Gonzaga, officially the Municipality of Gonzaga (; ) , is a 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 ...

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 ...

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 had a population of 41,680.

History

Pre-Colonial Period and Etymology

The original inhabitants of Gonzaga were

Negrito The term ''Negrito'' (; ) refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, th ...

s, especially Aeta tribes. The first recorded name of the area was Gampao, an Aeta word meaning 'mountainous,' which was later changed to Wangag ('river').

Spanish Era

In the eighteenth century, groups of Ilocano-speaking immigrants arrived in several waves by sea and land, gradually displacing the Aeta in lowland areas. Wangag was given ecclesiastical recognition on February 23, 1869, as a ''

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...

'' of Buguey. In 1917, the American-controlled

Insular Government The Philippine Insular GovernmentThis form of the name appeared in the titles of US Supreme Court cases, but was otherwise rarely used. See Costas v. Government of the Philippine Islands, 221 U.S. 623, 1911. The Administrative Code of the Phil ...

renamed the settlement Rumang-ay (Ilocano for 'to be progressive'). The following year, it was renamed after the first Filipino Governor of Cagayan, Gracio P. Gonzaga. The town was officially seceded from Buguey on January 1, 1918, via an Executive Order of

Governor-General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

Francis Burton Harrison Francis Burton Harrison (December 18, 1873 – November 21, 1957) was an American-Filipino Politics of the United States, statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives and was appointed Governor-General of the Philippines ...

World War II

Days after the Imperial Japanese

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

, the Tanaka Detachment sailed south from Japanese Formosa as a main invasion force against the American-held

Commonwealth of the Philippines The Commonwealth of the Philippines (; ) was an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territory and Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States that existed from 1935 to 1946. It was established following the ...

. They landed on the northern coasts of Luzon, including Gonzaga, on December 10, 1941 at the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the Pacific.

Geography

Gonzaga is located at the north-eastern part of Cagayan, bordered by Santa Ana to the north-east, Santa Teresita to the west, and Lal-lo to the south. Gonzaga is from

Tuguegarao Tuguegarao ( or ), officially the City of Tuguegarao (; ; ; ), is a 2nd class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Cagayan, Philippines. According to the 2020 ...

, 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 Santa Teresita. It has a total land area of , the majority of which remains undeveloped. It has large stretches of virgin forests, especially throughout the mountainous areas of the Sierra Madre mountain range. The highest elevation in the municipality is above sea level, located at the Mount Cagua in Barangay Magrafil. The majority of the municipality's coastline is mostly along the

Babuyan Channel The Babuyan Islands ( ), also known as the Babuyan Group of Islands, is an archipelago in the Philippines, located in the Luzon Strait north of the main island of Luzon and south of Taiwan. The archipelago consists of five major islands and thei ...

to the north, although it is also bounded by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the southeast. The eleven coastal barangays contain a total of of beaches, of mangrove forests and of coral reefs.

Barangays

Gonzaga is politically subdivided into 25

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, including four urban barangays which constitute the

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 ...

area. Each barangay consists of puroks 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 ...

. * Amunitan * Batangan * Baua * Cabanbanan Norte * Cabanbanan Sur * Cabiraoan * Callao * Calayan * Caroan * Casitan * Flourishing (Poblacion) * Ipil * Isca * Magrafil * Minanga * Rebecca (Nagbabacalan) * Paradise (Poblacion) * Pateng * Progressive (Poblacion) * San Jose * Santa Clara * Santa Cruz * Santa Maria * Smart (Poblacion) * Tapel

Climate

Demographics

In the 2020 census, the population of Gonzaga, Cagayan, was 41,680 people, with a density of .

Economy

Gonzaga is primarily an agricultural municipality, with more than half of the workforce employed primarily as either farmers or fishers. Approximately of agricultural land are currently under production, the majority of which are dedicated to rice farming.

Government

Local government

Gonzaga is part of the first legislative district of the province of Cagayan. It 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 Codification of laws is a common practice in the Philippines. Many general areas of substantive law, such as criminal law, civil law and labor law are governed by codes of law. Tradition Codification is predominant in countries that adher ...

. The mayor, vice mayor and councillors are directly elected by constituents in polls held every three years.

Elected officials

Local chief executives

In popular culture

The 2012 film '' The Mistress'', starring

John Lloyd Cruz John Lloyd Espidol Cruz (born June 24, 1983) is a Filipino actor. Regarded as the "''King of Contemporary Cinema''" by the media, Cruz has top-billed several box-office successes. He has more than ten films with box office grosses of ₱100 mill ...

and

Bea Alonzo Phylbert Angelli Ranollo Fagestrom (born October 17, 1987), known professionally as Bea Alonzo, is a Filipino actress, singer and Youtuber. She is best known for playing dramatic roles in romantic drama films. Her notable films include '' The M ...

, was partly shot in the town.

Education

The Schools Division of Cagayan, a division office and field office of DepEd in the

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, is responsible for the implementation of the town's education system, ensuring adherence to educational standards set by the government in order to provide quality education for all students. In both public and private elementary schools, including high schools within the municipality. The Gonzaga West District Office oversees all public and private elementary and high schools in the town.

Primary and elementary schools

* Batangan Elementary School * Cabanbanan Norte Elementary School * Cabanbanan Sur Elementary School * Calayan Elementary School * Callao Primary School * Caroan Elementary School * Casitan Elementary School * Gonzaga North Central School * Gonzaga South Central School * Isca Elementary School * Laoc Elementary School * Minanga Elementary School * Pateng Elementary School * Rebecca Elementary School * Sta. Clara Elementary School

Secondary schools

* Baua National High School * Cabiraoan National High School * CFPJ (Carlito F. Pentecostes, Jr.) National High School * Gonzaga National High School * Ipil National High School * RJDAMA Christian Academy * Rebecca National High School * St. Anthony's Academy of Gonzaga, Inc.

Higher educational institutions

* Cagayan State University

Notable personalities

Juan Ponce Enrile Juan Valentin Furagganan Ponce Enrile Sr., (born Juan Valentin Furagganan; February 14, 1924), also referred to by his initials JPE, is a Filipino politician and lawyer who served as 21st President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2008 to ...

, former Senator and Presidential Legal Adviser * Lilia Cuntapay, Filipino actress

References

External links

* Philippine Standard Geographic Codebr>Philippine Census InformationOfficial Sangunian Bayan ng Gonzaga Website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Cagayan