The passage and subsequent signing by President Elpidio Quirino on June 16, 1950 of RA # 525—the Iligan City Charter— was a coming-of-age event for a town that for decades played second fiddle only to neighboring Dansalan City. Afterall, the latter was capital of Lanao.
Dansalan had it all especially before the outbreak of WW II in 1941 when the city by the lake was an “American” town. The better hotels and restaurants were located there for the comfort and enjoyment of the mandarins of the American colonial period. Why, they even had jazz bars! Of course, the Lanao Provincial Hospital and American-style Lanao High School were also located there. Mind you, “Kilometer 0” by which distances in Mindanao were reckoned was installed in the hallowed grounds of Camp Keithley, now Camp Amai Pakpak.
But soon the configuration will change and attention shift to the erstwhile sleepy town by the bay and it is big thanks to a natural wonder named Maria Cristina. Spanish Gov. General Valeriano Weyler (shortly to become the notorious Butcher of Cuba in the 1890s) was known to christen important places and structures to honor members of the Spanish royalty. Majestic Maria Cristina was dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen Regent Maria Cristina, great-grandmother of today’s King Felipe VI.
Philippine policy-makers were already aware of the potential of the Maria Cristina Falls but it was not until the creation of the National Power Corporation by President Manuel A. Roxas in 1947 that the tapping and development of energy sources started to materialize.
In introducing the bill (RA # 525), the sponsor, Congressman Ali Dimaporo of the then undivided province of Lanao, explained that Iligan must be chartered as a city in anticipation of the industrialization of Mindanao that was expected to happen in the not-too-distant future. As a city, Iligan would enjoy wider taxation powers that would spell greater improvement in basic services and infrastructure. This development would spill over to the rest of Mindanao.
The Iligan City Charter had a brief gestation period. It was introduced at first reading on February 20,1950, passing third reading on May 8, 1950. It was passed by the Senate on May 15, 1950 without amendments. President Quirino signed RA # 525 into law on June 16, 1950, just a day after neighboring Cagayan de Oro City’s charter was also signed. It is reported that much of the original bill was the handiwork of Senator Tomas L. Cabili, coincidentally, the Majority Floor Leader at the time.
Among some of the interesting features of the Iligan Charter are the provision on three city officials—City Engineer, City Treasurer, and City Health Officer—who were to sit on the council ex-oficio; a providential provision directing the city government to distribute medicine to city employees whose wage dues did not exceed P60 per month, also to provide “fresh or evaporated native milk to indigent mothers residing in the city, bread and light meals to indigent children of 10 years or less directly under the office of the city mayor”.
Benito Ong belonged to one of the oldest families of Chinese descent in Lanao. He was the last of the municipal mayors appointed by the President at the conclusion of WW II and before Iligan received its charter. A member of the newly-created Liberal Party during the Roxas administration, he was a natural choice to be appointed as the first city mayor by President Elpidio Quirino.
(From the Ricardo JS Caluen Collection)
No sooner had the first city officials of Iligan taken their oath of office on July 1, 1950 when Mayor Ong officially called on President Quirino in Malacañang on September 9, 1950. The agenda of that first official meeting offers a glimpse of the more pressing needs of the nascent city:
1) aid for the operation and maintenance of intermediate classes,
2) immediate improvement of roads and bridges as per recommendation of city officials,
3) allocation of arms and ammunitions for use of volunteers and the police force.
The new mayor was faced with post-war challenges of rehabilitation and thus construction of basic infrastructure was the order of the day. As the first City Engineer, Fortunato Koppin recalls ensuring that the road leading to the cemetery was paved so that at least one’s “last trip” was not bumpy.
Dr. Godofredo L. Caluen, Sr., City Health Officer, headed the Committee on Sanitation. Among his accomplishments was authoring the resolution providing budget for the construction of a more concrete and permanent public market (now the “old market”). Before that, market vendors congregated at the site of what is now the old PNB building which served as tennis court in the daytime,“baylehan” in the evenings during special occasions, and “taboan” on weekends. Dr. Caluen also authored the resolution accepting the deed of donation of Buhanginan Hill –site of the city hall–by Don Gregorio T. Lluch, Sr.
Appointed mayors at the time served at the pleasure of the President who often sought recommendations by reliable officials. Addressing himself to President Quirino on January 15, 1952, Senator Tomas L. Cabili wrote: “Mayor Ong has demonstrated during his term of office exemplary conduct of a good public servant. He has introduced many improvements in the city and has conducted his office with fairness and impartiality. The great majority of the inhabitants of the City of Iligan, including civic and non-political organizations are supporting his appointment.”
