Mabalacat City is a developing five-year old city that can take everyone into different parts of Luzon from North to South and also have lots of wonderful destinations here that your eyes hunger to see.
Most of you have surely heard about the Dau Terminal which caters passengers bound for Metro Manila and provinces in Northern Luzon such as Tarlac, Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Bataan, and Zambales.
Some even believes that in order for you not to get lost to your destination, if you want to visit Central and Northern Luzon on a commute, you just have to go to Dau Terminal and you will arrive at your destination in a safe sound and with a great ride.
Five years after it was formally declared as a city on the 21st of July 2012, it can’t be denied that Mabalacat have changed its people’s lives for the better because of its unbelievable and unstoppable growth and development of beauty.
Mabalacat is the third city of Pampanga after City of San Fernando and Angeles City.
Meanwhile, history says that before the arrival of the Spaniards, Mabalacat was just a simple barrio of Bambang (now Bamban, Tarlac) inhabited by Negritos, known as aetas or balugas.
It became an official town in 1792 and was named after the balacat tree (Ziziphus talanai), a fourth class timber tree whose bark has been proven to have antimicrobial properties.
“Ma-balacat” in the native language of Kapampangan means “full of Balacats.”
So, does Mabalacat City only have the Dau Terminal to be proud of?
No, because this city has a land area of 83.18 square kilometres (32.12 sq mi) that roughly occupies 90% of the Clark Freeport Zone, the rest is in nearby Angeles City, where the Clark main gate is located which served the Clark International Airport with its numerous malls, hotels, casinos, golf courses, parks, restaurants and resorts.
Tourists around the world must also visit Mabalacat City every 2nd of February each year as it celebrates its fiesta and the Caragan festival.
Caragan was named after a certain village chief named Haring Garagan, who was married to Laureana Tolentino, believed to have discovered this former town.
Mabalacat City, being part of the province of Pampanga which is consider as the Christmas capital of the Philippines, performs ‘pastorella’ every year as an observation for the Christmas season.
Pastorella (from Misa de Pastores, Mass of the Shepherds) was a collection of Latin hymns like Kyrie (Lord, Have Mercy), Gloria (Glory to God in the Highest), Credo (Apostle’s Creed), Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) being performed by the parish choir with operatic flourish and high drama complete with violins during the nine-day midnight masses.
Mabalacat City is such a beautiful place to visit, it is inhabited by 250,799 population and assures its tourists that even if it is from Pampanga, a province which is usually affected by floods, this city will not be defeated by heavy rains and typhoons because it is situated on an elevated, well-drained plain known as the “Upper Pampanga.”
