Calintaan, Occidental Mindoro
Encyclopedia
Calintaan is a 4th class municipality in the province of Occidental Mindoro, Philippines
. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 23,503 people and a 1.06% growth rate. Tagalog
is the main dialect
spoken in Calintaan, being spoken by approximately 62% of the household population, followed by Ilocano which is spoken by about 22%.
In the pre-dawn hours of October 23, 1739, 100 Moro pirates aboard five banca
s laid siege to the village. Most of the residents escaped, but a few villagers and a visiting missionary were captured by the pirates and brought to Jolo
. Word reached the Order of Augustinian Recollects
in 1740 that the missionary, Fr. Leon de San Jose, has been killed.
In 1754, pirates again attacked Ililin, but the people beat the pirates into retreat. The pirates instead attacked Dongon, a neighboring village. Later records reveal that Ililin was eventually destroyed by the Moros. The residents migrated to plains and mountains further from the coast. In 1819, by which time Ililin was being called Iriron, a new parish was created with a population of 1,300 persons. Pirate attacks continued to plague the region, and residents continued to leave until, by 1829, the population had dwindled to 150. Only a few buildings were left, among them the church, a convent and the prison.
By 1871, Spain
had managed to control the problem of piracy throughout the Philippines, and the villages of Mindoro
repopulated. In the area called Magarang a cattle ranch was set up by a Spaniard named Pascual Ledesma. This ranch was purchased by the Augustinian Recollects in 1894. The Order brought in a new administrator, Espiridion Jiminez, who would become "capital del pueblo" when the ranch became a pueblo
in 1896.
After some disagreement with the friars, Capitan Jimenez relocated his family and followers—including the familing Pascual, Labrador, Pudan and Isidro—to found a new community, in a place they called Calintaan after the word for the leech
es which they encountered there.
During the revolution against the Spanish authorities, Jimenez, Isidro Zamora, Pedro Dapil and Marcelino Vitang were among the leaders of the local rebellion. They joined forces with Captain Pedro Fernandez' revolutionaries from Sablayan. Also in Fernandez' group were Vicente Gallembas, Tiago Dangeros, Carpo Urieta, Docoy Eniega, Vicente Dangcoding, Tiago Dantayana and Paeng Dawatis. With the approval of other revolutionary leaders, including the leaders of West Mindoro
and Calapan, Jiminez and Fernandez combined their groups to march on El Pueblo de Magarang in 1897, where the 75-man company captured the Spaniards and missionary friars.
Antoon Postma, a Dutch
researcher, indicated that the captured men were held for a time at Magarang before being sent, by way of Paluan, to Taysan, Batangas. The captives were held for several years before the Americans occupied Mindoro and freed them in 1904.
during the American
period, holding jurisdiction over barrio
s including Iriron and Calintaan. The municipal board of Sablayan was dominated by representatives from Calintaan. Some of these representatives were Leoncio Panganiban, Benigno Lontoc, Juanito Gonzales, Juan Credo, Pedro Credo, Agustin Esmelo, Francisco Esmelo, Eriberto Lineses, Atanacio Encomio, Constancio Villarosa, Cornelio Gasmin, Aniceto Apigo, Alberto Obispo, Amador Ulay and Vicente Isidro. Calintaan saw its first primary school open in 1914. During this period, the residents of Calintaan requested that they be established as a municipality themselves rather than sitting as a barrio of Sablayan. They felt that Sablayan was too far away for easy governance. The petition was heard in Calapan, which at that time served as Provincial Council of all of Mindoro. Although some from the Sablayan municipal council supported the petitioners, their request was ultimately declined because it was feared that Calintaan did not have enough income to maintain a municipal government.
In 1940, a resident of Calintaan, Pedro Gonzales, became mayor by a wide margin of Sablayan, becoming the first from Calintaan to do so.
caused most of the residents of Calintaan to evacuate, including the mayor himself. Calintaan was occupied by the Japanese in April, 1942, at which point all evacuated houses were burned. Men who had remained during the evacuations were forced to work in San Jose
at a military camp. On December 15, 1944, the island was liberated by Allied Forces, led by U.S.
Brigadier General
William Dunckel. From that point until May 1943, the American forces used the area of Sitio Bulangcog, Barrio Iriron, for a radar
station with which they could monitor enemy warplanes.
