Gitagum, Philippines

History

During the Spanish era, the inhabitants of the area were all non-Christian natives, possibly Higaonon people. Particularly, their names were A Lot, Lahoylahoy, and Laus. At that time, Gitagum was a thick forest, home to wild pigs and wild chickens. Most of the people were illiterate. Gitagum was a sitio of Cagayan Misamis (now Cagayan de Oro City). Some people from Tagnipa (now El Salvador), Alubijid and other neighboring places as well as settlers from Luzon and Visayas in various periods have applied the place for homestead and then settled the place. The people who have first settled the place were Leodegario Patenio, Rosales Fabricante, Luis Balacuit, Juan Buray, Juan Taroy and Damaso Paculba. The non-Christian natives moved to the mountains because they do not like to get nearer with the Christian settlers. However, there are still a few natives who were friendly to the settlers. Leodegario Patenio has an idea that Gitagum must be a barrio. One time, one of the natives got sick and they could not do anything to help him. They invited the quack doctor in order that their patient must be treated. The doctor used medicinal leaves called tagum-tagum for treatment purposes. The patient recovered, and tagum-tagum could be easily found in the place and it was very common for treatment and that from very moment, the place was called “Gitagum”.

From the History section of Gitagum on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.