Overview
Naga (officially the City of Naga; Central Bikol: Ciudad nin Naga; Rinconada Bikol: Ciudad ka Naga; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Naga; Spanish: Ciudad de Naga; or the Pilgrim City of Naga) is an independent component city in the Bicol Region of the Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 210,545 people. It is the most populous city in Camarines Sur and the smallest city in Bicol by land area. The town was established in 1575 by order of Spanish Governor-General Francisco de Sande. The city, then named Nueva Cáceres (New Cáceres), was one of the Spanish royal cities in the Spanish East Indies, along with Manila, Cebu City, and Iloilo City, historically, the third oldest. Geographically and statistically classified, as well as legislatively represented within Camarines Sur, but administratively independent of the provincial government, Naga is considered to be the Bicol Region's trade, business, religious, cultural, industrial, commercial, medical, educational, and financial center. Naga is known as the "Queen City of Bicol" due to the historical significance of Naga in the Bicol Region; as the "Heart of Bicol", due to its central geographical location on the Bicol Peninsula; and as "Pilgrim City," since Naga is also home to one of the largest Marian pilgrimages in Asia to the shrine of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, an image that is one of the country's most popular objects of devotion. Naga is described as "One of the Seven Golden Cities of the Sun" by Nick Joaquín. It is one of the two cities in the Philippines named Naga, the other being in Cebu.
Geography and setting
Etymology
Naga is the native pre-colonial name of the city. It is named after the narra tree (Pterocarpus indicus), which is known as naga in the Bicol language. It was abundant in the region and was part of a pre-colonial industry of wooden cups and bowls made from narra that produced distinctive blue and yellow opalescent colors when water is poured into them (later known to Europeans as lignum nephriticum). During the Spanish colonial era, they were exported to Mexico as luxury goods for their purported diuretic properties via the Manila-Acapulco Galleons, and from there, to Europe. They were often presented as gifts to European nobility. The Jesuit missionary and historian Juan José Delgado (1697–1755) describes the industry in the following:
The city called Nueva Caceres by the Spaniards bears among the natives the name Naga, on account of the abundance of this tree throughout those provinces of Camarines and Albay, where they carve very curious cups out of it for drinking water. Those made of female naga (pale white wood) are much the better, for this wood tinges the water very quickly to a celestial color, more quickly than the male (reddish wood). These cups are much esteemed in Europe and are regarded as a gift well worthy of any prince. Out of one of these cups they made me drink when I was a child, in Cadiz (Spain), as a remedy for hydropsy and oppilation, and I think that it might have helped me had I not drunk too much.
History
History
Precolonial era
Legendary background According to the epic Maragtas, the Bicolandia was closely allied with the Kedatuan of Madja-as Confederation, which was located southeast on Panay Island. Two datus and their followers, who followed Datu Puti, arrived at Taal Lake, with one group later settling around Laguna de Bay, and another group pushing southward into the Bicol Peninsula, placing the Bicolanos between people from Luzon and people from the Visayas. An ancient tomb preserved among the Bicolanos, discovered and examined by anthropologists during the 1920s, refers to some of the same deities and personages mentioned in the Maragtas. It is however worth noting that no other material written records remain that can accurately back the epic's narrative.
Precolonial duluhan of Naga Prior to the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors in what is now present day Naga City, the pre-colonial settlement of Naga was a regionally hegemonic polity geographically located on a strategic tributary, now known as the Naga River, flowing from Mount Isarog to the Bicol River. According to historians William Henry Scott and Danilo Madrid Gerona, precolonial societies were referred to by the natives as duluhan, a broader socio-political structure than the purported familiality of the natives. In Naga and in the rest of Bicol during that period, the only known tripartite social classes derived from Visayan barangays were the maguino, the richest noble class addressed as Kagoangnan ("elder" in Bikol) that were only permitted to datoship; timagua, or timawa, the commoners that constituted the general population; and the oripon ("alipin" in Tagalog), a slave class composed of other subclasses, such as the guintubo (pandoan in plural).
Culture and ecology
Naga river and soil Naga's tributary was highly potable due to the prevalence of cascading springs from Mount Isarog, purifying the mountain's downstream. A rich ecosystem of flora and fauna sparsely inhabited within mangrove thickets were largely endemic to this district. From the igenous composition of Mount Isarog and within the vicinity of the Bicol River as the peninsular drainage basin, the soil of Naga was highly fertile in nature, attesting to its natural wealth.
Territorial extent The territorial extent of the settlement of Naga was contained on the tributary's eastern bank, adjacent to a highly dependent barangay that was Tabuc, now present day barangays Tabuco and Abella; the name derived from the Bikol word "taboc", a "cockfighting blade", due to the landform's resemblance. The Naga settlement is now roughly within the area where the present-day barangays of Lerma and Tinago are located. Tabuco was highly instrumental in the development of Naga, simultaneously with the other vassal barangays in the riverine district paying tribute to Naga in gold and rice. Coupled with the tributary's choke point, these effectively made Naga a highly influential village in domestic inter-barangic politics.
Tourism and access
Regional trade hegemony The settlement of Naga, attributed to its strategic location, was a major trading outpost, controlling traffic between the gold mining barangays of Paracale and Mambulao (now Jose Panganiban) and the rice cultivating district of Yraya, where pre-Hispanic Bato and Libon were located. The settlement's prowess in trading, not limited to domestic ties but to inter-maritime affairs, acquired Naga a comparatively advanced armament consisting of "iron corselets, greaves, wristlets, gauntlets, helmets, arquebuses, and culverins" from foreign Asian traders, evidently Chinese traders of the Ming dynasty from the Silk Road.
