Ilocos Sur
Ilocos Sur, officially the Province of Ilocos Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the capital of Vigan, while Candon is the most-populous city. Ilocos Sur is bordered by Ilocos Norte and Abra to the north, Mountain Province to the east, La Union and Benguet to the south and the South China Sea to the west.
Ilocos Sur was established in 1818 when the province of Ilocos was split into two: the north and the south. At that time, it included parts of Abra and the upper half of present-day La Unión. The current boundaries of the province set in March 1917 by virtue of Act No. 2683.
The province is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, namely, the Heritage City of Vigan and the Santa Maria Basilica Shrine.
History
Early history
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the coastal plains in northwest Luzón from Bangui in the north to Namacpacan in the south were part of a region called the Ylokos. It lies between the South China Sea in the west and the Northern Cordilleras in the east. On the western side, the land is sandy; while on the eastern side the land is rocky. This left a narrow strip of plains for cultivation. The mountains come so close to the sea that the highway is carved into them. The pressure of an increasing population and the need for land made the people thrifty, and they built their villages near small bays and coves called looc in the local dialect. These coastal inhabitants were known as Ylocos, which means "from the lowlands". The region was then called by the ancient name Samtoy, from sao mi ditoy.Spanish colonial era
The Ilocos region was a thriving and fairly advanced cluster of towns and settlements familiar to Chinese, Japanese, and Malay traders when the Spanish explorer Juan de Salcedo arrived in Vigan on June 13, 1572. The Spanish made Cabigbigaan their headquarters, which Salcedo called Villa Fernandina. It also became known as the Intramuros de Ilocandia. Salcedo declared all of Northern Luzón an encomienda. He was the encomendero of Vigan and lieutenant governor of Ylokos until his death in July 1574.Augustinian missionaries evangelized the region, establishing parishes and building churches that still stand. Three centuries later, Vigan became the seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia.
The coast of Samtoy was known to the Spanish colonizers in 1572, when Juan de Salcedo traveled along it. Sent by Miguel López de Legazpi to explore the island of Luzón, Salcedo founded Ciudad Fernandina in 1574 in Bigan, in present-day Ilocos Sur. It became the center of Spanish rule and influence, including the evangelization and pacification movements. Due to Salcedo's efforts, the settlements in Tagurín, Santa Lucía, Nalbacán, Bantay, Candón and Sinayt were pacified and paid tribute to the King of Spain.
Conversions
According to the Spanish chronicler Pigafetta, "The Ilocos are all Christians and are the humblest and most tractable". The Augustinians established parishes in Santa in 1576, Tagurín in 1586, Santa Lucía in 1586, Nalbacán in 1587, Candón in 1591, and Bantay in 1590. They built a church in Bigan in 1641 which later became the Cathedral of the Episcopal See of Nueva Segovia after 117 years.Partition of Ylokos
Ylokos consisted of the present-day provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra and part of Mountain Province. A royal decree of February 2, 1818 separated Ilocos Norte from Ilocos Sur, the latter including northern La Union and present-day Abra. The sub-provinces of Lepanto and Amburayan in Mountain Province were annexed by Ilocos Sur.The passage of Act No. 2683 by the Philippine Legislature in March 1917 defined the province's current geographical boundaries.
Vigan
, almost four centuries old, was once known as Kabigbigaan. Bigan was later changed to Vigan. To the Spanish it was Villa Fernandina, in honor of King Ferdinand.Vigan was founded in 1574 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo as the capital of Ylocos. The town, with a population of 8,000, was the center of Ilocano civilization before Salcedo's arrival. It was somewhat prosperous, trading with the Chinese and Japanese who brought jars, silk and crockery through the nearby port of Pandan, Caoayan.
In the 19th century, Vigan traded with Europe. Ships loaded with indigo delivered their goods to textile mills. The invention of chemical dyes in Germany eliminated this industry. Affluent citizens of Vigan stocked their homes with statuettes of brass and iron, dinnerware, and other artifacts of European civilization, including fine ivory, inlaid furniture, and Chinese wares.
