Batac City: Home of Great Leaders

History

The town was founded by the Augustinians in 1587 under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. It is the second oldest town established by the Augustinians in the province of Ilocos Norte. Hence, in 1987 Batac reached its 4th centennial.

Batac was officially organized into a ministry on January 5, 1586. The first priest assigned to cathecize the natives of tile community was Fr. Esteban Marin, an Augustinian who probably arrived in Batac in 1585. Paoay and Dinglas (Dingras) were then the visitas of Batac.

Folk history states that there were two villages in Batac during the early part of tile foundation of the town, one was an Itneg community which occupied sitio Nangalisan and a Christian community occupying San Jose.

The first site of tile poblacion was in San Jose, which is now called Barangay Palpalicong. It is said that the ethnic minority groups of Bangui and Nueva Era are the pre-Spanish descendants of early inhabitants of Batac.

The Augustinians considered the people of Batac more civilized than tile other tribes, because they were better than the other "Indios" in personal cleanliness.


Origin of the City's Name

The word "Batac" in a local dialect translates as "pull". More loosely, it refers to "the people's pulling their efforts together."

Batac has an interesting colloquial origin of its name. According to a legend, set in pre-settlement Batac, a man fell into a deep hole while he was digging for the root crop "camangeg". He struggled to get out but could not despite his best efforts. He cried for help but nobody was around. He waited for hours and had given up hope of being saved. Fortunately, two men from the neighboring town of Paoay happened to pass by. They heard the man shouting and traced it to where he was trapped. Upon seeing him, they heared the man said "Bataquennac! Bataquennac!" The two men did not understand until the man explained that he was saying, "Pull me up! Pull me up!" They did just that. When the two men reached their hometown, they told their story to their friends. Since then, the town has been called "Batac," which is derived from the word "bataquennac."


Geography

Batac is located in the mid southwestern portion of the province of Ilocos Norte. It lies approximately within altitude 17º17’ north and longitude 120º28’ east. Its boundaries include the Municipality of San Nicolas on the north; Municipality of Sarrat on the northeast; Municipality of Marcos on the east-northeast; Municipality of Banna on the east; Municipality of Pinili on the southeast; Municipality of Currimao on the southwest; and the Municipality of Paoay on the west. It is about 472 kilometers north of Metro Manila, about 18 km. south of Laoag City, the capital of the province; 275 km. north of San Fernando City, the regional center of Ilocos Region and 11.2 km east of the eastern shore of South China Sea.

Travel time by motor vehicle at this time is very convenient because of well paved roads and is 15 – 20 minutes to Laoag City and 8 – 9 hours to Metro Manila.

Batac City has a total land area of 16, 101 hectares. The terrain of the city ranges from flat to rolling and hilly and to very steep. The broad valleys are mostly located in poblacions with a slope of 0-8%. All the rural barangays except those in the eastern part have a slope of 0 -30%. There are various soil types that are poorly drained due to the heavy texture of most of the subsoil. There are two rivers that cut across the city of Batac, the Quiaoit River (Pagdanuman) and the Garasgas River.

Batac City lies within the tropical rain forest climate zone (Köppenzone Af), and experiences two distinct seasons. From the later part of May to October is the wet season, with an annual average rainfall of 114.07 inches (PAG-ASA, 2000). The dry season lasts from November to April.


Barangays

The City of Batac is politically subdivided into 43 barangays, 14 of which constitute the poblacion.

* Aglipay (Pob.)
* Baay
* Baligat
* Bungon
* Baoa East
* Baoa West
* Barani (Pob.)
* Ben-agan (Pob.)
* Bil-loca
* Biningan
* Callaguip (Pob.)
* Camandingan
* Camguidan
* Cangrunaan (Pob.)
* Capacuan
* Caunayan (Pob.)
* Valdez (Caoayan) (Pob.)
* Colo
* Pimentel (Cubol)
* Dariwdiw
* Acosta (Iloilo) (Pob.)
* Ablan (Labucao) (Pob.)
* Lacub (Pob.)
* Mabaleng
* Magnuang
* Maipalig
* Nagbacalan
* Naguirangan
* Ricarte (Nalasin) (Pob.)
* Palongpong
* Palpalicong (Pob.)
* Parangopong
* Payao
* Quiling Norte
* Quiling Sur
* Quiom
* Rayuray
* San Julian (Pob.)
* San Mateo
* San Pedro
* Nalupta (Suabit) (Pob.)
* Sumader
* Tabug