Kidapawan, officially the City of Kidapawan (; ; Maguindanaon: Kuta nu Kidapawan; Obo Monuvu: Ingod to Kidapawan; ), is a component city and the capital of the province of Cotabato, Philippines.

From 3rd income class, it was reclassified as a 1st income class city on 1 January 2025. Moreover, according to the 2024 Census, it has a population of 160,864 people making it the most populous in the province.

It is located at the foot of Mount Apo, the country's highest mountain.

Etymology

Many proposed etymologies have been recorded to explain the origin of Kidapawan's name over the decades.

In 2017, Karlo Antonio Galay David gathered all written and oral explanations from archival sources and tribal key informants. Galay David gathered thirteen proposed etymologies, and of these thirteen, six are about springs, three are about weddings, three are about highlands, two are names, and three are directional and imply the act of going.

{| class="wikitable static-row-numbers mw-collapsible col2center col1center"

|+ style="text-align: left;" | Possible origins of the name 'Kidapawan'

|-

! style=max-width:3em | Etymology

! style=max-width:3em | Source Language

! style=max-width:4em | Translation or Explanation

! style=max-width:4em | Source(s)

|-

|‘kida pawan’||Obo Monuvu (faulty)

|‘to live near’ + ‘a spring in the highland’

|‘Kidapawan’ by Lino Madrid (from the 1952 Cotabato Guidebook)

|-

|(no original presented)||~

|A spring in Tagbak, Magpet, (said to be a center of trade)

|‘Legend of Kidapawan’ mimeograph (archival document in the Kidapawan library, written c. 1960s)

|-

|Kida and Pawan||~

|A Primeval couple

|Legend of Kidapawan’ mimeograph

|-

|Lapawan||Obo Monuvu

|‘Wedding ceremony,’ (because Kidapawan was an auspicious place to be married in)

|Legend of Kidapawan’ mimeograph

|-

|(Datu) Kidapawan||Obo Monuvu

|A name, meaning ‘to go yonder and stay’ or ‘stay and go further above,’ (Datu Kidapawan, son of Datu Tambunawan or Datu Mamalu, leader of an exodus of people from ‘Kabakan’ escape Islamization)

| - Legend of Kidapawan’ mimeograph

- Gabriela Eleosida's 1961 Master's thesis (University of Manila)

|-

|‘tida pawan’||Obo Monuvu (faulty)

| ‘spring’ + ‘highland’

|‘Sketch of Kidapawan’ by Melerio Robles (1972), most local government material

|-

|Tiddopawan||Obo Monuvu

|‘spring,’ literally ‘to flow over something’ (referring to a spring in Baranggay Paco) ||Tribal source Apo Salomay Iyong (as quoted by tribal source Retchor Umpan)

|-

|tigdapawan||Obo Monuvu

|‘spring’ (in reference to a spring in Tagbak, Magpet, near which Datu Siawan Ingkal was born, the name was given by Datu Siawan)

|Tribal source Datu Basinon Ebboy

|-

|Linapawan||Obo Monuvu

|‘Marrying place’ (because Kidapawan was famous among tribes as a good source of brides)

|Tribal source Apo Meding Ligue Mampo (as quoted by Bo-i Jenifer Pia Sibug Las)

|-

|‘tida pawan tuay salirok’||Obo Monuvu

|‘let us go uphill to the spring spout,’ referring to a spring in the property of Datu Siawan Ingkal in Baranggay Manongol ||As quoted by Bernardo Piñol Jr, 2018 (quoting a gathering of tribal leaders assembled in the early 2000s)

|-

|(not provided)||Obo Monuvu

|‘The meeting of rivers’

|Tribal source Ambayon Mundog (as quoted by Rita Gadi)

|-

|Nakapawan||Maguindanaon

|‘where are you going?’

|Tribal source Datu Boy Ayog

|-

|Kinabpawang||Maguindanaon

|‘place arrived at’

|Pikit Councilor Benjar Ali Modale

|}

History

Establishment and territorial changes

Kidapawan has roots in the municipal district with the same name which was created in 1914 by the Americans, and consisted the territory of the Monuvu. Datu Siawan Ingkal, a tribal leader, was appointed District President. Later, Ilonggo settlers increased in the area. merging with it the unexplored region in the north,

As a result, the size was more than thrice the present. The vast area in its extent was once described in the 1950s being larger than the province of Cavite. The original territory, now called the Greater Kidapawan Area in the northern and eastern part.