Economic affluence The fertile soil in Naga reflected the "export-scale" rice and abaca production, also harboring an abundance of hardwoods such as narra, yakal (Shorea astylosa), guijo (Shorea guiso), kamagong (Diospyros blancoi), and molave (Vitex parviflora). Popular regional livelihoods in the Naga district also included fishery, accompanied by the Bicol River's marine biodiversity of freshwater fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Additionally, Naga once led a major regional metal industry that the Spanish came to soon propose of further territorial ambitions into the purported opulence of Los Camarines.
Notable features
Spanish colonial period
Early discovery of Naga (1573–1579)
Salcedo's expedition
In July 1573, Governor-General Guido de Lavezaris ordered the first Spanish expedition into Southern Luzon. Led by conquistador Juan de Salcedo, they eventually landed in the settlement of Naga. Augustinian chronicler Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, detailed the amount of the barangay's native edifices to number 3,000, beyond Libon's 800. Disputedly, as San Agustin infamously inflated statistics beyond proportion, it was indicated in his report that "in the river of Vicol and Camarines which capital was the village of Naga and had one hundred thousand armed men excluding laborers and merchants."
Reporting Naga's craftsmanship in metallurgy and affluence from maritime trading afforded the establishment of a garrison and Bicol's first Catholic mission base, now the San Francisco Parish Church, formerly made of wood and hay; on the western bank of Naga's river. Three months after Salcedo's return to Manila with his 800 taels (400 grams) of gold, his garrison stationed in Naga hoarded a total of 2,800 taels (140 kilograms) of gold from the riverine district.
Conquest of the Naga settlement In 1574, Doctor Francisco de Sande, in continuation of the archipelagic colonization, executed the military campaign to conquer the newly discovered polities in Southern Luzon. This contingent was led by Salcedo's most prominent field commanders: Captain Pedro de Chavez, Alferez Cristobal de Saldaña, Francisco Saavedra, and Esteban de Solis. Armed with hundreds of soldiers and native allied warriors, the overall contingent departed Manila southbound and initially engaged with the hostile villages of Mambulao and Paracale, then, upon further incursions down south, Baao, Bula, and Naga.
In Naga, the armed residents waged a fierce defensive battle on the settlement's river banks against the Spanish forces. Ultimately, despite the stubborn resistance, the natives succumbed to the Spanish; throughout the ordeal, the locals suffered substantial casualties. Upholding the warriors of the conquered barangay in profound esteem, Augustinian chronicler Fray Martin de Rada once said,
"The people there are the most valiant and best armed men of all these islands. Consequently, although they never attacked the Spaniards, they defended themselves in all their villages, and would not surrender unless conquered by force of arms. Consequently, all those villages were entered in the same way, by first summoning them to submit peacefully, and to pay tribute immediately unless they wished war. They replied that they would first prove those to whom they were to pay tribute, and consequently, the Spaniards attacking them, an entrance was made among them by force of arms, and the village was overthrown and whatever was found pillaged."In 1575, Captain Pedro de Chávez, the commander of the garrison left behind by Salcedo, founded on garrison grounds a temporary settlement. He christened the settlement after incumbent Gov.-Gen. Sande's hometown of Cáceres, Spain.
Naga encomenderos in service of the Crown The Spanish administrative capital settled in Libon was transferred to the area of Naga due to its centrally strategic location administering the other newly erected encomiendas, rapidly populating the riverine district. By 1578, Christianization efforts were first spearheaded in the Camarines region by Franciscans Pablo de Jesus and Bartolome Ruiz in collaboration with the encomiendas through the system of reducción, embodied in the voluminious compendium of the Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias (Laws of the Indies) urging for:
"the natives for their own advantage and comfort should live together in the pueblos, and not scattered around the hills and mountains, deprived of all material and spiritual benefits of the minister and of the natural interaction by law of nature, among men." During the period of protracted pacification, the encomienda system was officially ratified in the region, supplanting the inter-barangic and hegemonic administrative order over Imperial rule. The first wards incorporated in the encomienda system were Naga and Camaligan, assigned to encomendero Pedro Cid. The Crown appropriated the conquered lands to the highly decorated Spanish soldiers who participated in the incursions, enjoining them to a "threefold responsibility" of "(1) to maintain peace among the natives within the encomienda, (2) to support the missionaries, (3) to protect and defend the natives from any hostile elements." In return, the encomenderos were formally authorized to exact a tribute of eight reales annually upon their male subjects, ranging from ages of nineteen to sixty. The former polities' chieftains had to regularly collect tributes from his residents, then forward the currency or commodity to the encomendero in charge, who typically resided in the administrative capital. A quarter of a ward's tribute was made taxable to royal coffers, simultaneously funding the clergy.
