The Tuna Country at the Southern Edge of Mindanao: General Santos City, 1939–2000

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

BY:

ANDREA VILLANO-CAMPADO, Ph.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER

PAGE

1.

GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORY--------------

II.

PIONEERING IN THE COTABATO FRONTIER----

17

III.

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA : IN THE FORMATION OF A COMMUNITY---------

29

IV.

THE JAPANESE INTERREGNUM, 1942-1945 ---

56

V.

BUAYAN TO GENERAL SANTOS: MORE THAN JUST PHYSICAL CHANGE ------------------------------

73

GENERAL SANTOS CITY: ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE 21ST CENTURY ----------------------------------

94

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION -----------------------

117

BIBLIOGRAPHY -----------------------------------------------------

120

VI.

VII.

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.

Isla de Mindanao ca. 1890 -------------------------Mindanao ca. 1939 -----------------------------------Map of Cotabato ca. 1973 --------------------------Migrant - settlers arriving in the shores of Dadiangas ca. 1939 ------------------------------Figure 5. A settler's house with Mt. Matutum at the background -----------------------------------------Figure 6. A Blaan chief and his followers on their way to a Hunt, Lagao, Southern Koronadal -------------Figure 7. Drawing of first farm lots by the settlers----------Figure 8. The NLSA Hog Farm Before the War ------------Figure 9. The young folks dancing the curacha during the NLSA days -------------------------------------------Figure 10. Farm machineries during the NLSA days --------

3 4 5 17 28 32 39 40 45 89

LISTOF TABLES Table 1. NLSA Expenses as of December 31, 1940 ------Table 2. Population Growth in Koronadal -------------------Table 3. Population Shift in Cotabato: 1918, 1939, 1970 Census ---------------------------------------Table 4 Population Size Growth of Some Regions of Mindanao & Sulu, 1903-1980 ------------------Table 5. Population & Growth Rate of Selected Cities In the Philippines (1990)--------------------------Table 6. Population Growth of General Santos City, 1903-1990 ------------------------------------------Table 7. Population of General Santos City By BarangayTable 8. Number of Malnourished Children by Municipality APPENDICES A. The Text of the Act Creating the NLSA (C.A. No. 441) B. The Text of the Standard Contract Between the NLSA and the settler C. The Koronadal Valley Poject: Home Province of Settlers As of January 27, 1941

40 42 82 91 98 105 108 110

THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

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CHAPTER I COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORY Cotabato is one of the most interesting places of study in Mindanao, not only as the land of the Magindanaos and the scene of a formidable resistance against Spanish power in Mindanao but also as the government-initiated settlement destination for countless Filipinos under the “land for the landless’ scheme. Furthermore, as the starting point of the Mindanao conflict of the modern times, Cotabato assumes special significance in both historical and socio-cultural studies. Occupying almost the whole of southwestern Mindanao, Cotabato covered a vast area of some 8,800 square miles of which a quarter was level valley land; a half undulating plateau lands at an average elevation of about 300 meters; and a quarter mountainous land which was covered by virgin forest in the early part of the 20th century (Wernstedt and Spencer 1967: 543). The first chapter gives a brief description of the land and people of the old undivided Cotabato before the advent of resettlement. Also discussed its short historical background.

Cotabato: Its Cultural and Ecological Landscape Man as the creator of his world has to contend with the environment in which he lives. Cotabato is one endowed with ecological characteristics that favor the development of a well-developed socio-political and economic structure even before the coming of Spain to the Philippines. As the following description shows, these characteristics include the vast and fertile plains; a typhoon-free climate; a river system whose nurturing power brought forth settlements based on both agriculture and trade; a reliably and naturally safe harbor for anchorage of ships vital for trade; and finally, its people, whose ethnic diversity allows for making the area a melting pot of culture.

Etymology. The word Mindanao was originally given to Cotabato giving a clue on the degree of importance of Cotabato in Mindanao affairs in the bygone days. Mindanao comes from the root word danao that means “inundation by a river, lake or sea”(Saleeby 1904: 13). This phenomenon is attached to the Pulangi River, called by the Spaniards the Rio Grande de Mindanao. This is further clarified by the Magindanao scholar, Michael Mastura, who said that “for more than 10 miles from the sea the Rio Grande, aided by the rise of the tide periodically overflows its banks and flows all the adjacent lands” (Mastura 1979: 5). Similar reference to the great river was given by the seventeenth century Spanish writer Francisco Combes, who gave the meaning of Mindanao as “movement of the lake” (Combes 1897: iv). The Englishman William Dampier, who stayed for six months at the Magindanao sultanate’s capital in Cotabato in the latter half of 1686, was more direct by using the word Mindanao in reference to Cotabato. Magindanao is the derivative of the word “midsanao,” meaning “flooded by the tide” due to the propensity of the Rio Grande or the Pulangi to overflow its banks. Wernstedt and Spencer (1967) explain the phenomenon of massive

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flooding in connection with the "impounding of river waters and the creation of two large swamp areas, the Libungan Marsh and the Liguasan Swamp," caused by recent uplift across the mouth of the river. The term Mindanao eventually applied to the whole island as the Magindanao sultanate expanded its territorial and political power. According to Claudio Montero, Cotabato is the Spanish corruption of the Muslim word “kuta-watu” meaning “stone fort” referring to the fortified hill with some stone defenses occupied by the Magindanao sultan (Montero y Gay 1876: 332). This was given the native name of Tantawan. No map of the Philippines prior 1861 was found carrying the name Cotabato because the term came into use after 1861 with the creation of the politico-military government of Mindanao and Sulu. (Fig. 1) Those areas in Mindanao not under Spanish control and inhabited by the Muslims were then referred to by Spanish writers as District of the Moros (Combes 1897: lviij). Location and Limits. Cotabato, described by a migrant settler as heart-shaped, with its “apex tipping the Sarangani Bay and its vortex immersing in Illana Bay” is situated in the southern part of the island of Mindanao (Millan 1952: 2). Its territorial limits varied with its political fortunes in various stages of its history. During the apogee of Magindanao power during Sultan Kudarat’s reign, the Magindanao sultanate’s influence encompassed almost the whole island of Mindanao from Davao to Zamboanga, what is now the Lanao provinces, Cagayan, and Basilan. Thus, according to Majul, except for the Sultanate of Buayan , a rival sultanate in Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat was virtually ruler of all the people from the Davao Gulf down to Basilan and had either received tributes or forged alliances with the Ilanuns, Maranaos, Samals, Cagayanos, and other indigenous tribes within his territorial domain (Majul 1973: 125). The eighteenth century division of Mindanao consisted of Butuan, Zamboanga, District of the Moros, and Caraga. The District of the Moros referred to the areas in Mindanao which were outside the Spanish control. Starting from the village of Sibuguey in Zamboanga, the District of the Moros extended southward and eastward till the jurisdiction of Caraga in the east (now Agusan and Surigao provinces), and the Bay of Tagalooc (Davao Gulf) in the south. It was bounded by Misamis in the north and by the sea in the southeast (Combes 1897: lv). The creation of the District of Cotabato dates back in 1851 with the Spanish occupation of the strategic port of Polloc near the outlet of the Pulangi River. In 1858, the Commandancias of Makar and Glan of Sugod Boyan in the modern-day General Santos City were created to make an effective thrust into Cotabato’s southern sector. As mentioned earlier, they were then placed under the fourth district of Mindanao, Davao, whose territorial jurisdiction "covered the region from Point Tagubon westward to the original Davao Gulf area, down to the present South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat Provinces with Malaluna Point near Lebac as the farthest southern boundary" ( Corsino 1998: 37). The Royal Decree of July 30, 1860 created the politico-military government of Mindanao with the following politico-military districts, namely: first district, Zamboanga; second district, Misamis; third district, Surigao; fourth district, Davao; and the fifth district, Cotabato. Moreover, the present SOCSKSARGEN area (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General

THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

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Santos City) was not a part then of fifth District of Mindanao, Cotabato, but the fourth District of Davao as shown by Fig. 1.

ISLA DE MINDANAO

Isla Cam iguin

Ba hia d e Butua n

Isla Buca s

Butuan

CA 1890

Da pitan Rio

Oza m

iz

hi Ba

e ad

n ga Ili

1st D ISTRIT O Bahia Illana a

Ba sila

DISTRITO

n

GPM DE BA SILAN

G ELA HIP ARC

O OL EJ OD

DISTRITO

GPM DE SURIGAO

d e La n ao

Monte C a ta la

Pollok

n

Cotabato 5

6

us an

3

2 DISTRITO La guna

Lu ta ng g

Ag

Cagaya n

Iligan

GPM DE MISAM IS

GPM D ZAMB E OAN GA

de

Davao

DISTRITO GPM DE COTABAT O

Samal Seno de Dava o

4 DISTRITO GPM DE DAVAO

Ba hia de ni Sara ng a

Gla n

Fig. 1. Isla de Mindanao ca. 1890. Adapted from Don Julian Gonzalez Parrado's Isla de Mindanao, 1890. By 1887, Corsino (1998), noted the incorporation of Davao into the jurisdiction of the Commandancia of Mati just as the Commandancia of Glan (in today's Sarangani Province) had jurisdictiction over the southern limits of Davao, which extended southwestward to Malaluna Point near the Bay of Tuna in present-day South Cotabato (Corsino 1998: 41). During the early American period, the Commandancia of Glan, Davao and Mati were all returned back to Davao District during the American military occupation of Mindanao as provided in General Order No. 10 of the Military Department of Mindanao and Jolo. The rapid growth of the Koronadal and Allah Valley settlements due to the postwar upsurge of Christian settlers led to the separation of the southern part of Cotabato from the Empire Province of Cotabato in 1966. In 1973, the two provinces of South and North Cotabato became four provinces with the carving out of Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao provinces from the former. Finally, the creation of the Province of Sarangani in 1992 made the once Empire Province into five provinces today - North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani provinces (Fig. 3).

COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

4

Legend: Boundary of provinces Dinagat I

Boundary of chartered Cities of Zamboanga and Davao

Siargao I

S

City of Zamboanga includes islands of the Basilan Group

U

Camiguin I R I G

ORIENTAL MISAMIS

BUKI D N O N

A

L A N A O No census d ata

B

O

O

N

A

G

A G USA N

A

OCCIDENTAL MISAMIS

M

D

A

V

A

Z

A

No census da ta

Sam al

Nationa l Park Zamboanga 12,469

C O T A

B A T O

Basilan I

Saranga ni

Fig 2. Mindanao ca 1939 as adapted from Pelzer’s (1945) Pioneer Settlement in the Asiatic Tropics, 136.

O

THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

Fig. 3. Map of Cotabato ca 1973

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COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

Koronadal Valley in South Cotabato Koronadal Valley, the subject of the present study, is located in the southeastern part of Cotabato. A narrow plain flanked by two mountain ranges, the Quezon mountain range in the east and Roxas mountain range in the west, it extended in a northwesterly direction from Sarangani Bay to Lake Buluan about 80 kilometers long and from 10 to 12 kilometers wide covering an area of about 97,000 hectares. Between these mountain ranges “is the fertile cogonal and marshy valley of Koronadal, called by the B’laans kolon na dal which comes from the Magindanao words kolon or kalon which means “cogon” grass and nadal or dalal meaning “plains”. As the name suggests, the Valley was an extensive plain found from the northern shore of Sarangani Bay at Dadiangas (now General Santos) running in a northwesterly direction to Lutayan barrio in Buluan Lake, approximately 8 miles wide and fifty miles long. Wernstedt and Spencer (1967) described Koronadal Valley: The Koronadal Valley in the south is the largest of the peripheral lowlands. With an average width of nearly 8 miles, the Koronadal extends for over 50 miles from the shores of Lake Buluan in the north to the head of Sarangani Bay. Structurally, the Koronadal Valley terminates at the low topographic divide located along the line between the Parker and Matutum volcanoes. North of the divide the drainage of the valley is dominated by the north-flowing Marbel River, whereas to the south, drainage is by way of the Buayan river into Sarangani Bay. The topography of Koronadal suggests its division into three parts: the Southern, Middle, and Northern Koronadal. Settlers of the three parts give varying impressions showing the differences in the physical characteristics of the three parts. One settler vividly recalled: “As I have arrived, I can really feel the loneliness and emptiness of the place for there were no plants except the cogon grass and the trees that stood along the river banks. Only few kinds of trees were there, mostly Klinon and Dadyangas. I was saddened upon seeing that the place was hot, arid, and desolate.” The loneliness and emptiness of the surroundings was understandable since Southern Koronadal, better known as Buayan, was the driest portion of Koronadal Valley. With a low rainfall of only 38.45 inches and 4.5 wet months (Barrera, 1963:226), Buayan was the least inhabited area before settlement days with most inhabitants found more numerous in the Middle and Northern Koronadal. As a residential place, it did not appeal either to the we-rice agriculture-based Magindanaos and the kaingin-type agriculture of the Blaan. Experts could not even say whether this part of the valley ever had a forest cover (Pelzer, 1945:145). The impressions gathered from the interviewed settlers tell of “dust as thick as one inch” which the strong, southerly wind coming from Sarangani Bay blew across the plains of Buayan. As a result Buayan was sometimes called “Dust-diangas” referring to its poblacion area, Dadiangas. Sometimes the area was also called “the Dust Bowl of the Philippines.” On the other hand, Middle and Northern Koronadal were noted for forest and babay ramo. An interesting

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theory presented by Smith (1924), as quoted by Pelzer, says that Koroandal Valley was once a shallow sea channel connecting Lake Buluan to Sarangani Bay before the eruption of Mount Matutum. The eruption of the volcano led to the filling of the channel by volcanic materials. A province as vast as Cotabato is expected to have varying topography ranging from flat level land and towering mountain ranges. Moreover, the plains are particularly important for an agricultural nation like the Philippines, especially if such plains are watered by river systems. Since farmlands are usually found in the plains, these also became centers of communities. Cotabato is especially favored by an extensive area of plain extending for almost fifty miles eastward from the shores of Illana Bay to the southern boundary of what is now Bukidnon Province and southeastward to Sarangani Bay. These extensive plains provided the first element in a material infrastructure that made Cotabato the leading power in Mindanao and Sulu region during the heydays of Sultan Kudarat and his successors. Thus, Warren (1985) mentioned Sulu’s reliance on Cotabato to solve Sulu’s eighteenth century chronic food shortage particularly rice, its staple food. Likewise, Ileto (1971) attributed Buayan’s dominance in the nineteenth century Cotabato to its economy spurred by its agricultural activities in direct contrast to sa-ilud’s waning power due to lessened trade activities in the region. The second important feature of Cotabato is its towering mountain ranges in the north, east, south, northwest and southwest which virtually insulate Cotabato from the neighboring areas and bodies of water. Wernstedt and Spencer (1967) identify these ranges as the Tiruray Highlands or Cotabato Cordillera, which occupy the extreme southwestern corner of Mindanao, extending in an unbroken front along the Celebes Sea coast for more than 125 miles composed of four distinctive physiographic units. Fronting directly along the Celebes Sea is the "4,000 foot-high Southwest Coast Range". The northern section is composed of the Mount Blik Uplands, which has summits ranging between 3,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation. The eastern edge of the Tiruray upland area is formed by the Daguma Range, a narrow, linear mountain chain which overlooks the Allah Valley. Between the Mount Blik Uplands and the Daguma Range is the Kulaman Plateau, an interior upland that lies at an elevation of approximately 3,000 feet (Wernstedt and Spencer 1967: 546-547). The mountains in Cotabato region, said Huke (1963), prevent the rain cloud in passing over them giving Cotabato the distinction of receiving the least rainfall during the northeast monsoon during the months of December to March. But when winds do come, its rivers overflow and renew the fertility of the soil by depositing the sediments which they carry from the mountains to the plain. Thus, reports made by the governors-general of the Philippines during the American period mentioned the periodic droughts and floods which settlers had to contend with in Cotabato. Despite the environmental constraint, however, the mountains resulted to Cotabato’s unique distinction of being outside the typhoon belt. Its typhoon-free climate and the vast expanse of seemingly uncultivated arable land made Cotabato an almost ideal settlement area, a fact not lost on the Americans and the later Commonwealth and Philippine government officials.

8 B.

COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

The People and Their Socio-Politico-Economic Organizations

The multi-ethnic reality of the 17th century Cotabato world was observed by the Dutch writer Ruurdje Laarhoven (1989) as not a “single ethno-linguistic group” but a “series or cluster of populations tied together functionally under a religious or state ideology.” Interestingly, such population complexity came about as a result of Western colonialism. The trade restrictions imposed by the Dutch in Indonesia during the colonial days led to the displacement of people which included the sea nomads called by some writers as the Badjaos and by Spanish sources as the Lutaos. In the Southern Philippines world, on the other hand, the Spanish attacks of the Magindanao and Sulu homeland led to the intensification of an ancient practice in the Malay-Indo-Philippine waters of slave-raiding activities into the support mechanism of Spanish power in the Philippines - the Christianized natives of Visayas and Luzon. Eventually, the capture, purchase, and welcoming of slaves became a lucrative business since slaves could be put to productive use in farming, fishing, or rowing in sea expeditions. These captives eventually became freemen with their conversion to Islam. Laarhoven (1989) mentioned the Dutch traders’ observation of the Magindanaos’ “conscious policy of attracting new people (except the Europeans)” to settle on their territory. Furthermore, the Spanish presence also served as a major impetus for the Magindanao territorial expansion and the incorporation of new ethnic groups as tribute-paying population. Thus, the competition posed by the Spaniards led to the build-up of Magindanao power over territory and people in Mindanao by the seventeenth century period. Among foreign migrants, the Indonesians and Chinese became important segments of Cotabato population until today. The Indonesians, called as Marore, antedated the coming of the Spaniards. The pre-war settlers met them in Koronadal and Allah Valleys when they came. The Chinese, on the other hand, were believed by Wickberg (1963) to have settled down in Cotabato and Sulu as a result of 1755 expulsion order by the Spaniards. In Cotabato, they became rice millers, carpenters, and palm wine distillers assisted by high interest loans from local Muslim datus. Eventually, before the Spaniards bowed out from Cotabato with the coming of the Americans the Chinese were observed to have wrested control of the retail trade of Cotabato town. The multi-ethnic reality of the Cotabato world was further strengthened by the 20th century migration from the northern and central parts of the Philippines into Cotabato under a state-sponsored settlement program inaugurated by the Americans in 1913. The Magindanaos. Islam took its successful direction under the guidance of Serif Mohammed Kabungsuan from Johore. In the same manner that Spain’s coming to the Philippines separated the Christian converts from the Muslims of Southern Philippines, the Islamic advent in Mindanao divided the original inhabitants of Cotabato into the Muslim converts and other cultural communities who refused to accept the new religion and system of government and/or remained detached from the new cultural force due to geographic isolation from the foci of the new cultural changes. Casiño (2000) argues that the central idea of fusion, linkage, and alliance underlies the basic framework of the Magindanao society. Fusion is the

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"acceptance and assimilation of foreign ways, like the submission of the pagan tribes to the Islamic faith which Sharif Kabungsuan brought to them. The Magindanao myth of a female Putri Tunina who emerged from the bamboo and who was offered to Sharif Kabungsuan for a wife was considered by Casiño as the clear symbol of fusion between the indigenous female and the foreign male. Linkage and alliance was commonly done through dynastic marriages. Thus, Sharif Kabungsuan married Tabunaway's sister, Surabanun. From his marriage with Putri Tunina whom Tabunaway found in a bamboo, his daughter Putri Mamur, married Pulwa, the datu of Buayan. To build an alliance with the Iranuns, Sharif Kabungsuan married an Iranun woman, Agintabu. The product of such union was Sharif Maka-alang who married Bulim, a B'laan woman found in a crow's egg. Significantly, the Maka-alang-Bulim marriage representing Magindanao-B'laan alliance resulted to a royal lineage where Sultan Kudarat came from (Casiño 2000: 166). The folkloric tradition of both the Lumads and Magindanaos of Cotabato talked of common origin, based on the story of the brothers Tabunaway and Mamalu. The only difference in the two versions was which of the two brothers embraced Islam religion with the coming of Serif Kabungsuan to the valley. In the Manobo version, it was Mamalu while in both the Tiruray and Maguindanao version, it was Tabunaway. The first authentic description of the Magindanaos was given by William Dampier at the end of seventeenth century who spent six months with the Sultan of Magindanao. According to Dampier, the people of Cotabato appeared to be of various origins, just like the inhabitants of Luzon, greatly resembling the people of Borneo, Macassar, and the Moluccas. Of the many divisions of the Magindanaos, two had always been pre-eminent - the Sultanate of Magindanao and the Sultanate of Buayan. Magindanao proper of the nineteenth century period occupied the delta of the Pulangi River and the coastal area of southern Mindanao while Buayan covered the upper valley and the interior plains of the Pulangi. The 19th century map made by Father Pablo Pastells shows that the important settlements during the period which recognized the authority of the Sultan of Maguindanao were: Cotabato proper, Slangan, Simuay, Katitwan, Libungan, Tumbao, Bagumbayan, Taviran, Tamontaka, Lalabuan, Baras, Malabang, Dinas, Sugut, Glan, Boayajan, Mlut, and Sarangani Islands. That of the Buayan sultanate, on the other hand, were Buayan, Pinyaman, Cabalungan, Sapakan, Talayan, Dulawan, Kudarangan, Banguingued, Matinggawan, Kabacan, Kabuntalan, Dansalan, and other settlements along Lakes Liguasan and Buluan (Jesuitas, Legajo 66, 21 de Noviembre de 1883: 29-33). The coming of Islam to Southern Philippines was considered an integral part of the penetration and expansion of Islam in Southeast Asia. Islam first arrived in Sulu, but contrary to expectations, Islam’s coming to Mindanao did not come from Sulu. It was a direct thrust from the Malay archipelago. Although the arrival of Serif Mohammed Kabungsuan in Cotabato is dated by some writers as 1475 A.D. and by Majul as 1515 A.D. , some of the inhabitants might already be Muslims by that time. Serif Kabungsuan is the son of Serif Ali-Zainul Abidin, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad and Putri Jusul, the daughter of the Sultan of Johore. The Islamization process was effected by marriages with the daughters of the local chieftains and by Kabungsuan’s success in forging alliances and reconciling warring factions within the Mindanao area. Forthwith, the prestige of Islam led

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COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

the ruling principalities in Cotabato and Lanao to base their legitimacy to rule by tracing descent from him. The development of the port of Cotabato and its continuous contact with traders and preachers from Brunei, Ternate, Arabia, and Sulu greatly strengthened the Islamic institutions in Cotabato despite the arrival of the Spaniards in the archipelago. The Spaniards found to their dismay that the Muslim resistance in Mindanao and Sulu was more intense and better organized. This can be attributed to its more advanced political organization owing its political vocabulary to Islam. The central authority was ruled by the sultan. He ruled over a number of villages governed by the datus. The sultanate had a welldeveloped bureaucracy whose council was made up of the rajah muda (Crown Prince), Rajah Bendahara (a senior prince), Rajah Laut (commander of the Royal Fleet), and the Temenggong (chief of the Royal Guards). The council gave assent and concurrence in the promulgation of laws, declaration of war, ratification of treaties, and the nomination of a new sultan. Besides the council, the sultan was also advised by the panditas with the highest ranking among them, the Pandita Kali, having the sole authority to interpret and revise the luwaran, a code of laws taken from the old Arabic law and translated into Magindanao tongue with some changes adopted to local condition for guidance in the administration of justice. Another Muslim group were the Iranuns, former inhabitants of the cool, rainy highland country of Lanao who came to settle along the coast in Illana Bay and the great plains of the Pulangi. They follow the Maranao speech with a considerable admixture of Magindanao idioms but they adopted the sober Magindanao dress and quiet manner (Kuder 1945: 123). They have gained recognition as a genealogical clan since the Magindanao sultanate, says Majul, “refers to a particular family or dynasty that was Iranun in origin”(Majul 1972: 32). Another group were the Sangils found in South Cotabato and Davao del Sur particularly in Balut and Sarangani Islands. They were said to have come from the Indonesia-owned chain of islands lying between southern Mindanao and northeastern Celebes. They came to settle in Southern Mindanao as refugees due to changing political conditions while others escaped the Christianizing efforts of the Dutch missionaries. They were Islamized by the Magindanaos after their arrival in Mindanao (Kuder 1974: 122). The Indigenous Peoples (The Ips). The word lumad, a Bisayan word meaning “indigenous” became a collective name for the 18 ethnolinguistic groups found in Mindanao. In a meeting of the Lumad Mindanao Congress in June 1986, 15 of the 18 highlander groups adopted the word "Lumad" to refer to non-Muslim, nonChristian indigenous peoples in Mindanao. To Rodil (1992) the emergence of this name is significant because it indicates the rise of self-identity among the heretofore-marginalized highlanders of Mindanao. In Cotabato, the major IP groups are the T’boli, Tiruray, B’laan, and Manobo, a brief description of which follows. The T’boli. The T’boli, also known as Tiboli and Tagabili are an old indigenous people living in the province of South Cotabato in the municipalities of Lake Sebu, T’boli, and Suralah and in the province of Sarangani in the municipalities of Kiamba, Maitum, and Maasim. Located within these areas are the major lakes

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which are important to the T’bolis: Lake Sebu, the largest; Siluton, the deepest; and Lahit, the smallest (Benitez 1966: 42). The T’boli myth tells of the great flood and the bamboo - a combination of the universal and the indigenous elements. According to the legend, the T’bolis are descendants of the La Bebe and La Lomi and Tamfeles and La Kagef, two couples who survived the great deluge after being warned by the Deity diwata. Taking a huge bamboo that could accomodate countless peole, they filled the vessels with food. When Mt. Hulon got inundated, the four got into the bamboo while the rest of the population drowned. From La Bebe and La Lomi came the Ilongo and other Visayan groups, the Ilocanos, and the Tagalogs. And from La Kagef and Tamfeles came the tau sequil (lowlanders); tau mohin (the sea dwellers); tau sebu ( the uplanders of Lake Sebu and sinulong); the B’laans of Tupi ; the Manobos; and finally, the Muslims. Of all the Lumad groups, the T’boli were considered by Benitez (1966) as the most picturesque and colorful. Their use of black blouses filled with exquisite embroidery over a bright colored skirt called luwek, a dangling brass chains embracing the hips holding the skirt in place, and their use of an array of jewelries which include little brass with hanging braids of horse hair on the ears, neclaces made up of shells, bells, and singkil bells in the ankles and a band of beads used as a choker make a T’boli woman a very arresting figure. The B’laan. The word B’laan and its various derivatives came from the word bila meaning “house” and the suffix an meaning “people” so that B’laan means the “people living in the houses.” The B’laans inhabit the provinces of South Cotabato (in the cities of Koronadal and General Santos City and the municipalities of Banga, Polomolok, Tampakan, Tantangan, T'boli, Norala, and Tupi); Sarangani (municipalities of Glan, Maasim, Malapatan, and Malungon); Sultan Kudarat (Municipality of Columbio; and Davao del Sur (Jose Abad Santos, Kiblawan, Magsaysay, Malita, Sarangani municipality, and Sulop) (Casiño 2000: 237). But in the 19th century, they inhabited the hilly region behind the west coast of Davao Gulf. Their territory then extended all the way into the Bagobo country in the north and westward into the Cotabato-Davao watershed. Casal (1986) found the B’laans culturally related to the Bagobos and Mandayas as shown by similarities in architecture, clothing, ornamentation, and socio-religious practices (Cabrera 1967: 184). Just like the T’boli and other Lumad groups, the coming of the settlers and their occupation of the coastal plains and foothills on the western coast of Davao Gulf and the Cotabato lowland areas gradually pushed the B’laans deeper into the interior and hilly regions, without much resistance on their part. The B’laan are highly decorative with beads of crystals of dark color of red, green, blue, black and the like used as necklaces. The most unique feature of their traditional dress is a beautifully embroidered cloth of intricate design of excellent weaving of hemp called the tabi cloth. There is also the bras belt around their waist tussled with brass chains and bells at the tip of each tussle thread. The male traditional clothing is a collarless long-sleeved jacket with tight fitting pants cut at knee length. Interestingly, their language is characterized by the preponderance of the letter "f." Unlike the Tiruray and Manobo, the B’laans were barely touched by the evangelization efforts of the Jesuits of Cotabato during the Spanish period. However, they were believed to be monotheists who believe in the existence of one God, creator of heaven and earth and all things in the universe.

12

COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

The Manobo. The Manobos ( man-suba), inhabitants of the river, inhabit the river basin of Agusan, the Point of San Agustin in the south of the Bay of Malalag in Davao, and the river valley of Cotabato. While Father Pastells considered the B’laans as “timid, amible, and easy to reduce”, the Manobos were considered as “fierce, suspicious, and treacherous in their attacks although easy to reduce”. In their clothing, arms, and adornment, they were found closely resembling the Mandayas of Surigao and Davao with the exception of the strings of glass beads which were black rather than red among the Manobos (Pastells in Blair and Robertson 1903: vol. 42, 282). The Tirurays. The Tirurays are a traditional hill people found in the upper portion of a river-drained area in the northwestern part of Cotabato, where the mountainous terrain of the Cotabato cordillera faces the Celebes Sea. The Tiruray classify themselves according to their locations: the etew rotor are the mountain people; the etew dogot are the coastal people; the etew teran are the Tran people; the etew awang, the Awang people; and the etew ufi, the Upi people (Cabrera 1967:184). The development of Cotabato port as a trading center in Mindanao in the seventeenth century led to a flourishing trade between the Tirurays of Cotabato Cordillera and the Magindanaos of the lowland. From the mountains came rattan, tobacco, almaciga, beeswax, and other forest products while from the Magindanaos came salt, knives, pots, cloth, and other household implements. The establishment of a Spanish military garrison in Cotabato town in 1861 led to an evangelization efforts by the Jesuits who established a Jesuit school and mission near Awang, close to the mountain region. The coming of the Americans brought yet another phase of colonization. Through the efforts of Irving Edwards, an American Constabulary officer married to a Tiruray, a public school was established in Awang in 1916 and an agricultural school in Upi in 1919. The building of roads opened up the area to numerous christian setters who settled down in Upi. The acculturation of the Tirurays led to a dichotomy in Tiruray culture where those who refused acculturation retreated deeper into their ancestral mountain habitat while the acculturated ones resettled in the Upi valley and became Christians (Schlegel 1979). The political system of the Tiruray society is clearly democratic. Each neighborhood of subsistence groups may have a leader who sees to the clearing of the swidden, the planting and harvesting of crops, and the equal sharing of food produced from the land. They are kept together by their adat or customary law and by an indigenous legal and justice system. The legal and moral authority is exercised by an acknowledged expert in customary law, the kefeduwan who presides over the tiyawan, the formal discussion of cases involving members of the community. The Lumad world shows a close interaction between nature and man, thereby producing a “creative interdependence of nature and culture.” Take the case of the kaingin system, their common agricultural practice. Unlike the western-mode intensive cropping and maximum output type of agriculture, the kaingin system understands the need for the soil to renew its fertility by allowing it to lie fallow for sometime. Also, the strong hunting and gathering tradition of the lumadss indicate a vital link between the indigenous people and the forest. The forest provides a multitude of products vital for their physical and cultural survival like food, medicinal plants, abaca cloth, building materials, dyes for their cloth, bees wax, etc. In the modern setting, however, the denudation of

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Cotabato’s forests by logging and intensive expansion of Christian settlements caused irreparable damage to this balance between nature and man with unfortunate results for the lumads and their simple, rustic setting. Likewise, in its political organization, the desire for continuity and stability necessitates a deep respect for customary laws and traditions. Among the lumads of Cotabato, knowledge of traditional lore and mythology is one of the qualities needed for the position of chieftainship, besides wisdom, eloquence, fairness in arbitration of disputes, and for the warrior tribes, courage and skill in battle. In the kinship-based Lumad world, customary law or adat is especially strong. For instance, among the Tirurays, an expert in customary law called the kefeduwan is not only the most learned in Tiruray custom and law but “also possesses a skill for reasoning, a remarkable memory and an aptitude for calmness in debate.” The chief’s strong attachment to and knowledge of customary laws and tradition made the chieftain the guide/father of the people. Moreover, the dispersal of small clusters of houses over great distances had done much to prevent the evolution of a central authority. The Lumads, then, maintained its settlement-based strong local leader without evolving into a hierarchical-type centralized authority like the Magindanaos. However, there are evidences to show that, in the past, the direction towards centralization was manifested by the Manobos, the most numerous among the Highlanders of Mindanao. This is shown by a seventeenth century Spanish report which tells of 2,000 Manobos under Manakior who joined forces with the Spaniards in the attack of Rajah Maputi of the Buayan sultanate in 1638. The same Manakior later formed an alliance with Sultan Kudarat through marriage with Kudarat’s sister. This organizational capability of the Manobos was further shown by the Alankat Movement mounted by a certain Manobo chieftain, Timuay Mampuroc of Libungan. The term “Alankat” was described as a “defense mechanism” against the pressure of Christian migration. Mampuroc was able to obtain Maguindanao support by claiming to be a reincarnation of Datu Ali of the Buayan sultanate who was killed by the Americans in 1905. That a Lumadnon chieftain would claim to be a reincarnation of a Magindanao hero shows the spiritual and cultural link between and among the occupants of Cotabato region. The mechanism towards centralization among the Manobos is explained by the elaborate ritual known as lantung, literally a wooden beam that functions as a divider at the center of the house. According to reports, several datus would converge at a place called the center of the earth. The datus represented four directions of Mindanao: “upstream” (Cagayan de Oro), “downstream” (Cotabato), “eastward” (Davao), and “westward”(Lanao). The people of these four directions recognized a ruler whom they chose by common agreement. Thus, a mechanism was in place for the Manobos to evolve into a centralized authority which also explains Manakior’s capacity to gather 2,000 warriors during the Spanish period. That it did not materialize into a formal bureaucratic set-up and remained a loosely federated structure indicates a strong tradition of independence and autonomy of the various ethnic groups of Mindanao. The two groups of people, the Muslims and the Lumads, while distinct from each other share similar environment and thus had to interact with each other. As occupants of a similar ecological environment, both the Muslims and the Lumads developed a system of alliances, politics, economic interdependence,

14

COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

and intermarriages when their world was rudely interrupted by the Spanish coming to Cotabato. Henceforth, life would no longer be the same for the people of the valley. C. The Spanish Period and the Creation of the Historical Divide The creation of the historical divide between the two peoples of the Philippines the Christianized natives of Luzon and Visayas and the Islamized natives of Southern Philippines - was the most unfortunate result of Spanish colonization of Mindanao and Sulu. The earliest Spanish expedition for the conquest of Cotabato was in 1578 where Gabriel de Ribera was literally lost in the vast expanse of Cotabato when the Magindanaons used the time-tested defense: withdrawal to the interior (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 4:282-283). In 1596, Captain Rodriguez de Figueroa ventured to the colonization of Cotabato at his own expense lured by the government promise of land, trade monopoly in Mindanao, and designation as governor of the island for life, a position to be inherited by his heir. Unfortunately for Figueroa, he died in an ambush without a return of his investment. Moreover, what was revealing in Figueroa's colonization effort was the composition of his attacking force: 214 Spaniards and 500 native allies (Blair and Robertson, Vol 4, 171-181). The use of Christianized natives in attacking the homebases of the Muslims had sown the first seeds of distrust and suspicion between the two groups of people. When the Magindanaos responded to these attacks by attacking in 1599 the Spanish base of support - the Christianized natives of the coastal areas of Luzon and Visayas - the seeds of distrust started to take roots. Through the centuries, this learned fear and distrust of each other mushroomed into a full-blown biases and prejudices nourished by continuous support of the Spaniards by the Christianized natives; various slave-raiding activities into Visayas and Luzon; Spanish literature; sermon in the pulpit; and "moro-moro" plays featured in countless fiesta celebrations. The centuries-old conditioning had succeeded in dividing the people who belonged to a common race. The more than three centuries of "Moro wars" failed to bring the complete subjegation of the Muslims. In a scathing indictment of Spanish policy after one such burning of houses and crops about to be harvested, the Frenchman Duke Alencon who was in Cotabato in the 1860s could not help but comment: "the few establishments owned by Spain in Mindanao procure her no material advantage . . . she is, so to speak, besieged there; and had to settle for making sorties just to maintain herself there." The Frenchman thought that the best policy to pursue in Mindanao would be to occupy the territory little by little, to win over the leaders, and conciliate the people by respecting their organization and their customs instead of nourishing their hatred "through periodic devastations" (Alencon, 1870:199). But Alencon missed a major point: Spain was fighting both a political and religious war. Not much had changed by the last decade of Spanish presence in Cotabato. A Spanish official was honest enough to make the following assessment: "of the five politico-military districts of Mindanao, only two, Surigao and Davao are totally dominated." And as to Cotabato, he said: "The soldiers could'nt leave the camp for a distance of more than 100 steps without a threat to their lives" (Secades, 1895:22).

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"Bloodied but unbowed," this sums up the Magindanao's presistent efforts against Spain. Nonetheless, the Spanish colonization weakened the once center of trade in Mindanao which, at the apogee of its power, was lord of the entire Mindanao eclipsing even the older center of Islam - the Sultanate of Sulu. The Englishman Thomas Forrest gave a part of the answer to the disturbing change of fortune by the 18th century - the presence of the Spanish navy in Zamboanga which impeded Chinese junks from going to Cotabato. But more than economic dislocation, the historical divide which developed between the Christians of the north and the Muslims of the south would prove a tragedy of major proportion for a people of common race, the reverberations of which are felt in the modern times. D. The Eagle's Shadow: The Deepening Colonization The Spanish departure from Cotabato was immediately followed by a breakdown of law and order. The historian Sawyer lamented Cotabato's conditions: " . . . robbery,outrage and murder. . . Mindanao has become a seething hell. . . more dreadful than ever before in historic times" . This chaotic state of affairs was explained in two versions: the Muslim and the Christian versions. The Muslim version tells of triumvirate left by the last Spanish governor to administer Cotabato after their departure. The triumvirate's composition indicated the three major groups of the town of Cotabato wirh the Christians represented by Roman Vilo, a native soldier; the chinese as represented by Celestino Alonzo; and the Muslims represented by Datu Piang. Mastura opined that troubles averted when Roman Vilo organized an allChristian government and had himself proclaimed Governor of the district. This posturing of leadership by the Christians allegedly had so enrages the saraya Maguindanaos headed by Datu Ali, Djambangan, and Enok that Cotabato town was attacked and ransacked on September 10 1899. According to this account, it was not only the Christians where were attacked but also the datus who were friendly to the Spaniards in the 1886-87 war waged by Datu Utto of Buayan. The Christian version claims that the Spaniards entrusted the reins of government to Roman Vilo alone. They cited as proof the fact that the arms and the ammunitions were entrusted by the Christians by the Spaniards. Thus, when the Maguindanaos learned of this they negotiated with Roman Vilo for the barter of cows and carabaos in exchange of guns and ammunitions . Accordingly, when Vilo "had already large cattle and the native chieftains had also plenty of guns, the latter came down to Cotabato and while in the conference with Vilo at the wharf in front of the old convent, Vilo was assassinated and the town was ransacked." Whatever version is correct, the fact is clear that the attacks made by the sa-raya Maguindanaos was an attempt to reassert control of the Muslim homeland from the hands of the interlopers. During this period, the once mighty Mguindanao sultanate had waned in power and influenced with Datu Ali of the Buayan sultanate described as the real power in the valley with about 70% of the population under his sway. During this chaotic period, Datu Utto of Buayan who waged war against the Spaniards in 1886-87 was In Nuling, old and enfeebled although still the richest. Datu Piang's rise to power is the story of the non-royalty penetrating the inner echelon of power in Cotabato valley. A son of a Chinese married to a Muslim woman, the boy Piang became a trader like his father. He caught the attention of Datu Utto who made him a military commander. Moreover, once, he

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COTABATO: GEOGRAPHY AND ETNOHISTORY

failed to follow the order of Datu Utto to effect the return of inhabitants living near Sapakan who emigrated to Bakat near the present Dulawan. After having met the people and understood the reason for their departure from Sapakan, Piang then sent a letter to Datu Utto imploring him to pardon the people inasmuch as they continued to recognize him as their datu and they emigrated to a place which was still within his teritory. His failure to follow order so angered Datu Utto that the latter immediately ordered his arrest. Moreover, the good relations developed by Datu Piang through the years led the other groups to pro vide Piang assistance by augmenting his troops. In the ensuing negotiations between the protagonist, Datu Utto recognized Datu Piang's ascendancy and forthwith retired to Nuling (Mastura, 1979: 15). The strongest challenge against the Americans expectedly came from Datu Ali of Buayan who merely continued his reassertion of Maguindanao supremacy in a recognized Maguidanao territory. General Wood could not but acknowledge his admiration of the intrepid Maguindanao warrior: '" He is a good deal on te Geronimo type and by far the most capable Moro we have run into" (Thompson, 1975: 69). But American superiority in arms and the effective use of the "divide and rule" brought an end to Datu Ali's campaign in 1905 when he was surprised by the Americans in his camp. Datu Sansaluna, his 18 year old son, blamed Datu Enok's treachery for the death of the Maguindanao warrior.36 In 1920 a Manobo chieftain would take up where Datu Ali had stopped, claiming to be a reincarnation of Datu Ali and would campaign for the defence of Cotabato homeland by driving the strangers from its territory (Gowing, 1979:13), clearly an act of cultural and spiritual linkage of the inhabitants of the valley, be they Muslim or tribal groups. The establishment of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu inaugurated the effective incorporation of Southern Philippines into the Philippine administrative machinery after an loss of 20,000 Muslim lives.37 Moreover, the land settlement program inaugurated by the Americans in 1913 would result in a more cataclysmic change for Cotabato.

