Bacoor


Bacoor, officially the City of Bacoor, is a component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the, it has a population of people., making it the 15th most populous city in the Philippines and the second largest city in the province of Cavite after Dasmariñas.

Etymology

The name of Bacoor is transcribed in old sources variously as "Bacoor", "Bacor", "Bakur", etc. It was originally the name of the Bacoor Bay which separates the Cavite peninsula from the mainland. The name is believed to be originally from the Philippine Negrito languages, meaning "circle", referring to the shape of the bay.
Another possible origin of the name of Bacoor is from Tagalog bakood for "highlands" or "plateau".

History

Spanish colonization

Bacoor was one of the flashpoints of the Cavite Mutiny of 1872. Bacoor's parish priest at that time, Fr. Mariano Gómez, was one of the GOMBURZA trio implicated in the mutiny for advocating the secularization of priesthood in the Philippines. He and the rest of GOMBURZA were executed at Bagumbayan in 1872. The death of the GOMBURZA served as the inspiration for Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo, which in turn influenced the ignition of the Philippine Revolution.
During the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896, Bacoor was one of the first towns in Cavite to rise up. A Katipunan chapter, codenamed Gargano, led by Gil Ignacio from barrio Banalo, started the hostilities in Bacoor on September 2, 1896, three days after the revolution began.
On February 17, 1897, General Emilio Aguinaldo's 40,000-strong force confronted a 20,000-strong Spanish reinforcement at the Zapote River. The Katipuneros reinforced the southern bank of the river with trenches designed by Filipino engineer Edilberto Evangelista.
Edilberto Evangelista was known as the "Engineer of the revolution" and the "Hero of the revolution". They also blew up the Zapote Bridge with explosives which killed several Spaniards crossing it and thereby preventing them from reaching Cavite and forcing them to retreat to Muntinlupa. Despite the Filipino victory, they lost the brilliant Evangelista who was killed in action.
However, after the Spanish counteroffensive in May 1897, Bacoor and the rest of Cavite finally fell to the Spaniards, forcing Aguinaldo and his men to retreat to Biak-na-Bato.

American occupation

With the Philippine declaration of independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, hostilities reignited in Cavite and Bacoor was designated as the first capital of Emilio Aguinaldo's revolutionary government until it was transferred to Malolos, Bulacan in August 1898, a month before the convening of the Malolos Congress.
The Zapote Bridge became the site once again of another battle on June 13, 1899, this time between Philippine and American troops. An American force of 1,200 men supported by naval gunfire from the American squadron in Manila Bay crushed a 5,000-strong Filipino force led by General Pío del Pilar. Zapote Bridge's special place in Philippine history is depicted today in Bacoor's city seal.
On October 15, 1903, the Philippine Commission enacted Act No. 947, merging Bacoor and Perez-Dasmariñas with Imus. Bacoor was reconstituted as an independent municipality on October 24, 1906 by virtue of Act No. 1551, thus separating it from Imus.

Japanese occupation

During World War II, in 1942, Japanese occupation forces entered Bacoor and other towns of Cavite province. From May 7, 1942, to August 15, 1945, many Caviteños joined the Cavite Guerrilla Unit, a recognized guerrilla group headed by Colonel Mariano Castañeda.
This group would eventually become the Filipino-American Cavite Guerrilla Forces. Colonel Francisco Guerrero and the FACGF's 2nd Infantry Regiment was put in charge of Japanese resistance in Bacoor.
The FAGCF, together with Filipino soldiers under the 4th, and 42nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army liberated Bacoor. The 4th Constabulary Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary defeated the Japanese Imperial Army forces from January 1, to August 15, 1945, during the Allied liberation of the Philippines.

Philippine independence

In 1972, Bacoor became a center of commemoration for the centennial of the martyrdom of the Gomburza and its beloved parish priest Padre Mariano Gomez. The celebrations were headed by Mayor Pablo Gomez Sarino, a relative of Fr. Gomez, which included the turnover of a historical marker to the town of Bacoor.
On June 21, 1988, Mayor Angelito Miranda was assassinated in front of a hospital in Las Piñas by two gunmen, which the police claimed to be from a notorious drug syndicate.

Cityhood

During the 1990s and 2000s, Bacoor attempted to achieve cityhood status due to its growing population and tax income, with several cityhood bills filed in Congress in 1997, 2000 and 2007. On July 25, 2011, President Benigno Aquino III signed into law Republic Act No. 10160 creating the City of Bacoor. It was ratified through a plebiscite on June 23, 2012, wherein majority of the town's participated registered voters favored the cityhood.
With the incorporation of Bacoor as a city, it was divided into two legislative districts, Bacoor West and Bacoor East. During the 2013 mid-term elections, the citizens of Bacoor voted for six councilors for each of the two districts.
On April 12, 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11274, amending Section 10 of RA No. 10160; as a result, eight barangays had their names P.F. Espiritu corrected to Panapaan, and another, Zapote V, which was inadvertently omitted in the list provided by an earlier law, was included as part of Bacoor West.

