0

Barangay Tinaungan, President Quirino ...the legacy of Serafin Limbungan, Sr., the First Mayor of Tacurong

Posted on Tuesday, 19 May 2020


BARANGAY TINAUNGAN, PRESIDENT QUIRINO…the legacy of
SERAFIN LIMBUNGAN, SR., the First Mayor of Tacurong
By Apolinario Villalobos
When I visited my former classmate, Serafin Limbungan, Jr. on August 9, 2018, I learned that his elder sister, Dimpna and married to a Lucero, is the current Barangay Chairperson of Tinaungan. President Quirino. I immediately went to task of talking asking information from her about the barangay which has become synonymous to the Limbungan family, for having been founded by their late father, SERAFIN LIMBUNGAN, SR. and who happened also to be the first elected mayor of Tacurong City.
According to Mrs. Dimpna Limbungan-Lucero, they first settled in the area which is now called Purok 4 and where the first elementary school was built. She was then, 9 months old when their family arrived in the area. The big Limbungan family lived not far away, and where African palm trees stand after they transferred to another area which has now developed into the central area of the barangay. The transfer was due to an altercation with the other settlers due to the death of a member of the family.
Mrs. Lucero mentioned that their father arrived in Tinaungan in 1939 and aside from acquiring lands around the area, he also purchased residential lots in Tacurong in 1952, on one of which stood their ancestral house. It is located at the back of the Tacurong Pilot Elementary School and their neighbors were the Paraicos, Dasmariῆases and across the street the Carigabas. It is along the Quezon Ave.
During the time, the temporarily appointed OIC of Tacurong by virtue of the Presidential authority was a certain Soriano. To legitimize the administration of Tacurong, the first election was held which Serafin Limbungan, Sr. won. As there was no town hall then, the newly-elected mayor held office at the house of Rafael Dasmariῆas, a neighbor. According to Mrs. Lucero, while the upper floor was used as the office, a portion of the ground floor was used as a jail. She narrated that one of the early detainees was a mentally-ill resident who had a crush on a teacher, Lilia Litan of the nearby Tacurong Pilot Elementary School which was then known as Tacurong Central Elementary School. She added that as early as dawn each day, the detainee would shout out the name of the teacher imploring her to bring him food.
During her time, Mrs. Lucero related that the secondary schools she could recall were the Central Cotabato Colleges which later became Magsaysay Memorial Colleges, Notre Dame of Tacurong where the boys and girls were in the same campus but later separated, Aumentado Fashion School which later became Grimaldo Fashion School, the Parisiene and the Buluan Academy which was renamed Tacurong Academy, then later, Lyceum of Southern Philippines, and today, Quezon Colleges of Southern Philippines. . That was during the 1950s.
When she graduated, Mrs. Lucero had her first teaching stint at Esperanza in 1967 up to 1969, then transferred to Tinaungan in 1970, Katiku in 1996, then to Tacurong Pilot Elementary School as principal in 1997 until her retirement in 2002. The next year, she was elected as Barangay Chairperson of Tinaungan which she occupied for a maximum term after which she decided to take a respite. Today, however, due to popular request, she again serves her “ka-barangays” after winning during the latest election.
It cannot be avoided to mention barangay Tinaungan every time interesting episodes of migration of Visayans from Iloilo are discussed as many of the pioneers of Tacurong settled first in Tinaungan before settling for convenience in Tacurong where schools were located. In this regard, Mrs. Lucero also mentioned during our conversation that many of the families from Iloilo arrived in Cotabato and took crude ferries to Buluan from where they trekked to Tinaungan. As mentioned in my earlier blog, other settlers from Iloilo opted to settle in New Passi, Rajah Muda, Baras and Katungal after hiking from Lambayong.
It is interesting to note what she mentioned as the name Tinaungan being the corrupted “Tinongan”. “Tinong” in Ilonggo is “calm”, and the area being “matinong” or calm, hence, the original name. An Ilocano teacher, however, purportedly started to call the place “Tinaungan” for his own convenience.
The fertile soil and the abundance of spring ensured the equally bountiful harvest from what the farmers would fill their land – rice, sugar cane, coconut and mangoes. The farmers enjoy a year-round harvest of rice and lately, some are starting put up poultries.
The barangay is accessibile from Lambayong, Tacurong and President Quirino on an interconnecting road system, although, some portions are yet, due for concreting. The road towards President Quirino, passes through the unfinished airport. And, those towards Tacurong and Lambayong traverse vast plantations of African palm and rice fields.
The barangay has two elementary schools, the old one at Purok 4 and the new one at the central area fronting the Barangay Hall.

Barangay Tinaungan, is part of President Quirino, the mayor of which is Azel Valenzuela-Mangudadatu.






Discussion

Leave a response