CITY PROFILE 2010

BRIEF HISTORY

San Carlos City was formerly named Nabingkalan, in honor of a beautiful daughter of a chieftain Negrito settlement in the area. The settlement was later bought by Carlos Apurado from Badian, Cebu who, with the help of fellow pioneers, developed the settlement into a thriving Christian Village.

In 1856, Señor Don Emilio Saravia, the first political military governor of Negros Island during the Spanish era, renamed the place and established it as a “pueblo”.

San Carlos prospered through the years, however, the village lost its “pueblo” category, and in 1890, when Negros Island was divided into Occidental Negros and Oriental Negros, San Carlos was recorded as an “arrabal” or barrio of Calatrava (Hilub-an).

San Carlos acquired its status as a town in late 1898 when Gen Juan Araneta of the Revolutionary Philippine republic officially proclaimed it as a municipality. This was confirmed by the American Military Administration in 1901.

In May 1942, the Japanese army occupied the town and encountered a defiant Municipal Mayor, Eugenio Antonio Sr., who refused to surrender and collaborate with them. He railed the renegade soldiers along with loyal civilians and organized them as a guerilla unit. Thus, San Carlos became the hotbed of resistance activities against the Japanese imperial forces by the first Combat team, 7th MD (Negros) Guerilla  forces, under Major Uldarico Baclagon.

San Carlos became a city on July 1, 1960 with the passage of Republic act No. 2643.

Another historical milestone in the file of the city is the cabinet meeting of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos in the last August 27,1996 making the San Carlos the first component city to be made the venue of a Presidential cabinet meeting.