High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In ancient Tagalog Theology Bathala (Batala) was the Supreme Being; the Omnipotent Creator of the universe. Antonio de Morga, among others, thought that Bathala meant an omen bird (Tigmamanukin/Fairy-bluebird), but the author of the Boxer Codex (1590 b, 379) was advised not to use it in this sense because they did not consider it God but only his messenger. It was after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries on the Philippines in 16th century that Bathala came to be identified as the Christian God.Thus Bathala in Filipino is synonymous to Diyos (God) or Dibino (Divine, e.g. Mabathalang Awa), according to J.V. Panganiban (Diksyunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles) in some Visayan languages Bathala means God.