Batangas Information Guide

Batangas is a province of the Philippines located on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region. Its capital is Batangas City and it is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna to the north and Quezon to the east. Across the Verde Island Passages to the south is the island of Mindoro and to the west lies the South China Sea.

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

Province of Batangas

Batangas is one of the most popular tourist destinations near Metro Manila. The province has many beaches and famous for excellent diving spots only a few hours away from Manila. Some of the more notable ones are Anilao in the Municipality of Mabini, Matabungkay and Punta Fuego in the Municipality of Nasugbu, the Municipality of Calatagan and Laiya in the Municipality of San Juan.

Found in the province is world-known Anilao (Mabini) and its many dive sites that are ideal for observing marine life, and outstanding for macro photography. Located only 110 kilometers south of Metropolitan Manila, it is very accessible by land or by sea.

Batangas is also where Taal Volcano, one of the Decade Volcanoes is located. The volcano has a water-filled crater and sits on an island in the center of Taal Lake, which geologists believe is an ancient caldera.

The town of Taal is famous for its hand embroideries, knives, and sausages; and it reigns as one of the two most culturally preserved sites of the Spanish colonial era in the Philippines.

Batangas is also generally accepted by linguists as the 'Heart of the Tagalog Language

Name

The first recorded name of the Province was Kumintang. Later, the Spaniards went to settle the present day Balayan, then the most progressive town of the Province. The name of the Province was changed into Bonbon.

Some time later, the capital of the province was transferred to Taal, since being near the lake, it is an easy commercial centre. After the transfer, the leaders of the province decided to change the name of the province after its capital.

Still later, the Spaniards chose to transfer the capital for the third time, now in its present capital the Town of Batangan. later Batangas City, and the Province changed its name once more after the Capital. in 1889, Batangas City became the country's 8th city.

The term batangan means a raft, the people used so that they could fish in the nearby Taal Lake.

The name "Batangas" was derived from the word "batang," which is a term of the natives for the numerous logs found in the Calumpang River, the body of water that runs through the northeastern portion of the town and assumes the shape of a tuning fork.

the term Batangueño or Batangueña generally is an adjective that describes something or someone from Batangas. However, in the recent revival of provincial identitity among the natives of Batangas, these terms is more commonly being used nowadays to mean at native of the province. On the other hand, the old term Batangan is being revived to describe something that is of Batangas flavour.

People

Batangas is the 'Heart of the Tagalog Language' as the dialect of Tagalog spoken here closely resembles the Tagalog spoken before the arrival of the Spanish. Therefore, a strong presence of the Tagalog Culture is clearly visible until now.

Linguistically Batangueños are also known for their unique affectation of often placing the particles eh or ga (equivalent of particle ba Filipino), usually as a marker of stress on the sentence, at the end of their spoken sentences or speech; for example: "Ay, oo, eh!" ("Aye, yes, indeed!"). Some even prolong the particle 'eh' into 'ala eh', though it really has no meaning in itself.

In the recent years, waves of migration from the Visayas had brought significant number of Visayans to the province. There are also a few who can speak Spanish, since Batangas was an important centre during the colonial period.

The province of Batangas also has one of the highest literacy rates in the country at 96.5%, wherein the males have a little higher literacy rate at 97.1% than females with 95.9%.

Culture

Maria Kalaw Katigbak, a Filipino Historian, was quoted to call the Batangueños the Super-Tagalogs. This is because these group of people belonging to the Tagalog stock is the paramount example of what one can expect from this ethno-linguistic group. And indeed, when you ask someone to overact a Tagalog, they would imitate the Batangueños.

Batangueños are as hard-working as their Ilocano brothers but the fertile soils of Batangas makes them not as fugal. They are also as regionalistic as their Bisaya brothers but not up to the point of chauvinism.

One Particular custom in the Batangan Culture is the so called 'Matanda sa Dugo' (older by blood) practice wherein one gives respect not because of age but of consanguinity. During the early times, the custom of having very large families are very common. Thus, it may be expected that the someone's uncle could be of the same age, or even younger than himself.

In this case, the older one would call the younger one in an honourary title (such as Tiyo or simply Kuya if they can not longer establish the relationship) and not the other way around. This often draws confussion to those from other provinces who are not accustomed to such practices.

As mentioned above, Batangueños are very regionalistic. When one learns that a person in the room is also from Batangas, expect them to be together until the end of the event. It is also expected that those in office would favour their fellow Batangueños as long as the rules could allow it. Thus the running joke the 'Batangas Mafia' came to existence.

They also tend to live in a large extended family. It is but common that a piece of land remains undivided until the family connection becomes to far-off related. And this could take centuries for Batangueños consider the family relation close even until the fifth generation. In fact, marriages between relatives of the fifth generation is still restrained in the Batangan Culture even if Philippine laws allow it.

Most Batangueños are either farmers or fishers who sell their own products in the market. Although most of them has also finished a dergree, a lot of the people not to use what they have studied and put up their own small businesses instead. This is perhaps due to the subconscious idea that he who has no land to cultivate or trade to make is a lazy person.

Since Batangas has long been declared a Tourism area by the late President Ferdinand Marcos, people from other places could find a very hospitable culture in the Batangueños. They will feed you more than the usual with the food they eat. Actually, these folks would appreciate it greatly if they see that you are trying to be one of them.

Batangueños are heavy drinkers. Never bet that you could drink more than a Batangueño or you an never again get on your feet. Men, and somtimes women, could spend long hours of drinking sessions as if there would be no more work the next day. This is specially true if you are to visit the far flung baranggays. But as horrible as it may sound, drinking aslo marks people with close affinity to the Batangueños. One could simply refuse the bet and say he may drink a little and that would still be a great fun.

Aside from drinking too much liqueur, Batangueños are also sweet-tooth. Perhaps this is because there has never been a shortage of sugar in the province due to the presence of the Central Azucarera Don Pedro, the current largest producer of sugar in the whole archipelago.

And if they like their liqueurs strong and their foods sweet, Batangueños also like their coffee strong. During the early 1900's, Batangas was the largest producer of coffee in the whole of Asia. In the barrios, the people would drink brewed coffee, which the locals call 'kapeng barako', translated as the 'stud's coffee'. At present, steps are being made, especially in the City of Lipa to regain the title of having the largest coffee production in Asia.