History of Bulacan
Bulacan is a province of the Philippines. It was established on 15 August 1578.
Prehistory
The earliest archeological evidence human habitation in the Philippines archipelago is the 40,000-year-old Tabon Man of Palawan and the Angono Petroglyphs in Rizal. By 1000 B.C. the inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had developed into four distinct kinds of peoples: tribal groups who depended on hunter-gathering and were concentrated in forests; warrior societies who practiced social ranking and ritualized warfare and roamed the plains; the petty plutocracy of the Ifugao Cordillera Highlanders, who occupied the mountain ranges of Luzon; and the harbor principalities of the estuarine civilizations that grew along rivers and seashores while participating in trans-island maritime trade.Around 300–700 C.E. the seafaring peoples of the islands traveling in balangays began trading with the Indianized kingdoms of Maritime Southeast Asia and nearby East Asian principalities, adopting influences from Buddhism and Hinduism.
During the reign of the Tang emperors in the 10th century, Arab and Chinese traders began to come to Bulacan, with both Indian and Chinese influences intensifying in the 11th and 12th centuries. Bulacan had by this time became an entrepot and the Bulakeños expert seafarers.
They built and sailed various types of ships, river canoes and larger vessels to carry merchandise, with up to hundred rowers and 30 fighting men. They lived in houses made of wood, bamboo and palm leaf thatch, had a syllabary written on bark and bamboo, played music, wore silk doublets and loin clothes or flowing skirts and flimsy blouses and jewellery. They had devised a social scheme of nobles, freemen and serfs and buried their dead in formal graveyard at least one example of which can still be seen in Bulacan today.
The history began when a settlement of fishermen lived along the coast of Manila Bay before the coming of the Spaniards. These settlers moved inland and begun farming as they discovered the interior was fertile and drained by the network of rivers and streams. The settlements flourished and grew into what is now known as the province of Bulacan.
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription or the LCI was discovered at the Lumbang River in Laguna in 1991. Historians such as Zeus Salazar of the University of the Philippines, consider the date of the LCI AD 900 as the commencement of recorded Philippine history rather than 1521. The copperplate was written in Kavi, an ancient script related to baybayin, and contains the placename "Binoangan", Pailah ), and Puliran, and a native chieftain named Bukah from which Gatbuka in Calumpit probably derives. All of these were now part of Bulacan.
Etymology
It is believed that flowers bloomed in the region when the Spaniards came. Because of these sprawling green orchards, vegetables and profusely flowering plants, as well as attractive women, this land had come to be called Bulacan as sort of shortened term for "bulak-lakan" and/or a derivative of the word "bulak" which abounded in the province before the Spaniards came, hence "bulakán" means "cotton field or plantation" or "kapok field".Some historians disagree on where the name Bulacan came from: some say from the word burak, because the place was swampy and muddy, while others say from the word bulak, since the road to the capital town was once upon a time lined with rows of cotton trees. According to Bahay-saliksikan ng Bulacan
Another point of disagreement is the year it became a province because of lack of the real cedula: Provincial Government of Bulacan thru then-Governor Josefina dela Cruz commissioned the Bulacan Center for Study to research the exact date but until now the research is still ongoing. But due to grey areas of due to the lack of document, it was officially declared by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Bulacan in its administrative order in 2008. It was duly recognized to be that in 1578, upon the foundation of the Town of Bulakan with the research conducted by the Bahay-saliksikan ng Bulacan in 2005, then its director Prof. Reynaldo S. Naguit agreed that it was founded in August 15, 1578 the Center for Bulacan Studies researchers found some documents mentioning Provincia de Bulacan in the years such as 1582 1591 (in documents on Report on Encomendas by Governor-General Luis Perez de Dasmarinas. In some Cedularios mentioning "Provincia de Bulacan" found by the research centre. It was the used grounds for declaring the year 1578 as Foundation of the Province.
Section III, New Provincial Administrative Code of 2007 provides that August 15, 1578 is Bulacan's foundation date, coinciding with the patronal festival of Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion, its patroness.
The Dasmariñas Document
According to the Relación de encomiendas en las Islas Filipinas, which may be considered as the first census report of the Philippines prepared by Governor Gómez Pérez de Dasmariñas in 1591, there were 75,000 "souls"in "La Pampanga", which included Bataán and Bulacán."Under the vast multilingual region of "La Pampanga", its encomiendas was divided into 4 Alcaldias which governed by its own Alcalde Mayor
- The Alcaldia de Bitis y Lubao,
- Alcaldia de Candava,
- Alcaldia de Calonpite, and
- Alcaldia de Bulacan and Meycauayan, except those towns that were part of Alcaldia de Calonpite and the town of San Miguel, was then part of Pampanga ceded to Bulacan in 1847 were then at the progress of the province and placing the exact demarcation of the boundaries of the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan.
