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

Dinagat Islands Dinagat Islands ( Cebuano: ''Mga Pulo sa Dinagat''; Surigaonon: ''Mga Puyo nan Dinagat''; Kabalian: ''Mga Puyo san Dinagat''; Waray: ''Mga Purô han Dinagat''; Filipino: ''Mga Islang Dinagat''), officially the Province of Dinagat Islands, is ...

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 10,621.

History

Founded under the order of Governor-General Manuel Crespo as a

pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

in April 25, 1855, the municipality is the oldest of the whole province. Settlers from

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

Bohol Bohol (), officially the Province of Bohol (; ), is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. It is home to Bohola ...

, and Surigao built their homes along the coast of what is now the

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 ...

of the town. According to sources, the first families to settle in the town were Ga, Ventura, Ecunar, Gealogo, Jarligo, Geraldino,Ensomo, Gier, and Eviota. However the pueblo is on constant risk of being attacked by Moro pirates from mainland Mindanao. It even reached to the point that they managed to steal the

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

of the Immaculada Concepcion

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, the only church in the town then, and dumped it in a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

situated on what is now

sitio A ''sitio'' ( 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 barangay if its popu ...

Busay in Barangay New Mabuhay. But the Moro pillaging was eventually stopped by the first

gobernadorcillo The (, literally "little governor") was a municipal judge or governor in the Captaincy General of the Philippines, Philippines during the History of the Philippines (1565–1898), Spanish colonial period, who carried out in a town the combined ...

of the town, Pedro Ga Ventura, along with his brother Leon through e''stukada'' or

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

using ''linantip'', a variety of bolo. They were considered by local historians as the first hero of the whole province. The population of the town began to rapidly grow after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The local economy flourished and birth rates were high with more people coming from Surigao coming to the town to settle down. Elementary and secondary schools were built in the area and later on ports and improved infrastructures were also built in the town. The town became more populous than ever after the foundation of the

Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association The Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, Inc. (PBMA) is a non-sectarian and non-profit charitable religious fraternal organization for men and women in the Philippines founded by Ruben Edera Ecleo Sr. (December 9, 1934 – December 2 ...

, headed by the Ruben Edera Ecleo Sr, which also served as a mayor of Dinagat from 1963 to 1987. The influx of settlers, mostly PBMA members, caused a rapid rise in population. However, many of those settlers did not live at the town centre, rather at Sitio Puyangi, which would become the Municipality of

San Jose, Dinagat Islands San Jose, officially the Municipality of San Jose (Surigaonon language, Surigaonon: ''Lungsod nan San Jose''; ; ), is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality and capital of the Philippine Province, province of Dinagat Islands, Philippi ...

today. Due to their areas being developed, Barangay San Jose, Matingbe, Jacques, Aurelio, Mahayahay, San Juan, Don Ruben Ecleo, Justiniana Edera, Santa Cruz, Cuarenta, Wilson and Luna was separated from the original territory of Dinagat to form the new municipality of San Jose on November 15, 1989, under Republic Act No. 6769. The town became a part of the province of Dinagat Islands in December 2006, when the province was created from

Surigao del Norte Surigao del Norte ( Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Norte''; ; Tagalog: ''Hilagang Surigao''), officially the Province of Surigao del Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Caraga region of Mindanao. The province was fo ...

by Republic Act No. 9355. However, in February 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, as the necessary requirements for provincial land area and population were not met. The town reverted to Surigao del Norte. On October 24, 2012, however, the Supreme Court reversed its ruling from the previous year, and upheld the constitutionality of RA 9355 and the creation of Dinagat Islands as a province.

Geography

The municipality is generally hilly with towering mountainous in eastern side part and islands outlying in the western part.

Plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

areas are located within the vicinity of different creeks and rivers that flow to the western coast (majority of the plains are located in Magsaysay, Cayetano, and Wadas) and are used for agricultural purposes with products being

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

. The

or the town centre is located on the western end of the Dinagat

Peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

separated by the Dinagat Bay on the north and Awasan bay on the south. It has many pockets of

beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

on its coast mainly on the islands of Cab-Ilan and Cabayawan but beaches are also spotted in White Beach, Wadas, and Gomez. La isla Calaveras (Pulo), an island near Tagbuyakhaw, was used as a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

for people killed by brutal Japanese occupiers during

. But now it became an attraction for beach goers.

Mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove sal ...

dominate the

deltas A river delta is a landform, wikt:archetype#Noun, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition (geology), deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or ...

and

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

of the coasts and are prevalent in New Mabuhay, Wadas, Magsaysay, and Cayetano.

Aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

is lively as it has many protected fish sanctuaries in the bay.

Barangays

Dinagat is politically subdivided into 12

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 ...

. * Bagumbayan * Cab-ilan * Cabayawan * Cayetano * Escolta (Poblacion) * Gomez (with Tagbuyakhaw as a

) * Magsaysay * Mauswagon (Poblacion) * New Mabuhay * Wadas * White Beach (Poblacion)

Climate

The town generally experiences dry season from April to October along with wavy seas due to the Habagat (Southwestern Monsoon) and wet season from November to March.

Demographics

Economy

Gallery

References

External links

Dinagat Profile at the DTI Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index
*

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 ...

{{Authority control Municipalities of Dinagat Islands