History

Umapad. A long time ago, no one lived in Umapad. It was a huge, desolate place of marsh land. When the settlers did come, they called it “Pilapil”, from “pilapilan” which in English refers to a marsh. Occupation of the land led to its eventual cultivation as a farm for rice and corn planting.

From that time on, the name “Pilapil” fell to disuse. The younger generation could not associate it anymore with the landscape which had changed from marshes into paddies of rice and fields of corn. Thus they began to call it “umahan” for its farmlands. Since these farms were also vast, they also called it “lapad” and thus umahan nga lapad (a vast farmland). The contracted combination of both these words umahan and lapad gave the place its present name: Umapad.

When the barangay was being registered in the late 1960s, it was now “Umapad” that was registered, its old name of Pilapil reduced to that sitio. Barangay Pilapil name was not registered as Pilapil but instead registered as Barangay Umapad. The old-timers have retained the name Pilapil only as a sitio.

In the 1950s, its citizens were surprised at the big heavy equipment and the hundred workers that came to dig up a canal by the northern portion of Sitio Pilapil where the farms were. The big canal was to divert the waters of the Butuanon River from Opao, which suffered from floods. The river was diverted and would now cut straight into Pilapil then to the sea. The people rejoiced for there was now water for irrigation, for laundry, and personal sanitation. The harvest were good in Umapad in those days.

According to another source, Umapad was situated in the middle of the sea before the coming of the Spaniards. In an 1868 document, Umapad appears to be either “Omapao” or “Ompad”. This information would probably change the hypothesis on the barangay name’s origin.