Batac
Encyclopedia
Batac is a component city in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines
. The town is located in the northwest corner of the island of Luzon
, about 11.2 km from the eastern shores of the South China Sea. The municipalities of Banna
, Currimao
, Paoay
, Pinili
and San Nicolas
form its boundaries.
According to the latest census, it has a population of 50,675 in 9,882 households.
Batac is known as the "Home of Great Leaders", as it is the hometown of many significant figures in the history of the Philippines. Among them is the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos
. It is also the birthplace of Gregorio Aglipay
, the founder of the Philippine Independent Church
, better known as the Aglipayan Church, and Gen. Artemio Ricarte
, the "Father of the Philippine Army
".
Batac is well-known for being the home of the Mariano Marcos State University
(MMSU), a high-degree granting university that has several branches throughout the province.
in 1577, shortly after he had consolidated Spanish rule in Vigan
.
In the early 1867, the first site of the town of Batac was San Josef, now Brgy. Palpalicong. Two separate communities existed at the time. One was a Christian community headed by a chief called Captain Bazar, and the other a non-Christian community called "Itneg", headed by Captain Tagley, at Sitio Nagalisan, now a part of Brgy. Payao.
As Spain pushed further into the hinterlands, the non-Christians were converted and assimilated into the growing Christian community. The united communities grew into the town of Batac.
However, Batac lost its cityhood, along with 15 other cities, after the Supreme Court of the Philippines granted a petition filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines, and declared the cityhood law (RA 9389) which allowed the town to acquire its city status, unconstitutional. The said cities, the court ruled, did not meet the requirements for cityhood, as mandated by Republic Act 9009, which increased the income requirements for prospective cities.
More than a year later, on December 22, 2009, acting on the appeal of the so-called "League of 16 Cities" (of which Batac is a part of), the Supreme Court reversed its earlier ruling as it ruled that "at the end of the day, the passage of the amendatory law (regarding the criteria for cityhood as set by Congress) is no different from the enactment of a law, i.e., the cityhood laws specifically exempting a particular political subdivision from the criteria earlier mentioned. Congress, in enacting the exempting law/s, effectively decreased the already codified indicators." As such, the cityhood status of Batac is effectively restored.
August 27, 2010, Batac City in Ilocos Norte is now plain old Batac again. It shares the fate of 15 other cities, after the Supreme Court reinstated a 2008 decision declaring as “unconstitutional" the cityhood laws converting 16 municipalities into cities.
A previous law required towns aspiring to become cities to earn at least P100 million annually, which none of the 16 did.
Voting 7-6, with two justices not taking part, the SC reinstated its Nov. 18, 2008 decision declaring as unconstitutional the Republic Acts (RAs) converting 16 municipalities into cities.
On February 2011, the supreme court upheld the cityhood of Batac and 15 other cities.
Batac has an interesting colloquial origin of its name. According to a legend, set in pre-settlement Batac, a man fell into a deep hole while he was digging for the root crop "camangeg". He struggled to get out but could not despite his best efforts. He cried for help but nobody was around. He waited for hours and had given up hope of being saved. Fortunately, two men from the neighboring town of Paoay happened to pass by. They heard the man shouting and traced it to where he was trapped. Upon seeing him, they heard the man say "Bataquennac! Bataquennac!" The two men did not understand until the man explained that he was saying, "Pull me up! Pull me up!" They did just that. When the two men reached their hometown, they told their story to their friends. Since then, the town has been called "Batac," which is derived from the word "bataquennac." but that is only a tale, the true origin of the Batac was named by the Batak tribe who exist five hundred years ago. Before the Spanish colonization. And the ancient tribe of Batak in Ilocos Norte is related to the Batak Tribe of Toba Lake In the province of North Sumatra Indonesia.
The Mariano Marcos State University
(MMSU) is a high-degree granting university that has several branches throughout the province. MMSU doubles as a tourist destination, given its picturesque views and its rich educational and cultural endowments. Its main campus is in the city.
, the capital of the province; 275 km. north of San Fernando City
, the regional center of Ilocos Region and 11.2 km east of the eastern shore of South China Sea.