. The indigenous
Tau-Buhid or Batangan tribe relocated to the mountains. Calintaan itself became a municapility distinct from Sablayan on June 18, 1966, with governance of an area of 38,250 hectares, including the barrios of Concepcion, Iriron, New Dagupan and Tanyag. In response to public demand, a high school was also opened in 1966, located in Poblacion, Calintaan. Calintaan's first municipal mayor was Felomino Jiminez, elected on November 14, 1967.
, including Mindoro's unique wild animals, the tamaraw
. National agencies stepped in for other work as well, including improving irrigation.
In 1971, during the first year of service of Calintaan mayor Amador Sison, the Philippines entered a state of martial law
. The national government then saw to additional improvements in Calintaan, including enlarging the canals so as to provide better irrigation and building roads and bridges. After Sison's death in April 1977, the office was inhabited by Vice Mayor Romeo Calabio, who in three years of service oversaw the addition of a health center and the initiation of a central town water system, before the next election on January 30, 1980. Following that election, Felomino Jiminenz returned as municipal mayor to continue civic improvements.
Important to the region, an Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose was created at St. Joseph Cathedral
, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. On July 1, 1983, Bishop Vicente Manuel, a grandson of Espiridion Jiminez, became its first Vicar Apostolic. Bishop Manuel was active in overseeing the implementation of programs in Calintaan engineered to improve the lives of Catholic
residents.
Following Mayor Jiminez's death on August 30, 1985, Vice Mayor Apolinario Bullagay entered office.
following the peaceful revolution at EDSA in 1986. The municipality of Calintaan endured turbulent times, as the New People’s Army (NPA) attacked it and its barrios as part of their campaign against the government. The Philippine government countered the revolutionaries by conducting seminars to promote its aims and granting amnesty and awarding land to those who chose to reform. After several years, rebel unrest in Calintaan quieted.
The area quickly went through several mayors following 1996 before Rolando Sison was elected in 1991, and civic construction continued. Meanwhile, the area's high school had continued to grow until, along with the barangay schools at Tanyag, Iriron and Concepcion, it became a national high school (CNHS) by executive order of Aquino. Sison's successor, attorney Eric Labrador (who had briefly served during those years of unrest) returned to office in 1995 and continued to oversee construction until the 1998 election of Renato Paulino. During Sison's term, the Apostolic Vicariate formed a farmers' cooperative and instructed area farmers in Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
A rebel group known as the New Peoples Army (NPA) is still a threat to the peace of Calintaan notwithstanding governmental efforts to sway leftist groups to democracy.
In 2007, Lily Racca Estoya became the mayor, with former Mayor Paulino, who had just completed his third term, as her running mate.
s, which are used for making buri
. The land area is around 82% mountainous with the rest of it being mostly coastal plains and hills.
, poultry
, banana processing (banana chips
) and buricraft (the production of goods made from buri fibers such as buntal) are also important to the economy.
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 23,503 people and a 1.06% growth rate. Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
is the main dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
spoken in Calintaan, being spoken by approximately 62% of the household population, followed by Ilocano which is spoken by about 22%.
Spanish occupation
Ililin is the first village mentioned in the history of Calintaan; this village is now believed to be Barangay Iriron based on its location in the old maps. Records left by the Jesuits in 1666 mentioned that adults 20 to 24 years old were baptized in Ililin. The village is recorded as belonging to the Parish of Mangarin in 1733.In the pre-dawn hours of October 23, 1739, 100 Moro pirates aboard five banca
Banca
-Places:* Bangka Island, an island lying east of Sumatra, part of Indonesia* Banca, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a commune of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département, France* Banca, Vaslui, a commune in Vaslui County, Romania...
s laid siege to the village. Most of the residents escaped, but a few villagers and a visiting missionary were captured by the pirates and brought to Jolo
Jolo
Jolo may refer to:* Jolo Island* Jolo, Sulu* Jolo, West Virginia* Jolo is also the nickname of Swedish author Jan Olof Olsson....
. Word reached the Order of Augustinian Recollects
Augustinian Recollects
-History:The Order of Augustinian Recollects or simply the Augustinian Recollects are a Roman Catholic mendicant Catholic religious order of friars and nuns. They are a reformist offshoot from the Augustinian hermit friars and follow the same Rule of St...
in 1740 that the missionary, Fr. Leon de San Jose, has been killed.
In 1754, pirates again attacked Ililin, but the people beat the pirates into retreat. The pirates instead attacked Dongon, a neighboring village. Later records reveal that Ililin was eventually destroyed by the Moros. The residents migrated to plains and mountains further from the coast. In 1819, by which time Ililin was being called Iriron, a new parish was created with a population of 1,300 persons. Pirate attacks continued to plague the region, and residents continued to leave until, by 1829, the population had dwindled to 150. Only a few buildings were left, among them the church, a convent and the prison.
