<Li> Zone IV (Pob .) </Li> <P> Sta . Cruz has a favorable climate all year round characterized by wet and dry seasons . It is outside the typhoon belt . Generally the months of November to April are dry periods . Wet season occurs from May to October . This type of climate is observable in the plain and coastal areas . In the mountainous barangays, the fourth type of climate is consistently experienced . Rainfall is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year . Most often in these areas heavy downpour occurs every afternoon while in the morning the sun shines . </P> <P> Sta . Cruz is the oldest municipality in the province; it was founded on 5 October 1884, thirty - six years after the foundation of Davao, which is its mother city, by Don Jose Uyanguren of Guipúzcoa, Spain . It all started when Spanish pioneers and missionaries attempted to settle and Christianize the area in what is now Barangay Poblacion as early as 1880 . But because of the relentless Islamic faith of the local people in the area, the enraged pioneers and missionaries planted a cross under a shelter to mark the failure of the missionaries to convert these people to Christianity; the town's name now bears the name of the cross planted by those Spaniards . Fortunately, for the next 4 years, the local people will submit themselves to Christianity and had themselves conquered by Angel Rodriguez, the Spanish Governor - General of Davao . But, like Don Uyanguren's attempt to develop the newly established Davao, the area around the young town did not prosper until after almost 20 years since then . </P> <P> The Americans arrived in Davao in the early 1900s after the Spanish defeat in the Spanish--American War . Fourteen years later, the town began to grow economically, although overshadowed by the booming economic growth of its neighbour Davao . Several Japanese entrepreneurs like Kyusaburo Otta and Yoshizo Furukawa are living in the region to exploit more agricultural territories, the former in Davao and the latter in what is now the barangays Darong and Inauayan . </P>

List of barangays in sta. cruz davao del sur