Cultural Mapping

The primary composition of the accident settlement in the southeastern region of Bombon Lake were elements of the dispersed colonial families founded by Datus Dumangsil and Balkasusa in Tall Batangas between the 10th and 13th century AD. This Pioneers setters under the leadership of the fleeing Datu Puti, chief of the state then mighty Sri-Visayan Empire, purchased the low lands from the King Marikudo of the divided among themselves the purchased lands, the Batangas Bay were apportioned among the Dumangsil and Balkasusa Clans.

It is however subject to conjecture whether the pre-historic Negritos 12,000 to 15,000 years age or the much later waves of Indonesian and Malay seafarers from 5,000 to 3,000 B.C. were able to settle along the coasts of Batangas into the inner lake region of Tall which was accessible to navigation through the Pansipit River, thus, the possibility of miscegenetic marriages and the cross culture among the aboriginal inhabitants, the old settlers and the latter Dumangsil and Balkasusa Clans. Or whether violent wars had been waged between the old inhabitants and new colonizers is certain too, inconvertible proofs being wanting.

It is however, a historical fact that out of this Bornean Tribe of Dumangsil and Balkasusa Clan was born the ancestry of Lipa and as a later on their descendants spread out towards Laguna de Bay and Bicol Peninsula. The remains excavated from their ancient settlements in Buton, Taal, Calatagan Bay area and Balayan will attest to the fact of their presence in the said site at least in the later part of the 12th century down to the coming the Goiti and Legaspi in Batangas in 1570.

The flourishing trade relations between these early Batangueno with a number of Chinese merchants prior to the Spanish conquest explained the presence of hundreds of Chinese Dynasty period to the later part of the 26th century, in the burial grounds at Calatagan sites of Pulung Bakaw, Kay Tomas, Pinagpatayan I, and II at Bugtong, Taal Batangas.

The influence of the Chinese traders in Batangas is undeniable; although it is speculative whether the extent of the Chinese trade penetrated the inner region of Taal Lake via Pansipit River. In any case in as much as the covered Chinese ware belonged to the same century of Batangas Colonization, basic identities remained unaltered as they originated from a single empire of Sri-Vishaya, minor local ways must have evolve comparatively in the period of less that a century but the general characteristics must have been kept.

By origin the early Lipeños were Buddhist in religion and Indian in civilization. As such the heritage of the Lipeños was the ancient eastern civilization of India which was twenty times older than its counterpart in Mesopotamia and Nile of the Western World. With its not infrequent contact with the Chinese traders, the Batangenos have absorbed and been influence too by another giant and ancient civilization that of China herself. And with Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the Salcedo conquest of Batangas in 1572, the Lipeños were forced to embraced the Western Civilization. This is the reason why Lipa, the east also meets the west.

By characteristics, the early Lipeños like that of their fellow Borneans scattered all over the coast of Batangas, were average in height range which approximately the present Filipino in rural areas. Anthropologists classified them as dark, stocky with thick lips and large noses.

Social Isolation is characteristic of this early Lipeños, as they live in separate tribal community. In Batangas settlements, this isolation is proved by the fact of their rituals. The burial grounds arranged in different manners employing distinct internment practices and denoting the presence of graves. Usually above the skeleton, giant claws, chunk of brain corrals or both were placed. Some non-Christian peoples in the Philippines still structure such foods in plates and bowls. At both cemeteries, Bakaw and Tomas, hundreds of shreds of earthen were and porcelain was found on the surface. A further explanation for the presence of many of these shreds is that they are the fragments of vessels which had been placed on the grave to hold offerings being destroyed in the decades which have been passed.
At the coming of the Spaniards to Batangas in 1570, the Malay settlements along the southern shores of Tall Lake at Tagbakin was inhabited by the warlike descendants of the two (2) datus called the Tagalogs. In 1605, after Marshall Gabriel de Rivera received the encomienda of Bombon, the Augustinian Fathers made Tagbakin the first settlement s of Lipeños and a mission center with the name of San Sebastian, perhaps after the installed Patron Saint, which continued too the present. The settlement made a regular municipality in1702 and a regular parish in 1716 with Fray Diego de Alday as the first curate.

With the eruption of Tall Volcano in 1724, the people moved to what is now “Lumang Lipa” and, again, in 1754, they moved to Balete where they settled for two years until1756 when they moved inland to the present site obviously for more security from volcanic eruptions.

When Don Gallo de los Reyes was the gobernadorcillo of Lipa, he introduced the cultivation of coffee. The seeds of the Arabica species were said to be of two chupas brought in from Mexico by an Augustinian missionary.

The coffee industry so flourished and made Lipa the richest municipality in the country with an annual income of P4, 000,000.00 that on October 21, 1887 the Queen Regent Maria Christina of Spain, acting for the young King Alfonso XIII, elevated Lipa to a city known as “Villa de Lipa” and later authorized to use a Coat of Arms by the Royal Overseas Minister Don Victoria Bagner on December 13, 1887.

At the celebration of the elevation of Lipa to a city in January 1888, Rizal was invited by Dr. Jose Lozada, Catalino Dimayuga and the brothers Celestino and Simeon Luz but Rizal responded only with his Hymno AL Trabajo which dedicates to the zeal and industry of the Lipeños.

The raising of cacao was introduced in Lipa by an Augustinian priest, Father Ignacio de Mercado, and that was the beginning of its cultivation throughout the Philippines.

