Maria Cacao

Sources present Maria Cacao as a mountain diwata associated with Mount Lantoy in Argao, Cebu; the cited summaries state the original pre‑Spanish name was not recorded and that the Spanish colonial practice of adding 'Maria' created the recorded compound name, while 'cacao' reflects the colonial crop associated with her plantation and economic role (Wikipedia). The supplied materials therefore frame Maria Cacao as a place‑linked nature spirit recast in a Catholicized register and tied to an introduced agricultural commodity.

Cited descriptions emphasize a female spirit who lives inside a cave on Mount Lantoy with cacao plants outside the cave and who travels the mountain river in a golden ship; the golden boat and cave/plantation setting are the recurring visual motifs in the available accounts, while no consistent detailed personal physical description (attire, facial features) is provided in the cited sources (Wikipedia).

In the source material Maria Cacao is tied to landscape and agricultural agency: she is said to travel by boat along the river that flows from Mount Lantoy, and local lore uses her movements to explain natural events such as river flooding or broken bridges when 'Maria Cacao and her husband Mangao' sail in their golden ship (Wikipedia). The sources also record later, contemporary variants in which a figure identified as Maria Cacao was said to offer boat rides and 'collect souls' from disaster sites (not part of the prototypical myth); commentators cited in the sources interpret this soul‑harvester element as a post‑disaster narrative adaptation or syncretism possibly influenced by other death‑vessel figures such as the Visayan Magwayen (Wikipedia).