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The 2nd largest island in the Philippines is Mindanao, which is the southern most part of the archipelago. It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean to the east; Celebes Sea to the south and to the west is Sulu Sea. The island of Mindanao is marked by a peninsulas and the largest of all is the ZAMBOANGA Peninsula.
It is a semi circular peninsula extending southwesterly towards the Sulu Archipelago and Borneo. The peninsula has an area of 14,500 sq. km. (5,600 sq. mile).
The ZAMBOANGA Peninsula was known as Sibugay or Sibuguey during the coming of
the Spanish conquistadors. And later on was changed into Zamboanga which derived it's name from the Malay word Sambangan
meaning a place where wild flowers grow. The Spanish colonialization of Mindanao was done by sending missionaries and one of the sites was Sambangan. As the years went by, the mispronunciation of Bisaya (North Borneo dialect) and Spanish words turned into what is now today Zamboanga. On June 23,
1635 the town was officially called Zamboanga. The boundary of the town of Zamboanga comprised half of the peninsula then. The entire peninsula was later called Zamboanga Peninsula although the
easternmost part of the peninsula belong to the Province of Misamis.
Before the Philippines was ceded to the United States of America (Treaty of Paris), the peninsula was partly to the south where ZAMBOANGA City proper is the Provincia Mora and towards the North where Dipolog City is a part of the Provincia Misamis. Dapitan district which
includes Dipolog was part of Provincia Misamis.
Each province has a governor and the whole Department of Mindanao and Sulu has also a governor. From 1903 to 1913 Zamboanga City was the capital of the Provincia Mora which comprise five district, namely ; Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Zamboanga and Sulu.
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In 1903, Judge William Howard Taft, President of the Second Philippine
Commission (Later on became the President of the United States of America) decreed Dapitan to be separated form Cagayan de Oro and annex to Provincia Mora, which later on 1913 became part of the Province of Zamboanga.
One day in the year 1910 the Provincial Governor of Zamboanga Province, Mr. Helper visited Dipolog on his way to Dapitan on horseback. He was asked by the Dipolog town people that
Dipolog be separated from Dapitan. This was the beginning of the crusade to make Dipolog a Municipality.
On September 15,1911, the governing body of the Provincia Mora, the legislative council passed Act. No.272 converting the Municipality of Zamboanga into a city. The ceremony was held on January 1, 1912 with the appointment of American Christopher F. Bader as the first City Mayor.
Also at almost the same time created the provinces of Davao, Lanao, Sulu, Zamboanga, Cotabato, Surigao, Butuan (a subprovicne of Surigao), Agusan (a
sub province of Davao), Malaybalay (now Bukidnon) and Misamis. Misamis was part of the Department of Cebu, Agusan and Surigao was District
of Caraga during the Spanish era.
General John J. Pershing, Governor of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu granted the petition to elevate Dipolog into a town. On July 1, 1913, amidst a solemn inspiring ceremony John J. Pershing pronounced Dipolog as a Municipality from the balcony of the brand new Dipolog Municipal Hall and the appointment
of Pascual T. Martinez as the first Municipal Mayor (called president at that time).
In 1942 during the Second World War, Acting Governor Felipe B. Azcuna trans- ferred the seat of the provincial government from ZAMBOANGA City to DIPOLOG. Thus making DIPOLOG the capital-in-fact of the ZAMBOANGA Province.
On June 5, 1952, a bill fathered by Roseller Lim became the republic act 711. It created the Province of Zamboanga del Sur with Pagadian as its capital and Province of Zamboanga del Norte and with Dipolog
as the capital town.
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