Papa Isio

Dionisio Magbuelas
Born	March 20, 1791 Negros Occidental, Captaincy General of the Philippines
Died	1911 Manila, Philippine Islands
Monuments	Papa Isio historical marker Isio, Cauayan, Negros Occidental
Other names	Papa Isio
Organization	babaylanes
Movement	Negros independence movement

Dionisio Magbuelas (died 1911),Dionisio Seguela or Dionisio Papa y Barlucia, more widely known as Papa Isio (Hiligaynon: Isio the Pope), was the leader of a group of babaylanes who were, as conjectured by Modesto P. Sa-onoy, recruited from the remnants of the followers of Dios Buhawi upon the dissolution of his group under the poor leadership of Camartin de la Cruz during the years prior to the onset of the Philippine Revolution.

Magbuelas was the son of migrants from Panay, either Antique or San Joaquin, Iloilo, who cleared a small piece of land in the forests of Himamaylan. In his younger years, Papa Isio witnessed the loss of their small landholding to the marauding sugar barons of Negros. His family then moved to Payao in Binalbagan. When his parents died, Magbuelas gathered coconut sap to make native coconut wine in order to make ends meet. He later reportedly worked for the family of Carlos Gemora in Ilog. By 1880, he was 34 years old and was working as a cattle herder in the farm of the Montilla family in Tinungan. It was here that Magbuelas had a scuffle with a Spaniard and his opponent was wounded. Fearing reprisal from the Spanish authorities, Magbuelas fled to the mountains at the time that Dios Buhawi was leading his revolt. He may have joined this group as a means of avoiding the civil guards.

According to Sa-onoy, Magbuelas's nom de guerre, Papa Isio, was partly dictated by the religious thrust of his revolt against Spain and the Catholic religion it championed. The title "Papa" was a repudiation of the Pope's (Santo Papa) authority - which Magbuelas then appropriated upon himself. This particular group of babaylanes were organized by Magbuelas in 1896 in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental.

...
Wikipedia