COMMENTARY: ... on Gen. Santos City's foundation anniversary
Balita News
By Patricio P. Diaz
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Feb 16 (PNA)- General Santos City is
celebrating with a loud bang and a big boom. What for is the bang and
the boom?
Officially, to observe the 60th anniversary of the coming of the
first settlers on February 27, 1939 led by retired Major General Paulino
Santos, then administrator and general manager of the National Land
Settlement Administration (NLSA). The event is being considered the
foundation day of General Santos City.
If so, the bang and the boom, no matter how loud and how big,
are irrelevant to February 27, 1939. General Santos City was not founded
on that date but on September 5, 1968; its foundation anniversary this
year will only be the 31st.
Mixed up
Certainly, there has been a mixed up. Perhaps, the city
officials celebrating the event every year are unaware of the mixed up;
or, if they are, they lack the will to untangle themselves. But, the
annual irrelevance must stop.
When General Santos and the 68 settlers landed in Dadiangas on
February 27, 1939, they did not found General Santos City - not even
General Santos town - but Lagao Settlement from which to establish five
other settlements in Koronadal and Allah Valleys under the NLSA.
Twenty-five years later, these settlements comprised the South Cotabato
province.
Lagao was just a settlement, not even a town. It was within the
territory of Buayan, a municipal district. But, apparently, the
municipal district, under Mayor Abedin, had no jurisdiction over the
settlement.
In January, 1948, when Buayan became a regular municipality
under Republic Act No. 82, Lagao was just a barrio of Buayan. And there
was no General Santos City yet. And the settlers, spearheaded by the
first batchers, celebrated February 27 without so much bang and boom
only to keep alive the historical event.
On September 5, 1968, President Marcos inaugurated General
Santos City with its Charter, R.A. 5412 authored by Rep. James
Chiongbian (HB 17209) and signed by the President on July 8, 1968.
JUSMAG officers witnessed the event. That was the first time General
Santos City came into being.
That General Santos founded Lagao Settlement on February 27,
1939 is a historical fact. But, that does not make him the founder of
the city named in his memory 29 years after. And that does not make
February 27, 1939 the foundation day of General Santos City.
The founding of Lagao Settlement and of General Santos City are
two different events separated by 29 years. General Santos was the
founder or father of Lagao and all other settlements in Koronadal and
Allah Valley. Mayor Antonino Acharon and his Council who petitioned for
the conversion of Buayan into a city and Congressman Chiongbian who
authored the city charter are the fathers, thus founders, of General
Santos City. Let there be no mixed up of these two distinctly clear
historical events.
Footnote
Lagao Settlement was only a small portion of Buayan when made
into a regular municipality under R.A. 82. Of the present city
barangays, Lagao, Bula, Dadaiangas, San Isidro, about half of
Katangawan, and small portions of Conel and Mabuhay bounded by Silway
and Klinan Rivers on the west, the foothills of Klaja mountain and an
imaginary line extending to Klinan river and Baluan creek on the north,
and Baluan creek on the east comprised Lagao Settlement together with
Klinan 6, Upper Klinan, Silway 7 and Silway 8, which are now barangays
of Polomolok.
The naming of Buayan into General Santos City was a political
triumph of the Christians over the Muslims. Congressman Salipada K.
Pendatun wanted Buayan, on its conversion into a city, named Rajah
Buayan City. Pendatun made the mistake of not heeding the clamor of the
Buayan political leaders when he was still the representative of the
undivided Cotabato.
If history were to take primacy over politics and emotional
biases of the local leaders, General Santos would have been more
fittingly honored by naming South Cotabato after him for he was the
father of all the settlements comprising the province from where the
other municipalities sprang.
With the passage of H.B. 17209 into R.A. 5412 and with the
inauguration of General Santos City on September 5, 1968, Febraury 27,
1939 has become a footnote. It should be observed in a way to project
the significance of the establishment of the NLSA settlements and their
impact on Christian-Muslim relations.
The present loud bang and big boom are to be appreciated
properly. They are fit for the principal text, September 5, 1968, but
irrelevant to the footnote, February 27, 1939. (PNA)
RGR/Patricio P. Diaz/ -- aca
(Note: Mr. Diaz, a resident of General Santos City, is among the first
settlers of Lagao. A journalist and a mentor, he served as
editor-in-chief of the Catholic-run newspaper Mindanao Cross for over 20
years and later founded the weekly Mindanao Kris. He has made extensive
research and has written papers and a book on the Mindanao problem.)
PNA 02161140