Cabanatuan, chartered city, central Luzon, northern Philippines, on the Pampanga River. It is the commercial centre for the eastern portion of Luzon’s central plain, which is heavily farmed in rice. An important highway junction, it is also the terminus of a rail spur line. Cabanatuan is the site of Central Luzon Polytechnic College. During World War II, U.S. and Filipino soldiers captured at Bataan and Corregidor Island by the Japanese were interned in a prison camp at the nearby village of Cabu. Inc. city, 1950. Pop. (2000) 222,859; (2010) 272,676.