Fifty Years of the Bikol Annals :
Towards a Regional History of Kabikolan

Stephen Henry S. Totanes, Ph.D.

In 1954, Dr. Domingo Abella, a medical doctor by profession but an historian by avocation, published and released the first volume of the Bikol Annals: A Collection of Vignettes of Philippine History. It was an ecclesiastical history of the See of Nueva Caceres, the evangelical center of Spanish colonization of the region known as Kabikolan. At present, this region comprises six provinces: Camarines Norte and Sur, Albay and Sorsogon, and the island-provinces of Masbate and Catanduanes. But during the Spanish era, the Diocese of Nueva Caceres reached as far as the adjacent province of Tayabas and it was only in the early 20 th century that the Diocese became an entirely Bikol diocese.

The collection prepared by Dr. Abella was based on extensive research on primary sources which he conducted in the archives of the Vatican in Rome and in the various archives in Spain and Mexico . The eminent Jesuit historian, Rev. Horacio de la Costa, S.J., wrote the introduction and commended the author for his “signal service to historical science in this country.” (Abella, 1954, vii)

Dr. Abella had intended this volume to be the first of a series of several volumes which would contain a collection of documents relating to topics and issues affecting the Bikol provinces. The main purpose of the effort was “to fashion a documentary arsenal for the ready reference and correct guidance of students of our regional history.” (Abella, 1954, xi) Unfortunately, due to financial constraints and other factors, the succeeding volumes were never published, but Dr. Abella continued in his efforts to gather sources on Bikol history even during his brief stint as Director of the Philippine National Archives until his untimely death in September 1976. A brief biography and description of the efforts of this crusading Bikolano historian, who traces his lineage from the prominent Abella clan of “Quince Martires” fame can be found in a collection prepared by his widow, Mrs. Milagros Romualdez-Abella, entitled From Indio to Filipino. In this article written by Dr. Marcelino Foronda, himself an advocate of regional history, one can also read about Dr. Abella's untiring efforts in the larger field of Philippine History and collaboration with foreign scholars, after having served as President of the International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) back in 1960.

Nearly fifty years have passed since Dr. Abella first issued his Bikol Annals . Fortunately for the region of Kabikolan, Abella's efforts were not in vain as historians and writers in the years after his death continued the difficult task of researching and writing on Bikol history and culture—the likes of James J. O'Brien, S.J., Norman G. Owen, Maria Lilia F. Realubit, Francisco Mallari, S.J., Luis C. Dery, Danilo M. Gerona, Leonor R. Dy-Liacco, Jose Calleja Reyes, Eden Gripaldo, to name but a few. It is a process that continues until today and will likely take all of the 21 st century to complete.

This paper will review and analyze the process of writing a regional history of Kabikolan. The main focus will be on the establishment of the Institute of Bikol History and Culture (IBHC) which was launched only recently, last February 15, 2002 at the James J. O'Brien, S.J. Library at the Ateneo de Naga University in Naga City, Camarines Sur. It is the Institute's aim to collect, preserve and make available primary and secondary sources which can be the basis for the writing of a regional history of Kabikolan , which hopefully can be included in the revised and updated versions of Philippine national history. The paper will also look into the significant publications on Bikol history and culture over the past few years and then project the work that still has to be done in the future to be able to complete the “documentary arsenal” of Bikol Annals that Dr. Abella spoke of, which can then serve as “building blocks for a truly national history.”

Reviewing Bikol Historiography:
A Personal Journey

The efforts to build an Institute of Bikol History and Culture (IBHC) can be traced to the author's personal experience of working in the field of Philippine History. As a young graduate student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman in 1984, I made a personal commitment to study more deeply my own home province, the province of Sorsogon . Although I was not born in the region, having been raised in Quezon City, both my parents trace their roots to Sorsogon—my father was born in Gubat; my mother, in Sorsogon town, which recently was merged with the adjacent town of Bacon and conferred the title of a city. Further research into my roots showed that my paternal and maternal grandfathers were not actually born in Sorsogon, but were migrants from Camarines Sur, having been born in Libmanan and Baao respectively in the 1890s. . Apparently, they found the ladies of Sorsogon much prettier and decided to marry there, settle down permanently and raise their families starting the 1920s. Thus, I am of pure Bikolano blood on both sides—and my parents' frequent visits to their hometowns in the 1960's via the famous Philippine National Railways (PNR) “Bicol Express” developed in me as a young kid a growing fascination and love for the region.

