Monkayo, Compostela Valley
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Monkayo is a 1st class municipality in the province of Compostela Valley, Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 90, 971 people. It has 21 barangays, with Mt. Diwata (Diwalwal), having the biggest population of 16, 965 people. Monkayo is an agricultural town, with vast tracks of land planted to rice and banana. The municipality is also host to the gold-rich barangay of Mt. Diwata, popularly known as Mt. Diwalwal which in the local dialect means one's tongue is hanging out), a 1,000-meter high range known worldwide for its rich gold vein deposits. Monkayo's seat of government is located in Barangay Poblacion, a highly-developed rural town center, and is 120 kilometers away from Mindanao's regional center of Davao City, and some 30 kilometers from Nabunturan, the provincial center.
[edit] Barangays
Monkayo is politically subdivided into 21 barangays.
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The town's pre-World War II settlers were lumads, or indigenous peoples consisting of the so-called "Four Tribes"--the Mandayas, Dibabawons, Mansakas and Manobos. These tribes dominated practically all of what is now Monkayo. During World War II, the town which was then part of the Compostela-Nabunturan local government, that also encompassed the area of what is now Montevista town, sustained minimal damage from Japanese attacks. Monkayo's development was spurred immediately after Liberation and into the fifties as abaca trade along the Agusan River which traverses the town, flourished. Christian settlers from the Visayas and Luzon also came, as well as Chinese traders who established a trading post in the mouth of Agusan along the delta of what is now Barangay San Jose. Boats plied from Monkayo, bringing goods to other trading centers along the Agusan further north and up to its mouth in Butuan City. The construction of the Davao-Agusan junction of the Daang Maharlika (Pan-Philippines Highway) further fast-tracked the town's development. More businesses came in, and the "pumpboat economy" brought about by the trade along the Agusan River was considerably enhanced as overland travel from Davao City to Butuan City was introduced. The road network also drastically shortened the travel time from Davao to Butuan and eventually to other key cities in Mindanao. [edit] External links
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