Travel time by motor vehicle at this time is very convenient because of well paved roads and is 15 – 20 minutes to Laoag City and 8 – 9 hours to Metro Manila
.
Batac City has a total land area of 16, 101 hectares. The terrain of the municipality ranges from flat to rolling and hilly and to very steep. The broad valleys are mostly located in the poblacion with a slope of 0-8%. All the rural barangays except those in the eastern part have a slope of 0 -30%. There are various soil types that are poorly drained due to the heavy texture of most of the subsoil. There are two rivers that cut across Batac, the Quiaoit River (Pagdanuman) and the Garasgas River.
Batac City lies within the tropical rain forest climate
zone (Köppenzone Af), and experiences two distinct seasons. From the later part of May to October is the wet season, with an annual average rainfall of 114.07 inches (PAG-ASA, 2000). The dry season lasts from November to April.
Mayor: Jeffrey Jubal C. Nalupta
Vice-Mayor: Ronald Allan M. Nalupta
Councilors:
ABC President: James Paul C. Nalupta
SK President: Jarius Mark D. Nalupta
s, 14 of which constitute the poblacion
.
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. The town is located in the northwest corner of the island of Luzon
Luzon
Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...
, about 11.2 km from the eastern shores of the South China Sea. The municipalities of Banna
Banna, Ilocos Norte
Banna is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 18,161 people in 3,420 households....
, Currimao
Currimao, Ilocos Norte
Currimao is a 5th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 11,305 people in 2,126 households...
, Paoay
Paoay, Ilocos Norte
Paoay is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 23,117 people in 4,567 households.-Barangays:Paoay is politically subdivided into 32 barangays.* Bacsil* Cabagoan...
, Pinili
Pinili, Ilocos Norte
Pinili is a 5th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 16,185 people in 3,172 households....
and San Nicolas
San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte
San Nicolas is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 33,642 people in 7,423 households...
form its boundaries.
According to the latest census, it has a population of 50,675 in 9,882 households.
Batac is known as the "Home of Great Leaders", as it is the hometown of many significant figures in the history of the Philippines. Among them is the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
. It is also the birthplace of Gregorio Aglipay
Gregorio Aglipay
Gregorio Labayan Aglipay was the first Filipino Supreme Bishop of the Philippine Independent Church.-Early life:...
, the founder of the Philippine Independent Church
Philippine Independent Church
The Philippine Independent Church, The Philippine Independent Church, The Philippine Independent Church, (officially the or the IFI, also known as the Philippine Independent Catholic Church or in Ilocano: Siwawayawaya nga Simbaan ti Filipinas (in in Kinaray-a/Hiligaynon: Simbahan Hilway nga...
, better known as the Aglipayan Church, and Gen. Artemio Ricarte
Artemio Ricarte
Artemio Ricarte y Garcia was a Filipino general during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. He is considered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as the "Father of the Philippine Army"...
, the "Father of the Philippine Army
Philippine Army
The Philippine Army is the ground arm of the Armed Forces of the Philippines . Its official name in Tagalog is Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas. On July 23, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III appointed Maj. Gen...
".
Batac is well-known for being the home of the Mariano Marcos State University
Mariano Marcos State University
The Mariano Marcos State University is a multidisciplinary, state-funded institution of higher learning that serves the Ilocos region and its surrounding regions.-History:...
(MMSU), a high-degree granting university that has several branches throughout the province.
History
Batac is one of the oldest towns in Ilocos Norte. It was founded by the conqiustador Juan de SalcedoJuan de Salcedo
Juan de Salcedo was a Spanish conquistador. He was born in Mexico in 1549 and he was the grandson of Miguel López de Legazpi and brother of Felipe de Salcedo. Salcedo was one of the soldiers who accompanied the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in 1565...
in 1577, shortly after he had consolidated Spanish rule in Vigan
Vigan City
The City of Vigan is a 5th class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital of the Province of Ilocos Sur...
.
In the early 1867, the first site of the town of Batac was San Josef, now Brgy. Palpalicong. Two separate communities existed at the time. One was a Christian community headed by a chief called Captain Bazar, and the other a non-Christian community called "Itneg", headed by Captain Tagley, at Sitio Nagalisan, now a part of Brgy. Payao.
