DAKIT TREE

 ILIHAN, TOLEDO CITY, CEBU

    In 1920 up to the present and might be forever, the tree stands mystical, fantastic  and intriguing. Lately, one passenger bus incurred accident that cause the death of some  of its passengers. The driver narrated that he saw a very, very wide clean and clear highway when in reality, it is narrow and crooked road. The tree was tortured by a well known tree cutter by severing its branches and leaves  after a while,  the man died of unknown illness. Eighty six (86) years old “DAKIT” Tree still mystifies the passersby at Barangay Ilihan.

          The myth begins when neighbors detected a passenger truck stopped and no one alighted. Sometimes people on the neighborhood saw lights and someone conversing to another person,  but there is only one person seen. Big animals such as horse, dogs, and others came out  from the tree and later on vanished. From our ancestors it was told that on important and big occasions, party hosts went to the big dakit tree and borrow utensils and wares and forgot to return borrowed things, abusing the kindness, thus such scenario or opportunity of friendliness faded. Things could no longer be borrowed this time. 

          At time when lovers came, the man took home the girl and  stopped in front of the said tree. The man did not expect that the girl was a nymph. The fantasy showed that the tree turned into a huge palace and he was invited by the girl to enter the gates but as the man looked back the palace was not there anymore and asked the neighbors about it and was confirmed that there was  no such  structure as a palace on the site. 

 For now, the tree still proudly stands unaffected.

THE LEGEND OF BARANGAY ILIHAN

This is a body of stories bounded for questions and popularly regarded as HISTORY. Before the advent of Spain, Barangay ilihan was formerly called ALIHAN. According to the ancient stories of forefathers at that time the sea water caused to flow upstream along HINULAWAN RIVER, when high tide which was easily explained by vintas of the Moro pirates.

At both sides was a portion of canopy of rocks where in Moro bandits hide there, which was a narrow passage of flood water where Moro bandits usually blocked the natives with pointed arrows and bought them as slaves and also confiscated their products that would have been bought and sold to the little pueblo of the Hinulawan. That was the reason why the place was called by the Moro bandits and presently called Ilihan. These where the difficult times encountered by the native that probe there was an activity and movement of the people times.

The success of Magellan voyage inspired Spain to send more expeditions but failed. The expedition of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi was successful. It laid the foundation of Christianity and Spanish rule in the Philippines. 

During the Spanish conquest of the country, they enrich the cultural heritage of the people, issued a Royal degree to educate the natives of which they had establish what we called today as Balangay or Barangay.

WORLD WAR II FOXHOLES FOUND IN ILIHAN, TOLEDO CITY,CEBU, PHILIPPINES

 They made secret plans for the invasion of our country. They had already known the easy access in several points of the country; first wave of landing by the Japanese Imperial Army was in Lingayen Gulf; second wave of landing was in Davao followed by the successive bombings in various strategic points of our military installations.

          The outbreak of World War II on December 8, 1941 was after the sneak attack of the Pearl Harbor at Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. But long before the war, the Japanese came to the Philippines who disguised as businessmen, merchants, fishermen, storeowners, etc. but in truth, they were high ranking officials of the Japanese Imperial Forces.
          The foxholes serves as machine guns’ nest or shelters of the USAFFE soldiers on the hills of the barangay Ilihan which were constructed by military engineers in January 1942 right after the invasion of the Japanese Imperial Forces in Lingayen Gulf in Luzon  and in Davao, Mindanao. It was a pincher movement done by the High Command of the Japanese landings in Cebu and other islands of the Visayas. The USAFFE Batallion Commander of the 82nd Infantry Division MG Company was Captain Oligario Baura; below in rank were Executive Officer Lt. Bargayo, Lt. Florencio Blanco, Lt. Ramon Dumadag, Lt. Isidro Solijon, Lt. Flores and other officers of the USAFFE who were assigned at Ilihan Defense Line. This army division was under the command of Col. William F. Sharp who assigned in the Central Visayas by Let Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur and subsequently under the command of Let. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright as Gen. Mac Arthur was called immediately by President Franklin Roosevelt to take command as Supreme Commander of the Allied Power in the Pacific Islands. 

          Before the landing in Toledo, the Japanese Imperial Army made sightings and observations along the shores ;  they found out that the barb wire entanglement fixed in position was difficult to attack. Seeing it impossible, they sailed out of town of Pinamungahan where they landed early dawn of April 10, 1942. Marching along the road leading to the town of Toledo, there were shootings between the USAFFE soldiers as blocking force who later on fled as they were outnumbered by the enemies. When the Japanese Army reached the fortified defense line of the USAFFE in the hills of Barangay Ilihan, heavy fighting occurred; the bursting of machine guns and rifles, the crackling continuous sounds of the bullets by the brave USAFFE Soldiers hindered the advance of the enemies. Sad to say that there were support warplanes of the Japanese who dropped incendiary bombs near the openings of foxholes which emitted poison gas to our Filipino defenders. 

          At sunset, almost of the USAFFE soldiers retreated to nearby mountains with their weapons where in later months they planned to organize Guerilla Movement in coordination/cooperation of the scattered soldiers in order to fight the enemies until the coming of the Allied Liberation Forces led by Gen. Mac Arthur. 

          As we have learned during that battle, many of the Japanese soldiers perished and were wiped out particularly in the lowlands owing to heavy firing by the soldiers along the trenches at the foothills at the top ofthe hills. This is one of the most significant footages in the history of Toledo.