Gapan

Gapan is a component city in the province of Nueva Ecija in the Philippines, nicknamed the Footwear Capital of the North because of its long-running footwear industry. The 2024 census counted 129,610 residents. Spanish records first called the place Ibon, then a town of Pampanga, and in 1595 Spanish priests reinstituted it as a Catholic town, which makes Gapan the oldest town in Nueva Ecija and one of the oldest in the country. It once held a very large jurisdiction reaching as far as Cabanatuan, the Sierra Madre and Candaba, and it was transferred from Pampanga to Nueva Ecija in 1848. Most early settlers were Tagalogs from Bulacan and Morong together with Kapampangans, and the Maharlika Highway, the main road toward the Cagayan Valley, passes through the city.