Executive Order No. 78 Separating Calatagan from the Municipality of Balayan
The western Batangas municipality of Calatagan was acquired from the Spanish crown by Domingo Roxas in 1829 and used to be called Hacienda de Calatagan. It used to be part of the larger Municipality of Balayan until the year 1912 when it formally separated to become a distinct town1.
The executive order separating the new town was actually signed in 1911 by the American Governor-General of the Philippines W. Cameron Forbes, to become effective on the first of January in 1912. The contents of the executive order2 are contained below:
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| Historic documents relevant to the Province of Batangas. |
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,
EXECUTIVE BUREAU
Manila, December 16, 1911.
Executive Order
No. 78.Whereas many of the inhabitants of the former municipality of Calatagan have petitioned that the same be separated from the municipality of Balayan, Province of Batangas, and reorganized into an independent municipality and have promised to construct a municipal building and school houses and to repair the streets and roads of said former municipality:
Now, therefore, upon the recommendations of the Honorable Galicano Apacible, Delegate to the Philippine Assembly from the First Assembly District of the Province of Batangas and the provincial board of the said province, and pursuant to the provisions of Act Numbered Seventeen hundred and forty-eight, entitled “An act authorizing the adjustment of provincial and municipal boundaries and authorizing the change of capitals of provinces and sub-provinces, as may be necessary from time to time to serve the public convenience and interest,” the nineteen municipalities of the Province of Batangas, as established by Acts Numbered Nine hundred and fifty-eight, as amended, Fifteen hundred and fourteen, and Fifteen hundred and forty-nine, and Executive Orders Numbered Forty-three, series of nineteen hundred and nine, and Eighty-five, series of nineteen hundred and ten, are hereby increased to twenty, by separating the former municipality of Calatagan from the present municipality of Balayan, Province of Batangas.
The municipality of Balayan shall consist of its present territory less the territory comprised in the former municipality of Calatagan. The municipality of Calatagan is hereby reorganized and shall consist of the territory which it comprised prior to the passage of Act Nine hundred and fifty-eight: Provided, That the salary of the municipal president of the municipality of Calatagan shall not exceed one hundred and eighty pesos per annum.
The separation herein made shall be effective January first, nineteen hundred and twelve. (22936a25)
W. CAMERON FORBES
’Governor-General.
2 “Executive Orders Nos. 1-86 (1911),” online at the Internet Archive.