Dupax del Norte Town Fiesta 2010: Community

A. Location and Land Area

Dupax del Norte, an inner town of the province of Nueva Vizcaya is around 245 kilometers north of Manila and 22 kilometers from the Provincial Capital, Bayombong. It is bounded by the following:

- North by the municipality of Bambang;

- Northeast by the municipality of Kasibu;

- East by the municipality of Maddela, Quirino;

- South by the municipality of Alfonso Castaneda;

- West by the municipality of Dupax del Sur.

It has a total land area of 44,830.700 hectares representing about 10.32% of the total land area of the province or the 4^th largest municipality. The municipality if politically subdivided into fifteen (15) barangays. The biggest of which is Barangay New Gumiad with an area of 12,854.4600 hectares while Barangay Ineangan is the smallest with an area of 498.0900 hectares.

The municipality has complex landforms as evidenced by its various topography and slope categories. It is basically mountainous dominated by very steep slopes of above 50% encompassing a area of around 23,864.70 hectares or an equivalent of 53.23 of its total land area. The lowest slope of 0 to 3% covers an area of 3,320.00 hectares or around 7.41% of its total land area.

B. Demography

The population of Dupax del Norte as of December 2007 is 27, 432 with an average growth rate of 2.214. The 2007 total population density is 1.63 persons per hectare. Of the total population, 13,253 are male and 14,179 are female. The municipality has 5,678 households.

C. Health and Nutrition

There is only one existing hospital in the municipality which is owned by the government. The LGU has a Rural Health Unit and fifteen Barangay Health Centers. Children nutrition in general is assured. The LGU average is below 10% which means MTPDP target for 2010 is exceptionally met. Sustained! Morbidity rates for identified leading illnesses in general are within acceptable conditions. The LGU had collated morbidity rate for specific illnesses, i.e. tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, heart diseases, diarrhea, dengue is between the index of 3 -3.99. Crude death rate is low. Local situation is better than the national average. There are 2-3 deaths per 1,000 populations in the LGU while the national standard is 4.8 per 1,000 populations. Maternal mortality is not an issue. The LGU have sustained programs to ensure maternal and child care. For this year, maternal mortality rate is 0.3 or below per 1,000 live births which is far better the national situation with a rate of 0.7 – 0.9 per live births. Infant and child mortality rate in the LGU is currently not a problem in the LGU. Local situation is far better the national situation.

C. Agriculture

The existence of the communal irrigation system in the municipality that provides water supply services in irrigating farmlands makes the locality a prime agricultural community. The presence of these services makes the agricultural workers the highest in number.

D. Protective Services

The Philippine National Police maintain the peace and order situation in the municipality. They are being augmented by the Barangay Tanods of the 15 barangays.

The Dupax del Norte Philippine National Police is composed of twenty two (22) policemen. The ratio of one police is to 1,246 persons, which is more than the national standard which is 1:1,000 in terms of facilities and equipment, the police station is equipped with two (2) radio transceiver and two service vehicles.

E. Education

The educational needs of Dupax del Norte are provided by fifty five 55 schools. Of these, 24 are day care centers, four (4) are classified as preschools, twenty one (21) are elementary schools and seven (6) secondary schools.

The Alternative Learning System (ALS) has proven to be singularly effective in addressing contemporary challenges to the education subsector. The ALS is a very important component in Philippine Education to achieve quality and access to education, especially to out-of-school youths and adults who live in remote communities. Under the ALS, efforts were directed towards increasing literacy rates to enable a bigger base of citizens to participate more fully and well in progressive and peaceful community living. For alternative delivery system of education, there is still much to be desired to reach the school drop-outs, out of school youths and illiterates in many parts of Dupax del Norte.