Where is the exact location of Ophir in the Philippines?

Answer 1

The modern historians and demographers identify the ancient port of Palapag along the present day Candawid Bay in between Isla de Batang and Laoang Islands in Northern Samar. This is most likely the ground zero of the biblical Ophir which the natives call Araw City and the government calls Samar. Samar came from the ancient biblical place in the Holy Land called Samaria, the homeland of the Samaritans, Jewish people by blood but are not practicing a strict Jewish rituals. Isla de Batang is the first land mass you will see after a long travel in the Pacific Ocean going to Manila. It is a part of the Galleon Trade route and the home of the ancient shipbuilding industry which later become the Galleon Trade ship repair station. The significance of the island was recognized by the American government who decided to modernized an ancient lighthouse found in the island. It is no wonder that when the Sephardi Jews from Spain were imprisoned and were thrown in the Spanish colonies, some of them who knew about the place decided to choose Northern Samar in the Philippines. They later become known as the crypto Jews or hidden Jews. One of the Jewish families who settled in the present day Laoang Town is the Ejercito family. Although their ancestral home is still there up to the present, most of their descendants later moved to Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna.Other Jewish families in the Laoang, Catubig, Pambujan and Palapag area are the Saba, Mendoza, Infante, Hechanova, Cerbito, Mercader, Rivas, Deaneneas, Sarmiento, Lucero, Arandia, Veloso, Quiles, Daza, Vicencio, Siervo, Pinca, Acedera, Luto, Adora, Romualdez, Lopez, etc.