By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
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Bontoc Colony
This account is that of Pascuala Sacki, 67, and her daughter Joy Malok, 45, both residents of Bantay. Sacki’s husband, Geronimo Jr., was a grandson of Manggayo and his wife Bannakan who were among the more or less 20 families from Samoki, Tucucan, Mainit and Bontoc Proper, Bontoc, Mt. Province recruited by the provincial government to colonize Tabuk sometime in 1922 or 1923. Incidentally, Manggayo and Bannakan were among the Igorots brought by the Americans to the St. Louis Expedition in Missouri, USA in 1904. Their only child Anita was born in St. Louis.
Sacki recollects that along with Manggayo and Bannakan, the following were among those which composed the pioneering group: Pongchad, Saliw-an, Balingaw, Pallat, Bumatnong, Chuntukan and their respective families. She could not recall the others who positively responded to the call of Gov. John Early and Kalinga Deputy Governor Nicasio Balinag for people to come settle in Tabuk. According to Sacki, it was easy for Early and Balinag to convince people to come to Tabuk because life was hard in Bontoc what with people eating sweet potatoes most of the time as there was limited space for rice farming. To get to Tabuk, they have to walk and ride horses. When they got here, the scouted the Gobgob area and then crossed the Chico River to the Tabuk Valley but in the end, chose the flat land in what is now Bantay to as their settlement. According to Sacki, they decided against entering the Tabuk Valley because with the thick and tall ledda grass, it looked more toilsome to settle than forested Bantay. They called their settlement Bontoc Colony.
Before their first harvest, they either got their rice from back home or from the neighboring Kalinga tribes namely the Nanengs and Bigas.
During the first months, many colonists died of malaria which forced some of the survivors to return to Bontoc. Those bound for home urged Manggayo and Bannakan to join them if only for the sake of their only child Anita who was born while they were in St. Louis but the couple decided to stay saying that if they die in the colony, so be it. There were no medicines available in the colony and the nearest hospital was located in Bontoc.
With the survival of the families who stayed put, another batch from Bontoc arrived in the colony in 1927. It was a smaller group consisting mostly of relatives of the original colonizers. The second wave traveled in the company of the Ilocanos from Cervantes, Ilocos who also responded to the call for the colonization of Tabuk. Later, two teachers
Namely Sergio Babate of Benguet and Dalmacio Aglubat, an Ilocano, joined the colonists and became the first teachers in the newly established school in the colony.
Cervantes Colony
Up to this time, barangay Tuga across the Chico River from the center of the city, is still sometimes called Cervantes Colony. That’s in reference to the settlement formed there by the first batch of immigrants from Cervantes, Ilocos Sur in the late 1920s. According to existing accounts of the settlement of Tabuk, the Cervantes natives were the third batch of people who came to colonize Tabuk.
Alejandro Fernandez, 89, was nine years old when the Cervantes folks came to Tabuk in 1927. He could still remember very well how his family became part of the pioneering group. Sometime before the move to Tabuk, their ricefield was washed away by the river forcing their father Agustin to became a traveling merchant of salt and other household necessities using a cow-drawn cart in order to feed his large family. Agustin’s route included Bontoc and in one of his trips there, he made a side trip to Lubuagan where his brother Policarpio, a carpenter in the employ of the government, was then helping construct a school building. Policarpio told him about an uninhabited wide land called Tabuk which they then decided to visit. Agustin was immediately attracted by the land and went home to look for others who might want to try their luck in Tabuk. After some town mates expressed their desire to join, they went to ask Mt. Province Governor John Early in Bontoc for help and the governor committed transportation and food assistance.
Alejandro relates that the following along with their families composed the pioneering group from Cervantes: Agustin Fernandez; Policarpio Fernandez (brother of Agustin); Pedro Tuvera (brother-in-law of Agustin); Pedro Fernandez (cousin of Agustin); Pedro Anga-angan; Ambrosio Anga-angan; Pedro Agliam; Jose Soriano; Calixto Gose; Gregorio Alaman; Meliton Gallema; Pablo Abongan; Enteng Abongan; Dugaong (one name). Alejandro recalls that two buses brought the group to Lubuagan and from there, they walked the rest of the way.
Their first dwelling when they arrived in Tuga. was a bunkhouse constructed by native Kalingas upon orders of government authorities headed by Kalinga Deputy Governor Nicasio Balinag who was then holding office in Lubuagan. The government provided the food of the colonists until they were able to harvest their first crops which happened to be native rice varieties obtained from their Kalinga neighbors. Alejandro recalls there were a few houses of native Kalingas along the creeks in Tuga when they arrived. **(To be continued)
