Batangas Town, Batangas: Historical Data Part I

PART I

PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV | PART V

Full transcription of the so-called “Historical Data” for the poblacion, then-municipality but presently city of Batangas, the original scanned documents at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections not having OCR or optical character recognition properties. This transcription has been edited for grammar, spelling and punctuation where possible. The original pagination is provided for citation purposes.

[Cover page.]

HISTORY AND CULTURAL LIFE OF THE POBLACION

[p. 1]

HISTORY AND CULTURAL LIFE OF BATANGAS TOWN
ITS HISTORY

BATANGAS… that is how the town closest to the heart of every Batangueño is called. Retrospection of its history, as that of other towns of the Philippines, will take us way back to that period of primitives, when our ancestors used barks of trees for paper and sharpened bamboo sticks for pencils. The system of writing was not even their own because it was borrowed from more fortunate neighbors who came to our shores for reasons which were their own. The lack of more durable materials for recording purposes rendered it almost impossible and impractical to record the colorful beginnings of our town. The needed data and their connecting links were so wanting that at present, much as we research, we cannot genuinely reconstruct how our town from its humble beginning as a barangay rose to its present height of grandeur – the capital of one of the biggest and most progressive provinces and the cradle of many outstanding Filipinos, both past and present. If ever accounts had been written about our town, those accounts could not be found anywhere because the Spanish missionaries, in their false belief that such Filipino manuscripts were replete with evils, burned them. They thought that the rapid spread of Christianity among our people. Thus, the future generations became devoid of the richness of their glorious past!

Depleted of records, then, we have to depend on traditions for the reconstruction of our history. Mouth to mouth information had reached the present generation and from that we learned that way back in 1572, a Spanish missionary came to Batangan. (It was not yet called by that name at that time.) At that time, as to what was the real name of that lowland barangay near the Calumpang River, nobody could tell. Let it suffice to say that years later the whole region around this river became called “Region del Cumintan” by the Spaniards. There was no means by which the Spaniards could communicate with the natives except by signs such that there was no authentic way of asking for the real name of the barangay. However, the Spaniards were so delighted with the melodic song called the “Kumintang,” a song sung everywhere by the natives, that they called this barangay “Kumintang.”

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The Spanish missionary, so went the story, climbed up the hill north of this region where the old barangay “Kumintang” was situated, to visit Gat Pulintan. This venerable Gat was the brave chieftain and ruler of all the barangays in that region, or in other words, he was the Superior Datu. Fate was rather unkind to the missionary, for at the time of his visit, Gat Pulintan was not at home. He was, however, welcomed by the Princesa Kumintant, the daughter of the datu. The missionary was so impressed by the beauty and politeness of the princess and her court that, according to the story, he paid homage to her by kneeling before her and addressed her as Princess Kumintang. Thus, for the first time, the pride of a Spaniard was vanquished by the beauty and hospitality of a Filipino woman.

The hill on which the Provincial Capitol now rests, was the barangay of Kumintang. According to Retana, in Morga’s Sucesos de las Filipinas, this town was founded in 1581. It was christened Batangan because of the numerous big logs that abounded there. These logs were commonly called “batang” by the people of the barangay. After the founding (not official), the first chapel was built and the settlement became more populated.

So, Batangas became the name of the settlement or barangay of Kumintang. It was a settlement within the encomienda owned by Marshall Goiti, who was rewarded by the king for his services to the Spanish government. It was only in 1601 that the settlement of Batangas really became a town. Don Antonio Casulao was appointed its first gobernadorcillo and, since, then Batangan became the official name of our town.

As to the fate of Gat Pulintan and his daughter, not much could be gleaned. The brave chieftain and his family did not follow the footsteps of other datus who accepted Spanish sovereignty and Christianity readily. Like Lapulapu, he abhorred foreign domination, so he and his men sought the hills as their only refuge. There, they died a glorious death.

The pueblo of Batangas had for its head the gobernadorcillo. As was previously stated, Don Agustin Casulao [Note: There is obviously a conflict because earlier, Agustin Casulao was mentioned as Antonio.] was its first gobernadorcillo. Being the first, he was appointed instead of being elected. The succeeding

[p. 3]

gobernadorcillo was elected by the outgoing gobernadorcillo and twelve prominent citizens of the pueblo. The gobernadorcillo was assisted in the performance of his duties by the teniente mayor, teniente de policia (chief of police), teniente de sementeras (chief of planted fields), teniente de ganados (chief of cattle). The parish or cura parroco, however, was the ruler of the town.

For almost three and one half centuries, the Philippines was under Spain. During this length of time, the Filipinos progressed in culture and many other aspects, however the tyranny and abuses of most of the Spanish officials obliterated the benefits we enjoyed under Spain. We tried to bear the yoke [of] tyranny with all the fortitude that we could muster until August 26, 1896, when the first cry of Balintawak was sounded. Batangas province rallied to the cause of freedom and the town of Batangas contributed to this armed movement. Under the revolutionary government, our town experienced some governmental organizations. Records of our town officials during this period, like during the Spanish period, are depleted.

War came to a real end after the surrender of Aguinaldo at Palanan, Isabela on March 23, 1901. Three months later, on July 4, 1901, the civil government was inaugurated under the American regime. Our town elected its officials. Under this regime, our officials were the president, vice-president and the councilors. The appointed officials were the treasurer, secretary, chief of police, justice of the peace and other officials.

The following is a complete data of the town officials from 1901 to 1935 (American regime; 1935 to 1946 (Commonwealth Government; 1946 to 1953 (Republic):

1901

COUNCILORS

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1902

1904

COUNCILORS
(Same as 1901, 1902, & 1903)

1906

[p. 5]

1905

[p. 6]

1907

1908

1909

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1910

1911

1912

PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV | PART V

Transcribed from “History and Cultural Life of the Poblacion (Batangas Town),” 1953, online at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections.