| Southern Tagalog Timog Katagalugan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formerregion of the Philippines | |||||||||
| 1965–2002 | |||||||||
.svg) Location within the Philippines | |||||||||
| Capital | Quezon City[1] (Regional center) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 2000[2] | 11,793,655 | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1 January 1965 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 17 May 2002 | ||||||||
| Political subdivisions | 11 provinces at the time ofpartitioning | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | |||||||||
Southern Tagalog (Filipino:Timog Katagalugan), designated asRegion IV,[a] was anadministrative region in thePhilippines that comprised the current regions ofCalabarzon andMimaropa, the province ofAurora inCentral Luzon, and most of theNational Capital Region. It was the largest region in the Philippines in terms of both land area and population. After itspartition on May 17, 2002, Southern Tagalog continues to exist as a cultural-geographical region.[3][4]
The region was and is still bordered byManila Bay and theSouth China Sea to the west,Lamon Bay and theBicol Region to the east, theTayabas Bay,Sibuyan Sea, andBalabac Strait, where it shared a maritime border withSabah,Malaysia, to the south, and Central Luzon to the north; it was bordered byCagayan Valley to the north geographically.
Southern Tagalog was the largest region in the Philippines in terms of both land area and population. The2000 Census of Population and Housing showed the region having a total of 11,793,655 people, which comprised 15.42 percent of the 76.5 million population of the country at that time.[2][5]
Quezon City was the designated regional center of Southern Tagalog,[1] but Lucena was the former Government Center of Southern Tagalog, and is still host to most of the branches of governmental agencies, businesses, banks, and service facilities in the region.
The former region covered the area where many reside; the two other majority-Tagalophone regions are theNational Capital Region andCentral Luzon.
On September 7, 1946,Republic Act No. 14 changed the nameTayabas toQuezon; both Quezon City & Quezon Province were named in honor ofManuel L. Quezon, theCommonwealth president who was born inBaler, which was one of the province's towns.[6]
In June 1951, the northern area of Quezon (specifically, the towns of Baler,Casiguran,Dilasag,Dingalan,Dinalungan,Dipaculao,Maria Aurora andSan Luis) was made into the sub-province ofAurora; during that time, only Baler, Casiguran, Dipaculao, and Maria Aurora existed yet, wherein the 2 latter towns were separated from Baler.[7] Aurora was named of the president's wife,Aurora Quezon, also a native of Baler. One obvious reason for creating the sub-province was the area's isolation from the rest of Quezon Province: there were no direct links to the rest of the province and much of the terrain was mountainous and heavily forested, which made the area relatively isolated, and its distance from Quezon's capital Lucena.[8][9] Aurora was finally separated from Quezon as an independent province in 1979, and added to Southern Tagalog.[10]
Southern Tagalog was divided intoCalabarzon andMimaropa, upon the issuance of Executive Order No. 103, dated May 17, 2002, by PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo. Additionally, the province ofAurora was moved to Region III (Central Luzon), the physical location of the province.[3][4] The complete separation of Aurora from Quezon and its transfer to Central Luzon fulfilled the long-held wishes and prayers of the residents of the original municipalities of Baler and Casiguran, allowing them to be truly independent from Quezon Province for the first time and to restore the original La Pampanga from the Spanish era.[11][12][13][14][15] Many residents and government leaders of Aurora, however, rejected the executive order that transferred Aurora to Central Luzon, as Aurora maintains strong historical and cultural connections to the rest of Southern Tagalog, particularly Quezon Province, thus also of the memory of Manuel Quezon, and with that, Aurora residents self-identified with Quezon; but Aurora's transfer to Central Luzon means that geographically, the province is more accessible by land fromNueva Ecija and of course,San Fernando, Pampanga, the regional capital of Central Luzon.[16]
| Province | Provincial capital | Current region |
|---|---|---|
| Aurora | Baler | Central Luzon |
| Batangas | Batangas City | Calabarzon |
| Cavite | Imus[b] /Trece Martires[c] | |
| Laguna | Santa Cruz | |
| Marinduque | Boac | Mimaropa |
| Occidental Mindoro | Mamburao | |
| Oriental Mindoro | Calapan | |
| Palawan | Puerto Princesa[d] | |
| Quezon | Lucena[d] | Calabarzon[e] |
| Rizal | Pasig[b][f] /Antipolo[c] | |
| Romblon | Romblon | Mimaropa |
Camarines Norte andCamarines Sur, which are underBicol Region, are sometimes considered part of Southern Tagalog recently, as there has been alanguage shift in recent years to Tagalog, which is more common native language, from being historically Bikol-speaking provinces.
Southern Tagalog region had 13chartered cities prior to its partition.
Cities that were recently added after the partition (all of these are located in Southern Tagalog mainland or Calabarzon):
The native languages of Southern Tagalog are:
Other native languages spoken in Southern Tagalog areHatang Kayi, also named as Sinauna, aCentral Luzon language spoken inTanay, Rizal andGeneral Nakar, Quezon (this is related to Kapampangan andSambalic languages), theManide language in east Quezon and a small portion in north Quezon, theUmiray Dumaget language in north Quezon and a small area in central Quezon, theInagta Alabat language onAlabat Island, and theTagabulós language in Infanta.[17] The languages not native to the region are:Ilocano in Quezon, Laguna, Rizal, Cavite, Batangas, Mindoro, and Palawan (Aurora & Quezon have the largest concentration of Ilocano speakers when Aurora was part of Southern Tagalog, the statistics now exclusively belong to Quezon);Bikol in Quezon, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Marinduque;Cebuano in Rizal, Batangas, Cavite, and Quezon (especially in the remote parts of San Andres and San Francisco, the southernmost municipalities both located in the Bondoc Peninsula);Kapampangan andPangasinan in Batangas, Cavite, Mindoro and Palawan;Maranao andMaguindanaon in many parts of the region especially in urban areas.
Sen. Edgardo Angara, Rep. Bellaflor Angara Castillo and Ricky Avanceña, grandson of the late President Manuel Quezon, sought the scrapping of the executive order that transferred Aurora to Central Luzon... Angara, who hails from Aurora, called the order a "discretion of the historical, geographical and emotional ties of Aurora to the rest of Southern Tagalog, particularly Quezon province, but also of the memory of our first President, Manuel Quezon. Aurora the birthplace of the late President and his wife Doña Aurora Aragon, was a sub- province of Quezon until 1951... The province located on the eastern tip of Luzon and which faces the Pacific Ocean, is more accessible by land from Nueva Ecija, one of the Central Luzon's Provinces. It is one of the 20 poorest provinces in the country. However, Angara said Aurora residents have "consistently and publicly" identified themselves with Quezon.
