Pakil is a small, quiet and religious town in the province of Laguna, island of Luzon. It is situated between Mount Ping-as of the Sierra Madre mountain range and the eastern arm of Laguna Lake.
Its territories extend to Mauban, Quezon province at Tibag and Butas na Tiaong rivers in the east; to Paete town at Dakil and Tuyong Ilog in the south; then across the lake at Ynuod Point in Jala-Jala Rizal and at Mount Sembrano with Pililia town in the west; Mabitac town along the Hinukay river and Pangil town along the Dambo, Sambal and Balian rivers in the north.
It has an approximate land area of 6,000 hectares and an additional 3,000 hectares of municipal water in the lake.
It is comprised of 13 barrios: 7 at the eastern side of the lake, namely, Saray at the top of Sierra Madre and Rizal, Baņo, Tavera, Taft, Gonzales, and Burgos at the foot of Mount Ping-as; 6 at the western side, namely, Dorado at the top of Mount Sembrano and Banilan, Kabulusan, Casa Real, Matikiw and Casinsin along the shores of the lake.
The eastern side where the poblacion is located is narrow, stony and has a steep countryside with mild weather, abundant springs and plenty of rainfall. The soil is Paete clay loam and mountain soil suitable to abaca and fruit trees (lanzones, santol, jackfruit, coffee, chico, ibuli, rambutan, citrus, etc.) The riceland of 456 hectares produces two good crops a year because of the communal irrigation system.
The western side is wide, plain and rolling country, windy with dry weather. The soil at barrios Banilan, Kabulusan and Casa Real is Bay clay loam; at Matikiw and Casinsin, Antipolo clay loam; and at Dorado, mountain soil. All are suitable to all kinds of vegetables, spices, root crops, bananas, fruit trees and coconuts. There is seldom a good harvest of rice because of the lack of irrigation system.
The municipality has about 10,000 inhabitants evenly distributed in the eastern and western sectors. Its rice harvest is around 80,000 cavans annually which is enough for the whole population.
The town is famous for the pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary de los Dolores de Turumba, its lanzones orchards and public swimming pools.
The income of the people derive from agriculture and fishing. They are generally self-employed and owner-cultivators.
The town has a General Hospital (Gen. Juan Cailles Memorial District Hospital) with 50 beds; 2 rural health units, 2 high schools, resorts and recreational places.
PRE-SPANISH TIME
The people are mostly of the Malayan race descended from Borneans who settled at Punta Ynuod to Ginabian (Bo. Banilan) under Datu Gat Salyan Maginto and Chief Maginoong Dalaga of the Tomokat clan. They were joined by migrants from Infanta, Cavite and Batangas. After a time, they were forced to leave some of the settlements when the lake became infested with pirates and marauders, transferring to the present town site which cannot easily be reached from the bay.
The new settlement was established by two clans, that of Gat Maitan and his wife Panumbalihan and Gat Salyan Maginto and his wife Potongan.
From the first clan descended today's Maulawin families and from the latter, the Kalyanga families. The migration to the eastern side explains why the territory extends to the west side of the lake.
THE NAME PAKIL
When General Juan de Salcedo of the conquering Spanish army came to this place in the year 1571, the colony was under the leadership of Gat Paguil whose name had come to refer to the settlement. Due to the differences in Spanish and Tagalog alphabets and pronunciations, the Spaniards wrote the name as Paquil as it was inscribed in bold letters at the facade of the stone church. In Executive Order No. 77 dated September 9, 1972 restoring township, however, the name of the town is spelled as Pakil. The restoration work made on the facade of the church erased the inscription which was then changed to Pakil.
SPANISH ERA
Pakil became a barrio in 1602 joined to the town of Paete under the leadership of Francisco Dumukot and Juan Maglintik, both from the Maulawin clan. The leader in Paete, Don Juan Pinawin, and his wife, Doņa Apolonia Guling, made a gift of land stretching from Tuyong Ilog to the plaza.
A Franciscan priest named Francisco Barajas left his post at the Santa Ana de Sapa Church in Manila to do missionary work in the surrounding region. Through his efforts and leadership, Pakil was separated from Paete and became an independent municipality on May 12, 1676. Elected as first Kapitan Barangay was Don Diego Jorge.
Enshrined in the first church made of nipa and bamboo was San Pedro de Alcantara which was the name of the mission headed by Fr. Francisco Barajas. He constructed the church through volunteer work with three parallel streets which he named San Francisco, San Pascuala and La Purisima Concepcion.
In the year 1684, the Governor General Gabriel Curuscalegui suspended for five years the collection of taxes in the municipality to raise funds for the construction of a stone church. Difficulties arose, however, and construction was started only in the year 1732 during the time of Fr. Hernando Haro and Barangay Captain Juan del Paso. The church was burned in 1739 but was reconstructed completely in the year 1767. The convent was damaged by fire in 1851 and restored after 3 years.
