Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur: At the Sea’s Edge

Ilocos. It has been suggested that the name comes from “looc” or “loco”, a sheltered bay or cove. A locative marker “i” meaning “in the direction of” is prefixed to the rootword; thus, Ilocos means in the direction of the bay or cove, in fine, seaward. Loco stands in contrast to “golot” or highland (Tagalog cognate is gulod, meaning hill). Iloco is primarily a place name but by transference has it been applied to the inhabitants of bays and coves of northwestern Luzon.

Looc is an apt description for an area, which in 18th colonial cartography stretched south to include the Pangasinan province and north to Pagudpud, turned around the tip of Luzon Island and encompassed part of Cagayan Valley up to the town called Lal-lo. For the land associated with Ilocos is a narrow plain running north-south, bounded to the east by the Gran Cordillera and to the west by the South China Sea. As you travel north from San Fernando, La Union to Laoag, Ilocos Norte, a distance of about 300 kilometers, the sea is never far from you. Sometimes it disappears as the national highway snakes between mountain and hills or tongues of land that juts out to sea, but after a few kilometers, after a couple of turns it is right beside you as in Barangay Carlatan, north of San Fernando’s center, or at Narvacan where wave-battered karst boulders pierce the sea’s choppy surface. So narrow is this coastal plain that in many places it is about one kilometer wide, and as one travels north, the plain disappears completely as the mountains drop precipitously to the sea. So it is near Pagudpod that national highway had to be built on strong piers anchored to the shore as this was a more economical alternative to tunneling through mountain rock. There are, however, some areas where the plains widen—around Laoag and Vigan—making these places the most populated and developed region, even in colonial times.

The narrow coastal plains, the limestone and sandstone mountains to the east and the generally dry weather of the Ilocos have made eking a living from the land challenging, difficult but not impossible. That the Ilocano have managed to survive and flourish have given them the reputation of being industrious and thrifty. Besides, with agriculture limited, the Ilocano have taken to migration. It was a sturdy bunch of Ilocano teachers that migrated to Cotabato, manned the public school and established the first beachead of southward migration to Mindanao. It was the Ilocano manong who sought employment in the pineapple plantations of Hawaii and the fields of Salinas in California.

But that land did produce its own crops suitable to the environment, crops with, which Ilocos is identified—tomato, corn, sugar cane, onion and garlic. And in the late 18th century tobacco, a cash crop that was to shape the history of Ilocos over the last century of Spanish rule.

The land offered many small coves and sheltered bay, safe harbor for ships and boats. Poro at La Union, Quirino at San Esteban, Currimao near Laoag — these are some of the historic harbors of Ilocos. That is how the Spanish came to know the northwestern part of Luzon. Travelling by sea on board eight vessels, Juan de Salcedo with 45 men landed on an island called Biga. This was on 20 May 1571. His uncle and governor general of the islands, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, had dispatched him to explore the coastal areas and bring the inhabitants under Spanish rule. Isla de Biga—named after the abundant taro plant biga, bigaa or bigan (Alcocasia Indica) which grew on this delta hemmed by the Mestizo River, a tributary of the mighty Abra, and the sea—was a thriving pre-colonial trading post where vessels from Asia traded with the local inhabitants.

On 13 June 1572, Salcedo christened the settlement Villa Fernandina in honor of the crown prince Fernando, son of Felipe II. Villa Fernandina (later Ciudad Fernandina) became the administrative center of the north for more than two centuries. Its jurisdiction covered the provinces of Ilocos Norte and Sur, La Union, Abra, Lepanto, Bontoc and the northern part of Cagayan Valley, until 1818 when Ilocos Norte and Sur were separated as a province. Abra de Vigan followed in 1846 and La Union in 1850. Ilocos was also the staging point for the Spanish exploration and conquista of the Cordillera, which began with some earnestness in the 18th century, when Spanish troops cut a trail from the coast at Naguilian to the high altitude valley, La Trinidad.

In the same year, 1572, Salcedo and his men had reached Laoag where they found a settlement of a 1,000 Ilocos or Ilocanos on a hill beside the river. This is probably Ermita hill, where local lore says that the Augustinian friars built a church in 1586. Salcedo continued his exploration by rounding Luzon, reaching the Pacific coast, near Polilio Island, he found his way back to the central plain and Manila. By then his uncle and benefactor, Legazpi, had died. Guide de Lavesares, the new governor general, had no military assignments for him. But in deep appreciation for his deeds awarded him the whole of Ilocos as encomienda. In 1574, Limahong, a Chinese, had brought a large troop and threatened the Philippines. Salcedo had managed to rally the countryside to defend Manila and so with his troops was able to force Limahong to flee toward Pangasinan. Francisco de Sande, Lavesares’ successor wanted Salcedo to pursue the invader but depleted resources and manpower prevented Salcedo from pursuing the Chinese troops. Sande stripped Salcedo of his command. Betrayed, Salcedo returned to Vigan with his widowed mother and sisters to collect tribute due him for the dowry of his sister Elvira. But on 11 March 1576, Salcedo lay dying, probably from dysentery, but before his death, he willed his encomienda to the inhabitants of Ilocos, effectively laying no claims of tribute from the people. In gratitude the Ilocanos erected a monument in his honor in 1894 in the Vigan plaza, in front of the cathedral.

