Before the 350 years of Spanish rule, the 100 years of American control, and the Philippines independence in 1946, the southernmost islands of Mindanao and the Sulus were strictly Islamic. The Muslims were already in control there and, with ongoing skirmishes, have maintained control to date. Relations between the Muslims in the south and the Catholic populations in the north were never good.
The Dominican Religious Order claimed Fuga as their bastion of northern control. In the early 1600s a massive stone mission was built atop the centre of the island overlooking the Babuyan Channel and Luzon. A healing centre (sanatorium) and plantation house were built at the western end of the fertile island--built of course by Fuga's natives. The Spanish gave the orders. The short sinewy Fugans did the work. The natives cut hundreds of blocks of volcanic rock out of the rugged terrain at the eastern end of the island, and passed them in a hand-to-hand relay, 11 kilometres to Naguilian, high in the centre of the island. Blessed with natural springs and drinkable water in a jungle rich with fruit, the Dominican Mission flourished but remained on constant guard throughout the ongoing holy war. "Muslims in their speedy sailboats (vintas) carried out lighting raids that reached as far as northern Luzon" (Corpuz). Sometime in the early-1800s the Muslims reached Fuga Island. Their lightning strike succeeded. They forced all the Dominicans inside the great religious building, sealed the doors and windows, torched the great thatched roofs, and gave the Catholics a lethal dose of their "hellfire and brimstone." The good news: The great stone walls (up to a metre thick) survived the monstrous blaze. Today the ruins are in a semi-useful and poetic condition. Tropical vines cover the inside walls while palm trees and flowering vegetation protrude up through what once was the floor. The natives cleaned up the central chapel, replaced the charred floor with pristine sand from the beach and rebuilt the thatched roof. The current native population and their forefathers have used the ruins religiously to date. Ongoing weekly prayer meetings held in the restored chapel by the locals have now seen the light of three centuries. Local stories abound of "Spanish gold hidden in secret underground chambers". Restoring the rest of the Naguilian mission would be a great UNESCO heritage project. The Spanish mission on Fuga would make a "great escape"--a beautiful, fascinating and multi-purpose historical facility.