San Mariano, officially the Municipality of San Mariano; ; ), is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Isabela Isabela may refer to: People with the given name * Isabela Boscov, Brazilian film critic * Isabela Corona (1913–1993), Mexican actress * Isabela Garcia (born 1967), Brazilian actress * Isabela Moraes (born 1980), Brazilian synchronized swimmer ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 60,124 people.

Etymology

According to legend, it was first named Angela in reference to the wife of Mariano Kalingog whose family was one of the foremost settlers of the place. Angela drowned while she was washing clothes along the

Pinacanauan River The Pinacanauan River, also known as the Pinacanauan de Tuguegarao, is a tributary of the Cagayan River located in the province in Cagayan, in the northern portion of Luzon in the Philippines. With a length of , the river originates in the Sier ...

, bringing grief to her husband, who also died some years later. Since then, the village was known as San Mariano. The area covered by San Mariano was part of a wide region that stretched from the edge of

Ilagan Ilagan, officially the City of Ilagan (; ; ), is a component city and capital of the province of Isabela, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 158,218 people making it the most populous city in the province and ...

to the Sierra Madre mountains called Catalangan, derived from the word ''talang'' (pine), possibly due to that tree's abundance in the Sierra Madre. It was officially established by the Spaniards as a mission in 1755.

History

Establishment

San Mariano was once a barrio of

, the capital of

. In 1920, by virtue of ''Executive Order 25'', San Mariano became a Municipal district, and with the passage of Philippines Legislature ''Act No. 3416'' dated December 7, 1927, it was made a distinct and regular municipality.

Influx of Ilocano settlers

During those early decades of the 20th century, there was an influx of migrants coming from the provinces of Ilocos,

Cagayan Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan (; ; ; isnag language, Isnag: ''Provinsia nga Cagayan''; ivatan language, Ivatan: ''Provinsiya nu Cagayan''; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Cag ...

, and

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

. These new settlers formed communities on agricultural lands on which they grew corn and other crops such as rice, root crops, different kinds of vegetables and bananas.

During the Marcos dictatorship

Isabela, including San Mariano, was one of the areas most heavily militarized during after

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

declared

Martial Law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

in 1972, and was not exempt from the

Human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship The dictatorship of 10th Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s is historically remembered for its record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, ...

. In 1985, three councilors from Barangay Ibujan in the municipality of San Mariano, including Ibanag community leader Luis Gabriel who had rejected overtures for the establishment of a local CHDF base in the town, were forcibly taken by heavily armed men who claimed that they needed the three as guides. However, the three were never seen again, and they eventually became counted among the many desaparecidos during the Marcos dictatorship.

Cultural history

When the German naturalist

Carl Semper Carl Gottfried Semper (July 6, 1832, Altona, Hamburg, Altona, Duchy of Holstein – May 29, 1893, Würzburg) was a German ethnologist and animal ecologist. His brother Georg Semper took an interest in the lepidoptera while his brother Johannes Ott ...

hiked the Sierra Madre mountains in May 1860, he observed early inhabitants who are known today as the Kalingas. He described the said group as a typical Filipino "cultural minority" who grew their own food, practiced their own religious rites, smithed their own tools, decorated their own artifacts with distinctive designs and traded forest products for metal and salt. On the Pacific side of the mountains, Semper saw the "Negritos" and concluded that they were new arrivals because he observed no "Kalinga-Negrito" mestizos among them. They inhabited the forest close to the "Kalinga" settlements and showed up with games in seasonal periods to barter for agricultural products. Years later, some sociologists noted that there were inter-marriages entered into between these tribes. These natives, however, were out-numbered by the mestizos or the "Ibanag-Kalinga," the Ibanags and

Ilocanos The Ilocano people (), also referred to as Ilokáno, Iloko, Iloco, Iluku, or Samtoy, are an Austronesian ethnolinguistic group native to the Philippines. Originally from the Ilocos Region, located on the northwestern coast of Luzon, they hav ...

with a ratio of about four to one. These settlers tilled permanent farms at the present-day Barangays of Disulap and Minanga. There was also an influx of several groups from the Bicol and Tagalog regions during the logging concession boom. The continuing acculturation of these groups brought about social changes in the locality. The once verdant forest slowly became barren and denuded with the ceaseless

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

and kaingin system employed by the local people and new migrants. When the national government decided to impose a total log ban, the ethnic groups decided to settle in the remote areas of the municipality to farm their lands. The Bicolanos and Tagalogs moved out.

Geography

San Mariano has a total land area of . It constitutes 13.78 percent of the total land area of the province, and is the province's largest and the country's third largest municipality. It is a suburb of

, the provincial capital. The municipality lies in the eastern part of the province of Isabela. It is bounded on the north by the

, on the east by

Palanan Palanan , officially the Municipality of Palanan ( Ibanag: ''Ili nat Palanan''; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Isabela, Philippines. It also served as the final capital of the First Philippine Republic from 1900 until the capture of P ...

, on the south by

San Guillermo San Guillermo (Spanish language, Spanish for Saint William), officially the Municipality of San Guillermo, is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Isabela (province), Isabela, Philippines. Accor ...

and on the west by Benito Soliven. San Mariano is situated from the provincial capital

, and from the country's capital city of

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Barangays

San Mariano is politically subdivided into 36

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

s. Each barangay consists of

purok A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...

s while some have

sitios A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...

