The municipality of Tublay started as a township which was organized by the American Government under Act No. 48 in November 1900.

In the middle of 1899, although not yet a town at the time, Tublay figured prominently in the Hispanic-American History of the Philippines and the province of Benguet when one of its prominent sons by the name of Juan Ora Cariño was appointed and became the first Governor of Benguet when the Province was organized under the albeit short-lived, Republic of the Philippines, when headed by President Emilio Aguinaldo.

In the early 1900, near the end of the First Philippine Republic, Tublay became the evacuation site of the Benguet Provincial Government headed by Juan Cariño. Pursuing American Forces forced the Provincial and other Katipunan officials out of La Trinidad. It was in Tublay, that the head of President Aguinaldo’s cabinet, Pedro Paterno and his assistant secretary, Julian Gorona, were captured in April of 1900 by the American Forces. Governor Juan Cariño, who was shot in the leg, managed somehow to escape but was later captured in May of the same year near Bucao, Kabayan.

Following the capture of Benguet province leaders and other officials of the Revolutionary Government of President Aguinaldo, peace settled very quickly within the province. Towards the end of 1900, the Americans established in Benguet Province the first Provincial Civil Government in the Philippines under the American Government in Baguio as the capital town. With this continuing development, popular representatives of the people to the American Insular Government were installed towards 1901 and another son of Tublay, a younger brother of Juan Ora Cariño, by the name of Mateo Cariño, who was a resident of Baguio, was elected as the first popular representative to the chief executive of the American Insular Government.

In the post-Commonwealth period (1946-1982), with the Philippines as a sovereign state, Tublay continued to provide political leaders for the province of Benguet and the city of Baguio. Hence, it was dubbed as the “Athens of Benguet”.

In 1971, a native son of Tublay, Baltazar Acop Depaynos, was elected and served as member of the Benguet Provincial Board up to 1979 when he retired from the government service. He was a grandson of Bangilan Acop and a son of Fernando Cosalan, both of whom were former town presidents of Tublay under the American Government. Prior to his service with the provincial board, Baltazar Depaynos also served for three consecutive terms (1956-1967) as mayor of Bokod municipality.

Another native son of Tublay who was also a grandson of Bangilan Acop, Poredo Acop Depaynos, after whom Acop’s place in the Poblacion was named, was also elected and served as mayor of Kabayan.

From 1965 to 1982, the province of Benguet and the city of Baguio were represented in the Batasang Pambansa by a native son of Tublay. He was Andres Acop Cosalan, youngest son of Fernando Cosalan, and also a grandson of Bangilan Acop.

From 1988, Tublay was headed by Mayor Joseph Cosente. In 1998, Willy Velasco was elected as mayor for a period of three years (1998-2001).

Tublay is geographically located 163 km. north of Manila and 13 km. north of Baguio City. It has an estimated land area of about 5,730 hectares, representing about 2.2% of the total provincial land area. Among the barangays, Ambassador has the largest land area with 1,152.0 has. representing 20% of the total municipal land area. The smallest is Tuel with 479 has. or 7% of the total municipal land area.

The municipality's topography is generally mountainous having an elevation of 1,400 meters above sea level. It has two pronounced seasons- the dry and the wet seasons with a temperature coldest at 6.5°C and warmest at 27.5°C.

Its Inhabitants

The municipality has a total population of 13,504 recorded by the National Statistics Office in 1995. The population is distributed to 2,443 households with an average household size of 5.43 and an annual population growth rate of 2.74% covering the year 1990-1995.

Most of the populace are Ibalois, Kankanaeys and Kalanguyas and speaking Ibaloi, Kankanaey, Kalanguya and Ilokano.

Its Economy

Agriculture being the major industry of the people, has a total area of 3,713 has. Of the total agricultural land, only 1,671 hectares are irrigated while 2,042 hectares are rainfed. Key crops include vegetables, root crops, palay, banana, flowers and coffee.