Cagayan

Cagayan has a prehistoric civilization with rich and diverse culture. According to archaeologists, the earliest man in the Philippines probably lived in Cagayan thousands of years ago. Pieces of evidence to this effect are now convincing beyond scientific doubt to consider it as an incontestable fact.

In the classical era, Gattaran and Lal-lo used to be the home of hunter-gatherers who specialized in hunting mollusks. These hunter-gatherers have stockpiled their leftover mollusk shells in numerous sites in Gattaran and Lal-lo, until eventually, the shells formed into the largest stock of shell-midden sites in the entire Philippines.

From available evidences, the Atta or Negrito - a short dark-skinned nomad - was the first man in Cagayan. They were later moved to the uplands by the Malays who eventually became the Ibanags, Itawes, Yogads, Gaddangs, Irayas and Malawegs - the natives of Cagayan - who actually came from one ethnicity. These are the people found by the Spaniards in the different villages along the rivers all over Cagayan. The Spaniards rightly judged that these various villagers came from a single racial stock and decided to make the Ibanag language the lingua franca, both civilly and ecclesiastically for the entire people of Cagayan which they called collectively as the Cagayanes which later was transliterated to become Cagayanos.

Even before the Spaniards came to Cagayan, the Cagayanos have already made contact with various civilizations like the Chinese, Japanese and even Indians, as evidenced by various artifacts and even the presence of minor to moderate foreign linguistic elements in the languages of the natives.

Various other racial strains, mainly the Ilocanos, Pangasinenses, Kapampangans and Tagalogs, as well as Visayans, Moros and even foreigners like the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Spaniards and others were further infused to the native Cagayanes to become the modern Cagayano that we know today.

Cagayan is also the site of a Wokou state when the Japanese pirate-lord Tay Fusa,[6] set up his Japanese pirate kingdom in Cagayan before it was destroyed during the 1582 Cagayan battles.

In 1581, Captain Ivan Sabala arrived in Cagayan with a hundred fully equipped soldiers and their families by order of Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñaloza, the fourth Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines. The expeditionary force was sent to explore the Cagayan Valley, to convert the natives to Catholicism, and to establish ecclesiastical missions and towns throughout the valley.

On 29 June 1583, Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo traced the northern coastline of Luzon and set foot on the Massi (Pamplona), Tular, and Aparri areas.

In 1583, through a Spanish Royal Decree, the entire northeastern portion of Luzon (specifically, all territories east of the Cordillera mountains and those north of the Caraballo mountains) including the islands in the Balintang Channel were organized into one large political unit called the La Provincia de Cagayan. The provincia's territorial delineation encompassed the present provinces of Batanes, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, including portions of Kalinga and Apayao. Its capital was Nueva Segovia (the present municipality of Lal-lo).[4]

The Spanish friars soon established mission posts in Camalaniugan and Lal-lo (Nueva Segovia), which became the seat of the Diocese established by Pope Clement VIII on August 14, 1595. The see was moved in 1758 to Vigan because of its relative distance. The Spanish influence can still be seen in the massive churches and other buildings that the Spaniards built for the spiritual and social welfare of the people.

In 1839, Nueva Vizcaya was established as a politico-military province and was separated from Cagayan. Later, Isabela was founded as a separate province on May 1, 1856, its areas carved from southern Cagayan and eastern Nueva Vizcaya territories.[4]

During the late 18th century, the New Spain government encouraged the expansion of trade and development of commodity crops. Among these was tobacco, and lands in Cagayan became the center of a vertically integrated monopoly: tobacco was grown there and shipped to Manila, where it was processed and made into cigarettes and cigars. The development of the related bureaucracy and accounting systems was done under the leadership of José de Gálvez, who as visitor-general to Mexico from 1765 to 1772 developed the monopoly there and increased revenues to the Crown. He worked in the Philippines as Minister of the Indies from 1776 to 1787, constructing a similar monopoly there under Governor-General Basco y Vargas (1778–1787).[7] The Spanish development of this industry affected all their economic gains in the Philippines.[7]

The establishment of the civil government of Cagayan through the 1583 Spanish Royal Decree is commemorated in the annual Aggao Nac Cagayan celebrations of the Provincial Government of Cagayan and its people.

An old map of Cagayan during the 1918 Census

When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1898, ending the Spanish–American War, the United States took over the Philippines. It influenced the culture, most notably in agriculture and education, as well as in public works and communications. A naval base also increased interaction between local Filipinos and American sailors and administrators. At the close of the 18th century, there were 29 municipalities in the province of Cagayan. After the Philippines came under American sovereignty in 1902, more municipalities were founded. Since then, due to centralization and shifting of populations, the number of municipalities is back to 29.

During the Second World War, with air raids by Japanese fighters and bombers, the province of Cagayan suffered much destruction by bombing and later invasion. Japanese Imperial forces entered Cagayan in 1942. While under the Japanese Occupation, several pre-war infantry divisions and regular units of the Philippine Commonwealth Army were re-established during the period on January 3, 1942 to June 30, 1946. They established general headquarters, camps and garrisoned troops in the province of Cagayan, and began operations against the Japanese Occupation forces in the Cagayan Valley. This included sending troops to the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela, and helping the local soldiers of the 11th and 14th Infantry Regiment of the USAFIP-NL, the local guerrilla fighters and the U.S. liberation forces. They fought against the Japanese Imperial forces from 1942 to 1945.

