Born in Balilihan, Bohol, on January 29, 1903, Francisco R. Orig, the first-born of Pastor Orig and Rosa Racho, grew up with a Catholic upbringing; he was baptized in the Church of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel in his birthplace, took up elementary in his hometown and earned secondary education at Bohol Provincial High School in Tagbilaran, then the province’s capital town.
He joined public service in 1922 as a teacher and served the post for six years. Following his election as councilor of his birthplace, he had to relinquish his classroom job and focused on the challenges of his new position. While in government, he met his wife, Eleuteria Lacia.
The daughter of Guillermo Lacia of Sikatuna, Bohol, and Buenaventurada Jaugan, Eleuteria was a native of Plaridel, Misamis Occidental; she was born on February 20, 1908. Influenced by her Protestant brothers who embraced her mother’s religion, she enrolled in high school at Silliman University in Dumaguete after completing preparatory grades in her birthplace.
Orig met Eleuteria while she was on vacation in Balilihan to visit relatives. They fell in love and married just months later on July 13, 1929. The union was blessed with twelve children.
The Orig brood included Dalmacio (born September 26, 1929), Edelfonso (b. July 9, 1931), Purificacion (b. September 2, 1933), Pura (b. February 13, 1935), Ronaldo (b. March 17, 1937), Reverencio (b. February 14, 1939), Aurora (b. November 15, 1940), Francisco, Jr. (died in infancy), Jesusa (b. December 25, 1942), Alfredo (b. February 8, 1947), Agnes (b. April 20, 1948), and Nympha (b. April 23, 1952).
To capitulate to the wish of Eleuteria’s parents to see their first grandchild Dalmacio, the Orig family moved to Plaridel where Francisco worked as a road construction foreman. But their stay in Mindanao was not for long. They moved back to Balilihan after most of Orig’s siblings migrated, with only sister Candida tending the family estate.
Due to his qualification, Francisco, in 1932,after assuming as chief of police of Corpuz town, moved to the new assignment for convenience, and served the post for three years.
At the instance of Francisco’s brother, Primitivo, who had moved to Davao, the Orig family, now a family of six, migrated to Davao in 1936. Initially, they resided with a friend along Santa Ana Street who hired the couple to act as sales agents of his jewelry business.
After Davao became a city in 1937, Orig, with his police background, was hired as a first-class policeman of the Davao City police force. And when Pantaleon Pelayo Sr. became city mayor, he was tapped to head the newly organized Toril police station with a rank of sergeant. For convenience, the couple transferred to Toril where they temporarily stayed at the residence of Catalino Sayon, later the city’s first postwar appointed councilor.
Challenged by the growing family, Orig leased a piece of land owned by the Serapio family along Jorge Saavedra Street in Toril where he built a house. When the war broke out, the Orig couple left behind their residence, made a stop at Pikit, North Cotabato, and returned home.
At Balilihan, where Orig was appointed police chief, they resided at barrio Cantomimbo during the war. For her part, Eleuteria served in the Women Auxiliary Services as F Company commander in the villages of Sal-ing and Cantomimbo. After the conflict, the family returned to Toril and rebuilt their slightly damaged house. Orig rejoined the city police force as second lieutenant while his wife tended to the expanding family.
Orig, due to cerebral hemorrhage, died on April 2, 1956; he was only 53 years old and was at the time a captain in the city police force. His remains are buried in Lubogan Cemetery. Eleuteria, meanwhile, died on April 20, 1990. (Sources: Reverencio Lacia Orig and Geni.com)
