History of Gubat, Sorsogon

The Gubatnon forebears could have been those who have settled in Jupi or Tigkiw-na-Saday or Bulacao during the Formative Filipino Period (1,000 BC to 500 AD). These assertions were supported by archeological explorations in Barangays Jupi and Bulacao by a team from the National Museum in the 1960′s. In a museum established by the Sorsogon Arts Council, a primitive stone tool found by Mr. Venancio Funtanares, a Gubatnon, is kept.

The excavations made in Jupi unearthed an ancient jar and vessel decorated with strips of clay. It had been concluded that the early settlers in Barangay Jupi had been there by 800 AD. or even earlier. Meanwhile in Tigkiw-na-Saday, also a rural and hilly Sitio of Barangay Tigkiw like Jupi, a burial site was discovered in 1978 which suggested that the group of people that lived there had probably settled in that place between 200 BC. to 200 AD. If this could have happened, it can be estimated that from then on, the settlement in Gubat had already early existed for more than 2,000 years.

Recent diggings in Barangay Ariman, the place where the river that originates in Bentuco meets the sea, also reveal that the people who lived in this town were influenced if not actually populated by a number of foreigners. The jars removed underneath revealed that they were used as burial jars as some of them contained necklace beads and some precious stones.

THE PRE-SPANISH GUBATNON
A 1572 document mentioned that there were already 41 settlements within Sorsogon during that time, 34 along the Sorsogon Gulf and 7 in eastern Sorsogon. Gubat belongs to the settlement along the eastern coast the others being Bacon, Bantugan, Danlog, Bulusan, Busaingan and probably Tagdon. When the Spaniards arrived in Sorsogon in 1569, they were surprised to find the inhabitants living peacefully. Fr. Jose Castaño, a missionary, described the early Bicolanos (including the early Gubatnons) as a race of impetuosity and valor fond of social dealings; more intelligent and vigorous, more active, industrious and warlike, and adjusted to live in compact villages.

The Raids
The prevailing settlements in the Philippines during the pre-Spanish period were usually located in the mouth of rivers and along the shore. Aramag was then the name of the first settlement in present day Gubat. It was located in the mouth of Ariman and Aropag rivers with houses scattered around it. It was the center of the activity since in those times the major means of transportation was by boat through seas and rivers.

It was in this place that another version of why the name of Gubat came about originated.

Several years after Magellan set foot on Mactan Island, Christianity was spread throughout Luzon. In the Eastern part of province of Sorsogon, the Franciscan missionaries established only two churches. One of them was built in Bacon and another one in Bulusan. These two towns developed much earlier than Gubat. It was also the period when the raiders made frequent raids all over Visayas and Luzon

Meanwhile, a group of missionaries started their voyage by sea from Bacon to Bulusan. Halfway, they encountered a heavy storm that destroyed their ship forcing them to land at Aramag in the morning of June 13, 1731.

Before reaching the heart of the settlement, the missionaries heard several villagers shout “Gubat!” “Gubat!” (Raid! Raid!) to give warning to the people after a number of Moro joangas were seen nearing the shore for the surprise attack. The friars, thinking that they had made the villagers scamper around, tried to pacify them. The villagers, nevertheless, continued to shout “gubat!” “gubat!” ignoring the friars.

The friars escaped the Moro raid by taking the hills southward until they reached the settlement at Bulusan. Somehow, the name “Gubat” struck and thereafter, it was used whenever the place is being referred to.

Aramag, the former name of Gubat, is thought to have been adopted by Alamag, a Sitio of Tabi that is bounded on the east by barangay Ariman, and the site of the earliest settlement in the municipality.

EARLY SETTLERS AND ORIGIN

As in all parts of the Philippine Archipelago, the early settlers of the town may had been the Aetas who must have came from Central Asia during the Paleolithic Period or some 250,000 years ago.

However, the actual settlers could have been people in the advance stage of civilization because in the archeological find in Barangay Jupi in 1968 revealed that one burial jar unearthed contained some bones and a stone ax. The presence of shreds porcelain and pottery suggested that the early settlers were in constant touch with foreign traders particularly from China

In the Tigkiw-na-Saday burial site find suggested that the early settlers that actually lived there thrive between 200 BC to 200 AD.

From Socio-Economic & Physical Profile of Gubat
OMPDC – LGU-Gubat
and Gubatnons Everywhere

~ by Discover Gubat on December 14, 2009.