Alubijid Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: July 1, 2024

Alubijid is a fourth-class municipality in the Philippine province of Misamis Oriental in the region of Northern Mindanao. It is part of Metropolitan Cagayan de Oro, the country’s fourth largest metropolitan area that comprises thirteen other municipalities and two chartered cities, El Salvador and Cagayan de Oro.

The origin of Alubijid’s name can be traced back to the pre-colonial era; it is believed to derive from the local word for hog plum trees (Spondias pinnata), which grew in abundance along the coast and were used as landmarks by traders arriving from other islands of the archipelago.

The history of Alubijid is closely intertwined with the history of Cagayan de Oro (formerly Cagayan and Cagayan de Misamis), since Alubijid is located nearby and even used to be its barrio. The first Europeans to arrive in the area were the Augustinian Recollect missionaries from Spain in the 1620s, although the larger region of Northern Mindanao had been granted as an ecomienda to the Spanish nobleman Don Juan Griego about five decades before that.

The Spanish didn’t try to actively colonize the Cagayan area for the next couple of centuries. In 1818, the Spanish administration finally designated Misamis as an administrative region (corregimiento) made up of four divisions (partidos): Cagayan, Catarman, Dapitan, and Misamis. In 1871, Cagayan was officially given municipal status under the name Cagayan de Misamis. Twelve years later, it became a seat of the colonial government for four provinces in Mindanao: Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental.

Alubijid was an established community as early as 1861. It was headed by local leaders until the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896. During the revolution the Philippines did achieve sovereignty from Spain, but the newly independent republic soon lost the Philippine-American War and came under the American administration. The new administration attached Alubijid to Cagayan as a barrio.

In 1933, the municipal council of Cagayan passed a resolution recommending to give the barrios of Alubijid and El Salvador municipal status. The people of Alubijid immediately filed a petition for transforming the barrio into an independent municipality. However, it took some time for Alubijid to finally separate from Cagayan.

In November 1937, the Ministry of Interior outlined the requirements for Alubijid to become a municipality. It took Alubijid a year to complete the requirements, after which a report was sent for the consideration of the Secretary of Interior. Philippine president Manuel L. Quezon finally signed an executive order converting Alubijid into a municipality on April 5, 1940. The new municipality was formally inaugurated on July 1 of the same year; the anniversary of its inauguration is now celebrated as Alubijid Day.