Source: Municipality of General Luna
Many legends had been attached to the reason why this town had been known as Cabuntog in ancient times. Foremost is the legend of huge bell in the local church that when it rings, it can be heard as far as the mainland of Mindanao. Its sound allegedly summons the Muslim raiders to its shores. To protect itself against this depredation, it was decided to get rid of the bell. They did so by dumping the same at Campujong River. Dumping is “Buntog” in the local dialect, hence, the name.
Records, however, tells a different tale. General Luna, then known as Cabuntog in ancient times enjoyed a peaceful as well as bloody era. The original inhabitants of the place belong to the group of people known as the “Caragans” or people from the region known as Caraga. They subsist on fishing and farming. They live a life that was relatively tranquil and peaceful until the time of the Spanish colonizers sometime in the late 15th century. The arrival of these colonizers and their harsh treatment of the people caused resentment and misgivings amongst its populace that in the year 1631, the Caragan’s revolted in the mainland and attacked and leveled Cabuntog to the ground. The parish priest’s life was spared due to his earlier departure to Bacuag but his assistant was captured and was beheaded in a swampy area, noe believed to be the swampland between Barangay Malinao of General Luna and Barangay Union of the municipality of Dapa.
The years between 1631 to1749 was a century of peace. The Christianization of the area went on smoothly and the people were persuaded to abandon their tree dwellings and inhabit the surroundings of what is now General Luna. This tranquil atmosphere was again broken when Muslim raiders came and leveled “El Parokya de Cabuntog”. They did it again five years later in 1756 and again in 1856. The in between years that lasted almost a century, between the burnings with its attendant atrocities, General Luna, live a humdrum, idyllic life that its people live simply for the sake of living, never minding its past nor looking forward towards the future. Its forest and verdant hills and teeming white shores contained so many game animals and fish and its land produced abundant food for its people. The living was easy.
The advent of American colonization reduced the “pueblo” to a barangay of the municipality of Dapa. It however bounced back to its present status two decades later through the efforts of the local political stalwarts of the time like Silvestre C. Plaza, Agosto E. Espejon, Montano Minglana, Mauricio E. Comandante, Fabian E. Camingue, etc. who in time, served the town either as a mayor or a councilor.
August 1, 1929 marked as the official day of the formal entry of General Luna as an organized unit of government in Philippine Government System. The succeeding years saw the peaceful change of government through the electoral processes except during the Japanese Occupation and EDSA revolution.
External Links:
> General Luna Blog Website
> General Luna Official Website
