Calatrava, Romblon

Map of Romblon showing the location of Calatrava

Calatrava is a 5th class municipality in the province of Romblon, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 8,878 people in 1,674 households.

Bantoanon or Asi is the native language of Poblacion, Pagsangajan and San Roque, while both Asi and Ini are used in Talisay, Linao and Pangulo. Onhan is used by majority of Balogo's inhabitants, however in some of its sitios, both Asi and Ini are also being used regularly by its native residents.

History

Calatrava, once a barrio in the town of San Agustin is situated along the northeastern coastal plains and rugged terrain of Tablas Island. It is bounded on the north and west by Tablas Strait, on the east by municipality of San Agustin, and on the south by the municipality of San Andres. The municipality has a total land area of 4,752.51 hectares constituting 3.50% of Romblon's land area. During pre-Spanish period, the place was called ‘Andagao’ named after a medicinal plant growing in abundance everywhere in the locality especially in places along the shore.

The word Calatrava was derived from the dialect word according to prevailing notion of the inhabitants. ‘Calat’ derived from Bantoanon word ‘kayat’ or in English meant ‘scattered’ and ‘grava’ which means gravel. Legend tells us that this place once abounded with numerous pools of water and some few houses were scattered around it. At the arrival of the Spaniards perhaps on orders of then Romblon governor Don Jose Fernandez de Terran here in Andagao (Calatrava) in 1881, they were surprised to find numerous pools of water with few houses scattered apart. They went house to house and asked for the name of the place. One farmer they asked did not understand the question and answered ‘nag-kayat’ meaning that the houses were scattered. The Spaniards thought that the man was giving them the name of the place. The Spaniards then added ‘grava’ meaning gravel for there were thick piles of gravels all around also. It is not only abundant in the sense that it was confined to this specific area of the locality as the gravels were widely scattered throughout the community, so much so that the word ‘calat’ plus ‘grava’ with the letter ‘g’ in the word ‘grava’ finally dropped, aptly fits the name of the place. Hence, it was named ‘Calatrava’ which remains to this day. As a matter of fact, there was a place in Spain called Calatrava, which might have inspired the Spanish authorities to name the place after that of their native place in Spain.

There was an influx of settlers towards northern Tablas coming from Banton and Romblon islands and also from central Tablas from early 1810s until 1830s because of its rich fishing banks, fertile soil, heavily wooded islands and verdant mountains ideal for establishing new settlements and farmlands in their quest for expansion of private lands and territories. What impelled these people to travel? Reasons were, the islands of Romblon and Banton were both small, densely populated and could hardly support the islanders. The Bantoanons were the first settlers of the municipality and joined later by migrants from Odiongan of which, like them, spoke the Bantoanon idiom. Today, this group of people made up the great portion of its residents while the northern barangay of Linao, Pangulo and Talisay have significant Romblomanon residents while Onhan settlers originally from Central Tablas decided to settle in the southern barangay of Balogo.

Around late 1830s, the village of Andagao was organized into a fundacion (settlement) attached to visita de Odiongan under pueblo de Banton. In the course of time, a Spanish friar named Padre Jose Aznar from the parish of Banton visited the place of Andagao and planned the construction of its first church made of wood and limestone sometime in 1839. Immediately, under the leadership of Elueterio Asuncion, then its cabeza de barangay who hailed from Odiongan and one of the respected leader from the new settlers, spearheaded for its church construction. Since then, Andagao immediately progressed and developed.

In 1850, people started using family names beginning with letter "F" as decreed by Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria issued on November 21, 1848. Thus, the name Eleuterio Asuncion, then the teniente de visita of Andagao was changed to Eleuterio Fetalino in compliance to Governor-General Claveria’s decree.^{[citation needed]}

Romblon separated from Capiz province when the "Politico Militar Commandancia del Distrito de Romblon"^{[clarification needed]} was organized on March 19, 1853. Romblon then had only four established pueblos or parishes, namely Romblon, the capital town, Banton, Cajidiocan (formerly and officially known as Sibuyan) and Looc. Andagao, being a visita then was included under pueblo de Banton together with visita de Odiongan. Two years later after the PMC del Distrito de Romblon was established in 1855, 17 new pueblos (municipios) or parishes were created. Finally, Andagao became one of the new municipalities in the Distrito de Romblon. This was Calatrava’s first proclamation as a pueblo or parish (its present equivalent is municipality).

On January 11, 1868, PMC del Distrito de Romblon's status was elevated into full-pledge province known as Politico Militar Commandancia dela Provincia de Romblon, there was reorganization in all local municipal government. As a consequence, only seven pueblos were retained, one missionary center, and one semi-autonomous visita under pueblo de Banton. A total of 15 pueblos were abolished and one of them was Andagao. Andagao reverted to its former status as a visita and it was annexed to pueblo de Guintiguian (renamed Badajoz on August 28, 1868, now San Agustin) because similarly, the former pueblo of Odiongan where Andagao was formerly attached as a sitio was similarly abolished and it was annexed back to its mother pueblo of Banton.