CHAPTER II PIONEERING IN THE COTABATO FRONTIER To the great mass of people of Mindanao, no other event in its twentieth century history proved far ranging in its effect than the land settlement program of the government. Started by the Americans in 1913, the land settlement program opened the hitherto vast expanse of Mindanao to migration and large-scale transfer of people from the northern and central parts of the Philippine archipelago to the southern frontier of Mindanao and Sulu through the government-directed migration which would forever change the land and its people, the effects, both positive and negative, of which are keenly felt today.

Fig. 4. Migrant-settlers arriving in the shores of Dadiangas, ca. 1939. Courtesy of NLSA, Pelzer, 1945.

Land Settlement to Mindanao Pioneering in the frontier necessitates a certain spirit characterized by a strong determination to succeed. Nowhere was this proven than the story of a former mayor of Lambayong, a town in the province of Sultan Kudarat, who said: “Cotabato in the twenties was a wilderness. This was the unoccupied land. Others went to settle in the northern seaboard. . . So I went to Cotabato. . . I lived with the Muslims, ate with them, just so I will have a place to stay.” (Roperos 1963: 26) Pioneering in Cotabato meant conquering the fear of the Muslims. Datu Kusay succeeded because he not only conquered fear of the Muslims; he lived with the fearsome Muslims. In sociological parlance, he was able to traverse the ethnic boundary and became “one of them”. To Datu Kusay and countless others, the journey of hope to the wilderness was coupled with a sense of adventurism, the “bahala na” spirit, as well as the strong desire to work hard for a better tomorrow. This is popularly called the pioneering spirit. It was this spirit which also meant surviving the fear

18 THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 of the Muslims, taming the jungle, overcoming loneliness, and finding solution to the depredations of the wild pigs, flood, drought, and the ubiquitous malaria. A 1952 account tells of a pre-1920 migrant-settler’s experience: “From thickly wooded forests and dense talahib growths they carved out their homes and farms. The swarms of mosquitoes as aggressive in the daytime as they were at night and the rampaging wild pigs which attacked the crops from sunset to sunrise, gave more than one settler cause for despair. Many fell victims to the malarial scourge and to other diseases. Those whose fields were planted to any kind of crops were plagued by the devastation of numerous wild pigs - robbing the farmers of numberless nights of sleep. What the pigs spared were finished off by foraging monkeys and white parrots or washed away by the river when it overflowed its banks. . .” (Initan 1952: 268) Malarial mosquitoes, monkeys, wild pigs, flood, drought, back-breaking job of clearing the jungle - experiences enough to discourage the hardest of souls. Thus, the pre-1920 colony administrators found themselves thinking of ways to enforce stringent measures to keep the colony from being de-colonized. “One such measure was the banning of the colonists from going to the market without a pass. Even then, they were closely watched” (Initan 1952: 268). Government-sponsored settlement to Mindanao did not start until 1913. During the early years of the American era, the idea of settlement to Mindanao was privately led and disorganized. For instance, there was the proposal to settle the area with black Americans because these were thought more adaptable to the tropical climate than white Americans (Silva 1979: 35). Another proposal mentioned of lands in the Philippines to be organized into 200 colonies of 1,000 each or 100 colonies of 1,000 and 20 colonies of 5,000 each with the colonists provided $100 for transportation and $200 as loan in advance payable in ten years ( Quezon Papers, Vol. II, Series VIII). The American imperialist drive for the economic exploitation of Mindanao was seen from various proposals of liberalizing land laws and constant referrals of Mindanao plantation. By 1910, of the 97 major plantations of 100 hectares or more, 61 were owned by Americans, 19 by Europeans, 5 by Chinese and 12 by Filipinos (Christians and Moros) (Silva 1979). Accordingly, this was made possible by the American public land policy in the Philippines. In 1902, in continuity of the regalian doctrine adopted by the Spaniards vis-à-vis lands in the Philippines, the United States Congress gave the Philippine government power to administer the extensive public lands for the benefit of the Filipinos. This same congress limited to 16 hectares the amount that could be acquired by any individual. This was in response to the opposition demand in the United States to prevent the Philippines from becoming a plantation colony. In accordance with the power granted the Philippine Government, the Public Land Act was passed on October 7, 1903 which introduced the homestead system into the Philippines, provided rules for the sale or lease of public lands and the confirmation of land titles. In 1919, Act No. 2874 limited the exploitation and utilization of public lands to Filipinos and American citizens and citizens of other countries who gave reciprocal rights to Filipinos. The new law increased to 24 instead of 16 hectares that an individual

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could obtain through homestead and 100 hectares instead of 16 through purchase, the latter later increased to 144 hectares (Pelzer 1948: 132). These land laws were proven to have worked against the interest of the indigenous communities. For instance, Act No. 718 passed on April 4, 1903 voided “land grants from Moro sultans or datos or from chiefs of Non-Christian tribes made without governmental authority or consent” (Tan 1995: 5). Rodil (1994) claims that this provision continues to be in effect to this day thereby providing basis for the Muslim and Lumad perception of injustice from the very government which is supposed to take care of its inhabitants’ interests. Act 2874 mentioned earlier while increasing the allowable land by homestead from 16 to 24 hectares also provided a discriminatory provision stating that nonChristians was allowed an area “which shall not exceed ten hectares”. By November 7, 1936 under the all-Filipino Commonwealth Government through Commonwealth Act No. 41, the privilege granted to settlers of owning more than one homestead at 24 hectares each was withdrawn and reverted to only one not exceeding 16 hectares. Ironically, the non-Christians who were earlier allowed a maximum of ten hectares were now permitted only four hectares (Rodil 1994: 30). It was never explained why such inequity was committed against the indigenous peoples. What is clear is that this had contributed to the general feeling among the native communities of an unfeeling and uncaring government, just as foreign as the Spanish and American-run government. Thus, at the start of American rule in the country, the inequity of land laws continued the divergent historical paths for the different groups of people in the Cotabato frontier region. Drought in Sulu and Zamboanga and grasshoppers in Davao which reduced rice production in 1911 and 1912 gave General Pershing of the Moro Province the excuse to call for the immediate importation of homesteaders from congested areas of the Philippines. The American government forthwith paraded around Cebu a corn stalk, thirteen feet tall, propped up with a bamboo stick, to convince the Cebuanos of the fertility of the soil in Cotabato. Fifty men responded to the call. They were given an initial capital and farm tools on loan basis. The clinching argument was the promise of eventually owning homestead (Rodil 1994). One major aim, although not officially placed in the objectives of the agricultural colonization scheme, was the amalgamation of the Christian and Muslim sector as elucidated by Governor Carpenter of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu who said that: “the aim is the amalgamation of the Mohammedan and Christian native population into a homogeneous Filipino people”. Thus, of the total 774 colonist families (3,809 men, women, and children), 427 were Visayan families and 347 were Muslim families. In the period 1913 to 1918, there were five colonies established in the central valley of Cotabato in what is now Pikit, North Cotabato; one in Glan in the southern coast in what is now the Sarangani Province; one in Lamitan, Basilan Island; and one in Momungan, Lanao del Norte (Pelzer 1948: 129). Interestingly, in its social goal of showing that Muslims and Christians can live side by side in harmony with each other, the government considered the experiment a success. Notwithstanding this perceived success, the government failed to establish the foundation for a future harmonious relationship among the various groups of people in Mindanao by equitable laws. The land settlement program suffered a hiatus after 1917. Starting 1918 the Bureau of Labor was delegated to establish the Inter-Island Migration

20 THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 Division. The functions of this division included the recruitment of home seekers and dispatch them to Mindanao or other thinly populated areas in the country. However, Pelzer (1948) cited the lack of road improvements and survey of public lands as a major deterrent to the success of the program. Land settlement remained small as a result. But the idea of land settlement became an established policy that the Commonwealth Government would pursue with great vigor two decades later inaugurating a massive transfer of population from the north and central part of the country to the southern part during the period immediately before and after the war. But why would people leave behind familiar home, friends, and family to unknown region? To get part of the answer, one pre-war settler of Koronadal Valley was made to tell his story.

In Search For A Better Tomorrow To the surviving settlers, the pre-war NLSA supported land settlement scheme was a journey of hope - hope for a better tomorrow. It was an envisioned future where they and their children would be able to live a better life than before. As their stories show, hope for a better life proved a powerful motivation because as one psychologist says: “With hope, man acts, moves, achieves.” Reverend Federico Domingo: "Insult Should Motivate One to Greater Heights" “When I was still single, I was well criticized by my relatives because I was lazy, landless and the poorest in the clan,” thus begun Reverend Federico’s account of the circumstances surrounding the decision to migrate. To Reverend Federico’s mind, poverty and landlessness were interrelated. Thus, Karl J. Pelzer of the John Hopkins University, found out that the proportion of landless farmers in the Philippines was “astonishingly high” for a tropical country (Pelzer 1994: 86). This was confirmed by the 1939 census that placed farmers who were owners of land as less than 50 per cent and more than one-third as tenants. Thus, for centuries, “land for the landless” had been the peasants’ cry, and the hunger for land was one of our ‘nation’s most pressing problems.” The plight of tenants - poorly clothed, poorly fed, poorly housed, and constantly in debt - set the conditions leading to social eruption. Hayden’s study (1942) gave an excellent insight into Philippine tenancy, viz: “who as tenant farmers, renters, or virtually landless workers eke out a miserable living from the rich Philippine soil. These people constitute a depressed minority which has been largely left behind in the march of Philippine progress. Astonishingly ignorant, for the most part unable to use effectively any language save their local dialects, and economically helpless, it is they who are the most complete victims of the local cacique, the remorseless usurer and the exploiting political or religious charlatans” (Taruc 1967: 12). Sta. Ignacia of Reverend Federico’s youth was a sleepy, third class farming municipality in Tarlac - a hilly, rolling place where rice was planted only once a year. It was this once a year cropping which appeared contributory to the poverty of the farmers. The absence of irrigation prevented the raising of secondary crops during the dry season.

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Typical of a boy belonging to a tenant family, poverty prevented the boy Federico from aiming for a higher education beyond grade seven. The lack of employment opportunities had him and his peers with nothing to do except “barkada, inom, patambay-tambay sa kanto”. (barkada, drinks, loafing around ). They did not really worry as long as there were drinks and something to eat. There was not much to look forward to but they were simple teenagers with simple joys. But this happy-go-lucky life did not last long. The young Federico got married. Then awakening came and with awakening was the growing fear of the future. He now had a wife to take care of and after a year also a son. “I was so poor I only had three pairs of clothes: pang-kasal, pang-okasyon, at pangtrabaho.” (“I was so poor I only had three pairs of clothes: one for wedding, my Sunday best, and my working clothes”) “If I cannot afford to have more clothes, how can I feed my wife and children?” the thought crossed his mind as he stayed awake looking at his sleeping wife. Then one day his fellow Tarlaqueño from the neighboring Camiling, General Paulino Santos, came to campaign for people who wish to own land to go to Mindanao. He was enticed by the thought of owning a land - not only one but twelve hectares! It was a dream comes true! Of course, there were a lot of apprehensions, the fear for their safety being uppermost in his mind. General Santos tried to allay his kababayans’ fears by telling them: “gaya rin sila [the Moros] sa atin na nag-alala baka kaming mga sundalo ay mamamatay-tao”. (“they are also like us who also fear that we the soldiers are killers”) The decision to leave familiar homes, relatives, and friends was not an easy one. While he had talked it over with his wife, the imminent departure made him jittery and unsure of his decision. The thought of leaving Sta. Ignacia for the first time to go to an unknown destination caused a lot of them to reevaluate their earlier decision to go. “Umalis kami na malungkot at kakaunti na kami na tumuloy. 4 pamilla na lang kaming tiga Sta. Ignacia.” (Sadly we departed because there were only four families who pushed through with the plan to join the settlement”). But, despite the pain of departure the family man Federico set aside his fears and misgivings and off he went to Manila to await the boat which would bring them to Koronadal valley. Their travel to Mindanao was a great adventure. “Parang nawalang longkot namin dahil puno ang barko at halos Ilocano kami. Ang sakay naming barko ay Basilan, malaki siya at halos dalawang linggo kami sa daan. Masaya kami, magprogram kami gabigabi, may kantahan, sayawan, dito kami naghistoryahan hanggang dumating kami sa Saranggani, Dadiangas.” (Our sadness was lifted up because the boat was filled up with people, mostly Ilocanos like myself. Our boat, Basilan, was big and we travelled for two weeks. We entertained ourselves during the journey by singing, dancing, story telling until we reached Sarangani, Dadiangas.”) To the migrant Federico, the journey of hope prepared them for whatever lie ahead in the settlement area. Coupled with the understanding of the hard life awaiting anybody who dreamed of a better tomorrow was the willingness to work hard for that envisioned future.

On The Road to Koronadal Valley The underlying theme in the story of Reverend Domingo was the general poverty and landlessness in the countryside. President Manuel L. Quezon took cognizance of this social problem in a statement in a press on January 22, 1937:

22 THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 “If we are prepared to defend our country, we are free from foreign molestation; if we are just to our people, we will be free from internal rebellions” (Messages of the President, Vol. 5, Part I: 427-430). This statement is part of the social justice theme the president kept on hammering as a solution to sporadic outbursts of agrarian problem in Luzon. During the first session of the National Assembly, President Quezon touched the national security concern as one of the justifications for the planned Mindanao migration enunciated within the general theme of development to Mindanao: “The time has come when we should systematically proceed with and bring about colonization and economic development of Mindanao. A vast territory with its untapped natural resources is a temptation to interferring nations that are looking for an outlet for their excess population . . . If we resolved to conserve Mindanao for ourselves and our posterity, we must bend all efforts to occupy and develop it. The first three decades of the twentieth century witnessed three national security concerns, namely: the Japanese scare in Mindanao; the known Muslim distrust of Christian Filipino rule; and the persistent agrarian problem of the country rearing its ugly head in the Sakdal uprising of 1935. A short explanation of each concerns is attempted. The Japanese scare was due to their perceived economic strength in Davao. In a study made by Quiason (1958), the Japanese were reported to hold 25,086 hectares of agricultural lands in Davao during the thirties, acquired either by lease or purchase in addition to another 22,000 hectares tilled by Japanese contractors leased from the Philippine government and private sector. In fact, as of 1937, the Japanese “ranked second in the whole province as evidenced by the impressive amount they invested in agriculture, commerce, and industry amounting to P375, 000.00 or 59% of the domestic taxes collected for the entire province” (Quiason 1958:221). Hayden (1933) went to the extent of calling Davao of the thirties as “primarily a Japanese achievement.” The Public Land Act of 1903, which permitted the sale or lease of public land, made the Japanese entrance in Davao possible. This allowed not only the Americans but also other nationalities as well in acquiring agricultural holdings in the country. The burst of nationalist concern was, however, primarily directed against the Japanese. An example was an article aptly titled: “Probable Steps That May Be Used by the Japanese”. The steps mentioned were: “1) Japanese fishing vessels take a look; 2) Agriculturists follow the fishermen; 3) Then came the Japanese traders; 4) Japanese make friends with local leaders; 5) Stirring up trouble is the next move; 6) Moros break out in open revolt; 7) Battleships are rushed from Japan; and 8) A Moro Sultan becomes a Japanese puppet” (Stagg, Philippine Free Press, August 19, 1939: 2-3). While appearing ridiculous, the hysteria on Japanese menace was understandable considering the Japanese adventurism in China and Manchuria during the same period. Nonetheless, despite suspicion on Japanese violation of Philippine laws, the Commonwealth government was not able to do anything against them. Then there was the perceived distrust by Filipino Muslims of the Christian-controlled Filipino government. Public pronouncements made by

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Muslim leaders were increasingly heard by the second decade of the twentieth century. For instance, in a conflict between Governor-General Wood and the Filipino leaders led by Quezon, the Muslims made a demonstration in Zamboanga on December 30, 1923 in support of the beleaguered American. A placard sign said: “Luzon and Visayas for the Filipinos; Mindanao, Sulu, for the Muslims. Long Live General Wood!” (Mayo 1925: 315) Their use of the term Filipinos when referring to Christians and Muslims when referring to themselves is very revealing indeed. More opposition to Christian rule reverberated throughout Mindanao and Sulu before 1935. In 1926, Datu Maulana of Jolo declared that American rule was “the only hope for equality and justice for the Muslims.” In Lanao, Muslim leaders went to the extent of petitioning the American governor-general to allow them to remain under American rule “forever” because they have no faith in “christian Filipinos treating them with equal justice.” The Dansalan Declaration forged by the leading datus, hajis, and kalis of Lanao protested against the inclusion of Mindanao and Sulu in the future Republic of the Philippines and expressing desire for a continuous guidance and protection of the American government. The unfortunate interpretation of Filipinization to mean government position being turned over to Filipinos (read Christian Filipinos) even in Lumad and Christian territories led to a feeling of insecurity on the side of the Muslims. Thus, as expressed by Sultan Alaoya Alonto of Lanao in a metaphor: “ The Moro people want to set their house in order but how can they when the very key to their own house is not in their possession and perhaps the Moros may be locked in their hands. Those of you who are accustomed to witness the native son of the province conducting the affairs of your own people will surely understand what it means to be governed by “Outsiders” and “Intruders” who do not have even command of the dialect of the people to be governed” (Thomas 1971: 269279). Muslim restlessness a few decades before the establishment of the Commonwealth Government indicated the entrenchment of the cultural divide which divided the two groups of people. However, our earlier discussion appear to justifiy the Muslim and other indigenous inhabitants’ feeling of neglect and alienation from the government. Through the centuries, they progressively moved on from being a recalcitrant enemy during the Spanish period to a special problem child during the American period and finally as an ignored second class Filipino during the Commonwealth period. In an incisive study on the Muslims by Peter G. Gowing (1979), it was mentioned that President Quezon’s third priority was the “welfare of the Moro inhabitants which he elaborated: “We are giving our Mohammedan brothers the best government they ever had and we are showing them our devoted interest in their welfare and advancement. In truth they are giving us their full cooperation. Let us at the same reserve for them in their respective localities such land of the public domain as they may need for their well-being. Let us at the same time place in the unoccupied lands of that region

24 THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 industrious Filipinos from other provinces of the archipelago, so that they may live “together in perfect harmony and brotherhood” (Gowing 1979: 176). Gowing noted that the Muslims, despite these presidential pronouncements, were “hard put” in identifying specific evidences of the government concern for their welfare. Evidences were not available. On the contrary, while the placing of “industrious Filipinos from other provinces of the archipelago” was set in motion with the passage of Commonwealth Act No. 441, the reservation for the Muslims “in their respective localities such land of the public domain as they may need for their well-being” was apparently forgotten. The concern for national security and economic development had so preoccupied the Commonwealth officials that they had neither time nor inclination to think of the third priority. This was duly noted by Pelzer (1948) who commented that in the search for a settlement area by the reconnaissance survey team in November 1938, only verbal assurances were made by the leader of the team (General Paulino Santos) to the Muslim inhabitants promising respect of their rights to their lands. Such government neglect was not helpful at all in allaying the restiveness of the native inhabitants in Mindanao and Sulu. Prior to the establishment of the Commonwealth government, the passage of Legislative Act No. 4197 (Quirino-Recto Colonization Act) indicated that the American government had not abandoned the opening up of Mindanao to Christian settlers and with it American corporations, as well. What is significant is the cognizance by Act 4197 of the shortcomings of the earlier settlement programs by providing for a well funded, well-planned, and wellselected sites and settlers. Moreover, the advent of the Commonwealth led to the sidelining of the Quirino-Recto Colonization Act. Commonwealth Act No. 18, passed on January 2, 1936, says Pelzer (1948), diverted the one million pesos allotted for the implementation of Act 4197 for the construction of roads and bridges and public surveying. This greatly improved the road condition in Mindanao as expressed by Dr. Stanton Youngberg, a member of the Mindanao Exploration Commission who found Mindanao of May 1939: “Then there were only disconnected strips of road in the different provinces, most of which started on the coast and ended somewhere in particular. Now, one can travel by automobile from Surigao at the north-eastern tip of the island through Agusan, Oriental Misamis, Lanao, Cotabato, and Davao, a distance of seven hundred kilometers” (Pelzer 1948: 132). While road building was ongoing, fresh proposals were received, the most important of which were the Silayan Plan and the Howe Plan. Hilarion S. Silayan was the director of the Bureau of Plant Industry while Frederic Howe was the economic adviser to the president. The Silayan Plan called for an elaborate preparation which included prior survey and subdivision of land before settlement was to take place; prior preparation of the settlement site by constructing houses and irrigation before the arrival of settlers; proper screening of applicants to see that only those who can withstand the rigors of pioneering life may be accepted; and provision of enough funds and support in the form of credit, technical advice, health services, and other things necessary for a community life. Frederic Howe,

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on the other hand, envisioned an organized settlement, “as organized as an army”, with an administrative building surrounded by a school, health center, well-placed road, family farms which the settlers will pay on a long term basis and which settlers can neither mortgage or sell within a specified period of time. As the two proposals show, the planned settlement scheme was unlike previous programs in terms of government support and preparation. After receipt of various proposals on land settlement, President Quezon appointed a special three-man committee composed of the Secretaries of Interior (Rafael R. Alunan), Finance (Manuel Roxas), and Agriculture and Commerce (Benigno S. Aquino) to organize the National Land Settlement Administration. Finding the bill organizing the NLSA subjected to intense debate in the National Assembly and harassed by requests for a projected colony for Jewish refugees from Europe led to a hasty implementation of the land settlement program. The official reason given for the haste to start the program even before the passage of a law was the need to start planting before the onset of summer months. Thus, a working capital of 200,000 pesos was borrowed from the National Development Corporation. Earlier, a reconnaissance mission was sent to search for possible sites, which recommended Koronadal Valley and the Compostela Monkayo districts as resettlement sites. On February 11, 1939 President Quezon issued Proclamation Nos. 383 and 384 which provided for the reservation of the two recommended districts as resettlement sites. Similar haste was observed in the appointment of General Paulino Santos as NLSA manager. Executive Order No. 179 dated December 31, 1938 relieved Major-General Paulino Santos as Chief of Staff of the Army of the Philippines (Messages of the President, vol. 5, Part I: 427-430). By January, he was appointed manager of the NLSA Koronadal project. Subsequently, the energetic General Santos went to work. The recruitment of personnel of the NLSA was immediately undertaken followed by the campaign for, interview and recruitment of prospective settlers. To speed up the recruitment process, the first batch of settlers was recruited mostly from Manila. By February 22, the S/S Basilan was in the North Harbor awaiting departure for Koronadal. Commonwealth Act No. 441, passed into law on June 3, 1939 had as its objectives most of the recommendations by the NEC Director Manuel Roxas, viz: 1. To facilitate the acquisition, settlement and cultivation of land whether acquired from the government or from private parties; 2. To afford opportunity to own farm to tenant farmers and small farmers from congested areas, and to trainees who had completed the prescribed military training; 3. To encourage migration to sparsely populated regions, and facilitate the amalgamation of the people in different sections of the Philippines; and 4. To develop new money crops, which may suffer from the loss of preferences, which they enjoyed in the American market. To attain the aforementioned objectives the National Land Settlement Administration, a government corporation, was empowered to hold public agricultural land for 25 years with possible renewal for another period of the same length. It could further recommend to the President the reservation of public land for settlement projects. Such land was to be surveyed, cleared, prepared for cultivation, and assigned to settlers in parcels not exceeding 24 hectares. The corporation was also empowered to establish and operate

26 THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 electric- light and water-supply plants, irrigation systems, and trading stores and to engage in variety of activities like manufacturing, milling, lumbering, and other enterprises considered necessary for the success of its undertaking (Standard Contract Between the Settler and NLSA). Unfortunately, the haste stood in the way of the prior preparation of land, which was supposed to be “surveyed, cleared, prepared for cultivation, and assigned to settlers”. While the first batch of settlers landed in Koronadal Valley in February 1939, the surveyors arrived in December, ten months later! This constituted the first major crisis of the settlement. A Board of Directors composed of five persons appointed by the President with the consent of the National Assembly for a three-year term managed the NLSA. The first members of the Board of Directors were: Rafael R. Alunan, Secretary of Interior, chairman; Manuel Roxas, Secretary of Finance; Benigno S. Aquino, Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce; Jose Avelino, Secretary of Labor; and Ramon Roces, Manila publisher. The Board of Directors appointed Major General Paulino Santos, former Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army, as manager. General Santos’ experiences in the development of agricultural penal colonies making penal colonies self-supporting and his innovative approaches of introducing vocational training and modern farming technique to young recruits appeared the major considerations in his choice. It was also bruited about that he was the personal choice of President Quezon having personal knowledge of him as the President’s former aide-de-camp. The manager, in turn, appointed the technical, clerical, and other personnel whose salaries did not exceed 2,400 pesos a year. The central office was in Manila. The capital of the NLSA amounting to 20 million pesos was to be taken from the coconut-oil excise tax fund in appropriations not exceeding 4 million pesos annually. The manager was required to submit an annual report and a balance sheet to the President and the National Assembly. There was strict screening for settlers as shown by the account of a surviving first batch settler (Mr. Jesus Lautengco) who was rejected by Professor Raymundo, but whose persistence led him to see General Santos personally to convince the general that his being a student of a technical school should be considered. Among the requirements for a settler included Filipino or American citizenship, of legal age, preferably not over 40, married and with children. They, and their dependents, should be healthy and fit for a pioneering life; should have some agricultural experience; and should be of good character and reputation. Mr. Lautengco’s disqualification was his lack of agricultural experience. However, President Quezon’s verbal instruction to accept all persons presenting themselves as settler if they seemed to fulfill the qualifications worked in Mr. Lautengco’s favor. Besides, there were the families from other provinces of Mindanao and from other islands who moved to the settlement districts at their own expense that made careful screening of settlers difficult. The main obligations of the settler were: to plant and cultivate the land given to him, following the prescribed plants by the administration; to devote himself to this exclusively and not to engage in any other trade or occupation without the approval of the administration; not to transfer his land in any way, except by bequest, to any other person for the first ten years after receipt of the title to the land; to reimburse the administration within 20 years, at 4 per cent interest, for the transportation, building materials, food, and clothing that he might receive; to deposit all of his surplus products in administration warehouses for sale through the administration.

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Thus, one can see that the agricultural colonization scheme also necessitated a tight control on the activities of the settlers, a throwback on the pre-1920 land settlement experiences in Cotabato. A former Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army appeared an ideal choice, especially one who had proven himself as a former Director of the Bureau of Prisons under whose term the penal colonies became self-sufficient. Besides, the word “security” would appear synonymous with the word “military”. Those were the half-forgotten days when a military man evoked the feelings of safety and security among the people. The prohibition to engage in any other trade and occupation and allowing the transfer of land in any way other than bequest were safeguards to prevent speculation in the settlement area believed detrimental to the settlers’ interests. The obligations of the NLSA to the settlers, on the other hand, included the following: to advance the cost of transporting the settler, his family, and his belongings; to assign to him a parcel of 12 hectares of agricultural land; to supply him, on a credit basis, with building materials, food until he should become selfsufficient, the use of machinery, planting material and fertilizer, livestock, and agricultural implements; to sell on his behalf the products deposited by him in the administration warehouses; and to give him full title to the land after all obligations should have been met. Furthermore, payments were to begin only after the third year and were not to exceed 30 per cent of the proceeds of the sales made through the administration.

The Journey of Hope to Koronadal Valley To the settlers who joined the settlement project, their travel from Manila to Koronadal Valley was a journey of hope - hope for a better tomorrow. Taken from the diary of General Paulino Santos, the following account was relived many times every foundation day of the city in commemoration of the arrival of the first batch of Commonwealth-sponsored settlers. By February 22, the S/S Basilan was in North Harbor awaiting departure for Koronadal. But as explained by Reverend Domingo: “Mahirap talaga ang lumisan. Ang mga kamag-anak ay nagsi-iyakan. . . Totoong napakalayo ang Mindanaw.” (“Departure was indeed difficult. Our relatives were sad. Mindanao was so far away”). Thus, while there were a lot of names on the list, there were less than the expected numbers during the day of the departure because “the others made excuses that they would follow later.” The first port of call was Cebu. It took them two days to reach Cebu in the morning of February 24. It is apparent from the accounts that migration to Mindanao had taken an unstoppable movement of its own with several hundred people from Antique, Bohol, and other parts of Visayas bound for Davao and Cotabato taking the boat in Cebu port. By 11:00 a.m. of February 26, S/S Basilan anchored at the mouth of Cotabato River where a radiogram was sent to Governor Sobrecarey and Mayor Artiaga of Davao where a request for assistance was made for and in behalf of Miss Catherine Porter of the Institute of Pacific Relations who was scheduled to visit the Davao Penal colony. The poor Miss Porter was wrongly thought of as the General’s paramour! Indeed, the predominantly male settlers had had a field day discussing about the General and his visitor. In keeping with the significance attached to the coming of the first batch of settlers to Koronadal Valley, no less than the governor of the province of Cotabato welcomed the newcomers. The settlers who came to Buayan district earlier in the 20s led by Don Paco Natividad were also around to welcome them.

28 THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 The newcomers saw “lonely stretches of shorelines . . . a few roughly built huts. . . cogon lands . . . the vast emptiness of the surrounding reaching out to the very foot of the brooding hills and mist shrouded mountains.” Nonetheless, the sixty two settlers, five dependents, and fourteen NLSA employees who landed on Sarangani Bay on February 27, 1939 were too busy unloading equipment and supplies and storing them in the temporary warehouse furnished by several residents of Dadiangas. For the new arrivals, there was no time to contemplate on the loneliness and isolation of the surroundings. Interestingly, the diary of General Santos failed to mention that on the first night many slept on the ground under an open sky while some of the officials and employees slept in the house of Mr. Gerodias and Don Paco. All that the general wrote in his diary was: “At night, everybody was properly sheltered and each one enjoyed a peaceful and sound sleep.” At 4:00 a.m. the following day the general to start the day’s work awakened everybody. Life in the pioneering region had begun . . .

Fig. 5. A settler’s house with Mt. Matutum at the background

CHAPTER III THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA: IN THE FORMATION OF A COMMUNITY This chapter is the story of the meeting of various cultures which for purposes of typology is dubbed in this work as the originals referring to the indigenous peoples, the Magindanaos and the Blaan; the migrant-settlers; and the NLSA employees and the consequent accommodation and interaction they underwent resulting to a new community largely defined by the three interacting groups. The meeting of the three groups could also be seen as the meeting of two worlds - the more modern world of the newcomers and the traditional world of the original inhabitants of the place. While such meeting may not be completely devoid of tension, the “boomtown-in-the-making” of the fifties and today’s “boom city of the south” before the infamous bombings, which rocked the city in 2001, indicates a successful process of accommodation and interaction. This chapter, however, only deals with the initial process of interaction since three years of settlement life before the war was too short to fully appreciate the social processes involved in the interaction of varying cultures. However, no one particular group, not even the newcomers with their more modern ways, could claim the sole credit in the formation of the new community for a community is essentially a product of the interaction of people in a given geographical zone. While Buayan (the old name of General Santos City) may have only few inhabitants at the time of the coming of the migrants, it was the original inhabitants’ reaction to the newcomers and the consequent relationship that they evolved which largely defined the character of the new community. A. The Encounter of Cultures The beautiful and vast expanse of Koronadal with its varying topography and vegetation became the home ground of both the Muslims and the Lumads. This ecological environment served to nurture and allows the development of a rich cultural heritage among the indigenous peoples of Cotabato unhampered by Western influence until the turn of the 20th century. The coming of the Christian settlers brought into contact two different worlds - the Westernized Filipinos and the indigenous Malay world of the Muslims and Lumads. The more advanced legal and technological knowledge of the settlers coupled with government support in the form of farm implements, food, medicines, hospital, technical advice and the like placed the newcomers at an advantage in this encounter of the interacting cultures. A brief description of the interacting cultural groups is necessary to understand the distinct community that evolved in Koronadal Valley.

1. The Original Inhabitants of the Valley To the Muslim groups, Southern Koronadal was an extension of the Magindanao world. As the ancient name of Sarangani Bay, Sugod Boyan or Sugod Buayan suggests, it was “the place toured or visited by the Sultan of Buayan.” The movement of some members of the Magindanao sultanate to the area reinforced the image of the southern part of Cotabato as an extension of

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

the Magindanao world. Ileto (1971) mentioned the use of Sarangani Bay as the entry and exit point for smuggled arms and slaves after the 1861 establishment of a Spanish garrison at the mouth of Pulangi in Cotabato town. As an extension of the Magindanao world, Sugod Buayan or Sugod Boyan was a place for the Magindanaos to undertake the domales which means “to camp and to picnic” during which time supplementary activities like saltmaking and fishing were done during the long months between the planting and harvesting of crops. Thus, make-shift huts were built along the coast occupied during the domales season. Others stayed with their kins in the area. Once finished with their camping and picknicking in Sugod Buayan, they returned to their permanent homes where their farms were usually located. “We had good relationship then. The Muslim-Christian difference of today did not exist before. In fact, Sarip Zainal Abedin was the protector of the settlers,” explained one settler. Even in the coastal settlement of Kiamba in the southern coast of Cotabato, the Christian migrants were said to be given advice by their Muslim friends on what to avoid in dealing with other Muslims to prevent conflict. “It was a relationship based on trust.” These observations confirm the earlier study made by Lugum Uka (1952) and Nobutaka Suzuki (1992) that the early success of the Christian settlements in Cotabato could be attributed to the cooperation and protection accorded the settlers by powerful datus. There was Datu Piang in North Cotabato; Datu Kamsa in Northern Koronadal and Allah Valley; and Sarip Zainal Abedin in Southern Koronadal. For this paper let us focus our attention on Datu Sarip Zainal Abedin, the first mayor of Buayan, (now General Santos City). According to reports, Datu Sarip Zainal Abedin is of Arab or Egyptian descent married to Aminah Muksin, a daughter of a very influential datu from lower Buayan. He led the Glan officials in welcoming General Paulino Santos and the settlers in February 1939. In 1940, when the Municipal District of Buayan was separated from its mother unit, the Municipal District of Glan, Datu Abedin became the first appointed mayor of Buayan. The Muksin-Abedin residence in lower Baluan fronting Sarangani Bay served then as the temporary seat of government of the Municipal District of Buayan (Ramirez 1994: 114). In a conference with the Muslim leaders and their followers, General Santos in his diary narrated that he talked to the natives in the Maranao dialect, a dialect which he learned during his stay in Lanao when he was assigned as deputy governor of Lanao. In that conference, General Santos assured those present that whatever rights they have acquired or may acquire on their personal lands found within the settlement area would be respected by the NLSA administration. He enticed them with benefits that could be derived by the inhabitants of the valley with the establishment of the settlement in their midst like schools, health facilities, better roads and other infrastructure. General Santos even promised assistance in the acquisition of titles to their landholdings (Gen. Paulino Santos in a report published in 1947). Moreover, as noted by Pelzer (1948) the government failed to make definite arrangements on the native inhabitants of Southern Philippines when Mindanao was opened for settlement. But as of 1939, the Magindanaos did not realize the full implication of the coming of the settlers. One daughter of a Muslim datu mentioned his father saying: “kawawa naman sila”(Tito 1997). That

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 31 is why he gave them permission to get bamboos within his area of jurisdiction for house construction. Both groups opted for a peaceful co-existence then. Despite the seemingly fruitful meeting, however, undercurrents of the historical divide manifested itself. For instance, one informant claimed that in that conference General Santos warned the group that should anything happen to anyone of the settlers, they (the natives) would answer personally to him. “One settler’s life is equivalent to ten of yours,” General Santos allegedly warned the group. Moreover, there is difficulty in verifying the truth of this allegation because none from among the migrant-settlers present could possibly understand the Maranao language used by General Santos, being first-timers in Mindanao. However, the persistence of accounts attributing these words to the general manager suggests a strong possibility of a pressure exerted to the indigenous inhabitants to “behave” or even leave the settlement area. The rapid arrival of settlers beyond the expected number led to the opening of more settlement districts as fast as the arrival of the settlers. Fear of being dispossessed of their ancestral lands impelled more indigenous groups to settle to the surrounding areas to prevent the further expansion of the settlement areas (Tito, in an interview, 1997). There was also the economic opportunity provided by the presence of an increasing number of people. Hence, part of the reaction brought by the state-sponsored settlement was secondary migration from other groups coming from other parts of Mindanao lured to settle down in the immediate vicinity of Koronadal Valley. Besides the Magindanaos, the other original inhabitants of Southern Koronadal were the B”laan. The B’laan tribe is one of the eighteen non-Muslim minority ethnic groups inhabiting the island of Mindanao. Traditionally, they inhabited South Cotabato, the southeastern part of Davao del Sur, the areas around Buluan Lake, and Sarangani Island off the coast of Mindanao. According to Arcenas (1993), bila means friend in the Magindanao dialect since the B’laans were viewed as a friendly people. The B’laans reacted to the Christian presence by retreating to the mountains. Arcenas (1993) explained this peaceful reaction to their value system which placed primacy on peace and harmony. As explained by Arcenas: "In another folklore, the ethnic minorities in Mindanao are believed to have descended from two brothers Mamalu and Tambunaway [Tabunaway]. . . A so-called peace pact or d’yandi was enacted between the brothers towards preserving peace and ensuring harmonious co-existence among their descendants. B’laan elders pointed out that in the course of history, there have been no major conflicts between the tribes except for minor personal incidents. No single piece of historical account, either written or oral, ever called attention to the fact that the Maguindanaos attempted to invade the B’laans or the Manobos or vice versa”(Arcenas 1993: 35-38). Thus, it could be seen that the choice of Koronadal Valley as the settlement site worked favorably because the original inhabitants - the Magindanaos and the B’laans - lived in a peaceful environment and historically predisposed towards peace and harmony. In other words, while favorable location was identified as

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

the first ingredient which defined the success of the Koronadal settlement, the second ingredient was attributed to the peaceful predisposition of the people they (the settlers) met in the area when they came.

