Tukuran
Tukuran, officially the Municipality of Tukuran, is a municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 42,429 people.
Kargado, a movie starring Gardo Versoza, was shot in Tukuran at Tabak E Beach Resort in 1998 ''.
History
Tukuran is derived from the word tukod meaning 'to build' or 'to construct'. Its original inhabitants were Subanons, Maranaons, Maguindanaons, and Iranuns.Historically, Tukuran was a passing point of many merchants because of its location on the trade route. Merchants of different tribes regularly passed by the area, carrying with them their wares. These merchants usually came from the nearby provinces, most specifically, Zamboanga City and Southern Mindanao, as well as the places of Lanao and the Misamis region. When the Spaniards came, they tried to control the trade route, building the famous Fort Militar that overlooks Tukuran and the northern part of Illana Bay, as well as the so-called Spanish Trocha which then connected Tukuran directly to the regions of Lanao and Misamis. It came to be known as the Trocha de Tukuran.
Close to the end of the century,in 1899, the Muslims, under the leadership of Sultan Amay Untad Panduma, founded a settlement in Tukuran. They claimed to have come from the Iranon tribe. Since their number was large, they decided to divide themselves and settle in the neighboring sitios. Sultan Paduma's descendants succeeded him in ruling the group.
The first wave of Christian settlers followed a few years later, led by Feliz Ocampo, the grandfather of Felix Ocampo Sr. They hailed from far up north, in Manila. They chose to settle in the shores of Tukuran. They were later followed by the settlers from Pangasinan together with their families and farming equipment.
Before Tukuran became a municipality, it was a part of the municipality of Labangan, until November 29, 1958, when President Carlos P. Garcia, under the recommendation of the Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Board headed by Governor Bienvenido Ebarle, signed Executive Order No. 323 making Tukuran a municipality. The first municipal mayor appointed to head the municipality was Mayor Filomeno C. Villamero, with Sultan Mamadra Panduma as the vice mayor.
The Spanish period
An excerpt from the Treaty of Sultan Kudarat of Maguindanao and King Philip IV of Spain signed on June 24, 1645, proves that the place used to be vassalage of the Sultan of Maguindanao. Islam was the dominant religion of the land. There was no king to rule, nor there existed a single law signifying the rights and duties of the subjects. Each datu considered himself as the most outstanding and powerful chieftain of the place and yet he had no more loyal subjects than his relatives and slaves. According to Thomas Forrest in 1780 Tukuran is a place where Iranuns lived in, built and repaired prahus. There were several services conducted by Spaniards in the isthmus of Tukuran because of it being the strategic place for a Spanish stronghold and to shorten communication in the north of Pangil Bay to south of Illana Bay, as well. On March 12, 1890, a fortified station named after the member of the royal family fort Alfonso XII locally known as fort Militar was built to stop the Moro from their slave-raiding activities against the Subanu people to Christians, and to facilitate their pacification on Mindanao campaign of colonization in general. Governor General Valeriano Weyler proposed the construction of a canal across the isthmus. the plan, however, did not realize.The American period and World War II liberation
Moro resistance on the hill of Tagulo, a sitio of Tukuran was pacified; the Moros were forced to abandon the place on October 15, 1900, and the place was occupied by American soldiers. In 1912, Tukuran was established as a military district and then became a municipal district in 1918 with a population of 3,921. Due to the ongoing piratical raids, the people transferred the seat of the government to Labangan in 1921; settlers began to arrive. As a result of the heavy influx of the settlers from Luzon and Visayas there was fragile co-existence among the indigenous Moro, Lumads and Christian populations. In Luy-a and Camanga, Subanens retreated to the hinterlands and the Iranun Muslims gradually transferred to Labangan. Moros from Kalibaw, Karumatan continued to raid the town. With this marauding activity, the American soldiers' attention was divided. The beach played an important role as a landing site of series of landing of ammunitions from Australia to supply the Guerilla Movement in Mindanao.During the early days of resettlement, English was the lingua franca. The town fiesta was first celebrated in 1938 with San Isidro as the patron.
The first contact with the Americans since World War II began was on March 5, 1943, when the US submarine Tambor passed by in Tukuran and distributed supplies. On board the submarine were Charles M. Smith and Commodore Charles Parson. These American officers informed Australia about the location of Tukuran as a good docking site. In the morning of January 25, 1945 at about 11:00 a US sea plane "Santa Catalina" landed on the beach to unload supplies. During liberation period, American planes in V-formation fly in the sky. Displaced Tukuranons returned home and started to fix their abandoned homes. Schools were reopened and life returned to normal.
