Bataan

Aeta people The first inhabitants of the Bataan peninsula are the Ayta Magbeken people. The next group of inhabitants were Kapampangans, who settled on eastern Bataan. Tagalog migration Later on, Tagalogs from southern Luzon, most specifically Cavite, migrated to parts of Bataan. The Ayta Magbeken migrated towards the mountain areas of Bataan by the end of the 16th century. Spanish rule Several villages in the coastal plains of Bataan were already thriving communities when Spanish missionaries found them in 1570s. Bataan, then known as Vatan, was part of the vast Capampangan Empire that included provinces known as Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and some portions of Bulacan, Zambales and Pangasinan. These coastal villages were inhabited by natives who were predominantly fishermen, farmers and craftsmen. Meanwhile, the hillsides were peopled by Aeta tribes. In 1647, Dutch naval forces landed in the country in an attempt to seize the islands from Spain. The Dutch massacred the people of Abucay in Bataan. Historian Cornelio Bascara documents that the province of Bataan was established on 11 January 1757, by Governor-General Pedro Manuel Arandia out of towns (San Juan de Dinalupihan, Llana Hermosa, Orani, Samal, Abucay, Balanga, Pilar and Orion/Udyong) belonging to Pampanga and the corregimiento of Mariveles which, at that time, included Morong, Bagac, and Maragondon across Manila Bay. Limay, initially a barrio of Orion/Udyong, is the twelfth town of Bataan created only in 1917. By year 1818, the population increased with the census recording 5,205 tributes or families The Spanish Filipino families were of these number and dispersed in the following locations: 1 at Orion, 3 at Mariveles, 1 at Llana-Hermosa, 24 at Orani, 4 at Samar 20 at Abucay, and 12 at Balanga The US Army stored nearly of gasoline there, along with various munitions. At the southern tip of the peninsula the U.S. Navy had established a small base at the port of Mariveles. Shortly after the Japanese Army invaded the country in December 1941, the combined US and Filipino forces were being gradually overrun and General Douglas MacArthur moved his troops to the Bataan Peninsula in an attempt to hold out until a relief force could be sent from the US. Japanese forces started a siege of the peninsula on 7 January 1942, and launched an all-out assault on 3 April, a few months after the Battle of the Points, Battle of the Pockets, the attack down Trail Number Two, and a half-dozen other brutal battles. The Bataan campaign was the last time a regular cavalry unit of the U.S. Army, the Philippine Scouts 26th Cavalry, was used as a horse mounted fighting unit. On the morning of 16 January 1942, Lt. Edwin Ramsey led the last cavalry charge into the town of Morong, routing the advancing Japanese infantry. As the troops on Bataan were continually reduced in rations, the horses were eventually slaughtered to feed the starving soldiers. The majority of the American and Filipino forces surrendered on 9 April and were forced to march more than from Bataan to Capas, Tarlac, which became known as the Bataan Death March. Postwar era Postwar reconstruction in the province of Bataan was generally slow, although there were efforts to pursue industrialization projects in the area, most notably the establishment of the NASSCO (National Shipyard and Steel Corporation) in Mariveles which was inaugurated in 1953 during the Quirino administration. It would later be bought by the Bataan Shipping and Engineering Company in 1964. Marcos dictatorship The beginning months of the 1970s marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, as well as in Bataan. During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects. This caused the Philippine economy to take a sudden downwards turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which in turn led to a period of economic difficulty and a significant rise of social unrest. Just as this was happening, it was revealed that the site of two communities where the workers of NASSCO lived - Barrio NASSCO and Barrio Camaya - would be torn down for conversion into the new Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ) in 1969, compelling the relocation of the residents who in turn launched protests until the BEPZ was finally built in 1972. With only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the position for fourteen more years. This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. By this time, the social unrest of the pre-martial law period and the Marcos' violent responses to the protests of the time led many of the Philippines' youth, who previously held moderate positions calling for political reform, to be radicalized. Some were convinced to joined the newly-formed New People's Army as a last desperate way to resist Marcos' authoritarianism, including Catalino Blas, Amado Bugay, and Delia Cortez, who were all idealistic activists killed in encounters with Marcos' forces in various locations in Bataan. But many noncombatants were killed as well, such as Social Worker and Catholic lay worker Puri Pedro, who had been wounded as part of the collateral damage during one encounter in 1977, but was assassinated in cold blood by a soldier who identified himself as Col. Rolando Abadilla while she was recovering at the Bataan Provincial Hospital. It was also during Martial Law that construction on the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant began in Morong, in 1976. Marcos had announced an intention to build a nuclear power plant in July 1973, not long after the declaration of Martial Law, A subsequent safety inquiry into the plant revealed over 4,000 defects. By March 1975, Westinghouse's cost estimate ballooned to US$1.2 billion without much explanation. The final cost was $2.2 Billion for a single reactor producing half the power of the original proposal. Contemporary era During the tenure of Governor Albert Garcia, 1Bataan started to be used as the province's identity and logo on November 8, 2013 where its Facebook page was launched now serving as an account of the provincial government. On 14 March 2020, Bataan recorded one of the earliest cases of COVID-19 infection outside of Metro Manila, with a male patient from Orani being the 64th recorded case in the Philippines. Bataan later became one of the provinces under the Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon. ==Geography==