Cabanatuan
city of the Philippines in the province of Nueva Ecija
Cabanatuan, officially the City of Cabanatuan (Filipino: Lungsod ng Cabanatuan; Ilocano: Siudad ti Cabanatuan; Kapampangan: Lakanbalen/Ciudad ning Cabanatuan), is a component city in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines.
According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 343,672 people, making it the most populous in Nueva Ecija, seventh in the whole of Luzon outside the Greater Manila Area, and the largest city north of Metro Manila along the Pan-Philippine Highway (AH26). It has earned the moniker "Gateway to the North."
The city is known for being home to more than 30,000 motorized tricycles, making it the "Tricycle Capital of the Philippines." Its strategic location along the Cagayan Valley Road has helped make the city into the major economic, educational, medical, entertainment, shopping, and transportation center it is today. It is the commercial center for Nueva Ecija and nearby provinces in the region such as Tarlac, Aurora, and Bulacan.
Cabanatuan remained Nueva Ecija's capital until 1965 when the government recognized nearby Palayan City as the new provincial capital. Nueva Ecija's old capitol and other government offices are still used and maintained by the provincial administration. Cabanatuan also briefly became the capital of the Philippines during the First Philippine Republic while President Emilio Aguinaldo was moving north to evade capture by American forces.
After the campaign for the city's designation as a highly urbanized city failed, a motion was made to convert the city into a lone district instead.
History
Cabanatuan was founded as a Barrio of Gapan in 1750 and became a municipality and capital of La Provincia de Nueva Ecija in 1780. Majority of the original settlers of Cabanatuan were Tagalogs from Bulacan and Morong (Rizal Province); other early settlers came from Ilocos, Pampanga and Tayabas (now Quezon Province).
“Cabanatuan” enters the record as city of the Philippines in the province of Nueva Ecija. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cabanatuan, city and Philippines can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cabanatuan” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cabanatuan, city and Philippines provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55595. VIAF identifies the subject as 150180622. The Library of Congress control number is n86088316. Authority coordinates are 15.491, 120.968. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2024, 1965, 1750 and 1780.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Cabanatuan” 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.