In the accounts of the historian Caridad Aldecoa Rodriguez, before Spanish colonizers set foot on the island of Negros, the area now called Vallehermoso was known as Barangay Kanglambat, a vast frontier of wilderness, inhabited by an ethnic group called Buquidnones, who were also referred to as Montes, Manayans, Carolanos, Mondos, and Ambarks.
Historian Fr. Angel Martinez Cuesta, OAR believes that the Buquidnones were a blend of Malay and Indonesian blood, the latter being more dominant, they practiced nomadic agriculture called kaingin and lived in small settlements on coastal areas and hills. They were taller than the Negritos, had straight hair, and were not very dark. Their basic unit of governance was the barangay, named after the Malayan boat which they used, headed by the leader called the datu and aided by a council of respected men of the village. Society was based on kinship, rules and customs.
There are two versions as to why Barangay Kanglambat was named. The first is that the barangay was led by a notorious and fierce leader named Lambat. The second version is that the area was inhabited by the Buquidnones who became maghats then wanted to express extreme anger or sorrow. A person referred to as maghat or magahat was wild and fierce, wearing a red cloth tied around his head to signify a war-like stance. These maghats were responsible for many killings in the area and were known to strap a net of lambat around their victims. Thus, Valehermoso earned the name Kanglambat, for it was these areas where the maghats waited for their prey.
Imagine standing on top of a hill. Surrounding you is a panorama of many more rolling hills and mountains, the whole range humming with life and beauty in its entirety. Below you are a verdant valley of lush vegetation stretching as far as the eye can see. In the distance, the blue waters of the Tañon Strait shimmer like little gems glittering under an azure sky. All you can feel is a sense of serenity and a unifying embrace of mortality and eternity. Perhaps this was the same overwhelming feeling that a Spanish mestizo, named Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa, felt when he first came to Barangay Kanglambat in 1821. Enthralled by the beauty of this place, he decided to stay there and with the help of a friend, Jose Luga, purchased two thousand hectares of land. He then named his hacienda Vallehermoso, meaning “Beautiful Valley.”
Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa was an illustrado of Spanish-Chinese parentage. His father, Diego de la Viña y Balbin, was from Asturias, Spain, and his mother, Damiana de la Rosa, was the daughter of a rich Chinese merchant in Manila. Don Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa was therefore regarded as a creole or criollo, the term for Chinese-Spanish mestizo or mixed-blood person. He was born in Manila and grew up in Binondo, Manila’s Chinatown. He studied at the “Escuela Superior” in Manila and went to college in the University of Oviedo in Asturias. He graduated with the degree of Bachelor in Arts.
He came back to the Philippines and married Apolonia de la Cruz, a Tagala. The couple then went to Cebu to work in the coal mines of his father. But a typhoon destroyed the mines, pushing him to go to Iloilo and seek out a better fortune. While in Iloilo, he heard about the thriving sugar plantations in Negros. He packed up his family again and brought them to Binalbagan, Negros Occidental.
Don Diego bought a tract of land in Binalbagan and planted it with sugarcane. Unfortunately, he was struck with two misfortunes. The first was the death of his wife. The second was the destruction of his crops because of a typhoon. He left Binalbagan with his family and forged his way to Guihulngan where he met a prominent landowner, Pelagio Villegas. Pelagio, better known as “Kapitan Piyoy,” pointed out a thickly forested valley called Bagawines which was inhabited by a tribe of people known as Buquidnones. These people were known to be unfriendly, and their practice of ambushing travelers conferred a notorious reputation upon the community.
Don Diego, however, was unfazed, for the beauty of the valley enamored him, and he was determined to own the land. He befriended the Buquidnones, bartering canes, bolos, and colorful patadyong (pieces of clothing made from attractive material woven in Iloilo) for parcels of land in Bagawines. He also brought land from the Cebuanos who had earlier settled there after the demise of Lambat.
Don Diego befriended the head of the Buquidnones, Ka Saniko, and continued to recognize him as head of Pinocauan until a civil government was formed. With a handful of men, Don Diego had frontier lands carved into productive sugarcane, corn, and tobacco plantations. He named these farmlands “Hacienda del Vallehermoso” meaning “plantation of the beautiful valley.”
Over the years, he grew in wealth and prominence, extending his land ownership from Bagawines to Macapso, and on to Canlaon. Land in the direction of Don Espiridion, Tabon, and Molobolo remained with Kapitan Piyoy.
Historian Caridad Aldecoa Rodriguez reports that prior to the Revolution of 1898 and the eventual coming of the Americans, Vallehermoso was practically administered by Don Diego de la Viña. A man who detested laziness and ruled with an iron hand, from the moment of his arrival, Don Diego had already started wielding a powerful influence on the lives of the Buquidnones. He was able to control their misbehavior and remove their savage criminal tendencies, inculcating in them, instead, the notion of living and working in a civilized way with a religion. Because of his friendly yet disciplinary methods, he won the loyalty and sympathy of these natives.
In less than five years from Don Diego’s arrival, Vallehermoso grew into a thriving hacienda planted to sugarcane, tobacco, corn, rice, and coconuts. Don Diego, better known as the Tigulang or the “Grand Old Man,” was considered a cacique or political boss since he had a say in all political affairs and appointments. He decided and designed whatever improvements to make in Vallehermoso. According to historian Caridad Aldecoa Rodriguez, Don Diego was judge who saw through people’s conflicts. He had a casa tribunal or “hall of justice” in the ground floor of his house, where trials for crimes were held. Punishment would come in the form of flogging, the number of lashes depending on the gravity of the crime. Laudably, the crime rate in the area during his time was very minimal.
