Get To Know Santa Cruz 

About Santa Cruz 

Sta. Cruz is traversed by mountain ranges and high relief that include part of the famed Mount Apo, the highest mountain peak in the Philippines, straddle the south, central, north and north-western portions of the municipality. The rugged topography of the central area gradually undulates toward the coastal plains of the north-eastern, eastern and south-eastern parts. Here, settlements sprawl contiguously along the coast of Davao Gulf under the vast monotony of coconut plantations. On the western frontier, a plateau stretches toward Barangay Kapatagan of Digos City. The municipal elevation ranges from 10 to 2,939 metres (33 to 9,642 ft) above sea level (m.a.s.1.).

 Santa Cruz is politically subdivided into 18 barangays. Of the 18 barangays, 7 are uplands, 9 are upland-lowland and coastal and 2 are lowland-coastal.Sta. Cruz has a favorable climate all year round characterized by wet and dry seasons. It is outside the typhoon belt. Generally the months of November to April are dry periods. Wet season occurs from May to October. This type of climate is observable in the plain and coastal areas. In the mountainous barangays, the fourth type of climate is consistently experienced. Rainfall is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year. Most often in these areas heavy downpour occurs every afternoon while in the morning the sun shines.

Sta. Cruz is the oldest municipality in the province; it was founded on 5 October 1884, thirty-six years after the foundation of Davao, which is its mother city, by Don Jose Uyanguren of Guipúzcoa, Spain. It all started when Spanish pioneers and missionaries attempted to settle and Christianize the area in what is now Barangay Poblacion as early as 1880. But because of the relentless Islamic faith of the local people in the area, the enraged pioneers and missionaries planted a cross under a shelter to mark the failure of the missionaries to convert these people to Christianity; the town’s name now bears the name of the cross planted by those Spaniards. Fortunately, for the next 4 years, the local people will submit themselves to Christianity and had themselves conquered by Angel Rodriguez, the Spanish Governor-General of Davao. But, like Don Uyanguren’s attempt to develop the newly established Davao, the area around the young town did not prosper until after almost 20 years since then.