As Spain pushed further into the hinterlands, the non-Christians were converted and assimilated into the growing Christian community. The united communities grew into the town of Batac.
Cityhood
In 1998, Municipality of Batac qualified to become a city. Nine years later, Republic Act 9407, the law that converted the Municipality of Batac into a component city in the Province of Ilocos Norte, to be known as Batac City, was overwhelmingly ratified by the people in a plebiscite conducted on June 23, 2007.However, Batac lost its cityhood, along with 15 other cities, after the Supreme Court of the Philippines granted a petition filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines, and declared the cityhood law (RA 9389) which allowed the town to acquire its city status, unconstitutional. The said cities, the court ruled, did not meet the requirements for cityhood, as mandated by Republic Act 9009, which increased the income requirements for prospective cities.
More than a year later, on December 22, 2009, acting on the appeal of the so-called "League of 16 Cities" (of which Batac is a part of), the Supreme Court reversed its earlier ruling as it ruled that "at the end of the day, the passage of the amendatory law (regarding the criteria for cityhood as set by Congress) is no different from the enactment of a law, i.e., the cityhood laws specifically exempting a particular political subdivision from the criteria earlier mentioned. Congress, in enacting the exempting law/s, effectively decreased the already codified indicators." As such, the cityhood status of Batac is effectively restored.
August 27, 2010, Batac City in Ilocos Norte is now plain old Batac again. It shares the fate of 15 other cities, after the Supreme Court reinstated a 2008 decision declaring as “unconstitutional" the cityhood laws converting 16 municipalities into cities.
A previous law required towns aspiring to become cities to earn at least P100 million annually, which none of the 16 did.
Voting 7-6, with two justices not taking part, the SC reinstated its Nov. 18, 2008 decision declaring as unconstitutional the Republic Acts (RAs) converting 16 municipalities into cities.
On February 2011, the supreme court upheld the cityhood of Batac and 15 other cities.
Origin of the town's name
The word "Batac" in a local dialect translates as "pull". More loosely, it refers to "the people's pulling their efforts together."Batac has an interesting colloquial origin of its name. According to a legend, set in pre-settlement Batac, a man fell into a deep hole while he was digging for the root crop "camangeg". He struggled to get out but could not despite his best efforts. He cried for help but nobody was around. He waited for hours and had given up hope of being saved. Fortunately, two men from the neighboring town of Paoay happened to pass by. They heard the man shouting and traced it to where he was trapped. Upon seeing him, they heard the man say "Bataquennac! Bataquennac!" The two men did not understand until the man explained that he was saying, "Pull me up! Pull me up!" They did just that. When the two men reached their hometown, they told their story to their friends. Since then, the town has been called "Batac," which is derived from the word "bataquennac." but that is only a tale, the true origin of the Batac was named by the Batak tribe who exist five hundred years ago. Before the Spanish colonization. And the ancient tribe of Batak in Ilocos Norte is related to the Batak Tribe of Toba Lake In the province of North Sumatra Indonesia.
Education
Batac National High School (BNHS) is the most popular high school in the city . It has three campuses: Poblacion, Bungon and Payao.The Mariano Marcos State University
Mariano Marcos State University
The Mariano Marcos State University is a multidisciplinary, state-funded institution of higher learning that serves the Ilocos region and its surrounding regions.-History:...
(MMSU) is a high-degree granting university that has several branches throughout the province. MMSU doubles as a tourist destination, given its picturesque views and its rich educational and cultural endowments. Its main campus is in the city.
Geography
Batac City is located in the mid southwestern portion of the province of Ilocos Norte. It lies approximately within altitude 17º17’ north and longitude 120º28’ east. Its boundaries include the Municipality of San Nicolas on the north; Municipality of Sarrat on the northeast; Municipality of Marcos on the east-northeast; Municipality of Banna on the east; Municipality of Pinili on the southeast; Municipality of Currimao on the southwest; and the Municipality of Paoay on the west. It is about 472 kilometers north of Metro Manila, about 18 km. south of Laoag CityLaoag City
The City of Laoag is a 1st class city in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. It is the capital city of Ilocos Norte, and the province's political, commercial, and industrial hub. It is the location of the Ilocos region's only commercial airport...
