Sandugo Festival

Sandugo Festival in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, commemorates the 1565 blood compact between the Boholano chieftain Datu Sikatuna and Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, marked each July with street dance reenactments, a dramatized ritual and cultural performances staged across Tagbilaran's central streets and public plazas.

The Sandugo, or blood compact, commemorated in this festival refers to a specific historical event recorded in Spanish colonial accounts, in which the Boholano chieftain Datu Sikatuna and the Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi are said to have sealed a pact of friendship in March 1565 by each cutting their arms, letting a few drops of blood fall into a cup of wine, and drinking from the mixed cup together, following a pre-colonial Filipino ritual practice used to formalize alliances between leaders.