Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Published by the CITY GOVERNMENT OF TAGUM through the City Historical, Cultural and Arts Council in celebration of the 21st Araw ng Tagum City and the 102nd Founding Anniversary of Tagum as a Municipal District of the Province of Davao
ISBN 978-971-95625-1-1
Text Copyright 2019 by the City Government of Tagum and the City Historical, Cultural and Arts Council. Photographs are also copyrighted to the City Government of Tagum or individual photographers.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner of form without the written permission by the publisher, except in the form of brief quotations in critical reviews or references. Executive Editor: Mayor Allan L. Rellon, DPA, Ph.D Supervising Editor: Edwin B. Lasquite, MM Head Researcher: Mary Christma Richi D. Gulle Researchers: Xylee Labastida-Palomata, Marife CandiaPagdilao, Cherry Rose Valenzuela, Charity LagunsadDumandan, Grace Lagunsad, Cherry Love Sucnaan, Joan Benaning, Arlyn Lagunsad, Keith Alejo, Jomar Solaiman, Marlon Casinto, Arcadio Malila Jr., Adelaida Andipa, Alyssa Castillo, Valenz Dilangalen, Jesus Saclot, Angelica Logronio, Gracielle Dandoy Editor and Book Design by Louie Bryan M. Lapat Photo Archiving by Leunielon A. Timogan Cover Design by Neil Alvin S. Macla
Published in Tagum City, Philippines First Printing 2019
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
CONTENTS FOREWORD
viii
CHAPTER ONE Tracing our Roots, Enshrining our Identity Early Records on Tagum Etymology of Tagum Territorial Limits and Boundaries Periodic History Spanish Period American Period Japanese Period
19 22 26 38 47 53
CHAPTER TWO A Tapestry of Cultures Original Settlers Kagan Mandaya Mansaka
61 70 76
Migrant Muslim Settlers Iranun Tribe Maguindanao Tribe Maranao Tribe Tausug Tribe
85 87 90 92
Migrant Settlers from the Indigenous Peoples Communities Ata Manobo Dibabawon
94 96
Migrant Settlers from Luzon and Visayas
100
CHAPTER THREE The Resurgence of Tagum A Fledgling Municipality Tagum: After the World War II The First Election Onset of Economic Boom Tagum in the 1970s — 1990s
110 112 115 116 121
CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders Who Shaped Tagum Hon. Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr. Hon. Eliseo V. Wakan Hon. Herminigildo C. Baloyo Hon. Gelacio P. Gementiza Hon. Leonardo Tolentino Hon. Prospero E. Estabillo Hon. Baltazar A. Sator Hon. Victorio R. Suaybaguio, Jr. Hon. Rey T. Uy Hon. Allan L. Rellon Post-War to Present Officials
128 130 132 135 137 138 140 143 146 149 154
APPENDIX
clxiv
BIBLIOGRAPHY
clxxx
GALLERY
clxxxviii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
cxviii
Foreword by
Mayor Allan L. Rellon, DPA, Ph.D
Illumination of our Soul
T
he history of Tagum, as in any other great civilization in the world, is always riddled with puzzles. Its untold history offers a challenge to both the scholar and the layman, to whom an inquisitive mind itches its way to concrete
answers to satisfy their curiosity searching their own identity.
It took a century and two years for the City of Tagum — a
beautiful place bounded by two great rivers — to find the pieces of this puzzle, and to comprehensively put into writing its great history. Surprisingly, its narrative is as fluid as the water that flows in the rivers that define its borders. Tagum’s history is hinged on the ebb and flow of the Tagum River that was soon forgotten. We wish to revive the grand tale of this mighty river and the history that flows with it — how it became a silent witness to our ancestors’ resistance to foreign rule, how it managed the current of progress, and how it helped shape the culture
and tradition that are etched in our identity as Tagumenyos. This book, a product of years of comprehensive and scholarly research since 2013, is our love letter to our city, in a bold attempt to lure the Tagumenyos to look into the past, and appreciate its Kagikan.
The fact that it took 102 years to produce a history book
for Tagum can easily be forgiven. Ours is a narrative flowing in oral traditions, as our ancestors don’t have the wealth of facilities to record what happened in their respective generations. This fact did not hinder us to trace our roots for us to better appreciate the journey of our city, and by extension, to make us proud of our shared cultural heritage. After years of mining meaningful information, we at the City Government of Tagum through the City Historical, Cultural and Arts Council proudly bring you this book that offers a vivid account of the history of Tagum.
This book is a goldmine of information, with some facts
published for the very first time, some of which are debunking old notions of our past. Among these is the story of Magugpo being the former name of Tagum, which is perpetuated since the 1970s. Believing so compelled us to dig deeper and question the very existence of the word “Tagum,” and why it had navigated through time, and even eclipsing the story of Magugpo which our ancestors made us to believe for a long time. Launching a careful investigation, the research team unearthed documents — the oldest record being written during the Spanish era — detailing the etymology of Tagum. Named after the great river that bears its name, Tagum during the time of colonization is a microcosm of the Philippines where civilizations exist near bodies of water, and where communities have set of cultures and unique way of living. Since then, it is notable that Tagum is already a thriving community sustained by the lushness of its forests and the bounties of its rivers.
Indigenous accounts also form part of the great retelling of the
history of Tagum. As the first cultivators of the rich land of the city, they offer us with clear understanding of the Tagum of the past, and how it is similarly linked with historical documents written by our colonizers especially on the account of the origin of the name Tagum. We regard indigenous knowledge as a vital tool in reexamining our existence as a city, and how their way of living helped weaved the vibrant story of Tagum.
For so long a time, history books tell us of the gallantry of our
heroes who fought hard in the struggle against the colonizers. Most often, these narratives are often magnifying those battles won in Luzon, robbing local heroes especially in Mindanao of the opportunity to be recognized as part of the nationwide struggle in the resistance to foreign rule. Not known to many, our ancestors in Tagum scored a big victory when they assassinated a high-ranking Spanish official in Bincungan in 1861. The assassination of Don Jose Pinzon y Purga by the Moros created an air of fear among the Spaniards, with one missionary Jesuit priest by the name of Fr. Quirico More describing the Moro Rancheria of Tagum “as the most ungovernable” and was notoriously gaining fame among the rancherias in the Davao Gulf for the gloomy tragedies that happened here. Needless to say, our Tagumenyo ancestors — the original settlers of Tagum — had significantly contributed to the resistance of Filipinos against foreign oppressors.
Also contained in this book are the profiles of the cultural tribes
of Tagum as a fitting recognition of their very important role in shaping the destiny of the city, as well as anecdotes on the migrant settlers that peacefully co-existed with the former to dramatically transform Tagum to what it is today. Also for the first time, detailed accounts on the
accomplishments of the visionary men who were able to secure the city’s top position as Mayor were also presented in this book, as their terms in pivotal time in our history solidified the existence of Tagum.
These historical facts and more others contained in this
document inspired us to publish this book. Dismissed as something ambitious when pitched for the very first time, this book is undeniably the greatest document produced in this decade, for it preserves the soul of the existence of Tagum. We are humbled by the fact that we are the first generation of Tagumenyos that realized an ambitious goal to produce this book. Producing this book though did not come easy. When Tagum was converted into a component city in 1998, I authored City Ordinance No. 25 which created the City Historical and Cultural Commission which is tasked to conduct research on the historical events of Tagum that details the social, political, economic and cultural history of places or landmarks, periods of life and the achievements of men and women who have contributed to the upliftment of Tagum, among others. Sadly, this was just a piece of paper until I became City Mayor in 2013 when I activated the Commission to do its job. What followed were the series of researches and events that led to the publication of this book. The rest is history, so to speak.
In a nutshell, the journey of Tagum into what it is today is a tale
of cultural nourishment and adaptation, of resistance and struggle, of unity and visionary leadership, that when intertwined form the social fabric of a community that is made stronger by its past, and a shared outlook of what it envisions to be in the future. The snippets of our history warrant us to preserve its memory in honor of those who come
before us, and as a gift for the future generation of Tagumenyos.
John Dalberg-Acton, an English historian, penned a century
ago that “history is not a burden on the memory, but an illumination of the soul.” Through this book, it is our fervent hope that we helped in completing the big puzzle that is the history of Tagum. Along the process, may we be prouder of our roots as it substantially illumines our soul as a community of peace-loving people.
Through the pages of this book, we at the City Historical,
Cultural and Arts Council humbly brings you our Kagikan — our love letter to Tagumenyos — in anticipation that just like us upon completing the big puzzle that is our history, you may develop a sense of pride of our collective identity, and by extension, enrich our collective illumined souls.
Tagum, Tagumpay!
ALLAN L. RELLON, DPA, Ph.D. City Mayor of Tagum Chairperson, City Historical, Cultural and Arts Council
March 7, 2019 on the occasion of the 21st Araw ng Tagum City and the 102nd Founding Anniversary of the Establishment of Tagum as a Municipal District of Davao Province
ABOUT THE COVER In celebration of the rich and colorful history of Tagum, a concoction of elements that symbolize the city’s journey grace the cover of this book. It is dominantly colored with indigo, in direct reference to the Tageum plant that is indigenous to the old Tagum. Known in the scientific circle as the Indigo plant, Tageum is undeniably a silent witness to the transformation of Tagum. As a tribute to the original settlers of the city, the cover also features their original designs: Barabudi of Kagan tribe, Pinaiyan na Pinatulo of Mandaya tribe, and Pinaiyan of Mansaka tribe. Furthermore, the river — which has a pivotal role in the ebb and flow of the city — is symbolized by the waves below the words Tagum, playfully designed to illustrate the city’s journey marked with setbacks and triumphs. These elements alone vividly narrate our Kagikan, and our aspirations for a brighter Kaugmaon.
tagumtagum Tagum’s journey never followed a straight path,
for like the mighty rivers that exist in the city, this journey is characterized by strong currents that symbolize the ebb and flow of Tagum.
Kagan’s Barabudi
But it is undeniably rich with colorful and telling accounts...
Mandaya’s Pinaiyan na Pinatulo
...one that is worth sharing for the Tagumenyos of today, of tomorrow, and the generations to come.
Mansaka’s Pinaiyan
For the Original Settlers of the city, whose indomitable spirit and ingenuity helped shaped the destiny of Tagum; For the Migrants, who searched for greener pastures and made Tagum the greenest pasture for the future generation; and For the Tagumenyos whose identity inspired the publication of this book
Tagum City Historical, Cultural and Arts Council
CHAPTER ONE
Tracing our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
CHAPTER ONE
Tracing our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
R
ecords that date back to the Spanish era state that Tagum derived its name from the river that flows from the confluence of Saug and Liboganon Rivers. The Tagum River, which formed at Pagsabangan, had been cited as
the largest river in the western bay of the Davao Gulf (Blair & Robertson, 1906, p. 201).
The oldest record bearing the name Tagum was a book written
twenty-three years before the start of the 20th century. It chronicled the experiences of the Jesuit priests in their mission to convert both the Muslims and the indigenous people living in the four corners of Mindanao. In the book, the Spanish priests described having already found two communication routes from Surigao or other northern areas to Davao to facilitate their missionary works. They mentioned Tagum as part of the second route to and from the north, stating that the Manat River flows from the Agusan to the Tagum River, which flows into the Davao Gulf (Societas Iesu, 1877, p. 40).
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
19
Tagum River
Liboganon River
20
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
A satellite image showing the confluence of Saug and Liboganon Rivers in Barangay Pagsabangan. Google Satellite Image, 2019.
Saug River
Another Spanish-era document mentioning Tagum was written by Julian Gonzales Parrado, a Spanish brigadier general who wrote Memoria Acerca de Mindanao which listed the established Moro Rancherias in the District of Davao and elsewhere in Mindanao. Of those listed, only three were in the post-World War II Tagum: Hijo, Madaum and the Moro Rancheria of Tagum River. These three Rancherias were headed by their respective leaders, namely, Casiaman, Marang and Pusocan (Gonzales, 1893, p. 64).
A year after, Jose Nieto Aguilar also wrote a book describing
Tagum and Hijo rivers as among the three most important rivers in the District of Davao for having great quantity of water, pointing to Hijo River’s importance based on its capacity to enable explorers to travel from Davao Gulf to Butuan up in the north of the island (Nieto, 1894, p. 63).
That the three places were the only ones of the present-day
Tagum mentioned in Spanish sources is not a wonder. Over one hundred years ago, the Muslim tribes located in the northern part of the Davao Gulf established their Rancherias along the rivers in the area since the salt waters of the gulf and the fresh flowing waters of said rivers provided sustenance and sustainability to the original settlers. Because the Rancherias were built near the mouth of the rivers in the area, and with the rivers being used as navigable roads, the turn-of-the-century Muslim settlements were able to have ease in transporting people and goods, enabling them to develop trade.
Nothing in the sources from both the Spanish and American
era, however, made mention as to why the river that flows from the confluence of the Liboganon and Salug (Saug) Rivers was named
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
21
Tagum. It was only after more than half a century had already passed that an account surfaced as to how the name Tagum came to be. ETYMOLOGY OF “TAGUM”
Pyagmatikadung Aguido Sucnaan, Sr., a Kyalalaysan, the highest
spiritual leader of the Mansaka tribe, and one of the most respected leaders in present- day Tagum, narrated that the etymology of the word “Tagum” came from the word “Tageum”, a kind of plant that was abundant during the olden days and was mainly used as a dye on the fabric used as clothing by the tribe during the olden days.
During this time, the water appears to be as dark as the color of
the dyed water from the said plant which has been used by indigenous people of old in dyeing the Hinabol, an excellent-quality fabric made from Abaca fibers and produced through a traditional weaving process. This dye color is said to have been reminiscent of the clearness of the river in Bincungan which is magnified during summer.
Datu Aguido Sucnaan states that in the oral tradition of the Mansaka tribe, Tagum derives its name from Tageum, a plant that produces dye to color the Hinabol fabric of the tribe.
22
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Parts of Tageum would then be boiled for a day until the color of
the water would become as dark as the color of the river, after which the Hinabol fabric would then be soaked in the dark liquid for one day until such time that it will be thoroughly dyed in a color that was a mixture of black and blue (Sucnaan & Onlos, 2008).
In other words, oral traditions of the Mansaka tribe had it that
Tagum River derived its name from the plant Tageum which produced a dye color that is described as having the same color as the blue-black appearance of the said river. While Pyagmatikadong Sucnaan, as well as most of the Mansaka tribe, lives along the Hijo River, his account as to where Tagum River got its name has been corroborated by the elders and leaders of the Mandaya and Kagan tribes whose ancestors were the original inhabitants of the banks of Tagum River.
But what exactly is Tageum? Which among the plant species
found in the locality is it that can be used as a dye?
Research has shown that there is an Indigo plant that can be
found in several parts of the country. Interestingly enough, the plant which has a scientific name of Indigofera Tinctoria is commonly called Tagum in the Visayan language, while its name is Tayum in Tagalog. The Indigo is a perennial plant that reaches a maturity height of one to two meters. The plant, which has pinnate leaves and woody branches that are spreading or ascending, had been used as a major source of dye for a good number of years before the use of synthetic types began to flourish. The Tagum plant also had medicinal attributes that could treat disorders such as asthma, bronchitis, fever, stomach pain, wound sores and skin conditions, among others, and may also be used as a cover crop and green manure.
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
23
Artist’s rendition of the Tagum plant (Indigofera Tinctoria), an indigo plant that had medicinal attributes to treat diseases.
24
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
A turn-of the century dictionary published in Manila (Merrill,
1903, p. 159) which listed Tagum as a plant found in the Philippines during the American period has given weight to the account of Datu Sucnaan that Tagum River derived its name from the Indigo plant that abounded along the river and which produces a dark dye color that is reminiscent to how darkly clear the color of the river appears especially during summertime.
In present-day Tagum, the indigo plant has been seen to thrive
on a type of soil similar to that located beside a fishpond in Barangay San Isidro. This recent finding was culled out from the various exchanges between the Office of the City Cultural Communities Affairs and the members of the Muslim communities living in the barangays near the Madaum and Liboganon (Tagum) Rivers who, attesting to the medicinal attributes of the Tagum plant, led the researchers to the area where it was found to have flourished without being attended to.
In an interview with Datu Belardo Bungad, the Tribal Chieftain
of the Kagan tribe of Madaum, the Tagum, also pronounced as “Tageum” or “Tagyum”, is significant to their tribe since they believe that this is an extension of their life (sugpat ng kabui). In the olden times, they used this plant as medication for lung diseases such as tuberculosis, as well as for diabetes.
The discovery of the existence of pre-American era documents
pointing to Tagum River as the basis for naming the vast coastal area settled by the original settlers as Tagum has once and for all, established the fact that contrary to the belief which had been perpetuated since before the 1970s, Magugpo is not the original name of Tagum.
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
25
Meanwhile, according to an oral tradition believed by the Kagan,
Mansaka and Madaya tribes, Magugpo used to be a vast wilderness where there was a sporadic location of houses and communities made up of the members of these indigenous tribes. The name Magugpo, however, referred to a movement a person had to make to get from one place to another. The movement called “ugpo-ugpo”, or hopping, had to be executed while a person travel in and around the vast lands that had been majorly submerged in muddy water. TERRITORIAL LIMITS AND BOUNDARIES
Act No. 2711 paved the way for Tagum to be formally founded
in 1917, the year when the locality was brought under the folds of a civil government (Insular Government of Philippine Islands, 1917, p. 30). However, Tagum fell short of becoming a municipality and was merely created under the government form of a Municipal District.
A publication of the census of the entire Philippine Islands
taken in 1918 stated that the term Municipal District is applied to most local governments of non-Christian population in the Department of Mindanao and Sulu and that in the special-government provinces in the island such as Davao, all areas which are not organized as full municipalities were designated as municipal districts (Census Office of the Philippine Islands, 1920, p. 480).
Section 52 of Act 2408 which provided for a temporary form
of government for the territory in Mindanao and Sulu indicated that a municipal district may be organized in lieu of a municipality if the majority of the inhabitants of a particular locality have not been civilized sufficiently to warrant bringing the people under the rule of a municipal government; non-Christian settlements could not also be practicably
26
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
organized as barrios of municipalities if said settlements are so small or so remote (Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, 1914).
Based on the given definition of Municipal District in the said
legislation, it can be easily deduced that the area encompassing Tagum during the American occupation had settlements that were inhabited by what had been considered by the American-led government as insufficiently-civilized people. That Tagum failed to be created as a municipality when seven other localities in what was then the Davao Province were established as municipalities was also a testament to the fact that the insular government viewed the settlements of the Muslims and the Indigenous Peoples to be so remotely scattered in the four corners of the municipal district that they deemed it impractical to create the said settlements as barrios of a municipality.
During those times, the Governor of the Province of Davao
was the one who had jurisdiction and exercised direct supervision over the Municipal District of Tagum. The seven municipalities under the undivided province during the American period were the municipalities of Davao, Santa Cruz and Malita located on the Davao Gulf, and the Pacific East Coast-situated localities of Baganga, Caraga, Cateel, and Manay. These municipalities in the province had one thing in common which accounted for their being formed into a municipality: their history of being successfully settled by Christians.
Before Tagum was given the status of a Municipal District, a
geographical dictionary published two years after the turn of the century made mention of Begar as a large town of considerable importance that was situated some distance away from the shore of the Davao Gulf and up the Tagum River (Bureau of Insular Affairs War Department, 1902, p. 864).
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
27
Local historians in Davao area have yet to figure out where exactly was the settlement located in the present time although a map during the Spanish period had indicated Begar as situated east of the Tagum River.
Located west of the Tagum River, Begar is described as a large town of considerable importance in a report commissioned by the Bureau of Insular Affair War Department. Inset photo shows Rio (Spanish for River)Tagum, formed through the confluence of Rio Liboganon and Rio Saug.