As time passed, more people from the Negros Occidental migrated to Vallehermoso. His son, Jose built a road linking the oriental to the occidental side of the island. On February 16, 1898, with adventurer Juan Macarini, Jose climbed the volcano which is said to have given hi, magical powers.
Historian Fr. Angel Martinez Cuesta, OAR believes that the Buquidnones were a blend of Malay and Indonesian blood, the latter being more dominant, they practiced nomadic agriculture called kaingin and lived in small settlements on coastal areas and hills. They were taller than the Negritos, had straight hair, and were not very dark. Their basic unit of governance was the barangay, named after the Malayan boat which they used, headed by the leader called the datu and aided by a council of respected men of the village. Society was based on kinship, rules and customs.
There are two versions as to why Barangay Kanglambat was named. The first is that the barangay was led by a notorious and fierce leader named Lambat. The second version is that the area was inhabited by the Buquidnones who became maghats then wanted to express extreme anger or sorrow. A person referred to as maghat or magahat was wild and fierce, wearing a red cloth tied around his head to signify a war-like stance. These maghats were responsible for many killings in the area and were known to strap a net of lambat around their victims. Thus, Valehermoso earned the name Kanglambat, for it was these areas where the maghats waited for their prey.
Imagine standing on top of a hill. Surrounding you is a panorama of many more rolling hills and mountains, the whole range humming with life and beauty in its entirety. Below you are a verdant valley of lush vegetation stretching as far as the eye can see. In the distance, the blue waters of the Tañon Strait shimmer like little gems glittering under an azure sky. All you can feel is a sense of serenity and a unifying embrace of mortality and eternity. Perhaps this was the same overwhelming feeling that a Spanish mestizo, named Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa, felt when he first came to Barangay Kanglambat in 1821. Enthralled by the beauty of this place, he decided to stay there and with the help of a friend, Jose Luga, purchased two thousand hectares of land. He then named his hacienda Vallehermoso, meaning “Beautiful Valley.”
Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa was an illustrado of Spanish-Chinese parentage. His father, Diego de la Viña y Balbin, was from Asturias, Spain, and his mother, Damiana de la Rosa, was the daughter of a rich Chinese merchant in Manila. Don Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa was therefore regarded as a creole or criollo, the term for Chinese-Spanish mestizo or mixed-blood person. He was born in Manila and grew up in Binondo, Manila’s Chinatown. He studied at the “Escuela Superior” in Manila and went to college in the University of Oviedo in Asturias. He graduated with the degree of Bachelor in Arts.
He came back to the Philippines and married Apolonia de la Cruz, a Tagala. The couple then went to Cebu to work in the coal mines of his father. But a typhoon destroyed the mines, pushing him to go to Iloilo and seek out a better fortune. While in Iloilo, he heard about the thriving sugar plantations in Negros. He packed up his family again and brought them to Binalbagan, Negros Occidental.
Don Diego bought a tract of land in Binalbagan and planted it with sugarcane. Unfortunately, he was struck with two misfortunes. The first was the death of his wife. The second was the destruction of his crops because of a typhoon. He left Binalbagan with his family and forged his way to Guihulngan where he met a prominent landowner, Pelagio Villegas. Pelagio, better known as “Kapitan Piyoy,” pointed out a thickly forested valley called Bagawines which was inhabited by a tribe of people known as Buquidnones. These people were known to be unfriendly, and their practice of ambushing travelers conferred a notorious reputation upon the community.
Don Diego, however, was unfazed, for the beauty of the valley enamored him, and he was determined to own the land. He befriended the Buquidnones, bartering canes, bolos, and colorful patadyong (pieces of clothing made from attractive material woven in Iloilo) for parcels of land in Bagawines. He also brought land from the Cebuanos who had earlier settled there after the demise of Lambat.
Don Diego befriended the head of the Buquidnones, Ka Saniko, and continued to recognize him as head of Pinocauan until a civil government was formed. With a handful of men, Don Diego had frontier lands carved into productive sugarcane, corn, and tobacco plantations. He named these farmlands “Hacienda del Vallehermoso” meaning “plantation of the beautiful valley.”
Over the years, he grew in wealth and prominence, extending his land ownership from Bagawines to Macapso, and on to Canlaon. Land in the direction of Don Espiridion, Tabon, and Molobolo remained with Kapitan Piyoy.
Historian Caridad Aldecoa Rodriguez reports that prior to the Revolution of 1898 and the eventual coming of the Americans, Vallehermoso was practically administered by Don Diego de la Viña. A man who detested laziness and ruled with an iron hand, from the moment of his arrival, Don Diego had already started wielding a powerful influence on the lives of the Buquidnones. He was able to control their misbehavior and remove their savage criminal tendencies, inculcating in them, instead, the notion of living and working in a civilized way with a religion. Because of his friendly yet disciplinary methods, he won the loyalty and sympathy of these natives.
In less than five years from Don Diego’s arrival, Vallehermoso grew into a thriving hacienda planted to sugarcane, tobacco, corn, rice, and coconuts. Don Diego, better known as the Tigulang or the “Grand Old Man,” was considered a cacique or political boss since he had a say in all political affairs and appointments. He decided and designed whatever improvements to make in Vallehermoso. According to historian Caridad Aldecoa Rodriguez, Don Diego was judge who saw through people’s conflicts. He had a casa tribunal or “hall of justice” in the ground floor of his house, where trials for crimes were held. Punishment would come in the form of flogging, the number of lashes depending on the gravity of the crime. Laudably, the crime rate in the area during his time was very minimal.
