Capoocan Leyte Municipal Tour

Source: Capoocan Leyte LGU

History

The name Capoocan has been drawn from the local word “kapook.” In English, it means full of obstructions. The place was then choked by jungle growths.

Before the Spanish colonial rulers made it an administrative unit, Capoocan was covered by thick forests. Folks from other environs, who travelled here on foot, had difficulty passing through the place. The trail was so narrow and laced by brushes travellers would murmur “Kapook,” a sigh at having no leeway or space to move. The persistent complaint of the visitors, whenever they negotiated the narrow trails hemmed by mangroves and knotted by forest growths, led to the calling of the place Capoocan.

Capoocan briefly became a municipality in the early 18th century. But not long after, it again reverted to a barrio of Carigara, Leyte.

Prior to gaining permanent municipal status in 1918, the barrio was a lethargic community far off the mother town of Carigara. Development was nil, constrained by hardships in cultivation and the remoteness of the place from the hubs of commerce and industry. The place was virtually isolated with no provincial or national road links to the other busy towns east and south. Its means of transportation then was the waters of the Carigara Bay.

Geographic and natural physical limitations initially slowed the area’s progress. The farmers had difficulty trading produce and earning cash. Transporting agricultural goods to Carigara and other markets was a big problem and at times impossible. The obstacles crippled the local economy and stamped Capoocan in perennial underdevelopment.

Still during the Philippine commonwealth period, on November 23, 1917 American Gov. Gen. Francis Burton Harrison issued Executive Order 87 weaning Capoocan from Carigara. The administrative separation reorganized it into a municipality. The decree took effect on January 01, 1918. With the milestone, the barrio became a full-fledge town.

As a young 6th class municipality then, Capoocan ran into overwhelming difficulties at providing basic services, food, health care, education, shelter, infrastructure, and livelihood.  Hardships in obtaining basic needs were aggravated by the frequent attacks of Moro marauders dating back to the 18th century, and continuing up to the Japanese invasion in 1943.

The outbreak of World War II and the heavy-handed occupation of the Japanese imperial forces worsened the hapless and impoverished condition of the municipality. Violence and bestiality ran over the populace as the cruelty of war rose into full display with most of the houses razed to the ground, and the people castigated, abused and enslaved or put to death by the invaders. In the midst of war, Capoocan reeled under the full impact of destruction. It reeked with the foul smell of decay from strewn animal carcasses all over the place.

The grim situation compelled evacuation to the interior barrios. Frightened residents took refuge in hinterlands. The center of Capoocan became “no man’s land” throughout the latter part of the conflict. Urbanizing areas in that time of development were depopulated. The local economy beached or beat back to the Stone Age.

After the Japanese defeat, in the dawn of peace, Capoocan slowly recuperated. It took the faltering steps at first in rebuilding infrastructure and revitalizing the economy. But the steps were nevertheless determined. The local folks got together to reconstruct houses, plant the fields scarred by war, grew crops, like palay and corn, and rose to a new day. Communal fishing returned. Enterprising individuals pursued business. Industry chalked ground.

Garnering strength from strife and valuable lessons from experience, Capoocan built back through the years a much better place than in pre-war times. A succession of able leaders at the helm of local administration, term after term, mustered unity and cohesion among the diverse members of the community. Disparate directions were welded into one, and although at times halting, the march to progress went on.

A self-governing local unit, manned by its own elective officials, learned both in the politics of pragmatism with a hint of idealism, is what Capoocan is now. Human and land resource made it advance to a fourth class municipality combining achievements at economic growth with humane social welfare. It is treading the road to fullest development as self-reliant community