Camiguin
Camiguin, officially the Province of Camiguin, is an island province in the Philippines located in the Bohol Sea, about off the northern coast of mainland Mindanao. It is geographically part of Region X, the Northern Mindanao Region of the country and formerly a part of Misamis Oriental province.
Camiguin is the second-smallest province in the country in both population and land area after Batanes. The provincial capital is Mambajao, which is also the province's largest municipality in both area and population.
The province is famous for its sweet lanzones, to which its annual Lanzones Festival is dedicated and celebrated every third weekend of October. It is home to lush interior forest reserves, collectively known as the Mount Hibok-Hibok Protected Landscape, which has been declared by all Southeast Asian nations as an ASEAN Heritage Park. The province also boasts three National Cultural Treasures, namely, the Old Bonbon Church ruins in Catarman, the Sunken Cemetery of Catarman, and the Spanish-era watchtower in Guinsiliban. The three sites were declared for “possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value which is highly significant and important to the country and nation.”
Additionally, the island province has numerous Important Cultural Treasures, such as the Old Mambajao Fountain - situated in the town's rotonda, the Old Mambajao Municipal Building, the façade of the Santo Rosario Church in Sagay, and 14 heritage and ancestral houses. The sites were declared for “having exceptional cultural, artistic and historical significance to the Philippines.” All cultural treasures were declared by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. There have been moves to establish a dossier nomination for the province to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Camiguin is sometimes called Camiguin Sur or Camiguin de Mindanao to distinguish it from Camiguin de Babuyanes of the Babuyan Islands, which in turn is referred to as Camiguin Norte. Both are volcanic islands.
Etymology
The name Camiguin is derived from the native word Kamagong, a species of ebony tree that thrives near Lake Mainit in the province of Surigao del Norte, in the mainland Mindanao, where the earlier inhabitants of the islands, the Manobos, originated. Kamigin, the local dialect of Camiguin, is the northernmost variant of the Manobo languages.An earlier Spanish geography book spells the island as Camiguing. There is reason to suppose the Spaniards dropped the final g, given how the phoneme does not exist in Spanish. Today it is rendered as Camiguín.
History
Early history
The island of Camiguin is believed to have been first inhabited by the Manobo people of Surigao del Norte, as evidenced by the distinctly connected language between the two groups. The island was used as a trading stop point by various merchants and traders from the Rajahnate of Butuan, the Kedatuan of Dapitan, the ancient people of the Anda peninsula, and possibly the Rajahnate of Cebu and the animist Maranao of Lanao before the Islamization of the Lanao provinces.Spanish colonial era
Old Spanish documents indicate that the explorers Ferdinand Magellan and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi landed in Camiguin in 1521 and 1565, respectively. The first Spanish settlement was established in 1598 in what is now Guinsiliban. Guinsiliban, which comes from the old Kinamiguin word Ginsil-ipan has an old Spanish watchtower where the Camiguinons kept watch for Moro pirates.The first major Spanish settlement, established in 1679, was called Katagman or Katadman. The settlement grew and prospered but was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vulcan in 1871. The former location is what is now Barangay Bonbon of Catarman.
Sagay, located south of Catarman, was formally established as a town in 1848. The word Sagay is derived from the name of poisonous fruit trees that grow in the area. Mambajao became a town in 1855. The name was coined from the Visayan terms mamahaw, meaning to usher breakfast, and bajao, which is leftover boiled rice. In the early 1900s, Mambajao prospered and became the busiest port in Northern Mindanao. Mahinog was established as a municipality in 1860. The name Mahinog comes from a Visayan word meaning "to ripen" or "to become ripe". Although Guinsiliban was the oldest settlement in the island, it was only in 1950 that it became a municipality. Mahinog was formerly governed by Mambajao while Guinsiliban was formally governed from Sagay.
American invasion era
In 1901, in the middle of the Philippine–American War, American soldiers landed in Camiguin to assume political control over the island. A group of Camiguinons, armed with bolos and spears, led by Valero Camaro, fought them in a short battle in Catarman. Valero Camaro was killed by a bullet in the forehead. Further study is needed before he and his band can be recognized as patriots in the same way the Katipuneros are recognized. There is no study that identifies an independence movement in Camiguin during the American occupation. However, a small detail with regards to the colonial resistance in Cagayan, Misamis indicates that Camiguinons supported in a clandestine way the revolutionary activities of the Cagayanons against the new colonizers. They offered their arms and ammunitions and a typewriter to the revolucionarios in Cagayan. In the same year, Camiguin became part of the newly established province of Misamis by virtue of Act No. 128.In 1903, the first public school in Camiguin was built in Mambajao but what is known today as the Mambajao Central School was completed in 1912. On September 9, 1904, the first public water system, known as Las Aguas Potables de Mambajao, spearheaded by an admired civic leader by the name of Placido Reyes and co-operated by townspeople, was inaugurated.
In 1929, Camiguin Island became part of Oriental Misamis when Misamis was divided into two provinces by virtue of Act No. 3537. The change took effect on January 1, 1930.
Japanese occupation
On June 18, 1942, the Japanese Imperial Army landed in Camiguin and set up a government in Mambajao. They gutted central Mambajao in reprisal to guerrilla activities in the area. The remains of some of these buildings still exist today.Postwar era
On July 4, 1946, the Philippines gained independence from the United States. On June 22, 1957, Camiguin formally became a subprovince of Misamis Oriental through Republic Act No. 2021 signed by President Carlos P. Garcia.Finally, on June 18, 1966, Camiguin was made into a separate province through Republic Act No. 4669 which was formally signed in 1968.
Martial Law dictatorship
The beginning months of the 1970s had marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, with many implications for Camiguin. During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects. This caused the Philippine economy took a sudden downwards turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which in turn led to a period of economic difficulty and a significant rise of social unrest.In 1972, one year before the expected end of his last constitutionally allowed term as president in 1973, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law. This allowed Marcos to remain in power for fourteen more years, during which Camiguin went through many social and economic ups and downs. Camiguinon citizens were among those who were victims of the human rights abuses during Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos; some of them were among the Northern Mindanaoans whose grievances were formally recognized and granted the right to reparations in 2014.
Recent history
In 2004, an area in the core of the island which included the Mambajao and its highest peak Mount Timpoong, as well as Mount Catarman including the active volcano Mount Hibok-Hibok, as a protected area named the Timpoong and Hibok-Hibok Natural Monument. Proclamation 570 s. 2004, which created the monument, also set aside its adjacent areas as "buffer zones" for the protection of the area. During the 13th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment in 2015, the Timpoong and Hibok-Hibok monument was formally declared an ASEAN Heritage Park.Geography
The province consists primarily of Camiguin Island, as well as a few other surrounding minor islets including:- White Island, about west of the town of Mambajao
- Mantigue Island, about south of Mambajao.
Physical
Administrative divisions
Camiguin comprises five municipalities, which are further subdivided into a total of 58 barangays.Demographics
The population of Camiguin in the 2020 census was 92,808 people, with a density of.The people of Camiguin are called Camiguingnon or Camiguinon. Cebuano is the most spoken language in the province, although Kinamigin is considered to be the indigenous language. Today, Kinamigin is still spoken by a few people in the municipalities of Sagay and Guinsiliban. Other languages spoken varyingly include Boholano dialect of Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Kapampangan and Waray. Tagalog and English are also widely spoken and understood by the local population.