Santa Margarita, officially the Municipality of Santa Margarita ( war, Bungto han Santa Margarita; tl, Bayan ng Santa Margarita), is a 4th class

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 26,816 people. Formerly known as Magsohong, it is bounded to the north by the city of Calbayog and to the south by Gandara.

History

The town used to be a barrio in Calbayog named Magsohong, but on June 29, 1878, the ''

principalía The ''principalía'' or noble class was the ruling and usually educated upper class in the ''pueblos'' of Spanish Philippines, comprising the ''gobernadorcillo'' (later called the c''apitán municipal'' and had functions similar to a town mayo ...

'' of Magsohong, petitioned the Gobierno Superior to establish Magsohong as an independent

pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

. They argued that Magsohong was four hours away from Calbayog, it already had a '' casa real'' or a ''Juzgado de Paz'' of nipa, a church with a techada (roof) of nipa; a convent; an escuela also made of wood and nipa; and had more than 300 tributos. The petition was endorsed by the '' cura parroco'', the

Gobernadorcillo The ''gobernadorcillo'' (, literally "little governor") was a municipal judge or governor in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, who carried out in a town the combined charges or responsibilities of leadership, economic, and jud ...

as well as the principalía of Calbayog. Fourteen years later, Royal Decree No. 25 dated September 25, 1892 approved the establishment of the pueblo of Magsohong renamed Santa Margarita. The new pueblo had three visitas: Balud, San Bernardo, and Londara. However, it remained under the parish of Calbayog.

Geography

Barangays

Santa Margarita is politically subdivided into 36

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolita ...

Climate

Demographics

Economy

Tourism

*Arapison Falls *Baluarte *Burabod Picnic Grove *Calvary Hill *The Oldest Bell *The Oldest Natural Spring Water *Hell’s Fog Nature Oark *Mamitagaytay *St. James Parish Sta Margarita

Culture

Alimango Festival

July 25 (Alimango Festival) - this dance festival revolves around the courtship between the female ''alimango'' (the mud crab ''

Scylla serrata ''Scylla serrata'' (often called mud crab or mangrove crab, although both terms are highly ambiguous, and black crab) is an ecologically important species of crab found in the estuaries and mangroves of Africa, Australasia, and Asia. In their ...

'' found in fishponds) Atabayi and the male Amamakhao. It also depicts the capture of the ''alimango'' with the use of the ''bobo'' and giant ''bentol'' (kinds of traps). Dancers, dressed as alimango, flex their hands as if to bite. Snare drums and talutang highlight the fast rhythm of the dance.

References

External links

Santa Margarita Profile at PhilAtlas.com

Official Website
* Philippine Standard Geographic Code
Philippine Census Information

Local Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control Municipalities of Samar (province)