Malolos

Malolos, officially the City of Malolos, is a component city and capital of the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the, it has a population of people. It is the capital city of the province of Bulacan as the seat of the provincial government.
It was the site of the constitutional convention of 1898, known as the Malolos Convention, that led to the establishment of the First Philippine Republic led by Emilio Aguinaldo, at the sanctuary of the Barasoain Church. The convent of the Malolos Cathedral served as the presidential palace at that time. The First Philippine Republic is sometimes characterized as the first proper constitutional republic in Asia, although there were several Asian republics predating it – for example, the Mahajanapadas of ancient India, the Lanfang Republic, the Republic of Formosa, or the Republic of Ezo. Aguinaldo himself had led a number of governments prior to Malolos, like those established at Tejeros and Biak-na-Bato which both styled themselves República de Filipinas. Unlike the founding documents of those governments, however, the Malolos Constitution was duly approved by a partially elected congress and called for a true representative democracy.

History

conquered the 8 villages along Malolos River and integrated it into one entity dated November 14, 1571, and constituted it as an Encomienda de Malolos the Adelantado entrusted the settlements to conquistador Don Marcos de Herrera. On April 5, 1572, Legazpi merges the encomiendas of Malolos and Calumpit into a single entity to form a new town of Calumpit with Juan Moron and Herrera as co-encomenderos.
On April 15, 1572, Legazpi entrusted 6 villages along Atlag River and given it to Don Jeronimo Tirado.
Nine years later, Malolos was officially established as a town and included it in Bulacan and dismembered on Alcaldia de Calumpit on June 11, 1580, and accepted as priory with Fray Matheo de Mendoza as its first minister in an Augustinian Council held in Tondo Convent but the civil administration still belongs to its encomendero at that time, Don Jeronimo Tirado.
The Tagalog constituted the majority of the Malolos populace although it is said that the town had a Kapampangan origin; the name Malolos is a Spanish pronunciation of Kapampangan word maluslús. They were led by prominent families, among them are descendants of the royal clans of Gatbontons, Gatmaitan, Gatsalian, Dimagiba, Lakandola, Ladia and Lacancale and in the 17th-19th centuries, Chinese Filipino families through Tondo and Binondo, such as Chichioco, Cojuangco, Chiong, Chico, Cunanan, Tantocos, Tanchangco, Tanjosoy, Tengco, Tenjeco, Tiongson, Lomotan, Manahan, joined by Spanish Filipino families of Adriano, Bautista, Jacinto, Reyes, Santos, Rustia, de Leon, Agustin, Vasquez, Valenzuela, Crisostomo and Estrella.
Chinese Filipino traders settled in Malolos starting in 1670 for economic opportunity. The settlers increased, and Malolos began engaging with textile, rice production. However, the Chinese are expelled from the town on June 30, 1755, due to political and social issues.
On August 31, 1859, Malolos was divided into three independent towns; "Malolos", "Barasoain, and "Santa Isabel". These new towns are former districts of Malolos, with own respective Presidente Municipal and Parish priests. With the beginning of American rule in 1903, these towns were again reunited into a single municipality. The two other districts became barangays under the political jurisdiction of Malolos.
A major factor in the progress of Malolos was the opening of the Manila-Dagupan railways in April 1892.
Malolos was first organized into a formal municipal unit in 1822 when the first "alcalde constitucional" or municipal head was appointed. He was Jorge de Victoria, a Filipino, who like all succeeding "alcaldes", served for one year. He was followed by thirty-one other "alcaldes", with Juan Dimagiba as the thirty-first. In 1859, Malolos was subdivided into three administrative districts; Malolos, Barasoain and Santa Isabel. Juan Dimagiba became the first "alcalde" of the down-scaled Malolos. There were 12 others who served as "alcaldes" from 1859 to 1879, the first one being Mariano C. Cristobal and the second being Capitan Tomas Tanchanco, whose term marked the start of civil turmoil in the town.