As time passed, more people from the Negros Occidental migrated to Vallehermoso. His son, Jose built a road linking the oriental to the occidental side of the island. On February 16, 1898, with adventurer Juan Macarini, Jose climbed the volcano which is said to have given hi, magical powers.
Vallehermoso produced bountiful harvests of corn, high quality tobacco, and large yields of palay and sugar. Don Diego had vast tracts of pasturelands with many horses, carabaos, goats, and cattle. With the success that he achieved, Don Diego earned the admiration and respect of the friars and the province’s highest officials like Governor Espada.
Although part-Spanish from his father’s lineage, Don Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa decried the tyranny and abuses of the Spanish friars in the province. He resented the Peninsulares (puer Spaniards born in Spain) who looked down on him for his being a half-breed Spaniard. He also heralded the cause of freedom against Spanish rule. He was under close surveillance by the civil guards because he and Pedro Baguio of Guihulngan secretly trained peasants how to handle a rifle. He turned their plowshares into bolos—long, heavy knives with a single edge or pinuti. He also had swords (talibong), spears, and lances made.
Don Diego ordered the construction of a secret meeting place in the mountains of Bagawines and provided food, shelter, and money to passing revolutionaries. He was commissioned by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo to lead the revolutionary forces in Negros Oriental with the rank of Brigadier General (General de Brigada, Commandante del Ejercito Filipino, Provincia de Negros Oriental). His son Jose was assigned Lieutenant Colonel of the Infantry.
In other parts of Negros, under the leadership of Dionisio Papa (more popularly known as Papa Isio) and many babaylanes whom he headed, people were taking up arms against the Spanish colonial government. With the revolutionary fever rising, more than a thousand men joined Don Diego in the Filipino people’s crusade. From the hacienda, Don Diego started the revolutionary march of two thousand men in the morning of November 17, 1898, moving south towards Dumaguete. They liberated every town that they passed from Spanish rule.
After a week, on November 24, 1898, the revolutionaries reached Dumaguete City. The Spaniards left Dumaguete without a fight.
Following the declaration of Independence from Spain by the Revolutionary Government, General Emilio Aguinaldo convened the Revolutionary Congress in Malolos, Bulacan, known as the Malolos Congress of 1898, to draw up a constitution for the First Philippines Republic. It was the first republican constitution in Asia. The document stated that the people have exclusive sovereignty. It provided basic civil rights, separated the church from the state, and called for the creation of an Assembly of Representatives which would act as the legislative body. It also called for a Presidential form of government with the president elected for a term of four years by a majority of the Assembly. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected the President of the First Philippine Republic. The Congress was composed of appointed delegates. Don Diego’s bother, Dr. Jose de la Viña, was appointed as Negros Occidental’s delegate to the Malolos Congress. Serviliano Aquino, Mariano Oirola, and Javier Gonzales Salvador were the appointed delegates of Negros Oriental. (www.filipino.biz. Ph/history/delegates.html)
After the defeat of the Spaniards, Jose de la Viña was given a role of continually defending the eastern coast of the Negros Island in case of Spanish retaliation. It was reported that in one incident, a small vessel owned by a planter from Bais was on its way to Dumaguete when it was fired upon by a Spanish gunboat. De la Viña and his men engaged the gunboat in a brief gunfire. The successful defense was credited to de la Viña’s ploy of mounting banana and coconut trunks along the shore to make them look like cannons. They held branches, so from a distance, they looked like rifles. This trick compelled the Spaniards to think de la Viña and his men were fully equipped with weapons and fled.
After the liberation of the province from the Spaniards, Don Diego, along with the educated and landed illustrados of the province, organized a Provisional Government in Dumaguete. It was situated in the house of Teniente Cornelio Yapsutco which is currently owned b the heirs of Dr. and Mrs. Vicente Locsin. The Revolutionary Council elected Demetrio Larena as the government’s President and Diego de la Viña as Delegate of War, with an appointed position of Brigadier General of the Negros Oriental Revolutionary Forces. This was a position he most preferred so that he would still have the revolutionary forces under his control.
The provisional revolutionary government was under President Emilio Aguinaldo. It was called Republica Filipina de Negros Oriental. When the provisional government convened, Gen. Juan Araneta of Negros Occidental proposed the creation of a Federal Republic or a cantonal form of government. “Canton” was the name given to each state in the Swiss federation, each having its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Consequently, the Negros Oriental provisional revolutionary government was absorbed into the cantonal government of Negros, without giving up their allegiance to the Republic of Malolos. Conflicts arose when Negros Oriental delegates were asked to raise the American flag which was contrary to their loyalty to Aguinaldo’s government. The delegates of Negros Oriental refused because of their loyalty to the Malolos Republic and also because they felt they were not consulted on the matter. Furthermore, they felt they were not ready to be subjugated again by another foreign power whose motives and nature of “imperialism” they were unaware of.
Thus Negros Oriental reverted back to being the Republica Filipina de Negros Oriental. Don Diego de la Viña, along with Papa Isio and the other babylanes, led the people’s efforts against the new colonizers. It was only with the persuasion of General Juan Araneta, Secretary of War for the Cantonal Republic of Negros Occidental that Don Diego finally submitted to American sovereignty in 1899. Papa Isio continued to resist American rule before surrendering in August 1907. He was confined in Manila’s Bilibid Prison where he eventually died in 1911.
