Occidental Mindoro
Occidental Mindoro, officially the Province of Occidental Mindoro, is a province in the Philippines located in the Mimaropa region. The province occupies the western half of the island of Mindoro. Its capital is Mamburao, but the most populous municipality is San Jose. Sablayan is its largest municipality in terms of area, occupying almost half of the entire province. As of 2020, Occidental Mindoro has 525,354 inhabitants.
The province is bordered on the east by the province of Oriental Mindoro, and on the south by the Mindoro Strait. The South China Sea is to the west of the province and Palawan is located to the southwest, across the Mindoro Strait. Batangas is to the north, separated by the Verde Island Passage, a protected marine area and the center of the world's marine biodiversity.
History
Early history
was originally known to the ancients as Ma-i. It was formally called Mait, and known to the Chinese traders before the coming of the Spanish. Its existence was mentioned in the old Chinese chronicles in 775 A.D. and more elaborately in 1225.The natives of Mindoro were called Manguianes by the Spaniards. But the natives refer to themselves by their ethnic or clan identification. There were seven such ethnic or clan distinctions, which are differentiated by language and areas where each can be found. There are no authentic documents in existence explaining the origins of the Mangyan, but later theoreticians postulate that they migrated from Indonesia before 775 A.D. They hopped from island to island, until finally settling down permanently in Mindoro. It appeared that clan settlements existed in the North as well as in the southern ends of the island. By 779, the southwest coast of the island was already a known trading center, and its fine natural harbor frequented by Indian and Chinese maritime traders who plied the route.
The first semblance of a political system in Mindoro's experience was provided by China in the 13th century. Chinese imperial forces under Admiral Cheng Ho with a powerful armada of 60 war junks visited Mindoro and other parts of the archipelago in the 13th century, with the purpose of gaining more trading favors for Chinese merchants. Cheng Ho tried to exert some effort of rule as a prelude to annexation. Internal trouble in the China, however, recalled the armada, and the attempts to annex the archipelago did not materialize.
Some time afterwards, Islamic influence reached the island, probably, through Suluanons who traded with the natives. Moslem peoples, possibly - Orang Dampuans crossed Mindoro Strait from Paragua and settled along the coastal areas, developing progressive maritime communities.
Spanish colonial era
In 1570, the Spanish began to explore the island and named it Mina de Oro after finding some of the precious metal, though no major gold discoveries were made. In 1572, Captain Juan de Salcedo of the Spanish expeditionary army set sail from Cebu and explored the west coast of the island, encountering the Mangyans, who appeared used to seeing foreigners and were unsurprised at their arrival. Instead, Salcedo and Martin de Goiti were surprised to see cross designs on the clothing and basketwork of the natives, and thought some early Christian missionary had been there before them. But later scholars believed the design was Indic in origin and had no religious meaning.The Spaniards also encountered Moro settlers in Lubang Island that were vassals of and paid tribute to the kingdom of Maynila in the North, under Rajah Sulayman. This was the first real political system in the island. The Moros, who apparently had heard of the invaders from their kinsmen in the south, engaged the small Spanish force who landed on their shore, but the Spaniards' arquebuses and cannon fire from the ships hoved-to broadside to the island took the field. The Moros fled to the hills, and Salcedo burned their village. After the defeat of Sulaiman in the same year, Mindoro and other vassal states of Maynila became subject of Spanish rule. The island was officially referred to from then on as Mina de Oro, compressed later on into Mindoro. The ancient name, Ma-i, fell into disuse.
The Spanish-Moro war continued in Mindoro until the end of the Spanish regime in the 19th century. In 1602, Moro forces plundered the most important Spanish towns along the coasts of Mindoro and Southern Luzon, and subsequently reestablished their hold in Mindoro by constructing a fort at Mamburao. From 1720 onwards, Moro raids became devastating not only to the island's Hispanized communities but to other parts of the archipelago as well. In 1757, the Moros, more particularly, the Iranuns organized a war fleet of 74 fast native ships called prahus. They destroyed several settlements in the island, carrying off their inhabitants to be sold as slaves in Jolo. The fact that a Moro fort at Mamburao threatened Manila, the capital of the colonial government, embarrassed the conquerors in the eyes of their native subjects, which was politically intolerable to the Spanish administrators. So in 1766, the Spaniards gathered a large force of 1,200 marines, augmented by a large army of native mercenaries, and burned the Iranun fort. But the Moros simply fled into the hills to escape, and came back when the counter-raid was over and the raiders returned to Manila.
