Kagikan Tracing The Flow of Tagums Rich History PDF

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 Candia-
Pagdilao, Cherry Rose Valenzuela, Charity Lagunsad-
Dumandan, 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 19

Etymology of Tagum 22
Territorial Limits and Boundaries 26
Periodic History
Spanish Period 38
American Period 47
Japanese Period 53
CHAPTER TWO
A Tapestry of Cultures
Original Settlers
Kagan 61
Mandaya 70
Mansaka 76
Migrant Muslim Settlers

Iranun Tribe 85
Maguindanao Tribe 87
Maranao Tribe 90
Tausug Tribe 92
Migrant Settlers from the

Indigenous Peoples Communities
Ata Manobo 94
Dibabawon 96
Migrant Settlers from Luzon and Visayas 100

CHAPTER THREE
The Resurgence of Tagum
A Fledgling Municipality 110

Tagum: After the World War II 112
The First Election 115
Onset of Economic Boom 116
Tagum in the 1970s — 1990s 121
CHAPTER FOUR
The Leaders Who Shaped Tagum
Hon. Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr. 128

Hon. Eliseo V. Wakan 130
Hon. Herminigildo C. Baloyo 132
Hon. Gelacio P. Gementiza 135
Hon. Leonardo Tolentino 137
Hon. Prospero E. Estabillo 138
Hon. Baltazar A. Sator 140
Hon. Victorio R. Suaybaguio, Jr. 143
Hon. Rey T. Uy 146
Hon. Allan L. Rellon 149
Post-War to Present Officials 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
20
KAGIKAN:
Liboganon River
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History

Saug River
Tagum River
A satellite image showing the confluence of Saug and Liboganon Rivers in Barangay Pagsabangan. Google Satellite Image, 2019.
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
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.
KAGIKAN:
22 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
Artist’s rendition of the Tagum plant (Indigofera Tinctoria), an indigo plant
that had medicinal attributes to treat diseases.
KAGIKAN:
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
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
KAGIKAN:
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
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),
KAGIKAN:
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. 73-
74). 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
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
KAGIKAN:
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
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
The name Visayan Village appears for the first time on a legal, public document in a 1948 Compi-
lation of Declaration of Real Property in the possession of the City Assessor’s Office.
KAGIKAN:
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 full-
pledged 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 Doña 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
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
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
KAGIKAN:
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
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER ONE
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER ONE
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
46
KAGIKAN:
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
48
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER ONE
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 Tuganay-
Bincungan 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
KAGIKAN:
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
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
KAGIKAN:
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 Alfredo Pulmano is considered as
the first teacher of Tagum.
fared during those three years:
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
CHAPTER ONE
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
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER ONE
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,
KAGIKAN:
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
Mr. Lucas Lopez was the sitting municipal treasurer
the hardships and fear caused of Tagum when he was killed by Japanese forces
and was thrown over to what is known today as
by the advance of the Japanese Bincungan River. Decades later, his grandson Allan
troop who soon became attracted Lopez Rellon assumed the position as Mayor of
Tagum in 2013.
to the beauty of their place. The
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
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.
KAGIKAN:
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 61
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).
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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-
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER TWO
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 full-
pledged 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.
The Tipanud of the Mandaya clans in Tagum established
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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,
CHAPTER TWO
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).
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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 the Mansaka tribe feared, and as such,
about the history of Magdum and what was
the life of Mansaka Tribe during the Japanese caused them to name the place as mag’dum.
Era, 2018
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
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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
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.
It was only after the passage of more than 20 years, in 1966,
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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 notwithstanding the
at Barangay Nueva Fuerza during the conduct of the interview.
Both Ata-Manobo women are leaders. Bae Maitem is recognized presence of the tribe
as Barangay Tribal Chieftain of Nueva Fuerza, Tagum City. Bae
Dulay is an Ata-Manobo Balyan practicing natural medication and along the rivers and its
“hilot” for her tribe.
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
CHAPTER TWO
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 Taken during the conduct of a wedding ritual of the
Dibabawon tribe facilitated by Manigoon Carlito Alejo,
who act as the head or the leader the Barangay Tribal Chieftain and Indigenous Peoples
Mandatory Representative of Magugpo North.
and chosen by gathering the
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
ORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS
LEGEND
Kagan
Mandaya
Mansaka
KAGIKAN:
PRESENT SETTLEMENTS
LEGEND
Dibabawon Maranao
Iranun Tausug
Maguindanao Ata-Manobo
CHAPTER TWO
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER TWO
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 Magdum-
located 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
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER TWO
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
CHAPTER THREE
The Resurgence of Tagum 109
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER THREE
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 present-
day Parish of Christ the Eucharistic King. Tagum Jr. High School,
the secondary school that would later become the Tagum Community
KAGIKAN:
ABOVE Students and parents of Magugpo Central School gather for the 9th post-
war 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.
CHAPTER THREE
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER THREE
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
KAGIKAN:
Inauguration of a bridge along Osme‌ña Street on July 25, 1952.
Bigwigs of Tagum strike a pose during the inauguration of the