Jose de la Viña was initially anti-American but eventually, like his father and other hacienderos, thought it best to cooperate with the Americans for material interests. As the new civil government was being put in place in 1901 with Don Demetrio Larena as Governor, Don Diego moved back to Bagawines. He led the move to make Vallehermoso a town. Through his lobbying it was eventually separated from Guihulngan and was made into a municipal town on January 1, 1913 by an executive proclamation of then Acting Governor-General Newton Gilbert through then Provincial Governor of Negros Oriental, Don Felipe Takyo. The municipality consisted of the barrios of Tabon, Puan, Macapso, and Vallehermoso (Don Diego’s original landholdings which he donated). Don Diego donated a site for a school building, the municipal hall, the market, and the plaza. Negros Oriental officially became a province on March 10, 1917. Three years later, on March 27, 1920, Don Diego passed away.
In 1934, Negros Oriental became a corregimiento, a separate military district. That same year, President Manuel L. Quezon headed a “Philippine Independence Mission” to Washington DC that successfully secured the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, a United States federal law providing for the self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States. The Tydings-McDuffie Act provided for drafting and guidelines of a Constitution for a 10-year “transitional period” which became the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines before the granting of Philippine Independence. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention from Negros Oriental were Jose Romero, Sergio Jumawan, Vicente Lopez, Sr., and Hermenegildo Villanueva.
Table 1 on page 50 enumerates the government officials of Vallehermoso during the Commonwealth period, from 1919-1942, and their official positions and terms of office. Table 2 lists those who served in the Japanese time.
One of the highlights of the Commonwealth government was the passing of a law giving women the right to suffrage. On April 30, 1937, women of the Philippines were granted the right to vote and to be voted. This paved the way in granting women full participation in political affairs, allowing them to become powerful forces in Philippine politics, business, and other sectors of society. In 1937, the country’s first lady mayor, whom President Manuel Quezon complimented as “La Primera Presidenta del Pais,” was elected in Vallehermoso. She was Ines Serion. Vallehermoso prides itself as being the only town that’s has had three lady mayors already. After Mayor Ines Serion, Vallehermoso was governed by two more women, Mayor Francisca c. Villegas (1952-1955) and Mayor Perla Fernandez (May 2006 to May 2010).
When World War II broke out, Vallehermoso offered intense resistance against the Japanese forces. It became a stronghold of the guerilla forces and a bailiwick of the 75th Infantry Regiment of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) which established its headquarters in Bagawines. Since the town was the headquarters of the USAFFE, General Basilio J. Valdes and President Sergio Osmeña, Sr. paid a quick visit there in 1942. They were in the company of President Manuel Quezon, who made a brief stopover for lunch in Panubigan en route to San Carlos City. General Valdes and President Osmeña conferred with Colonel Ballesteros, commander of the USAFFE headquarters.
The existence of the USAFFE in Vallehermoso was brief. Japanese forces had occupied the nearby neighboring provinces of Negros Occidental and Cebu. Jose (Peping) Osmeña, son of Sergio Sr., Colonel Valeriano, father of General Napoleon Valeriano, and Atty. Jose Severino were sent as emissaries to Vallehermoso to negotiate the peaceful surrender of the 74th and 75th Infantry regiments. Corporal Justo Lusoc, a member of the 75th Infantry regiment, resisted and shot the three emissaries in the premises of Don Diego’s house in Bagawines. Colonel Lusoc was taken by the Japanese to Cebu and was never heard of since.
Just the same, Vallehermoso was not spared from the ravages of war. World War II interrupted the political, social, and economic progress of the town. In the early part of May until September 1942, troops of the Japanese Imperial Army occupied the municipality and set up their headquarters at the Vallehermoso Central School and at the house of Ciriaco G. Olladas. The municipal officials designated by the Japanese Army in a transitory manner served for a very short period. Amidst the war’s turmoil, the guerillas were able to organize a temporary local government with appointed municipal mayors.
The experience and superior weapons of the Japanese were no match to the fighting spirit of the guerillas, whose leader was Florencio Gemillan. They managed to engage the enemy in brief encounters in Poblacion, Mampayao, Anonog, Bagawines, and the La Castellano-Vallehermoso National Road. Unable to outmaneuver the guerillas, the Japanese were compelled to move out to San Carlos. Afterwards, they only did mere and occasional patrolling in Vallehermoso.
In April 1943, the Japanese bombed the Home Economics Building and a residence in Vallehermoso. They returned in 1944 to establish a garrison in Bagawines. A fierce gun battle ensued with the guerillas under the command of Lieutenant Abcede. The Japanese were again forced to flee to San Carlos.
In 1946, after the surrender of the Japanese, peace and order returned once again to Vallehermoso. President Sergio Osmeña reappointed Mayor Ines Serion to her post in 1945. The local government machinery started to function again.
On July 4, 1946 the Philippine independence was declared, ending the Commonwealth regime. A Republican form of government was established in the country. With the declaration of independence, the local government administration returned to normal. Local government officials governed the municipality for a term of four years. Vallehermoso’s municipal leaders during the era of the Republic Government are shown in Table 4 on page 53.
Government officials Ines V. Serion, Juan G. Bernus, Woodrow E. Serion, and Buenaventura S. Olladas are all descendents of Don Diego de la Viña. When the province celebrated its first centennial celebration, Don Diego de la Viña was honored as “The Man of the Century.”
The barrio of Vallehermoso became the 25th municipality of Negros Oriental when President Manuel Roxas issued an Executive Order on October 11, 1946. When Canlaon became a municipality, the barrios of Panubigan, Linothangan, Maslog, Budlasan with all the sitios composing said barrios, and the sitio of Lucap of the barrio of Malaiba were taken away from Vallehermoso.
