Morong, Bataan

The Augustinian Order of Recollects (AOR) arrived in the Philippines in 1606 and a year later, in 1607, they have began mission work in Zambales. By 1612, the AOR claimed and organized 12 communities in the surrounding area into towns each with small churches and convents. It is said that in 1607, Morong was officially founded as an ecclesiastical parish by the Augustinian Recollects[7] as well as being founded by Fr. Rodrigo de San Miguel who placed it under the protection of the Our Lady of the Pillar.[8]

The Our Lady of the Pillar Parish of Morong, erected in 1607 and is now one of the oldest seats of Catholic faith in the Philippines;[9]. It is unknown when the AOR built fortress-church made with local stony corals (Porites species) but is believed to be a contemporary of another Augustinian Recollect built church, the Sta. Monica Church of Botolan, Zambales, also built with stony corals and is believed to have been built in the 1700s.

On June 10, 1955, Moron was renamed Morong by virtue of Republic Act No. 1249.[10]

During the onset of the war, able-bodied men from Morong were conscripted for service in the army. With their families in the path of the attacking Japanese, these conscripts had to abandon their fatherly duties to their vulnerable families to take up arms to protect their nation. Later after the fall of Bataan up until the Liberation, boonie guerilla groups sought to fight and sabotage the Japanese occupying forces.

For the defense of Bataan, the main and first battle position established by the USAFFE was the Mabatang (Abucay)–Mauban (Morong) Line. General Wainwright was in command of the Mauban side of the defense. With the First Defense Line in Mauban, the entire town of Morong was left unprotected from the attacking Japanese which ransacked and burned the town.

On 16 January 1942, Imperial Japanese Army and an Allied coalition of Filipino-American forces both raced to capture Morong. Although both had arrived at approximately the same time, the allies were the first to notice the other party (the Japanese). To therefore commit a surprise attack, Lieutenant Edwin P. Ramsey of the 26th Cavalry Regiment ordered his troops to charge; the 27 heavily outnumbered Filipino and American cavalrymen charged and scattered the surprised Japanese. It was the last charge of American cavalry[11]

All over the country and the world, the heroism of WWII veterans who fought in Bataan are commemorated. Towns and cities, such as Marikina, have erected monuments to honor their citizens who have fought or fallen in defense of Bataan. In the whole of Bataan, Morong is the lone town where no memorial markers have been erected by the government despite the historical significance and sacrifice of the town and its residents during the war. A town left sacrificed and undefended during the war, now a home of heroes forsaken and unrecognized.

The Pawikan Conservation Center is a community-based effort to protect turtles in Morong with a focus on protecting the Olive Ridley species.[13]

Morong has a tropical monsoon climate (Af) with little to no rainfall from December to April and heavy to extremely heavy rainfall from May to November.

Morong is politically subdivided into 5 barangays.[15]

Morong has also had some activity in mining. In 1972 it had mining activity from Long Beach Mining Corporation producing magnetite concentrate from beach sands[26] and in 2017 there was headway into opening 709.6 hectares of land to Gandara minerals and development corporation in order to mine basalt and other associated minerals.[27]

The Bataan Technology Park (informally called the "Technopark") is the main zone of the Morong Special Economic Zone (MSEZ), established in March 1997[28] after a previous ecozone which was established under the 1992 Bases Conversion and Development Act.[29] The park's investors can claim the following benefits:

• A 5% levy on Gross Income Earned (in lieu of all national and local taxes and duties)
• Tax and duty-free importation of raw materials and capital equipment
• Management of the zone as a separate customs territory, ensuring the free flow of movement of goods and capital equipment within, imported and exported out of the zone
• The Atmanda Ecopark also has potential as a retirement haven and a corporate training center