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Population (Y2000) = 32,712
Total Land Area =162.40 sq.km.

Matnog barangays (villages) totalling 40 can be classified into two - Inland and Coastal - as to their location:

Based on my personal knowledge, the so-called Inland Barangays (villages not along the coast or has no seashore area) are: Balocawe, Banogao, Bariis, Bolo, Cabagahan, Calpi, Gadgaron, Hidhid, Laboy, Manjumlad, Lajong, Calpi, Pangi, Pawa, Sinalmacan, Sinang-atan, Sinibaran, Sisigon, Sulangan, Tugas;

The Coastal villages: Banuangdaan (Banongdaan), Bon-ot Small, Bon-ot Big, Calayuan, Calintaan, Coron-coron, Culasi, Genablan Occidental, Genablan Oriental, Man-urabi, Mambajog, Naburacan, Paghuliran, Puropandan, Santa Isabel, Sua, and the five barangays that composed Matnog town proper: Caloocan, Camachiles, Camcaman, Tablac, and Tabunan.

Matnog is one of the 14 towns of Sorsogon province. Its geographical location made it the ideal choice for a seaport for land travellers going to Visayas and Mindanao and vice versa; thus, the "Gateway Town".

(to be continued)...

A map of Sorsogon - its 14 towns are highlighted in colors. Matnog is in yellow.

Matnog Boundary:
Matnog has on its north the town of Irosin (the province's biggest rice producer and the only inland town of Sorsogon); On west is Bulan (the largest, and the only 1st class town); On east is the Pacific Ocean and the town of Sta. Magdalena (formerly a part of Matnog); and on south is the much-dreaded San Bernandino Strait . Across this strait, is the Philippine's 3rd biggest island Samar of the Visayas group of islands.

The original location of today's Matnog town center was on the east side across the Matnog River where present villages of Banongdaan (or Banuang Daan meaning Old Town) and Sta. Isabel are located.

For many years, Banongdaan and Sta. Isabel villages were connected to the town proper by a footbridge out of interconnected cut lumbers that would usually disappear; carried away by the river during a typhoon. It has been recently replaced during the term of its Mayor Guillermo So with a wider one, sturdy enough to accommodate land vehicles.

On how the name Matnog came about? My grade school teacher had this old story that there was a Spaniard who happened to venture in the area and asked the place's name to a native whom he first saw. Seemingly flustered by the sight of this white-skinned stranger pointing to the seashore that time being battered by waves, the native replied "matonog" (very sonorous) - a local dialect describing the sound of the wave. Thus, the name began. Overtime it evolved to its present name Matnog.

Matnog was probably a small settlement already as most of coastal places in pre-Spanish Philippines were. It may not have ancient artifacts buried on its lands nor writings on its caves -- as the place is yet to be explored - but among the basis of this conjecture were:

1. Its proximity to Visayan islands particularly Samar which was then home to some thriving settlements.
2. Most towns in Sorsogon bear Spanish names, This place was named Matnog by the people who first reached and settled the place long before the Spanish came to the Philippines.
3. Unknown to many, it interest me to learn that Matnog have namesakes - the”Matanog” in Mindanao; “Matnog” in Cebu. A town in Samar named Maydolong was formerly called Matnog.

History have accounts of people those days giving name(s) of lands they think they discovered and then settled, from name of their place of origin.

As a coastal settlement, Matnog was not spared from the atrocities by the much-feared Moro pirates who raided and pillaged every thriving coastal settlements during that era.

"In July 1754, while the townspeople of Matnog were tending their fields, the pirates raided and burned their houses. Many of the citizens were left dead by the wayside." (lifted from a written account titled Moro Piracy during the Spanish Period).

The alarming frequency the Moros would pillage, had forced residents to abandon their place as residents of Matnog's neighbor town Bulan did.

But Matnog residents including those in Gubat and in Bulusan, chose to stay and and learned to fend off the menace until the building of stone watchtowers.

The building of watchtowers (or baluartes de piedra in Spanish) on coastal towns as a deterrent to vandalistic Moros, was conceived in 1799 by Albay provincial officials leaders. Matnog town founded in 1800 was then a part of Albay Province so with all the towns and places that composed today's Sorsogon province.

Matnog folks are mostly Roman Catholics but other Faiths though with fewer followers exist as well notably Jehovahs Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventist, Church of the Latter Day Saints or Mormon, Iglesia ni Cristo or Church of Christ, and recently Islam (on 1998). These composed the town's religious diversity.

Each barangay or village has a small Roman-Catholic chapel where the town's lone parish priest visits to celebrate Mass. Other faiths have their main house of worship: Jehovah's Witness (in Barangay Manjumlad), Seventh-Day Adventist (Bgy Tablac-town proper), Iglesia ni Cristo (Bgy Sulangan), The Mormons (Tablac), and Islam (Bgy. Caloocan-town proper).

