Camaliagan Map
The origin of the town, along with its name, traces back to the early settlers of the place, known as the “cortadores” (woodcutters) to the early Spanish colonizers who came to the place in the early Seventeenth Century, who cut timbers from nearby mountains located upriver or around San Miguel Bay area and made this as their form of living.
Out of these timbers, they hewed out wooden canoes, or “bancas”, which they stored under small sheds or huts. Later, when these sheds became abundant in the area, especially along the Bicol River presently known as the poblacion, as they were made the permanent dwelling places by these canoe-makers, the place which is now presently called the poblacion area was called “Camaligan”, from the word “kamalig” or shed, or a place where so many “kamalig” are found. The sheds served to shelter the canoe-makers and to protect their boats from the natural elements. Hence, the name and origin of the town is historically tied to the river and its early inhabitants.
The original settlement was considered a religious visita of Naga, which was then under its ecclesiastical jurisdiction. But in 5 June 1775, a petition to the Spanish religious authorities was sent by the natives of this place, and signed by the supposedly officials (not clear whether municipal officials or barangay officials) of the place, to request for a resident curate (Cfr. Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental MSS. 1775. Sign. 97/39, Madrid, Spain). The supposed officials’ names were: Andres Casa, Diego Lobao, Simeon de la Cruz, Manuel del Espiritu Santo, Fernando Valenzuela, Agustin del Espiritu Santo, Marcos David, Domingo Flores, Pedro Negre, Bartolome Rodriguez, and Valentin de los Santos (Cfr. Danilo Gerona, Fiesta Magazine Souvenir Program, June 12-13, 2000). If these were truly “officials”, and not merely prominent residents of the place at that time, then the foundation year of municipality, as far as the civil government is concerned, may be placed even before the date of the signing and transmittal of this petition to the Spanish ecclesiastical authority.
According to one source, the Appendix 4 of an unpublished master’s thesis of Marilyn R. Canta (An Architectural History of the Churches of Camarines Sur, 1990) , the foundation date of the parish of Camaligan is placed most likely in 1795, although an Spanish author, a certain Puya, gave it as 1829 based on the evidences of his sources. In the absence of other direct documentary evidences that confirm the existence of a pueblo of Camaligan under a Spanish gobernadorcillo during the Spanish era, we can only surmise that the foundation date of the town of Camaligan may have happened at the same time as the ecclesiastical erection of the parish of Camaligan, given the townification doctrine prevailing during that period. This doctrine held that the town and the parish were built, and they coexisted, in just one area due to the union of Church and State during this period. According to Gregorio Zaide (1971), “in the town, the parish priest was the real power.” ( A facsimile of Canta’s work is attached here in support to these assertions).
However, as far as the civil government is concerned, the official establishment of the municipality maybe safely placed in the year 1902, through an act of the Philippine Legislature, and naming Pedro Bustamante as the first municipal mayor. This event of the creation of the municipality of Camaligan was brought about by a historical fact when Camaligan was eventually separated from being an annex town to the Naga government, an annexation act which was supposedly done for “better administration” during the early period of the American occupation of the Philippine Islands.
Since then, the municipality of Camaligan had 29 municipal mayors up to the present.
The Bicol River is an important factor in maintaining the ecological balance of plant and animal life in the Bicol River Valley. The river serves as the natural habitat for so many number of plants and animals, such as the barayong, kalpi, anrorogat and the bebe (fresh water clam), many of which are native and peculiar to the place and cannot be found anywhere else in the Philippines.
The river serves as a natural source of irrigation and fertilization to the land where agriculture is still considered as a major industry. Out of the 468.1370 hectares total land area, 175 hectares are devoted to rice production, all of which are irrigated and fertilized by the river through the occasional flooding of the river.
The people of Camaligan derives their socio-cultural identity, as a river people, from the existence of the river. Their festivals, songs and dances find their source and inspiration from the river. Hence, we could say that the river ecology has bred its own distinct river economy.
Figure 1. An excerpt from Marilyn R. Canta’s Appendix 4 of her unpblished master’s thesis entitled “An Architectural History of the Churches of Camarines Sur,” 1990, appearing on page 207.
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