Cagayan de Oro is a first class highly urbanized and capital city of the province of Misamis Oriental in Mindanao, southern part of the Philippines. It serves as the regional center and business hub of Northern Mindanao (Region X), and part of the growing Metropolitan Cagayan de Oro area, which includes the city of El Salvador.
The City of Cagayan de Oro is located along the central coast of northern Mindanao island facing Macajalar Bay and is bordered by the municipalities of Opol to the west; Tagoloan to the east, and provinces of Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte to the south of the city. According to the 2010 Census of Population, the city has a population of 602,088, making it the 10th most populous city in the Philippines.
Cagayan de Oro is famous for its whitewater rafting or kayaking adventures, one of the tourism activities being promoted along the Cagayan de Oro River.
Roman Catholicism is the city’s dominant religion.
The archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. This archdiocese comprises three civil provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Camiguin and entire Caraga region. It is a metropolitan seat in the island of Mindanao.
The current archbishop in Cagayan de Oro is Most Reverend Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J., D.D., who was installed on March 4, 2006, and its seat is located at St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral.
Islam is practiced mainly by Maranao settlers and the Balik Islam. There is an estimated of about 10% Muslims in the city. There are several large mosques and about 30 small mosques that can be found in the city.
Buddhism and Taoism are practiced by majority of local Chinese. Their population is significant especially in Cugman and Gusa area.
Cebuano is primarily the spoken language in the city. Tagalog serves as the city’s secondary language. Hiligaynon or erroneously called “Ilonggo”, is spoken among residents near the city’s port area and around Agora. English is mainly used for business and in the academe. Maranao is widely spoken within Maranao communities in the city.
Cagayan de Oro is the melting pot of Mindanao because of its accessibility, business growth, attractions and its warm and hospitable people. Being the regional center and business hub of Northern Mindanao, the city is one of the most progressive and competitive cities in the Philippines.
The city’s economy is largely based on industry, commerce, trade, service and tourism. Investment in Cagayan de Oro City for the first six months of 2012 reached 7.4 billion pesos outpacing the local government’s expectation of to nearly 100 percent. Investments in the city are dominated by malls, high-rise hotels and condominiums and convention centers. The net income for 2012 pegged at 2,041,036,807.89 billion pesos.
Cagayan de Oro City boasts a very healthy retail and residential market. National and International companies have started building high-rise condominiums such as Centrio Tower and Aspira Towers under Avida Residences, Primavera Residences under ItalPinas Corp and The Loop under Vista Residences. Malls like Centrio Mall, SM City, Robinsons Malls and Limketkai Center also play a vital role on the city’s economy.
Department store, supermarket and food court under one building are Gaisano Osmena, Gaisano Cogon and Gaisano Carmen.
Stand-alone supermarkets are Robinsons Supermarket Gusa and Gaisano Suki Club. There are many stand-alone department stores and large groceries owned by local and foreign Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean businessmen in the city.
Culture and Arts
There are several notable events in the city. Each barangay or barrio has its own feast locally known as Fiesta (or festivals) honoring their patron saints after achieving recognition in their own rights.
The Higalaay Festival (formerly the Kagay-an Festival) is a week-long celebration in honor of Cagayan de Oro’s patron saint St. Augustine, held every August.
Highlights of the Higalaay Festival are the Kahimunan Trade Fair that features the native products of the city and province particularly on agriculture products, Miss Cagayan de Oro, Folkloric Street Dancing Competition which features colorful attires and cultural dances of the Higaonon tribes, Higalas Parade of Cagayan de Oro Icons and Floats, Halad sa Lambagohan, PE Rhythmic Dance Competition, Kalo Festival and Kumbira, a culinary show and exhibit that started in 1996 by Kagay-anons hoteliers and restaurants. It has since evolved over the years and now hosts a culinary competition among students and professionals from all over Mindanao. The competition is divided into students and professionals where Hotel and Restaurant Management schools and professional chefs compete against each other in their respective categories. There are also cultural shows, competitions and celebrity concerts.
Charter Day is the city’s celebration of its cityhood established on June 15, 1950. It is a non-working holiday and a roster of special activities is lined up annually to mark this special occasion.
