Cabanatuan

Cabanatuan, officially the City of Cabanatuan (Filipino: Lungsod ng Cabanatuan; Ilocano: Siudad ti Cabanatuan; Kapampangan: Lakanbalen/Ciudad ning Cabanatuan), is a first-class component city in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines.

According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 343,672 people, making it the most populous in Nueva Ecija, seventh in the whole of Luzon outside the Greater Manila Area, and the largest city north of Metro Manila along the Pan-Philippine Highway (AH26). It has earned the moniker "Gateway to the North."

The city is known for being home to more than 30,000 motorized tricycles, making it the "Tricycle Capital of the Philippines." Its strategic location along the Cagayan Valley Road has helped make the city into the major economic, educational, medical, entertainment, shopping, and transportation center it is today. It is the commercial center for Nueva Ecija and nearby provinces in the region such as Tarlac, Aurora, and Bulacan.

Cabanatuan remained Nueva Ecija's capital until 1965 when the government recognized nearby Palayan City as the new provincial capital. Nueva Ecija's old capitol and other government offices are still used and maintained by the provincial administration. Cabanatuan also briefly became the capital of the Philippines during the First Philippine Republic while President Emilio Aguinaldo was moving north to evade capture by American forces.

After the campaign for the city's designation as a highly urbanized city failed, a motion was made to convert the city into a lone district instead.

Cabanatuan was founded as a Barrio of Gapan in 1750 and became a municipality and capital of La Provincia de Nueva Ecija in 1780. Majority of the original settlers of Cabanatuan were Tagalogs from Bulacan and Morong (Rizal Province); other early settlers came from Ilocos, Pampanga and Tayabas (now Quezon Province). The Tagalogs settled the barrios on the western part while Kapampangans and Ilocanos settled in the vicinity around Sangitan.

Cabanatuan is the site of the historical "Plaza Lucero" and the Cabanatuan Cathedral, where General Antonio Luna was assassinated by Captain Pedro Janolino and members of the Kawit battalion. Cabanatuan lost the title of provincial capital in 1850 when the capital of Nueva Ecija was moved to San Isidro, another historic town. It was only in 1917, when the administrative code was enacted, that Cabanatuan was restored as capital of the province. In 1926, the historic College of the Immaculate Conception was established within the vicinity of the Cabanatuan Cathedral by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1938, Ling Hong Temple, the second oldest Buddhist temple in the Philippines, was established in Cabanatuan.

During World War II, the occupying Japanese built the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where many American soldiers were imprisoned, some of whom had been forced to endure the infamous Bataan Death March. In January 1945, elements of the U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion and two teams of Alamo Scouts marched 30 miles (48 km) behind enemy lines to rescue the prisoners in what became known as the Raid at Cabanatuan. As a result of the raid on January 30, 1945, victorious Filipino guerrillas, American troops of the U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion and Alamo Scouts celebrated having obtained the freedom of 500 American prisoners of war. Soon thereafter, Philippine and American forces re-established the presence of military general headquarters and military camp bases of the Philippine Commonwealth Army, Philippine Constabulary 2nd Constabulary Regiment, and the United States Army in Cabanatuan from February 1, 1945, to June 30, 1946, during the Liberation of the Philippines. Before long, the combined Philippine Commonwealth and American armed forces, in cooperation with local guerrilla resistance fighters and Hukbalahap Communist guerrillas,^{[citation needed]} had liberated Central Luzon from Japanese Imperial forces, a campaign that lasted from January until August 1945.