Toward Provincehood (1945-1971)

Postwar Reconstruction

Following World War II, the United States conducted a survey of the Philippines to determine the cost of reconstruction. Although Siquijor escaped the war with little damage, Japanese seizures and appropriations across the island were nonetheless costly (back then, ₱2 = $1; all descriptions taken verbatim):

Mine: ₱300,000
Mill: ₱900,000
Plant and camp: ₱500,000
Total: ₱1,700,000

Following the liberation of Dumaguete on 26 April 1945, new officials at both the provincial and municipal levels were appointed. Siquijor’s new Acting Special Board Member was Rafael Maglangit. Interim mayors filled municipal offices, then were replaced by permanent appointees in 1946; it is unclear why some towns have two concurrent mayors.

Enrique Villanueva: Patricio Pragamac (1945), P. Aque (1946)
Larena: Cornelio Padayhag (1945), Francisco Marte and Nepomuceno Calibo (1946)
Lazi: Telesforo Lumacad (1945), Marcelo Fua (1946)
Maria: Felipe Asok (1945), Pablo Lubguban (1946)
San Juan: N/A (1945), Protacio Tompong and Andres Mamhot (1946)
Siquijor: N/A (1945), Felix Cortes (1946)

All of Negros Oriental had been devastated, and scarcely any economic production could be found. Food prices skyrocketed upon liberation; the locals had nothing to buy with the pesos that the Americans injected into the economy. Municipal governments were forced to rely on Manila–not Dumaguete–for aid. Efforts to collect taxes yielded very little, and many towns became so desperate that they started levying entirely unnecessary fees, from license fees on cockpit (arenas for cockfighting) owners to penalties on stray animals.

Many roads had to be rebuilt after the war. Between 1946 and 1954, the following were repaired and improved:

Enrique Villanueva
- Enrique Villanueva - Larena Road (via Ponong): 1948, ₱5,000
Lazi
- Campalanas - Dapdap Road: 1954, ₱10,000
- Campalanas - Po-o Road: 1954, ₱5,000
Siquijor
- Cang-alwang - Tambisan Road: 1953, ₱5,000

Nor was the water supply left untouched. Many wells had been damaged, destroyed, or left to decay during the war, placing potable water out of reach for many. Officials promptly began digging new wells, but because extending piping was a far slower process in comparison, water could not be channeled directly to people’s homes. Municipal governments also appealed for aid to rebuild their water infrastructure: ₱100,000 by Larena for the whole town’s supply, and ₱90,000 by Siquijor to repair and extend the Can-alwang Waterworks across several neighboring barangays.

By July 1948, the following number of new wells had been dug:

Three wells each: Enrique Villanueva, Larena, Lazi
Two wells each: Maria, Siquijor
One well: San Juan

Following the passage of the Bell Trade Act (see below), the Americans began probing war damage claims in the Philippines. Municipal governments in Negros Oriental then began submitting resolutions to pressure the provincial government to stop withholding funds that had already been appropriated them. San Juan submitted Sub. Resolution No. 45 (series 1948) to demand that its monetary award for its municipal building be immediately released. Larena submitted Sub. resolution No. 36 (series 1948) to request that the Provincial Treasurer provide them with insurance papers to validate their war damage claims for the town’s municipal building and public market, both of which were burned in 1943 by the Japanese.

Remarkably, Siquijor’s diaspora came to the aid of their relatives back home. The Siquijor Protective Association (SPA), founded in 1939 to organize Siquijodnons in California’s Central Valley, donated ₱3,000 for its municipal building.

The final order of business for reconstruction was education. The Larena Subprovincial High School reopened on 1 May 1945–several months after the Japanese abandoned their garrison in Larena, on 15 November 1944–and although teachers and students alike were able to ease themselves back into their usual routines, they constantly struggled with a lack of funds.

In response, the Division Superintendent of Schools recommended in a communiqué dated 15 June 1948 that tuition for the 1948-1949 school year be raised from ₱45 to ₱65. This was intended to cover operating costs and raise teachers’ salaries. However, the Provincial Board only approved a ₱55 tuition fee.

Bell Trade Act

A major controversy arose across the Philippines in 1946 when the United States made the Bell Trade Act a prerequisite for independence. Washington received preferential tariffs when trading with Manila in exchange for rebuilding funds, and the exchange rate between the peso and the dollar was fixed at ₱2 = $1. However, a provision that granted American citizens equal rights under the Philippine Constitution to both own and develop natural resources and public utilities–termed “parity” in political circles–sparked the most outrage. Pro-parity advocates touted its potential to raise wages, improve infrastructure, and substantiate the Filipino people’s gratitude to the United States for their country’s liberation and reconstruction. Critics denounced it as a unilateral, imperialistic violation of the Philippines’ sovereignty.

