Antipolo


Antipolo, officially the City of Antipolo, is a component city and capital of the province of Rizal, Philippines. According to the, it has a population of people. It is the most populous city in Rizal Province and in Calabarzon region, and the seventh most-populous city in the Philippines. It is also the most populated city under the component city status.
Its higher elevation than that of Metro Manila and rest of Rizal affords it a scenic view of the metropolitan area and other parts of the province, especially at night. Its locally grown mangoes and cashews are popular among tourists, as well as suman – a local delicacy made out of glutinous rice. The Hinulugang Taktak National Park, which was once a popular summer get-away is being restored to become again one of the city's primary attractions because it was devastated by a typhoon.

Etymology

The city was named after the breadfruit tree which in Tagalog is antipulo or tipulo, which was in abundance in the area. It is highly similar to the kamansi plant or Artocarpus camansi.

History

Spanish colonial era

arrived in Antipolo in 1578, and built a small church on what is now Boso-Boso Church. They were soon replaced in 1591 by the Jesuits, who organized the village into a parish. By 1601, The Christian population of Antipolo had grown to about 3,000 as the indigenous Dumagat population dwindled and moved deeper into the interiors.
An uprising of Manila's Chinese residents reached Antipolo in 1602. It led to the razing of the church.
On March 25, 1626, the image now known as the Virgin of Antipolo was brought from Acapulco, New Spain by Governor-General Juan Niño de Tabora, who relinquished the image to the Jesuits for Antipolo's church.
In 1650, the village was organized into a town and became part of Tondo Province. When the province was divided in 1853, Antipolo became a part of the District of San Mateo de los Montes, which later became the District of Morong.
Later in the 1700s, discharged soldiers and deserters were providing Indios military training for the weapons that had been disseminated all over the territory during the British Occupation of Manila as they disperesed across the provinces surrounding Manila, including Antipolo, Rizal.
The Recollects took over Antipolo in 1864. It was during these years that the Virgin of Antipolo gained a following of devotees. Devotees from Manila and nearby towns and provinces flocked to Antipolo on foot, carryinghammocks, trekking along mountain trails and springs.

American invasion era

During the First Republic, the town served as the capital of Morong, until it was occupied by the Americans on June 4, 1899; the Revolutionary Government then transferred Morong's capital to Tanay. Soon after, the Americans established a civil government in 1901, Valentin Sumulong became the first municipal president. On June 11, 1901, Antipolo was incorporated into the newly established Province of Rizal, which included towns of Morong District and Manila Province. In 1903, the nearby towns of Bosoboso and Teresa were merged with Antipolo. The town's territory was expanded again in 1913 to add the sitios of Mayamot and Bulao; just to lose Teresa six years later to become an independent municipality. The Manila Railroad Company inaugurated a railway service to Antipolo on December 24, 1908.
Long before the LRT Line 2 finally opened its services in Santolan in the Pasig-Marikina border in 2004, steam train services had once served those places in the past, even before World War II.
In Marikina, there is a street named "Daangbakal", also called by the names of "Shoe Avenue Extension", "Munding Avenue" and "Bagong Silang". There is also a similar "Daangbakal" in the San Mateo-Montalban area, and on the maps one can notice that the two roads should have been connected with each other. In fact, as the name suggests in Tagalog, these streets were once a single railway line. The two sides of the "Daangbakal" roads were once connected by a bridge in the San Mateo-Marikina border. However, as the railroad tracks have been largely ignored after the Japanese occupation and was transformed into separate highways, the railway connection was abandoned.
The old railroad tracks, called the Marikina Line, were connected from Tutuban station in Manila, passing through Tramo coming all the way to the town of Marikina up to Montalban. On the northern end of the "Daangbakal" road in Montalban is a basketball court. That basketball court which stands today, surrounded by the Montalban Catholic Church and Cemetery, was once the railway station terminus of that particular line.
The present-day Santo Niño Elementary School in Marikina was said to be a train depot. And also it was said that a railroad station once stood in the Marikina City Sports Park.
The Marikina Line was completed in 1906, and continued its operation until 1936. It was said that the Japanese Imperial Army made use of this railway line during the Second World War. These railways were dismantled during the 1960s and were converted into ordinary roads.
Today, the citizens are dependent on tricycles, jeepneys, taxis, UV Express services, buses and AUVs, which contribute to the everyday unbearable traffic of Metropolitan Manila. Even now there is uncertainty concerning the Northrail project, which is to link Manila to the northern provinces of Luzon, owing to corruption within the project's construction.
Aside from the Marikina Line, two other lines have existed before but are now removed permanently. These are the Cavite Line, which passed through Paco, Parañaque, Bacoor and up to Naic, Cavite. Completed in 1908, its operation continued until 1936. The other is the Antipolo Line, which passed through Santa Mesa, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Cainta, Taytay, up to Antipolo near the "Hinulugang Taktak" Falls. Its operation ceased in 1917. There is a street named "Daangbakal" in Antipolo; there, as with the "Daangbakal" roads on Marikina and San Mateo, a railway line once existed. The railroad tracks also passed through what is now the Ortigas Avenue Extension.

