The Encomiendas in the Riverine District

Immediately after Manila rebuilt itself from the ruins inflicted by Limahong, Dr. Francisco de Sande formally assumed his office as the 3rd governor-general of the Philippines on August 24, 1575. One of the first colonial projects undertaken by Sande was to complete the conquest of the Bikol region particularly its powerful village of Naga. Thus, in the early part of 1576 a large conquering force headed by Capt. Pedro de Chavez, Alferez Cristobal de Saldaña, Francisco Saavedra, and Esteban de Solis with hundreds of soldiers and native warriors left Manila for the region. Following the route that the two preceding expeditions took, this expedition entered the villages of Paracale and Mambulao. Despite the traditional stubborn resistance shown by these natives, they finally yielded to the overwhelming force of the Spanish conquistadores. Moving inland, the Spaniards met protracted opposition from the villages of Baao, Bula and Naga which were eventually conquered by the superior Spanish arms.

As soon as the villages were pacified, they were appropriated to various Spanish soldiers who rendered valuable service to the crown by effecting the conquest. These appropriated villages were called encomienda. Contrary to general belief, the encomienda was not a land grant. It was an administrative unit for the purpose of exacting tribute for the natives. In principle, each encomendero was entrusted with threefold responsibility toward his native ward: (1)to maintain peace among the natives within the encomienda, (2)to support the missionaries in their work of conversion, (3)to protect and defend the natives from any hostile elements. In return for these services, the Crown authorized the encomendero to collect a tribute of eight reales annually for all male inhabitants of his encomienda between the ages of nineteen and sixty. Part of the tribute was to go to the friars, and the rest to the government. This tribute was payable in cash or in commodity. The chieftain was assigned the task to assist in the collection of tributes and forwarding it to the encomendero who generally lived in the capital.

The Bikol river district contained the most populated encomienda in what was to be known as the Bikol region. With the crushing of the native opposition, the Spanish settlement earlier raised in Libon was transferred to Naga. The reason for transfer was apparently due to several pragmatic consideration, one of which was Naga’s strategic location which was necessary for a more efficient control of the various newly-established encomiendas. Around the year 1578 the newly-arrived Franciscan missionaries, Friars Pablo de Jesus and Bartolome Ruiz, had already begun the preliminary phase of systematic conversion of the region with Naga as their base. For safety reasons, the Spaniards did not set up their garrison within the native village but began to lay the foundation of a Spanish settlement on the other side of the Bikol river opposite the thriving native village of Naga.

However, on May 27, 1579 Capt. Juan Arce de Sardonil, in charge of the Spanish garrison in what was to become the Spanish city, received instructions from the authorities based in Manila. One of the items was concerned with the choice of permanent Spanish settlement in the riverine district. He was directed to coordinate with the religious residing in the riverine district in choosing a convenient place to settle in that province. After having identified the place, they were to build a villa in it and an appropriate name should be given. This likewise prescribed that all encomenderos of that province were to live and build their houses in this settlement and not elsewhere. The Spanish authorities, however, decided to set up this villa on the other side of the bank of Bikol River facing the ancient village of Naga where they were already encamped.

Spanish urban planning was an integral feature of the centralized bureaucracy of the Spanish empire. Hence, the choice of the settlement was largely governed by specific rules formulated in the Spanish court and embodied in the Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias. One of the provisions in the Recopilacion was probably among the reasons for the Spaniards’ choice of the village near Naga. This provision prescribed among others that, “having resolved to settle in some provinces or regions of those lands in our possession, after the discoveries the settlers should consider and take notice if the land is healthful, seeing to it if it can sustain people of age, of young men with tender complexion, disposition and color.” Hence, among the major conditions imposed by the Recopilacion was the quality of the physical environment which could sustain a bigger Spanish settlement who were not entirely attuned to a Spartan life.

The problem of subsistence in their colonized territory lie at the heart of colonial concerns. Thus, the Recopilacion likewise took into account the issue regarding the sources of subsistence. The colonists were reminded that in the choice of their settlement they should see to it that the animals and livestock were healthy, of excellent size and that fruits and other resources were abundant and of fine quality. Obviously, the Spaniards had envisioned the creation not merely of a temporary colonial frontier but of a lasting self-sustaining urban community.

Furthermore, it demanded that in their new-found territory the settlers should see to it that “lands are suited for sowing and harvest, if they grow poisonous and harmful plants and if the sky is pleasant and stars are visible, the air clean, sweet and unpolluted; if the weather is mild; if there are grazing lands for pasture; mountains and forests, wood for construction and building, sufficient water to drink and irrigate the land,...”