Fig. 6. A B'laan chief and his followers on their way to a hunt. Lagao, Southern Koronadal or Buayan (now General Santos City ( Fig. 80 of Pelzer 1945). The coming of the Christian settlers forced the B’laans to redefine their identities and to adapt to new demands and exaction to their traditional way of life. When settlers came to claim and clear the virgin lands of the B’laans, change was inevitable. With the settlers came new ways, new dialects, and new forms of living. Subsequent events showed that some unscrupulous newcomers would exploit these peaceful people, their traditional way of life affected by the settlement to such an extent that one writer dubbed them “the vanishing nomads.” The B’laans viewed the coming of the settlers as threatening to their way of life because they didn’t understand what was happening. A B’laan native explains: “When the Christians arrived in the place it was peaceful, but we were afraid of them. Even the footprints or the cigarette butts that we saw instilled fear on us. We hid ourselves because we did not know the language of the Christians” (Datu Ugan Samling, in an interview, 1995). Another native of Sitio Salkan in Barangay Paraiso of Koronadal, in a study made by Roselyn C. Ferfas (1996), described his experience with the coming of the settlers: “The Christians that we have seen first in the place were exgovernor Sergio Morales and a certain Berto Lucero and Augustin Millan. We did not understand their language so we hid

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 33 ourselves. We were afraid to (sic) them because at that time we believed that the Christians will kill us.” (Bernardo Gulaya, in an interview by Ferfas, 1995) Faced with the coming of the settlers and seeing their vast hunting ground occupied by the newcomers, they quietly withdrew and settled in the “distant mountains”. While one B’laan claimed they were told to leave, Datu Ugan Samling of Barrio Kalkam in Tupi in Middle Koronadal claimed that nobody told them to leave. They simply left because “maraming settlers” (there were many settlers). But he did acknowledge that there was a rich Christian who once threatened to shoot him. The natives of Koronadal Valley who felt culturally inferior lived at the outskirts of the settlement. Moreover, despite clearly defined boundaries with the settlers residing within the settlement area and the original inhabitants mostly found at the outskirts of the settlement, interaction was bound to occur. They “served as milk mothers, field and house hands, and hunting companions to the early settlers so that these regarded them as indispensable,” reported by Virginia Buhisan (1980). Buhisan further informed us that the natives later learned to adopt some new skills such as fishing, wet land rice farming, and more sophisticated household tools that they learned from their Christian neighbors. The settlers in turn benefited from the natives’ simple technology with the acquired knowledge in folk medicine, methods of root crop planting, the making of animal traps, and tapping natural springs for drinking water. The market place was the place for the most interactions where native merchandize like ginger, rattan, bamboo, and root crops were brought and much sought after by the Christian housewives. These were exchanged for clothing, sardines, and other items.

2. The Newcomers to the Valley The story of Datu Kusay indicates that starting the twenties, Cotabato “wilderness” was probed open by adventurous individuals who saw an opportunity in the land of the Magindanaos. Two of them played important roles in the pre-1939 migration to Buayan. The first were the Olarte hermanos, the brothers Don Jose “Pepe” and Don Alberto Olarte. Natives of Orjales, Santander, Spain they came to the Philippines in 1908, first in Manila, then Davao, finally in Makar in Buayan. People like them who had money found out that new land laws passed during the American period made it possible for them to buy a thousand of hectares of land. The Olarte Hermanos were reported to engage in cattle raising, pineapple and abaca planting in Makar. A proof of the vast tract of land they owned was the donation of 94 hectares called the Makar Townsite, which was attested by the American governor-general Stimson in 1928. An important personality of his time in Koronadal, Don Pepe was mentioned to be instrumental together with Datu Piang in arranging the surrender of the Sultan of Kolonadal to the American authorities in 1918. Through the twenties, the ranch and plantation of the Olarte Hermanos attracted the sakadas from Negros, Cebu, and Bohol. One of them was a former teacher, Pedro Acharon, who will later become a leading political figure in the post-war Municipality of Buayan (Don Alberto Olarte, in an interview conducted by Dr. Domingo Non, 1987).

34

THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

Whatever happened to them in the thirties is not clear. But today’s land claim filed by the so-called “Olarte heirs” for an area in Makar, Cotabato where their landholdings existed before indicate that somehow they lost control of their land due for some reason. Another important figure, Don Francisco “Paco” Natividad, was the most prominent figure in Koronadal Valley when the 1939 settlers came. In 1932, Don Paco hosted the then Director of the Bureau of Prison, Director Paulino Santos who came to Buayan to search for a suitable site for a planned penal colony in Mindanao. The redoubtable Don Paco was said to have decided on the great promise of Koronadal Valley after making a tour of Mindanao aboard a chartered boat of Compania Maritima with some businessmen from Luzon. When he decided to resettle in the valley, he brought with him 35 families from Nueva Ecija, modern farm machineries, and 70 carabaos (Ramirez 1994). Through the years, Don Paco did not tire in preaching on the great potential of Koronadal Valley. General Paulino Santos could have been one of the converts. His warm welcome to the government-sponsored settlers was instrumental in confirming the latter’s decision to come to the valley. He gave them confidence in their decision by showing the gains he already had and the productive harvests he produced. Paving the way and helping those who came later could truly call him, together with the Olarte hermanos, the title, the pioneers. Besides Don Paco, just as important was the businessman Mr. Suikichi Kuruda, the owner of the only store found in Dadiangas when the settlers came. Kuruda came to Davao in late 1910 where he was employed at the Ohta Development Company. While still an employee of the Ohta Develop ment Company he married a beautiful B’laan woman named Manuela Jandoc in Davao. A couple of weeks after marriage, they transferred to Dadiangas where Kuruda opened the first grocery store. As the owner of the only store in Dadiangas, he provided a means of economic exchange of goods in the valley. A daughter of one settler narrates her experience: “When I was 13 years old, I used to go with Father every time he went somewhere. When we were already harvesting our produce I also went with him when he delivered them to Mr. Kuruda in Dadyangas. He is a Japanese and he has so many stores. But we deliver our products to a store located near the present Rey Store[near the old docking area of ships now known as the Magsaysay Park]. Now I am always amused when I reminisce those days when I was fond of asking money to buy bread and clothes” (Elena Mari, in an interview by Herlin Cosep, 1995). Kuruda was not the only Japanese national in the valley. Gingero Takahashi, a one time resident of Tupi was a companion and friend of Kuruda going back to their days at the Ohta Development Company. Takahashi went with the Kuruda couple to Dadiangas but decided to settle down in Tupi after his marriage to a B’laan woman named Guinda Bagui with whom he had 5 children. When his wife died, he married another unknown B’laan woman and produced another 5

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 35 children. The childless Kuruda couple adopted one of his daughters, Catalina. When war broke out, he and Kuruda served the Japanese army. While proven to be fiercely loyal to Japan, nevertheless, the two (Kuruda and Takahashi) were said to have saved many Christian lives during the Japanese occupation of the valley. While considered “enemies”, nonetheless, they proved true sons of the valley. The presence of the two Japanese emphasized the image of Koronadal Valley as a melting pot of the country. The melting pot image was further reinforced by a provision of Commonwealth Act No. 441 which provided that applicants for settlement purposes shall be recruited “from all provinces in proportion to their respective population and in case a province shall not be able to fill the quota assigned, the unfilled portion of the quota may be covered from other provinces having greater number of applicants.” Clearly, this highly political provision emanated from the legislators themselves who demanded that their respective provinces share the benefit that may be derived from the land settlement law. This is seen by personal efforts made by some congressmen in facilitating the settlement of their constituents under the program like the account on a personal recruitment made by Governor Bernardo Torres of Leyte of 14 Leyteño families who migrated to Koronadal Valley on July 19. 1940 (Acapulco 1995). Thus, Commonwealth Act No. 441 made possible the representation of various ethnic groups of the country in the Koronadal-Allah Valley settlement areas inaugurating the second and most extensive process of realizing the so called “population complexity” of Cotabato earlier reported during the period of the sultanates. Thus, Buayan in particular, and Cotabato in general, became a melting pot of the country in spirit and in reality. The list of home origin of Koronadal settlers as of 1941 ( See Appendix C) shows a relative representation of settlers from 41 of the 50 provinces of the country. As expected, the greatest number of pre-war settlers came from the Visayas region like Iloilo, Leyte, Cebu, and Capiz. Settlers from Luzon (Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Tarlac) represented less than one third of the total number of settlers. Even migrants who have already settled in various areas of Mindanao like Cotabato town, Davao, Misamis, and Zamboanga undertook a secondary migration to Koronadal Valley with its promise of land ownership and government assistance. Increasingly, more and more people came at their own expense and applied as settlers upon arrival in Koronadal. Most of the settlers who came later were relatives of the earlier settlers. These different groups of people who were brought together in one geographical zone by the government’s project had to define their relationship. They opted for a peaceful co-existence and, with the favored option, learned how to live together in peace with people of different cultural orientations. Moreover, the clear identification of the settlement area precludes real mixing together of the original inhabitants and the newcomers. The newcomers established themselves within the settlement areas while the original inhabitants were found at the outskirts of the settlement. Perhaps, this exclusivity was necessary for security purposes so as to lessen chances of tension between the two divergent groups.

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

B. Koronadal Valley Settlement: A Defended Community The Koronadal Valley project was not provided with army escorts or a regular police force. General Paulino Santos, although a military man and with a reputation for being brave, could not have maintained order if the original inhabitants reacted with hostility to their coming. Thus, steps were taken to ensure the security of the newcomers. The general manager moved to get an assurance of cooperation from the natives by calling them in a conference through the municipal officials of Glan, Cotabato who visited them the afternoon of February 27 (Santos 1947). In the conference the next day, General Santos’ diary narrated the events of that day: “I talked to the headmen and residents in a very informal manner, speaking in the Maranao dialect which they understood very well. I explained to them that whatever rights they have acquired or may acquire on their present lands will be duly respected by the administration, and to emphasize this fact, I made it clear that the best title one can have for possession over a piece of land is the existence of improvements thereon, such as houses, plants, fences, etc. The people were very glad to hear this and expressed their gratitude over this attitude of the Administration. I told them I would always be glad to assist them in acquiring titles for their landholdings. Appealed to their sense of cooperation and helpfulness and advised them to avail themselves of the services of local officials, such as the governor or land officer, and if necessary, to communicate with me should there arise some question which cannot be settled between them and the settlement supervisor.” Thereafter, every time General Santos met the native inhabitants he continuously made similar assurances of good intention. His account of the tour of the valley in the early days of the settlement with the settlers made this clear: “Left Dadiangas with all members of my party at 6:15 a.m., first for Polomolok. I brought one half of the settlers on the truck to have a look at the beautiful valley of Koronadal. Reached Polomolok at 8:00 a.m. and we were entertained by Mr. & Mrs. Francisco Natividad with sumptuous breakfast. The settlers were amazed of the plants on the farm and each of them brought one citrus fruit to show those left behind. Left for Marbel at 9:00 a.m. arriving there at 10:30 a.m. We were met here by Major Goodall and some of the settlers, and many of the Moros residing in the vicinity. I talked again with the residents about our project and assured them that their rights will be respected . . . We had a great difficulty in passing over the trail because the

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 37 workers did not remove well the stumps and earthmounds along the trail. Got sore on the way the trail was made. We had to walk more than a kilometer to Lutayan . . .” Besides getting an assurance of cooperation from the original inhabitants of the valley, the general manager ordered the installation of a transmitting and receiving radio station in order to establish a direct link with Manila. Messages were then sent to Secretary Rafael H. Alunan, chairman of the NLSA Board of Directors; to General Basilio J. Valdes, Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army; General Guillermo V. Francisco, chief of constabulary; and other officials who helped in the realization of the project. On March 3, the first settlement site was established in Lagao a short distance away from Dadiangas. Its proximity to Dadiangas, a quiet, secure, and anchorage area, became the major consideration for the choice of Lagao as the first settlement area and as the nerve center of the Koronadal project with its selection as the administration center in Mindanao. Other considerations include its being the terminal point of the proposed national highway (Alunan Highway) between Sarangani Bay and Dulawan; its being a non-malarial area; and finally, its being the least inhabited area of Koronadal Valley (Pelzer 1945: 150). Lagao had a land area of 30,200 hectares of which 10,000 were for distribution to the settlers. Moreover, the distribution of farm lots had to wait until the survey. The failure of the NLSA to follow the recommendations made by the reconnaissance team for a thorough survey of the water supply available for irrigation and the water holding capacity of the light, sandy soil of Southern Koronadal led to the early difficulties of the settlers. The settlers’ failure to undertake agricultural activities the soonest time possible also caused additional but unnecessary burden to the NLSA since under the contract, NLSA was obligated to provide for the settlers’ needs while they had no production yet. It should be recalled that the reason given for the haste in the implementation of the program despite the absence of the law creating the NLSA was the need to start the planting before the onset of the summer months. Indeed, planting was made on their home lots and in the administration farm but it turned yellowish and died. “If I had wings, I could have flown back to Aklan”, one settler recalled his disappointment then. He planned to back out from the program. After all, he was not actually landless in Aklan. Besides, he had not seen the kind of soil in Koronadal in any place in Panay and was wondering whether they could grow crops in Koronadal. But despite his decision to abandon the settlement area, he was not able to do so because no ships came (Isaias Rogan, in an interview, 1994). Unknown to them, General Santos had asked the shipping lines to reroute their scheduled trips and not to dock at Dadiangas port temporarily (Ramirez 1994). The months of July and August were crucial ones. The morale of the settlers was at its lowest point. Some settlers were planning to back out. Increasingly, vocal criticisms against the program were getting louder. Some senators were even known to campaign for the abrogation of Commonwealth Act No. 441. Newspapers and radios talked about the apathetic attitude of some members of the Board of Directors of the NLSA.

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

Something had to be done. It was clear that to stem the tide of rising criticisms, a solution to the problem of lack of rain had to be solved. But before doing that, it was necessary to lift the sagging morale of the settlers first. So, a meeting was immediately called where General Santos was reported to have told the settlers: “Be proud of yourself! We are here to stay for good. Let us be patient. We shall soon overcome all these obstacles. Yes, with our firm determination and with God’s blessing” (Ramirez 1993: 52). Words alone were not enough. General Santos knew that something had to be done. They decided to tap Klaja River found 9 kilometers north of Lagao for the irrigation. Instinctively, everyone understood that the future of the project lay in licking this particular crisis faced by the fledgling settlement. The NLSA employees left their offices and joined the settlers in constructing the irrigation. The irrigation system, started on July 3, was finally finished on August 9 with a discharge of 130 liters per second (Ramirez 1993: 52). It was not only the leadership of the Koronadal project that was bent on making the settlement project survive the crisis. No less than President Quezon himself came over for a visit on June 28, 1939. In a meeting with the settlers, President Quezon gave a morale-boosting speech: “Kayong mga settlers na dinala ni Paulino Santos dito sa timog ng Cotabato, huwag kayong mawalan ng pag-asa. Tulungan ninyo si Heneral Santos sa kanyang pangarap na kayo ay magkaroon ng sariling lupa. Mahalin ninyo at darating ang araw maibibigay ko ang inyong titulo upang maging sarili ninyo. Ipagpatuloy ang naumpisahan ! May awa ang Diyos. Tayong lahat ay magtatagumpay sa ating mithiin.” (You, the settlers brought by Paulino Santos to South Cotabato, do not lose hope. Help General Santos realize his dream for you to have a land of your own. Love it and the time will come when I will be able to give the title to your lands. Continue with what was started! With God’s help, we will overcome.) This presidential visit at the crucial juncture of the project underscores the president’s personal concern for the success of the project that he started even without the authorization of a law. Its success or failure was as much a political issue as far as the president was concerned. Thus, full presidential support was given to the project which neutralized the reported unsupportive stance of some members of the Board of Directors some of whom started to call Koronadal Valley: “ang mga bayan ng alikabok” Where any delay in fund releases may jeopardize the operation of the settlement, General Santos made an appeal directly to the President for personal intervention to speed up bureaucratic tape. Besides the lack of rain, there was also the delay in the distribution of farm lots causing an unnecessary financial burden to the NLSA since everything

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 39 had to be provided for including food while the settlers had no production yet. These were charged to the settlers' accounts with married settlers entitled to one thousand pesos and six hundred pesos to the single ones. This is shown by the financial report prepared by the NLSA comptrollers as of December 31, 1940. Table 1 below shows that the NLSA had an income of 89,531.06 pesos from interest charges, electric light feed, charges for transportation and preparation of the settlers’ farm lots, sales of seed and seedlings, and various other sources of income. Moreover, the report also shows that 45. 83 percent of the budget went to the settlers in the form of advances.

Fig. 7. Drawing of first farm lots in Lagao, Southern Koronadal ( Fig. 91 of Pelzer, 1945). In the meantime, an administration farm was established where settlers were hired as laborers receiving 50 centavos a day. The administration farms served as an experiment and demonstration stations, particularly its seed and livestock farms. These were established to determine the viability of producing alternative cash crops, a major objective of the settlement project. A promising start was made with a thousand-hectare rubber farm in Tupi before the war. Plans were likewise in place for a mechanized cultivation of cotton in Lagao when war broke out (Pelzer 1948). The main function of the seed farm was the production of seeds needed in large quantities by the settlers. The settlement was particularly successful with the livestock farm. The largest hog farm then in the Philippines was found near Lagao. This hog farm started with 18 sows and 2 boars bought for 1,177 pesos. The objective of the livestock farm was to provide the settlers with a pair of good breeding pigs and later to produce pigs for the market. After two years of operation, the original 18 sows and 2 boars became 600 pigs of all sizes excluding those that had been sold to the settlers (Pelzer 1948: 151-153). Indeed, the foundation for a self-supporting and productive settlement area was in place when war broke out. Lack of settlers was never a problem. On the contrary, their rapid arrival in the valley necessitated fast tracking of the expansion of settlement areas.

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

This placed a tremendous pressure on the budget needs of the project. For instance, while the budget allowed for the recruitment of only 600 for every settlement per year, the number who came was double the required number. The NLSA management in Koronadal tried its best to cope with the growing demands. Thus, bunkhouses, as temporary lodging places of new arrivals while they were not able to build their houses yet, were constructed as fast as possible. When there was an immediate need to expand due to the number of settlers in comparison to the land available for settlement, sometimes applicants had to open the roads themselves. Due to the enthusiastic response to the land settlement program, earlier in May, the NLSA Board of Directors decided to reduce the land allotted to any settler whose farm was located along the national highway.

Fig. 8. The NLSA Hog Farm Before the War (From Pelzer, 1945)

Table 1 NLSA EXPENSES AS OF DECEMBER 31, 1940 ITEM ADVANCE TO SETTLERS COST OF OPERATING Administrative Projects (Piggery, Poultry Farm machinery, Transportation, office furniture, equipment, hospital and dispensary instruments) WAGES, TRAVELING EXPENSE, Freight and handling charges, Rentals of buildings and offices, Postal service, etc. SALARIES

AMOUNT

%

P794, 565.92 534, 028.17

45.03 30.26

233,079.90

13.21

202,819.87 ------------------

11.49 ---------

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 41 TOTAL

P1,764,449.76

100%

By this time, the procedure for the acceptance of an applicant as a settler was institutionalized as explained by Ramirez (1993): “Upon their arrival, they were examined by the medical staff led by Dr. Jorge Royeca and Dr. Sergio Morales. They were inoculated against cholera and dysentery. Thereafter, they were housed in plain long sheds of bunkhouses located in Lagao district (Barrio Balite). These bunkhouses were divided into small sections, each accommodating one family. A few days after they were assigned to one of the settlement districts to which trucks transported them. In each settlement district, an officer in charge (overseer) explained in public meeting the duties of new settlers and assigned to each a homelot, usually 2,000 square meters in size. The first task of a new settler was to build a house for his family. Usually, the NLSA supplied the materials necessary for a simple house of bamboos and roofed with cogon grass or the leaves of nipa palm. The next step was the assignment of farm lots. . . “ Reverend Domingo who was then assigned to Marbel district gives a more vivid account: “Dito kami natulog sa Dadiyangas at kinabukasan may malakas na ugong at ito pala ang pangdating ng marami at malalaking trak na naghakot sa amin. Halos isang araw ang pagdala sa amin at sa awa ng Panginoon ay dito kami sa Marbel . . . Hinakot kami at dinala kami doon sa tabi ng San Felipe. Dito po ay may mahabang bankhouse na may mga kuarto na may numero at nagbonotan kaming lahat dahil kami ay naging 86 head pamilya kaming nalagay dito sa tinatawag nila barrio ono. Ang mga kasama namin sa barko napunta sila sa mga ibang barrio sa 5, 2, 3, 8 ito dito sila nadistino. . . Dito naman kami umiyak dahil sa ang palibot namin ay cogonal, talahiban, kakahoyan at ang dami ngang baboy damo at usa lalo itong (wild carabaos). Ang naririnig namin ay huni ng unggoy, ibon at mga kulintang ng Muslim”. Ang buhay namin bilang settler ay laging may schedule ng aming pagkuha o pagbali namin sa aming pangangailangan. Kada barrio dala mo ang carabao at karosa at lahat na kailanganin sa isang simana isulat sa isang papel na maliit. At kada simana may miting.” (“Upon arrival, we slept in Dadiangas. By the next day the noise signaled the arrival of the trucks which would bring us to our destination. This took about one day. With the grace of God, we were brought to Marbel where we were brought near San

42

THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 Felipe. There was a long bunkhouse divided into small sections intended to each family. There were 86 heads of families who participated in the lottery to determine who will be sent to Barrio 1. We were distributed to the different barrios: 5, 2, 3, 8. . . We felt anxiety looking at the surroundings with its cogonal, talahiban, kakahoyan and the wild pigs, deer, and wild carabaos. We heard the sound of the squeeking monkeys, the birds, and the kulintang of the Muslims. Our life as settlers was routinary. There was a schedule for everything including the distribution of ration. Once a week, we wrote down on a small sheet of paper our weekly needs , then brought our carabao and cart where we placed our supplies. We also had a meeting once a week”)

When the national highway reached Marbel by the end of 1939, Lt. Jesus Larrabaster was directed by the manager to open Marbel district on January 10, 1940. With a general rainfall classification of “rainfall more or less evenly distributed throughout the year”, Marbel district was the most attractive settlement site especially due to the “Ilonggos” preference for a basakan” Earlier in July, the Tupi settlement was established. Polomolok would be established much later due to the lack of potable water aside from it being a malarial area. Of the four settlement districts, Marbel had the fastest growth of population as shown by Table 2. Each of the settlement districts had one town which served as the administrative and economic center around which the barrios were located. Each district was placed under an overseer and a staff of assistants. The office of the overseer, the store, hospital, church, school, warehouse, tool and machinery sheds, and other buildings were found in the town. Each barrio was under the charge of a barrio lieutenant and an assistant barrio lieutenant, both of which were chosen by the settlers from among themselves. The town of this period inevitably became the nucleus of the post-war municipalities with the exception of Lagao whose pre-war preeminence was overshadowed by the nearby Dadiangas found outside the settlement area.

Table 2 Population Growth in Koronadal, 1941 & 1948 Settlement District Lagao Tupi Polomolok Marbel

1941* 582 582 347 916

1948** 4,434 7,906 11,152

_________________ * Unpublished NLSA record as quoted from Pelzer, op. cit. ** Census of 1948.

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 43 While the manager chose the overseer, the barrio lieutenant and the assistant barrio lieutenant were chosen by the people themselves in a meeting called for the purpose. This democratic practice together with the weekly meeting helped in the creation of the feeling of community. It was in the weekly meetings that problems were threshed out especially in matters of relationship with each other. For instance, Reverend Domingo tells of the “rambol” by the Ilongo and Ilocano youngsters. This was immediately followed by a conference of the battling youths with their parents. The conference usually ended with an admonition by the barrio lieutenant or the overseer, as the case may be, of the need for building a smooth interaction with one another and with other people outside the district as well. The conscious effort of building a community of people in harmony with each other was shown by the activities promoted by the management. Thus, a regular “baile”, a community public dance was a favored activity of the young and the young at heart. The bachelors engaged in the favorite pasttime of harana. In the early months of the settlement a bowling alley was built for the recreation of the settlers in the Lagao district. Birthdays, wakes for the dead, weddings, and even the pasiyam, the nine days of prayer for the dead which followed the burial, were well-attended. Sometimes, ballgames like softball were played by the different groups coming from various settlement areas competing with each other. Cultural differences caused conflict. But the imperatives of solidarity was emphasized time and again where the ugly specter of ethnic differences threatened to rise up as seen in the account of Reverend Domingo on the gang wars of the Ilocano and Ilonggo youngsters in Marbel. Eventually, adjustments were made on the new environment. But while the predominant culture became the norm, acculturation was a two-way process. For instance, the cultural experience of the Christian settlers in Kiamba did not prepare them for the wild pigs, deer, monkeys, and birds. To save their plants they learned the art of trapping wild animals from the indigenous inhabitants. They also learned a lot from observation of the ways of life of the indigenous inhabitants. Thus, Virginia Buhisan (1980) reports: “Christian neighbors are welcome to T’boli celebrations like weddings and wakes for the dead, and they attend as friends and to observe how the T’boli carry out these ceremonies. Sometimes they are invited as “honored guests.” While there are no accounts that similar relationship occured between the B’laans and the Christian settlers of Koronadal, however, the imperatives of community solidarity appeared to have tempered whatever biases the more modern Christian settlers had against the original inhabitants. Let us take the case of one Ilocano settler whose perception of the other ethnic groups when he arrived was symptomatic of the cultural baggage that he was bringing with him. Thus, he observed: “Dito rin bumalik ang longkot dahil panay Hilongo ang salita ng dinatnan namin. Araw ng palengke noon araw ng Sabado dito ako nakakita ng mga Bilaan at Moro sa palengke.

44

THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 Ang mga Bilaan ay parang babai sila mahaba ang bohok nila at maliliit sila. Ang Moslem din ay ang pag-tingin ko sa kanila ay kriminal dahil hindi nila mabitawan ang tabas nila at ang bangkaw, kaya’t takot na takot ako sa kanila dahil ang mga baro nila ay abaca fiber. Tahimik akong nanonood lalo naman ang mga Hilongo kong magsalita parang ibon.” ( “Loneliness returned upon hearing the strange Ilonggo language of the people when we arrived. It was on a market day when I first saw the B’laan and the Moro. The B’laans were like women because they had long hair. I feared the Muslims because they appeared fearsome due to the bolos and spears always at their side. Their dresses were made of abaca fiber. I silently observed them especially the Ilonggos who talked like birds.”)

Eventually, however, this settler in question learned that the fearsome Moros could also be friends. He learned their language and recalled with pride the advantage he had over other settlers because he knew how to talk the Magindanao language. Indeed, understanding comes with knowledge and breaking the language barrier was the first step towards understanding other people. It was expected that the language of the numerical majority would be used as the lingua franca of the community. Thus, Tagalog was used in Lagao where the settlers were recruited in Manila. On the other hand, Hiligaynon was and, still is, the prevailing language in Marbel. But through the course of time, the Bisayans greatly outnumbered the Tagalogs in Southern Koronadal. Eventually, the language which evolved in Southern Koronadal was the Tagalog-Bisayan variant. Some of the processes involved in the process of interaction between and among the interacting groups in the Koronadal Valley migration experience is attempted at this point. “Melting pot” means the mixing together of different cultural groups in one geographical zone. The word “melting pot” as used in Chapter IV refers to the convergence of people in Koronadal Valley coming from 41 provinces of the country as of 1941. Moreover, the term as used by Pelzer (1948) referred only to the Christian migrant - settlers. A more realistic meaning of the “melting pot” concept could be derived if one is to take into account the meeting together in General Santos community of the three distinct autonomous but interdependent groups in interaction with each other, namely: the Christians, the Muslims, and the B’laans. During the settlement days, the social process of accommodation was the framework for interaction established from the time of initial contact. Aided by the congruence of the newcomers’ intention of building for themselves a better future and the original inhabitants’ desire to continue their peaceful existence coupled with the enticement of benefits which could be derived from the presence of infrastructure and economic opportunities brought by the settlement, such peaceful accommodation, referred to as the “mantle of protection” in Chapter IV, established the framework of contact between the newcomers to the valley and the original inhabitants. As the “conscious efforts

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 45 of men to develop such working arrangements among themselves as will suspend conflict and make their relations tolerable,” accommodation was a favored option. During this period when the three autonomous groups were segregated from each other by settlement boundaries, it was in the area of economic exchange, in the market places, where they met on common footing that frequent interaction took place. Acculturation is the natural result of “societies of different cultures in a fairly close and long-continued contact with each other.“ Acculturation does not imply the loss of an older culture but merely the acquisition of some new traits from another culture. The dominant position assumed by the newcomers after the war due to numerical superiority gave the new traits favorable status coupled with the comforts derived from the adoption of the Christians’ material culture. Although there was the clinging to ancestral customs especially by the old folks, the manner of acquisition of new cultural traits was not forced but based on a perception of pragmatic need making this social process a natural result of the long and continued contact with each other. The establishment of local governmental units opened the previous settlement areas to more people. Despite differences, people in interaction with one another cannot long remain oblivious of each other. Cases of intermarriages or amalgamation were and are taking place. Who gets to follow what religion as a result of amalgamation depends on the individuals involved in the amalgamation process. More importantly, amalgamation as a social process is also the fastest way in bringing about adoption of cultural traits in a social process popularly known as acculturation, the process of modifying one’s culture as a result of cultural borrowings.

Fig. 9. The young folks dancing the curacha during the NLSA Days ( File Photo owned by the Estabillo Family)

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Acculturation also implies mutual borrowing. Thus, Reverend Domingo learned the Magindanao language to enable him to communicate with the Magindanaos passing at his residence on their way to the market place. The Glan and Kiamba migrant-settlers, on the other hand, learned survival techniques in trapping deers, birds, boars, snakes, and other wild animals; the technique of getting water from a branch of a tree, and the like. Likewise, the newcomers’ adoption of indigenous materials more suited to the area indicated mutual borrowing and adaptation to the new environment. On the other hand, the material culture brought by the settlers appeared beneficial and therefore appealing to the indigenous inhabitants. Such material culture like household utensils, additional agricultural crops, the use of soap, canned goods, the Christian manner of dressing, etc. were the most common form of cultural borrowings. Among the institutions, which facilitated both socialization and acculturation, were the school, church, market, and government. The school was the first of the social institutions where regular contacts among children of interacting cultures were taking place. With the rapid increase of population after the war, more schools were built. Communities started most of these schools with little or no government assistance at all. In school, children learned to adjust to each other’s cultural peculiarities and learned each other’s language. Some even became the best of friends. The strong community solidarity of the pre-war days manifested itself in education. A 1952 report mentioned "all public school buildings, with the exception of the WDC building at Lagao, were built by the active ParentTeachers Association with very little help from the municipal and provincial government" (Siat in Millan 1952:73). A migrant-settler of Tampacan in Tupi recalled how they established their complete elementary school: "Mrs. Alejandrino tried her best to have elementary school here . . . a complete elementary school. But . . .the supervisor of Marbel, I am not sure if he was Mr. Sindao, he gave a challenge to us; to the three barrios namely: the barrio Maltana, Tampakan, and Bo. 7. "If whoever can build a semi standard classroom for the elementary will be given a complete elementary school," the supervisor said. We really tried our best to meet this challenge. We agreed to construct a complete elementary school with seven classrooms; one for the principal, another room for the clinic and one for the home economics. And so we made it. The floorings were all sawed roundwood. Luckily, during the inspection, the Tampakan school buildings were declared to have met the standard requirement. Bo. 7 and Maltana also built their own school buildings but these were ground flooring. So, we officially opened the first complete elementary school" (Carlos Godmaling, in an interview by Acapulco, 1995). The church was also an important agent of acculturation. While no active proselytizing activity occurred between the Muslim and Christian groups, both the Protestant missionary groups and the Roman Catholic Church

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 47 undertook aggressive evangelization efforts among the Lumads. Religious conversions brought about major cultural changes as described by a daughter of a T’boli-B’laan: “The more a person is grounded in his Christian teachings, such incompatible practices like smoking of tobacco, pagan rites like lmoss (pronounced almoos), duwaya system (the practice of having two or more wives), and ritual healing were abandoned.” The marketplace was also an important agent of acculturation as the place of a major interaction of people. Meeting on a common footing, the exchange of goods took place in market places. A significant contribution by the newcomers to the area was the transformation of the previous barter economy into a cash economy. Finally, the establishment of barangays and sitios brought the government to remote areas. Native chieftains’ influence, however, remained strong in rural areas where cultural homogeneity of one ethnic group remained. In these areas, formal leaders represented by elected government officials considered it more prudent to consult the traditional leaders on issues affecting them. The ideal situation when different ethnic groups met in a social setting would have been cultural pluralism since in cultural pluralism, the two or more distinct cultural groups “maintain their equal rights within the nation.” The earlier process of accommodation was naturally leading towards the direction of cultural pluralism.

C. Social Structure and Social Network of Relationship Social structure is a universal feature of culture. It consists of an “organized set of social identities and the expected behavior associated with them.” In a given society, discovering the social structure is the key in understanding that society. In a study of this kind, informants are often asked the social identity of specific individuals mentioned in their accounts. Out of these information obtained from oral history, one can then examine the categorization of people. This study came up with three, namely: the settlers, the original inhabitants, and the NLSA employees. Besides the settlers and the original inhabitants that were discussed earlier, the role of the NLSA employees is worth mentioning because of the part they played in the settlement area. The NLSA employees were a special kind of people in the settlement area. The NLSA, as a government corporation is mandated to give “opportunity to tenant farmers and small farmers from congested areas to own farms, and to extend this opportunity to trainees”. As the group in-charge of carrying out the program, the people who constituted the organization assumed special importance in the eyes of the settler. This attitude could best be understood if we consider the obligations of the NLSA as embodied in the contract signed by the settler with the NLSA: (1) to advance the cost of transportation; (2) to assign him a parcel of 12 hectares of land; (3) to supply him on credit basis expenses for building materials, foods, use of machinery such as tractors and plows, planting materials, fertilizer, livestock and other agricultural implements;

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(4) to sell in the settler’s behalf products deposited by him in the NLSA warehouse; and (5) to give him full title to the land after all the obligations should have been met. The mandated obligations of the NLSA toward the settlers provided both a strong sense of security and dependency on the part of the settlers in its relationship with the government as represented by the NLSA. The assurance that the government, through the NLSA, would take care of their needs provided a strong sense of security and dependency. Thus, the strong “father image” of General Paulino Santos, which neutralized what outsiders, called the “semimilitary” ways in the settlement. From Teodulo Ramirez (1993) we get a profile of General Paulino Santos, dubbed the founder and father of the community in his work entitled The Southerner. General Paulino Santos was a native of Camiling, Tarlac of Ilocano parentage. Born on June 22, 1890, he entered a private school at age seven. Moreover, due to the interruptions caused by the Philippine Revolution, it was not until 1906 that the young Paulino obtained his seventh grade certificate. The seventh grade certificate was deemed sufficient during this time for one to become a teacher that was what happened with Paulino. But the young man had his eyes beyond the shore through the United States Navy. So, he quit teaching and went to Manila. But he came at a wrong time. The outbreak of cholera in Manila led to the suspension of the enlistment of Filipinos for the United States Navy. However, the young man was not ready to give up on a dream and return back to the province. In the meantime, during the waiting period and in order to sustain himself while in Manila, he worked as a washer of softdrink bottles in a factory in Tondo receiving a monthly wage of P7.00, working 14 hours daily. When he reached age eighteen he was able to enlist himself in the first General Services Company, United States Army starting as a private and rose to the ranks. In the examination for the Military Academy, he displayed exceptional ability and graduated at the head of his class composed of Filipinos and Americans. After graduation from the Military Academy, he was commissioned in 1914. His first assignment as a junior officer was in Malolos, Bulacan. After a few months, he was assigned to Mati, Davao in Mindanao. It was in Mati where he experienced a fist fight with an American officer where he ended up unconscious. Explaining that incident he mentioned that: “no man is entitled to insult the uniform of an army officer who would suffer humiliation from any man“. Such incident shows the stuff of which the young Paulino was made of. From his own account Paulino narrated that incident when he was still an orderly of General Harbord: “while I was a personal orderly to General Harbord at the time, he was traveling to Mindanao with Secretary Dickinson, the aide-de camp to General Harbord had the imprudence to order me to clean his buttons. I resented the idea, because I was already aspiring to become an officer, so I suggested that I would take them to his cabin boy for the latter to clean. He brought the matter to the General and complained of disobedience on my part. I was sent for by General Harbord, who by the way also

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 49 rose from the ranks. Instead, however, of listening to the complaints of his aide, I was congratulated for having the courage to fight for my rights and he ordered the offending officer to apologize for the blunder he committed. I drew attention to this, because so few of our men would look at it in that light. In most cases it would have been construed as an act of insubordination.” Both incidents show a keen awareness by the young Paulino of the principle of justice and equality. There were also reports of the young officer living up to the standard required of an officer to the point of: “I had to spend half of my pay and allowance to live up to the standards required of an officer.” It was in Lanao that the young officer’s courage and daring manifested itself. On March 1917, 2nd Lt. Santos was named station commander relieving Captain F.A. Williams, the last American to command the Ganassi military post. As a station commander he participated in the Bayang Cota campaign where the Ampuan-Agaos group with 1,500 members occupied several fortified cottas at Bayang along the shore of Lake Lanao. It was Lt. Santos with some of his men who volunteered to place scaling ladders beside the fortified cottas allowing the government troops to penetrate inside the cottas. The campaign was a success although the lieutenant was wounded in that campaign. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant thereafter. While taking a rest due to the wound incurred in the Bayang battle , he decided go back to Malolos, Bulacan and marry his sweetheart, Elisa Angeles. While on a honeymoon, he was ordered to report back to duty in Lanao to become the station commander of Tamparan district and concurrently its deputy governor. Later, promoted to the rank of captain, he preached reading of books to his subordinates as a way to get a “favorable efficiency rating” from him. In 1919, Captain Santos became the first Filipino officer to be assigned provincial military commander of Sulu. In 1920 he was assigned back to Lanao to serve in concurrent capacity as provincial military commander and provincial governor of Lanao. In his own account, Captain Santos reminisced on his assignment in Lanao: "When I was Governor of Lanao I always made it a point to visit an important headman whenever one is reported sick and if I cannot make the trip, I sent either my deputy or my doctor. It was not long before the people of Lanao realized that they had at the helm of their local government, a man who understood their needs and feelings and who sympathized with them in their sufferings, and I can say with real pride and joy that when I left Lanao, notwithstanding the fact that on occasions peace and order had to be maintained at the expense of killing some of them, the people there considered my departure a big loss to them.” During the term of Governor General Wood, however, the governor of Lanao resigned in his position due to policy differences with Governor-General Wood but managed to be promoted to the rank of major. Later, he was assigned as a district inspector for southern Tagalog, and much later as

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adjutant of the Philippine Constabulary. On October 16, 1930 he became a lieutenant colonel occupying the position of Assistant District Commander of Southern Luzon. Upon retirement from the Philippine Constabulary on December 22, 1930, he became the Director of Bureau of Prisons. While his gallantry and courage was proven in his Mindanao assignment, it was in the Bureau of Prisons that his management and ideas for self-supporting penal institutions developed. As Director of Bureau of Prisons, he introduced an innovative approach of initiating self-supporting projects by teaching the prisoners useful trades and crafts. Technical experts in agriculture and animal husbandry were employed in the different penal colonies to make these institutions self-sufficient. Under his direction the Bureau of Prisons was a well-run organization as described by General Santos in a speech as quoted from Ramirez: “If you want an example of it, visit Bureau of Prison whenever you have the opportunity to come to Manila. Occupying nine hectares of land and crowded as it is with building, you will be extraordinarily fortunate if you can find within the premises a single match stick or a piece of waste carelessly thrown away. I am proud to say that this Bureau is today the cleanest in this country and I will venture the assertion that it has no superior in the world. If it were possible to achieve cleanliness in prison with men who are in a sense, social misfits, why can’t we make our barracks and our army posts models of sanitation on our communities? Once we have attained this, it would be the simplest matter to keep them always clean and orderly.” It was during his term that the Davao Penal Colony was founded and the transfer of the Bilibid Prison to Muntinlupa effected. In his tour of Mindanao in search for an ideal site for a penal institution in Mindanao, he visited Koronadal Valley where Don Paco Natividad hosted him. Presumably, he was convinced on the great potential of the valley during this visit in 1932. With the establishment of the Commonwealth government, the last American Governor-General Frank Murphy thought of awarding those who served the government during the pre-Commonwealth American period. Thus, the long delayed recognition of General Santos’ role in the Bayang campaign in Lanao was finally recognized. On May 4, 1936, following the establishment of the Philippine Army, he was relieved as Director of the Bureau of Prison and appointed Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army with the rank of Major-General. As Chief of Staff, the basic framework for the Philippine Army was established including the training of the reserve force under the National Defense Plan undertaken despite limitations in budget and other realities. Leadership to be fully understood has to be studied not by traits or qualities of leaders alone but by viewing leadership in relation to a particular group situation that takes into account the leader-follower interaction. As mentioned earlier, in the eyes of the settlers, the fulfillment of their dreams for a “better tomorrow” largely lay in the hands of the major executor of the program.