Japanese occupation era

During the start of the Second World War in the Philippines, Antipolo became a refugee destination for many citizens from Manila and its suburbs who sought to avoid the Japanese invaders vying to occupy the Philippine capital. Also, two guerrilla units operated in the town against the Japanese. They were the Hunters ROTC under Miguel Ver and Terry Adevoso and the Marking Filipino and American Troops, which were established and led by Marcos Villa Agustin, more popularly known under the name Brig. Gen. Agustin Marking. Many inhabitants were tortured and killed by the Japanese, including Mayor Pascual Oliveros and his son Reynaldo, Padre Eusebio Carreon, Padre Ariston Ocampo, Sis. Ma. Elizabeth Cagulanas, RVM, Sis. Ma. Consuelo Recio, RVM; Ambrosio Masangkay, Alfonso Oliveros and Atty. Francisco C. Gedang Sr.
The liberation of Antipolo from the Japanese forces was bloody and devastating. On February 17, 1945, Mambugan, Antipolo was heavily bombarded by American planes. Antipolo residents evacuated to Sitio Colaique and up to the towns of Angono, Santolan and Marikina. To protect the image from being destroyed, Procopio Angeles, then the sacristan mayor, and members of the community brought with them the Virgin of Antipolo. The bombings on March 6–7, 1945, destroyed the church, and after twelve days of battle, the combined American and Filipino soldiers under the United States Army, Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Constabulary and aided the local recognized guerrillas of the Hunters ROTC and Marking's Filipino-American Troops liberated the town on March 12, 1945. The general headquarters of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Constabulary was stationed in Antipolo from March 1945 to June 1946 was built today and operates during and after the war was fought the Japanese and they helping guerrillas and Allies. After the war, a temporary church was built and the Virgin of Antipolo was returned from the Quiapo Church on October 15, 1945.

Philippine independence

Religious devotees began to flock to the town, and on May 6, 1947, the first procession of the Virgin of Antipolo was held, starting at the hills of Pinagmisahan. In the following year, a national committee was formed to undertake a nationwide fund-raising campaign to rebuild the Cathedral of Antipolo.
On June 15, 1952, Hinulugang Taktak was proclaimed a National Park by President Elpidio Quirino, and on January 14, 1954, the Bishops of the Philippines proclaimed the Antipolo Church as the national shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo. In May 1960, vice mayor Maximo Gatlabayan and police chief Pio Tolentino were sentenced by Judge Cecilia Muñoz-Palma to 30 days in jail for refusing to follow a court order not to collect any fees from motorists making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage.
In the 1960s, the town proper was widened and the Sumulong Highway was constructed. On September 12, 1969, Philippine Air Lines Flight 158 was flying from Cebu to Manila when it crashed into a hill at 760 feet in Sitio Colaique within Barrio San Roque, killing 45 of the 47 people on board. It was the worst aviation disaster in the Philippines at the time.
In the 1990s, the Marikina–Infanta Road, better known as the Marcos Highway, was constructed, traversing the mountains of Antipolo.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Antipolo was created on June 25, 1983, with Rev. Protacio G. Gungon, D.D. as the first bishop of the diocese.

Provincial capital

On March 4, 2009, a new capitol building was inaugurated in the city to replace the old capitol in Pasig.
On June 19, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11475, designating Antipolo City as the official capital of Rizal province, replacing Pasig that held the title since the province's creation in 1901 even after its incorporation to Metro Manila in 1975. It took effect on July 7, 2020.