Abra, officially the Province of Abra ( ilo, Probinsia ti Abra; tl, Lalawigan ng Abra), is a 3rd class

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

in the

Cordillera Administrative Region The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR; ilo, Rehion/Deppaar Administratibo ti Kordiliera; fil, Rehiyong Pampangasiwaan ng Cordillera), also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera (), is an administrative region in the Philippines, ...

of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. Its capital is the municipality of Bangued. It is bordered by

Ilocos Norte Ilocos Norte, officially the Province of Ilocos Norte ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ilocos Norte; tl, Lalawigan ng Ilocos Norte), is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region. Its capital is Laoag City, located in the northwest corner ...

on the northwest,

Apayao Apayao, officially the Province of Apayao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Apayao; fil, Lalawigan ng Apayao), is a landlocked province in the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Kabugao serves as its capital. The provincial ca ...

on the northeast,

Kalinga Kalinga may refer to: Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology * Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India ** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature ** Kalinga script, an ancient writin ...

on the mid-east,

Mountain Province Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as ''Mountain'' in some foreign references. The name is usually short ...

on the southeast, and

Ilocos Sur Ilocos Sur, officially the Province of Ilocos Sur ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ilocos Sur; tl, Lalawigan ng Ilocos Sur), is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the capital ...

on the southwest.

Etymology

Abra is from the Spanish word ''abre'' meaning gorge, pass, breach or opening. It was first used by the Spaniards to denote the region above the Banaoang Gap where the Abra River exits into the West Philippine Sea, thus the Rio Grande de Abra.

History

Pre-colonial period

The first inhabitants of Abra were the ancestors of the

Bontocs The Bontoc (or Bontok) ethnolinguistic group can be found in the central and eastern portions of Mountain Province, in the Philippines. Although some Bontocs of Natonin and Paracelis identify themselves as Balangaos, Gaddangs or Kalingas, the ...

and the

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of Ifugao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ifugao; tl, Lalawigan ng Ifugao), is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the ...

s. These inhabitants eventually left to settle in the old Mountain Province. Other early inhabitants were the

Tingguian The Itneg (exonym "Tinguian" or "Tingguian") are an Austronesian ethnic group from the upland province of Abra in northwestern Luzon, in the Philippines. Overview The Itneg live in the mountainous area of Abra in northwestern Luzon who descen ...

s or Itnegs.

Spanish era

In 1585 the Tingguians were mentioned for the first time in a letter from Father Domingo de Salazar to the King of Spain. In 1598 Bangued was occupied by Spanish-Iloko forces. The Spanish established a garrison to protect their missionaries from head hunters so that they could Christianize the Tingguians and locate gold mines. Bangued was under the care of the Spanish missions in

Vigan Vigan, officially the City of Vigan ( ilo, Siudad ti Vigan; fil, Lungsod ng Vigan), is a 4th class component city and capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 53,935 people. L ...

and Bantay. Fr. Esteban Marin and Fr. Agustin Minon established a mission in Bangued as early as 1598. On April 5, 1612 Fr. Pedro Columbo became the first minister. It would seem that this actuation of the

Augustinians Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–1 ...

was precipitated by the Dominican take-over of the ministry of Narvacan. The Dominicans wanted to convert Narvacan as a mission center to evangelize the other parts of Abra. To check this Dominican move, the Augustinians elevated Bangued as a ministry. Fr. Juan Pareja

OSA Osa or OSA may refer to: Places * Osa Peninsula, a peninsula in Costa Rica * Osa (canton), a canton in the province of Puntarenas in Costa Rica * Osa Conservation Area, an administrative area in Costa Rica * Osa, India, a village in Allahabad, ...

, a former parish priest in Bantay, led the conversion of the province. Fr. Pareja came to Abra in 1626. He is reported to have converted as many as 3,000 inhabitants including the chieftain Miguel Dumaual. Fr. Pareja founded the mission of San Diego and later the ministry of Bangued. He established the following towns as visitas of Bangued:

Tayum Tayum, officially the Municipality of Tayum ( ilo, Ili ti Tayum; tgl, Bayan ng Tayum), is a 5th class municipality in the province of Abra, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 14,869 people. Tayum is east of ca ...

