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Brief
Historical Background
The Municipality of Tago
was born thrice because of the precariousness of
political times back then. It saw the light of day for
the first time in 1865 under the
Maura Law of the Spanish Regime that lasted for three
years. Tago must have reverted to its barrio status
because records had it that for the second time,
it regained its municipal status in 23 August 1883, just
after it transferred from the so called Daan Lungsod
(Old Town), which was perennially flooded, to the place
called Laguna. When the Philippine Revolution broke out
in 1896, Tago was again reverted to its barrio status.
About the middle of the
First World War, the people of Tago grew politically
minded and in the summer of 1916, important leaders of
then Barrio of Tago like Catalino Pareja, Calixtro
Espinoza, Simon Luna, Miguel Montero, Juan L. Garcia,
Feleciano Arquiza, Juan Pimentel, Lorenzo Elizalde,
Canuto Consuegra, Lino Montero, Isidro Garcia, Pastor
Cabrera, Bernardo Falcon, Felipe Lozada and Felix
Rodrigues were determined to wrestle Tagos political
independence away from the mother Municipality of Tandag.
This breed of local
leaders then submitted a duly signed petition to the
Municipal Council of Tandag. But wanting the petition to
gain more support, Catalino Pareja, along with
councilors Lino Montero, Isidro Garcia and Zacarias
Espinoza, sent the resolution directly to the Provincial
Board of Surigao which in turn endorsed it to the
Governor General in Manila.
The crude transportation
system during that time made the Provincial Governor
Ricardo Gonzales incur delays in sending the petition to
Governor General Francis Burton Harrison. But faced with
numerous pressing matters to attend to, Harrison issued
Executive Order No. 41 only in 6 November 1918, thus
convertingTago, for the third time, from being a
barrio to a newborn town
Appointed Municipal
President effective 1 January 1919 was then Councilor
Catalino Pareja with Calixtro Espinoza as Vice Municipal
President while Messrs. Feleciano Arquiza, Juan L.
Garcia, Lorenzo Elizalde and Canuto Consuegra were
appointed as Municipal Councilors. On the same year,
the first election was conducted and Catalino Pareja and
Lino Montero were elected as Municipal President and
Vice Municipal President respectively.
Reverend Father Nose
Croonin was Tagos Parish Priest at that time. |
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