Catbalogan

The town of Catbalogan was founded or settled sometime in October 1596, by the Priests of the Jesuit’s Order. Friar Francisco de Otazo, who arrived in the Philippines in 1596, was the first missionary to bring the Catholic faith to the people of Catbalogan in 1768, the Spanish Franciscans took over.

The original name of the town was KATBALAUGAN or KABALAUGAN. The two syllables of the name are compounds of the prefix KAT or KA and the substantive noun BALAUG of the Samar Visayan dialect. “Katbalaugan or Kabalaugan” means “a place were seafarers, fishermen or sailors take shelter or cover and are detained.” The old fishing village of Katbalaugan or Kabalaugan was the refuge of people riding in small boats and sailboats when the Northwest and Southwest monsoons blew during the month of July, August, and September.

During the early days of Spanish occupation of the Philippines, Samar was under the jurisdiction of Cebu. Later, it was declared a separate province. But, in 1735, Samar and Leyte were united into one province with Carigara, in Leyte, as the capital. The union however, did not prove satisfactory. So in 1768, Samar again became a separate province from Leyte. Since then, Samar has emerged as an independednt political unit with Catbalogan as the capital.

On January 27, 1900, the American captured the town of Catbalogan. Civil government was established on June 17, 1902 with Julio Llorente of Cebu as the first governor of Samar.

On May 24, 1942, the Japanese forces landed in Barrio Pangdan and occupied the capital. On December 18, 1945, the American liberation Forces re-occupied the town.

On June 19, 1965, the Philippine Congress approved Republic Act No. 4221 dividing Samar into Western Samar, Eastern Samar and Northern Samar. Catbalogan thus ceased to be the capital of the whole island-province after enjoying the prestige of being the premier town of Samar for 197 years since 1768. Later Western Samar was renamed Samar with Catbalogan still as the capital town.

The greatest calamities that visited Catbalogan were big fires. The April 01, 1957 conflagration, considered as the most destructive fire, caused damage to properties in the amount of Thirty Million Pesos (P30,000,000). The next was on May 19, 1969, where damage was estimated at Twenty Million Pesos (P20,000,000) and more than a century old Catholic Church was razed to the ground. Paradoxically, each time Catbalogan suffered under the throes of these calamities, better buildings and structures emerged from the ashes.

As early as 1960, Catbalogan already agitated to become a city. In 1969, the bill creating Catbalogan into a city was being deliberated on the Senate. But the conflagration of 1969 caused the shelving of that bill in the Senate. It seems inevitable that Catbalogan may one-day see itself converted into a city as clamored by the general public.