By 1918, the Insular Government had already conducted a
Census of the Philippine Islands and included therein as part of the Municipal District of Tagum were the barrios of Madaum, La Paz, Lawaan, Lasang, and Hijo. It is worth to note that although Liboganon and Pagsabangan were also mentioned in the said publication of the census commissioned during that period, both areas, however, were mere sitios in the Province of Davao, and not a barrio (Census Office of the Philippine Islands, 1920, pp. 547,570). Bincungan was also listed, albeit as Binungan, in the appendix to the first volume of the Census, alongside Tuganay, Anibongan, a place called Batas, as well as Apokan (Apokon),
28
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
and such other areas belonging to the municipal district like the barrios of Cambanogoy, Cubayo, Hising, Simbaan and Sapaaon which were indicated in the 1918 census’ Supplementary List of Barrios of Tagum (Census Office of the Philippine Islands, 1920, pp. 366, 402).
A compendium of the Executive Orders given by Governor
General Francis Burton Harrison in 1919 also showed that the territory of Tagum had changed in so far as the make-up of its barrios is concerned. An executive order handed out that year by the Philippines’ governor-general had listed a place called Sali as a barrio in the municipal district (Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, 1920, pp. 7374). After two years, however, and right after the insular government abolished the Department of Mindanao and Sulu as a special political division in 1921 which paved the way for the reorganization of the existing municipal districts in the Province of Davao, the barrio of Sali was not included as among the barrios comprising the Municipal District of Tagum.
This change in the make-up of the barrios of Tagum as a
municipal district of the Province of Davao extended to Tuganay as it was not previously listed in the List of Geographic Names section of the 1918 census prior to its becoming a barrio under Tagum in 1921. The same thing could also be said about Pagsabangan which was previously classified in the same census document as a mere sitio of Tagum prior to its reorganization in 1921 (Census Office of the Philippine Islands, 1920, p. 570) but was also curiously listed as a barrio of the municipal district of Saug (now Asuncion) in the compilation of the 1919 executive orders. The barrio of Cambanogoy which was previously mentioned as among those listed in the 1918 census Supplementary List of barrios of Tagum was also cited as a barrio of Saug in an executive order (Governor-
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
29
General of the Philippine Islands, 1920, pp. 59-60). It is worth to note that at the time of the reorganization of the municipal district by virtue of Harrison’s Executive Order No. 8 in 1921, or four years since its formal and official founding, Tagum’s composition was narrowed down to nine barrios: its central barrio which was also named Tagum, as well as the barrios of Lawaan, La Paz, Lasang, Madaum, Hijo, Bincungan, Tuganay and Pagsabangan.
With Liboganon, as well as Tagum and Bincungan already
established as sitio and barrios, respectively, less than twenty years after the turn of the 20th century, one would be hard-pressed to ask a question or two: Had the once- central barrio of Tagum, of the Municipal District of Tagum been absorbed to form part of what is now known as Barangay Bincungan when the seat of government was formally transferred to barrio Hijo in 1941 upon the conversion of the former municipal district into a municipality? Or did the former central barrio located along the biggest river on the west side of the Davao Gulf become a part of either the present-day barangay Busaon or present-day Liboganon?
This change in the territory of Tagum from the time it became
a municipal district up to the present is manifested by how the locality grew to have more barangays from the measly eight (8) barrios in 1921, the make-up of which was changed when it was converted into a municipality in 1941.
A look at the first-ever compilation of Tax Declaration of real
properties in the possession of the current City Assessor’s Office, and dated as far back as the 1920s, had shown the name of Magugpo as a barrio in the municipal district when its central barrio was still located
30
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Magugpo, purported to be the original name of Tagum, only appeared in the 1926 Declaration of Real Property, when the migrants from the north settled down and developed the vast lands that would have been the ancestral domain of the cultural communities.
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
31
at the Tagum River. This presence of the name of the said barrio for the first time in Pre-World War II documents five years after the reorganization of the Tagum municipal district, and nine years after its founding, may be attributed to the development which the locality had experienced at the advent of the migration of people from Luzon and the islands in the Visayas.
The same compilation of the real property tax declarations also
showed that Tipaz, which is now Magugpo East, was once a sitio of barrio Apokon, while Cuambogan and Mankilam were sitios of 1920s barangay Pagsabangan. Tax declaration on a real property situated in the barrio of Canocotan showed that the said barangay had been formed prior to 1926, when Tagum was still a municipal district.
Twenty-four years after its formal founding, Tagum underwent
a major upgrade as a political subdivision when it was converted into a Municipality in 1941 (Office of the President of the Philippines, 1941). Upon the said conversion, the barrios comprising the new municipality included the old barrios of Bincungan, Lasang, Madaum, Pagsabangan, Tuganay and Hijo which was the town’s designated poblacion and the seat of government, as well as Magugpo and Mawab. It bears noting that at this point, the names Tagum, Lawaan and La Paz had already ceased to be listed as barrios of the locality.
In 1948, new area names which were not indicated when
Tagum was converted into a municipality had started to appear in the compilation of tax declaration of real properties presently maintained by the City Assessor’s Office. These places included Visayan Village, Mankilam, Magdum, Cuambogan, Pandapan, Nueva Fuerza, New Balamban, La Filipina and La Fortuna.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Tating Mansaka’s 1926 Declaration of Real Property shows Tipaz (which is now a purok in Barangay Magugpo East) as part of Apokon.
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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The name Visayan Village appears for the first time on a legal, public document in a 1948 Compilation of Declaration of Real Property in the possession of the City Assessor’s Office.
34
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
The year 1949 saw the shrinking of Tagum when the South-
western portion of the 8-year old municipality was carved out of its territory upon the creation of the Municipality of Panabo. With this birth of a new town, the old barrios west off of the Tagum River such as Lasang and Bincungan had fallen under the supervision and control of the newly created southern municipality.
Interestingly, there were several barrios that had been added
to form part of the municipality of Tagum before the creation of Panabo. These barrios which were transferred to the new town upon its organization included the central barrio of Panabo which became its seat of government, Cagangohan, Anibongan, Ising with its sitios Mangalcal, Sibulano and Southern Davao; Maduao and the sitios of Upper Licanan, Tagpuri, Tagurot and Tagactac; and Malatibas, including its sitios of Manay and Little Panay. The barrio of Bincungan was also transferred to Panabo with its sitios of La Paz and Tuganay, which had been a fullpledged barrio in 1941 (Office of the President of the Philippines, 1949).
The area of the municipality of Tagum further shrank in the
1950s, with the creation of the new Municipality of Doùa Alicia located east of the Hijo River in 1953 which took out Tagum’s barrios of Taglawig, and Hijo, the former seat of government of the municipality; and the creation of the northern Municipality of Mawab in 1959 which carved out the barrios of Mawab, Sawangan and Tuburan from the town.
A perusal on the text of the Executive Order which paved the
way for the separation of the northern part of the Municipality of Panabo to create the new Municipality of Carmen in 1965 had shown what became of the old central barrio of Tagum. Based on the piece
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
35
The Executive Order No. 189 shows Tagum and Bincungan being made a part of the Municipality of Carmen when it was created as a town in 1965.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
of legislation promulgated by then President Diosdado Macapagal, the said barrio had been annexed to the newly-formed municipality west of Tagum River (Macapagal, 1965).
Much like what happened to the barrio of Tagum, the barrio
of Bincungan was also absorbed to form part of Carmen during its organization as a town fifty-four years ago. That the present-day Tagum also has a barrio (barangay) of the same name is something which gave the impression that the old-era barrios of Bincungan and Tagum were bisected by the great Tagum (now Tagum-Liboganon) River when the municipality used to extend its territorial reaches as far south as Lasang. One fact remains to this day, however: the barrios bearing the name Bincungan and Tagum which belonged to Carmen when the municipality was formed had ceased to become known as such as modern-day barangays bearing the same names no longer exist in Tagum’s neighboring town. This bit of history in relation to the changes in the territorial limits and boundaries which Tagum underwent over the course of more than half a century poses more questions that not and finding the answer is one that needs to be pursued and followed through.
American-era Bincungan is a vast barrio bisected by the Tagum River as can be gleaned from the Declaration of Property of a Kagan landowners whose properties are bounded by Tagum River on the east and west, respectively.
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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PERIODIC HISTORY
To the modern-day Tagumenyos, much of the history of Tagum
began when migrant settlers started their exodus down south to the territory in Mindanao, more particularly in the undivided Province of Davao. The migration of Christian Filipinos from places in the north, such as the islands of Luzon, Cebu, Bohol and Leyte, was predicated on the encouragement by the Insular Government for migrants to settle down and work within the vast lands of the southern island, including that of the Municipal District of Tagum that used to encompass what are now Davao City’s Lasang, and Panabo City at the south, Maco on the east and a portion of Mawab on the north. This state-sponsored immigration was hinged on the implementation of the government policy of developing and civilizing the Muslim and Tribal communities that dotted the municipal district of Tagum.
For the descendants of the Kagan Muslims and the Indigenous
people, such as the Mandaya and the Mansaka who were the original settlers of Tagum, however, their people’s part of Tagum history happened before the turn of the 20th century, several decades earlier than when the migrant settlers came in droves from the north. SPANISH PERIOD
The oldest accounts of the happenings in Tagum were
encapsulated in various letters of the Jesuit priests to the Father Superior of the Jesuit Mission to the Philippines. These letters were compiled to form several volumes of books published within a 20-year period and wholly written in Spanish.
A letter of Fr. Quirico More, S.J. to his mission’s Father Superior,
written in January 20, 1885 was translated in English and included in
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
a book published in 1906. The account gave a clearer picture on what transpired in the area which led him to label the Muslim Rancheria along Tagum River as the most ungovernable and most famous of the Rancherias in the Davao Gulf due to the murders that were committed there (Blair & Robertson, 1906, p. 201).
From the lens of the Jesuit priest, these murders were borne
out of deception carried out by the Muslim settlers of the northwestern coast of the Davao Gulf. Father More mentioned the murders of four Christians in July 1884 which happened in the Moro Rancheria of Tagum and committed by those who he said were pretending to be friends and brothers of those killed. He also recounted about how a nonbeliever of the Christian faith revealed to him a plot devised by a Muslim datu to kill him when he would meet with the indigenous people of Pagsabangan whom he wished to be the subject of reduction. His murder was planned to be executed by people armed with balaraos and limbuton who would appear just as Fr. More would ask for more Mandaya people to be reduced (Societas Iesu, 1887, p. 100).
As to the English-translated letter of Fr. More to his superior,
it described that in 1861, Don Jose Pinzon y Purga, the sixth Spanish Governor of the District of Davao, wanted to establish numerous reductions of Mandayas at the mouth of the Tagum River. The reduction entailed the establishment and expansion of permanent settlements of the indigenous people in a particular area so as to reduce their tendency to scatter around and abandon their temporary communities when they feel the need to do so (Tiu, 2005, p. 25).
Since the Mandayas had had enough of being subjected to the
abusive rule of the Moros of the Tagum Rancheria, they were amenable
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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An excerpt from the letter of Jesuit Missionary Fr. Quirico More to his superior written in 1885 describing the Moro Rancheria of Tagum as the “most ungovernable and the most famous for the gloomy tragedies that happened there.�
to the proposal of the Spanish military governor just so they could away from the clutches of the Muslims who ruled the area and exacted tributes from them which the Muslims considered their due.
The Muslims living along Tagum River had joined the resistance
against the Spanish rule since they already had organized a semblance of government which oversaw politics, religion and civil matters. When the Spanish came to rule the people around the Davao Gulf, the settlers soon lost their political and religious power. Nevertheless, the hope to regain supremacy and control over their own people was never really lost; they endeavored to stock up on their efforts to maintain their own organization as a means of thwarting off the reaching arms of the Spanish rule from enfolding them (Blair & Robertson, 1906, p. 206).
The Moros were also unequivocally opposed to the reduction
and gathering together of the Mandayas into formal villages and plotted to make the reduction plans of the governor ineffective. Their efforts, however, were all for nothing as the Mandayas were poised to become successfully settled permanently, thereby rendering their plots all but
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
in vain. This success on the part of the Spanish to bring the Mandayas along Tagum River over to their fold led the Moros of the Tagum Rancheria to become resolute in killing the military governor of the District of Davao.
The Muslims, in the guise of being amenable to Pinzon’s
establishment and eventual inauguration of a village for the Mandayas, assembled at the mouth of Tagum River and proceeded to invite the governor on the day that he was to inaugurate the village to join them for a feast at one of their Rancherias. The feast, which the Muslims said was prepared to celebrate the founding of the new village, treated the military governor and his eight companions to dancing and the playing of kulintang.
Once the ceremony was over, Pinzon — at the invitation of a
datu — went inside an apartment only to be stabbed violently at the back. While the governor was being beheaded by another datu using a two-handed blow, his eight companions were also killed by the other Moros in the lower part of the house.
In the said letter, Fr. More belied the claims made that had
already started circulating: that the murders were caused by the urgency of Pinzon in having to wife the daughter of a datu of the Tagum Rancheria. As there had reportedly been not a single woman, of any shape and stature that could be seen at the Muslim village where the Spanish governor was killed, and since the Jesuit priest claimed to have spoken to people who were Pinzon during the event, he dismissed the idea as bereft of truth (Blair & Robertson, 1906, pp. 208-210).
Local historians in the region, however, are of the opinion that
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Artist’s rendition of the assassination of Don Jose Pinzon y Purga, the sixth Spanish Governor of the District of Davao in 1861 by the Moros of Tagum Rancheria. Art by Othniel Inis, 2018.
the history of a place must be viewed from the lens of the people who are indigenous to the area and not from those who came to wrest the control away from its original settlers.
Davao historian Macario Tiu talked about how the silence of
the Kagans in relation to the 1861 assassination of Pinzon in order to protect those who had a hand in the execution of the Spanish governor had led to the adoption of the point of view of the Spaniards as the local history, with Pinzon being seen more sympathetically while the struggle and resistance of the people of this part of the Davao Gulf was viewed belittlingly.
Dr. Tiu wrote that the account about Pinzon wanting to marry
a Muslim maiden, which Fr. More dismissed in his letter to his superiors, was affirmed in the oral history in Bincungan where the descendants of
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
the people of the Spanish-era Tagum Rancheria live. In one of his many interviews with the descendants of the heroes of the Davao Gulf who fend off the Spanish encroachers, Tiu was able to talk to Tanudan Noah Lubama and related part of their conversation in this wise:
Pinzon saw the sister of Datu Maug and was smitten
by her beauty. He told Maug, “I want to marry her.” The datus were alarmed because it was unheard of that the Moros would allow their women, and of royal blood at that, to marry a Spaniard. On the day that the governor demanded for the maiden to be surrendered to him, the datus directed him to the room where the woman was placed inside a mosquito net. As the Spaniard lifted the mosquito net, a datu rushed at him and struck his forehead with a sapiyo (pinuti, in Bisaya, a heavy knife resembling a bolo).
Tiu stated that the above-mentioned datu who struck Pinzon
was named Lubama, Noah’s grandfather. He further informed that the Spanish leader of the District of Davao was killed in the land of the Maugs at Bincungan and that the woman who he wanted to marry was Maug’s sister, a beautiful woman nicknamed Ugis. This bit about the sister of Maug being the object of Pinzon’s affection was culled from the 2002 interview Dr. Tiu had with Abubakar Lubama, the cousin of Noah’s who lived in Carmen, Davao del Norte. The local historian noted that Abubakar refused to reveal what the Spanish era- Lubama did exactly and would not confirm Noah’s account that their forefather struck Pinzon in the forehead with the sapiyo (Tiu, 2005, pp. 189-190).
The stance of silence taken by the families of the brave Muslim
men of the Tagum River whose exhibition of resisting the foreign rule
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The sapiyo that is said to be the one used by Datu Lubama in killing Jose Pinzon, the Spanish Governor of the District of Davao on March 18, 1861 near Tagum River.
involved the beheading of Davao’ Spanish leader had been carried on and maintained by their descendants over the course of a hundred years. This is the underlying reason why only the historians from Davao City whose research on the history of their place and on the lives of the heroes of Davao such as Datu Bago gave them the opportunity to get their hands on the information about the killing of Pinzon at the hands of the Moros in the Tagum Rancheria. Incredibly, what could have been seen as a triumph of a group of people against the threat of foreigners lording over their politics, religion and dominion were not made known to the migrant settlers who helped shape most of Tagum’s development today, or the indigenous people who were the original owners/possessors of the vast lands that were acquired and later developed by the settlers from the north.
Whether or not the role of the early Tagumenyos as local heroes
had been scrapped from the annals of Tagum’s history was because of the personal choices of the families of those involved in killing the encroaching foreign leader is something that remains to be seen up to this day.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
The reduction of the Mandayas still continued on after the death
of Pinzon. This paved the way for the people of the said tribe to be formed into a community that was converted into the Christian faith. In 1892, Fr. Saturnino Urios, while he was staying in Tagum, had written to his mission superior about how the Moros in Tagum River had overtaken the Mandayas, killing them and taking their children and brothers captive. This war waged against the indigenous tribe by the Kalagans paved the way for the Mandayas to turn and welcome for their protection the missionaries who said that the best results can be had if the infidels are shown with love (Societas Iesu, 1895, p. 147).
The success of the mission of the Jesuits in reducing the
Mandayas, particularly in Pagsabangan, into a community had been a precursor for the conversion of the different tribes under the indigenous cultural communities here in Tagum. Presently, except for the elders of the tribe, the majority of the people who carried in their blood the culture and heritage of their indigenous ascendants had ceased to exercise their cultural beliefs and traditions as they became practicing Christians. It was only after the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) that the present-day Tagumenyos with blood lineage of the indigenous tribes started to take ownership of said culture and heritage.
A part of the history of Tagum is also intertwined with the
history of Davao. Its biggest hero, Datu Bago, whose kuta extended from present-day Quezon Boulevard to Generoso Bridge in Bangkerohan, had been subjected to the relentless assault spearheaded by Jose Uyanguren in 1848. After three months of fighting off the advances of the marauding Spaniards, Datu Bagu finally became cognizant that he would be unable to defend his kuta. This led him to flee to the north, in Tagum, where he later died and was buried in Pagsabangan (Tiu, 2005, pp. 172-176). CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
A photograph of the baptism of 42 Moros at the banks of the Hijo River. This could be the oldest photograph depicting the ancestry of Tagum. Photo taken from the Jesuit Archives.
AMERICAN PERIOD
The dawn of the American Period in the locality of Tagum
started when the Spanish forces upped and leave government rule of the entire Philippine Islands to their hands by virtue of the Treaty of Paris. In 1903, an act was enacted by the Philippine Commission under Governor-General William H. Taft to provide for the organization and government of the Moro Province which at the time was the entire island of Mindanao, with the exception of the Surigao and Misamis provinces, but including the Sulu Archipelago. The province was composed of the Districts of Sulu, Zamboanga, Cotabato, Lanao and Davao under which Tagum belonged.
The Organic Act No. 787 was said to have been an attempt to
secure a rational and sympathetic control of both the Muslims and the Indigenous people in Mindanao. It was framed in such a way that would recognize their strong independence and take into account the existing religious beliefs, points of view and other deeply-rooted inclinations and aspirations of the non-Christian inhabitants of the southern islands (Finley, 1916, pp. 34-35).
As such, tribal wards were created in areas in the Moro Province
to allow the Muslims and the people belonging to the native tribes to govern themselves according to their own brand of politics. Tagum was no different when it came to having some sort of governing body to control and see to the day-to-day affairs of the people living within the tribal wards. Based on an annual report of the US War Secretary, American-era Mandayas had formed a village (Mandaya Ward) at Pagsabangan while Muslim ward in Davao in the 1900s also included villages put up by Muslims at Libaganun, Madaum and Tagum (US War Department, 1907, p. 625).
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
A document from the US War Department showing tribal wards of both Mandaya and Muslim Tribes in Pagsabangan, Liboganon, Madaum and Tagum.
British explorer A. Henry Savage Landor described his
experiences when his adventure to the Philippines led him to travel up the Tagum River in 1904. His adventure, which he had written down and immortalize in a book, had him mentioning about passing by a Muslim village and a mosque on the right side of the river about a hundred yards up from its mouth. The village, including the mosque, was said to have been under the helm of Datus Portekan and Lausan.
