Bais City Profile

Bais City is the largest producer of raw sugar in Negros Oriental. There are two sugar mills in the city. The Central Azucarera de Bais was established by Tabacalera of Spain in the early 1900s and is one of the oldest in the country. The other mill, URSUMCO (Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation) was formerly UPSUMCO (United Planters Milling Corporation) and constructed in the mid '70s by Marubeni Corporation of Japan as a project of Ignacio Montenegro (also of Spanish roots).

[edit] Geography

There are two bays in the area, hence the name "Bais". The shore line is mostly mangroves, which are in danger of destruction due to the increasing population. The richness of marine life in the bays is because of these mangroves.

Bais City's bays are widely known to have one of the most beautiful coral reefs in the area.

The Pelarta river runs beside the city center. There is, however, a dispute that the name Bais was taken after the eels locally called "Bais" that used to thrive in this river. The river has been the source of irrigation water for the nearby sugar farms. This has been vital in the success of sugar plantations in this area. This river also has a big influence on the city's geography, as it deposits sediments in the former mangrove areas during the (formerly annual) flood season. These former mangrove swamps have now dried out and become populated with residents. In the late seventies, under the government of Genaro Goñi, there was established a river control system stretching from the city center towards the low lying areas in order to lessen flooding during the rainy season.

[edit] Education

Bais City has its separated its DepEd Division (Department of Education) from the provincial division. Most of its 35 barangays have their respective public elementary schools and only few have public secondary schools. In the City proper it has elementary and secondary public schools, a college and a state university.

[edit] Colleges & Universities

Negros Oriental State University

La Consolacion College Bais City

[edit] History

[edit] Origin of the name 'Bais'

In the early days of Spanish exploration, some Spaniards came upon a swampy land and docked their boats at the vicinity of the two small islets that guarded the village while exploring the place they saw natives fishing along the coast. The Spaniards approached the natives and asked for the name of the place. The natives could not understand Spanish,and believing that the Spaniards were asking for the name of their catch, the natives answered saying "Ba-is", from the day on this swampy valley of the Old Panlabangan and Talamban Hills became known as Bais.

[edit] Pioneer in the Sugar Industry

Negros Oriental economy was far from progressive and its rich soil was not utilized to its full capacity. That was in the 1850s. During those years,people in Negros depicts a life of content for they tend to produce goods in a quantity only enough to meet their daily needs.Ever before the sugar boon of the 1850s, Negros Oriental was alresdy a produces of sugar. The Transport of most of its product was mainly done in the ports of Iloilo,which will expain the fast moving pace of development of the sugar industry in the Occidental Negros because of its immediate nearness to Iloilo. This situation was a disadvantage on the movement of Sugar from the Oriental plantations. A wide array of difficulties barred the development of the sugar industry in the Oriental part of the Oriental part of the island. The pioneer sugar trader and Adventurous like Rodrigo Antonio Camilo Rubio, Deigo Garcia-Baena, Don Agustin de Sandes, Anecito Villanueva and Vicente Teves. After hearing about the fertility of the flatlands of Bais who came from Mexico and España, carved the virgin forest of the eastern side of the island. Many came and settled in the area and planted sugarcane,thus producing" Muscuvado"sugar, from their mills which was them exported to Spain via Iloilo,the principal shipping point in the Visayas.This was loaded in large sailboats called Lurcha or Batel built by our pioneer Haciendoros Don Anecito Villanueva & Don Joaquin Montenegro (Bais Historian Penn T.Villanueva Larena).

Bais City credits much of its progress to the Central Azucarera de Bais, the largest producer of raw sugar in the province of Negros Oriental. Established by the Tabacalera of Spain in the early 1900s, it is also one of the pioneers in the sugar industry in the Philippines. This industry reached its peak in the 1930s bringing affluence to the Negrenses and enabling them to build stately homes and to acquire properties all over the province.

Driving through the city's main national highway, sugar plantations can immediately be seen on both sides of the road. These areas are characterized by expansive lowlands that stretch as far as the eyes can see and are ideal for sugar planting because of the city's naturally fertile soil. It is no wonder why 73% of the city's total land area is devoted primarily to agriculture.

The Central Azucarera itself is an old foreboding structure of metal and hard wood. The offices may have seen better days, the dank smell of nostalgia hang heavy in the air, but are still functional. Nearby is the Casa Grande, an equally old residential compound surrounded by tall acacia trees, which was built for the use of the employees of the Azucarera. The two storey wooden houses are greatly influenced by old Spanish design and architecture. Much of the houses have undergone restoration and continue to be used as homes.