My first forays into the field of Bikol history came from the research done for my Master's thesis at U.P. Diliman, completed in 1990, entitled, “Sorsogon, 1900-1941: Principalia Politics and Economic Development.” I had devoted several months of research within the province and the region and in the archives and libraries in Manila . An overseas research trip in 1987 led me to the National Archives in Washington , D.C. , where I was able to retrieve some valuable documents on Sorsogon and Bikol history during the American period. But a more memorable experience was attending the 11 th National Conference on Local and National History of the Philippine National Historical Society (PNHS) held in Ateneo de Naga in October 1990, jointly organized under the Presidencies of Dr. Leslie Bauzon (PNHS) and the late Fr. Raul J. Bonoan, S.J. (Ateneo de Naga). In this conference, the first of its kind in the Bikol region after several years, I had the opportunity to meet the few foreign scholars writing on Bikol, such as Dr. Norman G . Owen, who had just published Prosperity without Progress: Manila Hemp and Material Life in the Colonial Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1984) and whose excellent bibliography I had used as a guide and reference in conducting my research.

More importantly, the conference allowed me to situate and place in the larger context of Bikol historiography the research that I had been doing on the principalia of Sorsogon. Selected papers from that conference have since been published in The Journal of History (Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1 and 2, 1991; Vol. XXXVII, Nos. 1 and 2, 1992) as “Selected Papers on Bikol Studies” and released in 1998. Among the most useful in terms of assessing the work done on Bikol history and culture was the paper delivered by our very own President of the PNHS, Dr. Bernardita R. Churchill, entitled “Bikol Historiography: Trends and Prospects.” (pp. 1-17) Intended as a preliminary review of studies on the Bikol region, the article pointed to the numerous primary and secondary sources which could be used for the writing of Bikol regional history—from the accounts of the Franciscan friars of the 19 th century—Francisco Aragoneses, OFM, Felix de Huerta, OFM, and Jose Castano, OFM, since most of the parishes in the region had been assigned to the Franciscan missionaries—to the foreign travelers and Spanish officials who had visited or were assigned to the region, such as Juan Alvarez Guerra and Adolfo Puya Ruiz. Dr. Churchill also enumerated the various bundles in the Philippine National Archives that can be sources for regional history in general and Kabikolan in particular, the same archival documents that were used in the works of Owen (1984), Danilo Gerona (1988), Francisco Mallari, S.J. (1990) and Luis C. Dery (1991).

I will no longer repeat the comprehensive review that Dr. Churchill had done for Bikol historiography which accounted for most of the significant works on Bikol history and culture up until the early 1990s. I refer you to that issue of The Journal of History and a related article by Dr. Ma. Lilia Realubit, “State of Bikol Scholarship,” (pp. 18-25) which complements Dr. Churchill's review and provides more insights into the literary writings in Bikol and about Kabikolan. This paper will serve as an update to the assessments made by Dr. Churchill and Dr. Realubit and bring the review to include the significant strides in Bikol History and Culture that have been achieved over the past five years, up until the year 2002. Fortunately for Kabikolan, ten years later, the 21 st Annual Conference of the PNHS, now under the Presidency of Dr. Churchill was held once again in Ateneo de Naga, now a University under its new President, Fr. Joel E. Tabora, S.J. in October 2000, through the efforts of Prof. Danilo Gerona, himself a scholar of Bikol history. By then, plans were already being drawn up for the establishment of an Institute of Bikol History and Culture to be housed at the recently-completed James J. O'Brien, S.J. Library (1997) by a working committee led by the Academic-Vice President of Ateneo de Naga University, Dr. Rebecca C. Torres and this author.

