The Chico River ( es, Río Chico de Cagayán), is a

river system In geomorphology, drainage systems, also known as river systems, are the patterns formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by the topography of land, whether a particular region is dominated by h ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

in the island of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

, encompassing the regions of

Cordillera A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly us ...

and

Cagayan Valley Cagayan Valley ( ilo, Tanap ti Cagayan; fil, Lambak ng Cagayan), is an administrative region in the Philippines, located in the northeastern section of Luzon Island. It is composed of five Philippine provinces: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nue ...

. It is the longest

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

Cagayan River The Cagayan River, also known as the Río Grande de Cagayán, is the longest river and the largest river by discharge volume of water in the Philippines. It has a total length of approximately and a drainage basin covering . It is located in t ...

with a total length of . The most extensive river in the Cordillera region, it covers the provinces of

Mountain Province Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as ''Mountain'' in some foreign references. The name is usually short ...

Kalinga Kalinga may refer to: Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology * Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India ** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature ** Kalinga script, an ancient writ ...

and

Cagayan Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan ( ilo, Probinsia ti Cagayan; ibg, Provinsiya na Cagayan; itv, Provinsiya ya Cagayan; fil, Lalawigan ng Cagayan), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the C ...

. It is referred to as a "river of life" for the

Kalinga people The Kalinga people () are an indigenous ethnic group whose ancestral domain is in the Cordillera Mountain Range of the northern Philippines. They are mainly found in Kalinga province which has an area of 3,282.58 sq. km. Some of them, howeve ...

who live on its banks, and is well known among development workers because of the

Chico River Dam Project The Chico River Dam Project was a proposed hydroelectric power generation project involving the Chico River on the island of Luzon in the Philippines that locals, notably the Kalinga people, resisted because of its threat to their residences, li ...

, an electric power generation project which local residents resisted for three decades before it was finally shelved in the 1980s - a landmark case study concerning ancestral domain issues in the Philippines.

Geography

Philippine Island - Bontoc - NARA - 68155884

The Chico River, has a total length of and the longest

of the

Source and course

The highest

headwater The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

s begin along the slopes of

Mount Data Mount Data is a mountain located in the Cordillera Central mountain range rising to a height of in the north of Luzon Island, Philippines. It is about north of Baguio on the borders of the provinces of Benguet and Mountain Province along the ...

in the Cordillera mountains at

Bauko, Mountain Province Bauko, officially the Municipality of Bauko is a 4th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 32,021 people. Bauko is from the provincial capital Bontoc and fr ...

. It then flows northeastward through

Bontoc Bontoc may refer to: * Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines * Bontoc, Southern Leyte, Philippines * Bontoc people, an ethnic group from Central Luzon, Philippines * Bontoc language Bontoc (Bontok) (also called Finallig) is the native language ...

Sabangan Sabangan, officially the Municipality of Sabangan is a 5th class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 9,621 peop ...

Sadanga Sadanga, officially the Municipality of Sadanga is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 8,427 people. Sadanga boundaries both provinces are Abra to the ...

Tinglayan Tinglayan, officially the Municipality of Tinglayan is a 4th class municipality in the province of Kalinga, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 13,148 people. Geography Barangays Tinglayan is politically subdivided ...

Lubuagan Lubuagan, officially the Municipality of Lubuagan is a 4th class municipality in the province of Kalinga, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 9,323 people. It is north of Manila and from Tabuk. Lubuagan Municip ...

Tabuk City Tabuk, known officially as the City of Tabuk ( ilo, Siudad ti Tabuk; fil, Lungsod ng Tabuk), is a 5th class component city and capital of the province of Kalinga, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 121,033 people ...

, Pinukpuk,

Tuao Tuao, officially the Municipality of Tuao ( ibg, Ili nat Tuao; ilo, Ili ti Tuao; tl, Bayan ng Tuao), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Cagayan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 63,970 people. Etymol ...

Piat The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank (PIAT) Mk I was a British man-portable anti-tank weapon developed during the Second World War. The PIAT was designed in 1942 in response to the British Army's need for a more effective infantry anti-tank weapon ...

Rizal Rizal, officially the Province of Rizal ( fil, Lalawigan ng Rizal), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Its capital is the city of Antipolo. It is about east of Manila. The p ...

, and finally at Santo Niño, where it merges with the

. Its tributaries are the Bunog River to the south, The Tanudan and

Biga River Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest part ...

s to the east, The Mabaca and Saltan Rivers to the North, and the Pasil River further downstream.

References

Rivers of the Philippines Landforms of Mountain Province Landforms of Kalinga (province) Landforms of Cagayan {{Philippines-river-stub