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 51 Hence, the power held by the manager was not because he was a general or a military man but mainly as the conduit through which the settlers' dreams could be realized. The strong image of General Santos as the father of the community stemmed not from his strong personality alone but primarily from his pervasive hold on the consciousness of the people as their patron and benefactor. But unlike the usual patron-client relationship, that of General Santos was believed of a pure kind because of his perceived unselfishness and dedication to service. “He was very honest,” thus said one settler who recalled that the General continued to pay the loan he incurred when he was still Director of Bureau of Prisons. To this informant, his being indebted just like the rest of them shows that he lived within his means and did not took advantage of his position to benefit himself. His genuine concern for the people gained him the undying gratitude of the people. “He got angry when one was sick and did not seek the services of the doctor,” said another informant. His long-time secretary, Rafael C. Aquino, enunciated his unconditional belief in the general when he said: “I could not remember of a wrong decision made by the general as manager of the settlement.” The strong “father image” of General Santos lingered on even when he was no longer in the scene. He easily became a heroic figure in Koronadal valley. As a cherished memory, it is unthinkable today for any settler to talk negatively of him or his administration. By the very nature of his profession, General Santos was expected to run the Koronadal Valley Settlement in a military way - with precision, discipline, and emphasis on hard work and efficiency. His “hands - on” style of management and constant visit of the individual settlers in the various settlement districts prevented abuse of authority on the side of other NLSA employees. His usual round of inspection placed the other NLSA employees on their toes. As the ultimate authority in the settlement area, several measures were laid down by General Santos which gives one an idea of this particular kind of leader in this particular settlement district, viz: 1. The settlers should wake up at 4:00 o’clock in the morning. Any settler in his pajamas and not in his working clothes after 7:00 o’clock in the morning was given a passage on the next boat bound for Manila; 2. All settlers were required to have a backyard poultry, piggery, and garden. Those who failed to comply were punished in the form of credit suspension in the NLSA Trading Store; 3. Political rallies and other similar activities were banned. This was intended to prevent factionalism among the settlers; and 4. No Chinese were allowed to engage in business within the settlement area. In the Koronadal Valley settlement areas, besides the general manager, the other NLSA employees considered important by the settlers were those who had direct dealings with them like the doctor, nurses, overseer, assistant overseer, Trading Store in-charge, and perhaps, the tractor operator. It was common to see former NLSA employees running for public office after the war. Moreover, a position held in the NLSA alone was not enough guarantees to win the election. Smooth interpersonal relationship was a major determinant in deciding whom to vote. For instance, one NLSA employee who served as a

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doctor of Tupi settlement district failed to win a post-war election because he was perceived to be pro-rich.

D. Institutions Formed 1. Political Institution By 1941 four settlement districts were established: Lagao, Tupi, Marbel, and Polomolok. These settlement districts, while found within the jurisdiction of the Municipal District of Buayan, were administered separately by the NLSA. Recalling what General Santos told the leaders of the indigenous communities: “ to communicate with me should there arise some question which cannot be settled between them and the settlement supervisor”, shows that the settlement area was outside the jurisdiction of the local government. This reality led to the conclusion that there were two political entities existing within the Southern Koronadal Valley: first, the settlement area managed by officials of the NLSA and second, the Municipal District of Buayan then under the Municipal District of Glan of the Empire Province of Cotabato. The former had jurisdiction over the settlers, the latter, over the original inhabitants of the valley. Moreover, as pointed out earlier, there was the all-out support to the Koronadal project by the government as seen from the funds given to the NLSA (P20 million). Hence, the NLSA as a government corporation was able to establish irrigation systems, hospitals, schools, mechanized equipments and supplies within the settlement areas. On the other hand, its absence in the areas outside the settlement highlighted the government neglect of the Muslim and Lumad territories. For instance, the Municipal District of Buayan had to house itself in the private residence of Sarip Zainal Abedin in the Muksin-Abedin compound until 1949. The fast development of Buayan led to the separation of the Municipal District of Buayan from its mother unit, the Municipal District of Glan in 1940. But while, theoretically, Lagao was within the jurisdiction of the Municipal District of Buayan under its first appointed mayor, Mayor Sarip Zainal Abedin, in practice no substantial change in the political arrangement between the NLSA and the municipal district was effected. The informants said that the view of the government was that both Sarip Abedin and General Santos would cooperate with each other for the good of the community. That the two leaders did establish an enduring relationship based on trust was shown by Sarip Abedin’s unconditional support of General Santos’ decision to deal with the Japanese peacefully for the sake of the people of the valley. 2. Economic Institution Economic interaction provided the more frequent contact between the newcomers and the original inhabitants of the valley. As more settlers came, the settlers felt the need to establish a “tabo” or market day. A settler narrates one typical story: “We realized that this place is very favorable for business because the way from Lagao to the Upper Valley is passing through here. This led us to set upon a small market place. After discussing the mechanics of the market we decided to declare

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 53 Thursday as the market day. Other settlers started to sell soap, mat, vegetables, etc. This boosted production as marketing the products of the settlers was already accessible to the market place” (Cosep 1996). The foregoing account talked about the market day established in Klinan 6, which was found on the way from Lagao to the Upper Valley. Since the “tabo” was established on a Thursday in Klinan 6, settlers coming from other settlement areas would come over to sell their wares and buy their needs. Likewise, other settlement areas established their own “tabo”. The “tabo” became the meeting place of different occupants of the valley. The B’laans used to come to barter their native ginger, rootcrops, and other produce in exchange for the settlers’ clothes, canned goods, and later for money. Lagao was a major area of economic interaction for people of the valley. Likewise, Dadiangas with the Japanese Kuruda was a major trading area in Koronadal Valley. The laying down of the policy of disallowing the Chinese in the settlement area assured that business in the area remained in the hands of Filipinos within the settlement area. Dadiangas where Kuruda was based was outside the settlement area. Another economic interaction resulted from the settlers’ needs for manpower in house construction and in the farm. Twelve hectares of land was difficult for a settler to till. He needed extra hands that were filled in by the natives, mostly the B’laans. B’laan services were also needed in cutting woods for house construction. The B’laans provided the services needed and proved loyal when treated with kindness. Likewise, the establishment of “tabo” by the settlement areas brought the market places closer to the indigenous inhabitants. Before 1939, Datu Ugan Samling of Tupi tells of the almost one day travel to Lutayan in the present Dulawan to barter their produce in exchange for the things they needed. The distance and the lack of public transportation didn’t even allow them to go back to Tupi the same day because of the danger of travel during nighttime. Hence, they had to pass the night in Lutayan and start their journey back to their place the following day. 3. Religious Institution While the material needs of the settlers were taken cared of by the NLSA, it was in the field of religion that various socio-cultural activities found expression. Due to the absence of record on the religious affiliation of the settlers, this paper relied heavily on the study made by Ramirez (1993) and Eric Casiño's work entitled Mindanao Statecraft and Ecology (2000) about the activities of the Roman Catholic Church in Koronadal Valley. According to Eric Casiño, the Jesuit mission work in Mindanao suffered a lull with the death of Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti in 1897. Between 1900 and 1936, overseeing Sulu, Cotabato, and Davao mission works were three ageing Jesuits working under the Diocese of Zamboanga. Bishop Luis del Rosario, S.J., then turned for help to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). As a result, seven Oblate pioneers were sent to the Philippines in 1939 to take over the missions in Cotabato and Sulu. These pioneers produced the first Bishop of Cotabato (Mongeau) and the first Bishop of Sulu (McSorley).

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Prior to the coming of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.), the Catholic mass in the settlement occurred during infrequent visits by visiting dignitaries who brought along a priest during such visits. Due to the absence of roads with only the constabulary launch and horseback riding as the available means of transportation, chapels were invariably located in coastal communities like Buayan and Glan. The construction of different chapels in the interior of Koronadal and Allah valley came as a natural response to the presence of Christian settlers who opened up the rich Koronadal and later the Allah Valley. The establishment of the first church in Lagao showed a true community spirit. No less than General Santos himself gave the order to the settlement engineers to prepare a church plan. Don Paco Natividad and other established residents volunteered materials for the church while the settlers volunteered their labor during their free time. This community enterprise made the first church in Lagao as “unlike most of the several chapels” since its foundation was concrete and the structure wood. Later, other settlement areas constructed their own chapels. Since the Oblate fathers were few in number, the service in the different chapels had to be scheduled in accordance with the availability of the priests. The strong community spirit embodying the religious life of the Koronadal community is seen in the choice of a patron saint. Carlos Godmaling of Tampakan, South Cotabato gave this fascinating story: “In 1940, maybe in the month of November, the settlers were having their worship. During the meeting, the majority was Leyteño from Baybay, Leyte, the settlers were made to choose their patron saint. Some of us suggested Sto. Niño and La Purisima Concepcion. Votation was the basis. During the votation, La Purisima was chosen because Leyteños favored La Purisima. But Capizeños came and they said: “we want to join the votation”. So, the first votation was invalid and for the second time, Sto. Nino was chosen because Capizeño joined the votation. That’s why, La Purisima Concepcion was running second patron saint.” The practice of deciding important issues through discussion and voting explains in part the building of community spirit. Thus, fiestas held in honor of the patron saint that they themselves chose soon became the major activities of the settlement areas. The Santacrusan, cenakulo, and procession were attended by almost everybody. This provided the necessary respite from the hard and tedious life of a settler. Barely a year after their arrival, Fr. Mercado, the current president of Notre Dame University in Cotabato City, informs us that the Oblates opened their first school, the Notre Dame of Midsayap. Other parish schools followed in other areas. When Notre Dame of Dulawan was opened, the community it served was about 90 percent Muslim and the school built the first mosque on campus for the Muslim students. A proliferation of Notre Dame schools continued to be built after 1946. The Notre Dame University (NDU) of Cotabato serves as the flagship school of the Oblates in Mindanao.

THE ORIGINALS, THE SETTLERS, AND THE NLSA 55 By 1941, the settlement areas came out promisingly productive and progressive. Irrigation systems (Silway irrigation was added to the earlier Klaja irrigation), roads and bridges, piggery and poultry projects, plantation of wide varieties of crops and vegetables, and efficient administration brought about the impressive economic progress of Koronadal Valley. By a generally peaceful interaction of the different ethnic groupings, a peaceful process of accommodation and acculturation was taking place helping define the communities established. The land settlement project was proving a resounding success after the initial difficulties. On his first year of administration, General Santos reported to the Board of Directors of the NLSA in Manila: “We pass the first year of existence firm in the belief that we carried out to the best of our ability the objectives to which the NLSA was created. After one year of operation, we can say without hesitation that we have more than justified the expenditures incurred in the development of the Koronadal Valley Project. . . We have peopled an otherwise empty valley. And built communities which are model of cleanliness, industry and peace. There is no question that they (the settlers) have found a better home than they left behind. We have proven to the skeptical people that the Filipino farmers can work in peaceful productivity in his community unhampered by vice which saps moral strength. Without doubt, this is the most practical application of the President’s policy of social justice for it has given to the poor man who is willing to work a chance to earn a living through his own honest effort. . . “ Hence, the Koronadal Valley Settlement which extended from Lagao to Marbel rose to a population of 11,016 by February 1941 due to the incessant arrival of new settlers and the families of old settlers who followed them in the settlement. The Municipal District of Buayan was both a defended and developing community in the south when the ugly spectre of war appeared on the Philippine horizon. Moreover, a discordant note in this otherwise optimistic view of Koronadal Valley in 1941 was the reality that the presence of settlement areas exclusively and increasingly peopled by Christian settlers did not augur well to the native inhabitants of the valley. The presence of well-developed communities with modern infrastructure for development in their midst emphasized the neglect of the indigenous communities. Failure to provide arrangement on land reservation for the natives placed them at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the newcomers to the valley, the migrant-settlers, who had everything assurance of support and ownership of land, education, knowledge of land laws, etc. But as of the outbreak of the war, this inherent unequal power relationship was not yet apparent since the vast Koronadal Valley could still accommodate the number of newcomers. In the meantime, the defended community had to face the greatest threat to its existence - the Japanese invaders.

CHAPTER IV THE JAPANESE INTERREGNUM, 1942-1945

This chapter deals with the Japanese occupation of Koronadal Valley. An alien invading force would radically change the direction of developmental process in Koronadal Valley, particularly Buayan. From an envisioned agricultural settlement serving a major function for the Commonwealth government, Koronadal Valley was transformed into a local entity whose future direction would be determined by the people no longer in accordance with the objectives for which it was established but in accordance with the dynamics of growth in response to changing times. It is ironic that an event that was calamitous in itself would provide the libertarian condition to liberate Koronadal Valley from the limiting confines of Commonwealth Act No. 441. But more than structural change, the Japanese interlude put to test the new community. The sudden departure from the scene of the two titans of the community - General Paulino Santos and Mayor Abedin - raised the urgent need for the people left behind to take stock of themselves and respond to the difficult times sans the guiding hands of its leaders.

A. The Southward Thrust of Japan to Mindanao To the people of the valley, the war was received with shock, fear and trepidation. It was like a thief in the night coming when everybody was unprepared. One settler recalled: “We were afraid when we heard over the radio that the Japanese are coming. We immediately evacuated and left behind our farms and animals. We hid in the mountains of Palkan, proceeding to Glamang and then to Kiamba. Our hunger drove us to dig sweet potatoes from the farms that we passed by. We did not even know who owned the farms”(Catalina Docallos, in an interview by Cosep, 1995). The immediate response of the people was a spontaneous evacuation to safer places. The areas deemed safe were those away from the coasts and highways. On the side of the NLSA management, steps were taken to safeguard the lives and properties of the people. Lagao, the headquarters of the NLSA in Mindanao due to its proximity to Sarangani Bay, was not deemed safe. For this reason, the administration offices, records, properties, and supplies were moved to Banga in the Allah Valley, a distance of about 80 kilometers. The disarray of the NLSA itself signaled a major change - the people had to rely on themselves for survival because the administration was not in the position to look after them. Reverend Domingo was more vivid in his account: “December 8, 1940 [sic. 1941] unang bumba ng Japones dito sa atin unang putok ay sa Hawaii at sa Pier Harbor. Napotol ang gobierno sa pagsoporta sa amin kayat dito rin kami nabigla

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dahil sa guerra at mabuti na lang ay ang request ko na traktor or Caterpilar nakapagpaararo ako ng (2) hectaria. Inompisahan kong magtanim ng kamoteng kahoy at saging. At mayron akong 1/2 hectare na mais at bago na-ubos ko ang rassion ko mayron din bonga ang mais. Kahit mura pa pilit pinipitas dahil wala nang makain. Dito kaming nagsisi naman. Yaong maraming pamilla ay hirap na hirap sila . . .” (December 8, 1940 [sic. 1941] the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Our support from the government was terminated. We were caught unaware. I was lucky that I was able to request for a tractor and was able to plant two hectares of root crops and bananas. I also had 1/2 hectare of corn. Thus, before my ration was fully consumed, the corn plants started to bear fruit that I harvested even when still young in order to have something to eat. We started to have regrets again. Those with big families found great difficulty . . .” Mr. Vic Diaz, the teenaged son of a settler at the time of the outbreak of the war, recalled that they had just harvested sacks of peanuts when they evacuated. In their haste to evacuate, they left their houses and their produce. Mr. Eliseo Dulay evacuated to his kin in Palkan that appeared a major evacuation site for Lagao settlers being in the interior. Even the B’laan natives and Magindanao residents of Koronadal Valley were similarly situated. The Japanese coming elicited similar responses from the people of the valley. The Japanese campaign in the Visayas and Mindanao actually started with the bombing raid of Davao on December 8, 1941 launched in coordination with the Japanese air offensive, barely 24 hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In this raid, planes from two aircraft carriers damaged the military installation in Davao. On December 20, before dawn 5,000 assault troops in 14 Japanese transports escorted by a cruiser squadron and the carrier, Ryuja, invaded Davao. The 101st Infantry, stationed in Davao, offered only slight opposition in the face of heavy artillery and naval fire. Before dark, half of the assault troops were already being organized for the capture of nearby Jolo Island (Toland 1961: 21) The initial landings in Mindanao and Jolo were then made to enable the Japanese to establish advance bases for their air units that would take part in the invasion of the Dutch East Indies. Consequently, the Japanese warships of the Third Fleet and an aircraft from Formosa started moving to these bases. Meanwhile, the Japanese from December 31, 1941 until April 10, 1942 conducted no ground operations with their landing in Cebu (Toland 1961: 92). With the fall of Bataan, the Japanese then proceeded to effect the complete occupation of the country. On April 26, the Kawaguchi Detachment left Cebu and landed in Cotabato on April 29. The detachment loaded in eight transports and convoyed by two destroyers appeared at the entrance of Cotabato Harbor. Lt. Col. Calixto Duque of the 2nd Infantry put up a resistance and succeeded in stopping the first wave of Japanese from establishing a beachhead in Cotabato town.

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However, with constant naval bombardment aided by air support, the Japanese were able to land at Parang at 4:00 o’clock in the morning and at Polloc Harbor at 11:00 o’clock. On May 1, more Japanese landed at Cotabato and Malabang. The arrival of the order from General Wainwright to General Sharp in Bukidnon to surrender brought an early end to what could have been an otherwise long-drawn resistance offered by the USAFFE in Mindanao. Moreover, in North Cotabato, a member of the famed Bolo Battalion of the army decided not to surrender, inaugurating the continuation of the fierce independence of the Magindanaos even in the face of a superior force. A former guerilla officer gives us an account on the establishment of one of the successful guerilla organizations in Mindanao, viz: "Surrender, not me, sir. Why should I surrender when I had not yet had the chance to fight the enemy? Moreover, I can’t be disloyal to America and my government. Mark my word sir, I’ll carry on the fight.” These were in substance the spirited remarks of a young Moro officer when his American commander told him on May 8, 1942, of the order of General Jonathan Wainwright for all the USAFFE forces to surrender. He had probably in mind that the Bolo Battalion (an all-Moro quasi-military organization establishing soon after the outbreak of hostilities primarily to serve as an auxiliary service unit) had never pitted in actual combat against the enemy . . . . He (Pendatun) immediately contacted his brother-in-law, Datu Udtog Matalam, who was also a First Lieutenant of the Bolo Battalion . . . (Capt. Morales in Millan 1952: 300-308) And forthwith, the pair set up a military camp at Maridagao (Pikit) which became a cradle of the largest guerilla outfit that fought and first to strike at the enemy in the province. They established a far-flung intelligence network “to observe and report what was going on throughout the Upper Valley, to contact former USAFFE and BB personnel, to scout for and collect arms and ammunition of any caliber . . . " By December 1942 the forces of Datu Aliman of Kidapawan, Major Matas of Midsayap and the Dilangalen brothers augmented the PendatunMatalam force. These groups decided to form the Bukidnon-Cotabato Force in response to the news of Japanese maltreatment of the prisoners-of-war in Casisang, Bukidnon. Thus, the Magindanao response to a rumored maltreatment of prisoners-of-war, most of which were Americans and Filipino soldiers, shows the unity forged by the threat of an invader. This is confirmed by a study made by Evelyn M. Jamboy (1982) on the guerillas of Lanao where the Christians were reported to have sought refuge among their Muslim friends with the Japanese occupation of Iligan. Also significant was the response of the guerilla force in trying to put a stop to the outbreak of lawlessness among the native inhabitants who attacked and looted the belongings of evacuees from the settlement. It was reported that Pendatun gave a warning to lawless elements that they would answer to him for any wrongdoing done to the Christian settlers (The Settlement Advocate, Vol. I, No. 5, February 1947: 13). This by itself is significant for this shows recognition

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from a Magindanao leader of the need for the people to unite against a common foe. The Japanese Forces came overland from Cotabato town on May 14, 1942 (Toland 1961). The Japanese warplanes bombed the strategic areas for two days and a Japanese warship at the shore of Dadiangas pounded the surroundings with heavy shelling. These were met without resistance at all. Immediately, the Japanese Imperial Army took over the management of the settlement. The Japanese contingent consisted of one regiment with more than 500 combat men. The number increased as more troops arrived from Davao. They were seen coming by some settlers “like ants” marching in the highway.

B. General Paulino Santos’ Dilemma The decision to fight was easily reached by Lieutenant Pendatun since he had the vast area to hide among kinsmen who could provide the manpower, food supplies, and protection. But the case of General Santos in Koronadal Valley was different. The news of the bombing of Davao by Japanese planes shattered the peaceful world of Koronadal Valley. Immediately, the manager of the NLSA took steps in safeguarding the lives and property of the people. General Santos’ initial reaction to the Japanese invasion showed his unwavering loyalty to the Allied cause. As early as the second week of January 1942, General Santos was reported to have conferred with the high command of the USAFFE in Malaybalay, Bukidnon regarding their needs that could be supplied by the NLSA. Thus, a procurement team headed by Col. John Miller was reported to have made weekly trips to the Koronadal and Allah Valleys up to the end of February (Ramirez 1993: 165). According to one informant, General Santos and Mayor Abedin even organized a guerilla force as part of their initial reaction to the Japanese invasion. However, later, General Santos started to nurture the idea that fighting against heavy odds would endanger innocent lives. The interviewed settlers were unanimous with the belief that the late general had no choice because, unlike Lieutenant Pendatun who could always seek refuge among kin in the interior part of Cotabato valley, General Santos had the settlers to think of. He feared that if he would run to the mountains the settlers would be left at the mercy of the Japanese. Finally, he decided to deal with the Japanese peacefully and “play ball” with them for the safety and protection of life and property in the area. General Santos’ partner in Buayan, Mayor Abedin, reportedly went along with the former’s position of dealing peacefully with the Japanese. However, not all were agreeable to the general’s plan. Those persons who opposed a diplomatic relationship with the Japanese went to the remotest areas. A relative reportedly opposed Mayor Abedin himself. This disagreement coupled with misunderstanding on property led to Abedin’s death on January 20, 1942. He was buried in his private land at Baluan which still exists today. By the time the Japanese came Mayor Abedin was already dead. If General Santos “played ball” with the Japanese, does this mean that the general was a Japanese collaborator? To answer this question, the role of General Santos during the Japanese occupation has to be taken into account.

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After the Japanese arrival, Buayan was made the base of Japanese administration in Koronadal Valley. The Japanese commander and General Santos signed an agreement where the “Japanese will not molest or abuse civilian in all districts of Koronadal valley but with the condition that the people will cooperate and never commit any wrong move otherwise they will feel the repressive force of Japanese displeasure.” With the Japanese occupation of Koronadal Valley, General Santos continued to function as Director General of the settlement under the direct supervision of the Japanese serving as the intermediary between the people and the Japanese. In February 1944, he was appointed Commissioner of Mindanao and Sulu where he was charged the task of closer supervision and administrative control over all government offices in Southern Philippines with another Paulino (Gullas) as Commissioner for Visayas; the maintenance of peace and order; and most importantly, the enhancement of the nation’s food production in areas under his control (The Tribune, February 5, 1944: 1) In August 1944, he was named Commanding General and Chief of the Constabulary following the American bombing of the Philippines (The Tribune, August 30, 1944: 1). He died in Kiangan, Mountain Province during the American liberation of the Philippines (Ramirez 1993: 165). In 1965, the then sole representative of the sole province of Cotabato, former guerilla leader turned congressman Salipada K. Pendatun, objected to the name General Santos for the place because “he believed that the general was a collaborator” (Tabugo, typescript, n.d.). Pendatun had a good ground for pushing the collaboration issue since General Santos was a former Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army and could have been a good asset in the organization of guerilla movements. With his leadership and cooperation, South Cotabato could have undertaken an active guerilla activity against the Japanese having the unflinching loyalty and admiration of the settlers. To collaborate means, “to cooperate with or assist an enemy of one’s country, usually represented by an invading or occupying force.” Taking this definition at its face value, General Santos indeed qualifies as a Japanese collaborator during the war. When retained as manager of the Koronadal Valley Settlement at the onset of the Japanese occupation, he cooperated with the Japanese in all conceivable manners - providing all the demands of the Japanese force from food to labor and sending letters to some guerilla leaders to dissuade them from attacking Japanese outposts so as to make highways passable to allow safe delivery of food to other areas. As such, he received an award from the Japanese military administration for cooperation and pacification efforts (United States Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch, 1944). As Commissioner of Mindanao and Sulu, he exerted efforts to convince guerillas to surrender and work for greater food production. According to a confidential report of the American’ Office of Strategic Services, it was in his pacification campaign in Lanao that several assassination attempts were reportedly made by the guerillas. With his appointment as commanding general and chief of the constabulary during the approach of the American liberation forces in the Philippines, he reached the zenith of collaboration by his appointment in a delicate position during the period of Japanese setback in the hands of the Americans.

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Moreover, those who condemned General Santos as a collaborator were not settlers of the Koronadal Valley Settlement. The interviewed settlers, including a former guerilla, Mamerto Natividad, were unanimous in the belief that the late general surrendered and cooperated with the Japanese for the sake of the settlers. The interviewed settlers strongly believed that what motivated the general to cooperate with the enemy was not his selfish ambition to become an outstanding figure in the government or in the political arena for he was by nature not a politician as attested by his twenty-five years of outstanding service in the military. It would also be a mockery to judge his gesture towards the Japanese as an act of cowardice for his experience as a military officer was a living testimony to his courage and heroism. Nor can we consider his relationship with the Japanese easily an act of treason for he knew that his life would be in danger from the guerillas for cooperating with the Japanese. It appears that Wendel Fertig’s (leader of the 10th Military District Guerilla in Mindanao) description of one type of “collaborator” easily fits the general: “Some are good men who think they can help reduce the suffering if they can work with the Japs, and persuade them not to rape and torture. Such men are wrong but they mean well, and damn it, they’re brave. It takes guts for a man to go to the enemy to get a better deal for his people . . .”(Keats 1963: 87) It would, however, be futile to make on-the-spot judgment over an issue without having to look into the cause and motive underlying such act. As far as Honorable Salipada Pendatun was concerned, he could well afford to go to the mountains and organize a guerilla movement since survival in terms of food supply in his area of jurisdiction was accessible.18 The situation in the settlement during the Japanese occupation was very different from that in Northern Cotabato. Within the settlement area, there was abundance in food supply, but outside it was a jungle still far from the benefit of human cultivation and productivity. General Santos believed that if he would bring with him more than 7,000 (the estimate in Buayan settlement area) to the mountains they would certainly die of famine and disease. If he chose to flee to the mountains, he was equally sure that they (the settlers) would become hapless prey of Japanese cruelties. This was likely to happen since the Japanese, upon knowledge that he was a former Chief of Staff of the Army, would naturally look for him and use the settlers in demanding for his surrender. But despite cooperation, the Japanese did not fully trust the Filipinos. When the situation of the country was getting worse for the Japanese, just when General MacArthur’s forces were about to land in Leyte, the Japanese High Command in Manila made an order to send General Paulino Santos to Luzon purportedly to help in the pacification efforts. It was President Jose P. Laurel who sent a plane to fetch General Santos. The night before the plane left the settlement, the Americans started bombing Davao. His farewell message speaks of the uncertainty of the future for him and for everybody, yet, amidst uncertainty, there was the unremitting faith in the

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future of the Koronadal - Allah Valley Settlement (Allah Valley was opened in March 1941). Thus, he said: “I am leaving you for good. Only God knows when and how I could come back to continue with what we have started here. Continue planting even only camotes in all your home lots and farmlots. Treat each other as your brothers and members of your family. You believe me, all these districts we have opened and organized someday will become regular municipalities. To those who will stick to their respective place will be richer someday. My dear settlers and employees, my family will remain with you. Have full faith in God and have more patience. Unite and cooperate with one another, worse comes to worst. Let us hope that this war will not last long.” (Ramirez 1993) When the Americans landed in the Philippines, General Santos was in Bayambang, Nueva Vizcaya. He was isolated and subsisted by raising his own food like planting camote. He led a miserable life with his aide-de-camp. But even in the most trying of circumstances, his faith and confidence in the community he helped built with the settlers in cooperation with the original inhabitants of the place was unwavering. Thus, in a cave in an Ifugao village one day in July 1945, in a conversation between General Santos and his aidede-camp, Sgt. Ablan, the former talked of his son saying: “He’s in Mindanao with the rest of my family, in Koronadal. I also hope you will see Koronadal. It was a wonderful place. The people there are hard working and within a few years they will have built a paradise for farmers. You should go there. You’ll make a good settler” (Munda, n.d.). Later, General Santos became a very sick man. Moreover, General Masouka, the Japanese General keeping watch over General Santos and his bodyguard, refused to heed the plea of Sgt. Ablan to allow him to bring General Santos to an American hospital five kilometers from Kiangan. Later, a Japanese doctor visited him. Subsequently after the visit of the doctor, he died. Thus, the death of a great man whose departure from the Koronadal scene would forever change its course of development. For a time, the settlement would be like a rudderless ship, buffeted by ocean’s waves.

C. The Japanese in Koronadal Valley In the previous chapter we have seen how General Santos as the benefactor and protector of the people with the full backing and authority of the Philippine government together with the peaceful reception of the original inhabitants of the valley, provided the mantle of security over the Koronadal Valley Settlement. Moreover, the need to evacuate with the coming of the Japanese caused them to leave the security of the settlement. It was in the course of evacuation that the evacuees experienced looting, robbery, and other lawless acts. Ramirez (1993) reported that bandits from Allah valley looted the valuables of the Catolicos and the Velasquez families, all evacuees from Buayan. In Kapingcong, Tacurong the American, Wilbur Smith, was killed and his daughter raped. Even in Glan settlement which had been in peaceful co-existence with the Muslims since the American period, the need was seen to act against the

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Muslim uprising against the Christians in the barrio of Sapu in 1942 (Suzuki, 1992). The ugly appearance of historical divide briefly reared its head during this period of confusion. Due to the general breakdown of law and order, General Santos orderedthe NLSA chief mechanic and the NLSA shop supervisor to improvise and make a tank out of a D - 4 tractors with gun mountings. Captain Sebastian Javelosa of the Philippine Constabulary was asked to rescue the Christian settlers in Kapingcong. Likewise, the overseers of the settlement districts were directed to organize volunteer guards from among the settlers and NLSA employees. The night patrols and volunteer guard units proved effective in curtailing the general restlessness (Aquino, in an interview, 1976). When the Japanese finally arrived, the Supreme Commander of the Japanese Imperial Army immediately sent an order to General Paulino Santos to meet him. There was no battle of words over the bargaining table between the Japanese commander and the leader of the settlement since the latter had earlier laid firm his decision to deal with the Japanese in peaceful terms. The Japanese took over the administration of the settlement under tight control and close guard. The major condition given by the Japanese Commanding Officer was that no hostile action be made against the Japanese. On the other hand, all that General Santos asked was that all demands of the Japanese should pass through him and that no direct dealings between the Japanese and the settlers be made, apparently to lessen possible areas of irritants between the invaders and the settlers. In the beginning, the Japanese were friendly, good and happy. No harsh measures were adopted toward the residents. They did not molest belongings and women in the settlement, particularly Buayan. They were said to pay whatever they got from the settlers, whether food or services. The Japanese brought with them cloth materials and had them bartered with vegetables, rice, chicken, and pigs. Sometimes, they even played the band for the entertainment of civilians (Royeca, in an interview, 1976)). One informant whose house was used by some soldiers as a lodging house even said: “The Japanese were good. Sa katunayan, mas tarantado pa ang ibang Pilipino." This particular informant appeared so miffed by the unspoken suspicion by some settlers that he was fraternizing with the Japanese. Despite Japanese presence, however, the people tried to return to their normal activities as shown by the account of one settler from Tampakan found north of Tupi: “Here in Tampakan, even if it is war period before we were very happy. Every Sunday, some barrios came here just to have enjoyment like Bo. Kipalbig, Bo. 7, and Maltana. They played different games especially softball game that’s our favorite game before. It seemed there’s no war to us because of our happiness. If we heard frightening news, we find some ways in order not to panic” (Carlos Godmaling, in an interview by Jennifer Acapulco, 1995). What made the Japanese happy and good to the settlers was the abundance of food supply in the settlement, for it was General Santos’ policy to require every settler to have a backyard poultry, piggery, vegetable garden and

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orchard so that nobody would go hungry. This policy was so internalized by the settlers that even during the war they planted palay, corn, cassava, camote, and fast maturing crops wherever they evacuated. They also made commendable efforts to produce articles whose supply had gone low due to the interruption of the interisland trade. With the scarcity of sugar and cigarettes, sugar cane and tobacco were planted. Even wines and liquors were locally produced. Cloth was woven from abaca fiber and cotton. Reverend Domingo narrated: “At noong bumalik sila dito sa atin ang programa ng NLSA ipinagpatuloy ngunit wala ng suporta. Kaya and ginawa ng ating General ay nagmiting kami at napagkaisahan namin na magtanim kami ng cotton at gumawa kami ng (loom) habilan at lahat ng mga matandang babai na marunong mag-habil nang damit maturuan sila dahil sa loob ng tatlong buwan may bulak na ang tanim doon sa Lagao. Noong umunlad and (weaving loom) nagkaroon kami nang damit, pinalitan namin ang barong abaca.” ( With the resumption of the NLSA program, the government support was withdrawn. So, the General had a meeting with us where we agreed to plant cotton and make looms and all the old women who knows how to weave would be taught because it would only take three months for cotton to bear fruit. When the weaving industry thrived, we were able to change our clothes to the ones made of abaca. ) The cotton industry was adopted as a major industry after the Philippine Executive Commission created the Bureau of Agriculture headed by Hilarion Silayan. It was this bureau which took over the function of the defunct NLSA but without the earlier government support to settlers. General Santos and some NLSA employees were called back to duty. Director Silayan sent an urgent message to General Santos to spearhead a campaign for an extensive production of cotton. As a result of the development of cotton industry, Lagao was then known as the “cotton bowl of the country” (Ramirez 1993: 181). General Santos took immediate steps to help the NLSA employees who stayed in their posts even with the Japanese occupation but with largely reduced wages by loaning them eight (8) hectares of land each taken from the Administration Farm. Here, they raised cotton. Under Commonwealth Act No. 441, NLSA employees were prohibited to own farmlots in the settlement area. But Commonwealth Act No. 441 was no longer in operation with the Japanese occupation. During the incumbency of President Magsaysay, an executive order was passed allowing government employees to acquire homestead not exceeding 24 hectares. As a result of this executive order, the loaned eight hectares of land became the property of former NLSA employees (Aquino, 1976). Life appeared to have returned to normal despite the presence of the Japanese. The settlers continued planting and harvesting rice, celebrating fiestas, and holding anniversary celebrations. Usual recreational activities continued and different ballgames were still observed during Sundays. The Japanese reopened schools where Japanese songs and Niponggo language were taught. Market places were also reopened in the present site of Peñamante Clinic in Lagao with Sunday as the market day.

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The cooperation accorded the invading force by the NLSA employees who stuck to their positions despite the onset of the Japanese occupation coupled with the absence of an active guerilla force in Buayan were two important factors for the harmonious relationship between the people and the invading force. Moreover, informants were saying that despite cooperation, their secret feeling was for the Allied Powers and hostility toward the Japanese. The Japanese and Filipinos, though fellow Asians, due to divergence in culture and historical experiences, failed to comprehend the psychology of each other contributing to the feeling of fear and distrust by Filipinos. Ironically, though both the Americans and the Japanese were colonizers of the Philippines, the Filipinos had different reactions toward them. Renato Constantino labeled it the “successful miseducation” of Filipinos by Americans. In fact, he further observed that the American propaganda had succeeded to such a degree that during the war the Filipinos considered themselves another front fighting the global war of the Americans. Such attitude was clearly enunciated by the Cotabato guerilla leader Pendatun when he said in a letter dated January 16, 1944: “It goes without saying that those who remained loyal to and kept on fighting for the cause will be justly rewarded while those who readily embraced the enemy thereby proving themselves faithless to their country and disloyal to the American people will be correspondingly dealt with. . . .” (Historical Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 4, December 1966: 59) Hence, to the Filipino mind, America was equated with liberty. Freedom and loyalty to the country also meant loyalty to the American people. Such feeling was so widespread that almost everybody awaited the return of the Americans to liberate the country from the Japanese. Cotabato guerilla resistance was a testimony to this. One incident in Koronadal Valley did not help dispel the negative feelings towards the Japanese. On November 5, 1942, a group of ex-USAFFE soldiers in Marbel district led by Lieutenants Alfredo Garingo, Hermogenes Allas, and Emilio Dar assisted by Sergeants Debil and Buyco, attacked a detachment of 13 Japanese soldiers. One Japanese soldier was killed in this attack but the people of Marbel District particularly Barrio 6, where the relatives of these guerillas were based, were made to pay heavily for this affront to Japanese power. Thus, one account said: “Ominit ang pagsusuri ng Hapones at dito hinoli ang overseer na si Mr. Antipolo at pinatay nila dito po sa Pilot Elementary School at sa puno ng flag. Malaki ang butas na ginawa nila dahil sa ang mga bata, kon anong dahilan pati na ang mga asawa ng USAFFE mahigit o kumulang mga 36 personas na nailibing sa puno ng flagpole”. (The Japanese were so mad that the overseer, Mr. Antipolo, was arrested and killed at the Pilot Elementary School by the flagpole. They made a huge burial grave

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 because even children and the wives of the USAFFE, more or less 36 persons, were buried near the flagpole”) (Domingo, 1947).

