Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ), is a province in Central Luzon, Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, Manila Bay to the south, Bataan to the southwest, and Zambales to the west. Its capital is San Fernando, the regional center of Central Luzon. Angeles City is the largest city in Pampanga but is administratively independent. It has been self-governing since receiving its charter in 1964.
The name La Pampanga was given by the Spaniards, who found natives living along the banks ( pampáng) of the Pampanga River. It was created in 1571 as the first Spanish province on Luzon (the province of Cebu in the Visayas is older, founded in 1565). The town of Bacolor briefly served as the Spanish colonial capital when Great Britain occupied Manila during the Seven Years' War. On the eve of the Philippine Revolution in 1896, Pampanga was one of eight provinces placed under martial law for rebelling against the Spanish Empire. It is represented on the Flag of the Philippines by one of the eight rays of the sun.
Pampanga is served by Clark International Airport (formerly Diosdado Macapagal International Airport), which is in Clark Freeport Zone, some north of the provincial capital. The province is home to two Philippine Air Force : Basa Air Base in Floridablanca and the former United States Clark Air Base in Angeles. Due to its growing population and developments, the Clark Global City is now being developed and is located in Clark Freeport Zone. In 2015, the province had 2,198,110 inhabitants, while it had 1,079,532 registered voters.
Due to excessive abuses committed by some encomenderos, King Philip II of Spain in 1574 prohibited the further awarding of private estates, but this decree was not fully enforced until 1620. In a report of Philippine encomiendas on June 20, 1591, Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas reported to the Crown that La Pampanga's encomiendas were Bataan, Betis y Lubao, Macabebe, Candaba, Apalit, Calumpit, Malolos, Binto, Guiguinto, Caluya, Bulacan and Meycauayan. The encomiendas of La Pampanga at that time had eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty whole tributes.
Pampanga, which is about in area and inhabited by more than 1.5 million people, had its present borders drawn in 1873. During the Spanish regime, it was one of the richest Philippine provinces. Manila and its surrounding region were then primarily dependent on Kapampangan agricultural, fishery and forestry products as well as on the supply of skilled workers. As other Luzon provinces were created due to increases in population, some well-established Pampanga towns were lost to new emerging provinces in Central Luzon.
During the 17th century, The Dutch recruited men from Pampanga as mercenaries who served the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, known as Papanggo part of the larger Mardijker people community. Their legacy can be found in North Jakarta, however, there are few traces of their descendants, except for a small community in Kampung Tugu.
The historic province of Bataan which was founded in 1754 under the administration of Spanish Governor-General Pedro Manuel Arandia, absorbed from the province of Pampanga the municipalities of Abucay, Balanga (now a city), Dinalupihan, Llana Hermosa, Orani, Orion, Pilar, and Samal. During the British occupation of Manila (1762–1764), Bacolor became the provisional Spanish colonial capital and military base. By the end of the 1700s, Pampanga had 16,604 native families and 2,641 Spanish Filipino families, ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) and 870 Chinese Filipino families.
The old Pampanga towns of Aliaga, Cabiao, Gapan, San Antonio and San Isidro were ceded to the province of Nueva Ecija in 1848 during the term of Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua. The municipality of San Miguel de Mayumo of Pampanga was yielded to the province of Bulacan in the same provincial boundary configuration in 1848.
In 1860, the northern towns of Bamban, Capas, Concepcion, Victoria, Tarlac, Mabalacat, Magalang, Porac and Floridablanca were separated from Pampanga and were placed under the jurisdiction of a military command called Comandancia Militar de Tarlac. However, in 1873, the four latter towns were returned to Pampanga and the other five became municipalities of the newly created Province of Tarlac.
During the counter-insurgencies under the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1944, Kapampangan guerrilla fighters and the Hukbalahap Communist guerrillas fought side by side in the province of Pampanga, attacking and retreating the Japanese Imperial forces for over three years of fighting and invasion.