Townhood and the 1960s
Mayor Filomino Villamero, the mayor of the town of Labangan considered the idea of making Tukuran a municipality by virtue of Executive Order 323 signed by his Excellency Carlos P. Garcia on November 29, 1958. Tukuran became a municipality. During the early 1960s many Tukuranons had experienced the abundance of the sea. Some of the family especially the taga-baybay, coastline dwellers found fortune in the fishing industry. Curvada was the trading center of Tukuran during this time. Lab-asiros have usually experienced difficulty in transporting the tuna to Curvada due to the sticky mud in going to Tukuran proper. This decade was considered by Tukuranons as the dawn of the fishing industry of the town.The center of the trading is in Curvada. Cans from the shore to Curvada were manually handled and which contained fresh fish. The trading activity was very progressive. There were Chinese -Filipinos who once lived there but vanished later due to their superstitious beliefs that the town was not favorable for business. Lab-aseros, had usually experienced a difficulty in transporting the tuna to Curvada due to its sticky muddy road going to the trading center. Lupoy, an ordinary fish during this time was even visible at Canawa creek during high tide, and even crabs and other marine creatures were of abundance. Trucks from Aurora stayed only at Curvada because of the poor road condition and only waited for the lab-aseros to come and sell.
The 1970s
This decade was characterized by military instability and natural calamities that affected the people's socio-economic activity.Great Fire in Poblacion
On January 21, 1971, at about one o'clock after the stall keepers had taken their lunch a day on the festivity of Sr. Santo Niño of Pagadian, a great fire brought disaster on the first year of this decade. About a hundred houses and commercial establishments were burned down but luckily, no one was hurt. This caused an economic breakdown of the municipality as it was estimated to cost 2 million of the properties lost. Aid from the government through DSWD and some NGOs helped the townsfolk stand again from the ashes.
The Barracuda – Ilaga Conflict
Commander Toothpick, a Tiruray tribal warrior was known to fight against alleged Muslim terrorism and exploitation. It was this time that the term Ilaga was introduced into the vocabulary."Ilaga" means "rat" but Muslims of North Cotabato called it "Ilonggo Land Grabbing Association".The Ilaga was a Paramilitary Organization known for its anti-Muslim sentiments. It was composed initially, as reported in media, of some Ilonggo natives of Panay.
The physical pattern of events showed the spread of conflicts, from North Cotabato to Lanao del Sur, from Cotabato to Lanao del Norte, and from Cotabato to Zamboanga del Sur. Tukuran is the first coastal municipality from Lanao Sur in Illana Bay. The murder of Al Mirasan Tampogao, vice mayor of Carumatan, in Tukuran at Santo Niño, Tukuran is said to be one of catalyst of the Barracuda attacks in the area. The alleged assassin was a member of Ilaga, a group known for its anti-Muslim sentiments. After that incident, there had been fears of a Moro attack on the town to avenge the Vice Mayor's death. In May, the rebels in front of the burned Municipal hall of Labangan kidnapped Father O'Halpin, the parish priest of Tukuran, on his way back to the town, but he was released later. This related incident added to the suspicions that a conflict will soon come. At this time Labangan was in the hands of the Barracudas. A suspected Barracuda attack on the town mayor's residence on the third week of April 1972 added to the tension between the two groups, although it was also suspected the attack was politically motivated. Consequently, the 29th IB, PA was able to intercept a message revealing that on July 27, 1973, there will be an attack on the town; the attack took place at early morning on the day before the set date, on the 26th.
Even though the 29th IB, Philippine Army had intercepted the rebels at Lambayong now Baranggay Panduma Sr. which is seventy five meters from the shore, the Barracudas were able to take hostage a pumpboat operator along the way and were successful in taking over the Shell Depot which is located just a few meters from the shore. The depot manager was killed. However, their alleged plan to destroy the depot was stopped because of the Army's intervention by then. The group split in two: one group retreated to Luy-a where they beheaded two civilians and slaughtered one carabao for consumption and fed on uncooked mais. It took them a week to retreat since there were blockades by the 29th Infantry Brigade in their way. Eventually, the rebels were able to escape going to Lanao del Norte. The other group attacked Militar and neighboring coastal barangays. Blockades by the 29th IB, PA at Tukuran River prevented them to penetrate the town center; they were forced to retreat to the hinterlands of Libertad. Some casualties were not being reported due to the tension being experienced by the people. As they retreated, passing Barangay Baclay, they ambushed the Parish Priest of Aurora, Father Paulo Kill and luckily, he survived. In the aftermath, the rebels left 46 civilians, 11 rebels and IPAs dead.
The Barracuda-Ilaga Conflict had greatly depopulated the municipality as majority of the people relocated to other towns. Atty. Francisco D. Boter, the municipal registrar, in his article in Pagadian Times reported:
"Like a volcano that had erupted, Tukuran became a ghost town with only a handful of people roaming the streets with the mournful howling of scraggy dogs now and then disturbing the cemetery-like silence and solitude that pervaded the ones buzzing and taming residents."