Kedatuan of Dapitanball

Kedatuan of Dapitanball was an ancient Filipino Territory once based at Bohol at Tagbilaran Strait. Bohol's first indigenous people settled in the Anda peninsula. These people came from northeast Mindanao. These people were responsible for the Anda petrographs which are one of the most important indigenous rock writing in the country.

Around the 12th century, Migrants from Northern Mindanao settled in the strait between mainland Bohol and the island of Panglao and then established the Kedatuan of Dapitan in western Bohol because the true indigenous people of Bohol in the Anda peninsula and nearby areas were not open to them, forcing them to establish settlement in the western part of the island. It was first built with hardwood on the soft seabed. It engaged it trade with nearby areas and some Chinese merchants. The Jesuit Alcina tells tales about a rich nation, he called the 'Venice of the Visayas', pointing to the Kedatuan of Dapitan at that time. The Jesuit also tells of a Dapitan princess named Bugbung Hamusanum, whose beauty caused her suitor, Datu Sumangga of Leyte, to raid parts of southern China to win her hand.

By 1563, before the full Spanish colonization agenda came to Bohol, Kedatuan of Dapitanball was at war together with the  Sultanate of Ternateball in the Moluccas. At the time, Dapitan was ruled by two brothers named Dalisan and Pagbuaya. The Ternateans at the time were allied to the Portuguese. Dapitan was destroyed and Datu Dalisan was killed in battle. His brother, Datu Pagbuaya, together with his people fled back to Mindanao and established a new Dapitan in the northern coast of the Zamboanga peninsula. The new Dapitan eventually was incorporated by the Spanish. Pagbuaya's son, Manooc was among those who sided with the Spanish. He converted to Christianity and aided the Spaniards in the conquest of Islamic Manila and the Camarines area in Luzon. The people of Dapitan also assisted the Spanish in the conquest of Northern Mindanao. Eventually, the Dapitans took their vengeance against the Ternateans when Manooc's cousin, Laria, guided the Spanish in their invasion of the Moluccas.