The Institute of Bikol History and Culture

The germ idea for the establishment of an Institute of Bikol History and Culture (IBHC) was drawn from the experiences of the PNHS itself, when it began holding its First National Conference on Local and National History at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City in 1978. The proceedings of that conference were published in The Journal of History (Vol. XXII, Nos. 1 and 2, January-December 1977) and included some articles by Dr. Samuel K. Tan on “The Methodology of Regional History” and by Dr. Marcelino Foronda on “Bibliographic Sources and Regional History.” The conference marked the shift in perspective in the agenda of Filipino historians away from “classical colonial scholarship” towards a history which focused on the grassroots experiences of Filipino local communities, not only those centered in the colonial capital of Manila , but in the various regions of the archipelago.

Particularly instructive in this collection was the article written by Dr. Resil B. Mojares, on “Building a Center for Local Studies: The Case of the Cebuano Studies Center .” (pp. 31-37). Dr. Mojares provided a report on their efforts to build this center which began in 1975 as part of the University of San Carlos Library , right here in Cebu City . He discussed the salient points that go into the making of a center of regionalia—points which I hope to reiterate today: (1) the Center may be a library, museum or archival agency and (2) the Center defines its coverage as either a municipality, a province or a group of provinces. Having said this, he defined what they would consider as regionalia: (1) works on the region, irrespective of the place of origin of the author (2) works by natives of the region, irrespective of the subject matter and place of publication and (3) all materials published in the region irrespective of the origin of the author and subject matter treated in them. He then proceeded to describe the size and the nature of the collections that had already been gathered in the center over the past three years. I am certain that today, after 27 years of existence, the Cebuano Studies Center can indeed be an effective model in the formation of regional centers for the study of Philippine local history and culture.

In 1997-1998, I spent a year as a Visiting Research Associate at the Ateneo de Naga to conduct research for my doctoral dissertation on Bikol elites during the period 1900-1946 for the University of the Philippines ' History Department in Diliman. I experienced what most historians of regional history had to undergo when writing about particular localities—the sources themselves are scarce and if and when they do exist, they are scattered in various repositories within the region. In fact, some of the larger and more useful collections could be found in Manila or in libraries or archives abroad. Given the nature also of the Bikol region, which is often hit by destructive typhoons and perennial flooding, the chances of preserving valuable documents is greatly hampered or diminished.

For instance, I had traveled through the main cities and centers of the four provinces in search of pre-war documents and newspapers, and discovered that no such repository for such exists in the region, save perhaps for the University of Nueva Caceres Museum in Naga City, which has a considerable collection of pre-war material largely because its former curator, Mr. Ignacio Meliton, Jr. had served briefly in the pre-Commonwealth Legislature as a representative of Camarines Sur. The various provincial capitols in Daet, Naga City, Legazpi City and Sorsogon contain tax declaration forms dating back to the early 1900's, since this was an annual requirement for the local principalia—they would be informative in listing down the real property and other landholdings owned by specific persons and thus could serve as useful sources for a socio-economic profile of Bikolano elites. But they are still considered as government documents, thus, cannot be moved from the offices which house them and are restricted in their use. Likewise, some of the parish records of the different municipalities under the Diocese of Nueva Caceres have been moved into the Archbishop's Palace in Naga City but are there primarily not for researchers but for parishioners seeking confirmation for birth, marriage and death certificates.

But in the three visits in 1987, 1993 and 1996 that I made to the United States National Archives in Washington , D.C. and in College Park , Maryland , and to the Library of Congress Manuscript Section, I have been fortunate enough to read and retrieve documents pertaining to Kabikolan—written by American soldiers, bureaucrats and local officials and personalities. They had been preserved and shipped back to the United States after 1946, when they granted independence to the Philippines . Among these documents for example are the letters written by the first Filipino governor of Sorsogon province from 1902-1907, Dr. Bernardino Monreal, who had a regular correspondence with William Howard Taft, who had served as civil governor of the Philippines, Secretary of War, then President of the United States from 1909-1913. These formed part of the Presidential Papers of Taft preserved in the Library of Congress Manuscipt section.