Establishment of the Villa de Nueva Cáceres (1579)
Founding of Villa de Cáceres
The centralized bureaucracy of the Spanish dealt a crucial role in its urban planning thereafter, which in turn, influenced the establishment of Nueva Caceres. Imperial legislation, prescribed primarily by the Laws of the Indies, tailored the preferable urban settlement to a cosmopolitan congregation of self-sustainable industries, a natural bottle neck of commerce, and the strategic base of both ecclesiastical and military operations. On 27 May 1579, Capt. Juan Arce de Sadornil, the garrison commander in Naga, received instructions from the Imperial administration in Manila pertaining to the appropriate selection of a Spanish settlement in Bicol. Capt. Sadornil coordinated with the Franciscan missionaries at the San Francisco de Naga convent to chart their settlement's expanse to observe the logistical, strategical, and technical feasibility of a formal settlement's construction. Sometime in 1579, the departure of the two pioneering missionaries brought about Fray Geronimo Aguilar, who sat at the San Francisco de Naga convent from 1579 until 1586. He was the first missionary to teach the natives Iberian music such as Spanish cantos, including Western notation such as tonic sol-fas that made their way toward the 1700s in Camarines parishes. Cáceres, which were mostly wired to missionary operations, had gained the St. John the Evangelist parish church (now the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral) upon Philip II's royal order to construct an explicitly secular parish attending the ecclesiastical needs of the Spanish community of Nueva Cáceres. (a division of labor between those of religious orders serving as missionaries and secular priests serving to Cáceres residents only) Its first curate, founded in 1579 as evinced by a report he wrote in Nueva España dated 10 May 1580, was Bachiller Balthasar de Miranda. The parish priest was allotted stipends of fifty thousand maravedis directly from the royal treasury, converting the balance to three hundred pesos, parallel to the alcalde mayor's which were shouldered by the residents of Nueva Cáceres. Composed of a couple hundred Spanish colonists at this point, on 16 September 1579, Gov.-Gen. Sande acquired royal recognition decreeing the appellation of "villa" onto the newly dubbed settlement of Cáceres. In subsequent documents within the Manila bureaucracy, "nueva," Spanish for "new," was prefixed to "Cáceres," thus "Nueva Cáceres," to distinguish the locality from its namesake in the mainland.
The prerequisites of being elevated to villa, historically subject by Nueva Cáceres, were the settlement had to have at least a semblance of preliminary urbanization sheltered by a strategic military base with aims for further conquest. The Villa de Cáceres had about 24 encomenderos taking quarters in it by 1581 according to a report from Capt. Miguel de Loarca.
Administrative bureaucracy of the locality From 1580—1581, the burgeoning Spanish community in Nueva Cáceres laid the framework for the earliest city-styled local governance in Southern Luzon. Inspired by Latin American municipal bureaucracies, the alcaldia (the province) Nueva Cáceres had an alcalde mayor with a salary of three hundred pesos, serving as its Capitan de Guerra (military commander); counciled by a lower echelon of public officials referred to as the cabildo (municipal council), which consisted of 2 alcaldes-in-ordinary and 6 regidores, the council of elderlies, appointed by the governor-general. The alcaldia's (referring to the pacified province) territorial jurisdiction in 1581 extended from Camarines toward Catanduanes, instilling the regidores to "elect" (although it was represented as democratic, elections were merely an elitist selection of whom the governor-general could appoint) among the general populace of the vecino (colonists), mayors, and the alguaciles (constables).
Elevation of Nueva Cáceres to cuidad status (1586)
Rapid Christianization of the indigenous On 8 September 1585, Gov.-Gen. Santiago de Vera ordered the municipal government, in collaboration with Fray Juan de Garrovillas of the San Francisco convent, to
"inspect the poblaciones to be built, the size and form of the churches, you must also consider the work to be carried out by the natives where these poblaciones and churches will be established." This eventually culminated to a decree in 1594 formally authorizing the Franciscans at the helm of the San Francisco church to take over all ecclesiastical operations in all of the region. By the start of 1586, the Franciscans from the San Francisco convent established a nipa-and-wood infirmary dubbed the Hospital de San Diego, referred to more popularly as the Hospital de San Lazaro. This was also granted upon royal degree by Philip II of Spain.
Request to the King In 1586, recognizing the cruciality of the cuidad (city) status, a formal letter was sent to Philip II, thereby requesting the King:
"...(a) to confirm the present status of Caceres as a city created by virtue of the governor-general's will and authority; (b) to allocate a propio of about 1,000 men or more to the city; (c) to preserve the present set-up of the city government; (d) to confirm and honor the appointments to the various offices." In this document, the Spanish officials mentioned were Luis Briceño, alguacil mayor; and Juan de Guzman and Sebastian Garcia, regidores. Augmenting the elevation of a cuidad meant a propio (native settlement providing basic goods to the city) was required to supplement such substantial urbanization of Nueva Cáceres, ultimately to the expense of the natives in the alcaldia. The rapid gentrification of Nueva Cáceres prompted the assignment of the "component villages" Naga and Tabuc to propio's bidding. By 1588, the population of Nueva Cáceres were numbering the hundreds upon upholding of city status. On the same year, the Calle Real building had finished construction, serving as the alcalde-mayor's residence. The incipient city consisted of 30 citizens, 20 of whom married (some settling after Capt. Juan Maldonado's expedition in 1585) and 6 among them married to native women; 30 soldiers; "a church with a vicar, a Franciscan Monastery with two priests and two brothers besides and one alcalde mayor." Encouragement from authorities to interbreed with the native population was decisively a means to maintain the growth of the city, "even blurring the racial gap." Up toward the 1590s, the honorifics of villa and cuidad were often used interchangeably, denoting the blurred distinctions of the locality among its vast residencies, especially among clerical spheres in contrast to the newfound municipal bureaucracy.
Establishment of the See of Cáceres (1595) By the 17th century, almost most of the propios under the Spaniards had been completely converted to Catholicism, abandoning their animistic heritage altogether. "Nueva Cáceres" was identified in the papal bull of Pope Clement VIII on 14 August 1595, which established the see of Cáceres, together with Cebú and Nueva Segovia, and made it the seat of the new bishopric subject to the Archdiocese of Manila. Unfortunately, the Diocese's first priest passed away before his assumption, Luis Maldonado, O.F.M., with a successor who also had the same fate, Francisco Ortega, O.S.A., in 1599.
Nueva Cáceres was settled by around 100 Spaniards from Europe, reinforced by migrations from Mexico during Capt. Maldonado's expedition. From a report by Don Antonio Morga of the Oidor of the Royal Audencia, he characterized the urban life of Nueva Cáceres as: "...well populated since the time of Doctor Sande, Governor of the Philippine Islands. It has approximately one hundred Spaniards, with its city corporations and mayors, aldermen, and officials."
Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres in the 17th century
Bishrophic vacuum and widespread poverty At the beginning of the 17th century, there were only five other ciudades in the Philippines. Despite this, the city was plagued by a bureaucratic clergy. A bishrophic vacuum brought about by the diocese's shortlived episcopasies, an insufficient taxation system, the constancy of hostile Dutch naval incursions, led by two ships from Van Noort's fleet of Lambert Vleisman starting in 1600; and Moro raids resulted in a demented civic development of Nueva Cáceres. One of the causes of poverty was the inadequent population, both indio and Spaniard, to sufficiently fund Nueva Cáceres' public systems. Coupled with this is the dependence of Hispanic Naga on the now defunct regional trade among duluhans in the Vicor riverine district. Baltazar de Cobarrubias y Múñoz, O.S.A. was officially appointed as successor, taking on the diocese in 1603, but ultimately losing it in 1605. The following, Pedro de Godinez, O.F.M., was among one of those who passed before seating the diocese; he was however the only one with a preliminary plan such as a document revealed in Seville to construct a concrete cathedral upon immediate arrival. The first to be elected among the ensemble of the former missionaries of the Diocese of Cáceres was Pedro Matía, O.F.M., serving from 1612 then perishing a year later. Diego Guevara, O.S.A. followed in 1617 until 1621, then Luis de Cañizares, O.M. dying before being seated in the diocese in 1624. In 1628, Cañizares' successor, Francisco de Zamudio y Avendaño, O.S.A., breathed new hope to the city's ecclesiastical sphere, not succumbing as immediately as many before had. His administration also saw the first Moro raid upon Nueva Cáceres in October of 1636, where famed Franciscan friar Fray Cervera fought and died in the defense of the San Francisco convent.Despite this, Zamudio's episcopate was marred with controversies, ultimately passing in 1639. Nicolás de Zaldívar y Zapata, O.S.A. arrived in 1642, then died in 1646. In 1653, Antonio de San Gregorio, O.F.M. was the first to serve the post five years onward, dying only eight years later in 1661. Abhorring the squalor of the city, San Gregorio provided a comment through a letter requesting royal assistance, stating:
"there is in the city of Nueba Cazeres the following: the cathedral, which is a small chapel of bamboo without bells nor ornaments, burned down by the Dutch enemy years before. After the cathedral is the house of the alcalde mayor, made of good bricks and lime; there are also the houses of the escribano and the alguacil mayor which are of bamboo. Following this is a structure which they call the hospital, also of bamboo and the last is the convent of San Francisco, a very massive structure of lime and bricks." San Gregorio also proposed to Philip IV the complete rehaul of the cathedral edifice, which was considered largely decrepit and neglected. On 20 March 1660, the king officially decreed its renovation, but by this point, San Gregorio had already passed a year later, not living to see the completion of the cathedral. Succeeding San Gregorio was Andrés González, O.P., the longest of which ruled the See of Cáceres. Assuming the episcopate in 1661, González ordered further repairs in the cathedral. This backfired however, resulting in a fissured wall "made worse by the earthquakes." In February of 1691, a letter co-written by residents Lorenzo Duran Rivera, Jeronimo Silvestre de Grimaldo, Baltasar de Tamayo y Tobar, Luis Jimenez de Rivera y Flores, Juan de la Ostia Coronado and Juan de Aguilera Verastigui was sent to Carlos II, King of Spain, to transfer the cityhood of Nueva Cáceres with all of its statutes and grants to Paracale due to the city's immense strife; this did not materialize. After González, Domingo de Valencia seated the diocese in 1718, dying a year later. His successor was Felipe de Molina, now appalled at the backward state of Naga. Molina also pointed out the rundown condition of the house of priests turned bishop's residence through his comment, "that there was no place for him to live in."
Attempts to resolve Nueva Cáceres' economic malaise In the mid-17th century, attempts toward economic self-sufficiency were made by both residents and of the civil government. On 16 July 1664, Gov.-Gen. Diego Salcedo reported an iron deposit in Mambulao, having sent Capt. Gil Carol to assess the mines. Despite having sent 553 arroba (7,830 kilograms) of iron to the Almacenes Reales (Royal Warehouses) during this period, no serious industrialization became of the mine due to the crude native metallurgy utilized.
Galleon trade in the 17th century
The Manila galleon between Manila and Acapulco of the late 17th century directly attributed to the economic propensity of Bicol and consequently its regional capital, Nueva Cáceres. Without a port in Camarines, many ports were opened on its southern coast in the 17th century, such as Cabusao and the province's main seaport of Pasacao. Prominent tradelines were also established in the barrios of Caramoan and Quipayo. The access Nueva Cáceres had to these trading hubs, Pasacao in particular, propelled the domestic abaca trade to an export-scale industry. Pasacao had a shipyard where galleons were built such as the Angel de la Guardia in 1613 and the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in 1703. Pasacao's importance to the globalist trade in Nueva Cáceres aiding this network, as described by Capt. Miguel de Loarca in his report:
"Farther along the coast near Pasacao River begin the provinces of Vicor and Camarines, which, as we have said above, are situated on the east side as you enter the Philippine islands. Disembarking at the Pasacao River, which is seventy leagues from the city of Manila by sea, and journeying three leagues by land, one comes to the Vicor River flowing north; its source is in the opposite coasts of the islands." Due to the preeminent relation that Nueva Cáceres held over the dominion of Pasacao, propositions were conferred by Gov.-Gen. Juan Niño de Tavora of the construction of a canal from Pasacao connecting to the Naga river to allow smaller vessels into its quay without disembarking in Pasacao. Attested by Fray Antonio de San Gregorio on 13 July 1656 to the King, he wrote in his report:
"Gov.-Gen. Tavora ordered the opening of a creek running close to the port of Pasacao to link this river from Naga so that the commodities needed by his Majesty could be easily brought to the port and that Indians may bring theirs."These plans however were ultimately scrapped due to the project's logistical complexities.
