Salt is an important export, being manufactured in salt water swamps and marshes throughout the province of Pangasinan (whose name, from asin, " salt," means "the place where salt is produced").
Most of the Ilocanos are in the western half of north Luzon; most of the Bicols in south Luzon; most of the Pangasinans in the province of Pangasinan, which borders on the Gulf of Lingayen; most of the Pampangans in the province of Pampanga, which borders the north shore of Manila Bay; and most of the Cagayans in the valley of the Cagayan river.