Further on are the stately plantation houses owned by sugar planters, mostly standing on one of the lots in the family hacienda. Inside the haciendas are chapels whose altar and icons date back to 1917. Educational visits to these places may be arranged at the Bais City Tourism Office. What is most interesting is you get to tour via the old railroad trams used by the milling companies to hasten sugarcane transport (Bais Historian Mr. Penn T.Villanueva Larena).

[edit] Culture

An annual fiesta is held each year on September 10 in honor of the city's patron saint San Nicholas de Tolentino, a celebration inherited from the Spanish era. On this occasion, most of the residents prepare food for anyone who visits the place. It is a tradition practiced not only in Bais but in most towns and cities in the Philippines. Lately the celebration has included mardigras and parades.

Bais City is located on the east coast of Negros island, about 45 kilometers north of Dumaguete City, the capital city of Negros Oriental. Its name is derived from the Visayan word "ba-is" for brackish-water eel – a fish species native to the city and one which has become the city's delicacy. A former barrio and later a municipality, Bais officially became a City on 1 September 1968.

The territorial jurisdiction of Bais includes two islets (Olympia and Dewey) and the Bais Bay. The Bais Bay area holds a diversity of animal life and is a rich breeding and fishing ground for demersal and other fish species, and also invertebrates. South Bais Bay is also famous for dolphin watching.

Seventy-three percent of the city's total land area is devoted to agriculture, therefore the local economy is dominated by agricultural activities and output. The existing urban area in the city covers only 109.12 hectares. Sugar is the major commercial crop in the city. About thirty-six percent of the city's agricultural land is planted to sugarcane, yielding 1.16 million gross kilograms annually for the domestic and foreign markets. Bais City is also home to two sugar centrals (mills).

Fish production is the city's second income earner, with about 428 hectares of the land area devoted to fishpond development and operation, and fish culture. Bangus (milkfish) culture is the dominant activity. In 2000, the bangus yield in the city was at 722 tons. A geothermal plant with a power generating capacity of 112.3 MW is located at the Municipality of Valencia, Negros Oriental. This plant supplies power to the two Negros provinces, the Panay island, and part of Cebu province.

The Bais City government operates the eco-tourism activities in the city, highlighted by whale and dolphin watching and nature treks. Two annual Bais City festivals have also become tourism events: the Hudyaka sa Bais Mardigras and the Christmas Festival (which showcases giant Christmas decors)since 1950.

A concern of the city is its liquid and solid waste management. At present, liquid wastes are emptied directly without treatment into the Bais basin. The current dumpsite for solid waste is due for closure, and site development for a new 12.5 hectares sanitary landfill is being finalized.

People

Early Europeans and Latin American settlers in Dumaguete and around Oriental Negros were Don Joaquin Montenegro y Mascato, Tomasa, Brigida & Nicolasa Elena Gomez (Vicente Hermanos) of Avila Spain,Don Diego-Garcia-Baena, Don Agustin de Sandes , Ramon Telesforo Belloso of Extremadura Spain, Don Anecito Villianueva (Chinese Espanol merchant) Don Pedro Gustavo Furbeyre ( Frenchman),Camilo Rodrigo Antonio Rubio ( Italian merchant)Don Demetrio Larena and Don Boyugs Samasa who would subsequently lead the Negros Oriental Republic in 1898

Bais has produced men of national prominence. Among them was the late Hon. Hermenegildo Teves Villanueva, a former governor, senator and secretary of Labor during the Quezon's time. Hon. Jose Romero formerly the floor leader of Philippine Senate, Ambassador, Secretary of Department of Education and delegate to the first constitutional convention, Dr. Vicente G. Sinco founder of Foundation University, former UP President and delegate to the second constitutional convention. Bais was the only city in Negros Oriental or any town in Central Visayas produced more governors. They are the late Demetrio Larena, Hermenegildo Teves-Villanueva, Enrique Teves-Villanueva, Guillermo Teves-Villanueva, Praxedes Teves-Villanueva, Julian Lajato-Teves, Serafin Lajato-Teves, William Villanueva-Villegas and Alberto Furbeyre.

Shadows of Giants, Voices of Grace: A Baisanon Literary History

The literary identity of Bais City is a tapestry woven from the ancient and the academic, the sacred and the regional. Nestled along the coast of Negros Oriental, its stories have evolved from oral geographical myths into sophisticated written prose and poetry that command national respect. To understand the Baisanon literary soul is to journey from the peaks of Mount Camboylao to the heights of modern Philippine letters.

I. The Pre-Colonial Horizon: Orality and Landscape

Long before the written word took root in the lowlands of Negros, the Baisanon identity was preserved through spoken narrative. Pre-colonial folklore was a lived art form, sustained through traditional songs, riddles, and mythologies that sought to explain the natural world.

