PRIDE OF MENANS: My Home Town History

My Home Town History

Posted in Labels: beach, falls, stonecave, whitesand | 6:44 PM

Sta. Cruz, Zambales

Home of the Sagrada Familia Caves, Beaches

and great Fishing site

At the beginning of the 17th century, in the year 1612, the town of “Sigayan”, now Sta. Cruz, was found in the Sitio of Tambobong, which is now within the jurisdiction of the municipality of Dasol, Pangasinan. It is said that when the first Spanish missionaries arrived at the Sitio, they asked the natives the name of the place, but the latter, thinking that the strangers were asking for the name of the shells that were found in abundance on the seashore, answered “Sigayan”. Hence the name. The Catholics of the town later built a church which was placed under the charge of Fr. Alonzo de San Agustin. One day, many years later, a Negrito by the name of Ytahat killed the priest whose sermon on the church’s pulpit was mistaken for insults directed at the natives. This incident forced the founders of the town to transfer the town sitio to another place, the sitio of “Salasa “, which is now within the jurisdiction of the barrio of Bayto, perhaps because they feared of further depredations by the savage Negritoes. This town was named “Alinsaog”, found at the beginning of the 18th century, whose ruins could still be seen up to the present. The town site remained in this place until the later part of the 19th century when it was abandoned by the natives because of the overflowing of the Bayto River which brought death and destruction to the inhabitants. The natives had to move to another townsite, the present location of the municipality. Years later, the people of this town found the image of St. Michael, from among the debris carried by the floodwaters of the Bayto River years back. They forthwith place a cross on the spot where they found the Holy image on which they built the present church and named the town Santa Cruz.