The venerated image of the Virgen Maria de los Dolores de Turumba was found on the bank of the Matamig River after a storm on September 15, 1788. It was confirmed to have been washed away from a boat (kasko) during the storm as it was being ferried by a missionary. The discovery excited the town people and they carried the image to the Church with great rejoicing and dancing. This was the beginning of the Turumba.
The chroniclers of the church recorded that in the fire that gutted the convent in 1851, the box in which 300 pictures (estampas) of the Virgin was kept and the table on which the box was laid were completely burned. The pictures, however, were not damaged at all. It was considered a miracle so that the authorities of the church distributed the estampas to the different parishes in the provinces of Laguna, Rizal, Tayabas and Batangas. The pilgrimage to the Virgin began.
Progress was hampered by calamities. Severe droughts came in the years 1718 and 1771 destroying most of the agricultural and economic plantings. Fire destroyed wide areas of the town in the years 1739, 1754 and 1851. Strong typhoons visited the place in the years 1831 and 1882. Earthquakes occurred in the years 1823, 1879 and 1881. A cholera epidemic broke out in 1883.
The friars and the civil authorities remedied the difficulties by introducing new varieties of crops from Mexico; by tapping the natural springs for drinking water and irrigation; by restoring the school and public buildings; by putting up stone bridges and improving the streets. Raising of corn was supplemented by tobacco and abaca. Coconuts and lanzones were ordered planted as well. The cemetery behind the plaza was also relocated outside of the town.
AMERICAN ERA
Pakil remained as a municipality up to the end of the Spanish regime and at the American occupation. In Public Law No. 939 dated October 12, 1903, the 30 towns in Laguna were reduced to 19 and Pakil became a barrio of Paete and Pangil, a barrio of Siniloan.
In Public Law No. 1009 dated November 25, 1903, Pakil and Pangil were fused as one municipality with the seat of Municipal Government at Barrio Balian.
After 23 years and through a plebiscite, Governor General Eugene A. Gilmore issued Executive Order No. 77 dated September 9, 1927, restoring Pakil as an independent municipality.
Mr. Bernardo M. Gonzales who was the municipal president from 1900 to 1903, under the separation of Church and State, claimed for the municipality the ownership of the public swimming pool and the communal irrigation. He also effected the renaming of the six principal streets in the town.
In 1911, during the incumbency of municipal president Roman Maulawin, the municipal council named all the existing alleys and roadways and made them municipal properties.
Municipal president Gelasio Galleros died of a heart attack after a year in office while conducting a public meeting.
The separation Pakil and Pangil and the return to the former of all its properties and territories under Executive Order 91 dated December 5, 1927 gave rise to their boundary dispute. The decision of the Provincial Board dated February 25, 1933 and Resolution No. 1161 dated October 1937 were in favor of Pakil. A subsequent appeal to higher authorities by Pangil and inaction by the provincial board on a return inquiry from the office of the President, however, placed a stalemate on the question.
Mr. Ciriaco M. Gonzales was elected mayor in 1931 and 1934. His outstanding accomplishments were the improvement of the public swimming pool from funds given by Doņa Aurora Quezon and the establishment of the settlement at Dorado.
Soon after the fall of Bataan in 1942, he organized a sector guerilla unit under the Fil-American irregular troops commanded by Col. Hugh Straughn. Mr. Gonzales became a wanted man and was soon captured and imprisoned. He was executed by the Japanese Forces at the Lumban Elementary School grounds on the eve of the granting of independence to the Philippines on October 19, 1943. He was acclaimed in the locality as a hero for his exploits and fearless devotion to duty and for suffering unto death without betraying any of his men and officers.
Also accorded with admiration and respect for their tact in dealing with Japanese forces to protect the populace were Mayors Roman Maulawin, Diosdado C. Dalena and Engracio Balita. The latter was the incumbent mayor when Pakil was liberated on April 5, 1945 by the 43rd Division under Major General Leonard F. Wing of the United States Army. Mr. Maulawin was again mayor when Philippine independence was inaugurated on July 4, 1946.
It was during the incumbency of Mayor Cirilo Balubayan that the Maryknoll Fathers High School (now Liceo de Pakil) and the General Juan Cailles Memorial Hospital were established. He is likewise credited with the recognition of Casa Real as a barrio under R.A. No. 1025, Casinsin under R.A. No. 1026 and Kabulusan under R.A. No. 1027, all dated June 12, 1954, and Dorado under R.A. No. 1677 dated June 20, 1957.
Even before his election as mayor in 1961, Mr. Agapito Macapanpan was already known for his civic and community work. He headed the repair work on the church and belfry, the relocation of the Rizal monument and the bandstand at the plaza. He died after a year in office and was succeeded by his Vice-Mayor Temistocles O. Macapanpan.
