President: Gabriel Visaya
Vice President: Benigno Anicero
Secretary: Vicente Alvarez
Councilors:
Segundo Agustin;
Victor Yarcia
Chief of Police: Gregorio Carreon (standing)
Thursday, September 29, 2022
The Municipal Council Administration 1928-'31 (Santiago City)
The Road To Cityhood (Santiago City) in time of Mayor Jose "Pempe" C. Miranda
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| Photo credits to https://www.facebook.com/SantiagoCityPH |
Cityhood for the town of Santiago is an enduring popular progress, which Mayor Jose "Pempe" C. Miranda turned out of the earlier dream of his predecessors.
The march to cityhood has been long and tedious, yet dramatically shows that when people unite and work together for a common desire, they can achieve monumental results. During his second term in office, Mayor "Pempe" Miranda took with characteristic boldness the preparatory steps towards the realization of cityhood for the town of his birth.
In 1992, he issued Executive Order No. 92-05, which created and tasked an ad hoc committee to conduct a thorough study and submit recommendations on the conversion of Santiago into a city. The committee was headed by MLGOO Carlos L. Hernal. It was at once found out that the town's population was not yet large enough to qualify for cityhood. However, the acute legalistic mind of Fiscal Valentin Pelayo saw the possibility of cityhood as contained in the Local Government Code which provides that a municipality may be converted into a city as long as one of the two requirements - number of population and volume of revenue - is met.
Being now sure that Santiago had the qualification for cityhood, Mayor Miranda right away geared for an intelligent attempt at earning urban distinction for Santiago. On February 15, 1993, he signed Executive Order No. 93-03, which created a joint Executive-Legislative Committee on Cityhood. The fired up Mayor himself headed the committee whose members included all members of the Sangguniang Bayan, all the heads of municipal government offices, and Fiscal Pelayo.
On February 19, 1993, Santiago municipal government officials visited and toured the cities of San Jose and Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija, San Carlos in Pangasinan, and Angeles in Pampanga. Immediately afterwards, consultations and dialogues regarding cityhood were conducted to get the people's pulse.
On March 04, 1993, a significant step towards cityhood had been taken when the Sangguniang Bayan approved Executive Resolution No. 93-29, which was subsequently endorsed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Isabela under the leadership of Gov. Benjamin Dy and Vice Gov. Manuel Binag. In this resolution, authored by all of the members of the Sangguniang Bayan, Rep. Antonio Abaya was asked to sponsor a bill providing for the conversion of the Municipality of Santiago into a city. The Honorable Congressman obliged and House Bill No. 8817 was filed at the Lower House under his sponsorship and those of Reps. Albano, Respicio, and Dy, Jr. On November 25, 1993, the bill was discussed extensively in a public hearing conducted by the House of Representatives Committee on Local Government, chaired by Rep. Ciriaco Alfelor of Camarines Sur.
On December 17, 1993, the bill converting Santiago into an independent component city was approved by the Lower House.
On February 23, 1994, Senate Bill No. 1243, which had been sponsored jointly by Sens. Roco and Romulo, the Senate majority Floor Leader, was presented for public hearing. It was approved on March 14, 1994 after another public hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Local Government, chaired by Sen. Sotto III.
On May 05, 1994, a historic event took place in Malacañang Palace, Manila, upon the signing of Republic Act No. 7720 by His Excellency, President Fidel V. Ramos, creating the town of Santiago as an independent component city - the first in Region 2.
On July 06, 1994, a plebiscite ratified R.A. 7720 with positive response to cityhood.
SOURCE: https://cityofsantiago.tripod.com/HISTORY.HTML
Photo credits to https://www.facebook.com/SantiagoCityPH
Compiled Written History Of Santiago City (FILE No. 3)
Santiago can be traced out to the first native settlement discovered by the early Spanish missionaries at the bank of the old Carig River (now Diadi River) from which its name was derived.
Carig, according to Ibanag dictionary, means “tall and straight tree”. These trees abounded the place where the antique Carig was at the gently rolling land of Dalayag (now the area between Barangay Buenavista and Barangay Ambalatungan) near the said river. It was founded as a political pueblo on May 4, 1743, with Santiago the Apostle as Patron Saint. In 1746, the political pueblo or center of political government was transferred to the site of Patul. From there, it has grown and evolved, following several phases of history to become, at present, a bustling trading and commercial center, and first city of Region 02.
