HISTORY OF PANGASINAN

Pangasinan was among the earliest political and administrative units in the
Philippines. It was officially conquered and colonized by D. Martin de Goiti in 1571. On
April 5, 1572, Pangasinan was made an encomienda by the Spanish royal crown to
receive instruction on the Catholic Faith, which means that Pangasinan was organized
under one leadership and has identity before the Spanish royal court. Eight years later,
in 1580, Pangasinan was organized into a political unit under an alkalde mayor who at
that time has authority as head of the province or provincial government with judicial
function indicating that Pangasinan has become a province. To commemorate the day
when Pangasinan became an encomienda and the year it became a province,
Pangasinan celebrates April 5, 1580 as the official founding day of the Province of
Pangasinan. At that time, its territorial jurisdiction included the Province of Zambales
and parts of La Union and Tarlac. By the middle of the 19th century however, the
northern towns of Agoo to Bacnotan were separated from the province and became
parts of La Union. The provincial territory was further diminished in 1875 with the
annexation of Paniqui and other towns south of it to Tarlac.

Pangasinan, derived its name from the word “panag asinan”, which means
“where salt is made”, owing to the rich and fine salt beds which were the prior source of
livelihood of the province’s coastal towns.

SIGNIFICANT PERIODS

Pre-Spanish period – Ancient Malayo-Polynesians of the Austronesian stock arrive by

boat and establish settlements along the Lingayen Gulf. They are proficient in salt-
making so they call their new home Pangasinan which means “the place where salt is
made.” This refers to the coastal area only while the inner areas are collectively called
“Caboloan” because the small bamboo species called “bolo” abound there. The
inhabitants of Pangasinan traded with India, China and Japan as early as the 8th
century A.D.

1572 – Juan de Salcedo, upon the orders of his grandfather Governor General Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi to explore and pacify northern Luzon, reaches
Pangasinan. A Spanish priest-historian, Fray Juan Ferrando, calls Salcedo the “first
discoverer” of Pangasinan. The province is now under the jurisdiction of Spain as an
encomienda since April 5.

1574-1575– The Chinese corsair Limahong, after being repulsed by the Spaniards in
his bid to found a colony in Manila, goes to Pangasinan and establishes his little
kingdom within a fort in Lingayen. His party is composed of men, women and children.
He forces the natives to cooperate with him by supplying him provisions and serving
him and his people. Juan de Salcedo pursues him and after months of blockade
Limahong and his forces escape in August 1575 through a channel that they dug out
into the China sea. Many of his men with their families choose to stay behind in
Lingayen.

1580 – Pangasinan is organized as an alcaldia mayor , a politico-civil administrative unit

or province, by Governor General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa and receives its first
alcalde mayor in the person of Don Pedro Manrique.

1611 – The province of Pangasinan’s territorial limits are set by the superior
government, thus completing the requisites for a viable political subdivision: a defined
territory, a set of administrators, and law-abiding subjects. The province, as constituted,
now include all the coastal villages called “Pangasinan” and the inner areas called
“Caboloan.” The boundaries are from San Juan (now in La Union) in the north, to the
foothills of the Cordillera and Caraballo mountains in the northeast and east, to Paniqui
in the south, to the present area of Sual town in the west plus that area that is the
present-day Zambales.

1660 –Malong Revolt. Andres Malong of Binalatongan leads the revolt of the Filipinos
against the Spaniards. They were encouraged by the short takeover of Manila by the
Dutch. He declares himself as “Ari” but their declaration of independence is short-lived
as they are subdued by the Spaniards in less than a month.

1762 – Palaris Revolt – Juan dela Cruz Palaris, also of Binalatongan, leads his people
to complain to the Spaniards about paying tributes. Encouraged by the defeat of the
Spanish army and capture of Manila by the British, they go on to make more demands
and drive away all the Spaniards from the capital town of Lingayen. For two years the
rebels and their supporters in the province taste freedom and power over the Spanish
government but the capture of Palaris ends the rebellion. To forget this sad episode the
Spanish officials give the town “Binalatongan” its new name “San Carlos” in honor of
Spain’s reigning monarch Charles III.

1840 – The Casa Real (Royal House) is constructed in Lingayen. This 1,700 sqm
building of stone masonry and bricks is the provincial seat of government where the
Alcalde Mayor resides and holds office. It would be the venue of many historic events in
Pangasinan and was used as the “Juzgado” later on.

1855 – The Spanish government opens Sual as an official port of foreign trade. Rice is
exported to China and Macao from this port. It is also one of the country’s centers for
shipbuilding, together with Labrador, Lingayen and Dagupan.

