Palanan

Since the location was surrounded by Aetas, the Ibanags from the lowland Isabela would warn their close friends with the term "Palanammu" which indicates uneasiness or caution. Similarly, some vagabond Tagalogs who arrived there either as a sanctuary during difficult sailing or pure adventure, dubbed the site "Palatanan" which is suggestive of the character of the residents. Eventually, the word transformed into its modern name "Palanan".^[6]

Unlike other towns in the Cagayan Valley, Palanan was established in 1625 by Spanish forces who arrived by boat from the Pacific coastal town of Baler in Tayabas province (now part of Aurora). As such, Palanan was initially a part of Pampanga^[7] before being transferred to Laguna, Tayabas (now Quezon Province; Tayabas became independent from Laguna), Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and finally Isabela. Also, unlike the rest of Cagayan Valley, it was served by Franciscan missionaries rather than the Dominicans. The population of the town was natively Paranan, then subsequently augmented by local Negritos, migrants from Baler who are Tagalogs, and outlaws from Cagayan Valley, with the lingua franca of the settlement being Tagalog as opposed to Ilocano or Ibanag.^[8][6][9]

General Emilio Aguinaldo became President of the First Philippine Republic in 1900. He was captured on March 23 when Col. Frederick Funston led the Americans in 1901. It was in Palanan that one of the final chapters of the Philippine–American War was written on March 23, 1901, when General Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by American forces led by General Frederick Funston, who had gained access to Aguinaldo's camp by pretending to surrender to the Filipinos.^[6]

In 1978, the area around Palanan was proclaimed by President Ferdinand Marcos to be part of the Palanan Wilderness Area, a protected nature conservation area that was later expanded by President Fidel V. Ramos to become the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park in 1997.

In the May 9, 2016 elections, Angelito A. Bernardo won a three-way mayoral campaign. However, due to his unexpected death shortly after the polls, Rodolfo M. Bernardo, the Municipal Vice Mayor-elect and first-elected Sangguniang Bayan member, and Elizabeth B. Ochoa took the oath of office as Municipal Mayor. On July 1, 2016, the Municipal Vice Mayor and other winning candidates attended the ceremony in Ilagan City, which serves as the provincial capital. Mayor Rodolfo M. Bernardo served as the local chief executive for five months and fifteen days before dying in a car accident. According to the rules of succession, Vice Mayor Elizabeth B. Ochoa took the oath of office as Municipal Mayor and has remained in charge as the local Chief Executive ever since.^[6]

Palanan is one of the four remote and isolated coastal towns of Isabela facing the Philippine Sea on the east and separated from the rest of the province by the Sierra Madre Mountains.

In the 2024 census, the population of Palanan was 18,091 people,^[17] with a density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre or 54 inhabitants per square mile.

Poverty incidence of Palanan

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

The Schools Division of Isabela governs the town's public education system.^[28] The division office is a field office of the DepEd in Cagayan Valley region.^[29] The Palanan Schools District Office governs the public elementary and high schools throughout the municipality including schools located in Dinapigue, Divilacan, and Maconacon.^[30]

The most common forms of transportation in Palanan are by horses, motorcycles, tricycles, or an improvised motorcycles called kuligligs.^[31][32] Due to its isolation, the town can be reached quickest by a 23-30 minute flight in a six-seater, single-engine Cyclone Air Cessna commuter plane from Cauayan. Palanan is served by Palanan Airport.^[31][32]

By water, a boat ride from the neighboring town of Divilacan or in the towns of Dingalan and Baler in Aurora in the south usually takes about two to three hours and six to seven hours, respectively.^[32]

There are no roads that connect Palanan to the rest of province as the town can only be reached by a plane or boat ride, or a multi-day hike over the Sierra Madre from the neighboring town of San Mariano, which could take about three to five days.^[33] However, there is a construction of the 82-kilometer Ilagan–Divilacan Road through the protected Sierra Madre is on-going to open access to the coastal towns of Divilacan, Palanan and Maconacon. The approved budget contract of the project amounting to P1.5B, will pass through the foothills of the 359,486-hectare Northern Sierra Madre mountain ranges. The project will improve an old logging road used by a defunct logging company until the 1990s. It will start in Barangay Sindon Bayabo in Ilagan and will end in Barangay Dicatian in Divilacan. The project was started in March 2016 and was expected to be completed in 2024.^[34]