Cultural Profile

During the Spanish regime a group of Spaniards came to survey the place in the 17^th century while their where walking they incidentally touch the an itchy plant ( alupa in Ilocano . While they were scratching, the itch kept on spreading all over their body and at the same time they were uttering the word “ MAL, a spanish word for bad.

During this time this place have no inhabitant and the Barangay is the center of thieves and the place of butchering stolen animals such as horses, pigs, carabaos and cows from the nearby barrios.

One early morning, as the residents woke up, they saw some people butchering a carabao at the center area of the place as they were rushing up in butchering the said animal. And one of the thieves suddenly shouted Latlatemon! Latlatemon! Latlatemon!

Then the people a befitting word to identify the place called MALALATAN.

From that time the barangay got its name, People began to stay in this place until it became thicker and thicker in population. They built their houses at hillside and in groups. During this time, there was no exact barangay population due to the in-and out of living inhabitants searching for a greener pasture to answer their primary needs in life.

Later in 1980s census came in the person of Mrs. Caridad Ramos as assigned enumerator in this place. She got a barangay population of 1,979. People of adjacent found that Malalatan was rich in natural resources like bamboos, ratans and trees. So they like more to stay here and contribute fast growing population in the barangay.

As the population increased, the parents worried about their children. What will be their future life? And they thought that these children need to be educated and to fulfill their desire ,they send their children ages 7 to 12 years old to study.

Their first school in riverside was in barangay Afusing at the residence of Daludados family and the first teacher was Mr. Felimon Jose Quintos. The first Parish Priest who first gave the first blessing was Father Jose at Aglipayan Church.

As the population grew, the people planned of building a school of their own. They built a temporary school building made of bamboos and cogon. The first teacher in Malalatan was Mrs. Gertrudes De Leon Villarin from Mt. Province.

After years, Malalatan and Tamban built a semi-permanent school building financed by the US Government.