HISTORY OF IBA

Early Inhabitants of Iba

The Aytas are the earliest inhabitants of Zambales. They are nomadic and build only
temporary lean- to shelters made of two forked sticks driven to the ground and covered with
palm or banana leaves. The more prosperous and modernized Aytas, however, have
learned to live in scattered villages on tablelands and mountain clearings on the slopes of
ridges. They live in houses made of bamboo and cogon grass.
The Ayta is distinguished by his small stature, kinky black hair, and black skin. His
arms are long and his feet are too large in proportion to his body. In 1904, William Reed
noted a peculiar physical characteristic of the Ayta: he had a large toe that extended inward,
a feature that might have evolved as a consequence of his constant grasping of a tree
branch between the large toe and the other toes.
The Aytas have their own way of beautifying themselves. They sharpen their teeth
and scarify their trunks and limbs with knife or a pointed piece of cane. The scarification
process, called ta-ad, is usually done at age fifteen or sixteen. The series of welts produced
follow a regular design.
The women wear necklaces. These may be made of seeds (co-in-ta), hard berries,
buttons or wood. Some necklaces are also made of fine woven strings of bejuco or yellow
vegetable fiber and black crosswire strands (la-lo).
The Ayta’s senses are highly developed. Their sense of direction and sense of smell
are extraordinary. They can track down a snake by its smell. They can tell the kind of meat
that a person has just eaten. They can even distinguish people by their smell. The have an
amazing knowledge of their surrounding world. They can easily identify more than 500 plants
and their flowering patterns.
The Aytas are superstitious and the basis of all their superstitions is the belief in the
omnipresence of the spirits of the dead. All places are believed to be inhabited by spirits
(anitos) and all misfortunes, diseases, crop failures and unsuccessful hunts are attributed to
them. The Aytas consider disease a punishment for wrongdoing. Serious diseases are
believed to be brought by the supreme anito: minor ailments, by lesser anitos.
The Ayta is a hunter by instinct, habit and necessity. However, those who have
frequently associated with lowlanders have adopted a semi-settled life. The Ayta hunter’s
most essential weapon is the bow and arrow. The bow is made of bamboo or palmwood with
a rattan string and the arrows are fashioned out of available metal wire. He also uses a bolo
which he acquires from lowlanders as a gift or in exchange for work done.
The Sambals
Early Spaniards and other foreigners who had contact with the ancient Sambals
referred to them as Sambali or Sambals (hispanized form is Zambal). The name came from
Austronesian Javanese term “sambal” that mean ‘slaughter; kill’. It may also mean ‘intense;
fiery; hot;spicy’, which is why Sambals were notorious headhunters. These natives dwelt in
quaint houses called bali built of bamboo and palm thatch or cogon grass. They were a
freedom- loving people whose community life revolved around tribal rites and practices
inherited from their Austronesian forebears.
 In his book Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Antonio de Morga observed that the
ancient Sambals “shave their heads closely from the middle to the forehead, with a large
lock of loose hair on the back of the head. The women..wear sayas and heavy earrings
made of engraved gold and rings of gold and stone on their fingers. Their black hair is done
up in a very graceful knot on the head”
The religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Sambals were focused on the anito
(spirits) and these can be traced to their Austronesian ancestors. The Sambals as well as
Austronesians in other areas placed significance on the afterlife and on omens, divinations
and signs. Much of their community life consisted in asking favors from the good anitos
through the intercession of priests or priestesses (bayoc), and in warding off misfortunes
brought by the evil ones.
The bayoc offers sacrifice to the powerful anito called Malyari. During the sacrifice,
he places a wooden idol representing Malyari on the altar. The bayoc takes his spear,
makes three holes in the ground, and fills them with wine. Holding a palm leaf (anahaw), he
begins to shiver, his face contorts, and he talks in a strange language. Then he strikes his
knee twice with the anahaw leaf and says he has become the anito to whom the sacrifice is
being offered. After informing the crowd that the desire of the person for whom the sacrifice
is being made would be granted, the crowd begins to sing songs in praise of the anito.