The Moros not only plundered goods, but also took prisoners of war which they sold as slaves. Many Islamic leaders in Mindanao supported piratical raids with arms, ammunition and food, not only because it was a patriotic act, but also because it was profitable. They received part of the "prisoners of war" when a successful raider returned, which earned them huge amounts. Most of the raids were successful because of the fast watercraft in the employ of the raiders. It was not until the commission of the vapor, fast steamships, in the mid-18th century that the Spanish navy successfully patrolled the archipelagic waters, and fared well against the wind-powered native seacraft of the pirates. Many pirate fleets were sunk at sea, or confined to their hiding places. The invention of machines during the Industrial Revolution, which gradually replaced manual labor, and the consecutive abolitions of slave ownership in many liberalized countries, caused a great decline in the demand for slave labor. Many of the pirate markets closed, and prices fell severely for captives. With losses to the Spanish navy increasing, and the eventual fall in profits from slave selling, raiding became less appealing to the Iranuns and their supporters. The pirate fort in Mamburao was abandoned, and the Moros retreated to Mindanao to consolidate their forces and continue the resistance in Mindanao. The Spanish presence in Mindoro was strentgthened.
In 1896, the Philippine Revolution broke out. In 1897, the Spaniards posted a rifle company of 140 troops and 51 marines to Calapan to secure the island from the forces of General Emilio Aguinaldo and his revolutionary army, then beginning to overrun Spanish positions in the archipelago. In 1898, the revolutionaries attacked and overwhelmed the settlement of Bongabong and western Mindoro. Finally, they marched against the capital of Calapan with some 1,000 ill-armed foot soldiers, However, the Spanish defenses held. It was only the arrival of 1,000 regular army troops with artillery, all under the command of Miguel Malvar in Batangas, that compelled the surrender of the Spaniards under Governor Morales. On July 1, 1898, Spanish rule in Mindoro Island, lasting for 328 years, ended.
American occupation
A new battalion "Mindoro", with two rifle companies, was formed under the command of Captain Ruperto Hernandez and Estanislao Cayton, both from Batangas. The revolutionary political reins were held by the elite, who also held the same reins under the Spaniards.In 1910, the successor United States politico-military administration granted over of land to the Welch and Fargo Sugar Company in what is now San Jose, which built the first modern and biggest sugar mill in the Far East at Siete Central. In the same year, the boldly developing community of sugar cane planters, mill workers, company professionals and businessmen enabled the creation of San Jose as an official town.
Philippine independence
In 1950, the province of Mindoro was divided into Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro by virtue of Republic Act No. 505.Contemporary history
In April 2023, the provincial government placed the entire province under a state of calamity due to recurring 20-hour daily power outages.Geography
Occidental Mindoro covers a total area of occupying the western section of the Mindoro island, and includes outlying islands in the northwest.General land surface features that characterize Occidental Mindoro are mountains, rivers, hills, valleys, wide plains and some small fresh water lakes. The taller mountains can be found in the interior that it shares with Oriental Mindoro.
Mountain ranges converge on the two central peaks, Mount Halcon in the north, and Mount Baco in the south. There is also a mountain known as bundok ng susong dalaga, the "Maiden's breast mountain", that looks like a reclined woman.
The northern part of the province has relatively fewer plains, while the southern parts have wider flatlands. Most of the plains are cultivated fields, with few remaining untouched forests. Significant hilly areas can be found rolling off in Santa Cruz in the north, and in San Jose and Magsaysay in the south. These are grassed-over rather than forested.
There are several major drainage or river systems flowing on a generally westerly course:, Pagbahan, Mompong, Biga, Lumintao, Busuanga and Caguray. Swamp areas are restricted to the south, specially, along the river mouths.
The province is also home to one of the most popular coral reefs in the Philippines, Apo Reef.