During the Spanish regime, several Spanish soldiers were taking a walk along the shore of this town. They came across five (5) persons who were also at the shore and whose craft was destroyed by a strong storm that passed by. One of the Spaniards asked them for the name of this town in his native tongue. Not understanding Spanish, the natives thought that the Spaniards were asking how many are they, so they answered in their dialect, "lima, ay", meaning that they were five in all. The inhabitants of this place are used to saying "ay" as part of their accent. The Spaniards thought that was the answer to their question and went on with the knowledge that this was "Limay". From then on, this town was called                                                   Limay.

One of the towns included in the creation of Bataan as a province was Orion in which Limay was then only a barrio of. Limay was then a stagnant and underdeveloped place, wholly dependent upon the municipal officials of Orion for development and recognition. On January 1, 1917 by virtue of Executive Order No. 93 by the Governor General Francis Burton Harrison, Limay was proclaimed as an independent municipality. Freed from the bondage of being a mere barrio to full blast progress. Limay aggressively and energetically moved to gain status. Guided by the desire to prove itself and be recognized, its leaders never relented and worked towards making Limay a successful town. Limay was the last municipality created in the province but was the first to give a grant share of its income from Realty Tax.

Present

Limay is now a first class municipality in terms of its income, accredited mostly to big establishments exiting in the municipality, consequently, they also have a high employment rate. Mostly engineers, skilled and unskilled laborers, technical men from the province and other towns and cities.

Fast Facts

Limay is located in the southeastern part of Bataan, approximately 15 kilometers from the provincial capital. It can be reached via Orion Port which is only a 45-minute ferry ride from Manila, plus a 5 to 10 minute ride from Orion to Limay. The total land area is 10,362 hectares. Based on the existing land use, about 65.75% of the total area is forestland, 25.94% is agriculture, 5.95% is industrial use, 2.21% build-up area and 0.15% for aquaculture. Major agricultural produce is rice followed by vegetables, mangoes, bananas and rootcrops. Limay lies along the Manila Bay and has ample fish production to meet local demand in the area. Fish and aquatic products in the area include theraponid (babansi), acetes (alamang)., mackerel (hasa-hasa), and grouper (lapu-lapu). Based on the 1995 National Statistics Office Survey, the total Population is 40,123 wherein 54.32% are residing in the urban areas.

Major Industries

There are several heavy industries operating in Limay which include the Petron Bataan Refinery, the Planters Product Inc., Columbian Carbon Philippines, Philippine Explosives, National Power Corporation, Government Arsenal and Asea Brown Boveri. Limay is also host to the Limay Bulk Handling Terminal and Limay Grinding Mills. For the small and cottage industries, fish drying, iron and metal craft are dominant in the area.