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Marinduque INFO

Known as the smallest province in the Southern Tagalog region, Marinduque has the shape of a human heart floating on a clear blue sea.

The island province is characterized by undulating hills, picturesque valleys, sheer seaside cliffs, interspersed with patches of flatland on different parts of the island. The soil is fertile but marked in certain spots by large stony areas, making wide continuous farming difficult. Deposits of iron, copper, and lead are found and mined in the province.

During the yearly Lenten season, a myriad of tourists, from the ardent devotee to a mere observer, flock to Marinduque to witness the very popular Moriones Festival. A biblical character in the person of the Roman centurion, Longinus, comes alive as the towns of Boac, Mogpog, and Gasan celebrate Moriones. It is a religious festival, which links the story of Longinus with Christ’s Passion and Death. It is celebrated during the observance of Holy Week, or the week before Easter, which also happens to be in the middle of the Philippine summer.

Languages
The Marinduqueños speak a unique blend of Tagalog and Visayan dialects, with traces of Bicolano. The working population can read and speak Filipino and English.

Geography
The heart-shaped island of Marinduque rests on the Sibuyan Sea and is located south of Manila between the Bondoc Peninsula at the southeastern portion of Luzon and Mindoro Island. It is bounded on the north-northeast by Quezon, south by the island of Marinduque, west-southwest by Oriental Mindoro, and west by Batangas. The island province has an aggregate land area of 95,920 hectares, including four major islets and eight minor ones.

Heritage
Most of the residents of Marinduque today are descendants of Malay settlers, who are believed to have arrived in the Philippines sometime in 1200 AD. Spanish conquistadors, who set foot in the Philippines in 1582, administered the province. Some old Spanish forts and churches, built with unique coral blocks, inlaid with intricate design works, still stand.

Political Subdivisions
Marinduque consists of the municipalities of Boac, Buenavista, Gasan, Mogpog, Sta. Cruz, and Torrijos.

Climate
Marinduque has two pronounced seasons: dry form December to May, and wet from June to October. The average monthly rainfall is highest in October, and lowest in April.

History
Legend has it that the island of Marinduque was formed as a consequence of a tragic love affair between two people: Marina and Garduke. Marina's father, a local chieftain, did not approve of this affair and ordered the beheading of Garduke. Before this could be done, the couple sailed out to sea and drowned themselves, forming the island now called Marinduque. Another version of the story told in Buenavista, Marina is fairy who lives in the Malindig Mountain. The suitor is a Duke. They got married and the island was named after them, Marina and the Duke. Other versions of the legend also claim that the island was named "Malindik", named after Marinduque's highest mountain, Mt. Malindig. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Philippines, they found the name hard to pronounce, which led to the renaming of the island as "Marinduc" and later the current "Marinduque" when spelled in its French from (e.g. Antique for Hantik, Cavite for Kawit).

During the Spanish and early American occupations, Marinduque was part of the province of Balayan (now Batangas) in the 16th century, Mindoro in the 17th century, and had a brief period as an independent province in 1901, when the Americans arrived.
During the Philippine-American War, Marinduque was the first island to have American concentration camps.[2] Marinduque is the site of the Battle of Pulang Lupa, where Filipino soldiers under Colonel Maximo Abad, defeated a larger better trained force of Americans.

In 1902, the US-Philippine Commission annexed the islands of Mindoro (now two separate provinces) and Lubang (now part of Occidental Mindoro) to the province. Four months later, the province became part of the province of Tayabas (now Quezon).

On February 21, 1920, Act 2280 was passed by the Philippine Congress, reestablishing Marinduque as a separate province. In 1942, the Japanese Imperial forces landed in Marinduque. In 1945, landed from the American and Philippine Commonwealth troops attacked from the Japanese Troops liberated to the Battle of Marinduque in the Second World War.