Loreto

Loreto Cable Television

Radio Tubajon DXTT-FM 95.8. supported by the Tambuli Radio Network

Getting There:

By air - Philippine Airlines has flights from Manila to Cebu to Surigao City.

By boat – Private operators provide daily schedules from Bilang-bilang port, in Surigao City. The boat trip takes about four hours.

Accommodations
Black Beach Lodge
Campintac
Operated by the Municipality of Loreto

Popular Sites
Black Beach, Campintac

"On the northern water of the Surigao del Norte mainland lies Dinagat Island dubbed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as one of the "three sentinel-islands guarding the Central Philippines from the enemies in the Pacific." Together with Dinagat as the first class established municipality in this island were four other towns, among which was Loreto, originally called "Mabua" because of the ever-foaming river that runs right into the heart of the community. Boholano settlers first established Loreto as early as 1847. In 1881, its name metamorphosed into its present name, Loreto, in honor of the wife of the governor at that time.

Created as a municipality in 1898, Loreto was reduced to a barrio in 1902 after the American soldiers razed it to the ground. However, it regained its township in 1919 through the untiring efforts of its civic-spirited leaders.

The municipality were populated by Boholanos who were the original settlers; Leyteños, Cebuanos, Samareños and other immigrants followed suit.

Copra had been most important export and lumbering an important industry. Loreto is situated along a coastal plain, and fish abound in its waters.

In the lowlands grow the tikug grasses utilized then and now by the womenfolk as materials in making mats which are in great demand because of the fine workmanship and durability. The local weavers have learned the embroidery designs of the well-known Basey mat-makers. On the rocky mountains from as far as Omasdang near the Desolation point, to the southern hills of Sinaongag, now Navarro, are found such rich minerals as chromite, manganese, copper, coal and the like.

Other sources of income then were the hard wood exported to different places in the country and the well-known species of orchids, the so- called "aristocrats of the woodland" such as the mariposa or butterfly orchids, the tiger, dendrubium anespum, dendrobium superbum, which were abundantly found in the forests of the municipality."

- ODON C. GALIDO

Source: 1970 Souvenir Program of Philippine Public Schools Inter-scholastic Athletic Association Meet (PPSIAA)

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE U.S. LIBERATION FORCES LANDING IN LORETO, FEATURING “GALLUP”, “ROSS”, AND SIXTH RANGER INFANTRY BATTALION

Desolation Point on the northern tip of Dinagat Island was where American troops first landed on October 17, 1944 to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese. On 20 October 1944, MacArthur's forces began the invasion of the Philippines. The principal target was Leyte. The actual push began when the Sixth Ranger Division overran the nearby islands of Suluan, Dinagat and Homonhon near the entrance of Leyte Gulf. Three days of heavy air, land and sea combat took place as Allied forces made the landing on Leyte. The Japanese lost a fleet carrier, three light carriers, three battleships, six heavy and four light cruisers as well as eleven destroyers. The US Navy lost a light carrier, two escort carriers, two destroyers and a destroyer escort.
Departing Hollandia 12 October 1944, Gallup was part of the screen for the vast task force, which returned General MacArthur to the Philippines. On the 17th she shelled the beach area in the island of Dinagat, and the next day she swept the channel into Leyte Gulf, P.I., as U.S. forces poised for the invasion. She then began antisubmarine and anti-mine patrol near Black Beach, screening vessels engaged in landing operations Stationed most of the time off Desolation Point, she collected tide and hydrographic information, served as dispatch boat and as escort through the cleared channel in Leyte Gulf, guided incoming ships and convoys through the channel, and served as harbor entrance control vessel during landing operations. She performed these duties, most of the time in gusty, stormy weather, with Bisbee (PF-46), LCI(L)-343, and LCI(L)-344, before being sent on an escort mission to Humbolt Bay on 28 November, touching San Pedro Bay and Kossol Roads, Manus, en route. On 3 December she left for the West Coast stopping to drop men at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, and Pearl Harbor. She arrived in San Francisco on Christmas Day 1944.

On 12 October, Ross departed the Admiralties. Five days later she arrived off Dinagat Island. On the morning of the 18th, she covered landings there, on Black Beach 2, and then joined TU 77.2.6 to provide cover for that minesweeping and hydrography unit. Her duty, however, ended abruptly less than 15 hours later.

The 6th Ranger Infantry Battalion was on a mission of knocking out the coastal defense guns, radio stations, radar stations, and other means of defense and communications in Leyte Harbor. . They were to secure outlying islands and guide naval forces to the landing beaches. On A-Day minus three, October 17, 1944, the 6th Ranger Battalion was landed from fast attack-type converted destroyers, in the midst of a storm, in the islands of Dinagat, Suluan, and Homonhon. These three islands are located at the eastern entrance of Leyte Gulf and were secured to deny their use by the Japanese and to provide locations for signal lights to guide the two Leyte invasion Task Forces. Through November 14, the Rangers remained on the island searching out and destroying enemy troops while guarding against any attempted Japanese reoccupation.