Camiguin (Cebuano: Lalawigan sa Camiguin) is an island province in the Philippines located in the Bohol Sea, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) off the northern coast of Mindanao. It is politically part of the Northern Mindanao Region of the country and formerly a part of Misamis Oriental province.

Camiguin is the second-smallest province in the country in both population and land area after Batanes.^[4] The provincial capital is Mambajao, which is also the province's largest municipality in both area and population.^[5]

The province is famous for its sweet lanzones, to which its annual Lanzones Festival is dedicated, and its interior forest reserves, collectively known as the Mount Hibok-Hibok Protected Landscape, which has been declared by all Southeast Asian nations as an ASEAN Heritage Park. The province also boasts three National Cultural Treasures, namely, the Old Bonbon Church ruins in Catarman, the Sunken Cemetery of Catarman, and the Spanish-era watchtower in Guinsiliban. The three sites were declared for “possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value which is highly significant and important to the country and nation.” Additionally, the island province has numerous Important Cultural Treasures, such as the old Mambajao Fountain, Old Mambajao Municipal Building, the façade of the Santo Rosario Church in Sagay town, and 14 heritage and ancestral houses. The sites were declared for “having exceptional cultural, artistic and historical significance to the Philippines.” All cultural treasures were declared by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. There have been moves to establish a dossier nomination for the province to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.^[6]

Etymology[edit]

The name Camiguin is derived from the native word Kamagong, a species of ebony tree that thrives near Lake Mainit in the province of Surigao del Norte, the region from which the earlier inhabitants of the islands, the Manobos, came. Kamigin, the local language of Camiguin, is the northernmost variant of the Manobo languages.^[7]

An earlier Spanish geography book spells the island as Camiguing. There is reason to suppose the Spaniards dropped the final g.^[8]Today it is rendered as Camiguín.

Classical era[edit]

The island of Camiguin is believed to first have been inhabited by the Manobo people of Surigao del Norte, as evidenced by the distinctly connected language between the two groups. The island was used as a trading stop point by various merchants and traders from the Rajahnate of Butuan, the Kedatuan of Dapitan, the ancient people of the Anda peninsula, and possibly the Rajahnate of Cebu and the animist Maranao of Lanao before the Islamization of the Lanao provinces.