History of Siquijor Island

reignty in the Philippines came to an end and at the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. Siquijor island felt the presence of American rule when a unit of the American Cavalry Division came and stayed for sometime. The American Military Governor in Manila appointed James Fugate, a scout with the California Volunteers of the U.S. Infantry, to oversee and to implement the organization and development programs in Siquijor Island. Governor Fugate stayed for 16 years as lieutenant governor of Siquijor.

While it was not at the center of military action, Siquijor was not been spared by World War II. Japanese detachments occupied the island between 1942 and 1943. The Japanese announced their arrival to the island with heavy shelling. On November 10, 1942, Japanese warships started shelling Lazi from Cang-abas Point. In Lazi, a garrison was established in the old Home Economics Building of the Central School. Philippine guerrillas engaged in sabotage and the interaction during this time to cause havoc on the Japanese lives and properties.

During this period, Siquijor was briefly governed by Shunzo Suzuki, a Japanese civilian appointed by the Imperial Japanese Forces until he was assassinated in October 1942 by the guerrilla forces led by Iluminado Jumawanin, of Caipilan, Siquijor. Mamor Fukuda took control of Siquijor from June 1943 until the Japanese forces abandoned the island when the liberation forces came in 1944. At the outbreak of World War II, Siquijor, then a sub-province of Negros Oriental, was headed by Lieutenant Governor Nicolas Parami. Refusing to pledge allegiance to the Japanese Imperial Forces, Lt. Governor Parami was taken by Japanese soldiers from his residence at Poo, Lazi one evening and brought to the military headquarters in Larena. He was never heard from again.

In 1943, the Japanese puppet government appointed Sebastian Monera of San Juan governor of