New developments and demographics Throughout the 17th century, despite the languishing state of the city, many civic, religious, and infrastructural developments were made during this period. One such example was the evolution of the Hospital de San Diego: in 1623, the building was replaced by a lime and stone structure renamed Hospital Real de Cáceres (Royal Hospital of Cáceres) on a ranch in the village of Sorral (present-day stretch of Peñafrancia from Colgante Bridge to San Francisco Church) donated on 13 September 1625 by a Spanish couple. A Dutch raid in 1648 reduced the infirmary to bamboo, which was subsequently rebuilt as a sturdier structure in 1650. In 1663, the structure endured damages from a typhoon. Despite the high-maintenance of the hospital, it was preserved administration after administration until 1691 where it was ultimately closed by lay supervisors for the reason thereof. Aside from infrastructural growth, the native populations of Naga and Tabuco were generally praised for their cooperation and fealty under His Majesty, Philip IV, evidenced by a memorial of Juan Grau y Monfalcon procurador general (Procurator General of the Philippines) in 1636. Grau detailed their nonrebellious nature, valiance in fighting alongside the Spaniards, competence in shipbuilding (especially in Pasacao) and as proficient boatrowers; he proposed honoring such individuals with higher ranks in the militia.
Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres in the 18th century Nueva Cáceres in the 18th centruy underwent heavy demographic changes, with migration from the Manila Galleon brought about many Chinese migrants, Spanish peninsulares, and among many Filipino ethnicities across the archipelago, inflating the aggregate population by 1,576 in the years 1738 and 1744 according to a Franciscan census. A 1772 report of Bishop Antonio de Luna established the four pueblecillos (little town) of Naga, Tabuco, Sta. Cruz, and Camaligan, and a total population of about 1,200 villagers per locality; this was a natural evolution from the ward-oriented propios of the 16th and mid-17th century. In a 1776 census report, Naga then had 964 while Camaligan had 1,666. Some of the pueblecillos in the 18th century had attained the zenith of their territorial expanse: Sta. Cruz, by far the largest, had the visitas "Peña de Francia, Tarosanan, Sungay, Dalipay, or Dominding, and Pasacao." Both Tabuco and Naga only had a single visita each, with Tabuco having Burabod, whereas Naga had Sorral, where present-day Peñafrancia Avenue is located. More visitas were established in the following decades.
Chinese discrimination The first Chinese settlers and eventually merchants of Nueva Cáceres were dated to have arrived around the mid-17th century, with San Gregorio's report reporting "some 10 or 12 houses..." by 1650. Known as "Sangley," from "xung-lei" meaning "merchant" in Pinyin, the Chinese were predominantly merchants by trade, with most originating from Molo, Iloilo. These Sangleyes came to form the "Pariáncillo" (small Parián) of Nueva Cáceres. But, in time, they eventually grew to be the ire of the colonists and natives, attributing to the racist policies implemented deliberately restricting their social mobility in the diocese. In 1725, a bishop condemned "the faithful" to listen to Chinese music or watch any of their stageplays as "they were full of superstition and idolatry." Even Rev. Fr. Isidro Arevalo in 1742 requested Gov.-Gen. Gaspar de la Torre y Ayala to deny immigrant Sangleyes travel permits into the city. In 1741, Arevalo issued the year's Arancel Eclesiastico (a kind of church tarriff), which often stratified demographics by social caste. The mestizo sangleyes were categorized along with indio principales and criollos, racially implied as privileged, whereas full-blooded sangleyes and españoles were expected to shoulder a greater fee. A prerequisite to be issued a "domestic residential visa" was to be accustomed with the Doctrina Christiana, of which many non-Hispanicized Sangleyes lacked this requirement. Because of such discriminatory stipulations, much of the collective Chinese community left for elsewhere.
The origins of Our Lady of Peñafrancia (1696−1741)
In 1696 or 1697, Rev. Fr. Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, O.P. was assigned to a small parish of the Diocese of Cáceres. A seminarian of the University of Sto. Tomas, he carried the Marian devotion of Virgin of Peña de Francia from his hometown in Salamanca where he would often apply the devotion's face card upon his sickly father's body as a "cure"; his father being a Spanish official in the Philippines facilitated his ordainment in the Diocese of Cáceres. For such intent, Covarrubias vowed to enshrine his devotion in Nueva Cáceres. Throughout the early 1700s, Bishop Fray Andrés González of the diocese had gradually promoted Covarrubias to pastor, vicar general, then provisor of the old cathedral. Under his tutelage, he was given an opportunity to proselytize the Virgin devotion to the upland nomadic tribes from Isarog petitioning to reside in a sitio within the diocese's jurisdiction. González appointed Covarrubias as their pastor, with him preaching the Virgin of Peña de Francia in a rudimentary structure. In 1709, Covarrubias, with the support from González, ordered the construction of a much sturdier chapel, being finished the following year. In the early 18th century, the Marian devotion fully flourished as a regional symbol of pilgrimage, with people reportedly flocking to the chapel during Saturday Novenas and masses. Covarrubias was shortly re-appointed to Manila, unknown whether he was dead or alive by 1741, where Most Rev. Ysidro de Arevalo, DD had established the chapel as a stone edifice.
