MUNICIPALITY OF GUMACA, Quezon, Historical Data of Part 1

It must have been in the latter part of the fourteenth century or the early part of the fifteenth century when the civilized Malays (but it was known that most of them arrived here at a much earlier date) from Borneo arrived in the Philippines. Some of them arrived on the island of Luzon direct from Borneo, while others came by way of Balabac, Palawan; the Calamianes, and Mindoro. Part of these late comers from Mindoro (this is only a probability but not an impossibility) must have reached the southeastern part of Luzon that now forms the Province of Quezon (Tayabas before) and establish their settlements along the coasts, mostly on river valleys.

One of these earliest settlements was founded at the southern bank of the Palanas River which, later, became the Gumaca River and the settlement itself became the present town of Gumaca.

The earliest known ruler of those settlements was Lakan Bugtali. At this time, his sovereignty extended over all the regions bordering Gusuan Bay (now called Lamon Bay) from the Kamaoo Point (now Gamaw) on to the north across the bay, including the whole of Alabat Island from Sangirin (now Perez town) on the northern tip of the island to the southeast, passing through the northeastern part of the present town of Calauag. From this place, it swerved further to the southeast, passing through the source of the Talalong and the Pandana Rivers; then to the southwest as far as the mouth of the Kabulihan River on the China Sea coast. From here, it swerved to the northwest as far as the upper Kalilayan River (in the present town of Unisan) and from there, passed through the forests to the northeast back to the Kamaoo Point. The whole of these regions comprised ninety-three (93) big barangays under Lakan Bugtali as the chief ruler.

When these civilized Malays first established their settlements in these regions, they found the Aetas and the Dumagats, the latter

The Aetas are short and dark with short kinky hair and flat noses, whereas the Dumagats have straight hair and lighter brown skin. They have small noses, with brown eyes which are set far apart but are taller than the Aetas. These tribes are not civilized and, as they have no fixed homes, they wander from place to place. The Aetas live in the forests and mountains and procure their food through hunting with their bows and arrows, which they carry with them from place to place. They also raise mountain rice, but they change their fields after their harvests. Their food consists mostly of wild roots. They hunt for wild animals such as wild pigs, deer, monkeys, and birds; and catch fish in rivers and lakes. The Dumagats, however, mostly live in marshes and seacoasts and depend for their food mostly on fish and wild roots. They are lazier than the Aetas. Both of them do not wear clothes; they use only the strings. The Aetas and the Dumagats are obedient, peaceful, and respectful to their more civilized neighbors and will do any odd jobs if given tobacco and wine, which they love so much but which they do not know how to produce. As had always been the case, these Aetas and Dumagats are slowly disappearing, as they cannot live longer with the more civilized tribes that settled in their midst. Today, those tribes can be found in the mountains and forests of the island of Luzon, Mindanao, Panay, Negros, Palawan, and Mindoro.

On the other hand, the Tagalogs, as the civilized Malays in these settlements were later called, live in huts and houses that are made of wood and other strong materials. They stay permanently in one place in which they settle, except in cases when their safety is in danger.

The women, on the other hand, did the house chores and wove the abaca fibers into clothes for the use of the family, and also helped their husbands in tilling the fields.

Being on the seacoasts, the settlements were accessible and easily reached by traders from foreign lands. Chinese, Japanese, Borneans, Hindus, Siamese, and later on Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Mexicans came to the settlements at the mouth of the Palanas River. Here, they sold their wares — silk and cotton cloths, jewelry and colored beads, porcelain wares, copper, tin, needles, lead sinkers for nets, dishes, bells, iron lances, colored blankets, etc., and bought and bartered them with pearls, sigays, shells, gold nuggets or ingots, betel nuts, and yuta cloths. Due to this great number of foreign traders, there were different kinds of money that were in use in the settlements such as Chinese, Japanese, Bornean, Hindu, Siamese, Portuguese, Dutch, and Javanese money.

