Pata, officially the Municipality of Pata (
Tausūg: ''Kawman sin Pata''; ), is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago.
It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. According to the 2015 census, it had a population of 22,163 people.
History
Colonial period
Spanish occupation
Spanish authorities conducted an expedition to Pata island in 1887, which became successful despite setbacks encountered by the troops, while inflicting casualties to
the natives.
Local banditry
Pata island was once recorded being inhabited by most warlike
Moro tribes in the
Sulu Archipelago
The Sulu Archipelago ( Tausug: Kapū'-pūan sin Sūg Sulat Sūg: , ) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Se ...
, and was visited by bandits and pirates for centuries.
It was said that Jikiri, a renegade follower of the
Sultan of Sulu
The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. Historically ...
,
Jamalul Kiram II, who turned into a Moro outlaw leader at
the time of American occupation,
spent much of his time somewhere in the present-day municipality, recruiting his men.
Had been
involved in piracy and murders since late 1907, he was killed on the smaller island of Patian (now part of the municipality)—reportedly his birth place—on July 4, 1909, ending a massive manhunt.
Later, conflicts in the Pata began as establishment of schools was opposed. In 1920, the
Constabulary
Constabulary may have several definitions:
*A civil, non-paramilitary (police) force consisting of police officers called constables. This is the usual definition in the United Kingdom, in which all county police forces once bore the title (and s ...
and the group of Hatib Sihaban had a clash, the said rebel leader was wounded. By mid-1923, a band of outlaws later killed three residents.
Due to worsening peace situation, in May 1923, the Constabulary's two small detachments were combined by its Provisional Commander into a stronger one stationing on Kiput School House.
On the early morning of May 19,
the same Moro band
of some 300,
under Moro Acbara,
surrounded the school and attacked the detachment inside.
An encounter left more than 20 dead and led the rest of the bandits to retreat; the Constabulary were left unharmed.
The incident led authorities to send an expeditionary force of 120 which conducted a march on the island on the 28th.
In later military operations, the stronghold of the outlaws was attacked, and fierce fighting killed 45 of the rebels. The leaders escaped; Acbara was later killed by an arresting councilman; Hatib Sihaban and his followers surrendered.
Contemporary
Conversion into municipality
By virtue of ''
Executive Order
In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the ...
No. 355'', signed by President
Carlos P. Garcia
Carlos Polestico Garcia (; November 4, 1896 – June 14, 1971), often referred to by his initials CPG, was a Filipino teacher, poet, orator, lawyer, public official, political economist, guerrilla and Commonwealth military leader who was the ...
on August 26, 1959, twenty of 21 remaining municipal districts of
then-undivided Sulu, including Pata, were converted into municipalities effective July 1, 1958.
Later events
On December 23, 1959, bandits raided two houses occupied by 23 persons, killing 19 of them in a massacre.
In 1981, two major incidents occurred
involving the
Moro National Liberation Front
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF; ) is a political organization in the Philippines that was founded in 1972. It started as a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement. The MNLF was the organization most active in the Moro conf ...
,
which had
seeking Muslim rule in the southern Philippines.
On February 12, an attack by some 200 secessionists
under Unad Musillan
of the
Army's 31st Infantry Battalion,
1st Infantry Division,
led by Lt. Col. Jacinto Sarudal,
which had been deployed on the island, in the largest single death toll in an encounter between the Moro separatists and the military.
The government retaliated
by launching series of assault operations against Muslim rebels,
causing deaths of hundreds of villagers.
As a result, 14,000 inhabitants faced starvation due to their restricted movements;
and in April, 2–3 thousand Muslims left the town.
On November 20, a 15-man
Army platoon were ambushed by about 30 rebels in
Barangay
The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...
Cawayan.
Ten of the soldiers
including their leader 2Lt. Antonio Yap, as well as two of the attackers, were killed.
Geography
Barangays
Pata is politically subdivided into 14
barangay
The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...
s. Each barangay consists of
purok
A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...
s while some have
sitios
A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...
.
* Andalan
* Daungdong
* Kamawi
* Kanjarang
* Kayawan
* Kiput
* Likud
* Luuk-tulay
* Niog-niog
* Patian
* Pisak-pisak
* Saimbangon (
Poblacion
''Poblacion'' (from Spanish '' población'', meaning "population"), sometimes abbreviated as Pob., is a term used in the Philippines to refer to the administrative center, downtown, old town, or commercial area of a city or municipality. It ...
)
* Sangkap
* Timuddas
Climate
Demographics
Economy
Poverty Incidence of
Notes
References
External links
Pata Profile at PhilAtlas.com*
Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) is a systematic classification and coding for geographic areas in the Philippines. It classifies areas based on the country's four levels of administrative divisions: regions, provinces, municipalities ...
Pata Profile at the DTI Cities and Municipalities Competitive IndexPhilippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Sulu
Island municipalities in the Philippines