Likewise, among the files of the Bureau of Insular Affairs (BIA), the agency in the United States which handled their country's overseas possessions, listed as Record Group 350, can be found manuscript reports submitted by the provincial governors of Kabikolan from 1908-1916. The earlier reports from the years 1902-1907 were published as appendices in the annual Reports of the Philippine Commission, but with the formation of the Philippine Assembly in 1907, the succeeding reports were no longer published but kept in their original form as files of the BIA. From among the records of the U.S. Overseas Operations and Commands (listed as RG 395), one can find reports of American detachments assigned to the key municipalities of Kabikolan from 1900-1902—they were concerned primarily with the war being waged against Filipino and Bikolano revolutionaries, but among these files, one can occasionally find letters written by Bikolanos themselves to the American commanders, detailing requests or appeals for help. If I had limited my research to the sources available in the region of Kabikolan, I would never have come across these valuable documents.

I am certain that Prof. Danilo Gerona and Fr. Francisco Mallari, S.J., who have worked in the Franciscan archives in Spain on 16 th to 19 th century documents and Dr. Luis Dery, who used the collections of the Philippine National Archives in T.M. Kalaw street for his history of Sorsogon province during the Spanish period, have had similar experiences. The question now lies in how does one make available to the larger Bikolano public the results of these researches and the documents from which they were based. Aside from publishing books and articles on Bikol history, these historians can provide copies of the documents that they have gathered and used to a research agency, based in the region itself, which will serve as a repository for such—to be made available to other researchers who neither have the means or opportunities to conduct similar research overseas.

It was with this intent in mind that the IBHC was first conceived of and planned. In the concept paper for its establishment, the IBHC was described as the research unit of the Ateneo de Naga University primarily concerned with the preservation of materials on Bikol history and culture and with the productive use of such materials in research, fora and symposia. It is both a repository for materials and an organizing agency for activities relating to Bikol history and culture. It will also generate in the form of publications new materials on Bikol history and culture which can be of use to the present generation of both Filipino and foreign scholars, teachers and students.

Fittingly, the IBHC was to be housed in the James J. O'Brien, S.J. Library, in its third floor, together with the existing Special Collections and a growing number of Bikoliana. It must be recalled that Fr. O'Brien, an Irish-American Jesuit assigned to Ateneo de Naga in the 60's to the early 70's, was himself a prime mover for the greater appreciation for and documentation of the Bikolano heritage. Back in the late 60's, he published for classroom use the collection, The Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Bicol People (1968, 2 nd ed.), which contained vignettes of Bikol history plus transcriptions of Bikol folksongs and folklore gathered by his students. As described by the Ateneans who studied under him, Fr. O'Brien spoke better Bikol than they did and showed greater appreciation for Bikolano culture than some of the Bikolano priests or laymen who were born in the region. Fr. O'Brien passed away in 1994, but in late 1996, when the Ateneo de Naga inaugurated its new three-story library building, they named it the James J. O'Brien, S.J. Library, in his honor. The library was built not only to serve the needs of the Ateneo studentry, but to serve also as a research center for the region and its inhabitants with a vision of enriching its Bikoliana collection. The establishment of the IBHC is one concrete step towards realizing that vision.

The Formal Launching of the IBHC

The Institute of Bikol History and Culture (IBHC) was formally launched last February 15, 2002 in simple ceremonies at the Richard Michael Fernando, S.J. Conference Hall in the Ateneo de Naga University campus. The inaugural lecturer was Dr. Norman G. Owen, currently a Professor of History at the University of Hong Kong who flew in to deliver his address entitled, “Analyzing the Annals: My Thirty Years of Research on Bikol History.” His lecture has since been published in GIBON: Ateneo de Naga University Journal (Vol. 2, No.1, 2002, pp.24-43).

Dr. Owen recounted how his research on Bikol history began thirty years ago with his first trip to the region in September 1972, just shortly before the Penafrancia celebrations which would end in tragedy that year, when the Colgante bridge collapsed during the fluvial procession, killing dozens of onlookers. Incidentally, a few days after that, martial law would be declared by then President Ferdinand Marcos in Manila . Owen was then gathering material for a doctoral dissertation for the History Department at the University of Michigan, which he completed in 1976 as “Kabikolan in the 19 th Century: Socio-Economic Change in the Provincial Philippines,” and eventually published as Prosperity without Progress in 1984. The research for that dissertation led to a long and serious scholarly commitment to improving the state of our knowledge of Bikol history and expanding the historical base for the research and writing on the topic. Among the other seminal articles that Owen had published about the region are “The Principalia in Philippine History: Kabikolan, 1790-1898,” ( Philippine Studies , 1974) and “Winding Down the War in Albay, 1900-1903,” ( Pacific Historical Review , 1979). These and many other articles on the region have since been compiled into a book entitled, The Bikol Blend: Bikolanos and their History , published by New Day in 1999. Last year 2001, the book was recognized with a National Book Award for the Category of Social Sciences by the Manila Critics circle.

