Calaca, officially the City of Calaca (), is a component city 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 ...

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( ), is a first class province of the Philippines located in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Calabarzon region. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,908,494 people, making ...

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 87,361 people. Calaca is home to the lively Calacatchara festival (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of Calaca and '' atchara'' (

chutney A chutney () is a spread typically associated with cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt, or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion ...

Etymology

The name was taken from the roofs of the houses made of bamboos halves arranged over top of one another. One anecdote believes that: ''When it was still a sitio and long been called Calaca, three Spanish officials happened to pass by. They saw some carpenters making the roof of a house. They asked one of the carpenters about the name of the place. The carpenter, who did not know Spanish, believed that the Spaniards were asking what they were making and they answered, “calaca.”'' The Spaniards noted the name and since then, Calaca became the official name.

History

Calaca was part of Balayan when it was used to be a barrio. On May 10, 1835, it was officially converted into a town. Don Rufino Punungbayan was the first Gobernadorcillo of the municipality during the year 1835–1836.

Cityhood

On March 11, 2020, House Bill No. 6598 was filed for the conversion of the municipality of Calaca into a component city in the province of Batangas. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the bill. On May 26, 2021, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte approved the bill through Republic Act No. 11544. On August 19, 2021, COMELEC postponed the plebiscite which seeks to ratify the conversion of the municipality of Calaca into a city for the preparation of the 2022 elections. On July 13, 2022, the election body sets the date of plebiscite on September 3, 2022. By virtue of Republic Act No. 11544 after ratification of the law, Calaca becomes the fifth city in

and the first in the province's 1st legislative district.

Geography

According to the

Philippine Statistics Authority The Philippine Statistics Authority (; PSA) is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that collects, compiles, analyzes, and publishes statistical information on economic, social, demographic, political affairs, and gene ...

, the city has a land area of constituting of the total area of Batangas. Calaca is from Batangas City and 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 ...

Barangays

Calaca is politically subdivided into 40

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, as indicated in the matrix below.. 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 ...

. As of June 30, 2021, there are five barangays that are considered urban (highlighted in bold).

Climate

Demographics

In the 2020 census, Calaca had a population of 87,361. The population density was .

Economy

Calaca is currently identified by the Philippine Statistics Agency as a 1st class municipal economic zone.Se
Philippine Standard Geographic Code page for Calaca
and reference the "Download PGSC Publications" sidebar. The Philippine Statistics Agency as of September 2022 had not made a determination of the income classification on the city scale for Calaca based on the previous four years of revenue.

Gallery

File:Lemery,Calaca,Batangasjf9674 22.JPG, Welcome arch from Lemery File:Balayan,Calaca,Batangasjf0186 07.JPG, Police station File:Calaca,BatangasHalljf9841 03.JPG, Public market File:Calaca,Batangasjf9985 34.JPG, Saint Raphael the Archangel Parish Church

References

External links

* * Philippine Standard Geographic Code {{DEFAULTSORT:Calaca City, Batangas Cities in Batangas Component cities in the Philippines Populated places established in 1835