Tagbilaran City Charter Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: July 1, 2024

Tagbilaran is a third-class component city and the capital of the province of Bohol in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to local tradition, the city’s name is a Hispanicized form of “Tagubilaan”, an amalgamation of the words tagu (“to hide”) and Bilaan (the Blaan people, an indigenous people of Southern Mindanao who used to raid the Visayan Islands during the pre-Spanish era). The official version gives a similar, but not identical explanation. It claims that the name Tagbilaran derives from the word tinabilan, which means “shielded”, as the settlement was shielded from both potential invaders and the southwest monsoon by the island of Panglao.

The history of the settlement that would eventually become Tagbilaran can be traced back to the pre-colonial times. It was part of the Kingdom of Dapitan (also known as the Bool Kingdom) and a flourishing center of trade with China and Malaya. The first Europeans to arrive in the area were the Spaniards led by conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi, who made an alliance through a historic blood compact with Datu Sikatuna, a local chieftan, in 1565.

Three decades later, two Jesuit priests arrived in Bohol to convert the locals to Catholicism. They built a stone church in what is now Baclayon, a neighbor town of Tagbilaran. In 1707, Baclayon officially became a parish. Back then, Tagbilaran was one of its barrios (neighborhoods). Thirty-five years later, in 1742, Governor of the Visayas officially separated Tagbilaran from Baclayon and established it as an independent town named San Jose de Tagbilaran in honor of Saint Joseph the Worker.

Tagbilaran continued to grow throughout the Spanish and American periods in the history of the Philippines. During World War II, it was occupied by Japan, but Filipino guerrillas continued to fight Japanese troops until the country’s liberation in 1945. Tagbilaran’s development continued after the war, and it was eventually converted from a municipality to a chartered city on July 1, 1966. The anniversary of its cityhood is now celebrated as Tagbilaran City Charter Day.

As the provincial capital, Tagbilaran is the main center of governance in Bohol, as well as a major business, education, and transportation hub. The city hosts all of province’s universities and a major seaport that connects Tagbilaran to major ports in the Visayas Islands and Mindanao. It also used to have an international airport, which was closed down in 2018 and replaced by Bohol-Panglao International Airport.

Tagbilaran is a major tourism center as well. It boasts a number of cultural properties of the Philippines, white sandy beaches, dive spots, and a variety of hotels, restaurants, and resorts. The city also hosts several festivals during the year, which attract tourists from all over the country.