According to Landor, the northern part of the Davao Gulf
was less wooded on the western side and was littered with houses of the Muslims who grew hemps in their field. The explorer also met Datu Casiaman, the head of the settlement located not far from the mouth of Hijo River, who reportedly had a plantation at Hijo and owned 3,000 hemp plants (Landor, 1904, pp. 207-209).
Datu Casiaman was among the big planters in the Davao Gulf
area during the American period. This claim had been attested by local historians of Davao such as Dr. Tiu, who also named Samuel Navarro, a Muslim of the Lasang Rancheria as one having a large plantation (Tiu, 2018).
The American Period saw the establishment of several
plantations in Tagum by the Americans. In 1906, the Tagum Plantation Company originally owned by Loren L. Day but was later bought by Thomas Mundiz, and the Teague Plantation owned by Max Teague were established in the locality. Three years later, George Pond also joined the bandwagon and set up the Pond Plantation near the mouth of the Tagum River.
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On the other hand, the first plantation at the head of the Davao
Gulf was established as Mindanao Land Development in Madaum. The 3,000- hectare plantation would become known as the Odell Plantation. Clark Whitehorn and Thomas Torkelson would also establish their plantations on lands that straddled Busaon- Bincungan and TuganayBincungan areas, respectively (Tiu, 2018).
The advent of the plantations around the Gulf coast drove
migrants from Luzon, Visayas and some parts of Mindanao to these shores to engage in employment as plantation laborers and workers; this later resulted in the increase of the non-Christian population in the locality during the American era.
The time when the American-led Insular Government dissolved
the Moro Province to make way for the civil government administering the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, was also the time that Tagum was made into a municipal district by virtue of the Revised Administrative Code of the Philippine Islands. Upon the reorganization of the existing municipal districts in the Province of Davao, Tagum’s territory was then delineated. That the area where the settlements of the Muslims who killed Pinzon some fifty years prior was located was recognized as the central barrio of the municipal district was an indication that the Muslims there had enough power and command to have been able to make their place as the seat of power in the fledgling almost-town.
As a means of dealing with the Muslim and Indigenous
communities in the Municipal District of Tagum, the governor of the Davao Province appointed officers from among the members of these settlements and fixed their designation as prescribed in the administrative
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
The appointment paper of Lubama as Barrio Tagum’s Councilor, 1917.
code. One such officer in the once-central barrio of the Municipal District was Lubama (Moro), who was appointed as Barrio Tagum’s Councilor in September 20, 1917 by Eulalio Causing, the first Provincial Governor of the Province of Davao. This appointed barrio councilor was the same Datu Lubama who the local historian, Dr. Tiu, mentioned as having struck the ill-fated Spanish Governor in 1861. CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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To the Americans, the Tagum River was still viewed as an important river and valued it for transportation purposes because of its innate capacity to be navigable for small boats for about 25 miles or 40 kilometers inland from its mouth at the Davao Gulf (Webster, 1922, p. 51).
During the American Period, all the identified barrios comprising
Tagum as a municipal district were located along bodies of water: Tuganay, Lawa-an, Lapaz (all presently located in Carmen town), Lasang, Bincungan, Pagsabangan, Madaum, Hijo and the now defunct and all-but forgotten old barrio of Tagum.
Magugpo, just like the other areas in the interior of the
municipal district, did not become an established community until the rush of arrivals of the migrant settlers from the northern islands of Luzon and Visayas in the 1920s because unlike the Muslims that settled around old Tagum’s rivers and coastal waters who became deeply-rooted to their territories enough to die for it, the indigenous tribes who lived on the vast lands of the Tagum were nomadic in nature who moved from one part of the swampy interior to another, thereby enabling the Filipino Christian migrants to settle down at what would become the town center.
Joaquin Pereyras, a homesteader from Pangasinan who came
to Tagum in 1926 was said to have discovered a map from Davao that a highway would be developed from Davao going north. On the planned map, he saw that a road going in the northern direction would be passing through Barrio Magugpo and that another road would be constructed to cross the north-bound road and was to be built in the east to west direction. He would later open up to his colleagues about what he discovered and persuaded his co-homesteaders from Pangasinan, the
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Visayas, and even the Mandaya and the Mansaka to transfer to Magugpo since he could see that it would become the center of the locality (Pereyras, 2018). JAPANESE OCCUPATION/ WORLD WAR II
Stories about how the people of Tagum fared during the
onslaught of the Japanese occupation are few and far between, and always these narratives needed to be squeezed out from the families of the war veterans as well as those who experienced first-hand the perils of being in the middle of a war of which the magnitude and scale have never been seen or felt by most people during that period.
Foremost of the World War II stories that happened was those
about the Battle of Ising which happened when Ising in the present-day Municipality of Carmen was still part of the territory of then-Municipality of Tagum.
Among the Tagumenyos who fought
during the Second World War was Alfredo Pulmano, who was acknowledged as the first teacher in the Municipality. In the Battle of Ising, a book which chronicled the untold story of the 130th Infantry Regiment stationed in Magdum, Pulmano gave his account on how he was working as a spy, including how he fared during those three years:
Alfredo Pulmano is considered as the first teacher of Tagum.
In the year 1942, I was contacted by the Spaniards
to collect information on all the members of the espionage because Magugpo was the last station of the Japanese for three
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years in the years 1941-1944… I was a private contact man information of the (U.S.) Army of the 24th Division.
Our headquarters was in Magugpo…The 130th
Infantry had to go forward and we followed to Bincungan then Tuganay… There were many radio specialists in the 130th including myself, Americans and Filipinos. Our communications will go directly to the head, Childress, Laureta. During the battle of Ising I was to relay message only.
I was not a prisoner of war but I was imprisoned by
the Japanese four times when I was working at the Japanese airfield established in Bunawan. I cannot forget when I was imprisoned in the garrison in Magugpo…Then because there was a co-member in espionage by the Japanese, they told that I was one of the members of the espionage. On my 4th day, there was a battle of guerrillas in Magdum and they ambushed two trucks of soldiers going to Maco and Mawab (Vallejo, 2015, pp. 200-201).
Through all the storied accounts collected from the veterans
of World War II’s Battle of Ising, the ones about Col. Claro Laureta reverberated both positively and negatively and these were agreed upon by a number of persons who worked under him during the years when the war was raging on.
Soldiers and even commanding officers attested that they did not
see Laureta at Ising, when the fighting was at its deadliest. He did not join in the attack and was always just giving orders to attack the Japanese forces that were trying to cross the Ising River to go to Magdum and then
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
head to Agusan to flee the advancing American troops. (Vallejo, 2015, pp. 145,148)
In one of the accounts of those who fought the battle, it was
bared that the head of the 130th Infantry Regiment was stripped of his designation because he had bad records that were heard in the US, such as womanizing and senseless killings of civilians. He was said to have been replaced by Major Silva who did not give Laureta the chance to join the company. Laureta was said to have stayed at the regiment’s headquarters and was therefore not present during the battle of Ising (Vallejo, 2015, p. 168).
Other accounts also stated that Claro Laureta was a good leader
who had the ability to organize the 130th Infantry. Others described him as one who had traits of bravery; that he was a good person who did not
Col. Claro Laureta, an officer of the World War II whose 130th Infantry Regiment was headquartered at Magdum was the man for whom the public elementary and high schools in what is now Barangay San Miguel were named.
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stay in one place as he often visited as well as inspected every company under him (Vallejo, 2015, pp. 163,182,199,203).
One soldier admired Laureta for being good to his men, no
matter what rank they each possessed, another respected him because he was a good commander who liked his subordinate who did not complain much and carried out the orders and techniques during the war (Vallejo, 2015, pp. 146,160).
The truth about Colonel Claro Laureta could have been that
he was both liked and disliked by those he worked with. His presence at the battle in Ising was questionable at best, at least for those who fought to keep the Japanese from crossing the river, even after the passing of 50 years.
Little had been known about the man whose name would later
be borne in both the elementary school and the secondary school the location of which extended to edge of the Tagum-Liboganon River. That a relocation site established by the local government unit bore his name implied his importance to the history of Tagum and that should be given the focus it deserved.
Some of those who experienced the World War II not because
they fought as soldiers but because they were present when the atrocities happened were also conveyed to their children and their children’s children: Our city’s current local chief executive, Mayor Allan L. Rellon, spoke about how his grandmother talked about his grandfather being killed by the marauding Japanese forces and was then thrown over to float lifeless down what is now known as Bincungan River (Rellon, 2019). Corazon Rojo, the woman who, together with Mr. Gabriel, her husband,
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
owned vast real properties that are now located at the city’s well-known crossing, also experienced the sorrow of being widowed when the Japanese soldiers killed her husband and threw him over the same river (Cuntapay, 2015).
The Mansaka tribe of
Magdum was also not spared the hardships and fear caused by the advance of the Japanese troop who soon became attracted to the beauty of their place. The
Mr. Lucas Lopez was the sitting municipal treasurer of Tagum when he was killed by Japanese forces and was thrown over to what is known today as Bincungan River. Decades later, his grandson Allan Lopez Rellon assumed the position as Mayor of Tagum in 2013.
people of the tribe would gather and hide themselves in a safe place, but would at once move and transfer to another place they thought is safer than the last one should they learn about the nearby presence of the Japanese people.
To survive while being hidden from the eyes of the foreigners,
the Mansaka people would cook the food they planted and produced in the middle of the forest using a method where no smoke would come out so that they would not be detected by the Japanese troops. To be able to move fast in case they need to transfer to another area, the Mansaka clans of Magdum would use an “a’at”, a container made of abaca to place all their food and valuables (Bayangoan, 2017).
Not everyone in Tagum, however, experienced bad things at the
hands of the Japanese forces during the Second World War. Datu Diama
CHAPTER ONE Tracing Our Roots, Enshrining our Identity
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of Bincungan was able to establish a good relationship with the Japanese who viewed him positively because he allowed them to utilize his lands and cultivate these into farms. As a consequence, the members of the Kagan tribe who were under his rule were spared from being killed because the Japanese soldiers would announce to them that a Huwes de Kutsilyo would be conducted, thereby allowing him to warn his people so that they could escape (Jumah, 2018).
A huwes de kutsilyo was said to be done by the Japanese troops
when a large number of their soldiers were killed by the allied forces of the Filipinos and American fighters. They would avenge the death of their comrades by killing all that they would chance upon a particular area, including animals and varmints (Cuizona, 2019).
A Maranao who ventured down south to Tagum in search of
greener pastures also endured persecution from the Japanese troops the very moment he arrived in the municipality. Maito Mama had been wanting to come to the locality when he heard that there was a Japanese Base in town because he thought it would mean good business.
Upon his arrival, however, the Japanese Military stationed in
Tagum captured him and ordered him to dig a hole as his own grave. The men proceeded to shot him when the hole he dug was big and deep enough for his body. Fortunately enough, the Maranao miraculously remained alive. This was the start of his being made the servant of the Japanese soldiers. As he became close to the foreigners, he was able to protect the Muslims in the area.
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CHAPTER TWO
A Tapestry of Cultures
CHAPTER TWO
A Tapestry of Cultures
B
ORIGINAL SETTLERS efore the arrival of the Spanish conquerors at the shores of the northern part of the Davao Gulf, the locality already had various tribes thriving in the vastness of what would later become a non-ancestral domain. Home to three major
tribes: the Kagan, Mandaya and Mansaka, Tagum boasts of a richness in history and culture, and shares a relevant background in relation to the entry of the Spanish, American and Japanese forces who came to encroach the fertile lands of Tagum.
These three tribes view the rivers of Liboganon, Saug, Iyo and
Tagum as historical landmarks, one that became part of the lives of their ancestors, their refuge in times of war and the place where they went to trade and find other means of living. KAGAN
The Kagan elders narrated that the word “Kagan” comes from
the root word Ka’ag, which means “to inform or to warn” (Historical
CHAPTER TWO A Tapestry of Cultures
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Account of Kagan as Narrated by Jerry Wahab B. Porza, 2001). The name may mean two things: that of being ascribed by others, and that being ascribed by their own people.
According to Datu Belardo Bungad, the name Ka’ag was not
ascribed by other people, rather it is their people who called themselves as such for they need to be warned about the intruding Chinese, Muslim missionaries, Spanish conquistadors, American invaders and the Japanese war-mongers who came to pillage the locality in that particular order, though years apart in actuality.
On the other hand, the ascription of the Kagan Tribe by
others originated from the Mansaka of Compostela Valley. In this version, Kagan comes from the word kyakarag which means “to warn”. Another one that is also attributed from the Mansaka tribe is the word mangaragan meaning the “head hunting tribe”.
Another ascription based on an oral tradition recounted a person
from Tagasug saying “Kyalagan ko na” which meant “I have found it”, referring to the Kagan. That the members of the Kagan tribe were formerly called as “Kalagan” was because the word was said to have been derived from “Kyalagan.”
Incidentally, some people make a distinction between Kagan
and Kalagan, the first being Muslims, the second being non-Muslims. However, apart from this religious divide, these two are ethnolinguistically one and the same people. In fact, some Kalagan from Hagonoy, Davao del Sur are also relatives of the Kalagan from some part of the Davao Gulf that would mean areas in Davao City, Davao del Norte and Davao Oriental with shores being part of the Davao Gulf. (Tiu, 2005).
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The Kagan tribe has occupied their ancestral domain since time
immemorial and has been considering the lands encompassed therein as their life – the value of their existence. They believe that Tagallang na Magbabaya, the creator of the entire universe, has entrusted them with the responsibilities to manage and ensure that the endowments from these lands will provide security for them as well as the tribe’s future generations.
Traditionally, the Kagan community invoked the concept
of self-delineation in identifying their traditional landmarks. Some marked their territories with bodies of water which can be gleaned by the establishment of the early settlements of the Kagan tribe along the coastal area that stretched from the present-day barangays of Madaum, Liboganon and Busaon as well as along the Tagum- Liboganon River that meandered around Pagsabangan, Canocotan, Bincungan and Liboganon and the Hijo River that flows thru Apokon, Tipas (now part of Magugpo East), and Pandapan.
Kagan ancestors in Madaum consider Hijo River as an important part of their lives as this is where trade and other economic activities occur. 2018.
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The Tangkuwan River (left) and Tagum River (right) are also pivotal in the lives of the Kagan Tribe as it is where trade and other economic activities are done. 2018.
Settlements were also put up along the Hijo River which, prior
to the coming of the Spaniards, was known as Iyo. The name “Iyo� was said to have been a Kagan chant, a means for the Kagan tribe to communicate to their tribesmen by imitating the sound of the Antolihao bird. When the word was chanted out loud by a Kagan, the word had to be shouted back in response as a means of recognizing the tribal identity of the newly-arrived tribesmen, thus gaining entry to their territory (Makaigad, 2018).
Aside from marking their territories with bodies of water, the
Kagan also used huge trees such as Durian and Baluno as well as the
Mr. Julie Colas points to the sacred place of the Kagan tribe of Madaum called as Banakon where they used to offer rituals like Panuwak Buka. Today, the place is now popularly known to locals as Barret Beach.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Bamboo grass as their marker. Another marker includes stones used to identify sacred places such as burial and worship ground. The usual symbols found in Kagan burial grounds are tombstones and common plants beside the burial sites such as Jampaka or kalachuchi and kila.
ABOVE: Ancestors of Kagan Leaders buried in the place where a Banganga tree is planted infront of a Kalachuchi tree located at Lanikai along the Madaum River of Madaum, Tagum City, 2017. Ms. Jean Diama, pointing at the graveyard of his ancestor, Datu Diama, which is located in Budbud Barangay Bincungan, Tagum City. 2018.
The Kagan maintained a seemingly close relationship with the
Mansaka and the Mandaya, an indication of a life of co-existence and co-sharing in the vast territory that would become known as Tagum. This co-sharing and co-existing was exhibited in the way that the Kagans allowed the members of the two indigenous tribes to traverse their territories to get to present-day Liboganon and Madaum just so the two groups could get staple parts of their household food such as salt.
Culturally speaking, the Kagan tribe is similar to Mansaka and
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Mandaya as these indigenous tribes also valued the conduct of rituals, and referred to their God as Tagallang na Magbabaya. Not quite unlike the Kagan, the two other major tribes of Tagum also lived along the riverbanks since their way of life had also been connected to fishing and farming.
A Kagan community is governed by a Pyagmatikadung / Datu
who has his Council of Elders formed to eventually attend to the general affairs of said community. The leadership usually provided solution to problems based on their customary laws, and on other major cultural and traditional practices.
The history of Kagan Datus in Madaum began in the 18th
century. The existence of their political governance was already imminent at the onset of the Spanish period. Following the Pre-Spanish
Kagan elders and researchers with the Barangay Tribal Chieftains Datu Sabandal Jamindang Jr. (Busaon), Datu Belardo Bungad (Madaum) and Bia Teresita Baloyo (Magugpo East) during the conduct of the Data Gathering Workshop for Land and People: Local History and Social Organization in 2017 as part of Indigenous Political Structure Documentation.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
era leadership of Datu Daugdugan who was known among the Kagan tribe members as the first Datu of their community, Datu Mangkiyas, who hailed from the then- part of Madaum (now San Isidro), would emerge as the leader of Madaum (Pongo & Bungad, 2018). These were followed by Datu Belalang (1855- 1875), Datu Pampang (1875-1895), Datu Malila (1895-1915), Datu Arimao (1915-1935) and Datu Bungad (1935-1968).
Among the Kagan datus known in Liboganon before the
organization of Tagum into a municipal district and until a few years into its becoming a town were Datu Garcia, Datu Lupusan, Datu Subahana and Datu Ukado who ruled the area in succession. The datus who exercised supervision over their community affairs in Bincungan were Datu Diama, Datu Maug and Datu Ginggon and in Brgy. Busaon was Datu Sabandal Jamindang Sr. Incidentally, the Kagan tribes in Apokon had been traditionally governed by the Datu of Madaum, while those living in Pagsabangan are under the governance of the Datu of Bincungan. Present Kagan leaders include Datu Belardo Bungad of Madaum, Datu Danny Lapana of Liboganon, Datu Sabandal Jamindang, Jr. of Busaon, Bia Teresita Baloyo of Magugpo East and Datu Adi Garcia of San Isidro.
The bawbaw where the leaders are seated in a circular formation spearheaded by a Pyagmatikadung (Tribal Chieftain) as shown in the photo, 2018.
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The indigenous political structure of the Kagan tribe is also
composed of the Kuwano who is a warrior whose task is to maintain peace and order and protect the members of the community; the Balyan who is the tribe’s healer, spiritual leader and adviser on spiritual matters, the one who takes charge of the administration of the traditional medicines, as well as the custodian of ceremonial laws who performs the rituals and such other spiritual undertakings; and the Biya who is a woman leader of royal blood, and may either be a wife, an aunt or a younger sister of the Datu who must have good knowledge and wisdom to take better care of the women’s affairs.
A ritual called as Panuwak Bala conducted at Banakon (Barret Beach) in Barangay Madaum performed by Datu Belardo Bungad to prevent calamities and bad things from happening in the community, 2017
Over the course of many years, the Kagan population had
dwindled in numbers. During their resistance against the rule of the foreign-led government, large numbers of the Kagan inhabitants, then referred to as Moros by the Spanish people, had been wiped out which, according to Datu Belardo Bungad, became the saddest story of his ancestors. Decades later, the population further underwent a reduction
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
when an outbreak of Malaria happened during the Japanese occupation. The majority of the members of the Kagan tribe can be found presently living in Barangays Madaum, Bincungan, Busaon, Libuganon, Apokon, and San Isidro, which used to be part of Madaum, as well as in portions of Magugpo East, which was formerly known as Tipas. These areas are also the Kagan tribe’s traditional territories and oral traditions tell us that the names of these places are Kagan terms used to describe the area or name them after some things or plants they often see in that particular place.
Madaum comes from the word “Madwm” which means lowland.
