The locals of Mount Diwata village in Monkayo, Compostela Valley, like to say that their community was named after diwatas — divine female spirits that used to reign over the mountains. During ancient times, it is said, this place was full of wild animals and gold protected by the diwatas. People would go up to the mountains to worship these spirits. That changed in the 1980s, when Datu Camini of the Tribe of Mandaya discovered gold in Mt Diwata — also known as Diwalwal.