Sindangan
Sindangan, officially the Municipality of Sindangan, is a municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 104,514 people.
Sindangan is the most populous municipality in Zamboanga Peninsula and the fastest-growing municipality in Zamboanga del Norte. With its infrastructure and commerce showing massive improvements since the start of the current decade, it is now projected to become the third city in the province, following Dapitan and the provincial capital, Dipolog.
Etymology
As to how Sindangan got its name, several stories have been told.The first version narrates that a native fisherman carrying a basket full of fish was on his way home met a Guardia Civil, military guards during the Spanish regime, who asked this question, "Cuál es el nombre de este lugar, amigo?" And the Subanon fisherman who did not understand the Spanish language answered "Indangan", believing he asked on the kind of fish he caught. The stranger heard this as "Sindangan", thinking that was the exact answer to his inquiry to the fisherman about the name of the fish. From then on, the natives used Sindangan to name the place until it became into a municipality in 1936.
The town appeared in the 1734 Murillo Velarde map which was originally spelled as Sindãgan.
History
This town sets back its origin during the pre-Spanish colonization of the Philippines. Subanon people or tribe was its first inhabitants. The Subanens, a nomadic tribe of Indo-Malayan stock, were the earliest known settlers who lived along river banks or "suba", from which word they received their present tribal identity as Subanen. They built houses and sanctuaries for their shelter and formed their own 'government' ruled by the Datu.Over the years the Moros settled also in this place and preached Islam.
Spanish Era ''(as a Municipal District)''
In the 1850s during the Spanish reign in the archipelago, a number of towns had already been established in Luzon and in the Visayas while majority of the territories in Mindanao were still unclaimed by the Spaniards despite having already ruled the islands for over 200 years. Sindangan was one of the unclaimed territories in Mindanao until the late 19th century where it was designated as a rancheria under the district of Misamis. When Misamis was incorporated into a province during the American occupation in the 1900s, Sindangan became a military detachment station for the American troops at the height of the Philippine-American War as the assault of the Tulisanes in Mindanao at the time were rampant in fight for Philippine independence.The war ended with the Americans taking over the Philippines and Sindangan became a barrio under the jurisdiction of the pueblo of Dapitan. It was also in this era where people from the Visayas islands flocked to Mindanao to find greener pasture. Christianity then slowly propagated on this area through the effort of the Catholic missionaries like the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits, the Augustinians, and the Dominicans. One of its great missionaries was Padre Francesco Palliola, a Jesuit missionary from Nola, Italy who tirelessly preached the Christian message, perform baptisms and sacraments and helped the tribal people in this area of Zamboanga Peninsula. He was assigned in Dapitan and Katipunan, and met his martyrdom in the barrio of Ponot where he was killed by the Subanen people through the leadership of their chieftain.
In 1914, pueblos in the Philippines with Christianized settlers were converted into municipalities while barrios with populations that are not fully Christianized but having a significant number of settlers were converted into municipal districts. In Spanish Philippines, a barrio is not eligible to be converted into a pueblo unless a Catholic parish is built and locals are fully Christianized and are permanently settled under the reduccion system. When the Americans took over the government in the 1900s, they reformed the Spanish pueblo system and renamed pueblos into municipalities with greater inclusiveness among Filipinos. Upon the conversion of the barrio of Lubungan into a municipality, the newly elevated municipal district of Sindangan was transferred under its jurisdiction out from its mother town, Dapitan.
It was also in this same year that the province of Zamboanga was incorporated and the said towns were later transferred to the newly created province out from their mother province of Misamis. However, despite the elevation of Sindangan’s status as a municipal district, it remained unconnected by road to other towns and barrios, making only sea travel as the primary mode of transportation to reach the seat of government in Lubungan.
Commonwealth Era ''(as a separate Municipality)''
In the 1930s, the population of the municipal district of Sindangan multiplied and Christianity became a dominant religion. The parish priest from Lubungan would come to Sindangan once a year by boat to conduct mass wedding ceremonies to locals and to celebrate Christianity. Propitiously, as its population significantly grew over the years, Sindangan was finally designated as a separate parish from Lubungan and in 1935, a parish church was built with the help of its parishioners. This feat vitalized the Sindanganon settlers to push for their separation from the municipality of Lubungan and be granted as a separate municipality.The next year, on December 23, 1936, Sindangan was finally separated from the municipality of Lubungan and became an independent municipality by virtue of issued by President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Manuel L. Quezon. The municipalities of Sindangan, Siocon, Margosatubig, Pagadian, and Kabasalan were created out of the municipal districts of Sindangan, Panganuran, Labangan, Dinas, Sibuko, Sirawai, Margosatubig, Malangas, Kabasalan and Bangaan. The Municipality of Sindangan covered the area of Sindangan and Panganuran.