Although part-Spanish from his father’s lineage, Don Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa decried the tyranny and abuses of the Spanish friars in the province. He resented the Peninsulares (puer Spaniards born in Spain) who looked down on him for his being a half-breed Spaniard. He also heralded the cause of freedom against Spanish rule. He was under close surveillance by the civil guards because he and Pedro Baguio of Guihulngan secretly trained peasants how to handle a rifle. He turned their plowshares into bolos—long, heavy knives with a single edge or pinuti. He also had swords (talibong), spears, and lances made.
Don Diego ordered the construction of a secret meeting place in the mountains of Bagawines and provided food, shelter, and money to passing revolutionaries. He was commissioned by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo to lead the revolutionary forces in Negros Oriental with the rank of Brigadier General (General de Brigada, Commandante del Ejercito Filipino, Provincia de Negros Oriental). His son Jose was assigned Lieutenant Colonel of the Infantry.
In other parts of Negros, under the leadership of Dionisio Papa (more popularly known as Papa Isio) and many babaylanes whom he headed, people were taking up arms against the Spanish colonial government. With the revolutionary fever rising, more than a thousand men joined Don Diego in the Filipino people’s crusade. From the hacienda, Don Diego started the revolutionary march of two thousand men in the morning of November 17, 1898, moving south towards Dumaguete. They liberated every town that they passed from Spanish rule.
After a week, on November 24, 1898, the revolutionaries reached Dumaguete City. The Spaniards left Dumaguete without a fight.
Following the declaration of Independence from Spain by the Revolutionary Government, General Emilio Aguinaldo convened the Revolutionary Congress in Malolos, Bulacan, known as the Malolos Congress of 1898, to draw up a constitution for the First Philippines Republic. It was the first republican constitution in Asia. The document stated that the people have exclusive sovereignty. It provided basic civil rights, separated the church from the state, and called for the creation of an Assembly of Representatives which would act as the legislative body. It also called for a Presidential form of government with the president elected for a term of four years by a majority of the Assembly. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected the President of the First Philippine Republic. The Congress was composed of appointed delegates. Don Diego’s bother, Dr. Jose de la Viña, was appointed as Negros Occidental’s delegate to the Malolos Congress. Serviliano Aquino, Mariano Oirola, and Javier Gonzales Salvador were the appointed delegates of Negros Oriental. (www.filipino.biz. Ph/history/delegates.html)
After the defeat of the Spaniards, Jose de la Viña was given a role of continually defending the eastern coast of the Negros Island in case of Spanish retaliation. It was reported that in one incident, a small vessel owned by a planter from Bais was on its way to Dumaguete when it was fired upon by a Spanish gunboat. De la Viña and his men engaged the gunboat in a brief gunfire. The successful defense was credited to de la Viña’s ploy of mounting banana and coconut trunks along the shore to make them look like cannons. They held branches, so from a distance, they looked like rifles. This trick compelled the Spaniards to think de la Viña and his men were fully equipped with weapons and fled.
After the liberation of the province from the Spaniards, Don Diego, along with the educated and landed illustrados of the province, organized a Provisional Government in Dumaguete. It was situated in the house of Teniente Cornelio Yapsutco which is currently owned b the heirs of Dr. and Mrs. Vicente Locsin. The Revolutionary Council elected Demetrio Larena as the government’s President and Diego de la Viña as Delegate of War, with an appointed position of Brigadier General of the Negros Oriental Revolutionary Forces. This was a position he most preferred so that he would still have the revolutionary forces under his control.
The provisional revolutionary government was under President Emilio Aguinaldo. It was called Republica Filipina de Negros Oriental. When the provisional government convened, Gen. Juan Araneta of Negros Occidental proposed the creation of a Federal Republic or a cantonal form of government. “Canton” was the name given to each state in the Swiss federation, each having its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Consequently, the Negros Oriental provisional revolutionary government was absorbed into the cantonal government of Negros, without giving up their allegiance to the Republic of Malolos. Conflicts arose when Negros Oriental delegates were asked to raise the American flag which was contrary to their loyalty to Aguinaldo’s government. The delegates of Negros Oriental refused because of their loyalty to the Malolos Republic and also because they felt they were not consulted on the matter. Furthermore, they felt they were not ready to be subjugated again by another foreign power whose motives and nature of “imperialism” they were unaware of.
Thus Negros Oriental reverted back to being the Republica Filipina de Negros Oriental. Don Diego de la Viña, along with Papa Isio and the other babylanes, led the people’s efforts against the new colonizers. It was only with the persuasion of General Juan Araneta, Secretary of War for the Cantonal Republic of Negros Occidental that Don Diego finally submitted to American sovereignty in 1899. Papa Isio continued to resist American rule before surrendering in August 1907. He was confined in Manila’s Bilibid Prison where he eventually died in 1911.
Jose de la Viña was initially anti-American but eventually, like his father and other hacienderos, thought it best to cooperate with the Americans for material interests. As the new civil government was being put in place in 1901 with Don Demetrio Larena as Governor, Don Diego moved back to Bagawines. He led the move to make Vallehermoso a town. Through his lobbying it was eventually separated from Guihulngan and was made into a municipal town on January 1, 1913 by an executive proclamation of then Acting Governor-General Newton Gilbert through then Provincial Governor of Negros Oriental, Don Felipe Takyo. The municipality consisted of the barrios of Tabon, Puan, Macapso, and Vallehermoso (Don Diego’s original landholdings which he donated). Don Diego donated a site for a school building, the municipal hall, the market, and the plaza. Negros Oriental officially became a province on March 10, 1917. Three years later, on March 27, 1920, Don Diego passed away.
