Dasol, officially the Municipality of Dasol (; ; ), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 31,355 people.
Dasol is a popular town for the production of commercial salts. Seawater is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be harvested. Dasol Bay occupies the whole coastline of Dasol and it is where the town gets its saltwater.
Dasol is north from Metro Manila and from Lingayen.
Etymology
The town got its name from the medicinal herb "dosol" which abound in the locality during the Spanish period. The leaves of this herbal plant are greenish and oval in shape. It is a tuber relatively very low in height. It was commonly used to cure infected wounds, but was found to have the unusual characteristic of miraculously disappearing (abandoning its post) for unknown reason never to be located again. Its name was frequently mispronounced as Dasol by the Spaniards, so that when the place was established as municipality in the 19th century, Dasol became its official name.
History
Spanish colonial era
As early as 1878, Dasol was part of municipality of San Isidro de Potot, which also include the present-day municipalities of Mabini (at that time was named as Barrio Balincaguin), and Burgos, in Zambales province. At that time, there were few people lived in Dasol. Balincaguin was the most thickly populated barrio and later became an independent municipality. The people, in their desire for better living conditions, moved to the south-west. They found good fishing grounds and they decided to stay along the coast in the barrio of Uli, Dasol.
Philippine Revolution
A revolutionary group was organized in the Central Luzon on January 14, 1898, under General Francisco Macabulos. The Pangasinan sub-group was headed by Vicente del Prado, who together with Daniel Maramba reached an understanding to launch an attack on Spanish situations. On March 7, 1898, a simultaneous attack was suddenly made upon convents in number of towns of western Pangasinan (then as northern Zambales). Areas of San Isidro de Potot, Dasol (proper), and Eguia were among attacked. The Spanish detachments in these towns and around fifty Spanish friars were defeated.
American invasion era
Secession from Zambales and other towns
On November 7, 1903, the northern part of Zambales was annexed to the province of Pangasinan by virtue of Act No. 1004. The municipalities ceded were Alaminos, Bolinao, Anda, San Isidro de Potot, Bani, Agno, and Infanta. Townsfolk cited alleged lack of concern for the towns' interest and welfare by the Zambales provincial government and was encouraged to join Pangasinan province. However, for allegedly the same reason, there was a movement to rejoin Zambales, which clamor was aroused by the incumbency of then President Ramon Magasaysay, a Zambales-born president in the middle of the 1950s. This proposal was wiped out completely when Governor Aguedo Agbayani of Pangasinan became the governor.
In 1911, by virtue of Executive Order No. 25, signed by Governor-General William Cameron Forbes, Dasol seceded from San Isidro de Potot, San Isidro de Potot was renamed as Burgos (in honor of José Apolonio Burgos) and Balincaguin was renamed as Mabini (in honor of Apolinario Mabini).
Boundary issues
Ever since its creation, the boundaries of Dasol with the municipalities of Burgos, Mabini and Infanta remain vague, for what the leaders of Dasol had claimed to be the boundaries then agreed upon and as allegedly borne out by records, are no longer respected by the respective officials of said adjoining municipalities. Instead, they have encroached into Dasol's domain. During the incumbency of Mayor Liceralde, he made an attempt to settle Dasol's boundary with Mabini, but even after two separate conferences between the officials of the two towns were already had, each group was adamant in its own version. Considering that there was no visible sign of a probability for an amicable settlement of the dispute, the idea was abandoned so as to give way to court battle. He allegedly said that it was time-consuming to gather relevant documentary evidence (parol evidence no longer available due to the death of reliable witnesses) that would clinch the case for Dasol. The same appears to be true with respect to the other boundary conflicts.