As to how Carig metamorphosed to what it is now, City of Santiago, accounts vary according to facts and legend.
This research has been unearthed from factual information and evidences. Before the Spanish evangelizers gained foothold on the frontier of this place, it was already known as Carig.
The early inhabitants were the Gaddangs and the Ibanags. During the Spanish era, it was called Carig, Santiago de Carig, Pueblo de Carig”. The only surviving document now at the national archives regarding the early towns of Isabela, contains the name Santiago de Apostol de Carig.
On October 12, 1903, during the American occupation, Carig and Cordon were combined with the Municipality of Echague. Actually, it was part of the strategic move to reduce the 15 municipalities. From 1903 to 1909, Carig had been annexed to Echague. Until on January 1, 1910, during the municipal reorganization, the Americans issued Executive Order No. 02 making Carig a municipality again. This marked the birth of this town but was re-named as SANTIAGO. Take note that the Apostol de Carig was deleted from its official name Santiago Apostol de Carig. Based on the “Historical and Cultural Life of the Barrios of Santiago”, fruition of the cooperative project of the Historical Committee of Santiago in the early 1950s composed of selected public teachers, Kapitan Vicente Carreon, the Municipal President of the town that time, changed the name of Carig to Santiago, in honor of St. James the patron saint of old Carig. Santiago remained as a municipality for 84 years.
On May 5, 1994, by virtue of R.A. 7720, the municipality was converted to independent component city. But R.A. 8528 repealed this statute on Feb. 14, 1998 changing it from independent-component to Component City of Santiago. As a consequence, a petition was filed before the Supreme Court contesting the validity and legality of said law. The High Tribunal finally decided on December 29, 1999 favoring the existence of an independent component City of Santiago.
Santiago was originally a part of the province of Cagayan, which was already reorganized as a political subdivision in 1583 with Nueva Segovia as its capital, comprising the whole Cagayan Valley. When Nueva Vizcaya was created as a politico-military province by the decree of Gov. Gen. Luis Lardizabal on May 21, 1839 which was later confirmed by a Royal Spanish decree on April 10, 1841, three great mission-regions had been organized: 1) DIFFUN – Calanusian (Reina Mercedes), Cauayan, Camarag and Carig; 2) PANIQUI – Bayombong, Lumabang (Solano), Bagabag; and 3) ITUY – Bambang, Buhay (Aritao) and Dupax.
On May 1, 1856, when the Province of Isabela was carved out by a Royal Decree from Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya, Santiago was among those towns ceded to the newly created province.
“Before the coming of Spaniards, there was no FILIPINO people, but only people, in the archipelago that was, in later times, to be called the Philippines”, according to Antonio Molina, a noted historian.
At the arrival of the Spaniards there was no town in the actual sense of this word, nor was there any kind of unity among the different tribes or clans throughout the Islands.
The first task of the missionaries was the creation of towns and municipalities. What the missionaries virtually and invariably did everywhere was to group the converts and to make them settle down in one place. The first choice of a location was not always a happy one with regards to sanitation and the manifold requirements of civil life.
As a rule, the missionaries, however, made the right choice which resulted to most of the towns of the Philippines in the places originally designed by them. All the elements of civility was introduced to the locality: the house for each family, the church, the convent and the schools for children.
Isabela’s spiritual conquest as well as civil conquest came as early as 1598, establishing missions in Cagayan (now San Pablo, 1598), then Southward to Tumauini (1610), Ilagan (1612), Reina Mercedes (then called Ifugao or Calanusian), Camarag (1753), and Carig now City of Santiago, (1743). The Dominicans left Isabela after the Philippine revolution, and the Ilocos diocesan clergy took over the parishes of Isabela, aided by the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart (Belgian Priest) from 1910 to 1948. From 1948 to present, the missionaries of our Lady of La Salette have assisted the diocesan priests.
Father Geronimo Ulloa was the first Spanish missionary to reach Carig in 1673. It was in 1736, when another attempt was made towards the Christianization of the regionsouth of Gamu. Three of the five priests succumbed to climate and difficulties but the survivors Father Jose Tomas Martin and Pedro Sierra penetrated deep into the territory even reaching as far as Bayombong. The results of these zealous and dedicated apostolic labors were the towns of Cauayan (1739), Carig (1743) and Camarag (1752).
