Dr. Rolando Borrinaga's Remarks during the reopening of the CKC Museum

Prof. Rolando Borrinaga as he delivered his messages during the program which reopened the Fr. Cantius Kobak, OFM - Samar Archeological and Cultural Museum.

Prof. Borrinaga with Fr. Mar Tubac, OFM and George Emmanuel Borrinaga

(Speech at the Reopening Ceremonies for the Fr. Cantius Kobak, OFM – Samar Archeological and Cultural Museum at Christ the King College (CKC), Calbayog City, December 29, 2010.)

It is my great pleasure to have been invited to attend the reopening of the Fr. Cantius Kobak, OFM – Samar Archeological and Cultural Museum at the Christ the King College (CKC) in Calbayog City. With this development, a very symbolic one, you have reclaimed Calbayog City’s prominence as the center of historical and cultural research and preservation in the entire island of Samar. I would like to congratulate your president, Fr. Marcelo Tubac, OFM, the Franciscan community of CKC, and civic-oriented citizens of Calbayog for making this possible.

The reopened museum is appropriately named after the late Fr. Cantius J. Kobak, OFM, who will forever remain a giant insofar as research on the history and culture of Samar is concerned. His generosity in sharing his source materials also helped other scholars such as William Henry Scott and Bruce Cruikshank to write and publish scholarly studies that have expanded and deepened the understanding of Bisayan history and culture during the past 30 years.

Father Kobak’s greatest scholarly achievement, however, was the tracking, transcribing, translating to English, and publishing or preparing for publication all extant copies of the manuscripts of Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina, SJ, which is known in the academic community as Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas … 1668. This is the only comprehensive ethnographic and historical account of the Bisayas region in the seventeenth century. Parts of the Alcina manuscripts now appear as books in English translation under the title History of the Bisayan People in the Philippine Islands (Vols. 1, 2 and 3). These were co-edited by Fr. Lucio Gutierrez, OP, and published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. Only Volume 4 remains to be published, but the manuscript is already there.

By sheer chance or fate, I happened to be the Filipino with the most extensive contact with Father Kobak during the last two years of his life. He posted a note in the guestbook of my Internet website sometime in late 2002, and that led to our exchange of e-mails and snail-mails which provided each of us with needed new data and information about the local history and culture of Leyte and Samar.

Then somehow we agreed to collaborate on the English translation for possible publication of a book on the history of Leyte. The book was titled Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte by Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, which was originally published in Spanish in 1914. Father Kobak had done partial translation of the book, and I supplied the other half after its bound photocopy, which had been mailed to CKC, was retrieved and delivered to my house in Tacloban by your former president, Fr. Rodrigo San Jose, OFM. I completed the manuscript on August 14, 2004. The next day, Father Kobak passed away in the U.S. at the age of 74.

Our co-authored book came out in 2006 under the title The Colonial Odyssey of Leyte(1521-1914), and this won the 2006 National Book Award for Translation given by the Manila Critics Circle. I am donating a copy of this book to the museum along with two other books I have written and published – The Balangiga Conflict Revisited, which came out in 2003, and Leyte-Samar Shadows: Essays on the History of Eastern Visayas, which came out in 2008.

I am also donating a copy of Vol. 54 of The Journal of History, published in 2009, which includes my paper titled “The 1984 Scott-Kobak Correspondence: A Sharing that Reconstructed the Sixteenth-Century Bisayan Society and Culture.” The title is self-explanatory. Also in this volume is the paper titled “The Pulahan Movement in Samar (1904-1911): Origins and Causes,” which was written by George Emmanuel Borrinaga, my son who now teaches history at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, and who accompanied me here.

Finally, I would like to turn over a mounted picture of Father Kobak. At the back of the frame are written his signature and the dateline – “Calbayog, January 1970.” Let me tell you how this came into my possession:

Around March 2004, Father Kobak learned after a routine medical check-up that he was suffering from cancer of the lymph glands. It did not take him long to accept the fate that he was going to the Great Beyond. He offered to bequeath to me the last items in his personal archives – including books, documents, and manuscripts that he had held on for years. I humbly accepted the offer, and promised to take care of them. He sent the items in about 10 mail parcels which contents eventually measured about two meters in thickness. Some of the parcels arrived after he had passed away.

