Burgos, Pangasinan

Burgos is politically subdivided into 14 barangays.

• Anapao (Bur Anapac)
• Cacayasen
• Concordia
• Ilio-ilio (Iliw-iliw)
• Papallasen
• Poblacion
• Pogoruac
• Don Matias
• San Miguel
• San Pascual
• San Vicente
• Sapa Grande
• Sapa Pequeña
• Tambacan

In the first part of the 19th century, Matías Guiang, a mighty sailor-explorer from the town of Paoay, Ilocos Norte, regularly traveled the China Sea between the Ilocos and Zambales regions for the purpose of trade. Attracted to its agricultural possibilities, Matías Guiang along with his family, friends and neighbors eventually migrated to Zambales del Norte, now the westernmost part of the province of Pangasinan. They disembarked at the mouth of the Agno River by tracing it.

They found a settlement in the eastern part of the present town proper. The provincial government of Zambales has not ignored the ever increasing population of San Isidro and as it saw the necessity of a government to oversee the village. Don Matías Guiang made history, as quoted from the Philippine Archives, when on May 15, 1830 the Spanish Governor of Iba, Zambales issued a decree creating the settlement into a pueblo and appointed Don Matías Guiang, who was then the most wealthy and influential land owner of the place, as the first gobernadorcillo of the town. San Isidro de Potot was its incorporated name in honor of Saint Isidore the Laborer, whom the settlers had adopted, loved and revered as their patron saint.

In the late 19th century, the gobernadorcillo was Don Tomás Braga, and the parish priest of the town during the revolution was Mariano Torrente, a native of Barcelona, Spain. The town was a prosperous community of farming and ranching, but the atmosphere was already seething with dissidence; winds of rebellion disturbed the people.

Twenty Spanish cazadores had their cuartel or barracks in the big house of Don Gaspar Ruiz. Cazadores literally means "hunters" their aim was to hunt the Filipino outlaws or dissidents. Across the plaza from the cuartel was a big convent, made out of adobe stones, 24 meters long and 12 meters wide, and two stories high. Across the plaza from the convent was the tribunal or municipal hall, This tribunal was made out of stones, ten meters high. A tower was being constructed at the town plaza between the convent and the tribunal. This tower or fort was made of stones, 5 meters square inside dimensions, 3 stories high, and its walls are 1/2 meter thick.

As insurgency was becoming widespread; the Spaniards adopted measures that increased the number of outlaws. In Northern Zambales (now Western Pangasinan), the leader of the insurgency was Roman Manalang whose headquarters was in a hideout somewhere in Alaminos, while in San Isidro, the captain of the outlaws was Juanso Viado. The outlaws or dissidents, while numerous, had very few defective guns, and mostly armed with crude sabers, sharp spears and long bolos.

In February 1898, the outlaws attacked the cuartel of the Spanish forces in the big house of Don Gaspar Ruiz. The attackers greatly outnumbered the Spaniards, who managed to escape to the big convent across the plaza. The Filipino attackers laid a siege to them, but the Spaniards were able to escape again, now they entrenched themselves deeply to the tower at the middle of the plaza. The people of the town including the gobernadorcillo and the principales gone to distant the place.

After a siege of two nights and three days, the Spanish forces threw their guns out of the windows of the tower as surrender, mediated by Fr. Mariano Torrente.

The morning following the surrender, news reached San Isidro that a big Spanish troop, heavily armed had arrived in Alaminos and were on their way to San Isidro, to save the Spaniards. To prevent the escape, they were taken to the forest of Alimpayukan between San Isidro and Balincaguin (now Mabini), where in the forest, Alimpayukan, the Spanish cazadores and civiles and including Fr. Torrente and also Fr. Navas of Dasol were blindfolded and their heads cut-off.

Shortly after the Spaniards were murdered, the big Spanish troop arrived in San Isidro and encircled the town. There were 20 uniformed Filipino outlaws or insurgents who were to form a local government. These were caught, taken to Mt. Polipol just a few kilometers east from the town, and were shot in a single file. The Spanish troop burned down the big houses that were owned by the richest and the most influential people of the town.

Because the Spanish priest of Dasol, Fr. Juan Navas, was beheaded in the forest of Alimpayukan and many of the insurgents were from Dasol, the big Spanish troop proceeded to Dasol, where they killed the principales and captains, that is, the rich and the influential, and also burned their big houses.

On March 7, 1898, the small Spanish detachments in the northern towns of Zambales were defeated and around fifty Spanish friars were killed. These were the parish priests of Anda, Balincaguin, Bani, Bolinao, Dasol and San Isidro de Potot.

When the Spanish troop had left, the insurgents returned and established a local Katipunan Government.

The Katipunan Government was functioning smoothly, at least in San Isidro. In November 1900, Gen. Miguel and Don Miguel and Don Mauro Ortiz came to recruit volunteers to fight the Americans in Mangatarem. The volunteers went to Mangatarem, but poorly armed, had to retreat before the heavily armed Americans. They went back across the mountains to Mt. Pita, then went to Infanta, and then back to San Isidro.

The Americans occupied San Isidro by December 1900 and established peace and order through a policy of attraction. They gave clothes, free goods and tolerated the local customs. American styles of dress influenced the changing of Filipino costumes from oriental to occidental.

In 1901 a severe storm hit San Isidro, destroying the big convent and the municipal building.

In 1903, the northern part of Zambales was annexed to the Province of Pangasinan. The municipalities ceded were Alaminos, Bolinao, Anda, Bani, Agno, Infanta and San Isidro de Potot. The municipality of San Isidro at that time included Balincaguin and Dasol.

Shortly after the towns of Northern Zambales were incorporated to Pangasinan. Balincaguin (1908) and Dasol (1911) seceded from San Isidro de Potot. Balincaguin was renamed as Mabini (in honor of Apolinario Mabini), and San Isidro de Potot was changed to Burgos (in honor of José Burgos) in 1913.

During the Japanese Occupation in the years 1941-1945, the Japanese soldiers did not much disturbed the barrios of the town, due to Japanese high command to give compulsory contribution of rice and bamboos for their garrison.

Saint Isidore The Farmer Parish Church

In 1876, the Dominicans created the Parish church of St. Isidore, the patron saint of farmers, seeing that the town's chief industry was farming. The patron's feast is annually celebrated on May 15. It is also the town fiesta.

It was the founding missionaries who built the present façade of the church, made mostly of quarried adobe stones contributed by the faithful. The Dominicans left during the American regime and were succeeded by Filipino clergymen who continued the improvement of the house of God and the ministration of the faithful. The church edifice, made mostly of quarried adobe stones and rough-hewn lumber, was built through many years.