In the olden times, the ones who uttered the word “Madwm” are the Mansaka tribe. If they plan to have a meeting (Pagbawbaw), they would say “adtu kita sang Madwm magbaw-baw” (“Let’s have a meeting at Madwm”) (Bungad, 2018). The place we now call Liboganon was called such by the original settlers because of the presence of small ponds that usually surface during low tide which is called “libug” that can still be seen along the uncemented roads of the barangay until now (Lapana, 2018). The area called Tipas was named after a child born in the said place. Oral tradition narrates that there was once a couple who lived beside the Iyo (Hijo) River. On the day when the wife is about to give birth to their child, the husband went fishing. While fishing, he devised a way to push or block the water so that it flows to the opposite direction (pyagtipas) which allowed him to have a good catch. Upon returning home, his wife gave birth and they called the baby Tipas (Baloyo, 2018). Busaon, on the other hand, got its name from the word “Busaw” which means evil spirits that are said to have roamed the place. Busaon was a jungle – like place, thus, a susceptible dwelling place of the unseen elements. Up until today, one has to be careful when traversing along the road because some people have experienced getting lost in the
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place (Jamindang, 2018). Bincungan came from a Kagan term Bingkung which refers to the curved direction of the river. (Buatan & Indie, 2018). According to Bapa Ruben Navarro, his great grandfather Umpo Tiwaray shared to him that the place Apokon is derived from the word apok – apok which means powder dust from the skin of bananas planted abundantly along the banks of the Iyo river.
At present, some Kagan settlements can also be found in
Pagsabangan, Magugpo Poblacion, Magugpo South and Canocotan. MANDAYA
One of Tagum’s dominant indigenous groups, the Mandaya
tribe is a native community or Tipanud in the area who traditionally settled near an upstream of a river that is both their source of livelihood and the means of transportation.
The word Mandaya came from the words “man” and “daya”
which means “people” from the “upstream”. Additionally, Mandaya is said to have originated from the interpretation of an utterance of those who live downstream who would say, “Magdagum da kita kay kumadto kita sa daya,” which translates to “Let’s get dressed because we will go upstream.” The dagum referred to in the statement is the traditional Mandaya blouse worn by people who were implied to have wanted to go upstream using the traditional bangay or gakit to attend a traditional community dancing organized by the baylan. (Cipro, 2018).
In present-day Tagum, the members of the Mandaya tribe
number to more than 8,500 based on the 2016 data gathered on a survey conducted by the respective leaders of the tribe in barangays Mankilam, Pagsabangan, San Miguel, Canocotan and Cuambogan. About 70% of
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Saug River connecting with Liboganon River. Picture taken from Pagsabangan Bridge, 2018.
the Mandaya tribes people chose to stay at the barangays where their ancestors once lived and died. Some Mandayas, however, migrated to the neighboring territories due to intermarriages among other tribes such as Mansaka, Kagan, Dibabawon and Sama.
The Mandaya tribe fosters a good relationship with those from
the tribes of Kagan and Mansaka due in part to their co-sharing the big territory that would become Tagum. The fact that they were able to establish respect and understanding brought about by being able to understand each other due to the huge similarities —  95% — in their languages with the only difference being the manner by which they speak, their accent, tenses and intonations.
Known for their generosity, the Mandaya tribe are highly
spiritual, yet their spirituality is not borne out of some sort of animalistic belief but rather comes from their relationship with the community and environment.
Moreover, members of the Mandaya tribe are brave but peace-
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loving, friendly and diplomatic but with a strong personality. They exhibit a sense of pride, dignity and self-importance most especially among people who are from outside their tribal community, and their sensitivity and self-consciousness tend to make them observe propriety in social gatherings, or be offended when ignored or treated with indifference. They are a principled lot and thus could not be easily swayed by favour or monetary token, viewing their integrity as a Mandaya as more important than fleeting allure of money or material possessions. The traditional political structure of the Mandaya tribe is headed by a Datu or Bia who, as the supreme leader, must be a teacher, mediator and adviser to the members of the community; a culture master who officiates traditional ceremonies like tribal weddings and such other celebrations; and a judge who implements and executes the delivery of their justice system.
In the barangays of Tagum where communities of the Mandaya
tribe are settled, this traditional supreme leadership fell within the shoulders of Datu Apolinario “Kanse” Pandacan and Datu Severo Mandaya of Pagsabangan; Datu Vicente “Takipan” Magkidong and Datu Vicente Magkidong, Jr. of Mankilam; Datu Mariano Navarro Lolo, Datu Flores Lulu and Datu Orlando Lulu of Canocotan. On the other hand, the cultural elders of San Miguel had stated that only the people belonging to the ancestry of Datu Aquilino Navarro were known to have become the leaders of the said area, while Datu Benjamin Mandaya Catalan, according to Bia Amie Catalan- Colotario and other elders, was said to have been the only traditional leader to emerge from Cuambogan.
As of today, the renowned leaders of this generation are the
legatees of the said leaders mentioned above who continued the legacy
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of their ancestors in protecting the rights and welfare of the Indigenous Peoples as well as the Indigenous Cultural Communities. These present leaders include Bia Lilia Magkidong – Lagunsad of Mankilam, Datu Damiano Lolo Cipro of Canocotan, Datu Cristino Navarro of San Miguel, Bia Jessica Pandacan Ado of Pagsabangan, Bia Amie Mandaya Catalan Colotario of Cuambogan, Bia Florencia Enoroba of Magugpo South and Bia Adelaida Odias of Magugpo West including the late Datu Camilo Cortez of San Isidro.
The Mandaya Tribal Leaders belonging to the Mandaya clans of the original settlers of Tagum City. (left to right: Bia Ado, Bia Colotario, Bia Lagunsad, Datu Cipro and Datu Navarro)
Traditional leaders of the Mandaya also include the Baylan
who is the community’s spiritual healer who can foresee future happenings, such as calamities and disasters. As a priest or priestess, the Baylan performs rituals yet does not conduct wedding ceremonies. The Mandaya communities in the city recognized the Baylan from Pagsabangan, Mankilam, Cuambogan, San Miguel and Canocotan as legendary.
The Bagani is the warrior of the tribe whose main responsibility
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Mandaya Tribal Wedding Presentation conducted by a Mandaya Baylan, Datu Damiano L. Cipro, during one of the workshops of the Data Gathering Activity on the Documentation of the Mandaya IPS, 2017.
had been to protect the community from enemies as well as to ensure that the customary laws are being religiously followed. A Kalalaysan is a fullpledged bagani who killed more than fifty enemies, invaders or criminals in defense of the Mandaya territory.
The members of the Mandaya communities are among the
original settlers of Tagum and they have been in possession of their land since before the 18th century. They lived simply, foraging their territory for means that would provide them with their sustenance and basic needs. The advent of the downward migration of the people from the north – one that was encouraged by the government – saw the ownership of the vast territorial lands of the Mandaya change hands. It has been acknowledged that their vulnerability and hospitality -- two good traits possessed by these people that had a negative outcome -- allowed the migrants to settle down and cultivate what should have been lands of ancestral domain, thereby shifting the title to the territory in favour of the newly-arrived people from the north.
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The Tipanud of the Mandaya clans in Tagum established
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
their traditional territories in what are now called as the barangays of Mankilam, Cuambogan, Pagsabangan, Canocotan (formerly known as Lawa-an), and San Miguel which was once known as Kalaya-an. Being the original settlers, they named the said places using terms from the Mandaya language. Pagsabangan came from the word “Sabang” which refers to the area where two rivers converged, these are the Saug and Liboganon Rivers (Pandacan-Ado, 2018). The river in Mankilam, on the other hand, was named as such because of the clearness of its water where people could see the fishes with their glittering scales that looked like gold. Thus, the early Mandaya tribe gave the term mankilam-kilam that means glittering (Lagunsad, 2018). Canocotan came from the word Anocot which is a name of local vine abundantly growing in the area (Cipro, 2018). According to Arnold Ampis, a local Mandaya settler in the old Canocotan who is also a culture bearer, Anocot is a smaller type of bagon, one of the common vines that grow in the forest. Datu Cristino Navarro narrated that San Miguel was used to be called as Kalaya’an from the word “Laya-a”, a bamboo grass used in cooking l’lurot (a steamed food cooked using bamboo). Thus, Kalaya’an is referred as a place planted with plenty of laya-a (bagakay).
Cuambog River, the place where the story about the origin of Cuambogan happened, 2018
An old photo of Bia Lilia Magkidong-Lagunsad with her niece Cita Esteban and Mary Ann Magkidong swimming in a stream in old Mankilam, 1977.
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MANSAKA
It has been said that the term Mansaka was derived from the
words “man,” meaning “first” and “saka,” meaning “to ascend.” In other words, Mansaka meant “the first people to ascend the mountains or go upstream.”
Pyagmatikadung Victor Pandian of Barangay New Balamban
had backed up this definition, stating that during the early times, the Mansaka people would always run upstream, especially when they would be visited by strangers since they considered the upstream as their refuge from dealing with people who do not belong to them tribe. They did not want to be influenced by the Muslim missionaries, Spaniards, American and Japanese colonizers. As Mansaka, they enjoy being isolated from the mainstream society.
Dr. Macario Tiu, on the other hand, defined Mansaka as
people of the clearings, or saka, and further explained how the former description came to be: The Bisayans erroneously (or perhaps in jest) interpret Mansaka to mean “people who go up or live up,” from the Bisayan meaning of saka “to go up or climb” (Tiu, 2005, p. 71).
Meanwhile, Pyagmatikadung Aguido Sucnaan, Sr. added that
prior to being called as “Mansaka,” their people had once been called as “utaw” which meant an indigenous person with innate character and virtues. They see themselves as people with dignity and responsibility to the community, and would do their best to take care of their environment which is the source of everything.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
The Mansaka believes in the existence of Magbabaya, the
highest God, and the spirits who guard and protect the nature. They traditionally believe that the land is provided by Magbabaya, and considers their land as a very important possession which they inherited from their ancestors especially because they are dependent on the resources found within their domain. They have a strong adherence to their land, viewing it as their life, but recognizing that they are only its stewards, with responsibilities to till and manage the land properly to enjoy its bounty. These responsibilities include the conduct of activities from planting until harvesting based on their traditional beliefs that involve the performance of rituals officiated by a Balyan to ensure that they would end up having a good harvest.
Ritwal sang Pagdumdum sa Pag-Imu sang Kadyawan ni Datu Rudy “Kimod� Onlos conducted by Kyalalaysan Aguido Sucnaan, Sr. during the celebration of the Kaimunan Festival 2014, October 10, 2014.
The tribe also considers it their responsibility to protect, defend
and handle the land well enough to be able to bequeath it to the next generation. Traditionally, the manner by which the land is passed on to the younger generation is through the elder of the clan who would be the one to delineate it using traditional boundaries such as rivers, creeks and mountains. Signs for boundaries are also observed by way of huge rocks,
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big trees such as narra and budbud, as well as through waterfalls. This practice of distributing the land which had been effective during the time of their ancestors is presently still observed.
Pyagmatikadung Aguido Sucnaan, Sr. pointing out the territorial boundaries of Mansaka traditional territories and explaining the different parts and designs of a Mansaka traditional dress.
Several of the members of the Mansaka tribe viewed the arrival
of the migrants in an adverse light considering their experiences of being displaced after the newcomers to the locality were given leave by the national government to acquire much of their lands which should have been part of their ancestral domain.
In an interview with a descendant of Octavio Ayok who was one
of the original Mansaka clan who settled in Magugpo, he recounted how his family’s combined landholdings stretched from present day Banco de Oro (BDO) to the area where the University of Mindanao stands. The title to their vast lands was later said to have been transferred to several migrant settlers as a result of the exchange of tobaccos, sardines and alcoholic beverages from the migrants and the good will of the tribes people. When development caused by the migrants slowly started to take place in the said area, their clan was forced to uproot their family and transfer to New Balamban to live peacefully with the Pandian Family and the rest of the clans belonging to the Mansaka tribe (Ayok, 2018).
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Further interview with the Mansaka tribal leaders revealed that among the barangays of Tagum, the areas originally inhabited by the Mansaka Tribe are New Balamban, Magdum, Pandapan, Apokon, San Agustin and Magugpo; these barangays were called by other names by the tribe members before their names were changed into what we know today.
When the area was still a secluded one, New Balamban used
to be known as Tago, a name that was referring to the waters from the upland area that would connect with the Hijo River. The name change came about when migrants from Balamban, Cebu headed by Antonio Labastida came to settle down at the territory and lived with the people of the indigenous community peacefully enough to warrant being given the leeway to do so when they requested the Pandian clan whose leader, Datu Bisti, was the chieftain of the tribe, to have the name Tago changed to New Balamban in honor of their place of origin. The Mansaka clans that are known in New Balamban are Mailan, Mabayao, Ondagan, Bilawan, Ambingan, Datuan, Matondo, and the Pandian clan from which the known leaders or “Pyagmatikadungan� of the place came from.
Pyagmatikadung Hernando Pandian and Pyagmatikadung Simproso Gomez points out the Mansaka burial grounds of their ancestors in Barangays New Balamban and San Agustin respectively, 2018.
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The barangay of San Agustin, on the other hand, had once been
known as Pinul’wan. According to the elders of the tribe, there was a great flood which caused damage to persons and properties. Despite the deluge’s intensity and magnitude, however, its flood waters failed to reach the area which remained intact. Thus, came the name Pinul’wan, from the word Pulo – and islet formed from an island surrounded by a body of water left after the flood (Gomez, 2018). The original inhabitant of the area is the clan of Bangkaylan Pipilay. The name Pandapan was culled from Pyandarapan, which referred
to the prevalence of the skin disease which they called ilab or dapaw, and which killed all the Mansaka tribe members of the area who, after falling victim to the said sickness, bathed and applied oil all over their body to heal their affected bodies. Since the migrant settlers had difficulty in pronouncing the word Pyandarapan, it resulted to them simply saying Pandapan when asked about the name of the place. It bears noting, however, that Mapawman was the original name
of Pandapan, which referred to the body of water which the Mansaka perceived to be small but would increase enough in size and depth during rainy seasons to become impassable. The name change came about in the 1930s when Datu Tukona, the first known leader of the Mansaka clans in Pandapan, agreed to have it changed after the prevalent skin disease became epidemic (Sucnaan Sr., 2018). Among the early clans of the area are the Tukona, Sucnaan, Pinang, Buwangan, Ganad, Ansugan, Salimpataw, Suclian and Pausta.
Meanwhile the barangays of Apokon, Magdum and Magugpo
still retained the names by which they are known by the Mansaka tribe: Apokon was named after the word apok-apok which meant dusty, and
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
described a particular area in the olden-day Apokon which was covered in dust (Perez, 2018). Another account stated that the term Apokon was taken from a small portion of the place located along the Iyo River which had a grayish color (Sucnaan Sr., 2018). The original Mansaka clans of Apokon are those of Dodongan, Camilo, Maynola, Benaning, Badidi and Tagaod who maintained their sense of pride and remained true to their cause of protecting their identity and cultural heritage.
The name Magdum comes from the
word mag’dum, a connotation related to the darkness in the area due to the thick forest that was filled with balite trees and native bamboos that covered even the riverbanks in the area. The abundance of trees in old Magdum enabled big white monkeys and poisonous snakes to thrive in the area which In- depth interview of Babu Paz Bayangoan about the history of Magdum and what was the life of Mansaka Tribe during the Japanese Era, 2018
the Mansaka tribe feared, and as such, caused them to name the place as mag’dum.
Magugpo was called as such in reference to a movement one
had to perform: one had to jump from one point to another before they could get to their eventual destination since the area, which at that time was also a thick forest filled with badyang — a gabi-like plant that created an itchy and tingling feeling when touched — had been covered with swampy and muddy portions (Egay, 2018).
Pyagmatikadung Sucnaan, Sr. had stated that before the coming
of the Muslim missionaries, the Mansaka, Kagan and Mandaya used
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to be closely associated with each other as they shared similar culture and tradition. Over time, the tribes separated and became divided, with the Mansakas going up to the mountains, the Mandayas moving to the upper portion of the river and the Kagan staying by the seashore or the riverside.
In Tagum, the close association or relation of the members of
the tribes belonging to Kagan, Mandaya and Mansaka was a product of intermarriages among the members of the three tribes who are also the original settlers of the locality. This bond by consanguinity, however, was not a hindrance to their being able to maintain their respective customs and traditions.
The indigenous socio-political structure of the Mansaka
tribe, established to promote order, maintain security and advance the development of their communities, is composed of the Mangkatadung, or the council elders, which is the highest policy-making body that oversees the governance of the entire tribe or its cultural communities or territories.
Mansaka leaders, elders and clan leaders act out how the Mangkatadung or Council of Elders conduct a “pagbawbaw� to settle conflicts during one of the data gathering workshops on the documentation of their indigenous knowledge, systems and practices, 2017.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
The Pyagmatikadung, on the other hand, is considered to be the
ultimate head of the tribe, the one who determines the economic and political life of the Mansaka, gives wise counsel to his people, and, among others, hears and decides cases or resolves conflict involving members of the tribal community. The known leaders of the Mansaka tribe during the olden days were San Agustin’s Pyagmatikadung Bangkaylan Pipilay and Pyagmatikadung Lubaan, Magdum’s Pyagmatikadung Bayangoan Mansaka, Apokon’s Pyagmatikadung Liwanan and Pyagmatikadung Ramon Tagaod, Pyagmatikadung Bisti Pandian of New Balamban and Pandapan’s Pyagmatikadung Buwangan, Pyagmatikadung Pirto Salimpatao and Pyagmatikadung Ganad. Presently, Tagum City has the following Mansaka leaders in its fold: Pyagmatikadung Aguido Sucnaan, Sr. of Pandapan, Pyagmatikadung Hernando Pandian of New Balamban, Pyagmatikadung Simproso Gomez of San Agustin, Gibubayan Mercedes Sulsog of Magdum, Pyagmatikadung Ereck Perez of Apokon, Pyagmatikadung Sean Icalina of Magugpo Poblacion, Pyagmatikadung Romeo Dansigan of La Filipina and Pyagmatikadung Arnold Dumat of Visayan Village.
Tagum City’s Mansaka community resident leaders, elders, customary law holders and IKSP experts with the Mansaka researchers during the 3Rd Data Gathering Workshop on Means of Living, Decision Making Process & Conflict Settlement, Courtship & Marriage, and Justice System, 2017.
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Mansaka leaders, elders and customary law holders with the researchers during the conduct of the Indigenous Political Structure (IPS) and Indigenous Knowledge, System and Practice (IKSP) Validation of the Mansaka Tribel, 2019
The first wife of the Datu also has a role to play in the hierarchy
of the Mansaka tribe. Generally acting to serve and assist his husband, and stand as the leader of the Datu’s other wives, the Gibubayan may act as a leader who would entertain visitors in the absence of her husband (Sucnaan Sr., 2018). The second wife of the Datu would act as the assistant of the Gibubayan whose many tasks also include giving orders and other instructions, or basically assisting the kabubayan (women) in the facilitation of farming activities (Pandian, 2018).
Meanwhile, the Kyalalaysan is one of the prominent leaders of
the Tribe who has the same stature and prestige as that of the highest spiritual leaders of present times and knows all kinds of rituals which require the singing and chanting when performing them. He generally comes from a family of Balyan. The current Kyalalaysan of the Mansaka tribe of Tagum, Kyalalaysan Aguido Sucnaan, Sr., succeeded his grandfather, Pyagmatikadung Tangkunay, who was also once a Kyalalaysan of the Mansaka tribe in Pandapan. Other Kyalalaysan of
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
the olden times include Kyalalaysan Lantones, Kyalalaysan Manggang, Kyalalaysan Kalipayan, Kyalalaysan Uyop Uyopan and Kyalalaysan Mailom.
The warrior class of the Mansaka Tribe, which is also an
important aspect of its political structure, include the the Linambos which led the community based on the advice given by the Datu or Pyagmatikadung; the Bagani who are highly respected by all the members of the community and are responsible for looking after the security of the community and its clan members, ensuring that no harm, danger or ill-intentions from their enemies would befall the tribe; and the Maniklad who are members of the warrior class but of lower rank than the preceding warrior types.
