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For the river see Ilog Sa Pampanga. Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is The City of San Fernando. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast. Pampanga also lies on the northern shore of Manila Bay. The name "Pampanga" was given by the Spaniards who found the early natives living near the river banks. The word "Pangpang" means river bank. Its creation in 1571 makes it the oldest among the seven provinces of Central Luzon. The Province of Pampanga enjoys the distinction of being known as the Culinary Center of the Philippines. Pampanga is served by the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, which is located in Clark Field some 16 kilometers north of the provincial capital.
People and culture See Pampangos. Economy Farming and fishing are the two main industries of the province. Major products include rice, corn, sugar cane, and tilapia. In addition to farming and fishing, the province also supports a thriving cottage industries that specializes in wood carving, furniture-making, guitars, and handicrafts. Every year during the Christmas season, the province of Pampanga becomes the center of a thriving industry centered on handcrafted lighted lanterns called “parols” that displays a kaleidoscope of light and color. Other industries include its indigenous casket industry and the manufacturing of all Purpose Vehicles present in the Municipality of Sto. Tomas. The province is famous for its culinary industry. Kapampangans are well known for their culinary expertise. Well known food products range from the ordinary to the exotic. Pampanga's Best and Mekeni Food are among the better known meat brands of the country producing Kapampangan favorites such as pork and chicken tocinos, beef tapa, hot dogs, and longanizas (Philippines-style sausages and cured meats.) Specialty foods such as the murcon (ground meat stuffed in fish), embutido (ground pork roll), kare-kare (pork or beef cooked in peanut butter), sisig baboy (a spicy pork dish best served with beer), lechon (roasted pig) and its sarsa (sauce), are popular specialty foods in the region. The more exotic betute tugak (stuffed frog), kamaru (mole crickets) cooked ala adobo, bulanglang (pork cooked in guava juice), lechon kawali, and bringhe (a green sticky rice dish like paella) are a mainstay in Kapampangan feasts. Native sweets and delicacies like pastillas, turonnes de casoy, buro, are the most sought after by Filipinos including a growing number of tourists who enjoy authentic Kapampangan cuisine. Tourism is a growing industry in the province of Pampanga. Clark Field, in Angeles City, is home to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Luzon's second International Airport and designated as the Philippines future premier gateway site. Within the Clark Special Economic Zone are well established hotels and resorts. Popular tourist destinations in the province include: St. Peter Shrine in Apalit, Mt. Arayat National Park in San Juan Bano, Arayat, the Paskuhan Village in the City of San Fernando, and the Casino Pilipino in Angeles City. Well known annual events include the Giant Lantern Festival in December, the annual hot air balloon festival in Clarkfield during the month of February, and the San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites celebrated two days before Easter. Other developing economies include a semiconductor industry involved in the manufacturing of electronics and computers mostly located within the Clark Special Economic Zone. Political Pampanga is subdivided into 20 municipalities and 2 cities. Cities Municipalities Terrain The province has a total land mass of 2,180.68 square kilometers. Its terrain is relatively flat with one distinct mountain, Mt. Arayat and the notable Pampanga river. Among its municipalities, Porac has the largest land mass with 343.12 square kilometers; Candaba comes in second with 208.7 square kilometers; followed by Lubao with 155.77 square kilometers. Climate The province of Pampanga has two distinct climates, rainy and dry. The rainy or wet season normally begins in May and runs through October, while the rest of the year is the dry season. The warmest period of the year occurs between March and April, while the coolest period is from December through February. Telecommunication Telephone services in the Province are provided by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Digitel, Datelcom, the Evangelista Telephone Company, and the Pampanga Telecom Company. The province has 24 public telegraph offices distributed among its towns while the facilities of PT&T and RCPI were set up to serve the business centers in Angeles City, San Fernando, and Guagua.* Several Internet Service Providers and available in the province. These include the Angeles Computer Network Specialist, Information Resources Network System, Inc., Mosaic communications Inc., Net Asia Angeles City and Phil World On Line. United Parcel Services (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) provide international courier services for the province and the rest of the country. Their hubs are located within the Clark Special Economic Zone. These international courier are complemented by four local couriers operating as the communication and baggage of the province. There are 3 postal district offices and 35 post office stations distributed in the 20 municipalities and 2 cities of the province. * Media Twelve local newspapers are published in Pampanga. They include: Pampanga has four radio stations: There is only one television station in Pampanga, K-TV 12 of the Love Radio Network in Sindalan, San Fernando.