Asingan Pangasinan

Based on researches, nobody could tell the name of this town before it got its name ASINGAN. Old folks could only remember the stories told that this town was formerly a wilderness inhabited by Aetas, the known aborigin of the Philippines. These people lived along a stream east of the present site of the town proper.

They lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild fruits. The place was ruled by an Aeta woman chieftain whose bravery and fierceness in battle was known far and wide that the neighboring tribal chiefs feared her and never dared invade her territory .She established the seat of her kingdom in a place now called MASICAMPO.

When the Malays began to immigrate to the Philippines, some reached Pangasinan and those who are able to reach Asingan were met with hostility by the Aeta warriors led by their woman chieftain.

Because the Malays were better armed and wiser in the tactics ofwarfare, the Aetas were forced to retreat and moved their stronghold on a hill on the east now called BINMANTA Y. These Aetas were determined to regain their lost territory so every now and then they tried to harass and attack the settlers but were always repulsed.Finally the settlers became furious and made a counter attack upon the stronghold of the Aetas. It was in this encounter that the Aetas were badly routed and when they saw their chieftain killed, they fled to the mountains of the Sierra Madre in the east where their descendants still alive today.

The settlers found the place to be very fertile and full of promise so that they became hostile to other people who tried to come and settle. When Spaniards came to the place, they found the people to be very hostile ("naasing" in the Ilocano dialect). It is this characteristics of the people that the Spaniards named this town "Villa de Asingan", meaning town of the hostile and later shortened to ASINGAN which is its name today.

The hostile attitudes of the people has waned as the years passed until other people from neighboring towns and provinces began coming and made this town their permanent residence. Today the people are peaceful, religious, industrious and hospitable.

In the year 1782, the Spanish Government first appointed a Filipino Alcalde to head the municipal government. The practice of appointing Alcaldes stopped in the year 1899 when the Philippines became a territory of the United States of America. In the year 1900 there saw the election of Municipal Presidents. Later, the title was changed to Municipal Mayor upon the establishment of the Commonwealth Government in the year 1935 until the Philippines finally obtained its independence on July 4,1946.