As a ruler, Lakan Bugtali was a brave man, and as a warrior, he was peerless in his domain. Physically, he was strongly built as his exploits as a warrior were known and reckoned with throughout the land. Oftentimes, he had to defend his people against the horrors and ravages of the invasions and depredations of the Moros from the south and the Chinese and other foreign pirates who all tried to subdue him and his people for tributes and pillage. Each time, Lakan Bugtali and his people foiled these treacherous attempts at subjugation and proved to the invaders that he, Lakan Bugtali, was the superior warrior among them. Each time, Lakan Bugtali emerged unscathed and victorious in each battle for the defense of his brave people. Because of these frequent Moro depredations and the invasion of foreign pirates, the people of the Palanas settlements came to fear for their safety whenever they saw Moro vintas and foreign ships that happened to cruise along Gusuan Bay (now Lamon Bay), which they could clearly see from their peaceful settlements at the mouth of the Palanas River. Only Lakan Bugtali and his brave warriors were calm and confident that they could successfully defend their homes against those ruthless invaders.

At that time, Lam Ong, a notorious Chinese pirate, with his handful of around twenty (20) cutthroats, was greatly known far and wide, and traders from foreign lands and hereabouts greatly detested him for his ruthless and cruel deeds as a pirate. It was known that after Lam Ong had robbed a ship of all its valuables, he would kill his prisoners and, if it suited his fancy, he would first torture his prisoners in the most ruthless and horrible ways before executing them. Thus, Lam Ong was hated by all the people that ever knew of his cruel and inhumane treatment of his prisoners.

In gratitude for the wise and good leaderhip of Lakan Bugtali in defeating the notorious and wily Lam Ong, who for a year terrorized everybody in the regions washed by the waters of Lam Ong Bay and, thereby, putting an end to the menace to the safety of the place, the barangay chiefs under the and wise Lakan Bugtali held a sumptuous feast at the residence of their superior chief and the south bank of the Palanas River. In the midst of this royal feast in the celebration of the wise leadership and heroic victory over the Chinese pirates, one of the barangay chiefs suggested that the name of their highest majesty, Lakan Bugtali, be changed to Lakan Bumaka (translated literally, "bumaka" means one who fought), as this name rightly referred to one (Lakan Bugtali himself), who fought the most cruel, notorious, and wily pirate, robbers, enslavers, pillagers, and invaders from foreign lands to a successful and victorious end. To this, the modest Lakan respectfully refused and, in turn, suggested that such a good and symbolic name be applied to the place as a whole, as the people were really the ones responsible for the defeat of Lam Ong and not he alone. To this suggestion, all the chiefs respectfully gave their assent, and since then, the settlement had been named Bumaka, and the Palanas River, on whose banks the settlement had been established, became the Bumaka River.

But, time and again, the depredations occurred in the regions of the Lam Ong Bay so, in a meeting of the barangay chiefs, it was decided to transfer the settlement further inland to obviate any possibility of the settlement being invaded and pillaged by the Moros. The settlement was, little by little, transferred further to the upper reaches of the Bumaka River at the present barrio of Pugawin. For sometime, the people lived in this second settlement but, as foreign pirates and Moro depredators did not stop

After the transfer of the settlement to Silangan, Lakan Bugtali, with his still unmarried daughter, made several more trips between Bumaka and Silangan, and in the latest of those trips, a strong storm arose. The boat on which Lakan Bugtali and his beautiful Tala were riding capsized. Lakan Bugtali failed to save his daughter from drowning. Due to the unbearable sorrow occasioned by this unfortunate accident, the good Lakan got sick and finally died after a few months of illness.

After the death of Lakan Bugtali, Matarong, a man of 29 years, was elected as Lakan Matarong to succeed the late Lakan Bugtali. He was also a good and wise ruler who initiated experiments and improvements in agriculture, poultry and swine raising, fishing, and other lines in the industrial and economic pursuits for the good and benefit of his people. For these, he succeeded in giving his people material benefit, and his people were thankful and grateful to him.

Still, the Moro depredations and foreign piracy were constant threats to the safety of the settlers that never gave peace to their minds. To, they again [decided] to transfer the settlement from Silangan to the mouth of the Kamohaguin River to the mainland in the present barrio of Gumaca that bears the same name. But, in this place, the seashores and the rivers did not have enough fish for the people, and so they were not satisfied. This time, they tried to locate a place for their new settlement in the hands of their Bathala. The old men suggested that they bring and orange fruit with a cross tucked in it in the middle of

In the long intervening years after the reign of Lakan Matarong, there had been a long line of rulers that succeeded one after another and the settlement had grown and prospered under them. Commerce and trade flourished as foreign traders from far-off lands came and went to sell their wares in exchange for the local products; and still, the Moros continued in pillaging and plundering the settlers and capturing them to be sold as slaves to foreign traders, or keep them as their own slaves in Moroland.

