Batac — My Pride. My Home. My City. Home of Great Leaders.
The word "Batac" in a local dialect translates as "pull". More loosely, it refers to "the people's pulling their efforts together."
The town was founded by the Augustinians in 1587 under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. It is the second oldest town established by the Augustinians in the province of Ilocos Norte. Hence, in 1987 Batac reached its 4th centennial.
Batac was officially organized into a ministry on January 5, 1586. The first priest assigned to cathecize the natives of tile community was Fr. Esteban Marin, an Augustinian who probably arrived in Batac in 1585. Paoay and Dinglas (Dingras) were then the visitas of Batac.
Folk history states that there were two villages in Batac during the early part of tile foundation of the town, one was an Itneg community which occupied sitio Nangalisan and a Christian community occupying San Jose.
The first site of tile poblacion was in San Jose, which is now called Barangay Palpalicong. It is said that the ethnic minority groups of Bangui and Nueva Era are the pre-Spanish descendants of early inhabitants of Batac.
The Augustinians considered the people of Batac more civilized than tile other tribes, because they were better than the other "Indios" in personal cleanliness.