, Sabangan and Bukao (now Dolores). Inspired by Fr. Juan Pareja these towns battled almost daily against the rancherias of Palang, Talamuy, Bataan, Kabulao, Kalauag, and Langiden. Fr. Jose Polanco OP contributed to the conversion Abra. A man of austere mortification, died in Abra in 1679. He was considered a saint by the locals. Fr. Bernardino Lago

arrived in the early 19th century. In 1823 Fr. Lago began work in Pidigan. After 25 years the Christians there numbered about a thousand "baptized, living in community, with schools, church and municipal house, tilling the earth to support themselves and their children." Fr. Lago also founded the town of

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...

. Fr. Galende enumerates the foundation of the other towns of Abra: *

, 1803 * San Gregorio, 1829 * Pidigan, 1823 *

, 1832 * Bucay, 1847 * San Jose, 1848 * Villavieja, 1862 * San Quintin, 1868 * Dolores, 1882 * Pilar, 1882 *

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

, 1884 * Alfonso XII, 1884 Originally the area was called ''El Abra de Vigan'' ("The Opening of Vigan"). During the

British Occupation of the Philippines The British occupation of Manila was an episode in colonial history of the Philippines when the Kingdom of Great Britain occupied the Spanish colonial capital of Manila and the nearby port of Cavite for twenty months from 1762 to 1764. The ...

Gabriela Silang María Josefa Gabriela Cariño de Silang (; 19 March 1731 – 20 September 1763) was a Filipino military leader best known for her role as the female leader of the Ilocano independence movement from Spain. She took over from her second husban ...

and her army fled to Abra from

Ilocos Ilocos Region ( ilo, Rehion/Deppaar ti Ilocos; pag, Sagor na Baybay na Luzon/Rehiyon Uno; tl, Rehiyon ng Ilocos) is an administrative region of the Philippines, designated as Region I, occupying the northwestern section of Luzon and part of ...

and continued the revolt begun by her slain husband

Diego Silang Diego Silang y Andaya (; December 16, 1730 – May 28, 1763) was a Filipino revolutionary leader who allied with British forces to overthrow Spanish rule in the northern Philippines and establish an independent Ilocano state. His revolt was ...

. She was captured and hanged by the Spanish in 1763. In 1818 the Ilocos region was divided into

and

. On October 9, 1846 Abra became an independent province with the capital and residence of the provincial governor located in Bucay. In 1863 the capital was transferred to Bangued, the province's oldest town. It remained so until the arrival of the Americans in 1899.

American period

In 1908 the

Philippine Commission The Philippine Commission was the name of two bodies, both appointed by the president of the United States, to assist with governing the Philippines. The first Philippine Commission, also known as the Schurman Commission, was appointed by Preside ...

annexed Abra into Ilocos Sur in an attempt to resolve Abra's financial difficulties. On March 9, 1917 the Philippine Assembly re-established Abra as a province under Act 2683.

World War II

In 1942 Japanese forces occupied the Philippines and seized Abra. Abra was liberated by the Philippine Commonwealth forces and local Cordilleran guerrillas during the Battle of Abra in 1945 at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Modern history

The revolutionary Marxist priest

Conrado Balweg Conrado Balweg was a former Filipino Catholic priest and rebel who was the founder of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army, a militant group which advocated autonomy for the Cordillera region in the Philippines. He was also known by the ''n ...

, who fought for the rights of the Cordillera tribes, began his crusade in Abra. After successfully negotiating a peace accord with Balweg's group in 1987 the Philippine government created the

, which includes Abra. On July 27, 2022, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, jolted the province. Eleven people died (at least seven of them were from Abra) and more than 600 were injured. A magnitude 6.4

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousa ...

three months later injured more than 100 people and caused additional damage.

