Calabanga

Calabanga, officially the Municipality of Calabanga, is a municipality in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. According to the, it has a population of people.

History

In 1578 when the head Mission of Quipayo was established, Calabanga was either a visita or a barrio. At that time, the place had vast forests and swamps and an abundance of wildlife. Others say, it derived its name from the Bicol word “Calabangan”, the plural term of “labang” or “litag”, meaning a kind of snare for catching wild animals. Another legend says that Calabanga originated from the word “Calagbangan” meaning the wide, long, and straight street spanning from the church through the poblacion, east to west, called locally as “calabaan” or “calacbangan”.
Calabanga became known with 400 tributes. On July 15, 1749, it was separated from Quipayo by virtue of the approval of Don Fray Joan de Arechera, Bishop-Elect of Nueva Segovia of the Commissary of the King. The approval was base from a petition signed and filed by 37 Calabangueños on April 28, 1749, for the territory to be conveniently administered as a separate town
By that period, there were already 2 visitas, visita de Cagapad and visita de Hinarijan and 12 barrios. The barrios were san Antonio, San Vicente, Santa Catalina, Nuestra Señora de Salud, San Lucas, San Miguel, Santa Isabel, Nuestra Señora del Carmen, San Roque, San Pablo, San Jose and Belen.
Quipayo or Calabanga used to encompass Tinambak, Masirum, Bombon, Magarao, Cabusao, and Piglabanan. Libmanan is the oldest that was established in 1580 while Bombon was the last being separated and created a town in 1949.

Geography

Calabanga has a land area of, which constitutes 3.1% of the Camarines Sur's land area. It is bounded on the west by the Bicol River and the municipality of Cabusao; on the south by the municipality of Bombon and Naga City; on the east by the forest lands of Mount Isarog, the Tigman River and each tributary forming the natural boundary and the municipality of Tinambac; on the north by the fishing grounds of San Miguel Bay, and the municipalities of Sipocot, Basud and Mercedes.

Barangays

Calabanga is politically subdivided into 48 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
Currently, there are 14 of which located within the urban area while the remaining 34 barangays are considered to be rural areas. Of these, 11 are coastal barangays and 3 are highly urbanized barangays.
Calabanga is divided into six areas: West Coast, Harbour, East Coast, Poblacion, Highland, and Quipayo.

Balatasan
Balombon
Balongay
Belen
Bigaas
Binanuaanan Grande
Binanuaanan Pequeño
Binaliw
Bonot-Santa Rosa
Bombon
Burabod
Cabanbanan
Cagsao
Camuning
Comaguingking
Del Carmen
Dominorog
Fabrica
Harubay
La Purisima
Lugsad
Manguiring
Pagatpat
Paolbo
Pinada
Punta Tarawal
Quinale
Sabang
Salvacion-Baybay
San Antonio Poblacion
San Antonio
San Bernardino
San Francisco
San Isidro
San Lucas
San Miguel
San Pablo
San Roque
San Vicente
Santa Cruz Poblacion
Santa Cruz
Santa Isabel
Santa Salud
Santo Domingo
Santo Niño
Siba-o
Sibobo
Sogod
Tomagodtod
Climate

Land protection

Eastern Calabanga which supplies water to the municipality and is within Mount Isarog, was declared as a protected landscape in 2018 by Former Mayor Eduardo Severo. As a protected land area, construction of houses and establishments are prohibited. Construction of subdivisions are also prohibited in the irrigated areas of Calabanga.

Soil and water resources

There are six soil types that could be found in the Municipality. These are the Hydrosol which is dominant along the Bicol River covering parts of Barangays Balongay, San Bernardino and Punta Tarawal; Balong Clay; Pili Clay Loam; Tigaon Clay which covers the poblacion; Annan Clay Loam which could be found toward the direction of Tinambac and Mountain Soil in the Mt. Isarog area.
Calabanga is bounded by water bodies, the San Miguel Bay on the northern part and the Bikol River on the western part which are sources of abundant supplies of fish of various species and other marine products. The major river systems, the Tigman, Hinaguianan and Inarihan rivers are presently utilized for irrigation purposes. They originate their main tributaries from Mt. Isarog and flow down in the north-western direction ultimately discharging the flow to San Miguel Bay.

Topography and slope

The topographic landscape of the municipality could be characterized as generally flat with a slope 0-3%, gently sloping towards the direction of the eastern portion and finally rolling up to higher steeps towards the direction of the south-eastern part going to Mt. Isarog. The 0-3% slope is a broad area of flat to nearly level land which extends from Barangay Balongay along the Bicol River to Poblacion area and surrounding areas down to Barangay Manguiring. This is the dominant slope of the municipality.