In 1934, Negros Oriental became a corregimiento, a separate military district. That same year, President Manuel L. Quezon headed a “Philippine Independence Mission” to Washington DC that successfully secured the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, a United States federal law providing for the self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States. The Tydings-McDuffie Act provided for drafting and guidelines of a Constitution for a 10-year “transitional period” which became the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines before the granting of Philippine Independence. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention from Negros Oriental were Jose Romero, Sergio Jumawan, Vicente Lopez, Sr., and Hermenegildo Villanueva.
Table 1 on page 50 enumerates the government officials of Vallehermoso during the Commonwealth period, from 1919-1942, and their official positions and terms of office. Table 2 lists those who served in the Japanese time.
One of the highlights of the Commonwealth government was the passing of a law giving women the right to suffrage. On April 30, 1937, women of the Philippines were granted the right to vote and to be voted. This paved the way in granting women full participation in political affairs, allowing them to become powerful forces in Philippine politics, business, and other sectors of society. In 1937, the country’s first lady mayor, whom President Manuel Quezon complimented as “La Primera Presidenta del Pais,” was elected in Vallehermoso. She was Ines Serion. Vallehermoso prides itself as being the only town that’s has had three lady mayors already. After Mayor Ines Serion, Vallehermoso was governed by two more women, Mayor Francisca c. Villegas (1952-1955) and Mayor Perla Fernandez (May 2006 to May 2010).
When World War II broke out, Vallehermoso offered intense resistance against the Japanese forces. It became a stronghold of the guerilla forces and a bailiwick of the 75th Infantry Regiment of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) which established its headquarters in Bagawines. Since the town was the headquarters of the USAFFE, General Basilio J. Valdes and President Sergio Osmeña, Sr. paid a quick visit there in 1942. They were in the company of President Manuel Quezon, who made a brief stopover for lunch in Panubigan en route to San Carlos City. General Valdes and President Osmeña conferred with Colonel Ballesteros, commander of the USAFFE headquarters.
The existence of the USAFFE in Vallehermoso was brief. Japanese forces had occupied the nearby neighboring provinces of Negros Occidental and Cebu. Jose (Peping) Osmeña, son of Sergio Sr., Colonel Valeriano, father of General Napoleon Valeriano, and Atty. Jose Severino were sent as emissaries to Vallehermoso to negotiate the peaceful surrender of the 74th and 75th Infantry regiments. Corporal Justo Lusoc, a member of the 75th Infantry regiment, resisted and shot the three emissaries in the premises of Don Diego’s house in Bagawines. Colonel Lusoc was taken by the Japanese to Cebu and was never heard of since.
Just the same, Vallehermoso was not spared from the ravages of war. World War II interrupted the political, social, and economic progress of the town. In the early part of May until September 1942, troops of the Japanese Imperial Army occupied the municipality and set up their headquarters at the Vallehermoso Central School and at the house of Ciriaco G. Olladas. The municipal officials designated by the Japanese Army in a transitory manner served for a very short period. Amidst the war’s turmoil, the guerillas were able to organize a temporary local government with appointed municipal mayors.
The experience and superior weapons of the Japanese were no match to the fighting spirit of the guerillas, whose leader was Florencio Gemillan. They managed to engage the enemy in brief encounters in Poblacion, Mampayao, Anonog, Bagawines, and the La Castellano-Vallehermoso National Road. Unable to outmaneuver the guerillas, the Japanese were compelled to move out to San Carlos. Afterwards, they only did mere and occasional patrolling in Vallehermoso.
In April 1943, the Japanese bombed the Home Economics Building and a residence in Vallehermoso. They returned in 1944 to establish a garrison in Bagawines. A fierce gun battle ensued with the guerillas under the command of Lieutenant Abcede. The Japanese were again forced to flee to San Carlos.
In 1946, after the surrender of the Japanese, peace and order returned once again to Vallehermoso. President Sergio Osmeña reappointed Mayor Ines Serion to her post in 1945. The local government machinery started to function again.
On July 4, 1946 the Philippine independence was declared, ending the Commonwealth regime. A Republican form of government was established in the country. With the declaration of independence, the local government administration returned to normal. Local government officials governed the municipality for a term of four years. Vallehermoso’s municipal leaders during the era of the Republic Government are shown in Table 4 on page 53.
Government officials Ines V. Serion, Juan G. Bernus, Woodrow E. Serion, and Buenaventura S. Olladas are all descendents of Don Diego de la Viña. When the province celebrated its first centennial celebration, Don Diego de la Viña was honored as “The Man of the Century.”
The barrio of Vallehermoso became the 25th municipality of Negros Oriental when President Manuel Roxas issued an Executive Order on October 11, 1946. When Canlaon became a municipality, the barrios of Panubigan, Linothangan, Maslog, Budlasan with all the sitios composing said barrios, and the sitio of Lucap of the barrio of Malaiba were taken away from Vallehermoso.
From the 70s onwards
When President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972, the writ of habeas corpus and the local elections were suspended with random replacement of local officials. During Martial Law, President Marcos appointed Dr. Woodrow E. Serion as municipal mayor of Vallehermoso serving from September 16, 1979 to January 1980. When Martial Law was lifted and electrons returned, he became the 12th elected municipal mayor of Vallehermoso from January 20, 1980 to April 21, 1985.
After the EDSA revolution in February 1986, another set of officials in the municipality replaced the existing officials and governed the locality for another epoch in its local history. Table 4 presents the local officials who replaced the officials during the Martial Law Era.
Vallehermoso falls under the legislative jurisdiction of the First District of Negros Oriental, along with the municipalities of Guihulngan, La Libertad, Jimalalud, Tayasan, Bindoy, Ayungon, Manjuyod, and Canlaon City.
