Welcome to North Cotabato: "The Fastest Growing Economy in Central Mindanao"

History of Cotabato Province

According to a Manobo creation myth, the fertile flood plain between the Kulaman and the Pulangi Rivers was the birthplace of life on earth. Soil stolen from another world was deposited in this place, which they refer to as pinamua or 'land of the beginning'. Cotabato is bounded on the north by the province of Bukidnon, on the northwest by Lanao del Sur, on the southwest by Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat to the south, and on the east by Davao del Sur. Mountains to the east peak at Mount Apo, a volcanic cone that is the highest mountain in the Philippines. In the west, the Piapayungan Range separates it from Lanao del Sur. The fertile Pulangi River basin runs in the middle of these two highlands and spreads towards the southwest to the food plains of Maguindanao. Typhoons do not pass through Cotabato and rainfall is evenly distributed through out the year.

Cotabato comes from the Maguindanao "kuta wato", or stone fort, and bespeaks of the long tradition of courage and resistance that marks the history of the Pulangi River basin. Cotabato was once part of the extensive realm of the Sultan of Maguindanao. The region was settled by Manobos, who either were tributary or were subject to the Maguindanao Sultans. The Spaniards were unable to penetrate into the region until the second half of the 19th century.

When the Maguindanao Sultan acceded to Spanish sovereignty in 1861, the colonial government organized several districts to cover the vast plain of the Pulangi. Those who resisted the Spaniards fled towards the interior, to Pagalungan and continued resisting Spanish intrusion into the region. The district of Cotabato was formed in 1860. In 1871, the district covered the military areas of Polloc, Malabang, Reina Regente, Taceran, Babia, Illana, Baras and Lebac. What is presently Cotabato remained outside the area of Spanish activities.

In 1901, the American government formed the province of Cotabato covering what are presently the provinces of Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani. During the American period, large companies were established in Cotabato to exploit the vast timber resources of the region. By the 1930s settlers from Luzon and Visayas established homesteads in Cotabato. The pace of settlement accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s.

The settlement of large Christian communities in what were then considered Muslim territories raised ethnic tensions between the two cultural communities. The tensions exploded into bloody skirmishes between Muslim and Christian armed groups like the Blackshirts and the Ilagas in 1971. The infamous Manili massacre, where more than fifty men, women and children were killed inside a mosque by an armed Christian group, inflamed ethnic tensions further and led to the escalation of the conflict into open warfare between Bangsa Moro secessionists and government forces. Thousands of refugees fled to more settled towns.

In October 1973, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 373, the provinces of Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat were created from out of the province of Cotabato. The province became part of an autonomous government for Region XII following the Tripoli Agreement of 1976. In 1989, following a plebiscite to determine the extent of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the province declined inclusion.