December 27, 1897 – General Emilio Aguinaldo, accompanied by Spanish Governor

General Primo de Rivera and others, takes the train to the Dagupan terminal and travels
on to Sual to board the S.S. Uranus that is to bring him to exile in Hongkong to comply
with the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.

July 22, 1898 – Pangasinan is liberated from Spanish rule. The local board of Katipunan
that was organized by General Francisco Makabulos of Central Luzon four months
earlier and led by Don Daniel Maramba of Sta. Barbara, Vicente del Prado of San
Jacinto, Juan Quesada and Eliseo Arzadon of Dagupan, defeat the Spanish forces
making a last stand in Dagupan. Thereupon, they reenact the proclamation of
independence done at Kawit 40 days earlier.

February 5, 1899 – A day after the start of hostilities of the Philippine-American War,
President Aguinaldo directs Pangasinan Governor Quesada to transfer the provincial
capital to San Carlos to protect the province from the threat of a coastal invasion by the
Americans, as Lingayen is located right by the Gulf. San Carlos thus served as the
capital of the province from this day until the fall of the Republican forces in Pangasinan
in November of the same year.

August 1899 – In a barrio in Bayambang, Jose Palma, a staff member of the

revolutionary government’s newspaper La Independencia, writes a poem that becomes
the lyrics for the melody of the “La Marcha Nacional Filipina” composed by Julian
Felipe. This poem is translated later to Pilipino and given the title “Lupang Hinirang”
which is now the Philippine National Anthem. It was written in the house of Doña
Romana G. vda de Favis. This house served as the “Malacañang” of the Aguinaldo
Republic momentarily in November 1899. (The said barrio is now part of Baustista.)

Early November 1899 – the Philippine American War reaches Pangasinan. General
Emilio Aguinaldo, the president of the first Philippine Republic, transfers the seat of his
government to Bayambang and it momentarily becomes the capital of the republic. The
Council of Government also convenes for the last time in Bayambang, in which meeting
it was finally decided to disband the army and resort instead to guerilla warfare. The
formal workings of the central government of the first Philippine Republic thus ended in
Bayambang.

November 20, 1899 –General MacArthur and General Lawton’s columns successfully

link up with General Wheaton’s in Dagupan, marking the end of overt warfare in
Pangasinan and completing the American conquest of the province. Shortly, military
administrators are installed.

February 16, 1901 – The Taft Commission organizes Pangasinan as a civil province in
a general assembly in Dagupan. Don Perfecto Sison of Lingayen is appointed Governor
and Lingayen is chosen over Dagupan to remain as the capital because the Casa Real
is located there. Judge Taft and his commissioners were given a grand reception at the
Casa Real.

September 1902 – The first public secondary school in Pangasinan is opened in

Lingayen with some of the US “Thomasites” as educators. The Pangasinan Academic
High School is the sole public secondary school in Pangasinan until 1946. Now named
the Pangasinan National High School, it has produced many of the most successful
personages in the province.

February 10-19, 1919 – Governor Daniel Maramba leads the inaugural festivities for the
new Capitol. The revelry features an agricultural and industrial fair, a carnival, parades
and a grand coronation ball with a a queen and her court. American Ralph Doane,
designed this neo-classical building.

December 22, 1941 – World War II comes to Pangasinan. Bitter fighting between the
USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) and the Japanese army rages
around the towns of Pozorrubio, Binalonan, and Tayug. In due course, the USAFFE
forces retreat to Bataan and the Japanese military takes control of Pangasinan and the
two-year Japanese invasion starts. This brought enormous hardship to the people.

January 20, 1942 – It being necessary to cooperate with the occupation forces through
the Japanese Military Administration, Dr. Santiago Estrada, who earlier evacuated the
provincial office to Tayug, reassumes the governorship and reorganizes the provincial
government in order to help in the restoration of peace and order and to work for the
welfare of the people. Dagupan is chosen as the provincial capital of the new Japanese-
sponsored national government.

January 9-13, 1945 – The Allied Forces with the United States Sixth Army under
General Walter Krueger lands unopposed on the beaches of Lingayen, Binmaley,
Dagupan, Mangaldan, and San Fabian, effecting the start of the liberation of
Pangasinan. Four days later Gen. Douglas MacArthur came ashore right behind the
ruined Capitol building. He also landed in Dagupan and set up his Luzon headquarters
there.

February 1945 – The Americans through the Philippine Civil Affairs Unit (PCAU)
reestablish the provincial government and install Sofronio Quimson as Governor, while
retaining the wartime capital of Dagupan as such.

