Southwest Pampanga

Southwest Pampanga, administratively the 2nd District, is composed of seven municipalities (and their town centers) of the province of Pampanga. They are to the west of San Fernando, the provincial capital.

Understand
This article groups together seven municipalities of Pampanga, namely:
 * (117,000) — Not really the largest municipality, but it is the traditional commercial center, divided into four districts, Poblacion, Betis, Locion, and Pangulu. It has a historic town center and Filipino Chinese heritage.
 * (39,500) — Town center and surrounding area badly devastated by the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991.
 * (125,000) — Home to Basa Air Base, and some heritage structures in its town center.
 * — The hometown of former presidents Diosdado Macapagal and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it has the oldest church in Pampanga, and an annual hot-air balloon festival.
 * (124,000) — Municipality at the foothills of Mount Pinatubo.
 * — An out-of-the-way town, with turrones de casoy being its local delicacy.
 * (28,000) — A fishing town, formerly named Sexmoan, which was infamous due to the "sex-" element being associated with English sex, but the name came out from a Spanish-era transcription of a Kapampangan word for "meeting place".

The area's geography is generally flat and low-lying, dominated by rice paddies and fishponds, but the westernmost municipalities have rolling terrain as they encroach Mount Pinatubo. The municipalities along the coast of Manila Bay are mostly alluvial plains formed by the outflow of numerous rivers.

Southwest Pampanga has been settled long before the Spaniards arrived. Many of the town centers date back to the late 16th century, and have streets typically laid out in a rough grid. The barangays forming each municipality vary, many being ribbon developments with side streets emanating from the principal road, while others have street networks, especially those further subdivided into subdivisions or sitios/puroks.

Get in
Jose Abad Santos Ave (Rte 3), often shortened into JASA, or also called Olongapo-Gapan Rd, is a four to six-lane highway that traverses southwest Pampanga from Bacolor to Lubao, at the boundary with Bataan. Buses from Manila to Bataan or Zambales ply this highway, and stop at the junctions leading into the town centers.

Rte 217 (officially, Angeles-Porac-Floridablanca-Dinalupihan Rd) traverses the other municipalities further inland. There are no buses using this highway, but there are jeepneys from Angeles. Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expy (SCTEx) parallels the highway to the west, and the is the convenient way to reach Porac and Floridablanca.

Guagua town proper is served by Baliwag and Victory Liner buses from Manila.

Get around
Perhaps save for Jose Abad Santos Avenue, most of the area's roads are narrow, and houses and building encroach the sidewalk and shoulder.

The town centers of most municipalities have narrow streets arranged in a grid layout, and are walkable.

Buses ply the heavily traveled JASA, while the minor roads leading to the town centers are served by jeepneys.