Far from being a typical Philippine island destination, Culion hid ubiquitous layers of fascination courtesy of its storied history that was both harrowing and triumphant. Many decades removed from its upsetting past when boatloads of patients stricken with leprosy were sent to the island to live a life of treatment and isolation, Culion’s journey from being the island of no return to a charming quaint isle was enough to entice any inquisitive traveler.
Traveling Back to the former Island of No Return | Culion Island, Palawan
Despite having answered my curiosities almost a decade ago on my first visit to the island, coming back as part of a media familiarization trip organized by the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines to Culion gave me a chance to peek deeper into its curious past. Images of the former leprosy colony flooded my mind’s imagination once again. Putting it in context, multiply the quarantine period we experienced during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic by a hundred times, and that was how one could come close to picturing the isolation that hundreds of leprosy patients had to endure back then.
Culion Museum and Archives
What better way to know the island’s history than a visit to the Culion Museum and Archives. Culion Island was selected by the Americans in nineteen hundred one as a "segregation island" where patients afflicted with leprosy were to be brought, isolated, and treated. In nineteen hundred seven, the first group of patients—numbering three hundred seventy-nine—docked on the island aboard two Coast Guard cutters, "Polillo" and "Mindanao".
On September twelfth, nineteen hundred seven, Act seventeen eleven of the Philippine Commission was passed, paving the way for the island of Culion to be used for the compulsory segregation of leprosy patients by confining them in a compound encompassing eighty-five houses for their treatment.
What soon followed consisted of both the grim reality of patients living in isolation and the heroic efforts of medical professionals on a quest to find a cure for leprosy—their names forever immortalized on the walls of the museum; Dr. H. Windsor Wade, his wife Dorothy Paul Wade, and Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez were just some of them.
The Culion Museum and Archives also collated all information regarding the haunting episode of the island as a leprosy colony. Personal records of patients, including autopsy slides, were still stored, alongside items widely used at the time such as old monographs, cameras, telephones, and typewriters, to old postcards and paper bills.
The museum had undergone a renovation and was then housed inside a concrete two-story building, as compared to the small enclosed room from when I first visited in two thousand twelve. At first thought, upon hearing Culion’s description as a “former leper colony”, one could immediately sense an air of dread.
Yet, thanks to the historical texts, artifacts, medical records, old photographs, and other curated items inside the Culion Museum and Archives, visitors could easily learn about the sacrifices that were made on the then “Island of No Return”—from treating the "walking dead" of that time to totally freeing the island of the feared disease.
Fort of Culion & the La Immaculada Church
Situated a few steps from the museum was the eighteenth-century La Immaculada Church. Originally built in seventeen forty from coral stones, one could easily picture the church as the only space of comfort and spirituality for the leprosy patients back then. It stood solidly on top of a hill overlooking the azure-colored waters of Busuanga Bay.
Right next to it was the Fort of Culion. Constructed in seventeen forty by the Recollect Augustinians using coral stones cut as squares covering four bastions, the Fort served as a key defense wall against Muslim fighters who revolted against the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
Old Leper Colony Walking Tour
After our museum, church, and Fort visit, we continued our Culion heritage and history tour on a walk along the Old Leper Colony town.
We started at the Colony Hall and Theater, where, ironically, a statue of Governor General Leonard Wood was erected.
Credited for his efforts in gathering money from the United States to fund leprosy research, Wood was also involved in the infamous "Moro Crater Massacre" in nineteen hundred six—a “battle” according to the US Military but was questioned by author Mark Twain, “In what way was it a battle?”
Consumed with mixed feelings regarding Wood's tenure in the Philippines, I joined our group towards the other historical remnants of the Old Culion; the Grand Stairway, Rizal Plaza, Obras Publicas, and the interesting structures of the Tres Bolas. Appearing like taller igloo houses, the Tres Bolas was used as a public toilet and bath in the nineteen-twenties.
The small island town of Culion projected a sleepy vibe that most travelers could easily overlook and mistake as "nothing special there". Upon further examination though, Culion hid a very fascinating history that would teach us the effects of discrimination and isolation, and the importance of empathy and resiliency.