Geography

Abra is situated in the mid-western section of the

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

. It is bordered by the provinces of

on the northwest,

on the northeast,

on the mid-east,

on the southeast and

on the southwest. Abra has a total land area of . The province is bordered by the towering mountain ranges of the Ilocos in the west and the Cordillera Central in the east. The

Abra River The Abra River, also called Lagben River, is the seventh largest river system in the Philippines in terms of watershed size. It has an estimated drainage area of and a length of from its source in the vicinity of Mount Data in Benguet province. ...

runs from the south in

Benguet Benguet (), officially the Province of Benguet ('';'' ; pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Benguet; ilo, Probinsia ti Benguet; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Admi ...

to the west and central areas bisecting the Abra Valley. It is joined by the

Tineg River The Abra River, also called Lagben River, is the seventh largest river system in the Philippines in terms of watershed size. It has an estimated drainage area of and a length of from its source in the vicinity of Mount Data in Benguet provinc ...

originating in the eastern uplands at a point near the municipality of Dolores.

Administrative divisions

Abra is composed of 27 municipalities, all encompassed by Abra's lone congressional district. Ph fil abra

Barangays

The 27 municipalities of the province comprise a total of 303

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolita ...

s, with ''Poblacion'' in

as the most populous in 2010, and ''Pattaoig'' in

as the least.

Demographics

The population of Abra in the 2020 census was 250,985 people, with a density of . Abra's inhabitants are mostly descendants of Ilocano settlers and members of the

tribe. Based on 2000 census data, Ilocanos comprised of the total provincial population of 209,146. Tingguians came in second at , while other ethnic groups in the province were the Ibanag at , Itneg at , and

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Taga ...

at . The predominant languages are Ilocano and Itneg.

Economy

As of 1990 there were 743 cottage industries in Abra of which 208 are registered with the Department of Trade and Industry. 59% are engaged in

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

and

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...

craft making, both leading industries in the area. Abra's economy is agriculture-based. Its major crops are rice, vegetables and root crops. Commercial products include coffee, tobacco and coconut. Extensive grassland and pasture areas are used for livestock production.

Infrastructure

Power distribution

Government

List of former military and elected governors: * Don Ramon Tajonera y Marzal (Military Governor): 1846-? * Don Esteban de Penarrubia (Military Governor): 1868-? * Col. William Bowen (Military Governor): 1901 * Juan G. Villamor (Governor): 1902–1904 * Joaquin J. Ortega (Governor): 1904–1914 * Rosalio G. Eduarte (Governor): 1914–1916 * Julio V. Borbon (Governor): 1916–1922 * Virgilio V. Valera (Governor): 1922–1925 * Eustaquio P. Purugganan (Governor): 1925–1930 * Virgilio V. Valera (Governor): 1930–1936 * Bienvenido N. Valera (Governor): 1936–1939 * Eustaquio P. Purugganan (Governor): 1939–1941 * Bernardo V. Bayquen (Governor): 1941–1944 * Zacarias A. Crispin (Governor): 1944–1946 * Juan C. Brillantes (Governor): 1946–1947 * Luis F. Bersamin (Governor): 1947–1951 * Lucas P. Paredes (Governor): 1951–1953 * Vene B. Pe Benito was acting governor in 1953 * Ernesto P. Parel (Governor): 1953–1954 * Jose L. Valera 1954–1963 * Carmelo Z. Barbero (Governor): 1963–1965 * Petronilo V. Seares (Governor): 1965–1971 * Gabino V. Balbin (Governor): 1971–1977 * Arturo V. Barbero (Governor): 1977–1984 * Andres B. Bernos (Governor): 1984–1986 * Vicente P. Valera (Governor): 1986–1987 * Buenaventura V. Buenafe was acting governor in 1987 * Vicente Y. Valera (Governor): 1988–1998 * Constante B. Culangen was acting governor in 1998 * Maria Zita Claustro-Valera (Governor): 1998–2001 * Vicente Y. Valera (Governor): 2001–2007 * Eustaquio P. Bersamin (Governor): 2007–2016 * Maria Jocelyn Valera Bernos (Governor): 2016–present

References

External links

* *
History articles and links on Bucay and Abra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abra (Province) Provinces of the Philippines States and territories established in 1846 1846 establishments in the Philippines Former sub-provinces of the Philippines