The political configuration of the Municipality of Vallehermoso as belonging to the province of Negros Oriental, is such that it is a component of a bigger provincial and national political structure. With the passage of time, Vallehermoso has submitted itself to provincial policies and the governance of different governors, vice governors, provincial board members, and representatives to Congress. Currently, the Provincial Board reviews and approves resolutions and ordinances for the municipality. It also financially supports some projects and programs.
Vallehermoso’s Local Government Unit (LGU) is composed of the executive and legislative offices, as well as the various offices and agencies needed to carry out the services and programs of the municipality. The executive office is composed of the Office of the Mayor where the mayor is the chief officer. The legislative arm is made up of the Sangguniang Bayan or the Municipal Council presided by the Vice Mayor.
The mayor exercises general supervision and control over all programs, projects, services, and activities of the municipality; enforces all laws and ordinances relative to the governance of the municipality; initiates and maximizes the generation of resources and revenues; and applies the same to the implementation of the town’s development plans, program objectives, and priorities.
The Sangguniang Bayan enacts ordinances, approves resolutions, and appropriates funds for the general welfare of the municipality and all its residents. It also exercises the corporate powers of the municipality.
Through time, the various forms of government that have been created in Vallehermoso attest to the fact that the political leadership there is still very much dominated by two maternally related families—the Serions and the Villegases (Cleope and Balasabas, Jr). this is not surprising as they are the principal landowners in Vallehermoso and are able to control the votes of their laborers or tenants.
Challenges of the Present
Today, Vallehermoso faces the indubitable task of confronting the problems besetting the country like unemployment, poverty, lack of educational and medical facilities, insurgency, graft and corruption, moral decadence, and environmental destruction. Nonetheless, solutions are achievable with political will and determination. Its political leaders and the people of Vallehermoso are faced with two options: succumb to these problems or gear up with the spirit of Don Diego and Mayor Ines Serion in blazing new trails which will offer the children and succeeding generations a brighter future. The choice is for everyone to make.
From mere frontier lands, Vallehermoso grew into a municipal town due to a visionary named Don Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa. He married Apolonia de la Cruz, and they had seven children. One daughter, Mercedes, married Esperidion Villegas. Another daughter Dolores, married Mateo Serion. The third, Adela, married Juan Morales. When Apolonia died, Don Diego married Narcissa Geopano with whom he had three more daughters: Saturnina, who married Juan Perez; Lina, who married Jose Valmayor, and Amalia, who married Prudencio Fernandez.
Don Diego’s children and their descendants became prominent landowners and eventually formed the ruling class of Vallehermoso. As is common among the powerful and wealthy, intermarriages often took place in this circle and created linkages among most families in succeeding generations.
Don Diego and his son, Jose, became the epitome of the mestizo power in Vallehermoso during those times which could actually be attributed to their huge landholdings. Filomena V. Aguilar in her book, Clash of the Spirits, narrates that, the people believed that Jose had some spiritual powers. They alleged him capable of knowing a person’s whereabouts, that his body was invincible to bullets, and that he could turn people into dust and cure illnesses using herbs and potions. He reportedly scraped pieces off a crucifix during Good Friday for use as anting-anting or charms. He climbed Mount Canlaon during Holy Week to increase his powers and supposedly communed with the spirits who were his friends. These perceptions of Jose de la Viña allowed him to manipulate local beliefs in his rise to power.
The Arrival of Iloilo’s Lopez Clan
During the depression years of the sugar industry in the 1920’s, a Spanish company named Tabacalera (actually the Compania General de Tabacos de Filipina S.A. Compania de Filipinas) foreclosed haciendas which could not pay their credits. One of them was Hacienda Fortuna owned by the Gay family. Don Julio Ledesma from Iloilo purchased the hacienda from Tabacalera.
The same misfortune befell Don Diego de la Viña’s hacienda. According to Zaffy Ledesma, a historian in the Lopez clan, the foreclosed property was sold to Don Vicente Lopez, Sr. around 1924. Don Vicente belonged to the Lopez clan of Jaro. His hacienda was subsequently divided into two farms: Hacienda Doña Elena, named after his wife, and was inherited by his son, Vicente Jr. (nicknamed Tiking); Hacienda Lilia, named after Tiking’s sister, was inherited by Lilia Lopez-Jison. Vicente Senior’s niece, Rosario Lopez, married Arthur Cooper and became a landowner in Pinocauan.
Vallehermoso has become a melting pot of people who have migrated from Cebu, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, and other parts of the country. The majority of residents are Cebuanos, followed by the Kankanais, Hiligaynons, and Ilonggos, and then by the Attas and Ifugaos. Other minority groups found in Vallehermoso hail from Masbate, Batangas, Pampanga, Samar, Leyte, Bicol, Aklan, Ilocos, Muslim Mindanao, and the Tagalog provinces. A handful of women have also married foreigners who have given rise to a new generation of Eurasian and Amerasian children.
Most people in Vallehermoso speak Cebuano. In the 1990 census, there were only three other dialects: Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and Butuanon. However, in 1995, the census showed an increase in the number of migrants from other non-Cebuano speaking provinces.
When President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972, the writ of habeas corpus and the local elections were suspended with random replacement of local officials. During Martial Law, President Marcos appointed Dr. Woodrow E. Serion as municipal mayor of Vallehermoso serving from September 16, 1979 to January 1980. When Martial Law was lifted and electrons returned, he became the 12th elected municipal mayor of Vallehermoso from January 20, 1980 to April 21, 1985.
