| Legend of Sagbayan |
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| Written by Administrator | |
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Sagbayan is an interior community southwest of Clarin. It is 76.5 kilometers from the capital. It used to be barrio made up of a portion of Clarin, Inabanga, Carmen and Balilihan. It was made a regular municipality by executive order issued by the late President Elpedio Quirino on February 9, 1949. It was called Borja in honor of Salustiano Borja, the first elected Governor of Province. However, the name was later changed to Sagbayan the original name of the barrio. As the story goes, Sagbayan was named after the first settler of this locality. He came from Balilihan to this locality to escape punishment for cattle rustling. Another story has it that in the early days, people used to hang (Sagbay) hides of deer on the trees to dry after their hunting expeditions. So, the place came to be known as Sagbayan, meaning, the place of hanging. At the beginning of 1920’s Sagbayan was merely a jungle inhabited by monkeys and wild pigs, and infested with malaria. Later, however, it became an important barrio of Clarin. It became a center of trade of people from the interior and the coastal towns. Here the people bartered fish and other seafood’s for rice, corn and root crops. The primitive industries of the town are farming, making firecrackers and various households industries like mat - weaving, basket weaving and bakya-making. The main agricultural crops are: rice, corn, coconut, camote and other root crops and vegetables. |