134. OLD ANGADANAN
Dr. Troy Alexander Gozum Miano, LPT
27 April 2021
On November 18, 2016, I posted on Facebook and on my blog an article entitled “From One Place To Another” narrating the relocation of pueblos in Batangas province during the Spanish period. I also mentioned the site transfers of nine towns in what is now the territorial jurisdiction of Isabela.
In 1745, Angadanan was founded by the Dominican missionaries. The original town site was not located in present-day Isabela but in Nueva Vizcaya province to the right of the Magat River between Lumabang (now Solano town) and Bagabag at the Angaranan (Angadanan) Creek to the east of Bayombong at the slopes of Mount Palali.
The visit to the old site of Angadanan is included in my bucket list. I learned that fellow local historian, Hon. Manuel A. Alejandro, former mayor of Alicia and Sangguniang Panlalawigan member of the 3rd district of Isabela already visited the old Angadanan site. I nagged him on how to get there since it is the dream of every researcher and historian to visit ancient locations of historical significance. He gave me instructions which unfortunately led me to nowhere. I tried in vain, a couple of times, to reach the ruins following the directions and natural landmarks stipulated in old Dominican records translated in English by Fr. Pedro V. Salgado in his book entitled, Cagayan Valley and Eastern Cordillera 1581-1898.
On June 25, 2019, after careful scrutiny of existing maps, interviews from locals including friends from the Capitol in Bayombong and careful analysis of the directions, I reached the vestiges. The address of the exact site is Nacumventuan, Purok 3 (Cabatacan), Barangay Bangar, Municipality of Solano, Nueva Vizcaya. It can be accessed along the Maharlika Highway (AH26 or Pan-Philippine Highway) left turn on the way to Manila. The barangay officials assisted us and we learned that the place was labelled “Nacumventuan”, meaning “a place where there was a convent”. Oral tradition passed on for generation narrates that there was an existing church and convent in the locality and is supported with the presence of remnants and ruins.
The reason why the Spaniards erected a town by the Angadanan Creek was its strategic importance in their war against the Ilongots. Dominican missionary, Fray Julian Malumbres, tells us that “from 1745 onwards the missionaries would climb from this creek of Angadanan to the territory of the Ilongots”. Being the strategic place as far as the reduction of the Ilongots was concerned, the missionaries decided to establish in this creek the town of Angadanan because of its strategic importance in their war against the Ilongots of the boundary of Caraballo and Sierra Madre.
On April 27, 1765, Angadanan was accepted as an ecclesiastical mission by the Order of Preachers under the patronage of Our Lady of Atocha celebrating its feast on September 8. Its official book of baptisms also began that same year of 1765.
The origin of the name of the new pueblo was derived from the name of the creek where the settlement was founded – Angaranan Creek. From the name “Angaranan”, the term eventually evolved to “Angadanan”. The Angadanan Creek emanates from the foothills of Kasibu which passes through Quezon town and joins the mighty Magat River in old Lumabang, now Solano town.
Another name origin of Angadanan came from the old files of the Isabela Museum and Library which revealed that the locality was named after a Gaddang chief named “Gaddanan”, a furious warrior and protector of his tribe.
On October 1776, Angadanan with all its inhabitants was relocated from its original site in Nueva Vizcaya to a place called Dudungan (now the town center of Alicia) near the Ganano (Gananoc and Gananot in old manuscripts) River.
Old Spanish document of the transfer revealed: “Dudungan. To this site was transferred the old Angadanan, which was situated between Bagabag and Solano, towards the middle of October 1776, when the Provincial was Fr. Manuel Gutierrez, Fr. Vicar Provincial Fr. Aljandro Vidal, Alcalde Mayor of Cagayan Don Jose Portillo, Justicia Mayor of Ituy and Paniqui Don Mateo Cabal”.
In 1849, Dominican missionary Francisco Gainza, vicar of Carig (now Santiago), spoke of the new location of Angadanan: “Dudungan (the place to which Angadanan was transferred) is situated between Cauayan and Patul towards the bank of the Gananoc River, near the sand-bank of another Gananoc towards the Cagayan River”.
