Escalante City is a two-and-a-half hour drive from Bacolod City. Public
utility vehicles plying the northern Negros route pass by this city.
From Cebu, Escalante can be reached by ferry boat through the Yap RORO
Port or the Barcelon Port.
Originally, the town was known as Manlambus, a Visayan term
meaning to strike with a club because its coastal waters were then
teeming with fishes that catching them could simply be done by using a
club or lambus.
It is believed that Escalante was inhabited since 11th A.D. per artifacts unearthed by Siliman University Anthropological Team in 1975-76. It was created a municipality on November 28, 1856 on orders of Gobernador Manuel Crespo, with Nueva Sevilla (now Old Poblacion) as the seat of government. In 1860, Fr. Cipriano Navarro, the first Spanish Missionary assigned to the place renamed it to Escalante, after his hometown in Spain.
Escalante was then a very big town with population bigger than that of Bacolod until 1939. However, Toboso, one of the biggest barangays of the town was separated from it in 1948 to be a Municipality by virtue of Executive Order No. 141 by President Elpidio Quirino decreasing its area and population.
The seat of the Municipal Government was transferred from Barangay Old Poblacion to Barangay Balintawak per Executive Order 301, dated May 30, 1958 by President Carlos P. Garcia.
Escalante was converted into a component city of Negros Occidental when its charter, R.A. 9014 was signed into law on February 28, 2001 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which was subsequently ratified in a plebiscite on March 2001.
This progressive city is the home of Manlambus Festival every 30th of May in celebration of its rich cultural heritage and glorious past that every Escalantehanon loves to share and tell. As its present dictum goes… ABANTE ESCALANTE, MASARANGAN NATO KINI!
Festivals
Manlambus Festival manifests the joys and sense of thanksgiving for all the blessings of abund
ance it has received through the years. The
festival dance appeals to all ages, as movements are simple, easy and
expressive. It is a wholesome form of entertainment. The compelling
rhythm of the drumbeats, the expressive movement and vigorous actions
of the dancers make it attractive to spectators.