There were other anitos to whom the ancient Sambals offered sacrifice. They
worshipped Casi for making the sick well. To bless a new house, they offered sacrifice to
the Mangalagar. They sought the help of the Mangloban to pacify angry hearts. A Sambal
who had killed a man sent for a bayoc conversant with Mangloban to appease the relatives
of the dead man and paved the way for their reconciliation. The murderer offered gold or a
captured Ayta to prove his sincerity of reconciliation. If these were not accepted by the
aggrieved party, the murderer sacrificed his son’s or a relative’s life.
The early Sambals also believed in the anitos of the field. To them, Damagon made
the rice stalks pregnant with grain, Calasocos caused the rice grains to ripen, and Dumalag
protected the plants from destructive typhoons. Come harvest time, they offered pinipig to
the anitun tauo, the lord of the winds.
As a sign of respect for the dead, relatives and friends wore mourning cloth on their
heads called balata. Those in mourning were not allowed to sing, dance or play musical
instruments for a specific period of time.
Incest was forbidden. A wedding always featured close relatives of groom and bride
coming together and eating from the same plate. Relatives of the groom gave dowry
(sambon) to the bride. In case of separation where the wife was not at fault, the husband lost
the dowry; otherwise, it was returned to him.
Years after the Austronesian Sambals settled on the coastal plain of Zambales,
Chinese seafarers came. Some of them moved from one coast to the foot of the mountains.
A peculiar midden site believed to have been left by Chinese traders during the Ming
dynasty has been discovered at Alibayan, Botolan.
Spanish Colonization, Town Formation and Settlement
The death of Magellan in the hands of Lapu-Lapu did not prevent Spain from sending
subsequent expeditions to the Philippines. Among these expeditions, it was that headed by
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi which accomplished the historic feat of actually placing the
Philippines under Spanish rule. After conquering the Visayas, Legazpi established his
headquarters in Manila where he ordered his youthful grandson, Captain Juan de Salcedo,
to explore the western coast of Luzon.
After Salcedo’s exploration campaign in western Luzon in 1572, Augustinian
Recollect missionaries arrived and organized pueblos in Playa Honda, then a territory part of
the province of Pangasinan. With the establishment of the territory now called Zambales, two
religious orders, the Recollects and the Dominicans, wrangled over the spiritual
administration of the territory. The Recollects were the first missionaries in Zambales, they
travelled on lonely, tortuous mountain trails to reach secluded and often hostile villages.
They described the land in endearing terms, calling it “that untilled vineyard…their firstborn
and most tenderly loved, the place where so much blood of the brother-missionaries of San
Nicolas de Tolentino was shed to convert the fierce Sambals into God-fearing Christians.”
The Recollects greatly helped in organizing parishes which later became the
pueblos. The town settlement program, known as reduccion, was patterned after the
successful Mexican and Peruvian town settlement schemes. Under the reduccion, the
Spaniards uprooted people residing in scattered places and forced them to resettle in
compact villages, varying in size between 2,400 to 5,000 people. To the Spaniards, living in
scattered villages was tantamount to a barbaric existence, sin policia (without policy).
Through the reduccion program, the natives were congregated, thus facilitating
evangelization, control, and the collection of tributes.
Founded by Recollect priests Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel and Fray Andres del
Espiritu Santo in 1611, the village of Paynawen moved from one place to another until it
settled permanently along the banks of Bancal River, where a fort was built as a defense
against pirates who constantly molested the region.
In 1670, the Recollect missionaries established the parish and convent dedicated to Nuestro
Padre de San Agustin. Ten years later, the administration of the town was turned over to the
Dominican priests. In 1680, the Dominican friars decided to transfer the center of the town
from the banks of Bancal River inland.
There were no available records as to when Paynawen was renamed Iba, but old
folks believed, the town was named after a sour fruit called “Iba” (kamias). How the town got
this name became a legend, that has been told, retold and handed down from generation to
generation.
The story happened during the early days of Spanish colonization. It was told, that
while most of the Spaniards were busy establishing the pueblo, one of their men sneaked
out from the group and curiously wandered around the village of the natives. Along the way,
he saw a group of people, who incidentally were eating a certain kind of soft fruit. This
particular Spaniard, being stranger to the place, approached them and asked the name of
the place, but because of language differences, the natives thought, he was asking the
name of the fruit they were eating, immediately, they replied “Iba…Iba…Iba…” from then on,
this small pueblo was named Iba.