2023 plebiscite

On March 28, 2023, the city government passed City Ordinance No. 275-2023, signed by mayor Strike Revilla, pursuant to the Local Government Code of 1991. The said ordinance aimed to reduce 49 barangays to 23: 44 to be merged into 18; five others to be renamed as a consequence of the merger. As a result, the number of city's barangays will be reduced from 73 to 47.
On May 17, the Commission on Elections issued Resolution No. 10917 for the conduct of the plebiscite, which was set on July 29.
A plebiscite was held in 223 clustered precincts across 22 voting centers, as well as in the city jail, with more than a hundred thousand registered voters expected to participate. Despite low voter turnout, majority of voters agreed with the ordinance. The plebiscite results were announced after midnight of July 30.
Local officials had argued that once ratified, the merger of 44 barangays will increase their annual income by about 147–197%. COMELEC said that the city's 223 clustered precincts will be decreased for the upcoming nationwide barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October.

Geography

Physical

Bacoor is strategically located at the gateway to Metro Manila. A sub-urban area, the city is located from Imus and southwest of Manila, on the southeastern shore of Manila Bay, at the northwest portion of the province with an area of 52.4 square kilometers.
It is bordered to the east by Las Piñas and Muntinlupa, to the south by Dasmariñas, to the west by Kawit and Imus, and to the north by Bacoor Bay, an inlet of Manila Bay. Bacoor is separated from Las Piñas by the Zapote River and Imus and Kawit by the Bacoor River.
Most of the city comprises flat, formerly agricultural lands, while some areas, such as the coastal barangays of Zapote, Talaba, Niog, and Panapaan, are below sea level. Some barangays, such as Molino and Queens Row, are situated on the hills that form valleys along the upstream portion of the Zapote River.

Barangays

Bacoor is politically subdivided into 47 barangays. These barangays are grouped into two local electoral districts, officially called Bacoor West and Bacoor East, represented in the city council by their respective councilors. However, the city government has officially abandoned such name designation for the electoral districts and has released edicts officially calling them District 1 and District 2, respectively. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification system, Bacoor features a tropical savanna climate that borders on a tropical monsoon climate. Together with the rest of the Philippines, Bacoor lies entirely within the tropics. Its proximity to the equator means that the temperature range is small, rarely going lower than and going higher than. However, humidity levels are usually very high, which makes it feel much warmer. It has a distinct dry season from late December through April and a relatively lengthy wet season that covers the remaining period. The southwest monsoon, or Habagat, occurs from June to September and can cause flooding in parts of the city.

Demographics

In the 2024 census, the population of Bacoor was 661,381 people, with a density of. It is the second most populous city in the province after Dasmariñas.
The city is a bedroom community of Metro Manila which owes its large population to the influx of low and middle-income settlers who availed of the various housing projects and subdivisions in it.

Religion

is the dominant religion in Bacoor. It is part of the Diocese of Imus and is the seat of the Vicariate of St. Michael the Archangel and the Vicariate of Santo Niño de Molino. One of Bacoor's notable parish priests was Fr. Mariano Gómez, one of the GOMBURZA trio implicated in the Cavite Mutiny who served as parish priest at the Bacoor parish church from 1824 to his death in 1872. Another notable priest who served the parish of Bacoor was St. Ezekiel Moreno at the time when it was still part of the vast hacienda of the Recollects. He tirelessly provided the Last Rites to the victims of a cholera plague which affected the towns of Bacoor and Imus and was responsible for the rehabilitation of the Molino Dam to irrigate the rice fields of Bacoor and Las Piñas.
Due to the Philippine Revolution, Bacoor was once again ministered to by secular Filipino priests under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila. However, during the American occupation in 1902, the Catholic parish priest at that time, Fr. Fortunato Clemeña, became the first Aglipayan priest of Bacoor, as well as the first Aglipayan Bishop of Cavite, during the Aglipayan Schism. Most of the first members of the church in Bacoor were Katipuneros headed by General Mariano Noriel, who is also the first president of the laymen organization. The conversion of Father Clemeña eventually led to the occupation of the old parish church of Bacoor by the Philippine Independent Church, whose occupation ended in 1907 by order of the Philippine Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Catholic Church for illegally-occupied church property. After this recovery, the Roman Catholics exerted efforts in the early 20th century to revive its numbers in the town through the revitalization of its fiesta and the establishment of new traditions. Despite this, and the influx of largely non-Aglipayan migrants from Manila and from other provinces, the presence of the Aglipayan church is still evident in the city. The Aglipayan Diocese of Cavite's Cathedral in Barangay Digman, which is also dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, is situated a few blocks away from the town's Catholic church. It is the second dominant religion in Bacoor.
Bacoor also has a significant population of Muslims, mostly middle-class Maranao traders and merchants, with a minority of Badjao fishing communities. Several mosques cater to the local Muslim community of Bacoor, the largest being Masjid As-Salaamah, opposite Zapote market. A number of Protestant and other Christian denominations also have a presence in the city.