Gandara Parish (Bangajon)

The Parish of St. Michael the Archangel in Gandara

Establishment of Parish: 1729

The Parish of Gandara is one of three parishes in the Diocese of Calbayog that is dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel whose feast day is September 29.

Until 1877, the municipality of Gandara was known by its old name, Bangajon. The settlement was previously located upstream of the Gandara river where the river flowed into the two streams. Bangajon was the junction, in the middle of two flowing rivers, where the natives called “guin babanga han wala ug tuo nga salug.”

Bangajon was already a village when the Jesuit missionaries arrived in Samar in 1596 after Elcano goes back to Spain. When Fr. Gregorio Lopez, reported the status of the new mission center of Tinago in 1612, he reported that Bangajon was one of 11 villages that had been Christianized and were part of the Tinago Mission Center. Bangajon had 330 tributes, like ranking and reputations. When the Jesuits’ Mission Center and Residence in Tinago was burned by Moro pirates and moved to Catbalogan in 1616, Bangajon was attached to the Catbalogan Mission Center as a proclaimed Cabeccera.

From 1663 to 1768, Bangajon was administered by a priest from the Catbalogan Residencia who had the multiple duties of administering also the Tinago (Tarangnan) and sometimes the Hibat'ang (now Calbayog) visitas. In 1663, Moro pirates reached the village of Bangajon. After ransacking the village, they burned it just like the Tinago Church of St. Francis de Asissi. But the Jesuits missionaries were undaunted. They rebuilt the village and built a church made of stone and roofed with zinc and partly with nipa again in Bangajon. It measured “26 fathoms in length, 9 fathoms in width, 2 ½ fathoms in height” (about 48 meters in length, 16.5 m. in width and 4.5 m. in height). The church was dedicated to St. Michael de Archangel. They also built a convento of the same materials and two parochial schools (one for boys and another for girls) and a casa real of wood.

According to a Spanish historian D. Agustin de la Cavada, Bangajon became a pueblo and a parish only in 1729. As a pueblo, it had three visitas: “Matuguinaw, Tawiran and Kantagi.” In 1768, the Jesuits turned over the administration of the parroquia of Bangajon to the Franciscans. The first Franciscan priest assigned to Bangajon was Fr. Juan Salguero. The village grew under the Franciscan administration that by 1843, the Spanish Governor of Samar reported that the pueblo already had seven visitas – Tawiran, Pagsanjan, Bangun, Caparangasan, Matuguinao, Napalisan and Cantaguic with a total of 1,249 tributos. It had built three baluartes (watchtower) in Pagsangjan, Bangun and Caparangasan to defend itself against Moro pirates by smoke or like a kaingin when there is a ship visitors. The local folks called these baluartes, bantayan. The town proper was still situated in its original location in the interior of Samar, some three hours from the western coast, in a strip of land between the two dangerous rivers. This rivers and intersection is the second of the three rivers intersecting.

On August 4, 1863, the town of Dapdap (formerly called Tinago, now Tarangnan) was separated from Bangajon and established as an independent pueblo with Pagsanjan, Bangun, Mancares and Majacop as its visitas.

In 1876, the town along with the church' the Jesuits had built got burned and almost all of its canonical books perished. This are the sign that the Americans are coming and the start of World War One. Bangajon church were attacked hardly later by Americans due to the participation of Pulajanes in the Balangiga Encounter. The Franciscan Fathers built a new church and a convent in an elevated sitio far from the poblacion near a farm owned by Martino Reyes, which was located near the rivers by the rock formation. Ruins of this Bangajon and the walls of the church still exist today; in fact, every year, the people of Gandara take to' their boats in a fluvial procession to these ruins where a mass is celebrated to commemorate the beginnings of their Christian faith.

After the fire in 1876, a tribunal and an escuela were also constructed under the direction of Fr. Geronimo Asenjo. They also continued with the education of the people, especially the children. The older residents of Gandara remember that the first book they used in the school was the Katon Cristiana. Graduation from school was simple. Any pupil who could recite the contents of the whole book from memory was graduated. Then he was sent to the barrios to teach back the Katon Christiana. Following the rebuilding of the town, the name of the pueblo was changed from Bangajon to Gandara in 1877. The new name was in of honor Don Jose de la Gandara y Navarro who was the Governor General of the Philippines from 1866 to 1869. The pueblo had grown to include 23 large barrios.