The raising abaca followed the blight of coffee as a principal source of income of the people, reaching peak productions during World War I. After the abaca boom, and with no more principal product like it or coffee in its time, the people resorted to diversification of their crops in coconuts, bananas, coffee and fruit trees, together with rice, corn, sugarcane, and vegetables in farms and backyards. They also engaged themselves in livestock raising and varied home crafts from men, and small industries, like weaving embroidery and sewing for women. After World War II citrus production prevailed until 1970 and, after its decline, about 1965, poultry and swine raising began to take roots and to strive in no small degree until the present.

In earlier periods of prosperity, the intellectual’s class became active at home and abroad. Those who went to Europe joined the other Filipinos patriots in the propaganda movement and in the various reform organizations.

Those who remained at home organized similar patriotic societies, put up publications founded schools and promoted political, social and cultural activities among the people. They also joined the revolution political, social and cultural activities among the people. They also joined the revolution which liberated the Philippines on June 12, 1898, and fought the Filipino-American War which brought in the American Regime, through the Japanese occupation from 1941 to1945 during World War II, until terminated on July 4, 1946.

Late in 1894, Procopio Bonifacio, brother of Andres Bonifacio, brought the Katipunan to Lipa, at Sitio Bulihan, Luta (now Malvar, Batangas, then a part of Lipa). There were 32 who joined the secret and among them were Col. Mariano Lat, Major Gregorio Tapia, Fernando Viaje, Valentin Burgos and Pedro Libuit. Pedro Mayo and Norbert Mayo also joined in other localities. Other leaders of there revolution from Lipa were Gregorio Katigbak, Cipriano Kalaw, Benito Reyes, Pedro Laygo, Roman Dimayuga, Luis Kison, Tomas Umali and Felix Reyes.

The first newspaper in Batangas, published in Spanish, was the “Lumubog-Lumutang”, printed in Lipa 1889, and established by the well-known writers Cipriano Kalaw, Gregorio Katibak, Benito Reyes, Hugo Latorre and Pedro Laygo. Other pioneer Spanish writers were Bernardo Solis, Catalino Dimayuga and Manuel Luz.
During the revolution, Gregorio Aguilera Solis edited a newspaper ”Columnas Voluntas de la Federacion Malaya”. This paper became the media for notable poems and literary works of Albino Dimayuga, Baldomero Roxas, Luis Lina Kison,Bernardo Solis, Benidicto Solis, Emiliano Manguiatand Pedronio Katigbak, Roman Dimayuga wrote plays, while Pedro Laygo published articles on Domestic and international politics and Tomas Umali on military affairs.

Hispanic during the American regime included national figures like Teodoro Kalaw, Fidel Ryes, Arsenio Luz, Max B. Solis, Endrique Laygo and Claro M. Recto.

Lipeos also served in the Revolutionary Republic. These were Gregorio Aguilera who was delegate to the Malolos Congress; Ceferino Pantoja, also a member of that congress; Jose Lozada, as envoy to Washington and Paris, and Cipriano Kalaw, the first vice-president and Treasurer of the central Committee of Hongkong.

In the field of education, Father Valerio malabanan was foremost among Lipenos who established school. Other was Sebastian Virrey, Jacinto Silva, Candido Latina and Gregorio katigbak. In 1894, Brigado Morada established his on school at his house in Mataas na Lupa. Under Father Valerio Malabanan were such well-know figure as Apolinario Mabini, General Miguel Malvar and Soltero Laurel. Sebastian Virrey counter with such former student as a brother Alfonso and Claro M. Recto; Fidel and carmelo Reyes; Theodoro and Maximo kalaw; Pacifico, Jose and Enrique Laygo; and Manuel Luz Roxas, Jose D. Dimayuga, Bernabe Africa, Pablo Borbon, Potenciano Malvar, Leonico Aranda and Bishop Alfredo Obvert.

The later school, perhaps marked for permanence by the enthusiastic patronage of its high standard maintained through the years since its founding in 1922 until the present, is the Mabini Academy established by Dr. Jose Ma. Katigbak, Randall A. Rowley, Tarcila Malabanan Katigbak and Emilia Malabanan.

The fact that Lipeños, even up to the present, are very religious, may be attributed to the fact that Fr. Benito Bars, who was Parished Priest of Lipa for almost three decades(1865-1894), has considered Villa de Lipa as his very own and had shown great paternal love for Lipeños. He constructed the Parish Church (now Cathedral of the Lipa Archdiocese) and a new bigger cemetery with a beautiful chapel.

Without aid form the state, he constructed the bridge at sabang and the road that serve as a national highway to Manila and Laguna.

The Lipan Parish, established in 1716, became a diocesan center in 1910, included the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas, marinduque and Mindoro, with Msgr. Jose Petrelle as the first bishop. On August 15, 1972. the diocese was raised to an ecclesiastical province composed of Batangas province and the diocese of Lucena, Infanta and calapan, with Msgr. AlejandroOllalia as the first Archbishop.

On August 31,1947, Lipa was inaugurated as a chartered City created under Republic Act No. 162 approved on June 20,1947.

The year 1972 marked significant events in the history of Lipa. One milestone in the overall environmental and institutional change is the proclamation of Martial Law, which brought about new quality of life in a New Society, committed to the progress and happiness of the people of Lipa City.