Lastly, the Balyan, who is either male or female, is an important
part of the structure of the Mansaka tribe. They are spiritual healers known as intelligent persons and are respected by the members of the tribe. Their knowing the cause of a member of a Mansaka tribe’s illness and their corresponding traditional medications had them viewed as someone endowed with special wisdom. They call out to Magbabaya and other deities for guidance and intervention whenever necessary. MIGRANT MUSLIM SETTLERS IRANUN TRIBE
The word Iranun was derived from two words: Ira, which means
residue, remains or silt and referring to a place, area or the culture, and Nun, which pertains to the people of the said place, with distinct culture, laws, and belief. Originally from the Sultanate of Maguindanao, the Iranun is a Moro ethnic group that spread out to all corners of Mindanao. CHAPTER TWO A Tapestry of Cultures
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Young members of the Bangsa Iranun showcasing their Traditional Attire during the 11th Pakaradyan Festival Float Parade in Tagum City.
As one of the migrant Muslims who settled in Tagum, the
Iranun tribe’s appearance in the locality was started by Saban Bantilan of Noling, Sultan Kudarat in 1945. The first one of his tribe to arrive in Tagum, particularly at Bianggan in Km 47, he decided to settle down after being convinced of the suitability of the place for a peaceful and more comfortable life for him and his family. His decision to migrate from his place of origin was predicated on the instability of finding sources of livelihood in the area.
Their means of livelihood upon their arrival and subsequent
settling down in Tagum had been grass cutting as well as serving as laborers to the prominent Kagan families. During that time, the primary source of living had been land cultivation through farming.
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It was only after the passage of more than 20 years, in 1966,
KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
when another family from the Iranun tribe arrived in Tagum. By that time, the lumber and logging industry in the locality had become a booming industry, which had been among the reasons why Bundran Sapadas and his wife, Bagoraga Owa, decided to move to the 25-year old municipality. It was said that they rode the Mintranco Bus to Tagum and arrived at Silawan, in what is now Barangay Magugpo West, which they described to have been a grassland.
According to Datu Rex Sapadas who is one of the children
of Bundran Sapadas and Bagoraga Owa, his parents migrated to the municipality of Tagum because of the war in Cotabato and that the political instability in the area forced them to leave their hometown where their means of income was the sapling of lumber. They described Tagum at that time as peaceful, with a woodland landscape and where concrete roads were still a thing of the future.
The Iranun had a reputation of being excellent in maritime
activities which is probably why most of the members of the Iranun tribe living in Tagum today are engaged in fishing. This is especially true to those living near the northern portion of the Davao Gulf. On the other hand, the rest of those who are not in involved in fishing are found to raise food crops alongside their Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors.
Presently, the members of the Iranun tribe in Tagum can be
found living in the barangays of Bincungan and Magugpo West. MAGUINDANAO TRIBE
According to Nor-aisa Macaraya the word “Maguindanaon”
means “people of Maguindanao Province”. In other definition, their name means “people of the plains”. The Maguindanaon people are part
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of the wider Moro ethnic group, who constitute the sixth largest Filipino ethnic group and also originally occupy the basin of the Pulangi River.
Maguindanao influence extended as far as Zamboanga in the
west, Cagayan de Oro in the north, Sarangani in the South and Davao Province in the east including Tagum. It is believed that during these years, the Sultanate reached Tagum and started Maguindanaon influence in the area; intermarriage with the prominent Kagan families of that time particularly in Bincungan and Madaum, being among the influences mentioned.
A group member of Bangsa Maguindanao displaying their Traditional Dance, Musical Instruments and Attire, 2018.
Based on the testimony of Imam Guiama Kamsa, their clan’s
settling in Tagum in 1947 was prodded by business opportunities presenting themselves to them. His father, Abdul Amerkhan, had been the first from their tribe to go to Tagum to sell carabaos. They travelled the distance from Cotabato to Davao, travelling on a rough road by foot.
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After a month of walking, the finally arrived at a point in Tagum and decided right then to stay in town to try their luck.
They brought more than 30 carabaos with them to sell to people
who waited along the streets they passed on in hopes of buying the beasts of burden. Fortunately, all the carabaos were already sold at a price of 40 pesos a piece when they arrived at the swampy and forested Tagum where houses seen erected were made of nipa. .
The Maguindanaon Tribe are traders, farmers and fisherfolks.
The usual objects they would offer in trade are their own produced brassware, trays, urns and other native crafts. Aside from selling those produce, the tribespeople are also in the business of weaving and carving, which is a rich tradition that they possess and for which they are known due to their artistry and creativity.
Since the arrival of the migrant Muslim settlers in 1947 in
Tagum from Cotabato, the members of the Maguindanaon tribe have been living in the barangays of Madaum, Bincungan, Libuganon, Busaon, San Isidro, San Miguel and the Magugpo West.
Kulintangan enthusiasts of the Bangsa Maguindanao of Tagum join the competition on traditional music during the Kulintangan sang Pakaradyan at the New City Hall Atrium, Tagum City.
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Members of Bangsa Maranao displaying their Traditional Musical Instruments during the 11th Pakaradyan Festival Float Parade at Rotary Park, Tagum City.
MARANAO TRIBE
The term “Maranao” means lake dweller or “People of the
Lake” referring to their inhabiting the lake area located in North Central Mindanao since the 13th century, at the very least. The tribe of Maranao is one of the three Muslim groups who is indigenous to the island of Mindanao.
The Maranao people contribute significantly to the market and
trade industry as they are known for their entrepreneurism, a trait which they have observed and taken as their own from the Chinese traders.
A member of the Maranao tribe, who had been the first of this
particular migrant Muslim tribe to have settled in Tagum from their place of origin, arrived in the locality in 1938. Mama Maito or Maito Mama had decided to migrate to Tagum when he heard that there was a Japanese base in the locality. He had equated the presence of the Japanese in the area as a precursor to having a good business.
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Their means of transportation at that time was the Yellow Bus,
which took them three days before arriving to Tagum, which was still a municipal district during that period. Mama Maito arrived at what is now called Quirante II and he described it as a rugged environment and recalled the area where Rotary Park now stands as still a grassland.
On the same year, Mama Maito together with a business
man named Misa (Hermogenes A. Misa) cut off all trees in the area. After clearing the said area they converted it into their residence and constructed houses for rent. When their relatives in Lanao heard that business in Tagum was good, they started to migrate here.
The Baunto clan of the Maranao tribe is also one of the
prominent members of the Maranao people who have migrated to Tagum from their place of origin. The arrival of Hadji Razul Baunto in Tagum in 1958 was the event which paved the way for their settling down in the locality.
A group of Muslim women leaders from the Pamlian, Baunto and Paitao Clans residing in the different Muslim Jama’ahs in the City of Tagum , 2018.
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The people of the Maranao tribe can be found presently living in the barangays of Magugpo Poblacion, Magugpo West, Magugpo South, Visayan Village, Mankilam, Apokon and San Miguel in Tagum City TAUSUG TRIBE
The word Tausug comes from two words, Tau, which means
people, and Sug, which means sea current. As such, the Tausug tribe are collectively described as the “people of the current” and are from the 400 or so islands of the Sulu Archipelago.
A Datu from the Jama’ah in Pandapan had recounted during
an interview that the first of the Tausug tribe to have come and settle in Tagum was Mohammad Hape who was one of the soldiers of a sultan who was assigned in Davao. In 1920, Hape and some thirty other soldiers of this sultan docked in Bincungan after having sailed on a Kumpit from Carmen just so they could cross the Tagum River to get to Bincungan.
A young kulintang player of the Bangsa Tausug performs during the 2018 Kulintangan sang Pakaradyan Competition at New City Hall Atrium, Tagum City
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After crossing the river divide, the soldiers met Umpo Ali, an
old man who brought them to Pandapan. After witnessing how peaceful the area in Pandapan was, Mohammed Hape decided to stay and live in the vicinity where he was able to plant and grow different plants such as ramie and abaca. The Datu of Pandapan at that time was still Datu Tukona who was succeeded by Datu Salimpataw and Datu Ganad (Hape, 2018).
Because of the good relationship which he was able to forge with
the members of the Mansaka tribe in the months and years following his settling down in Pandapan, Mohammed Hape was assigned as the Teniente del Barrio for more than 10 years.
Datu Medani Hape noted that Tagum at that time was forested
with lots of rice fields as well as corn fields; roads then were not yet concreted and the means of transportation for people residing in the municipal district was riding on horses.
In 1940, the relatives of Mohammed in Jolo had heard about
how his life in Tagum had been a good one; this made them decide to try their luck at making a living in the area and transfer to Tagum for good. When they arrived at the locality, they cut down the grasses, cultivated the land and made it their settlement. They also found work as laborers for the Japanese.
As time went by, the Tausug population increased in Pandapan,
and a number of the members of the tribe can now be found living in Barangay Nueva Fuerza, as well.
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Ladies of Bangsa Tausug showcase their elegant traditional dresses during the Sigay ng Pakaradyan 2017 at New City Hall Atrium, Tagum City .
MIGRANT SETTLERS FROM THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES COMMUNITIES ATA- MANOBO
The term Ata-Manobo was said to have originated from the
tribe’s forefathers. Yet, no one from the older members of the tribe can exactly tell how they had become known as Ata- Manobo, only saying that they identified their ancestry as coming from the sub-tribe of the “big Manobo tribe.” They presumed that the word Ata was attached by either the settlers or those in the government to their ancestors’ tribe in reference to the Aeta tribe presently located in the central areas of Luzon.
Yet, orally stated personal accounts within the tribe abound
about how they were originally called Ata but experienced being discriminated upon by the migrants which made the tribespeople feel as if the name left a negative connotation in that they did not feel like
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they were treated as humans. As such, they decided to incorporate the word Manobo in their identity because Manobo simply meant a man who dwells in the riverside.”
The Ata-
Manobo is considered as a migrant indigenous tribe in Tagum, Photo of Bae Maitem and Bae Dulay taken last November 8, 2019 at Barangay Nueva Fuerza during the conduct of the interview. Both Ata-Manobo women are leaders. Bae Maitem is recognized as Barangay Tribal Chieftain of Nueva Fuerza, Tagum City. Bae Dulay is an Ata-Manobo Balyan practicing natural medication and “hilot” for her tribe.
notwithstanding the presence of the tribe along the rivers and its tributaries in what used to be a territory of
Tagum but is now part of the Municipality of Carmen.
One of the clans of the Ata-Manobo tribe who now dwells in
Tagum had traced their origin as those who came from the lineage of the historical leaders of the Ata-Manobo in Talaingod. Bae Hermenia Maitem, who is also called Buwakay within her tribe, is the current Barangay Tribal Chieftain of Nueva Fuerza and the only person who is recognized as a leader of the tribe. In narrating the reason why she came to Tagum, in the 1970s, she had been very forthcoming in stating that she fled the marriage that was arranged for her by her parents when she was
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12. Later in 1978, she married a man from Tagum and settled down in La Filipina before finally deciding to permanently live in Nueva Fuerza, where she became a barangay official before becoming a Barangay Tribal Leader which led her to finally become Nueva Fuerza’s Barangay Tribal Chieftain coming from the Ata-Manobo tribe. DIBABAWON
The word Dibabawon
means the tribe is always a winner. The term is derived from the native word dibabaw which means at the top, tip, or victorious (Tamong & Coguit, 2008). The structure of leadership of the Dibabawon tribe is composed of their cultural bearers called the Datu, the Manigoon or the Tribal Elders and Angarun who act as the head or the leader and chosen by gathering the
Taken during the conduct of a wedding ritual of the Dibabawon tribe facilitated by Manigoon Carlito Alejo, the Barangay Tribal Chieftain and Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative of Magugpo North.
community together to make a consensus, the Tribal Council of Elders and the Balyan who is the tribe’s spiritual leader who heals sickness and performs rituals during festivities and other events.
The places where most of the Dibabawons reside are Laak,
Monkayo, Montevista and Nabunturan in Compostela Valley; Asuncion and Kapalong in Davao del Norte; and Veruela, Agusan del Sur. The Dibabawons are the descendants of Tagleyong who had nine children including Bagani Mandabon who died before the Spanish conquest and whose son was Bagani Pinamaylan, the first of the tribe to come to Tagum.
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Oral tradition of the Dibabawon tribe states that Bagani
Pinamaylan went to Tagum particularly in Pagsabangan during late 1800s to await the arrival of Datu Bago. Pagsabangan was the meeting place of the Dibabawon, Mangguangan, Mansaka and Mandaya. On that fateful day, Datu Bago who was known for being a pirate who kidnapped and enslaved young men and women from the different tribes fell into a trap made of bamboo sticks set up by the Mangguangan after being temporarily blinded by the sunrays reflected on the mirrors of Bagani Pinamaylan’s kalasag. Once caught inside the trap, Datu Bago was killed by the Dibabawon bagani using a bangkaw.
Another leader of the Dibabawon tribe who came to Tagum City
was Datu Dagueey. He was the first powerful leader of the Dibabawon tribe who led and ruled their community. The other leaders who lead the community of the Dibabawon were, Bagani Mandabon, Bagani Nandagye and Bagani Pinamaylan who succeeded his father who ruled from his territory in the mountain range. The Dibabawon Tribe of the present-day Tagum first came to the area in the hopes of finding a job or any means of livelihood to sustain them for their daily needs in order for them to be able to survive. The other reason why they moved down to Tagum was that of Paglinugwaay which meant visitations to other tribes. During the paglinugwaay, some of the tribe members decided to stay at the place where they visited which later led to intermarriage to a member of, say, the Mandaya tribe. After their marriage, the Dibabawon tribe settled down in their place. The members of the Dibabawon Tribe at present live in the different barangays of Tagum City. Most of them can be found in the following: Barangay Pagsabangan where Bagani Pinamaylan first came, Barangay Magugpo North where Manigoon Carlito Maligamon Alejo, the only Dibabawon leader in Tagum City resides, as well as in Barangays Pandapan, Mankilam, Magugpo South, San Agustin, and Visayan Village. Some of them intermarried with the migrant settlers and with the other tribes. CHAPTER TWO A Tapestry of Cultures
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ORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS LEGEND Kagan Mandaya Mansaka
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PRESENT SETTLEMENTS LEGEND Dibabawon Iranun Maguindanao
Maranao Tausug Ata-Manobo
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MIGRANT SETTLERS FROM LUZON AND VISAYAS
As it were anywhere else in the whole of Mindanao, Tagum also
saw the downward migration of Christian Filipinos from places in the north, such as the islands of Luzon, Cebu, Bohol and Leyte, who came in droves after having been encouraged by the government to settle in its vast lands that encompassed modern-day Lasang and Panabo City at the south, Maco on the east and a portion of Mawab on the north. This state-sponsored immigration was hinged on the implementation of the government policy of developing and civilizing the Muslim and Tribal communities that dotted the municipal district of Tagum.
In the 1920s, courageous young men, both married and
unmarried, answered the call to move down south and settle down in Tagum on the account that the pioneering migrant settlers each sought to find opportunities for a better life which they may have failed to achieve while they were still residing at their respective places of origin. These very first migrant settlers were not deterred by the jungle-like appearance of the municipal district where the relentless, dense vegetation were compounded with bugs and other insects usually found in bogs and other types of wetlands.
Quirino Magsanoc, Joaquin Pereyras and Macario Bermudez
all came from Pangasinan and tried their luck at homesteading in 1920s Tagum with their families in tow. The real properties which they acquired from either the Mandaya or the Mansaka tribe who were Tagum’s original settlers, and which was supposed to form part of the ancestral domains of said indigenous tribes, were later turned into strips of lands which they used to entice their families, friends and neighbors who were still left at the towns where they were originally from, to come to Tagum. The Magsanoc descendants and the Pereyras family would later donate
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vast tracts of these lands to the Provincial Government of Davao del Norte and the Local Government Unit of Tagum to be used for the Capitol Site and for the establishment of both the old and new Public Market, as well as the new Public Transport Terminal, respectively.
The Visayan islands of Bohol, Cebu and Leyte also churned out
immigrants in the 1920s. Manuel Suaybaguio, a Boholano who arrived in the area in 1929 became the first Mayor appointed to the post when the municipal district of Tagum was converted into a Municipality in 1941. He was instrumental in the construction of houses, drugstores and stores after the liberation of the Philippines in 1945. Meanwhile, Sulpicio Quirante, who migrated to Tagum via Cebu in 1929 was later appointed Vice- Mayor during the mayoralty of Suaybaguio. His family largely contributed to the development of the municipality by donating portions of his lands for the construction of the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment of the Rotary Park.
Uldarico Valdueza, a man of indeterminate age from Hilongos,
Leyte, settled in Hijo to work in the abaca industry together with the Japanese decades before the outbreak of the second world war. Corazon Rojo, an intrepid miss from Sibonga, Cebu, also worked in the same abaca industry years before marrying a man that bears the surname Gabriel, a man from the island of Luzon. Corazon Rojo Gabriel and her husband became business pioneers and were among the key real estate lessors who greatly contributed to the town’s major infrastructural development before and after the war.
The intermarriages among the Melendres, the Briz, and
the Senanggote of Cebu, resulted in the formation of one of the biggest extended families in Tagum whose greatest contribution in
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the development of the municipal district was mainly centered on the business aspect of real estate.
A decade into the mass settlements, the first pioneers, having
found property and prosperity in the municipal district of Tagum, started convincing families and friends back in their respective places of origin to try their luck in homesteading at Tagum.
The new wave of migrant settlers of the 1930’s include those
from Cebu like Hermogenes A. Misa whose family became business pioneers and real estate lessors of Tagum, having settled in what has become known as Misa District; and Elias Wakan whose son Eliseo, later became an integral part of the peace and order, as well as in development of the municipality of Tagum, having served as Chief of Police and Municipal Mayor.
Lucas Lopez, whose lineage settled first in Malita, Davao del
Sur before traversing north to the municipal district, became the first municipal treasurer during the Suaybaguio leadership and his direct descendant, Allan, went on to serve the government and its people for more than two decades.
Rufo Rey from Bicol also migrated with his entire family to
Tagum, settling down in Hijo prior to the approval of his Magdumlocated homestead application. The Rey family donated a substantial number of parcels of land to be used for the Barangay Center, Chapel, Health Center and Day Care Center in Magdum. The political family of Estabillo was preceded by Nicolas O. Estabillo who migrated from Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya and was a pioneering and founding member of the Four Square Church in Tagum. His son, Prospero, the
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first licensed civil engineer in Tagum was later elected as Mayor of the Municipality of Tagum.
Leyte migrants also tried their hands at homesteading in 1930’s
Tagum: Nicolas Edig, who, with his wife Herculina Edig, stayed in Canocotan and donated lands to be used for the Canocotan Elementary School, which was later renamed for his wife; Climaco Maurillo was a homesteader who first settled at the town’s crossing before relocating near the vicinity of what is now the Tagum City National High School (TCNHS). His family gratuitously gave a portion of his landholdings to establish Tagum Community HS, later renamed TCNHS, when the high school was moved from its old site at the back of the Municipal Hall; Gregorio Rabe, a homesteader who worked for the Abaca industry at Hijo after arriving in Tagum, later donated lands for then-PC (now PNP) Barracks and was one of the founders of Liberty Primary School, now named Visayan Village Elementary School.
Tagum Jr. High School, the origin of the present-day Tagum City National High School, had been operational in 1949, four years after the end of the Second World War.
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The 1930s also paved the way for the much needed teachers-
scholars of the Ilocos Region to venture down south to educate the growing number of elementary-aged children of the migrant settlers. These homesteaders-cum professional teachers include Alfredo Pulmano from Naguilian, La Union, who was the first ever teacher in Tagum; Bernardino Concepcion, Sr. of Balaoan, La Union who went on to become Tagum’s first Schools District Supervisor; Rafael Ferido, Sr. who was the first Head Teacher of what is now La Filipina Elementary School; and Felix Gazmen of Cabugao, Ilocos Sur whose daughter Gloria Gazmen founded and opened Tagum Community High School (now Tagum City National High School) as well as La Filipina High School. Rogelio Apura Sr., who was originally from Ilo-ilo, contributed to the cause of education by becoming one of the pioneering teachers of Magugpo Pilot Central Elementary School after the liberation. On the other hand, Francisco dela Cruz of Balaoan, La Union helped in the
The Madaum Elementary School in barrio Madaum had been rebuilt after the World War II to continue educating the children in 1940s Tagum.
