[edit]
Prehistoric period[edit]
The Cagayan de Oro area was continuously inhabited by Late Neolithic to Iron Age Austronesian cultures. The oldest human remains discovered was from the Huluga Caves, once used as a burial place by the natives. A skullcap sent to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1977 was dated to be from between 350 and 377 AD.
The caves have yielded numerous artifacts, but most areas have been badly damaged by guano collectors and amateur treasure hunters. Associated with the cave is the Huluga Open Site, believed to be the site of the primary pre-colonial settlement in the region identified as "Himologan" by the first Spanish missionaries. The site is located about eight kilometers from present-day Cagayan de Oro.
Early historic period[edit]
The discovery of a grave site in 2009 uncovered remains of Song dynasty (960–1279 AD) celadon ware and Sukhothai period (1238–1347 AD) Sangkhalok ceramic ware, in addition to body ornaments and stone tools. It indicates that the region was part of the ancient maritime trading network of Southeast Asia. Skulls recovered from the sites show that native Kagay-anons practiced artificial cranial deformation since childhood as a mark of social status, similar to skulls from archeological sites in neighboring Butuan.
The Huluga Open Site was extensively damaged in 2001 to give way to a bridge project by the local administration. It was the source of controversy when a team from the University of the Philippines-Archaeological Studies Program dismissed the archeological importance of the site by declaring it as a "camp-like area" and not a settlement and thus not worthy of heritage protection under the laws. It was alleged by local conservationists that the UP-ASP team were influenced by the local government so the bridge project could continue. The site is still not protected and continues to be quarried, despite protests by local historians and archeologists.
Colonial period[edit]
Spanish period[edit]
The Himologan settlement was still occupied by the time the Europeans made contact. In 1622, two Spanish Augustinian Recollect missionaries reached the settlement and described it as being inhabited by a mixed stock descended from Lumad and sea-faring Visayans ("Dumagat"). They described the men of the settlement as being tattooed like other Visayans and the women as being ornamented with intricate jewelry, some of which were golden. They also identified them as animists, practicing traditional anitism, though they paid tribute to Muhammad Kudarat, the sultan of the Islamized Sultanate of Maguindanao to the south.
The original Lumad inhabitants of Cagayan de Oro (and Misamis Oriental in general) are the Higaonon people whose name means "people of the coast", from the Higaonon word higa, meaning "coastal plain" or "shore". They resisted the Spanish Reducciones policies and were displaced by more incoming Dumagat migrants (mostly Visayans) during the Spanish colonial period. Most Higaonon moved to the interior highlands of Misamis Oriental and northern Bukidnon.
In 1626, Fray Agustín de San Pedro persuaded the chief of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down the Cagayan River, to the present-day Gaston Park. De San Pedro later fortified the new settlement against Sultan Kudarat's raiders.
In 1738, Spanish dominance was felt in Cagayan de Oro. When Misamis gained the status of province in 1818, one of its four districts was the Partidos de Cagayan. In 1871, the "Partidos" became a town and was made a permanent capital of Misamis. Of which there were 38 Spanish-Filipino families.: 514 
On February 27, 1872, Governor-General Carlos María de La Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. During this era, the name of the town was known as Cagayan de Misamis.
In 1883, the town became a seat of the Spanish government in Mindanao for the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte.
The Spanish authorities surrendered to Misamis governor Jose Roa and municipal mayor Toribio Chavez, both appointees of President Emilio Aguinaldo. With the Fiesta Nacional of January 10–11, 1899, their independence was celebrated as the Philippine flag was raised for the second time in Mindanao. At that time, the town joined the Aguinaldo government in the second time it was declared.
American period[edit]
American forces attacking Makahambus, circa 1900s.
Aerial view of Cagayan de Misamis, 1925
Spain's cession of the Philippines to the United States through a peace treaty in 1898 mainly caused opposition from residents of then Cagayan de Misamis. Their involvement in the Philippine–American War was prompted by the presence of the Americans, who had invaded the municipality on March 31, 1900, and whom they fought against thrice since then.