Bartolome Lira Sr. was appointed to organize the Municipality of Sindangan and was its first Municipal President. As his appointive tenure expired, he was elected as the first Municipal Mayor of Sindangan until 1941.
In 1955, four barrios of were created:
- Dicoyong - sitios of Labakid, Layawan, Morob, Gusani, Domalogdog, Maoal, Nato, Diongan, Makasing, Dipolo and Dicoyong Proper;
- Bacungan - sitios of Palandok, Rison, Bogabongan, Manil, Gusao, Talinga and Bacungan Proper;
- Lagag - sitios of Milaub, Mangalop, Gopit, Pase, Lipaga, Mianib, Siayan, Litolit, Balok, and Lagag Proper; and Bitoon - sitios of Misok, Hagonoy, Lico, Guban, Makinong, and Bitoon Proper
- Binuangan - sitios of Taguicon, Upper Binuangan, and Gusapong Proper
At the time of its creation as an independent municipality, Sindangan had the biggest territory in terms of land area in the then Province of Zamboanga. It once comprised the current municipalities of Sindangan, Siayan, Leon B. Postigo, Salug, Godod, Liloy, Tampilisan, Labason, Gutalac, and Kalawit. With these measurements as evidenced, Sindangan was deemed to be bigger than the present land area of Zamboanga City before its division.
It was during the Third Philippine Republic when Sindangan subsequently lost huge portions of its territories after the creation of its offspring municipalities, namely: Labason, Liloy, Siayan, and Leon B. Postigo. These aforementioned new municipalities also went reductions of their territories later in the years in light of the creation of newer municipalities, making Sindangan their mother and grandmother town.
Since its elevation to a municipality in 1936, people from Luzon and the Visayas continued migrating to Sindangan to settle together with their families and built businesses. That is why aside from the Subanens, there are Sindanganons whose origins are from Bohol, Cebu, Samar, Leyte, Negros, Bicol, Pampanga, and Manila.
World War II
During the Second World War, Sindangan was fortunately spared from the air bombings and battles happening in Luzon and in some parts of Mindanao at the time. Nonetheless, guerrilla forces were present in the isolated areas of the municipality at the height of World War II and it was in the municipal waters of Sindangan when the SS Shinyō Maru sank with hundreds of prisoners of war on board the ship.With approximately 750 Filipino and American prisoners of war on board, the vessel departed from its POW camp in Davao for Manila with stopover point in Zamboanga City. She departed Zamboanga the next day via Cebu in a convoy of large freighters, tankers, and torpedo boats to protect her against American destroyers. Meanwhile, an allied intelligence intercepted the Japanese Navy radio signals about Shinyō Maru’s movements which prompted the US Navy to send the submarine USS Paddle in a mission to intercept the convoy and sink her. With its movement now determined, the US submarine had waited for hours for the hell ship to pass by, two miles off coast from Sindangan point.
Upon reaching the waters of Sindangan Bay, Shinyō Maru was seen to be leading the convoy. Paddle got into position and fired a spread of four torpedoes at her, two of which hit her in her holds. Paddle then torpedoed a second ship of the convoy, whose commander beached her to prevent her from sinking. The Japanese escorts then started unsuccessfully depth charging Paddle, but she dived deep and escaped serious damage.
The torpedoes that hit Shin'yō Maru killed or wounded many of the POWs, and some of her Japanese crew and guards. As she sank, the guards machine-gunned the POWs to try to prevent them from abandoning ship. The surviving ships of the convoy launched boats to rescue Shin'yō Maru
The escaped POWs went inland, where they met a Filipino guerilla group commanded by a US Colonel McGee. The guerillas radioed US forces, who sent the submarine USS Narwhal to rescue them. On 29 October 1944 Narwhal came into Sindangan Bay, where she embarked 81 of the 82 survivors. One survivor, Joseph Coe, chose to remain to serve with the guerillas.
On September 7, 2014, on the 70th anniversary of the incident, the municipality of Sindangan dedicated a memorial remembering the victims and survivors of the Shinyo Maru, as well as the townsfolk who extended their hospitality and help.
Modern and Contemporary Era
In the 1960s, Sindangan has already surpassed the population of its mother town Dapitan and Katipunan and it was in these years that Sindangan gained political prominence in the province. Despite the consequent reduction of its territory over the past decades and afterwards due to the conversion of its selected barrios into separate municipalities, Sindangan’s population has not been reduced lower than its current population unlike its other neighboring municipalities who went the same process of territorial reduction in light of creating newer municipalities. These findings would later cement Sindangan as the most rapidly growing municipality in the province and would later be regarded as the most populous municipality in Zamboanga del Norte.