Mr. Albert Morrow, assistant to the manager who took over the management when General Santos was appointed to other positions causing the general to stay in Manila, tried to convince Captain Oishi to release the prisoners. However, his attempt to convince the Japanese was doomed from the start because being an American mestizo who looked more American than Filipino, the Japanese viewed him with suspicion. Unable to convince the Japanese from the slaughter of innocent children and women, he committed suicide (Ramirez 1993). The late Albert Morrow’s bodyguard, Mr. Santiago Odi, followed this act of protest. Upon arrival in Koronadal from his travel, General Santos protested against the atrocities done under the command of Captain Oishi. One informant, however, gave Lieutenant Jesus Larrabaster the credit for the stop of the carnage after 36 deaths. Reportedly, his courage in facing the Japanese with a bluff of the area being surrounded by guerillas who were ready to attack once he failed to come out from the building after a specific period of time, was allegedly what convinced the Japanese to release the remaining prisoners. The tragic incident in Marbel caused the guerillas in South Cotabato, whose main outpost was Glan, to refrain from similar undertakings in the area. They merely contented themselves with gathering vital information as to the Japanese movement, strength, and activities and sending these information to General MacArthur’s headquarter in Australia. In January 1944, the Japanese started laying out an airport in Buayan on the eastern border of Lagao for the landing of Japanese warplanes and as training ground for the Japanese combat pilots. The proposed area of the airfield totaled to 1,200 hectares, said to be one of the largest airfields proposed by the Japanese in the country (Ramirez 1993: 184). Such massive preparation was due to the Japanese belief that the American invasion would start at the southern backdoor of the Philippines with Sarangani Bay as the probable landing place. Ramirez (1993) gathered the information that mysterious objects in big volumes were buried during the night and the B’laan who were used as laborers were reportedly liquidated thereafter. It was also reported that the printing of Japanese paper money for Philippine circulation was done inside the Buayan airfield. However, although life was almost normal, it was not easy. The sending of around five hundred laborers six days a week continuously until September of the same year when American planes heavily bombed the airport, diverted the settlers from their farm work. Besides, although the laborers were paid for their work, it could be surmised that they worked under compulsion. There was also the demand for greater cotton production further diverting the people from food production. The only consolation the settlers got was the good treatment accorded them by the Japanese.

D. The Liberation Period Despite the proximity to MacArthur’s headquarter in Australia, Sarangani Bay, though first on General MacArthur’s original plan of early landing in the Philippines, became the scene of the last amphibious landing in the country.

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The original plan consisted of four phases of operation in which the initial stage called for an establishment of an American beachhead in Southern Philippines, specifically in Sarangani Bay, in order to establish air bases for the support of the second phase that was a move into Central Philippines at Leyte. However, the Allied Powers’ triumph in the western Pacific made it possible for MacArthur to move directly to Leyte, bypassing Mindanao (Willoughby, 1973: 405) In effect, by landing in the lightly guarded island of Leyte, Mindanao served as an effective decoy in tying down the great number of Japanese soldiers. As of June 20, 1945, Mindanao had an aggregate number of 15,600 Japanese ground forces; Luzon 26,000; and Visayas, only 4,700. With the advent of American landing in Leyte, the intermittent American bombings of strategic areas, and the withdrawal of Japanese forces from Misamis Occidental in northern Mindanao tied up with the movement of large number of troops from Davao to Buayan in Sarangani Bay caused hardship to the people of the valley. Gone were the days of give-and-take relationship. The war hysteria gripped the losers and reached its climax in May 1945 when the Japanese began looting the people of their food supplies, clothing, bull carts, and work animals. Reverend Domingo narrated: “Omalis kami sa trabaho namin. Nag-evacuate kami at hinoli kami naman ng Hapones, lalo ang mga baka, kariton at carabao at tiga-hatid kami ng mga kargamento na mga bala, mga maysakit na Hapones at mga sugatan, pagpunta at pagbalik at sa parang alanganin na kami tumakas kami at pinabayaan namin ang cariton baka at calabao namin. Ito ang pinakasaklap na nangyari sa buhay namin . . . Isang pasayao sa Marbel ay masaya ngunit sa bandang alas 12:30 ay biglang sabay na may palopok sa barrio 2 hanggang umabot sila sa barrio 8 at maraming hapon ay nasawi. Ang ating sundalo ay mga sugatan dahil sila ang nag-ambos sa mga Hapon na nagnakaw ng saging dahil wala na pala ang pag-kain ng Hapones dahil wala ng soporta na dumating sa kanila.” (We abandoned our work [in the Buayan airport]. We evacuated but the Japanese were able to catch us and confiscated our cows, cariton, and carabaos and made us to deliver guns, ammunitions, sick and wounded Japanese soldiers. Finally. we decided to abandon our cart and carabaos or cows in order to escape. There was this public dance in Marbel where we overheard shooting at around 12:30 which started from Bo. 2 until Bo. 8. There were a lot of wounded Filipino guerillas and Japanese killed. The encounter occured because the Filipino guerillas ambushed the Japanese who were stealing bananas. It came to our attention that the Japanese had to fend for themselves because no support is arriving.) Prior to the liberation of the place, the American war planes bombed the strategic points of the Japanese defense lines with naval and ground support. The coastal areas of Buayan and Glan were bombed in preparation for eventual

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landing. On September 4, 1944, two Japanese coastal vessels were bombed in the vicinity of Glan, the guerilla-held territory of South Cotabato. Another Japanese aircraft was bombed in Buayan the next day. This was followed by an intensive bombing of the airstrip at Buayan and other places in Dadiangas leaving both places in flames. The Japanese transferred their supplies and buildings to the forest about one kilometer northwest of the former headquarter (Willoughby 1973: 407). The attacks against the Japanese were done without let-up. Reverend Domingo once more supplied us with an account of the final disaster for the Japanese. “July noong kami ay may balita na ang tropa ng Americano ay nasa Buloan na. Sinalubong namin sila at kami naman ay (guide) giya papunta dito sa Lotayan at dito sila nag pundo sa Marbel . . . Sa buan ng Agusto ay bumalik kami dito sa farm lot dahil doon kami nakatira sa Barrio Banga. Binalikan ko ang loteng ito sa Caloocan. . . . Buan ng Septembre. Dito naman sa Kiamba, pinalubog ang isang malaking barko ng Hapon, dahil nakaharang ang bapor di guerra ng Amerika dito ang dahilang ginotom ang Hapones sa Dadiangas. Umabante ang ating sundalo dito sa Tupi . . . dumating sila sa Polomolok. Dito sila tumagal at nag-pondo at lumaban ang Hapones at sa 18 ng buan dito ay dumaan ang wave to wave malalaki at maliliit na aeroplano walang hintong dumaan patongo sa Leyte sigi rin ang bumba dito sa Dadiangas. Nag-backuit ang tiga Polomolok at dito sa Marbel ang tungo nila. Araw gabi ang ugong ng aeroplano bomba dito pa sa mga barko at putokan araw gabi hanggang naglanding si MacArthur sa Leyte at nagsurrender ang mga Hapones.” ("By July we received information that the American troops are already in Buluan. We met them and served as their guide until Lutayan and they stationed themselves in Marbel . . . In August, we returned back to our farm lot because during the war we were staying in Banga. I returned back to my lot here in Caloocan. . . . In September, a Japanese boat was destroyed in Kiamba. Since the American ship laid seige in Sarangani, the Japanese suffered hunger due to the non-arrival of food and supplies. Our soldiers moved forward to Tupi. . . then Polomolok. Here, they encountered fierce resistance. On the 18th of the month wave to wave big and small airplanes passed by going to Leyte while Dadiangas was continuously bombed. The people evacuated going to Marbel. Night and day we heard the sound of the airplanes, the bombing of ships until the arrival of MacArthur in Leyte and the Japanese surrendered.”)

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The American arrival allowed the people to openly show their real feelings in favor of the Americans and against the Japanese. Thus, the Japanese, who previously relied on the people to provide them food supplies in exchange for cloth and other materials, could only hope to get food by stealing “bananas”. Meanwhile, the Japanese resident of Dadiangas, Kuruda, turned out to be a colonel in the Japanese army. When the Japanese forces retreated to the hills of Conel with the onslaught of the Filipino-American forces, the lack of food led to his worsening ulcer. He was reported to have committed hara-kiri. His friend Takahashi, on the other hand, was among those who surrendered and held prisoner of war. He managed to return to Japan after the war. The liberation of Koronadal Valley, the last place in the country to be liberated, was a combined effort of the Reconnaissance Troop of the 24th Division of the USAFFE, the 116th Guerilla Infantry Regiment of Glan under Major Page, the 496th General Battalion and the Combat Company of the guerillas, the 118th Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Pendatun led by Colonel Robert V. Bowler, and the Expeditionary Battalion of the 108th Division (United States Army in World War II, 1963: 18) The liberating forces came from various directions converging in Buayan. The 24th division from Davao which, together with the 116th Guerilla Regiment in Glan, cleared the bay shores; the 496th anti-aircraft General Battalion with the 118th Infantry came from Lake Buluan; the Expeditionary Battalion with the 108th Division from Davao traveled through dense rain forest. These combined forces discovered the main body of the Japanese hiding out along river valleys and hilly peaks about 15 miles north of the bay. Organized Japanese resistance collapsed on July 25, and the operation entered the mopping-up pursuit stage. Heavy fighting erupted for several days with the guerillas joining the American forces. Overpowered and outmaneuvered, the Japanese forces suffered heavy losses. With their defenses broken, the Japanese retreated to the hills. They established their last stand in the Klaja-Conel hills, some nine kilometers away from Lagao. The Klaja-Conel area was very strategic since this was surrounded by creeks that, in the early days of the settlement, supplied the irrigation water to the settlers in Lagao. From their location atop the hill, the Japanese could easily detect troop movement of the joint Filipino-American force. The liberating force was able to penetrate the defenses of the Japanese with the help of the people who showed the other passageways going to the top of the hill. The end finally came on the eleventh day of August 1945 with thirteen men dead and thirteen wounded in the Fil-American unit and 450 dead on the Japanese side. The Japanese refused to surrender to the Filipino guerillas because they feared they might be victims of the long-time hatred and hostility of the latter. Hence, during the negotiation for surrender held at the bank of the river, the Filipinos were not allowed to participate, reminiscent of the Spanish surrender after the Mock Battle of Manila less than fifty years ago. With the insistent request of the guerillas, however, five filipino representatives were present in the surrender including the guerilla son of Don Paco Natividad. The Japanese surrendered in four days by batch totaling 1,700 after which they were sent to Davao as prisoners-of-war. Thus, ended the Japanese occupation in the valley. After the war, the settlers who sought refuge in the interior returned to the settlement and were

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saddened to see the place turned into ashes, buildings destroyed, and plants and animals also destroyed. The B’laan natives and Maguindanaos who evacuated to the north were informed by the then Congressman Mangelen of Cotabato that it was now safe to go back home.

E. The Crack in the Community Esprit de Corps The previous account shows how the initial confusion as a result of the Japanese invasion allowed the cultural divide between the newcomers and the original inhabitants to rear its ugly head, albeit briefly. Moreover, the immediate response of both the Magindanao guerilla leader Pendatun who realized the need to unite against a common enemy, as well as the defensive measures put up by the settlers through the ronda system pushed away at the level of subconscious such divide. Moreover, more serious was the giving way of community esprit de corps within Buayan to one of individual survival. As a result, the three years of a conscious effort on the side of both the NLSA management and the settlers of creating community solidarity gave way under the onslaught of wartime conditions. It was during the Japanese period that such cracks appeared. This stands in sharp contrast to the happy report given by General Santos a year before the outbreak of the war, which said in part: “We have peopled an otherwise empty valley. And built communities which are models of cleanliness, industry and peace. There is no question that they (the settlers) have found a better home than they left behind. We have proven to the skeptical people that the Filipino farmers can work in peaceful productivity in his community unhampered by vice which saps moral strength. Without doubt, this is the most practical application of the President’s policy of social justice for it has given to the poor man who is willing to work a chance to earn a living through his own honest effort. . . “(Santos 1940: 1) When war broke out, a number of settlers evacuated to distant places. When the NLSA was reorganized by the Philippine Executive Commission under the Bureau of Agricultural Administration, General Paulino Santos, who continued as manager, in his desire to bring the situation back to normal promulgated an order requiring settlers to return to their farm lots and resume their farming activities, setting June 15, 1942 as the deadline to do so under the penalty of being dropped as settlers. Later, the deadline was extended to June 30, 1942, and again to July 15, 1942. Those who failed to return after the expiration of the prescribed period were ordered by General Santos to be dropped as settlers and abandoned farm-lots were subsequently assigned to other persons, mostly probationary settlers (Testa 1946). The then overseer of Lagao zealously carried out this order in Lagao district. Some settlers who returned to the settlement after the liberation of Southern Cotabato found the land assigned to them already given to somebody else. Compounding the post-war break-up of community solidarity was the loss of records during the war which included the names of those dropped during the Japanese occupation; those who voluntarily exchanged farm lots

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before the Japanese regime; and those settlers dismissed as settlers before the Japanese coming but who were not shipped out due to the outbreak of the war. Those who really lost their original farm lots through the above-mentioned reasons and who, upon return, tried to recover their original farm-lots added to the general confusion. The basis for General Santos’ order of dropping from the list those who abandoned their farm lots and failed to return despite the order was a stipulation in the settlement contract (paragraph 2, section 1) which expressly provided that the settler shall “devote himself exclusively to the cultivation of the parcel of land allotted to him and not to leave the settlement or engage in any other trade or occupation without the approval of the Administration”. (Underscoring supplied) Moreover, despite the legal basis, the failure of the management to consider the wartime condition went a long way in nourishing insecurity and confusion in the valley. Thus, while one NLSA employee said that the “general did not make any wrong decision,” the dropping of the names of settlers who did not return after July 15 was a legally correct but unfortunate decision. Another basis for the post-war settlers’ complaint was the distribution of land (on loan) to the NLSA employees. There is a basis for this complaint. Commonwealth Act No. 441 creating the NLSA provided that “no officer or employee of the Corporation shall be permitted to acquire, directly or indirectly, any land within the reservation, unless with the specific approval of the Board of Directors in each case.” The interviewed NLSA employees justified this act by General Santos as due to the desire of the late general to put the NLSA employees on self-sufficient status due to reduced salary. By January 1943, the Administration farms were subdivided into farm lots of eight hectares each and assigned to the employees. It was found out that majority of the employees who received farm lots under this arrangement paid for them in Japanese currency. General Santos’ preoccupation with other jobs given to him by the Second Philippine Republic, particularly as Commissioner of Mindanao and Sulu, brought him away from the valley. This allowed other officials to take control of the tightly knit organization, which, under his firm direction, showed promise of success. It was unfortunate that those who took over worked minus the government support given during General Santos’ time. Hence, the NLSA as the knight in the shining armor who took care and provided protection to them was felt by the settlers as having “abandoned” them in their moment of need. Thus, the complaint filed in 1946 against the supervising overseer charged him of abandonment during the American bombing of Buayan. Another factor which could attribute to the unacceptability of the post-General Santos officials is due to the fact that they lacked general’s “persona” as the benefactor and protector of the people. They couldn’t blame the settlers for this perception. While General Santos had a reputation for strict discipline, he was also viewed as totally selfless and seriously working for the objectives of the NLSA that included the well being of the settlers. On the other hand, the charges against eight officials and employees of the NLSA in 1946 (manhandling of settlers; engagement of private business by officials and employees of the NLSA without proper authority; abuse of authority; the utilization of probationary settlers as laborers in the farms of employees as a prerequisite to the assignment of farm lots, etc.) filed by the United Settlers Movement showed that some of the NLSA

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officials and employees may have taken advantage of their official functions for personal interests causing them to lose their moral ascendancy over the people. Charges of abuse of authority, corruption, and other illegal acts drove a wedge between the NLSA management and the settlers. Indeed, it is tragic that the Japanese occupation represented the ebb of the community spirit, a vital factor necessary for post-war recovery and development.

CHAPTER V BUAYAN TO GENERAL SANTOS: MORE THAN JUST PHYSICAL CHANGE This chapter deals with the post-war changes of the settlement area of Koronadal Valley found in the Municipal District of Buayan until it became a city two decades after the end of World War II . Discussed in the early part is the initial phase of recovery made difficult by NLSA’s failure to provide leadership during these difficult times and a calamity of unbelievable proportion which befell Cotabato province lasting for almost a decade. Amidst the challenges of the post-war period, Buayan, propelled by its inherent geographic advantage and the established pattern of peaceful interaction between the Christian settlers and the original inhabitants, was able to recover sufficiently to start the process of qualitative growth and development. Nonetheless, the continuous pouring in of Christian settlers into the area led to the transformation of the hitherto extension of the Magindanao world into a predominantly Christian territory. While generally peaceful, any change is usually accompanied by tension. But as of the sixties, land conflicts, bombings, kidnappings, and the like that characterize 21st century reality were not part as yet of the Mindanao horizon. In the South Cotabato world, the period after the war until 1967 was characterized by optimism expressed by the term "boom-town-in-the-making." Such upbeat tempo of the former Buayan was the mode of the day despite the tremendous difficulties faced by the inhabitants of the area immediately after the war.

A. Buayan : Intrigues, “Daga, Balang,at iba pa”, 1946 - 1954 The post liberation period found Koronadal Valley in shambles just like the rest of the country. The rebuilding of homes and lives was then the primary concern as shown by the experiences of Reverend Domingo, Vic Diaz and Mr. Dulay. Reverend Domingo found himself in Davao working in an abaca plantation farm trying to earn money for fare in order to get his family in Luzon and bring them to his farm lot in Koronadal. “If she (the wife) didn’t go with me, then, I’ll just have to look for somebody else,” Reverend Domingo laughed while looking at his wife. However, after returning to his farmlot in Barrio Caloocan in Marbel district, the occurrence of a succession of drought, rats and locusts caused him to lose face with his wife. “Parang mas mahirap ang buhay dito noon kaysa sa Luzon” (“life appeared more difficult here than in Luzon during that period”), the wife offered her thinking of the situation. Moreover, despite difficulties they managed to survive. Later, Federico had the chance to continue his studies to become a religious minister. “Ang asawa ko ang nagpaaral sa akin. Siya ang nagpatakbo sa farm hanggang maging ganap na ministro ako.”(“It was my wife who sent me to school by taking care of the farm until I became a full-pledged religious minister”). Both are in agreement, however, that without the farmlot, he would not had the chance to take further studies, a dream of a lifetime. The young man Vic Diaz, who was then a student, decided that somebody had to sacrifice if the family had to survive the calamities of rats and the locusts. As the eldest child, he felt it was his responsibility to sacrifice for

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the sake of the younger ones. Despite the scholarship offered by the Oblates in Notre Dame of Cotabato, he felt he had to work so the younger brothers and sisters could continue with their studies. So, he stopped schooling and worked in a private company in Davao. “It was destiny. There, I met my wife who was a teacher in Davao. Later, when my younger brother was able to enter the U.S. Navy and dollar money came, I felt it was time for me to marry. Somebody had to sacrifice for the family. I am proud to say that I have done my share for the family”. Mr. Dulay continued to work with the NLSA. The abolition of the NLSA did not pose a problem to people of skills, especially with the establishment of multinational corporations in Buayan starting the sixties. Also helpful was the condonation of debts owed by the settlers to the government by President Magsaysay in 1954 after the succession of drought, locusts and rats hit Cotabato. What was apparent from the interviews conducted was the clarity of accounts of the informants’ experiences from the time of arrival to Koronadal Valley until the war period. After the war, however, the accounts of community events appear hazy although informants were very clear on their personal circumstances. This led to the assumption that the informants were then so preoccupied with rebuilding lives after the war that the pre-war keen participation in the building of a community was reduced to the minimum and left to the government. It can be said with no fear of contradiction, therefore, that the highest point of community esprit de corps was before the war years. It was the time when everyone knew everybody. Decision-making was made in public consultation participated in by everybody. A conscious effort of building a community was the prevailing norm then. The post-war condition and the increase of population changed all these. The people resumed their normal activities after liberation. Within the settlement area, the settlers under the NLSA tried to resume their pre-war activities. But a 1946 Malacañang report found Koronadal Valley in chaos: “The whole NLSA organization may be likened to a captainless ship adrift for the last eleven months in the sea of discord, disorganization and personal ambition. The crew is in mutiny, while the officers are engaged in a feud among themselves. Nobody is in command and nobody could be allowed to take command, for there is mutual suspicion . . . There is evident lack of planning on the rehabilitation of the KAVP from the dismal ruins of war, clearly visible from the once blooming fields of Koronadal. The employees and settlers have degenerated into self-seeking maggots waiting for the lumps of government aid. A big number of settlers have abandoned their farm lots expecting that the government should first supply all their wants” (Testa 1946: 4) The 1946 report attributed the chaotic condition of the immediate postwar period to the “untimely death of General Paulino Santos.” Lt. Jesus Larrabaster, who took command of the NLSA after the suicide of the late Albert

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Morrow, was not able to fill the void in leadership left by General Santos and Albert Morrow. Lt. Larrabaster had the unenviable task of making the Koronadal Project work during the Japanese occupation. But lack of funds was a major drawback. The withdrawal of government assistance to the settlers in the form of a weekly food ration listed as loan was not longer possible. Not everyone was able to harvest his or her fields when the Japanese came. The NLSA officials and employees who returned to work were better off during the occupation because of the salaries they received, albeit in a reduced amount, and the eight hectares of land of the Administration Farm loaned to them. Thus, the settlers felt oppressed when obligated to turn over a percentage of their produce to the NLSA in accordance with the settlement contract but with the NLSA unable to provide the usual assistance in the form of food ration. Attorney Testa's report told of the altercation between the supervising overseer and a settler who refused to give a percentage of the salt the latter was selling. The settler reportedly told the overseer: "When we needed your help you did not help us, and now that we have the salt you want to get it from us (Testa, 1946:4)." Unlike General Santos whose “semi-militaristic” ways was neutralized by his perceived concern for the interest of the settlers giving him the “father” image, the recorded settlers' complaints against some officials of the NLSA of abuse of authority filed by the United Settlers Movement against eight officials of the NLSA indicated that nobody was able to fill the void caused by General Paulino Santos” absence from the settlement. Consider the following accusations: (Testa 1946: 22) 1. Accusation of irregularities such as the grabbing of tracts of land and operation of private businesses inside the settlement; 2. The use of dummies in acquiring farm lots; 3. Irregularities in the procurement of supplies and materials, and even farm animals; 4. Farm produce delivered by the settlers to the Farm Products Exchange during the Japanese time were not credited to them due to erroneous preparation and/or tampering of records; 5. Conflicts of claims on farm lots; and 6. The subdivision of the Administration Farms and their distribution among the employees. Clearly, some officials were perceived to have taken advantage of the tremendous power given the NLSA as a corporation and the consequent potential for power over the settlers. This led to a condition of Koronadal Valley likened to a “captainless ship” after the war. Besides the lack of psychological acceptance of new leaders due to perception of irregularities and abuse of authority, another factor contributing to the intrigue and dissension of the immediate post-war period was the politization of Koronadal Valley. The two camps involved in the charges and countercharges against each other happen to belong to two opposing camps representing the two presidential candidates for the 1945 election - the Osmeña and Roxas camps. From the long list of complaints one can deduce that the once efficiently run NLSA Koronadal project tightly controlled and supervised by the general

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manager had degenerated into an inefficient corporation tinged with accusations of corruption and self-gain. Attorney Testa vividly depicted this state of condition in his report: (Testa 1946: 5-8) “The investigation disclosed that the officials and employees of the National Land Administration (NLSA) are divided in cliques, prompted by petty jealousies, intrigue, individual ambition, and, in certain instances, by envy. The settlers are similarly divided among the contending cliques. The establishment of cantonments is all that is lacking to complete the scene of pitched battle. The stage was well set for a tragedy, first by the untimely death of the former Manager, General Paulino Santos, the man who held them under control and together; and, second, by the uncertainties surrounding the plump and desirable key positions, still vacant and thus tempting, - that, no wonder, one group should desire to outwit the other, not to say, that there are pre-existing rivalries and axes to grind.” The investigation body came up with the following recommendations concerning the case in question: (1) the reconstitution of the Board of Directors; (2) that permanent appointments be made to all key positions; (3) that funds be released for the acquisition of reconstruction materials, farm implements, working animals, and seeds, and for the control and eradication of locusts; (4) that the conflicts of claims over farm-lots and the status of probationary settlers be settled; and (5) the laying down of policies which will place the settlers on their own within the shortest possible time. The NLSA Koronadal-Allah Valley Project continued to be a “captainless ship” without direction and not able to command the ship. There were changes of men and personnel. But the government was not ready to give up on the program. However, things did not improve. It continued in the same directionless way. Four years later, Speaker Perez and other congressmen in a surprise visit reported a sorrier state of affairs: “After the town of Lagao, the Koronadal settlement stretched outward to the range of mountains dividing Koronadal from Allah. Speaker Perez often stopped the wagon to talk to settlers, inquire about their lives, their farming, their needs. The speaker found the settler’s homes in a mundane condition. No flower plants in the front yard, no vegetable garden in the back, no fruit trees, no papayas, no bamboo trellises for climbing legumes. The farmsteads were in a sorrier state. The cogon started viciously just a few meters from the settler’s house, smothering the little corn patch or the one-tenth hectare rice paddy. Even the NLSA hospital was closed when the party unexpectedly dropped in. The NLSA repair shop would have delighted a Chinese scrap-iron buyer: it was filled with junk tractors and trucks.

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The speaker found the famous dam built by the late Manager Paulino Santos. In 1940 it was irrigating 1,500 hectares of Koronadal land; when the speaker saw it last week, it was shallow, choked by entangling vines and weeds . . .” (Evening News Saturday Magazine, Vol. 5, No.23, June 10, 1950: 6-7) Presumably, the incessant problem on inefficiency, corruption, and wastage of government money led to the abolition of the NLSA and its incorporation into its successor agency, the Land Settlement Administration (LASEDECO) in 1950. The NLSA left a liability of nearly 2 million pesos (Lichauco 1956: 191). Under the NLSA, three major resettlement areas were opened in the country: Mallig Plains in Isabela, and two in Cotabato, namely Koronadal Valley made up of Lagao, Tupi, Marbel and Polomolok and Allah consisting of Banga, Norala and Surallah. Its successor agency, the LASEDECO was able to open Tacurong, Isulan, Bagumbayan, part of Buluan, Sultan sa Barongis and Ampatuan, all in Cotabato. The LASEDECO was later taken over by the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) in 1954 which was able to administer a total of 23 resettlement areas: nine in Mindanao; one in Palawan; five in the Visayas; one in Mindoro; seven in mainland Luzon (Rodil 1994: 39). There was also the special program of the government to counter the upsurge of the Huk rebellion, a brainchild of then Secretary of National Defense Ramon Magsaysay - the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR) which established settlement areas in Isabela, Quezon, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Maguindanao. The government resettlement programs caused an enthusiastic response from the Filipinos particularly those coming from the Visayas region. Moreover, settlers who came after the war found out that there was no welcoming group waiting for them at the seashores; no bunkhouses where they could temporarily stay while awaiting settlement; no ready farm lots available for distribution; and no government support for food and materials needed for house construction and other needs. The post-war settlers found that they had to fend for themselves. Buayan was still "carrying a pioneer-like atmosphere into most facets of its physical and cultural landscapes" until the 60s but it "can no longer be viewed as a limitless Eldorado." As if intrigues and corruption were not enough, Cotabato experienced a calamity of unbelievable proportion - drought, rats, and locusts - coming one after the other between the periods 1946 - 1954 which made life difficult for the people of the province trying to rehabilitate themselves from the ruins of the war. One account portrayed Cotabato in a state of calamity: “Ito naman ang masaclap dahil dumating ang grupo ng ilaga na katakotakot na ang palayan na kahit isang hectaria na nakatayo ang palay dumating ang kinabukasan ay ubos na walang matira kahit isa man lang punong maiwan. Ang mga ilaga ay walang patawad kahit mga talahib, damo, saging. Governor Udtog hiniling sa mga Philippine Marine Infantry upang tumolong sila ng rat campaign. At umabot kami sa taon 1953 ito taong ito ay pinakamaraming ilaga na halos ang mga balong na ginawa namin sa isang gabi doon kami naghahampas ng dahil ang mga pag-kain ay wala na kaya’t sa loob ng taong ito nahirapan kami. May dumating na suportang bigas

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 ngunit halos himdi makain ng baboy ngunit pinagtiisan namin. Sa 1954 dumating din ang mga balang (locust) na halos hindi mo makita and araw sa kapal kaya’t ang mga escuela sila rin ang sumaklolo ngunit wala kaming magawa kaya ang akala namin ay mamatay kaming lahat. . . Dahil hindi namin makaya ang mga balang kaya’t aeroplano ang ginagamit pangispray . . .” (Reverend Federico Domingo 1947) (The misery came in the form of an army of rats which can destroy one hectare of palay in just one night. the rats did not spare anything, even the cogon grass, weeds, bananas. Governor Udtog asked the Philippine Marine Infantry for help in the rat campaign. This was the situation until 1953. We made big holes in the ground where rats were thrown and killed. The time came when we have no more food to eat. The government sent rice but it was not even fit to be eaten by pigs. In 1954, the locusts came in a number so great that one could not see the sky when they fly in the air. Everybody helped, including school children but to no avail . . . Eventually, planes were used to spray the locusts with pesticides).

The rats and locusts were the major reasons for the migration of a lot of Koronadal - Allah valleys settlers, particularly from Banga and Norala, to Bukidnon (Vic Diaz, in an interview, 1996). Some informants blamed the wide cultivation in Upper Valley (Surallah, Banga, and Norala) by the National Development Corporation for the destruction of the ecosystem. Accordingly, the disappearance of the forests due to clearings made by individual settlers and the National Development Corporation led to the disappearance of wild animals (wild pigs, deer, snake, etc.) which feasted on the rats - a destruction of its natural check and balance system led to the proliferation of locusts and rats in Cotabato immediately after the war. The problem to farm produce brought by rats and locusts caused the inhabitants to tackle the problem as a community once more. The problem was too great and the survival of the community was at stake that differences were temporarily set aside and various sectors of the populace joined the local officials in the rat and locust campaign. The Army, particularly the Task Force Star , with the marine units also extended their hand in the campaign. The newly opened Philippine National Bank Dadiangas Branch helped alleviate the situation by giving out loans to farmers (Ramirez 1993: 224). Amidst the period of rehabilitation and reconstruction, the decade after the war also saw the inevitable transformation of the Municipal District of Buayan from a previous extension of the Magindanao world into a newcomers’ territory.

B. From Magindanao Domales to a Christian Territory One NLSA settler’s son who resided in General Santos City during the settlement years for 12 years and 43 years in Cotabato City as a teacher and later as a journalist, Patricio P. Diaz, gave us a glimpse of the vaunted pre-war pattern of Christian - Muslim accommodation and cooperation with the Muslims

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as big Brother and migrant settlers as the little brothers when he described the great Datu Salipada K. Pendatun: “With pride and fondness, the late Salipada K. Pendatun would talk about Muslim - Christian Brotherhood as a legacy which Muslim leaders of old, including himself, had nurtured in the Empire Province of Cotabato. The Brotherhood, with the Muslims as the Big Brothers, started with the coming of the first Christian settlers in 1913 . . . . He lived the Brotherhood he proudly and fondly talked about: - Married to a Christian until death. - Helped Christians grow in political leadership. - Had close association with Christian Missionaries . . . ” (Diaz 1995: iii) Moreover, despite the earlier accommodation with the indigenous inhabitants, the Christian ethos brought by the settlers into the valley moved them to cut the umbilical cord that tied the southern part of Cotabato to the Magindanao world redefining the place into a Christian territory. Twin moves made this possible. Symbolic of the transformation of the Sugod Buayan’s domales into a new community with a predominantly Christian ethos was the changing of the name Buayan to General Santos. Ironically, it was the Magindanao congressman of the Empire Province of Cotabato, Congressman Luminog Mangelen, who authored Act No. 1107, an act which changed the name Buayan Municipality into the “Municipality of General Santos” in June 1954. At almost the same time, the Ilonggos of Marbel campaigned for the separation of the southern part from the province of Cotabato. This materialized on June 18, 1966 with Republic Act No. 6393 creating the Province of South Cotabato (Ramirez 1993: 224). The changed power relationship hit hard the Muslim leaders, Pendatun included. In the election of 1967, lawyer Melquiades Sucaldito, his Ilonggo kumpare, opposed Congressman Salipada K. Pendatun. Salipada K. Pendatun won but was beaten 2 to 1 in the south, the present South Cotabato and Sarangani, a predominantly Christian section of the Empire Province (Diaz 1995: iii). The transformation of the previous extension of the Magindanao world into a Christian territory was facilitated by the settlers’ participation in the political life of the Municipal District of Buayan. This is significant because while before, the settlers’ world was confined within the exclusive world of the settlement district, the post war development brought forth the real mixing of different ethnic groups. This expanded interest on the side of the settlers opened additional avenues for land acquisition and political power. There was interest in the acquisition of land outside the settlement by entrepreneurial settlers and NLSA employees. Areas outside Lagao, the settlement district, became the focus of this emerging interest. One pioneer teacher of Dadiangas West Central Elementary School reported their survey of

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several mountains on foot, which her companions assured, could be theirs by simply applying for a land patent (Panadero, in an interview, 1996). An illustration of pre-occupation on land acquisition-mania pervading Buayan district, in particular, and Mindanao, in general, during the immediate post-war period is the following Resolution No. 71 passed by the Municipal Council of General Santos on June 20, 1955.

Resolution No. 71, Series of 1955 OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL EXCERPT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF GENERAL SANTOS MUNICIPALITY WHICH WAS HELD IN THE SESSION HALL, ON MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1955. -oo0ooPresent: Irineo L Santiago Mayor Lucio Velayo Councilor Felicisima B. Salomon Councilor Donato Quinto Councilor Jose B. Abaoag Councilor Gil Rivas Councilor Abelardo Gonzales Councilor

Absent: Agustin D. Narciso Vice Mayor Wenceslao L. Desvarro Mamerto G. Natividad

Councilor Councilor

RESOLUTION NO. 71 Whereas, in the beginning way back, sometimes in 1925, when the Olarte Hermanos of Makar, Municipal District of Buayan, Cotabato inspired by the noble purpose to have a town in Barrio Makar, at the beautiful and quiet spot bordering the Sarangani Bay sliced a certain portion from their Hacienda de Makar a parcel of land suitable for a town site, containing an area of about 120 hectares more or less to be proclaimed as the Makar Town Site, whereupon on December 28, 1928 by virtue of the recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, conceived from that noble idea and objective, Governor General Henry L. Stimson, then in his capacity as Governor General of the Philippines issued an Executive Proclamation No. 204 dated December 18, 1928, setting aside a certain parcel of land of the public domain, for the purpose of

BUAYAN TO GENERAL SANTOS: MORE THAN JUST PHYSICAL CHANGE laying out and delineating the Makar Town Site; and in that proclamation it was and still is stated; “xx situated in the Barrio of Makar, municipal district of Buayan, province of Cotabato, Island of Mindanao, bounded on the north by public land; on the east by public land; on the south by Ohta Development Co.; property claimed by Wahab (Moro) and Sarangani Bay and on the west by Sarangani Bay.” and by error in the tie line of said Proclamation No. 204, the same was amended by Proclamation No. 149, dated April 16, 1955. In that proclamation no claimant was or ever is mentioned to have any claim or interest inside the proclaimed area. WHEREAS, the purpose and objective of this proclamation is to subdivide this town site into small lots to accommodate as many people as is possible to acquire by his family from the Government. WHEREAS, in the process of the survey and relocation of the plan of the subdivision scheme of this Makar Town Site, the Chief Survey Party No. T9-G of Dadiangas, General Santos, Cotabato, in his letter to the Municipal Treasurer, dated June 11, 1955, reported that there are claimants, at present of Lot 1, 2, 3 and 4 Ts-50 of the Makar town Site, thus; . . . Whose alleged possessions ranges from 5 hectares to 15 hectares which is contrary to the aim and purpose conceived by the said Proclamations Nos. 204 and 149, and frustrate the purpose for which it was proclaimed; WHEREAS, these claimants imbued by the get-rich-quick idea to enrich themselves and thru false pretenses and combination with someone expert in the manipulation processes unscrupulously and thru secret schemes managed to slice and appropriate among themselves bigger areas of Lot 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Ts-50 of the Makar Town Site from 5 to 15 hectares for each and every one of them to the prejudice of the general public, and WHEREAS, it is the solemn duty of this body to watch over and to protect the public interest of the people against unscrupulous and unjust combinations and manipulations of the shrewd few. NOW, THEREFORE, on motion of Councilor Quinto duly seconded by Councilor Gonzales, the Council, RESOLVED, as it is hereby resolved, to request, as it is hereby respectfully requesting, the Director of Lands, Manila, to investigate these claimants and that whatever title, holding, claim or private surveys or rights that each and every one may have in this proclaimed area should be disapproved, cancelled, revoked and/or declared null and void and of no effect. RESOLVED FURTHER, that this Makar Town site Subdivision should be sold to the general public in the manner as provided in accordance with the tenor and spirit of said proclamation.

