San Gabriel | town, municipality, third-level administrative division

Philippines / Ilocos / Dagup /
 town, municipality, third-level administrative division

Municipality of San Gabriel, Province of La Union
ZIP Code: 2513

San Gabriel is a landlocked municipality in the province of La Union in the Philippines. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 16,628 people. It is the largest municipality in the province in terms of land area.

Brief History:

The town of San Gabriel is within the easternmost part of the province of La Union. It was formerly called sitio “Baka-Burnotan”, derived from the game of the old folks which means “Binnornutan” or Tug of War. Sitio Baka-Burnotan was the place where people in the nearby sitios gathered daily to graze their cattle to play “Binnornutan.” The games were played among the Christians and the pagan settlers, who belong to 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 fertile soil. Intermarriages among Christians and pagan settlers greatly contributed to the increase of the population. In April 19, 1897, the Roman Catholic Church, though the late Fr. Redondo, indoctrinate 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 the 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 the 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 at the House of Representatives.

Another interesting event that happened in this municipality was the introduction of “Sagrada Familia” (Holy Familia), a subsidiary of the Aglipayan Church. Sagrada Familia was founded by Lorenzo Lok-king, a native of Sabangan, Mountain Province. He first introduced this when he settled in barrio Lipay. Lok-king’s amiable way of virtous leadership gained favorable approval and good reputation among the people. For this reason, many were attracted to settle in this barrio, most of them came from Mountain Province and other parts of the Cordillera. Due to old age, he was not able to continue his mission so he appointed Don Pedro Daoa, Sr. to be his successor.

Due to the influx of migrant settlers from various provinces, the leader of Sagrada grouped these settlers according to their respective tribes and distributed them to different villages within his jurisdiction. The immigrants from Sagrada occupied Lon-Oy; the Bauko-Bagnen immigrants settled in Lipay Este; Itneg immigrants occupied Lipay Norte while the Bago tribes occupied Lipay proper and Balbalayang. The Kankanaey tribe from western Bontoc is now the dominant population of San Gabriel.

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

Tiger grass and banana are also produce abundantly in this town. It has an estimated weekly harvest of soft brooms weekly.

San Gabriel is politically subdivided into 15 barangays:

-Amontoc
-Apayao
-Balbalayang
-Bayabas
-Bucao
-Bumbuneg
-Daking
-Lacong
-Lipay Este
-Lipay Norte
-Lipay Proper
-Lipay Sur
-Lon-oy
-Poblacion
-Polipol
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   16°40'34"N   120°29'29"E

Comments

  • San Gabriel is a green, peace and beautiful place. Bakit green???? kabambantayan gayam. come and see the beauty of my beloved ili.
  • San Gabriel is a green, peaceful pala not peace.....................halikayo maligo sa ilog....maraming crabs............
  • san gabriel s d best......hehehe!!!
  • this is the place where i grew up, it's really nice and peaceful....'hope people can see the image better.....
  • what a nature...d best..... its my place... City of San Gabriel....come and visit!!!!!
  • ahhh my beloved san gabriel... the best town in la union. (visitors are the ones ruining the image of this town), how i wish screening of people to settle here will be implemented LOL!
  • hey Why not let them build the dam that way we get a lot back?
  • does anyone here knows what is the tourism policy of this town??
  • san gabriel is a beautiful place, a beautiful mountains and rivers you can appreciate san gabriel if you are a nature lover.i would love to go back for hiking....long live san gabriel
  • my lolos and my lolas born here in san gabriel but unfortunately, we would like to visit this place , hopefully with this comment i can be able to see my lost relatives, my lolos surname are Cabanban, please help me to find my relatives. my lolo is anastacio cabanban married to dionisia sebastian, they were in brgy balbalsoc.
  • Show all comments
  •  91 km
  •  125 km
  •  128 km
  •  155 km
  •  224 km
  •  305 km
  •  320 km
  •  360 km
  •  481 km
  •  493 km
This article was last modified 9 years ago