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Driven
one stormy day by the swift current of Surigao strait long before the
Spanish regime in the Philippines some Visayan fisherman riding in a banca
from cebu were said to have drifted across the sea between the visayan
islands and northern Mindanao. They reached a point in the rough open the
sea were they could perceive the outlet of Surigao River and wearily
managed with all their might to deviate southerly from the direction of
the stern current towards the east, and sought refuge inland.
Upon entering the mouth of the river and coming ashore, they found the
grass nut shelter of a Negrito Chieftain named Solibao, described as a
short kinky-haired aborigine. While the newcomers busied themselves in
making a better shelter than the dribbling hut of Mr.Solibao, their banca
was carried away by the rising flood leaving them with no other means of
transportation.
Forced to stay in the place of Mr. Solibao, the fishermen tried to help
themselves to whatever means of sustenance they could obtain form the
nearby wilderness. In their wandering, they worked on for livelihood.
Fortunately later, they saw a boat sailing casually along the coast. They
signaled the crew to come ashore and found out they were Visayan traders
who kindly offered to take them back home. Some of them left while others
preferred to stay and await harvest for the crops they planted. Those who
left, came back later of with their families and settled definitely in
Solibao’s place who they found to be hospitable rather than harmful.
Regularly travelers were made by the new inhabitants from their
newly-found place to their former paces of origin in Cebu, Leyte and Bohol,
thus naming their place as solibao, after its original dweller, the
Negrito chieftain. In 153, one of the galleons of the Spaniards happened
to drop anchor in the harbor of what was then the settlement of Solibao
and his Visayan guest. The journey-worm Spanish historian who was with the
group probably misheard the name of the pace given by the inhabitants as
Surigao instead Solibao. Since then, solibao was called Surigao. Such is
the legend as told by some ancient dwellers. |