Cabatuan Community Village

Overview

Cabatuan Community Village — known locally as Rowena Heights Community Village — is a sitio in Barangay Cabatuan, Danao. Its defining feature is Simbahan ni Federico, a local place of worship built around inclusivity and the blending of multiple belief systems; that shared practice is described as the basis of the community’s cohesion and what sets it apart from neighboring sitios.

The BPTO classification under Local Culture and Traditions (Cultural Tourism) frames it as a stop for visitors interested in grassroots spiritual life and alternative community organization in rural Bohol, rather than a conventional heritage site.

Location

Barangay Cabatuan, Danao, Bohol. Danao is in the hilly interior of central Bohol, also home to Danao Adventure Park, the Bat Colony attraction, the Danao Sea of Clouds viewpoint, and the Assisted Natural Regeneration Forest Reserve.

Getting There

Danao is approximately 40–50 km from Tagbilaran City, accessible by bus or van heading toward Carmen or Talibon with a stop at Danao. Southern Star Bus Transit’s Tagbilaran–Talibon service via Tubigon and Sagbayan passes through Danao roughly 2 hours 50 minutes after departing Tagbilaran (for example, a 5:00 AM Tagbilaran departure reaches Danao around 7:50 AM). Barangay Cabatuan is reachable by habal-habal from Danao town proper.

[TO ENRICH: exact one-way fare/travel time for the Tagbilaran–Danao leg specifically (only through-fares to Talibon were found), road condition on the habal-habal leg from Danao town to Barangay Cabatuan/the sitio, and the habal-habal fare for that leg]

Practical Info

[TO ENRICH: visitor protocol — whether Simbahan ni Federico is open to outside visitors, community contact, whether prior arrangement is required, any dress code or conduct expectations]

What to Expect

A rural community shaped in its public face by the practices of Simbahan ni Federico, built on acceptance and collaboration among residents of differing backgrounds. Visitors come out of cultural curiosity rather than for a staged show; whatever interaction happens is community-driven, not scripted for tourism.

Danao municipality has other draws nearby — the adventure park with its zipline circuit, the Bat Colony, and the Sea of Clouds viewpoint — that pair well with a stop here.

Notes

The source description uses the term “vibrant” which has been removed per editorial rules. The community’s inclusivity emphasis and blend of spiritual beliefs suggest a syncretist or indigenous-influenced tradition centered on the founder “Federico.” [TO ENRICH: background on Federico, whether the practice has any formal religious classification, and a population figure specific to the Rowena Heights/Simbahan ni Federico community itself]

Barangay Cabatuan, Danao (the wider barangay the community sits within) had a population of 1,846 as of the 2020 Census — see Cabatuan, Danao, Bohol Profile – PhilAtlas, accessed 2026-07-28. This is barangay-wide, not a count for the smaller Rowena Heights/Simbahan ni Federico community specifically, which could not be found separately (see research log below).

The Tagbilaran–Danao bus travel time in Getting There is sourced from Southern Star Bus Tagbilaran to Talibon Bohol schedule (via Tubigon, Sagbayan, Danao), accessed 2026-07-28, which lists Danao as an intermediate stop with specific departure/arrival times. No source gave a fare or travel time isolated to the Tagbilaran–Danao segment (fares found were flat through-fares to Talibon), and no source addressed the habal-habal leg from Danao town to Barangay Cabatuan/the sitio — same search limitation noted for the Practical Info visitor-protocol tag below, since both would most likely be documented (if anywhere) on the same local/community sources that could not be found.

Practical Info’s visitor-protocol tag (whether Simbahan ni Federico is open to outside visitors, community contact, prior-arrangement requirements, dress code) is covered by the same research log above: no page describing Simbahan ni Federico as a place of worship — let alone its visitor policy — could be located under any of the search angles tried.

Research log (2026-07-28): Extensive fresh-angle searches for “Simbahan ni Federico,” “Rowena Heights Community Village,” and the founder “Federico” turned up no results describing the religious practice, its founder, or any formal classification. Approaches tried: direct-phrase web search and Exa search for the exact names; Rizalista/folk-religion angle (“Federico” + folk religion/sect/Rizalista Bohol — only returned an unrelated National Living Treasure named Federico Caballero, an epic chanter from Panay, not Bohol); Catholic parish directories for Danao (Holy Family Parish, St. Vincent Ferrer Parish — neither mentions Cabatuan or a “Simbahan ni Federico”); TripAdvisor and Facebook searches for Cabatuan/Danao church or community content; and a Wikimapia entry for “Rowena Heights, Cabatuan, Danao” which describes the area as a post-2013-earthquake “Alternative Transitional Shelter on Site (ATSS) for Bohol Quake victims of Inabanga” — a single, user-editable, uncorroborated source, so this has not been added to the body as fact. A 2022 Bohol Tribune article (VG Rene supports PGBh’s free legal aid prog., accessed 2026-07-28) confirms Rowena Heights as a real, named community “located in between barangay Anonang, Buenavista town and barangay Cabatuan, Danao town” that received a legal-aid outreach in 2021–2022, but says nothing about Simbahan ni Federico, its founder, or a religious classification. No LGU, CENRO/BPTO, or Cebuano-language source surfaced either. A future pass should try Danao’s municipal Facebook/tourism page directly, or ask a local contact, rather than repeating these searches.