Isabela (province)

Isabela, officially the Province of Isabela (Ilocano: Probinsia ti Isabela; Ibanag: Provinsia na Isabela; Tagalog: Lalawigan ng Isabela), is the second largest province in the Philippines by land area located in the Cagayan Valley. Its capital and the largest local government unit is the city of Ilagan. It is bordered by the provinces of Cagayan to the north, Kalinga to the northwest, Mountain Province to the central-west, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya to the southwest, Quirino, Aurora and the independent city of Santiago to the south, and the Philippine Sea to the east. This primarily agricultural province is the rice and corn granary of Luzon with its mix of plains and rolling terrain. In 2012, the province was declared as the country's top producer of corn with 1,209,524 metric tons. Isabela was also declared the second-largest rice producer in the Philippines and the "Queen Province of the North". The province has four trade centers in the cities of Ilagan, Cauayan, Santiago and the municipality of Roxas. Santiago is considered to have the fastest-growing local economy in the entire Philippines.