The Department of Mindanao and Sulu

The department was created by virtue ofAct No. 2408 enacted on July 23, 1914. The department covered the provinces of Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Sulu, and Zamboanga. It was headed by an American named Frank W. Carpenter who had the title of Governor. In 1916 the Municipal President ofArgao,Antonio Minoza, was appointed as deputy governor (on June 19, 1960 Congress enacted Republic Act 2809 renaming the Argao Intermediate School as Antonio Minoza Intermediate School). Deputy Governor Minoza was the son of Don Cornelio Minoza and Saturnina Albores.

Amember of the Minoza clan ofArgao (note that the Minozas spread throughout the provinces of Mindanao are originally from Argao, Cebu) by the name of Bonifacio A. Minoza was one of Argao's pride on language and literature. Bonifacio was born in Argao on May 12, 1882. He studied at the Seminario de San Carlos. At the young age of 16 he had the rank of lieutenant under the command of the legendary Cebuano general from Tuburan,Arcadio Molero Maxilom. He exposed abuses of the Roman Catholic Church and founded the publication, "Ang Magbabaol". He is considered as Argao's longest serving councilor (1917 to 1965). On August 22, 1945 he was appointed by Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., President of the Philippines from 1944 to 1946, as acting councilor of Argao, Cebu. The other appointees were Juan Rellon, Maximo Carreon,Anastacio Padilla, Pio Mendez, and Filomeno K. Lucero. The great writer of Argao, Bonifacio, died on September 3, 1972.

The following year the famous Carpenter Agreement was signed on March 22, 1915. It is the document whereby theAmerican government with the approval of the then Governor General Luke E. Wright acknowledged that the Sultan of Sulu is the Titular Spiritual Head of the Mohammedan Church. It was signed by Hadji M. Jamalul Kiram, Sultan of Sulu and Carpenter, the Governor of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu. It was a Cebuano writer who had the position of department secretary who prepared the document, his name was Isidro Vamenta.

Isidro Vamenta became a lawyer on April 9, 1906 and had an extensive law practice, he was Municipal President of Cagayan de Misamis (now Cagayan de Oro City) from 1908 to 1909 succeeding Cipriano Vamenta Sr. He also served as assemblyman of Misamis Oriental from 1931 to 1934 and 1938 to 1941.Assemblyman Vamenta founded the "La Tribuna" in 1913, it had the Cebuano title: "Ang Pasundayagan".

The Department of Mindanao and Sulu was abolished in 1920 and the administration of the Moro lands was transferred to the Bureau of Non-Christians under the Department of the Interior.