Municipality of Canaman

Location
Map of Camarines Sur showing the location of Canaman
Government
Region	Bicol Region
Province	Municipality in Camarines Sur
District	2nd district of Camarines Sur
Barangays	24
Income Class:	4th class; urban
Founded	1909
Mayor	Joel David S. Abante
Official Website	LGU-Canaman
Physical characteristics
Area	43.27 km²
Population      Total (2000) Camarines Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. ... A region (Filipino: Rehiyon) is an administrative subdivision in the Philippines. ... Bicol Region or Bicolandia is one of the 16 regions of the Philippines occupying the Bicol Peninsula at the southeastern end of Luzon island and some other islands. ... Map of the Philippines showing the regions and provinces (click for larger version). ... Camarines Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. ... The House of Representatives (Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan in Filipino) is the lower chamber of the Congress of the Philippines. ... A barangay is the smallest local government unit in the Philippines and is very similar to a village. ... A municipality (bayan, sometimes munisipalidad, in Filipino) is a local government unit in the Philippines. ... A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning larger,greater) is in modern times the title of the highest ranking municipal officer, who discharges certain judicial and administrative functions, in many systems an elected politician, who serves as chief executive and/or ceremonial official of many types of municipalities. ... Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...	27,719

Canaman is a land-locked 4th class municipality centrally located in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. It is bounded on the North by Magarao, on the South by Camaligan, on the East by Naga City, and on the Southwest by the broad Bicol River. It is shaped like an ocarina or a turtle, and is within 123°-04’-00” and 123°-11’-00” latitudes and 12°-36’-40” to 13°-36’-40”-00 longitudes. From North to South it is 6 km. and 14 km. from East to West. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 27,719 people in 5,215 households. A municipality (bayan, sometimes munisipalidad, in Filipino) is a local government unit in the Philippines. ... Map of the Philippines showing all the regions and their provinces. ... Camarines Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. ... A tenor and an alto ten-hole ocarina. ... Suborders Cryptodira Pleurodira See text for families. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

The municipality which battle cry is "Abante Canaman!" ("Forwad Canaman") is known as the Home of Purest Bicol, Citadel of Bicol Culture and Birthplace of Tancong Vaca Guerilla Movement.

History

Origin of the town's name

It is now part of the collective memory of Canamanons or Canaman’s residents that ages before the place first entered western consciousness and recorded annals, the area that is now Canaman was very thickly forested. According to Fr. Frank Lynch, S.J., who said that Canaman is the purest among Bicol dialects: “The name Canaman is locally said to be derived from the root /kana'/ meaning ‘building materials’. The suffix /-man/ is taken as a locative, the name thus, indicating “place where there are building materials”.

Christianity Reaches Canaman

Local history says that the Cross was first implanted in Canaman soil around 1580’s when some Nueva Caceres-based missionaries apparently on their way back from gospel work in either the visita of Quipayo (now Calabanga) or of San Gabriel (now a barangay of Pamplona), got their bearings confused and, thinking they were turning eastward from the Bicol River to its Naga tributary, instead entered the Canaman creek which at the time was still a deep and fast flowing stream. Paddling deeper into the interiors of the unfamiliar territory, the men of God ended up in the timeless ambiance of a largish ancient native settlement in what is now the barangay of Poro.

In 1599, Canaman became an independent parish and was administered by Fray Pedro Matias de Andrade, a Franciscan who later became the fifth Bishop of Diocese of Caceres. The patron saint at that time was San Roque, whose image, said to have come all the way from Spain was met at its arrival by the people of Canaman in the shores of Pasacao.

Philippine-American War

Front and back view of classical ocarinas. The double holes on front indicate a fingering system developed in 20th Century Japan. The map of Canaman appears like an ocarina.

