Magalang
Magalang, officially the Municipality of Magalang, is a municipality in the province of Pampanga, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 133,883 people.
History
Magalang was mentioned as a visita of the nearby town of Arayat on December 29, 1598. On April 30, 1605, it was separated by the Augustinians from Arayat and attained township status due to the bajo de la campana system. The Augustinians appointed Fr. Gonzalo de Salazar, OSA as the first pastor.Magalang was initially called Magalo, derived from the Kapampangan word "Galo", which means wavy and moving, describing the dangerous flow of the Parua River.
Magalang was where Juan Severino Mallari, the first recorded Filipino serial killer who killed at least 57 people, served as the town's parish priest from 1816 to 1826 and committed his murders.
The town proper was located in Macapsa, but due to the natural calamities and revolts led by Andres Malong and his subordinate Melchor de Vera against the Spanish in 1660, it was nearly abandoned. It was moved to San Bartolome in 1734 until it was swept by the flood due to the overflow of the Parua River in 1863. It was transferred to the present site in barrio San Pedro Talimunduc on December 13, 1863, led by the parish priest, Fr. Ignacio Manzanares, OSA and some of the members of principalia including Pablo M. Luciano, gobernadorcillo of Magalang at that time.
In 1885, the agricultural experiment station La Granja Modelo de Luzon was transferred from San Isidro, Nueva Ecija to the foothills of Mount Arayat, which became the present Pampanga State Agricultural University.
The revolutionary government took over the local government on June 12, 1898, led by General Francisco Macabulos and Colonel Lorenzo D. Camaya. During that time, Magalang was one of the revolutionary centers in Pampanga due to its proximity to Camansi, a revolutionary headquarters located in Mount Arayat. The forces of Major General Servillano Aquino defended Magalang against the Americans until it was successfully captured on November 5, 1899, led by Major General Arthur MacArthur and Colonel Jacob H. Smith.
During the Second World War, Japanese forces defeated the Filipino-American forces composed of Igorot troops led by Major Helmert Duisterhof and Capt. Russell W. Volckmann, paving the way for the capture of Magalang on January 1, 1942. It was liberated by the 148th Infantry of 37th Division, US Army with the help of Hukbalahap on January 25, 1945. It was one of the hotbeds of the Hukbalahap insurgency until the rebellion was crushed in 1954.
On December 28, 1963, Mayor Benedicto T. Dayrit was assassinated by the alleged men of Commander Sumulong during a night ball in the town plaza. In 1968, Mayor Daniel T. Lacson was sworn in as mayor of Magalang until his term ended in 1986.
In December 1993, Mayor Daniel Lacson Jr. was briefly replaced by his political rival Elpidio Lakandula when the latter was declared the victor in the 1992 election by the Angeles City Regional Trial Court on December 28, which was immediately met with protests by Lacson and his followers.
During the tenure of Mayor Pastor Z. Guiao, Magalang was named one of the cleanest municipalities in the Philippines. Mayor Maria Lourdes P. Lacson was sworn in on June 30, 2016, as the first woman mayor of Magalang.
The National Museum of the Philippines declared on December 23, 2015, the "Magalang Municipal Hall" as an Important Cultural Property.
Heliograph Towers
On August 21, 2017, the “Heliograph Towers” inside the premises of Cariyana Monastery in Barangays San Isidro and Santa Cruz were declared as Important Cultural Property of the National Museum of the Philippines per Resolution 14-2016. They were officially turned over by the National Museum of the Philippines to the local government unit on May 27, 2021. The "Torre" was called "imburnal", “bornal” or “batiawan” as smoke outlets for “cabiawan” or trapiche of early carabao-driven sugar mills. These solar-sun telegraphs are made of fine laryu and huge cut stones of pumiceous rocks and volcanic tuff. They were used as “sun writers”.The 1896 description states: “An instrument called the heliograph, or sun telegraph, constructed with small mirrors made to turn upon both a horizontal and vertical axis, mounted upon a tripod, so arranged as to make the flashes appear and disappear in rapid succession, is to a limited extent in use in the army; and by it, messages may be transmitted much faster than with flags or torches, and it can be used at longer ranges. It is manipulated by a key similar to the electric telegraph instrument. Mirror signaling was first used by the North American Indians.”
Erected by General Don Ricardo Monet y Carretero, a Commandant of War in 1863, the twers were used by the Spanish army as stations of communication for faster transmission of messages and signals and to destroy the revolutionary forces in Camansi in Mount Arayat led by General Francisco Macabulos. In a letter dated May 8, 1898, Monet informed the Comandancia General del Centro de Luzon of the destruction of activities of the detachment of Camansi located at Mount Arayat, transforming it into a blok-haus constructed at Magalang with some torre heliografico located in the 10 towns of Magalang and Concepcion, Tarlac with a height of 20 meters and made under the charge of the Engineering Corps. Originally, three "batiauan" or watchtowers were built but only two existed and were also used to watch the coming of the enemies. Later the towers once produced muscovado sugar and panotsa.
Geography
Magalang is from San Fernando and from Manila.Barangays
Magalang is politically subdivided into 27 barangays, as shown below. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.- Ayala
- Bucanan
- Camias
- Dolores
- Escaler
- La Paz
- Navaling
- San Agustin
- San Antonio
- San Francisco
- San Ildefonso
- San Isidro
- San Jose
- San Miguel
- San Nicolas I
- San Nicolas II
- San Pablo
- San Pedro I
- San Pedro II
- San Roque
- San Vicente
- Santa Cruz
- Santa Lucia
- Santa Maria
- Santo Nino
- Santo Rosario
- Turu
Climate
Demographics
In the 2024 census, the population of Magalang was 133,883 people, with a density of.Religion
Roman Catholics account for 85% of the population; Magalang also hosts churches of Members Church of God International or Ang Dating Daan. Other major religious groups are Iglesia ni Cristo which has the adherence of 3% of the population, Evangelical Christians and others.Aside from Catholic churches, the town has a United Methodist Church. In 1908, Protestantism was introduced and Vicente Naguit was the first convert.