I am now working on a few manuscripts left behind by Father Kobak, which hopefully will see publication over the next few years. One of these is the English translation of Vocabulario de la Lengua Bisaya, the oldest Bisayan dictionary compiled by Fr. Mateo Sanchez, SJ, in Dagami, Leyte around 1616 and published in Manila in 1711.

Father Kobak may be gone, but aspects of his work are still coming out in the historical literature. And with the reopening of your museum, all these are assured of a house to go home to – in Calbayog, a place that always meant a lot to him.

Thank you and good afternoon.

Prof. Rolando O. Borrinaga, PhD.
School of Health Sciences
University of the Philippines, Manila
Palo, Leyte

The History of the CKC Museum

The Archaeological Expedition of Fr. Cantius in Samar.
(Read by Dean Venancio Bajet during the reopening of the CKC Museum)

Shortly upon his arrival, Fr. Cantius J. Kobak, ofm began to take great interest in the local history and culture of the place. He collected and compiled histories of Samar and Leyte towns and of the Colegio (de San Vicente de Paul), Bisayan songs, poetry, dramas, riddles, dictionaries, etc.

In 1965, the Bishop (of Calbayog) and the Rector of the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral began the renovation of the said Cathedral. Interested in church furnishings that were being cast aside, Fr. Cantius was given permission to salvage several items. Among the items offered were an old altar with a Franciscan coat of arms, a wheel with some twelve small bells attached to it on a stand with a crankshaft (it was used to ring bells during the sanctus, elevations, communion, processions, etc), few candelabras, an old painting of a saint and several items in poor condition.

From Capul Island, a pastor brought him a discarded old chalice, a ciborium and a monstrance. These items created an interest in other materials such as wooden statues of saints (some with ivory faces and hands), crucifixes, stone cereal grinders called gilingan, antique charcoal flat irons, jewelry boxes, old Spanish coins, jewelry, rings, earrings, bangles and Chinese porcelain plates and jars.

He also collected Bisayan publications like old Spanish-Bisayan dictionaries and the Pasyon which was chanted by elderly women during the Holy Week.

In 1967, some public school teachers brought him ancient stoneware and jars which were found near Gandara. This triggered and sparked his interest in visiting the ancient burial grounds in Samar Island. It was the Jesuit priest Ignacio Alcina who, in his “Historia” gave some accounts on how and where the ancient Samareños buried their deceased. It was with this knowledge that Fr. Cantius made plans to visit these burial grounds during the semestral breaks.

On April 1968, Fr. Cantius gathered a group of college students and began the first archaeological expedition in Oras, Eastern Samar. The caves that were searched yielded pottery shards and bones. (15th century blue-white) Chinese porcelain were found in a small opening in the shore cliffs. Upon the suggestions of old folks, the group proceeded to Tubawbaw, an islet facing Oras. Broken stoneware, porcelain shards, human bones and teeth were recovered from the site.

Upon returning to mainland Samar, Fr. Cantius saw a boy carrying fermented wine (tuba) in an ancient dragon jar. He asked the professors who were with him to buy the tuba and the jar. The boy hesitated because he needed the jar to sell more tuba. They offered to triple the price of the tuba and the boy sold it with the jar.

From Oras, they went to the town named McArthur. They were introduced to the Parish Priest and the Town Mayor who told them to the Minalungon Island where there was a cave used for ancient burials. Lungon is the bisayan term for coffin or casket.

The cave was littered with broken earthenware shards, bones and pieces of wood. They learned that for some time, foreigners arrived and dug at the island since as early as 1923. Fr. Cantius’ team attempted some diggings, but the artifacts seem to have been exhausted by the previous digging expeditions; and the fisherfolks who were in the area did not like the idea (of more diggings) because they believed it might cause strong typhoons.

On May 24, 1968, the group went to Calicoan, Lilibucan and Cando Islets in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, where an American Naval / Air Base was constructed during the second World War. They found nothing except an artillery piece which Fr. Cantius took as a souvenir unaware that it might explode. He would later call this “a foolish venture carrying it in our jeep on such bumpy dirt roads.” He stored it in a cabinet at the museum, it rusted, leaked a yellow sulfur-like substance and burned the cabinet a bit.

