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Mercedes Barangay Zamboanga City, Philippines

Saturday, July 05, 2008
Nalzaro: Zamboanga del Norte
By Bobby Nalzaro
Saksi

Dipolog City--I am a full-blooded Dipolognon. I was born in this city, which is the capital of Zamboanga del Norte, and grew up here. I am in Cebu because of my profession.

My knowledge about the history of Zamboanga del Norte, however, is meager and some of it are not among the subjects taken up during my elementary and high school days. This may not interest other regional groups but is somehow important to my kababayans.

According to the Zanorte website, the province was created on June 6, 1952 when the old Zamboanga was split in two.

Inhabited by the peaceful Subano people who lived along the banks of rivers (suba), Zamboanga del Norte has its beginnings in the old province where the Spaniards set up a corregimiento militar. In 1837, it was changed to gobierno militar.

The old Zamboanga was one of the six districts of Mindanao and Sulu in 1860. By the end of the Spanish rule, the number of districts was increased to seven. Zamboanga town (now a city) was the capital of Mindanao since the beginning of Spanish rule, except between 1872 and 1875.

Northern Zamboanga (Zamboanga del Norte), was occupied by the colonizers through Dapitan in the north and Siocon in the south. An old Spanish fort atop a hillside near the sea still stands today at Port Sta. Maria.
Dapitan was created by a politico-military commandancia and was under it from 1863 up to 1905. It was in Dpaitan where Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled by the Spaniards.

In 1897, a year after Rizal left Dapitan, a revolt broke out in Zamboanga province under the leadership of Isidoro Midel and Melanio Ramos. The uprising, however, was short lived and did not accomplish much.

When Gen. Vicente Alvarez was appointed head of the Revolutionary Forces in the region in 1898, he attacked the Spanish stronghold in Zamboanga town and took possession of the province.

Under American rule, a Moro province was created with Zamboanga as one of the districts. By this time, Cebuanos, Boholanos and other migrants from the Visayas had settled in many parts of the vast virgin lands of the province. They now form part of the majority ethnic grouping.

In 1914, a civil government, the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, was established by the Americans. Later under the Bureau of Non-Christian tribes, Zamboanga became one of the provinces of the department, with the town of Zamboanga as the seat of government.

After World War II, residents began to develop their agricultural-natural resources, cultivating the logged-over fertile lands after lumbermen did their thing. A plywood and veneer plant of the Misamis Lumber Co. is in Sirawai, near Siocon in the South.

Governing the entire 1,532 square kilometers of the Zamboanga peninsula, however, was a tedious task for an administrator of the underdeveloped province. Thus, on June 6, 1952, the Province of Zamboanga was split in two and Zamboanga del Norte came into being.

Felipe Azcuna, father of Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna, was the governor of the whole Zamboanga province. But then president Elpidio Quirino later appointed him governor of the newly created province of Zamboanga del Norte.

At present, Zamboanga del Norte is composed of 25 municipalities and the cities of Dapitan and Dipolog. Lawyer Rolando Yebes is on his second term as governor.

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