The election in 1963 was contested by Mayor Temistocles O. Macapanpan and Salustiano Manalo, with the latter proclaimed winner on the plurality of two votes. Mayor Macapanpan filed an election protest centering on the votes from Bo. Casinsin which Manalo alleged was not within the territorial jurisdiction of Pakil but of Jalajala in the province of Rizal. The issue became province-wide in the 1965 national election. It prompted the intervention of President Diosdado Macapagal who issued an Executive Order dated November 5, 1965 declaring Bo. Casinsin as within the jurisdiction of the town of Pakil and in the province of Laguna.
Even before this order of the President, Mayor Manalo was already ousted from office, in October, when the Supreme Court affirmed the decision that Macapanpan won in the election by 19 votes. Mayor Manalo was, nevertheless, credited with the cementing of Gonzales and Kabulusan Streets, the construction of schools at Bo. Saray and the settlement of the area.
Mayor Juan R. Rarela was elected in 1968. During his term, the cementing of municipal streets in the poblacion was completed and additional school buildings were erected at Saray, Gonzales, Banilan, Kabulusan and Casinsin. He also constructed the Farmers' and Fishermen's Shed in Estaca which were later blown down by a typhoon in 1972. It was also during this period that the Monterey Gardens and Mirasol resorts were constructed by Mr. Pedro S. Isorena, a civic-minded citizen and donor of many things to the community.
Atty. Gregorio C. Ybardolaza became mayor in 1972. At the beginning of his term, several typhoons hit the area causing considerable damage, with 7 barrios under 14 feet of water for 4 months caused by the overflow of Laguna Lake.
Martial Law was declared on September 21, 1972 under which, with the increase in police force, peace and order greatly improved.
Mayor Ybardolaza, with the help of the barangays, constructed two additional pools and restored the Farmers' and Fishermen's Shed at Estaca with Parola and put up another at Malaking Bunton. He erected the Pakil Civic and Cultural Center, constructed the Bagong Lipunan street at Pansol, extended the feeder road to Casinsin and diverted the river threat to a new canal. Many other alleys and streets were also laid and cemented. Some 100 public and private toilets were constructed upon his initiative. Electrification of the barrios at Ibayo was accomplished by this time. Mayor Ybardolaza initiated the annual holding of Piyesta on May 12 to mark the foundation of the Municipality of Pakil.
When Mayor Ybardolaza went to America for personal reasons, Governor San Luis appointed Amancio Regalado as temporary mayor. He started and finished the BLISS Housing Project in Bgy. Casa Real with Mrs. Cristina Y. Balubayan as lot donor. It was in his term when the road connecting Mabitac to Jalajala was started and the result of the boundary dispute between Pakil and Pangil was released.
In the year 1981-1985, under the administration of Gat Puno Feliciano Iglesia, the road connecting the poblacion and the top of the mountain (Mt. Ping-as) was started. The People's Center was also started during his term.
After the peaceful EDSA revolution in 1986, Mayor Nicandro Sanchez was appointed OIC of Pakil. The Perople's Center was completed with the help of Mr. Lanuza and the townspeople of Pakil. With help from the provincial and national governments, the road from the municipal hall to Galiluyo alley was cemented.
Artemio Galiluyo was the temporary mayor for more than a month until the newly elected mayor took the seat. He continued the projects left by OIC Sanchez.
In 1988, under the leadership of the newly-elected mayor Daniel Martinez, the projects left by the past administrations were continued. Most of the projects undertaken during the administration of Daniel Martinez focused on infrastructure and facility improvements. These include construction, repair and maintenance of barangay, provincial and national roads, repair and maintenance of school facilities, construction/installation of deep wells (poso) in almost all the barangays, construction of municipal and barangay water systems.
In 1992, Mayor Nicandro Sanchez was elected mayor of Pakil. Under his administration, the projects focused on the improvement of the town's facilities and improvement of local tourism. His projects include construction of classrooms in different elementary schools in Pakil, renovation of the Turumba Swimming Pool, renovation and construction of the stage, construction of barangay water systems and waiting sheds, pathways and barangay roads.
When Mayor Nicandro Sanchez died of heart attack in June 1997, Vice-Mayor Gelacio C. Martinez took his oath as mayor. His projects include renovation and beautification of the Turumba Swimming Pool, Plaza Rizal, Plaza Adonay and its vicinity. Almost all Barangay Halls were either repaired or completed and the Kabulusan Multi-Purpose Gym was constructed. His administration also focused on Clean and Green projects and tree planting.
In May 1998, Ignacio M. Martinez was elected mayor. It was exactly on the first year of his term when the 323rd Pakil Anniversary Foundation was celebrated successfully.
Source:
Ang Bayan ng PAKIL... sa ika-323 taong pagkakatatag May 11-12, 1999 (Isang Paggunita) - Pakil Anniversary Souvenir Program