ABOUT THE MUNICIPALITY OF DOLORES
Municipality of Dolores,
Eastern Samar
DOLORES (EASTERN SAMAR) was born in 1650, when some inhabitants of Bacod (or Bacor) established what eventually became a tiny village nestling about a kilometer from the mouth of Dolores (formerly known as Bacod river). This village was named Dolores (in English, the Spanish word dolores means sorrows) to signify the sorrows and sufferings Bacodnons experienced on account of their armed participation in the Sumuroy Rebellion in 1649. To be sure, its beginnings is intertwined with the history of three villages: Bacod, Jubasan, and Paric. This calls for a concise explanation.
Bacod and the Origins of Dolores. Located about two kilometers from the mouth of Dolores river, Bacod was a bungto (large village) in existence before the Spaniards came to the area in 1565. The Jesuits stationed in Palapag evangelized it in 1602. In 1649, together with the bungto of Jubasan (see below), the village of Bacod was suppressed and consolidated with that of Tubig (now Taft) as a consequence of Agustin Sumuroy’s rebellion that started in Palapag, in which Bacodnons were involved. On account of this suppression, some residents went near the mouth of the river to put up a cluster of houses that eventually became the small village (rancheria) of Dolores. That is how Dolores was born in 1650. Other Bacodnons transferred to the village of Carolina, about a kilometer west of Bacod. I may be noted that the bungto of Bacod was later eroded by floods. Which is why, it reverted to the status of a visita (see below). By 1895, its population was greatly reduced; it had only 20 villagers, 9 male and 11 female. The central part of the bungto of Bacod was completely submerged in Dolores river in the 1930s, though the remains of the stone church and the stone convento could be easily located. The abandoned portion of the bungto that remained was renamed Binungtoan by Doloresnons.
St. Joachim Parish
The Visita of Paric Became a Pueblo. In the late 16th century, the rancheria (sitio) of Dolores became part of the visita (barrio) of Paric, which was formerly under the jurisdiction of Jubasan. It should be recollected that Jubasan, like Bacod, was a pre-Hispanic village located about two kilometers from the entrance of what is now called Can-avid (or Ulot) river. On account of the erosion of the bungto, many of its inhabitants transferred to the small village of Paric, located east of Jubasan, which later on, due to population increase, became a visita of Tubig (Taft). (What remained of Jubasan became the origin of what is now the barrio of Giboangan.) In early 1700s, Paric was already a significant visita. Tthe Franciscans, who came to Samar in 1768, began visiting it. In 1839, Fr Manuel Valverde, with the cooperation of the civil authorities of Tubig, prepared its civil and ecclesiastical separation from its mother town.