The municipality traces its origins during the middle of the 17th century when Spanish friars opened a mission intended to convert the native population to Catholicism. Several families grouped together for mutual protection from wild beasts and lawless elements. Three missionary priests were sent to the settlement. Having surveyed the settlement, two of the priests did not admire the place. One of them was heard to have remarked in Spanish “Mala” meaning “No good”. The other readily nodded in agreement and was heard to have replied in Spanish “Si” meaning “Yes”. But the third priest was determined to settle with the natives than the other two, so he was heard to have protested in Spanish saying “Yqui?” meaning “So what?”. The natives who heard the short dialogue but did not understand the language thought that the priest gave a name to the settlement. They heard the priests uttered the following words in succession “Mala-si-yqui”. From that time the settlement has been known as Malasiqui.
The Municipality of Malasiqui is a first class Town located in the Southern Central part of Pangasinan and within the 3rd Congressional District. It is bounded by the Municipalities of Calasiao and Sta. Barbara in the North, Alcala and Bayambang in the South, Villasis and Urdaneta City in the East and Basista and San Carlos City in the West. Malasiqui is generally safe and peaceful municipality. It has a well-maintained peace and orderly community. It has adequate protective services to enforce the law with responsible and concerned citizens working closely and cooperatively with the law enforcers.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) force based in Malasiqui has its own station located inside the Municipal Plaza. It has an area of two hundred sixty-seven (267) square meters at the right side of Municipal Plaza. There are three (3) Police Community Precinct located in Brgy. Gatang, boundary post of Alcala, Pangasinan, Brgy. Lareg-Lareg, boundary post of Villasis, Pangasinan and Brgy Asin East, boundary post of Sta. Barbara and Urdaneta City, Pangasinan.
The Municipality of Malasiqui has a custodial facility inside police station having only two (2) cells; one for male and one for female with comfort room custodial facility just to accommodate 10 detainees. Custodial facility is a facility in which detaines are forcibly confined and denied a variety of freedom under the authority of the state as a form of punishment. The most common use of prisons is within a criminal justice. People charged with crimes may be imprisoned until they are brought to trial; those pleading or being found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of punishment. Malasiqui MPS has increase its mobility by acquiring two (2) Bicycle, 4 (four) motorcycle and two (2) patrol car; communication capability of 1 base radio, 1 mobile radio and 28 handheld radio with 1 Repeater, one (1) landline and two (2) cellular phone, total shoot capability of 12 long firearms and 64 short firearms; and technological devices such as ten (10) computer with printer, two (2) television, nine (9) air-conditioning, six (6) digital camera and twenty (20) CCTV camera with monitor.
The importance of power sector for the development of the locality cannot be overemphasized. As a matter of fact infrastructure is the lifetime of the economy of every place in the world. It is seen that the locality has inadequate power supply due to continuous disruption particularly during summer. Economic and environmental factors are playing an ever-increasing part in the drive to improve efficiencies of services on transportation, water supply down to communication and information technology.
All barangays in the Municipality of Malasiqui had been energized, electrical posts are installed in strategic locations, however there are about 5.1 percent out of 26,142 total number of households as of 2010 census or 1,307 households that are not yet connected to electrical services due to financial difficulties.
Electricity provided lighting to 95% of the total households in the Municipality of Malasiqui, Eighty percent of the electricity users used fluorescent lamps and average of 79 KW/h. Second major use of electricity was for household recreation as reported about 80 percent of the total househods for colored television and other appliances recorded the biggest usage at 80.4 or average consumption of 119 KW/h. Every households used electricity day and night, for cooking, washing ironing and refrigeration.
There is a controlled dumpsite located in Brgy. Taloyan which is about 10km. from Poblacion. Collection of solid wastes is everyday by 2 dump trucks of the municipality at daytime and 1 truck at nighttime. Other household have compost pit and/or bury their wastes. Other still burn. Collection of wastes by dump trucks is only done within the Poblacion are. The rest of the barangays have their own system of waste disposal. The almost one hectare municipal dumpsite is part of the 16 hectare owned by the LGU which was purchased in the early 1990s and is now home to various fruit trees like mangoes, bananas and papayas; crops like rice and corn and mahogany and bamboo trees. Rural community greening, cleanliness and beautification programs and forestry development are implemented in the dumpsite.
