50 Fun Facts About Palawan

Palawan is the largest province of the Philippines by what measure?

It covers 14,649.73 square kilometres, with the capital city administered separately on top of that.

What is the capital and largest city of Palawan?

It is a highly urbanised city that governs itself independently of the province, though it is grouped with it for statistics.

Palawan belongs to which administrative region of the Philippines?

A 2005 executive order tried to move it to Western Visayas, but local opposition left the order in abeyance.

Palawan is nicknamed the Philippines' Last what?

It is also billed as the Philippines' Best Island, a title backed by several travel-magazine polls.

Palawan lies between the Sulu Sea and which larger sea to its west?

The Underground River near the capital flows straight out into that western sea.

Roughly how many kilometres long is Palawan Island, the province's namesake?

It is only about 50 kilometres wide, which gives it that long, narrow shape on the map.

Palawan's islands stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to which island in the southwest?

That closeness is why tigers may once have crossed over, and why its wildlife resembles its neighbour's more than the rest of the Philippines.

A 2021 plebiscite rejected a plan to split Palawan into how many provinces?

The proposed Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental and Palawan del Sur never came to be.

Which researcher led the team that uncovered Palawan's early history in the Tabon Caves?

His 1962–66 digs found Tabon Man, over 1,500 burial jars and the near-perfect Manunggul Jar.

Tabon Caves evidence shows humans have lived in Palawan for more than how many years?

Human fossils from the caves date back 47,000 years, the earliest remains found in the Philippines.

The bone fragments of Tabon Man were found in which Palawan municipality?

The caves sit at Lipuun Point, bordered by the South China Sea on two sides.

Palawan was a major site on the Maritime Jade Road, a trade network that ran for how many years?

It operated from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE and moved a single geological material across the seas.

The Palaw'an, Batak and Tagbanwa are joined by which other group as Palawan's oldest inhabitants?

They come from the interiors and highlands and traditionally practise animist anito religions.

Pigafetta's 1521 expedition called Palawan 'la terra de missione', meaning what?

The crew were nearly starving when they arrived and were fed rice cooked in bamboo, pigs, goats and coconuts.

Pigafetta recorded that the islanders' primary weapons were what?

The iron-tipped tubes fired wooden or bamboo darts, some poisoned, and doubled as spears when the darts ran out.

In 1749, which sultanate ceded southern Palawan to Spain?

Before the Spanish, Palawan had been ruled by the Bruneian empire and its Sulu vassals.

Under what name did the 1818 Spanish census record Palawan?

The census counted 4,486 native families and just 29 Spanish-Filipino families on the island.

In 1858 Palawan was split into Castilla in the north and which province in the south?

Castilla's capital was Taytay; the southern province was run from what is now the provincial capital.

Which island town served as Palawan's capital from 1873 to 1903?

Its Cuyonon language was the lingua franca of Palawan's native peoples before Tagalog migration.

In which year did the US establish civil rule in northern Palawan as the province of Paragua?

In 1905 the province was reorganised to take in the south and renamed Palawan.

A 1910 proposal would have traded Palawan and Mindanao to which country for Greenland?

The idea, floated by US ambassador Maurice Francis Egan, faded when the First World War broke out.

Only how many prisoners survived the December 1944 Palawan Massacre at the capital's POW camp?

Around 150 prisoners had been held there; the survivors' accounts reached Allied forces before the island's liberation.

Off Palawan in 1944, US submarines Dace and Darter sank Admiral Kurita's flagship, named what?

Her sister ship Maya went down too, and Darter ran aground that afternoon and had to be scuttled.

Calauit Island's 1976 game reserve was stocked with animals imported from which continent?

Some 254 Tagbanwa families were evicted to make way for it; the IUCN has no record of requesting the relocation.

Which president signed the 2005 order briefly moving Palawan to Western Visayas?

Executive Order 429 was deferred within months after the provincial council objected.

Roughly how many islands and islets make up Palawan province?

Its irregular coastline runs almost 2,000 kilometres, lined with coves and white-sand beaches.

What is the highest peak in Palawan, at 2,086 metres?

The province's mountain ranges average about 1,100 metres and are carpeted in virgin forest.

The Philippines counts the disputed Spratly Islands as part of Palawan under what local name?

Kalayaan is also one of Palawan's municipalities, annexed by presidential decree in 1978.

How many municipalities does Palawan have, besides its independent capital city?

Thirteen are on the mainland and ten are island towns, spread across 433 barangays.

Busuanga, Coron and Culion form the Calamianes group together with which island?

The Calamianes were the first part of Palawan to come under Spanish authority.

Which native language, once Palawan's lingua franca, is still spoken by about 26% of residents?

Tagalog, now spoken by over half the province, overtook it in the 1990s.

Islam's share of Palawan's population fell from 23.6% in 2000 to about what in 2020?

Christian settlers from Luzon drove the shift; Muslims remain the majority in Balabac and Bataraza.

About 45% of which city's fish supply comes from Palawan's waters?

Palawan has some of the richest fishing grounds in the country.

Palawan is the only Philippine province that produces which resource?

Its natural gas reserves are put at roughly 30,000 trillion cubic feet.

The 240-millimetre Pearl of Lao Tzu, once the world's largest, was found off Palawan in which year?

Its diameter is about 9.4 inches, more giant clam than oyster.

Palawan's endemic pheasant is named after which showy bird?

Other endemics include the Philippine mouse-deer, the Philippine pangolin and the Palawan bearded pig.

The endemic Palawan birdwing is what kind of creature?

Over 600 butterfly species flutter around Palawan, drawn to some 1,500 host plants.

Palawan has the Philippines' largest remaining population of which marine mammal?

Numbers have fallen seriously, and groups such as Community Centred Conservation are working to protect them.

Which magazine's readers rated Palawan the most beautiful island in the world?

It was the only Philippine island cited, and in 2021 it took third in the same readers' choice awards.

Southern Palawan is described as virtually free from what?

Northern Palawan, by contrast, gets torrential rains in July and August.

In which year was Palawan's Subterranean River National Park listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

It was inscribed on December 4 of that year and became a Ramsar wetland site in 2012.

Since a 2007 find in Mexico's Yucatán, how does Palawan's subterranean river rank worldwide?

Its 8.2-kilometre underground stretch of the Cabayugan River runs through a cave system at least 32 kilometres long.

Palawan's Underground River was confirmed as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in which year?

It was provisionally chosen in November 2011 and confirmed the following January.

Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park consists mainly of how many huge atolls?

The North and South Atolls, plus the small Jessie Beazley Reef, cover about 97,030 hectares of the Sulu Sea.

The Sama-Bajau words behind 'Tubbataha' describe a long reef exposed at what?

Cagayancillo islanders call the reef 'Gusong' and traditionally sailed there in bankas to fish.

What does the town name El Nido mean in Spanish?

It was renamed in 1954 for the edible swiftlet nests in its limestone cliffs, the key ingredient of nido soup.

Folklore says El Nido's old name, Bacuit, came from locals answering the Spaniards with what?

The Spaniards asked the place's name, the locals replied 'Bakit?', and the misunderstanding stuck for centuries.

Coron's Spanish-era name, Peñon de Coron, came from a Tagbanua word for what?

Before that the place was Bancuang, after a palm that grew along its rivers and marshes.

The Tabon Caves are named after which animal?

Of 215 known caves in the complex, 29 have been fully explored and seven are open to the public.

The capital's name 'Port of the Princess' honours Infanta Eulalia, daughter of which queen?

Spanish colonists founded the settlement on 4 March 1872 after spotting a plateau above the bay.