After the EDSA revolution in February 1986, another set of officials in the municipality replaced the existing officials and governed the locality for another epoch in its local history. Table 4 presents the local officials who replaced the officials during the Martial Law Era.
Vallehermoso falls under the legislative jurisdiction of the First District of Negros Oriental, along with the municipalities of Guihulngan, La Libertad, Jimalalud, Tayasan, Bindoy, Ayungon, Manjuyod, and Canlaon City.
The political configuration of the Municipality of Vallehermoso as belonging to the province of Negros Oriental, is such that it is a component of a bigger provincial and national political structure. With the passage of time, Vallehermoso has submitted itself to provincial policies and the governance of different governors, vice governors, provincial board members, and representatives to Congress. Currently, the Provincial Board reviews and approves resolutions and ordinances for the municipality. It also financially supports some projects and programs.
Vallehermoso’s Local Government Unit (LGU) is composed of the executive and legislative offices, as well as the various offices and agencies needed to carry out the services and programs of the municipality. The executive office is composed of the Office of the Mayor where the mayor is the chief officer. The legislative arm is made up of the Sangguniang Bayan or the Municipal Council presided by the Vice Mayor.
The mayor exercises general supervision and control over all programs, projects, services, and activities of the municipality; enforces all laws and ordinances relative to the governance of the municipality; initiates and maximizes the generation of resources and revenues; and applies the same to the implementation of the town’s development plans, program objectives, and priorities.
The Sangguniang Bayan enacts ordinances, approves resolutions, and appropriates funds for the general welfare of the municipality and all its residents. It also exercises the corporate powers of the municipality.
Through time, the various forms of government that have been created in Vallehermoso attest to the fact that the political leadership there is still very much dominated by two maternally related families—the Serions and the Villegases (Cleope and Balasabas, Jr). this is not surprising as they are the principal landowners in Vallehermoso and are able to control the votes of their laborers or tenants.
Challenges of the Present
Today, Vallehermoso faces the indubitable task of confronting the problems besetting the country like unemployment, poverty, lack of educational and medical facilities, insurgency, graft and corruption, moral decadence, and environmental destruction. Nonetheless, solutions are achievable with political will and determination. Its political leaders and the people of Vallehermoso are faced with two options: succumb to these problems or gear up with the spirit of Don Diego and Mayor Ines Serion in blazing new trails which will offer the children and succeeding generations a brighter future. The choice is for everyone to make.
From mere frontier lands, Vallehermoso grew into a municipal town due to a visionary named Don Diego de la Viña y de la Rosa. He married Apolonia de la Cruz, and they had seven children. One daughter, Mercedes, married Esperidion Villegas. Another daughter Dolores, married Mateo Serion. The third, Adela, married Juan Morales. When Apolonia died, Don Diego married Narcissa Geopano with whom he had three more daughters: Saturnina, who married Juan Perez; Lina, who married Jose Valmayor, and Amalia, who married Prudencio Fernandez.
Don Diego’s children and their descendants became prominent landowners and eventually formed the ruling class of Vallehermoso. As is common among the powerful and wealthy, intermarriages often took place in this circle and created linkages among most families in succeeding generations.
Don Diego and his son, Jose, became the epitome of the mestizo power in Vallehermoso during those times which could actually be attributed to their huge landholdings. Filomena V. Aguilar in her book, Clash of the Spirits, narrates that, the people believed that Jose had some spiritual powers. They alleged him capable of knowing a person’s whereabouts, that his body was invincible to bullets, and that he could turn people into dust and cure illnesses using herbs and potions. He reportedly scraped pieces off a crucifix during Good Friday for use as anting-anting or charms. He climbed Mount Canlaon during Holy Week to increase his powers and supposedly communed with the spirits who were his friends. These perceptions of Jose de la Viña allowed him to manipulate local beliefs in his rise to power.
The Arrival of Iloilo’s Lopez Clan
During the depression years of the sugar industry in the 1920’s, a Spanish company named Tabacalera (actually the Compania General de Tabacos de Filipina S.A. Compania de Filipinas) foreclosed haciendas which could not pay their credits. One of them was Hacienda Fortuna owned by the Gay family. Don Julio Ledesma from Iloilo purchased the hacienda from Tabacalera.
The same misfortune befell Don Diego de la Viña’s hacienda. According to Zaffy Ledesma, a historian in the Lopez clan, the foreclosed property was sold to Don Vicente Lopez, Sr. around 1924. Don Vicente belonged to the Lopez clan of Jaro. His hacienda was subsequently divided into two farms: Hacienda Doña Elena, named after his wife, and was inherited by his son, Vicente Jr. (nicknamed Tiking); Hacienda Lilia, named after Tiking’s sister, was inherited by Lilia Lopez-Jison. Vicente Senior’s niece, Rosario Lopez, married Arthur Cooper and became a landowner in Pinocauan.
Vallehermoso has become a melting pot of people who have migrated from Cebu, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, and other parts of the country. The majority of residents are Cebuanos, followed by the Kankanais, Hiligaynons, and Ilonggos, and then by the Attas and Ifugaos. Other minority groups found in Vallehermoso hail from Masbate, Batangas, Pampanga, Samar, Leyte, Bicol, Aklan, Ilocos, Muslim Mindanao, and the Tagalog provinces. A handful of women have also married foreigners who have given rise to a new generation of Eurasian and Amerasian children.
Most people in Vallehermoso speak Cebuano. In the 1990 census, there were only three other dialects: Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and Butuanon. However, in 1995, the census showed an increase in the number of migrants from other non-Cebuano speaking provinces.