Social institutions
Salcedo bequeathed his encomienda to a select group who continued the tenancy system which developed into the practice of caciquism, landlordism and usury. The kaillanes revolted against the aristocracy in 1762. Vigan's two sections during the mid-19th-century indigo boom—one for the meztizos and the other for the naturales—remain distinct.Migration
Spanish colonizers used free labor in the development of Ilocos Sur. Resentment of free labor triggered sporadic revolts, and those who refused to be slaves or tenants left the region for Abra and the Cagayan Valley. From 1898 to the first decade of the 20th century, covered oxcarts moved to the rich plains of Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac. Children were told tales of Lam-ang, Angalo, Aran, Juan Sadot and other legendary Ilocano characters. Folk songs such as "Pamulinawen", "Manang Biday", and "Dungdungwen Kanto Unay, Unay" became popular.During the second phase of Ilocano migration, from 1908 to 1946, surplus labor migrated to the plantations of Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. Ilocos Sur's population density was 492 per square mile at the height of migration, which made it the most densely populated region in the Philippines except for Manila. The last group of labor migrants to Hawaii was in 1946, when 7,365 men were recruited by the United States Department of Labor. Vigan was the recruiting center. More than eighty percent of Filipinos in Hawaii are of Ilocano origin.
Economic prosperity
The first half of the 19th century was an economic boom for Ilocos Sur. During this period, the cotton, tobacco and indigo industries were encouraged by the government. With the operations of the Royal Company of the Philippines, the textile industry was developed on a large scale and the abolition of the tobacco monopoly accelerated economic progress.Revolts
The beginning of Spanish rule to the first decade of the nineteenth century was characterized by revolts against tribute, forced labor and monopolies. The Ilocos revolt, better known as Silang's Revolt, was aimed at the babaknangs and the alcalde-mayor of Vigan. After Diego Silang's assassination on May 28, 1763, his wife Maria Josefa Gabriela continued the fight until she was captured and hanged on September 20, 1763. A revolt against the government monopoly of basi, the native wine, began on September 16, 1807. Regular troops and recruits defeated the rebels.On March 25, 1898, Isabelo Abaya began an uprising in Candón and raised a red flag in the town plaza as a response to Spanish abuses and oppression. A revolutionary government was established, and several other revolts followed. The Spanish sent shock troops to re-occupy Candon, and most of the leaders and participants in the uprising who surrendered were arrested and executed.
Philippine Revolution and Philippine-American War
Ilocos Sur, like other Philippine provinces, rallied behind Emilio Aguinaldo in the 1896 Philippine Revolution. When Vigan was captured, the rebels made Bishop's Palace their headquarters. On March 21, 1898, Mariano Acosta of Candón established a provincial revolutionary government. When General Aguinaldo returned from exile in Hong Kong, he sent Manuel Tinio to wage guerilla warfare on the Americans. Vigan was Tinio's headquarters until it was occupied by the U.S. 45th Infantry Division under James Parker on December 4, 1899. Gregorio del Pilar died on December 2, 1899, in the Battle of Tirad Pass.American invasion
Under the Americans, a civil government was established in Ilocos Sur on September 1, 1901. Mena Crisólogo, a delegate to the Malolos Congress, was the first provincial governor.Japanese occupation
On December 10, 1941, a contingent of Japanese Imperial forces landed in Mindoro, Vigan, Santa, Pandan and Caoayan. In Cervantes, the Battle of Bessang Pass was fought between Tomoyuki Yamashita's forces and the U.S. 21st Infantry; it was the greatest victory by Filipino guerrillas over the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II. The guerrillas mounted a series of attacks that lasted for almost six months in early 1945.Marcos era
Much of the history of Ilocos Sur during the 21 years of the Marcos dictatorship are not well-documented, with the most prominent portrayals of Ilocos Sur history preferring to skip from the years immediately after Philippine independence in the 1940s, jumping straight to contemporary times.In Ilocos Sur, the most prominent protests and incidents of the Marcos era – such as the infamous "Bantay incident: and the assassination of Reoresentative Floro Crisologo - actually took place before the declaration of martial law in 1972, and involved the Marcos administration's support for local strongmen rather than national controversies.
Organizations such as the Federation of Free Farmers and Federation of Free Workers, sometimes supported by progressive elements of the Catholic Church, continued to fight for the labor rights of the poor until the 1972 declaration of Martial law made it illegal to peaceful protests.
Some of the frustrated protesters then opted to pursue an armed resistance against the dictatorship, many of whom only returned to peaceful life after the Marcoses were finally deposed by the civilian-led People Power revolution of 1986.
There were numerous human rights violations documented in Ilocos Sur in connection to the Marcos martial law era, and there was at least one camp in the province that held political Prisoners during the Marcos era - a "Camp Diego Silang", which is different from the Police Camp established in La Union in 1989.