Demographics

In the 2024 census, the population of Calabanga was 88,918 people, with a density of.
In the 2020 PSA Survey, Calabanga had a total population of 88,906 with 35,088 or 39.5% belong to the urban population and 53,818 or 60.5% belong to the rural population. There was an increase of 5,873 over the 2015 population. The total population is distributed over 13,444 households, registering an increase of 1,371 households over the 1995 household of 11,073. The average household size in 2000 survey slightly goes up to 5.4 from 5.3 persons in 1995.
Between 1995 and 2000, Calabanga grew at the rate of 2.83%, higher than the 1990-1995 rate of 1.63%. As per the 2010 census, the municipal population density is 477 persons per km².
Of the 48 barangays in the municipality, Barangay San Roque has the largest population of 5,513 people, composing 7.38% of the total population, followed by Barangay Santa Cruz Ratay with a population of 5,069 people. Barangay Punta Tarawal has the lowest population of 265 which only 0.44% of the total population.
Despite the influx of various religious groups, a large segment which is 95.28% of the populace is still Roman Catholics. Most of the populace, 95.93% are Bicolano speaking.

Isarog Agta language

In 2010, UNESCO released its third world volume of Endangered Languages in the World, where three critically endangered languages were in the Philippines. One of these languages is the Isarog Agta language which has an estimated five speakers in the year 2000. The language was classified as "critically endangered". If the remaining people do not pass their native language to the next generation of Isarog Agta people, their indigenous language will be extinct within a period of one to two decades.
The Isarog Agta people live within the circumference of Mount Isarog, though only five of them still know their indigenous language. They are one of the original Negrito settlers in the entire Philippines. They belong to the Aeta people classification, but have distinct language and belief systems unique to their own culture and heritage.

Economy

Calabanga became a 1st class municipality in October 2009. It is one of the municipalities of the province of Camarines Sur and a member of the Metro Naga Development Council. With its fishing grounds and the vast agricultural area, it is a major supplier of fish and other marine products and prime agricultural products in the province as well as in Metro Manila.
The town was formerly included in the Metro Naga area before the designation was discontinued in 2017.

Tourism

Calabanga has several tourist attractions. Famous sites include the group of small islets/islands of Kawit, Tanglad, and Cabgan. Other places include Tigman, Hinaguianan and Inarihan rivers.
Notable Historical sites include the "Ladrillo" or a brick old church and ruins of Quipayo built sometime in 1578, more than four centuries ago, being the seat of the Catholic mission. Another is the "Hinulid", Santo Entiero shrine at Santa Salud which is an object of Friday devotion and pilgrimage. Thousands of devotees not only from Calabanga but other parts of Bicol Region and the country flock to the shrine during Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Government

Elected officials

Position	Name of official
District Representative	Rep. Gabriel H. Bordado Jr.
Mayor	Eugene Norman B. Severo
Vice-Mayor	Victor B. de Villa
Councilors	Sherwin Francis O. Mendoza
Councilors	Ruben Medroso III
Councilors	Ricardo A. Calisura
Councilors	Cielito Hilado
Councilors	Mike Bordado
Councilors	Pungay Tabinas
Councilors	Adonis Aguilar Jr.
Councilors	Roque Orlin

Infrastructure

Highways

Calabanga only has one highway that traverses the municipality. It is the Naga North road or widely known as Naga - Siruma road. The highway starts at the boundary of Naga in the intersection of Bagumbayan St, San Vicente Road and Capilihan St up until the Siruma National High School campus.

Utilities

Water supply is managed by the Calabanga Water District, operational since October 19, 1987, with 10,373 active service connections supporting residential and commercial users. In 2023, CAWADI recorded 83.4% accounted-for water, 79.1% revenue-producing water, and 20.9% non-revenue water losses, while providing 24-hour service in serviced areas. The district's approved 2025 budget of operations facilitates maintenance, leak repairs, and potential expansions to reduce losses and broaden coverage.
The main source of potable water supply comes from Balombon spring. It has a capacity of 10 lps enough to serve 18 barangays. The areas being served include San Antonio poblacion, Del Carmen, Sta Isabel, San Miguel, San Vicente, Santa Salud, San Lucas, San Pablo, San Francisco, Sta Cruz Poblacion, Paolbo, Manguiring, Balombon, San Roque, San Isidro, Pagatpat, Sabang and Salvacion Baybay. Most of these areas are in the poblacion and the rest are barangays traversed from the source.
The power supply in Calabanga has been provided by the NAPOCOR through the Camarines Sur Electric Cooperative II since January 27, 1969 where the first lighting ceremony took off. At present, all the 48 barangays of the municipality are already served with electricity. As of 2020 census 99.82% of Calabangueños have access to electricity.
In August 2024, the 74.2 MWp Calabanga Solar Project in Camarines Sur commenced commercial operations, injecting renewable energy into the Luzon grid and aiding utilities like CASURECO II in enhancing supply reliability amid ongoing infrastructure expansions targeted for 2025 and beyond.