Dasol, Pangasinan

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Municipality of Dasol

Location
Map of Pangasinan showing the location of Dasol.
Government
Region	Ilocos Region (Region I)
Province	Pangasinan
District	1st District, Pangasinan
Barangays	18
Income Class:	4th class; rural
Founded	1911
Mayor	Angelita O. Jimenez
Physical characteristics
Area	166.6 km²
Population      Total (2000)      Density	25,381 152.35/km²
Coordinates	15°59'22.73 N, 119°52'49.98 E

Coordinates: 15°59′22.73″N, 119°52′49.98″E

Dasol is a 4th class municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 25,381 people in 5,092 households. Dasol is a popular town for the production of commercial salts. Seawater is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be harvested. Dasol Bay occupies the whole coastline of Dasol and it is where the town gets its saltwater.

Dasol is a small town in western Pangasinan, situated in a plateau. It is bounded on the north by the municipalities of Burgos and Mabini, the mineraly-rich Zambales mountains in the east, the municipality of Infanta on the south, and the vast South China Sea on the west. It has an area of about 230 square kilometres.

Traversed by the smoothly paved and comfortable Pangasinan-Zambales Highway, Dasol is 288 kilometers away from Manila via Camiling, Tarlac and 88 kilometers from Dagupan City. Taking the opposite direction via Subic and Olongapo City, Dasol is only about 310 kilometers from Manila. Dasol can be reached by bus or jeepney trips from Alaminos and Santa Cruz. Notable bus companies include Victory Liner, Five Star Bus Co., and Philippine Rabbit.

Contents 1 Economy 2 Climate 3 Festivals 4 Tourist Destinations 5 History 5.1 Secession from Zambales and other Towns 5.2 Boundary Issues 5.3 Political History 5.4 Peace and order 5.5 Dasol today. 6 Barangays 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Economy

The basic livelihood of the town includes salt making, small scale fishing, bagoong making, charcoal making, fruitwine making, and farming (mostly rice crops).

An average family raises only PhP 5,561.67 and spends PhP 4,506.58 mostly for basic needs.

Majority of Dasol's income came from commercial salt making, with 14 major salt producers in the municipality.

Dasol is rich in non-metallic resources. It has 360,230,000 m³ of limestones and 5,245 metric tons of guano.

About 0.5 km² of Dasol is used for commercial crops mostly for rice and vegetable production. The municipality have several coconut and mango plantations. Since it lie on the Zambales Mountain Range, the municipality have 6,513 mango fruit bearing trees. One of the plantations is the Carolina Farm and Mango Orchard owned by Menardo Jimenez, former GMA Network president.

Most of Dasol's livestock includes poultry, swine, cattles, goats, and carabaos with 6,370 livestock raisers all across the municipality.

[edit] Climate

Dasol lies on the tropical zone with an average temperature of 28.12 °C (82.62 °F). The municipality relies much on solar energy for salt making and dry season starts from November until May. Wet season starts from June until October. Average rainfall is 163.60 mm³

[edit] Festivals

Dasol celebrates the annual feast its Catholic patron Saint Vincent Ferrer every first Friday of Lent (After Ash Wednesday). Dasol follows the tradition of every Filipino fiesta. At sunrise, a thanksgiving mass is rendered simultatenously in all Roman Catholic Church and Philippine Independent Church locations in Dasol. At 9:00 am, a parade of all public officials and government employees are held at Barangay Poblacion public roads. In the afternoon, an open sports tournament sponsored by the Youth Council are held in the municipal hall compound. By the evening, senior citizen organizations and Filipino-American organizations celebrate a cocktail party at the municipal auditorium. Most of the attendants do ballroom dancing.

During the months of April and May barangay-based feasts were celebrated.

[edit] Tourist Destinations

• Culebra Island (also known as Snake Island).

For hardened sun-lovers, the island’s beach has no shade. Excellent shoreline, good for snorkeling and diving. It is also good place for sea snake sight seeing.

• Polo Camaso Islet

• Tambobong Beach.

An entire fishing village at your feet, very clear water. Good for sailing. White beach.

