In the early seventeenth century, before the arrival of the Jesuits in Surigao, missionary records point to Baganga, including the forts of Tandag (Surigao del Sur) and Linao (Bunawan, Agusan del Sur), as one of three Augustinian Recollect[1] chaplaincies in Mindanao.[2] As a town under the old province of Caragha (Caraga), it was one of three villages (the other two being Cateel and Bislig, Surigao del Sur) that was affected by an insurrection but was luckily contained later by a Spanish fleet led by Captain Joan Mendez Porras, and supported by fathers Fray Lorenzo de San Facundo and Fray Diego de Santa Ana.

According to missionary chronicles, Baganga, in 1637-38, was under the ecclesiastical direction of Zebu (Cebu)[3] and administratively managed by the ‘district of Bislig’ alongside the villages of Hinatuan (Surigao del Sur), Cateel (Davao Oriental), Caraga and Bislig.[4] Around 1650, the community had around 800 “other Christian families.”

Baganga got its name from the native or wild berry. Known in English as the bramble shrub, the thorny plant belongs to the rose family (Rosaceae) and counts among its members the blackberry and raspberry. The bush, with spikes and hooks, has a unique growth form, has long, arching canes that bear fruit only in its second year, has re-curved thorns, some of them hair-like, and has trifoliate or palmately-compound leaves.[5]

Towards the end of Spanish rule, just after the declaration of Philippine Independence by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, Baganga became a vital hub for insurgents. It was here that Don Prudencio Garcia, a Spanish mestizo from Albay, led an uprising, bloodlessly taking over the local government, raised the Spanish flag over the town hall, and declared his intention to create chaos.[6] Prior to this 1898 revolt, he was a colonel who commanded the military police detachment in Baganga.

During the American regime, Baganga[7] was created as a town under Act No. 21[8] passed by the Legislative Council of the Moro Province on Oct. 29, 1903 and approved by the Philippine Commission on Nov. 23, 1903. Baganga became one of the five Davao towns, including Mati, Cateel, Caraga and Davao City, that was established under the new statute, which, under Sec. 9, delineated its boundaries.

“The municipality of Baganga shall include all territory bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean and on the north by the southern boundary of the municipality of Cateel… on the west by the watershed of the mountains parallel to the coast, on the south by the east and west line equidistant from the villages of San Luis and Baculin and all islands within the three marine league limit. The municipal town shall be Baganga.”[9]

As of 1904[10], the municipality of Baganga, with a population of 2,240, had already four barrios with 10 villages, two of which were organized only that year. As a flourishing farming community, it had about 650,000 hills of hemp, about 90,000 of them planted during the year, and 800 acres of land planted to rice. At that time, V. Serra, described as “an exceptionally intelligent and energic (sic) Filipino,” was the municipal president, the equivalent of today’s mayor.

Aside from being a military detachment, Baganga was one of eleven places under the Mindanao and Sulu department where the government-owned Postal Savings Bank was represented by postmasters. The other places receiving savings deposits in behalf of the bank included Zamboanga, Jolo, Cotabato, Parang, Dapitan, Davao, Camp Keithley (Dansalan), Iligan, Malabang, and Siasi.[11]

Like most emerging towns, it, too, had a functional bureaucracy. As of 1909, the Philippine Legislature appointed Antonio Avellanosa[12] as the town’s justice of the peace under the Fourteenth Judicial District, replacing Christian Ade, an American, who died in a drowning incident. On Sept. 16, 1912, George Lesslie, another American, was appointed auxiliary justice of the peace of Baganga, taking over Dalmacio Ferrando who resigned.[13]

A Report of the Philippine Health Service covering the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1917, on the other hand, mentioned Baganga as site of one of the Catholic (as opposed to those that were categorized as ‘private’ and ‘municipal’) cemeteries included in the census. The other burial grounds found in the region then were located in Davao, San Victor, San Jose, San Pedro, Manurigao, San Antonio, Palo Alto, Zaragosa, San Fermin, Caraga, Mati, Dapnan, Santiago, Mercedes, Santa Fe, San Roque, San Alfonso, Maureses, Holy Cross, Cateel, Kinablafigan, Baculin, Concepcion, San Luis, San Miguel, Boston, Arayon, and San Isidro. Several other graveyards were also approved that year, among them in Malagos, Tagatpan (Tagakpan) and Baguio, in the municipal district of Guianga; Magnaga in the municipal district of Pantukan; and Daliao, Sirawan and Talomo, in the municipality of Davao.

1918 was a grim year for Baganga. In November of that year it was hit by “one real outbreak of whooping cough with an autochthonous origin,” the only one recorded in Mindanao and Sulu at the time. Although mild in character, the epidemic resulted in 346 cases. Six fatalities were traced to pneumonia complications. As a result of the rash, pupils that were afflicted by the disease were excluded from attending school, and public gatherings, as a matter of contingency, were prohibited.[14]

Now a first-class town, Baganga remains a rustic community that is heavily reliant on agriculture and fishery, and proud of its idyllic yet rugged coastline that faces the Pacific Ocean. It is accessible from Davao City via Cateel or through the coastal road that passes across Mati, Davao Oriental’s premier town.

As a political subdivision with 48,355 inhabitants[15], Baganga has eighteen (18) barangays, namely Baculin, Banao, Batawan, Batiano, Binondo, Bobonao, Campawan, Central (Poblacion), Dapnan, Kinablangan, Lambajon, Mahanub, Mikit, Salingcomot, San Isidro, San Victor, Lucod[16], and Saoquigue.



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[1] The Recollects arrived in the Philippines in 1605.

[2] Emma H. Blair and James H. Robertson. The Philippine Islands 1493-1898. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1905, Vol. 21, 162.

[3] B&R, Vol. 28, 152 & 175

[4] Ibid., Vol. 41, 137.

[5] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved Aug. 1, 2009.

[6] “The Jesuits During the Philippine Revolution,” Philippine Studies 35 (1987) 306-311.

[7] In the May 1901 Special Report of the United States Board on Geographic Names (Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 14.), the name Baganga referred to as “ensenada, fondeadero, pueblo, y rio’ (cove, anchorage, town and river).

[8] The official title of the law is “An Act Providing for the establishment of the municipalities of Mati, Davao, Makar, Cottabato, Malabang, Dapitan, Cateel, Baganga and Caraga, and enlarging the municipalities of Iligan and Zamboanga.”

[9] Report of the Philippine Commission, 1904, p. 599.

[10] Second Annual Report of the Governor of Moro Province for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1905. Manila; Bureau of Printing, 1905, p. 36.

[11] Report of the Governor General of the Philippines. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1915.

[12] Journal of the Philippine Commission. Second Session of the First Philippine Legislature, Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1910, p. 24.

[13] Journal of the Philippine Commission, Third Philippine Legislature, Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1913, p. 813.

[14] Report of the Philippine Health Service for the Fiscal Year from January 1 to December 31, 1919. Vicente de Jesus, M.D., Director of Health. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1920, p. 355.

[15] 2007 Census of Population

[16] The barangay was created as a result of the plebiscite held on Jan. 29, 1989.