Tagum
Tagum, officially the City of Tagum, is a component city and capital of the Davao del Norte, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 300,042, making it the most populous component city in Mindanao and in Davao del Norte, as well as the second most populous in Davao Region after Davao City.
It is one of the topmost livable cities in the Philippines, and was one of the finalists in the most child-friendly city in the Philippines - component category along with Laoag, and Talisay, Cebu. In the 2021 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index, the city of Tagum ranked third on the overall competitive component cities in the Philippines, fourth on infrastructure, second in resiliency, thirteenth on economic dynamism and first on government efficiency.
Etymology
There is no official record as to the origin and meaning of the name Tagum, but in Kalagans tagyum refers to the indigo plant. On the one hand, a legend explains how the name Magugpo, the city's former name, came about. At the beginning, Magugpo was nothing but a vast wilderness, inhabited by the Mansakas, Manguangans, Mandayas and the Kalagans in the coastal barangays. The name Magugpo was derived from the native word mago, a name of a certain tree, and ugpo means very high. According to legend, the natives were occupying a river basin inside the thickly covered forest where they could not even see the sun. The creek where the natives dwelt still exists, but the once abundant freshwater is now dead due to pollution.History
The area of Tagum was inhabited by Mandaya, Maguindanaon and Kagan. By the mid-1800s it was a part and serves as a vassal of Sultanate of Maguindanao and was ruled by the Maguindanaon Datu Bago, which spanned the entire Davao Gulf region and had its capital in what is now Davao City known as Pinagurasan. When the Spanish arrived with soldiers and settlers led by Don Jose Cruz de Uyanguren to take the settlement in 1848, Datu Bago and his warriors resisted for three months until he finally saw the hopelessness of his cause and abandoned the settlement, which the Spanish took soon thereafter and established a town out of it giving it the name Nueva Vergara, which was renamed Davao in 1867. Datu Bago then gathered his followers and reestablished his residence and base at Hijo, present-day Barangay Madaum, in which his wife's Kalagan relatives have a stronghold. From there he continued resisting the Spaniards until his death in 1850. He was buried in present-day Barangay Pagsabangan where his descendants continue to pay respects to the present day.The Muslim tribes in the area led by their datus continued the anti-Spanish struggle years and decades after Dato Bago's death in 1850. Meanwhile, the district governor of Davao, Don Jose Pinzon y Purga, wanted to establish numerous reductions at the Hijo River to permanently settle the nomadic Mandayans. This particularly earned the anger of the Moro tribes even more, as it meant that such a setup would mean the permanent loss of their lands to the Spaniards. So the datus of Hijo River planned a conspiracy to kill the Spanish governor, and in 1861 they executed their plan, inviting him to a home of another datu where they eventually killed him and his 8 other colleagues.
Despite the death of the Spanish governor Pinzon, however, the succeeding governors of Davao went along with the plan of creating reductions for the Mandayas, eventually leading to the creation of reducciones of Hijo, Bincungan and Pagsabangan in 1885. The Moro Kalagans responded with attacks on Mandayan settlements in which many Mandayans were killed, which they did for several years onward until the arrival of the Americans in 1899.
Rise to townhood
The Spanish authorities left the district of Davao at the aftermath of the Philippine Revolution, and the Americans took over. American prospectors then arrived and set up several plantations at Busaon, Bincungan and Hijo in 1906 and onwards. Tagum became a municipal district of Davao in March 10, 1917, with the passage of Act No. 2711 approved by Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison, with its seat of government located at Hijo in what is now Barangay Madaum. By then only the areas of Bincungan and settlements along the Hijo River were populated, while the rest is still virgin forest and grasslands. It would only be more than twelve years later in October 1929 when the first real transformation of Tagum occurred when the first Christian immigrant, a certain Sulpicio Quirante from Moalboal, Cebu, came and settled in what is now Magugpo Poblacion. He was then followed by other Cebuano pioneers as well as individuals from Luzon and other parts of Visayas who then established their own plots in the area. Physical land developments started to emerge when the migrants organized themselves into the Magugpo Homesteaders' Association and bought the homestead of Lolo Mandaya, a native. They subdivided the land into residential lots of 750 square meters each and sold these lots at ₱1.50 each to newcomers. The amount paid by the buyer also served as a membership fee to the association.In 1932, Engineers Ignacio and Alib, both from Davao City, together with 15 laborers surveyed the trail for the National Highway. At this time and prior to the creation of the highway, the only means of transportation from Davao City to Tagum was by boat using the Hijo and Tagum Rivers as its points of entry. The first physical landmarks of Magugpo were a school building, a teacher's cottage, a rest house, and a chapel, all of which were constructed by the Homesteaders' Association in the early 1930s.
