San Luis, officially the Municipality of San Luis (; ), is a municipality in the province of Aurora, Philippines. According to the , it has a population of people.
History Between 1818 and 1902, the Province of Aurora, then a district of "El Principe", Nueva Ecija, consisted only of Baler and Casiguran. The four other existing municipalities were just mission villages like the San Jose de Casecnan (now Maria Aurora), Dipaculao, Dilasag and Ditale, while what is now the municipality of San Luis was a barrio of Baler adjacent to the old barrios of Real, Bacong, Ditumabo and Zarah. It was named after the patron Saint "San Luis Rey de Francia".
In the Philippine Revolution of 1898, the five barrios became the hot beds of insurgency. The situation was aggravated when the insurrectos attacked the cazadores living in those areas.
On December 9, 1941, the locality suffered heavy casualties when the Japanese Imperial forces bombarded it. This caused the people to flee their homes and settle in nearby mountains of Dibalo and Dicaloyungan. From there, they organized and formed a guerilla group called "205th Squadron" which later became instrumental in liberating the province against the Japanese invading forces by the local Filipino soldiers and the recognized guerrillas in 1945.
In 1945, local Filipino troops of the 3rd, 5th, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th and 57th Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and 5th Constabulary Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary was liberated in San Luis, Tayabas and helping recognized guerrilla groups of the 205th Squadron Guerrillas to defeat and fight against the Japanese Imperial forces and ended in World War II during the Northern Tayabas Campaign.
The Sub-Province of Aurora was created through the enactment of Republic Act No. 648 on July 14, 1951. This law provides for the creation of other municipalities in the province. Local officials sought the assistance of Representative Manuel S. Enverga of Quezon's 1st district to create a separate municipality comprising the adjacent barrios. Enverga sponsored House Bill No. 2863, which later became Republic Act No. 2452, creating the municipal district of San Luis out of Baler on June 21, 1959. It then consisted of barrios San Luis, Bacong and Ditumabo. It became a regular municipality on June 16, 1962 under the sub-province of Aurora through Republic Act No. 3487. In 1979, it separated from Quezon and became part of the new province of Aurora.
Since its creation, the Municipality of San Luis was governed by elected and appointed municipal mayors.
Geography
San Luis is located in the central portion of Aurora Province, geographically located between east longitudes 121 16’ 00’’ to 121 35’ 00’’ and north latitudes 15 28’ 00’’ to 15’ 42’ 00. The area is bounded on the north by the municipality of Maria Aurora, on the south by Dingalan, on the east by Baler (capital of the province), and the province of Nueva Ecija on the west.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the municipality has a land area of constituting of the total area of Aurora. About 87% of the municipality's land area is under hills and mountains, while the remaining 13% is lowlands.
San Luis is situated from the provincial capital Baler, and from the country's capital city of Manila.
Land classification San Luis is classified into (2) major land classification: forestlands, and alienable and disposable lands. Forestlands cover or of the total land area of the municipality, while () are classified alienable and disposable lands. The former is further classified into timberland (), national park (), watershed forest reservation () and integrated social forestry (), integrated forest management agreement () and certificate of ancestral domain claimed areas ().
Miscellaneous land types consist of built-up are beach sand and river wash area. Built–up areas are found in the Poblacion and barangay centers, while river wash and beach sand are found along the Diteki River and portions of barangay Dibayabay, respectively. Miscellaneous land types cover an aggregate area of or of the total land area of San Luis.
Barangays
San Luis is politically subdivided into 18 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
Topography San Luis is generally rugged and mountainous. About 63% of its total land area is considered moderately high-to-high elevation highlands exceeding above sea level. The rest of the area or 37% is less than 500 meters. The elevation ranges from 0 to above sea level.
Climate
San Luis falls under the Type IV climate of the Corona Classification with no distinct dry and wet seasons. Significant rainfall of greater than generally occurs in every month.
Geology/geomorphology San Luis is composed of three major landscapes. These are the: alluvial landscape, foothill landscape and mountain landscape.
Alluvial: The alluvial landscape was formed by the accumulation of eroded and transported recent alluvial sediments consisting of an assemblage of sub-angular to rounded gravels, pebbles and boulders as well as fine materials (sand, silt and clay). The thickness ranges from 1 to 50 meters deep in places. These include swamps (tree type), broad alluvial plains, river terraces and collu-alluvial fans. These landforms are found at the mid-northern portion (lowland area) of the municipality as well as areas along the downstream portions of rivers dissecting the central lowland areas of the municipality's coastal barangays of Dibut, Dibayabay, Dikapinisan and Dimanayat. Foothill: The foothill landscape comprises hills and foothills. It is found between the lowland and forestland areas of the municipality. The majority of this landscape are found along coastal barangays of San Luis, Ditumabo, L. Pimentel, Real, and Dibalo. These are categorized severely dissected high volcanic and metamorphic hills with rolling to very steep slopes. The foothill landscape was formed through volcanic uplift and subsequent tensional forces and compression whose surface configuration has eventually been carried out by erosion, landslide, rock fall faulting folding soil creeping and deepening of water channels. The elevation ranges from 50 to 500 meters above sea level. It was a mixed lithology of four different rocks formation dated from Miocene to Recent. These are the Oligocene-Miocene (NI), Basement Complex (BC), Meta-volcanic (Kv), undifferentiated (Kpg), Cretaceous Paleocene (Ue), and Recent. Igneous and metamorphic rocks dominate the rocks formation and with composition that includes basalt, gabbro, ultrabasic, volcanic breccia, greywackes, peridotite, andesitic lava, metamorphosed shale, quarts, feldspar, slate, amphibolite, and phyllite.
