When was the municipality of Sogod established?
2155954#1
The name of the municipality originated from the Cebuano word, "sogod", meaning ""to start."" Founded as a Catholic mission station by the Society of Jesus in 1601, Sogod became a regular municipality on June 10, 1853.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#98
One interesting feature of the said development is that the provincial board of Leyte recommended to Manila that the villages of Lawgawan, Taa, Tuburan, Santa Cruz and Pangi, equidistant to the "poblacion" of Sogod, be annexed to the municipal jurisdiction of Sogod. It got the support of President Carlos Polestico Garcia and approved the move to include the newly established barangays, located in the hinterlands of Bontoc, to be part of the territorial jurisdiction of the municipality of Bontoc. After the 1959 promulgation of the Executive Order No. 368, all conflicting areas between the municipalities of Sogod and Bontoc were reorganized and reevaluated. Many complaints and petitions were sent to the Provincial Board of Southern Leyte and to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to reconcile the disputed villages to Sogod, but all were in vain.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#24
With the founding of the town and "residencia" of Jilongos in 1737, the Leyte mission was already divided into three residencies. The other two were Carigara and Dagami. Jilongos had then the settlements of Palompon, Poro, Ormoc, Baybay, Maasin, Cabalian, Hinundayan and Sogod as its annex "visitas". As a consequence of the 1754 sacking, the "visitas" of Buntuk, Sogod and Maak were incorporated to the newly-established municipality of Maasin, which was guarded by a stone fortification equipped with "lantakas", from 1755 to 1768. [The historian Manuel Artigas states that Sogod was a premier "visita" of Maasin from 1774 to 1785]. Due to its distance from the "poblacion", the parish priests of Cabalian and Maasin would take turns in administering the mission station of Sogod. "Padre" Joaquin Romeo would be the last Jesuit to administer the mission stations of Hinundayan, Cabalian and Sogod when all the Jesuit missionaries were suppressed from all colonies of Spain in May 19, 1768.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#63
The newly created municipality was governed by duly elected "Gobernadorcillos", "Presidente Municipales" and Municipal Mayors like:The town covered a total land area of 236.4 square kilometers (91.3 square miles) until 1953. Due to the enactment of Republic Act No. 522 on June 15, 1950 which establishes the municipality of Bontoc, the municipal area of Sogod decreased. However, the newly ordained act was proven to be lax in nature. The juridical boundaries of the town of Bontoc were not fully indicated, causing much tension between the two municipalities. After the 1959 promulgation of the Executive Order No. 368, all conflicting areas between the municipalities of Sogod and Bontoc were reorganized and reevaluated. Many complaints and petitions were sent to the Provincial Board of Southern Leyte and to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to reconcile the disputed villages to Sogod, but all were in vain. As a result, the land area of the municipality was reduced to 19,270 hectares (47,600 acres) in land area.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155909#10
At some point in time, possibly during the years following 1845 until 1885, Libagon was deemed as a barrio of Sogod, together with Bontoc and Consolacion. In 1885, Nicolas Idjao was elected as gobernadorcillo and transferred the poblacion of Sogod to Libagon, from Sogod. Then, he renamed Libagon as Sogod Nuevo or Sogod Del Norte while Sogod as Sogod Viejo or Sogod Del Sur. After twelve years of power, the poblacion was restored to Sogod for a while when Benito Faelnar was appointed as capitan municipal of Sogod. But in 1904, Ladislao or "Estanislao" Decenteceo was elected and transferred the poblacion to Barangay Consolacion, a barrio from Libagon. However, in 1912, the poblacion was again transferred to Sogod when Vicente Cariño took office in that year.
Libagon, Southern Leyte
2155954#49
Protestantism came to Leyte in 1903 when Reverend Doctor Charles Rath and a group of American missionaries belonging to the Presbyterian Church acquired a church lot in Tacloban. They began a massive campaign in the island, having a stronghold over the towns of Baybay, Maasin, Padre Burgos, Cabalian and Hinunangan. By the mid-1930s, Reverend Rath and a number of newly-baptized Leyteño Presbyterians made a number of converts from Buntuk, Sogod, Consolacion and from the "sitios" of Libagon. These believers would lay the very foundation of the present-day United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), the first Protestant church to be established in the municipality, and would attract more Protestant sects and denominations to the towns of Sogod bay region.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#53
With the restoration of the "poblacion" to Sogod in 1912, the "barrio" of Libagon was converted into a municipality on October 16, 1913. The areas from barangay Gakat to barangay Punta formed part of the municipal district of Libagon. The municipal mayor of Sogod during this development was "Don" Vicente Cariño (1912-1916). Mariano Espina, who was then a member of the municipal council of Sogod and the main mover of the resolution to make Libagon into a separate township, as appointed as first town executive of Libagon.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#51
During the mayoral administration of "Don" Gregorio Leviste (1908-1912), the municipal territory of Sogod comprises the "barrios" of Bontoc, Buac, Concepcion, Consolacion, Gakat, Hipgasan, Libagon, Libas, Maak, Mayuga, Kawayan, Nahulid, Pandan, San Isidro (Malupao), San Miguel (Batang), Sogod "poblacion", Santa Cruz and Union, which were grouped into seven (7) districts. Each district, with its respective "barrios" were under the care of a municipal councilor. Education was the main concern of this period and that the municipal government sent Sotero Toting, Ignacio Chavarria and a person named Sumaya to Tacloban to urge teachers from the capital to teach in Sogod. The first teacher to arrive in Sogod was Pelagia Tibay, who arrived in town on April 1911. On May of the same year, Hugo Rojas and Jesus Pedrosa were the first batch of municipal scholars attending the Leyte Normal School in Tacloban. As the number of school children increases, the town officials saw that the only Gabaldon building of the Sogod Central School, located in the present barangay of Zone I, was too small to house them. The municipal council therefore resolved it by voting to make the municipal hall as transient school building for the students.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#95
The Republic Act included the villages of Bontoc, Divisoria, Union, Paku, Beniton, Catmon, Hilaan, Taa, Santa Cruz, and Mahayahay, which were under the political jurisdiction of Sogod, to be part of the municipality of Bontoc. The problem was that the boundaries between the two towns were not “well-defined” and the majority of the people residing in Bontoc preferred to have their transactions in Sogod. Much worse when the "municipio" (town hall) in Sogod began exacting taxation and jurisdiction from the barangays mentioned in the Republic Act 522 in which falls under the area of the local government unit (LGU) of Bontoc.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
2155954#100
On June 24, 1970, the municipality of Sogod filed Civil Case No. R-1706 for certiorari and prohibition with the Court of First Instance of Southern Leyte (now Regional Trial Court), to enjoin the provincial board and provincial governor from taking cognizance of the long pending boundary dispute between the two municipalities and to enjoin the municipality of Bontoc from exercising territorial jurisdiction over the barrios of Pangi, Taa, Casao, Santa Cruz, Tuburan and Lawgawan all allegedly belonging to the municipality of Sogod.
Sogod, Southern Leyte