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Component city in Ilocos Norte, Philippines
Photo: Ralff Nestor Nacor, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Batac is a city of over 55,000 in Ilocos Norte. It is known for being the home of the Aglipayan Church, a nationalist splinter sect from the Roman Catholic Church, and the Marcos political family, which has produced two Philippine presidents.
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Ferdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center
A museum dedicated to President Marcos and his achievements, but avoids its excesses. It also used to house the president's preserved remains inside an airconditioned separate mausoleum building, although doubts persisted on whether the wax-looking cadaver on display was the real thing until he was reburied in Metro Manila in 2016, revealing the displayed corpse to be a fake. The dummy remains on display in Batac.
Batac Church
The city's main Roman Catholic church, built in the Romanesque style.
Aglipay National Shrine
Gregorio Aglipay, the founder of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, is interred here, at the back of the Aglipayan Cathedral of Saint Mary.
A small shrine with a park and museum dedicated to General Artemio Ricarte, a Filipino revolutionary who is acknowledged as the father of the Philippine Army.
A covered food hall along the Quiaoit River hosting multiple stalls selling the signature Batac empanada.
The building burned down following a fire in July 2026. Vendors have been temporarily relocated to the nearby Bagsakan Center.
The city is along Route 2 (Manila North Road), which bypasses the town to the west. Buses also ply this highway. GV Florida has direct bus connections from Metro Manila.
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