Zambales
Zambales, officially the Province of Zambales, is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Iba, which is located in the middle of the province. Olongapo is the largest city of the province wherein it is geographically located but politically independent.
Zambales borders Pangasinan to the north and northeast, Tarlac to the east, Pampanga to the southeast, Bataan to the south and the South China Sea to the west. With a total land area of , Zambales is the second largest among the seven provinces of Central Luzon after Nueva Ecija. The province is noted for its mangoes, which are abundant from January to April.
Zambales does not have a functional airport; the closest functional airport is Clark International Airport in Angeles City in the neighbouring province of Pampanga. Subic Bay International Airport, which is located in Cubi Point in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone is no longer functional for domestic and international flights.
The Freeport Zone is host to many tourist attractions which include casinos, parks, malls, beach-side huts, cottages and resorts, as well as historical sites.
Etymology
The name of the province is derived from "Zambales", the Hispanized name of the Sambal people. The Sambal were the original dominant ethnic group of the region.History
Spanish colonial era
The Spanish first explored the area in 1572, led by Juan de Salcedo. Off Cape Bolinao, he and his men liberated a Zambal chieftain and his followers from a Chinese pirate ship. This act gained the natives' goodwill. Shortly thereafter, the province was organized. Among the earliest towns founded were Masinloc, Subic, Iba, Santa Cruz, and Botolan. Zambales was originally derived from 2 parts: the southern area from Pampanga and the northern area from Pangasinan.During the Spanish period, a 1774 map was made, which clearly named Scarborough Shoals as Panacot Shoal, a feature under complete sovereignty of Spanish Philippines, specifically of Zambales. The shoal's current name was chosen by Captain Philip D'Auvergne, whose East India Company East Indiaman Scarborough briefly grounded on one of the rocks on September 12, 1784, before sailing on to China. When the Philippines was granted independence in the 19th century and 20th century, Scarborough Shoal was passed by the colonial governments to the sovereign Republic of the Philippines. By the end of the 1700s, Zambales had 1,136 native families and 73 Spanish Filipino families.
American colonial era
Masinloc became the province's first capital. However, the capital was moved among the last three towns above during its history before finally settling in Iba, due to its strategic location. Seven of the province's original northern towns, which included Bolinao, Infanta, San Isidro, now Burgos, Anda, Bani, Agno and Alaminos were later transferred under the jurisdiction of Pangasinan because of their distance from the capital. The first civil governor of Zambales during the colonial American era was Potenciano Lesaca from 1901 to 1903.Postwar Era
Under a 1947 Military Bases Agreement, the Philippines granted the United States a 99-year lease on several U.S. bases, including U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay. A later amendment in 1966 reduced the original 99-year term of the agreement to 25 years. A renewal of the agreement in 1979 allowed the U.S. to continue operating the bases until November 1991, when the Philippine Senate rejected a bill for the renewal of U.S. bases in the Philippines.During the Marcos dictatorship
The beginning months of the 1970s marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, as well as in Zambales. During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects. This caused the Philippine economy took a sudden downwards turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which in turn led to a period of economic difficulty and a significant rise of social unrest.The end of the 1960s had also seen a major diplomatic incident at Subic Naval Base in the form of the June 10, 1969 killing of 21 year old Filipino laborer Glicerio Amor by US Navy Gunner's Mate 3/E Michael Moomey, who claimed during his trial that he had mistaken Amor for a Wild Boar when he was hunting at the Boton Valley Rifle and Pistol Range while off duty. The Moomey incident, which was eventually adapted into the popular 1976 Filipino film Minsa'y Isang Gamu-gamo, helped the push for the renegotiation of the US-Philippines Bases Treaty at the end of the 1970s.
With only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the position for fourteen more years. This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. During the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, Zambales was one of the most militarized areas. Among the Zambales activists who were killed by the Marcos regime during this time were Ellecer Cortes, Dennis Deveraturda, and Butch Landrito - all of whom were later recognized at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial for resisting the Marcos regime's assault on democracy.
In Olongapo, the continuation of the Vietnam war through this period meant the arrival of a constantly growing number of U.S. Sailors to Subic Naval Base, and along with it, the rapid growth of prostitution. The policies of the Marcos administration encouraged the growth of the sex-industry because it increased the flow of higher value currency into the Philippine economy. The economy of this part of Zambales evolved from a largely agricultural orientation at the end of the 1960s towards one built around sex industry related businesses such as bars by the mid-1970s.
In 1986, the province was one of the main supporters of the People Power Revolution in Manila, which topped the 21-year dictatorship and installed Corazon Aquino as president, bringing back democracy to the country.
Later 20th Century
The province was heavily affected by the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Due to this, the economy of the province weakened for some time, but regained vitality a few years after the government ordered the revitalization of the province and established growth in its southern towns, which later became a significant economic zone in the country by 1995.Contemporary
The 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff led to a situation where access to the shoal was restricted by the People's Republic of China. However, in 2016, following meetings between the Philippine president Duterte and his PRC counterparts, the PRC allowed Filipino fishermen to access the shoals for fishing.In 2018, it was revealed that for every 3,000 peso worth of fish catch by Sambal fisherfolks, China siphoned them in exchange for 'two bottles of mineral water' worth 20 pesos. The revelations led to public unrest against China and the Duterte-administered Philippine government. Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte fired back against his fellow Filipinos, including those from Zambales, saying that China's acts were 'fine' as they were 'only barter'. On June 14, 2018, China's destruction of Scarborough Shoal's reefs surged to an extent which they became visible via Google Earth and Philippine satellites, as confirmed by the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Geography
Zambales lies on the western shores of Luzon island along the South China Sea. Its shoreline is rugged and features many coves and inlets. The Zambales Mountains in the eastern length of the province occupies about 60% of the total land area of Zambales. Subic Bay, at the southern end of the province, provides a natural harbor, and was the location of the U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay until its closure in 1992.The summit and crater lake of Mount Pinatubo lies within Botolan municipality in Zambales, near the tripoint of Zambales, Pampanga and Tarlac provinces. This volcano, once considered dormant, erupted violently in June 1991. The former summit of the volcano was obliterated by the massive eruption and replaced by a wide caldera, within which Lake Pinatubo is situated. With an average depth of, Lake Pinatubo is the deepest lake in the Philippines. The highest point of the caldera rim is above sea level, some lower than the pre-eruption summit. A vast portion of the Zambales province acquired desert-like features in 1991, after being buried by more than of lahar.
Climate
Zambales has two pronounced seasons: dry from October to June, and wet from July to September.Administrative divisions
Zambales comprises 13 municipalities and one highly urbanized city, which are divided into two legislative districts. Olongapo City is a highly urbanized city and administers itself autonomously from the province. Panatag Shoal a Philippine-claimed territory, is a designated part of the province.The northern half of the province typically comprises the municipalities of Santa Cruz, Candelaria, Masinloc, and Palauig. The central half of the province consists of the municipalities of Iba, Botolan, Cabangan, and San Felipe. The southern half of the province is composed of the municipalities of San Narciso, San Marcelino, San Antonio, Castillejos, Subic, and the highly urbanized city of Olongapo.