Cagayan de Oro food cultures include a variety of world cuisines influenced by the city’s immigrant history. Western and Austronesian immigrants have made the city famous for pastel bread, chicharrón and Hamon de Cagayan. Numerous of Chinese and Korean restaurants are also present in the city. Some mobile food vendors licensed by the city sell street food like kwek-kwek, fish balls, tempura, proven and grilled meat.
Cagayan de Oro (Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro; Filipino:Lungsod ng Cagayan de Oro) is a first class highly urbanized and capital city of the province of Misamis Oriental in Mindanao, southern part of thePhilippines. It serves as the regional center and business hub of Northern Mindanao (Region X), and part of the growing Metropolitan Cagayan de Oroarea, which includes the city of El Salvador.
The City of Cagayan de Oro is located along the central coast of northern Mindanao island facing Macajalar Bay and is bordered by the municipalities of Opol to the west; Tagoloan to the east, and provinces of Bukidnon andLanao del Norte to the south of the city. According to the 2010 Census of Population, the city has a population of 602,088,[5] making it the 10th most populous city in the Philippines.
Cagayan de Oro is famous for its whitewater rafting or kayaking adventures, one of the tourism activities being promoted along the Cagayan de Oro River.[6][7][8]
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Spanish colonial period
In 1622, two Spanish Augustinian Recollect missionaries came in contact with the natives of Himologan and in 1626, Fray Agustín de San Pedro persuaded the chief of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down the Cagayan River, to the present-day Gaston Park. De San Pedro later fortified the new settlement against Sultan Kudarat’s raiders.
In 1738, Spanish dominance was felt in Cagayan de Oro. When Misamis gained the status of province in 1818, one of its four districts was the Partidos de Cagayan. In 1871, the “Partidos” became a town and was made a permanent capital of Misamis.
On February 27, 1872, Governor-General Carlos María de La Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. During this era, the name of the town was known as Cagayan de Misamis.
In 1883, the town became a seat of the Spanish government in Mindanao for the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte.
On January 10, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis joined the government of Emilio Aguinaldo and celebrated its independence from Spain. It was the second time the Aguinaldo government was declared and the new Philippine flag raised on the Mindanao island. By virtue of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States; this caused friction and resulted in the Philippine–American War.
American colonial period
On March 31, 1900, Americans occupied the town of Cagayan de Misamis and on April 7, 1900, a battle erupted in the town center led by General Nicolas Capistrano[11] and Filipino resistance fighters. This would later become known as the Battle of Cagayan de Misamis. The Americans won the war, and about forty years later, gave the Philippines its independence on July 4, 1946.[12] The war years in Cagayan de Oro were prompted by the presence of the Americans in 1898. The Americans were initially and successfully repulsed by the Kagay-anons forces led by Mayor Don Apolinar Vélez at the historic Battle of Makahambus on June 4, 1900.
The American forces attacking Makahambus, circa 1900s.
After the troubled years, peace finally brought back the economic activities to normalcy under the guidance of the United States. Consequently, from a purely farming-fishing area, Cagayan de Oro emerged into a booming commerce and trade center.
In 1948, the barrios of El Salvador and Molugan with their sitios known as Sala, Sambulawan, Sinaloc, Lagtang, Talaba, Kalabaylabay and Hinigdaan were separated from Cagayan de Oro to form the town of El Salvador.[13]
In 1950, the barrios of Opol, Igpit, and lower Iponan were separated from Cagayan de Oro to form the town of Opol.[14]
Cityhood
On June 15, 1950, then former President Elpidio Quirino signed Republic Act No. 521, which granted the status of a chartered city to the Municipality of Cagayan de Misamis.[15] This was made possible through the efforts of then Cagayan de Oro Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez.[16]
Cagayan de Oro was then declared a highly urbanized city by the Ministry of Local Government on November 22, 1983.
Recent Events
On the evening of December 16–17, 2011, Tropical Storm Washi (locally called Sendong) caused widespread flash floods in Northern Mindanao. In Cagayan de Oro, hundreds living near the banks of the Cagayan de Oro River were killed, with hundreds still missing.
Officials said that despite government warning, some people did not evacuate. Five people were killed in a landslide, but others died in the flash floods. The flash flooding occurred overnight, following 10 hours of rain, compounded by overflowing rivers and tributaries. Most of the victims had been sleeping.
