Coron | |
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Municipality | |
Map of Palawan with Coron highlighted |
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Location within the Philippines | |
Coordinates: 12°00′N 120°12′E / 12.000°N 120.200°ECoordinates: 12°00′N 120°12′E / 12.000°N 120.200°E | |
Country | Philippines |
Region | MIMAROPA (Region IV-B) |
Province | Palawan |
Congr. district | 1st district |
Founded | 1902 |
Barangays | 23 |
Government | |
• Mayor | Clara E. Reyes (LP) |
• Vice Mayor | Jim Gerald L. Pe (LP) |
Area | |
• Total | 689.10 km2 (266.06 sq mi) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 42,941 |
• Density | 62/km2 (160/sq mi) |
Time zone | PST (UTC+8) |
Zip Code | 5316 |
Dialing code | 48 |
Coron is a first class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines, comprising the eastern half of Busuanga Island, all of Coron Island and about 50 other minor islets stretching as far as Tara Island in the north-east and Canipo Island in the south. All these islands are part of the Calamian Archipelago in Northern Palawan that separates the South China Sea from the Sulu Sea. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 42,941 people.
The main population center of the municipality is composed of Poblacion Barangays 1 to 6, where the Municipal Building, the Municipal Legislative Building, and the Judicial Hall of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court are located. Its fiesta is held annually on August 28 in honor of Saint Augustine. It is the commercial capital of the Calamian Islands.
Coron is politically subdivided into 23 barangays.
The Calamianes Islands were originally inhabited by the Tagbanuas and the Calmiananen. A fort and church were built around 1670 by the Spaniards as part of the defenses (along with Cuyo and Taytay) against the Muslim slave raids in Libis, Culion. This became a settlement for migrants to the Calamianes. Foremost among them were the families of a Cuyonon, Nicolas Manlavi, who served several years in Spanish Galleons, and an Ilonggo from Jaro, Ilo-ilo named Claudio Sandoval who later wed Nicolas' only daughter Evarista. The Sandoval clan of the Calamianes came from this union.
While their domiciles were in Culion, Nicolas Manlavi and the Sandoval farms and landholdings were on the island of Busuanga.
Late in the 1890s, an American naturalist, Dean Worcester, journeyed through the Calamianes collecting specimens and stayed briefly in Culion. At the turn of the century, he was appointed part of the First Philippine Commission, becoming the Secretary of the Interior. He recommended Culion as the Philippine Leper Colony. This act forced the transfer of the Sandoval clan in 1900 to the various barrios of what is now Coron and Busuanga. The Coron town was settled by the family of Claudio Sandoval, and the other Sandovals settled in what is now Bintuan, Salvacion, Concepcion and Old Busuanga.