Marinduque

Before the Spanish, the island was likely within the sphere of the Kingdom of Luzon, and the Spanish claimed it soon after taking Manila. For three centuries it was governed from Balayan and then from Mindoro, and it became a province of its own only in the American period.

The Marcopper disaster led to major reforms in Philippine mining policy. Before it, the mine had also dumped about 200 million tons of tailings into shallow Calancan Bay over 16 years. The Boac River remains a reminder of what can go wrong when mines are not properly regulated.

The Moriones Festival is Marinduque's defining cultural event. Held during Holy Week, it involves participants dressing as Roman centurions in elaborate costumes complete with painted wooden masks, breastplates, helmets, and spears. The masks take their name from the morion, a 16th- and 17th-century helmet; locals call the tradition Moryonan, and the word Moriones was popularized by the media in the 1960s. The Moriones roam the streets from Holy Monday to Easter Sunday, playing tricks and searching for Longinus.

The Story of Longinus

The central story of the Moriones Festival is that of the Roman soldier Longinus, who was said to have been blind in one eye. When he pierced the side of the crucified Christ with his lance and blood fell on his blind eye, his sight was restored. He converted to Christianity and was later martyred. The Moriones dramatize this story throughout Holy Week, culminating on Easter Sunday (in some towns, Monday) with the capture and mock beheading of Longinus.

Beyond the Moriones, Marinduque maintains the slow rhythms of a small island community. The Holy Week processions in Boac and the other towns draw large crowds from across the island. The preparation of costumes is a year-round occupation for some artisans. The festival is both devout religious expression and theatrical performance.

Marinduque's food is close to the Tagalog kitchen of Quezon and the Calabarzon region — coconut-based soups, grilled fish, rice dishes, and fresh produce from the island's farms. The island's isolation means that imported ingredients are less common; cooking relies on what is grown and caught locally.

Ginataang Langka

Unripe jackfruit cooked in coconut milk with shrimp, garlic, onion, and ginger. A Tagalog staple found across southern Luzon, it is particularly common in Marinduque where coconut is abundant. The texture of the cooked jackfruit resembles pulled meat.

Tagalog is the primary language of Marinduque, a branch of Tagalog sometimes called Marinduqueño Tagalog with local vocabulary and an accent that differ from the Metro Manila standard. Filipino and English are used in schools and government.

Because Marinduque's Tagalog is mutually intelligible with standard Filipino, the linguistic distinctiveness is more of scholarly than practical significance. Residents speak what they describe simply as Tagalog, and communication with visitors from Manila or the national media presents no difficulty.

English is used in schools and government. The island has a small enough population that media consumption draws heavily from Manila-based television and radio, which means younger generations are more exposed to Metro Manila Tagalog than to distinctly local speech patterns.

Marinduque is reached by ferry from Lucena City in Quezon to the port of Balanacan in Mogpog, the main gateway; the crossing takes about three hours. A daily boat also links General Luna in Quezon with Santa Cruz, stopping at Maniwaya Island. Marinduque Airport, between Gasan and Boac, has no commercial flights at present.

Boac Cathedral

The Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Boac, a Baroque fortress church dedicated in 1792 and still surrounded by its defensive walls. It is the seat of the Diocese of Boac, a shrine of Our Lady of Biglang Awa, and was declared an Important Cultural Property in 2018. The church is the site of the central Holy Week observances and the main venue for Moriones Festival events.

Tres Reyes Islands

Three small islands off the southwestern coast of Marinduque, named Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar after the Three Kings. The surrounding waters are clear with coral and marine life, and they are visited by outrigger boat.

Marinduque rises from the coast to Mount Malindig, a 1,157-meter stratovolcano whose upper slopes are protected by law because of their height. The mountain is home to wild orchids and other endemic plants, and its Malbog sulfur springs are a sign of the volcano's activity. Offshore, part of the Verde Island Passage, a center of marine biodiversity with more than 300 coral species, lies within the province's waters. Sea turtles, giant clams, humphead wrasses and giant groupers live in the passage, but overfishing is common.

Hawksbill Sea Turtle

Eretmochelys imbricata

Critically Endangered

A reef turtle with a pointed beak and overlapping shell plates. It is one of the threatened sea turtles found in the Verde Island Passage, along with green and olive ridley turtles.

Field note: Never buy tortoiseshell products; taking turtles and their eggs is illegal.

Giant Clam

Tridacna gigas

Critically Endangered

The largest living bivalve, which can grow more than a meter across. Giant clams are among the threatened species of the Verde Island Passage. The IUCN moved it from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered in 2024, after an estimated 84 percent decline.

Field note: Do not touch or stand on clams, and never collect their shells.

The Search for Longinus

Every Holy Week, the streets of Marinduque fill with Roman soldiers. They wear painted wooden masks with fierce eyes and curled beards, helmets and breastplates in bright colors, and they roam the towns from Holy Monday to Easter Sunday, scaring children and playing tricks. Locals call the tradition Moryonan. Many of the men and women behind the masks are farmers and fishermen keeping a vow of penance or thanksgiving.

The story they act out is that of Longinus, the centurion who pierced the side of the crucified Christ. According to the legend, blood from the wound touched his blind eye and restored his sight. He believed, and his fellow soldiers turned on him. Through the week the Moriones search for him, and on Easter Sunday, or Monday in some towns, Longinus is caught and, in the play, beheaded.

The festival is traced to Mogpog in 1887, when the parish priest Dionisio Santiago first organized it. The word Moriones, from the morion helmet, was popularized by the media in the 1960s. Today the rites draw visitors from across the country, and Mogpog still calls itself the original home of the Moriones.