In some areas, up to 20 centimeters of rain fell in 24 hours. More than 2,000 have been rescued, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and at least 20,000 people are staying in 10 evacuation centers in Cagayan de Oro. Officials were also investigating reports that an entire village was swept away.[17] The confirmed death toll from the disaster is 1,268.[18]
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Spanish Arrival
In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.
The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.
Etymology
Spanish documents in 1500s already referred to the area around Himologan as Cagayan. On January 25, 1571, the Spanish government granted this area, including what is now Northern Mindanao, as an encomienda to Juan Griego. There is also a Cagayan in Luzon and another in Sulu. What is the origin of this name?
According to Father Miguel Bernad, S.J. of Xavier University, “cagayan” comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word ag, which means “water”. Ag is present in words like agus, agusan, and kagay. Agus means “flowing water”, and agusan “place of flowing water”. Kagay means “river” and kagayan is “place with a river”.
But according to Dr. Lawrence A Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai`i, “cagayan” comes from an ancient Philippine word *kaRayan, which means “river”. In an email sent to the Ancient Baybayin Scripts Network of Yahoogroups, Reid explained, “The evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable for river, *kaRayan, comes from the Ilokano karayan, Central Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan, etc.. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex of this form, it simply means ‘river’. It is not a morphologically complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter that the initial ka- was a prefix …. ”
Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.
Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today’s Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.
Kudarat’s attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang’s people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin’s defense of Cagayan earned him the title “El Padre Capitan”.
The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.
In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.
This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.
Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today’s Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.
The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.
On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today’s city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was “Cagayan de Misamis”.
In 1888, the Recoletos erected a wooden cross — “Santa Cruz” — outside the San Agustin Church. It still stands today.
THE KATIPUNAN REVOLT BROKE OUT in Luzon in late August 1896. A month later, on September 29, 1896, a group of Filipinos in Iligan — who had been deported from Luzon to undergo military discipline — received instructions from the Manila Katipunan, and consequently mutinied against the Spanish soldiers. They raided the Spanish armory, then ransacked all convents and homes of Spanish peninsulares from Iligan to Cagayan de Misamis.
They proceeded to Bukidnon, where they forged an alliance with a band of natives. Then they attacked Balingasag, and raided the outpost of Gingoog on January 1897. Anger intensified when the rebels learned of Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s execution. But they were subdued when the Spanish government recalled and used a gunboat from the Tercio Distrito de Surigao.
The uprising in Cagayan de Misamis is the only known Katipunan-led revolt in the whole of Mindanao.
Raising of the Flag
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Peace. Immediately, the Spanish governor relinquished his authority to two Filipinos elected by Aguinaldo: Jose Roa y Casas, who was appointed first governor of Misamis; and Toribio Chavez, appointed the first Filipino mayor of Cagayan de Misamis.
On January 10-11, 1899, Cagayan de Misamis celebrated independence by organizing the so-called Fiesta Nacional. The people held a parade, played music, presented speeches and fired cannons outside the Casa Real. For the first time, Filipinos declared the Aguinaldo Republic in Mindanao and raised the Philippine Flag in this island.
American Occupation
On March 31, 1900, the Americans invaded Cagayan de Misamis by first bombing the flag fluttering at Macabalan wharf. Filipino resistance fighters had already organized before the attack, but retaliated only on April 7, 1900, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. The fighting erupted in the town center. This was followed by the Battle of Agusan Hill, led by Capt. Vicente Roa y Racines, who was killed with his men.
On June 4, 1900, however, for the first time in the entire Philippine-American War, the Americans lost to the Filipino revolutionaries in the Battle of Makahambus Hill. Col. Apolinar Velez led the Filipino troop to victory.
The Americans won the war eventually, however. And under foreign rule, Cagayan de Misamis became the center of commerce, migration, and education in Northern Mindanao.
Several American governor generals visited the place: William Howard Taft (who became the 27th US president), William Cameron Forbessy, James F. Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, Sr. also graced Cagayan de Misamis.
Misamis Oriental became a separate province in 1930 through Legislative Act 3777.
Japanese Occupation
On May 1, 1942, the Japanese Kawamura Detachment sailed from Iloilo to Cagayan de Misamis, and implemented the “scorched earth policy”. They burned most of the town, but used the major buildings as headquarters.
