How Biliran got its name

BILIRAN, an island-province in

Eastern Visayas, was known as Isla de

Panamao (Panamao Island) in early

Spanish chronicles. An early Visayan

dictionary (ca. 1612) described panamao as a native fishing net.

Panamao Island was the site

of the first large-scale

Spanish shipyard in the

Philippines. A Jesuit

chronicler, Fr. Francisco

Colin, wrote in 1663 that six

galleons were built there

before the facility was

transferred to Cavite around

1604.

Panamao was still the name of the island when another Jesuit,

Fr. Francisco Alcina, wrote his famous manuscript about the

islands and people of the Bisayas (Leyte and Samar) in 1668.

Alcina noted that the mountain found northwest of Panamao

was an active volcano ''throwing out fire--especially on very

dark and stormy nights.''

The name ''Biliran'' appeared for the first time in a 1712 document

containing a formal petition for the recognition of Biliran Island

(no longer Panamao) as a new pueblo. Thus, the name was

probably changed sometime between 1668 and 1712.

Panamao Volcano presumably erupted in 1669, a milestone year

in Tacloban history associated with a rain of ashes in the village

in eastern Leyte. The ashfall could only have originated from

the volcano since Mt. Mayon, the other nearby volcano

mentioned in the Alcina manuscript, was not eruptive at that

time.

The name of Biliran could be associated with the catastrophic

eruption of Panamao Volcano.

''Biliran'' (not borobiliran, which is a different species) is the

name of a native grass used for weaving mats.

The late Justice Norberto Romualdez theorized that Biliran

Island was probably named after the plant but did not explain

why.

Biliran grass was probably the vegetation that immediately

flourished in the swampy and lahar-devastated settlements left

by the islanders who sought refuge elsewhere.

The word biliran was probably first used by the returning

natives to refer to the altered geography and later adopted as

new place-name.

The other possible motive for changing the name was the

natives' fear of their nature gods and spirits, whose wrath they

perceived from the disastrous volcanic eruption.

Aside from their rituals and offerings, the native priests could

have resorted to the cultural practice of name-switching in the

hope that the vengeful spirits would become confused and lose

track of the object or subject of their ire.

Dalutan Islet, a tiny land mass two kilometers off the Agta

Beach Resort at the base of Mt. Panamao in Almeria town, is a

testament of the native attempt to appease the gods and spirits

of Panamao.

Dalutan is the native word for ''place of offering.''

Thus, Biliran became the new name of the island. But the old

name, Panamao, was retained to identify and, perhaps,

memorialize a mountain that had caused much misery to the

natives in the late 1600s.

Now, Panamao is a much-publicized mountaineer's destination.

It looks majestic and serene on clear and sunny days. It is also

full of myths and legends that continue to be told among the

natives.

Its fiery past can now be told.