Cagayan Valley
| Region II Cagayan Valley |
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|---|---|
| — Region — | |
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| Country | Philippines |
| Island group | Luzon |
| Regional center | Tuguegarao City |
| Area | |
| • Total | 31,159 km2 (12,031 sq mi) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 3,229,163 |
| • Density | 100/km2 (270/sq mi) |
| Time zone | PST (UTC+8) |
| Provinces | 5 |
| Cities | 4 |
| Municipalities | 89 |
| Barangays | 2,311 |
| Cong. districts | 10 |
| Languages | Ilokano, Ibanag, Irraya, Ivatan, Itawis, Gaddang, Tagalog, English, others |
Cagayan Valley (Filipino: Lambak ng Cagayan, Ibanag: Tana' nak Cagayan, Ilokano: Tanap ti Cagayan, Itawis: Tanap yo Cagayan, Malaueg: Ga-dang yo Cagayan) is a region of the Philippines (also designated as Region II or Region 02). It is composed of five provinces: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino. It has four cities: industrial center Cauayan City, its regional center Tuguegarao, its investment hub Ilagan City and its Premier City Santiago City.
Santiago City is also the Queen City of North Luzon.
Most of the region lies in a large valley in northeastern Luzon, between the Cordilleras and the Sierra Madre mountain ranges. The Cagayan River, the country's longest, runs through its center and flows out to Luzon Strait in the north, in the town of Aparri, Cagayan. The Babuyan and Batanes island groups that lie in the Luzon Strait belong to the region.
Cagayan Valley is the second largest region of the Philippines in terms of land area.[1]
Territory
Cagayan Valley is the vast mass of land in the northeastern region of Luzon, comprising today the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino. It is bounded to the west by the Cordillera Mountain Range, to the east by the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, and bounded by the Babuyan Island, where the waters of the Pacific Ocean in the east and the South China Sea in the west meet.
During Spanish times Cagayan Valley had a larger territory than what it has today. It included the territories of the above-mentioned provinces and the eastern parts of the Cordillera provinces of Apayao, Kalinga, Ifugao and Benguet. As the historian and missionary Jose Burgues, said, "The old Cagayan Valley comprises the province of Cagayan, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya as well as the military Districts of Apayao, Itaves, Quiangan, Cayapa and Bintangan, plus the area of the Sierra Madre to the Pacific Ocean in the said trajectory."[2]
Economy and geography
The Cagayan Valley Region II is defined by the Cagayan River. The Province of Cagayan occupies the lower course of the river and the northeast corner of the island of Luzon (with a few offshore islets). Cagayan's area is 9,003 km². Its population was 952,000 (by the 2000 census) in 29 towns, of which Tuguegarao is the capital.
Archaeology indicates that the Cagayan Valley has been inhabited for half a million years, though no human remains of any such antiquity have yet appeared. The earliest inhabitants are the Agta, or Atta, food-gatherers who roam the forests without fixed abodes. A large tract of land has lately been returned to them. The bulk of the population are of Malay origin. For centuries before the coming of the Spanish, the inhabitants traded with Indians, Malays, Chinese, and Japanese. In the nineteenth century the prosperity found in tobacco cultivation caused many Ilokano to settle here. Tobacco is still a major factor in the economy of Cagayan, though a special economic zone and free port has been created to strengthen and diversify the provincial economy.
Cagayan has much to offer visitors: beaches, swimming, snorkeling, skin-diving, fishing in the river and the sea, hiking in primeval forest, mountain-climbing, archaeological sites, the remarkable collection of the provincial museum, the Callao Caves, and many fine churches. Even here there are fortifications built to protect the inhabitants from raids by the Mara.
The Philippine Republic's Region II, Cagayan Valley, contains two landlocked provinces, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya. Both are relatively small in size (3057 km2 for Quirino, 4081 km2 for Nueva Vizcaya) and population (147,000 and 365,000, respectively, by the 2000 census). They are ruggedly mountainous and heavily forested. Nueva Vizcaya is the remnant of the southern province created when Cagayan Province was divided in two in 1839. They are ethnically and linguistically diverse, with a substrate of Agtas, Negritos who are food-gatherers with no fixed abodes, overlaid by Ilongots and others in a number of tribes, some of whom were fierce head-hunters (they have given up the practice), with the latest but largest element of the population being Ilokano.
Nueva Vizcaya comprises 15 towns; Bayombong is the capital. Agriculture in both has until recently consisted of slash-and-burn cultivation of corn and maize, though more stable cultivation of vegetables and fruits is becoming established. They produce logs and are trying to manage their forest resources so that production can be sustained indefinitely. They have deposits of gold, silver, copper, iron. Nueva Vizcaya has sand and clay.