Ong would serve one more year in 1953 until his political patron lost the election that year. Ramon Magsaysay started as a Liberal and the leader of the “Magsaysay wing” that competed against the “Quirino wing”. He would later abandon the Liberal Party to join the Nacionalista Party, ending up as standard bearer in the 1953 elections and winning.
Another Benito—Benito Labao—would be the new mayor of Iligan serving from 1954 to 1955. A native of Bulacan, he migrated to Iligan in the 1930s and was married to Anesia Ramiro Abragan, a clan associated with political leadership of Iligan since Spanish times. Mayor Labao was entrusted with shoring up the political base of the Nacionalista Party in Iligan.
Mayor Labao was able to secure P80,000 from the powerful Senate President Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez that he used as seed money in the construction of the beautiful Iligan City Hall which is located atop Buhanginan Hill, perhaps the only city hall in the Philippines so situated.
The major repair of the historic Hinaplanon Bridge—-site of a fierce battle between Japanese soldiers and local guerillas during WW II where the guerillas scored some of its early victories—also happened during the Labao administration.
RA # 525 was subsequently amended, leading to the holding of the city’s first local elections where Benito Labao lost to Atty. Mariano Lluch Badelles, Sr., nephew of the popular Governor Salvador T. Lluch and brother of the future Congressman Laurentino Ll. Badelles.
(From the Ricardo JS Caluen Collection)
Among other legacy projects, Badelles is credited with improving and expanding the pier area, considering that this was the gateway to the city. There is a little known story about Mayor Badelles where he exhibited a great deal of political will—a case of doing what is right and not because it is popular.
On the recommendation of the City Health Officer (Dr. Caluen), Mayor Badelles managed to relocate informal settlers away from the shores of pier area. Dr. Caluen pointed out that the settlers engaged in unsanitary practices.
Besides, slums at the very gates of Iligan were not a pretty sight to visitors arriving by sea. Invoking police power, the informal settlers were relocated to nearby Saray and elsewhere, the unpopular move perhaps contributing to Mayor Badelles losing the 1959 elections.
Badelles left office but not after increasing the city coffers to more than a million pesos (not a bad feat in the late 1950s) and making it possible for Iligan to cross the threshold to becoming a first class city.
By the end of the first decade as a city, Iligan elected a young mayor not quite in his 30s but not entirely a greenhorn in the world of politics—Camilo P. Cabili, lawyer-son of Senator Tomas Cabili who had quite recently died with President Magsaysay in the same tragic plane crash in 1957.
Iligan would know no other mayor in the next 25 years or so. Where in 1953 President Quirino, in unveiling the marker of the Maria Cristina Hydroelectric Plant, had boldly predicted that Iligan would one day become the Pittsburgh of the South, Mayor Cabili could stake his claim that the dream of the 1950s bore to fruition in the 1960s and 1970s under his watch, making Iligan the most industrialized city outside Manila.
When in later years detractors accused Cabili of not doing enough for Iligan, he was reportedly said to have retorted “Did I not give Iligan the National Steel Corporation?” At the height of its productivity and economic power, NSC ran an advertisement that said: “We are not only building homes, we are building a nation.” Surely the late Mayor Cabili could also rightfully bask in the glory that was once the National Steel Corporation.
Today Iligan is no longer the garrison town of some 3,000 souls at the time of the arrival of the Americans in 1900. It certainly is no longer as concerned with the appearances of its shores by the “pantalan” as it sets it sights beyond the horizon of Iligan Bay, more concerned with succeeding in its efforts at doing business and increasing trade with partners in other Asian countries.
Happy diamond jubilee celebration, Iligan City!
-30-
The Iligan City Charter Day is celebrated on June 16th each year, known as Araw ng Iligan. Malacañang has declared Monday, June 16, a special non-working day in Iligan City to mark its 75th Charter Anniversary. 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐨. 𝟗𝟏𝟐, 𝐬. 𝐨𝐟 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 declaring Monday, 𝟏𝟔 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓, a 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 (𝐍𝐨𝐧-𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠) 𝐃𝐚𝐲 in the city of Iligan to mark the celebration of its 75th Charter Anniversary signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on May 8, 2025.
For more of Prof. Ricardo Jorge S. Caluen’s Historic Photos of Iligan City, the City of Iligan and MSU-IIT is featuring “HULAGWAY: SOCIO-POLITICAL HISTORY OF ILIGAN IN PHOTOS” featuring Ricardo Jorge Caluen’s Collection from June 16-20, 2025 at the Main Building, Iligan City Hall, Buhanginan Hill, Pala-o, Iligan City in commemoration of the 75th Diamond Jubiliee of Iligan as a Chartered City.
