The Origin of Dalaguete

The place where the church or the poblacion were laid have been the site of a communal gathering area for the natives. It was also the abode of a huge dalakit tree which provide shade and shelter while people conduct their activeities. “Adto ta mag-abot sa dalakit.” “Adto ta magtigom-tigom sa dalakit” [Let us meet at the dalakit]. These and other popular phrases have the common practice of our ancestors when coming up with an agreement to meet or conduct an activity specifically at the site where the dalakit is situated. For several generations in pre-hispanic Dalaguete, the area have always been unofficially called as dalakit. Its accessibility and its reputation as a communal area for community gathering have prompted the leaders Spanish authorities to construct the church and eventually establish the area as part of an encomienda. From this common ground, and from this tree, begun the conception of a larger town which later come to be known as Dalaguete.

Language experts know that in Spanish, the letter “G” is often pronounce “K” so that the word dalakit is in fact spelled out by them as dalaguet. There is no “K” in the Spanish language. The nearest other spelling would have been “Dalaquet”, with a “q” instead of a “g” which, when written by hand in those early days, would also have been interchanged. Whatever the case, thus was born christened the town of Dalaguete

DALAGUETE, a town of the province of Cebu, island of Cebu, Philippine Islands, at the mouth of the Tapon river on the E. coast, 50 m. S.S.W. of Cebu, the capital. The town has a healthy climate, cool during November, December, January and February, and hot during the rest of the year. The inhabitants grow hemp, Indian corn, coffee, sibucao, cacao, cocoanuts (for copra) and sugar, weave rough fabrics and manufacture tuba (a kind of wine used as a stimulant), clay pots and jars, salt and soap. There is some fishing here. The language is Cebu-Visayan.

The San Guillermo de Aquitania church- one of the tourist spots in Dalaguete.


The foundation of Dalaguete began when it was established as a visita of Carcar in 1690. In 1711, it became a parish under the patronage of San Guillermo de Aquitaña.

In the 1800s, the church complex served as fortification protecting the townspeople from the frequent Moro attacks.

The current church was a product of the baroque taste of Fray Juan Chacel, who built it in 1802. The rectory on the right side was completed in 1832 while the octagonal belfry was added in the late 1850s.

   The Dalaguete Watchtower- built in 1768 which serves as the defense against the Moros from the year 1700-1800.
This landmark has been called as "kiosko" to the locals.