LUBAO (PAMPANGA)
Brief History:
Lúbao was the last independent state to capitulate to the Spanish occupation of Lŭsòng Guo (Luzón: circa 13th AD – 1572 AD) that began with the conquest of Manila in 1571. Early Spanish chroniclers wrote that Lúbao, like its neighbor Bétis, was also a heavily fortified city whose high walls were armed with heavy artillery. Its inhabitants were also said to be Muslims and that the city has an international port that traded directly with Brunei, Malacca, Sumatra and Guangzhou.
Some Chinese scholars believed that Lúbao may have been called Liu Bao. Liu Bao refers to the six treasures in Chinese geomancy ~ gold, wood, water, fire, earth and air ~ suggesting that Lúbao was once a place blessed with an abundance of all of these treasures.
Early Spanish sources say that Lúbao was named after the Lúbao River, a fast flowing river that streamed out of treacherous sandbanks and mangrove forests. In corroboration, Fr. Diego Bergaño’s Vocabulario de la Lengua Pampanga en Romance offered two possible definitions to the archaic Kapampángan word lubao: a verb that meant “to leak out or spurt from a narrow passage,” and a verb that meant “to rise above the water.” It may be that the ancient city of Lúbao was a community built upon a sandbank or a reclaimed estuary. A further testament to this is found in the book written by Mariano A. Henson, Pampanga and Its Towns. In it, Henson wrote that in 1660, certain Spanish writers called the place Baras, after the numerous “barras” or sandbars that clogged the mouth of the Uáuâ River.
Lúbao is known to the Aita Mag-îndî of Pórac as Bábâ. The Aita Mag-îndî, now an ethnic minority, once populated the Southwestern region of Pampanga. Bábâ meant “downstream” (maúlî or málaúlí in Kapampángan) in their language and Lúbao is located right at the mouth of the Porac River. It served as their trading post for their traditional forest merchandise such as sauálî, honey, beeswax and deer hide. Kapampángans adopted the word Bábâ as their more familiar name for Lúbao.
After the capitulation of Lúbao in 1572, Spanish Governor General Guido de Lavezares immediately appropriated it into his encomienda or estate-grant together with Bétis. The Agustinian Order simultaneously began their task of evangelisation. The construction of the Church of San Agustin was begun in 1572 by the same architect who constructed the San Agustin Church in Manila, Fray Antonio de Herrera, OSA. In his Conquistas, Fray Gaspar de San Agustin praised the fine brick structure as one of the “largest” and “more sumptuous” in the land. It was intended as a Chapter House of the Agustinian Order in Luzon and contained a school for the study the Kapampángan language, as well as a printing press for the publication imported from Japan for the publication of religious materials in the Spanish, Kapampángan and even Tagálug languages.
Before the advent of standardized textbooks on Philippines History, the people of Lúbao believed that their community was founded by Rajah Sulíman and that they descended from him and his relatives. This folklore found its way in the ethnographic collection of American school teacher Luther Parker in 1911. 16th century Spanish accounts have conflicting records on the actual fate of Rajah Sulíman. Some claimed he escaped to Pampanga after losing the battle in Manila. He was said to be the Macabébe ruler who died in the naval battle at Bangcusay. Others say he was the Don Juan de Manila who led the uprising of Kapampángan nobles in Candába. There were also numerous sightings of him directing the battle against the Spaniards behind the fortified walls of Lúbao. With appearance of the Manila-centered Philippine History textbooks however, Rajah Suliman’s connection to Lúbao and the rest of Pampanga was almost completely wiped out from the people’s memory.
Not much was written about Lúbao since its conquest in 1572. It passed on into history as a quiet peaceful town. Roughly four hundred years later however, history focused itself on Lúbao once again when Diosdádo P. Macapagal, a Kapampángan from Lúbao, was elected president of the Philippine Republic on November 14, 1961.
——————————————————-
Author: Michael Raymon Tayag-Manaloto Pangilinan
Sources:
1. Gaspar de San Agustin, Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas; 1565-1615, 1st Bilingual Edition, Intramuros: 1998.
2. Luciano P.R. Santiago, Laying the Foundations: Kapamangan Pioneers in the Philippine Church, 1592-2001, Angeles City: 2002.
3. Mariano A. Henson, Pampanga and Its Towns (AD 1300-1965), Angeles: 1965.
4. The Luther Parker Collection, Datos historicos de este municipio de Lubao, Provincia de la Pampanga, Islas Filipinas, translated from Spanish by Antonio Prima.
5. The Historical Data Papers, Lubao, Bureau of Public Schools, 1953.
6. Teresita Gimenez Maceda, Mga Tinig Mula sa Ibaba: Kasaysayan ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas at Partido Sosialista ng Pilipinas sa Awit, 1930-1955, QC, 1996.
Total Population (2000): 125,699; Household Population: 125,681; Number of Households: 23,446 (Source: NSO).
Barangays (45): Balantacan, Bancal Pugad, Bancal Sinubli, Baruya, Calangain, Concepcion, De La Paz, Del Carmen, Don Ignacio Dimson, Lourdes, Prado, Remedios, San Agustin, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Isidro, San Jose Apunan, San Jose Gumi, San Juan, San Matias, San Miguel, San Nicolas 1st, San Nicolas 2nd, San Pablo 1st, San Pablo 2nd, San Pedro Palcarangan, San Pedro Saug, San Roque Arbol, San Roque Dau, San Vicente, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa Lucia, Santa Maria, Santa Monica, Santa Rita, Santa Teresa 1st, Santa Teresa 2nd, Santiago, Santo Cristo, Santo Domingo, Santo Niño, Santo Tomas, Siongco (Source: DOT).
THE GREATEST MAN IN HISTORY