The bill was ratified on 2 July 1946, and a national plebiscite on whether to amend the Constitution to include the parity clause was scheduled for 11 March 1947. In Negros Oriental, politicians, lawyers, and other influential men from across the province organized themselves into the Negros Oriental Anti-Parity League, convened at the Park Hotel in Dumaguete on 26 January. Siquijor sent two men to serve on the League’s executive committee: Lamberto Macias and Rafael Maglangit.

Separately, the Provincial Campaign for Parity in Negros Oriental launched a province-wide blitz in the final weeks before the plebiscite. They landed in Larena on 25 February and spent three days there. Ultimately, Negros Oriental approved parity by a wide margin.

The 1950s and 1960s

The road to provincehood began in earnest in the 1950s, spurred by the growing recognition that Siquijor had too often been relegated by the rest of Negros Oriental to the status of a backwater. One small example of this came in 1955, when the island was organized as a separate highway engineering district. Transportation difficulties between Negros and Siquijor meant that the latter’s public works were poorly funded and supervised. To remedy this, Siquijor received a new district engineer.

Two important names come to mind when discussing these two decades. The first is Eulogio Omictin Jr., a renowned lawyer from Larena and governor from 1951 to 1978. That makes him Siquijor’s last subprovincial governor and its first provincial governor. He created a separate school division from the island, making its education more autonomous from that of Negros. He also presided over a wide array of construction projects: the Provincial Capitol in Larena, the Provincial Hospital in the town of Siquijor, an emergency hospital in Lazi, and the island’s sole airport in Cang-alwang, Siquijor. It remains in operation today and was recently renovated, but is exclusively used by private and charter aircraft–no commercial services exist there yet.

The second important name is Cesar A. Ontal. Born in 1924 to a political family, Ontal attended law school in Silliman University in Dumaguete. His political career began when he was elected Siquijor’s Special Board Member as a candidate of the Nacionalista Party in 1955. His opponent, a fellow lawyer, readily conceded that Ontal was a superior orator.

Ontal served on the Provincial Board from 1955 to 1968–three terms in total. Many Siquijodnons would visit his office in Dumaguete to ask for help: some had sick relatives who needed a blood transfusion, while others could not afford passage back to Siquijor or needed help transporting the body of a deceased loved one home. Ontal happily helped all who came to him.

During his campaign for a second term, political rallies were held simultaneously across the subprovince. The candidates were divided into groups and traveled from one town to another with each other. To hold the crowd, Ontal was placed in the last group, but many of the speeches lasted long into the night. Yet there were still those waiting even at 2 AM, even elderly Siquijodnons, for Ontal to speak. He easily won against his opponent.

Eulogio M. Omictin, Jr.

Left: Negros Oriental officials at the port of Larena, 1953.

Right: Rizal Day in Larena, 1954.

Omictin would later be the first Siquijodnon to be appointed as a Foreign Service Officer, in which capacity he was deployed as Vice-Consul to Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria. He thus enjoyed substantial authority over Philippine foreign relations with West Africa, where countries had recently gained independence from their British and French colonial masters.

Omictin would later be the first Siquijodnon to be appointed as a Foreign Service Officer, in which capacity he was deployed as Vice-Consul to Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria. He thus enjoyed substantial authority over Philippine foreign relations with West Africa, a region whose nations had only recently broken free from their British and French colonial masters.

Negros Oriental officials at the port of Larena, 1953.

Rizal Day in Larena, 1954.

Aldecoa-Rodriguez, Caridad. (1989). Negros Oriental From American Rule to the Present: A History (Volume II) - Part III: The Republic Period. Provincial Government of Negros Oriental.

Banguis-Bantawig, Renalyn and Anoos-Aljas, Concepcion. Siquijor’s Mystical Wonders. Central Book Supply, Inc.

Senate of the Philippines (1955). Congressional Record: Senate, Third Congress of the Republic, Second Session. www.google.com/books/edition/Republic_of_the_Philippines_Congressiona/Q7k7BG-oAYUC?hl=en&gbpv=0.

United States Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs. (1945). Survey of War Damage in the Philippines: Report of the Special Investigating Mission Sent to the Philippines in June 1945 by the War Damage Corporation and Completed in September 1945. babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435016998882&seq=3&q1=.