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 RESOLVED FURTHERMORE, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the President of the Philippines, for his information and appropriate action. RESOLVED FINALLY, that copies of this resolution be furnished the District Land Officer, Cotabato, Cotabato and the Chief Survey Party No. 19-G, Dadiangas, General Santos, Cotabato, for their information. Unanimously carried. I hereby certify to the correctness of the above-quoted resolution. A. G. HECHANOVA Municipal Secretary

Of the claimants mentioned in Resolution No. 71, one was a 1939 settler who earlier was able to acquire lands in Dadiangas by purchase; another one was an employee of the Bureau of Lands; while all the rest were either post-war Christian migrants or Magindanaos. The growing assertiveness of the Magindanaos in acquiring lands in Dadiangas in competition with the settlers after the war appears to be a confirmation of a 1952 observation that after the war the Muslims “woke up to the reality that they have to perfect their ownership to their lands” (Siat, in Millan 1952: 71-73). In Dadiangas it was an attempt to reassert the reality of the Magindanao domales. Unfortunately for the indigenous inhabitants, however, the socio-economic-cultural and political transformation of the area had taken a life of its own. Demographically, the 1948 census indicated that the entire province of Cotabato had the Muslims and the Lumads still in the majority. However, continuous migration radically changed the demographic configuration of Cotabato as shown by Table 3. TABLE 3 POPULATION SHIFTS IN COTABATO: 1918, 1939, 1970 Census SECTOR Christians

1918 5,110

%

1939

%

1970

2.97 59,909 20.17 1,076,485

% 67.19

Muslims

102,361 59.52

62,996 54.89

444,521

27.75

Lumads

43,067 25.04

54,265 18.28

107,032

6.68

______

________

_______

171,978

296,935

1,602,117

Source: Appendix f of B.R. Rodil, the Minoritization of the Indigenous Communities of Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago. Iligan City: Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao, Inc., 1994, p. 99. Table 3 shows that the unabated migration into the area led to the "politics of number" with the original inhabitants proving no match to the

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newcomers to the valley whose number jumped from 20.17% in 1939 to 67.19% in 1970 (Table 1). Besides losing out in population, they also lost out in political power resulting to the creation of minority groups in Mindanao with the newcomers taking over the island, economically, politically, and culturally. Nineteen forty seven election brought to the fore the competition for political power with the settlers edging out in the process the leaders coming from the native population. The death of Sarip Abedin left a void in leadership among the indigenous inhabitants. The list of government officials of General Santos City since 1940 shows that once having taken hold of political power, the Christian sector refused to lose its hold over it. Not surprisingly, this period also saw the coming of the “rich and the powerful” who came to establish “extensive plantations, pasture leases or cattle ranches, mining concerns, logging operations, and rattan concessions” (Gowing 1979: 47-48). The incessant arrival of Christian settlers to Dadiangas shores led to the “minoritization” of the Muslims and Lumads in South Cotabato. The majority minority situation with power relationship as an important variable left the native populace at a disadvantage. The situation for the B’laans was depressing as described by Arcenas : “Within this framework, the B’laans readily accepted the outsiders settling in their lands. In the early days, there was much land for the taking. The B’laans were content with their produce of corn, cassava, upland rice, camote, gabi, and root crops. Wild animals abound in the forests. . . .At present, it remains difficult for the B’laans to understand the justice in the trampling of their rights and virtual loss of freedom in their homeland. In general, they feel subordinated in economic and political matters. To a greater degree, the B’laans have been reduced to the lot of the mendicant rural poor and perhaps more prejudiced in relation to the impoverished Christian settlers. This has caused them to lose trust and confidence in the Kristiano.” (Arcenas 1974). Losing trust and confidence in the Kristianos is very clear in the experience of a Catholic priest who got stuck up in an out-of-way road with his B’laan companion nonchalantly informing the priest: “Ayaw kabalaka, father, dili mawala kanang imong sakyanan kay wala man Kristiyano dinhi.” (Homily by Fr. Willy Estrasa, Barangay Fatima, General Santos City, 1999). But despite the loss of trust and confidence, the B’laan natives remained friendly. As one informant said: “Murag wala manto’y kasamok tungod kay daghan pa man gud kaayo ug yuta. Kung gusto nimong makaangkon ug yuta, ang imong himoon mao ang limpyohan lamang kini” (Rogan, in an interview, 1995). (“There was no problem then because there were plenty of land. All that one had to do was clear it). The researcher, however, is inclined to believe that the Commonwealth government's failure to provide protection to the indigenous inhabitants during the period of migration resulted to this unfortunate situation after the war. The later land conflict in Cotabato could have been avoided if the Commonwealth government made good its verbal assurances to the indigenous peoples with regards to respect for their rights over their land. Moreover, with the exception of the "rich and powerful" from Manila and elsewhere who obtained land in

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Mindanao even without setting foot on it, an individual migrant- settler cannot be faulted for finding ways and means legally available to him during that period to obtain a piece of land. Moreover, Christian settlement also provided educational and other opportunities to inhabitants of the valley. Some members of the indigenous group were able to take advantage of these opportunities.

C. The Changing Pattern of Territorial Configuration The original inhabitants lost out to the newcomers because they were unable to stem the tide of the rapid influx of newcomers into the area. In 1936, there were only 3 municipalities of the Empire Province of Cotabato (Cotabato town, Dulawan, and Midsayap). By 1947, 10 additional municipalities were created, namely: Buayan, Buluan, Dinaig, Kabacan, Kiamba, Kidapawan, Koronadal, Nuling, Pagalungan, and Parang. The following year, Lebak became a regular municipality. In 1949, four more were added - Tumbao, Pikit, Mlang, and Glan (Gazo, in Millan 1952:205). By 1952, there were 19 municipalities in the Province of Cotabato. These were: Buayan, Buluan, Cotabato, Dinaig, Dulawan, Glan, Kabacan, Kiamba, Kidapawan, Koronadal, Lebak, Midsayap, Mlang, Nuling, Pagalungan, Parang, Pikit, Tacurong, and Tumbao. The continuous movement of people into the Empire Province of Cotabato made these changes inevitable. In Koronadal Valley, the Buayan District of Southern Koronadal Valley attained a full pledged municipality status in 1947. Before 1947 it was known as the Municipal District of Buayan, one of the five district divisions of the Empire Province of Cotabato together with Buluan, Glan, Koronadal, and Sebu which were placed under the Fourth District Division under a deputy governor whose official headquarter was established in Tacurong, then a part of the Municipal District of Buluan. Governor Udtog Matalam created the five district divisions under the immediate supervision of a deputy governor in order to deal with lawlessness that proliferated in the province immediately after the war (Government Report, 1956). What happened to the original four settlement areas after the war? Marbel, later called the Municipality of Koronadal, became the nucleus of the Province of South Cotabato established on June 18, 1966 under Republic Act No. 6393. It is now Koronadal City. Tupi earlier made a barrio of Koronadal became a municipality in 1953 under Executive Order No. 612. Polomolok a became a regular municipality on August 21, 1957 under Executive Order No. 264 separating it from the municipality of General Santos and Tupi (1980 Census). Symptomatic of the shift of preeminent position from Lagao to Dadiangas during the immediate post-war period was the transfer of the seat of government from the Muksin-Abedin residence in the old Buayan to Dadiangas. Through an allotment from the national government, a wooden municipal building was built in Dadiangas and inaugurated on April 30, 1950 costing P19,700.00 (Ramirez 1993: 224) Originally, the blueprint for the KoronadalAllah Valley Settlement Project called for the establishment of all government offices in what is today Balete, Lagao (Dulay, in an interview, 1996). However,

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Buayan's rapid transformation from an agricultural settlement into a regular local unit of government necessitated the modification of this particular blueprint for development. In January 1948, Buayan District became a full-pledged municipality as provided by Republic Act No. 82 with Ireneo Santiago as its first mayor. The new municipality had 60 barrios and sitios covering an area of approximately 1413.6 square kilometers with a population of 37,519 (Millan 1952: 69). Among Buayan’s known places then were Dadiangas, Lagao, Makar, Bula, Buayan (old), Klinan, Polomolok, Palkan, and Glan (its former mother unit), Malapatan, Malungon and Alabel. The last four places are now municipalities of Sarangani Province while Polomolok is now part of the Province of South Cotabato. Following is a very interesting description of Dadiangas of the former Buayan Municipality: "the seat of local government and center of the Buayan Townsite Sub-division, as approved by the NUPC, Dadiangas is a second class port, a boom-town-in-the-making, where Chinese capitalists are entrenched with about 98% control of the wholesale trade. Several inter-island vessels call regularly at this port every week. A type C pre-fabricated Weather Bureau Station and one of the six radio stations in the province are found in Dadiangas. A PRISCO branch store was established here two years ago. The Court of First Instance also holds session here at least twice a year. There is also an electric light plant, three cinemas, a couple of drug stores and two active labor and stevedoring unions. A P50,000 branch of a Manila automotive supply company and a branch of the San Miguel Brewery, as well as a branch office of the Compania Maritima are also located here. Its post office can boast of a volume of transaction second only to that of the provincial capital, Cotabato" (Siat in Millan 1952:71-72). Lagao, as the first site of the pre-war settlers, remained true as the preserver of the cultural tradition of the settlement days. This was seen in Lagao business remaining securely in the hands of Filipinos. Before the war, Lagao was the producer of peanuts and cotton. In the fifties, it was still an important center of trade, second only to Dadiangas. But significantly, retail trade in this locality is in the hands of Filipinos. The hospital, a Notre Dame High School, two drug stores and an ice plant were located here. But Dadiangas was different. Described in the early fifties as “a second class port, a boom-town-in-the-making” (Siat, 1952: 71-73), Dadiangas became the haven for later migrant settlers; the indigenous inhabitants lured by the available economic opportunities of the area; and foreign traders who were banned from the settlement areas during the days of General Santos. Peopled by later arrivals, Dadiangas became the focus in the creation of the entrepothinterland commercial structure. As an important port of call, its strategic location made it the natural administrative and commercial center of the entire Koronadal - Allah Valleys. Unlike the Middle and Northern Koronadal area, its strategic location provided it its varied economic activities besides agriculture

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which included among others cattle raising, coconut production, fishing, and trade. The old Buayan, the old center of political power, was the site of the domestic airport long before the advent of the city’s modern international airport in the nineties. Klinan, Palkan, and Polomolok served as the agricultural areas of the Buayan Municipality. Klinan raised corn, rice, and sugar cane. It is now known as Barangay Mabuhay, one of the 26 barangays of the city. Polomolok was the rice granary of Buayan. Palkan, which has a semi-temperate climate, was ideal for the raising of cabbages and potatoes. Palkan and Polomolok are both municipalities of the Province of South Cotabato today. Bula of the fifties was a developing fishing village. This fishing village developed a cultural tradition anchored on the celebration of a patron saint of fishermen. Today, it is one of the urban barangays of the city, the home of known residents whose prosperity was linked to the development of the city’s fishing industry in the eighties. The construction of the Makar Wharf started in 1953. Today, Makar is the site of the modern port facilities that served as the exit and entry point of people and goods of the SOCSKSARGEN (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos) area. The growth of the community is accompanied by the changing landscape. In the fifties, a new arrival docked either at the landing site of Compañia Maritima found along what is today Acharon Boulevard near General Santos Park. A narrow-densely populated area started to appear along the coastline near the Silway River. Houses were usually made of woods, nipa or cogon and bamboos. Roads were dirt roads with some gravel and sand. “Lubak-lubak” (bumpy road full of holes), was how one described the status of the road of the fifties. Since this particular informant used to buy softdrinks and beer by the truckload in Dadiangas for his store in Marbel, he didn’t expect then to return to Marbel the same day because the “roads were so bad that one expected a bust tire or a vehicle malfunctioning in the travel. So one had to expect for travel time to take more than a day.” It was the time when public buses were so few that the common mode of transportation was an ox-drawn cart. “I used to walk from Tupi to Dadiangas, a distance of thirty six kilometers,” said a daughter of an NLSA employee assigned in Tupi. The latter half of the 50’s saw the start of road asphalting in major throughfares of Dadiangas and the national highways connecting the municipality to the neighboring places. Moreover, the previous national highway of pre-war years, which passed through Klinan 6 and Mabuhay in going to Marbel, was changed following the Alunan Highway from Makar to Marbel. The business sectors which previously converged near the General Santos Park started to move into the major thoroughfare in what is Pioneer Avenue today (Villano, in an interview, 1995). In June 1954, Buayan Municipality was renamed General Santos by virtue of Act No. 1107. Representative Luminog Mangelen of the Province of Cotabato responded to the desire of the people to hold in posterity its founder's name. The 60s asphalted General Santos Municipality’s poblacion area, Dadiangas. More and bigger commercial buildings sprung up. The establishment of bigger and more aesthetic-looking buildings usually followed a

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fire gutting several commercial buildings. The pace and tempo of life in the poblacion area, the current Pioneer Avenue, was livelier than in other parts of the municipality. The poblacion was, and still is, the center of religious activities with the Christian churches of different denominations located in one block facing the public plaza along Roxas East, later renamed Pendatun Avenue. The Catholic Church of Dadiangas was built at the other side of the public plaza along Roxas West. Two mosques were built in Dadiangas, both along the coasts. The municipal hall was constructed at the heart of the plaza. The old commercial district was the area facing Compañia Maritima. Starting the 50s more commercial establishments spuing up along Pioneer Avenue. The need for better port facilities was realized with the opening of Makar Wharf in 1959. The Silway public market proved too small for the burgeoning population of Dadiangas so a new public market was built in front of Lion’s Beach along Acharon Avenue. The ecological changes and development of the Municipality of General Santos from the forties until it became a city in 1967 could best be seen in the ensuing discussion of the political development from 1945-1967. The administration of Mayor Antonio C. Acharon as the last municipal mayor and its first city mayor, is not included in this chapter but will be discussed in Chapter VI.

D. Political Development Three identifiable stages characterized the pre-1967 political leadership: first, the dominance by the indigenous leadership before the war; second, a leadership sharing in Buayan district between General Paulino Santos representing the Christian settlers and Sarip Abedin representing the original inhabitants starting 1939 until 1942; and third, the political dominance by the Christian group after the war. The pre-war years was characterized by Muslim dominance in political affairs. This dominance had Islam as its “ideological cohesion and a basis for unity” and framework. Cotabato has traditionally been identified with the Sultanates of Maguindanao, Buayan, and Kabuntalan. But in South Cotabato a Sultanate of Koronadal was known to have existed. According to reports, about the middle of the 19th century, two sons of Sultan sa Maguindanao, with a retinue of Muslim followers from the north came to settle in the place called Talik, which is two kilometers north of the present poblacion of Koronadal. They formed a Sultanate of Koronadal and built a fortress but Datu Ali from Salunayan destroyed this about the first decade of the twentieth century. The last ruling Sultan of Koronadal was Sultan Sambuto (Hunt 1987: 136). The debacle of the Sultan sa Talic in the hands of Datu Ali of the Sultanate of Buayan left his followers in Koronadal Valley without a central authority leaving the Muslim leadership in the hands of the datus. There were three kinds of datus in Moro society: datus-in-fact, datus-in-name, and royal datus. “Datus-in-fact actually presided over a group of followers and/or controlled a given territory. Datus-in-name were as a courtesy called datus because they were born into aristocratic families, while in reality they commanded no following and had no power. Since all aristocratic families were generally thought of as descended from the first Sultans of Sulu and

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

Maguindanao, in a sense all datus were “royal datus,” except those who attained their status by their own personal skills” (Gowing 1979: 47-48). The leader of Buayan district in 1939 was Sarip Abedin, introduced in the earlier chapter. To recap, Datu Sarip Zainal Abedin was born in Cotabato town. His father was a foreigner, either Arab or an Egyptian, while his mother was a Magindanao. He later on migrated to Buayan where he eventually married Aminah Muksin, a daughter of Sarip Muksin, a reknowned datu who traced his descent with the Datu sa Buayan. Following the categorization made by Gowing, Sarip Abedin was both a datu-in-fact and a royal datu. The 1939 settlers got to know Sarip Abedin as the native chief or presidente of the Municipal District of Glan which included Buayan. His cooperation facilitated the smooth settlement process in Buayan. Even settlers acknowledged the cooperation and peaceful accommodation accorded them by the natives under the leadership of Sarip Abedin. When Buayan was separated from Glan with its creation as the Municipal District of Buayan in 1940, Governor Jose Cui of Cotabato appointed Abedin first mayor of Buayan. However, on January 20, 1942 before the arrival of the Japanese forces, Abedin was killed presumably due to his decision to support General Santos' move to “play ball” with the Japanese besides other personal reasons. He was buried in his private land at Baluan that still exists today. (Banguiran, in an undergraduate thesis, 1987) As mentioned earlier, the Lagao settlement area was within the jurisdiction of the Municipal District of Buayan but administered separately by the National Land Settlement Administration. Thus, two separate political entities existed in Buayan - one, the Municipal District of Buayan under the leadership of Sarip Abedin whose jurisdiction covered the areas outside the settlement districts, and the other, the settlement districts administered by the NLSA. Early on, a pact of cooperation and accommodation was established. But the NLSA- administered territory, infused by government funds provided under Commonwealth Act No. 441, had distinct advantages over the Municipal District of Buayan: it had the infrastructure for modern living like hospital, irrigation, buildings, modern farming machineries, etc. No doubt this led to the Christian settlers’ perception that progress in the area only came with the coming of settlers into the valley (See illustration below of farm machineries in Koronadal, ca. 1940)

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Fig. 10. Farm machineries during the NLSA days The Japanese period witnessed the disappearance of the two titans of Buayan. Sarip Abedin was already dead when the Japanese arrived. General Santos won’t be able to survive the Japanese period but even before he departed from the valley on orders of the Japanese command, his preoccupation with his other functions under the Second Philippine Republic left the settlement in the hands of other officials. Life went on in Koronadal valley but the lack of the guiding hand of its founder led to a crack in the relationship of the NLSA with the settlers themselves. This represented the lowest point of community spirit. The pre-1960 period of recovery were under the direction of the elite of leaders coming from the pool of Christian settlers and earlier Christian migrants who alternated in leading after having wrested control of Buayan from the traditional leaders. Each leader contributed its own share to the development of the area. A brief profile of the post-war leaders before General Santos became a city in 1967 is herein presented for better illustration of the changes and development in the Municipality of General Santos. 1. Ireneo Santiago, Period of Reconstruction, 1946 - 1955 Ireneo L Santiago was from San Fernando, Pampanga. With the recruitment of personnel for the NLSA’s Koronadal project, Ireneo was recruited as one of its technical staff working as a staff nurse of the NLSA hospital. In 1946, his inherent advantage as the campaign manager of President Roxas in Koronadal Valley led to his appointment as mayor of the Municipal District of Buayan. His leadership was confirmed in the election of November 1947 where he ran and won as the standard bearer of the Liberal Party. He was reelected four years later making him one of the only two mayors who had the distinction of being reelected into the position of mayor in successive terms. Mayor Santiago’s term was a period of post-war rehabilitation and reconstruction. A break with the traditional hold of the NLSA was seen from the

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lifting of the ban for the Chinese to operate business in Buayan. Lagao business remained securely in the hands of Filipinos but Dadiangas, the postwar commercial area was 98% Chinese - controlled in a 1952 report. The municipal government on August 17, 1948 formally accepted the Chinese. Consul Mih of the Republic of China came over for a visit afterwards (Ramirez 1993). The Santiago administration was credited for the establishment of the basic institutions and infrastructures like the wharf, the municipal building costing P19, 700.00, public school buildings, and a constabulary barracks. One of the only two mayors known to win a re-election bid, this popular mayor was not able to withstand the onslaught of the Nacionalista Party, the political party of a very popular president - President Magsaysay, under whose banner his former vice-mayor ran and won in the 1954 election. 2. Pedro Acharon, the Candidate of the Kabus, 1955-1959 Mayor Pedro Acharon, dubbed the candidate of the kabus (poor), came to Dadiangas twelve years earlier than the 1939 settlers. He joined the “sakada system” and within that program, he worked in the cattle ranch owned by Don Pepe Olarte. Later, he worked in the store owned by the Japanese Kuruda, the owner of the only store in Dadiangas when the 1939 settlers came. As an early migrant, he was able to lay claim over a vast area near Silway River in Dadiangas. He allowed later arrivals who were not able to get land to stay in the Silway area, creating a cadre of loyal followers strongly attached to the Acharons by a strong utang na loob syndrome. His marriage to the family of another earlier migrant bolstered his political stock. He entered politics in 1947 running for the position of vice mayor. After playing second fiddle to Mayor Santiago for ten years, Acharon challenged Santiago in the 1955 election propelled by the political party of the popular President Magsaysay. The Acharon administration concerned itself with the barrio programs of President Magsaysay. Through the PACD (Presidential Assistance for Community Development), feeder roads connecting the remote barrios to the national highways were built. Artesian wells were established to solve the problem of water supply among the rural folks. According to a retired PACD worker who was then assigned in Lagao and Dadiangas, they were able to reduce the P10, 000.00 budget per project to only P3,000.00 per project because labor was provided by the people - a true government-community cooperation (Villano, in an interview, 1997). Likewise, he finished the projects started by Mayor Santiago particularly Makar Wharf which was declared an open port of entry in 1959 by virtue of Resolution No. 8. The Buayan airport was also rehabilitated from the ruins of the war during his term (Banguiran 1987). The pre-war pattern of producing low rainfall high-valued crops and livestock in Buayan was continued after the war. Thus, while not attractive to ordinary farmers who preferred the production of traditional crops like rice and corn, Buayan’s contribution was as the experimental station for high-yielding but non-traditional crops. At the close of the decade, the pre-war cotton production of KoronadalAllah valleys was revived by the multi-million Philippine Cotton Development Corporation owned by the controversial Harry Stonehill complementing the cotton production done by the National Development Corporation. Likewise,

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livestock production picked up although it “was never able to return to its prewar level” . The sixties saw Southern Mindanao experiencing a rapid stride with a 7.4 per cent growth rate between the periods 1948-1960 bypassing the national growth rate by more than 4 per cent (Table 4). Following the regional trend, the sixties brought the municipality towards further growth and development. At the helm of government after Mayor Pedro Acharon was a doctor. As shown by the experience of Ireneo Santiago, Buayan's first elected mayor, and Dr. Sergio Morales, South Cotabato's first governor, medical personnel, strengthened by his service-oriented role in the community possessed inherent advantage in getting electoral victory. Table 4 Population Size Growth of Some Regions of Mindanao and Sulu, 1903 - 1980 _______________________________________________________ Census Northern Southern Central RP Year Mindanao Mindanao Mindanao Growth Rate ______________________________________________________ A. Size 1903 266,530 138,583 117,045 2.0 1918 358,970 206,430 220,650 2.1 1939 706,367 450,805 484,148 2.1 1948 922,167 577,663 680,727 2.9 1960 1,297,345 1,352,898 1, 383,290 3.1 1970 1,952,735 2,200,726 1,941,457 2.8 1975 2,314,205 2,714,4558 2,070,349 2.7 1980 2,758,985 3,346,803 2,270,349 2.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------B. Growth Rates 1903-18 3.1 2.7 4.3 2.0 1918-39 3.3 3.8 3.8 2.1 1939-48 3.0 2.8 3.9 2.5 1948-60 2.9 7.4 8.2 3.0 1960-70 4.2 5.0 3.5 2.9 1970-75 3.5 4.3 1.3 2.7 1975-80 3.6 4.3 1.9 2.6 ______________________________________________________ Source: Michael A. Castillo, “The Demography of Mindanao,” Mindanao: Land of Unfulfilled Promise ( Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1992), p. 34.

3. Dr. Jorge Royeca, the Doctor, 1960-1964 Dr. Jorge Royeca, a native of Tayog, Pangasinan finished his medical course in the College of Medicine of the University of the Philippines in 1935. He joined

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the NLSA in 1939 serving as a hospital director of the NLSA hospital in Lagao. His civic involvement started with his founding of the Jaycees General Santos where Dr. Royeca was the Charter President. He also became a Charter Grand Knight of Columbus Council 4639, General Santos Municipality (Ramirez 1993). When Dr. Royeca entered politics in 1959 as a mayoralty candidate under the banner of the Liberal Party, he was already known for his serviceoriented role in the community both as a civic leader and as a doctor. Thus, while the previous mayors belonged to the party of the President of the Philippines, Dr. Royeca’s election did not follow the national trend. True to his profession, Dr. Royeca emphasized cleanliness, beautification and health services. During his administration, General Santos Municipality was declared the cleanest town in the province of Cotabato. Antilittering law was strictly implemented, stray animals were impounded, trees were planted along the national highway, and the continuous beautification of parks and the public plaza was made. Worth mentioning was the successful relocation of the squatters found along the beaches into Alunan Street. The increase in population necessitated the expansion of services. The Emergency Hospital was established in Lagao. Additional public elementary schools were established in the eastern and northern parts of Dadiangas to complement the two existing public elementaty schools in Dadiangas. In all these undertakings, the active participation of the various civic, religious and business sectors was noticeable. In fact, the conscious effort of promoting the “boom-town Dadiangas” image was an idea hatched by the private and the business sector of the community. The tapping of the agri-industrial potential of the municipality by capitalists and giant corporations reached a high point in the 60s. Thus, a cassava plantation at Conel was established in 1961 by UDAGRI. By 1964 the General Milling Company was producing flour for domestic consumption. DOLE Philippines was established. Next to the Chinese, most informants as instrumental for the area’s rapid stride considered the multinational corporations in the 60s. The 1964 election saw once more the defeat of a reelectionist mayor. Dr. Royeca, however, would later bounce back to political life as a member of the municipal council in the late seventies and as an assemblyman of Region XI in the early eighties. 4. Lucio Velayo, the Labor Leader, 1964-1967 Dr. Royeca, despite his sterling performance while in office proved no match to a labor leader in the 1964 election. In a migrant community where status stratification was not clearly defined, neither wealth nor high education was considered the primary consideration in election. It is, therefore, not surprising that a former jeepney driver and insurance agent turned labor leader and businessman became mayor in 1964. Mayor Lucio Velayo’s term saw the establishment of the following projects: the first two public secondary schools: one in Bula and the other in Conel; the establishment of the fire department at the core of the municipality; the concretization of the Philippine National Bank; and the establishment of deep wells in different barangays particularly in Klinan, Conel, and Tinagakan. A sister company of Dole Philippines, the Standard Fruits Company

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(STANFILCO) was established in Polomolok in 1963. On May 1, 1967, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company was inaugurated in the municipality. The administration of Mayor Velayo also saw rapid stride in the field of media communication with the publication of the first local newspaper, the Southern Review, and the establishment of the first radio station, DXGS. Economic growth gained a very significant leap during Mayor Velayo's term. Multi-million agri-based corporations such as Dole-Philippines, General Milling Corporation and UDAGRI begun operating in the area. This time, the municipality qualified as a fourth class city prompting Congressman Salipada Pendatun to file House Bill 5862 converting General Santos Municipality into a city and renaming it Rajah Buayan City. Unfortunately, the residents in a plebescite called for the purpose rejected this bill. The failure of the bill converting the General Santos Municipality into a city, however, occurred not in the halls of Congress but in the hollowed halls of the Supreme Court in recognition of the people's "rejection" of their cityhood. Why Reject Cityhood? When Buayan became a full pledged municipality in 1947, it was a fourth class municipality. By 1965, its annual income had reached 600,000 pesos qualifying it for a status of fourth-class city. House Bill 5862 was subsequently passed converting the municipality into Rajah Buayan City. However, opposition to its city hood came. Its city hood became the object of contention between two opposing forces. One group, mostly the socalled pioneering settlers, campaigned for the rejection of city hood. They deeply felt the loss of the name General Santos. To them, the name General Santos had emotional connotation. To this group, the name symbolized everything that the settlement stood for - hope for a better future, land for the landless, the name of a beloved founder, etc. The other group, on the other hand, couldn’t understand the reason for the strong opposition. But their argument was unassailable: cityhood is the gateway to further progress. What’s in a name anyway? The campaign of both sides stretched until plebiscite day with both sides making last-minute campaign near the plebiscite sites. The “yes” garnered 4,422 votes outvoting the 3,066 “no” votes. But opposition remained strong. The first elected mayor of General Santos municipality, Ireneo Santiago, and Eligio Leyva brought the case before the Supreme Court. Their argument was that the 4,422 votes did not constitute the majority of the qualified voters that numbered about 15,727 out of which only 7,488 voted. The Supreme Court that declared and sustained this argument by the petitioners: “the people had rejected the cityhood.” The Supreme Court's decision denied Mayor Lucio Velayo the honor to be called the first city mayor. That distinction belonged to his successor - Mayor Antonio C. Acharon, former Mayor Pedro Acharon's son.

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Chapter VI GENERAL SANTOS CITY: ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE 21ST CENTURY

This final chapter puts an end to the story of General Santos City from a pioneering community to one of the urbanized cities of the Philippines today. The previous chapter narrates its saga after the war until the community attained a cityhood status in 1967. Since then, transformation has been so rapid that within a span of less than three decades, tremendous changes and development have taken place. These changes: socio-cultural, economic, physical and political emphasize a community which had the rare opportunity of directing and shaping its own destiny. Also discussed in this chapter are the issues and challenges, foremost of which is the spate of bombings, kidnappings, and mysterious fires which destroyed several malls facing General Santos City at the turn of the 21st millennium which, if not given attention, could derail its development. Moreover, such evaluative study should at best be considered exploratory and could be the subject of a more in-depth study in future researches.

A. From a "City of Pedicabs" to a Highly Urbanized City The sixties marks a major watershed in the transformation of the hitherto settlement area into a highly industrialized city of Southern Philippines. The decade covers three administrations, the Royeca, Velayo and Acharon administrations. Informants attributed three factors as instrumental in this tranformation - the Chinese, the multinational corporations, and the growth of the area's fishing industry. Ramirez (1994) mentioned the Chinese as a vital part of the immediate post-war rehabilitation and recovery. It should be recalled that one of the guidelines established by the late General Santos for the settlement was the banning of the Chinese in the settlement areas. Thus, the first stage represents Buayan, later General Santos municipality, making full use of its strategic location and port facilities to be an important center of trade for the rich Koronadal and Allah Valleys of Cotabato. In this phase of Buayan’s growth, the Chinese played a major role. The next stage was the entrance of big capitalists like DolePhil into the area. This stage made use of Koronadal Valley’s agricultural potential. Thus, the UDAGRI established a cassava plantation at Conel in 1961. Flour was produced by the General Milling company in 1964. DOLE Philippines and its sister company, the Standard Fruits Company (STANFILCO) were also established this decade. On May 1, 1967, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company was inaugurated. A fire department; the opening of various elementary and secondary schools; the establishment of local newspapers and a radio station; and an annual income of 600,000 pesos (1964) all contributed to the foundation for cityhood status which materialized in 1967.

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Although drier than other parts of the SOCSARGEN area and having a soil quality considered the worst in the country, the farmers of the area showed that with proper cultivation and irrigation, it is possible to produce and process high value crops such as mangoes, jackfruit, durian and other fruits, hardwood trees, baby corn, mushrooms, loofah and other vegetables, and medicinal plants. Its 1988 production made the area the country’s top corn producer. In 1989, the city displaced Pangasinan as the country’s top producer of cotton (Philippine Graphic, December 3, 1990: 3). The third and perhaps most important factor is the phenomenal rise of its fishing industry which gave the city the name The Tuna Capital of the Philippines.

The Making of the Tuna Capital of the Philippines General Santos City faces Sarangani Bay that has access to Moro Gulf and Celebes Sea, a rich source of commercial fish yielding its prime catch, the yellow fin making General Santos City the Tuna Capital of the Philippiines. Local commercial fishing firms number 34 commercial deep sea fishing with a combined fleet of over 600 commercial fishing vessels. Complementary to this are five canning plants which exported 19,332 metric tons of canned tuna valued at US30.8 Million in 1992. As mentioned in the earlier chapter, the area was the domales area of the Muslims from other parts of the Koronadal-Allah Valley to picnic and to fish during the pre-1939 days. When the Christian migrants came the fishermen from among them fished in Sarangani Bay using the same methods they learned in their home places of origin. Thus, the Leyteños and Boholanos brought with them the bansig (bagnet), and sensoro (ringnet). The Ilongos and Cebuanos, on the other hand, brought the baling or beach seine (Releva, 1998:2). With increasing demand for fish spawned by the increase in population, the fifties and sixties brought the motorized fishing into the area resulting to the increase of catch from 150-300 kilograms per fishing trip. This further improved with the use of a pumpboat which could carry a load of 800 to 1,000 kilograms (Business Resource Center, 1994: 2-34). The advancement of fishing technology in the sixties to the present owe much to innovative individuals who took risks in trying out new creative ideas in catching fish. Foremost among them is Dominico Congson. He perfected a method called unay described in the following manner: A motorized launch (locally called "lantsa" derived from the Spanish word lancha carried the net, powered by inboard

engines. Another motorized skiff boat is used to pull away the "payao" or fish aggregating device from the periphery of the net; then a light boat which is a carrier of incandescent lamp powered by a mounted generator used to attract the school of fish; the needed net for this purpose is three times the size of the "sensoro"; while a service boat with bigger ice boxes is used to transport fish to the seashore for marketing, while the "sampana" ( a non-motorized banca with outriggers carrying the net to the fishing area) carried the nets and towed by motorized bancas (BRC as quoted by Releva: 14).

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Among the fishing vessels, the biggest is called unay or mother boat. This is equipped with big fishing nets and "payao." A "payao" is a heavy object made of steel which serves as fish sanctuary in the high seas. The new method was considered a big leap forward in fishing industry. It saved time and effort in hauling the net on and off the sampana (a non-motorized banca with outriggers carrying the net to the fishing area) after each operation. An average unay or purse seine has a capacity of 30 tons of fish with more or less 40 payao and about 33 workers. The nineties brought another headway to fishing technology. As explained by the Business Resource Center (1994): "A super seiner is a large, highly sophisticated fishing vessels with communications equipment, built-in cold storage and brining facilities on board." The use of a super seiner enabled big fishermen of General Santos City to construct large carriers with at least 300 metric tons capacities. Further, the Japanese demand for "sashimi" graded tuna in the mid-seventies served as further impetus in the growth of fishing industry (Vice Mayor Flor Congson, in an interview). Thus, the General Santos City export book reflected an amount of $7.2 million worth of frozen chilled tuna in its business transaction with foreign buyers, particularly the Japanese. Today, General Santos city is the second port in the Philippines next to Navotas in terms of fish landings but the leading port for high valued fish such as tuna. Complementary to this are the five fish canning plants which exported 19, 332 metric tons of canned tuna valued at US $ 30.8 million in 1992 (Gateway to Opportunity, 1992: 14). Significant in any area development is the support mechanism for growth like infrastructure, roads, buildings, and the like. By the seventies, the city generally lagged behind in terms of infrastructure development as is true with all new cities. By then, General Santos City was described by a 1973 government report as a “city of pedicabs” aptly describing a young city in a rustic setting: “General Santos is a city of pedicabs. They roar on wide Pioneer Avenue the whole day through. To residents of this growing metropolis, the noisy vehicles provide the most convenient means of transportation, even as they wait for the roads to become better and smoother. Except those around the city, the roads to Marbel, the capital of South Cotabato, and those going further north are rough. The people have to wait for the development of those roads before acquiring automobiles.” The fast infrastructure development came after the EDSA. These include a new international airport, a container port, an agro-processing center, a world-class fish port, and massive road building. The US $50 million airport which started operating in the middle of 1996 is serviced by Airbus 300 and 747 jets capable of making international destinations. To complement the cargo handling capacity of the airport, the United States invested some 23 million dollars for the improvement of Makar Wharf (Non and Bidad, 1997: 28). Massive road building as part of the Mindanao Growth Plan resulted to the city's interconnection with the rest of Mindanao. One major artery (GSCKoronadal-Cotabato City National Highway) links the city with South Cotabato,

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Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and the cities of Koronadal and Cotabato. The GSC-Digos-Davao National Highway links the area with Davao del Sur, Davao City, and northern Mindanao passing through Agusan, Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City, and Marawi City. A third major road is the GSC-Maitum road which brings in the flow of goods and people from and to Sarangani Province. Another way of looking at the physical growth of the city was the term “bayan ng alikabok” which newcomers to the place still used in the 70s, the 1970 version of "Dust-diangas" of the forties. This is so since while the major thoroughfares from the Central Business District in Pioneer Avenue to the national highway are asphalted, most of the side streets even in the poblacion area remained unasphalted and cogonal. By the nineties, the city was able to shed off its image as a “city of dust” with the massive road development in South Cotabato-General Santos area in accordance with the Mindanao Growth Plan and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Philippine Aid Plan (PAP). Improvement of road networks undeniably contributed to the growth of the community. It is this network which is responsible for the bringing of products of the fertile production areas to the market or processing center found in General Santos City. “Corn from Tampakan, palay from Norala, copra from Kiamba, coffee from Maitum, cabbages from Palkan, and fruits from Tupi all find their way to General Santos City for further processing or final use.” Improvement of road networks resulted to the increase of the total number of registered vehicles in the city by at least 25% in 1990-91 and by 51% in 1991-92 (BRC Newsletter, MarchApril 1994: 4). The city is accessible by land, air and water transportation. By land, it could be reached through four (4) major road networks. Through the road networks, agricultural products from the hinterlands of the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and the southern part of Davao del Sur could be transported via General Santos City to their destinations. The road networks radiating from the city make it accessible from the whole of Mindanao as well as from Manila via the Maharlika Highway. The new international airport which started in operation in 1996 could meet the air traffic needs of the area for the next ten years or more. Larger and more economical carriers such as Boeing B 747 and Airbus A-300 is capable of meeting the increasing demands for tuna and pineapple, particularly those to be delivered to Japan and USA. As for its sea travel, the port of General Santos City is found in Makar. Foreign and domestic vessels have generally been steadily increasing. Continuing this fast pace of growth, General Santos City by the nineties was considered the fastest-growing city outside Manila joining the ranks of highly urbanized cities in the country "outpacing older cities like Baguio, Iligan and Cotabato" with an intercensal growth rate of 5.3 per cent considered "one of the highest in the country" (See Table 4). The massive infrastructure development of the city is closely linked to the birth of SOCSARGEN as a growth area which started with the local government submitting to the United States Secretary of State, George Schultz, a plan to establish the General Santos-South Cotabato Agro-Industrial Development Center under the Philippine Aid Plan or PAP. Thus, together with four other demonstration projects (CALABARSON, Panay, Samar and the Iligan-Cagayan de Oro Growth Corridor) funds were allocated during the 1988 PAP pledging

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session in Tokyo. Sarangani was added later when it was declared a separate province in 1992. Table 5 POPULATION AND GROWTH RATE OF SELECTED CITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES (1990) CITY

POPULATION

AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (%)

Davao City 850, 000 3.4 Zamboanga City 444, 000 2.6 Bacolod City 364, 000 3.3 Cagayan de Oro City 340, 000 4.1 General Santos City 250, 000 5.3 Iligan City 227, 000 3.1 Baguio City 183, 000 4.4 Cotabato City 127, 000 4.2 _______________________________________________________ Source: BRC Newsletter (General Santos City: Business Resource Center, Notre Dame of Dadiangas College, March-April, 1992), p. 4. SOCSARGEN has the distinction of being first or second in the production of at least 8 commodities. It is the largest producer of corn, accounting for about 23% of the total Philippine yearly production. It is number one in cotton production contributing 75% of the Philippine output. It accounts for 20% of the total rice production. It produces 5% of the country’s coconuts and copra and 40% of the nation’s pineapple. SOCSARGEN is also the second largest livestock producer in the Philippines with a sustainable annual production base of over 250,000 hogs and 50,000 heads of cattle. Next to Navotas, SOCSARGEN is the second in the country in fisheries but first in high value fish like sashimi grade tuna producing over 7, 000 metric tons yearly (South Cotabato Sarangani General Santos City Growth Plan). The Allah and Koronadal Valleys, the bulk of which belong to South Cotabato province, form the rice granary of Mindanao. Located in a typhoon-free belt with bountiful rivers, lakes and streams, South Cotabato’s fields are serviced by four functional irrigation systems benefiting 16, 359 hectares and an additional 19 communal irrigation systems servicing an additional area of 4, 588 hectares. South Cotabato is also rich in natural resources. Proof to this is the seismic oil surveys made in the area by Petro-Canada in cooperation with the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and the P20 million loan agreement forged between the Technology and Resource Center (TLRC) and South Cotabatobased Kematu Mills Inc. to operate Southeast Asia’s first chemical-free gold processing plant. The gold plant which is 100% Filipino but with technology transfer to be undertaken by Alif Gold, an Indian firm based in Singapore, is located on a three-hectare lot at the foot of Mt. Kematu in the Municipality of T’boli, South Cotabato (The Philippine Starweek, July 24, 1994). Sarangani Province constitutes the coastal areas of SOCSARGEN composed of the six municipalities of Maitum, Kiamba, Maasim, Alabel, Malapatan and Glan. Sarangani Province’s natural orientation is fishing and

