Dingalan

Dingalan [ˌdiŋɡɐˈlan], officially the Municipality of Dingalan (Tagalog: Bayan ng Dingalan; Ilocano: Ili ti Dingalan), is a municipality in the province of Aurora, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 29,286 people.

The town has several caves, of which the Lamao Caves are the best known. The rough shoreline and very high waves of Dingalan make it attractive to surfers. Dingalan is nicknamed "Gateway to Southern Tagalog", as it is bordered by Quezon Province (in the south), which is part of Southern Tagalog, of which Aurora was a part; Aurora was a sub-province of Quezon.

Early settlers recounted that Dumagat tribes inhabited the territory now known as Dingalan. The names of most landmarks and places in this municipality were said to have been given by these first inhabitants. It is believed that the name “Dingalan” is a Dumagat word which means “by the River of Galan” because the territory straddles fifteen (15) rivers and streams which show the abundance of water.

It is also believed that there were two Dumagat brothers named Ding and Allan who were hunting animals in the forest. They were shouting at each other’s name as they went astray away from each other hence the name DINGALAN.

In the early 1900s, settlers from Quezon, Nueva Ecija, and Ilocos started to migrate to Dingalan. They were generally lowland cultivators in search of arable land. In-migration heightened in the 1930s when Don Felipe Buencamino started his logging and sawmill operations. Soon after, inter-marriages among Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Pampangos (Kapampangans), and Bicolanos enriched the cultural stock of settlers.

During World War II, Dingalan was occupied by the Japanese imperial forces. The Japanese took over the operation of sawmills and cut timber to construct their barracks and garrisons. The Dingalan-Gabaldon highway was originally built (1942-1945) as a logging road. On the verge of defeat in 1945, the Japanese used Dingalan Bay as an “exit point” when they retreated.

The strategic location of Dingalan Bay for military purposes was rediscovered after the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951, when the municipality became the Training Ground in 1957 for the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) as well as the United States Seventh Fleet. Dingalan also became a site of the RP-US Balikatan Military Exercises for three (3) consecutive years from 1982-1984.

Dingalan was recognized as a municipal district on June 16, 1956 under Republic Act 1536 with an initial population of 2,000 residents. Prior to that, Dingalan was merely a sitio of Barrio San Luis in the municipality of Baler, then part of Quezon (formerly Tayabas). Dingalan became a regular municipality on June 16, 1962 by virtue of Republic Act No. 3490. It was then part of Quezon under its sub-province of Aurora until the latter became a province of its own in 1979.