Community
Dau: the terminal that connects Luzon
How a barangay of Mabalacat became one of Central Luzon's busiest transport hubs, with buses to Manila and the far north.
Mabalacat
Stories
Community in Pampanga
Community
Sabuaga: Sto. Tomas showers Easter with flowers
How the dawn Easter meeting of the risen Christ and his mother became Sto. Tomas's festival of falling petals.
Santo Tomas
Community
Aguman Sanduk: Minalin's New Year in a gown
Since 1934, the men of Minalin have greeted the year in dresses, make-up and their wives' jewellery. The story of Aguman Sanduk.
Minalin
Community
Porac after Pinatubo
How the 1991 eruption buried Porac's villages and river in lahar, and how the town rebuilt on two sides of the Pasig-Potrero.
Porac
Community
The crab women of Mabuanbuan
In Sasmuan's wetlands, birds and families depend on the same coast. A look at the people who work the Ramsar site.
Sasmuan
Community
The Candaba wetlands, a working landscape
Birds, rice and fish share Candaba's wetlands. Why conservation here starts with the farmers.
Candaba
Community
Makatapak: Bacolor's barefoot years
After the lahar, Bacolor walked barefoot through the mud. Its Makatapak festival turns that memory into a celebration of resilience.
Bacolor
Community
Pastorella: Mabalacat's Latin carols at dawn
While most of Pampanga has moved on, Mabalacat's choir still sings the Pastorella, Latin hymns for the shepherds, at Christmas.
Mabalacat
Community
The white lanterns of Magalang
Every Christmas, Magalang's barangays carry traditional white lanterns in a nine-day novena that won a national tourism award.
Magalang
Community
Santa Rita, the pastry town
Turrones de casoy, sans rival, uraro and masa podrido: how a small Pampanga town built its name on sweets.
Santa Rita
Community
Balloons over Prado Siongco
How a field in Lubao became the home of one of the country's biggest hot air balloon and music festivals.
Lubao
Community
December 8, 1941: the fiesta that became a war
Guagua was celebrating its patroness when news of Pearl Harbor arrived. How the town lived through the war that followed.
Guagua
Community
Living with the water: Macabebe's sinking landscape
A new book by a Macabebe-born historian reads the town's 697 place names alongside the science of its slow submergence.
Macabebe
Community
Pasyon, penitents and procession: Holy Week in Pampanga
Opera-tune Pasyon chants, penitents on the roads and a Christ taken down from the cross: the Holy Week traditions of Pampanga.
Pampanga
Community
The round chapel of Pio
Porac's 1861 circular chapel survived Pinatubo and an earthquake, then a debate over who should repair it and how.
Porac
Community
Kuraldal: Sasmuan's January feast for Saint Lucy
Sasmuan's devotion to Saint Lucy, patron of the blind and of couples hoping for a child, and the January Kuraldal.
Sasmuan
Community
Under the lahar: Bacolor's sunken church
How lahar from Mount Pinatubo raised the ground around San Guillermo Church, and why Bacolor kept praying inside it.
Bacolor
Community
Masantol, seafood capital of Central Luzon
Shrimp, prawns, crabs and clams: how Masantol's delta waters feed Pampanga and beyond.
Masantol
Community
Apung Iru: Apalit's saint who travels by river
Since 1844, Apalit has carried its ivory-faced Saint Peter down the Pampanga River every June. A look at the libad.
Apalit
Community
Pinukpuk: the hammer beat behind Floridablanca's festival
How a town of metal-hammerers turned its craft into a street dance, and why Floridablanca celebrates the pukpuk.
Floridablanca