
Last modified: 2025-09-13 by  zachary harden
 zachary harden
Keywords: cagayan valley | quirino | 
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![[Cagayan, Philippines]](../images/p/ph-qui.gif) by Zachary Harden, 11 September 2025
 
 by Zachary Harden, 11 September 2025
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The Philippine Republic's Region II, Cagayan Valley, contains two landlocked 
provinces, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya. Both are relatively small in size (3057 
sq.km. for Quirino, 4081 sq.km. for Nueva Vizcaya) and population (147,000 and 
365,000, respectively, by the 2000 census). Both are ruggedly mountainous and 
heavily forested.  Quirino was set off as a 
subprovince in 1966, named in honor of the late Elpidio Quirino, second 
President of the independent Philippine Republic, and raised to the rank of a 
province by legislative act of 1971. Both are ethnically and linguistically 
diverse, with a substrate of Agtas, Negritos who are food-gatherers with no 
fixed abode, overlaid by Ilonggos and  others in a number of tribes, some 
of whom were fierce head-hunters until recently (we are firmly assured that they 
have given up the practice), with the latest but largest element of the 
population being Ilocanos.  Quirino is divided into six towns; its capital is Cabarroguis. 
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, and Quirino now lists coffee and peanuts among its 
produce. 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, and, in Quirino, marble, limestone, and guano. The marble 
is turned into tiles and figurines.  Quirino 
contains the actual confluence of three mountain streams that is regarded as the 
head of the Cagayan River. Its shield shows the mountains from which the rivers 
and logs descend, the river descending to the sea, three trees symbolizing 
forest and wood products, and rice, maize, and tobacco plants. 
John Ayer, 24 March 2001
The flag used by the province is their seal on an orange background. (Source)
 Zachary Harden, 11 September 2025
![[Isabella, Philippines]](../images/p/ph-qui_f.gif) by Jaume Ollé, 
12 January 2001
 
by Jaume Ollé, 
12 January 2001