Dingalan

Dingalan, officially the Municipality of Dingalan (Bayan ng Dingalan; Ili ti Dingalan), is a 3rd-class municipality in the province of Aurora, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 27,878 people.

Dingalan has several caves, of which the Lamao Caves are the best known. The rough shoreline and very high waves of Dingalan make it attractive to surfers. Dingalan is nicknamed "Gateway to Southern Tagalog" as it is bordered by Quezon Province (in the south), which is part of Southern Tagalog, of which Aurora was a part; Aurora was a sub-province of Quezon.

History
Dingalan, formerly just a barangay, was created a municipal district within the municipality of Baler in 1956. It was declared a town in 1962. During Spanish territorial rule, Dingalan was part of District of La Infanta, which was composed of Binangonan de Lampon.

The name Dingalan is a Dumagat word for "by the Galan River", used because the territory crosses 15 rivers and streams. The river itself is named after the Spanish priest Bartolome Galan, who arrived in Quezon during the Spanish colonial era; Galan River is now known as Umiray River.

In the early 1900s, settlers from Quezon, Nueva Ecija, and the Ilocos, along with Bicolanos and Kapampangans (Pampangos), started to migrate to Dingalan. They were generally lowland cultivators in search of arable land. Internal migration heightened in the 1930s when Don Felipe Buencamino started his logging and sawmill operations. Soon after, intermarriages among Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Pampangos, and Bicolanos enriched the cultural diversity of the settlers.

From November 30 to December 3, 2004, the town was wiped out by the tropical storms Violeta, Winnie, and Yoyong. The town benefited from the relief efforts of foreign traders, some Christian groups, La Salle Greenhills, and the Philippine National Red Cross.

Since the 1990s, due to its distance from Aurora's capital Baler, Dingalan has been pushing to be included in Nueva Ecija. Services from Palayan City, the capital of Nueva Ecija, is closer. Currently, there are no roads that directly connect Dingalan to Baler, the reason for creating Aurora sub-province from Quezon.

Geography
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the municipality has a land area of 304.55 km2, constituting NaN% of the 3,147.32 km2 total area of Aurora.

Dingalan is 183 km from Manila and 155 km from Baler. It is bounded on the north by San Luis, west by Gabaldon, General Tinio, and Doña Remedios Trinidad, south by General Nakar, and east by the Benham Rise or Plateau and Philippine Sea.

It is a small town with one main cemented road with branching alleys. Further south of the town proper are the barangays of Aplaya, Butas na Bato, Matawe, Ibona, Dikapanikian and Umiray. The premier barangay north of the town is Paltic. All of the barangays are located on the seashore, except for Poblacion and two barangays located in the mountains. The whole town is mountainous due to the Sierra Madre. The Umiray River separates the town from Quezon Province.

The National Government has an ongoing move to transfer Municipality of Dingalan to become part of Nueva Ecija Province for the reason that the said municipality is geographically and strategically within the said Province. This was favored by most of the residents was opposed by the Provincial Government of Aurora. One reason is that you must travel via the province of Nueva Ecija before reaching the province of Aurora, which is especially difficult during disasters. It is more economical and practical to deliver Dingalan to the province of Nueva Ecija.

Barangays
Dingalan is politically subdivided into 11 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

Demographics
In the 2020 census, Dingalan had a population of 27,878. The population density was undefined PD/km2.