Bontoc, officially the Municipality of Bontoc (
Ilocano: Ili ti Bontoc;
Tagalog: Bayan ng Bontoc), is a 2nd class
municipality and capital of the
province of
Mountain Province,
Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 24,104 people.[4]
Bontoc is the historical capital of the entire Cordillera region since the inception of governance in the
Cordillera. The municipality celebrates the annual Lang-ay Festival.[6]
Bontoc is home to the Indigenous
Bontoc people. The town also hosts the UNESCO tentatively-listed Alab petroglyphs.
History
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adding to it. (December 2015)
Samuel E. Kane, the American supervisor and then Governor, established the capital here after the
Philippine Commission passed the Mountain Province Act in 1908,[7] building a provincial building, hospital, doctor's office, nurse's home, a school, and provincial prison.[8]: 281–284 He also built the
Tagudin-Bontoc trail, which by 1926, could accommodate a small car.[8]: 329
In the
19th Congress of the Philippines, house bills were filed by various representatives which seeks Bontoc including other capital towns of provinces with no current component cities, independent component cities or highly urbanized cities to automatically convert into cities.[11][12][13]
Geography
Barangays
Bontoc is politically subdivided into 16
barangays. Each barangay consists of
puroks and some have
sitios.
The local economy depends largely on small trades and agriculture. This capital town's biggest economic potential is tourism with its smaller rice terraces in Barangay Bay-yo, Maligcong and other areas.[28]
Bontoc, belonging to the
lone congressional district of the province of
Mountain Province, 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.
The Alab
petroglyphs are ancient figures carved on mountain walls by the prehistoric people of Bontoc.[31] The petroglyphs are the most important ancient rock art carvings in the Cordilleras and the second oldest in the entire country, second only to the Angono petroglyphs of Rizal. Due to its high significance, it was submitted by the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines to the
UNESCO Tentative List of Heritage Sites in 2006, pending its inclusion in the World Heritage List along with the Singanapan charcoal-drawn petrographs of southern Palawan, Angono petroglyphs of Rizal province, charcoal-drawn Peñablanca petrographs of Cagayan, and the Anda red hermatite print petrographs of Bohol.
Education
Secondary education
ALBAGO National High School, Balili
Dalican National High School, Dalican
Guina-ang National High School, Guina-ang
Mountain Province General Comprehensive High School, Poblacion
Saint Vincent School, Poblacion
Talubin National High School, Talubin
Tocucan National High School, Tocucan
Tertiary education
Mountain Province State Polytechnic College is the first tertiary institution in the municipality that offers various undergraduate and graduate courses.
XiJen College of Mountain Province is the only private tertiary institution that also offers technical-vocational courses.
^Doyo, Ma. Ceres P. (2015). Macli-ing Dulag: Kalinga Chief, Defender of the Cordillera. Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.
ISBN978971542772-2.