The most enduring monument of this era is the myth of the creation of the Bais Islands themselves. Local lore points to Mount Camboylao, where the primordial giants Ukyot and his wife Malingin were said to reside. The geographical contours of the modern Bais islands are, in the collective imagination of early inhabitants, the physical legacy of these ancient entities. This intimate relationship between geography and storytelling laid the foundation for a literary culture deeply attached to place, soil, and sea.

II. The American Transition: The Architecture of Literacy

The turn of the 20th century marked a structural shift in the linguistic and literary landscape of Negros Oriental. The arrival of American educators—the Thomasites—in regional high schools introduced the English language as a new creative medium.

A cornerstone of this era was the establishment of the Bais Pilot School in 1904. Housed in durable, elegant Gabaldon-style heritage buildings, the school became an incubator for local literacy. This educational evolution did not erase Baisanon identity; rather, it provided local youth with new linguistic tools, setting the stage for twentieth-century writers to project local narratives onto a wider national canvas.

III. Pillars of the Baisanon Literary Pantheon

The true weight of Bais City’s literary contribution is carried by its individual writers, poets, and cultural chroniclers. The city has produced a distinct lineage of voices:

The Sentinels of Memory & Modern Prose

• Gemma Minda Laxina Iso: A vital engine of contemporary Baisanon literature. A certified writer and author under the National Book Development Board (NBDB), Iso serves as the Chairman of NOACAA-INC and the coordinator for the Buglas Reading & Writers Club. Her non-fiction works, most notably Batang Tun-og (2013) and Jobless to Job-packed (2021), serve as critical modern efforts to document and preserve the region's historical realities.
• Josefino "Penn" Tulabing Larena Jr.: A prominent historian, poet, and cultural worker whose writings actively defend the heritage of Bais. Larena’s works fuse rigorous historical inquiry with the lyrical nature of folklore, charting the socio-economic and cultural evolution of the community while tying personal identity to the physical geography of Bais.
• Leonaga T. Larena (aka Ganda ): A deeply reflective poet whose verses spanned decades. Her poetry engaged both local themes and the broader traditions of world literature. Her notable works include:
• "River" (1973)
• "Total Stranger" (1982)
• "Corte" (1990)
• "Rizal" (2000)
• "Katacgahan" (2005): A poignant masterpiece that stands as a tribute to Baisanon resilience, articulating the sacrifices and emotional costs borne by individuals in search of a better life.
• Josefa Baena Villanueva Perez & Diony Villanueva Baena: Kin and co-chroniclers who produced numerous written accounts and narratives capturing the essential history, everyday life, and evolving urban identity of Bais City.

The Contemporary Artists

• Simon Nino Anton Baena: An accomplished contemporary poet keeping the lyrical traditions of the city vibrant.
• Rolin Miguel Cadallo Obina: A gifted playwright who has brought the Baisanon dramatic sensibility to the stage.

The Peak of Prose: Renato Madrid

No history of Baisanon letters is complete without acknowledging its most decorated literary son, Monsignor Rodolfo Villanueva (1940–2024), who wrote under the pen name Renato Madrid.

A Catholic priest, theologian, and master liturgical musician born in Bais, Madrid was hailed by National Artist Nick Joaquin as one of the top five fictionists in the Philippines. Writing primarily in English, Madrid crafted deeply psychological, melancholic, and elegant prose that explored the complex interior lives of the clergy, the burdens of institutional faith, and the elusive nature of human grace. His major works include the National Book Award-winning short story collection Southern Harvest (1987), and the profound novels Devilwings (1996) and Mass for the Death of an Enemy (2000).

IV. Bais Today: The Living Tradition

In the modern era, Bais ensures its literary legacy is not treated as a static relic of the past. The city’s cultural landscape is kept active through deliberate institutional efforts:

• Classroom Integration: Local schools actively teach Baisanon folklore, ensuring that stories like Ukyot and Malingin remain familiar to the youth.
• Active Documentation: Researchers and local historians continue to profile the city’s traditions, recording oral accounts and archiving literary texts before they are lost to time.

Through these continuous efforts, the literary history of Bais remains an active conversation between the ancient giants of Mount Camboylao and the modern writers who continue to pen the Baisanon story.

 

NOTABLE BAISANON1. Gen Segrio Sinco -Local Hero during the Spanish Rule

2. Dr. Vicente G. Sinco founder of Foundation University, former UP President

3. Jovenal Villanueva-Somoza- World War II

4. Josefa Villanueva-Perez -Historian,Visual Artist

5. Demetrio Larena -Civil Governor,Political Hero and Co-founder of Silliman University

6. Mileton Larena -Political Hero and Board Member during the American Regime

7.Emplaz Paulio-Violeta-Cultural worker and Visual Artist