The establishment of the military general headquarters and military camp bases of the Philippine Commonwealth Army was active from 1935 to 1946. The Philippine Constabulary was active from 1935 to 1942 and 1944 to 1946 in the province of Pampanga. During the military engagements of the anti-Japanese Imperial military operations in central Luzon from 1942 to 1945 in the province of Bataan, Bulacan, Northern Tayabas (now Aurora), Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Zambales, the local guerrilla resistance fighters and Hukbalahap Communist guerrillas, helped the U.S. military forces fight the Imperial Japanese armed forces.
In the 1945 liberation of Pampanga, Kapampangan guerrilla fighters and the Hukbalahap Communist guerrillas supported combat forces from Filipino and American ground troops in attacking Japanese Imperial forces during the Battle of Pampanga until the end of the Second World War. Local military operations soldiers and officers of the Philippine Commonwealth Army 2nd, 26th, 3rd, 32nd, 33rd, 35th, 36th and 37th Infantry Division and the Philippine Constabulary 3rd Constabulary Regiment recaptured and liberated the province of Pampanga and fought against the Japanese Imperial forces during the Battle of Pampanga.
Under a 1947 Military Bases Agreement, the Philippines granted the United States a 99-year lease on several U.S. bases, including Clark Air Base. A later amendment in 1966 reduced the original 99-year term of the agreement to 25 years. A renewal of the agreement in 1979 allowed the U.S. to continue operating Clark Air Base until November 1991, when the Philippine Senate rejected a bill for the renewal of U.S. bases in the Philippines.
Upon the declaration of Martial Law in September 1972, Camp Olivas in the City of San Fernando was designated as one of the four provincial camps to become a Regional Command for Detainees (RECAD). It was designated RECAD I and it housed detainees from Northern and Central Luzon. Prominent detainees imprisoned there include Edicio de la Torre, Judy Taguiwalo, Tina Pargas, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, and Bernard-Adan Ebuen. Prisoners who were documented to have been tortured include the sisters Joanna and Josefina Cariño, the brothers Romulo and Armando Palabay, and Mariano Giner Jr of Abra. About 50 Kalinga people and Bontoc people leaders, including Butbut tribe leader Macli-ing Dulag, were also brought to Camp Olivas from their detainment center in Tabuk, Kalinga, arrested for their opposition to the Chico River Dam Project. Seminarian Teresito Sison had campaigned for the rights of teachers, farmers, and of laborers in Clark Air Base, but torture during two stints in Marcos' detention centers caused a decline in his health which led to his death in 1980.
Others were killed without being arrested, such as close friends Pepito Deheran, Rolando Castro and Lito Cabrera were sleeping in Cabrera's property in Sapang Bato, Angeles when they were attacked, captured, and tortured by Marcos' Civilian Home Defense Force militia forces after they participated in the protest movement that grew out of the assassination of opposition leader Ninoy Aquino. Deheran managed to escape the ordeal alive and was taken to the hospital, but was stabbed by unknown assailants in his own hospital bed.
Jose B. Lingad, Congressman for Pampanga's 1st congressional district, had been one of the first to be detained upon the declaration of Martial Law, but was released after three months. He retired to his farm after that, but was later convinced by Benigno Aquino Jr. to run for the governorship of Pampanga in the January 1980 Philippine local elections. Estelito Mendoza was declared the winner of the election, but Lingad filed a protest, which was still ongoing when Lingad was assassinated in December 1980 at a gasoline station in barangay San Agustin, San Fernando, Pampanga. His assassin, a former sargeant in the Philippine Constabulary, was himself killed in a mysterious car accident before he could reveal who had ordered the killing.
Jennifer Cariño, the Palabay brothers, Macli-ing Dulag, Castro, Cabrera, and Deheran would later be honored by having their names inscribed on the wall of remembrance of the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes who dared to resist the dictatorship.
The June 15, 1991, eruption of Mount Pinatubo displaced a large number of people with the submersion of whole towns and villages by massive lahar floods. This led to a large-scale advancement in disaster preparation in government. It also hastened the closure of Clark Air Base, which would close as a result of the November 1991 decision of the Philippine senate not to renew the Philippines' Bases treaty with the United States.
