Loon, Bohol - History

History

The year of Loon's founding as a community has not been ascertained due to the dearth of official documents. The earliest year to reckon is 1610 when a nucleus Christian community in the coastal village of Napo allegedly resulted from the ministering activities of the Jesuit friars who came to the Philippines more than 85 years earlier.

Church records, however, show that the first parish priest, also a Jesuit, was installed in 1753. The Recollect priests took over the administration of the local church in the late 1760s, but it was only in around 1855 when the imposing stone church of the Our Lady of Light (Birhen sa Kasilak) was completed.

Since 1753, more than 70 priests had served the parish. Today, Loon has five Catholic parishes, the last one (Parish of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage) having been established on November 19, 2000.

A 200-year gap exists between the emergence (in historical records) of the community in Napo in 1610 and the installation of Tomas Sevilla in 1810 as Loon’s first town executive. Then addressed as ‘cabeza de barangay’, the municipal mayor was called ‘capitan’ and ‘presidente municipal’ in the ensuing years.

Thirty-two mayors had served the municipality, excluding the incumbent, mayor, Dr. Lloyd Peter M. Lopez. At least three town heads served for more than one term, namely, Vivencio Nazareno (1916–22 and 1928–31); Geronimo Lituañas (appointed, 1946–47 and elected, 1948–51); and Wilfredo Caresosa (1980–86 and 1988–98).

Loon always figures prominently in the political history of the province. Towards the end of the 19th century when the Americans first set foot on Bohol and were met by resistant forces of the local guerrillas opposed to another foreign dominion, Loon was the first town burned by the aggressors in an effort to subdue the reluctant natives.

Just before the century ended, Mariano Sumatra, a.k.a. Mariano “Anoy” Datahan, a native of Barangay Canhangdon Occidental, founded the Eskaya community in Bayabas, Guindulman which later spread to Taytay, Duero. Although not a cultural minority group, the Eskaya has its own system of doing things including the use of an alphabet mostly consisting of symbols representing nature and parts of the human body.

In about 1900, when enmity towards the foreigners subsided, an American engineer visited Loon and described it as a fertile plateau planted with coconut, corn and tobacco, and a progressive town of 16,000 people. He wrote about the imposing structures of the town like the church and convent, stone stairway or Inang-angan, and wharf; children going to school; an affluent community with well-kept environs; and a spring flowing from a cave on the northern edge of the town, after which the name Loon (from ‘nag-loon’, or the merging of freshwater and saltwater) was coined.

In 1903, the first official count of inhabitants was conducted nationwide. Loon’s population was described as fairly large at 18,114 residents. At that time, no other Bohol municipality, including Tagbilaran, registered more than 10,000 residents.

On September 27, 1942, amid the raging US-Japan war, the Moalong River that dissects the municipality into the northern and southern parts, became mute witness to the most successful ambush mounted against the Japanese imperial forces by the Boholano guerrillas led by Vicente T. Cubero, a.k.a. Captain Francisco Salazar. Considered the hero of the Battle of Moalong, Salazar claimed to have his family roots in Barangay Pondol. It was Juan ‘Aning’ Relampagos, a former member of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFE), who brought Salazar to Bohol. Relampagos disguised himself as a trader sailing between Mindanao and the Visayan islands. He met Salazar while plying his goods in the southern towns of Leyte. Relampagos later became municipal mayor and member of the provincial board. The war exploits of Cubero are described in the book entitled "Boholano Guerrillas in Action" that was written by Pio B. Ferandos, former Cebu RTC judge and Loon mayor.

In the years following the Second World War, prominent Loonanons became active participants in charting the development of the province and the country as well. Among them are Natalio P. Castillo, Executive Secretary to Pres. Carlos P. Garcia and member of the House of Representatives; Ramon Lapez, another House member; Ricardo Miranda, governor of the then only Davao province; Fermin Mesina, commercial attaché to Japan and Vietnam; Purisimo R. Castillo, commercial attaché to Spain; Rene Lopez Relampagos, Bohol’s youngest governor; current Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos; and Romulo L. Neri, former Secretary of Economic Planning and Director General of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) who is currently the president of the Social Security System (SSS).