• Osmeña Beach

• Macalang Beach

• Salabusuban Falls

• Rongaab Cave

[edit] History

The town got its name from the medicinal herb "dosol" which abound in the locality during the Spanish period. The leaves of this herbal plant are greenish and oval in shape. It is a tuber relatively very low in height. It was commonly used to cure infected wounds, but was found to have the unusual characteristic of miraculously disappearing (abaning its post) for unknown reason never to be located again. Its name was frequently mispronounced as Dasol by the Spaniards, so that when the place was established as municipality in the 19th Century, Dasol became its official name.

[edit] Secession from Zambales and other Towns

Together with some other towns that now comprise western Pangasinan, Dasol was then within the territorial jurisdiction of the Province of Zambales. Time came when towns from Infanta up to Bolinao, seceded from the Zambales province, owing to allege lack of concern for the towns' interest and welfare by the Zambales provincial government and joined the Pangasinan province. However, for allegedly the same reason, there was a movement to rejoin Zambales, which clamor was aroused by the incumbency of then President Ramon Magasaysay, a Zambales born president in the middle of 1950s. This proposal wipe out completely when Governor Aguedo Agbayani of Pangasinan became the governor.

As early as 1878, Dasol was not as a municipality as it is now, but was part of today comprises the present municipalities of Mabini, Burgos, and Dasol, which at that time were a part of the province of Zambales. There were few people who lived here. The place now called Mabini was the most thickly populated of the then municipality. The people, in their desire for better living conditions, moved to the southwest. They found good fishing grounds and they decided to stay along the coast in the present barrio of Uli, now a barrio of Dasol.

Shortly after the revolution, the town now called Mabini was separated from the group and the towns of Dasol and Burgos were fused as one, which at the time known as the municipality of San Isidro Putot. In the year 1911, by virtue of Executive Order No. 25, Dasol became a municipality separated from Burgos.

[edit] Boundary Issues

Ever since is creation, the boundaries of Dasol with the municipalities of Burgos, Mabini and Infanta remain vague, for what the venerable leaders of Dasol had claimed to be the boundaries then agreed upon and as allegedly borne out by records, are no longer respected by the respective officials of said adjoining municipalities. Instead, they have encroached into Dasol's domain. During the incumbency of Mayor Liceralde, he made an attempt to settle Dasol's boundary with Mabini, but even after two separate conferences between the officials of the two towns were already had, each group was adamant in its own version. Considering that there was no visible sign of a probability for an amicable settlement of the dispute, the idea was abaned so as to give way to court battle. He allegedly said that it was time-consuming to gather relevant documentary evidence (parol evidence no longer available due to the death of reliable witnesses) that would clinch the case for Dasol. The same appears to be true with respect to the other boundary conflicts as herein above referred to.

[edit] Political History

No record has been found regarding the region of governardorcillo in this municipality but records show that early as 1895, there was already an organized government, with Santos Jimenez as the first capitan municipal. He was succeeded Cornelio Estrada from 1898-1900. At the height of the Katipunan movement Francisco Bernal was capitan municipal.

During the time San Isidro Putot was established, the town had been under three rulers, who ruled in different terms, namely: Lucas Bonilla (1899-1901), Nazario Nacar (1901-1903), Paulino Mendoza (1904-1908)

When Dasol municipality was created, Apolonio Casipit was its first President. He was succeeded by Leandro Cristobal from 1912-1916. Calixto Tobias was the municipal President from 1916. In 1918, Tobias was assassinated by an unknown assailant. His unexpired term was served by his vice mayor, Severino delos Reyes. In the following election, Apolonio Casipit won and served his second term from 1918 to 1920. Succeeding him was Pedro dela Rosa from 1921 to 1925.

In the years 1925 to 1932, Marcelo Jimenez was elected and served for two consecutive terms. In the following election, Flaviano Cristobal served as the last Municipal President from 1932-1935. He was elevated as Dasol's first Municipal Mayor, when the Commonwealth Government was established. He was followed by Juan Castro (1937-1939). Mayor Castro failed to serve the entire period of his term due to health conditions making his vice mayor, Emiliana R. Jimenez as Acting Municipal Mayor for the unexpired term (1940). In the next election, Flaviano Cristobal ran again and won, making him as the Municipal Mayor of Dasol at the outbreak of the second world war. He was forced to vacate the office in 1944 when he joined guerilla movement intervention. His vice mayor, Teodoro Milgar served as Acting Mayor for the unexpired term. When Philippine Independence came in 1946, Marcelo A. Jimenez was appointed by President Roxas as Acting Municipal Mayor. Like Mayor Castro, Mayor Jimenez failed to serve the entire period of his term in the same year.

