San Miguel, officially the Municipality of San Miguel ( Surigaonon: ''Lungsod nan San Miguel''; ), 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 ...

Surigao del Sur Surigao del Sur (Surigaonon language, Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Sur''; ; ), officially the Province of Surigao del Sur, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Caraga Regions of the Philippines ...

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 2020 census, it has a population of 41,809 people. With an area of , it is the largest among the municipalities and cities in the province. It is also one of the only two landlocked municipalities in the province along with Tagbina.

Antique gold discoveries

In 1981, Edilberto "Berto" Morales, a farmer employed as a bulldozer operator in an irrigation project accidentally unearthed a

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

of authentic gold artifacts and jewelries weighing up to 30 kg in Barangay Magroyong which includes masks, figurines, bowls, daggers, trinkets, belts, and all sorts of body ornaments. Through a support of several historical accounts, archaeologists and historians believed that the gold items were associated between 10th to 13th century used by pre-colonial Filipinos, years before Spaniards came to the country. Some of the golden artifacts, jewelries and ornaments, dubbed as the "Surigao Treasure", were then sold to and currently exhibited at the Ayala Museum in the city of

Makati Makati ( ; ), officially the City of Makati (), is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines, known for being one of the leading financial centers in the country. As of 2013, the city has the highest concent ...

and some pieces at the

Central Bank of the Philippines The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (; commonly abbreviated as BSP in both Filipino and English) is the central bank of the Philippines. It was established on January 3, 1949, and then re-established on July 3, 1993 pursuant to the provision of Re ...

. Morales' discoveries were then considered one of the first proofs that gold was an important link between the early people of pre-colonial Philippines and the neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

Geography

Barangays

San Miguel is politically subdivided into 18

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 ...

Climate

Demographics

Economy

References

External links

San Miguel profile at PhilAtlas.com San Miguel profile at the DTI Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index
* Philippine Standard Geographic Codebr>Philippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control Municipalities of Surigao del Sur