On June 14, 1881, Andagao was renamed Calatrava during the term of the controversial "Governador y Commandante de Politico Militares", Don Jose Fernandez de Terran (1880–1883). It was also speculated that then inconvent Spanish Governor-General Don Fernando Primo de Rivera (1880–1883), at one time a gallant soldier himself, born in Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia, Spain could have suggested in renaming the visita to Calatrava because he was inspired by the Military Order of Calatrava formed north of his city Jerez in the town originally called Oreto but renamed Calatrava by the Moors in the early 17th century. The military confraternity was formed by monks as an inspiration of Don Diego Velázquez, a Cistercian monk himself with the objective of defending strategic crucial towns and cities in the Andalucian region from the Moors invasions and attacks, hence the military order of Calatrava was formed.

On March 16, 1901, American civil government was organized in the province of Romblon, Calatrava remained part of Badajoz municipality until June 4, 1940 when all the municipalities of Romblon were abolished by the passing of Commonwealth Act No. 581 or better known as the 'Festin Bill'. The town of Badajoz became part of the new Special Municipality of Tablas with its seat at Odiongan. Badajoz was represented with one special municipal councilor at its municipal council in Odiongan. Calatrava, being a barrio of Badajoz then, was not represented.

As time goes on, the people of Calatrava developed the yearning for independence. As WW2 broke out, not long after guerilla organization sprouted in all nooks of the country that the emergency municipality of Calatrava was created on June 4, 1943 together with Alcantara and Libertad as sponsored by the guerilla movement regime under the Revolutionary Republic of the Philippines. Its first and only Mayor was the late Benito Famini, Sr. who served up to the Liberation period. This was Calatrava's second proclamation as a municipality. On October 1, 1946 Commonwealth Act No. 581 was repealed through the passage of Republic Act No. 38^[1] sponsored by Romblon's new Congressman in the person of Hon. Modesto Formilleza of Odiongan. Badajoz regained back its independent municipal status and Calatrava reverted to its former barrio status and was annexed back to Badajoz municipality as a barrio.

Also in 1946, a 3 man delegation composed of Mr. Pablo Fetalino, Mr. Lauriano Falcutila, Sr. and Mr. Jose C. Capa from Calatrava went to Manila to lobby for a Bill in Congress that will create Calatrava as an independent municipality. Representative Formilleza drafted a Bill for the purpose but after the delegation left Manila, nothing was heard about it and naturally the Bill died a natural death.

On June 15, 1968, through the kindness and sincerity of Ex-Congressman Jose D. Moreno, authored a Bill through which finally approved and become Republic Act No. 5317. Thus Calatrava became Romblon's 15th independent constituency under the category of municipal-district. This was Calatrava's third proclamation as an independent entity taken from the municipality of San Agustin. On June 23, 1969, the municipal district of Calatrava was converted into full-fledged municipality through the passage of Executive Order No. 184, a law which states 'converting all existing municipal-district into regular municipalities'. Today, Calatrava is composed of seven barrios or barangays.

Population of Calatrava at various times

Barrio/Barangay Name	Land Area (Hectares)	1894 /a	1896 /a	1903 /a	1918 /a	1939 /a	1948 /a	1960 /a	1970	1975	1980	1990	1995	2000	2007 /b
Poblacion (U)	25.16								2,076	1,063	1,123	1,484	1,596	1,907	1,813
Balogo	1,452.35							554	1,115	836	942	1,233	1,462	1,554	1,803
Calatrava		525	615	1,023	1,352	2,788	2,981	1,542
Linao	450.27							1,050	1,563	882	894	1,181	1,118	1,468	1,573
Pagsangahan	1,150.56									599	645	642	599	732	713
Pangulo (U)	639.31									862	978	1,147	1,329	1,178	1,272
San Roque	438.79									504	599	704	782	983	1,319
Talisay	596.07									936	934	1,072	848	1,056	1,233
Total	4,752.51	525	615	1,023	1,352	2,788	2,981	3,146	4,754	5,682	6,115	7,463	7,734	8,878	9,726

/a – Part of the Municipality of San Agustin /b - 2007 NCSO Census

Barangays

Calatrava is politically subdivided into 7 barangays.

• Balogo
• Linao
• Poblacion
• Pagsangahan
• Pangulo
• San Roque
• Talisay

References

1. ^ "Republic Act No. 38". LawPH.com. n.d.. http://lawph.com/. Retrieved 2011-04-08. 

External links

• Philippine Standard Geographic Code
• 2000 Philippine Census Information

Coordinates: 12°37′16″N 122°04′16″E / 12.621°N 122.071°E / 12.621; 122.071