Governor Miranda Bridge in Bincungan, 1950s.
CHAPTER THREE
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER THREE
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.
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER THREE
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
KAGIKAN:
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
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Leaders that Shaped Tagum 127
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
KAGIKAN:
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 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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER FOUR
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

KAGIKAN:
M
ayor Herminigildo C. Baloyo had been the longest-
serving 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
CHAPTER FOUR
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.”
KAGIKAN:
Hon. GELACIO P. GEMENTIZA
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
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
KAGIKAN:
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).
Hon. LEONARDO TOLENTINO

T
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
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

KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER FOUR
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

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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER FOUR
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).
KAGIKAN:
Hon. VICTORIO R. SUAYBAGUIO, Jr.
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
CHAPTER FOUR
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.
KAGIKAN:
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).
CHAPTER FOUR
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
KAGIKAN:
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
CHAPTER FOUR
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.
KAGIKAN:
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).
CHAPTER FOUR
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 long-
lasting, 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
KAGIKAN:
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 anti-
drug 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
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.
KAGIKAN:
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.
CHAPTER FOUR
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:
Jose Martinez
Camilo D. Doctolero
Porferio N. Redulosa
Fructuoso R. Marikit
Evaristo S. Palomata
Florentino C. Manungas
Honorato C. Lucero
1959-1963
V. Mayor: Arnaldo R.. Suaybaguio
Councilors:
Josefa B. Calip
Jose Martinez
Porferio N. Redulosa
KAGIKAN:
Eligio D. Atenta
Alfredo Tajan
Fructuoso R. Marikit
Gaudencio Frontreras
1963- 1967
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
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.
CHAPTER FOUR
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:
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. Olaño
Luis A. Opeña
Alan D. Zulueta
Leonardo F. Cartoneros
Rogelio E. Israel
Ernesto Y. Obero
David P. Aguinaldo
Leonardo L. Taladhay, Jr.
1992-1995
V. Mayor: Arrel P. Olaño
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
V. Mayor: Arrel P. Olaño
Councilors
Octavio R. Valle
Antonio V. Vicada
Isabelo L. Melendres
CHAPTER FOUR
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
Oscar M. Bermudez
Jose Jodel T. Caasi
Agripino G. Coquilla, Jr.
Geterito T. Gementiza
Tristan Royce R. Aala
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
Raymond Joey D. Millan
Berthelyn L. San Jose
Fortunato A. Dayot
Antonio V. Vicada
Rey Cyril T. Alba
KAGIKAN:
2004-2007
Vice Mayor: Allan L. Rellon
Councilors
Maria Lina F. Baura
Agripino G. Coquilla, Jr.
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
Councilors:
Maria Lina F. Baura
Robert L. So
De Carlo L. Uy
Vicente C. Eliot
Alan D. Zulueta
Nicandro T. Suaybaguio, Jr.
Reynaldo T. Salve
Alfredo R. Pagdilao
Cyril Leonard L. Muring
2010- 2013
Councilors
De Carlo L. Uy
Maria Lina F. Baura
CHAPTER FOUR
Robert L. So
Jose Jodel T. Caasi
Oscar M. Bermudez
Alan D. Zulueta
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
Oscar M. Bermudez, MD, MDMG
Eva Lorraine E. Estabillo
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
Ronald S. Eliot
Jan Dmitri S. Sator
Rey Cyril T. Alba
Tristan Royce R. Aala, MDMG
KAGIKAN:
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
Appendix
KAGIKAN:
clxiv Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
KAGIKAN:
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History clxv
Tageum plant found in modern-day Tagum, specifically in Barangay San Isidro, 2018.
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KAGIKAN:
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History clxxix
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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-no-
236-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,

KAGIKAN:
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History clxxxiii
Perez, E. (2018). Personal Interview. (C. L. Sucnaan, & J. Benaning, Interviewers)
Pongo, B. E., & Bungad, A. (2018, February). Personal Interview. (M. C.