Isabela originally comprised three separate administrative districts of Cagayan Province: Irraya (Cabagan-Ilagan); Diffun (Gamu-Cauayan); and Paniqui (Cagayan- Nueva Vizcaya border).
The vast regions of Isabela became Christians including Carig. But in the mountain areas, pagan Gaddangs and Mayoyaos continued to resist Spanish rule and Evangelization. Due to frequent hostile raids of aboriginal tribes who would steal and kill in lowlands, the Spanish Government commissioned Don Mariano Oscariz to lead a series of punitive campaign against the Ifugaos. These unfriendly tribes were subdued and the Dominicans established among them several mission stations. The events of 1898 put an end to all the Dominican labor in Isabela.
Later in the 19th century, other Dominicans either founded or accepted spiritual responsibility for the towns of Oscariz (1882), Reina Mercedes (1885), and Cordon (1886).
Hereunder is a conglomeration of the records on the number of inhabitants of Santiago and its leaders from 1751-1999 taken from various sources. 1751 (150 inhabitants); 1801 (1,012 inhabitants); 1850 (774 inhabitants: 1847 (2,651 inhabitants); 1903 (no record); 1918 (5,596 inhabitants) 1939 (34,154 inhabitants); 1948 (22,550 inhabitants); 1960 (39,440 inhabitants); 1970 (49,688 inhabitants); 1975 (59,247 inhabitants); 1980 (69,877 inhabitants); 1990 (90,787 inhabitants); 1995 (98542 inhabitants); 1999 (105,042 projection).
SOURCE:
https://santiago-city-philippines.blogspot.com/2015/03/history-of-santiago-city.html
Compiled Written History Of Santiago City (FILE No. 2)
Sixty years after Magellan landed in Cebu in 1521, the first Spanish settlement in the Cagayan Valley was founded in Lal-lo, Cagayan in 1581. From there, the colonizers slowly moved south following the Rio Grande de Cagayan. It was another sixty years when they were known to have obtained foothold in Isabela.
The first known town established in Isabela by the Spaniards was Cabagan which was founded on May 15, 1647. It took them another 80 years before they established communities in southern Isabela, the last of which was Carig which was formally established on May 04, 1743.
However, as early as 1702, a place known as Carig was already in existence. In an old document found among the papers of the late Ventura Panganiban, a "Jues" of Santiago in 1871, and a "Cabeza de Barangay" in 1886, mention was made of a Padre Andres Gonzales Baltazar Y Jose Rezabal, as being a member of a mission which reached as far as Carig in 1702.
Again, when the construction of the road to Manila through the Caraballo Mountains was begun in 1736, one Padre Diego La Torre, a missionary from Ilagan was sent to attend the ground breaking ceremonies passing through Carig. A year later, another missionary, a Pedro Jose Omas Martin, went to Aritao, passing through Carig, and whose party was ambushed by Igorots. But one Padre Antonio del Ocampo was generally known to be founder of the towns from Cauayan, Isabela to Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.
In another document found in the National Archives, the town of Carig was mentioned in a statistical report submitted to the Prior Provincial of the Province of the Holy Rosary run to the Sacred Orders of Preachers.
It seems that by virtue of a "Decree of Request" promulgated in October 30, 1713, the inhabitants of Carig, Cordon, Diffun, and Santa Barbara de Lappao, were required to give rice and stipends to the missionaries in these places.
As can be gleaned from the early records found, the town was already known as Santiago de Carig. It is understandable that the same "Santiago" was already a part of the town’s name because it was under the advocation of Santiago Apostol, the Patron Saint of Spain. Carig is a river running thru the town from west to east to south now known as Diadi River. It is no wonder, therefore, that this town was popularly known as Carig even when it was a barrio of Echague, then a bigger and more progressive town because of its location along the Cagayan River, which was the principal route of travel in Isabela and Cagayan.
There were no roads connecting the towns of Cagayan and Isabela. The people in those places traveled thru the Cagayan River using sailboats carrying tobacco, corn, coconut and salted fish. There are no historical documents to show how the town finally got its name "Santiago". A legend down from generations has it that it was named after a local hero by the name of Santiago Lumidao, whose exploits in battle against the head hunting pagans was enduring and wondrous.
