ABW June 2018

Kalanay Falls are located in Brgy Nabangig,
Palanas, Masbate. You can always feel the
freshness and the cool water from the falls. The
steps down to the falls are steep but very easy
to navigate, the water is cool and refreshing so
relax and take a dip.
Halabangbaybay
means [Long Beach],
due to its elongated
shoreline and white
fine sand.
Esperanza
Esperanza is about four
hours land travel South
from Masbate City, the
last municipality in the
south located between
Placer in north-west and
Pio V Corpus in southeast
and considered as
among the smallest in
the island. Esperanza was initially one of the
barangays of the town of Placer. In early 1915,
a group of first settlers sailed from northern
Cebu using their paddled banca and settled
the place. The settlers actively cultivated the
area into a productive agricultural community,
developing the place until eventually called
“Halabangbaybay”. Halabangbaybay means
[Long Beach], due to its elongated shoreline and
white fine sand. Halabangbaybay at that era was
a green-mountainous forest community. It was
not recognized as a barrio or even a mere sitio.
In the 1940s, Halabangbaybay became a Sitio of
barrio Alegria, Cataingan, Masbate. Soon after,
it was converted into a barrio named Esperanza
as component barangay of Placer and Pablo
M. Conag served as the “Tiniente del Barrio”.
[ESPERANZA which means “HOPE”, PAGLA-UM
in vernacular and PAG-ASA in Tagalog]. In the
mid 1950s, Lawyer Alfonso E. Conag initiated
vigorously and pursued for the conversion of
Barrio Esperanza into an Independent Town.
On July 2, 1959 - the set of Municipal Officials
starts hold office and Santos Edem Conag, the
eldest son of Felimo Serafin Conag became
the 1st elected Mayor… Esperanza has a total
population of 16,834 according to the National
Statistic Office data as of August 1, 2007 and
composed of twenty barangays that includes
the following; Agoho, Almero, Baras, Domorog,
Guadalupe, Iligan, Labangtaytay, Labrador,
Libertad, Magsaysay, Masbaranon, Poblacion,
Potingbato, Rizal, San Roque, Santiago,
Sorosimbajan, Tawad, Tunga & Villa. Esperanza
Esperanza
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