Toboso, Philippines

History

The site of what would become Toboso dated back to the precolonial period. The center of the original settlement was first known as Sag-ahan, an archaic word which means in the Cebuano language "to take out or catch fish by the hands" because fish were abundant in the coast and rivers, and eventually lent its name to the contemporary barangay Sagahan.

Upon Spanish colonization, the community was named Toboso in honor of a similar settlement in Spain, El Toboso, famous for appearing in the novel Don Quixote by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, as the town in which the fictional character Dulcinea del Toboso lives. Toboso was then a barrio of Escalante. Like many other settlements on the eastern coast of Negros, the community of Toboso had expanded with the coming of immigrants from the island of Cebu and developed extensively in fishing, agriculture and commerce.

During early period of American colonization of the Philippines, more impetus was dedicated to a sugarcane mill called the Central Azucarera del Danao at Labilabi, 6 kilometers from Toboso. The development of the sugar industry was started and gave livelihood to members of the community of Toboso.

After Philippine Independence, Toboso continued to thrive as a part of Escalante until Executive Order No. 141 was signed by president Elpidio Quirino separating the town as an independent municipality from Escalante.

From the History section of Toboso, Negros Occidental on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.