ILIGAN CITY's during the SPANISH ERA

Like the other coastal settlements, Iligan was also constantly attacked by the Muslims, a retaliatory action against the Spanish intruders. In 1639, on order of Gov. Gen. Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, Captain Francisco de Atienza y Vañez, a tried warrior from Toledo, Spain, constructed six collapsible boats, each capable of carrying 50 to 100 men, to be assembled at Lake Lanao. As in charge of Iligan, and after receiving suggestions from Fr. Fray Agustin(known as Padre Capitan) on the military technique and strategy against the Muslim strongholds, he led as expedition to Malanao. After the fall of Marawi to the Spaniards, the Muslims continued to harass the enemy on the sea and on land. They even cut off the supply route from Iligan, causing Atienza to pull back and fortify Iligan from the increasing Muslim attacks. As a Christian settlement, Iligan's story really goes back more than four centuries ago, shortly before Legaspi's expedition reached the Philippines in 1565. It began in the island-kingdom of Panglao, just off the southwest coast of Bohol. At that time, most of the island of Bohol was covered by virgin forest, but Panglao was already a renowned trading center. Father Francisco Combes, the Jesuit historian, states that such was the fame of Panglao that ambassadors of princes from foreign places were sent to the island.
Combes relates that an ambassador from the king of Terranate (Ternate in the Moluccas) caused a war which forced the islanders to abandon Panglao and moved en masse to what is now Dapitan: " The ambassador lost respect for the house of the princes--then represented by Dailisan and Pagbuaya, who were brothers--by making advances to a concubine. They punished the crime by cutting off the noses and ears of the ambassador and his men." The king of Ternate retaliated by sending a war expedition. Using trickery and surprise, the raiders were able to kill Dailisan. Pagbuaya, the surviving prince, then sought another place for his people. Combes explains why: "As there were no hills on their coasts, and they were unable to restrain their noble and warlike nature to the confinement and prison of the retired mountains, where they would be deprived of the trade and benefits of the sea, they crossed to the island of Mindanao... and seized a small rugged hill which allow itself to be monopolized (held) by their valor." Thus, Dapitan was founded. Here Pagbuaya, while confronted by still another threat from the Muslim king of Burnay(Borneo) encountered Legaspi's expedition in 1565 and sealed an alliance with the Spanish conquistador. It was a pilot from Dapitan who guided Legaspi to Panglao, and thence to Bohol where the blood compact was signed with a lesser chieftain, Sikatuna.
It is interesting to note that the town of Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental is traditionally held to have been a Muslim settlement in the pre-Spanish period. Tradition has it that for some urgent reasons, Tagoloan was suddenly abandoned during a mass exodus to northeastern Lanao. The probable cause of the exodus was the unusually violent eruption of Hibok-hibok Volcano in Camiguin Island. The eruption must have been a major one accompanied by killer tidal waves, forcing the Tagoloan folks to abandon the sea in their panic. It is significant that as late as the 1950s Hibok-hibok Volcano again erupted.
My theory is that the Tagoloans journeyed well into the hinterlands until they reached the area around Balo-i, in what is now Lanao del Norte, where the abundance and the easy accessibility of fresh water for their daily religious ablutions made them stay permanently. The rugged mountains and gorges of Bukidnon were not as hospitable, though nearer to Tagoloan, because water in its steep river gorges is hard to get. The tradition about Tagoloan to my thinking has factual basis. The jigsaw puzzle about the pre-Spanish origins of the Lanao Norte Muslims (I call them the Tagoloans) falls into place neatly of the assumption that they came from Tagoloan is accepted. Just one piece of evidence in support of the theory is the fact that there exists a town called Tagoloan, northeast of Balo-i, in the precise direction of Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, I surmise that in the old days, after the passing of the generation that made the exodus from Tagoloan, that place became more and more vague, hazy memory, and the nearby area in its general direction (northeast) became Tagoloan to the later-day Maranaos.
The Sultanate of Tagoloan is acknowledged by the Lake Muslims as a legitimate sultanate, not part of the traditional "pat a pengampong." It has its own salsila (oral traditions).
The poblacion of old Iligan was located west of the old public market. It is now under water. When it began to sink, Gobernadorcillo Remigio Cabili built another fort and transferred the poblacion to its present site.
The gobernadorcillo at the time the Spaniards abandoned Iligan in late 1899 was the famous Hilarion Ramiro. He received the Americans under the command of a Captain John Smith who, in early 1900, landed from seven gunboats anchored in Iligan Bay....