Oroquieta City Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: October 16, 2024

Oroquieta is a fourth-class component city in the Philippine province of Misamis Occidental that serves as the provincial capital. Its original name was Lauawan or Layawan, which can be roughly translated as “a place of stray animals”. The settlement was allegedly named so by its early settlers, Boholano peddlers, who encountered many animals along the local river.

From 1861 until 1879, Layawan was a barrio in the province of Misamis. In 1880, it was converted from a barrio into a town and renamed Oroquieta. The origin of the new name is somewhat unclear. Some say the town was named after a Spanish settlement where the first parish priest of Oroquieta, Father Tomas Casado, was born. According to another version, the name is derived from the words “oro” (gold) and “quita” (to find), referring to the gold that early inhabitants had found along the river. In 1886, the church of Oroquieta was declared an independent parish.

During the decade that followed, Oroquieta grew and developed, in no small part thanks to Father Casado who oversaw the building of a school, public market, and other edifices. However, being Spanish, he had to leave the town after the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1898.

In 1916, the American administration of the Philippines split four barrios from Oroquieta and organized then into a new independent municipality named Aloran. In 1930, the province of Misamis was split into two provinces, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental, and Oroquieta was designated as the provincial capital of Misamis Occidental.

During World War II, most of the Philippines was occupied by Japan. American civil engineer Wendell Fenrig organized an American-Filipino resistance force on the island of Mindanao. He declared martial law and established the Free Philippine Government with Oroquieta as its capital. Fenrig’s government was unofficial and claimed jurisdiction over unoccupied territories in the Philippines; it was disestablished after the liberation of the archipelago in 1945.

In 1969, then-president Ferdinand Marcos signed a charter converting Oroquieta from municipality into a city. The charter went into effect on January 1, 1970, and Oroquieta was formally inaugurated as a city.

In 1994, October 16 was designated as Oroquieta City Day. It is the city’s official fiesta when people hailing from Oroquieta are encouraged to return to their hometown and reconnect with their families and friends. Oroquieta City Day should not be confused with Oroquieta City Charter Day, celebrated on January 6 to commemorate the day when Oroquieta became the provincial capital of Misamis Occidental.