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coconut production. Both Sarangani Province and General Santos City face Sarangani Bay that has access to the Moro Gulf and Celebes Sea, a rich source of commercial fish. This is particularly significant since at a ministerial meeting of ASEAN countries held on March 26, 1994, the Philippines - with its expertise and trained manpower - was identified as the leader in fisheries development. The EAGA thus provides the incentive for the development of Sarangani Province based on its fishery potential. Besides fishery, Sarangani possesses a great potential in eco-tourism. The American Mike Kingury has started operating a dive town in Maasim, Sarangani which he considers the “best dive site” for scuba aficionados and for big-fish sportsmen. Now, with the advocacy of the General Santos City’s gateway concept as part of the growth corridor of SOCSARGEN, the economic resources and potentials of this growth corridor define its comparative advantages as a development area. General Santos City’s greatest strength is its strategic location at the southern tip of the Philippines giving it ready access to four export markets: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Its accessibility from all points of the country and even from other countries by land, air and water transportation gives the city a comparative advantage in the growth corridor. Due to its strategic location, the city is the gateway of SOCSARGEN to sea lanes. An average of 800 domestic and foreign ships drop anchor at the Makar Wharf annually with an average of 110,000 passengers either embarking or disembarking at Makar every year (Malaya, July 9, 1993: 7). Indeed, from a “city of pedicabs” of the 70s, the city has changed tremendously through the years with the popular tricycle ranking only third with a 19% share while utility vehicles are most numerous with a 31% share as of 1992. Today, competing for passengers are more than 100 units of air-conditioned taxis and L-300 vans cruising the city roads and the outlying municipalities of the previous “bayan ng alikabok”. Cityhood changed the landscape, particularly the commercial district. The asphalting and concreting of roads, the construction of buildings made of concrete materials, the growing number of bazaars, theaters, eateries, stores and other business establishments dotting major boulevards and highways all contributed to the modernization of the place. The growing attractiveness of the place as a venue for meetings and seminars is shown by the mushrooming of hotels and beachresorts. By the nineties, the utilitarian and functional design of buildings gave way to aesthetic-looking designs. From two-story buildings, highrise buildings took over. Department stores gave way to shopping complexes complete with its own wet market, hardware, dry goods, fast food, appliance and theater sections. B. Political Changes The story of the growth of this “boomtown” is also the story of the changing of the frontier made possible by the growth of migrant communities. From these migrant communities sprung the present provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani, the City of General Santos, and with the inclusion of Sultan Kudarat, the term SOCSARGEN Growth Area became the SOCSKSARGEN area. At this point, a discussion of the political development is in order. Twenty years after the first election, the second and third generations of migrant settlers to Southern Koronadal came of age. They are called in this paper as the Mindanaons since the land of their birth was no longer Visayas or Luzon but Mindanao. Or, even if their birthplaces were Luzon and Visayas but

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having grown up in General Santos since the early age, they no longer respond to the same memories of the home provinces of their parents. Born and bred in Mindanao, they are infused with the unique socio-cultural environment of their places of birth in Mindanao. The mayors from 1967 until the present period may be broadly considered as the Mindanaons. Following is a brief account of the various administrations from 1967 until 1995. Mayor Antonio C. Acharon, 1967-1986 Antonio C. Acharon, the son of Mayor Pedro Acharon, was born in Dadiangas in 1932. He studied at the Dadiangas Primary School, now the Dadiangas West Central Elementary School, but graduated his elementary education in Polomolok. The young Toning studied in various colleges which include Southern Island Colleges in Dadiangas, a college in Davao and the University of Santo Tomas in Manila but before he could finish schooling, politics beckoned. Mayor Toning’s political star started in 1951 with his election in the barrio level. He rose through the ranks as a barrio captain of Labangal in 1960. He was elected vice mayor in 1964. With the passage of Republic Act 5412 transforming the Municipality of General Santos into a city, Antonio Acharon, in effect, became its last municipal mayor and its first city mayor when he defeated the reelectionist Mayor Velayo. His was the longest term of office as mayor spanning 18 years from 1968 until his relief by President Corazon Aquino in 1986. Mayor Acharon’s greatest political strength was summed up by the policy intoned by his administration: “Una sa lahat ay tao.” Just like his father before him, the poor people were given preference by his administration. His house was said to be open for anybody in need even at the middle of the night. This populist mayor maintained his image as a man of the masses through periodic visits and regular consultations with the barangay folks. A more enduring testament to the giving capacity of the Acharon-Cahilsot family are the land donations which include the present sports complex (10 hectares); PC Barracks (9 hectares); Pedro Acharon Elementary School (!/2 hectare); Romana Cahilsot Elementary School; the Bliss Project in Calumpang; the City Cemetery; and what is now Silway area (Dr. Odjok Acharon, Mayor Antonio Acharon's son and presently a city kagawad, in an interview on August 4, 2001). But perhaps Mayor Acharon's major asset was his reaching out to the indigenous inhabitants, now the cultural minorities. A popular tale was that he sucked milk from a Magindanao woman who took care of him as a child. Virginia Buhisan (1982) in a study made of the T’bolis of Kiamba discussed about the “adoption” of a baby by another when the mother’s milk does not agree with him. This adopted mother is usually a close relative who becomes the “sociological mother” or a kind of godmother, of the child throughout his life. That this was practiced in the early frontier days by the T’boli and Christian mothers was described by Buhisan, thus: A similar practice was followed by the Cebuano and T’boli mothers during their early frontier days, according to the writer’s mother. Since there were not many Cebuano neighbors around, the Cebuano and the T’boli mothers themselves would take turns in nursing their babies. They made an alternate schedule during toiling their fields. If the Cebuano mother went to the field, the T’boli mother was left behind to attend to the babies. There will be one breast for each

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during feeding time. This practice of caring for children strengthened their friendship. Presumably, it was this “Magindanao connection” of Mayor Toning during the outbreak of the Mindanao conflict which spared the city from the vicissitudes of war of the seventies. It was said that there was a pact of understanding between the Muslim rebels and Mayor Acharon. Thus, the carnage and killings happening in other areas was unheard of in the city. "In fact, long before authorities from Davao del Sur moved to prevent the eruption of trouble in Balut Island (then a part of Davao del Sur), the mayor was already there to patch up the problem," said his son Dr. Odjok Acharon, now a city kagawad. More dramatic was what happened in Malapatan, Sarangani Province where the warring groups were the military, CHDF, and police with Mayor Toning serving as the referee. There is nobody with similar talent in peacemaking among today's group of leaders. In the face of the fire which gutted 2 malls of the city and the bombings and kidnappings perpetrated by suspected terrorists, an inevitable question cropped up: Could Mayor Toning be as effective today as he was in the seventies? His political strength was dramatically proven by his reelection in 1971 while in jail charged with a double murder case (that of Adan de las Marias, the leader of the Octopus gang, and one Piding) filed against him by a powerful congressman whose wife ran for the position of mayor. Unable to campaign, his then seven year old son Odjok, used to bring two flags - one Chinese, the other Philippine flag- and approached the people saying: "Nong, pili sa duha." ( "Sir, pick out one.") The cudgel was taken up for him by his loyal supporters. One of them, Adelaida Yusay, recalled how he was called by the opposing side purportedly telling her "Paryente gali kita." ("It appears that you are my relative.") Despite claims of kinship relationship by somebody wealthy, Nang Diling became a very effective campaigner of the candidate Toning with her emphasizing the importance of character over wealth. Mayor Toning was eventually released from prison on September 1972 by order of then President Marcos. The educational needs of the city were given emphasis during Acharon’s time with the opening of several public elementary schools in six barangays (Apopong, Sinawal, Upper Labay, Labangal, Dadiangas Heights Lagao and Sitio Uhaw, Tambler). Two existing public elementary schools in the poblacion area, Dadiangas West and Dadiangas South, were divided and gave rise to two additional public elementary schools, the Pedro Acharon Elementary School and the Ireneo Santiago Elementary School. Likewise, it was through the efforts of the then newly elected mayor, the parents of the 1966 graduating students of the Dadiangas West elementary School led by Mr. Vic Tajanlangit, and residents of the place, both Muslims and Christians alike, that the establishment of the MSU Community High School (now Mindanao State University-General Santos) in 1967 was made a reality. When MSU Community High School obtained the 2.5 hectare land (today's MSU-Dadiangas campus) fronting Notre Dame of Dadiangas college, Mayor Acharon continued his unwavering support to MSU by facilitating the construction of the building through loans of construction materials guaranteed by the mayor. Subsequently, the city and school officials together with the PTA invited the then president of the University, Congressman Ali Dimaporo, to the commencement of the school and asked financial assistance from him to be able to pay the debt incurred in the construction of the building.

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

During the Acharon’s incumbency, other important infrastructure projects include a government hospital, a new public market, the cementing of major city streets and highways, the building of bridges and dikes, the improvement of the Makar Wharf, and the start of the construction of the modern City Hall. The economic growth of the city was undeniable with its declaration as a first class city in 1975 by the Department of Finance based on its income. Mayor Antonio Acharon's term is the longest spanning almost two decades. However, the EDSA Revolution came in 1986 and a wind of change swept the entire country. Mayor Acharon was a casualty of that wind of change. The perception of an unchanging city in a state of stagnation may be blamed on the leadership who had stayed too long in power. Despite Mayor Acharon’s populist image, he stayed too long in power that he received the brunt of the people’s impatience over the long martial law years. The security on tenure spawned by martial law years led to complacency and alienation from the people’s pulse. This is dramatically shown during the height of people power revolution in Manila. Impelled by his loyalty to President Marcos, the city administration under the leadership of Mayor Antonio Acharon celebrated the proclamation of Ferdinand Marcos and Arturo Tolentino as the elected president and vice-president, respectively. The pitifully thin crowd at the oval plaza underscored how far removed Mayor Acharon and other officials were from the changing times. The EDSA Revolution brought the political career of the populist mayor to an end until his assassination while delivering a campaign speech in an attempt for a political comeback. With the advent of the revolutionary government under President Corazon C. Aquino, Mayor Acharon’s fall from power was inevitable with the summary removal of the incumbent officials from office. Koronadal Valley as a whole showed increasing dissatisfaction with the administration following the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. These critical sentiments of the people of Koronadal Valley was implicit with the election of three oppositionists from the Koronadal Valley in the 1978 Interim Batasang Pambansa election. The OIC Mayors, 1986-1988 When the KBL officials were summarily removed from office, Atty. Dominador Lagare, one of the persistent opposition leaders who fought and opposed the Marcos regime, was appointed the officer-in-charge of the city. Just like his predecessor, Atty. Lagare was a Mindanaon having been born in Barangay Conel in 1943. During the Lagare incumbency, the city revenue went up to forty six million seven hundred thirty thousand one hundred ninety five pesos (P46,732,195.00), a phenomenal leap from the 1970 figure of one million, three hundred thirty three thousand, nine hundred forty seven pesos (P1, 333, 947. 00). The incumbency of Atty. Lagare was too short to fully appreciate his impact to the development of General Santos City. Nonetheless, EDSA did bring rejuvenation and hope. Within his one year term of office he was able to do the following things: the construction of sewerage and drainage system in the poblacion area and some selected barangays; the cementing project of Papaya Street inaugurating the start of the cementing of the city proper, giving rise to the current modern appearance of the city and shedding off its image as a “city of dust”; and his no-nonsense approach against illegal gambling. Finally, it

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was during Atty. Lagare’s term that the construction of the unfinished city hall was completed in time for the Foundation Day Celebration of the city on February 27, 1987. According to one informant, Atty. Lagare’s removal from office even before the 1987 election was presumably caused by his support of a nonadministration candidate. The political condition which removed Atty. Lagare from the mayoralty post brought to the fore the ascendancy of the first lady mayor of the city - Rosalita Tolibas-Nuñez. Mayor Rosalita T. Nuñez, the first lady mayor Urbanization and population growth necessitated a strong party machinery. A strong political party enabled a simple teacher like Mayor Rosalita Nuñez to win. Just like her two predecessors, Mayor Rosalita Nuñez is a second generation migrant settler. Strictly speaking, however, she cannot be considered a Mindanaon since her birthplace is not Mindanao but Leyte. For the greater part of her adult life she was an academician in various capacities as an elementary grade teacher, guidance counselor, acting principal, and college instructor from 1972 until 1987. Appointed as an OIC mayor vice Atty. Lagare starting March 1, 1987, she is credited for the adoption of the symbolic slogan “boomtown Dadiangas” as a catchword to create an image of feverish economic growth in the post-Edsa period. The term “boom town Dadiangas” was in usage since the fifties. But more than a manifestation of the pioneering spirit of the people, the term assumed significance as a socially constructed word - born of the people, promoted and developed across time by the conscious efforts of the various segments of the community particularly the business sector and the local media. The government’s adoption of the term as a strategy for development was explained in the 1991 publication by the city government: “It formulated a strategy to promote General Santos City as a “Boom Town” aimed at creating an image or even an atmosphere of feverish economic growth. In this, it has won the support of the private sector to embark on a program to attract foreign and domestic investors to the city. Furthermore, through private sector efforts, continuous lobby pressure is exerted on the National Government to push through with its plans and programs for the city at the soonest possible time.” What is apparent at the preceding quotation is the private sector - government interaction and cooperation, a tradition long established during the pioneering days. It took a lady mayor to make use of a catchword used a long time ago as a strategy for development. The city caught the attention of foreign leaders involved in the Philippine Aid Plan (PAP) who selected General Santos City as one of their first pilot projects. Under the city’s $2.2 billion development plan are two components financed by PAP. One includes agroport (fishport complex), telecommunications, airport expansion, and seaport expansion; another encompasses industrial estates, road networks, pro-people organizations, and environment. The development plan made General Santos City the “concentration of the largest infrastructure projects in the country today”, a natural result of its crucial role in both the SOCSARGEN growth area and SOCSARGEN’S role in the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA).

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

Mayor Adelbert W. Antonino, scion of Parent-Senators With the assumption of Mayor Adelbert W. Antonino, who won the May 11, 1992 election, the city continued to develop as a major economic center. This is further boosted by the implementation of the Philippine Assistance Program (PAP) Projects which include the International General Santos Airport, the Makar Wharf Fishport Complex and the Agro-Processing Center. General Santos City’s incessant march to the 21st millennium is undeniable at the end of Mayor Antonino’s first term. The rivalry of Mayor Nuñez and Mayor Antonino would span a period of 12 years. By 1995, Nuñez was the city mayor in 1987 until her defeat by Adelbert Antonino in 1992. Antonino, on the other hand, was elected mayor in 1992, defeated by Nuñez in 1995; and defeated Nuñez, in turn, in 1998. But in the electoral rivalry of the two, Antonino appeared to have the edge with the wife Lualhati, serving as a congresswoman for the allowable three terms. By 2001, with Lualhati no longer qualified to run, the daughter, Darlene, won and ran in Congress. Former Mayor Nuñez, suffered a decisive defeat in the hands of the brother of the late Mayor Antonio Acharon, Engineer Jun Acharon, for the position of the new city mayor. C. Socio-Demographic Changes Demographic phenomenon is relevant in shedding light to the process of social interaction. In the pre-war settlement days when the original inhabitants were greater and the migrant-settlers fewer in number, the peaceful process of accommodation was exhibited in their interaction with each other. Despite Japanese occupation in the 40s and the Mindanao conflict in the 70s, such framework of contact held out. This remained strong through the years despite the change in the demographic characteristics of the place with the newcomers taking over General Santos City as the new legitimate order. The continuous demographic growth is manifested with the city breaking the qualifying mark for a highly urbanized city when it reached the population of 250, 389 people in 1990, more than 100, 000 increase within a decade. As Table 5 shows, the highest population increase was posted in 1960 which could be attributed to the fast migration of people from different parts of the country since 1939. The abnormal figure of 33 for the 1903 census indicates that the indigenous inhabitants outside the reach of census-takers were not counted. On the other hand, the unusual increase of only 1% in the 1970 census could be attributed to the separation of Maasim and Malungon from General Santos City in 1969 and of Alabel in 1971, the latter now the capital town of the new province of Sarangani. The social composition of the people of General Santos City, a decade before the 21st millennium, shows youthful dynamism and ethnic pluralism making the city a “melting pot” of people and culture. This cultural strand is shown by the ethnic composition and the languages spoken by the people. Its ethnic composition represents practically all tribes in the country with the Cebuanos constituting the biggest group (36%), Hiligaynon or Ilonggo ranks second (25%), the Tagalogs as the next largest ethnic grouping (9.5%) followed by the Boholanos (7%), the Muslims (6%), and the B’laans (3%). The 1990 census shows the original inhabitants in the minority in the city.

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Table 6 POPULATION GROWTH OF GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1903 - 1990 DATE

POPULATION

INCREASE

RATE OF INCREASE 1903 33 1918 9,787 9,754 99.6% 1939 14,155 4,368 30.9% 1948 32,019 17,904 55.9% 1960 84,988 52,969 62.3% 1970 85,861 873 1.0% 1980 149,396 63,535 42.5% 1990 250,389 100, 993 40.3% _________________________________________________________ Source: NCSO, 1903, 1918, 1939, 1948, 1960, 1970, 1980 & 1990.

A significant demographic characteristic of General Santos City is the urbanization of the area with 72 percent of its population concentrated in nine barangays identified as urban areas - Lagao (now Lagao, San Isidro, and City Heights) Dadiangas (now Dad. East, Dad. West, Dad. South, and Dad. North), Bula, and Labangal. The remaining 28 percent are distributed in the sixteen other barangays (See Table 6). Table 7 POPULATION OF GENERAL SANTOS CITY BY BARANGAY, MAY 1990 ________________________________________________________________ ______ BARANGAY HOUSEHOLD PERCENT POPULATION SHARE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------URBAN: 179,793 71.81% Bula 26,886 10.74% Dadiangas 47,578 19.00% Labangal 52,062 20.79% Lagao 53,267 21.27% RURAL: 28.19% Apopong Baluan Buayan 2.26% Conel

70,596 12,128 3,471

4.84% 1.39% 5,650

7,021

2.80%

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000

Katanggawan 5,187 2.07% Ligaya 2,424 0.97% Mabuhay 5,805 2.32% San Isidro 6,808 2.72% San Jose 2,466 0.98% Siguel 1,841 0.74% Sinawal 742 0.30% Tambler 11,273 4.50% Tinagakan 4,111 1.64% Upper Labay 1,669 0.67% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TOTAL 250, 309 100.00% Besides urbanization, another important characteristic of the city’s population is its youthful dynamism shown by the more than half of the population (54%) representing the 15 - 54 years age group, 42% representing the 14 and below age bracket with only 4 percent represented by the elderly or over 54 years old (BRC Newsletter, March-April 1994:5). As a former migrant community, most of the settlers seeking adventure in frontier areas were in the prime of their youth when they came to the valley. Of the first 62 settlers who came in 1939, only 6 of them brought along their wives. The others left behind their families who followed later. Most of the 0 - 54 years old were born in General Santos City and/or, if born elsewhere, grew up in the valley. The language situation reflects the cosmopolitan character of the city. It was expected that the language of the numerical majority would be used as the lingua franca of the community. But through the years, with the Visayans outpassing in number the Tagalogs after the war, the language which evolved is the “Tagalog-Visayan” dialect. An example of such is the word “nagbili ako” which means “I bought”. In Tagalog, it would have been “bumili ako” and in Visayan, “nagpalit ako”. But in the melting pot community, a new word emerged - the Tagalog-Visayan variant : “nagbili ako”. Sometimes one hears Tagalog being spoken by a Dadiangas speaker but with a distinctive Ilonggo or Visayan accent. The reality of the melting pot community is likewise shown by a Dadiangas inhabitant who could speak any of the three languages or a mixture of two or three languages, a reality in Mindanao. Moreover, the great percentage of 14 years old and below exerted tremendous demand for education. The government responded by establishing more public elementary and secondary schools. Today, the city has one state university, the Mindanao State University. Besides MSU, there are 22 private schools while there are a total of 59 public schools. One implication of the qualitative growth of education in the city is the growth of literacy rate from 3.4% in 1948, to 31% in 1960, 81% in 1970, and to 96.3% in 1990 . Qualitative growth in education is manifested by the labor sector report showing that almost 44% of the city’s labor force has reached at least the secondary level of education with more than a quarter having earned a college degree (Comprehensive Opportunity for a Moving Economy, 1991: 23).

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It was in the field of education that the earlier community solidarity of the pre-war days manifested itself. A 1952 report stated that “all public school buildings, with the exception of the WDC building at Lagao, were built by the active ParentTeachers Association with very little help from the municipal and provincial government.” After the war, steps were taken to reopen the primary schools in Lagao and in old Buayan and the establishment of two new primary schools in Dadiangas. Other communities with no schools petitioned the government for the opening of schools. But in the absence of funds, the community had to take care of its education needs on a self-sufficient basis. A very fascinating account is given to us by Carlos Gomaling of Tampacan, Tupi: “Mrs. Alejandrino tried her best to have elementary school here . . . a complete elementary school. But . . . the supervisor of Marbel, I am not so sure if he was Mr. Sindao, he gave a challenge to us; to the three barrrios namely: the barrio Maltana, Tampakan, and Bo. 7. “If whoever can build a semi standard classroom for the elementary will be given a complete elementary school,” the supervisor said. We really tried our best to meet this challenge. We agreed to construct a complete elementary school with seven classrooms; one for the principal, another room for the clinic and one for the home economics. And so we made it. The floorings were all sawed roundwood. Luckily, during the inspection, the Tampakan school buildings were declared to have met the standard requirement. Bo. 7 and Maltana also built their own school buildings but these were ground flooring. So, we officially opened the first complete elementary school. This tradition of self-reliance in the building of schools was duplicated many times over in other migrant communities. If the pre-war period was the period of settling down, the post-war period was the time to work earnestly for the realization of a dreamed future for the settler and his family. Education, which was not given much attention before the war, assumed tremendous importance in the post-war period. Through the years, the strong private sector involvement in education made up for what the government was not able to provide. Today, taking the Dadiangas West Central Elementary School into focus, the beautiful tradition of the government-private sector cooperation persisted. During the first month of classes, the usual practice is to start with the organization of the PTA in every classroom. The identification of the problems met the previous year by the classroom teacher with regards facilities like ceiling fan, rugs, water pipes for the comfort room, and other needs was usually the first agenda of the meeting. In this manner, the Parents-Teacher’s Association became an important partner for the school’s development. Unlike other areas of Cotabato where Christian teachers were viewed with suspicion by Muslim parents, the indigenous inhabitants of the area appreciated the availability of schools in General Santos. A retired principal attested to the cooperation and enthusiasm given by Muslim parents. “They (referring to the Muslim parents) were very cooperative. I did not meet any problem with them.” Ms. Jagna-an attributed this cooperative spirit to

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the perception of fairness and equal treatment accorded by the teachers to their students regardless of ethnic groupings. One celebrated case was a salutatorian complaining to the higher authorities of favoritism on the side of the teachers. Said complainant failed to prove favoritisms since majority of the teachers who gave the Ilocano valedictorian higher grades were Ilongos themselves. Distinctive of migrant communities is the predominance of males over the females exemplified by the city’s 1990 population in a 51: 49 ratio, “the same situation ten years ago.” During the pioneering days, the menfolk were the ones who emigrated first. Once established in the place, their families then joined them. Today, with land long ago gone, business and employment opportunities continue to attract migrants to the city. It is interesting to note that by 1992, of the 76, 628 labor force of the city , 69.8% of these are males with only 30. 2% females. The cultural pluralism of the place is shown by the presence of at least twenty-nine (29) religious groups. Three-fourths of the population are Roman Catholics while Islam has a 5.5% share. In the past, despite diversity in religion, the spirit of tolerance and openness prevailed. There was even a time when various religious leaders used to have a get-together at the public plaza to discuss and explain their religious beliefs to the other groups. While it tended to degenerate into debates, the idea of meeting together to talk and listen to other beliefs indicated an attempt by the pluralistic society in coming to terms with the area’s diversity. However, starting with the SPCPD controversy in 1997, the modern period brought apprehension on the ability of the pluralistic society in maintaining the earlier framework of accommodation and peaceful interaction. Thus, a pre-war settler who earlier recognized the peaceful process of accommodation and interaction during the early settlement years emphatically said: “I won’t ever accept being placed under the Muslims.” The idea of progress as an element of Christian coming to the region was enunciated by a congresswoman who stated in a radio interview: “We do not need SPCPD to develop General Santos City because we are already developed.” As a reaction to these adverse comments, Reverend Absalom Cerveza, the Christian spokesman of the MNLF, said: “If bombings happened in General Santos City before, there would have been no “boomtown Dadiangas.” The bombings in General Santos City in 2001 and 2002 indicates that the city is no longer exempted from the general malaise affecting the entire Mindanao area today the problem of peace and order condition. Morever, one could only hope for a revival of that forgotten framework of accommodation on the basis of acceptance of the principle of cultural pluralism as a major framework for interacton in a melting pot community. Not until the various cultural groups are accorded equal status and responsibility in this “booming city,” its full potential for growth would be difficult to attain since social disunity has always proven a negative factor in development. D. Issues and Challenges of the 21st Millennium The high growth rate of 10.39% during the 1975-1980 period caused some quarters to worry that the high population growth caused by in-migration might be bigger than the economic growth which may cause overhead costs like strain in the competition for employment, housing, transportation, drainage, waste

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disposal, and other social services problems. In fact, the following urban issues were identified by Louis Berger International, Inc. , viz: (1) the need for an updating and coordination of the zoning plan; (2) the need for community livelihood program; (3) the need for housing/squatter relocation; and (4) the need for circumferential roads including right of way. Just like any areas experiencing a rapid growth, the people and its physical structures supporting this growth suffer a tremendous strain manifesting itself in urbanization problems which the young city is currently experiencing. Squatting is just one of them. The City Housing and Management Office estimated 35,000 squatter families by 1994 (Non and Bidad, 1997: 18). Relocation of squatter families was always an issue faced by every administration starting the 60s. A case in point was the invasion by close to a hundred families of the area reserved for government buildings/public plaza at Barangay Fatima. About 50 families constructed small, one-room structures made of nipa and bamboos one weekend of November 1995. “Kadaming comfort rooms,” one student observed upon seeing the houses. What is ironic is that Barangay Fatima itself is a relocation site settled by squatters from Barrio Tinago and areas along the beaches in Dadiangas during the administration of Mayor Antonio Acharon in the early 80s. Less than 15 years later, the resettlement area is experiencing a similar phenomenon of squatting. The lack of action by the local government on the squatters who invaded the reserved public land in Barangay Fatima emboldened some people from the urban poor sector to take similar action. A news item in General Santos’ ABS-CBN program “Banat Visayas, Sulong Mindanao”, on its December 14, 1996 editorial talked about the entrance of more than 30 families in the Employees Village, the area awarded to the city employees, also located in Barangay Fatima. Squatting as a major problem of urbanization, is keenly felt in the city today. A study made by a non-government organization, the Freedom from Debt Coalition-General Santos Chapter, noted that despite the "boomtown" image of General Santos City, an increasing amount of data reveals that the members of the basic sectors in General Santos City, particularly the peasants, urban poor dwellers, fisher folks and the indigenous peoples wallow in poverty and want. The 1996 baseline data of the Minimum Basic Needs (MBN) survey results by the city reveal that 69.64% of the total population or 33,792 households have an income below subsistence level (FDC-General Santos Chapter, 2001:3). This poverty incidence ranks second in Region 11 (Non and Bidad, 1997: 19). A manifestation of poverty is the extent of malnutrition in the city and the environs with the city posting a share of 38% in first degree malnourished children; 52.2%, second degree malnutrition; and 64%, third degree. Malungon of Sarangani Province follows with 27% ist degree malnutrition. Alabel, the capital town of Sarangani Province, follows with 17% first degree malnutrition, and Polomolok with 10.8 % first degree malnutrition (Table 7). The negative aspect of urbanization has overtaken the city.

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THE TUNA COUNTRY AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF MINDANAO: GENERAL SANTOS CITY, 1939-2000 Table 7 Number of Malnourished Children By Municipality, 1994

City/ Municipalit y

Total Population

Total No. of Children

Ages 0-14

General Santos City Alabel

Weighe d 1994 1995 103959 39364

Number and Percent of Malnourished Children 1st Degree Numb % er

2nd Degree Num % ber

3rd Degree Num % ber

38

3741

599

64

17

771

58

6

50 130

5 14

102

11

18509

7168

1260 5 5511

Maasim Malungon

11879 26789

4736 10558

3111 9084

9 27

381 1312

Polomolok

38525

8937

2891

9

961

TOTAL

199661

70763

52. 2 10. 8 5.3 18. 3 13. 4 100

3320 100 7166 939 100 2 Source: For GSC-Socio-Economic Indictors (1984-1994) and for Municipalities: PPDO Sarangani Province. From Domingo Non, 1997: 24 Urbanization resulted in skyrocketing of real estate prices of the city. Commercial lots along Pioneer Avenue was reported in 1994 to be costing P5,000.00 per square meter, while in 1991 the selling price was only P 2,000.00. Lots along Lagao highway was only P 100.00 per square meter before Gaisano established its shopping complex. Now, the lots sell for P3,000.00 per square meter. But despite rising costs, buildings are still sprouting like mushrooms all over the city especially banking institutions which increased in number from 32 in 1990 to 54 today. But more serious than the “fast-buck” mentality prevailing in the city is the fact that the rapid changing of land ownership is negating the very objective for which the NLSA was created in 1939 - the settlement of the area by landless people from overcrowded and high-tenancy areas of Luzon and Visayas who would be transformed into small but independent farmers in Mindanao. That former small landowners would now become agricultural workers or employees in the giant corporations which bought or leased their lands is the painful reality for the former migrant communities of Koronadal-Allah Valleys. Land acquisition by big agribusiness corporations including multinationals is clearly illustrated by DolePhil whose cannery and buildings are located in Polomolok but whose fields are rapidly spreading to the neighboring Municipality of Tupi. Thus one report stated: “DolePhil has managed to obtain long term leases on 10,000 hectares of land” (Alternate Resource Center, mimeographed copy). Added to this is the land leased through the National Development Corporation in 1963-64, the land it has leased from private individuals in Tupi and Polomolok, and the area of its latest acquisition, the Hacienda San Jose in General Santos City. It is no wonder that until today

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nobody could be certain of DolePhil’s total land holdings being one of the company’s best kept secret. An impression by a priest who visited Dole Plantation is very revealing: “The territory which Dole occupies is vast. You drive 20 to 25 miles along the main road with nothing but pineapple fields on either side, stretching as far as you can see. The very sight tells you that Dole monopolizes the land, the resources and the work force of the area. You can conclude immediately that the company, thereby, is providing a great deal of work and capital and growth for the area. But at the same time, you have an abiding fear of what this means in terms of power for control and what it means as far as the people being totallly dependent upon this giant company and at its mercy. This fear and this impression becomes deepened when you witness such extreme poverty in the barrios of the area, and many of the shanty towns immediately adjacent to the plantation, which are absolutely frightening in their lack of hygiene and of safety—small wooden shacks leaning against each other like fragile matchboxes, inviting tragedy" (Concern, 1980: 2). Passing through the territory and observing the workers in the fields, you wonder how they survive the heat, as well as the cramped positions in which they manually farm the pineapple bushes. I could observe no shelters in the fields, and one of our men there was mounting a campaign to provide some shelters in order to help those who are overcome by the heat, or are sick while stranded in the fields. You have to wonder if the workers get their fair share of Dole’s profits. In talking to two of the middle-management men connected with Dole, I voiced some of my concerns about the welfare of the workers. They very politely told me that Dole pays better than a minimum wage there and also could not do better than it does because it would destroy the local economy and leave local businesses without any employees. Later on when I checked out this fact with other people in the area, they said that may be so, but the company could indirectly help the standard of living for their workers by ploughing back profits into social improvements in the area. I found these men, who are Filipinos, quite anxious to defend the company and also not so anxious to discuss in detail any of the possible problems.” Thus, from small, independent farmers, some former migrant-settlers and their children became agricultural workers in the company which now owns or leases their lands. This trend is shown by an exploratory survey made by the government in 1982 which showed that the combined number of share tenants and lessees combined in South Cotabato constituted 44% of farmers interviewed by the evaluators of the Province of South Cotabato made in 1982.

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But besides expansion and land acquisition by big capitalists, the issue of sustainability is raised in the fishing industry sector with the growing distance of the fishing grounds that “used to be reached in 24-30 hours but which now takes between 36 to 48 hours to reach”.(Moro Kurier, 1993: 20-23). Correspondingly, this means bigger and better vessels, more fuel, supplies, ice, extra equipment and gears aside from the increase in the distance operating costs. In addition, the Louis Berger International Inc. found out that the extensive coral damage was caused by destructive fishing methods, erosion and siltation of rivers believed caused by the disappearance of forests showing at this instance the “interconnection of the web of life”(BRC Newsletter, 1994). The city’s low forest cover contributes significantly to its erosion problem made worse by the lack of sustained reforestation policy. As a result, flash floods occurring during heavy rains indicating the gravity of the environment problem. Another vital concern is power supply which is significant for a modernizing city. The problem on power supply stems from supply unreliability brought about by an overdependence on hydroelectric power sources which proved precarious in the past due to drought and the knocking down of transmission lines by the rebels. Thus, while the city has a relatively better peace and order condition than Davao or Zamboanga, its interconnection with the rest of the island is shown by the effects of conflict in Mindanao. NAPOCOR hopes to solve the problem of power supply unreliability through a plan to interconnect the Luzon, Leyte, Cebu and Mindanao power grids in 1997 for the purpose of exploiting the Leyte geothermal fields and allow power distribution from areas of surplus to those with deficits. Another way is through hydropower plants which will be commissioned in Mindanao. Areas planned for immediate implementation is Barangay Buayan and Siguel (both found in General Santos City). Thus, lots of problems remain. However, these problems by themselves are not insurmountable. However, this author and humble residence of General Santos City believes that for an effective community to survive the modern era, its basic social unity has to be restored since people is the architect of its community, not the facilities and modern infrastructure. While modernization may have made it difficult to return to the days of a “conscious efforts of building a community” caused by the diffusion of such values due to impersonalism in an urbanized city, the capacity of its people to surmount problems of social unity remains highly possible if one has to go back to its track record of maintaining the framework of peaceful accommodation even in the turbulent years of the Mindanao conflict. Despite problems, the future remains hopeful for these people struggling through the intricacies of a melting pot community.

Chapter VII SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Serving as a background to this study is a short description of the Empire Province of Cotabato before the advent of the resettlement program of the government to best appreciate the social processes involved in the community formation. The old Cotabato had a rich cultural heritage distinguished from much of the Philippines by a strong religious bond - Islam. The rich cultural heritage was established amidst favorable ecological characteristics of an extensive area of plains and a typhoon-free climate favorable to the development of agriculture; its riverine and coastal locale whose nurturing power brought forth settlements based on both agriculture and trade; and its people who fashioned a socio-cultural and economic structure strong enough to maintain its independence from Spanish intrusion. Islam, being the first exogenous religion introduced to the Philippine archipelago, led to the formation of an advanced socio-cultural and economic structure in Cotabato, the sultanate system. This strong Islamic heritage accounts for Cotabato’s resilience and strength in dealing with Spanish challenge. Under the leadership of the sultanates, the Cotabato world put up a spirited resistance against the Spaniards and was generally successful despite their eventual loss of power and resources by the mid-19th century. Caught in the entangled web of Spanish-Moro conflict were the Christianized natives of Luzon and Visayas and the Muslims of southern Philippines. The most tangible result of the Spanish war of conquest and attempts at Christianization was the historical and cultural divide which isolated southern Philippines from the Westernizing influence of Spanish rule. Despite Mindanao’s later administrative incorporation into the Philippine state system made possible by the subtler ways of the more clever Americans, such divide persists until today. But where the Christians of northern and central Philippines and the Muslims of the south remained geographically separated from each other, such divide would simply be shrugged off as an aspect of ethnic differences. Moreover, the American imperialist drive to exploit its conquered territories led to the passage of land laws which opened up Mindanao both as a plantation and migration area. The former benefited mostly American corporations, the latter, the landless Filipinos from the northern and central parts of the Philippine archipelago. Thus, the resettlement program of the government brought together in one geographical zone the people who were traditionally divided from each other. The early American experiment of establishing agricultural colonies in Cotabato, although economically a failure, showed a promise that the two cultural groups, the Muslims and the Christians, could live together in peace. An important lesson is learned from the Cotabato experience: that much of historical divide was a product not of actual interaction but of Spanish propaganda. Relatively unheard of were the various non-Muslim groups living in Cotabato who retained their distinctive ways of life in a system of alliances and trade with the lowland and coastal Magindanaos. Thus, the resettlement program of the government inaugurated by the Americans in 1913 and pursued vigorously by the Commonwealth government starting 1939 brought three

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autonomous cultural groups together. Viewed on another level, such meeting is the encounter of two worlds - the Christian and the indigenous worlds. The setting for a meeting of cultures was a narrow plain located between Sarangani Bay in the south and Lake Buluan in the north, the “fertile cogonal and marshy valley of Koronadal”. Southern Koronadal, called Buayan, was the least inhabited area before settlement days with most of the original inhabitants (Muslims and Lumads) found more numerous in the middle and northern Koronadal. Due to its dry climate, Southern Koronadal was not a favored place for settlement. Moreover, viewed as an extension of the Maguindanao world, Sugod-a-Buayan (Sarangani Bay area), was an important place for a domales activity, “to camp and to picnic” where salt-making and fishing activities were done. During the NLSA days, Buayan’s location at the headwaters of Sarangani Bay made it the natural exit and entry points for Koronadal - Allah Valleys figuring prominently in the decision to make Buayan the NLSA headquarter in Mindanao as well as the site of the first settlement area, Lagao. Symptomatic of their understanding of the meaning of Christian arrival to their ancestral lands, the Muslims raised the issue of land rights when they met the survey party looking for a suitable site for the Commonwealth-sponsored resettlement program. When verbally assured of their rights to their lands, they accepted the Christian coming with Muslim leaders even providing protection to the settlers. The enticement of material benefits to be derived from the settlement program like school, infrastructure, hospital, roads, etc. helped in the early welcome accorded the newcomers. The Lumads, on the other hand, quietly retreated to distant places when they saw the Christian settlers occupying their vast hunting and fishing grounds. With a framework of peaceful accommodation established at the time of initial contact, gradual acculturation took place. While the magnitude of cultural borrowings of the Christian material culture made by the indigenous inhabitants was tremendous, however, cultural borrowing was not confined to one group. The newcomers to Mindanao, the migrant-settlers, also learned techniques of survival in a pioneering condition such as the trapping of wild animals and birds, the tapping of water from the trees where no potable water was available, and the adoption of native crops found more suitable to the area’s distinct ecological characteristics from the indigenous inhabitants. Thus, acculturation, being gradual and based on a perceived mutuality of interest, was smooth. The establishment of the settlement areas in their midst introduced new ways, new people, new economic system and new values. But more than any other factor, it was the peaceful process of accommodation and interaction between the original inhabitants and the newcomers which facilitated the successful land settlement program. The initial framework of contact held out even during the Japanese occupation especially since all inhabitants of the valley were similarly treated by the Japanese. What is significant in the MuslimChristian-Lumad relationship during the war was the warning given by guerilla leader Salipada Pendatun to lawless elements coming from among the native population that they would answer to him for any wrongdoing done to the Christian settlers who evacuated to interior areas with the Japanese coming. However, the imperatives of personal survival led to the ebb of community spirit within the settlement area with the NLSA losing its moral ascendancy to lead the people. The death of Sarip Abedin and General Paulino Santos, the two leaders of pre-war Buayan, led to an anguished search for ways to survive the occupation sans the guiding hands of their leaders .