In his address and in the preface to this collection, Owen exhorts his audience to continue to research and write on Bikol history. After having gone through a review of the major works on the topic, Owen has this to say:

Despite these efforts, much remains to be done. Above all, Kabikolan still lacks a political history. We do not even have published lists of provincial governors for the colonial period . . ., much less any analysis of their changing powers and policies. We would surely benefit from detailed studies of the careers of some of the top colonial and ecclesiastical administrators who served in Kabikolan, such as Bishop Francisco Gainza or Colonels Jose Ma. Penaranda and Harry Hill Bandholtz.

Worse, we know almost nothing about the evolution of the Bikolano elite. . . To cite only the most obvious case: who were the Imperials? Where did they come from? What were their changing economic and political bases over time? How did they manage to remain as local leaders through Spanish colobialism, the revolutionary Republic, American colonialism, the Japanese occupation, and all the ups and downs of postwar politics? (Owen 1999, v-vi)

He went on to describe the broader issues of the social history of the region that still had to be addressed—questions such as the origins of the Bikolano population, the roles played by migrant families from other regions such as the Tagalogs and Visayans, the patterns of birth, marriages and deaths that can be gleaned from existing parish records.

On the cultural front, he suggested exploring such topics as measuring the extent of how Tagalog (or Filipino) has displaced the Bikol language, if at all, in the region, or the role of Tagalog movies and komiks in the formation of the popular mindset of the common Bikolano. He did cite the work of Fenella Cannell, a British anthropologist who studied the role of beauty contests and gay beauty queens in contemporary Bikol society which has been published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press as Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines (1999).

He ends with this vision for the IBHC:

I would like to see the Institute for Bikol History and Culture open to all these possibilities. I realize that in a physical sense, it may have only one door, since it must be situated in a secure venue with limited access, perhaps only one well-guarded entrance. The materials it holds are precious, and should be well kept and preserved for the benefit of all. Intellectually, however, I hope that it, like the house of history itself, will be an open forum with many doors and many rooms, not just a single gate to enter or a single kind of “approved” history to write. I would like it to welcome both professionals and amateurs, both Bikolanos and outsiders, so long as they are serious researchers. Let historians, students of literature, geneaologists, folklorists and anthropologists all come along and benefit from each other's company. (Owen 2002, pp 38)

This is indeed a tall order and a fitting challenge that the IBHC would like to face, in its infancy as an institution and eventually, as it grows in its collection and activities over the years.

The launching ceremonies were capped with the opening of an exhibit entitled, “19 th Century Churches in Colonial Kabikolan: The Diocese of Nueva Caceres.” This exhibit featured photographs in black-and-white (taken from a souvenir program circa 1940) and colored prints of slides and photos of Kabikolan's Spanish era churches, built largely under the leadership of the Franciscan missionaries who were assigned to the region since the late 16 th century. By viewing the black-and-white photographs side-by-side with or above the colored ones, both of which were taken from similar angles and mounted on the same wooden frame, the observer can detect the various renovations these churches have undergone over a period of sixty years.

The author conducted the research and took the photographs for this exhibit, made possible by a grant from “Towards a Common Future: A Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Culture of Spain and Philippine Universities.” The churches in Kabikolan indeed serve as an interesting window to its colonial past, because they are the most visible and tangible remains of the region's past and these structures can provide clues to the vibrant life of the communities which built and used them. Although some parish records are obsessed with fixing a particular date for the establishment or completion of a particular church, the truth is many of these churches were built and constantly renovated, even as they were being used, for a period of several years. From structures made of light materials such as wood and nipa, these churches evolved into the stone and brick structures which we see until today—some of them have been damaged permanently by the prevalent earthquakes, typhoons or volcanic eruptions that have hit the region—the most eloquent reminder of which are the Cagsawa ruins, a lone belfry standing at the edge of the slopes of Mayon volcano near the present town of Daraga in Albay, the only remaining structure after the town was buried in the aftermath of the Mayon's eruption in 1814. The research on Kabikolan's churches is a work-in-progress and the author was greatly helped by two colleagues—Architect Manolo Noche from the University of Santo Tomas College of Architecture, who has taken photographs of most of the Spanish era churches in Luzon and Kabikolan and Prof. Marilyn R. Canta from the Art Studies Department of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, who studied the architectural styles of the churches in Camarines Sur.

