Barangays > Santa Lucia

Brief History

The part of Sta. Lucia where people first settled before the outbreak of World War II was Halawhawan. The name of the settlement came from a significant meeting which took place in this community. During the said meeting, the group of people from Capiz and Antique thoroughly discussed and laid the policies which they would follow in their new settlement. In the Tagalog dialect the said activity was called halaw, thus, the place where it happened was called Halawhawan.

In the map drawn by Fr. Julian Duval, the chaplain of Mindoro Sugar Company who visited this place in 1920, it was indicated that the number of houses in Halawhawan was twelve. Two sitios, namely; Idarag, a sitio of the indigenous people and Buswangan, now Brgy. Burgos, were placed under the jurisdiction of Halawhawan.

During the American regime, Halawhawan together with the wide plains where Tambungon, San Nicolas and Malisbong are located at present became the agricultural estate of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. When the general died, the estate was inherited by her daughter Cristina Aguinaldo Suntay.

Since the heiress could not take care of the estate tall trees and grasses grew on the wide plains. Families of fishermen from Palawan and the island of Maningning, Antique arrived and built huts along the coastal areas of the sitios of Tambungon, Garo-Garo, Payompon and Halawhawan. They cleared the forests and converted it into ricefields and cornfields. The heiress of Gen. Aguinaldo was not able to prevent the entry of the settlers into her agricultural estate.

When World War II broke out, the people of Halawhawan evacuated to the sitios of Ligaya, Borot-borotan and Concepcion. After the war, many of the evacuees did not leave the place where they hid. As a result, a new settlement was formed in Borot-borotan, in the land owned by Nicasio Urieta. The name of the said settlement came from a kind of rootcrop which served as food of the evacuees when rice was scarce.

When Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (SPPF) was established during the early part of 1955, the prison officials received at the coast of Halawhawan the first batch of prisoners from Manila. Since from that time up to the present, the reception of prisoners happens annually, the name Halawhawan was changed to Receiving.

In 1955, due to the big number of families living at Sitio Borot-borotan, a primary school was opened in this place. It was named Sta. Lucia Primary School. During the latter part of the same year, Borot-borotan became a barrio. Sta. Lucia was registered as its official name. Elected as its first teniente del barrio was Benedicto Urieta. Placed under his jurisdiction were the sitios of Payompon and Receiving, including Idarag, Barucan, Sahing and Lulo which are settlements of the indigenous people.

When Cristino Urieta was the barangay captain of Sta. Lucia, he opened an extension of Sta. Lucia Elementary School at Sitio Receiving.

In 1994, the authorities of a Protestant sect, the Seventh Day Adventist, opened D’Shep Academy at Receiving. The said private school offered complete secondary education not only to members of their religion but also to the youth professing other religious beliefs.