The town of Valencia was created out of the thirteen severed barangays of Malaybalay. The earliest inhabitants of the area were Bukidnon natives who founded a settlement along the banks of the Pulangi River and its tributary, the Panglibatohan River. Accordingly, the pioneers were led by Datu Sebastian Manangkila together with the families of the Binalhays, Laugas, Gua-ans, Lanayans and the Arenzos. The first site of the settlement was a sitio named “Panglibatohan” because the area was thickly forested by a tree called by the natives as “Malibato” tree, the hardest tree in Bukidnon. In 1911, a one-room village school was opened and its first teacher, Jaime Galorport, who came from Valencia, Bohol, named it “Valencia School”. When the southern portion of Malaybalay was separated as a new municipality in 1961, the petitioners, led by Teodoro Pepito, agreed to name the town as “Valencia” with Panlibatuhan, renamed as Poblacion, as the seat of government. Valencia saw rapid growth with the operation of the 10,000-hectare Pulangi River Irrigation Project and soon overtook Malaybalay in population growth and economic development. On the downside, the hub of the town grew without the benefit of a town plan and with its narrow roads and streets it was doomed to choke itself. There was a town site at Barrio Sinayawan, but the national road bypassed it, so it remained rural and undeveloped.
I was reassigned to Valencia, my third town assignment in six years, in November 1979. The municipal office of the Ministry of Local Government was located at the ABC Hall and I slept in my workplace most of the workdays. The building was constructed in an abandoned cemetery and was rumored to be inhabited by ghosts. My government salary was not much and to save rent, I decided to co-lodge with the ghosts in the ABC Hall. The ghosts left me alone. Except for an occasion when I was awaken by the clicking sound of the typewriter, or thought somebody was typing, I was never bothered by ghosts. I did not bother them either by locking the door of my sleeping quarter and by not venturing in the toilet and other parts of the building at night. It’s quite hard to hold your bladder when you drink beer (I shifted from rum to beer since my new mayor drank beer) so an empty beer bottle was handy.
In May 1982, my family transferred to our newly constructed house in Valencia, in time for the school opening the following month. Faith was nearing her twelfth year and Emmanuel his fifth year. We had decided to make the most progressive town in my tour of duty as our permanent residence. The constant change of residences, we realized, was not good for the emotional and social development of our children. They suffered the trauma of separation from friends, playmates and classmates. A permanent residence would enable them to take roots, acquire lasting memories of their childhood and adolescent years and experience a closer and lasting friendship with peers. Our house hosted several Christmas parties organized by the children of the ten families in the then secluded residential area. The joint celebrations, which made both children and parents closer, stopped when the children had grown up.
The Aurea Subdivision was not really a subdivision and “Aurea” was the name of the owner of the one-hectare agricultural land she subdivided into 600-sq. m. orchards to qualify for DBP housing loan, yet exempted from the requirements of a subdivision. When the lots were offered for sale, there was no facility or amenity except for a narrow dirt road that separated the two rows of “orchards.” With P1,000 down payment we got the title of our lot that cost P9,000. The balance was paid from the proceeds of the housing loan. The ten low-cost houses that materialized in the span of four months were financed by DBP. The elevated place was quiet, breezy and the clean air provided a respite to my chronic sinusitis. Pat loved the view of the vast expanse of rice lands faraway to the east and the backdrop of mountain ranges, where the sun rises. The vast rice fields, sustained by the Pulangi River Irrigation Project, reminded us of the sea. At night the dots of lights from the scattered houses appeared like lights of pressurized lamps of fishermen out in the ocean.
It was in Valencia that I was initiated to the Charismatic Renewal Movement, joined the Couples for Christ, then the Banay Sa Dios and earned my Knight of Columbus 4th degree. I was also a member of the Executive Committee that raised the funds for the new San Agustin Church and oversaw its construction.
All of our five children completed their elementary education in Valencia. Pat also got a government job. The salary was not much but the job kept her spruce up, busy and amused.
