GENERAL LUNA BEACH

A beguiling 27 kilometer of powdery white sand, the water shimmers and sparkles like a jewel, turquoise by the shore and sapphire as it recedes into the horizon.

Historical and Scenic

Many legend has been attached to the reason why this town had been known as Cabuntog in ancient times. Foremost is the legend of huge bell in the local Church that when it rings it can be heard as far as the mainland of Mindanao. Its sound allegedly summon the Muslim raiders to its shores. To protect itself against this depredation it was decided to get rid of the bell. They did so by dumping the same at Campujong river. Dumping is "Buntog" in the local dialect hence, the name.

Records however tells a different tale. General Luna, then known as Cabuntog in ancient times, enjoyed a peaceful as well as a bloody era. The original inhabitants of the place belongs to the group of people known as the "Caragans" or people from the region known as Caraga. They subsist on fishing and farming. They live a life that was relatively tranquil and peaceful until the arrival of the Spanish colonizers sometimes in late 15th century. The arrival of these colonizers and their harsh treatment of the people caused resentment and misgivings amongst its populace that in the year 1631, the Caragan's revolted in the mainland and attacked and levelled Cabuntog to the ground. The parish priest's life was spared due to his earlier departure to Bacuag but his assistant was captured and was beheaded in a swampy area, now believed to be the swampland between Barangay Malinao of General Luna and Barangay Union of the municipality of Dapa.

The years between 1631 to 1749 was a century of peace. The Christianization of the area went on smoothly and the people were persuaded to abandon their tree dwellings and inhabit the surroundings of what is now General Luna. This tranquil atmosphere was again broken when Muslim raiders came and again levelled "El Parokya de Cabuntog." They did it again five years late in 1756 and again in 1856. The in between years that lasted almost a century, between the burnings with its attendant astrocities, Genera Luna, live a hundrum, idyllic life that its people live simply for the sake of living, never minding its past nor looking forward towards the future. Its forest and verdant hills and teeming white shores contained so many game animals, and fish and its land produced abundant food for its people.

The advent of American colonization reduced the "pueblo" to a "barangay" of the municipality of Dapa. It however bounced back to its present status two decades later thru the efforts of the local political stalwarts of the time like Sivestre C. Plaza, Agosto E. Espejon, Montano Minglana, Maurecio A. Comandante, Fabian E. Camingue, etc. who in time, serve the town either as a Mayor or a Councilor.

August 1, 1929 marked as the official day of the formal entry of General Luna as an organized unit of government in the modern Philippine Governmental System. The succeeding years saw the peaceful change of government thru the electoral processes except, during the Japanese Occupation and EDSA "restoration".