Municipal Profile

Origin of Bamban

The municipality of Bamban, established during the Spanish regime, was originally founded out of a vast jungle inhabited by mixed settlers comprising of the aborigines or Negritos, the ~Lambal Aetas, and the Christian native immigrants from Pampanga and the Tagalog provinces. As early as 1700, the Agustinian Missionaries from Mabalacat, Pampanga came to spread the Roman Catholic faith and later on to civilize the natives. On August 16, 1876, the ecclesiastical authorities officially established the “Mjssion de Pueblos.” The Augustinian recollects or Orden Recoletos de San Agustin was in charged of the Mission. The Missionaries were supported by the Spanish Government in 1800, the Mission or Settlement was accorded an official recognition by the Spanish Govemment and was given the name of the town “Bamban” which was derived from an aquatic plant found abundant in the fertile valleys. Bamban was formerly a part of the jurisdiction of Pampanga with Villa de Bacolor as its capital. With the creation of the Province of Tarlac in 1894, Bamban was separated from its mother province of Pampanga and was made a part of Tarlac province.

Bamban played a historical role during the Filipino- Spanish and later on Filipino-American revolutions when on June 6, 1899 was proclaimed the revolutionary capital of the Philippines by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. In recognition of this historical event, the local legislative body, the Sangguniang Bayan passed Special Ordinance No. 1, series of 1999 declaring June 6 as Bamban Day.

Geographical Location and Boundaries

Bamban is a second class municipality and is one among the 17 municipalities comprising the province of Tarlac. The provincial government has classified it as a medium town. It is the southernmost town of the province. It is about 100 kilometers north of Manila and 32 kilometers away from the capital of Tarlac. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Capas, Concepcion on the east, Mabalacat town on the south and Botolan, Zambales on the west. Bamban’s boundary with Mabalacat, Pampanga is the Sacobia River, a major channel for lahar or pyroclastic flowing from the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo.

Topography and Land Area

The municipality of Bamban covers an area of approximately 39,090 hectares or 39.09 square kilometers, spread unevenly among its 15 barangays.

The four largest barangays in terms of land area are Anupul, San Nicolas, Sto. Nino and San Vicente which combine for a total area of about 22,572. The remaining area comprises the 11 barangays, the smallest of which is Barangay La Paz with barely 1% of the total land area.

With the release recently of CADT titles which comprised the Sacobia Development Authority (SDA) the entire Sacobia valley which includes the land areas of barangays San Vicente, Sto. Nino and Calumpang is now part of the political and territorial jurisdiction of the municipality of Bamban, notwithstanding the boundary dispute between the municipality of Bamban and Mabalacat. Also within the territorial jurisdiction of Bamban are Zone F and Zone C which are reverted areas returned to the Philippines after the expiration of the RP-US Military Bases Agreement of 1947.