Bukidnon: History
=== Early history ===
According to oral history of the Indigenous people of Bukidnon, there were four main tribes in Central Mindanao: the Maranaos who dwell in Lanao del Sur, and the Maguindanao, Manobo and Talaandig tribes who respectively inhabit the eastern, southern, and north-central portions of the original province of Cotabato. When the civil government divided central Mindanao into provinces at the turn of the 20th century, the groups included in the province of Bukidnon are the Talaandig and the Manobo, as well as other smaller Lumad tribes. The Visayans, particularly the Cebuanos and the Hiligaynons from the Northern Mindanao coastline and the southern Visayas, migrated into the province. The Visayans are still referred to by the Lumad as the dumagat ("sea people") to distinguish them from the original mountain tribes. This was followed by various groups from Luzon, namely, the Ilocanos, the Igorots and the Ivatans, many of whom were merchants and wealthy entrepreneurs. All contributed massive acculturation among the Indigenous tribes. Most of those who moved to the mountains and forest continued to hold on their ancestors' cultural heritage. The wide variety of Filipino groups now thrives in the province and contributed immensely in the socioeconomic development.
Bukidnon became a part of Misamis in the latter part of 1850. The whole area was then called "Malaybalay" and the people were known as Bukidnons (highlanders or mountain dwellers).
The Philippine Commission, then headed by Commissioner Dean C. Worcester, Secretary of Interior, proposed the separation of Bukidnon from Misamis Province. On August 20, 1907, Act No. 1693 created the province of Agusan with Bukidnon as its sub-province. About a month later, on September 23, the rancheria of Malaybalay was designated as the sub-province's capital. Bukidnon became a regular province on March 10, 1917, by virtue of the creation of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu under Act 2711.
In 1942, invading Japanese troops entered Bukidnon. Mount Capistrano was a civilian evacuation area in the World War II. In 1945, the province was liberated from Japanese occupation by Filipino and American troops with the aid of Bukidnon-based Filipino guerrillas during the Second World War.
The 21-year administration of Ferdinand Marcos, which included 14 years of one-man rule under Marcos, saw the rise of ethnic conflicts and the overall degradation of peace and order in Bukidnon and throughout Mindanao - first in the form of conflicts between local Mindanaoan Muslims and Christian settlers which the Marcos administration had encouraged first to migrate and then to form militias, and later in the form of Muslim secessionist movements arising from outrage after the 1986 Jabidah massacre. Additionally, an economic crisis in late 1969 led to social unrest throughout the country, and violent crackdowns on protests led to the radicalization of many students, with some joining the New People's Army, bringing the Communist rebellion to Mindanao. In September 1972, Marcos was nearing the end of this last term allowed under the Philippines 1935 constitution when he placed the entirety of the Philippines under Martial Law, a period historically remembered for its human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. …