According to the legend, the three communities which had been perennial targets of the pagan incursions were Cordon, Santiago and Echague. The raids were common occurrences, especially during the mating season when the tribes sent head-hunters to bring home trophies in the form of Christian heads. Such were the exploits against the Christians that they were sometimes forced to give tributes in order to be spared from those bloody incursions. Among the more notorious warlike tribes were the Igorots, Aetas, Ilongots and Kalingas.
When the Christians could no longer tolerate the aggressions, they decided to organize a defense group to resist the invasions. The pagans learned of this and boasted that they could overrun these three towns, breakfasting in Cordon, taking their lunch in Santiago, and their supper in Echague.
The Christian defense forces consisting of volunteers from Echague, Santiago and Cordon, assembled at the bank of the Ilut River, which divided the town of Cordon and the mountain where the pagans lived.
A hail of arrows and spears hurled across each bank signaled the beginning of the battle. All of a sudden, as the infidels prepared to ford the river, a great shout not unlike that of thunder was heard behind the defense lines. There, on top of a hill was a lone warrior on a white stead dressed in white, brandishing a flaming sword. Shouts of "Santiago, Santiago" came from both forces.
The sight gave courage to the defenders but spurred the invaders to greater fury.
Hardly had the infidels touched the river’s edge when as if a great wind swept over the place and the river dried up. In a rush, they advanced but just as suddenly, when half of the invaders reached the middle of the river bed, the river filled up again in a swirling and churning fury, drowning those on its wake.
Again and again, the invaders attacked only to be repulsed by the defenders and thwarted by the raging current. Seeing their opportunity, the defenders in turn counter-attacked. Led by the unknown soldier, the invaders were soon in a rout, shrieking "Santiago, Santiago", as they fled in terror and disarray.
The shouts of fear were drowned by the louder victory cries of the victors. In their elation , however, they failed to note that their champion disappeared. No one saw him leave. His identity remained a mystery but many thought he was Santiago Lumidao, a local warrior known for his bravery and powers in battle.
But not a few believed that he was Senior Santiago Apostol, Carig’s patron saint himself who led the Christians to victory. This belief was confirmed next morning when the early church goers found the patron saint’s statue on horseback full of amorsecos, a kind of grass which should be on the battlefield the day before. Since then, the town of Carig came to be called Santiago in memory of the great battle and its hero who was either Santiago Lumidao or the patron saint Santiago Apostol.
Historical records show that the Municipality of Santiago was officially created by a Royal Decree on May 1858. At this time this decree was promulgated, the towns of Diffun and Saguday, in the province of Quirino and the towns of Cordon, Ramon and San Mateo, in the province of Isabela, were barrios of this Municipality. Notwithstanding the creation of these municipalities from the original land area, Santiago has developed and progressed to become the leading commercial, industrial and educational center of Cagayan Valley today.
FILE SOURCE:
http://www.oocities.org/capitolhill/lobby/7788/history.html
http://www.geocities.ws/cityofsantiago/history.html
PHOTO SOURCE:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AKVHTE3CVJ34KX8A
Compiled Written History Of Santiago City (FILE No. 1)
The origin of Santiago can be traced out to the first native settlement near the bank (now the area between Brgy. Ambalatungan and Brgy. Buenavista) of the Carig River (now Diadi River) from which its name was derived. The first inhabitants were the Ibanags and Gaddangs.
Before the Spanish evangelizers gained foothold on the frontiers of this place, it was alredy known as "Carig". Carig means "tall and straight trees". These were abundant in the area in those early days. During the Spanish Era, it was founded as a political pueblo on May 4, 1743 with Santiago Apostol as Patron Saint. Then in 1746, it was transferred to the site of Patul. It was called Carig, Santiago de Carig, Pueblo de Carig of Santiago Apostol de Carig. On October 12, 1903, during the American Occupation, Carig and Cordon were combined with the Municipality of Echague. It was part of the strategic move by the Americans to reduce the number of municipalities. From 1903 to 1909, Carig had been annexed to Echague. Until on January 01, 1910, during the municipal reorganization, the Americans issued Executive Order No. 02 making Carig a municipality but was baptized with a new name SANTIAGO. Note that the Apostol de Carig was deleted from its original name Santiago Apostol de Carig. It was Kapitan Vicente Carreon, who was then the Municipal President of the town that time, who changed the name Carig into Santiago, in honor to St. James the Apostle, the Patron Saint of the town.
SOURCE: https://cityofsantiago.tripod.com/HISTORY.HTML