Aside from resources available in the place, the Spaniards also placed their stress on the strategic importance of the place for socio-economic traffic. The Recopilacion stipulated that “it would be of greater convenience that they should found the pueblos near navigable rivers in order that they could have the best way to carry out… their commerce and maritime trade.”

But of prime importance in their conquest was the royal vision of converting the motives to the Catholic faith. Hence, the Spanish colony was to be raised in order to reinforce the Christianizing enterprise which the missionaries were to undertake. Thus, the Recopilacion categorically indicated that aside from the considerations placed on the quality of the natural environment the presence of “natives to whom one can preach the gospel” was equally of paramount importance. This section of the Recopilacion concluded that if “finding all these in those places, they may proceed to raise a settlement, preserving the laws embodied in this book.

All these requirements, such as abundant natural resources, healthy environment, strategic and accessible location and dense population, were evidently present in the nearby environs of the village of Naga.

The Birth of the City of Caceres

A few months after the instruction was received by Sardonil, the growingnumber of Spaniards laid the initial groundwork for the rise of one of the earliest Spanish cities in the Philippines. To relax the strain brought to both the Spanish settlers and the native residents of Manila and at the same time to establish more formidable citadels of Spanish powers in other regions, such as Bikol, Gov. Gen. Francisco de Sande encouraged the emergence of more Spanish communities. At about 1579, the incipient Spanish community probably had only less than a hundred Spanish inhabitants. Nevertheless, this fledgling Spanish settlement enthusiastically worked to provide their territory with an urban structure and legal identity. Hence, on the 16th of September 1579, on order of Govenor-General Sande, this Spanish settlement assumed the name of Caceres. The name Caceres was derived from the city of Caceres in Spain from where the incumbent Governor-general Francisco de Sande was born. Governor-General de Sande likewise appointed its first set of officials composed’ of six regidores (councilors), an escribano publico (public scribe), and a secretary of the cabildo. It coulil be assumed that this set of city officials was headed by the Justicia Mayor who was also in charge of the local garrison.

It appeared, however, that during this time Caceres was not yet classified as a city. In the report of Capt. Miguel de Loarca in 1581 which referred to Caceres as a villa, it made mention of an alcalde mayor “who receives a salary of three hundred pesos; two alcaldes-in-ordinary; and six regidores appointed by the governor general.” Twenty four encomenderos were residing in this settlement.

However, one of the earliest references to Caceres as a city was contained in a memorial sent to the king of Spain in the year 1586 entitled “Memorial de lo que se ha pedir a su Magestad haga merced a la ciudad de Caceres en la provincia de Bicor y Camarines en la isla de Luzon, en estas islas del poniente”. In this memorial the Spanish residents of this city requested the following to the king;

1. to confirm the present status of Caceres as a city created by virtue of the governor general’s will and authority
2. to allocate a propio of about 1,000 men or more to the said city
3. to preserve the present set-up of the city government
4. to confirm and honor the appointments to the various offices.

These new set of officers were: Luis Breceño as its alguacil mayor, Juan de Guzman and Sebastian Garcia as its regidores.

The memorial also indicated that the appointment of these officials was made by Governor-general Francisco de Sande upon the formal proclamation of this village as a Spanish city. All these requests apparently received royal approval but at a much later date. Thus, it appeared that Caceres was only elevated to the status of a city around 1586.

Furthermore, if the requested propio or dependency was among those granted, then it was possible that among the inhabitants belonging to the propio were those from Naga, Canaman, Camaligan, and other nearby villages. This means that the inhabitants of these villages were placed under the administrative control of the city.

In 1588, about two years after its foundation, Bishop Salazar gave a brief description of the nascent Spanish city:

The province of Camarines lies fifty leagues from the city (of Manila). And it is located in the city of Caceres, with thirty citizens who have generally thirty soldiers quartered among them. Twenty of these citizens are married, six of them to native women. The city has its own cabildo and governing body; also a church with one vicar, one Franciscan Monastery with two priests and two brothers besides and one alcalde mayor.

Although the number of the pioneering Spanish inhabitants in this newly-founded city was rather small nearly a hundred in all, the ratio of married settlers was comparatively large. Most of these married settlers numbering twenty, probably belonged to a group of 80 married couples which came along with the expedition in 1585 led by Capt. Juan Maldonado. This only indicated that these people were there to stay. The tolerance or even encouragement of Spanish authorities for Spaniards to marry native women revealed the Spaniards’ determination to maintain and bolster the growth of the city even by blurring the racial gap between the Spanish colonizers and the colonized natives.