Resistance fighters lost in the early battles. On April 7, Gen. Nicolas Capistrano led an attack in the town center, on the garrison of the U.S. 40th Infantry Regiment under Col. Edward Godwin, but were repulsed with heavy losses. On May 14, the positions of the 1st Company of El Mindanao Battalon in Agusan Hill was attacked by a military unit under Col. Walter Elliot, with 38 members including their commander, Capt. Vicente Roa, killed.
On June 4, the said battalion, under Col. Apolinar Velez and Lt. Cruz Taal, repulsed the U.S. 35th Regiment during the Battle of Makahambus Hill; marking the Americans' first defeat in the war.
After the troubled years, peace finally brought back the economic activities to normality under the guidance of the United States. Consequently, from a purely farming-fishing area, Cagayan de Oro emerged into a booming commerce and trade center, attracting migrants from Luzon and Visayas to settle in the area.
Americans gave the Philippines its independence on July 4, 1946.
Japanese period and second American period[edit]
On May 3, 1942, American and Philippine forces fought heroically against invading Japanese forces from Panay. Unable to resist the overwhelming and the better supplied Japanese, the allied forces retreated to more defensible positions outside the city. The Japanese burned most of the city and took up residence at the Ateneo de Cagayan University, now Xavier University Grade School and used the ferry crossing near San Agustin Church. In addition, the Japanese also established at least three (likely more) "comfort stations" in the city, where enslaved local girls and teenagers were forced by Japanese soldiers into sexual slavery, which included routine gang-rapes and murders.
The Japanese army implemented a scorch-earth policy. Filipino and American guerrilla forces fought back during this occupation and American planes bombed both the university and San Agustin church on October 10, 1944. The Japanese were never able to successfully move outside the city for any length of time due to the constant pressure and attacks from the Philippine resistant movement. Combined American and Free Philippine forces landed in Cagayan de Oro on May 10, 1945, three years and 7 days after the Japanese occupation.
During this period the Japanese committed many atrocities against the local population of Cagayan de Oro, as they did throughout the Philippines. Colonel Fumio Suzuki and two hundred of his men escaped capture during the liberation of the city and withdrew into the mountainous jungle. They were caught two years later; only 38 survived, by cannibalizing the Higaonon tribal people. At least 70 people were eaten.
A Cagayanon, the physician Antonio Julian Montalvan, was a member of an espionage team working for the return of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines. Later, he became part of a Manila spy network. He was captured, tortured and decapitated by the Japanese.
Former municipalities as oldest barangays[edit]
Iponan, Gusa and Agusan, the city's oldest barangays, were once municipalities during the colonial period.
Iponan and Agusan, along with Bayug, Gompot (Balingasag), and Tagoloan, were among the visitas established by the Recollect missionaries in Cagaiang (city's former name) in 1674. The two were under Partido de Cagayan as the then-undivided Misamis was partitioned into four partidos in 1818.
Iponan was made into a separate parish in 1833. The three became visitas of then Cagayan de Misamis, which became the new provincial capital in 1871.
Gusa was established as a barrio in 1771, and shortly, became a municipality. Original settlers were Bukidnons, as well as few Manobos and Moros, who came from barrio Lapasan and town of Cagayan; but the increase of immigrants later resulted in all of the natives leaving the area. At the time of the American occupation, during the Philippine–American War, in 1901, Gen. Nicolas Capistrano chose to meet there twice with the American military officials for a peace conference, held in Julian Gevero's residence, eventually ending the year-long war. However, due to decrease of population following the evacuation of residents during the war, and the town's short distance from Cagayan, Gusa was reverted to a barrio, being part of Agusan.
Agusan became one of the ten barrios of Cagayan in 1844. It was the starting point for those traveling to Bukidnon until the late 1920s. On May 14, 1900, the 1st Company of the Mindanao Battalion perished in a battle against the Americans on the hills near the river. On May 10, 1945, the beaches of Agusan and Bugo were the landing sites of the soldiers of the United States Army's 40th Division, which joined with that of the 31st Division in Bukidnon where they finally defeated the Japanese in a battle.
