Cabanatuan is a city of over 300,000 in Nueva Ecija in the Philippines. Historically, it is the capital of the Philippines after Manila fell to the Americans, and during World War II, the city, then a rural municipality, has seen one of the largest military operations on the Pacific theater. It is the "Gateway to the North", a secondary commercial center of Central Luzon, and the former capital of the Philippines' "Rice Granary".
Cabanatuan served as the economic center of Nueva Ecija, and an major stopover to Cagayan Valley.
The city once formed a barrio of the then-municipality of Gapan during the Spanish colonial period. During the Philippine–American War, it became the temporary capital of the nascent Philippine republic, and the place where general Antonio Luna would be assassinated by a soldier of his own battalion. The city also served as a battleground for one of the major encounters in the Philippines at the end of World War II, the raid at Cabanatuan, better remembered in the Hollywood film The Great Raid. Cabanatuan served as the capital of Nueva Ecija until the new capital is established at Palayan.
The city has tricycles the most popular mode of transportation, and there are more than 30,000 in the city, giving its nickname "Tricycle Capital of the Philippines".
The city has its reputation for very hot summer days, making it the second hottest city in the Philippines after Tuguegarao in Cagayan Valley. The climate is the usual tropical climate influenced by the monsoon, but its inland location further gave the possibility of extremely high heat indices, enough to give you heat stroke on a short walk. Daytime highs are generally in the 30s. The highest temperature recorded is a 40.4 °C, and heat indexes above 50 °C are not uncommon during the dry season.
There are air-conditioned buses going from Cabanatuan to Baler at 8AM and 9:30AM. The trip takes around 4 hours and cost ₱247.
Vans also go from Cabanatuan to Baler for ₱200 but take time to fill up.
The main highway to Cabanatuan is the Maharlika Highway (Rte 1), which passes through the denser areas of the city. From Tarlac, it is on Rte 58 (Santa Rosa-Tarlac Rd), which terminates at Maharlika Hwy at the suburb of Santa Rosa.
Tricycles from ₱15 per person most rides ₱20-30.
There are also jeepney from ₱8 for the first 4 km.
2nd-order administrative division
Primary administrative division