Matnog residents would be surprised to know that their plain-looking Church building (in photo) had been PHOTO-DOCUMENTED with other churches as an EXAMPLE OF FILIPINO-SPANISH architecture in the Philippines.

It was photographed along with many other Roman Catholic churches in the country by a well-known Smithsonian Institution curator and Photographer Mr. Richard E. Ahlborn (1933- ) Collection, c. 1965 (Collection 20) and included it in his collection of photographic survey of Filipino-Hispanic architecture and art in the Philippines circa 1572-1815 , with 568 black and white negatives and prints made by Abbye A. Gorin and Harriet Blum. The Collection has corresponding descriptive note cards with contact prints, other prints and written materials. Representative images of church architecture in this collection.

The inventory is available in the Collection's accession file in the Latin American Library office. Some of the entries in the inventory were:
024+ / Luzon / Sorsogon / Bulan / Church and convento. Exterior: facades.
042 / Luxon / Sorsogon / Matnog / Church. Exterior: facade [from gospel side], wall, base of bell tower.
486 / Luzon / Zambales / Botolan / Church. Exterior: facade.
487 / Luzon / Zambales / Iba / Church. Exterior: facade.
488 / Luzon / Zambales / Iba / Church. Exterior: entry to epistle side of nave.

Interestingly, only Bulan's and Matnog's among other churches in Sorsogon had been cited. The parish authority that time might have been unaware of this citation when the church's original belfry with big bell was replaced in the late 60's with a much taller one (in photo) and with a smaller bell that can be manually operated from the ground using a string. The church's interior and the facade had undergone some renovation too particulary during the stint of Father Mora.

The church has thick walls (more than a meter) made of coral limestone that made it a safe haven for many in those times of strong typhoons and Moro raids.

It is not widely known but this church building had sheltered Americans soldiers who were waging war on insurgents in Matnog during the American era.

This photo was taken atop the church belfry. (This is probably my last as i vowed not to climbed again on this belfry's rusty steel rung).

It shows here among others, the Matnog Presidencia (municipal hall) facing the public park where the statue of Philippines' national hero Jose Rizal facing Matnog Bay was erected. On the left side of the photo is a green-roof house beside it, is my grandma's house - its blue roof partly protruding and blocked by tree leaves.
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During the Spanish regime, Albay province covered the entire areas that comprised the "new" province - Sorsogon - of today. It was on 17 October 1894 this separation (from Albay) took effect.

While under Albay, Sorsogon became a parroquia (independent parish) in 1628 - the third after Casiguran (1600), and Bacon (1617).

Bulusan was fourth in 1630. Matnog, along with Gubat, Bulan, Irosin, Barcelona, and Sta. Magdalena, was a "visita" of Bulusan.

It was on 1785 (or 155 years after Bulusan) that Matnog became an independent parish and eventually by a superior decree became a Pueblo Civil (town) on 1800.

The Port of Matnog was built on the area of "rempiolas" of yore - the most popular walkway of the local residents, and their guests. And it is where helicopter of campaigning political candidates would land. Then, it had a wooden berth (pantalan) that would wobble once passengers stepped on from the lone passenger ship MV Maria Cristina that plies from Samar to Matnog and vice versa. In those days when wristwatch was a luxury in our materially-poorer neighborhood, the ship's arrival means 10:00 am- time to prepare for Lunch :).

The Port has now a big terminal building and with longer concrete berthing place for bigger ferry boats . A ferry could load 14 big busses and few numbers of smaller vehicle.

Here are the Top Passenger Ports of The Philippines as gleaned from
1999 Passenger Port & Traffic Statistics:

1. Manila, North Harbor--- 4,140,074
2. Zamboanga City----------2,629,855
3. Ozamis----------------------2,605,715
4. Iloilo--------------------------2,522,484
5. Batangas-------------------2,341,969
6. Calapan-------------------- 1,601,974
7. Tagbilaran----------------- 1,600,771
8. Matnog--------------------- 1,458,661
9. Cagayan de Oro--------- 1,280,670
10. Dumaguete------------- 1,239,277
11. Basilan------------------- 1,239,277

Passenger Traffic Statistics Source: Philippine Ports Authority.

From the hills, one can have a lovely panoramic view of the town's lush surrounding overlooking the blue sea of Matnog Bay and Ticling Island with its white-sandy beach--- a view which i wished to be captured by trained lensmen.

I did'nt occur to me until i read in the Net two years ago that Ticling Island is up for sale. A foreign property broker called the "almost circular" island Cupid Island, a name that prompted me to email them on the new name.

Location: West of the town center.
Shown here were my aunt and grandma (on her rare foray to the sea) taking a dip in the warm waters of Barangay Tabunan's Sabang Beach, one of the popular due to its accessibility. It is also where Matnog's Sinibaran River empties.

Beyond the beach, is the seldom frequented Mantaed where we used to gather live sea shells on a low tide. This secluded place is separated from Sabang by a small hill that jutted to the sea.

Taken minutes after a motorboat ("motor" to the local), left the town's shore for an island-hopping trip.