Gumaca is one of the oldest town in Quezon Province and only several years younger than the City of Manila was already a well-established community even before the Spaniards came.
According to oral tarditions, the community has a barangay government as early as the 14th century with Lakan Bugtali as the first and Lakan Gitingan being the last.
The barangay had for its territory much of the area now under the jurisdictions of the municipalities of Atimonan, Plaridel, Lopez, Alabat, Calauag, Perez, Atimonan, Quezon,Unisan, Pitogo and Macalelon.
Located at the mouth of what is now known as Ppisik river and nestling at the foot of Sierra Madre range, it was - as it is now - also the center of local trade and commerce.
It was perhaps because of this, that the Franciscan Friar, Fray Diego de Oropesa, first set foot in the community and introduced Christianity to the people with St. Diego de Alcala being proclaimed as the pueblo`s patron saint. In 1582, the first "vista" was erected and 1686 marked the establishment of a full-pledged town with in dependent (civil) government, the earlier ones being headed by the ever-present Spanish Friars (The municipality of Gumaca boasts of a still complete liine-up of chief executives from 1574 down to the present)
The center of the local governance, built in 1921 on the grounds where the Tribunal and the Casa Real once stood.
Approximately 200 Kilometers south of Manila, Gumaca is a four-parts leisurely drive trough rice fields, coconut plantations, picturesque towns, and scenic resorts.......truly a prelude to the wonder that is Gumaca.
Source: Gumaca Municipal Library