The Battle off Cape Engaño on October 26, 1944, was held off Cape Engaño. At that time American carrier forces attacked the Japanese Northern Force. This became the concluding action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese lost 4 carriers, 3 light cruisers and 9 destroyers.

In 1945, the combined United States and Philippine Commonwealth ground troops, together with the recognized guerrillas, took Cagayan. Part of the action were the Filipino soldiers of the 1st, 2nd, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army, 1st Constabulary Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary and the 11th and 14th Infantry Regiment of the United States Armed Forces in the Philippines – Northern Luzon or USAFIP-NL from the Battle of Cagayan Valley during the Second World War.

Northern Luzon topographical map showing Cagayan

In 1990, the Hotel Delfino in Tuguegarao was the scene of a bloody siege related to an earlier coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino. The siege took place on March 4, when a private army with estimated at 300 men[8] seized the hotel under the command of former Cagayan governor Rodolfo Aguinaldo. He had been suspended as governor in January 1990 based on a radio announcement he made pledging to send tanks and troops to support rebel forces in Manila led by Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan in the Dec. 1-9, 1989 coup attempt against Aquino.[9] In the week before the siege Aguinaldo was indicted on charges of rebellion and murder due to his support for that failed coup effort.

Two years earlier, after Col. Honasan led a coup attempt on August 28, 1987 that also failed, Aguinaldo—then a lieutenant colonel in Cagayan's provincial military forces—bluntly stated another coup attempt would follow if President Aquino did "not make reforms fast".[10] Aguinaldo resigned from the military to run for Cagayan governor in 1988, he won that post in a landslide.[11] Though harshly criticized for human rights abuses while serving in the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, Aguinaldo gained renown and popularity beyond Cagayan for his ardent fight against communist insurgents.[12]

Disputing his suspension as Cagayan governor and the rebellion charges, Aguinaldo refused to surrender to authorities. Along with hundreds of loyal armed followers he hid in his hometown of Gattaran. On learning government troops planned to attack his hideout, Aguinaldo proceeded with his troops toward Tuguegarao.[13] President Aquino sent Brig. Gen. Oscar Florendo, then armed forces chief of Civil Military Relations, to Tuguegarao to serve Aguinaldo with an arrest warrant.[13] After Aguinaldo's men seized control of Hotel Delfino where the general was staying, Florendo was taken hostage along with more than 50 other hotel guests. Florendo was shot at close range in the hotel and later died of his wounds.[10] Hours of standoff ensued between the two sides until nearly 1,000 government troops[10] launched an attack to dislodge Aguinaldo's forces from the hotel; government forces prevailed after more than 100 of Aguinaldo's men surrendered and about 90 were captured.[9] During this siege at least a dozen others were killed in or around the hotel; scores of civilian supporters of Aguinaldo were arrested; and a truck with assault rifles, mortars, and crates of ammunition was captured.[11] Following this melee, Aguinaldo fled with about 90 fighters for mountains in the north.[10]

Cagayan comprises 28 municipalities and one city divided into three congressional districts. It has 820 barangays. Tuguegarao City (as of December 18, 1999) is the provincial capital, regional seat, and center of business, trade, and education and the only city in the province.

The 28 municipalities and 1 city of the province comprise a total of 820 barangays, with Ugac Sur in Tuguegarao City as the most populous in 2010, and Centro 15 (Poblacion) in Aparri as the least. If cities are excluded, Maura in Aparri has the highest population. [15]

Cagayan has a tropical savannah climate (Aw) with hot days and warm nights that last year round.

There are two endangered indigenous languages in Cagayan. These are the Dupaninan Agta language (with less than 1400 remaining speakers) and the Central Cagayan Agta (with less than 799 remaining speakers) language. Both of which are listed as Vulnerable according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Endangered Languages. All remaining speakers of the language are part of the community's elders. Without a municipality-wide teaching mechanism of the two endangered languages for the youth where the languages are present, the language may be extinct within 3-5 decades, making them languages in grave peril unless a teaching-mechanism is established by either the government or an educational institution in the municipalities of Gattaran, Cagayan and Baggao, Cagayan.[18]

Since Cagayan faces the Philippine Sea, an extensive shoreline sprawls along the northern coastal towns of Sanchez Mira, Pamplona, Santa Praxedes, Claveria, Buguey, Aparri, Ballesteros, Abulug, and the islands of Palaui, Fuga, and island municipality of Calayan. Sanchez Mira, Claveria, and Santa Praxedes have facilities for excursion stays while Fuga Island is being developed as a world-class recreation and tourism center. Activities include whale watching at the Calayan Islands, and scuba diving, snorkeling and fishing in Palaui Island of Santa Ana. The airstrip at Claveria could be used as a jump-off point to Fuga Island.

The Sambali Festival is celebrated throughout the province in commemoration of its founding. Hotels include the Governors Garden Hotel, Hotel Candice, Hotel Roma and Hotel Kimikarlai all in Tuguegarao City.

Claveria is host to several scenic attractions which include: the Lakay-Lakay Lagoon, the rocky formation along the Camalaggaon Caves, the Roadside Park overlooking the Claveria Bay, Macatel Falls with its clear waters that run in abundance throughout the year, the Pata Lighthouse, and the Claveria Beach Resort along the white sand coasts.[27]