San Gabriel, La Union

San Gabriel
—  Municipality  —
Map of La Union showing the location of San Gabriel.
San Gabriel Location in the Philippines
Coordinates: 16°40′32″N 120°24′11″E
Country	Philippines
Region	Ilocos Region (Region I)
Province	La Union
District	1st District
Founded
Barangays	15
Government
• Mayor	Divina Velasco
Area
• Total	129.87 km2 (50.14 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Total	15,803
• Density	120/km2 (320/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC+8)
ZIP code	2513
Income class	5th class

Population Census of San Gabriel
Census	Pop.		Rate
1995	13,489		—
2000	14,909		2.17%
2007	15,803		0.81%

San Gabriel is a 5th class municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 15,803 people in 2,830 households. It is the largest municipality in La Union in terms of land area.

Barangays

San Gabriel is politically subdivided into 15 barangays.

• Amontoc
• Apayao
• Balbalayang
• Bayabas
• Bucao
• Bumbuneg
• Lacong
• Lipay Este
• Lipay Norte
• Lipay Proper
• Lipay Sur
• Lon-oy
• Poblacion
• Polipol
• Daking

History

The town of San Gabriel is within the easternmost part of the province of La Union. It was formerly called sitio “Baka-Burnotan”, the name derived from the game of the old folks that means “binnornutan” or tug-of-war. Sitio Baka-Burnotan was the place where people in the nearby sitios gathered daily to graze their cattle while playing binnornutan. The games were played between the Christians and the pagan settlers of the Kankanaey tribe. During the later years, the name baka-burnotan was shortened to burnotan.

Sitio Burnotan became the ideal place to settle because of the wide plain along the river and its fertile soil. Intermarriages between Christians and pagan settlers greatly contributed to the increase in population. On April 19, 1897, the Roman Catholic Church, through the late Fr. Redondo, indoctrinated the pagan settlers with Christian teachings. He established a church and introduced the image of Saint Gabriel to be their patron saint. As a result, many of the pagan inhabitants embraced Christianity and many of them were baptized. The people later decided to change the name of their place to San Gabriel in honor of their patron saint.

San Gabriel was made into a township in 1906 under the sub-province Amburayan, Mountain Province with Don Pablo Waggay as its first “Presidente.”

In 1920, it became a municipal district of Amburayan. It was in 1922, after the settlement of the boundary dispute between La Union and Mountain Province, that San Gabriel became a municipality. Finally in 1947, San Gabriel was converted into a regular municipality by virtue of Executive Order No. 72 issued by President Manuel Roxas through the sponsorship of the former Speaker Pro-Tempore Francisco Ortega in the House of Representatives.

Economy

San Gabriel is an agricultural town. In its early days, the people of San Gabriel were engaged mainly in highland farming as their means of livelihood. They produced rice, corn, sweet potatoes and other root crops. As years passed, crop production decreased due to massive soil erosion in the uplands. Nevertheless, the inhabitants decided to improve their farming techniques and started making terraces. The perseverance of the people in constructing rice terraces and irrigation system along the hills and mountains of San Gabriel caused agricultural productivity to rebound.

Bananas and tiger grass are also abundant in San Gabriel, which harvests materials for soft broom production on a weekly basis.

External links

• Pasyalan La Union
• Philippine Standard Geographic Code
• 1995 Philippine Census Information
• 2000 Philippine Census Information
• 2007 Philippine Census Information
• Local Governance Performance Management System