Tuba, officially the Municipality of Tuba, (; ), is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

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

Benguet Benguet (), officially the Province of Benguet ('';'' ; ; ; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital cit ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 48,312 people. Tuba is known as the "Gateway to Baguio", as the Asin–Nangalisan–San Pascual Road, Ben Palispis Highway or Marcos Highway, Kennon Road and Naguilian Road, four access highways of the adjacent city of

Baguio Baguio ( , , ), officially the City of Baguio (; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...

, traverse the municipality.

History

Tuba was originally a ''barrio'' of the township of Baguio in the early 1900s under the

American colonial period The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonization of the Americas, British colonies on the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–17 ...

. It was separated from Baguio upon the latter's conversion into a chartered city on September 1, 1909, and became part of the township of Twin Peaks in Benguet. Twin Peaks was abolished as a township on December 11, 1911, with the issuance of ''Executive Order No. 77'' by American Governor General

William Cameron Forbes William Cameron Forbes (May 21, 1870 – December 24, 1959) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1909 to 1913 and ambassador of the United States to Japan from 1930 to 1932. Ear ...

, creating the township of Tuba. On June 25, 1963, President

Diosdado Macapagal Diosdado Pangan Macapagal Sr. (; September 28, 1910 – April 21, 1997) was a Filipino lawyer, poet and politician who served as the 9th President of the Philippines, serving from 1961 to 1965, and the 5th Vice President of the Philippines, V ...

issued ''Executive Order No. 42'' and by operation of Section 2 of ''Republic Act No. 1515'', the municipal District of Tuba was converted into a regular municipality.

Geography

The Municipality of Tuba is at the south-western tip of both Benguet and the Central Cordillera Mountain Range. South of the municipality lies the province of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

and to the west lies the Ilocos rolling hills of the province of

La Union La Union (), officially the Province of La Union (; ; ; ; ; ), is a coastal province in the Philippines situated in the Ilocos Region on the island of Luzon. The province's capital, the San Fernando, La Union, City of San Fernando, is the most ...

. It is bordered on the north by Sablan and La Trinidad; east by

and Itogon; and south by Sison and San Manuel. According to the

Philippine Statistics Authority The Philippine Statistics Authority (; PSA) is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that collects, compiles, analyzes, and publishes statistical information on economic, social, demographic, political affairs, and gene ...

, the municipality has a land area of constituting of the total area of Benguet. The municipality's urban area comprises the barangays of Poblacion and Camp 3, having a composite land area of , or 19.31% of the total land area. Tuba is situated from the provincial capital La Trinidad, and from the country's capital city of

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Topography

Tuba's topography is generally characterized by irregular rugged terrain and steep slopes with several mountain peaks rising from the table land itself. Mount Santo Tomas, the highest peak in the municipality soars to above sea level. Four major rivers/streams and 49 tributary/minor rivers and creeks intersect the landform and serve as the drains of the municipality.

Barangays

Tuba is politically subdivided into 13

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

s. Each barangay consists of

purok A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...

s and some have

sitios A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...

Climate

Tuba has 2 pronounced seasons - wet and dry. The dry season starts in November and lasts until April while the wet season lasts from May to October.

Demographics

In the 2020 census, Tuba had a population of 48,312. The population density was .

Economy

Mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

is a major part of the economy of Tuba. The town's mining industry began upon the discovery of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the province of Benguet during the early 1930s. Since 1958, Philex Mining Corporation, the largest gold and

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

producer in the Philippines, has been operating the first underground block cave mine in the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

at Padcal in Barangay Camp 3.

Tailings In mining, tailings or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material ...

from the copper and gold mines have wreaked havoc on the local environment: the

Bued River The Bued River is a river in the island of Luzon in the Philippines with a total length of . It covers primarily the provinces of Benguet and Pangasinan, and a few parts of La Union. The river originates from the city of Baguio and joins with th ...

, which runs through Tuba, is heavily silted and requires frequent dredging. A few abandoned mining sites such as those of Benguet Exploration Mine and Black Mountain, Inc. have been left unattended for years, which pose a threat to the local population and the environment. The presence of

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

s and natural

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

s in the municipality boosts tourism. Mount Cabuyao and Mount Santo Tomas, the highest mountain in the town, are frequently visited by mountaineers. DMCI Homes Leisure Residences is building a P6 billion "Moncello Crest", a new

condo hotel A condo hotel, also known as a condotel, hotel condo, or a contel, is a building that is legally a condominium but operated as a hotel, offering short-term rentals, and which maintains a front desk. Condo hotels are typically high-rise buildin ...

mountain resort A mountain resort is a place to holiday or vacation located in an elevated and typically at least relatively isolated area. The term resort implies integral hotel or inn accommodations, restaurants, and either or both sports facilities or sceni ...

project with initial 522 units in its 'Blanca' offered, in Tuba in Benguet.

Government

Local government

Tuba, belonging to the lone congressional district of the province of

, is governed by a mayor designated as its local chief executive and by a municipal council as its legislative body in accordance with the Local Government Code. The mayor, vice mayor, and the councilors are elected directly by the people through an election which is being held every three years.

Elected officials

Transportation

The four major highways that connect the lowlands to Baguio pass through the municipality.

Education

The Tuba Schools District Office governs all educational institutions within the municipality. It oversees the management and operations of all private and public, from primary to secondary schools.

Public schools

As of 2014, Tuba has 32

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s and 6 public

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Gallery

File:Tuba,Benguethalljf9931 13.JPG, Municipal hall File:Tuba,Baguio,Benguetjf9976 31.JPG, Public market File:Tuba,Benguetjf9826 03.JPG, Tuba Central School File:Tuba,Benguetjf9826 20.JPG, Conversion of Saint Paul Parish Church File:The Valley (201757135).jpeg, The rugged

valley as viewed from Philex Road File:BenCab Museum, Tuba, Benguet, Feb 2025 (1).jpg, BenCab Museum

Notes

References

External links

* * Philippine Standard Geographic Code {{Authority control Municipalities of Benguet Mining communities in the Philippines