VITO

Vito is an upland rural barangay of Balamban with a total land area of 1,708 hectares. It is bounded by Prenza, Singsing, Hingatmonan, Lamesa, Bayong, and Cansomoroy.

NAME-ORIGIN OF THE BARANGAY

The word “vito” is an Italian word of Latin origin which means “life-giving”. It is derived from the Latin word “vita” which means “life”. It is also disputed that it is actually derived from the ancient Germanic words: “wido”, “wito”, and “witta” which all means “young man from the woods”. It was recorded in old Germanic/Latin texts representing a man such as “Robin Hood” in the story of the life of Witta of Büraburg. Yet in Cebuano “vito” which is often spelled as “bito” means “a vertical cave by which a potable drinking water is passing through”. An Italian saint named Saint Vitus, an early martyr, is said to have the gift of curing epilepsy and a disorder known as “Saint Vitus’ Dance”. 

 

Oral history narrated that long time ago the scarcity of potable drinking water became a perennial problem of the barangay especially during dry season. The only source of water during that time was a stream in the mountains which flowed down and passed to the river within the barangay. The inhabitants had to dig small wells along the riverbank to fetch water for drinking and cooking. But accordingly even the said stream would run dry during long dry season. Hence, the people who were living in hunting at that time would venture to other parts of the barangay to find not only food but also water to drink. One day, a young hunter had noticed a strange behavior of animals particularly a rooster going through and from the woods. The said hunter silently followed the rooster and had found out that the rooster was drinking from the water that emanated from a small opening created by nature and downward directly vertical to the ground through an immeasurable depth, water passing therein suitable for drinking purposes. Gladly the “young man from the woods” went home and announced the good tidings to his fellow villagers that he had discovered “a life-giving” well which was a vertical cave. The villagers transformed the said cave into a Spanish well. Since then, the village was known as Vito until its establishment as a barangay.¹