South East Asian Trips

Pasig City is approximately 12 km. east-south-east of Manila with a total land area of 3,100 hectares sprawled along the banks of Marikina and Pasig River. The most convincing theory on the origin of the name comes from the late Dr. Jose Villa Panganiban, linguist, polyglot, professor, and former director of the Institute of National Language, who said that "Pasig" is an old Sanskrit word referring to a"river flowing from one body of water to another" - in the case of Pasig River, from Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay.

There are several and different legends about the origin of the word "Pasig."

A pair of lovers, named Virgilio, a Spanish mestizo and a Filipina beauty named Paz, customarily spent their evening together on the bank of the river. They found a banca and went boating one moonlit night but as fate had it, the banca capsized. Virgilio not knowing how to swim, was carried away by the current and desperately kept afloat but to no avail. He shouted "Paz sigue me" (meaning "Paz, come with me"), until he could only utter Paz sig and finally sank into the river. Thus, the name Pasig.It was also believed that it came from the Sanskrit word "passis" or sand and refers to the community on a river bank which was sandy. Historians who are less inclined to rely on a legendary romantic origins traced the town's name to the word "mabagsik" meaning violent in action or force which aptly describes the river. Its strong and swift current brought the woods of Montalban to Manila.

It was also called "mapaksik" by the Chinese living in Binondo. As time went on, "mapaksik" became "Pasik" then later on "Pasig". Another belief was that it was derived from "pasigan" which means "baybay ng ilog", river edge or bank in English.

The most convincing theory on the origin of the name comes from the late Dr. Jose Villa Panganiban, linguist, polyglot, professor, and former director of The Institute of National Language, who said that "Pasig" is an old Sanskrit word referring to a "river flowing from one body of water to another," in the case of the Pasig River, from Laguna de Bay (pronounced Ba-I) to Manila Bay.