The Augustinians were the missionaries assigned to the Ilocos. On 30 April 1575, the Augustinians established the church and priory of Vigan and held to the position until 1622, when they handed over the place to the diocesan bishop. In Laoag they established the church and convent of San Guillermo El Ermitaño in 1586, which began as three visitas: San Nicolas, Santa Monica de Sarrat, San Juan de Sahagun. These first two would eventually become parishes but San Juan de Sahagun has disappeared without a trace. Oral lore consigns to the bottom of Paoay Lake; this was the proud and prosperous town, so the legend goes, who were mighty proud of their church bell because it was made of solid gold. But such hubris was not favored by God, so the angels of justice flung the town and its fabulous church to the bottom of the lake, from whence on very calm and quiet nights the tolling of the bells would sound and light would flash from the bottom of the lake.

Vigan and Laoag would become the twin nodes from which Augustinians would fan out and establish mission stations, which evolved into the parishes and towns of Ilocos. Meanwhile, in 1595, the diocese of Nueva Segovia was established, its first bishop was Miguel de Benavides, a Dominican, and it probably for this reason the first diocesan see was established in Lal-lo in the Cagayan Valley, which had been under the Dominicans from the very start.

Colonial rule did not sit well with the strong-willed Ilocano. In 1661, Pedro Almazan of San Nicolas, Andres Malong of Pangasinan, Juan Magsanop of Bangui and Gaspar Cristobal of Apayao revolted against Spain. Almazan sacked the church of Laoag and made off with the jewels of the Virgin. Known as the Malong revolt in history books, the uprising was immediately crushed by a superior force sent from Vigan. In 1763, during the hiatus in Spanish rule, when the British were occupying Manila, Diego Silang of Vigan lead a revolt to oust the Spaniards. He was assasinated but his wife Gabriela took up his cause and continued with the revolt. She was captured, tried and hung.

In 1758, the diocesan see of Nueva Segovia was transferred to Vigan. The church of San Pablo, which had been transferred to the diocesan clergy by 1619 after it was established and administered by the Augustinians, became the catherdral. An episcopal palace was built near the church fronting Plaza Salcedo.

In 1782, tobacco—a cash crop— was placed in the monopolistic control of the government. The monopoly while enriching the government agents, many of whom were from Laoag, caused suffering among farmers who were compelled to plant the crop and sell it a predetermined rates to the government. While Fray Pedro Blaquier, parish priest of Batac, was able to pacify the rebels. In 1806, another government attempt at monopoly stirred cailianes or the common townsfolk to revolt. The issue was over the control of basi, a liquor from sugarcane. The revolt was short-lived, however, the following year, 1807, a bigger revolt which began in Piddig erupted. The leaders of the rebellion were quickly executed. Their gruesome fate is recorded in Vigan artist, Esteban Villanueva’s narrative paintings of the revolt. The paintings hang in the Burgos Museum in Vigan.

The reprisals against the rebels did not quell unrest. Rebellion spread to Vigan, Sarrat, Laoag and Paoay. For a decade Ilocos was racked with unrest and rebellion.

A royal decree of 1818 divided Ilocos into north and south, with Sarrat as the capital of the former and Vigan of the latter. But being more inland and lacking the population and resources of Laoag, Sarrat was replaced by Laoag as capital in the 1850s. By 1868, Laoag population was placed at 34,000 making it the most populous town in the Diocese of Nueva Segovia.

In 1865, the Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas established a shipping route between Manila and Cagayan stopping at the ports of Ilocos. Popularly known as Tabacalera, the company was a buying house for agricultural commodities like rice and molasses, which was distilled to spirits in Manila, and not just tobacco. Tabacalera established warehouses north, some of which though abandoned are still standing.

The second half of the 19th century has been characterized as economically different from the previous eras, because notions of free enterprises began to operate in the Philippines. European and American trading houses were allowed to operate in Manila and Iloilo. The age of government monopoly was ended. In 1880, a royal decree abolished the tobacco monopoly. In gratitude a obelisk-like monument of brick and lime plaster was erected in Laoag to thank King Alfonso XII for his act.

Ilocanos figured prominently in the Revolution against Spain in 1896. Painter and patriot Juan Luna was from the Ilocos. Gregorio Aglipay established the Iglesia Filipina Indipendiente to push for the rights of the native clergy, which despite episcopal decrees to the contrary, were treated as second class clerics by the Spanish friars.

Ilocanos have been an outwardly mobile people. The impetus to migrate was catalyzed during the American period, when beginning in 1915, the public school system enlisted Ilocano teachers to assist the Thomasites, who were being assigned to Cotabato. Later with the offer of land, especially under President Manuel Quezon, many farmers migrated to Mindanao settling in Cotabato, where their province mates had migrated, and to Bukidnon. Ilocanos sought employment abroad being the pioneer migrant workers in the pineapple plantations of Hawaii and the farmlands of California. Some even worked in the salmon canning factories of Alaska, bearing the transition from tropical heat to freezing cold with equanimity and endurance.