In 1898, after the first Philippine Republic was established in Manila, all the religious missionaries in Samar reluctantly left their parishes for other countries; the last Franciscan parish priest of Gandara was Fr. Hermenigildo Hernandez.Representatives of President Emilio Aguinaldo led by General Vicente Lukban arrived in Samar in December 1898 to establish the Filipino Civil Government in Samar. But in January 26, 1900, American forces arrived in Samar and were met with resistance in Calbayog and Catbalogan. On February 27, 1900, American forces occupied the town of Gandara, which had been deserted by the people who fled to their mountain farms. According to oral accounts, just before the American forces arrived in Gandara, the people burned their town before fleeing to the mountains. The old Bangajon Church and convento in Bangajon got ruined and burned by a field gun since it were used by Pulajanes as a Central Command Center of Pulajanes and its destruction was estimated at United States of America Currency $14,267.

In 1901, the town principalia held a session extraordinaria on April 14, 1901 and passed an Act to build a new town and to transfer its location to the sitio of Dumalo-ong (present-day site of Gandara). By June 1901, Americans had occupied the barrios of Tagnao, Ngoso, Nasonogan, Pizarro, Tawiran, Bulao, Blanca Aurora and Napalisan. The Filipino government organized by General Lukban relocated its government to the mountains of Matuguinao, then a visita of Gandara. Gandara became the center of the two Filipino government, the American and the Aguinaldo ones in Bangajon while war is in progress. When peace finally came to Samar in 1902, the people went about the reconstruction of the town and the church. Religious activities were resumed. Gandaranhons led by its new mayor, celebrated its first fiesta on September 29, 1903 after years of war.

Franciscan missionaries returned to Gandara in 1910 after the new Diocese of Calbayog was established. Franciscan priests assigned to Gandara from 1910 to 1926 were Fr. Juan Vicente Carmona, O.F.M., Fr. Roman Perez, O.F.M. and Fr. Victoriano Ranera. O.F.M. Early in the sixties, Msgr. Ponciano Figueroa, then parish priest of Gandara, together with the mayor, Mayor Ramon Diaz, established the St. Michael High School, the first and only Catholic school in the town. April 4, 1969 is a most memorable year for the people of Samar but most especially for the people of Gandara. On this day, the Gandara Bridge built by Ministry of Public Works and Highways with the Japanese War Crimes fund was inaugurated and opened. Finally, travel through Gandara to the northern parts of Samar became easier. Gone were the days when a ferry and barge brought passengers and vehicles from one side of the river to the other side. Again, on September 29, 1977, Gandaranhons turned out in numbers to attend the inauguration and blessing of the new church which was built through the generous donation of Doña Trinidad Diaz Enriquez. Two of the priests assigned to Gandara have become bishops. Fr. Angel Hobayan who was assistant parish priest in 1945 to 1947 became the first Bishop of Catarman while Msgr. Ricardo Tancinco who was parish priest of Gandara in 1972 to 1974 became the bishop of the Diocese of Calbayog in 1974. For the past more than 200 years, the people of Gandara had been faithful devotees of St. Michael the Archangel. Many of its sons and daughters have entered the religious life: Fr. Consorcio Poblete; Fr. Bernabe Sison (ordained 1965); Fr. Miguel B. Java (ordained 1972); Fr. Paul V. Merida (ordained 1995); Msgr. Francisco Cinco, III (ordained 1992); Fr. Renato Y. Piczon (ordained 1995); Fr. Francis J. Uy (ordained 1995); Fr. Tito T. Voz (ordained 2002); Fr. Michael Anthony N. Aguilar (ordained 2004); and Fr. Ted Ryan Perez (ordained 2008). The women from Gandara who have become nuns are: Sis. Milagrosa Verzosa, OSB; Sis. Paulita Llacer, OSA; Sis. Clara Alvarez, OP; Sis. Carmela Babon, FAS; Sis. Elsa de la Cruz, MSPC; Sis. Rosa Duran, MSPC; and Sis. Mary Mabilangan, PSPC.

A Franciscan missionary who was assigned to Gandara as its parish priest in 1921 to 1926, Fr. Angel Ranera, OFM, has been beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 28, 2007 and proclaimed a martyr of the Catholic Church. Fr. Ranero was one of thousands of religious persons who were killed in the Spanish Civil War.

