Pastrana 4.89

Pastrana is a of the Philippines in the province of,. According to the, it has a population of people.BarangaysPastrana is politically subdivided into 29 barangays.HistorySometimes referred to as the "land of the fairies," Pastrana is an interior town of the province. Geographically, it is in the southwestern part of Leyte, and about twenty-seven kilometers away from Tacloban City. Its rice fields and coconut plantations are the main assets of the place. The people are peace-loving, the climate cool and the soil fertile.Before the coming of the Spaniards, the settlement was called "Pamagpagan" because of the way the native inhabitants left their hair in disarray. In 1891, Captain Wenceslao Nielo, with the aid of a Spanish Franciscan friar by the name of Fr. Eusebio Ibanez, organized the settlement into a town and was transferred from Guinbaya-an to its present site. Father Ibanez blessed it with a holy mass. As a token of gratitude, the inhabitants called the town "Pastrana" in honor of Fr. Ibanez who was a native of Pastrana, Spain.Shortly afterwards, parochial schools were established. At this time, the unit of local administration was the pueblo which embraced a number of barrios. The first gobernadorcillo was Captain Wenceslao Nielo. He was assisted in the administration of the pueblo by the "Guinhaupan," a group of men equivalent to the present councilors, by the "tenientes" and by the "Cabezas de barangay."When the Philippine revolution broke out in 1898, the people fled to the mountains and for a time, the local government then headed by Andres Villablanca, was temporarily suspended. It was at this moment in the history of the town that Jorge Capili, a guerrilla leader, burned the whole town. By the year 1901, Gregorio Marquez was appointed municipal president. The Americans who occupied the whole country, stationed a detachment at Dagami. They came once in a while to Pastrana to look after the affairs of the little town. In 1903, the town was reverted into a barrio of Dagami due to inadequate finances.