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

Nueva Ecija Nueva Ecija, officially the Province of Nueva Ecija ( ; ; ; ), is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Palayan, while Cabanatuan, its former capital, is the largest Local gove ...

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 66,839 people. Bongabon is the leading producer of

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

in the Philippines and in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. Each

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 ...

in Bongabon has its own fiesta. The town fiesta, celebrated annually from the 1st to 2nd week of April, is known as the Sibuyasan (Onion) Festival. Bongabon is from Palayan, from

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 ...

, and from

Baler A baler or hay baler is a piece of farm machinery used to compress a cut and raked crop (such as hay, cotton, flax straw, salt marsh hay, or silage) into compact bales that are easy to handle, transport, and store. Often, bales are config ...

History

Spanish colonial era

Bongabon was the first capital of Nueva Ecija. The Augustinian missionaries who preached

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 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ; ), is a province in Central Luzon in the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, ...

extended their outposts into what is now the province of

by following the Rio Grande de Pampanga. Thus, Santol (present day Barangay Santor) was part of Pantabangan and established in 1659. In 1760, Bongabon was named as a town and parish under the patronage of St. Francis of Assisi. Migrant-settlers of the community were mostly Tagalog and Ilocanos from the

Ilocos Region The Ilocos Region (; ; ), designated as Region I, is an Region of the Philippines, administrative region of the Philippines. Located in the northwestern section of Luzon, it is bordered by the Cordillera Administrative Region to the east, the Ca ...

and Pangasinan, with some Kapampangans from Pampanga and Tarlac.History of Bongabon
/ref>

Philippine revolution

When the Philippine Revolution transpired from 1896 to 1898 against Spain, revolutionaries with the aid of Katipunero rebels and started the Siege of Bongabon, fought Spanish colonial forces, and liberated the town. The Filipino revolutionary troops and Katipunero rebel fighters captured the municipal town after the siege forcing the Spanish troops to retreat.

American invasion era

With the outbreak of the Philippine–American War on 1899 to 1902, the town saw the arrival of American troops which fought the Filipino revolutionary troops and Katipuneros in the Battle of Bongabon on 1899. In the ensuing battle, the town was captured by the American troops.

Philippine independence

On April 28, 1949, Aurora Quezon, her daughter Maria Aurora "Baby" Quezon, then a law student at the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (UST; ), officially the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines or colloquially as ''Ustê'' (), is a Private university, private Catholic school, Catholic researc ...

, her son-in-law Felipe "Philip" Buencamino (husband of "Nini" and brother-in-law of "Baby") and

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read and pronounced in Filipino language, Filipino as Kyusi), is the richest and List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 c ...

Mayor Ponciano Bernardo were

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

Hukbalahap The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (), better known by the acronym Hukbalahap, was a Filipino communist guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were originally formed to fight the Japanese, but extended their fight int ...

movement led by

Luis Taruc Luis Mangalus Taruc (; June 21, 1913 – May 4, 2005) was a Filipino people, Filipino political figure and rebel during the agrarian unrest of the 1930s until the end of the Cold War. He was the leader of the Hukbalahap group (from ''Hukbong B ...

in this town while traveling in Aurora's Buick sedan along the

–Bongabon Road connecting Baler with

, which Aurora Quezon herself inaugurated in 1940, to open the Quezon Memorial Hospital in Baler, Aurora, hometown of Aurora and her husband

Manuel Quezon Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (, , , ; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who was president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 until his d ...

, then a town of Nueva Ecija before 1902 and a town of Quezon Province since 1902 and in 1949.

Geography

Barangays

Bongabon is politically subdivided into

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 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 ...

. * Antipolo * Ariendo * Bantug * Calaanan * Commercial (Poblacion) * Cruz * Digmala * Curva (J. Tomacruz) * Kaingin (Poblacion) * Labi * Larcon * Lusok * Macabaclay * Magtanggol (Poblacion) * Mantile (Poblacion) * Olivete * Palo Maria (Poblacion) * Pesa * Rizal (Poblacion) * Sampalucan (Poblacion) * San Roque (Poblacion) * Santor * Sinipit (Poblacion) * Sisilang na Ligaya (Poblacion) * Social (Poblacion) * Tugatug * Tulay na Bato (Poblacion) * Vega Grande

Climate

Demographics

Religion

The majority of the people of the municipality are Roman Catholic. The members of the

Iglesia ni Cristo The (INC; ; ) is an independent Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church founded in 1913 and registered by Felix Manalo, Félix Manalo in 1914 as a corporation sole, sole religious corporation ...

are growing in number and are second to the Catholics in membership. Other sects in the municipality are the Methodists, Iglesia ng Dios,

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabba ...

, etc.

Economy

Tourism

*Sibuyas Festival is celebrated as a form of thanksgiving every 10 April, and a way to promote and show their town as one of the largest producers of onion in Asia. *Ilog Jordan at Barangay Olivete – This place is a popular Lenten destination for people seeking spiritual rejuvenation and healing. *Falls Deepsap at Barangay Labi – A good place to visit during summer, the falls offers a cold shimmering water perfect to beat heatwaves. Its water comes from the untainted Sierra Madre Mountain. *Mount Labi Peak at Barangay Labi. *The first leg of the UCI Gravel World Series was held in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines on April 3, 2022.

Healthcare

Bongabon District Hospital, a government hospital located at Barangay Curva, Bongabon, Nueva Ecija

Education

Most are public schools from primary to secondary. Bongabon National High School is located at Barangay Sinipit, Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. Many of the students are going to Cabanatuan to continue their college.

References

External links

*
Bongabon Web Services – Nueva Ecija
* Philippine Standard Geographic Codebr>Philippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control Municipalities of Nueva Ecija Populated places on the Pampanga River