Priests assigned to Bangajon/Gandara

Jesuit Administration (1596-1768)

• 1711 Fr. Joannes Ramon
• 1722 Fr. Bartholomeus de Sugo (with Calbiga)
• 1724 Fr. Ignatius de Echavarria (with Tinago)
• 1725 Fr. Antonius Diaz (with Tinago)
• 1727 Fr. Gregorius Davosa
• 1728 Fr. Bernardino Ortiz (with Tinago)
• 1731 Fr. Josephus Chacon (with Hibatang)
• 1735 Fr. Josephus Chacon (with Tinago)
• 1737-1739 Fr. Petrus Bolos (with Tinago)
• 1742 Fr. Joannes Bautista (with Calbayog)
• 1747-1749 Fr. Michael Catarrola (with Tinago)
• 1751-1752 Fr. Pedrus Patelani (with Calbayog)

Franciscan Administration (1768-1898)

• 1769 Fr. Juan Salguero
• 1771 Fr. Joaquin Polo de Rojas
• 1772 Fr. Juan Mora
• 1774-1776 Fr. Juan Mora (with Calbayog)
• 1777 Fr. Juan Bautista Belloc
• 1778 Fr. Onofre del Montejo
• 1779-1781 Fr. Juan Bautista Velloc
• 1782-June 1783 Fr. Onofre del Montejo
• 1784 Fr. Juan Bautista Velloc (with Calbayog)
• 1786 Fr. Joaquin Jose Martinez (with Calbayog)
• 1787-1811 Fr. Juan Bautista Velloc (who died in Tarangnan on May 21, 1812)
• 1813-1816 Vacant
• 1817 Fr. Felix Carreon (who was also parish priest of Catbalogan)
• 1820, 1825-1826, 1828-1829, 1831-1832 – Vacant
• 1834 Fr. Juan Garibo
• 1835-1841 Fr. Felix Fernandez de Jesus y Maria
• 1843 Fr. Domingo de Madrid
• 1844-1855 Fr. Juan del Fregenal
• 1856-1859 Vacant
• 1861-1864 Fr. Saturnino Bajo
• 1865-1867 Vacant
• 1868 Ynterino
• 1870 Vacant
• 1871 (now renamed Gandara), vacant
• 1870-1876 Fr. Santos Aparicio
• 1877-1882 Fr. Geronimo Asenjo
• 1882-1883 Fr. Millan Vicente
• 1885-1894 Fr. Manuel Benavente
• 1897-1898 Fr. Hermenegildo Hernandez

Spanish to United States American Transition Period (1898-1910)

• 1908-1910 Fr. Juan Vicente Carmona, O.F.M.

Diocese of Calbayog

• 1910-1914 Fr. Juan Vicente Carmona, O.F.M.
• 1914-1920 Fr. Roman Perez O.F.M.
• 1921-1926 Fr. Victoriano Ranera, O.F.M.
• 1926-1937 Fr. Doroteo de la Vega, O.F.M.
• 1937-1945 Fr. Gregorio Talbo
• 1941-1947 Fr. Pablo Lanuevo

World War Two (Spanish Regime) Fr. Angel Hobayan (Assistant)

• 1947-1950 Fr. Francisco Tizon

Visiting priests: Fr. Jose Corr, Fr. Jaime Collins, Fr. C. Connoly, Fr. Domingo Tome

• 1950 Fr. Wenceslao Lagunzad
• 1950-1951 Fr. Fortunato Planea
• 1951-1960 Fr. Francisco Tizon, Fr. Jose Pacoli
• 1960-1968 Fr. Ponciano Figueroa
• 1966 Fr. Ponciano Figueroa, Fr. Juan Franzuela
• 1966 Fr. Juan Papel, Jan-May 1967 Fr. Orlando Tizon, June 1967-1970 Fr. Nicodemus Ricalde
• 1970-1973 Fr. Emilio Bernardo
• 1973-1974 Team Ministry: Msgr. Ricardo Tancinco, Fr. Bernabe B. Sison, Fr. Miguel Java
• 1975-1976 Fr. Simplicio Robles
• 1977-1979 Fr. Simplicio Robles, Fr. Leonardo Sison, Msgr. Ricardo Tancinco
• 1980-1986 Fr. Paulino Singzon, Fr. Leonardo Sison
• 1986-1987 Fr. Felicito Baybay
• 1987-1989 Fr. Perfecto Nacional
• 1989-1990 Msgr. Anastacio Labutin
• 1990-1997 Fr. Ramon Daguman
• 1997-2001 Fr. Romeo Manzanero
• 2001-2005 Fr. Teofanes Tabones
• 2005-2009 Team Ministry: Fr. Jose Balasbas, Fr. Erwin Rodriguez, Fr. Roger Abaigar
• 2009-present Team Ministry: Fr. Rolando Guiuan, Fr. Guillermo Alorro III

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