Executive Order No. 212 Creating the Municipality of Agoncillo

The Municipality of Agoncillo along the shores of Taal Lake used to be part of Lemery, which in turn was also part of Taal. In 1945, a committee within the local government of Lemery prepared a resolution, subsequently approved, which would propose to the Secretary of the Interior the separation of eleven of the town’s barrios to form a new and distinct municipality.

Executive Order No. 140, signed by then-President Elpidio Quirino, formally created the new town of Pansipit. However, the municipal council of Lemery filed a counter-resolution asking for the revocation of the order until a plebiscite was conducted.

On 7 April 1949, Quirino signed Executive Order No. 212 which formally created the new town of Agoncillo, named after the Batangueño hero Don Felipe Agoncillo. The contents of this order are:

LIFTING THE SUSPENSION OF THE PROVISIONS OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 140, DATED MAY 12, 1948, ORGANIZING CERTAIN BARRIOS OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF LEMERY, PROVINCE OF BATANGAS, INTO AN INDEPENDENT MUNICIPALITY AND AUTHORIZING THE IMMEDIATE ORGANIZATION THEREOF UNDER THE NAME OF AGONCILLO

WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 140, dated May 12, 1948, provides for the organization of the barrios of Balongon, Bañaga, Bañgin, Bilibinuang, Coralnamunti, Guitna, Pamiga, Panghulan, Pansipit, Pooc and Subic, all of the municipality of Lemery, Province of Batangas, into an independent municipality under the name of Pansipit, with the seat of government at the barrio of Guitna;

WHEREAS, in view of the protest filed by the municipal council of Lemery, Province of Batangas, against the organization of the above-named barrios into an independent municipality, the organization of the new municipality was suspended under Executive Order No. 148, dated July 2, 1948; and

WHEREAS, in a plebiscite held on August 22, 1948, for the purpose of ascertaining the real wishes of the inhabitants affected by the proposed organization of the municipality, it appears that out of the 1,839 registered voters of the barrios proposed to constitute said new municipality, 1,479 voted in favor of the organization and only 2 voted against it.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby lift the suspension by Executive Order No. 148, dated July 2, 1948, of the provisions of Executive Order No. 140, dated May 12, 1948, and authorize the immediate organization of the municipality created by the latter order under the name of Agoncillo instead of Pansipit.

Executive Order No. 140, dated May 12, 1948, is hereby modified accordingly.

Done in the City of Manila, this 7th day of April, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-nine, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the third.

(Sgd.) ELPIDIO QUIRINO
President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) TEODORO EVANGELISTA
Executive Secretary

Signed: 7 April 1949

Below are copies of the document extracted from the 1949 issue of The Official Gazette:

Source: Official Gazette