Piat and its People
*Brief History*
***by: Dante N. Bravo***
The town of Piat is a small town situated north-east of Tuguegarao, the capital town of the Province of Cagayan. It is composed of eighteen Barangays with a total land area a total of 19,118 hectares and a population of 25,000 more or less. It is basically an agricultural town and a pilgrimage area which is slowly developing into a tourist destination, as both pilgrims and tourists visit the town in increasing numbers to pay homage to the Blessed Virgin, who was named as the Queen of Cagayan Valley and thereby regarding the town of Piat as the Mecca of the North.
Stories were passed from generation to generation that the town got its name from two versions. The first of which was from the name of an expert masseur “Aggapia”. Words spread in all over Cagayan of his good service and since the natives, during those times, were fond of exercising brevity, he was referred to as “Pia” and later became “Piat” to distinguish the place where he hailed. The more popular version on how the town got its name was from the “camias” trees (Addulu in Ibanag and Pias in Ilocano) which abounded in the locality. The word “pias” gradually changed to “piat” because of the peculiar way of the natives in pronouncing words ending in letter “s” to “t” thus, pias became piat, with which, eventually the town was named
Even before the coming of the Spaniards, the first settlers of the town were already on their own. They lived basically on farming activities and resented subjugation to Spanish Authorities until they were pacified with the arrival of the image of the Blessed Mary, who was later named the “Lady of Piat”. Since then, the lives of the Piatenos evolved around their belief in a Supreme Being, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin for salvation. They were evangelized and readily cooperated with the Spanish friars in religious activities to the extent of going against their fellow natives of pagan beliefs thus, the story of the “Sambali”, a war dance which depicts the conflict of the Christians and the native pagans; and the conversion of the latter to Christianity.
The town became an ecclesiastical town on May 1, 1610 under Spanish authorities, until and after the conquest by the Americans when the town was accorded self government during Commonwealth Period. Eventually, after the War in the Pacific, independence was finally given to the Filipinos in 1946, the town of Piat became a civil town with Piatenos running its own governmental affairs.
It continued to be a Holy Town, it being the abode of the Miraculous Lady of Piat, where people from all walks of life come for homage to the Blessed Virgin. Small as it is maybe, the town of Piat slowly but surely kept pace with progress and development as today, it could now boost of elementary schools in almost all its Barangays. Three high school institutions and a lone university to cater to the learning needs of its people. It has a hospital to safeguard the health of its people. It also now has a sugar milling factory, numerous cottage and backyard industries, small and medium business establishment and various infrastructures to bolster the economy of the town.
All of these were achieved through the efforts of the Piateños with the guidance of their past and present leaders and with their unwavering faith on Divine Providence thru the motherly intercession of the Blessed Virgin. As ever before, the people of Piat remained hospitable and eagerly await everyone to be welcomed in this humble Municipality.