In 1941, a bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Cesar Sotto, Davao's representative to the National Assembly, that stipulates the incorporation of Tagum from a municipal district of Davao into a full-fledged municipality. Tagum finally became a town with the signing of Executive Order No. 352, issued by then Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon on June 23, 1941, establishing the Municipality of Tagum with its seat of government still at Hijo as was before. It had its first local civil government under the leadership of Manuel Baura Suaybaguio, Sr. and Sulpicio Quirante. Both were appointed as the first Mayor and Vice Mayor, respectively. But while the town was still at its infancy as an incorporated settlement, the Second World War broke out in December 1941. The war badly damaged the Magugpo settlement that only five houses were left standing at Magugpo after the liberation. From the rubble, Suaybaguio and Quirante spearheaded the construction of houses, drugstores, stores and a church. The national government's infrastructure projects such as the Davao-Agusan National Highway and provincial roads going to Kapalong and Saug paved the way to the influx of more migrants from Luzon and Visayas and foreign immigrants to the municipality.
Contemporary history
The local government of Magugpo was formalized with the holding of the first local election in 1947. Suaybaguio retained his position, gaining a new Vice Mayor in the person of Lucio Berdida.Significant changes were made such as the renaming of Magugpo to Tagum by virtue of a municipal council resolution. In 1948, Mayor Suaybaguio transferred the seat of government from Hijo to Magugpo Poblacion. The following year the new municipality of Panabo was born. Vice Mayor Berdida who really hailed from the said place was appointed as Panabo's Mayor. This paved the way for Macario Bermudez to become Tagum's Vice Mayor.
Throughout the 1950s onward, Tagum experienced significant changes in both political arena and its physical landscape. Under the administrations of Mayor Eliseo Villanueva Wakan and Mayor Hermigildo Baluyo, in 1951 and 1955 respectively, the people of Tagum witnessed physical transformations in the town. There was massive construction of roads. The Municipal Hall was constructed and moved to its present site. The Municipal Health Center along Bonifacio St. was also put up. A public market site was donated by the Ilocano Pereyras family.
In 1954, the boundary between Tagum, Mabini, and Compostela was formalized by Republic Act No. 1102, approved June 15. The boundary line between the municipality of Tagum and Doña Alicia is the Dumlan River from the Gulf of Davao to the source of the river and a straight line from said source running northwestward to the concrete monument in the sitio of Libaybay. The Hijo River was considered the boundary between the municipalities of Tagum and Compostela.
Economically, Tagum was slowly becoming a convenient place for traders to exchange products with neighboring municipalities. The booming abaca and coconut industries in the early 1950s contributed significantly to the growth of the local economy. Alongside the economic development, came the establishment of two schools/colleges, Holy Cross College and Mindanao Colleges which were then the only providers of tertiary education in the province outside Davao City. The presence of these two schools slowly contributed to making Tagum another possible educational center for Davao.
Tagum's role as an important center for various activities made it the capital town of the newly-established province of Davao del Norte in 1967, when the whole of Davao was finally divided into three provinces: del Norte, del Sur, and Oriental. Having become the provincial seat of Davao del Norte, it continued its transformation. In the 1971 local elections Baloyo, after 16 years in office, was replaced by Gelacio "Yayong" Gementiza. Fortunately for Gementiza's administration, the economic losses of the dying abaca sector and the receding importance of the coconut industry were more than offset by the gains of the emerging banana plantations. Indeed, the banana impetus propelled the total development of Tagum into a bustling metropolis. The once sleepy town became the beehive of business activities in Southeastern Mindanao.
The progressive economy then made it easier for Gementiza's administration to undertake infrastructure development projects such as the expansion of the municipal hall, concreting of the public market, the asphalting of more municipal roads, and opening of more barangay roads. In the process, various offices were created: Municipal Engineering Office, Municipal Planning and Development Office, Municipal Assessor's Office, and the Fire Station.
The 1980s were turbulent years for Tagum, politically speaking. There was a heavy turnover of local officials for various reasons. Tolentino's administration which started in 1980, was rocked by anomalies, thus forcing him to resign from office 16 months after taking his oath. Tolentino's resignation led to the appointment of Prospero Estabillo as Mayor and Victorio Suaybaguio, Jr. as Vice Mayor. As a result, there were major changes in the positions of the Council Members. Like the rest of the nation, Tagum suffered political instability and serious peace and order problems during the first five years of the decade. The EDSA Revolution in 1986 practically changed the political climate. Baltazar Sator who was appointed OIC-Mayor then was elected as Congressman in 1987. Victorio Suaybaguio, Jr., eventually assumed the leadership of the town after the 1988 election.
In spite of the prevailing political unrest of the early eighties, Tagum continuously enjoyed an expanding economy, though at a slower pace. There might have been a slight slump in the banana industry, but the discovery of abundant mineral resources, specifically gold, in various areas of Davao Province triggered the mini-local economies, not just in Tagum but in the neighboring municipalities as well. Thus, in the later part of the decade, the construction sector grew at an unprecedented pace. Towards the 1990s and onwards, Tagum has been undoubtedly turning itself into a strategic and important growth center in Southeastern Mindanao.