Rosario

 town, draw only border, third-level administrative division

Municipality: Rosario
Province: Batangas

Accounts show that the origin of Rosario was a Christian settlement along the coast of Lobo. The settlement became prey to the pirate raids during the Moro wars of the 18th century.

The Moro or pirate raids forced the inhabitants of the settlement to the safety of the ravine and forest on the northwest bank of Kansahayan River (now the Municipality of Taysan). Here the settlement was relocated. However, at the height of the Moro Wars in the second half of the 18th century, the Moro vicious Moro raids did reach Kansahayan. In one of their forays the Parish Priest is said to be among those slain.

The inhabitants decided to leave Kansahayan. They headed farther north holding a novena and praying the rosary in the process of their flight. On the 9th night of the novena, the fleeing inhabitants reached the river bank of Tubig ng Bayan (a river originating from Lipa) in now the town of Padre Garcia. Here they finally settled. Living in peace and prosperity, the grateful town’s people erected a stone church south of the river bank in honor of their benefactress, the Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish. The town was named Sto. Rosario.

Sto. Rosario was razed to the ground during the Filpino-American War. In the early American Military occupation of Sto. Rosario, a cavalry officer, Captain Ed H. Boughton, came upon the big spring at the foot of Tombol Hill. He decides to relocate the town west of the spring where the poblacion proper of Rosario is now.

Official record show that on June 9, 1902, a council of prominent citizens of the town met under a mango tree beside Tombol Spring. On the spot they formerly organized the municipal government of Rosario. The following distinguish gentlemen assumed the first key positions of the town government, to wit:

Don Geronimo Carandang (Presidente), Don Diego Rosales (Bise Presidente), Don Luis Greñas (Secretario), Don Leon Magtibay (Tesorero),

A wealthy landowner, Don Antonio Luansing donated foe the town’s public buildings and plaza.

Local historians were not unanimous as the exact date of the founding of this town. Certainly it was among those organized by the ecclesiastical authorities after the creation of Batangas as a province in 1581. It is generally believed to have come to the existence in 1687 while still located along the coast of Lobo during the term of Don Nicolas Morales as gobernadorcillo. Originally, Rosario comprised the whole parts of the municipalities of Lobo, Taysan, Ibaan, San Juan de Bolbok and the entire municipality of Padre Garcia.

The old settlement in Kansayahan now bears the name of Pinagbayanan, a thriving marketing post in the municipality of Taysan. The old town site of Sto. Rosario had been named Lumang Bayan before it was renamed Padre Garcia when the latter was created and carved out Rosario in 1950 as a separate municipality. [2]Rosario is a first class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 95,785 people in 16,288 households