At various points in history, the capital of the province shifted from each of the three
towns earlier established by the Spanish colonizers, namely, Masinloc, Sta. Cruz and Iba,
but because of Iba’s strategic location, it finally became the permanent seat of the provincial
government.
In the nineteenth century, Iba is composed of the following barrios and sitios namely
San Agustin, Amungan, Sta. Rita (Bangantalinga), Casco del Pueblo (poblacion), Sta.
Barbara, Dirita, Palanginan.
Real Fuerza de Playa Honda
Built in the year 1622 during the term of Governor General Alonso Fajardo de
Entenza y de Guevara, Córdoba y Velasco, Knight of Alcantara, Lord of Espinardo, the 16th
Spanish Governor General of the Philippines. The fort was built in the southern bank of the
River Paynauen (formerly the name of Iba) to keep the peace with the subdued Sambal
natives and “pirates” who kept on fighting against the colonizers as well as colonial officials
not favored by whoever was in control. There was then a need for a fortress realized as early
as 1617 after a two-day battle (second battle at Playa Honda) between Spain’s colonial
forces and the Dutch ships.
The garrison was once dubbed one of the most formidable Spanish forts in whole of
Luzon. It plays a significant role in pacifying the rebellious Sambals especially in the 17th
century when the natives joined the revolts of Maniago and Malong and wreak havoc in
Ilocandia and in Cagayan.
Quirauat, a Sambal chieftain who led a local revolt was executed in this fort. He
famously said “Let him who wishes to descend and settle do it, but as for me, I am going to
live with my people as I wish.”
The adjutant and superior commandant in this presidio played a significant role in the
pacification of the natives and exercises politico-military authority over the villages founded
by the Recollects and Dominicans. In Fray Domingo Perez’ Relation to the Zambals (1680),
he narrates that:
“that the Spaniards of the fort and presidio of Paynauen of whom they have a very
great fear, may come very often to the said villages and overrun the land, and
penetrate even into their old recesses where they formerly lived; and if perchance
they should find anything planted in the said recesses that they would destroy it and
cut it down without leaving them anything.”
The Cathedral Church of St. Augustine

 Original stone church possibly constructed in 1822 during the time of Fray Jorge de
San Cristobal
 Made of coral stones harvested along the coast of Sto. Rosario and Bangantalinga. It
features close to two meters thick walls and buttresses to withstand the force
generated by earthquakes (design is earthquake baroque). An espadana or bell
gable was constructed atop the façade. A belfry was added by the Columban
missionaries in the 1960s.
 Rededication of the church in 1849 during the curatorship of Fray Nicolas Martinez
de San Marcial attended by the Alcalde Mayor (Governor) of Zambales
 Church became a rallying point of occupying American troops in December 1899
 Resting place of Don Nicolas R. Camara, Gobernadorcillo of Botolan, his wife,
Gregoria M. Camara and their son Don Vicente M. Camara, first Filipino Governor of
Zambales
1896 Revolution
Shut in from all sides by natural barriers, Zambales was isolated from the rest of Luzon.
The mountains and seas did not prevent the flames of the revolution to arrive in the province
especially in Iba. Famous for being recalcitrant, Sambal Ibanians has a fair share in fighting
and ending Spanish domination in the archipelago.
 Beginning in 1892, followers of Andres Bonifacio, disregarding the difficulties of travel
and dangers inherent in their mission, arrived in Zambales to recruit Katipuneros. The
people of Iba quickly enlisted themselves and prepared for battle.
The Katipunan quickly gained members in Iba including many Aytas and in other
pueblos, and soon its units were mounting armed strikes against military installation in
Zambales. Rebels under the leadership of the Pansacula brothers in the southern part of the
province and General Roman Manalang in the north sounded the signal of revolt in sixteen
contiguous towns. So widespread was the Katipunan uprising in the province that on
December 24, 1896, Governor General Camilo Polavieja declared Zambales in a state of
war against Spain. The Spanish outposts outnumbered and outflanked succumbed to the
Katipuneros. Spanish friars and residents evacuated the province; those who did not feel
victim to the rebels’ knives.