The Clark Air Base area would later be declared a Freeport Zone and was separated from the special economic zone through Republic Act 9400 of 2007 Since then the Freeport Zone and the Clark Special Economic Zone were considered as separate areas but collectively they are referred to as the "Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone".
On April 22, 2019, the province suffered severe damage due to 6.1 magnitude earthquake which originated from Zambales and was the most affected area by the earthquake due to the province sitting on soft sediment and alluvial soil. Several structures in the province were damaged by the quake, including a 4-story supermarket in Porac, the Bataan-Pampanga boundary arch and the main terminal of Clark International Airport, as well as old churches in Lubao and Porac, where the stone bell tower of the 19th-century Santa Catalina de Alejandria Church collapsed.
Its terrain is relatively flat with one distinct mountain, Mount Arayat and the notable Pampanga River. Among its municipalities, Porac has the largest area with ; Candaba comes in second with ; followed by Floridablanca with . Santo Tomas, with an area of only , is the smallest.
The province is divided into three parts. The western portion includes the municipalities of Porac and Floridablanca, the component city of Mabalacat, and the highly urbanized city of Angeles. The central part consists of the municipalities of Magalang, Arayat, Mexico, Santa Ana, Bacolor, Santa Rita, Guagua, Lubao, Sasmuan, and the highly urbanized city of San Fernando. The eastern half is composed of the municipalities of Candaba, San Luis, Santo Tomas, San Simon, Minalin, Apalit, Macabebe, and Masantol.
The province is famous for its sophisticated culinary work: it is called the "food capital" of the Philippines.
In December 2024, the Senate declared Pampanga as the country's culinary capital. The Senate approved on Third Reading Senate Bill 2797, authored by Senators Mark Villar, Loren Legarda and Lito Lapid. Its counterpart, authored by Representatives Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Aurelio Gonzales Jr. had also been approved by the House of Representatives.
Kapampangans are well known for their culinary creations. Famous food products range from the mundane to the exotic. Roel's Meat Products, Pampanga's Best and Mekeni Food are among the better known meat brands of the country producing Kapampangan favorites such as pork and chicken , beef tapa, hotdogs, longganizas (Philippine-style cured sausages) and .
Specialty foods such as the siopao, pandesal, tutong, lechon (roasted pig) and its sarsa (sauce) are popular specialty foods in the region. The more exotic betute tugak (stuffed frog), kamaru (mole crickets) cooked adobo, bulanglang (pork cooked in guava juice), lechon kawali and bringhe (a green sticky rice dish like paella) are a mainstay in Kapampangan feasts.
Native sweets and delicacies like pastillas, turonnes de casuy, buro, are the most sought after by Filipinos including a growing number of tourists who enjoy authentic Kapampangan cuisine. The famous cookie in Mexico, Pampanga, Panecillos de San Nicolas, which is known as the mother of all Philippine cookies, is made here, famously made by Atching Lillian at her restaurant, Kusinang Matua. The cookies are made with arrowroot, sugar, coconut milk and butter and are blessed in Catholic parishes every year on the feast of San Nicolas Tolentino. The cookies are believed to have a healing power and bestow good luck and are sometimes crumbled then thrown into rice fields before planting.
Tourism is a growing industry in the province of Pampanga. Clark Freeport Zone is home to Clark International Airport, designated as the Philippines' future premier gateway. Other developing industries include semiconductor manufacturing for electronics and computers mostly located within the freeport.
Within the Clark Special Economic Zone are well-established hotels and resorts. Popular tourist destinations include St. Peter Shrine in Apalit, Mt. Arayat National Park in San Juan Bano, Mount Arayat, the Paskuhan Village in the City of San Fernando, the Casino Filipino in Angeles and, for nature and wildlife, "Paradise Ranch and Zoocobia Fun Zoo" in Clark. Well-known annual events include the Giant Lantern Festival in December, the hot air balloon festival in Clarkfield in February and in Lubao in April, the San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites celebrated two days before Easter, and the Aguman Sanduk in Minalin celebrated on the afternoon of New Year's Day.
