Santiago Cultural Institute (Santiago Chinese School) Santiago City

 

Santiago Cultural Institute (Santiago Chinese School)

The Santiago Cultural Institute or SCI (simplified Chinese: 怡省仙朝峨中华中学; traditional Chinese: 怡省仙朝峨中華中學; pinyin: Yíshěng Xiān Cháo É Zhōnghuá Zhōngxué) is a private and non-sectarian academic institution. Founded in 1948, it is the only Chinese school in Santiago, Isabela, Philippines.

History

The school was first established in 1948 and was known as the Santiago Chinese School then. Its classroom were built out of Nipa and bamboo at its former location at the heart of Santiago City (then Santiago, Isabela). Three years later the rooms were renovated using walls as construction materials to provide stronger protection from the elements and the weather. This school was home to many students for the next two decades.

However, as years passed by, the gradual increase in number of students began to pose a space problem. The problem of scarcity of classrooms to accommodate both the children from the Chinese community and non-ethnic families wishing to avail of the quality system of instructions of SCI for their children was obviously to be addressed. The eventual dearth of rooms and campus space prompted the school's Board of Trustees (then the board of directors) to seek solutions in order that the school can satisfy the educational yearnings of a sizable portion of the city's population. The most feasible solution was the construction of new school building. So in 1966, the school board bought a piece of property for the school's future relocation.

The Board of Trustees foresight soon proved to be beneficial. In view of the burgeoning student population in 1976, the school authorities had no more option but to relocate to the newly acquired school site with an area of six thousand seven hundred square meters (acquired a decade before). The construction of project of the skill however entailed a big sum of money. Pursuing this under time constraint further complicated the problem. Considering the importance of the undertaking, the Board of Directors decided to push through with more vigor.

The groundwork for the construction of new school building at SCI's present location at Plaridel started in 1977. Hard-pressed for funds, the school administration and its Board of Trustees sought the support of the many magnanimous and philanthropic individuals and organizations through a fund raising drive. Auspiciously, the project was completed without any hitch. In 1978, the new school building was finally completed. This edifice has evolved as a concrete and symbolic marker of the cooperation, love, commitment, and hard-work rendered by different people who shared the same vision and aspirations for the youth of the generations to come.

The Santiago Cultural Institute is still located in the same 6,700 square meter lot Over the years since 1978, it has embarked on a number of modernization and upgrading programs in its educational curricula and facilities.

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 SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Cultural_Institute

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Judge Vicente Bangilan Aggabao (Santiago City)

 

Judge Vicente Bangilan Aggabao (Santiago City)

Judge Vicente Bangilan Aggabao continued with his military career as he would have retired as a General. His Officer's Serial No. 0-85452 would have outranked many other Generals in terms of seniority. Wayback 1960 He was commissioned as a Major in the JAGO( Judge Advocate General's Office) at Aguinaldo! A bemedalled officer in the USAFFE during World War 2, and a Bataan Veteran! He opted to join the Judiciary and ended his colorful career as an Outstanding Judge!

    Dad was a survivor of the Historic Bataan Death after Bataan fell into the hands of the Enemies. A young 19 y/o youth drafted out of his Law School to be commissioned as gunnery Sgt. of the USAFFE & was assigned to defend the beach trenches of Pangasinan as the first-line of defense against the Japanese invading forces! 

from Neville Aggabao

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CONTRIBUTOR: Angel Aggabao

SOURCE: Book; Isabela My Isabela By Raymund Katindig

Isabela Day 2011 First Edition

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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

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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

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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

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