LUCA

Luca is an upland rural barangay located northeast of Balamban with a total land area of 1,510 hectares. It is situated 13 kilometers from the town proper. It is bounded by Cabagdalan, Lamesa, Matun-og, Cabasiangan, Ginatilan, and the Municipality of Asturias.

It is politically subdivided into seven (7) sitios, namely: Bonbon, Batwan, Mohon, Suom, Bul-at, Luy-a, and Unidos.

The seat of its government is at the riverbank of Unidos opposite to Mohon at the other side of the river.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BARANGAY

Based on the list of deadly earthquakes since 1900, a very strong earthquake had hit the Philippines in 1937 which aftershock that occurred on August 20, 1937 was recorded to reach a moment magnitude scale of 7.3. The said earthquake might have included Balamban and particularly the barangay that is now known as Luca. Luca was established as a barrio in 1938 and prior to that there was a cataclysmic upheaval that occurred in the village that led to the trees in the forest being uprooted (“naluka”). That cataclysmic upheaval might be the earthquake that occurred in 1937 that hit Mexico and China by July and the Philippines by August. The folktale further said that the said forest was the same forest above a waterfall often visited by hunters, during the pre-Spanish times, by which the spear of one of the hunters who were chasing a wild boar fell down at the edge above the waterfall after it missed its target. Hence the place is still known until today as “Nahulga’g Bangkaw” (“a place where the spear fell”). The said forest was not only rich with trees but also with rattan vines, the folktale further said, thus a lot of people at that time were there gathering rattan vines commonly known locally as “uway”. It was said that while they were resting under the shades of the tree they had heard a thunderous unnatural sound nearby. They stood and ran to the source of the sound where they found fallen trees and witnessed the uprooting of the age-old giant molave tree, Vitex parviflora Juss, locally known as “tugas”. Later on the said people found out that an area underneath the roots of the uprooted molave was a nice resting place for their rattan work routine which could shade them both from the heat of the sun and the downpour of heavy rains. Since then the place was called “Luca” (a hispanized spelling of “Luka”). Over the centuries, the huge trees were buried deep in the mud, and now the place is being extensively mined for its rich carbon deposits.

The barangay is able to list down the political leaders since the establishment of the barangay namely as follows:

1. Tenientes del barrio

1.    Pedro Suquib           (1938-1949)

2.    Gregorio Codeñera  (1949-1957)

2. Barangay captains

3.    Rafael Fadayao       (1957-1986)

4.    Emilio Maribojo        (1986-1988)

5.    Cornelio C. Pepito   (1988-2001)

6.    Tadeo L. Presbitiro   (2001-Present)

By faith, the people of the barangay are all Christians of which 95% are Roman Catholics. They celebrate their annual fiesta every last Saturday of January in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes and in devotion to Señor Santo Niño.

It is noteworthy to remember that Rev. Fr. Philip Pepito, a missionary priest assigned in the barangay in 2010, had defined the letters of Luca as an acronym for “Loving, Understanding, and Caring for All”.¹