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Brief History of the Province

One tradition says that Bulacan came from the word "bulak" or cotton. More than two hundred years before the coming of the Spanish conquistadores, Chinese merchants documented the planting of cotton plants in the province. Cotton fibers were woven into clothing materials by primitive looms. Another interpretation avers the name originated from "burak", the clay for pottery found along the Calumpit river banks. Shards from several archaeological diggings reveal that pottery-making in Bulacan existed as far as the Neolithic Age.

Twelfth-century Chinese documents already marveled at the bounty with which nature blessed Bulacan. Early friar chroniclers of the Spanish period were so enamored by the abundance of its flora that they described her as the "Garden of Luzon." A mountain range nurtures forest thick with hardwood. Rivers fertilize abundant fields famous for rice, sugarcane, melons, okra, bananas and papayas. The Bay of Manila meets her veins of rivers to produce brackish waters necessary for fishponds of milkfish and prawns, beds of oysters and crabs.

So much bounty, so many reasons for her sons and daughters to shed blood to preserve such beauty.

Bulacan is the only province in the Philippines that can lay claim to three republics. All born at a time when democracy was still unknown in Asia. Foremost was the brief but valiant stand of the Real Kakarong De Sili of Pandi in 1897. It was Bulacan's first real threat against Spanish might. A war of nerves led by the mystic Maestrong Sebio.

Biak-na-Bato in San Miguel Mountains sheltered a republic that merged Aguinaldo's fleeing forces with Bulacan's Katipuneros. General Gregorio Del Pilar, barely out of his teens, led his brave army in several brilliant skirmishes. Fired by the patriotism of the great propagandist - Marcelo H. Del Pilar.

The third is the province's principal glory - the Malolos Republic. In 1897, enlightened representatives from all over the islands converged in Malolos to formally inaugurate a Republic. A congress wrote and ratified a constitution that was the first declaration of freedom ever in Asia.

The Malolos Republic then was the culmination of a long struggle for the right to be free from Dutch pirates, British invaders, Spanish and American economic warriors and from any yoke of slavery.

The existence of Bulacan as a province since 1572 was reaffirmed by virtue of Act No. 2711 enacted on March 10, 1917 with the seat of government established in Malolos.
List of Bulacan Governors and the Year of their Administration
Name of Governor Year of Administration
Gen. Gregorio Del Pilar1898-1899
Gen. Isidoro D. Torres 1899
Segundo Rodrigo 1898-1899
Jose Serapio 1900-1901
Pablo Tecson 1902-1906
Teodoro Sandico 1906-1909
Donato Teodoro 1910-1912
Trinidad Icasiano 1912-1916
Nicolas Buendia 1916-1919
Juan B. Carlos 1919-1921
Dr. Pio Valenzuela 1922-1925
Restituto J. Castro 1925-1928
Jose Padilla, Sr. 1928-1931; 1934-1937
Cirilo B. Santos 1931-1934
Jacinto Molina 1938-1940
Emilio Rustia 1941-1942
Jose Delos Reyes 1943-1944
Fortunato Halili 1948-1950
Teofilo E. Sauco 1950-1951
Alejo S. Santos 1951-1954; 1955-1957
Tomas S. Martin 1958-1963
Jose M. Villarama 1964-1967
Ignacio Santiago 1968-1986
Amado T. Pineda 1987-1988
Roberto M. Pagdanganan 1988-1998
Josefina Mendoza-Dela Cruz 1998-2007
Joselito R. Mendoza 2007-2010
Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado 2010-2019
Daniel R. Fernando2019-Present

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