| "GIGAQUIT" tongue twister comes
from two native words "higad" meaning seashore and "gakit",
a bamboo raft. It lies along the seashore facing the Pacific
Ocean - 59 kilometers away from the provincial capitol.
The early settlement of Gigaquit was founded around 1850
as borne out by the records of the Catholic Parish.
According to the old folks, a settler named Ceros
founded the early settlement and the village was kept
safe from the Moro depredations during the Moro piracies
and continued to enjoy peace and prosperity due to its
miraculous patron, Saint Augustine. At one time, so
the story went, two vintas full of Moro pirates came
to raid Gigaquit and having heard of its miraculous
patron saint went to the village church and hacked at
the statue of Saint Augustine. The weather was clear
and sunny but when the Moros sailed away, a terrible
storm suddenly came, capsizing the vintas and drowning
all the Moros. (Fortunately, this old statue is still
existing with the marks of the Moro "kris").
Gigaquit has produced several provincial governors:
Don Rafael Eliot (appointed), Hon. Recaredo Gonzalez
(elected), Hon. Protacio Egay (appointed guerilla governor),
and Hon. Fernando Silvosa (adopted son, twice elected).
Gigaquit was the mother municipality of Bacuag and
Claver. Most of its inhabitants earn their livlihood
through farming. Its main products are rice and coconut.
Its secondary product comes from the nipa palms namely,
nipa shingles and Gigaquit rum.
Source: 1970 Souvenir Program of
Philippine Public Schools Inter-scholastic Athletic
Association Meet (PPSIAA)
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