History

Basak. The name Basak means that the place is full of mud or is marshy, water abounds there even in a drought. It used to have very few people living in it and these old folks were resigned to describe where they lived as “Didto’s basakan nga dapit” (there by the swampy place). Again a contraction from Basakan to Basak happened by way of eliding long phrases, believed to be a Cebuano cultural trait.

A similar account acknowledges the watery nature of the place but adds that this quality made it ideal for wet cultivation, a basakan. This is corroborated in the HDP in the 1950s: Basak comes from the Cebuano word for “wet”, that is basd, because the place floods in the rainy season. Basak was planted with rice, tangkong or swamp cabbage (Ipomea aquatica Torsk), and grass fodder for the carabaos and horses like zacate (Zacate amargo) and bungalong (Avicennia marina).