On September 6, 1897, General Emilio Aguinaldo issued the exultant proclamation that
Zambales, together with other provinces in Luzon, had been liberated from Spanish rule by
revolutionary forces and that free government by Filipinos had been established in the
province.
Meanwhile, the Bonifacio- Aguinaldo rivalry that was threatening to split the ranks of the
revolutionary forces from March to May 1897 was also felt in Zambales. According to an
espediente that the rebels of Botolan later sent to Aguinaldo, the wealthy residents of
Zambales, particularly those of Botolan, took heart at the arrival of the Spanish troops. When
the peasants took refuge in the hills, Mariano Achacoso, the jefe local, and Potenciano
Lesaca, a Spanish mestizo who was believed to be the richest man in the province,
confiscated all their abandone property- including some 400 cavanes of rice – which they
then sold to the Spanish troops. The two men also joined the campaign against the
Katipuneros who were labeled “bandits” and “robbers.” A fiercer guerilla war against the
Spaniards ensued. Under the leadership of the “war president,” Teodoro Pansacula, the
rebels emerged victorious.
Teodoro Pansacula, for his part, declared himself governor of Zambales while he
appointed his brother, Doroteo Pansacula, provincial military commander, acts which were
acclaimed by the revolutionary forces under their command. In July 1898, when Pansacula
delivered money and property confiscated in several towns to delegates newly arrived in
Cavite, there was no suggestion that the rebel leader was not in the good graces of the
revolutionary leadership in Cavite. However, the Commander of the Revolutionary
Expeditionary forces in Zambales, Colonel Wenceslao Viniegra wrote Aguinaldo that the
presence of the Pansacula brothers would be “inconvenient” to the administration of the
province. Viniegra reported that proceedings had been instituted against the two for
desertion and blatant attempts to subvert the revolution. The Pansaculas reportedly sought
to undermine political reorganization by encouraging the people to disobey the orders of the
municipal presidents to the extent that the citizenry would no longer pay the taxes imposed
by the government. The rich and educated citizens of Botolan and Iba, in particular, were
harassed and forced to leave the town so that their property might be distributed among the
poor.
Because the revolutionary government refused to acknowledge the titles that the
brothers had arrogated upon themselves, the Pansaculas, Viniegra claimed, engaged in
organizing factions in the provinces for the sole purpose of opposing all orders from the
authorities. The brothers and their followers were successful in this undertaking for the
Botolan detachment and the insurgent militia of the provincial capital at Iba mutinied against
their superiors and deserted to the Pansacula band, offering to the new commanders’
loyalty. According to Viniegra, the presence of the Pansacula’s in Zambales was an
inconvenience and hinted the need to remove them from the political scene. According to
Don Vicente Camara, Aguinaldo’s cousin, principalia of Botolan and the newly appointed
Governor, that the principal purpose of the Pansacula brothers was to rob the people of their
cash and animals and to assassinate the ilustrados and the wealthy to satisfy their personal
interests.
Disorder followed in the towns of Botolan and Iba while the war against Spain is raging.
Camara declared martial law to enable him to arrest known sympathizers of the Pansaculas.
Suspected persons were arrested and the provincial jail in Iba swelled. The disturbances
continued and on October 16, 1899, Aguinaldo ordered General Luciano San Miguel to
examine the causes of banditry and to propose a humane solution for the problem. For a
time, the disturbances continued until the Americans occupied Zambales and the Pansacula
movement seemed to have died a natural death as the American military succeeded with tis
pacification campaign.
The fate of the brothers however is a mystery up to this day. Some historians believed
that the two brothers were not banished from Zambales but were in fact murdered. A
footnote in Dr. Jose Abueva’s book A Political Biography of Ramon Magsaysay narrates that
“the Pansacula brothers were summoned by General Aguinaldo. They proceeded to Cavite
with a special letter which they were to open upon reaching a designated place. The letter
led them to their doom. They were reported to have been shot at their destination.”
As the year 1898 ended, Iba and other municipalities in Zambales were already in the
hands of the revolutionaries under the leadership of Don Vicente Mariňo Camara, a Spanish
mestizo from Bancal, Botolan and owned vast tracts of land in Iba, Botolan, Palauig and
Masinloc. By invariably using guerilla tactics, the Zambales revolutionary forces succeeded
in capturing all Spanish military installations and forcing major Spanish army and naval units
to surrender. Spain’s rule in the archipelago ended but a rising colonial power from the west
threatened the aspirations for independence of the Filipino people.
