The Township/Parish

THE PARISH/TOWNSHIP of San Julian owes its origin to the pre-Spanish settlement of Libas.  When the Jesuits started evangelizing the inhabitants on the eastern  littorals of Samar island in early 17^th century, Libas was already a small settlement, although the term village could not be applied to it.  The houses were far removed from each other, and the place was without streets.  It was simply a group of houses that dotted near the mouth of Libas river.  The inhabitants, whom from time to time the Jesuits from Sulat gathered at a makeshift chapel for worship and the doctrina, were engaged in farming and fishing.

The establishment of Libas in 1781 as a village was largely the work of a Franciscan parish priest of Sulat, Fr Melchor Claver.  Through his efforts, a church was constructed, and houses were gathered around it. He directed the construction of a casa tribunal, a cemetery, and a rectory (convento).  On July 4, 1863, Libas was separated from Sulat politically and ecclesiastically, and as it already had enough population and revenues to support a priest, was erected into a diocesan parish on August 25, 1871

The new parish included the visitas (barrios) of Nonoc, the patron of which was St Pascual Baylon, Simangan, dedicated to St John the Baptist, and Pagbangbanan, placed under the protection of St Francis of Assisi .  The first parish priest was a diocesan, Fr Pedro Badul, who was assigned in Guiuan from 1865 to 1866.  Tradition has it that he was pastor of Libas from 1871 to 1874. The seat of the parish was, of course, Libas, with a wooden church dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. In 1865, the whole parish and town had a population of 2,940, and a total of 835 tributes.  It also had a escuela de primer enseñanza (roughly, a primary school) located at the parish seat.  Its big church bell was acquired in 1885.

Having been seconded by the majority of the principales (town’s leading men), the proposition for the transfer of the poblacion, after much deliberation, was locally approved on April 7. 1886.   With the stamp of approval by the governor general in Manila , with the assistance of the Gobernador Politico-Militar Don Pelayo Echacon y Lopez, the transfer became effective on August 14, 1887 .

Meanwhile, Libas reverted to the status of visita, populated by those Libasnons who chose to remain in the settlement. Before the end of the Spanish regime, one more visita was added to the pueblo (township) San Julian, namely, Nena, which was already known for its agricultural products.   Originally known as Bulauan, its creation into a visita in 1893 was recommended by the Gobernardor Politico-Militar, Don Ricardo Nouvilas, who named it after his beloved daughter Nena.  (Simangan became part of Sulat.)

External Resources:

http://msgrlope.blogspot.com/2012/11/history-of-san-julian-eastern-samarits.html