They (the group of Fr. Cantius) even went to Homonhon, the island where Ferdinand Magellan landed centuries ago. Unfortunately it was fiesta and there was no opportunity for diggings, albeit the priest and the people received them with wonderful hospitality.

Back to Guiuan, they explored the high mountains believed to have protected the place from the treacherous waves of the Pacific Ocean. They found hundreds of pieces of shell bracelets that are both broken and in perfect shape.

On November 18, 1968, they visited Laoang, Batag and Kahayagan in Northern Samar. In Barangay Burabod in Batag Island, the people presented them with large burial jars with stone lids. In a little hill in another barangay of Batag Island, inquiries from old folks led them to finding “a small Chinese stoneware bowl”. Since it looked broken, Fr. Cantius took off a large portion and it revealed as small skull in deteriorated state. Digging gently further, longer arms or wrist bones with five shell bracelets appeared, all indicative of a child burial. Other archeological items were also found: rusted daggers, ancient agong (bell), beads and a golden earring.

On December 28, 1968, they found some fine treasures in Capul, Mungulbungol (now San Vicente), Dalupiri (now San Antonio) and Samputan Islet, west of Capul. A kind individual in Mungubungol gave them a blue and white Chinese burial urn with lid, small jars, beads, bracelets and carnelian gemstones. It was a child-burial jar of a Datu (class). In Dalupiri, the group was given a fine precious celadon dish.

On February 1969, Fr. Cantius requested the Filipino friar who was with him in Batag Island to go back and see. The said priest went to Batag and came back with two sacks of broken stoneware, earthenware, porcelain dragon jars and other archeological recoveries. When as family cleared a hill for two hectares, broken recoveries were given to the friar while the good ones were sold. Fr. Cantius was happy even with the broken recoveries. He restored three dragon jars and a lot of porcelain and earthen wares.

The CKC Museum was established. While recoveries were being made, a large hall (at the CKC campus) was allocated for the planned museum. At that time some Professional American Archaeologists heard about the finds and came to Calbayog to see it. They dated, labeled and described all the materials recovered from burial sites.

In 1969, the Christ the King College Archaeological Museum was formally opened for public viewing. It was temporarily closed in 2005 when the Padua Building was renovated.

The Museum’s Second Spring. In November 2009, two months after the 5th death anniversary of Fr. Cantius, the City Council of Calbayog passed a Resolution declaring him as “An Honorary Samarnon and Adopted Son of the City”.

Before the end of 2010, it was deemed fitting that in its reopening the CKC Museum be named in his honor, he who was known as the Historian of Samar and the Bisayan region.

Images from the reopening of the CKC Museum

The Samar Archeological Museum of Christ the King College formally reopened yesterday. It has been renamed as the Fr. Cantius Kobak, ofm - Samar Archeological and Cultural Museum. The simple reopening program (which I hosted) preceded the Thanksgiving Mass which marked the start of TARAGPO 2010.

Here are some pictures I managed to take during the event.

Mr. Venancio Bajet, Dean of the CKC of Education as he narrated the Samar Odessy of Fr. Cantius Kobak, OFM.

U.P. Professor Rolando Borrinaga as he delivered his message.

Bro. Ramon Balan, OFM as he formally declared the reopening of the museum.

Dr. Francisca Santos and Mr. Pio Santos

Councilor Rey James Uy and Artist Raul Isidro

Fr. Sebastian Gabuy, OFM as he lead the prayer of blessing.

(l-r) Dr. Francisca Santos, Mr. Pio Santos, Mr. Venencio Bajet, Armando Toleza, George Emmanuel Borrinaga, Professor Rolando Borrinaga and Artist Raul Isidro.

The CKC Museum's new home

The CKC Museum is set to be reopened this coming December 29, 2010, in time for Taragpo 2010. I was at the CKC campus the past few days to finalize things for the opening and other details about Taragpo and the CSVP-CKC Alumni Association elections. Here are the pictures I took as workers got busy to finish the new home of the museum.

You might think that statue in front of the museum looks familiar. It should look familiar to every Christi Regian. It used to stand in front of the Technical Building, shown here: