University of Michigan), pp. 21-22.
As a side note, Alakaygan is the only place in Banate where, until recent years, Tapukal (krill or hipon smoked in the bark of a native tree) was produced. It is a delicacy that can be found only in Banate.
Banate during the Spanish Regime
Origin of the Town's Name At the beginning of the Christianisation of Panay, Bobog was a visitaCf. Sub-section "The Residencia and The Visita" of the History of the Philippines (1521–1898). of the Augustinian parish and monastery of Dumangas. Gaspar de San Agustin mentioned the existence of the town in his book Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565–1615). Another Augustinian historian Fray Juan Fernandez, in his Monografias de los pueblos de la isla de Panay, affirms that Banate was known in the ancient times as Bobog or Bog-og. The Augustinian friar says that the modern name Banate might have been derived from some flora that abundantly thrive in the town. One possibility is the Butacea, named by Carl Linnaeus as Murraya exotica. If the spelling and the pronunciation are corrupted, and instead of Banate what is written or pronounced is Bangate, it would therefore be the leguminous papilionácea called in botany as Abrus praecatorius.Cf. Fr. Juan Fernandez, O.S.A, Monografias de los pueblos de la isla de Panay in Monographs of the Towns of Panay, Jose Espinosa, Jr., trans., Iloilo City: University of San Augustine, 2006, pp. ---.
To the inhabitants, the town's modern name is commonly attributed to the presence of many Bangate trees in the area. According to a local legend, when the Spaniards arrived, all the inhabitants of Banate fled away for safety. An old man, however, failed to escape because he was of advanced age and was already so weak. It was raining then. So, the old man took shelter under the Bangate tree where a Spanish officer found him later on. The white man asked the native; "Come se llama esto pueblo?", The old man, uncertain what to say, merely said "Bangate" thinking that the Spaniard was asking him about the name of the tree. Unable to understand clearly what the old man mumbled, the Spaniard thought the native had said "Banate". While such legend sounds too absurd to be true, it is the only explanation often given by people when asked why their town is called Banate. Indeed, 'Bangate' trees still abound within the territorial limits of the municipality.
Banate at the Beginning of the Colonial Period
Bobog, in the early part of its history as a Christian settlement and a Visita of Dumangas, was placed under the advocation of St. John the Evangelist.Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A., Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565–1615), Manuel Merino, O.S.A., ed., Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas: Madrid 1975, pp. 374-375. In the early part of the 1700s, it was called "Banate Viejo" by the Spaniards. A map of the Philippines, made by the Jesuit priest Fr. Murillo Velarde and published in Manila in 1734, shows Banate Viejo among the ancient towns of the island.The ancient towns and their visitas explicitly illustrated in the map are: Arevalo, Iloilo (extends to Pavia Santa Barbara, Cabatuan and Maasin), Molo, Jaro (stretching to current Lapaz and Leganes), Guimbal, Tigbaun, Oton, Dumangas, Anilao, Banate, Barotac (Nuevo), Ajuy Dulano, Laglag, Pase, Alimodian. Cf. Inset for Fr. Murillo Velarde's 1734 Map. The appellative "Viejo", which the Spaniards attached to the early hispanized name of the town, indicates the ancient origin of Banate.
Fr. Juan Fernandez says that Banate was formally established as a municipality in 1763. By then, it acquired as its Visita the settlement of Sinaba-an.Cf. Archivo Histórico Hispano-Agustiniano y Boletin Oficial de la Provincia del Smo. Nombre de Jesús de Filipinas, 1922: Imprenta del Monasterio de El Escorial, Vol. XVII (Enero-Junio de 1922), p. 293.The logical location of "Sinabaan" would be what is now Barotac Viejo. The fact that this town had a history of being attached to Banate, also during the American period, as well as its proximity to Banate support to this theory. Besides, Fr. Murillo Velarde's 1734 Map shows the name "Banate Viejo" extending also over areas where the present Barotac Viejo is located. Another possibility could be San Rafael or San Enrique. However, in Banate's history, there seems to be no reference to this old town's close interaction during the previous centuries with the other two new towns in Iloilo. In a private definitory of the Augustinian Order, on 31 October 1763, Fr. Alejandro Arias was appointed as Vicar for the town.Cf. Libro de Gobierno de la Provincia del Santissimo Nombre de Jesús de Filipinas, Augustinian Archives in Valladolid and Madrid, Spain, VI, fol. 75v.Cf. Fr. Juan Fernandez, O.S.A, Monografias de los pueblos de la isla de Panay (Monographs of the Towns of Panay), Jose G. Espinosa, Jr. (trans.), with Introduction of Fr. Policarpio Hernandez, O.S.A., Iloilo City: Panorama Printing, 2006, pp. 64 and 158.
Being a coastal village with a rich fishing ground, Banate is naturally inclined to flourish. However, it was also a natural target to invaders. In 1764, many people would leave the town because of a disastrous incursion and pillage of the Moros from Mindanao. R. P. Fray Arias, O.S.A., the town's priest who was at the same time the parish priest of Guimbal,Cf. Elviro J. Perez, Catalogo Bio-Bibliografico de los religiosos Agustinianos de la Provincia del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus de las Islas Filipinas, Manila: Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1901, p. 262. was escaping this raid when he was captured by Moro pirates in that year at the Port of Tayabas. Later, the invaders executed him.Fr. Juan Fernandez, O.S.A, Monografias de los pueblos de la isla de Panay (Monographs of the Towns of Panay), Jose G. Espinosa, Jr. (trans.), with Introduction of Fr. Policarpio Hernandez, O.S.A., Iloilo City: Panorama Printing, 2006, p. 64.