Renewable energy initiatives in Pampanga include rooftop and utility-scale solar projects. In the City of San Fernando, the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Revenue Region 4 complex, inaugurated in March 2018, incorporates a rooftop solar photovoltaic system of about 400 kW as part of its “green building” features. In May 2025, listed developer Raslag Corp. signed a 10-year power supply agreement to deliver 15 MW to Pampanga I Electric Cooperative (PELCO I), sourced from its Raslag-4 plant in Magalang. In February 2025, the Board of Investments granted a green lane endorsement to Sapang Balen Solar Sustainable Energy Corp., a Tigon Power unit, for a proposed ground-mounted project spanning Mabalacat and Magalang with a planned installed capacity of 302 MW (DC). Additional municipal-level projects include Angeles City’s program to install solar panels across city facilities and schools. In August 2024 the city began installations in public schools, and by April 2025 local reports stated that panels had been completed on all 33 barangay halls and various government buildings. In March 2025, the city also inaugurated what was reported as Central Luzon’s first solar-powered, fully air-conditioned public school at Belen Homesite Elementary School. The Arayat–Mexico solar farm, a 116 MW facility developed by ACEN and Citicore, began commercial operations in 2022.
Several Internet Service provider are available. These include the Angeles Computer Network Specialist, Information Resources Network System, Inc., Mosaic communications Inc., Net Asia Angeles, Phil World On Line and Comclark Network and Technology Corp.
United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) provide international courier services. Their hubs are in the Clark Freeport Zone. They are complemented by four local couriers operating as the communication and baggage of the province. There are three postal district offices and 35 post office stations distributed in the 20 municipalities and two cities of the province.
Electric power is distributed to the majority of the towns through the distribution centers of the Pampanga Electric Cooperative (PELCO) which include PELCO I, II, III. Small parts of Candaba and Macabebe are also supplied by Meralco (Meralco). Angeles and small parts of Mabalacat are supplied by Angeles Electric Corporation (AEC) Villa de Bacolor, Guagua, Sta, Rita, Lubao, Sasmuan, Porac, Mabalacat and small part of Floridablanca are supplied by Pampanga Electric Cooperative II (PELCO II). City of San Fernando and Floridablanca is supplied by San Fernando Electric Company (SFELAPCO).
Power is also transmitted to the province through various transmission lines and substations located within the province, such as the Mexico and Clark substations, and Hermosa–Duhat–Balintawak, Mexico–Hermosa, Hermosa–San Jose transmission lines, etc., all of which are operated and maintained by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
In 2018, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Regional Office 4 in San Fernando commissioned a 400-kilowatt rooftop solar installation. The project was implemented to reduce operating costs and support government sustainability initiatives.
The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) extends from Balintawak in Quezon City, Metro Manila, to Santa Ines in Mabalacat. It passes through the cities and municipalities of Apalit, San Simon, Santo Tomas, San Fernando, Mexico, Angeles City, and ends on Santa Ines in Mabalacat.
The four-lane Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) to date, is the longest toll expressway in the Philippines. Its southern terminus is in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and passes through the Clark Freeport Zone in two interchanges: Clark North and Clark South. The expressway is linked to the North Luzon Expressway through the Mabalacat Interchange. Its northern terminus is located at the Central Techno Park in Tarlac City, Tarlac.
Aside from the expressways, national highways also serve the province. Two major national highways serves Pampanga, the MacArthur Highway (N2) and Jose Abad Santos Avenue (N3). Secondary and tertiary national roads, and provincial roads complement the highway backbone.
The province is also home to the Pampanga Giant Lanterns, which began play in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) during the 2018–19 season. The franchise has won two league championships, one in the MPBL and one in the Pilipinas Super League. The province also hosted the Pampanga Dragons of the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), who were also the league's inaugural champions.
