PIA-Bohol (30 April 2010)
Photo: Tubag Bohol
THE FIESTA month of May announces its sidling entrance with homing overloaded boats navigating the narrow channel carved in the shallows towards their berthing places at the Tagbilaran pier.
But, why May, many have asked.
Answering the question may have something to do with understanding the word Tagbilaran, the name that never is in the Cebuano-Bisayan lexicon, says a self confessed local historian in Bohol.
Tagbilaran, the place with its heart nestled on top of a thickly forested rocky hill, may have been coined from two words: “tago” and “Bila” and could be a name given by grateful natives who clambered for safety and used the forests as their temporary shelter during the raids by Bila pirates, he said humbly refusing to have his name printed.