In the meantime, the Spanish conquistadores, under the leadership of Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, had already established permanent settlements in Cebu and Panay Islands and has subjugated other islands in the Visayas and even visited the Bicol provinces in their march for conquest. In 1570, Goite captured the City of Manila from Rajah Soliman. From Manila, the conquest of Luzon Island followed until the death of Salcedo in 1576, when almost all of Luzon Island except the mountain provinces and the eastern coasts had been explored and brought under the Spanish crown. The conquest of the Philippines was practically accomplished except Mindanao Island, on which the Moro inhabitants still continued their effective resistance against the foreign invaders and, in turn, retaliated by their frequent depredations and pillages against the inhabitants of the coastal towns as far as Northern Luzon.

As Spanish settlements in Cebu, Panay, and Manila were established, conversion of the native inhabitants to the Catholic faith was immediately undertaken, to carry out the expressed and earnest desire of their sovereign. Churches were built in the settlements and the natives were taught the first doctrines of Roman Catholicism. Missionary priests were sent to all parts of the Philippines, and in 35 years after the arrival of Legaspi in Cebu, Christianity was firmly established in the Philippines.

The first Spaniard who came to Bumaka was Fr. Diego de Oropesa, a Franciscan missionary priest, who was sent to the settlement of Tayabas at the foot of the Banahaw Mountain. After the completion of his mission at this settlement in converting the inhabitants to Christianity, and after he had built a temporary church whose patron was St. Diego de Alcala, in honor of Fr. Oropesa, the good missionary priest decided to move further to the southeast until he reached Gumaca in March of 1574. He was received well and with hospitality, and had his lodging at the house of the Lakan, whose name was Gitingan. As was always the case with all foreigners who arrived in Bumaka, his first queries after he was dined and refreshed sumptuously were the respective names of the place and the bay which faced the settlement. To these queries, Lakan Gitingan informed him that the place in Bumaka and the bay before him was Lam Ong Bay. The bay and the place got their respective names at that time. Being a Spaniard who was then new to the Tagalog dialect [more correctly, "language"] and its pronunciation, the good friar pronounced Bumaka as Gumaca and Lamg Ong as Lamon. The good Lakan Gitingan repeatedly but vainly tried to correct the pronunciation of the words, but the friar always pronounced them as GUMACA and LAMON. Hence, the place became Gumaca and the bay became Lamon Bay from that time up to the present, and these names became official when Fr. Oropesa sent his first report to the highest authority in Manila.

The first task undertaken by Fr. Oropesa was the baptism and conversion of the natives. Because of the good and truly religious acts and deeds of

It is true that the Spaniards found the Philippines with its own culture at the time of conquest, but this culture this culture finally gave way to a more highly developed culture, that of the civilization of Europe at the time. Fr. Oropesa taught the natives how to read and write in the Latin alphabet and other essentials of an advanced educational system in schools which he established for the purpose. The natives were taught further other cultural subjects, with the end in view of improving their old ways. Later, when the natives had acquired substantial knowledge of good education at the time, teachers were appointed from among them by the friar. He taught them how to build better houses; he initiated new methods for the better production of crops and animals; and introduced new and better varieties of plants from Mexico; and new and better stocks of animals. He also initiated improvements in the custom of private ownership of land.

At first, Fr. Oropesa left the administration, the laws, and the customs unchanged, provided that they did not go against the Catholic religion. Even the rulers of the barangays were not changed nor were they molested in their administration of their respective barangays. But it seemed that when Lakan Gitingan died, no more lakans succeeded him and the probability is that Fr. Oropesa became the ruler of Gumaca. This is quite possible, as the historical account from which these facts were taken did not men-

Since the arrival of Fr. Oropesa in Gumaca, there had been much improvements and stability in the place, and more merchants and traders from foreign lands came to trade with the inhabitants. But, in 1638, during the administration of Fr. Marcelo de la Guardia, it was decided to transfer the township for the record time to Silangan as the Moro depredations then were becoming frequent. Ill luck, however, befell them because when the people had built their homes and the church was still unfinished, the town of Silangan was attacked and burned by the Dutch in 1664. This time, the administrator of Silangan was Fr. Celestino de San Miguel. The church was never finished because, in 1665, the people returned again to Gumaca for good and never to leave again the place.

