Cordillera Central (Luzon) in the context of History of the Philippines (1521–1898)

Cagayan Valley (Ilocano: Tanap ti Cagayan; Filipino: Lambak ng Cagayan; Spanish: Valle del Cagayán), designated as Region II, is an administrative region in the Philippines. Located in the northeastern section of Luzon, it is composed of five Philippine provinces: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino. The region hosts four chartered cities: Cauayan, Ilagan, Santiago, and Tuguegarao (the regional center and largest city).

Most of its land area lies in the valley between the Cordilleras and the Sierra Madre mountain ranges. The eponymous Cagayan River, the country's largest and longest, runs through the region, flows from the Caraballo Mountains, and ends in Aparri. Cagayan Valley is the second-largest Philippine administrative region by land area. According to a literacy survey in 2019, 93% of Cagayan Valley's citizens (ages 10 to 64) are functionally literate, which is 5th out of the 17 regions of the Philippines.

San Fernando, officially the City of San Fernando (Ilocano: Siudad ti San Fernando; Filipino: Lungsod ng San Fernando), is a component city and the capital of the province of La Union, Philippines. It serves as the regional and administrative center of the Ilocos Region. The city also functions as a hub for trade and commerce in northern Luzon and as a center for the culture and heritage of Ilocandia. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 124,809 people with 77,490 registered voters as of 2025.

The City of San Fernando is a coastal city facing the South China Sea to the west and bordered by the Cordillera Central mountain range to the east. It consists of 59 barangays and has a total land area of 105.26 square kilometers. The city's majority ethnolinguistic group are the Ilocano people who speak Iloco language, as the city has historically been an Ilocano stronghold. It is one of two capital cities in the Philippines named San Fernando, the other being San Fernando, Pampanga.

The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera in northern Luzon, Philippines, often referred to by the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples, are an ethnic group composed of nine main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains are in the Cordillera Mountain Range, altogether numbering about 1.8 million people in the early 21st century.

Their languages belong to the northern Luzon subgroup of Philippine languages, which in turn belongs to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family. A 2014 genetic study has found that the Kankanaey (an Igorot subgroup from Mountain Province), and by extension other indigenous Cordillera groups, descend almost entirely from the ancient Austronesian expansion originating in Taiwan around 3000-2000 BCE

An autonomous region of the Philippines (Filipino: rehiyong awtonomo ng Pilipinas) is a first-level administrative division that has the authority to control a region's culture and economy. The Constitution of the Philippines allows for two autonomous regions: in the Cordilleras and in Muslim Mindanao. Currently, Bangsamoro, which largely consists of the Muslim-majority areas of Mindanao, is the only autonomous region in the country.

Mountain Province (Bontok: Probinsiya nan Bilig; Balangao: Probinsiya hen Bilig; Kankanaey: Probinsiya di Dontog; Ilocano: Probinsia ti Bantay; Filipino: Lalawigan ng Mountain Province; Spanish: Provincia Montañosa) is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc while Bauko is the largest municipality. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as Mountain in some foreign references. The name is usually shortened by locals to Mt. Province.

The province was named so for being in the Cordillera Central mountain range found in the upper realms of Luzon island.

The Kalinga people (IPA: [ka'liŋɡa]) are an indigenous ethnic group whose ancestral domain is in the Cordillera Mountain Range of the northern Philippines. They are mainly found in Kalinga province which has an area of 3,282.58 sq. km. Some of them, however, already migrated to Mountain Province, Apayao, Cagayan, and Abra. The Kalinga numbered 163,167 as of 2010.

The Northern Luzon languages (also known as the Cordilleran languages) are one of the few established large groups within Philippine languages. These are mostly located in and around the Cordillera Central of northern Luzon in the Philippines. Among its major languages are Ilocano, Pangasinan and Ibanag.

Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching 56 km (35 mi). It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central. The Agno River and the Balili River drain into Lingayen Gulf.