Agutaya
municipality of the Philippines in the province of Palawan
Agutaya, officially the Municipality of Agutaya (Tagalog: Bayan ng Agutaya), is a municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 13,351 people.
An island municipality, it is the eastern part of the Cuyo Archipelago in the Sulu Sea, and covers several islands, including its namesake Agutaya Island, which is the second largest island of the Cuyo archipelago, as well as Diit, Halog, Maracanao, Matarawis (also spelled Matarabis), Eke, and Quiniluban islands.
Etymology
The town was formerly known as Agutayan before it became Agutaya. The name Agutayan is believed to have been derived from the word *agunan*, a root crop that grew abundantly in the wild and served as a staple food for the early inhabitants. The syllables “agu” and “yan,” along with “ta” meaning “here,” were combined into “agu-ta-yan,” conveying the idea that *agunan* was plentiful in the area. Over time, the final “n” in Agutayan was dropped, resulting in the present name, Agutaya.
History
Precolonial and Spanish era
Oral history suggested that Agutaya may have existed in precolonial times. After the Spanish conquest, Agutaya was an independent barrio of Cuyo, with its officials appointed by the gobernadorcillo of Cuyo. To Christianize the Agutayanens, they built a church in 1683 called the Church of St.
The public source identifies “Agutaya” as municipality of the Philippines in the province of Palawan. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Agutaya, municipality and Philippines.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Agutaya”, the useful work is to connect “municipality of the Philippines in the province of Palawan” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q111351. Authority coordinates are 11.152, 120.940. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2024 and 1683.
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This entry incorporates text from “Agutaya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.