, the capital of the province; 275 km. north of San Fernando City
San Fernando City, La Union
The City of San Fernando in La Union is a 1st class component city in the Philippines. It is the capital city of La Union and the regional center of the Ilocos Region...
, the regional center of Ilocos Region and 11.2 km east of the eastern shore of South China Sea.
Travel time by motor vehicle at this time is very convenient because of well paved roads and is 15 – 20 minutes to Laoag City and 8 – 9 hours to Metro Manila
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila , the National Capital Region , or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines...
.
Batac City has a total land area of 16, 101 hectares. The terrain of the municipality ranges from flat to rolling and hilly and to very steep. The broad valleys are mostly located in the poblacion with a slope of 0-8%. All the rural barangays except those in the eastern part have a slope of 0 -30%. There are various soil types that are poorly drained due to the heavy texture of most of the subsoil. There are two rivers that cut across Batac, the Quiaoit River (Pagdanuman) and the Garasgas River.
Batac City lies within the tropical rain forest climate
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
zone (Köppenzone Af), and experiences two distinct seasons. From the later part of May to October is the wet season, with an annual average rainfall of 114.07 inches (PAG-ASA, 2000). The dry season lasts from November to April.
City Government Officials
Term of Office: June 30, 2010 - June 30, 2013Mayor: Jeffrey Jubal C. Nalupta
Vice-Mayor: Ronald Allan M. Nalupta
Councilors:
- Bismark Angelo A. Quidang
- Eugenia Violeta D. Nalupta
- Medeldorf M. Gaoat
- Bernardo K. Marders
- Florencio P. Laud
- Orlando C. Mangapit
- Mary Coleen Columbia L. Cajigal
- Avelard Ibarra F. Crisostomo
- Elmer D. Pungtilan
- Amable A. Abellon
ABC President: James Paul C. Nalupta
SK President: Jarius Mark D. Nalupta
Barangays
Batac is politically subdivided into 43 barangayBarangay
A barangay is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward...
s, 14 of which constitute the poblacion
Poblacion
A Poblacion or Población, literally "town" or "Population" in Spanish, is the name commonly used for the central barangay or barangays of a Philippine city or municipality. Common features of the poblacion include a town plaza, church, market, school and town hall. It is sometimes shortened to...
.
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Tourism
- Marcos MuseumFerdinand MarcosFerdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
- Aglipay ShrineGregorio AglipayGregorio Labayan Aglipay was the first Filipino Supreme Bishop of the Philippine Independent Church.-Early life:...
- Ricarte Park and ShrineArtemio RicarteArtemio Ricarte y Garcia was a Filipino general during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. He is considered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as the "Father of the Philippine Army"...
- Batac Riverside Empanadaan
- Immaculate Conception Parish
- Plaza Maestro Complex
- Batac Mini Park
- Batac City Hall
- Mariano Marcos State UniversityMariano Marcos State UniversityThe Mariano Marcos State University is a multidisciplinary, state-funded institution of higher learning that serves the Ilocos region and its surrounding regions.-History:...
- Everland Resort and Multi-Zipline
- Farmers Festival - celebrated every May.
- Empanada Festival - celebrated every June 23rd, the charter day of Batac.
- City Fiesta - celebrated during the month of December - a one month long celebration
Famous Filipinos from Batac City
- Gregorio AglipayGregorio AglipayGregorio Labayan Aglipay was the first Filipino Supreme Bishop of the Philippine Independent Church.-Early life:...
- Artemio RicarteArtemio RicarteArtemio Ricarte y Garcia was a Filipino general during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. He is considered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as the "Father of the Philippine Army"...
- Rodolfo BiazonRodolfo BiazonRodolfo "Pong" Gaspar Biazon is a politician in the Philippines. He is a former Senator. He was elected Senator in the 1992 election for a term of 3 years. He was elected to his first six-year term in the 1998 election, and was re-elected in the 2004 election...
- Aquilino Pimentel, Jr.Aquilino Pimentel, Jr.Aquilino "Nene" Quilinging Pimentel, Jr. is a Filipino politician who served as the President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2000-2001.-Delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention:...
- Ferdinand E. Marcos