Corella: Home of the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary

Corella is a first-class municipality covering roughly 54 square kilometres of lowland and gentle hills in Bohol’s northwestern interior, about 8 kilometres from Tagbilaran City via the Tagbilaran–Carmen highway. For most travellers it’s a scheduled stop rather than an overnight destination — the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary draws day-trippers on their way to the Chocolate Hills — but the town itself has a quiet agricultural character that rewards a slower pace.

The tarsier (Carlito syrichta) is the municipality’s defining asset and its main tourism driver — not a mascot so much as a conservation project the town happens to host. The Philippine Tarsier Foundation, Inc. (PTFI) operates a sanctuary near Barangay Canapnapan where the animals live semi-wild in secondary forest rather than in cages, allowing closer, less stressful observation than roadside exhibits. That distinction matters more than it might sound: a separate, commercially run tarsier-viewing operation exists further along the Loboc–Carmen corridor, keeping animals in more accessible, exhibit-style enclosures for quick photo stops, and travel writers and provincial press alike have drawn a direct contrast between the two models. Entry fees and merchandise sales at PTFI’s Corella site feed back into habitat protection and breeding programmes, not just visitor amenities. Beyond the sanctuary, Corella produces copra, rice, and root crops; the town centre is compact, with a public market and a church facing the plaza in the pattern typical of Spanish-era Bohol municipalities.

Geography

Corella sits on gently rolling terrain between the coastal lowlands near Tagbilaran and the karst interior, bordered by Tagbilaran City to the south, Sikatuna to the north, and Cortes to the west. Key barangays include Canapnapan, site of the tarsier sanctuary, and the poblacion cluster along the highway. There is no coastline; the landscape is secondary forest, coconut groves, and small paddy fields.

History

Corella was established as a separate municipality in 1861, having previously formed part of Baclayon’s jurisdiction. Spanish colonial records show the settlement was administered by Augustinian Recollect missionaries, who built the original stone church. During the Philippine–American War, Bohol saw sustained guerrilla resistance, and Corella’s interior barangays served as supply and retreat routes for local fighters; the municipality was formally incorporated under the Commonwealth’s 1939 local government reorganisation.

The Philippine Tarsier Foundation was registered as a non-profit with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 17 April 1996, founded by a small group that included a Divine Word College priest, a Panglao municipal councilor, and a retired army colonel, with the specific goal of conserving the species, funding research, and running a sanctuary rather than leaving tarsiers to the roadside pet trade that had previously supplied tourist photo stops. National law backs the mission: Proclamation No. 1030, signed in 1997, declared the Philippine tarsier a specially protected species, prohibiting hunting, killing, or possession outside a DENR-certified research or conservation context. The forest itself remains public land under DENR administration — PTFI manages it under agreement rather than owning the ground outright, apart from a fenced 8.4-hectare parcel it acquired specifically to keep feral cats and poachers out of the core breeding area. Field supervisor Carlito Pizarras, a Corella native who has looked after the sanctuary’s animals since the late 1990s, is commemorated in an unusual way: when taxonomists split the Philippine tarsier into its own genus in 2010, they named it Carlito after him.

Culture and religion

Corella’s fiesta, on May 15, honours San Isidro Labrador — an agricultural patron reflecting the community’s farming identity. Cebuano is the everyday language; Filipino and basic English are used in commercial and tourist contexts. Residents maintain a tradition of community labour (bayanihan) during planting and harvest.

Local taste

The public market sells fresh kakanin — puto and bibingka — on weekday mornings, and vendors near the sanctuary entrance sell puso (hanging rice) with grilled pork, the standard traveller snack along the Tagbilaran–Carmen corridor. Roadside carinderias on the highway serve sinigang and pinakbet for roughly ₱60–80 a plate.

Agritourism

Corella’s farming identity extends past copra and rice into a small mushroom operation that has become a second reason to stop in the municipality. Green Thumb Farm, a 2.5-hectare property in Barangay Sambog established in 2017 and described locally as the first mushroom farm of its kind in Bohol, grows several oyster mushroom strains alongside milky white and reishi varieties and organic vegetables, with daily harvests typically running 8 to 15 kilograms and peak days reportedly reaching up to 100. Spent growing substrate is converted into fertiliser rather than discarded, closing the loop on-site. An attached restaurant serves the harvest directly — mushroom sisig, siomai, pizza, and burgers built from what’s growing in the greenhouses that morning — and the farm is accredited by the Department of Tourism as a learning site and certified by the Agricultural Training Institute, which brings a steady stream of school groups alongside individual visitors.

Getting there

From Tagbilaran’s Dao terminal, jeepneys and vans heading toward Carmen or Bilar pass through Corella; travel time is 20–30 minutes depending on traffic. The sanctuary turnoff at Barangay Canapnapan is signposted on the highway, with a short tricycle ride from the junction costing around ₱20. Most organised Bohol day tours from Tagbilaran include a sanctuary stop on the morning leg before continuing north.

What to see and do

• Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary (Canapnapan) — a forested trail where tarsiers cling to saplings at eye level; entry ₱80 for foreign visitors, ₱50 for Filipinos, flash-free photography allowed.
• Green Thumb Farm (Sambog) — a mushroom and organic-vegetable farm with an on-site restaurant serving its own harvest.
• Corella Church (St. Isidore the Farmer Parish) — a modest colonial-era stone church on the town plaza, incorporating 19th-century masonry.
• Roadside fruit stalls — seasonal jackfruit, lansones (October–November), and rambutan sold by weight along the highway.
• Birdwatching — the secondary forest around the sanctuary supports Philippine tarictic hornbills, white-eared brown doves, and various sunbird species.

Travel tips

Corella works best folded into a wider Bohol circuit: visit the sanctuary in the morning, when tarsiers are least active mid-day, then continue to the Chocolate Hills, Loboc River, or Baclayon Church. Overnight accommodation is limited; most travellers stay in Tagbilaran or Loboc. The sanctuary opens 08:00 and closes 17:00 — avoid loud noise and flash photography, since tarsiers are nocturnal and sensitive to light and sound. The highway can be congested with tour vans on weekends between 09:00 and 11:00.

Other places to consider

• Sikatuna — bordering to the north, sharing the tarsier-and-biodiversity conservation corridor.
• Cortes — the neighbouring coastal municipality to the west.
• Baclayon — for the province’s oldest stone church, on the same day-tour circuit.
• Loboc — the river cruise town, a common pairing with the sanctuary visit.
• Tagbilaran City — the provincial capital, 8 kilometres south.

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Sanctuary fees, hours, and route detail reflect publicly available information as of 2026-07-16. Confirm before travel. bohol-philippines.com earns a commission on bookings made through partner links at no cost to you.