Quezon, Bukidnon

[3] Back in the days, this bucolic land that we now know as Quezon in the Province of Bukidnon was a vast ocean of grassy fields gently rising to verdant mountains.The nomadic Manobo tribe sparsely populated the area and lived mostly along riverbanks, around the edges of thickly-forested hills or near lush watersheds which Quezon is abundantly blessed with.After the Second World War, an influx of migrants from other parts of the country such as the neighboring province of Misamis Oriental and the islands of Bohol, Cebu, and Ilocos from up north began arriving in Quezon.There was an abundance of food and the residents had everything they needed to make a living from – rice, corn, coffee, vegetables, meat, rubber, coconut, and even fiber.Don Jose Fortich, one of the first ranching settlers to set up home in the area, put up the biggest rice and corn mill right in the center of Quezon’s would-be commercial district.In 1957, a bailey bridge was built over the Pulangui River, connecting Barangay Kiokong to its mother Municipality to the west and increasing the inflow of migrants even more.Logging operations lasted for so many years, until it dwindled and made way for the construction of the Bukidnon-Davao Road that opened for better economic opportunities for the residents of Quezon.If the 1960s through the 1970s were the golden days of Quezon, when both locals and settlers lived harmoniously with each other and people had everything they ever needed, the 1980s were its twilight; when economic progress and the peace situation was at a low ebb.From the increase in the number of cellular sites, the arrival of multi-national corporations to the automation of the electoral process, the citizens of the once laidback town of Quezon gradually learned to keep up with the rest of their peers in the region.In 2016, the passage of several national laws drastically improved the country’s peace process and addressed long-standing social issues, allowing the town to surge onward.Mayor Pablo Lorenzo III tenaciously pushed for the efficient delivery of basic government services to far-flung areas and intensified its efforts to end the local communist armed conflict.Through effective governance, a thriving economy, and the cooperation of its resilient and highly-adaptable citizens, the Municipality of Quezon is well on its way to achieving sustainable peace and a brighter, prosperous future for all.Del Monte Philippines, Inc., for instance, started its first pineapple operations in the municipality in 2008 and established a fresh fruit packing house in Barangay San Jose shortly thereafter.The demographic profile of Quezon reveals a total population of 109,624 as of the censal year 2020, with 56.5% concentrated in the urban barangays of Poblacion, Butong, Salawagan, San Jose, Kiburiao, Puntian, Mibantang, and Libertad.It serves the barangay of Poblacion, Libertad, Salawagan, Mibantang, Cebole, Manuto, Pinilayan and Kiburiao with more or less 2,000 individual household connections (Level III).