Bagac Background Bagac had been in existence for a long time as a distant barrio of Mariveles, formerly a corregimiento (district) under the territorial jurisdiction of the Province of Cavite. After Morong was established as a town in 1607, Bagac became one of its barrios since the latter’s population and income cannot support a municipality. During this period, Bagac comprised of the sitios of Saysain, Banawang, Tiis, Sinapsap, Kabayo, Salmon, Paysawan and Parang na Mahaba. Later on, immigrants from different parts of the archipelago arrived in Bagac and developed its idle lands. Mariveles and Morong, together with the barrio of Bagac became part of the newly-recognized province Bataan in 1754. Bagac finally became a regular town in 1873. Bagac’s name was simply derived from the Visayan word “Bagak” and/or “Bagakay.” When translated to Tagalog, “Bagak” literally means “Kawayan.” “Bagakay“ means ‘kawayanan.” Bamboo tree is Bagak’s English transcription. It is a established fact that men from the southern islands of the Visayas and Mindanao constituted the biggest number of early settlers in Luzon during the pre-Spanish time. The Visayans, specifically the Warays, also travelled north to be part of the booming barter trade in Manila. A big number of these seafarers possibly ended up in the western part of Bataan after missing the North and South Channels leading into Manila Bay. They were the ones who gave Bagac its name based on the great number of bamboo trees growing along its shores and at the foot of Mount Bataan and Mount Mariveles. “Longos-Kawayan,” a reef jotting out of Biaan (Mariveles) used to be the unloading point and/or stockyard of bamboos cut from the Bagac forest area. The name alone fortifies the actual derivation of the name of Bagac town. It could also be concluded that these Visayan seafarers were the ones who gave the names of Kinawan, Binuangan, Paysawan. Caibobo, Salamang, Pasinay and Saysain. These names are definitely not common Tagalog words. Fr. Rodrigo Aganduru y Moriz de San Miguel, an early missionary from Villadolid (Spain) and recognized as the founder of Morong and Bagac, surely found these seafarers already settled in the two distant villages. He merely adapted ‘Bagak’ as the name of the thinly-populated barrio as given to him by the natives. In the case of Morong, it can only be surmised that its name originated from him (Fr. Aganduru because of its Spanish derivation. The bamboo and other hardwood trees at the foot of Mount Bataan and Mount Mariveles suffered great devastation when the Cadwallder-Gibson Lumber Company started its operation in Paysawan from 1915 to 1928. Another conflagration of the same intensity hit the Bagac and Morong areas during World War II. Still, the bamboo trees survived the terrible defoliation. Nowadays we still see numerous patches of bamboo groves along the plains and mountainous areas of Bagac and Morong to remind the people of their great history.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 01:23:03 +0000