When Datu Ampatuan of Maganoy threatened to stage a rebellion against the Americans in 1913, Datu Ingkal is recorded as threatening to side with him. The Americans sought to pacify the two datus by offering appointments and administrative arrangements.

Datu Ingkal's territory, Kidapawan, would be formed into a Municipal District on July 23, 1914, one of twenty seven under the newly created Cotabato Province of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu as mandated under Article 19 of Act No. 2408. Datu Siawan Ingkal, son of Datu Ingkal Ugok, would be appointed Municipal District President. The act was made official with Act No. 2711 approved on March 10, 1917, mentioning Kidapawan as a municipal district. The Cornejo Commonwealth Directory of 1939, published under the newly elected Quezon government, still names Datu Siawan as District President, with Datu Amag Madut as vice president.

Kidapawan's establishment as a Municipal District paved the way for settlers from Luzon and Visayas to come over the succeeding decades up until the 1960s. Kidapawan was not a planned colony, but it was surrounded by planned colonies on both sides, thus encouraging individual migration: Davao, a Spanish colony in the late 1800s, Pikit, an agricultural colony set up by the Americans, the settlements of the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA) in what is today South Cotabato, and much later the colony of Alamada under Magsaysay's National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA). The diverse ethnic composition of Kidapawan's settler population, with Cebuanos, Tagalogs, Ilonggos, Chinese, and Igorots, reflect both the gradual individual efforts of migrants and Kidapawan's position as the transition area between Cebuano-dominated Davao and Ilonggo-dominated Cotabato.

There are conflicting accounts as to where the original center of Kidapawan was before the War. Tribal and settler sources name either Manongol (for a time called ‘Old Kidapawan’) or Lanao as centers, with some sources identifying Lanao as the commercial center of the town where the settlers concentrated, with Manongol the seat of Siawan Ingkal's chieftaincy.

The details of Kidapawan's arrangements during the Second World War are unclear, but it seems to have been one of the Municipal Districts elevated in 1942 to Municipality by virtue of Executive Order No. 43 of the Japanese-sponsored Executive Commission.

No records attest to it, but informants (primary among them Rosita Blanco Cadungog) names Filomeno Blanco as the local appointed Mayor by the Japanese during their occupation of Kidapawan. There are even less details on the arrangements of the resistance government, but Kidapawan fell under the command of Datu Udtog Matalam, who with his Bolo Battalion led the Cotabato region's guerrilla movement. Records indicate that in 1942 Alfonso O. Angeles Sr. had been appointed ‘Mayor of the Upper Cotabato Sector,’ to which Kidapawan presumably belonged, while the Paclibar family describes a ‘Civil Emergency Administration’ in M’lang under the 118th Infantry Regiment of the 106th Division of Wendell Fertig's 10th Military District (the resistance detachment in Mindanao during the War), headed by Jacinto Paclibar.

Geography

thumb|Paniki Falls

Kidapawan is located at the foot of Mount Apo, in southeastern Cotabato province, in the middle of the four major Mindanaoan cities of General Santos, Davao, Cotabato and Cagayan de Oro. It shares its borders with the Cotabato towns of Magpet and President Roxas to the north, Matalam to the west, M’lang to the south and Makilala to the east.

Kidapawan covers a total land area of . Its land area is mostly flat, except for the increasingly hilly and mountainous regions to the northeast near Mount Apo, the highest point in the Philippines. The Kabacan River has its source in the northeastern part of the city and flows through its northern border with Magpet town.

Barangays

The city of Kidapawan is politically subdivided into 40 barangays. Each barangay can be further subdivided into puroks and sitios.

  • Amas
  • Amazion
  • Balabag
  • Balindog
  • Binoligan
  • Birada
  • Gayola
  • Ginatilan
  • Ilomavis
  • Indangan
  • Junction
  • Kalaisan
  • Kalasuyan
  • Katipunan
  • Lanao
  • Linangcob
  • Luvimin
  • Macabolig
  • Magsaysay
  • Malinan
  • Manongol
  • Marbel (Embac)
  • Mateo
  • Meochao
  • Mua-an
  • New Bohol
  • Nuangan
  • Onica
  • Paco
  • Patadon (Patadon East)
  • Perez
  • Poblacion
  • San Isidro
  • San Roque
  • Santo Niño
  • Sibawan
  • Sikitan
  • Singao
  • Sudapin
  • Sumbac

Climate

Kidapawan lies outside the typhoon belt and has a mild climate characterized by wet and dry seasons. The coldest months are December and January. The hottest are April and May.

Demographics

thumb|Kidapawan City Plaza