The Blood Compact in Bohol

Blood Compact in Bohol

How could a blood compact was held at the bohol?what is a Blood Compact?

A Blood compact (in Spanish: Pacto de sangre) was a ritual in the Philippines where tribes would cut their wrist, and pour blood into a cup filled with liquid, and drink each other's blood as part of the tribal tradition to seal a friendship, a pact or treaty, or to validate an agreement.

Legazpi made friends with the Boholanos by performing a blood compact with a chief in Bohol named Si Katuna or Katunao. They performed the rite aboard a Spanish vessel. The two collected a few drops of blood from their arms, mixed them with wine, and drank the mixture. Juna Luna depicted that event in his famous painting entitled El Pacto de Sangre in 1883.The blood compact or sandugo means that "since the same blood now flowed in their veins, they had become members of the same family, bound to observe loyalty to one another (Arcila, pp. 36-37, 2001)." In other words, Sikatuna and Legazpi became blood brothers by virtue of the rite. But on 15 April 1565, Legazpi took possession of the island of Bohol in the name of the King of Spain. He then proceeded to Cebu, which he bombarded and conquered.After burning about a hundred natives' houses, Tupas,a Cebuano chief, made peace with the invaders. The peace pact was documented in Spanish, hence, Tupas "could not have understood everything in it (Corpuz,pp. 58, 1989)." The Spaniards established through the peace pact that Tupas and the whole of Cebu and its people have submitted to Spanish rule (Ibid.).

Also at Bohol, Legazpi was given a hostile welcome. From his Malay pilot, he learned that this hostility was due to maurading expeditions of the Portuguese. Coming from the Moluccas, the Portuguese raiders traversed the Visayan seas, and just a few years before, in 1563, had plundered Bohol and killed or enslaved about one thousand of its inhabitants. Of course, the Boholano's easily mistook the Spaniards for Portuguese. Again with the help of his pilot, Legazpi explained two chiefs of Bohol, Datu Sikatuna of Bool and Datu Sigala of Loboc that they were not Portuguese, and had come in peace, and not to plunder or kill. This convinced the Kings to end their hostility and enter pact of friendship. On 16 March 1565 (or 25 March, records are confused due to the Georgian calender reform in 1584), Legazpi and Sikatuna performed the now famous blood compact, probably not far from the modern town of Loay. This event is still celebrated in Bohol every year in June with the Sandugo ("One Blood") festival. The same ceremony was repeated three days later with Sigala.

The month-long Sandugo Festival every July is punctuated by balls and dances, beauty pageants, fairs, sports events, and the reenactment of the blood compact to signify the friendship formed between the Boholanos and the Spaniards. What is questionable was the motive of Legazpi in agreeing to perform the sandugo. First, he was authorized by the King of Spain to enter the Philippine Islands and to use force when necessary (of course with the concurrence of his chiefs who are part of his council). Second, his men were hungry so they

needed the natives to provide them with food, even if they have to rightfully pay for it. Third, he did not have the cultural background to understand the natives' sandugo rite, hence, probably did not understand the deep and wide implications of such rite. Fourth, he took possession of the island in the name of the King of Spain inspite of the sandugo. And fifth, he made Bohol part of the encomienda system of the country. The Sikatuna-Legazpi sandugo, therefore, was not a formal international treaty of friendship. Granting that it was, the terms and conditions were definitely not consummated on the part of the Spaniards. On the contrary, the blood compact could be interpreted as the first formal treachery or swindling committed by the Spaniards against the Boholanos, as distinguished from the one committed by the Portuguese and their allies. And the grand and festive celebration of such an event in Boholano history is a sign of an utter lack of critical understanding of the past. In saying that, there is no suggestion to stop celebrating the Sandugo Festival as long as it is clear to the Boholanos what are the cognitive ideas behind the event that Sikatuna and Legazpi made. But maybe it is high time for Boholanos to formally observe other past events that helped form a cultural niche like the "independence" of Bohol during Dagohoy's rebellion. Such event will surely provide the Boholanos with a well-spring of ideas to understand the past and to make sense of the present.

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