Guerrillas fought back, but failed to cause major damage. On October 10, 1944, American planes bombarded Cagayan de Misamis to drive out the Japanese, eventually liberating the place on May 10, 1945.
Charter
Starting 1946, Misamis Congressman Pedro S. Baculio lobbied in the Philippine Congress so that Cagayan de Misamis, which was reeling from the ashes of war, would be declared a city. On December 17, 1949, the new Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez introduced House Bill No. 54, entitled “An Act Creating the City of Cagayan de Oro”. President Elpidio Quirino signed the city charter at 11:30 am, June 15, 1950.
Pelaez appended “de Oro” to “Cagayan” in recognition of gold mining in the hinterland barrios known to Spanish explorers in 1500s.
The first appointed mayor of Cagayan de Oro was Max Y. Suniel, followed by Justiniano R. Borja in 1954. Borja was elected as mayor again in 1955, and was repeatedly elected and appointed until he died on October 3, 1964. He was called the “Arsenio Lacson of Cagayan de Oro”, being responsible for the phenomenal growth of the city since 1959, when he opened the Cogon Market.
Archdiocese
On June 29, 1951, Pope Pius XII created the first Catholic archbishopric in Mindanao, when he elevated the Diocese of Cagayan into an archdiocese.
Santiago T. G. Hayes, S.J. was the first archbishop. Hayes founded Ateneo de Cagayan on June 7, 1933. The school was renamed Xavier University on March 22, 1958. It was the first Mindanao university.
Martial Rule
During the regime of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cagayan de Oro earned the reputation as the center of political opposition in the Philippines. Independent-minded politicians in Cagayan de Oro helped restore democracy at EDSA in 1986.
The Present
Today, Cagayan de Oro is the burgeoning center of commerce, education, and government administration in Northern Mindanao. It is a major city. Rich in heritage, it shares with the historical highlights of the Republic of the Philippines.
Source: Heritage Conservation Advocates – Antonio J. Montalvan, Ph.D.
Antonio J. Montalvan II is a Mindanao anthropologist and ethnohistorian. He is a Ford Foundation scholar for the doctorate in anthropology on Mindanao Studies with the Mindanao Anthropology Consortium. Montalvan has written articles about Mindanao history and culture in academic journals, and contributes a monthly column to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Montalvan is also the author of “A Cagayan de Oro Ethnohistory Reader”, launched on March 8, 2004.
Homecoming of Miss Universe Phils Pia Wurtzbach scheduled on May 2
Activities for the homecoming of Kagayanon beauty queen, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, the reigning Miss Universe Philippines 2015, are now set.
According to Sean Oliver P. Moreno, an active sports and youth advocate son of Mayor Oscar Moreno, said the warm welcome for Miss Pia Wurtzbach this coming May 2 will be unique and different from other homecomings because of its concept – ‘beauty meets sport.”
For giving prestige and pride to Cagayan de Oro, a motorcade around the city will be dedicated to Ms. Pia, said the mayor’s son.
Unlike other motorcades, the homecoming parade will be participated by bikers and runners of the city who will participate of the Rafthon competition (rafting-running-fellowship), according to Mr. Sean Moreno, race director.
Other activities on May 2 include a joint press conference, the unveiling of Rafthon, and a ‘Meet and Greet’ with Ms. Pia Wurtzbach.
Apart from Miss Universe Philippines, Cagayan de Oro also takes pride on Ms. Catherine Almirante after being chosen as Ms. Global International second runner-up.
“Ang Cagayan de Oro ay hindi lang nakilala bilang ‘City of Golden Friendship’ but now also known as ‘City of Golden Crowns’, added Mr. Moreno.
Meanwhile, Sean is still very hopeful that either of the two Kagayanons – Ms. Cagayan de Oro 2014 Beatrice Alvarez Pohl and Ms. Mitsume Aguilar – will bag the title of Miss Philippines Earth 2015. (CDO Info)
Homecoming of Miss Universe Phils Pia Wurtzbach scheduled on May 2
Activities for the homecoming of Kagayanon beauty queen, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, the reigning Miss Universe Philippines 2015, are now set.
According to Sean Oliver P. Moreno, an active sports and youth advocate son of Mayor Oscar Moreno, said the warm welcome for Miss Pia Wurtzbach this coming May 2 will be unique and different from other homecomings because of its concept – ‘beauty meets sport.”