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

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The post-war period brought a change in the pattern of relationship between the three autonomous groups. Migrants came no longer in trickles but already as onrushing tide tilting the demographic balance in favor of the newcomers. The creation of a cultural majority made the Christian way as the prevailing norm. The Muslims and the Lumads had varying reactions to these developments. The Muslims reacted by moving nearer to settlement areas and laying claim to the previous domales area. Thus, the raising of the level of ethnic consciousness among the Muslims led to the race for laying claim and / or buying lands outside Lagao district in competition with Christians who started acquiring lands outside the settlement districts . The movement of the two cultural groups converging in areas outside the settlement districts brought them closer to the B’laans who found they could withdraw no further. Thus, the convergence of the three cultural groups producing a real melting pot community in the southern part of Koronadal after the war. Excluding the modern times, the following “turning points” in the history of General Santos City are identified as: (1) the incipient period characterized by the meeting of the three autonomous cultural groups occasioned by the land settlement project of the Commonwealth government; (2) the Japanese occupation which delivered a blow to the emerging community; (3) the liberation period which provided the libertarian condition for migrant settlers to grow both individually and as a community; and (4 ) the period of the 60s which provided the infrastructure for growth anchored on economic development. 1. The Incipient Period and the Emerging Community The various settlement areas (Lagao, Marbel, Tupi and Polomolok) became the Christian enclave in the area peopled by the indigenous inhabitants. The incipient period shows the newcomers to the valley and the original inhabitants of Buayan defining their relationship with each other characterized by a “conscious effort” to accommodate each other. Moreover, the process of peaceful accommodation and gradual acculturation happened while the three autonomous but interacting cultural communities were physically segregated from each other by the boundaries which separated the settlement districts from the larger community. In these settlement districts the migrants lived their own lives, preoccupied with their own affairs, while the original inhabitants preferred to stay in their own neighborhoods leading their own lives. The newcomers to the valley, assured of security brought about by the peaceful process of accommodation, fashioned their own community following closely the guidelines set by the NLSA management. These guidelines show a settlement area that was closely controlled by General Paulino Santos, dubbed the father of the community. Moreover, the practice of regular consultation and discussion on issues affecting the settlement districts neutralized the “semi-militaristic” way of the leader of the settlement district. With settlers coming from different parts of the country, it was in these meetings that ethnic differences were threshed out showing the “conscious efforts” of attaining community solidarity. In this environment of security, the settlement areas were able to develop well-defined political structures. Each of the four settlement districts earlier mentioned had one town which served as the administrative and economic center around which the barrios were located. Each district was under an

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overseer and a staff of assistants appointed by the general manager. But it was in the barrio level that the democratic practice of consultation took place including the choice of barrio lieutenants and assistant barrio lieutenants, contributing to the establishment of a strong foundation for civic consciousness, self-reliance and a strong government-private sector involvement. No such parallel development happened in the communities of the Lumads and the Muslims. Both groups preserved the traditional manner of political organization with traditional leaders (the datus) continuing their dominance in Buayan affairs. Moreover, it was in the economic field that constant interaction took place among the different cultural groups besides personal relationships which some were able to develop. Thus, the market place became an enduring sites of interaction. In political leadership, there was the sharing of power in Buayan between General Paulino Santos and Sarip Zainal Abedin, with the former in-charge of the settlers in the settlement districts and the latter, the original inhabitants in areas outside the settlement areas. The good relationship between the original inhabitants and the newcomers to the valley could be traced to the relationship of these two leaders. Moreover, the presence of infrastructure like roads, irrigation, bridges, and buildings in the settlement areas, and their lack or absence in outlying communities show the apparent neglect on the part of the government in looking after the well-being of far-flung areas of the country, particularly those areas peopled by indigenous inhabitants. 2. The Emerging Community in Disarray The Japanese coming to Koronadal Valley caused massive evacuation by the people, settlers and native inhabitants alike, from Buayan into the interior places. The strongest disruption occured in Buayan due to its proximity to Sarangani Bay. To the settlers, especially the new arrivals who had no produce yet and were still relying on government support, the most significant effect of Japanese occupation was the termination of government support. The initial community spirit was not yet strong enough to withstand the pressure of fear, insecurity and hunger. Thus, the conscious effort of building a community suffered a setback with community spirit taking a back seat in favor of personal survival. It should be recalled that the crack in community solidarity dates back to the Japanese occupation. This manifested after the liberation, formalized in a formal complaint by some settlers who organized themselves into the United Settlers Movement. It was one of the early charges of corruption directed against a government agency during this period. Compared with other regions of the country, Buayan lived more or less a peaceful and normal life during the Japanese period. This condition was attributed to at least two factors: one, the decision of the leadership to “play ball” with the Japanese in order to protect the gains of the community and its people; and second, the hospitality of the area attributed to the presence of plenty of food within the settlement area, the “play ball” attitude exhibited by the NLSA officials , and the lack of an aggressive guerilla organization in the southern part of Cotabato. This stands in sharp contrast to North Cotabato’s fighting stance against the Japanese under the leadership of the intrepid guerilla leaders Salipada K. Pendatun and Datu Udtog Matalam.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

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The Japanese occupation was remembered due to the departure from the scene of its important personalities which include General Paulino Santos, Sarip Abedin and the Japanese Kuroda. Japanese occupation finally ended on August 11, 1945 with the surrender of 1,700 Japanese trapped at Klaja- Konel, their last stronghold in the valley. 3. Liberation From Dependency An important development after the war was the abolition of the NLSA with its absorption into the LASEDECO in 1950. Four years later, the LASEDECO itself was also abolished. The establishment of regular political units in hereto settlement areas set the conditions which liberated the settlers from any legal constraints emanating from the contract which they signed when they became settlers. At the same time, this libertarian condition forced the settlers to be self-reliant at the earliest possible time. 4. The Foundation For A “Booming Economy” The inability of the NLSA to lead in post-war rehabilitation and reconstruction caused the inhabitants of Buayan district to turn to the Municipal district of Buayan for leadership. The settlers’ participation in the political life of Buayan introduced the “politics of number” into play with the demographically dominant newcomers taking over the political leadership of the Municipal District of Buayan. The Christian sector’s linkage with the national government may have led to local participation in national party politics. In fact, the first post-war appointed mayor was the campaign manager of President Roxas in Koronadal Valley. Thus, at this point in time Buayan ceased to be an extension of the Maguindanao world. The new socio-political order was manifested by the change of the ancient name Buayan to General Santos in 1954 and the separation of the province of South Cotabato from the Empire Province of Cotabato. The 60s was a turning point in the history of Buayan due to several reasons. Firstly, the foundation for a booming economy was put in place with Buayan, renamed General Santos, enjoying comparative advantage owing to its inherent potential for development. Its strategic location and accessibility made it the natural converging point for people and goods coming from its rich hinterland composed of the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and Davao del Sur. Secondly, the diversity of its economic activities caused by its vast pasture land and rich marine and agricultural resources. Finally, the “boom town” spirit of its people strengthened across time by the peaceful process of accommodation and interaction among and between the occupants of the southern Koronadal Valley. The undeniable economic progress of General Santos City is seen in its dynamic growth from a fourth class city in 1965 to a first class city 10 years later. Twelve years after, propelled by the “phenomenal growth of its fishing industry,” the city posted an income of forty six million pesos. B. Conclusion: Trends and Prospects The most significant development of the post-EDSA period is the creation of a growth area in southern Mindanao known as the SOCSARGEN, an acronym for South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos City. The birth of

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SOCSARGEN as a growth area is a post-EDSA phenomenon which, together with the CALABARZON, Panay, Samar and the Iligan-Cagayan de Oro Growth Corridor, became the government’s projects under the Philippine Aid Plan ( PAP ). The tremendous potential of the SOCSARGEN growth corridor is shown by its being first or second in the production of at least eight commodities which include corn, cotton, rice, pineapple, livestock, fisheries, coconuts and copra. The role of General Santos City in the growth corridor is primarily caused by its cosmopolitan people whose diverse ethnic origin and a tradition of peaceful co-existence with each other produced a tolerant and open outlook, an enterprising spirit expressed by the term “boom town,” and a tradition of a strong government-private sector cooperation and collaboration. Besides its people, the following are the city’s plus factors: its strategic location and accessibility as the gateway to the rich hinterland; the diversity of its economic activities caused by its vast pasture land; and its rich marine and agricultural resources. What may be considered a monumental development in the 90s for the SOCSARGEN is the advocacy of the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) in conjunction with the government’s strategy of promoting trade with other countries. Davao City and General Santos City are identified as participating growth areas in the dynamic BIMP-EAGA economic complementation projects. Culturally, the significance of the EAGA concept is the revival of the long history of historical linkage of Cotabato with its neighbors in island Southeast Asia. Basic problems remain for the young city occasioned by rapid growth and urbanization. Nonetheless, the track record of the people of this area who were able to retain the basic framework of peaceful accommodation even during the turbulent years of the 70s makes one confident that they would be able to overcome these challenges of the modern era. Based on the foregoing, the major findings of this study are the following: 1. The desire for a better life was a common motivating factor which led to the decision of the migrant settler to join the Commonwealthsponsored settlement to Koronadal Valley. Hope for a better life was expressed in various ways, some of which were the following: “to own land”; “alleviation of one’s condition”; “employment and business opportunities”; and “presence of relatives”. Hope, therefore, was a strong motivating factor which caused the settlers of Koronadal-Allah Valleys to migrate to Mindanao. 2. The geographical characteristics of Southern Koronadal facilitated its leadership status among the various settlement areas of the Koronadal Allah Valley project. Among these basic ecological characteristics are the following: strategic location, easy accessibility, naturally safe harbor, a typhoon - free climate, and the ready accessibility of the rich fishing grounds of Mindanao and Celebes Sea. These geographical characteristics provided the infrastructure favorable for its growth and development. 3. But more than the aforementioned geographical characteristics, the main architect in the formation of the community were its people whose interaction with one another, with the environment and with the outside world largely defined the community.

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4. The community which emerged was a melting pot of different groups in the country. The “melting pot”, as the converging point not only of the different ethnic groupings but also of three distinct autonomous interacting cultural groups, brought about the development of an open and tolerant people. Likewise, the mutual adjustment and cooperation among and between the occupants of the valley helped in the development of a strong government - private sector collaboration which found expression in the term “boom town” Dadiangas. 5. In the cultural activities of the people, the “melting pot” concept manifested itself with no one culture predominating over other groups. This was seen from a mixed language - a Tagalog-Visayan-Hiligaynon hybrid language. 6. The social processes involved in the process of interaction in the area of study are accommodation, assimilation, and acculturation. What the eventual direction would be vis-a-vis the Lumads, whether towards assimilation or towards cultural pluralism, would depend upon the cultural majority who now determines the prevailing norms. Also, whether the disturbing signs of revivalism of the historical divide between the Muslims and the Christians would lead to eventual social disunity would again be determined by the people involved in the process of interaction. Much work has to be done by all groups to maintain the peaceful process of accommodation which they successfully established from the beginning of contact. C. Areas For Future Research It is clear that the attempt to forge a communion between history and culture by focusing on what people were able to build and create through shared definitions and meanings was made possible not by one methodological strategy alone. The inter-disciplinary approach in undertaking local historical studies is the paper’s major contribution to research. The etically derived information of the researcher taken from primary and secondary sources complemented by the emic perspectives largely derived from interviews and personal accounts were found useful in this study. A hybrid research methodology, then, is recommended for a socio-historical study of this kind. But as this study also deals with migration, albeit on a peripheral level, a more in - depth study is needed not only for Southern Koronadal but for the entire Koronadal-Allah Valleys as well. A wealth of materials awaits future researchers interested in both community and migration studies. The time to undertake research on the Commonwealth - sponsored settlement is now while many of the participants of the process of migration are still alive. With the young city experiencing social problems brought about by too rapid urbanization, this specific research undertaking proposes that a more in-depth study on urbanization be conducted to be able to come up with a thorough and comprehensive assessment of the government’s ecological policy and practices. This could be General Santos City’s contribution to urbanization issues.

120 REFERENCES CITED I. PRIMARY SOURCES A. Interviews Conducted Aquino, Rafael, a long-time secretary of General Paulino Santos, in a personal interview conducted in his residence in 1976 in connection with a paper submitted to Prof. Teodoro Agoncillo. This is supplemented by a transcript of interview found in the paper of Hazel Romualdo entitled "General Paulino Santos and the NLSA from 1939-1944" submitted to Prof. Deogracias G. Romero, instructor in History 198, first semester, AY 1992-93. Al-Habsi, Hassan Sarip, a relative of the first mayor of Buayan district, in a interview conducted by Mr. Eugenio Banguiran in connection with his undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of History, MSUGeneral Santos City Branch, second semester, AY 1986-87. Arsenal, Juliet Engkong, in a personal interview conducted in the College of Arts and Sciences Blg. on August 8, November 26 and December 14, 1996. Bulaong, Eusebio, one of the first batches of settlers who came with General Paulino Santos in 1939, in a personal interview held at his residence in Bulaong Subdivision in 1976. He is now deceased. Corpuz, Carmen, a daughter of a migrant-settler who came in the early fifties, in a personal interview held at MSU-Tambler Campus, General Santos City Branch on February 20, November 26, and December 14, 1996. Diaz, Vic, a son of a settler who came in 1940, in a personal interview held at his residence in Lagao, General Santos City on July 6, 1995, January 6 and 13, 1996. Domingo, Federico, a 1939 settler, in a personal interview held at his residence on September 8, 1995, July 6 and 10, 1996. Dulay, Eliseo, an NLSA employee, in a personal interview held at his residence in Lagao, General Santos city on January 2 and March 11, 1995; July 20, 1996. Gatdula, Manuel, son of the adopted daughter of Suikichi Kuruda, the Japanese owner of the only store in Dadiangas when the settlers

121 came in 1939, in a written account given to Prof. Deogracias Romero, faculty member of MSU-General Santos City Branch. Gabales, Agustin, in an interview conducted by Annalita G. Jaralba, in connection with a paper in History 3 submitted to Prof. Andrea V. Campado, first semester, AY 1996-1997, MSU-General Santos City. Jagna-an, Angela, one of the pioneering teachers of Dadiangas West Central Elementary School, in a personal interview held at her residence in Dadiangas, General Santos City on May 12, 1995. Jandoc, Manuela, wife of the Japanese resident of Dadiangas, in a personal interview held at her residence in Dadiangas on December 27, 1976. She is now deceased. Hidalgo, Ella, daughter of an NLSA employee, in a personal interview held at the College of Arts and Sciences Bldg., MSU-Tambler Campus, General Santos City Branch on November 26, 27, and 28, 1996. Lagare, Cesar, brother of Ex-OIC Mayor Dominador Lagare, in an interview conducted by Arturo Cloma in connection with his undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Political Science, MSU-Tambler Campus, General Santos City Branch. Lautengco, Jesus, a pioneering settler, in a personal interview held at his residence in Dadiangas, General Santos City on February 12, 1995. Mamalumpong, Mamundas, a relative of Mayor Abedin, in an interview conducted by Eugenio Banguira, an AB History graduate of MSUGeneral Santos City held at his residence in Buayan, General Santos City in 1987. Natividad, Mamerto III, a member of the 116th Guerilla Regiment stationed in Glan, in a personal interview held in 1976 in connection with a term paper submitted to Prof. Teodoro Agoncillo, second semester, AY 1975-76. Nacivalencia, Serafin, in an interview conducted by Delight C. Nantong, in a paper submitted to Prof. Andrea V. Campado in History 3, first semester, AY 1995-96. Non, Domingo, a local historian, in an informal interview. Olarte, Alberto, one of the early Christian migrants to Dadiangas who came in the twenties, in a transcript of interview conducted by Prof.

122 Domingo Non in his daughter's residence in Dadiangas, General Santos City on March 30, 1988. Panadero, Eufemia, one of the pioneer teachers of Dadiangas West Central Elementary School, in a personal interview held at her residence at Atis St., General Santos City on May 9, 1995. Rogan, Isaias, one of the pioneering settlers who came with General Santos in 1939, in a personal interview conducted at his residence in Lagao, General Santos City on December 28, 1994. Royeca, Jorge, a pioneering doctor of the settlement, former mayor of General Santos Municipality and a former assemblyman of Region XI, in a personal interview in Dadiangas, General Santos City on December 22, 1976. He is now deceased. Tito, Janena, a member of the royalty, in a personal interview held at her residence in Dadiangas, General Santos City on July 25 and August 4, 1996. Villano, Jesus, a retired PACD official whose knowledge of the people and places of General Santos City proved invaluable to this study, in a personal interview held at his residence on December 23, 1995, January 25, July 7, and August 6, 1996.

B. Public Documents in the Philippine National Archives Cotabato, 1866: Expediente sobre formacion del pueblo de Tamontaca y elecciones de los barrios y rancherias con son total de 667 almas. MSS. Legajo 19, no. 1. Cotabato, 1986: Expediente sobre la consulta del Gobernador P.M. de Mindannao pdiendo aprobacion de las medidas adoptadas sobre organizacion militar y plantsamiento de la constitucion civil del pueblo caracter militar de Cotabato. MSS. Legajo 18, no. 2. Cotabato, 1871. Incidente sobre el campamento de Cotabato se declaro pueblo civil. MSS. Legajo 18, no. 3. Cotabato, 1871: Superior Decreto Inserto en la Gaceta de Manila. Legajo 18, no. 3. Cotabato, 1876: Yncidente sobre la entrada de un moro juramentado en el campamento de Cotabato 5 Distrito el dia 24 de Octubre 1876.

123 Cotabato, 1879: Expediente sobre el transladando oficio del Gobierno del 5 Distrito, relativo al abono de sueldos al Sultan del Mindanao y Datto Amirol. MSS. Legajo 18, no. 61. Cotabato, 1884: Expediendo relativo a las divergencias habida entre el Gobernador de Cotabato y el Padre Superior de la Mision Tamontaka sobre el reparte y cobranza de las cidulas personales y ereccion un pueblo independiente de dichos dos puntos. MSS: Legajo 18, no. 5. Cotabato, 1885: Expediente sobre los dattos amigos del España en Cotabato. MSS. Folio 1-5, no. 1124. Cotabato, 1885: Expendiente sobre los Moros de Buayajan y Talayan. MSS. Seccion de Guerra, no. 198. Cotabato, 1885: Expediente sobre cuatro comunicaciones del gobierno del 5 distrito sobre los Moros de Buayajan Y Talayan el mismo. MSS. Seccion de Guerra, Mayo 24, 1885. Cotabato, 1885: Expediente buenos servicios del Gobernadorcillo del Taviran en la captura de dos individuos. MSS. Seccion de Guerra, no. 375. Cotabato, 1889: Expediente sobre incidente de 15 Moro huidos de la racheria de Uito y resolucion adoptadas por el Gobierno del Cottabato. MSS. Seccion de Guerra, no. 251. Cotabato, 1895: Expediente sobre la observacion del Padre Juanmarti en 5 Distrito de Mindanao. MSS. Legajo 39, Folio 510. Cotabato, 1890. Expediente sobre las comandancia del Bahia del Illana y Sarangani. MSS. Legajo 33, Folio 31.

C. Documents Taken from the Philippine National Library and Other Government Publications. Annual Report of the Provincial Governor of Cotabato, 1946-47 and 1950, Historical Data File, Reel No. 24, MCF Section, Filipiniana, National Library Manila City. A Statistical Bulletin. General Santos City: The Office of the City Planning & Development Coordinator, 1991.

124 Bureau of Local Government, Department of Local Government and Community Development, Symbols of the State. Manila: Bureau of Local Government, 1975. Census of the Philippines, 1903, 1918, 1939, 1948, 1960, 1970, and 1990. City Treasurer's Office, General Santos City. Commonwealth Act No. 441. Comprehensive Opportunities for a Moving Economy. General Santos City: City Economic Management Office, Vol II, No. 1, 1991. Confidential Biographical Report on Major-General Paulino Santos, U.S. Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch. Executive Order No. 252 Amending Executive Order No. 243 date March 6, 1957 entitled " Condoning the Taxes on All Real Properties located in the Province of Cotabato," Official Gazette, March 15, 1957, p. 1374. Fourth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, 1903, Part I. Fifth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, Part I, 1905. Hargis, O.D. et. al. Report of the Mindanao Exploration Commission. New York: Refugee Economic Corporation, 1939. Land Resources Evaluation Project Agro-Socio-Economic Report, Province of South Cotabato, 1982. Leyva, Eligio T. and Santiago, Ireneo L., petitioners, vs. Commission on Elections, Municipality of General Santos, Cotabato, Municipal Mayor, Municipal Vice Mayor, Muncipal Council of General Santos, Cotabato, respondents," Official Gazette, Vol. 64, No. 30 (July 22, 1968). List of Existing Pasture Lease Within NRDXI - G, Koronadal, South Cotabato. Messages of the President, Commonwealth Government of the Philippines, Vol. 5, Part I. Philippine (Commonwealth). Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, 1938. Philippine (Commonwealth). National Information Office. Achievements of the Quezon Administration. Manila: National Printing Office, 1939.

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Philippine (Commonwealth). Office of the President. "Our government: What It Is Doing For Us," Bafias collection, Philippine National Library. Philippine (Commonwealth). Office of the Military Adviser. Report on National Defense in the Philippines. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1936. Philippine Regional Municipal Development Project, Final Report. Volume 1, 1991. Preliminary Report Growth Plan for South Cotabato and General Santos City, 1992. President Garcia's (Excerpt) on the "Economic Development of Mindanao and Sulu." Dated February 16, 1959. Presidential Decree No. 41 dated March 11, 1974 "Declaring Ancestral Lands Occupied and Cultivated by National Cultural Communities as Alienable and Disposable, and for other Purposes. Proclamation No. 168 dated 3 October 1963 "Reserving for Recreational and Health Resort Site Purposes a Certain Parcel of Land of the Public Domain situated in the Municipality of General Santos, Province of Cotabato, Island of Mindanao. Quezon Papers, Vol. II, Series VIII, Provincial and Municipal File, Mindanao and Sulu, 1915-1935, Rare Book Section, Filipiniana, Philippine National Library, Manila City. Quezon Papers, Vol. III. Executive Order No. 254, February 20, 1940 Revising Executive Order No. 195 dated March 13, 1939 establishing the classification of ports. Quirino's Administrative Order 73, November 12, 1948. Re: Investigation of Disputes Between the NLSA and NDC. Report of the Governor General of the Philippines, 1929. Report of the Philippine Commission, 1901-1915. Report of the Investigation of the Koronadal Muddle, Manila, dated August 24, 1946 by Atty. Tomas E. Testa, investigator, submitted to the Chief of the Executive Office, Malacañang, Manila. Record Profile of Ex-Mayor Irineo Santiago. General Santos Technical Academy, Bula Road, General Santos City.

126

Record Profile of Ex-Mayor Jorge Royeca. Royeca Residence, NLSA Road, Lagao, General Santos City. Record Profile of Ex-Mayor Antonio C. Acharon. Record Division, City Mayor's Office, General Santos City. Record Profile of Ex-Mayor Lucio Velayo. Record Division, City Mayor's Office, General Santos City. Record Profile of Mayor Rosalita T. Nuñez. Record Division, City Mayor'a Office, General Santos City. Republic Act No. 7160: The Local Government Code of 1991.

II. SECONDARY SOURCES

A. Newspapers and Periodicals

Alano, Segundo. "The Bilaans of Cotabato." Philippine Magazine. Vol. 33, No. 5 (May 1936). Amparo, Jesus P. "General Santos - Nation's Youngest City." Philippine Free Press. Vol. 58, No. 34 (August 21, 1965). Aquino, Rafael C. "General Santos - Its History, Economic Growth and Progress." Commerce. Vol. 57, No. 7 (February 1961). Aquino, Rafael C. "Harking Back to My Days With General Paulino Santos," February 27, 1979. Unpublished account. Aquino, Rafael C. and Ramon Maxey. City Inauguration Book, 1968. Barrera, Alfredo. "The Koronadal Valley Settlement As Seen By a Soil Technologist." Coffee and Cacao Journal, Vol. 6, no. 4 (June 1963). Barrun, Mylene A. "South Cotabato - The Last Frontier." The Manila Chronicle, July 13, 1992. Benitez, Joce C. "The Forgotten Tagabilis of Cotabato." Sunday Times Magazine, January 9, 1966.

127 Bernad, Miguel A. "Five Letters Describing the Exploration of the Pulangi or Rio Grande de Mindnao: 1890." Philippine Historical Review. Vol. I, No. 2 (1966) BRC Newsletter. General Santos City: Business Resource Center, Notre Dame of Dadiangas College March - April 1922; November - December 1991; and March - April 1994. Cabrera, Santiago B. "The Origin, Folkways and Customs of the Bilaans of Southern Cotabato." UNITAS, Vol. 40, No. 1 (March 1967). Carillo, Lovely. "General Santos City - Gateway to Opportunities." Dimension, Vol. III, No. 10 (October 1993). Daiwey, Edwin. "Growth Polygon." Philippine Free Press, July 30, 1994. Estember, Edith D. "Tabunaway and Mamalu." UNITAS, Vol. 39, No. 5 (December 1966). Eyre, James K. "Japan and the Philippines." Philippine Social Science Review, Vol. X, No. 1 (February 1938). Garcia, Mauro. "More Documents on Japanese Occupaton," Historical Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 4 (December 1966). "General Santos City Today." 1979 Souvenir Program. "General Santos Fishing Port Project: For Whom?" Moro Kurier, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1993), pp. 20-23. Harris, Marvin. "History and Significance of the Emic/Etic Distinction." Annual Review of Antrhopology, Vol. 5 (1976), pp. 329-349. Hinton, Jack. "Marco Polo in Southeast Asia." Journal of Southeast Asian History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (September 1964). Howe, Frederic C. "Philippine Homestead Settlement Plans." National Research Council of the Philippines, Bulletin No. 17. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1938. Hunt, Chester L. "Ethnic Stratification and Integration in Cotabato." Philippine Sociological Review, Vol. V (January 1957), pp. 13-28. Jaleco, Rodney J. "Fulfilling Promises." The Philippine Starweek, July 24, 1994.

128 Kasilag, Marcial. Policy of the Commonwealth Government Towards the Non-Christians in Mindanao and Sulu. Manila: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1938. Krinks, Peter. "Old Wine in New Bottle: Land Settlement and Agrarian Problem in the Philippines." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. V, No. 1 (March 1974). Kuder, Edward M. "The Moros in the Philippines." The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. IV, NO. 2 (February 1945). Mangalam, J.J. and Schwarzeller. "General Theory in the Study of Migration: Current Needs and Difficulties." The International Migration Review, Vol. III , Nos. 1 - 3 (1969), pp. 3 - 17. Manila Chronicle, June 12, 1994. Manila Chronicle, July 20, 1994. Masa, Jorge O. "Comments on Ethnic Relationship in Cotabato," The Philippine Social Science and Humanities Review. Vol. XIX, No. 1 (March 1954), pp. 73-76. McDiarmed, Alice Morrissey. "Agricultural Public Land Policy in the Philippines During the American Period." Philippine Law Journal, Vol. 28, No. 6 (December 1953), pp. 851-888. Pendleton, R.L. "Land Utilization and Agriculture of Mindanao, Philippine Islands," Geographical Review, Vol. 32 (1942), pp. 180-210. Pendleton, R.L. "Land Utilization in Southeastern Asia: A Review of Pelzer's Pioneer Settlement in the Tropics." Pacific Affairs, Vol. XIX (March 1946), pp. 101-108. Quiason, Serafin. "The Japanese Colony in Mindanao, 1904-1941." The Philippine Social Science and Humanities Review. Vol. XXIII, Nos. 2-4 (June-December 1958). Rivera, Rex. "Report on the GenSan's Chamber's 1995 Operations." Daily Express (February 7, 1996),pp. 4 & 9. Santos, Paulino Major-General. Speech Delivered in Camp Murphy, Rizal on February 1, 1939. In Who is Who Databan Vol. II. By Teodulo Ramirez, 1993.

129 Santos, Paulino Major-General. "The First Landing." Settlement Advocate, (February 1947). Santiago, Ireneo. Speech Delivered in the Celebration of the 1968 City Anniversary, General Santos City, February 27, 1968. In The Southener by Teodulo Ramirez, 1993. The Tribune, February 5, 1944. The Tribune, August 30, 1944.

B. Local Historical Studies of the Different Municipal Districts of Cotabato as found in Cotabato 1952 Guidebook. Edited by Simeon F. Millan. Cotabato: Goodwill Press, 1952. Alojado, Amador, "Mlang," pp. 243 - 250. Buenacosa, Fruto. "Tacurong," pp. 278 - 285. Caballero, Juan F. "Pagalungan," pp. 255 - 260. Cania, Domingo. "Glan," pp. 158 - 169. Domantay, Felipe M. "Kiamba," pp. 177 - 190. Gazo, Godofredo. "Koronadal," pp. 205 - 221. Glang, N.C. "Tumbao," pp. 286 - 290. Guiani, Guinaid and Cabanban, Ramon. "Dinaig," pp. 131 - 141. Guinani, Guinaid. "The Sinsuats, Friends of the People," pp. 295 - 300. Initan, Gorgonio P. "Pikit," pp. 268 - 277. Madrid, Lino. "Kidapawan," pp. 191 - 204. Manampan, Manib. "Parang," pp. 261 - 268. Mendoza, Edilberto. "Cotabato," pp. 98 - 130. Millan, Simeon F. "Cotabato, the Promised Land," pp. 2 - 65. Moralex, Pedro C. Capt. "The Resistance Movement in Cotabato," pp. 300 - 308.

130

Pascual, Marcelo and Agdeppa. "Kabacan," pp. 170 - 176. Repollo, Julio. "Midsayap, the Corn-belt of Mindanao," pp. 230 - 242. Rufino, Isabelo N. "Buluan, Sportsmen's Paradise," pp. 83 - 97. Siat, Josue Rem. "Buayan, Boom-Town of the South," pp. 66 - 82. Talusan, Usngan. "Nuling," pp. 250 - 254.

C. Theses and Dissertations Acapulco, Jennifer P. "The History of Migration of Tampakan, South Cotabato (1940 - 1950). Undergraduate thesis, Mindanao State University, General Santos City, 1995. Banguiran, Eugenio. "Political Development of General Santos City, 1939 - 1987." Undergraduate thesis, Mindanao State University, General Santos City, 1987. Buhisan, Virginia L. "The Socialization of the T'bolis in Kiamba, South Cotabato." Thesis (M.A.), Silliman University, Dumaguete City, 1980. Campado, Andrea V. "Cotabato to the Nineteenth Century." Thesis (M.A.), University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, 1984. Cosep, Herlin B. "The History of Klinan 6 Settlement (1940 - 1950)." Undergraduate thesis. Mindanao State University, General Santos City, 1996. Ferfas, Rosely C. "Barangay Paraiso : A Local History." Undergraduate thesis, Mindanao State University, General Santos City, 1996. Jamboy, Evelyn M. "The Resistance Movement in Lanao, 1942 - 1945." Thesis (M.A.), University of the Philippines, 1982. Juradas, Cirilo. "A Study of the Development of Makar Wharf." Undergraduate thesis. Mindanao State University, 1987. Lao, Mardonio. "Bukidnon and the Bukidnons, 1860 - 1945, Colonialist's Attempts at Integration." Thesis (Ph.D.), University of the Philippines, 1981.

131 Lopez, Maria Elena Zamora. "The Palawan: Land, Ethnic Relations and Political Process in the Philippine Frontier System." Thesis (Ph.D.), Harvard University, 1985. Munda, Maria Elisa S. "The Socio-Economic Changes in the Lives of the Original Settlers in Koronadal Valley and Their Implications for Social Welfare." Thesis (M.A.), The Philippine Women's University, Manila City, 1972. Plazos, Danilo R. "Digos - Padada Resettlement Project: Historical Study (1939 - 1949). Undergraduate thesis, Mindanao State University, General Santos City, 1996. Sobrejuanite, Jean M. "A Study of Historical Settlement of Caloocan, Koronadal, South Cotabato, 1940 - 1964." A paper in History 198 submitted to Prof. Deogracias G. Romero, Mindanao State University, General Santos City, 1996. Suzuki, Nobutaka. "Migration, Adaptation, and Ethnic Relations: A Case of Ilongo Christian Filipino Migrants in South Cotabato, Mindanao." Thesis (M.A.) Asian Center, University of the Philippines, 1992.

Wabe, Annelyn V. "Ang Kasaysayan ng Pagkaka-alis ng mga Katutubo sa Poblasyon Tupi, Timog Cotabato, Taon 1939 - 1953." A paper in History 198 submitted to Prof. Deogracias G. Romero, Mindanao State University, General Santos City.

D. Books and Other Sources Aguilar, Jose Nieto. Mindanao, Sus Historia y Geografia. Madrid: Imprenta del Cuerpo Administrativo del Ejercito, 1894. Alencon, Ferdinand. Lucon et Mindanao. Paris: Michael Levi Frerer Editeura, 1870. Translated from French into English by Armando Malay, Jr,. former faculty member of the Institute of Asian Studies, University of the Philippines. Burgess, Robert G. Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Manual. London: George Allen al Unwin, 1982. Combes, Francisco. Historia del Mindanao, Jolo y sus Adjacentes. Madrid: Compañia del IESVS, 1897. CCP Encyclopedia of the Philippine Arts, Vol. I.

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Cavada, Agustin de la. Historia Geografica, Geologica, Estadista. Manila: Imprenta del Ramirez y Giraudier, 1876. Churchill, Bernardita R. "A Socio-economic Perspective to Regional History," A paper read at the National Conference on Local History held at MSU-General Santos City on Septermber 19, 1987. Costello, Michael A. "The Demography of Mindanao. Mindanao: Land of Unfulfilled Promise. Edited by Mark Turner, R.S. May, and Lulu Respall Turner. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1992. Dampier, William. A New Voyage Around the World. London: Argonaut Press, 1927. De la Costa, Horacio. The Jesuits in the Philippines, 1521 - 1768. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1959. Duhaylungsod, Levita and Hyndman. Where T'boli Bells Toll. Copenhagen: IWGIA document No. 73, 1993. Eder, James F. On The Road to Tribal Extinction. London: University of California Press, 1987. Eder, James F. Who Shall Succeed? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. Estember, Edith D. "Tabunaway and Mamalu," UNITAS, Vol. 39, No. 5 (December 1966). Eyre, James K. "Japan and the Philippines," Philippines Social Science Review, Vol. X, No. 1 (February 1938). Fatima, S.Q. Islam Comes to Malaysia. Singapore: Malaysian Sociological Research Institute Ltd., 1963. Forrest, Thomas. A New Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas. Kuala Lumpur : Oxford University, 1969. Francia, Benito y Ponce de Leon and Parrado, Julian Gonzales. Las Islas Filipinas : Mindanao. Habana: Imprenta Esteriotipia y Galvanosplastia de Aribau y Compañia, 1874. Gonzales, Lydia F. "Ang Pagtatanong-tanong : Dahilan at Katangian," Sikolohiyang Pilipino: Teorya, Metodo at Gamit. Patnugot ni Rogelio PePua, 1982.

133 Gowing, Peter G. Muslim Filipino - Heritage and Horizon. Quezon City : New Day Publishers, 1979. Harries, Marvin. "History and Significance of the Emic/Etic Distinction," Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 5 (1976), pp. 329 - 349. Howe, F. "Philippine Homestead Plans," National Research Council of the Philippines Bulletin No. 17. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1938. Huke, Robert E. Shadows on the Land. Manila: Carmelo E. Bauermann, Inc., 1963. Hunt, Chester L. Cotabato, Melting Pot of the Philippines. Manila: UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, 1954. Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña. Pasyon and Revolution, Popular Movements in the Philipines, 1840 - 1910. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, c. 1979. Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña/ Maguindanao, 1860 - 1888. The Career of Datu Utto of Buayan. New York: SEA Program, Departmet of Asian Studies, 1971. Jaleco, Rodney J. "Fulfilling Promises," The Philippines Starweek, Vol. VIII, No. 22 (July 24, 1994). Jamboy, Evelyn M. "The Resistance Movement in Lanao, 1942 - 1945." Thesis (M.A.), 1982. Kasilag, Marcial. "Policy of the Commonwealth Government Towards the NonChristians in Mindanao and Sulu." Manila: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1938. Keats, John. They fought Alone. England: Northumberland Press, Ltd. , 1963. Laarhoven, Ruurdje. Triumph of Moro Diplomacy. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1989. Lichauco, Luis. "Land Settlement in the Philippines," Land Tenure. Edited by K.K. Parsons, et. al. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1956. Mastura, Michael O. "A short History of Cotabato and its Historic Places," Cotabato City Guidebook. General Santos City: Victoria Press, 1979.

134 Mayo, Katherine. The Isles of Fear; the Truth About the Philippines. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1925. Millan, Simeon F. Cotabato 1952 Guidebook. Cotabato: goodwill Press, 1952. Montero y Gay, Claudio. Conferencia Sobre Las Islas Filipinas. Madrid: Boletin de la Sociedad Geografica de Madrid, 1876. Montero y Vidal, Jose. Historia de la Pirateria Malayo-Mahometano en Mindanao, Jolo y Borneo. Madrid: Imprenta y Fundicion de Manuel Tello, 1883, Vol. I. Munda, Amado. The Last Days of General Santos. Cotabato: Notre Dame Press, n. d. Pelzer, Karl J. Pioneer Settlement in the Asiatic Tropics. New York: American Geographical Society, 1948. Phelan, John Leddy. The Hispanization of the Philippines. London: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1959. Ramirez, Teodolo. The Southerner. Davao City: Midtown Printing Co. , 1993. Ramirez, Teodolo. Who is Who Databank, Vol. II. Rivera, Juan a. Lt. Col. "Mindanao: A Philippine War Account," Office of the Military History Collection, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. Rodil, B.r. the Minoritization of the Indigenous Communities of Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago. Iligan City: alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao, Inc. , 1994. Saleeby, Najeeb M. Studies on Moro History, Law and Religion. Manila: Department of Interior, 1904. Silva, Rad D. Two Hills of the Same Land: Truth Behind the Mindanao Problem. Iligan City: Mindanao - Sulu Critical Studies and Research Group, 1979. Tan, Samuel K. The Filipino Muslim Armed Struggle, 1900 - 1972. Makati: Filipinas Foundation, Inc,., 1977. Tuan, Yi Fu. Topophilia, A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values. New Jersey: Prentice - Hall Inc., 1974.

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Toland, John. But Not in Shame. New York: Random House, 1961. United States Army in World War II. Triumph in the Philippines. Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1963. Wernstedt, Frederick L. and Spencer, J.E. The Philippine Island World: A Physical, Cultural and Regional Geography. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967. Willoughby, Charles A. The Guerilla Resistance Movement in the Philippines: 1941 - 1945. New York: Vantage Press, 1973.