About thirty years ago, the church bell was just hung from an acacia tree in front of the church.
Sta Catalina, Ilocos Sur
As of February 2006, Sta. Catalina with a poverty incidence of 7.9 percent and Vigan City with a poverty incidence of 8.6 percent, are the top two municipalities/cities with lowest poverty incidences in Ilocos Sur, and for the entire Region 1 (also for the entire Regions 2, 3 and CAR). This is among the results of the Poverty Mapping Project implemented by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) with funding assistance from the World Bank ASEM Trust Fund in response to the increasing demand for local level poverty estimates.
DEMOGRAPHY
The Municipality of Sta. Catalina had a total household population of TWELVE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY SEVEN (12,537) as of the Censal Year 2000.
As written down from generation to generation, from the founding of this town by the Spaniards, the municipality was predominantly Roman Catholics. Out of the 12,537 population, there were 12,296 or 98.08 percent Roman Catholics. The Iglesia Ni Kristo ranked second in the hierarchy numbering to 116 persons.
The municipality of Sta. Catalina is politically subdivided into 9 barangays: Cabaroan, Cabittaogan, Cabuloan, Pangada, Paratong, Poblacion, Sinabaan, Subec and Tamorong. Also, it has 3 sitios namely: Calawaan (Tamorong), Sabangan (Paratong) and Punta (Cabittaogan)
AGRICULTURE
A total of 696.5888 hectares or 74.581% of the total land area of Sta. Catalina is utilized for crop production. Croplands are found in every barangay.
The whole area of 696.588 hectares is planted with rice during rainy season. 30 hectares or 4.31 percent of the total agricultural land is planted with white corn while 20 hectares or 2.87 percent are planted with corn.
Next to rice/corn season, farmers also plant vegetables with a total effective area of 1,150 hectares or 165.09 percent of the agricultural lands. Onions, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet pepper, eggplant, beans, tomato, sweet potato, yam beans, mongo and peanut are the vegetables that are planted. Because of the limited agricultural land in the municipality, inter cropping farming system are commonly practiced.
As had been mentioned earlier that 696.588 hectares are planted with rice and corn while 1,150 hectares are planted with vegetable. This municipality has been known as the “VEGETABLE BOWL OF THE NORTH”. The total value of vegetable production alone is PhP 523.04 million that brings a lot of income to farmers.
LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY
The farmers in the locality do not produce livestock or poultry in commercial scale but mostly on the backyard level. Livestock such as cows and water buffalo were being raised to help farmers in their farm needs and serves as working animal. Likewise goats were raised but not in herds and these are for local and home consumption of the farmers. Likewise farmers do not raise poultry in commercial scale but they raised chickens in backyard scale. Most farmers raised fighting cocks which commands higher prices in the market.
FISHERIES
The total area for fishpond is 53.9021 hectares. These fishponds are almost located in every barangay but the biggest area is at barangay Cabittaogan. Fishponds are classified as a) brackish pond where milkfish are cultured, b) freshwater for the production of tilapia, c) fish cages, d) Municipal fishing grounds which were found within 15 kilometers from the shoreline of coastal barangay and e) communal fishing grounds found in Govantes River.
COMMERCE AND TRADE
Sta. Catalina is only four (4) kilometers away from Vigan, which is the center of commerce and trade, and because of this; there were few establishments in the locality.
Sta. Catalina has no Central Business District (CBD). There is no public market in the locality, residents go to Vigan to sell their produce and at the same time buy their household needs and other goods and merchandise that will be retailed in the locality.
INDUSTRY
Because of its proximity to Vigan, the capital town of Ilocos Sur, there were no so many industries that can help the labor problem of the locality.
Sta. Catalina had only few light industries that were registered with the Department of Trade and Industry. We do have the Light-Medium-Small bamboo craft industry located at Barangay Pangada who is at present exporting bamboo finished products. Its volume of production is limited to the job orders made by direct customers.
Sta. Catalina also had the manufacturing of concrete well rings a material used as reservoir in the making of open-dugged wells to irrigate the farm lots.
There were service-oriented industries such as the gravel and sand business that caters the needs of the Housing Sector and the metal crafts that manufacture sidecars for motor-tricycles. These industries do have limited employment.
One pioneering industry in the locality is the manufacture of Cigars but this industry is already nearing its extinction because of lack of the raw materials (native tobacco) that were used in the manufacture. We do have also the Onion Dehydration Plant an industry that pulverized onion that was exported in different Asian countries. The reason why this dehydrating plant had closed was because of dollar fluctuations.
As of February 2006, Sta. Catalina with a poverty incidence of 7.9 percent and Vigan City with a poverty incidence of 8.6 percent, are the top two municipalities/cities with lowest poverty incidences in Ilocos Sur, and for the entire Region 1 (also for the entire Regions 2, 3 and CAR). This is among the results of the Poverty Mapping Project implemented by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) with funding assistance from the World Bank ASEM Trust Fund in response to the increasing demand for local level poverty estimates.