Galleon monopoly and the effects of polo y servicio Throughout the 18th century, "polo y servicio" (forced labor) became increasingly abused by the colonial authorities through the mass conscription of indios of Naga and Tabuco into the astilleros (shipyard) of porttowns such as Pasacao in the assembly of galleons and in portering maritime trade, primarily employed via the repartimiento system by the alcaldes-mayores involved in private monopolies. This was attested by Bishop Matos on 13 June 1759:
"...the custom of paying not more than a real for the baggage work at Pasacao should be condemned as unjust, exception is made when the work is completed in only two days from the time the indio left his house until his return there." Notwithstanding the injustices experienced by the indios exploited in the galleon trade, the production of commodities supplementing the shipyards providing indios daily wages, such as the abaca rope industry, also grew increasingly corrupt.
Continuation of poverty The limited forages of Nueva Cáceres for amassed agrarian reformation, the town's interdependence on the other pueblos for basic supplies, and the widespread exploitation of the native population by their colonial wards and the royal authorities resulted in immense population and capital flight. As early as 4 May 1703, Rev. Fr. Andrés González described the troubled state of the cathedral of which could only exist through donations, detailed in an excerpt of his report to Philip V of Spain:
"...the cathedral...is so poor...it does not even have any amount for its annual expenses for its ornaments...it is so poor that it does not have any income which Your Majesty had appropriated nor from where it may come..."
This cycle of poverty endured throughout the breadth of the century, through 1792 as implied by Bishop Domingo Collantes.
Beginning of industrialization (1704−1780s) On 23 August 1704, Gov.-Gen. Don Domingo de Zabalburu y Balenchana de Echavarri ratified the creation of the Real Compra de Bandala for Camarines (a system forcing natives to sell rice at low, fixed prices for the Manila government and to supply the Galleon Trade), outlining an initial quota of 4,000 chinantas or 25,000 kilograms of abaca and 2,000 gantas or 6,000 litres of oil. These were received by the alcalde-mayor and juez of Camarines in Nueva Cáceres on 9 November of the same year but were ultimately left unhonored. For the span of 50 years, this fundamentally aided the industrialization of Nueva Cáceres in cordage manufacture. According to the Gov.-Gen. Don Francisco José de Ovando's report on 9 August 1752, it was mentioned that the province of Camarines was a major abaca supplier to the Manila-based Real Compra de Bandala, supplying "4,000 chinantas of abaca at two pesos per chinanta...in the cordonerias (cordage factory)." Simply put, by the mid-century, supposedly around 1750, according to Jesuit historian Pedro Murrillo Velarde, Nueva Cáceres had already underwent industrialization through its first cordage factory. On 10 March 1785, the Real Compañia de Filipinas (Royal Company of the Philippines) was issued a decree to import Philippine products to Spain and Europe, especially silk and mulberry relative to Camarines. In 1795, the pueblos of Tabuco, Naga, and Sta. Cruz were notable for their high agricultural yield, being turned into plantations under the authority of alcalde-mayor Carlos Connelly and the locality's cabezas. Tabuco had accumulated 150 mulberry, Naga, 15,127 mulberry and 172 trunks of pepper, and Sta. Cruz with 1,000 plants. Due to the reported productivity, a Chinese silkworm expert was sent and the Royal Company built a short-lived silk factory in Nueva Cáceres. In 1785, the presence of the Royal Company in Nueva Cáceres also brought about the introduction of the tobacco monopoly. Two years later, in 1787, a civic-wide incident occurred where the city's residents, especially the rice farmers enduring harsh farming conditions of amihan, succumbed to tobacco addiction. The natives also grew impatient of the colonial government's payment for the indebted tobacco acquired from their plantations, enlargening the social unrest that culminated in a city-wide arson. The intercession of the bishop and the diocesan clergy ultimately killed the tobacco trade in Nueva Cáceres.
Sole Moro raid in Nueva Cáceres (September 1757) In September of 1757, a Moro excursion that destroyed 10 Camarines towns entered Nueva Cáceres under of the cover of night. While the entire city evacuated sporadically, Fr. Manuel Matos remained in the convent where the church and the rest of the city were seemingly spared. On 29 June 1758, Matos recorded in his letter to Charles III of Spain:
"...undoubtedly greater than at any other time."
Outward expansion of infrastructure In 1764, under the guidance of Bishop Manuel Matos along with the local principalía, a road was constructed in Sta. Cruz dubbed later in subsequent decades as "Igualdad." (present-day Gen. Luna St.), the first significant public infrastructure built in a long time. Despite the swampy trail, this was cleared and from 1783, it began to host processions to and fro churches during annual Feasts of the Holy Rosary and Holy Week. By 1791, two bridges made of wood, bamboo, and palm leaves were erected across the Naga river from Nueva Cáceres to both Naga and Tabuco (now the Panganiban and Tabuco Bridge). The construction of these bridges virtually ended centuries of racial segregation between the local indios and the Spaniards; from then on out, the socioeconomic disparities of a cosmopolitan Nueva Cáceres were to be blurred by this act of reconciliation to create a much inclusive society.
Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres in the 19th century For hundreds of years during the Spanish colonial era, Naga grew to become the center of trade, education, and culture, and the seat of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Bicol. The city became large and prosperous as the 1818 Spanish census recorded the area as having 5,739 native families and a large number of Spanish-Filipino families that then ballooned to 301 in number.
