Palanan

Palanan, officially the Municipality of Palanan (Ibanag: Ili nat Palanan; ), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Isabela, Philippines. It also served as the final capital of the First Philippine Republic from 1900 until the capture of President Emilio Aguinaldo by the Americans during the Philippine-American War in 1901. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 17,684 people.
History
Unlike other towns in the Cagayan Valley, Palanan was established in 1625 by Spanish forces who arrived by boat from the Pacific coastal town of Baler in Tayabas province (now part of Aurora. As such, Palanan was initially a part of Laguna before being transferred to Tayabas, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and finally Isabela. Also unlike the rest of Cagayan Valley, it was served by Franciscan missionaries rather than the Dominicans. The population of the town was subsequently augmented by local Negritos, migrants from Baler and outlaws from Cagayan Valley, with the lingua franca of the settlement being Tagalog as opposed to Ilocano or Ibanag.
It was in Palanan that one of the final chapters of the Philippine–American War was written on March 23, 1901, when General Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by American forces led by General Frederick Funston, who had gained access to Aguinaldo's camp by pretending to surrender to the Filipinos.
In 1978, the area around Palanan was proclaimed by President Ferdinand Marcos to be part of the Palanan Wilderness Area, a protected nature conservation area that was later expanded by President Fidel V. Ramos to become the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park in 1997.
Geography
Palanan is one of the four remote and isolated coastal towns of Isabela facing the Philippine Sea on the east and separated from the rest of the province by the Sierra Madre Mountains. It is also a suburb of Ilagan City, the provincial capital.
Barangays
Palanan is politically subdivided into 17 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks while some have sitios.
Alomanay
Bisag
Centro East (Poblacion)
Centro West (Poblacion)
Culasi
Dialaoyao
Dibewan
Dicadyuan
Dicotkotan
Diddadungan
Didyan
Dimalicu-licu
Dimasari
Dimatican
Ditambali
Maligaya
Marikit
Climate
Demographics
In the 2020 census, the population of Palanan, Isabela, was 17,684 people, with a density of .
Economy
Government
Local government
As a municipality in the Province of Isabela, government officials in the provincial level are voted by the electorates of the town. The provincial government have political jurisdiction over local transactions of the municipal government.
The municipality of Palanan is governed by a mayor designated as its local chief executive and by a municipal council as its legislative body in accordance with the Local Government Code. The mayor, vice mayor, and the councilors are elected directly by the people through an election which is being held every three years.
Barangays are also headed by elected officials: Barangay Captain, Barangay Council, whose members are called Barangay Councilors. The barangays have SK federation which represents the barangay, headed by SK chairperson and whose members are called SK councilors. All officials are also elected every three years.
Elected officials
Congress representation
Palanan, belonging to the second legislative district of the province of Isabela, currently represented by Hon. Ed Christopher S. Go.
Education
The Schools Division of Isabela governs the town's public education system. The division office is a field office of the DepEd in Cagayan Valley region. The office governs the public and private elementary and public and private high schools throughout the municipality.
Infrastructure
The most common forms of transportation in Palanan are by horses, motorcycles, tricycles, or an improvised motorcycles called kuligligs. Due to its isolation, the town can be reached quickest by a 23-30 minute flight in a six-seater, single-engine Cyclone Air Cessna commuter plane from Cauayan. Palanan is served by Palanan Airport.
By water, a boat ride from the neighboring town of Divilacan or in the towns of Dingalan and Baler in Aurora province in the south usually takes about two to three hours and six to seven hours, respectively.
There are no roads that connect Palanan to the rest of province as the town can only be reached by a plane or boat ride, or a multi-day hike over the Sierra Madres from the neighboring town of San Mariano, which could take about three to five days. However, there is a construction of an 82-kilometer Ilagan-Divilacan Road through the protected Sierra Madre mountains is on-going to open access to the coastal towns of Divilacan, Palanan and Maconacon. The approved budget contract of the project amounting to P1.5B, will pass through the foothills of the 359,486-hectare Northern Sierra Madre mountain ranges. The project will improve an old logging road used by a defunct logging company until the 1990s. It will start in Barangay Sindon Bayabo in Ilagan City and will end in Barangay Dicatian in Divilacan. The project is started in March 2016 and is expected to be completed in 2024.
References
External links
Municipal Profile at the National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines
Palanan at the Isabela Government Website
Local Governance Performance Management System
[ Philippine Standard Geographic Code]
Philippine Census Information
Municipality of Palanan
Municipalities of Isabela (province)