Uyugan, Batanes
| Uyugan | ||
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| Municipality | ||
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 Location within Batanes province |
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 Uyugan
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| Coordinates: 20°21′N 121°56′E / 20.35°N 121.93°ECoordinates: 20°21′N 121°56′E / 20.35°N 121.93°E | ||
| Country | Philippines | |
| Region | Cagayan Valley (Region II) | |
| Province | Batanes | |
| District | Lone District | |
| Founded | May 20, 1909 | |
| Barangays | 4 (see Barangays) | |
| Government | ||
| • Type | Sangguniang Bayan | |
| • Mayor | Rogelio B. Caballero | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 16.28 km2 (6.29 sq mi) | |
| Population (2015 census) | ||
| • Total | 1,297 | |
| • Density | 80/km2 (210/sq mi) | |
| • Voter (2016) | 970 | |
| Time zone | PST (UTC+8) | |
| ZIP code | 3903 | |
| IDD : area code | +63 (0)78 | |
| Income class | 6th class | |
| PSGC | 020906000 | |
| Website | uyuganbatanes |
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Uyugan, officially the Municipality of Uyugan (Filipino: Bayan ng Uyugan; Ilocano: Ili ti Uyugan), is a municipality in the province of Batanes in the Cagayan Valley (Region II) of the Philippines. The population was 1,297 at the 2015 census. In the 2016 electoral roll, it had 970 registered voters.
Thousands of years before Spanish colonization, about a thousand people lived on fortified cliffs and hilltops scattered across today's Uyugan. The fortified settlements were called "Idiang" and derived from the Ivatan word "Idi" or "Idian" which means home or hometown. They belonged to the Ivatan tribes and spoke the same Ivatan language, but with a southern accent.
The Ivatan tribes who called the place home farmed, where soil permitted, and they fished. They were also a boat-making and seafaring people, and they traded with neighbouring Taiwan to the North and Cagayan to the South.
The Ivatan tribal settlements had a de facto tribal government, not very much different from that of tribal governments in the earlier stages of human evolution. The tribal settlement was headed by a chieftain with a deputy.
Inter-tribal hostilities (Arap du Tukon) or War on the Hill were common in those days but for men only. Common law prohibited the harming of womenfolk who were the main providers of food in wartime.
In the late 1600s, Dominican missionaries landed in Batanes. The native people were in the beginning not all that welcoming to the early Spanish colonizers, but slowly they were able to adopt themselves to the Spanish ways. The Spaniards had very different lifestyles, beliefs, and traditions than the Ivatan tribes. They didn't understand the native peoples' social customs, generous nature, religious beliefs, or love of the land.
According to church records, the first mass and baptism in the islands was celebrated in what is now Imnajbu in Uyugan.
The Spanish missionaries, finding the conditions harsh in Batanes, there were attempts to resettle the Ivatans in Cagayan, but they always found their way home - they sailed back to Batanes.
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Wikipedia