Ambaguio

The name "ambaguio" is derived from the word "bagiw," meaning "moss" which covered every inch of trees and stones in the area. The inhabitants were called "e-am-bagiw" meaning "conqueror of moss." The name underwent a series of changes due to its difficult pronunciation by the lowland people who later settled in the area and to differentiate the town from the more famous City which also had the same etymology, resulting in the present "Ambaguio."

A handful of settlers headed by Fausto Tagangtang who came from the neighboring Mountain Province first settled in the area, establishing farmed hills and rice terraces.

Due to its terrain, distance and road problems, the inhabitants were composed only of three major tribes: Igorot, Ifugao, and Ibaloi, who unanimously called the place “Ambaguio”, which means “the land of mosses”, and “its climate is similar to that of Baguio”.

Before its creation as a municipality, Ambaguio was then a barrio of the Municipality of Bayombong. Leonardo B. Perez, then Congressman of Nueva Vizcaya, authored the bill seeking for the creation of Ambaguio as an independent municipality. The bill was approved on 18 June 1966 by virtue of Republic Act. No. 4735.^[6] In the same year, Mariano L. Agnahe, the then Barrio Lieutenant, was appointed as the first mayor of the town.

Ambaguio is situated 24.34 kilometres (15.12 mi) from the provincial capital Bayombong, and 313.95 kilometres (195.08 mi) from the country's capital city of Manila.

Poverty incidence of Ambaguio

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]}

The Municipality of Ambaguio is famous for being a gateway to Luzon’s tallest peak, Mount Pulag.

In 2019, Violet Lucasi, a former employee of Etihad Airways opened Nueva Vizcaya (NV) Paragliding, which later became the Ambaguio Skyport, in Barangay Tiblac, attracting both local and foreign tourists.^[22] As the Philippines' first domestic paragliding "Airport terminal", this led to Ambaguio being awarded P25 million by the Department of Tourism's Tourism Champions Challenge on April 15, 2024.^[23][24] On April 30 however, the venue closed due to safety issues raised by authorities.^[25]

The Schools Division of Nueva Vizcaya governs the town's public education system. The division office is a field office of the DepEd in Cagayan Valley region.^[26] The Ambaguio Schools District Office governs all the public and private elementary and high schools throughout the municipality.^[27]