28/05/2021
Ledger 5: ONTOGENESIS CATBALOGANES
German naturalist Feodor Jagor described portions of his travel in a book “Reisen in den Philippinen” published in 1873:
“At night we reached Catbalogan, the chief town of the island, with a population of six thousand, which is picturesquely situated in the middle of the western border, in a little bay surrounded by islands and necks of land, difficult to approach and therefore, little guarded. Not a single vessel was anchored in the harbor. The houses,many of which are of boards, are neater than those in Camarines, and the people, though idle, are more modest, more honorable, more obliging, and of cleaner habits, than the inhabitants of South Luzon. Through the courtesy of the governor I quickly obtained a roomy dwelling, and a servant who understood Spanish.” Twenty five years later, civil war came to this town.
Conciliating the remaining Samar revolutionists under General Claro Guevarra and the colonial Americans forces of Major General Fredick Grant at Catbalogan Catholic Paseo on April 27, 1902, military officers and their soldiers publicly held a surrender to heal “a bloody war” as consequence of a shadily Paris Treaty ceding the Philippines from Spain to America. The erstwhile capture of General Vicente Lukban at Pambujan and his subsequent imprisonment paved the way for an American civil government in Catbalogan as cabesera at the beginning of the Commonwealth period. Previously suspended by the Philippine Commission in 1901, Lukban’s capture and Guevarra’s surrender finally restored civil governance in Samar and appointed Julio Llorente (1902-1903) and Segundo Singson (1903-1904) as governors. Victor Cellis served as Municipal Presidente in the heyday of the Commonwealth.
During the last days of Spanish rule until the early American period, poblacion Catbalogan had four (4) districts - Salug or Barangay de Españoles, Sawang or Barangay de Mercado, Ubanon or La Loma/Baluarte de Sangleyes, and Likud which was the backlog creek bordering the rear of the other three districts and used as field for abaca, wild fruit trees, palay and swampy banks toward Antiao river. At the time, there were two parallel streets leading to the church, first was Magallanes and the second was Elcano, while several esquinitas or ways of access cut across private houses along the three districts.
To develop the Cabesera and expand its extent, the Commonwealth government renamed Magallanes street to Del Rosario and Elcano to San Bartolome. It then situated the Presidencia which was near the Residencia of the Church, to the center of the old market in Barangay de Mercado while relocating the old public market farther left at the other end of the creek. It then created a municipal plaza and a third street, naming it San Francisco in honoring of the Franciscans’ religiosity and civil administration in Samar. A fourth street, San Roque, was also created at the back of the new Presidencia overlooking the resettled public market commemorating half of Catbalogan’s population who perished in the cholera epidemic at the turn of the century. Except for esquinitas Legazpi, Burgos, Mabini and Rizal, ways of access across streets or avenues were also created naming American colonial figures, e.g., Lincoln, Taft, Curry, Mckinley, and Allen
By constituting urban planning, allocations were proposed on future infrastructure to properties at the far right end of the abaca bushes, varied trees, sloppy hillocks and marshy swamps. To these properties were added plans for intermediate secondary and vocational school buildings including parks and athletic fields, government and health service offices, justice building and the executive Capitol of Samar island. To the left end surrounding the resettled public market, government lands were tenured to private individuals through patent purchase and contriving several plain fields or patag with families from Likud and zoning Likud-Patag from San Francisco Street to San Roque Street including the backyards and back ways of the public market .
US President Theodore Roosevelt appointed erstwhile combat volunteer anti-insurgency Captain George Curry as governor in 1905. He immediately requested funding to educational infrastructure for Gabaldon-typed primary (Catbalogan Elementary School in 1913), secondary (Catbalogan later Samar High School in 1917) and vocational trade (Samar Trade School in 1912) buildings that were inaugurated after his incumbency. The provincial Capitol building was inaugurated in 1930 while the Samar Provincial Hospital, Resident Doctors’ Cottages and Nursing Home, Justice Building, Capitol Glorietta-cum-playground including the Grandstand commenced shortly after the second war and as an aftermath, increased number of families began to migrants along peripheral areas of Catbalogan linking as Boao, Guindapunan Barangay San Pablo and the upland hamlet of Pablo Singzon’s state that ultimately became Barangay Soccoro. By late 1960s and early 1970s, reclamation along the swampy riverbanks of Catbalogan commenced at the Mayor Munoz’ state, the marshy tenured Patag riverbanks and the muddy wetlands parts of the Yboa State which would be called by the end of the next millennium as the largest of the districts, Barangay Canlapwas, just beside the Bliss Housing Project.
The coffee-table book “O Catbalogan!” published in 2006 noted: “Families from many parts of Samar island dot the winding Antiao creek. Catbalogan’s population today is barely a tenth of what it used to be in the ‘50s.”
Where formerly there was a river (Rio de Antiao), it now has a creek.
(Credits to the rightful owners of these photos. Copyright infringement not intended.)