On November 15 th , 2002, the IBHC sponsored a lecture-forum entitled “The Baroque Style in Spanish-Era Churches in Kabikolan,” featuring as lecturers these two colleagues, Architect Noche and Prof. Canta, as one of its contributions to the forthcoming blessing and inauguration of the newly-constructed Ateneo de Naga University Church of Christ the King, which was designed using the Baroque style prevalent in the churches in Camarines Sur, on November 24 th . Even as the IBHC is concerned with the research and writing on Kabikolan's past, it also seeks to make this past meaningful and relevant to the present generation of Bikolanos and in tune with contemporary developments.

Recent Works on Bikol History and Culture

After having described the efforts that went into the establishment of the IBHC, allow me now to review some of the recent works on Bikol History and Culture which have not yet been mentioned in the course of this paper.

An excellent work which appeared in the year 2000 was the collaborative effort of Jason William Lobel and Fr. Wilmer Joseph S. Tria, entitled An Satuyang Tataramon: A Study of the Bikol Language. Fr. Tria finished his Ph.D. in Philosophy in Rome and is presently the Dean of Philosophy at the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary in Naga City , where he founded Hingowa in (Efforts) in 1997, a scholarly philosophical journal which also features articles on Bikol studies. Lobel was a visitng Irish-Italian from San Diego, California who had finished his M.A. in Linguistics at the San Diego State University in 1999 and had done extensive field research on the languages and dialects of the Bikol region over a period of four years. The book blends linguistic research with historical, cultural and literary information and even features a mini-dictionary of 3,300 entries and several academic articles written about the Bikol language, with both English and Bikol translations. Not since Malcolm Mintz published his Bicol-English Dictionary (New Day Publishers) in 1985 has there been a comprehensive study of the Bikol language and dialects as this work. A genuine regional history of Kabikolan must include an analysis of the intricacies and variations of the Bikol language and this work provides that useful framework and documentation.

Fr. Tria was also the project director of a publication effort of the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres, which started three years ago but was completed only this year, with the the launching of a coffee-table book entitled, Ina and the Bikol People: A Journey of Faith (2002) last September. Although meant primarily to be visually appealing because of its vast collection of photographs of the contemporary Bikol landscape and its people, the book provides a section on the cultural heritage of the Bikolanos, prepared by Prof. Danilo Gerona. The book's attraction is not so much its academic text and content, but in the colorful portrayal and documentation of Bikolano life centering on the devotion to Ina, Our Lady of Penafrancia. It improves upon an earlier work on the Virgin of Penafrancia: Mother of Bicol (Bookmark, 1995) by the Jesuits Vitaliano Gorospe, S.J. and Rene Javellana, S.J., by including a contemporary analysis and outlook on the future of Kabikolan, even as its people continue their “journey of faith” and devotion to Mahal na Ina. On a smaller scale, the Diocese of Legazpi also published Earthen Vessels (2001), on the occasion of the golden anniversary of its establishment as a separate diocese from Nueva Caceres. The coffee-table book contains histories of the evangelical efforts in the province of Albay and photographs of its churches, some of which date back to the 17 th century—the most famous being the Franciscan church perched on a hill in the town of Daraga.

Given that the Bikolanos are a very religious and devout people, it is not surprising then that the recent publications have centered upon this religiosity and have been spearheaded by the clergy. But even the laity are drawn to such type of writings. For instance, Leonor R. Dy-Liacco in 1996 also published Sarung Dolot sa Satuyang Ina (An Offering to Our Mother) on the occasion of the Quadricentennial Celebration of Christianity in Bikol, to coincide with the 400 th year of the founding of the Diocese of Nueva Caceres. Mrs. Dy-Liacco had been one of the founding members of the Kabikolan Cultural Association in 1969 together with such figures as Fr. James O'Brien, S.J. and Dr. Domingo Abella. Despite her advances age, Mrs. Dy-Liacco in her compendium was able to gather some interesting vignettes about Bikol history and culture, although a number of them have to be further verified by more historical research.

