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

Tarlac Tarlac, officially the Province of Tarlac (; ; ; ; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. It had a population of 1,503,456 people according to ...

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 103,003 people. It is the birthplace of the 11th

President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines (, sometimes referred to as ) is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-ch ...

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

. Paniqui is a

Hispanized Hispanicization () refers to the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Hispanic culture or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-Hispanic becomes Hispanic. Hispanicization is illustrated by spoken ...

term derived from the Ilocano word "''pampaniki''" which means "

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

", since the town has caves that house bats.

History

The birth of Paniqui could be traced way back in 1712 when the provincial government of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

sent a group of men south of

Bayambang Bayambang, officially the Municipality of Bayambang (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census it has a population of 129,011. It previously included the municipalities of Bautista, A ...

for the expansion of the Christian faith. The pioneering group was led by two brothers, Raymundo and Manuel Paragas of

Dagupan Dagupan , officially the City of Dagupan (, , ), is a 2nd class independent component city in the Ilocos Region, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 174,302 people. Located on Lingayen Gulf on the northwest-central ...

and established the Local Government in a Sitio called "manggang marikit" (mango of an unmarried woman). Surprisingly, in this sitio, there is a great number of mammals called by Ilocanos "pampaniki" and it was from this term that the name Paniqui was derived. An uprising led by Caragay during the early part of 1720 forced the Local Government in "manggang marikit" to abandon the place and to evacuate for lowland called "Acocolao", a place west of the present Poblacion. It was a historical sitio where the first Filipino Moro, Sultan Ali Mudin, was

baptized Baptism (from ) is a Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three ...

in 1750. Paniqui was a sprawling town that covered a wide area that time. Some of the barrios that formerly comprised Paniqui were "San Roque", now

Cuyapo Cuyapo , officially the Municipality of Cuyapo (; ), is a municipality in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 68,066 people. Cuyapo is from Cabanatuan, from Palayan, and from Manil ...

; "Barong", now Gerona; "San Jose De Camiling", now

Camiling Camiling, officially the Municipality of Camiling, (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Tarlac in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 87,319 people. Camiling is one of the fastest-growing towns of Tarla ...

; "Bani", now

Ramos Ramos is a surname of Spanish and Portuguese origin that means "bouquets" or "branches". People with the surname Ramos are most likely found in Mexico, Brazil or Puerto Rico. Notable people and characters with the surname include: People ...

; "San Ramon", now Moncada; and Anao. The period between 1750 and 1896 were painful years of Spanish tyranny and oppression because the insurrectos and sometimes bandits, who are conveniently sprouted among the people, made sporadic attacks upon the

conquistadores Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

. These attacks on the Spaniards, who came on the islands bringing the sword and the cross, were marred by cholera and smallpox epidemics punctuated by floods and typhoons. However, a group of Paniqui

patriots A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...

, welded together by a common belief of oneness, unselfish devotion for freedom and who were spurred by ruthless Spanish tyranny, organized a legitimate segment of the

Katipunan The Katipunan (), officially known as the (; ) and abbreviated as the KKK, was a revolutionary organization founded in 1892 by a group of Filipino nationalists Deodato Arellano, Andrés Bonifacio, Valentin Diaz, Ladislao Diwa, José Dizon, an ...

on January 12, 1896, which is a far cry from the bandits that used to harass the Spaniards. These dauntless men made daring exploits, unrecorded in the history of the

, the most prominent of which was the ambuscade of Spanish soldiers along the road going to Anao and killing a great number of them. These incidents made a prelude to the end of the Spanish occupation in Paniqui. The advent of American occupation saw a happy transition from the almost aristocratic and enigmatic characteristic of Spanish conquistadores to the democratic way of life under American tutelage.Paniqui: History
Paniqui.gov.ph. Accessed November 21, 2022.

Geography

Paniqui is situated between the towns of Gerona to the south, Moncada to the north, Anao and

to the east, and

and

Santa Ignacia Santa Ignacia, officially the Municipality of Santa Ignacia (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. Santa Ignacia has a total land area of . According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 51,626 people. The town i ...

to the west. The town was originally part of the province of Pangasinan. It is first known as Manggang Marikit, a sitio of Pangasinan, in 1571 and as Pampaniki in 1686. Paniqui is from the nation's capital

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 is from the provincial capital,

Tarlac City Tarlac City, officially the City of Tarlac (; ; ; ), is a component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Tarlac, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 385,398 people, making it the most p ...

Barangays

Paniqui is politically subdivided into 35

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 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 ...

. * Abogado * Acocolao * Aduas * Apulid * Balaoang * Barang * Brillante * Burgos * Cabayaoasan * Canan *

Cariño Cariño is a municipality in the province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is situated in the north of the province and located on the Ría de Ortigueira y Ladrido (Ortigueira and Ladrido tidal inlet ...

* Cayanga * Colibangbang * Coral * Dapdap * Estacion * Mabilang * Manaois * Matalapitap * Nagmisaan * Nancamarinan * Nipaco * Patalan *

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 ...

Norte * Poblacion Sur * Rang-ayan * Salomague * Samput * San Carlos * San Isidro * San Juan de Milla * Santa Ines * Sinigpit * Tablang * Ventenilla

Climate

Demographics

In the

2020 Philippine census The 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) was the fifteenth census in the Philippines and the second census conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Pilot run The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) conducted a pilot run o ...

, the population of Paniqui, Tarlac, was 103,003 people with a density of .

Language

The language predominantly spoken is Ilocano, but

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people, of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan, Capampáñgan, or Pampangan, is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. ...

and

are also used frequently.

Economy

References

External links

Paniqui Profile at PhilAtlas.com
*

Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) is a systematic classification and coding for geographic areas in the Philippines. It classifies areas based on the country's four levels of administrative divisions: regions, provinces, municipalities ...

br>Philippine Census Information
{{Authority control Municipalities of Tarlac