Capul Island

About

Capul, officially the Municipality of Capul (Inabaknon: Bungto si Capul, Waray: Bungto han Capul, Tagalog: Bayan ng Capul), is an island municipality in the province of Northern Samar, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 12,127 people. The natives of Capul are known as the Abaknon or the Capuleño people. It is the only town in the province of Northern Samar with a distinct language, Inabaknon (also known as Capuleño, Abaknon Sama, or Capul Sinama), instead of Waray, the native language spoken by the locals of Samar island. Inabaknon is unique in it being only distantly related to the languages spoken in the entire Visayas and Luzon regions. Instead, it is classified by linguists as a Sama-Bajaw language. A lighthouse was built on the island which served as a guidepost for the Acapulco-Manila galleon trade vessels passing through the treacherous waters of San Bernardino Strait. It also served as the capital of the former province of Samar from 1848 to 1852.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.