. * Alibadabad * Balagan * Binatug * Bitabian * Buyasan * Cadsalan * Casala * Cataguing * Daragutan East * Daragutan West * Del Pilar * Dibuluan * Dicamay * Dipusu * Disulap * Disusuan * Gangalan * Ibujan * Libertad * Macayucayu * Mallabo * Marannao * Minanga * Old San Mariano * Palutan * Panninan * Zone I (

Poblacion ''Poblacion'' (from Spanish '' población'', meaning "population"), sometimes abbreviated as Pob., is a term used in the Philippines to refer to the administrative center, downtown, old town, or commercial area of a city or municipality. It ...

) * Zone II (

) * Zone III (

) * San Jose * San Pablo * San Pedro * Santa Filomena * Tappa * Ueg * Zamora

Climate

Existing general and urban land uses

Of the total land area of the municipality, built-up area constitutes 1,268 hectares or 0.86 percent with the Poblacion as the largest and most densely populated built-up area. Open grasslands occupy a total area of approximately 20,700 hectares representing about 14.09 percent. Generally, the open grasslands are flanked by either agricultural areas or forest areas. Vast forest areas of the municipality are mostly found at its eastern portion, which covers about 53.39 percent or an approximated area of 78,450.50 hectares. About 29,264 hectares or 19.91 percent are presently devoted to extensive agricultural activities with corn, rice and bananas as the major crops. Water bodies, including banks, buffer or salvage zones occupy an estimated 11.58 percent while existing roads and streets cover 2.17 percent of the municipality's total area.

Demographics

In the 2020 census, the population of San Mariano, Isabela, was 60,124 people, with a density of .

Economy

Government

Local government

As a municipality in the Province of Isabela, government officials at the provincial and municipal levels are voted by the town. The provincial government has political jurisdiction over most local transactions of the municipal government. The municipality of San Mariano is governed by a mayor, designated as its local chief executive, and by a municipal council as its legislative body in accordance with the Local Government Code. The mayor, vice mayor, and the municipal councilors are elected directly in polls held every three years. Barangays are also headed by elected officials: Barangay Captain,

Barangay Council The Sangguniang Barangay, known in English as the Barangay Council is the local government of a barangay, the smallest administrative division in the Philippines. Each of the 42,004 barangays in the country has its respective Sangguniang Baran ...

, whose members are called Barangay Councilors. The barangays have SK federation which represents the barangay, headed by SK chairperson and whose members are called SK councilors. All officials are also elected every three years.

Elected officials

Congress representation

San Mariano, belonging to the second legislative district of the province of Isabela, currently represented by Hon. Ed Christopher S. Go.

List of former chief executives

Education

The Schools Division of Isabela governs the town's public education system. The division office is a field office of the

DepEd The Department of Education (DepEd; ) is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for ensuring access to, promoting equity in, and improving the quality of basic education. It is the main agency tasked to manage and go ...

Cagayan Valley Cagayan Valley (; ), designated as Region II, is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines. Located in the northeastern section of Luzon, it is composed of five Provinces of the Philippines, Philippine provinces: ...

region. There are two schools district offices which govern the public and private elementary and high schools throughout the municipality, namely: San Mariano I Schools District, and San Mariano II Schools District.

Primary and elementary schools

* Alibadabad Elementary School * Angela Elementary School * Binatug Elementary School * Bitabian Elementary School * Buyasan Elementary School * Casala Elementary School * Cataguing Elementary School * Caunayan Elementary School * Daragutan East Elementary School * Dibuluan Elementary School * Dipusu Elementary School * Disulap Elementary School * Disusuan Elementary School * Gangalan Elementary School * Libertad Elementary School * Luzcon Elementary School * Macayucayu Elementary School * Malaya Elementary School * Mallabo Elementary School * Palutan Elementary School * San Mariano Central School SPED Center * San Pablo Elementary School * San Pedro Elementary Schoo * Tappa Elementary School * Udiao Elementary School * Ueg Elementary School * Villa Ancheta Elementary School * Zamora Elementary School

Secondary schools

* Alibadabad National High School * Balagan Integrated School * Bitabian National High School * Cadsalan Integrated School * Daragutan East National High School * Daragutan West Integrated School * Del Pilar Integrated School * Dicamay Integrated School * Ibujan Integrated School * Old San Mariano Integrated School * Panninan Integrated School * San Isidro Integrated School * San Jose Integrated School * San Mariano II Central Integrated School * San Mariano National High School - Main * San Mariano High School - Cataguing Extension * Sta. Filomena Integrated School * Ueg National High School * Villa Miranda Integrated School

References

External links

Municipal Profile at the National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines

San Mariano at the Isabela Government Website

Local Governance Performance Management System
*

Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) is a systematic classification and coding for geographic areas in the Philippines. It classifies areas based on the country's four levels of administrative divisions: regions, provinces, municipalities ...

Philippine Census Information

Municipality of San Mariano
* {{Authority control Municipalities of Isabela (province)