Aklan, where it all started

AKLAN, A Brief History

Aklan is the youngest of the four provinces of Panay Island, is actually in point of history, one of the oldest if not the oldest province in the country. Established only in 1956 as a province of the Republic of the Philippines, Aklan, including what is now the province of Capiz was organized as the Minuro it Akean by settlers from Borneo in 1213.

Thus, the first settlers of Aklan came from Borneo. They fled their land to escape the oppressive rule of Makatunaw, Sultan of Brunei, and settled in what is now known as Aklan. It was here where they carved out a settlement and reaped rich harvests from the fertile plains, the forests, and the sea.

The purchase of Panay by the Maraynons (refererred to as such in the earlier writings of Aklan historians, Nabor and Orbistal) has become a legend and subsequently woven into songs and dances to this day. It tells of how Datu Puti, its leader then, purchased the vast valleys and the lowlands from the Ati King, Marikudo, together with his wife, Maniwang-tiwang, by a golden sarok, a gold necklace, bolts of cloth and some trinkets.

A feast was held in the symbolic celebration of the transaction. Both the Maraynons and the Atis had a great time feasting, dancing and singing. In the subsequent years, that symbolic event is commemorated annually particularly during the blooming season of mangoes, or during that same time of the year when the purchase was consummated. In the latter years, when the Ati descendants of Marikudo left the lowlands and made their way to the mountains, its settlers managed to perpetuate the celebration. Resembling the Atis, some of the settlers smeared their bodies and faces with soot to simulate the Ati itself. From there onwards, the said celebration which has proved to withstand the test of centuries came to be widely known to this day as the famous Ati-Atihan Festival.

The first settlers or the early Aklanons, who came to be known as such in subsequent years chose to relocate themselves in what is now Barangay Marianos and Barangay Laguinbanwa in Numancia. The settlers called their settlement Madyanos. From there, they made their way exploring the hinterlands as well as the coastlands.

Be that as it may, history or legend, notwithstanding the doubts cast by skeptics, the Aklanons have always believed that their forebears came from Borneo in ten frail barangays, and that after the purchase of Panay, the ten Datus divided the island into three, independent “sakups”: Akean now known to be Capiz and Aklan, Irong-Irong now Iloilo, and Hamtik now Antique. In 1566, after Father Andres de Aguirre had baptized thousands of Aklanons as Christians in the settlement of Madyanos, the place itself subsequently came to be known as Kalibo, the present capital town of Aklan province. And in true Spanish of divide and conquer, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi divided Aklan among his favorites and in 1760, the old “sakup” of Aklan became a Spanish-political-military province under the name Capiz until the next 240 years.

Having a distinct dialect of their own, the Aklanons have distinct identity with Capiznons. When the Americans took the island from its Spanish colonizers, their first act was to petition for the separation of Aklan from Capiz.

In 1901, when the Taft Commission came to Capiz for the inauguration of the New Civil Government under the Americans, the Aklan delegation, headed by Natalio B. Acevedo, presented a formal request for separation. The petition was not denied outright, but it was not acted upon due to existing adverse economic conditions. As a compromise, the Americans promised to set up a separate Court of First Instance for Aklan at Batan and appointed Simeon Mobo Reyes as the First Provincial Secretary. But the struggle for separation never let up. “The Akeanon” a publication in 1914 had served to keep the struggle burning.

Meanwhile, Aklanon representatives in Congress kept filing bills for the separation of Aklan. There was the Urquiola-Alba Bill of 1920, the Laserna-Suñer Bill of 1925 and 1930, and the Tumbokon Bill of 1934.

Aklan became independent when the late President Magsaysay, signed into law on April 25, 1956, Republic Act 1414, separating Aklan from Capiz. This law is authored by then Cong. Godofredo P. Ramos who later became the delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention and became Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals before his death. The province was officially inaugurated on November 8, 1956.