New Day Publishers has also been quite active in publishing Bikoliana. In 1999, it issued a reprint of Elias M. Ataviado's The Philippine Revolution in the Bicol Region , as translated by Juan T. Ataviado from the original entitled Lucha y Libertad . This was the first of what would have been four volumes on the revolution in the Bicol region that Ataviado began in 1937—he completed two volumes in Spanish, but it is only this first volume which was translated into English in 1953. Copies of that translated volume are now rare, and New Day's reprint edition brings to the attention of the modern day reader the painstaking work carried out by this non-formally trained historian, who interviewed his contemporaries and participants in these events just about 30 years after they had transpired, in order to record and document what had been the distinct experience of the Albayanos and the rest of Kabikolan of the revolution which began in the Tagalog region in 1896.

Likewise, New Day in 1999 also issued Francisco Mallari, S.J., Vignettes of Bicol History , which gathers in one volume the various journal articles that he had written for Kinaadman , Philippine Studies and the Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society. Proceeding from his earlier volume on the Moro raids in Kabikolan entitled Ibalon under Storm and Siege (1990), Mallari tackles various topics of Bikol history during the Spanish era, such as the street called Dinaga in Naga, the defense system of Governor Jose Ma. Penaranda against the Moro raiders in the region and the visit of the Malaspina expedition to the region in 1792. The book, as its title suggests, has very interesting vignettes, but is based on solid archival research in Spain, Mexico and the Philippines, carried out over a period of almost three decades.

With regard to journals, the Ateneo de Naga University has taken the lead in publishing Bikolnon, starting in 1994, a university journal which carries some articles on Bikol history written by Prof. Danilo Gerona. In 2001, it started publishing Gibon, even as Bikolnon continues to be the journal of the Graduate School and the Social Science Research Center . A recently formed group called the Sorsogon Heritage Society, of which the author is one of the founding members and current President, published the first issue of Sarabihon: A Journal of Sorsogon Studies, launched just last February 1 st , 2002. Although it features an article written by the author on the governorship of Bernardino Monreal of Sorsogon from 1901-1907, the journal is not solely devoted to history, but to the entire gamut of Sorsogon culture—its folklore and folk sayings, ethnographic studies of children in Behia, Magallanes by a physical anthropologist, Dr. Francisco Datar, former chair of the Anthropology Department of U.P. Diliman and several writings in English and Bikol by natives of Sorsogon. In preparing for such an issue, we discovered that there is still so much of the Sorsogon heritage that has to be documented and published, for us to pass it on to the next generation. We aim to publish the journal at least twice a year.

On the cultural and literary front, Dr. Maria Lilia F. Realubit published recently Bikol Literary History (2001) which gathers in one volume her various essays on Bikol literature since the late 80's until the 1990's. This serves as a good complement to her earlier work on Bikols of the Philippines (1983). The inspiration for compiling these essays came from a seminar held in 1999 in Naga City on “Teaching Bikol Literature,” where Dr. Realubit was a main speaker. By putting together her works in one volume and citing the notable Bikolano writers of the past decade, she has done us a great service in documenting the strides that have been made in the field of Bikol literature.

From the government agencies, there is the publication funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), by Evelyn Caldera Soriano, entitled Tomas and Ludovico Arejola: Bicolano Revolutionaries (1999). The author, Director of the European Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University, is a descendant of the Arejola clan of Naga and her forebears—former assemblyman for Camarines Sur in 1907, Tomas Arejola and revolutionary general Ludovico Arejola, who led the resistance against the Americans--figured prominently in Kabikolan's history at the turn of the century. Last but not the least, there is a volume on Kabikolan in the series published by the Philippine National Historical Society (PNHS) with the National Historical Institute (NHI) entitled History from the People (Kasaysayan Mula sa Bayan), Vol. 5, edited by Dr. Eden Gripaldo, which contains the proceedings of regional seminar workshops conducted by the two agencies during the Centennial Year 1998—the one for Region V: Kabikolan, having been held in Ateneo de Naga.