In 1900, after militant Canamanons heard that the Americans are closing in, burned to the ground their own “beautiful and richly decorated church, in an act of self-immolation and in effort to save the town’s most concrete embodiment of its Catholic faith from desecration at the hands of the new imperialists. The burning was a deliberate and intentional act: the heavy-hearted arsonists even gathered and piled on top of the church’s expensive organ dry grass and big tree branches to which they touched the match, to make certain that the fire consumed all combustible parts of the 231-year-old building and its interiors. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 781 KB) Summary Front and back of Alto C and Soprano F Cocarinas. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 781 KB) Summary Front and back of Alto C and Soprano F Cocarinas. ... Thích Quảng Đức pictured during his self-immolation. ...

In 1902, during the provincial governorship of Captain George Curry, the Municipality of Canaman and its office of the presidente municipal both disappeared from legal cognizance and lost its independent existence. Canaman was annexed to Nueva Caceres (now Naga City), though some barrio were attached to Magarao and Canaman’s top position of presidente municipal was downgraded to concejal encargado. Appropriately enough, all of Canaman’s concejal enacrgados were residents of the place.

In the year 1909, Canaman regained its status as an independent municipality, when it was separated from Nueva Caceres by an act of the First Philippine Legislature. This was mainly due to the efforts of Tomas Arejola, the representative of the first district of Ambos Camarines to the first legislature.

Public Education System

Public educational system reached Canaman in 1903 with the arrival of a certain Miss Long, an American schoolteacher. She opened the first school now known as Canaman Central School in Dinaga, at the house of Don Basilio Severo (at the spot where the Facoma building stands at present) which the government rented.

WW II - The Birth of TVGU

On March 8, 1942, three months after Japanese Imperial Forces landed in Legaspi and Naga City, the famous Tangcong Vaca Guerilla Unit (TVGU) was organized in Barangay San Nicolas, with Juan Miranda as the Commanding Officer, leon Aureus as the Executive Officer and Elias Madrid as the Finance Officer. Among the numerous taga-Canaman who joined-up soon afterwards either in the unit’s intelligence or combat components were Jose and Antonio Madrid, Mamerto Sibulo, Andres Fortaleza, Marcos Severo, Damaso Avenilla, Federico Crescini, Nicolas Vargas, Venancio Begino, Eugenio Ragodon, Juan Pachica, Santiago Amaro, Jose Gervas, Pedro Angeles, Aproniano Lopez, Andres Alzate, Modesto Sanchez, Blas Alcantara, Andres Aguilar, Florencio Frondozo, Alfredo de la Torre and Flaviano Estrada.

Socio-Economic Profile

Farming, fishing, employment and small business are the primary sources of most household income.

Two agro-industrial establishments are found in Canaman: the poultry feeds and palay.

Various types of cottage industries like handicraft, furniture, fan making (made of anahaw), ragiwdiw and nipa shingles are conducted in this town.

In 1998, it was recorded that agricultural workers reached only 27.3% while 70.8% were engaged in non-agricultural activities.

Trade and Commerce

Presence of Canaman Public Market and a privately owned "talipapa" Most of the people?s marketing activities are done in Naga City.

Agricultural Sector

88.38% of the total land area

Local Tourism

Lagaylay Festival - A May celebration in Canaman, Camarines Sur to honor the Sta. Cruz tradition. Women dance on the streets while chanting prayers to find the real cross.

Transportation Facilities

Most of the roads and main streets in the poblacion (urban barangays) are concrete with few earth and gravel roads, 4 can be reached only through water transportation while 11 can be reached either through water transportation and/or by land transportation.

Barangays

Canaman is politically subdivided into 24 barangays. A barangay (Tagalog: baranggay , pronounced as ba-rang-gai, gai as in guy), also known by its former name, the barrio, is the smallest local government unit in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. ...

Notable Canamanons or notable people born in Canaman

• Danilo Gerona - historian
• Rez Cortez, Rosanna Roces - celebrities

External links

• LGU-Canaman
• Philippine Standard Geographic Code
• 2000 Philippine Census Information