Legendary origins According to legend, the first
Malay settlers to inhabit the vast fertile land bordering the two bodies of water now known as
Batangas Bay and
Balayan Bay first found anchor along the shores of the land protruding down southwestward, known as the
Calumpan Peninsula. The Malay settlers found the land fertile and agriculturally appropriate and the sea rich in marine resources, and they established their settlement in this once vast unknown land. As more Malay settlers arrived from distant lands, more settlements were founded until even the upland regions of the peninsula were settled. The inhabitants had their own form of village government. They were ruled by a headman, a
datu, or a sultan, in case of big settlements. Malay civilization began to take roots. Rapid increase of population meant that it did not take long before several nearby regions were inhabited to comprise the whole province of Kumintang, better known later as Batangas.
Recorded History During the Spanish colonial rule, the Calumpan Peninsula was made a part of the
pueblo of
Bauan, in the province of Kumintang. The same peninsula territory of Bauan was subdivided into barrios: Mainaga, Pulong-Niogan, Pulong-Balibaguhan, Anilao, Solo, Pulong-Anahao, Bagalangit, Nag-Iba, Malimatoc, Saguing and Talaga. For more than three hundred years, while the archipelago was under
Spanish control, the peninsula remained a part of the “pueblo” of Bauan until the early part of the American occupation. The people of this peninsula, like other people of other regions, suffered untold hardships under the Spanish rule. The
Philippine Revolution of 1896 ended Spanish rule in the country, and in the Calumpan Peninsula the revolutionaries were led by Don Francisco Castillo, known as Apian Kiko.
Mabini, derived from the Philippine hero
Apolinario Mabini, was founded when inhabitants of the region wanted a new municipality independent of the town of Bauan. Eleven barrios of the Calumpan Peninsula and the whole of the Maricaban Island was declared this new, independent municipality. The new municipality of Mabini was inaugurated on January 1, 1918, with Captain Francisco Castillo, known as the founder of the town, as the first appointed Municipal President. ==Geography==