Isidro Bustria served the unexpired term of Marcelo A. Jimenez from 1946 until 1948. In the 1948 election, Damaso E. Rivera won and served as municipal Mayor. In 1950, Rivera failed to finish his term and his vice mayor, Segundo Basuel served his unexpired term. In 1952, Cristino R. Jimenez won and served for four consecutive terms (1952-1967), winning three re-elections. In 1968, Ramon G. Liceralde won as mayor. 1976 local elections was suspended due to the existence of martial law. Liceralde, was so far the only lawyer-mayor of Dasol. In 1978, Benjamin Ochotorena was appointed Municipal Mayor until 1980. Ludovico R. Espinosa was elected and served as mayor from July 1980 until the government reorganization in June 10, 1986 by President Corazon Aquino. Manuel Bunao was appointed OIC Mayor from June 16, 1986 to November 17, 1986. Espinosa appealed and he was reinstalled in November 18, 1986. In June 1988, he was elected and served a new mandate. In May 11, 1992 elections, Espinosa was defeated by Sergio N. Jimenez. Jimenez also defeated Espinosa in two successive elections (1995,1998). Due to term limits set by the Philippine Local Government Code of 1991, Sergio Jimenez gave way to his wife, Angelita Ocampo-Jimenez to run for the 2001 elections. In the 2004 elections, Mrs. Jimenez won her second term. She is currently the mayor of Dasol.

[edit] Peace and order

The town, however, suffered a black eye in the matter of peace and order. In the 1980s, insurgency surfaced, the first of its kind. The hukbo surprise raid for night's duration on August 25, 1950, although the town hall was burned to ashes at the same with Mayor's residence causing him to leave the reminder of his term to his vice-mayor, was nothing in comparison. So-called revolutionary taxes were being exacted and secretly collected from residents that the collectors presumed to be well-to-do; rallies and meetings of activists waving red flag lets were held time and again in the public plazas castigating the government officials and the established government; paved roads, plaza concrete fences (school fences too) were painted in red thee emblem of communism and painted in black the human skull just below the word “DEMOCRACY”.

Certain residents including some public officials were actively involved. At long last, the military came to encamp so that the rallies were quelled and vandalism stopped. But secret activities of the insurgent civilians perpetrated anywhere in populated places or inside private dwellings. It would seem that insurgency was not all to blame. Common criminality and vindictiveness could have motivated some or many of the killings. No less than twenty fresh human lives (civilians, police and military) perished with their assailants unknown. Ambuscades were staged along highways and other roadways. Even private residences were invaded fearlessly to insure the killing of the intended victim. Even Mayor Espinosa at the time was not spared when about ten of his cows inside their "koral" one evening were gunned simultaneously.

[edit] Dasol today.

Since 1992, the tension and violence was subsided and all of its residents, what ever its party affiliation are working hand in hand in developing the economy of the municipality.

[edit] Barangays

Dasol is politically subdivided into 18 barangays.

Barangay Population Alilao 344 Amalbalan 1,637 Bobonot 1,190 Eguia 2,806 Gais-Guipe 2,130 Hermosa 1,335 Macalang 1,611 Magsaysay 644 Malacapas 989 Malimpin 1,370 Osmeña 1,525 Petal 1,239 Poblacion 3,601 San Vicente 913 Tambac 564 Tambobong 1,279 Uli 1,585 Viga 619

[edit] See also

• Salt evaporation pond
• USS Harder (SS-257), a US submarine submerged in the Battle of Dasol Bay, World War II
• USS Ticonderoga (CV-14), US aircraft carrier

[edit] References

• Dasol Fiesta Souvenir - Published by the Municipal Government of Dasol (no ISBN Code)
• Island, beach, bridge, and sunset photos taken by Bill Lovelock, La Hermosa Beach Resort

[edit] External links

• Official Dasol Website
• Dasol, Pangasinan
• Philippine Standard Geographic Code
• 2000 Philippine Census Information
• Official Website of the Provincial Government of Pangasinan
• Pasyalan Pangasinan
• Pangasinan: Preservation and Revitalization of the Pangasinan Language and Literature
• Sunday Punch
• Sun Star Pangasinan
• Pangasinan Star Online
• Kingfisher School of Business and Finance
• Pangasinan Test Wikipedia