In the first page of Angadanan’s first book of baptism, we read this annotation of Angadanan’s first vicar, Dominican missionary Martin Garcia, with regards to the transfer of Angadanan and its first inhabitants: “The town of Angadanan which was previously to the south of Bagabag, was transferred to this place where it is now, called Dudungan, at the middle of October of 1776. To it were joined the inhabitants of Diadi, whose lands were not good for rice or corn fields, and often suffered hunger, as well as those of Sinabbaran who had the Church of San Joaquin, in the south, between Gananoc river and the Great river”.
According to Salgado, the reason for the transfer was due to the small population “with therefore not enough manpower and little financial resources to run a town. Hence the need of transferring it to another place, to which inhabitants of other towns, v.g. Diadi, were added”.
According to the same Malumbres, Dudungan must have come from the word “dung”, “dungan” or, better still “durungan”, since it must have been the “landing-place of the river Gananoc”. Transportation at the time was mostly by the rivers.
Aside from the dwellers from old Angadanan, additional natives settled in the new town site. Others came from the settlement of Diadi, the land of which was not as productive as those of Angadanan.
In 1849, the Church of Angadanan (now Alicia Church) was inaugurated. The Our Lady of Atocha Church was built by the Dominican Fray Tomas Calderon assisted by Fray Francisco Gainza, the vicar of Carig. The convent was also built by Fray Calderon. Through the legacy of Don Juan Vigand and a donation of five hundred pesos from the provincial Fray Joaquin Guixa, Fray Manuel Alvarez improved the Church and convent putting among other things galvanized iron sheet to both the roof of the convent and Church.
In 1876, the Roman Catholic bell of
the Our Lady of Atocha of Angadanan (now in Alicia town) was forged. The bell lies at the corner of the left front side of the church
for quite some time. At the turn of the
millennium, it was transferred on a platform in front of the belfry. According
to the history of the parish, before the 1876 bell, three other bells existed
and were handed over to the parishes of the municipalities of Quirino, Cabatuan
and Cordon. The following are the inscriptions of the Angadanan (Alicia) bell: -cross- / NUESTRA Sra DE ATOCHA / AÑO DE 1876.
On May 24, 1839, Cagayan alcaldia was divided upon the creation of the province of Nueva Vizcaya with the old pueblo of Angadanan as one of its towns. On May 1, 1856, a royal decree was issued which created the province of Isabela with Angadanan as a component pueblo.
In 1896, during the tenure of Don Jose de Tagle, Angadanan for the second time, transferred the town center but this time the relocation was in the same province. From where Alicia is now, by the Ganano river, the town site was moved some six kilometers east to Camucauan (now the present poblacion) because of its proximity from the Cagayan River which was then the chief means of transportation. The name Camucauan means “hunting at dawn” referring to the hunting ground were hunters use to wait for their quarry the whole night up to dawn stalking wild games, deers and wild pigs. To honor and give credence to its founder, the people renamed the new seat of the Municipal Government as “Tagle”.
The first reason for the transfer was road and communication, and as the consequence business and progress. As has been often stated, the primary means of communication in Cagayan Valley during Spanish times was the river, especially the Cagayan River along the banks of which stood most of the Spanish-controlled towns. Angadanan was thus transferred by the Cagayan River.
The second reason was security. As stated above, Angadanan together with the other towns were being raided by the Igorots in order that the towns become more secure, the Spaniards saw to it that there be several towns along the principal route from Cagayan Valley to Manila, which route was then by the Cagayan River. In this manner the towns could help one another better against raids. As Dominican Jose Brugues stated: “This transfer was to the convenience and benefit of the inhabitants of the same regions because with it a line of towns was erected to the security of travel and communications”.
