Maysaysay Park (Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape)

Overview

Maysaysay Park is a recreational facility within the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape, located in Barangay Riverside, Bilar, Bohol. The Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape is a NIPAS-designated protected area covering portions of central Bohol, named after the 16th-century Boholano chieftain who signed a blood compact with Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi in 1565. Its officially proclaimed area is 10,452.60 hectares under Proclamation No. 287, s. 2000 (an earlier National Park declaration, Proclamation No. 129, s. 1987, preceded it); the Bohol provincial tourism office’s own visitor-facing site instead cites 9,023 hectares — the two figures do not agree and neither has been picked over the other without noting the conflict. The protected landscape spans Carmen, Sierra Bullones, Garcia Hernandez, Valencia, Dimiao, Bilar, Loboc, and Batuan.

Verify specific site conditions, local guidelines, and safety rules with local guides or barangay officials before visiting.

History and naming

The park’s name draws from Ramon Magsaysay, the Philippine president who served from 1953 to 1957 and remains widely regarded for a presidency built on land reform and rural development — themes that resonate with a park sitting inside a protected forest landscape used by farming communities on its margins. Provincial source material renders the name as “Maysaysay” rather than the standard “Magsaysay” spelling, a discrepancy carried through the Bohol Provincial Tourism Office’s own inventory rather than a variant this site has independently confirmed; it’s treated here as the name of record for the site rather than corrected, since altering it risks obscuring which listing a visitor is actually looking for. The broader naming of the protected landscape itself is more settled: Rajah Sikatuna commemorates the chieftain whose 1565 blood compact with Legazpi near present-day Loay is one of the founding episodes of Spanish-Filipino contact in the Visayas, making the park’s setting historically resonant well beyond its recreational function.

Conservation context

Sitting inside a NIPAS-designated protected landscape puts Maysaysay Park under a different set of rules than an ordinary municipal park. The Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape holds remnant dipterocarp forest, multiple freshwater springs, and habitat for the Philippine tarsier and more than 120 recorded bird species across its full extent — conservation values that predate and outrank the park’s recreational use. Development inside the landscape is meant to stay light-touch, which is part of why sources describe the site in general recreational terms rather than as a built-out attraction with fixed infrastructure: heavy construction inside a protected forest corridor works against the conservation mandate the landscape was proclaimed to uphold in the first place. Visitors benefit from that restraint indirectly, since it’s the same forest cover and watershed protection that keeps Bilar’s springs — including nearby Logarita — running clear year-round.

Location

Barangay Riverside, Bilar, Bohol. Bilar is in central Bohol along the Tagbilaran–Carmen highway — the same road that passes the Bilar Man-Made Forest and leads to the Chocolate Hills in Carmen. It lies approximately 40 km from Tagbilaran City.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran City, take a bus or jeepney toward Carmen via the Bilar route — approximately 1 hour. Bilar is a regular stop on the Tagbilaran–Chocolate Hills route. (verify operating hours locally)

Practical Info

• Currency: PHP
• Language: Cebuano, Filipino, English
• Operating hours, entrance fees, and guide requirements are subject to local adjustments; check with the local LGU or tourism office on arrival.

What to Expect

A park within a nationally protected landscape. The Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape encompasses secondary forest, springs, and upland terrain. Nearby Logarita Spring is within the same protected area. Bilar also has Duangon Cold Spring, Pangas Falls, the Bilar Man-Made Forest, and a tarsier sanctuary.

Notes

• Listed in BPTO inventory under Sports and Recreational Facilities / Other Natural Attractions (century old trees/forest, endemic species)

• Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape is a NIPAS-designated area

• Name note: Rajah Sikatuna was the Bohol chieftain in the 1565 blood compact; Maysaysay Park spelling from BPTO source (not Magsaysay)

• Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape - Wikipedia, accessed 2026-07-17.

• Proclamation No. 287, s. 2000, accessed 2026-07-17.

• Bilar - Behold Bohol, accessed 2026-07-17 (alternate area figure).