BONGTOLAN 

Bongtolan is bounded on the north by Cabaroan Daya, on the east by Nansuagao, on the west by a large area of land, and on the south by Camangaan. 

Like other villages of Vigan, Bongtolan has no official name not until the Spaniards had established theor governmental machinery in Ilocandia under the leadership of the “Hernando Cortez” of the Philippines, Captain Juan de Salcedo. 

It was summer time when the Spanish civil guards busied themselves patrolling the suburbs of Salcedo’s captain town that they came upon a village which was quite opposed to Spanish conquest. The villagers were angered with the behavior of the Spanish civil guards because oftentimes, the guards get food like fowls, eggs, vegetables and fruits from them. In order to show their displeasure against the bad acts of the Civil Guards, the natives of the place agreed to do something that would irritate the foreign intruders. So, one day, some of the men of the place climbed the trees along the trails which led to the center of the village with dried earth balls (bingkol in Iloco) in their hands. They threw down the earth balls on the heads of the soldiers as they passed by, injuring some of the unhelmeted ones. Many were arrested and tortured so the arrogant acts of the natives were removed. Through the advice of the Ilocanos closed to the Spanish authorities in Vigan, the place was named “Uluan”, because the main target of the natives were the soldiers’ heads.