Libmanan, Camarines Sur

Libmanan
Municipality
J. Hernandez Park Libmanan
Seal
Nickname(s): Rice Granary of Camarines Sur
Map of Camarines Sur showing the location of Libmanan
Libmanan Location within the Philippines
Coordinates: 13°42′N 123°04′E / 13.700°N 123.067°E / 13.700; 123.067Coordinates: 13°42′N 123°04′E / 13.700°N 123.067°E / 13.700; 123.067
Country	Philippines
Region	Bicol (Region V)
Province	Camarines Sur
District	2nd district
Founded	April 3, 1574
Barangays	75
Government
• Mayor	Bernard P.Brioso
Area
• Total	342.82 km2 (132.36 sq mi)
Population (2010)
• Total	100,002
• Density	290/km2 (760/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC+8)
ZIP code	4407
IDD : area code	54
Income class	1st class; partially urban

Libmanan is a first class municipality in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 100,002.

Libmanan was a bario of Quipayo in 1580 with the name of "Piglabanan". Records from a historian revealed that the municipality was named Libmanan on September 15, 1574. Missionaries started working in Libmanan in 1589 and the area's church was dedicated to St. James the Apostle. Several local stories hint as to the origin of the town’s name. One was that “ligmanan” means "a place surrounded with waterways". Another was Libangan since visitors forgot their former homes because they were said to be “na libang” or "enjoying themselves" - Libangan can also translate to "place of enjoyment". Another version was associated with the conditions during years of moro raids where area was called “Linabanan”, a battle ground. In the Old Spanish Records, Fray Pasqual de la Cruz, writes the name of the town as "Libñanan" the Spanish way of pronouncing the word. The same Record also show that in 1823, Fray Francisco Valverde wrote it as "Libmanan" because it was easier to write and pronounce as well.

German ethnographer Fedor Jagor described visiting Libmanan in his 1875 work "Travels in the Philippines", wherin he visited the local parish priest and learned from him about an ancient human settlement that had been dug up in 1851 during road construction in the Poro area of the southwest close near the Tres Marias islands: the excavation consisted of "numerous remains of the early inhabitants—skulls, ribs, bones of men and animals, a child’s thighbone inserted in a spiral of brass wire, several stags’ horns, beautifully-formed dishes and vessels, some of them painted, probably of Chinese origin; striped bracelets, of a soft, gypseous, copper-red rock, gleaming as if they were varnished; small copper knives, but no iron utensils; and several broad flat stones bored through the middle; besides a wedge of petrified wood, embedded in a cleft branch of a tree."

During the occupation of their country by the United States, the Philippine Legislature greatly expanded the network of railroads throughout the island of Luzon, and a railway headed to the city of Legazpi, Albay and Naga, Camarines Sur was built through Libmanan to provide direct access to those cities. This railway was damaged severely during World War II, but partially restored using American funds thereafter, providing transportation service down the Bicol Peninsula off and on until ending in 2012 despite plans to rehabilitate the route.