Iponan (spelled "Yponan" in Spanish colonial records), originally called Kalumpang, was the place where there were streams meeting at one point to form Iponan River which, according to a report of British explorer Thomas Forrest, was considered as among the Mindanao's seven rivers abundant with gold; with a sitio, known for its gold mines, frequently raided by Moros during the Spanish occupation.
Through Act No. 951, issued by the Philippine Commission on October 21, 1903, which reduced the number of municipalities in Misamis from 24 to 10, the territories of Barrio Gusa, along with the towns of Iponan, Opol, Salvador, and Alubijid, joined with Cagayan; while the rest of Agusan joined with Tagoloan. Agusan, later a barrio, along with Bogo and Alae, were transferred from Tagoloan to the newly-converted Cagayan de Oro City in 1950.
Postwar era[edit]
In 1948, the barrios of El Salvador and Molugan with their sitios known as Sala, Sambulawan, Sinaloc, Lagtang, Talaba, Kalabaylabay and Hinigdaan were separated from Cagayan de Oro to form the town of El Salvador.
In 1949, a delegation headed by Cagayan de Misamis mayor Maximo Y. Suniel travelled to Manila to persuade the Philippine Congress to enact a legislative act supporting the creation of the City of Cagayan.
In 1950, the barrios of Opol, Igpit, and Lower Iponan (now Barangay Barra) were separated from Cagayan de Oro to form the town of Opol.
On June 15, 1950, President Elpidio Quirino signed Republic Act No. 521, which granted the status of a chartered city to the Municipality of Cagayan de Misamis. This was made possible through the efforts of then Cagayan de Oro Congressman Emmanuel Pelaez. Suniel was the last municipal mayor of Cagayan de Misamis and the first city mayor of Cagayan de Oro.
Martial law era[edit]
See also: Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos
During the martial law era, Cagayan de Oro was not spared from military bombings and the usage of brutal mechanisms against dissenters of the Marcos regime. By the time martial law ended, more than a thousand people from the city had been tortured, raped, electrocuted, or salvaged.
Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro was designated as one of the four provincial camps to become a Regional Command for Detainees (RECAD). It was designated RECAD IV, housing prisoners from throughout Mindanao. Amnesty International called particular attention to the case of Pastor Romeo O. Buenavidez, a United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) minister, who was beaten up in various safehouses in August 1981 and then brought to Camp Evangelista where he was forced to sign a waiver indicating he had been "well treated" during his "questioning." Results of later medical examinations showed medical findings matching the beatings he described. A case was filed against the officer and soldiers involved but there had been no updates by the time Amnesty International filed its report.
Another detention center in the city, under the administration of Camp Evangelista, was Camp Alagar. One of Camp Alagar's detainees was public school teacher Nicanor Gonzales Jr., who was detained for seven months and heavily tortured, leaving an abnormal growth on his skull. He was eventually honored in 2015 by having his name inscribed at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes who resisted the authoritarian regime.
Cagayan de Oro did not take these human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship lightly, and the city came to have a reputation as one of the centers of political opposition in the Philippines.
Cagayan de Oro was declared a highly urbanized city by the Ministry of Local Government on November 22, 1983. In 1986, the city participated in the People Power Revolution through rallies in the streets of the city. When the revolution succeeded and ousted Marcos from power in Manila, the city was among those who supported the installation of Corazon Aquino as president.
Later 20th Century[edit]
On October 4, 1990, the city was seized by a rebel army led by dissident RAM officer Alexander Noble and civilian supporters of the Mindanao Independence Movement led by Reuben Canoy, who marched across the city and took over the regional military garrison at Camp Edilberto Evangelista as part of an attempted coup against President Corazon Aquino. However, Noble's forces failed to gain further support and were isolated by government forces, culminating in Noble's surrender and Canoy's arrest on 6 October.