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Christian migrant settlers of Tagum in 1947 pose in front of a row of houses built along present-day Apokon Road.
promotion of the Education by donating portion of his lands to establish La Union Elementary School.
Clearly, the daring of these very first settlers resulted in the
commencement of Tagum’s modernization. It is due to the fortitude of these young men and their families who were undaunted by long years of hard labor associated with homesteading, the approval of which is conditioned upon actual cultivation and residence for agricultural purposes, that the municipal district was transformed into a municipality. These same people were the ones who risked their lives and limbs, working on bogs-filled and bugs-infested alienable and disposable lands of the public domains to provide a better future for their children so that their children’s children would be better equipped at caring for and giving importance on the blood, sweat and hard work that were poured by their ancestors to ensure that Tagum would be what it has become today.
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CHAPTER THREE
The Resurgence of Tagum
CHAPTER THREE
The Resurgence of Tagum
W
hen Tagum was organized as a Municipal District in 1917 by virtue of Act No. 2711, or the Revised Administrative Code of the Philippine Islands, its government was overseen by the Kagan tribe living
along the Tagum River in what could have been the general vicinity of the present-day barangays of Bincungan and Busaon in Tagum, and Barangays Taba and La Paz in Carmen.
The members of the Kagan tribe living in the area were the
same people who perpetuated the killing of the Spanish Governor of the District of Davao, a feat that was not made known beyond the corners of the tribe’s territories, and thus was not made part of the history of Tagum when people in authority first attempted to plot the happenings that helped shape the locality in becoming what it had been at any given period.
The characters exhibited by the inhabitants of the former Moro
Rancheria of Tagum, that of being able to defend its legal interests, pointed to their being able to be lead the newly founded municipal
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district. And more often than not, the appointed leaders of an entire newly-formed quasi-local government would come from the residents of the locality’s central barrio.
The reorganization of the Municipal District of Tagum, which
came four years after it was founded, formalized the identification of Tagum as the Municipal District of Tagum’s central barrio. Two of the people from the said barrio were appointed in succession by Eulalio Causing, the first governor of the Province of Davao: Barrancas who, upon his resignation, was succeeded in 1917 as councilor by Lubama (Moro), the same Datu Lubama who was reported to have struck Pinzon decades prior. A FLEDGLING MUNICIPALITY
When the municipal district was converted into a municipality
in 1941 thru President Manuel Quezon’s Executive Order No. 352, its central barrio, or Poblacion, and seat of government was transferred to the barrio of Hijo. No oral accounts had been relayed from that period fully stating the reason as to why the transfer was necessitated. But the reason for such transfer may had been connected to what the author of an Agricultural Bulletin had to say about Tagum in relation to the possibility of the construction of a railway in Mindanao: On the line from Nasipit to Malalag …. and another to Mati on the Pacific coast may be found advantageous, and still another to Hijo at the head of the Davao Gulf which is probably preferable as a town site to swampy Tagum (Webster, 1922, p. 12).
If the recommendation of the Agricultural Adviser to the
Governor-General of the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands
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in the 1920s to make Hijo as the town site of Tagum was given weight by the succeeding government of the country and was agreed upon by the local leaders of the locality, the transfer of the seat of government of Tagum, in all likelihood, could have been effected.
Before this change in the seat of government could happen, talks
were had between the leaders of the Kagan tribe living along Tagum River and the people from the government: they would be amenable to the transfer of the seat of power in the locality once the municipal district became a full-pledged Municipality provided that the entire would-be town, which stretched from as far south as Lasang and as far north as today’s Poblacion Mawab, would be named after their territory.
Before the conversion of Tagum into a regular municipal
government, the locality was subjected to activities that would pave way for future development to come pouring in. In 1932, the Municipal District of Tagum became the subject of a survey for a trail conducted by the Philippine’s Commonwealth government.
The survey was for the establishment of the national highway
which was spearheaded by two engineers from the Municipality of Davao who were accompanied by 15 laborers for public works and highways. It bears noting that during the 1930s, there had been no way for motorists to get to the provincial capital from Tagum and vice versa except through the use of boats while traversing the Hijo and Tagum Rivers as the points of entry.
In July 1937, the lands within the jurisdiction of the municipal
district was brought under the Cadastral Survey Project of the national government with the conduct of the Tagum Cadastral Survey. Thru this
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program, the whole municipality, or in the case of Tagum, the entire district, was systematically surveyed to help identify and delineate the individual claims of all land owners and claimants which will serve as basis for the issuance of titles or patents (Land Management Bureau, 2015). As a result, all lands contained within the territory of the municipal district, including those that should have been the ancestral domain of the different indigenous peoples or tribes of Tagum, were made the subject of the cadastral survey project conducted in the area. This paved the way for more immigrants from the north to come and settle down in the locality especially because it had been formally opened for homesteading. TAGUM: AFTER THE WORLD WAR II
A little over four years since it became a municipality, Tagum
was dealt with a huge blow and what little development it had taken was razed down when the Second World War reached the fledgling municipality.
Badly damaged properties and broken spirit of those who
experienced first-hand the ills of a cold-blooded war, however, could not contain Tagum and its people from standing up again and recover from the devastation. From the rubbles of war, the officials of the town spearheaded the construction of houses, stores, schools and a church.
Magugpo Pilot Elementary School was soon built in 1948 on the
same land where it is still standing today, and the Tagum Catholic High School, the first Catholic school in Tagum had already had its share of male and female students inside its walls which had been built at presentday Parish of Christ the Eucharistic King. Tagum Jr. High School, the secondary school that would later become the Tagum Community
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ABOVE Students and parents of Magugpo Central School gather for the 9th postwar closing exercises. BELOW An old photo of the Christ the King Church in Rizal Street
High School, was also operational in 1949, as was Madaum Elementary School.
The church of the Christ the King was founded in 1947,
which was timely because it was able to give succor to the people of the municipality who just survived the unimaginable horrors brought about by the war. The land on which the church was built was donated by the first appointed Vice Mayor of the municipality, Sulpicio Quirante.
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The establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Tagum is formalized in 1948. This real property declaration shows the location of the church as being in Magugpo.
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On the other hand, the politics in Tagum after the cessation
of the World War II paralleled the happenings in the national arena, with the holding of the first local election in the municipality being simultaneous in the other parts of the country. THE FIRST ELECTION
A curious event which happened in the Municipality of Tagum
was recorded in 1946, or a year prior to the holding of the first elections after the war; Mayor Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr. had abandoned the municipality’s legal seat of government in the barrio of Hijo and had the seat of power transferred to Barangay Magugpo where it would stay for the next 50 or so years.
The first elected Mayor of Tagum, Hon. Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr. (seated, foremost left) with other municipal officials in front of the Municipal Building of Tagum.
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Thus, when Mayor Suaybaguio won his Mayoralty bid in 1947,
the venue of his office had been moved from the coastal barangay of Hijo to the interiors of Magugpo. Talks with local historians from the region had resulted in the formation of suppositions in relation to the reason of the first Mayor of Tagum in transferring the poblacion to Magugpo: that he caused the transfer to minimize the hardships that he usually encountered in travelling a distance from his landholdings in the interiors of Tagum to the northern coast of the Davao Gulf. Close relatives of his, however, had denied that his purpose was to serve his best interest.
Two years after the national and local elections were held,
Panabo earned its rights to become a municipality itself. As such, all the areas found west of the Tagum River was to have been made a territory of the new municipality, and all the inhabitants living in those parts were to become its residents.
Unfortunately enough, Lucio Berdida, the Vice Mayor who won
the position in the last elections and who lived in a barangay within the territory of Panabo, was appointed as the Mayor of the newly created Municipality of Panabo. This sudden vacancy in the second highest local government position was immediately resolved following the assumption of Macario Bermudez as the town Vice Mayor. ONSET OF ECONOMIC BOOM
The 1950s saw significant changes for Tagum as there had
been a series of construction of infrastructures in the municipality. The Municipal Hall had been upgraded to look the part of a building of a government institution and a Municipal Health Center along Bonifacio Street was also put up. Also, the bridge across the Magugpo Creek along
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Inauguration of a bridge along Osmeâ€ŒĂąa Street on July 25, 1952.
Bigwigs of Tagum strike a pose during the inauguration of the Governor Miranda Bridge in Bincungan, 1950s.
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117
Municipal officials led by Mayor Herminigildo Baloyo gather infront of the Tagum Municipal Building during the unveiling of the monument of President Ramon Magsaysay — the so-called Champion of the Masses — who died in a tragic plane crash in 1957.
Osmeña Street, by the old public market had been inaugurated while the Governor Miranda Bridge in Bincungan had been built to give ease to the riding public who once needed to use boats to get in or out of the Municipality of Tagum.
There was a massive construction of roads in Tagum in the
1950s which included the Magugpo-Pagsabangan-Maniki Road which was classified as a national aid provincial road. That particular stretch of road was classified as such since it was a road of sufficient importance which may be incorporated eventually into the national system of highways (Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 1957). The Magugpo-Tipaz Road was also among the roads constructed during that period.
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Economically, Tagum was slowly becoming a convenient place
for traders to exchange products with neighboring municipalities. The booming abaca and coconut industries in the early 1950s contributed significantly to the growth of the local economy. Alongside the economic development, came the strengthening of educational institutions in the municipality. Holy Cross College (now St. Mary’s College), which was established in the late 1940s as Tagum Catholic High School, and Mindanao Colleges (now University of Mindanao) were two of the providers of tertiary education in the province outside Davao City. The presence of these two (2) schools was slowly contributing to making Tagum another possible educational center for Davao.
The 1960s paved the way for Tagum to become an important
center for various activities and this was highlighted when the Municipality became the Capital town of the Province of Davao del Norte when the mother Province of Davao was split into three distinct provinces: Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur.
The economy of the municipality in the 1960s, however, had
seen a slump especially because the people involved in the farming or planting and selling of abaca and coconuts were experiencing losses due to the dying abaca industry and the receding importance of the coconut industry. Just as the 1950s were the glory days of the aforementioned industries, the 1960s were perceived to be these industries’ dying days.
Luckily, these losses from big agriculture-related industries
were countered by the gains of the emerging banana plantations. The seemingly overnight success of the banana industry was buoyed by the fact that growers from the Municipality of Tagum as well as from
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Students of Mindanao Colleges (now the University of Mindanao) pose for posterity during their Junior Senior Prom in 1954.
Abaca farming was a big hit in Tagum, until the boom of banana industry, the products of which were exported abroad, most notably to Japan.
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outside of town were able to put up their banana plantations in the areas strategically established for maximum outcome. Also, huge tracts of land which started from the abaca sector, such as the Hijo Plantation which was bought by the Tuason Family from the Americans who started the hemp (abaca) plantation in the early 1900s, had been converted into banana plantations, thereby helping the economy of Tagum rise up from the slump.
Having bounced back from a lackadaisical economy which
threatened Tagum in the 1960s, the progress which the municipality had posted economy-wise had been the impetus which Tagum needed to have to undertake further infrastructure development projects in the 1970s. These projects include the expansion of the municipal hall, the concreting and upgrading of the Public Market at what is now Tagum Trade Cener, and the asphalting of additional municipal roads and the opening of more barangay roads. TAGUM IN THE 1970s — 1990s
The 1970s had also been a great decade for the local government
unit since various offices had been created: these include the Municipal Engineering Office, Municipal Planning and Development Office, Municipal Assessor’s Office and the Fire Station, among others.
When the 1980s came around, the banana industry which
was Tagum’s saving grace in relation to its economy staying afloat had taken its turn to be besieged by factors that caused its slight downturn. Fortunately for Tagum, the discovery of the abundance of gold in the neighboring towns of Pantukan, Mabini, Maragusan, and Maco had prevented its economy from sinking as the trading of this mineral source
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A busy scene at the Old Public Market of Tagum, which is now the Tagum City Trade and Cultural Center located within the city’s downtown area.
was done in the municipality, thereby boosting the economies of Tagum and its surrounding towns.
Tagum becoming the choice of place for people who had been
engaged in small-scale mining to trade their gold paved the way for the influx of business establishments and other commercial activities which mushroomed in the area due to the intensified economic activities and the rise of average incomes propelled by the municipality becoming the trading hub for gold miners (Gerochi, 2004).
On the other hand, politics in Tagum during the 1980s were
turbulent. The beginning of the decade saw for the first time a duly elected Mayor resigning from his post after less than two years in office. Additionally, and just like in most cases in the country, the change in the
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The Municipal Hall of Tagum in the 1980s.
political climate in Tagum was also felt when the 1986 People Power deposed former President Ferdinand Marcos from his long-held tenure at the Malacanang Palace.
As a result of the revolution, for the first time in more than
forty years, a Mayor had been appointed by the national government to oversee matters pertaining to governance in Tagum. As can be recalled, the first time Tagum was headed by a Mayor who was appointed by the national government was in 1941 upon its conversion into a municipality from a municipal district.
With the political unrest of the previous decade being consigned
to the backburner, Tagum ushered into the 1990s experiencing the radical change in the system of government through the passage of the Local Government Code of 1991 which paved the way for the
CHAPTER THREE The Resurgence of Tagum
123
devolution of power and authority from the national government to the local government units (LGUs). This effectively gave Tagum additional functions, powers, authorities and responsibilities.
The bullish economy that Tagum experienced during the local
economic boom caused by the discovery of mineral sources in the uplands of its adjacent municipalities was still a felt by the town and its people well into the 1990s. With the heightened economic activities hinged on the burgeoning trade sector caused by the gold rush in the nearby towns in the previous decade, the municipality was able to upgrade its income class from a second class municipality to a first class one.
In the late 1990s, when Tagum already became a city by
virtue of Republic Act 8472 ratified on March 7, 1998, the massive infrastructure projects it had undertaken had given the private business sectors the confidence to invest in the locality thereby causing the construction sector in Tagum to grow exponentially.
Since all the factors or elements necessary to turn the city into
a strategic and important growth center in Southeastern Mindanao had been met, Tagum is now poised to become the regional capital of the Davao Region.
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CHAPTER FOUR
The Leaders who Shaped Tagum
CHAPTER FOUR
The Leaders who Shaped Tagum
W
hen Tagum was converted into a municipality in 1941 after its 24-year stint as a municipal district, there already had been emerging personalities whose potential to lead a civil government at a local level
was evident. These were the leaders who rose from among the ranks of the migrant settlers and were considered at a positive light.
These were the people who were uprooted from their places of
origin and settled down in the different locations in Tagum that were essentially just wilderness with dense vegetation that they help developed to form communities. These communities of migrant settlers necessitated leaders that they would look up to and follow for the betterment of their communities.
These leaders would soon build roads, churches, schools and
businesses of different kinds and such other establishments which were necessary in establishing a developed and progressive community.
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Hon. MANUEL B. SUAYBAGUIO, Sr. Appointed Municipal Mayor from 1941-1947 Elected Municipal Mayor from 1947-1951
M
anuel Baura Suaybaguio, Sr. had the distinction of being the first Mayor of Tagum upon its conversion into a municipality from a municipal district that was governed and supervised under the Province
of Davao. Appointed in 1941, his most significant contribution to governance in the municipality was transferring the seat of government from the coastal barangay of Hijo, in what is now the Municipality of Maco, to the interior barrio of Magugpo.
This transfer had not been backed by a legal document
(Suaybaguio, Jr., 2019) the year it was done, which was 1946; it was only
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after the passing of seven years, and on the account of the passage of Executive Order No. 604 by President Elpidio Quirino that the transfer finally became official.
During the 1947 election which was the first local elections
conducted in the Philippines after World War II, Suaybaguio emerged as the winner of the poll and retained his position that he had been holding for six years on an appointive level.
The good mayor’s prior decision to have the seat of government
moved to Magugpo at the time when Hijo was still the legally designated poblacion, or town center, was a forward-thinking move of the Suaybaguio-led municipal government. As can be recalled, Magugpo before the late 1940s had been a vast wilderness, a veritable forest filled with bogs notwithstanding the communities being established by the migrant settlers.
With the said transfer, the road leading to Davao City which is
the capital of the still undivided Davao Province had been laid down in a manner that will traverse the interior of the municipality in going to the areas located north of Tagum. This resulted in Magugpo becoming developed, and thereafter served as the center of trade and commerce of the town, with business establishments built not just by the road leading to the northern direction of the Agusan provinces, but also at the areas within a stone’s throw away from it.
A family relation of his had stated that the transfer was
predicated on the location of the former seat of government being out of way when one needed to go to the Agusan and Surigao Provinces by land. Suaybaguio felt that it was but right to designate Magugpo as
CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
129
the seat of government and the central barrio (barangay) because it was literally located at the heart of the municipality (Suaybaguio, Jr., 2019)
After his 10-year tenure as both the appointed and elected Mayor
of Tagum, Suaybaguio, who traced his origins from the Visayas island of Bohol, was also elected as a Vice Mayor from 1955 to 1959, a position which was also won by his son, Arnaldo R. Suaybaguio, after his term.
Hon. ELISEO V. WAKAN Municipal Mayor from 1951-1955
B
orn in Cebu, the city’s former mayor Eliseo V. Wakan and his family decided to reside in Pantukan and eventually agreed to settle in Tagum City. Growing up in a family with no political
history of engagement, the former leader’s father engaged in farming as
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he kept his interest in public service, without a hint that he was bound to become the Mayor in the near future.
Five years after the end of the Second World War, Wakan had
ascended to local political power when he won the local elections in 1951, thereby becoming the second elected Mayor of the 10-year old municipality of Tagum.
Mayor Wakan was known to be a strict and firm man, a trait
which he carried over to his executive office from his time as the Chief of Police during the term of former Mayor Manuel B. Suaybaguio who was keen on ensuring the security and protection of the people of Tagum.
During his tenure, he had been desirous of having the roads in
downtown Tagum widened after having observed how the roads in the places he visited during his stays in Davao, or Cotabato had been so narrow. Wakan wanted to observe the standards set for a thoroughfare which was the reason for the massive improvement in the road system of Tagum (Wakan, 2019).
His desire for his people to have ease in going around places in
Tagum led him to build a bridge to connect the northern and southern portion of what is now the vicinity of the Tagum Trade and Cultural Center which had been bisected by the Magugpo Creek, which is one of the tributaries of the Tagum River (now Tagum- Libuganon River). This wooden structure was inaugurated in the middle of 1952.
It was also during Mayor Wakan’s administration that the Tagum
Public Market was built. In 1954, the town’s main center for trade and commerce was inaugurated at the place now known as the Trade Center
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131
where it would serve as the municipality’s public market site for the next 40 years.
During his five years of service, the Mayor dedicated his time
and full effort in curating the wide roads we now experience and benefit from. Up until Tagum’s rising modernization and development, the roads former Mayor Wakan set up gave birth to the proud and progressive Tagum City we all know and adore.
Notably, it was during his tenure when the people of Tagum
elected to vote the first female councilor of the town in the person of Ms. Margarita Magsanoc- Aala, the daughter of one of the pioneering migrant settlers of Tagum, and the donor of the vast tract of lands to be used for the establishment of the provincial government center.
Hon. HERMINIGILDO C. BALOYO Municipal Mayor from 1955-1971 KAGIKAN:
132 Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
M
ayor Herminigildo C. Baloyo had been the longestserving mayor of the Municipality of Tagum, having served a total of 16 years as the local chief executive. His leadership, which had produced four vice mayors,
started in 1955 and ended in 1971.
A native of Negros Occidental, he, his Bicolana wife Rosario and
their three children first lived in Lupon, Davao Oriental before moving to Tagum to find a greater chance at experiencing personal progress.
Baloyo’s innate ability and willingness to help people which he
was able to exhibit while he was still a practicing medical professional had him pursuing the cause of improving the lives of the people of Tagum through public service (Baloyo, 2019).
Mayor Baloyo was a US-educated medical doctor when he was
elected for the first time as the mayor of the municipality. His brand of politics, coupled with his immense personality and leadership were the very reasons he had been able to get reelected for four consecutive terms that span to a decade and a half.
