Binalbagan, officially the Municipality of Binalbagan (; ), 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 ...

Negros Occidental Negros Occidental (; ), officially the Province of Negros Occidental (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Negros, Negros Island. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically s ...

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 71,469 people. Major economic activities include manufacturing, agriculture, services, cottage industries and tourism. Binalbagan is also known for the Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Company (BISCOM).

History

Binalbagan became a town on May 15, 1572 and was one of the first two settlements of

(the second being the municipality of

Ilog ILOG S.A. was an international software company purchased and incorporated into IBM announced in January, 2009. It created enterprise software products for supply chain, business rule management, visualization and optimization. The main product ...

). On the record, Binalbagan is the oldest town in the whole

Negros Island Negros (, , ) is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . The coastal zone of the southern part of Negros is identified as a site of highest marine biodiversity importance in the Coral T ...

, thereby earning the title, “Banwang Panganay” or oldest town. The municipality celebrates an annual fiesta called "The Balbagan Festival" every month of May.

Geography

Binalbagan is from

Bacolod Bacolod, officially the City of Bacolod (; ; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Negros Island Region in the Philippines. With a total of 600,783 inhabitants as of the 2020 census, it is th ...

Barangays

Binalbagan is politically subdivided into 15

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: twelve (12) rural barangays and three (3) urban barangays. 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 and 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 ...

. Currently, there are 3 barangays which are considered urban (highlighted in bold). * Amontay * Bagroy * Bi-ao * Canmoros * Enclaro * Marina * Pagla-um (Poblacion) * Payao (formerly Soledad) * Progreso * San Jose * San Juan * San Pedro (Poblacion) * San Teodoro * San Vicente * Santo Rosario (Poblacion) * Santol

Climate

Demographics

Languages

The people in the city speak Hiligaynon. Tagalog and English are generally understood.

Economy

Education

;Tertiary * Binalbagan Catholic College * Carlos Hilado Memorial State University (formerly Negros Occidental School of Fisheries) *

Technological University of the Philippines The Technological University of the Philippines ()'', commonly known as TUP, is a State Universities and Colleges (Philippines), state university in the Philippines. It was established in 1901 by the Philippine Commission. TUP has its main cam ...

-Visayas Binalbagan Campus

Notable personalities

* Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo (first gentleman of former Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) * Ignacio "Iggy" Tuason Arroyo, Jr. (member of the Philippine House of Representatives) * Augurio Abeto (dubbed as the "King of Hiligaynon Poetry") *Ian Clark Bautista (Southeast Asian Games Boxing Gold Medalist) *Rico Amancio (Masterchef Asia Contestant)

References

External links

*
Binalbagan Profile at the Official Website of Negros Occidental

Municipality of Binalbagan
* Philippine Standard Geographic Codebr>Philippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control Municipalities of Negros Occidental 1572 establishments in the Philippines