Pampanga, which is about 850 square miles (2,200 km 2) in area and inhabited by more than 1.5 million people, had its present borders drawn in 1873.
The encomiendas of La Pampanga at that time had eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty whole tributes. In a report of Philippine encomiendas on June 20, 1591, Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas reported to the Crown that La Pampanga's encomiendas were Bataan, Betis y Lubao, Macabebe, Candaba, Apalit, Calumpit, Malolos, Binto, Guiguinto, Caluya, Bulacan and Mecabayan. For better administration and taxation purposes, the Spanish authorities subdivided Pampanga into pueblos, which were further subdivided into districts ( barrios) and in some cases into royal and private estates ( encomiendas).ĭue to excessive abuses committed by some encomenderos, King Philip II of Spain in 1574 prohibited the further awarding of private estates, but this decree was not fully enforced until 1620. Pampanga was re-organized as a province by the Spaniards on December 11, 1571. See also: Pampanga in the Philippine RevolutionĪncient Pampanga's Territorial area included portions of the modern provinces of Tarlac, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and Bulacan. In 2015, the province had 2,198,110 inhabitants, while it had 1,079,532 registered voters. Due to its growing population and developments, the Clark Global City is now developed and is located in Clark Freeport Zone. The province is home to two Philippine Air Force airbases: Basa Air Base in Floridablanca and the former United States Clark Air Base in Angeles. Pampanga is served by Clark International Airport (formerly Diosdado Macapagal International Airport), which is in Clark Freeport Zone, some 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north of the provincial capital. At the eve of the Philippine Revolution of 1896, Pampanga was one of eight provinces placed under martial law for rebellion against the Spanish Empire it is thus represented on the Philippine national flag as one of the eight rays of the sun. The town of Villa de Bacolor in the province briefly served as the Spanish colonial capital when Great Britain invaded Manila as part of the Seven Years' War. Its creation in 1571 makes it the first Spanish province on Luzon Island ( Cebu in Visayas is older as it was founded by the Spaniards in 1565). The name La Pampanga was given by the Spaniards, who encountered natives living along the banks ( pampáng) of the Pampanga River.
Angeles City is the largest LGU but while geographically within Pampanga, it is classified as a first-class, highly urbanized city and has been governed independently of the province since it received its charter in 1964. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, the Manila Bay to the central-south, Bataan to the southwest and Zambales to the west. Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga ( Kapampangan: Lalawigan ning Pampanga Tagalog: Lalawigan ng Pampanga) is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines.