# Dingalan

Dingalan, officially the Municipality of Dingalan (Tagalog: Bayan ng Dingalan; Ilocano: Ili ti Dingalan), is a municipality in the province of Aurora, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 27,878 people.
Dingalan has several caves, of which the Lamao Caves are the best known. The rough shoreline and very high waves of Dingalan make it attractive to surfers. Dingalan is nicknamed "Gateway to Southern Tagalog", as it is bordered by Quezon Province (in the south), which is part of Southern Tagalog, of which Aurora was a part; Aurora was a sub-province of Quezon.

## History

Early settlers recounted that Dumagat tribes inhabited the territory now known as Dingalan. The names of most landmarks and places in this municipality were said to have been given by the these first inhabitants. It is believed that the name “Dingalan” is a Dumagat word which means “by the River of Galan” because the territory straddles fifteen (15) rivers and streams which show the abundance of water.
It is also believed that there were two Dumagat brothers named Ding and Allan who were hunting animals in the forest. They were shouting at each other’s name as they went astray away from each other hence the name DINGALAN.
In the early 1900s, settlers from Quezon, Nueva Ecija, and Ilocos started to migrate to Dingalan. They were generally lowland cultivators in search of arable land. In-migration heightened in the 1930s when Don Felipe Buencamino started his logging and sawmill operations. Soon after, inter-marriages among Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Pampangos (Kapampangans), and Bicolanos enriched the cultural stock of settlers.
During World War II, Dingalan was occupied by the Japanese imperial forces. The Japanese took over the operation of sawmills and cut timber to construct their barracks and garrisons. The Dingalan-Gabaldon highway was originally built (1942-1945) as a logging road. On the verge of defeat in 1945, the Japanese used Dingalan Bay as an “exit point” when they retreated.
The strategic location of Dingalan Bay for military purposes was rediscovered after the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951, when the municipality became the Training Ground in 1957 for the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) as well as the United States Seventh Fleet. Dingalan also became a site of the RP-US Balikatan Military Exercises for three (3) consecutive years from 1982-1984.
Dingalan was recognized as a municipal district on June 16, 1956 under Republic Act 1536 with an initial population of 2,000 residents. Prior to that, Dingalan was merely a sitio of Barrio San Luis, Municipality of Baler, Tayabas (now Quezon) Province. Dingalan became a regular municipality on June 16, 1962 by virtue of Republic Act No. 3490.
From the 1930s to 1990s, logging was the main driver of Dingalan’s economy and the principal magnet to migrants. In the 1970s, three logging companies operated in Dingalan namely; Dingalan Wood Industries Corporation (DWICO), South Eastern Timber Corporation (SETIC) of Mr. Roberto Gopuansoy, and Inter-Pacific Forest Resources Company. They obtained a combined allowable cut of 169,416 cubic meters of lumber per annum, roughly equivalent to 4,500 fully loaded ten-wheeler trucks each year.
Because of relentless logging between 1930 and 1995, Dingalan today has only 2% of its original old growth dipterocarp forest. More than 10% of the area is denuded or devoid of trees. Its rate of deforestation is faster than the country’s average of 1.4% per year. The brownish color of Dingalan’s river channels reveals the extent of soil erosion and siltation resulting from the loss of adequate tree cover upstream.

## Geography

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the municipality has a land area of 304.55 square kilometres (117.59 sq mi),  constituting 9.68% of the 3,147.32-square-kilometre- (1,215.19 sq mi) total area of Aurora.
Dingalan is 183 kilometres (114 mi) from Manila and 155 kilometres (96 mi) from Baler. It is bounded on the north by San Luis, west by Gabaldon, General Tinio, and Doña Remedios Trinidad, south by General Nakar, and east by the Benham Rise or Plateau and Philippine Sea.
It is a small town with one main cemented road with branching alleys. Further south of the town proper are the barangays of Aplaya, Butas na Bato, Matawe, Ibona, Dikapanikian and Umiray. The premier barangay north of the town is Paltic. All of the barangays are located on the seashore, except for Poblacion and two barangays located in the mountains. The whole town is mountainous due to the Sierra Madre. The Umiray River separates the town from Quezon Province.
The National Government has an ongoing move to transfer Municipality of Dingalan to become part of Nueva Ecija Province for the reason that the said municipality is geographically and strategically within the said Province. This was favored by most of the residents was opposed by the Provincial Government of Aurora. One reason is that you must travel via the province of Nueva Ecija before reaching the province of Aurora, which is especially difficult during disasters. It is more economical and practical to deliver Dingalan to the province of Nueva Ecija.

### Barangays

Dingalan is politically subdivided into 11 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
| PSGC | Barangay | Population | Population | Population | ±% p.a. | ±% p.a. |
| | | 2020 | 2020 | 2010 | | |
| 037705001 | Aplaya | 6.5% | 1,802 | 1,619 | ▴ | 1.08% |
| 037705002 | Butas Na Bato | 3.3% | 909 | 813 | ▴ | 1.12% |
| 037705003 | Matawe (Cabog) | 12.0% | 3,356 | 3,090 | ▴ | 0.83% |
| 037705004 | Caragsacan | 10.7% | 2,992 | 2,729 | ▴ | 0.92% |
| 037705005 | Davildavilan | 3.7% | 1,036 | 992 | ▴ | 0.43% |
| 037705006 | Dikapanikian | 1.4% | 404 | 387 | ▴ | 0.43% |
| 037705007 | Ibona | 13.0% | 3,624 | 3,185 | ▴ | 1.30% |
| 037705009 | Paltic | 18.2% | 5,075 | 5,029 | ▴ | 0.09% |
| 037705010 | Poblacion | 3.9% | 1,084 | 1,091 | ▾ | −0.06% |
| 037705011 | Tanawan | 2.9% | 820 | 656 | ▴ | 2.26% |
| 037705013 | Umiray (Malamig) | 15.7% | 4,380 | 3,963 | ▴ | 1.01% |
| | Total | Total | 27,878 | 23,554 | ▴ | 1.70% |

### Climate

Climate data for Dingalan, Aurora :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 26 (79) | 27 (81) | 29 (84) | 31 (88) | 31 (88) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 29 (84) | 29 (84) | 28 (82) | 27 (81) | 29 (84) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 20 (68) | 20 (68) | 21 (70) | 22 (72) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 23 (73) | 23 (73) | 22 (72) | 21 (70) | 22 (72) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 21 (0.8) | 18 (0.7) | 16 (0.6) | 18 (0.7) | 65 (2.6) | 102 (4.0) | 112 (4.4) | 95 (3.7) | 91 (3.6) | 99 (3.9) | 58 (2.3) | 49 (1.9) | 744 (29.2) |
| Average rainy days | 6.8 | 5.2 | 6.1 | 7.1 | 16.1 | 20.2 | 22.6 | 21.6 | 20.9 | 16.0 | 9.0 | 9.3 | 160.9 |
| Source: Meteoblue (modeled/calculated data, not measured locally) ||||||||||||||

## Demographics

In the 2020 census, Dingalan had a population of 27,878. The population density was 92 inhabitants per square kilometre (240/sq mi).

## Economy

Poverty incidence of Dingalan
* 10
* 20
* 30
* 40
* 50
* 60
* 2000 50.84
* 2003 22.78
* 2006 29.30
* 2009 14.48
* 2012 13.46
* 2015 14.57
* 2018 12.73
* 2021 28.45
* Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

## Gallery

* Town hall in Poblacion
* Dingaan Feeder Port
* Dingalan Bay blue sea
* Fisherfolk at Aplaya