For the more recent history of Kabikolan, I would like to mention the work of Soliman Santos, Jr., Heart and Mind in Bicol, 1975-1993 (40 Selected Activist Writings ), (1994) which he compiled after having been involved as journalist and activist in the movements against the Martial Law regime in the 1970's and early 80's. Likewise, there is a collection edited by Reynaldo Jamoralin, Pulang Hamtik (1997) which puts together in one volume essays on the “Bikolano Martyrs” of the Martial Law era—those whose lives had been sacrificed during the struggle against the dictatorship. Among the interesting biographies to be found here are those of Dr. Juan “Johnny” Escandor and Romulo Jallores, alias “Kumander Tangkad.” These writings may seem contemporary to us today, but for the next generation of Bikol writers, these will be rich sources of local and regional history.

Conclusion: The Challenge of Kabikolan History

Having seen the recent works published on Bikol History and Culture, one cannot but be encouraged by the prospect of more harvests in the field of Bikol studies. Indeed, the comprehensive history of Kabikolan as an entire region, covering the early years until the close of the twentieth century has yet to be written. In fact, as a historian, my own desire is to first come up with six separate volumes, with each volume covering the history of each of the six provinces. There has been a tendency for most writers to focus on the regional centers—that is, Naga in Camarines Sur and Legazpi in Albay, to the detriment of the other provinces. This is understandable, given that for most of the 16 th until the early 20 th century, there were practically only two provinces in Kabikolan—Ambos Camarines (both Camarines Norte and Sur) and Albay (which included Sorsogon and Catanduanes); Masbate was administered separately as part of the Visayas, and it was only in the 20 th century that it was annexed as a sub-province of Sorsogon, before becoming independent.

But with the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines in 1946, Kabikolan has been composed of these six provinces, as we know Region V today. A deeper understanding of the region's history can be arrived at only if its component parts are also given due attention. It may take several years before that is accomplished, but I believe that it is a necessary step to coming up with a genuine regional history of Kabikolan.

Two final desiderata with regard to the challenge of writing Bikol regional history. For one, such a history must involve the socio-cultural aspect of the life of the Bikolano, hence, must deal with materials that have been written or orally transmitted in the Bikol language and its various local dialects. There has been a predominance of English and Spanish language source materials in the writing of our regional history, hence, it is skewed towards the political or religious history, where the colonial administrator or the educated Bikolano principalia is at the forefront of events. Until we are able to draw out the “marginal voices” of the common Bikolano, who do not write nor speak in English or Spanish, there will always be a sector of Bikolano society, the “sadit na tao” as Fr. Frank Lynch, S.J. (1959) calls them, who will never be heard.

Finally, to be able to write a comprehensive history, we must expand the base of our historical research, hence, there is a need to gather and collect historical source materials in an organized and systematic manner. Also, once these materials have been gathered, they must be made readily available to the pool of researchers and writers who will use them productively. This is where the writing of Bikol history has been weak—the materials are there, they exist, but they are scattered in various repositories in Manila or abroad and in the 107 municpalities and seven cities all over the region.

The region of Kabikolan covers a land area of 17, 632.5 square kilometers and getting to visit its 107 municipalities and seven cities is by itself already a physical challenge and test of endurance. But it can be done over a prolonged period of time. The “documentary arsenal” that Dr. Domingo Abella had envisioned as the Bikol Annals nearly fifty years ago may take another fifty years to complete. And I firmly believe that this newly-formed Institute of Bikol History and Culture at the Ateneo de Naga University can precisely be that instrument that can realize this vision and the institution that can take on this challenging task in the twenty-first century.

The author finished his Ph.D. in History at the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 1999, submitting a dissertation entitled, “ Ang Pagbabagong-Anyo ng Principalia sa Kapanahunang Amerikano: Kabikolan, 1900-1946 .” Apart from being the Director of the Institute of Bikol History and Culture at the Ateneo de Naga University, he is also a former Chair and currently Associate Professor at the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. He is currently President of the Sorosgon Heritage Society.

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Fifty Years of the Bikol Annals : Towards a Regional History of Kabikolan