Santo Tomas

Santo Tomas was created in 1764 through a Spanish Royal Decree. Spanish authorities named the town of Santo Tomas in honor of their first patron saint, Santo Tomas de Aquinas. The town was formerly part of Mangaldan, Pangasinan before it became independent in 1764.

Santo Tomas is a 4th class municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 31,204 people in 5,956 households

Santo Tomas prides itself of being the home of the first mariculture zone project in Luzon and is looking forward to becoming one of the major sources of farmed marine produce in the country. A marirculture zone is an area that provides for a systematized and regulated system of prodocing marine-base food organisms such as bangus, grouper, and sea bass among others and where certain auxilliary facilities could also be provided for the common use by resident investors.