Elibinibid Point

Elibinibid Point belongs to the sea approaches of Palawan, the long island chain between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. In the 1200s the islands of Palawan, Calamian and parts of Luzon were under Sandao, a vassal of Ma-i in Mindoro. Later, Islamized Molbog people and Cuyonon and Agutaynon settlers from Cuyo and Agutaya entered the same island world. These developments shaped the maritime setting around points such as Elibinibid.

In 1521 Antonio Pigafetta, with Magellan’s expedition, recorded Palawan as “Pulaoan” or “Polaoan.” The crews were nearly starving, and a local datu made peace by blood compact; the islanders supplied rice cooked in bamboo, rice wine, bananas, pigs, goats, chickens, coconuts and sugarcane, and Pigafetta described them as farmers. Before the Spanish arrived, Palawan broke free of Ma-i but came under the Bruneian empire and its vassal, the Sultanate of Sulu. Spanish friars sent missions in the early 17th century to Cuyo, Agutaya, Taytay and Cagayancillo, meeting resistance from Moro communities. Before the 18th century, churches were enclosed by garrisons against Moro raids at Cuyo, Taytay, Linapacan and Balabac. In 1749 the Sultanate of Brunei ceded southern Palawan to Spain. In 1818, when the island was called “Isla de Paragua” and administered with the Calamianes, a Spanish census recorded 4,486 native families and 29 Spanish-Filipino families.