Municipality of Bayabas

Bayabas was created as the 12th municipality of Surigao del Sur on November 20, 1961 by virtue of Executive Order Number 452 issued by the late President Carlos P. Garcia, and was formally inaugurated, organized and separated from its mother municipality of Cagwati and Tago on May 3, 1961. Before the immigrants came in 1917 the original inhabitants of Bayabas were believed to be Manobos whose habitats were scattered in what is now the Poblacion. It was the arrival of the first wave of Boholano settlers when the place started becoming a community. Her name was derived from a big trunk of guava tree near the seashore where fishermen from La Paz and Tago used to take their shelter. Bayabas is the native name for guava tree or its fruit. From then on the place was called Bayabas.