HISTORICAL VERSION

Another side of the story was like this . . . During the Spanish occupation of Cotabato, some Moros fled to this place in order to evade persecution in the Spaniards-occupied zones. The head of the party was Sultan Maggo. Upon their arrival, they established their headquarters at Tawantawan, a site nearby. During the course of their wanderings, they happened to reach this place. Their attention was caught by the long lines of bamboo groves growing along the banks of the river. They could not help but exclaimed aloud. The tall and beautiful bamboo poles was a magnificent sight and they planned to use them to build their homes. Due to the abundance of the bamboo in the place, Sultan Maggo and his followers called the place Tamlang, taken from the Maguindanaoan word for bamboo. In like manner as the previous account of the tale, the word was changed to M'lang.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

M'lang is a new settlement compared to Pikit and Kidapawan. The first Christian settlers did not venture into M'lang earlier than 1933. Hospicio Rivas was the first Christian who went far into the wilderness that is now M'lang and taken up a small claim. Then followed by Jacinto Paclibar, who was in search for more fertile lands and the possibility of a vast settlement in M'lang. He had in mind that a government assisted subdivision project merely for landless settlers to utilize the fertile virgin lands landless farmers may have their share and not just to a few landlords. Through such scheme, a new subdivision emerged. Other newcomers into the settlement were Mateo Catubay, Francisco Benitez, Eufemio Andres, Elias Platon, Godofredo Panizares, Estanislao Maranon, Fredo Lustre, Pablo Pidut and the Bilandred Family. In the process of development, thousands of immigrants from Antique, Iloilo and from Ilocos undertook the difficult travel through the muddy trails and thick forest of M'lang. A town site was selected and barrios were designated. In that time, just at the outbreak of the last war, schools begun to spring up through the aid of the Parents Teachers Association. Chapels were constructed for the spiritual needs of the people and small entrepreneurships opened up for the trade. Unhampered settlements can be also attributed to Datu Sambutuan Piang, Datu Mamalangcop, Datu Macatubas and others.

When the war came, it was a productive town and also chosen as the bulwark of guerrillas of Cotabato because of its inaccessibility. It became an evacuation site of the people who did not want to surrender to the enemy. Its patriotic people contributed much to maintain guerrillas, especially in the production of food supplies.

Liberation found the people prostrate with the ravages of war. Lack of working animals and implements prevented the immediate rehabilitation of farms and lessened the chances of increase production. Lack of transportation facilities found the people isolated from the rest of the civilized world. But a determined people want to work as one community to provide basic food supply and to put back school into operation and to return the semblance of the good and harmonious way of life. Despite of the lack of good roads, liberation opened up the incoming waves of new immigrants from the Island of Panay, that for years and until M'lang was formally provided a good roads, settlers could be seen with their heavy packs on their backs hiking day and night on the trail towards a place they could call their own.

M'lang is composed of thirty seven (37) barangays. It became a regular Municipality in August 3, 1951, by virtue of Executive Order No. 462 of the President of the Philippines by the then President Elpidio Quirino, with territories taken from the adjacent towns of Kidapawan (its mother municipality) and Buluan of the now Maguindanao Province. Its classification as of the present is that of First class municipality per Department Order No. 24-97 of the Department of Finance. The M'lang Pilot Elementary School is one of the biggest in Cotabato province and the Notre Dame High School having been the pioneer in secondary education, and the Southern Baptist College leads the collegiate level of education.

The first town officials that ushered the establishment of an independent local government were Domingo Lim (Mayor), Leandro Sorilla (Vice Mayor), Juan Salva, Macario Celestial, Clemente Rendon and Lucas Pueblo (Councilors). The people expressed their suffrage for the first time on November 13, 1952 and elected able bodied, hardworking officials challenged to develop the infant municipality.

Various challenges were experienced by the municipality of M'lang from its birth to the present stage. There were land conflicts, religious demonstration and armed struggle after the declaration of Martial Law. Presently, the municipality has gain its momentum from those experiences that made its inhabitants matured enough to face the future challenges. M'lang today is not the same as M’lang before. Evident to this, its name today, can be found in the "Hall of Fame" as the Cleanest and the Greenest Municipality for three (5) consecutive years, since 1994