By 1871, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
had managed to control the problem of piracy throughout the Philippines, and the villages of Mindoro
Mindoro
Mindoro is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.-History:...
repopulated. In the area called Magarang a cattle ranch was set up by a Spaniard named Pascual Ledesma. This ranch was purchased by the Augustinian Recollects in 1894. The Order brought in a new administrator, Espiridion Jiminez, who would become "capital del pueblo" when the ranch became a pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
in 1896.
After some disagreement with the friars, Capitan Jimenez relocated his family and followers—including the familing Pascual, Labrador, Pudan and Isidro—to found a new community, in a place they called Calintaan after the word for the leech
Leech
Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. Like other oligochaetes such as earthworms, leeches share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites. Nevertheless, they differ from other oligochaetes in significant ways...
es which they encountered there.
During the revolution against the Spanish authorities, Jimenez, Isidro Zamora, Pedro Dapil and Marcelino Vitang were among the leaders of the local rebellion. They joined forces with Captain Pedro Fernandez' revolutionaries from Sablayan. Also in Fernandez' group were Vicente Gallembas, Tiago Dangeros, Carpo Urieta, Docoy Eniega, Vicente Dangcoding, Tiago Dantayana and Paeng Dawatis. With the approval of other revolutionary leaders, including the leaders of West Mindoro
Mindoro
Mindoro is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.-History:...
and Calapan, Jiminez and Fernandez combined their groups to march on El Pueblo de Magarang in 1897, where the 75-man company captured the Spaniards and missionary friars.
Antoon Postma, a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
researcher, indicated that the captured men were held for a time at Magarang before being sent, by way of Paluan, to Taysan, Batangas. The captives were held for several years before the Americans occupied Mindoro and freed them in 1904.
The American occupation
After the end of the Spanish regime, Calintaan became progressive, with Eligio Jiminez serving as the first appointed cabeza de barangay. Sablayan became a municipalityMunicipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
during the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
period, holding jurisdiction over barrio
Barrio
Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...
s including Iriron and Calintaan. The municipal board of Sablayan was dominated by representatives from Calintaan. Some of these representatives were Leoncio Panganiban, Benigno Lontoc, Juanito Gonzales, Juan Credo, Pedro Credo, Agustin Esmelo, Francisco Esmelo, Eriberto Lineses, Atanacio Encomio, Constancio Villarosa, Cornelio Gasmin, Aniceto Apigo, Alberto Obispo, Amador Ulay and Vicente Isidro. Calintaan saw its first primary school open in 1914. During this period, the residents of Calintaan requested that they be established as a municipality themselves rather than sitting as a barrio of Sablayan. They felt that Sablayan was too far away for easy governance. The petition was heard in Calapan, which at that time served as Provincial Council of all of Mindoro. Although some from the Sablayan municipal council supported the petitioners, their request was ultimately declined because it was feared that Calintaan did not have enough income to maintain a municipal government.
In 1940, a resident of Calintaan, Pedro Gonzales, became mayor by a wide margin of Sablayan, becoming the first from Calintaan to do so.
World War II
Less than a year after Gonzales' election, World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
caused most of the residents of Calintaan to evacuate, including the mayor himself. Calintaan was occupied by the Japanese in April, 1942, at which point all evacuated houses were burned. Men who had remained during the evacuations were forced to work in San Jose
San Jose, Occidental Mindoro
San Jose is a 1st class municipality in the province of Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 111,009 people in 22,464 households. According to the 2007 census, the population increased to 118,807 people....
at a military camp. On December 15, 1944, the island was liberated by Allied Forces, led by U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
William Dunckel. From that point until May 1943, the American forces used the area of Sitio Bulangcog, Barrio Iriron, for a radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
station with which they could monitor enemy warplanes.
Post-War
Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro were formalized as provinces after the war on November 15, 1950. The population of Mindoro boomed as residents arrived from elsewhere, and the forests were cut from surrounding areas. Communal irrigation systems were built for ricefieldsPaddy field
A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice farming in east, south and southeast Asia. Paddies can be built into steep hillsides as terraces and adjacent to depressed or steeply sloped features such...
. The indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
Tau-Buhid or Batangan tribe relocated to the mountains. Calintaan itself became a municapility distinct from Sablayan on June 18, 1966, with governance of an area of 38,250 hectares, including the barrios of Concepcion, Iriron, New Dagupan and Tanyag. In response to public demand, a high school was also opened in 1966, located in Poblacion, Calintaan. Calintaan's first municipal mayor was Felomino Jiminez, elected on November 14, 1967.