Pagdilao, & C. Valenzuela, Interviewers) Madaum, Tagum City,
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,

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:
clxxxiv Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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)

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/
KAGIKAN:
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History clxxxv
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.
KAGIKAN:
clxxxviii Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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 clxxxix
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.
KAGIKAN:
cxc 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 cxci
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.
KAGIKAN:
cxcii 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 cxciii
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.
KAGIKAN:
cxciv Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History
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.
KAGIKAN
Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History cxcv
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.
KAGIKAN:
cxcvi 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 Pandian-
BTC|IPMR-New Balamban, Pyagmatikadung Erick Perez-BTC|IPMR-
Apokon, Pyagmatikadung Adi Garcia-BTC-San Isidro, Pyagmatikadung
Simproso Gomez-BTC|IPMR-San Agustin, Pyagmatikadung Sean
Icalina-BTC|IPMR-Mag. Poblacion, Pyagmatikadung Belardo Bungad-
BTC|IPMR-Madaum, Pyagmatikadung Sabandal Jamindang-BTC-
Busaon, 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|IPMR-
Pagsabangan, 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 Baunto-
Amerol, 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.

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Tracing the Flow of

Tagum’s Rich History

Text Copyright 2019 by the City Government of Tagum and

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or

Executive Editor: Mayor Allan L. Rellon, DPA, Ph.D

Published in Tagum City, Philippines

Early Records on Tagum 19

Migrant Muslim Settlers

Migrant Settlers from the

Migrant Settlers from Luzon and Visayas 100

A Fledgling Municipality 110

Hon. Manuel B. Suaybaguio, Sr. 128

It took a century and two years for the City of Tagum — a

The fact that it took 102 years to produce a history book

This book is a goldmine of information, with some facts

For so long a time, history books tell us of the gallantry of our

These historical facts and more others contained in this

In a nutshell, the journey of Tagum into what it is today is a tale

John Dalberg-Acton, an English historian, penned a century

Through the pages of this book, we at the City Historical,

ALLAN L. RELLON, DPA, Ph.D.

In celebration of the rich and colorful history of Tagum, a concoction of

tagumtagum Tagum’s journey never followed a straight path,

But it is undeniably rich with colorful and telling accounts...

Mandaya’s Pinaiyan na Pinatulo

...one that is worth sharing for the Tagumenyos

For the Migrants,

For the Tagumenyos

Tagum City Historical,

Tracing our Roots,

Tracing our Roots,

Tracing the Flow of Tagum’s Rich History

A year after, Jose Nieto Aguilar also wrote a book describing

Nothing in the sources from both the Spanish and American

During this time, the water appears to be as dark as the color of

In other words, oral traditions of the Mansaka tribe had it that

But what exactly is Tageum? Which among the plant species

Research has shown that there is an Indigo plant that can be

In present-day Tagum, the indigo plant has been seen to thrive

In an interview with Datu Belardo Bungad, the Tribal Chieftain

The discovery of the existence of pre-American era documents

TERRITORIAL LIMITS AND BOUNDARIES

A publication of the census of the entire Philippine Islands

Section 52 of Act 2408 which provided for a temporary form

Based on the given definition of Municipal District in the said

During those times, the Governor of the Province of Davao

Before Tagum was given the status of a Municipal District, a

By 1918, the Insular Government had already conducted a

A compendium of the Executive Orders given by Governor

This change in the make-up of the barrios of Tagum as a

With Liboganon, as well as Tagum and Bincungan already

This change in the territory of Tagum from the time it became

A look at the first-ever compilation of Tax Declaration of real

The same compilation of the real property tax declarations also

Twenty-four years after its formal founding, Tagum underwent

In 1948, new area names which were not indicated when

Interestingly, there were several barrios that had been added

The area of the municipality of Tagum further shrank in the

A perusal on the text of the Executive Order which paved the

For the descendants of the Kagan Muslims and the Indigenous

A letter of Fr. Quirico More, S.J. to his mission’s Father Superior,

As to the English-translated letter of Fr. More to his superior,

Since the Mandayas had had enough of being subjected to the