Palauig, Zambales - History

History

The story from the old generations as to the origin and meaning of the name Palauig, comes from the Zambal dialect (sambalic language) 'Manlawig' meaning 'to pasture the carabao in the grass field'. The legend explains how the name Palauig came from its former name, came about. During the Spain rule of Philippines in Palauig, Spanish 'Guardia Civils' (Civil Guard) who were police force to the community, were usually to cross path with native farmers while hiking or riding with their carabaos on way to the green fields. For curiosity by the guardia civils, they were being ask by if where they are going or heading to. Although the natives can understand what the guardia civils inquiring, but its not easy for them to response in Spanish long sentence but instead answered them in their local zambal dialect which can easily express in short meaning and one word as 'manlawig' which means 'they are going to pasture their carabao in the grass field'. As the guardia civils becomes a usual vocabulary they always hear from the natives, it becomes their undestanding that 'Manlawig' is a name of a place in the area until they did adapted to name the whole sitio with the similar sound how they understand to hear as 'Palauig' instead of 'manlawig'.

It was then a sitio of Sto. Niño (now one of the barangay of the Municipality)which was first inhabited by the aborigines called Aetas. The defeat of the Spanish Armada essentially marked the end of Spain's dominace in the New World and sea lanes as overall control of the high seas well into the 17th century. After the Spanish Armada's defeat, the so-called Manila Galleon Trade from Acapulco, Mexico, were all scattered and one of the most important points where these galleons happened to harbor is Palauig, the present municipality. Napoleon Jimenez, the patron of one of the galleons, landed in an island without name, but latter it was named Island of San Juan. This island after so many years was underwater and the settlers inhabited the shore formerly called Bitaoy. Therefore, there were two sitios founded; the first one was the sitio of Sto. Niño and the other was the Sitio of Bitaoy. Napoleon Jimenez married a native in one of the sitios, thus came the origin of the Municipality of Palauig. These sitios expanded to many other sitios and became the barrio of Sto. Niño which was latter taken under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Masinloc. Napoleon Jimenez, being the head of this barrio(now called 'barangay'), was able to transfer this barrio under the Municipality of Iba. In 1913, under Municipal President Marcelino Gregorio, became almost the ruler of this Municipality until the present time. The town of Palauig was ruled the Spanish Kingdom for almost 400 years as a colony of Spain. In 1896, the Spanish Government was defeated by the Katipunero under Andres Bonifacio. They established a Philippine Republic under the presidency of Emilio Aguinaldo, but due to the intervention of the American-Cuban War, the Americans who happened to anchor in Manila Bay under Commodore Dewey, took advantage of the Philippine Army under General Juan Luna. They fell under the regime of Americans for more than 60 years. The intervention of the 2nd World War lead to the Japanese occupation for a period of 4 years. Then they returned back to the American Commonwealth and was granted our independence on July 4, 1946, under the Hare Hawes Cutting Bill. Palauig was located between Iba in the South and Masinloc in the North. The climate is temperate. At present, there are 19 barangays of this municipality and more than 20 sitios. The dialects spoken are Zambal, followed by Ilocano for settlers from the Ilocos Region and Tagalogs for those who came from Bulacan, Cavite and Batangas. The inhabitants of Palauig were Aglipay and Catholic in Religion, followed by Iglesia Ni Cristo, 7th day Adventist, Methodist and Jehova’s Witnesses. The date of the celebration of the town fiesta is April 11 to 12 but was moved to April 14 to 15, with the approval of the Municipal Council thru a resolution passed and approved. April 12 is memorable because robbers entered Palauig coming from Iba Provincial Jail in broad daylight. Religious town fiesta is also celebrated on September 10, in honor of its Patron Saint to Nicolas. Among the most prominent social activities was before the town fiesta. A pacification campaign, in connection with the peace and order condition, was being conducted by different religious organizations. Each religious organization appointed their own representative and went as a group to all barangays explaining the verses on the Bible to all interested listeners.