Cagayan Valley (Lambak ng Cagayan in Filipino; Tana' nak Cagayan in the Ibanag Language;

Tanap ti Cagayan in the Ilocano Language) is a region of the Philippines, also designated as Region II

or Region 02. It is composed of five provinces, namely: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and

Quirino. It has three cities; Cauayan City, its regional center-Tuguegarao, and its commercial center-

Santiago City.

Most of the region lies in a large valley in northeastern Luzon, between the Cordilleras and the Sierra Madre

mountain ranges. The Cagayan River, the country's longest river runs through its center and flows out to

Luzon Strait in the north, in the town of Aparri, Cagayan. The Babuyan and Batanes island groups that lie in the

Luzon Strait also belong to the region.

Economy

The Cagayan Valley Region II is defined by the Cagayan River. The Province of Cagayan occupies the lower

course of the river, and the northeast corner of the island of Luzon (with a few offshore islets). Cagayan's area

is 9,003 km짼., its population 952,000 (by the 2000 census) in twenty-nine towns, of which Tuguegarao is the

capital.

Archaeology indicates that the Cagayan Valley has been inhabited for half a million years, though no human

remains of any such antiquity have yet appeared. The earliest inhabitants are the Agta, or Atta, food-gatherers

who roam the forests without fixed abode. A large tract of land has lately been returned to them. The bulk of the

population are of Malay origin. For centuries before the coming of the Spanish the inhabitants traded with Indians, Malays, Chinese, and Japanese. In the nineteenth century the prosperity found in tobacco cultivation caused

many Ilocanos to settle here. Tobacco is still a major factor in the economy of Cagayan, though a special

economic zone and free port has been created to strengthen and diversify the provincial economy. Cagayan

has much to offer visitors: beaches, swimming, snorkeling, skin-diving, fishing in the river and the sea, hiking

in primeval forest, mountain-climbing, archaeological sites, the remarkable collection of the provincial museum,

the Callao Caves, and many fine churches. Even here there are fortifications built to protect the inhabitants from

raids by the Mara.

The Philippine Republic's Region II, Cagayan Valley, contains two landlocked provinces, Quirino and Nueva

Vizcaya. Both are relatively small in size (3057 km² for Quirino, 4081 km² for Nueva Vizcaya) and population

(147,000 and 365,000, respectively, by the 2000 census). Both are ruggedly mountainous and heavily forested.

Nueva Vizcaya is the remnant of the southern province created when Cagayan Province was divided in two in

1839. Both are ethnically and linguistically diverse, with a substrate of Agtas, Negritos who are food-gatherers

with no fixed abode, overlaid by Ilongots and others in a number of tribes, some of whom were fierce head-

hunters (we are firmly assured that they have given up the practice), with the latest but largest element of the

population being Ilocanos. Nueva Vizcaya comprises fifteen towns; Bayombong is the capital. Agriculture in both has until recently consisted of slash-and-burn cultivation of corn and maize, though more stable cultivation of

vegetables and fruits is becoming established. Both also produce logs, and are trying to manage their forest

resources so that production can be sustained indefinitely. They have deposits of gold, silver, copper, iron.

Nueva Vizcaya has sand and clay.