Morong, officially the Municipality of Morong (), 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 ...

Bataan Bataan (, , , ; ) , officially the Province of Bataan, is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the entire Bataan Peninsula ...

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 35,394 people.

History

In 1607, Morong was officially founded as an ecclesiastical parish by the Augustinian Recollects who placed the town under the protection of the

Our Lady of the Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar () is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40, AD 40 while he was pre ...

. Its founding priest was Fr. Rodrigo de San Miguel. On June 10, 1955, with the understanding of the Spanish language waning in most of the Philippines and with ''Moron'' having an unfortunate meaning in English, the town was renamed Morong by virtue of Republic Act No. 1249.

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 municipality has a land area of constituting of the total area of Bataan. The municipality is home to Subic Bay International Airport,

Subic Bay Freeport Zone The Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone, often shortened as Subic Bay or Subic, is a special economic zone and List of free ports, freeport area covering portions of the city of Olongapo and the town of Subic, Zambales, Subic in Zambales, ...

(SBFZ; along with Hermosa also in the province of Bataan, and

Olongapo Olongapo (), officially the City of Olongapo (; ; ; Kapampangan: ''Lakanbalen/Ciudad ning Olongapo''), is a highly urbanized city in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 260,317 peo ...

and Subic in

Zambales Zambales, officially the Province of Zambales (; ; ; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. Its capital is Iba, Zambales, Iba, which is located in t ...

), the

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is a nuclear power plant on the Bataan Peninsula, west of Manila, Philippines. Completed but never fueled, it is located on a government reservation at Napot Point in Barangay Nagbalayong, Morong, Bata ...

, and the former Philippine Refugee Processing Center. Morong was formerly known as ''Moron''. It is accessible via the Bataan Provincial Expressway, off Exit 65. Morong is bounded by Dinalupihan to the northeast, Hermosa and Orani to the east, and province of the

to the north.

City is located directly north of Morong, accessible via SBMA–Olongapo Access Road through Rizal Highway to Aguinado Road or Security Road to East 14th Street. It is from Balanga 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 ...

Environmental protection

The Pawikan Conservation Center is a community-based effort to protect turtles in Morong with a focus on protecting the Olive Ridley species.

Climate

Morong has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

(Af) with little to no rainfall from December to April and heavy to extremely heavy rainfall from May to November.

Barangays

Morong is politically subdivided into 5

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 shown 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 ...

Demographics

According to the Spanish Census of the country in 1896, Morong was reported to have 2,797 inhabitants. In the 2020 census, Morong had a population of 35,394. The population density was .

Economy

Existing industries in Morong include mango/cashew production as well as vinegar making from nipa palm nuts and the production of basketry using jungle vines. There is some variety of developments intended for Morong. Industries targeted for development are the manufacturing of component parts or assembly operations. In addition, there are plans to establish convention centers, exhibit halls, golf course and clubs, entertainment and leisure and sports centers, hotels, beach resorts and meditation centers.

Mining

Morong has also had some activity in mining. In 1972 it had mining activity from Long Beach Mining Corporation producing magnetite concentrate from beach sands and in 2017 there was headway into opening 709.6 hectares of land to Gandara minerals and development corporation in order to mine basalt and other associated minerals.

Economic zone developments

The Bataan Technology Park (informally called the "''Technopark''") is the main zone of the Morong Special Economic Zone (MSEZ), established in March 1997 after a previous ecozone which was established under the 1992 Bases Conversion and Development Act.

Government

Local government

Gallery

File:Morongjf7230 04.JPG, Municipal hall File:Morongjf7215 02.JPG, Public market File:Morongjf7159 12.JPG, Morong landscape File:Morong,Bataanjf7110 09.JPG, Seascape File:Morongchurchjf7281 02.JPG, Park and covered court

References

External links

* * Philippine Standard Geographic Code {{Authority control Municipalities of Bataan