* Water & Power Potable water supply in the province reaches the populace through three levels namely: Level I (point source system), Level II (communal faucet system), and Level III (individual connections). A well or spring is the pinpointed water source in areas where houses are few as the system is only designed to serve 15 to 25 households. As of 1997, there were 128,571 Level I water system users in the province. The communal faucet system (Level II) serves the rural areas while the Level III system is managed by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). The system provides individual house connections to all second and first class private subdivisions. Electric power is distributed to majority of the towns through the distribution centers of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative (PELCO) which include PELCO I, II, III. Small parts of Candaba and Macabebe are also supplied by Manila Electric Company (MERALCO).* Transportation The province of Pampanga is strategically located at the crossroads of central Luzon and is highly accessible by both air and land. The province is home to two airstrips: Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, which is utilized by the military, and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Angeles City. Pampanga also has five existing municipal ports which function as fish landing centers. These are situated in the municipalities of Guagua, Macabebe, Masantol, Minalin, and Sasmuan.* Land travel to the province is made easy by numerous buses that travel the routes of Manila-Pampanga-Bataan, Manila-Pampanga-Zambales, Manila-Pampanga-Tarla, Manila-Pampanga-Nueva Ecija, and Manila-Bulacan-Pampanga. These buses are serviced by: Philippine Rabbit, Genesis Transport, Philippine Rapid, Panther, Saulog Transit, Victory Liner, Dagupan Bus Lines, San Trans, Fariñas, Dominion, Maria de Leon, Viron, five Star, Arayat Express, Sierra Madre Lines, and the Baliuag Transit.* The 83.7 - km North Luzon Expressway (NLE) extends from Balintawak in Metro Manila to Sta. Ines in Pampanga. It passes through the large cities of San Fernando and Angeles in Pampanga through Sta. Ines, which is located near the former U.S. Air Force Base at Clark Field.* Education The province is home to 33 colleges/universities. They include: Festivals Historic churches and shrines Recreational facilities and leisure parks Historical landmarks Museums and historical monuments Natural parks History Pampanga was founded by the Spanish conquistador, Martín de Goiti in 1571. The name derived from the native Kapampangan words "pangpang ilog" meaning "riverside" where the early Malayan settlements were concentrated along the Rio Grande de la Pampanga. Kapampangan men are known for their gallantry and leadership while Kapampangan women are famous for their beauty and skill in culinary arts. Pampanga, one of the richest provinces in the Philippines, was re-organized as a province by the Spaniards on December 11, 1571. For governmental control and taxation purposes, the Spanish authorities subdivided Pampanga into towns (pueblos), which were further subdivided into districts (barrios) and in some cases into royal and private estates (encomiendas). Due to excessive abuses committed by some grantees of private estates, the King of Spain prohibited in 1574 the awarding of private estates (encomiendas). However, the royal decree was not fully enforced until the year 1620. In a report of Philippine encomiendas on June 20, 1591, Spanish Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas reported to the King of Spain that La Pampanga's encomiendas were Bataan, Betis y Lubao, Macabebe, Candava, Apalit, Calumpit, Malolos, Binto, Guiguinto, Caluya, Bulacan and Mecabayan. The encomiendas of La Pampanga at that time had eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty whole tributes. Ancient Pampanga's territorial area used to include portions of the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac and Zambales in the big Island of Luzon of the Philippine Archipelago. Pampanga which is about 850 square miles in area and presently inhabited by more than 1.5 million people, had its present borders drawn in 1873. During the Spanish regime it was one of the richest Philippine provinces. Manila and its surrounding region were then primarily dependent on Pampangan agricultural, fishery, and forestry products as well as on the supply of skilled workers. As other Luzon provinces were created due to increases in population, some well-established Pampanga towns were lost to new emerging provinces in Central Luzon. The historic province of Bataan which was founded in 1754 under the administration of Spanish Governor General Pedro Manuel Arandia, absorbed from the province of Pampanga the municipalities of Abucay, Balanga, Dinalupihan, Llana Hermosa, Orani, Orion, Pilar, and Samal. The old Pampanga towns of Aliaga, Cabiao, Gapan, San Antonio and San Isidro were ceded to the province of Nueva Ecija in 1848 during the term of Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua. The municipality of San Miguel de Mayumo of Pampanga was yielded to the province of Bulacan in the same provincial boundary configuration in 1848. In 1860, the northern towns of Bamban, Capas, Concepcion, Victoria, Tarlac, Mabalacat, Magalang, Porac and Floridablanca were separated from Pampanga and were placed under the jurisdiction of a military command called Comandancia Militar de Tarlac. However, in 1873, the four latter towns were returned to Pampanga and the other five towns became municipalities of the newly created Province of Tarlac. A large number of people have been displaced and whole towns and villages have been submerged in lahar in the aftermath of the Mount Pinatubo erruptions. Notable Kapampangans | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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