Tiwi, officially the Municipality of Tiwi ( bcl, Banwaan kan Tiwi; tl, Bayan ng Tiwi) is a 1st class

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

in the

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

Albay Albay, Friars called the place ''Tigbi'', which evolved into ''Tivi'' and, then, finally to its present name ''Tiwi''.

History

Tiwi began as a ''barrio'' of Malinao before it was formally organized as a politically independent ''pueblo'' in 1696. As a ''pueblo'', it was governed by a ''gobernadorcillo''. As a Catholic parish, it was administered by a secular priest under the then Diocese of Nueva Caceres, now an archdiocese. In its primeval stages, it had some 1,105 houses, a parish church, a community-funded primary school, and a cemetery outside the town proper. The villagers ordinarily engaged in fishing, planting rice, corn, sugarcane, indigo, fruit-bearing trees, and vegetables. Aside from agriculture, they also busied themselves weaving cotton and abaca clothes, and in pottery. In Kagnipa, known today as Barangay Baybay, the dilapidated Sinimbahan, the remnant of the first concrete house of worship built by the

Franciscans , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

led by the pastor of Malinao, Fray Pedro de Brosas, remains to be the deaf witness of both the villagers' ready acceptance of the Christian faith and their suffering of persecution at the hands of the Moslems; Christian missionaries called them Moros. The parola by the shore of Sitio Nipa of the same barangay testifies to the people's paralyzing fear of the Moros' capricious forays. The market site of the pueblo before these raids was located in the present location of Baybay Elementary School. In order to sidetrack surprise attacks, at least temporarily, the market site was transferred to southernmost part of now Barangay Baybay; henceforth, it was called ''Binanwaan''. The transfer, however, was useless. Finally, to have enough time to escape and keep themselves safer from their enemies' easy attacks, they moved the market site and their settlement to the present poblacion now named as Barangay Tigbi. Before the Moro's assaults, Barangay Baybay was then the center of trade and commerce because of its easy accessibility to marine transportation of goods from the islands of what are now known as

Catanduanes Catanduanes (; ), officially the Province of Catanduanes, is an island province located in the Bicol Region of Luzon in the Philippines. It is the 12th-largest island in the Philippines, and lies to the east of Camarines Sur, across Maqueda Cha ...

, San Miguel, Rapu-Rapu, and Batan, not to mention those from adjoining pueblos in the mainland of Ibalon, now the province of Albay, and the Camarines. In the extant records of the municipality, the first chief executive of the municipal government was Don Lorenzo Mancilla installed in 1776.

Geography

Tiwi is located at . According to the

Philippine Statistics Authority The Philippine Statistics Authority (Filipino: ''Pangasiwaan ng Estadistika ng Pilipinas''), abbreviated as PSA, is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that ''collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes statistical inf ...

, the municipality has a land area of constituting of the total area of Albay. Tiwi is from

Legazpi City Legazpi, officially the City of Legazpi ( bcl, Siyudad nin Legazpi; fil, Lungsod ng Legazpi), is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Albay, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 209,533. Legazpi ...

and from

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Climate

Barangays

Tiwi is politically subdivided into 25

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan ...

Demographics

In the 2020 census, Tiwi had a population of 56,444. The population density was .

Religion

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

remained the dominant religion since its propagation in the town 1696.

Language

Generally the town speaks

Central Bikol Central Bikol commonly called Bikol Naga, also known simply as Bikol, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Bicolanos, primarily in the Bicol Region of southern Luzon, Philippines. It is spoken in the northern and western part of Camarines ...

as their first language while others speak Buhinon in the areas near

Buhi, Camarines Sur Buhi, officially the Municipality of Buhi ( Buhinon: ''Banwaan nya Buhi''; Rinconada Bikol: ''Banwāan ka Buhi''; Tagalog: ''Bayan ng Buhi''), is a 1st class world class municipality in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. According to the ...

. Other

Bikol languages The Bikol languages or Bicolano languages are a group of Central Philippine languages spoken mostly in the Bicol Peninsula in the island of Luzon, the neighboring island province of Catanduanes and the island of Burias in Masbate Masbate, ...

are spoken by significant minorities that are from other areas of the

Bicol Region Bicol, known formally as the Bicol Region or colloquially as Bicolandia ( bcl, Rehiyon kan Bikol; Rinconada Bikol: ''Rehiyon ka Bikol''; Waray Sorsogon, Masbateño: ''Rehiyon san Bikol''; tl, Rehiyon ng Bikol), is an administrative region of ...

. The majority of the inhabitants also understand Tagalog (

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

) and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as second languages.

Economy

Tourism

* Parish Church of Our Lady of Salvation, Barangay Joroan * Parish Church of St. Lawrence, Deacon & Martyr, Barangay Tigbi * Tiwi Hot Springs Resorts/Mendoza & Mirasol Resorts - Barangay Naga * Corangon Shoal, Barangay Baybay * PhilCeramics, Barangay Putsan * Naglagbong Park and Science Centrum Museum, Barangay Naga * Rangasa Spring Resort * Sinimbahan Ruins, Barangay Baybay * Japanese Garden, Barangay Tigbi * Bugsukan Falls, Barangay Misibis * Baybay-Bolo Beach * Sogod Beach * Maslog Waterfalls, Barangay Misibis * Tiwi Geothermal Plant * DJC Halo-Halo * Capantagan Waterfalls, Barangay Cale File:Corangon Shoal 1.jpg, Corangon shoal, made up of mainly crushed corals and white sand, is about 15 minutes boat ride from the shore of barangay Baybay. Mounts

Mayon Mayon ( bcl, Bulkan Mayon; tl, Bulkang Mayon, ), also known as Mount Mayon and Mayon Volcano ( es, Monte Mayón, Volcán Mayón), is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay in Bicol, Philippines. A popular tourist spot, it is renown ...

(left), Masaraga (center) and Malinao (right) serve as the background. File:Tiwi Geothermal Plant ca. 1970.jpg, Tiwi Geothermal Plant File:Joroan Beach.JPG, Joroan Beach

References

External links

Philippine Standard Geographic Code 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 ...

{{Authority control Municipalities of Albay Spa towns in the Philippines