For giving prestige and pride to Cagayan de Oro, a motorcade around the city will be dedicated to Ms. Pia, said the mayor’s son.
Unlike other motorcades, the homecoming parade will be participated by bikers and runners of the city who will participate of the Rafthon competition (rafting-running-fellowship), according to Mr. Sean Moreno, race director.
Other activities on May 2 include a joint press conference, the unveiling of Rafthon, and a ‘Meet and Greet’ with Ms. Pia Wurtzbach.
Apart from Miss Universe Philippines, Cagayan de Oro also takes pride on Ms. Catherine Almirante after being chosen as Ms. Global International second runner-up.
“Ang Cagayan de Oro ay hindi lang nakilala bilang ‘City of Golden Friendship’ but now also known as ‘City of Golden Crowns’, added Mr. Moreno.
Meanwhile, Sean is still very hopeful that either of the two Kagayanons – Ms. Cagayan de Oro 2014 Beatrice Alvarez Pohl and Ms. Mitsume Aguilar – will bag the title of Miss Philippines Earth 2015. (CDO Info)
Homecoming of Miss Universe Phils Pia Wurtzbach scheduled on May 2
Activities for the homecoming of Kagayanon beauty queen, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, the reigning Miss Universe Philippines 2015, are now set.
According to Sean Oliver P. Moreno, an active sports and youth advocate son of Mayor Oscar Moreno, said the warm welcome for Miss Pia Wurtzbach this coming May 2 will be unique and different from other homecomings because of its concept – ‘beauty meets sport.”
For giving prestige and pride to Cagayan de Oro, a motorcade around the city will be dedicated to Ms. Pia, said the mayor’s son.
Unlike other motorcades, the homecoming parade will be participated by bikers and runners of the city who will participate of the Rafthon competition (rafting-running-fellowship), according to Mr. Sean Moreno, race director.
Other activities on May 2 include a joint press conference, the unveiling of Rafthon, and a ‘Meet and Greet’ with Ms. Pia Wurtzbach.
Apart from Miss Universe Philippines, Cagayan de Oro also takes pride on Ms. Catherine Almirante after being chosen as Ms. Global International second runner-up.
“Ang Cagayan de Oro ay hindi lang nakilala bilang ‘City of Golden Friendship’ but now also known as ‘City of Golden Crowns’, added Mr. Moreno.
Meanwhile, Sean is still very hopeful that either of the two Kagayanons – Ms. Cagayan de Oro 2014 Beatrice Alvarez Pohl and Ms. Mitsume Aguilar – will bag the title of Miss Philippines Earth 2015. (CDO Info)
Homecoming of Miss Universe Phils Pia Wurtzbach scheduled on May 2
Activities for the homecoming of Kagayanon beauty queen, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, the reigning Miss Universe Philippines 2015, are now set.
According to Sean Oliver P. Moreno, an active sports and youth advocate son of Mayor Oscar Moreno, said the warm welcome for Miss Pia Wurtzbach this coming May 2 will be unique and different from other homecomings because of its concept – ‘beauty meets sport.”
For giving prestige and pride to Cagayan de Oro, a motorcade around the city will be dedicated to Ms. Pia, said the mayor’s son.
Unlike other motorcades, the homecoming parade will be participated by bikers and runners of the city who will participate of the Rafthon competition (rafting-running-fellowship), according to Mr. Sean Moreno, race director.
Other activities on May 2 include a joint press conference, the unveiling of Rafthon, and a ‘Meet and Greet’ with Ms. Pia Wurtzbach.
Apart from Miss Universe Philippines, Cagayan de Oro also takes pride on Ms. Catherine Almirante after being chosen as Ms. Global International second runner-up.
“Ang Cagayan de Oro ay hindi lang nakilala bilang ‘City of Golden Friendship’ but now also known as ‘City of Golden Crowns’, added Mr. Moreno.
Meanwhile, Sean is still very hopeful that either of the two Kagayanons – Ms. Cagayan de Oro 2014 Beatrice Alvarez Pohl and Ms. Mitsume Aguilar – will bag the title of Miss Philippines Earth 2015. (CDO Info)
Go Cagayan de Oro! 