Philippine Republic

Malolos is the historical site of the constitutional convention of 1898 that led to the establishment of the First Philippine Republic, the first republic in Asia, led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Malolos served as the capital of the short-lived republic from 1898 to 1899. In 1899, after the Malolos Constitution was ratified, the Universidad Scientifico Literaria de Filipinas was established in Malolos, Bulacan. It offered Law as well as Medicine, Surgery and Notary Public; Academia Militar, which was established on October 25, 1898; and The Burgos Institute, and an exclusive school for boys.
The Congress of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines convened in Barasoain Church in Malolos on September 15, 1898. On the 18th, Aguinaldo proclaimed Malolos as the capital of the Philippines. The first important act of the Congress was the ratification on September 29, 1898, of the independence proclamation at Kawit, Cavite of June 12, 1898. On October 19, 1898, by virtue of an act of Congress, the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas was established. It was also in Malolos on December 20, 1898, that General Emilio Aguinaldo declared December 30 of every year as a day of national mourning.
Arguably, the greatest achievement and for which the Malolos Congress was known was the framing of the Malolos Constitution, prepared by a committee headed by Felipe Calderón, was approved by the congress after amendments have been made on January 20, 1899, sanctioned by Aguinaldo the next day and promulgated on January 22. The last congressional act of the Malolos Congress was the inauguration of the Philippine Republic with Aguinaldo as the President on January 23, 1899, amidst the people's jubilation.
On March 31, 1899, at the height of the Philippine–American War, Aguinaldo ordered General Antonio Luna to set the Malolos Church including its huge silver altar on fire as part of their strategy called "Scorched Earth Policy" where everything will be rendered useless. Malolos was destroyed when the Americans captured the capital. Aguinaldo escaped to San Fernando, Pampanga before the American Forces arrived at Malolos.

Malolos as the capital of Bulacan

More than a year after the 1899 Battle of Malolos and the victory of and occupation by American forces, the national seat of power was officially conferred again to Manila and on February 27, 1901, by the virtue of Act No. 88 of the Philippine Commission, the commission officially transferred the provincial seat from the heavily damaged town of Bulakan to the nearby town of Malolos and it became the capital of Bulacan. On January 12, 1904, by virtue of Act No. 1038, the former municipalities of Barasoain and Santa Isabel were merged with Malolos, with Barasoain designated as the municipal seat.
The Casa Presidencia de Malolos was converted as the new Casa Real of Bulacan making it as the new Official Office and Residence of Governor until 1930 when the new Provincial Capitol Building in Barrio Guinhawa, also in Malolos was built.

Governments of Malolos after the Philippine–American War

During the American Period

After the War, the Americans appointed a martial law administrator in the person of Jose Reyes Tiongson. He served as "presidente politico militar" from 1901 to 1902. With the capture of Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela and the defeat of most of the Filipino armed forces all over the country, the Americans began to put up a network of local government units. The municipality of Malolos was re-organized, composed of the districts of Malolos, Barasoain and Santa Isabel. Appointed "presidente municipal" or town mayor was Ramon Gonzalez de Leon of Sitio Tampoy, one of the original members of the Katipunan Balangay Apuy. He was in the post for two years, 1903 to 1905. He and the nine others who followed him were all appointive officials. When the Philippines became a commonwealth, Leon Valencia was elected mayor in 1937, the first ever elected. Diosdado Dimagiba succeeded him in 1940 but had to vacate the position because of the Japanese conquest. Also in this period, the Malolos Municipal Hall facing the Malolos Church was built, in a manner of Neo-Classical Roman Style.

During the Japanese Occupation

The Japanese appointed two "punong bayan" or mayors, Luis Peralta and Ignacio Tapang. After the joint US and Philippine Commonwealth armed forces liberated Malolos in March 1945, Adonis P. Maclang of the guerrillas' Bulacan Military Area was appointed guerrilla mayor of the town, before battle for the liberation of Bulacan, the local Filipino forces of the 3rd and 32nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and 3rd Constabulary Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary was liberated in Malolos to helping the local guerrilla resistance fighters of the Bulacan Guerrilla Unit and American troops of the U.S. Army against the Japanese in 1945 at the end of World War II, followed by the appointment of Isberto Crisostomo as civilian town mayor in 1946. The first post-war election was held in 1946 and Carlos Maclang was elected mayor.

Contemporary history

On June 30, 1998, Malolos was the site again for another presidential inauguration, this time of Joseph Estrada when he was inaugurated at Barasoain Church as the 13th President of the Philippines. Estrada, whose real surname is Ejercito, traced his ancestry to the Ejercitos who were prominent in the history of Malolos.
The construction of the Malolos flyover in summer of 2004 marked a new milestone being the first in the city. The structure, part of the former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Bridge Program, was constructed in a record-breaking 60 days only according to the Department of Public Works and Highways. The structure was built to solve daily traffic jams, which have become a bane to motorists and to employees in both private and government offices in the city. This remarkable feat hastened not only the city's development in commerce and trade but also that of its neighboring municipalities as well.
On July 28–30, 2008, the city hosted the first National Conference for Philippine-Spanish Relations. This is a project of both the Province of Bulacan's research arm, the Center for Bulacan Studies of Bulacan State University, and by the Samahang Pangkasaysayan ng Bulacan, Incorporated.