At Balete Pass in Nueva Vizcaya the retreating Japanese under General Tomoyuki Yamashita dug in and held on for three months against the American and Filipino forces who eventually drove them out; the pass is now called Dalton Pass in honor of General Dalton, USA, who was killed in the fighting.
Nueva Vizcaya was probably named after Biscay (English: Biscay, Basque: Bizkaia) province in northern Spain. In this case there is some vexillological relationship between them, as the flag of New Biscay bears the arms of Biscay impaled on its seal.
The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) is in Santa Ana, Cagayan.
The province of Isabela is the richest in Cagayan Valley. It was the Top 10 Richest Province in the Philippines in 2011, being the only province of Northern Luzon to be included in the list.[3]
Tilapia capital of the Philippines
On January 11, 2008, the Cagayan Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) stated that tilapia (species of cichlid fishes from the tilapiine cichlid tribe) production grew and Cagayan Valley is now the Philippines’ tilapia capital (Saint Peter’s fish). Production supply grew 37.25% since 2003, with 14,000 metric tons (MT) in 2007. The recent aquaculture congress found that the growth of tilapia production was due to government interventions: provision of fast-growing species, accreditation of private hatcheries to ensure supply of quality fingerlings, establishment of demonstration farms, providing free fingerlings to newly constructed fishponds, and the dissemination of tilapia to Nueva Vizcaya (in Diadi town). Former cycling champion Lupo Alava is a multi-awarded tilapia raiser in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya. Chairman Thompson Lantion of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, a retired two-star police general, has fishponds in La Torre, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. Nueva Vizcaya Governor Luisa Lloren Cuaresma entered into similar aquaculture endeavors in addition to tilapia production.[4] Isabela province is the richest in harvest among the other provinces in Region 2.
Political divisions
Region II is composed of five provinces, four cities, 89 municipalities, and 2,311 barangays.[5]
| Province | Capital | Population (2010)[6] |
Area (km²) |
Pop. density (per km²) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Batanes | Basco | 16,604 | 209.3 | 79.3 |
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Cagayan | Tuguegarao City | 1,124,773 | 9,002.0 | 124.9 |
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Isabela | Ilagan City | 1,489,645 | 10,409.6 | 143.1 |
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Nueva Vizcaya | Bayombong | 421,355 | 3,903.9 | 107.9 |
| Quirino | Cabarroguis | 176,786 | 3,057.2 | 57.8 | |
Component cities
Independent-component city
- Santiago City, Isabela
Governors
- Vicente Gato - Batanes
- Alvaro Antonio - Cagayan
- Faustino Dy, III - Isabela
- Luisa L. Cuaresma - Nueva Vizcaya
- Junie E. Cua - Quirino
Festival
| Festival | Place | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Pattaradday Festival | Santiago City | May 1–5 |
| Pav-vurulun Festival | Tuguegarao City, Cagayan | August 10–16 |
| Gawagaway-yan Festival | Cauayan City, Isabela | March 30-April 13 |
| Kankanen Festival | Cabatuan, Isabela | November 5 |
| Mangi Festival | Tumauini, Isabela | February 23–24 |
| Pansi Festival | Cabagan, Isabela | January 19–25 |
| Pinilisa Festival | Jones, Isabela | |
| Tinupig Festival | Lasam, Cagayan | |
| Sinabalu Fiestival | Rizal, Cagayan | April 29 |
| Binnadangan Festival | Roxas, Isabela | July 4 |
| Mammangui festival | Ilagan City, Isabela | May 30 |
| Binallay festival | Ilagan City, Isabela | |
| Bambanti Festival | Ilagan City, Isabela | |
| Munggo Festival | San Mateo, Isabela | |
| Pato Festival | San Mateo, Isabela | |
| Panagsangal Festival | Baggao, Cagayan | May 1 |
| Sambali Festival | Piat, Cagayan | July 2 |
| Sarakat Festival | Santa Praxedes, Cagayan | May 14-16 |
| Pagay Festival | Alicia, Isabela | September 28 |
See also
↑Jump back a sectionReferences
- ^ Cagayan Valley, Department of Tourism - Region 2, retrieved 06-21-2012
- ^ Descripcion del Valle de Cagayan, 1897, Jose Burgues
- ^ Top 10 Highest earning Philippine province, Nobert Bermosa website, retrieved 06-17-2012.
- ^ Abs-Cbn Interactive, Cagayan Valley country’s tilapia capital
- ^ "List of Regions". National Statistical Coordination Board. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
- ^ http://www.census.gov.ph/sites/default/files/attachments/hsd/pressrelease/Cagayan%20Valley.pdf
Coordinates: 17°37′N 121°43′E / 17.617°N 121.717°E
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