During his years at the helm of the political arena in Tagum,
economic advancement had been at an all-time high during the era. The town had served as the point of convergence for people from other towns who trooped to the municipality for trade and commerce. It was during the 1950s, during his tenure as a Mayor, that the abaca and coconut industries started to flourish, thereby contributing significantly to the growth of the local economy.
He also oversaw the series of construction of buildings and other
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133
infrastructure in Tagum, which included the upgrade of the Municipal Hall, and the building of the Governor Miranda Bridge at Bincungan which allowed the motorists who were trudging the National Highway to cross the Libuganon River without needing to ride a banca to get to the other side of the river. The bridge had been considered as a massive infrastructure project considering its length and the width of the body of water which it crossed.
The construction of the Magugpo-Pagsabangan-Maniki Road, a
national aid provincial road, was also conceptualized during his term, as was the Magugpo-Tipaz Road.
As a physician by profession, Mayor Baloyo saw the necessity
of establishing a center where the constituents of Tagum could go to for medical consultation or referral. This led him to build the Municipal Health Center along Bonifacio Street.
The education sector was also strengthened in Baloyo’s time,
with the addition of a tertiary level in Holy Cross College of Tagum (now St. Mary’s College) and Mindanao Colleges (now University of Mindanao). Basic education was also given importance, with the establishment and inauguration of day care centers for every barangay.
A rare photo of Mayor Baloyo at his desk. A caption in this photo reads: “The pen of Mayor Baloyo is as sharp as his mnind in shaping the distiny (sic) of Tagum.”
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Hon. GELACIO P. GEMENTIZA Municipal Mayor from 1971-1980 City Mayor from 2001-2004
G
elacio P. Gementiza first ascended into the mayoral position after being the Vice Mayor for a full term in 1967 until 1971. His win had ended the long tenure of former Mayor Herminigildo Baloyo who served as the
municipality’s chief executive for 16 years.
During his 9-year term as the chief executive of the Municipality
of Tagum, Gementiza had experienced the ups and downs of the town’s economy. The downturn of the abaca and the coconut industries in the 1970s may have impacted the economic situation of the town, however, this also paved the way for the growing banana industry to flourish in
CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
135
Tagum, thereby enabling Tagum to become the center for trade and commerce in the Southeastern Mindanao.
It was also during his mayoralty in the 1970s when the
infrastructure of the town had improved and expanded which was brought about by the economic boom; this caused for the upgrade of the Tagum Public Market to undergo a facelift from the wooden structure to the concrete building in the late 1970s which we still see today.
The establishment of the Municipal Medical Laboratory in 1975
and the designation of appropriate location as terminals for public utility vehicles in 1976 were also among the significant projects or programs that were implemented in relation to social services during the term of Gementiza on his first rodeo as a mayor of Tagum.
Mayor Gementiza was once again elected as the local chief
executive of Tagum for one term three years after the locality was converted into a city. During this period, he spearheaded the founding of the Tagum City Peacekeepers’ Organization, and gave medical, burial and financial assistance to all barangay officials and functionaries in the city.
He also strengthened the literacy and education aspect of the
residents of the city whose access to formal education was hampered by strengthening the Non-Formal Education in Tagum, which paved the way for the city to be awarded as the National Champion in Component City Category in the Search for the Most Outstanding LGU in the implementation of the National Literacy Program in 2001.
Gementiza had been known for his simplicity and generosity and
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these were easily gleaned by the programs he implemented such as the free dispersal and propagation of farm livestock and the procurement of agricultural equipment and structure which the farmers could use for free (Gementiza, 2019).
T
Hon. LEONARDO TOLENTINO Municipal Mayor from 1980-1981
here had been little that was known or said about Mayor Leonardo Tolentino, the elected local chief executive when the 1980s ushered in. Aside from being known as a physician by profession and as a municipal councilor prior
to his stint as mayor, Tolentino was perhaps best identified as the one of those who have served the shortest time as a head of the Municipality of Tagum and the only chief executive of the town to have resigned a year or so into his term. CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
137
His first few months at the office were fraught with anomalies
which caused uncertainty in his administration. This led the other officials of the municipality to advise him to resign before his term could end so as to save him from further damaging his reputation and be a subject of persecution (Estabillo, 2019).
Sixteen months after he was sworn in as the fifth Mayor of the
Municipality of Tagum, Tolentino tendered his resignation.
Hon. PROSPERO E. ESTABILLO Municipal Mayor from 1981-1986
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M
ayor Prospero H. Estabillo, Sr. came to the position of the Mayor of the Municipality of Tagum by operation of law. He was the elected Vice Mayor in the 1980 elections where the mayoralty position was
won by Mayor Leonardo Tolentino. It was after the passing of 16 months when he succeeded Mayor Tolentino who resigned from the top post of the local government of Tagum after being embroiled in anomalies.
Thus, came the start of his 6-year tenure as Tagum’s Mayor
where he was able to work on ensuring that the people of Tagum get what they deserve. He saw how the people of Tagum badly needed support in education and livelihood, and as a result proposed that Tagum Community High School be expanded to accommodate more students in high school.
The resources for the school building were limited at the time
but that limitation was able to make him personally gather old wood logs to form classrooms for the community high school since he did not want to witness these drawbacks to hinder the students from getting their education just because there were limited resources. He also insisted on making electricity available for all citizens, not just the ones residing in urban areas, but most especially those at the rural barrios. Having witnessed how people struggled in crossing from one place to another, Estabillo caused the construction of a bridge in Barangay Madaum to facilitate ease of movement around the locality. The Mayor did not only prioritize the wellness of his people, he also supported the women of Tagum. Working alongside his wife, Eva, he inaugurated projects and spearheaded events to encourage Tagum’s female citizens to know their full potential and capabilities. The former mayor and his wife would personally attend to these seminars with the
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139
view of eradicating gender discrimination in Tagum.
Prospero Estabillo, Sr., who was an Engineer by profession,
and recognized as the first Civil Engineer in Tagum, was known to be a simple but brilliant man who did his job as the Mayor of Tagum with less words but with grand actions in his doings. (Estabillo, 2019).
Hon. BALTAZAR A. SATOR Municipal Mayor from 1986-1987
B
altazar A. Sator became the Mayor of Tagum when the EDSA Revolution, also known as the 1986 People Power, ended the Marcos Regime’s decades-hold to power. Appointed by President Corazon Aquino to the position as
Mayor, Sator faced a plethora of challenges, foremost of which were the
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lack of budget and the proper execution of laws considering that the new constitution was being hammered out in detail at the Constitutional Convention.
Notwithstanding these challenges, he was still able to serve
his constituents despite the limitations which were beyond his control. His tenure as the Mayor of Tagum, however, was only for 11 months because he went on to become a congressman for the 1st District of the Province of Davao del Norte.
Mayor Sator, a Cebuano, was a lawyer by profession, who
uprooted from his place of origin after his graduation from the law school in 1961 to come to Tagum to help his relative win a legal case. He decided to settle for good in Tagum where he met his wife, Pharida Santa Cruz.
He was able to establish a good name in his profession in the
little time since he became a resident of Tagum since he was elected and served as a Municipal Councilor for four years, in 1967 to 1971, under the last full term of Mayor Herminigildo Baloyo.
In the short period that Sator was serving as the Mayor of the
municipality of Tagum, he had been able to push for the organization of Barangay Assemblies which had been implemented with the goal of being able to the respond to the needs of the people in barangays. He also worked for the allocation of water supply at the smallest areas of the community by providing water pump stations.
He also worked for the establishment of drivers and farmers’
associations within Tagum Cooperative which served as the counterpart
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141
of the Land Bank of the Philippines so that these said drivers and farmers would be given extra financial support on their expenditures.
As there had been no allocation of funds given to the respective
local government units at the onset of the Aquino administration due to the fact that national funds were funnelled for the change of the Constitution of the Philippines, Mayor Sator devised a way for there to be infrastructures built on his term: he enjoined the residents to donate cement that would be used by the local government unit in concreting the streets within the town, a feat that was completed within two weeks.
Sator was also able to lead the work on the eradication of illegal
fishing when he banned the use of dynamites in fishing activities; this resulted to a more productive livelihood among the residents at the coastal areas of the town (Sator, 2019).
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Hon. VICTORIO R. SUAYBAGUIO, Jr. Municipal Mayor from 1988-1998 City Mayor, 1998
V
enturous, determined and optimistic, former Mayor Victorio R. Suaybaguio is the breathing epitome of Tagum City’s vast progress in all areas. With his family engaging in construction business, former Mayor
Suaybaguio was persuaded by his father to run for politics, he eventually followed his father’s will, only to uncover the massive change he inflicted upon the City of Palms.
His venture in politics began during the short-lived mayoralty
of Dr. Tolentino who decided to resign from his service as the Mayor of Tagum. At the time, Suaybaguio stood as the number one councilor
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143
elected by the citizens of Tagum. By the operation of law, he was immediately appointed as the Vice Mayor. After the declaration of Martial Law in the country, an election was made open once again. In 1985, Suaybaguio ran as Vice Mayor and succeeded. Actually, he managed to grasp triumph in winning as Vice Mayor considering how he won in three elections, serving three terms.
In addition, the third election in which he succeeded rooted
a shocking political history in Tagum. For the first time, no one stood against his party from Mayor, Vice Mayor and eight seats for the Municipal Councilors. From 1988 to 1995, Victorio Suaybaguio reigned as the Municipal Mayor of Tagum. Not only that, he was also elected as the President of the Mayors’ League in the entire province of Davao del Norte.
During his time as Mayor, an immense infrastructure
development frame was observed everywhere. Suaybaguio always had his eyes on the economic progress of the municipality. So, he gathered different sources, grants and linkages in hopes of reconstructing a better, more productive Tagum for all the citizens to experience.
As his first goal, Suaybaguio managed to create the Public
Market facing the newly-constructed Bus Terminal. His brilliant philosophy led him to the concept that people cannot experience the Public Market without transportation or the Bus Terminal. This induced the blossoming of Tagum’s trade transactions outside the municipality, non-citizens would travel all the way to sell or purchase vegetables and other products as this became the most convenient center of trade for many people.
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Currently, Tagum City boasts its social, political and economic
stature as a proud city of endless progress. However, the man behind the proclamation of Tagum as a “city” in recognition of the Philippine Constitution is no other than Victorio Suaybaguio. Aside from the booming progress he induced in Tagum, it was always his dream to make Tagum a “city”.
In pursuant to the requirements named by the Constitution
before naming an area a “city”, Tagum had to surpass many financial and geographical requirements. In effort to make Tagum what it is today, Suaybaguio implemented many projects and events to engage the citizens in making this dream come true. After all his effort, the people of the land can finally say they are proud citizens of Tagum.
Amidst all the road widening implementations, infrastructure
development projects, innovative frameworks and revolutionary risks, former Mayor Victorio Suaybaguio remains as a humble man, a kind neighbor, a good citizen, an effective leader and a proud father of Tagum City (Suaybaguio, Jr., 2019).
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Hon. REY T. UY City Mayor, 1998-2001 City Mayor, 2004-2013
M
ayor Rey T. Uy had the distinction of becoming the first elected City Mayor of Tagum after it was converted into a city, assuming office on July 1, 1998. He served for a full term until 2001, and was again
elected to lead the locality from 2004 until his full three terms ended in 2013.
Uy’s kind of leadership was hinged on the initiation of political
will to forge a new brand of public administration. He was able to rally the local legislators of the city as well as various organizations of the
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local government unit to support the replication of his management principles and strategies in the corporate world which he was a part of to his public office.
As such, it happened that during the time of Mayor Uy,
Tagum truly experienced rapid urbanization, with the expansion of development being seen in barangays other than the five Magugpo barangays at the center of the city. Transportation in Tagum was also improved which included the public transportation sector being allowed to ply from any place within the city.
Infrastructure and public facilities were built at a rapid pace
during Uy’s tenure as a City Mayor. Several roads have been opened especially in rural barangays which granted the residents of these far-flung barangays with ease to get to the city’s center for trade and commerce. The improvement of already existing roads within the urban areas was the antecedent of companies of national stature getting the drive to bring their brands to the city.
The malls that were being constructed within years of each
other and within a stone’s throw away from the next mall complemented the rise in the numbers of local business establishments in the city which buoyed the economy of Tagum into greater heights. These improvements that were introduced led to the elevation of the income class of the City of Tagum from a second-class city. In 2008, Tagum became the second 1st Class City in Davao Region, after Davao City.
During his first term as City Mayor, the local government
of Tagum was able to achieve the 1st Place in the Search for Most Outstanding Local Government Unit in Local Budget Administration
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147
in the component city category in the year 2001. The LGU also became a national finalist in the Award of Excellence-Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran for the cleanest and greenest local government unit of the Philippines (1998-2000).
Aside from the numerous National Awards that the City of
Tagum has received during his incumbency, Mayor Uy was also a recipient of 108 other awards and plaques in the field of public service. In 2007 he became the first elected Public Official in the country to receive the prestigious Gawad Pag-asa Award in Public Service conferred by the Civil Service Commission.
The essence of public service is always the centrepiece of Mayor
Uy’s administration. He continues to do new things in local governance as a visionary leader who always aspires for excellence. He has proven his sincerity and integrity in various aspects of local governance and serves as an inspiration to everyone. Indeed, his laudable achievements make him an icon of extraordinary leadership.
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Hon. ALLAN L. RELLON, DPA, Ph.D City Mayor, 2013-Present
L
ife as a public servant for Mayor Allan Rellon had already started even before his entry in the local political arena in the City of Tagum. He was a utility worker while working to earn his degree in Education. When he was practicing and
using his license to educate his students, while at the same time working as the college administrator of the University of Mindanao, he was asked to become the Municipal Administrator of Tagum, with no less than then-Mayor Victorio R. Suaybaguio, requesting him into joining the local government unit as the former local chief executive knew of his capacity to execute the functions of the administrative office (Suaybaguio, Jr., 2019).
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Aiming for excellence, and driven by his desire to promote good
governance where the interests of the public are given premium over and above self-vested interests, Mayor Rellon sought to win a seat in the City Council which he did with flying colors, managing to win the 2nd largest number of votes in the 1998 elections, and then becoming the Senior Councilor during his second and final term as a local legislator. He further rose in the ranks of the local government, first clinching the Vice Mayoralty for three consecutive terms and then finally being given the chance to lead the city government as a Mayor where his duties and responsibilities were done with the view of championing the cause of good governance, firmly believing that it is a crucial ingredient in making the lives of his constituents better and in achieving social progress in the process.
Over the years, Rellon had been planning and implementing
ground-breaking programs and crafted trailblazing policies that are hinged on his principle of putting people first, and making the government closer to and loved by the people.
As a leader who helmed both executive and legislative functions
serving nearly 300,000 Tagumenyos, he had been able to effect programs related to the social, environmental, economic, and infrastructure aspects of development which benefited people from all walks of life, and from across different generations. These programs, most significantly the ones in education, livelihood, housing and social services, have left a longlasting, if not indelible, mark on the lives of Tagumenyos.
As an educator by profession, Rellon sought to strengthen the
implementation of programs meant to educate not only those who were enrolled to get formal education but most specially those who had
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no access to getting it. Thus, he moved for the institutionalization of award-winning literacy programs in the city that were meant to make a difference in the lives of people.
These programs include, among others, the Palengkeswelahan
where the government brought the school closer to the youth who ceased going to school to work at the city’s public market to earn money and the Balik Aral sa Selda (BASE) which is an alternative learning system to the inmates of the City Jail who are called bakasyonistas, so that they could earn either elementary or high school diplomas while incarcerated.
As a result of the implementation of these notable literacy
programs advocated by Rellon, the City of Tagum earned the distinction as a UNESCO International Literacy Prize Winner, an award which was awarded in New Delhi, India. Tagum also became a Hall Famer and a Special Excellence Awardee in Literacy in a tilt spearheaded by the National Literacy Coordinating Council; these and other literacy initiatives implemented by the good Mayor enabled the City to become one of the deeply-admired cities in the Philippines today in terms of making literacy as a tool for people empowerment.
Mayor Rellon also spearheaded the implementation of STAND
Program, or Seryosong Tagumenyos Ayaw Ng Droga, the local antidrug abuse program set out to rehabilitate the more than 4,000 drug dependents who surrendered en masse to the LGU while the national government was implementing the War on Drugs of President Rodrigo Duterte. The rehabilitation program involved values reformation, spiritual development, physical fitness, psycho-social intervention and community service, and after successfully passing all the interventions, the once- drug dependent will be eligible to avail the livelihood or skills
CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
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training programs of the LGU in their journey to becoming reintegrated into the society.
Rellon also revolutionized the employment facilitation of the
Tagumenyo constituency by strengthening the Public Employment Services Office, which has been hailed as a best-performing PESO Office in the Philippines and adding Education as one division of the office, thus forming the Public Education and Employment Services Office (PEESO). With this newly created division, the LGU under Mayor Rellon could bridge the gap between education and employment in the city through the various career guidance activities being conducted by the office in elementary schools in order for the school children to know at an early age their inclinations and interests that might help them choose their appropriate career paths when they reach college.
Mayor Rellon also called for the establishment of the Barangay
Employment Desk (BED) to cascade the employment facilitation services down to the barangay level and benefit jobless individuals living in the far-flung areas of the city. With job opportunities being made available to them without spending money to go to the City Hall, a large number of his unemployed constituents have already landed in jobs through the said initiative.
Upon his assumption to office in 2013, Mayor Rellon doubled
the fund allocation for Kaagapay Pang-Medikal Program, strengthened the LGU’s Housing and Resettlement Program, which led to the recognition of the city government by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council as the LGU having the best housing program in the Philippines in 2016.
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Leading by example, Rellon enjoined the LGU workforce to give
the best service possible to Tagumenyos, and non-Tagumenyos alike; as such, the City Government of Tagum was rated as excellent and ranked No. 2 in the nationwide survey for its excellent implementation of the Anti-Red Tape Act commissioned by the Civil Service Commission. By instituting reforms and championing the cause of open government, Mayor Rellon was also instrumental for the City Government of Tagum to win the gold standard of good governance: the Seal of Good Local Governance handed out by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
His legacy also included the institutionalization of an office for
the cultural communities and the installation of the Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives in the barangay and the city levels, a move which is seen as a victory for the tribes of Tagum. Mayor Rellon’s 21 years in public service has molded him to become a true-blooded a public servant who always have a big and compassionate heart for the Tagumenyos, ears to fairly hear both sides, a mind that discerns and wisely decides, comforting shoulders and hands that always reach out to those in need, and above all, a visionary eye that will bring his beloved City of Tagum to heights of success and glory.
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Officials of Tagum (Post-War to Present) 1951-1955 Mayor: Eliseo V. Wakan V-Mayor: Camilo D. Doctolero Councilors: Herminigildo C. Baloyo Hermogenes A. Misa Macario S. Bermudez, Sr. Margarita M. Aala Arcadio M. Cuevas, Sr. Juan A. Boja Honorato C. Lucero Simplicio Semblante 1955-1959 Mayor: Herminigildo C. Baloyo V. Mayor: Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr Councilors: Macario S. Bermudez, Sr. Jose Martinez Camilo D. Doctolero Porferio N. Redulosa Fructuoso R. Marikit Evaristo S. Palomata Florentino C. Manungas Honorato C. Lucero 1959-1963 Mayor: Herminigildo C. Baloyo V. Mayor: Arnaldo R.. Suaybaguio Councilors: Josefa B. Calip Macario S. Bermudez, Sr. Jose Martinez Porferio N. Redulosa
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Eligio D. Atenta Alfredo Tajan Fructuoso R. Marikit Gaudencio Frontreras 1963- 1967 Mayor: Herminigildo C. Baloyo V. Mayor: Jovito S. Bermudez Councilors: Hermogenes A. Misa Dominador H. Selga Josefa B. Calip David P. Aguinaldo Francisco P. Labastida Alejandro B. Bangalao Emiliano P. Banal, Sr. Gil R. Taojo, Sr. 1967-1971 Mayor: Herminigildo C. Baloyo V. Mayor: Gelacio P. Gementiza Councilors: Hermogenes A. Misa Prospero H. Estabillo Leonardo Tolentino Baltazar A. Sator Antonio M. Lagunzad David P. Aguinaldo Melanio D. Trebajo, Sr. Lucilo C. Rallos 1971-1980 Mayor: Gelacio P. Gementiza V. Mayor: Prospero H. Estabillo Councilors: Antonio M. Lagunzad Angelina L. San Jose Conchita B. Balinas Hermogenes A. Misa, Sr.