Nueva Cáceres during the Philippine Revolution (1896-1899)
The "Fifteen Martyrs of Bicol"
After the discovery of Andrés Bonifacio's Katipunan in 1896, Gov.-Gen. Ramón Blanco's colonial administration escalated crackdown efforts throughout the archipelago on similar large-scale and non-clerical societies such as the Freemasonry. From August to December 1896, the civil government of Ambos Camarines under Gov. Ricardo Lacosta had issued several orders of arrest against certain individuals across the province, especially those with ties to fraternal societies modelled similarly to the Katipunan. In protest, an influential native of Nueva Cáceres, Ramon Feced, formed the revolutionary militia unit called the "Cuerpo de Voluntarios." 11 of the 15 martyrs were sentenced to death by musketry in Bagumbayan, Laguna (now Rizal Park) on 3 January 1897: Tomas Prieto, Mariano Melgarejo, Florencio Lerma, Macario Valentin, Gabriel Prieto, Manuel Abella, Cornelio Mercado, Domingo Abella, Camilo Jacob, Severino Diaz and Inocencio Herrera. The remaining four martyrs were sentenced differently: Leon Hernandez was imprisoned in the Nueva Cáceres Municipal Jail where he was tortured to death; Mariano Ordenaza was sentenced to a 20-year imprisonment in Bilibid by the Consejo Real, later dying behind bars; both Ramon Abella and Mariano Arana were exiled off to Fernando Po Island in Spanish Guinea where Arana succumbed to malaria while Abella was pardoned, later dying in Cartagena, Spain.
Locally led revolt of Angeles and Plazo (1898)
On 18 September 1898, Gen. Vicente Lukbán's successful military campaign in Ambos Camarines, and subsequently throughout the peninsula, prompted reactive Spaniard authorities to disarm the local Guardia Civil garrison in Nueva Cáceres, disclosing to them that they were to be in active deployment in Iloilo against the Revolutionary Government. Initial frights of an organized mass execution by Spanish auxiliaries immediately escalated into an internal revolutionary plot in the span of a single day, organized by Corporals Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo with majority support among the units against the Spanish. Their uprising was partly inspired by Ildefonso Moreno's quelled revolt in Daet, being a part of the contingent that quashed the rebellion. During Nueva Cáceres' Peñafrancia Festival on 18 September, the Spanish decided to rearm the Guardia Civil upon considerations of an insufficient Spaniard police force incapable of crowd control. The Guardia Civil rebels utilized the festivities throughout the day as cover to the preparatory prelude of Nueva Cáceres' uprising. At midnight, the revolutionaries caught the civil authorities by surprise in their sleep, forcing a citywide battle throughout the entire night. The rebels executed key Spanish officials such as Capt. Francisco Andreu, Ambos Camarines' Guardia Civil commander, along with his family; and Lt. Miguel Dias de Montiel with his wife sharing a midnight coffee. The remaining Imperial personnel numbering 400 resorted to the besieged San Francisco convent, to which the rebels threatened to burn the church if the defense had not surrendered by 14:00. A Fr. Gonzales of the convent served as an intermediary, establishing contact with the rebels. 25 weapons were surrendered, with the following on the next day. Don Vicente Zaldin expressed the total capitulation of the Spanish defense. The terms of capitulation were formally signed at the women's college Colegio de Sta. Isabel, taking effect at 10:00 on 20 September 1898. From then on, Angeles assumed the position of Gobernador Politico-Militar, with Plazo as the commander of the Guardia Civil. Upon the arrival of Gen. Lukban in October of 1898 by the detachment led by Capt. Arcadio Gisala, the Spanish authorities were officially declared as ousted from office upon the constitutional institution of the Philippine Revolutionary Government.
A city ordinance, passed by the Naga City Government, designates September 19 as Liberation Day in the City of Naga. This is ordinance number 2006-050. The ordinance also outlines activities for commemorating Liberation Day and allocates funds to support them.
Invasion of Nueva Cáceres during the Philippine-American War (1899−1900)
Background The United States' refusal to recognize both the terms of the Filipino delegates enshrined in the Treaty of Paris and the First Philippine Republic's sovereignty and state independence altogether eventually sparked the first engagement of Filipino combatants with American forces in the Battle of Manila on 4 February 1899.
Defense of Ambos Camarines Shortly after the battle, President Emilio Aguinaldo relegated Gen. Antonino M. Guevarra under Gen. Lukban's command in the defense of Ambos Camarines and Nueva Cáceres. In early 1899, approximately 1,700 Republican soldiers and additional municipal militias collectively referred to as the Sandatahanes comprised Guevarra's main fighting force, with a roster of native commanders such as Colonel Bernabe Dimalibot, Col. Ludovico Arejola, Col. Ursua, and Lt.-Col. Elias Angeles. In late 1899, the Republican army, with the compounding losses in the northern Tagalog region, commenced with a fallback strategy based on guerilla warfare in desperation. The attritional warfare against a superior force thereby crippled Arejola's numbers to just 500 personnel by the time the Americans arrived in Ambos Camarines in early 1900.
American landings into Ambos Camarines (February 1900) On the early morning of 20 February 1900, two battalions on the USS Montañez from both the 45th Regiment, led by a Major Cole, and 40th Regiment, led by a Maj. Casey, of Gen. John C. Bates' and James M. Bell's 1st Division, XIII Army Corps, led by a Lieutenant-Colonel Parker, was the first contingent in Ambos Camarines, landing four miles off Calabanga. On the same day, a battalion of the 40th Regiment, led by a Maj. McNamee, landed on a marshy shore three kilometers from Barcelonita, with the regiment commander, Col. Godwin, leading the push inward. This detachment encountered fierce resistance in the town of Libmanan led by Col. Ursua, leading to a notorious two-day skirmish that resulted in the deaths of 64 Filipinos and wounding 21 others in total on both sides. From 8:15 to 16:00, Lt.-Col. Parker's contingent endured heavy attritional warfare waged by Bikolano guerillas from the beachhead to the town of Calabanga. Capt. Cogswell, one of the company commanding officers of Maj. Cole's battalion, managed to successfully capture Calabanga in the late afternoon of the 20th.