In the intervening years since the return from Silangan, it seemed that Gumaca was at peace with the world, and life in the place was going on smoothly for the inhabitants, with the friars giving the orders and the people following them to the letter.

In the year 1671, the Spanish government appointed tenientes absolutos (town presidents) as the chief administrators of the towns in civilian affairs in which the curate often intervened. However, the decisions of the curate had more weight in the resolution of any problems in which he tried to meddle. In 1685, the tenientes absolutos were changed to gobernadorcillos. The gobernadorcillo was given his assistants in the administration of the town as follows: 1.e, 2.e, 3.3, 4.3, and 5.e tenientes mayores;

In 1690, the building of the town church, tower, and convent were begun; and in 1747, the construction was finished. Free communal labor was used and men, women, and children of both sexes worked in this big construction. It was on official record that those laborers had only popcorn for their food during the construction period. These structures were made of large hewn stones and lumber with tiled roofs throughout. For cementing purposes, they used lime with water which had been mixed with pounded "puso-puso" and a little molasses from sugarcane.

In 1751, the erection of the four stone fortresses (water towers) which would defend the town was begun; and in 1781, the last of these fortresses (the Santa Maria) was finished, and each was supplied with small cannons and warners to apprise the people of any impending attack from Moro invaders and pirates. Of these fortresses, only one (the San Diego on the northeastern part of the town directly facing Lamon Bay on the south bank of the mouth of the Gumaca River) remains today. The Santa Maria fortress (begun in 1751 and finished in 1781), which was built on the southern end of the wooden bridge over the Gumaca River on the present intersection between Muralla and Jose Rizal Streets, was destroyed in 1905 when the bridge was widened and finished in 1769, which was built on the south bank of the upper Gumaca River in line with the Santa Maria on the present site of the residence of Mr. Gregorio Baldeo on Marcelo del Pilar Street, was destroyed in 1889. The San Miguel (begun in 1751 and finished in 1771) was built on the eastern part of the town opposite to the present residence of Mr. Marciano Principe to guard the shores of Lamon Bay on the northeastern part of the town was destroyed in 1882 by the strong earthquake that rocked the town.

In 1752, the construction of the Casa Real (Municipal Building) was begun. This building was made of hewn stones.

In 1787, a palisade of molave and other hardwoods was built around the town for its protection against armed bandits and Moro invaders.

In the history of Gumaca were very serious disasters and calamities such as fires, earthquakes, and epidemics and storms which were recorded.

In 1824, a fire of unknown origin burned many houses in Gumaca. In 1876, a second fire razed more than one-half of the town to the ground. One Ponciano Omana pleaded guilty to incendiarism which, according to him, was ordered by Capitan Pedro Noscal. Then, in 1878, another fire burned the central part of the town.

In 1846, the cholera epidemic had its toll of many lives among the populace.

In 1882, a strong earthquake partly destroyed the church and its central altar. This destruction necessitated the building of a temporary church on the northeast of the stone church, until the damages had been repaired fully. The repairs were completed in 1884. Adornments were also made in the church by Don Juan Austria, a Spanish "hoja-latero."

In 1846, a royal decree ordered the change of family names which were also given the names of saints to other family names.

In 1858, the town of Lopez was created out of the Talolong barangay and other barangays adjacent thereto, which were hitherto parts of Gumaca.

In 1861, the government decreed that the term of the gobernadorcillo would be two years instead of only one, beginning 1862, and a directorcillo would henceforth decide petty local cases of a judicial nature.

In 1872, the seawall on the southern bank of the Gumaca River was built without the consent from higher authorities, and for this unauthorized construction, the gobernadorcillo, Capitan Pedro Noscal, was temporarily suspended from office, and Juan Olaivar was designated acting gobernadorcillo in his place.

In 1892, the name gobernadorcillo was changed to capitan municipal by royal decree. An advisory council was also created, and minor changes in official designations in the government were effected. In this year, the office of Juez de Paz (Justice of the Peace) was created. The name of the cuadrillero was also changed to somatin.

In 1896, the Spanish government decreed, for the second time, the building of a palisade around the town for its defense against the expected attacks of the Filipino insurgents, the revolution having begun in the Philippines.