In 1992, the National Museum of the Philippines recognized the archaeological value of Huluga when it gave the Open Site and caves separate accession numbers. In 1999, however, mayor Vicente Y. Emano conceived the plan to bulldoze Huluga to give way to a road-and-bridge project. The project was stopped in 2001, but was eventually continued in 2002. The construction destroyed at least 60% of the archaeological site's open area, where the majority of artifacts can be found. Protests against the heritage destruction was made by cultural experts, but nothing happened with their plea.
Early 21st Century[edit]
In 2001, the city participated in the Second EDSA Revolution through rallies in the streets of the city. When the revolution succeeded and ousted Estrada from power in Manila, the city was among those that supported the installation of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president.
In 2003, the Heritage Conservation Advocates (HCA) went to the open area of Huluga for a scientific surface investigation and managed to find earthenware, Chinese pottery sherds, obsidian flakes, animal bones, an ancient Spanish coin, and a whale harpoon similar to those being used in Lomblen Island, Indonesia. The newly discovered artifacts proved that there are still many artifacts that can be found in the area. This caused the HCA to file a case against Emano and the contractor, UKC Builders, before the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB). However, the construction continued and was inaugurated in September 2003 by Emano.
A day later, president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made a speech in UNESCO about her administration's gains in cultural conservation. In January 2004, the city council enacted an ordinance that authorized Emano to sign a contract with the Archaeological Studies Program (ASP) of the University of the Philippines to do salvage archaeology in Huluga and vicinities. The program did not make cooperative linkages with existing archeological programs from Xavier University. The ASP declared that the site was an ancient camp, not a settlement, due to their findings in the destroyed archaeological site. The report did not consider the findings of Xavier University. The issue later climbed into the Philippine Senate, where Loren Legarda issued a resolution for investigation of the matter, but the investigation was never approved by the other members of the Senate. The artifacts found in the Huluga Caves and its destroyed open site from 1992 to 2003 are housed in Xavier University, Capitol University, and the University of the Philippines.[citation needed]
Recent history[edit]
Tropical Storm Sendong and subsequent disasters[edit]
Aftermath of Tropical Storm Sendong (Washi)
On the evening of December 16–17, 2011, Tropical Storm Sendong (international name Washi) caused widespread flash flooding in Northern Mindanao. In Cagayan de Oro, hundreds living near the banks of the Cagayan de Oro River were killed, with hundreds still missing.
Officials said that despite government warning, some people did not evacuate. Five people were killed in a landslide, while others died in the flash floods which occurred overnight, following 10 hours of rain, compounded by overflowing rivers and tributaries. Most of the victims had been sleeping.
In some areas, up to 20 centimeters of rain fell in 24 hours. More than 2,000 were rescued, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and at least 20,000 people were staying in 10 evacuation centers in Cagayan de Oro. Officials were also investigating reports that an entire village was swept away. The confirmed death toll from the disaster is 1,268. The disaster prompted a shift in settlement patterns in the city, with residents moving away from the areas along the Cagayan River in favor of upland areas.
In January 2017, Cagayan de Oro, along with other parts of Visayas and Mindanao, was impacted by a combination of a low-pressure area and the tail-end of a cold front. The heavy rain inundated many streets, stranding many commuters. At the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP), about 900–1,000 students were trapped as most of their campus was flooded. The students were forced to climb to the upper floors of the school's buildings and wait until rescue arrived. The city's shopping malls on Claro M. Recto Avenue were also severely affected, with Limketkai Center completely inundated by the floodwaters. A basement parking area of a mall at the corner of Corrales St. was covered with water, while another one near Bitan-ag Creek was flooded as well, even though the area was elevated.
On December 21, 2017, Typhoon Vinta (international name Tembin) impacted most of Mindanao. It made its landfall in the Davao Region. Three bridges were closed due to rising water levels in Cagayan de Oro, where 1,719 individuals were forced to evacuate. Roughly 30,000 people were either stranded in ports or stayed in evacuation centers while 22,000 people moved to higher grounds due to heavy flooding.