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Dioniso M. Quirante Alfredo B. Manungas Melanio D. Trebajo, Sr Ernesto Y. Obero Daniel Cortez Leon Yballa, Jr. Atty. Maximo Nunez Felomino C. Panoy Raymundo Marquez 1980-1986 Mayor: Leonardo Tolentino (Resigned -1981) V. Mayor: Prospero H. Estabillo (Mayor, 1981) Councilors Victorio R. Suaybaguio, Jr (Vice Mayor, 1981) Luz T. Pereyras Ernesto Y. Obero Teofilo S. Bermudez, Sr. Pedro A. Misa, Sr. David P. Aguinaldo Crisanto R. Maniwang Raymundo Marquez Camini P. Quitaban Rogelio E. Israel Isabelo C. Melendres Constantino Ravelo Felimon Mendoza 1986-1987 Mayor: Baltazar A. Sator V. Mayor: Antonio M. Lagunzad Councilors Shirley Belen R. Aala Catalina Abad-Hechanova Rolieto T. Trinidad Nicacio L. Briones Fortunato A. Dayot Leonardo F. Cartoneros Abdul Malik Banjal Alfredo Q. Trebajo KAGIKAN:
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1988-1992 Mayor: Victorio R. Suaybaguio, Jr. V. Mayor: Teofilo S. Bermudez, Sr. Councilors Octavio R. Valle Teodoro A. Yamas Fortunato A. Dayot Jose Tomas E. Abrenica Arrel P. Ola単o Luis A. Ope単a Alan D. Zulueta Leonardo F. Cartoneros Rogelio E. Israel Ernesto Y. Obero David P. Aguinaldo Leonardo L. Taladhay, Jr. 1992-1995 Mayor: Victorio R. Suaybaguio, Jr. V. Mayor: Arrel P. Ola単o Councilors: Gerardo R. Racho, Jr. Macario A. Bermudez II Antonio V. Vicada Teodoro A. Yamas Alfredo D. de Veyra Alan D. Zulueta Reynaldo P. Alba Jose Joedel T. Caasi Rogelio E. Israel Elvira Y. Maug 1996-1998 Mayor: Victorio R. Suaybaguio, Jr. V. Mayor: Arrel P. Ola単o Councilors Octavio R. Valle Macario A. Bermudez II Antonio V. Vicada Isabelo L. Melendres CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
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Alfredo D. de Veyra Alan D. Zulueta Reynaldo P. Alba Jose Joedel T. Caasi Francisco C. Remitar Rey Cyril T. Alba 1998-2001 City Mayor: Rey T. Uy Vice Mayor: Gerardo R. Racho, Jr. Councilors Fortunato A. Dayot Allan L. Rellon Alfredo D. de Veyra Reynaldo P. Alba Macario A. Bermudez II Oscar M. Bermudez Jose Jodel T. Caasi Agripino G. Coquilla, Jr. Geterito T. Gementiza Tristan Royce R. Aala Francisco C. Remitar Rey Cyril T. Alba 2001-2004 City Mayor: Gelacio P. Gementiza Vice Mayor: Gerardo R. Racho, Jr Councilors: Allan L. Rellon Oscar M. Bermudez Vicente C. Eliot Agripino G. Coquilla, Jr Geterito T. Gementiza Raymond Joey D. Millan Berthelyn L. San Jose Fortunato A. Dayot Antonio V. Vicada Tristan Royce R. Aala Francisco C. Remitar Rey Cyril T. Alba KAGIKAN:
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2004-2007 City Mayor: Rey T. Uy Vice Mayor: Allan L. Rellon Councilors Maria Lina F. Baura Geterito T. Gementiza Agripino G. Coquilla, Jr. Raymond Joey D. Millan Tristan Royce R. Aala Robert L. So Oscar M. Bermudez Rogelio E. Israel Vicente C. Eliot Jose Jodel T. Caasi Ernesto Y. Obero (ABC) Bryan Kim Samuel L. Angoy (SK) 2007-2010 City Mayor: Rey T. Uy Vice Mayor: Allan L. Rellon Councilors: Maria Lina F. Baura Robert L. So De Carlo L. Uy Raymond Joey D. Millan Vicente C. Eliot Alan D. Zulueta Nicandro T. Suaybaguio, Jr. Reynaldo T. Salve Francisco C. Remitar Alfredo R. Pagdilao Cyril Leonard L. Muring 2010- 2013 City Mayor: Rey T. Uy Vice Mayor: Allan L. Rellon Councilors De Carlo L. Uy Maria Lina F. Baura CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
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Nicandro T. Suaybaguio, Jr. Robert L. So Jose Jodel T. Caasi Oscar M. Bermudez Alan D. Zulueta Geterito T. Gementiza Francisco C. Remitar Alfredo R. Pagdilao (ABC) Jacqueline Grace Q. Edullantes (SK) 2013-2016 City Mayor: Allan L. Rellon Vice Mayor: Geterito T. Gementiza Councilors Francisco c. Remitar, MDMG Alan D. Zulueta, DPA Nicandro T. Suaybaguio, Jr. Oscar M. Bermudez, MD, MDMG Eva Lorraine E. Estabillo Macario A. Bermudez II Tristan Royce R. Aala, MDMG Agripino G. Coquillo, Jr., CE Fernand S. Bordios Ester L. Angoy Prospero E. Estabillo, Jr. (ABC) Rudy T. Onlos (IPMR (2013-2014)) Damiano A. Cipro (IPMR (2014-2016)) 2016- PRESENT City Mayor: Allan L. Rellon, DPA, PhD Vice Mayor: Geterito T. Gementiza, MDMG Councilors Eva Lorraine E. Estabillo Agripino G. Coquilla, Jr., CE Macario A. Bermudez II Ronald S. Eliot Jan Dmitri S. Sator Rey Cyril T. Alba Tristan Royce R. Aala, MDMG KAGIKAN:
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Ester L. Angoy Jose Jodel T. Caasi Prospero E. Estabillo, Jr. (ABC) (2016-2018) Bryan Kim Samuel L. Angoy (ABC) (2018-present) Damiano A. Cipro (IPMR) Arnel Allaga, Jr. (SK)
CHAPTER FOUR The Leaders that Shaped Tagum
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Appendix
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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Tageum plant found in modern-day Tagum, specifically in Barangay San Isidro, 2018.
Bibliography
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Bibliography The Brief Account of the Kagan Tribe of Davao. (2001). Ayok, L. (2018, March 2). Personal Interview. (C. L. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) New Bataan, Compostela Valley, Philippines. Baloyo, M. (2019, January). Personal Interview. (A. Logronio, & J. Saclot, Interviewers) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Bayangoan, P. (2017). Personal Interview. (C. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) Magdum, Tagum City , Davao del Norte , Philippines. Blair, E. H., & Robertson, J. A. (1906). The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Retrieved February 16, 2017, from Internet Archive: https:// archive.org/details/cu31924070600253 Bureau of Insular Affairs War Department. (1902). A Pronouncing Gazetteer and Geographic Dictionary of the Philippine Islands. Retrieved February 17, 2017, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ pronouncinggazet00unitrich Casilen, A. (2018). Personal Interview. (M. C. Pagdilao, & C. Valenzuela, Interviewers) Bincungan, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Census Office of the Philippine Islands. (1920). Census of the Philippine Islands taken under the direction of the Philippine Legislature in the Year 1918, Appendix to Volume I. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/censusofphilippi03philiala/ KAGIKAN:
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Census Office of the Philippine Islands. (1920). Census of the Philippine Islands taken under the direction of the Philippine Legislature in the Year 1918, Volume I. Retrieved December 1, 2017, from Internet Archive: https:// archive.org/details/censusofphilippi01phil/ Cipro, D. D. (2018). (C. Dumandan, & G. Lagunsad, Interviewers) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Cuizona, D. (2019, February 21). Personal Interview. (M. C. Gulle, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Cuntapay, E. (2015, February). Personal Interview. (M. C. Gulle, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Egay, Y. (2018, March 2). Personal Interview. (C. L. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) New Bataan, Compostela Valley, Philippines. Estabillo, E. L. (2019, January). Personal Interview. (G. D. Angelica Logronio, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Finley, J. P. (1916, July). The Mohammedan Problem in the Philippines. II. Retrieved January 39, 2019, from JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/ stable/29738183 Gementiza, G. (2019, January 28). Personal Interview. (M. C. Gulle, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Gerochi, H. (2004, December). Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Retrieved February 11, 2018, from Philippine Institute for Development Studies: https://dirp3.pids.gov.ph/ris/dps/pidsdps0444.pdf Gomez, J. S. (2018). Personal Interview. (C. L. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) San Agustin, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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Gonzales, J. (1893). Memoria Acerca de Mindanao. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ memoriaacercadem00gonz/ Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. (1920). Executive Orders and Proclamations issued by the Governor-General during the year 1919. Retrieved February 17, 2017, from Internet Archive: https:// archive.org/details/ExecutiveOrdersNos.199-1919 Hape, M. (2018). Personal Interview. (J. A. Malila, Interviewer) Pandapan, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Insular Government of Philippine Islands. (1917). The Revised Administrative Code of the Philippine Islands. Retrieved March 25, 2017, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ RevisedAdministrativeCodeOfThePhilippineIslandsOf1917 Insular Government of the Philippine Islands. (1914). The Organic Act for the Department of Mindanao and Sulu. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from Chan Robles Virtual Law Library: http://www.laws.chanrobles. com/acts/6_acts.php?id=266 Jumah, M. D. (2018, March 12). (M. C. Pagdilao, & C. Valenzuela, Interviewers) Bincungan, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Land Management Bureau. (2015). Land Management Bureau. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from Land Management Bureau: http://lmb.gov.ph/ index.php/e-library/nat-l-cadastral-survey-program Landor, A. (1904). The Gems of the East. Retrieved February 2018, 2018, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/gemseast00unkngoog Macapagal, D. (1965). Executive Order No. 189: Creating the municipality of Carmen in the Province of Davao. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from Official KAGIKAN:
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Gazette: https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1965/11/02/ executive-order-no-189-s-1965/ Makaigad, P. (2018). Personal Interview. (M. C. Pagdilao, & C. Valenzuela, Interviewers) Hijo, Maco, Compostela Valley, Philippines. Merrill, E. D. (1903). Internet Archive. Retrieved November 16, 2018, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ dictionaryofplan00merr Nieto, J. (1894). Mindanao: Su Historia Y Geografia. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ memoriaacercadem00gonz Office of the President of the Philippines. (1941). Executive Order No. 352, s. 1941: Converting the municipal district of Tagum, Province of Davao, into a municipality under the same name. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from Official Gazette: http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1941/06/27/ executive-order-no-352-s-1941/ Office of the President of the Philippines. (1949). Executive Order No. 236, s. 1949: Organizing the Municipalities of Digos, Padada, and Panabo, in the Province of Davao. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from Official Gazette: https:// www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1949/07/01/executive-order-no236-s-1949/ Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. (1957). Messages of the President Book 7: Ramon Magsaysay (Volume 4) Part 1. Retrieved December 29, 2018, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/ details/MOP-Vol4-Ramon-Magsaysay-Part-1/ Pandian, H. (2018). Personal Interview. (C. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) Tagum City, Davao del Norte , Philippines. Pereyras, N. (2018, March). (CIO, Interviewer) Magugpo West, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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Perez, E. (2018). Personal Interview. (C. L. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Pongo, B. E., & Bungad, A. (2018, February). Personal Interview. (M. C. Pagdilao, & C. Valenzuela, Interviewers) Madaum, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Rellon, A. L. (2019, February 17). Personal Interview. (CIO, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Sator, B. (2019, January). Personal Interview. (V. Dilangalen, & J. E. Saclot, Interviewers) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Societas Iesu. (1877). Cartas de los Padres de la Compania de Jesus de la Mision de Filipinas. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/cartasdelospadr00librgoog/ Societas Iesu. (1887). Cartas de los PP. de la Compania de Jesus de la Mision de Filipinas. Retrieved November 13, 2018, from Internet Archive: https:// archive.org/details/cartasdelospadr01jesugoog/ Societas Iesu. (1895). Internet Archive. Retrieved October 26, 2018, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ cartasdelospadr00jesugoog/page/n176 Suaybaguio, Jr., V. R. (2019, January). Personal Interview. (A. Castillo, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Sucnaan Sr., A. (2018). Personal Interview. (C. L. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers) Pandapan, Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Sucnaan, A., & Onlos, R. T. (2008). Babatokon Ng Mga Tipanud. (B. M. Perez, R. Dansigan, & J. Ambingan, Trans.) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines: City Government of Tagum. KAGIKAN:
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among, S., & Coguit, G. O. (2008). Tiu, M. D. (2005). Davao: Reconstructing History from Text and Memory. Davao City, Philippines: Ateneo de Davao University Research and Publication Office for the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGOs. Tiu, M. D. (2018). Highlights of Davao History - Tagum City. Tagum City. US War Department. (1907). Annual Report of Secretary of War. Retrieved February 3, 2019, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ annualreportsse03deptgoog Vallejo, M. S. (2015). The Battle of Ising: the untold story of the 130th Infantry Regiment in the Liberation of Mindanao and the Philippines 1942-1945 (Revised Edition ed.). (B. B. Uc-Kung, Ed.) Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers. Wakan, E. M. (2019, January). Personal Interview. (A. Castillo, Interviewer) Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. Webster, P. J. (1922). Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago: Their Natural Resources and Opportunities for Development. Retrieved February 17, 2017, from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/acc5074.0001.038. umich.edu/
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Gallery
Major infrastructure projects, such as the asphalting of roads which have been undertaken during the late 1970s to early 1980s signify the significant development of Tagum in terms of economy. Pictured is Bonifacio Street, with the Public Market at the back.
The intersection of the National Highway and the Apokon Road-Pioneer Avenue serves to link the Northern Mindanao Provinces of Agusan, Surigao to Davao, and Davao Oriental to Bukidnon.
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A festivity along the major road in the Municipality of Tagum.
First Prelature Pastoral Planning held in 1976 at the Queeen of Apostles College Seminary
KAGIKAN Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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The collective teaching force of Tagum District, 1954-1955.
The Municipal Officials and the Police Force of the Municipality of Tagum during the administration of Mayor Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr. (seated, fourth from left) work hand-in-hand for the benefit of the people.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Tagum’s self-ascription as Scouting Capital had its start more than 50 years ago when it played as host to various scouting activities on a regional scale.
KAGIKAN Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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Municipal Mayor Eliseo Wakan gives his speech during the turnover of the Tagum Public Market on October 4, 1954.
Teachers of Magugpo Central School gather for a tree planting activity infront of the school’s Home Economics Building.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
The Magugpo Commercial Building at Quezon Street corner Osmeña Street was the city’s earliest economic center in post-war era.
Grade 1 Students of Magugpo Pilot Elementary School in School Year 1963-1964.
KAGIKAN Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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Teachers and students of Apokon Primary School pose for a souvenir shot after a wire fence was installed through the generosity of Councilor Doctolero, 1955.
Lay organizations are just some of the organizations that sprouted in Tagum. One of these is the Tagum Catholic Women’s League, as photographed here during their unit induction in 1964.
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Roadside housing units in Hijo Plantation’s Camp Cogon, 1931
Ribbon cutting ceremony led by Mrs. Marcelina Wakan marking the turn-over of the Tagum Public Market in1954.
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The Gold City Commercial Complex, built in the 1990s, had been the premier recreation center of Tagum where Tagumenyos and non-Tagumenyos alike spent hours of fun, games and excitement.
City officials led by Mayor Allan L. Rellon led in the unveiling of the City Hall Marker signifying the transfer of the local government’s seat of power in March 7, 2016. The New City Hall of Tagum is situated at JV Ayala Avenue, named after Jesus “Chito’ Ayala who donated the sprawling property to the local government in 2008.
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KAGIKAN: Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
Acknowledgment
Acknowledgment The City Historical, Cultural and Arts Council expresses its profound gratitude to the following for their invaluable support which is instrumental in the production of this book: City Information Office, Tagum City City Cultural Communities Affairs Division, Tagum City City Assessor’s Office, Tagum City City Civil Registrar’s Office City Planning and Development Office Veterans Affairs Office – Tagum Tagum City Federation of Barangay Tribal Council headed by Bia Lilia M. Lagunsad-City Tribal Chieftain, Pyagmatikadung Aguido P. Sucnaan-Kyalalaysan, Datu Damiano L. Cipro-IPMR|City Councilor, Manigoon Carlito Alejo-BTC|IPMR-Mag. North, Datu Cristino Navarro-BTC|IPMR-San Miguel, Pyagmatikadung Hernando PandianBTC|IPMR-New Balamban, Pyagmatikadung Erick Perez-BTC|IPMRApokon, Pyagmatikadung Adi Garcia-BTC-San Isidro, Pyagmatikadung Simproso Gomez-BTC|IPMR-San Agustin, Pyagmatikadung Sean Icalina-BTC|IPMR-Mag. Poblacion, Pyagmatikadung Belardo BungadBTC|IPMR-Madaum, Pyagmatikadung Sabandal Jamindang-BTCBusaon, Pyagmatikadung Danny Lapana-BTC|IPMR-Liboganon, Pyagmatikadung Romeo Dansigan-BTC|IPMR-La Filipina, Pyagmatikadung Arnold Dumat-BTC|IPMR-Vis. Village, Bia Adelaida Odias-BTC|IPMR-Mag. West, Bia Teresita Baloyo-BTC|IPMR-Mag. East, Bia Florencia Enoroba-BTC|IPMR-Mag. South, Bia Amie Colotario-BTC|IPMR-Cuambogan, Bia Jessica P. Ado-BTC|IPMRPagsabangan, Gibubayan Mercedes L. Sulsog-BTC|IPMR-Magdum, Bae Hermenia Maitem-BTC|IPMR-Nueva Fuerza Muslim Leaders and Members of the Tagum City Federation of Datu and Imam, Tagum City Muslim Women’s Group and Tribe Coordinators
most especially Datu Belardo Bungad, Datu Medanie Hape, Imam Abdul Madid Linog, Imam Guiama Kamsa, Hadja Nairah BauntoAmerol, Attorney Racs Mama, Rex Sapadas, Mona Sapadas, Inoc Bantilan, Maito Clan, Lubama Clan, Nor-Aisa Macaraya, Sarah Salik, Najera Valenzuela, Kagawad Salih Antocan and Hadja Raihana Disoma National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) – Davao del Norte Provincial Office headed by Provincial Officer Emmanuel Cacal Dr. Macario Tiu The University of Mindanao Tagum College Magsanoc-Aala Family Pereyras Family Bermudez Family Suaybaguio Family Quirante Family Valdueza Family Rojo- Cuntapay Family Melendres Family Wakan Family Lopez- Rellon Family Rey Family Estabillo Family Edig Family Maurillo Family Rabe Family Pulmano Family Concepcion Family Ferido Family Gazmen Family Apura Family Dela Cruz Family Baloyo Family Gementiza Family Sator Family Uy Family
KAGIKAN, as the name suggests, is an in-depth investigation of the colorful history of Tagum City. Replete with historical facts mined from over a century ago, this book is the first comprehensive document that substantially narrates the humble beginnings of this community by the river, and how it grows over the course of time. It also highlights the gallantry of the Moro heroes of Tagum who assassinated Spanish Governor Jose Pinzon y Purga in 1861 — a pivotal event that enjoins the Tagumenyos in the nationwide resistance against foreign oppression. Comprehensive accounts in this book include the original settlers of Tagum; the perseverance of the migrants from Luzon and Visayas; the origin of the name Tagum and by extension, the debunking of the myth of Magugpo as the original name of the city; and the profiles of Post-War Mayors who helped shaped the destiny of Tagum. A product of years of rigorous research, KAGIKAN is truly a gem for all its worth — a love letter to Tagumenyos and the generations to come.