Properly managed water supply and sewerage services are essential for the maintenance of public and ensuring the wellbeing of communities. Poorly managed water supply and sewerage services can threaten public health and result in environmental harm. To ensure that these services are properly managed. There is a need to have a responsible community for water conservation and management of these services. Improper utilization of water resources would result to community health and wellbeing may be threatened; significant projects may result to delay.
In the Philippines, there are three levels of water supply, and each of them is regulated by the municipal code or the local water district law. Level 1 - water supplied by wells or springs in the villages; Level 2 - water supplied by public water faucets; and Level 3 - water supplied through water faucets in individual households. Levels 1 and 2 are under the jurisdiction of municipalities, whereas Level 3 water supply is under the jurisdiction of either Water Districts 1 or municipalities. The Municipality of Malasiqui source of water supplied for level 3 categories is being managed by the Water District is an organization separate from the municipality with responsibilities such as improvement and management of the water supply system in the region, and the setting and collecting of water charges. The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) is a government agency which supports establishment of the 1 Water Districts is organizations established in 1973 following the Presidential Decree No. 198 (PD 198). Water Districts in rural areas, improvement of water facilities and their administration.
The main responsibility of LWUA is the lending of funds to Water Districts. Another responsibility of LWUA is providing operational support to the Water Districts such as managerial and technical guidance. LWUA itself is funded by loans and investments from the government.
Water supply was not meeting the potential demand due to insufficient water supply and problems in some operating water facilities; expansion of water facilities was needed in order to respond to the significant increase in demand that was expected in the future.
Information and communication technology is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing, radio, television, cellular phones, computers and network hardware and software, satellite systems and many others as well as the various services and applications associated. Information Communication Technology encompasses telephone, wireless and computer technology which has changed the way the world operates.
Among its advantages:
1. Utility – Communications can take place instantaneously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year across the globe. Messages can be sent to one or multiple recipients;
2. Shared Resources- groups of users can access the same programs, applications even hardware such as printers and faxes using networking and wireless technology
3. Education – Most the teachers in the Municipality of Malasiqui has motivated students as well as facilitating completion of work and the communications between teachers
The Municipality of Malasiqui has 12 cellsites, operated by PLDT, SMART, GLOBE. The Postal services is still serving the seventy three (73) barangays of the locality both in-coming and out-going mails. However, due to the new technology, the use of mobile cellphones and internet, only a few mails that are being served through postal.
Industrial production like commerce and trade are concentrated on Agro-based products like meat production, poultry, eggs, vegetables, corn products and small scale industries. There are a total of 83 industrial establishments operating in Malasiqui in year 2014 and 94 in year 2016 or an increase of 11 number of registered small scale industries. This inventory includes rice mill, motorcycle sidecar assembly, repair shops, bakeries, furniture and woodcraft making, and iron works industries, swine, cattle and poultry farms are also included as industrial activity. Malasiqui is one of the three (3) largest identified industrial sites for the Province of Pangasinan located within the rural barangays: Lunes, Asin Norte, Taloyan, Manggan-Dampay, Bacundao Este, Bacundao Weste, portion of Pamaranum, Palapar Norte and Palapar Sur classified as light industrial zones in the previous CLUP of the Municipality with a total land area of 2.67 hectares. The municipality has been advocating micro enterprises as the nuclie and focal point for an accelerated economic growth and self-reliance. The need for the creation of employment opportunities and profitable ventures in the promotion and development of micro enterprise is hastened by the rapid population growth in Malasiqui making labor supply is abundant. The establishment of labor industry which is resource based will generate demands of raw materials which could be supplied by the agricultural sector, thereby upgrading livelihood productivity and entrepreneurship.
Majority of the people work in agriculture like rice, corn and vegetable production, livestock and fishing. The rest are engaged in serviecs offered by the commercial establishments mostly located in Poblacion. Some are employed in the nearby towns as goverment and private employees. Other are overseas workers both in technical and professional jobs while a number of residents are working in Metro Manila, Baguio City and other provinces.
The total number of working age is 72672 but only 37436 are in the labor force, the rest are not employed.