Mountain: Landforms of mountain landscape were formed and developed through violent upliftment and subsequent movement, frequent rising by strong tensional forces and compression as well as volcanic activity and other forces. The elevation ranges from 500 to 1,885 meters above sea level this landscape was shaped by erosion, gravity, rock falls, landslides, and tensional forces, faulting, folding and deepening of streams. The lithology was a mixed formed during the Jurassic to cretaceous Paleocene age. These are the Meta-volcanics and Basement Complex. The major kinds of rocks found in the formation are Igneous and metamorphic.
Igneous rocks were formed from cooling liquid magma, and subsequently solidified on or near the atmosphere (volcanic or extrusive). These are found at the mid-western portion of the municipality (Dupinga) as well as on the south-eastern boundary of San Luis with the municipality of Dingalan. These rocks are composed of basalt, andesite, greywackes and breccia.
Metamorphic rocks are altered rocks from sedimentary and igneous origin and are formed due to intense pressure and temperature. Their composition includes amphibolites, quartz feldspar, Phyllites and slate. Metamorphic rocks are largely found at the western and eastern portion of the municipality (mountainous areas facing the Pacific Ocean).
Soils/physiography Four hypsographic units were identified in the municipality of San Luis: lowland soils, upland soils, soils of the hills, and mountain soils. These hypsographic units are further sub-divided into fourteen (14) major land Management Units and three miscellaneous land types 9.
Lowland Soils: Lowland soils are considered young and formed from fluvio-marine sediments and alluvial materials. These soils are found in areas categorized as broad-alluvial plains, collu-alluvial fans, river terraces and swamps.
Broad-alluvial plains have slopes of flat to almost flat, well to poorly drained, with fine loamy to clayey soil textures, moderately deep to very deep soils, no apparent erosion, and none (095,09k) to severely (09LI) flooded. These alluvial plains occupy the mid-northern portions of the municipality including the lowland areas of coastal barangays-Dibut, Dibayabay, Dikapinisan and Dimanayat. A total of or 7% of the municipality land area is broad alluvial plains cover land area.
Collu–alluvial fans are flat to almost flat (0-8% slopes) land, moderately to well drain areas, fine loamy to clayey soil texture, shallow to very deep soils, none to moderately eroded and no flooding. These areas are found in barangay Ditumabo and Nonong Sr. with an extent of .
River terraces are areas with slopes of 0 to 3% (flat to almost flat), moderately to well drain soils, fine loamy to clayey soil textures, moderately deep soils, no apparent erosion and flooding. These areas are found in barangays Diteki and Ditumabo along the Diteki River. Around or 0.7% of the municipalities land area is covered by this landform.
At the mid-northern portion of the municipality is a swampy area vegetated by a mixture of trees. The soil of this area is poorly drained, fine loamy texture, moderately deep, no apparent erosion, and usually experience severe flooding. Swamps cover a total of but the progressive conversion of this area into rice cultivation reduces is coverage.
Upland Soils: Upland soils are found on slightly to severely dissected lowland, high volcanic and metamorphic hills. These soils have complex smooth and sharp ridges, undulating to very steep slopes, clayey to fine loamy textures, well drained, shallow to moderately slightly to moderately erode, and no flooding. A total of or 26% of the municipality's total land area is covered by upland soils. Mountain Soils: The mountainous portions of the municipality are described moderately to severely dissected metamorphic (131P & 131 O/RA) and complex volcanic mountains (137 O/RA) moderate to overly steep slopes, well drained soils, clayey soil textures, shallow to moderately deep soils, slightly (131P) to severely eroded (131 Q/RA & 137 Q/RA) soils and no flooding. Mountain soils cover about or 63% of the municipality's total land area.
Demographics
In the 2024 census, San Luis had a population of 30,342 people. The population density was .
The dominant ethnicities of the population are Tagalog and Ilocano. Comparing the 2000 and 2007 population count, there was an increase of 2,510 or about 10.56%. The average annual growth rate in the area is 1.68%.
Normally, population density is presented by taking into consideration the population and the total land area of the place. Since population of the Barangays of the municipality of San Luis is characterized by being sited mostly on lowlands (A&D) and partially in forestland, it was decided to present population density both based on the total land area and estimated inhabited area. The latter will provide a more realistic figure for population density as the majority of the Barangay population are living on the lowlands.
The population densities of the municipality, based on total area and estimated inhabited area, are 37.66 and 307 persons per square kilometer, respectively.