American Colonization
It was August 28, 1901, a rainy Wednesday, when a ship carrying America's most
powerful colonial officials anchored off the coast of Iba, capital town of the province of
Zambales. The group led by Governor General William Howard Taft accompanied by
Commissioners Dean Worcester and Henry Ide proceeded to the venerable Church of Saint
Augustine of Hippo, whose feast day was also being celebrated albeit in a restrained
manner. The church was prepared not for a mass to venerate Saint Augustine but for a
historic session to formally place Zambales under American rule.
The session was called to order at 9 o' clock in the morning and the secretary was
directed to call the roll of pueblos. Of the twenty-six towns in the province, twenty were
represented, the six towns which did not have delegates present being Alos (now a barrio of
Alaminos), Anda, Balicaguin (Mabini), Alaminos, Bolinao and Dolores. The reason for the
failure of these towns to send their delegates was the great distance between the northern
towns and the cabecera of the province. Botolan was represented by the Municipal
Presidente, Don Andres Dumaplin and a principalia, Don Pio Encarnacion.
William Howard Taft, the presiding officer of the session stated that after one or two
efforts to reach the province of Zambales, the Commission had at last succeeded in making
a landing in Iba from its steamer. The Commission was present for the purpose of
establishing civil provincial government and making complete the establishing of civil
government in all its branches. When this was done, the military would be withdrawn from
the outlying posts and centered in two or three pueblos in the province and will not interfere
in the administation of civil affairs but will respond only in cases where it is necessary to
preserve law and order.
The miserable state of the provincial economy and the nagging issue of the friar
lands were discussed in the forum. Don Juan Crisostomo of Botolan cited that hardly one-
tenth of the arable land in Botolan was under cultivation and that the few domesticates that
survived the war was being endangered by disease. The session was concluded and Don
Potenciano Lesaca of Botolan was appointed as the First Provincial Governor of Zambales
along with Don Gabriel Alba as Provincial Secretary, Don Juan Manday of Iba as Provincial
Fiscal, Don Jose Crisostomo of Botolan as Clerk of the Court of First Instance and an
American named A.C. Morrison as Treasurer.

 On August 31, 1907, Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay, future President of the republic
was born in a wood and stone house along Calle Real (now Magsaysay Avenue) in
the center of the town.

 The old Bancal Bridge completed in 1936, one of the legacies of American
colonization in Botolan. This bridge was demolished by DPWH in 2014 to give way
for a new one

 Schools were established such as Zambales High School, Provincial Trade School
(now PRMSU), Zambales Academy, and barrio/ central schools.

 Provincial Hospital was founded in the 1940s

Japanese Occupation and World War II
Another memorable event was when WWII broke out, the Japanese invading forces
conducted a devastating bombing on December 8, 1941, the Feast of Immaculate
Conception in Iba, at the Airstrip between Panibuatan and Dingin, the present Camp
Conrado Yap was the U.S. Fighter Base of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron, a number of U.S.
fighter planes had just landed. While the pilots were eating, they heard a sound akin to the
drone of a thousand bees in fight. Then the sounds became rears of diving planes.
Explosions and burst of gunfire rocked Iba as fifty-four Japanese twin-motor bombers
escorted by fifty fighter planes destroyed the U.S. aircrafts at the Iba airstrip. Barracks and
warehouse of the American went up in flames. All except two of the aircrafts were destroyed.
The camp personnel suffered heavy casualties. This was repeated on December 12, 1941
between 10:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon.
Contemporary Iba
Originally, the municipality comprises forty-five (45) sitios, eight (8) barrios and one
(1) poblacion. These barrios were created by virtue of Republic Act 3590 on June 22, 1963.
By virtue of Presidential Decrees of then President Marcos on October 1974,
Presidential Decree 86 and Presidential Decree 86-A, the poblacion were subdivided into six
(6) zonal districts, and all sitios were integrated to their mother barangay.
At present, Iba is one of the fastest growing municipalities in the Philippines in terms
of economic progress. It is poised to become the second city in the province of Zambales
after Olongapo.