BRIEF HISTORY OF CAMIGUIN POLICE PROVINCIAL OFFICE

The Camiguin Province was formerly the sub-province of Misamis Oriental. On the year 1969, through RA 4669 dated June 18, 1966. Camiguin became an independent province.

The Camiguin PC/INP Provincial Headquarters, known as Camp General Bonifacio Aranas, was located at Mambajao, the capital town of Camiguin. The first Provincial Commander then was 1LT SATURNINO M MEDINA, JR. 

The camp was named after General Bonifacio Aranas, a native of Mambajao due to his exploits against the Spaniards. He was born on June 5, 1875 in Agoho, Mambajao, Camiguin.

“Heneral Asyong” while a young student then of Collegio de San Carlos, Cebu City, he joined the Philippine Insurrection underground movement against the Spanish government. His elder brother, Father Teodoro Aranas, was the coadjutor at San Nicolas Church, Cebu City at the time. But the younger one avoided seeing the other for fear that the latter might be incriminated in his revolutionary activities.

Young Aranas joined the revolution. Through sheer courage and leadership, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, under General Leon Kilat. The 21 year old general commanded a unit that defended an important sector in Cebu province. In a series of bloody skirmishes in Tuburan, General Aranas and his gallant men wiped out a detachment of Spanish and Filipino caribeneros sent out to capture him dead or alive.

General Aranas was sent to Cebu to study at the Seminario de San Carlos where he finished a degree in Philosophy. There was a time in the seminary when he broke his plate in protest of the poor quality of the food; the meals at the seminary had improved after that.

General Aranas’ refusal to be cowed by just anybody was made more evident when he came home to Mambajao. There he had an altercation with some Spaniards who got jealous of him for his sharp shooting prowess with the gun. This incident prompted his older brother to advise him to stay calm or just leave Mambajao so as not to involve the family in his personal quarrel with the Spaniards.