Emmanuel Kristofer Blog

Government
Region    CALABARZON (Region IV-A)
Province    Batangas
District    2nd District of Batangas
Barangays    40
Income class:    1st class municipality
Mayor    Ryanh M. Dolor (Lakas-CMD)
Area    53.50 km²

Town History

Bauan comes from the Tagalog word bauang that means close or concealed and rugged mountain. Bauan was one of the principal barrios of Taal from the late 16th century up to the middle of the 17th century. The original site of the old Bauan (1590-1662) was a place called Tambo, which was along Bonbon, Taal Lake and at the slope of Mt. Macolot. The town was relocated thrice: to Durungao (1662-1671), to Duclap (1671-1690) and then to Tulusan (1690-present).

When Bauan was made and transformed to be a legal town, it consisted of the towns of San Jose (formerly called San Jose de Malaking Tubig), Cuenca (then part of San Jose), Alitagtag, Mabini (Calumpang Penunsula), Tingloy (Maricaban Island) and San Pascual (formerly called Lagnas). The towns of San Jose, Alitagtag, Mabini and San Pascual were separated from Bauan in 1767, 1910, 1918 and 1969, respectively. In 1876, Cuenca was separated from San Jose and in 1955, Tingloy was likewise separated from Mabini.

Bauan was the First Class Municipalit in Southern Tagalog Region (the former Region IV) after the reclassification. Today, Bauan is the most industrialized municipality in Batangas Province.

Barangay Extraterritoriality / Disputes

Global Marine System’s territory is part of Barangay San Roque. It is enclave within Barangay San Andres 1. Notably, ICTSI’s Bauan International Port is actually struggles the boundary of Barangay San Andres 1 and San Roque, it is disputed due to some lands of ICTSI is actually inside San Andres 1. This is verified by residents of the Ilaya part of San Andres 1. As of now, residents don’t know where is the boundary of the two barangays.

Major Industries

Bauan, Batangas includes several major industries. The Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Company of Manila (now 20% minority part-owner of ICTSI’s Bauan International Port) are the former major industries of the Municipaliy of Bauan. Below are the list of active industries.

* Babcock Hitachi Phils., Inc.
* Coastal Bay Chemical Phil., Inc.
* Engineering Equipment, Inc.
* International Container Terminal Services Inc.
* Keppel Batangas Dockyard, Inc.
* Minola Refining Corporation
* PNOC Coal Corporation
* Sakamoto Orient Chemicals Corp.
* Stepan Philippines, Inc.
* United Coconut Chemicals, Inc.

Religious Attribution and Miracles :

Bauan’s Main Catholic Church as detailed in this section

The mission of Bauan was founded as a visita of Taal in 1590. It was administered by the Augustinians from 1596 and onwards when the first church was built at the slope of Mt. Maculot along the southern shores of the Taal Lake until the end of the 19th century. Another church was built in 1667 probably under the supervision of Fr. Jose Rodriguez (OSA) when it was relocated to Durungto. The church was again relocated in Lonal (or Loual) in 1671 by Fr. Nicolas de Rivera (OSA) who probably had a new structure built. The last relocation was in 1692 (or 1690) in its present site during the administration of Fr. Simon Martinez (OSA) who probably had a new church built that was damaged during the typhoon of 1694. Fr. Ignacio Mercado (OSA) had this rebuilt from 1695 to 1697. The church again suffered damages and was replaced by a stone structure during the administration of Fr. Blas Vidal (OSA) from 1700 to 1710. Fr. Jose Vitoria (OSA) who also introduced the cultivation of indigo in Bauan initiated building the present church in 1762 that was continued until 1856 during the administrations of Fr. Jose Trevino (OSA) and Fr. Hipolito Huerta (OSA). It was completed under the supervision of Fr. Felipe Bravo (OSA) in 1881. From there until 1894, final decorations were supervised by Fr. Moises Santos (OSA) and Fr. Felipe Garcia (OSA). The church is said to be the most artistically built in the province of Batangas during that time. Father Bravo was also an imminent botanist who put up a museum of natural history and collected rare books that were lost when the church was razed by fire during the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1898. The church was probably rebuilt and again destroyed by fire in 1938. It has been restored since then.

Five years after the establishment of the ecclesiastical mission of Bauan, a giant cross made of anubing, a local hardwood was found in a dingin (a place of worship) near the town of Alitagtag that was said to have protected people of Bauan from pestilence, locusts, droughts, volcanic eruptions, and Moro raids. Based on a document found in the Bauan Cathedral Archives in 1790, Castro y Amoedo stated that the cross was made in 1595 from a very strong post of a demolished house and erected in the village of Alitagtag to drive away a plague of ghosts. The cross was described as 2.5 meters in height with a 1 meter crosspiece. It featured a golden sun embossed with a human face with radiating rays where the arms intersect (shades of anito worship). The cross was also said to walk around the village (perhaps while driving away the ghosts) and that water gushed from one of its arms.

The miracles attributed to the cross attracted many devotees and a decision was made to move it to the bigger Bauan parish church. However, one priest tried to bring the cross to his church in the capital town of Taal but was prevented from doing so when “the sky became cloudy, and it began to thunder and emit dreadful lightning bolts”. Before its enshrinement in Bauan however, the cross has decreased in size because devotees has chipped away pieces of the cross that were made into miniature replicas and were worn as necklace talismans. A Fr. Manuel de Zamora was also reported to have cut more than 1/3 from the foot of the cross (that were perhaps made into more miniature replicas) and distributed in Manila where a number of miracles were reported. What was left is what is being venerated today in the Bauan church.

The town, the church, and the cross were later moved to a place called Dungarao to escape the violent eruptions of Taal Volcano, then to Loual (or Lonal) , in an unidentified place in 1689, and finally to its present site near the sea in 1690 or probably 1692. Today, the people of Bauan pay homage to the cross by dancing the Subli. It is said that the Subli preceeded Christianity in the Philippines and is in fact even pre-Spanish era’s religious ritual. People still go the dingin or sambahan (where the cross was first erected) to pray.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauan,_Batangas

Poblacion of Bauan town.

Bauan church