June 1945 – The provincial capital is moved back to Lingayen.

1946– Through the Philippine Rehabilation Act, the US government assists the
provincial government under Governor Enrique Braganza in reconstructing damaged
buildings including the Capitol building.
1953 – Governor Juan de Guzman Rodriguez undertakes the construction of the
governor’s official residence and guest house. It is named “Princess Urduja Palace”
after the legendary 14th century amazon leader in pre-colonial Pangasinan. (Note:
Sometime in the 1990s a national conference of scholars and academicians concluded
that the kingdom where Urduja was supposed to rule was not in Pangasinan or
anywhere in the Philippines but somewhere in Indochina.)

June 30, 1992 – A full-blooded Pangasinense, Fidel V. Ramos, becomes President of

the Republic of the Philippines. Among his many achievements that benefits
Pangasinan today was attracting foreign investors to put up the Sual Power Plant to
ease the power crisis before and during his term, and the San Roque Dam.

October 1999 – The Sual Power Plant in Sual started operating. With Pangasinan as
the host province, this is the largest and most effective coal-fired power plant in the
Philippines servicing the Luzon grid with a generating capacity of 1,218 MW. The
company has an Energy Conversion Agreement with the National Power Corporation
with a 25-year build-operate-transfer scheme (BOT).

1998 – The San Roque Multipurpose Project or SRMP in San Manuel and San Nicolas
was built to harness the power of the country’s third largest river, the Agno River,
bringing these benefits to several communities in the heart of Luzon if operated and
maintained properly: flood control, irrigation, electrical power and improved water
quality.

2007– The second half of 2007 marks the commencement of significant changes in the
physical appearance and systematic clustering of provincial government buildings,
parks, hospitals, and satellite offices. The intensive rehabilitation and repair of the
provincial capitol building gained national fame and recognition upon its completion in
2008, earning for it the title “Best Provincial Capitol in the Philippines”. Simultaneous to
the renovation o f the physical infrastructure of the province, human resource
improvement was implemented through programs which resulted to the restoration of
dignity, self-respect and professionalism of provincial government employees as
working force partners in Pangasinan’s development. It was during this term of
Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. that the founding day of Pangasinan was established,
celebrating its 430th founding anniversary for the first time on April 5, 2010.
Pangasinan’s Golden age took off from this year which saw numerous investments
flowing into the province, significant development projects mushrooming in every
corner, local, national and international linkages being established, all for Pangasinan’s
progress and advancement, and finally breaking ground on a period where
Pangasinenses proudly claim that their Province is the best place to invest, live, work
and raise a family.

2016 – The Golden Age of Pangasinan developed even more as then Pangasinan
Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. passed the leadership to his son, Governor Amado I.
Espino III. Propelled by his sensibility to serve the whole Province of Pangasinan in the
same excellent fashion as that of his father, the Former Governor Amado T. Espino Jr,
Governor Amado I. Espino III ran and was elected Governor of the Province of
Pangasinan in the May 9, 2016 elections. He was re-elected as the provincial executive
in the recent May 13, 2019 elections. Truly, quality leadership is easily discoverable by
tangibly achieving the desired goals with excellence, and by exemplifying the virtues of
compassion, humility, integrity and dedication.

References:’

Callejas, Ana Hernández Sevilla, “Nota Informativa, Seccion de Filipinas,” 26 de agosto

de 2005
Callanta, Cesar V. – The Limahong Invasion, Quezon City, Philippines: New Day
Publishers, 1989

Cortez, Rosario Mendoza, “Pangasinan 1572-1800,” Quezon City: New Day Publishers,
1990

Cortez, Rosario Mendoza, “Pangasinan 1901-1986: A Political, Socioeconomic and

Cultural History,” New Day Publishers, 1990

Cortez, Rosario Mendoza, “Pangasinan 1801- 1900: The Beginnings of Modernization.,”

Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1990

Quintos, Felipe, “Sipi Awaray Gelew Diad Pilipinas (Revolucion Filipina),” Lingayen,
Pangasinan: Gumawid Press, 1926

Williams, Daniel R., “The Odyssey of the Philippine Commission,” 3, Chicago A. C.

McClurg & Co.-191, Digitized by Google

MUHON: A Journal of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and the Designed
Environment, University of the Philippines College of Architecture, Issue No. 3
Basa, Restituto, “From the Saltbeds,” People’s Digest and Forum, Dagupan City:
August 11, 2006

Electronic Reference: https://www.pangasinan.gov.ph/the-province/history/