The new town
In 1970, the barrio high school became a municipal high school, with extension classes opening at Tanyag, Iriron and Concepcion. At this time, the population of the Calintaan jurisdiction was 7,949. Due to continued immigration, the additional barrios of Poypoy and Malpalon were added to Calintaan. Home of the indigenous population, these have subsequently become barangays. National parks were established in Poypoy, Calintaan and Sablayan to protect endangered speciesEndangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
, including Mindoro's unique wild animals, the tamaraw
Tamaraw
The Tamaraw or Mindoro Dwarf Buffalo is a small, hoofed mammal belonging to the family Bovidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines and is the only endemic Philippine bovine. It is believed, however, to have once also thrived on the greater island of Luzon...
. National agencies stepped in for other work as well, including improving irrigation.
In 1971, during the first year of service of Calintaan mayor Amador Sison, the Philippines entered a state of martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
. The national government then saw to additional improvements in Calintaan, including enlarging the canals so as to provide better irrigation and building roads and bridges. After Sison's death in April 1977, the office was inhabited by Vice Mayor Romeo Calabio, who in three years of service oversaw the addition of a health center and the initiation of a central town water system, before the next election on January 30, 1980. Following that election, Felomino Jiminenz returned as municipal mayor to continue civic improvements.
Important to the region, an Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose was created at St. Joseph Cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. On July 1, 1983, Bishop Vicente Manuel, a grandson of Espiridion Jiminez, became its first Vicar Apostolic. Bishop Manuel was active in overseeing the implementation of programs in Calintaan engineered to improve the lives of Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
residents.
Following Mayor Jiminez's death on August 30, 1985, Vice Mayor Apolinario Bullagay entered office.
Revolution
All of the official in Calintaan were, like the rest of local officials in the Philippines, replaced by President Corazon AquinoCorazon Aquino
Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office in Philippine history. She is best remembered for leading the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines...
following the peaceful revolution at EDSA in 1986. The municipality of Calintaan endured turbulent times, as the New People’s Army (NPA) attacked it and its barrios as part of their campaign against the government. The Philippine government countered the revolutionaries by conducting seminars to promote its aims and granting amnesty and awarding land to those who chose to reform. After several years, rebel unrest in Calintaan quieted.
The area quickly went through several mayors following 1996 before Rolando Sison was elected in 1991, and civic construction continued. Meanwhile, the area's high school had continued to grow until, along with the barangay schools at Tanyag, Iriron and Concepcion, it became a national high school (CNHS) by executive order of Aquino. Sison's successor, attorney Eric Labrador (who had briefly served during those years of unrest) returned to office in 1995 and continued to oversee construction until the 1998 election of Renato Paulino. During Sison's term, the Apostolic Vicariate formed a farmers' cooperative and instructed area farmers in Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
The new millennium
Under Paulino's term as mayor, the area continued to expand, with new roads and public buildings, including a nursery and public market. He also oversaw the initiation of a gymnasium, which is not yet completed.A rebel group known as the New Peoples Army (NPA) is still a threat to the peace of Calintaan notwithstanding governmental efforts to sway leftist groups to democracy.
In 2007, Lily Racca Estoya became the mayor, with former Mayor Paulino, who had just completed his third term, as her running mate.
Geography
Calintaan has a total land area of 147 square miles (383 km2). It is covered in vast rice paddies and coryphaCorypha
Corypha is a genus of six or seven species of palms , native to India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, and northeastern Australia...
s, which are used for making buri
Buri
Buri may refer to:* Búri, a Norse god* Buri , an ancient Germanic people* Burs , also called the Buri / Buridavensi an ancient Dacian tribe* Buri, São Paulo, a city in Brazil* Buri Palm or Corypha, a genus of fan palm...
. The land area is around 82% mountainous with the rest of it being mostly coastal plains and hills.
Economy
The economy of Calintaan is mainly agricultural, and its major crop is rice. Other crops produced and sold in Calintaan include corn, legumes, coconuts, and bananas. Practices such as fishing, livestockLivestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
, poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, banana processing (banana chips
Banana chips
Banana chips are deep-fried and/or dried slices of bananas . They can be covered with sugar or honey and have a sweet taste, or they can be fried in oil and spices and have a salty and/or spicy taste. Variants of banana chips may be covered with chocolate instead...
) and buricraft (the production of goods made from buri fibers such as buntal) are also important to the economy.