THE MYSTERY OF THE SACOBIA RIVER

The mighty river probably did not exist before the 1850s

By Joel Pabustan Mallari

SACOBIA River, which became a byword during the lahar season in the 1990s, is one of four major rivers emanating from the eastern slope of Mount Pinatubo itself (the others being Abacan, Pasig Potrero and Porac-Gumain). Strangely, however, Sacobia River does not appear in maps made during the entire colonial period until mid-1800s. Cartographers could not have missed such a major river, considering that even creeks in the vicinity of the Sacobia River are depicted. Is it possible that Sacobia River did not exist before mid-1800s?


There is a theory that it may have been formed, probably due to a lake breakout on the slopes of Mount Pinatubo, in the 1850s. Sometime in 1856, the town of San Bartolome in southern Tarlac was completely swamped with floodwaters from Parua, the river’s old name. Parua may have been the downstream name of Bamban River (Sapang Mabanglu). 1856 may have been the year Sacobia River was formed; it elbowed away from Mabalacat (in a spot called Maskup in sitio Bana) to merge with the Bamban River before proceeding to Concepcion and draining into Rio Chico.


Another puzzle is the name Sacobia. Nobody knows what it means or to whom it refers. It is not a Kapampangan term and there was no Spaniard or Filipino who went by that name. The fact that residents in the area have no indigenous name for it raises the possibility of its recency.