Poblacion
Central or downtown area of a Philippine city or municipality
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poblacion (from Spanish población, meaning "population"), sometimes abbreviated as Pob., is a term used in the Philippines to refer to the administrative center, downtown, old town, or commercial area of a city or municipality. It may consist of a single barangay or multiple barangays. Colloquially, the población area is also called bayan (see also other definitions of bayan), plaza, or centro.
History
During Spanish colonial rule, the government established hundreds of formal settlements across the archipelago modelled after towns and villages in Spain. The authorities often adopted a policy of reducción, the resettlement of inhabitants in far-flung and scattered barangays in a more centralized cabecera (town/district capital), built around a new church and ayuntamiento (town hall).[1] This enabled the government to defend, control, and Christianize the indigenous population, as well as facilitate censuses and taxation.
Features
The población is considered the commercial and industrial center of a Philippine city or municipality. Residents of outlying barangays and satellite sitios visit the población on market days (which are set by local ordinance), to trade in local goods and services at the public market. This allows faster sales to a wide range of buyers; others would also shop at neighbouring town's población if it is closer. In some cities and towns, the población (usually surrounding the parish church) is an old town district with a few surviving Spanish-era structures.
There are also cases of multiple poblaciones such as in Iloilo City, where each geographical district has its own centre. These were former independent municipalities in the Spanish era, and consolidated only afterwards.
The cabecera (capital) has a basic plan: a plaza mayor is bounded by the local church and attached convento, civic buildings such as the town hall, and houses of prominent residents.[2][3][4] Other features include a public market, the central elementary school and high school, police station, fire station, and hospital, banks, transport hubs, as well as commercial buildings.[5]
The población of Loboc, Bohol, showing structures typical to most town centres: the plaza, town hall, gazebo, and arena
San Narciso, Zambales poblacion, showing the church and town plaza
Plaza at Guiuan, Eastern Samar with the church in the background
Plaza Rizal at Zamboanga City showing houses with Spanish Colonial architecture
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