Spanish colonial period
The history of the province from the Spanish occupation has been replete with events worthy of recollection. As early as the time of the coming of Legaspi to conquer Manila with two of his subordinate officers, Martin de Goiti and Juan Salcedo, the 1000 Bulakenyo Moros through their seafaring brothers from Hagonoy showed their instinctive love of country by helping Bambalito, a brave datu of Macabebe, a town quite near to Bulacan in Pampanga, and another 1000 Kapampangan Moros of Macabebe, Hagonoy, Malolos, Guiguito, Lubao, Betis, and some records tells also Calumpit fought at the naval Battle of the Bangkusay on June 3, 1571. The first recorded heroic deed of the Bulakenyos in history. Here also in this battle, Spanish friars and chroniclers recorded that Bulakenyo and Kapampangan chiefs sent 40 karakoas to Tondo armed with lantaka swivel guns.This is also recognized by historian Dr. Sonia M. Zaide as the first ever naval battle in the country.
By the time of Governor-General and adelantado Miguel Legazpi in 1571, Bulacan was reported to be well populated. The Spaniards organized the then-existing barangays in Bulacan into pueblos. The first pueblo established in Bulacan is the town of Calumpit. Calumpit was also the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the province.
The recorded history of Province of Bulacan might as well start in 1572, when Fray Martin de Rada and Fray Diego Vivar of Guadalajara, Mexico, an Augustinian, opened missions in Calumpit Malolos and Hagonoy. He was the first to plant the Cross on Calumpit at river bank of Meyto soil with the help of the force of the sword.
Fray Diego Vivar arrived in the Philippines from Mexico in 1570 and died in Pampanga in 1603. Three years later, the first pueblo established in Bulacan is the town of Calumpit, founded by the Augustinian friars in 1575.
In 1580 at the time of Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Penalosa, Bulakan, was established as the capital town of the province. With Bulakan as the centre, the missionaries and the military might of Spain worked hand in hand to subjugate the pagan population to accept the Catholic faith.
Fray Agustin Albuquerque prior provincial of Tondo in 1575 and established Bulakan as a mission in this town, then with 4,000 inhabitants.
According to Fray Juan de Medina, O.S.A. “All the Manila religious extol the “Indios” of this town as the most tractable and most attached to the church.
Secondary sources in the 1800s state that ”It has been said that in 1578 the Augustinian conquered Bulakan and that same year the Franciscan Friar Juan Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropesa founded Meycauayan, then, and for a time was the capital, people were able to do so flourishing, so rich, that her sons are six of the best in the province. and Paombong. Malolos became an independent town on June 11, 1580, with Fray Matheo de Mendoza as its first curate. The civil administration belongs to Don Jeronimo Tirado in the same year.
The town of Hagonoy already existed as a pre-colonial settlement. It was one of the participants of the Battle of Bangkusay on June 3, 1571.
On December 28, 1576, Governor General Sande orders the inclusion of Hagonoy to Calumpit. No exact year when it became an independent town from Calumpit presumably it was in the 1700s but it has already a huge church and convent in 1581. In 1578, Bulacan was separated from La Provincia de La Pampanga.
Hagonoy was officially founded in 1581 duly recognized by National Historical Commission of the Philippines despite that documents such as Loarca and Dasmarinas did not mention Hagonoy as an Encomienda or town on its own but part of Calumpit instead.
The first Bulakeño uprising against Spanish rule occurred in 1583 led by Magat Salamat from Hagonoy, claiming descendants to Rajah Matanda and the Lakadulas of Tondo. It was tagged in Philippine History as the Magat Salamat Revolution. The Chiefs of the towns of Polo, Catanghalan, Bulakan, Guiguinto, Hagonoy and Malolos was recruited to join. The planned revolt was preempted and the Chief of Bulakan Don Esteban Tasi was executed with other Bulakeño chieftains in the same year.
Don Felipe Salonga, chieftain of Catanghalan who started the revolt was exiled in the Islands to New Spain, Mexico.
A Royal Decree in 1595 created the Archbishop of Manila, which has jurisdiction of all the parishes in the province of Bulacan. The power of the church bells was now encompassing more and more pueblos under its sway. The Spanish colonisation policy of Cross and Sword worked marvels in the organization of the pueblos during the 17th century:
Bocaue a former visita of Meycauayan separated from its mother town in the year 1606 with its first minister R. P. Fr. Pedro de los Santos. In the year 1623 Polo became town with Fray Juan Tarancon OFM as its first minister and Don Juan Tibay as its Gobernadorcillo In 1628 Captain Fernando de Perona was appointed Alcalde Mayor of the Province of Bulacan and also as military commander.
A three-year war occurred in Bulacan province where Chinese in many parts of Luzon revolted against Spain. There were more than 300 Chinese rebels killed in Bulacan by the Spaniards and the Bulakeños. Three years later another revolt took place led by Maloleno native Don Pedro Ladia, from Borneo. Ladia claimed that he was a descendant of Rajah Matanda, the King of Maynila in 1571. Ladia styled himself King of the Tagalog. This rebellion was checked by Fray Cristobal Enriquez. Ladia was arrested and sent to Manila where he was executed.
The last town in the 17th century succumb to the power of the bells was Paombong which became a town in 1619 established from Malolos.