18/01/2024
"DINGALAN 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.
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.