With the transfer, the old Angadanan ceased to exist, with its inhabitants, offices and businesses transferred to the new site labelled as “Angadanan Nuevo” or “New Angadanan”. The once prosperous Angadanan was reduced to a mere sitio and was referred to as “Angadanan Viejo” or “Old Angadanan”. Towards the end of Spanish rule, Angadanan Nuevo had not only a tribunal but also schools for children in the poblacion as well as in the barrio of San Jose. It had sufficient number of good houses, three with roofs of galvanized iron; and four warehouses, also with galvanized iron roofing, for tobacco. Like in most other towns of Cagayan and Isabela, Angadanan’s principal product was tobacco, with some cultivation of corn and rice for family consumption. The patron of old Angadanan remained the Our Lady of Atocha until 1949 when Saint Vincent Ferrer became the new patron saint with the feast day on April 5.
The only available names for the gobernadorcillos and municipal captains of Angadanan were Don Onofre Liban (ca.1785) and Don Jose de Tagle (ca.1890s). When civil government was restored during the American Occupation, the following served as municipal presidents of Angadanan Nuevo: Don Rafael Guiab (ca.1901 & 1912-1913), Don Jose de Tagle (1910-1912), Don Telesforo Fanio (1914-1915), Don Pedro Lutao (1916-1919), Don Filomeno Danga Siquian (1919-1922), Don Pedro Panganiban (1920-1921), Don Salvador Ngarangad (1922-1923), Don Rufino Mamauag (1922-1925), Don Florentino A. Nicolas (1925-1928), Don Lino Lopez (1928-1931) and Don Cosme dela Cruz (1931-1934 & 1934-1938).
The position “president” was rechristened to “mayor” and the Municipal Mayors of Angadanan Nuevo were: Hon. Cosme Dela Cruz (1938-1940), Hon. Lino F. Lopez (1941-1942 & 1945-1946), Hon. Vitaliano Tagorda Lopez (1942-1945) and Hon. Eduardo Domingo (1946-1947 & 1948-1949).
In 1949, Angadanan Nuevo was simply called “Angadanan” after the creation of Angadanan Viejo as “Alicia” and the municipal mayors of Angadanan were: Hon. Eduardo Domingo (1949-1951 & 1952-1955), Hon. Eugenio Simon Guillermo (1956-1959, 1960-1963, 1964-1967 & 1976-1980), Hon. Ambrocio Gomez Lappay (1967), Hon. Rogelio Lopez Siquian (1968-1970), Hon. Arsenio Aquino (1970-1971), Hon. Manuel Lopez Siquian (1972-1976), Hon. Jacinto Ng Ong (1980-1986), Hon. Fidel Ampa Alindada (1986-1987 & 1988-1992), Hon. Manuel Samson Gaffud (1987-1988), Hon. Rogelio Gaffud Siquian, Jr. (1992-1995), Hon. Felicitas Pascual-Ong (1995-1998 & 1998-2001), Hon. Jose Tallera Panganiban, Jr. (2001-2004, 2004-2007 & 2007-2010), Hon. Lourdes Garcia Segarra-Panganiban (2010-2013, 2013-2016 & 2016-2019) and Hon. Joselle Mathea Segarra Panganiban (since 2019).
The following Angadeños served in the provincial and national government in an elective post: Don Florentino A. Nicolas (Governor 1928-1931), Hon. Cosme Dela Cruz (Board Member 1941-1944), Hon. Eugenio S. Guillermo (Vice Governor 1968-1971), Hon. Fidel A. Alindada (Sangguniang Panlalawigan Member 1976-1980) and Hon. Jose T. Panganiban, Jr. (ANAC-IP Partylist 2013-2019).
The Municipality of Angadanan originally incorporated in the third congressional district of Isabela is now part of the sixth district of the province. It has 59 barangays, has a land area of 20,440 hectares with 50,375 inhabitants (2019). The 1st class municipality is bounded by Cauayan City in the north, San Mariano town in the east, Echague and San Guillermo towns in the south and Alicia town in the west. Home of the Gakit Festival, the Municipality of Angadanan continuous to be one of the economic gateways of the communities nestling at the foothills of the great Sierra Madre and the mighty Cagayan River.
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