The executive branch is composed of the governor for the province, mayors for the cities and municipalities, and the barangay captains for the barangays. The provincial assembly for the provinces, Sangguniang Panlungsod (city assembly) for the cities, Sangguniang Bayan (town assembly) for the municipalities, Sangguniang Barangay (barangay council), and the Sangguniang Kabataan for the youth sector.
The seat of government is vested upon the governor and other elected officers who hold office at the Provincial Capitol building. The Sangguniang Panlalawigan is the center of legislation.
The Provincial government is composed of a Governor as the Local Chief Executive of the Province, Vice-Governor and Members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. The governor is Lilia "Nanay" Pineda (Kambilan) and the vice governor is Dennis "Delta" G. Pineda (NPC).
Batas Pambansa Blg. 129, "The Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980", as amended, created Regional, Metropolitan, Municipal Trial and Circuit Courts. The Third Judicial Region includes RTCs in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Palayan and San Jose, inter alia:
xxx. There shall be – (c) Seventy-five Regional Trial judges shall be commissioned for the Third Judicial Region: Twenty-two branches (Branches XLI to LXII) for the province of Pampanga and the city of Angeles, Branches XLI to XLVIII with seats at San Fernando, Branches XLIX to LIII at Guagua, Branches LIV and LV at Macabebe, and Branches LVI to LXII at Angeles;
The law also created Metropolitan Trial Court in each metropolitan area established by law, a Municipal Trial Court in each of the other cities or municipalities, and a Municipal Circuit Trial Court in each circuit comprising such cities and/or municipalities as are grouped together pursuant to law: three branches for Cabanatuan; in every city which does not form part of a metropolitan area, there shall be a Municipal Trial Court with one branch, except as hereunder provided: Three branches for Angeles;
In each of the municipalities that are not comprised within a metropolitan area and a municipal circuit there shall be a Municipal Trial Court which shall have one branch, except as hereunder provided: Four branches for San Fernando and two branches for Guagua, both of Pampanga.
During the Marcos dictatorship
Mount Pinatubo eruption and closure of Clark Air Base
Creation of the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone
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+Members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan
!District
!Board member
!Party 1st Cherry D. Manalo Kambilan 1st Christian Halili Kambilan 2nd Fritzie Dizon (Senior Board Member) Kambilan 2nd Sajid Eusoff Kambilan 2nd Atty. Claire Lim Kambilan 3rd Michaeline DG. Mercado Lakas-CMD 3rd Lucky Dinan Labung Kambilan 3rd Shiwen Lim Independent 4th Dr. Kaye Naguit Kambilan 4th Atty. Vince Calara Kambilan ABC Terrence Napao Nonpartisan PCL Vacant Since June 30, 2025 SK John Cruz Nonpartisan
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!Party City of San Fernando Vilma Caluag Independent Mabalacat City Atty. Gerald Guttrie P. Aquino Kambilan Apalit Jun Tetangco NPC Arayat Jeffrey Luriz Nationalist People's Coalition Bacolor Diman Datu Kambilan Candaba Rene Maglanque Kambilan Floridablanca Michael Galang Kambilan Guagua Anthony Joseph Torres Kambilan Lubao Esmeralda Pineda Kambilan Macabebe Leonardo Flores Nacionalista Magalang Maria Lourdes Lacson Kambilan Masantol Danilo Guintu Nacionalista Party Mexico Rodencio Gonzales Aksyon Demokratiko Minalin Philip Naguit Aksyon Demokratiko Porac Jaime Capil Independent San Luis Dr. Jayson Sagum Nacionalista San Simon Abundio Punsalan Jr. Nacionalista Santa Ana Ferdinand Labung Kambilan Sta. Rita Reynan Calo Independent Sto. Tomas John Sambo Kambilan Sasmuan Lina Cabrera LAKAS *Angeles City Carmelo B. Lazatin II Lakas CMD
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