Anything under the sun
San Joaquin – cradle of civilization (1)
(The writer would like to share here his lecture on San Joaquin during the symposium conducted by the municipal government and schools in the town on September 30, 2009.)
This January, the town of San Joaquin, Iloilo will celebrate its centennial anniversary with this theme: The greatness of San Joaquin.
Indeed, in the field of history and culture, San Joaquin is rich and great since the ten Bornean Malay datus arrived to settle in Panay centuries ago.
These newcomers who came from the banks of Bisaya river in Bornay (Borneo) – the noble ascendants of the present West Visayans, landed at the mouth of Andona river where they met and negotiated with the aboriginal Atis (Negritos) for the Barter of Panay island called Aninipay then by the Atis.
This barter deal was consumated at Imbidayan Rock where the consideration was a gold tropical helmet (sadok) and a ground-reaching gold necklace (mananangyad) after which a rejoicing was held jointly by the Malays and Atis.
When the Negritos left for the mountains, the Malays discovering that the latter had tropical ulcer (kabuyao), they burned the latter’s makeshift huts to kill the germs (kagaw). Since then, this place has been called Sinugbuhan (where something was burned). The Malays then transferred to the mouth of a larger river they called Suruagan – a place where suaga – a specie of fresh water shrimp are caught.)
All the places – Andona, Imbidayan, Sinugbuhan and Suruagan, are now parts of the town of San Joaquin.
To populate the entire island, the Malays sailed around it starting from Suruagan river and dropping families along the way usually at the mouths of rivers. These new settlements were Malandog (now Hamtik) and Polondan (now Pandan) in Antique, Madianos (now Kalibo) in Aklan and Araut (now Dumangas) and Katigbauan (now Tigbauan) – plus around 15 barangays in between these towns. This circumnavigation of Panay ended where it started – in Suruguan where Datu Paiburong and his family settled.
Later, the Malays renamed the island Madia-as and divided it into three ralawigan(s) (provinces) – Hamtik under Datu Sumakwel, Aklan under Datu Bangkaya and Irong-irong under Datu Paiburong. Then Datu Sumakwel planted a bamboo grove (still there at present), in Sambaran (now a part of San Joaquin) to mark the boundary of Hamtik and Irong-irong and Datu Paiburong made Suruagan the capital of Irong-irong.
Still later, they formed these three ralawigan(s) into a confederation Katiringban et Madia-as. Incidentally, these ralawigan(s) were the first known provinces, the Katiringban, the first regional government and Malandog, the first barangay – in the country.
The first Katiringban chief was Datu Sumakwel followed by Datu Bankaya and then Datu Paiburong who made Suruagan the capital of katiringban.
For these alone, San Joaquin is already great historically.
