The year was 1569. The Spaniards have already arrived in Sitio Boboc-on, Barangay Naile, Ibajay. The Dominican priest that joined Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and his men has built a modest church and acted as the parish priest.

In Sitio Boboc-on, one of the three leaders was a Chieftain name Hangoe. He was a fisherman. Aghast by the impositions of the Spanish colonizers, he and his wife fled to the mountains and settled in Sitio Cabotos near the territorial limits of Barangay Mina-a.

One day, Hangoe went fishing. He went down the mountain carrying his basket and net. He proceeded to Ibajay River.

After several attempts of casting, he caught nothing but the same piece of wood, which kept on getting into his net. On the seventh time, he was exasperated and put the wood into his basket.

“What a day!” he said. “There’s nothing left for me to catch here except for this piece of wood good enough for a firewood!”

He folded his net, pick up his basket and he headed home.

While walking, Hangoe reflected on how things have changed by the coming of the Spaniards.

“Life wasn’t really this hard for my family,” he said to himself. “At least in Boboc-on, we have plenty to eat. But we would rather starve than give in to the impositions of the Spaniards.”

It was already dark when he arrived home. Tired and weary, he made a decision not to wake up his wife, placed the wood under the wood stove and went to sleep.

The following morning, his wife asked him about his catch.

He replied, “I caught nothing but that piece of wood in the river (pointing to the wood).”

Reaching for it, she said, “We still have some leftovers last night. After all, you did not eat.”

While holding the wood, his wife made a slight inspection. After a few turns, she was surprised to see a face image of a child sticking out from it.

“Roaring thunder! This piece of wood had a face of an infant,” she told Hangoe. “Maybe what you have caught is the son of the goddess of the river!”

She went out of the house, brought along the wood and let their neighbors see it. “We should return it to his mother,” someone said. “For she might be angry and curse us by taking it!”

“…But what if it were given to us as a gift? What if she really wanted to give us a child?” Hangoe’s wife replied. “After all, it has been years now and we still don’t have a child? If she really doesn’t want to give it to us, why she kept on placing it inside Hangoe’s net? Maybe I should keep it for a while. Because by returning it, she might think that I am ungrateful and I might suffer misfortunes.”

The news about the wood with the face image of the child spread to the town by word-of-mouth. Some people from the neighboring barangays came to Sitio Cabotos just to see it.

The parish priest also heard about it. He even wanted to see it for himself. He, then, requested the resident of Sitio Cabotos to bring it to Boboc-on Church.

The first miracle happened.

Legend said that when the residents where about to bring it to the church, it became too heavy that they have to commission the strongest man in the community to carry it.

It, nevertheless, reached the priest. Upon seeing the wood, the parish priest was delighted.

“This is not the son of the goddess of the river,” he exclaimed. “This is God Himself in the image of the Holy Child! For this child’s face looks exactly like the Sto. Nino!”

With the permission of Hangoe and his wife, he had the wood carved. Upon completion, he assigned a dressmaker to clothe it at his specific instructions. He then blessed it and venerated it in the church.

Then, the second miracle happened.

One day, the parish priest woke up and found that the Sto. Nino was missing from the altar. He called the sacristan mayor and instructed him to call the parishioners for a meeting.

“The Sto. Nino is missing from the altar,” he announced. “Maybe you could help me find it.”

After a long and hard endeavor, the people were not able to find the image of the Sto. Nino. They went desperate and annoyed by the incident.

They asked themselves, “Who in his troubled mind would blaspheme the image of the Son of God?”

Meanwhile, on that same day in the house of Hangoe, a loud voice was heard. “Haaangooeee! Do you have any idea what this Sto. Nino is doing under our bench? … His feet were soiled and his clothes were full of amorsiko.”

“I have no idea!” he adamantly answered. “We were asleep the whole night! Maybe it just came there by himself!”

“We should return it,” she said. “People might think that we took it. They might cut off our hands!”

Hangoe’s wife got dressed and went to Sitio Boboc-on. When she arrived late in the afternoon, she returned it to the parish priest. She told the priest and the parishioners what happened. No rational explanation could be made.

Many believed that it miraculously walked from Sitio Boboc-on Church to the house of Hangoe in Sitio Cabotos about 10 kilometers away.

This incident happened not just once, but for several times.

During one of the repeated incidents of the disappearance, the townsfolk were frantic to keep the image from leaving the church. In one of the community meetings, someone made a suggestion that when the Holy Child returns to the church the people should imitate the playful likeness of the Ati, painting their faces with sooth from the bottom of pots and kettles so that they may entice the Sto Nino to stay. Furthermore, others suggested that a merry making be done in a festive mood such as beating of the drums and hailing “Viva el Senor Sto. Nino” so as to hearten the Holy Child not to leave the Church anymore.

The parish priest suggested that when returning the Nino to the altar, He should be given an honor fit for a returning king.

So they did and this has been the tradition.

From then on, the Holy Child did not disappear from the church anymore. It was only transferred to a new home when the old church was built at the Poblacion and the seat of government was relocated there.

It became a tradition of the Ibajaynons to persuade the Sto. Nino to stay in the church by dancing the sayaw on his path to the altar, applying sooths to their faces, beating drums and blaring “Viva kay Senior Sto. Nino Viva!” They also danced as if they were playing with him.

In the years that came, stories from the olds tell that the Holy Child miraculously protected the town from the attacks of Moro pirates and bandits. Every time that their was an invasion, they say, a child with a blinding light walks along the shoreline of Ibajay, preventing the invaders to see where to dock their ships.

Some would bear witness that by rubbing and touching the image would heal their sickness and ease their pains. Others attested that a vivid prayer to have a child from a childless couple would grant them an offspring. A countless more declares that their prayers and petitions were always answered.

To this date, there’s nothing much to lay our hands on to how many children did Hangoe and his wife have. What we only knew is that Hangoe retired to the mountains of Sitio Boboc-on.

By Bombi Mobo