Inland skirmishes into Ambos Camarines At 7:15 on the following morning, the rest of the Lt.-Col. Parker's companies, excluding Maj. Casey's, marched toward Barrio Carolina. After three hours, they occupied the barrio without resistance, albeit they stumbled upon an abandoned armory, destroying it subsequently. Carolina, the highlands of Nueva Cáceres, was the first district of the city to succumb to the American occupation. At 2:00 PM, this detachment carried their pursuit towards Palestina. During the march, Maj. Cole's battalion found a certain "Rodriguez" for directions, leading his unit into the contigious swamp, whether maliciously or not, then ultimately into the middle of a wide rice paddy. During this period, fleeing revolutionaries on the same road managed to transport all the Spanish prisoners in the adjacent localities further from the front. Maj. Cole's battalion was forced to retreat for the night. After a lake-crossing on the following morning, the unit made its way into Barrio Concepcion. This detachment witnessed "a considerable number of Filipinos wielding rifles, arrows, and bolos" on the road to Nueva Cáceres from Concepcion, although the expeditionary forces largely held this sight with disregard.
Logistical errors In the morning of the 21st, the seven remaining companies directly led by Gen. Bates landed at Barrio Cabusao after some reconfiguration with the watercrafts Marietta, Tartar, and Baltimore after Montañez ran aground on the mouth of the Bicol River. At evening, the USS Paragua arrived at San Miguel Bay to ferry the beached company aboard the Montañez, forming a flotilla after the vessel's reshoring. The entire western detachment converged at Libmanan, crossing the Bicol River at 10:30.
Skirmishes in the outskirts of Nueva Cáceres At noon, the collective expeditionary force under Gen. Bates had marched from Cabusao to Magarao, now bound for Nueva Cáceres. B Company of the 45th Regiment defended the ford while the whole of E Company boarded boats tugged by the Paragua heading for the capital. The native guerillas committed to a scorched earth policy upon their arrival to Magarao, attested by the immolation of Quipayo Church, Calabanga Town Hall, and eventually the Canaman parish.
Capture of Nueva Cáceres Lt.-Col. Parker's contingent in Barrio Concepcion marched toward Nueva Cáceres in the afternoon of the 22nd, suspecting a resistance numbering "50 rifles, two cannons and a group of macheter wielders." Meanwhile, the rest of the battalions towed by the USS Paragua docked at Nueva Cáceres' quay at about 14:00, with the contingent having disembarked completely by 16:30 with Gen. Bates himself and his staff. Lt.-Col. Parker and Gen. Bates bivouacked at the city center, organizing into one unit in the abandoned locality. Gen. Guevarra demanded the evacuation of the entire city from the advancing American expeditionaries. The Spanish and Chinese communities were "ordered to leave before the invaders arrived." The retreating revolutionaries dragged Spanish prisoners, dubbed "cazadores" (hunters), into the slopes of Mt. Isarog, Pasacao, and southern Libmanan.
Subsequent resistance and total capitulation (1901) In spite of the resistance that was continued by self-appointed General and Commander-in-Chief Ludovico Arejola from that year to the following year, Nueva Cáceres became the salient of the American forces into the five military districts of the Bikolano guerillas. Then, on 31 March 1901, Arejola formally ordered the complete capitulation of Bikolano resistance and surrendered unconditionally to Gen. Bates in the provincial capitol of Nueva Cáceres.
American colonial period
Reduction of Spanish-era cuidad bureaucracy (1900−1909) The American colonial period of Nueva Cáceres begun in 1901 with the encampment of the transitional Third Military District of the Department of South Luzon with the city as its headquarters, first led by Gen. Kobbe then Gen. Bell. On 3 October 1903, the Spanish "Cuidad de Nueva Cáceres" was eventually reduced to an American-styled municipality by virtue of Act No. 959 of the Philippine Commission in furtherance of centralization efforts, thereby annexing the municipalities of Canaman and Camaligan into Nueva Cáceres' recognized territory. An excerpt of the legislature read:
"The municipality of Nueva Caceres shall consist of its present territory and that of the municipalities of Camaligan and Canaman, except the barrios of Talidtid and Fundado in the present municipality of Canaman, with the seat of the municipal government at the present municipality of Nueva Caceres." Notwithstanding this diminution, Nueva Cácer
Why it matters
Naga is the most populous city of Camarines Sur and the country's largest Marian pilgrimage centre — home to the Peñafrancia festival drawing several million pilgrims each September.
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name and administrative status of Naga?
Naga is officially known as the City of Naga and holds the status of an independent component city. It is located within the Bicol Region of the Philippines, distinguishing it from provincial capitals that are often component cities of their respective provinces.
What are the common local and historical names for Naga?
The city is referred to as Ciudad nin Naga in Central Bikol and Ciudad ka Naga in Rinconada Bikol. In Tagalog, it is called Lungsod ng Naga, while its historical Spanish name was Ciudad de Naga.
Why is Naga frequently called the "Pilgrim City"?
Naga is widely recognized as the Pilgrim City of Naga due to its significant religious importance in the Bicol Region. This title reflects its role as a major destination for Catholic pilgrims, particularly those visiting the Cagsawa Ruins and the Basilica Minore de Naga.
In which region of the Philippines is Naga located?
Naga is situated in the Bicol Region, which is located on the southeastern peninsula of the island of Luzon. As an independent component city, it serves as a key urban center within this specific geographical area.
What languages are commonly used to refer to the city of Naga?
The city's name is expressed in several languages including Central Bikol, Rinconada Bikol, Tagalog, and Spanish. These linguistic variations reflect the diverse cultural and historical influences present in the Bicol Region.