Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan (), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on August 15, 1578, and part of the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway Super Region. This province is a part of the Greater Manila Area.
It has 572 barangays in 20 municipalities and four component cities (Baliwag, Malolos the provincial capital, Meycauayan, and San Jose del Monte the largest city). Bulacan is located immediately north of Metro Manila. Bordering Bulacan are the provinces of Pampanga to the west, Nueva Ecija to the north, Aurora and Quezon to the east, and Metro Manila and Rizal to the south. Bulacan also lies on the north-eastern shore of Manila Bay.
In the 2024 census, Bulacan had a population of 3,876,806 people, the most populous in Central Luzon and the third most populous in the Philippines, after Cebu and Cavite. Bulacan's most populated city is San Jose del Monte, the most populated municipality is Santa Maria, while the least populated is Doña Remedios Trinidad yet the largest municipality in terms of area.
In 1899, the historic Barasoain Church in Malolos was the birthplace of the First Philippine Republic, sometimes described as the first constitutional democracy in Asia.
On November 7, 2018, the Provincial Government of Bulacan bagged its fourth Seal of Good Local Governance award. The SGLG award is a progressive assessment system that gives distinction to remarkable governance performance.
Etymology The name Bulacan was named after the town Bulakan which is derived from the Tagalog word bulak, which means cotton in the English language. It is due to the abundance of cotton plant growing in the region.
History
Spanish colonial period The conquest of the area comprising present-day Bulacan traces to the first years of the Spanish in the Philippines. Upon the defeat of the Macabebe and Hagonoy forces led by Bambalito in the Battle of Bangkusay on June 3, 1571, Martín de Goiti to proceeded north, first to Lubao in September 1571.
Two months later, on November 14, 1571, Goiti reached Malolos and Calumpit, respectively, and it was reported to Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the first Governor-General of the Philippines. Adelantado established Calumpit and Malolos as an encomienda entrusted to Sargento Juan Moron (Morones in other documents) and Don Marcos de Herrera. These two conquistadores were one of the first group of conquerors accompanied by Legaspi who have arrived in the Islands in 1565.
On April 5, 1572, the encomiendas of Calumpit and Malolos were unified and co-administered by Moron and Herrera. Also in that year, Alcaldia de Calumpit was formed in which the areas of Macabebe, Candaba, Apalit in Pampanga, and the settlements of Meyto, Panducot, Meysulao, and Malolos. On December 28, 1575, Governor-General Francisco Sande ordered to include Hagonoy in Calumpit.
In 1575, Bulakan was established as a visita of Tondo, and it is not part of Calumpit as the boundary between Tondo and Calumpit was marked in Mambog River and placed the statue of Our Lady of Visitacion (patroness of Calumpit) was erected. It was gone and recreated in 1997 upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Presentacion in Malolos.
On April 30, 1578, the town of Bulakan was officially established by the Augustinians, with Fray Diego Vivar as its first prior, and the convent was dedicated to San Agustin; when this was changed to Our Lady of Assumption is uncertain. It was reported that the western part of present-day Bulacan was to be very well-populated and rich. There is no documentation of the exact year and date when the Alcaldia de Calumpit was dissolved nor of the exact foundation year of the province of Bulacan. It has only been documented that Malolos (then part of Calumpit in 1572) was first to appear as part of Alcaldia de Bulacan in 1582. It may be assumed that the reorganization of encomiendas occurred between 1580 and 1582 at the time of Governor-General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa.
The same document, also from the 1582 Relacion de las Islas Filipinas by Miguel de Loarca, reports that Alcaldia de Calumpit had jurisdiction in the areas of Calumpit (the capital), Capalangan, Cabangbangan and Hagonoy, which made up the Alcaldia's villages. Then Loarca mentioned that Alcaldia de Bulacan had Bulakan (its capital), Malolos, Caluya, Guguinto, Binto and Catanghalan (instead of Meycauayan) as its encomiendas, which formerly had one alcalde (mayor), though Loarca wrote that Alcaldia de Bulacan was formed in 1580 at the time of Peñalosa.
According to the document of Governor-General Luis Pérez Dasmariñas in the Account of the Encomiendas for the King of Spain furnished on June 21, 1591, the Alcaldia of Bulacan was part of La Pampanga with the Encomiendas subject to it such as the Encomiendas of Malolos (3,600 persons), Binto (2,000 persons), Guiguinto (2,000 persons), Caluya (2,800 persons), Mecabayan (2,800 persons) and Bulacan identified as " capital" and residence of "alcalde mayor" with 4,800 persons. In the same 1591 document, it was mentioned that "Calumpit y Hagonoy" belonged to Juan Moron with 12,800 persons, 2 Augustinian Convents, and 1 Alcalde Mayor of its own.
However, the establishment and development of the southern part of present-day Bulacan were not simultaneous and identified with the West. In 1578, the Order of Friars Minor, headed by Juan de Plasencia and Diego Oropesa, arrived in the area called Toril (now part of Meycauayan) and their headquarters. Also in 1578, Plasencia established the Town of Meycauayan. Its pueblos were first only settlements of the Old Meycauayan, founded by FranciscanHistorical Markers, Regions I-IV and CAR, NHI, 1993 p. 297
The province of Bulacan is on the island of Luzon and is one of the most important Alcadias de Termino. Civilly and politically it corresponds to the Audiencia y capitanía general de Filipinas and spiritually belongs to the Archbishop of Manila.CRÓNICA DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS, by Don Fernando Fulgosio, Rubio, Grilo y Vitturi, Madrid, 1871, p. 71 Franciscan friars Juan Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropesa founded Meycauayan in 1578, and for a time it was the capital of the province of Meycauayan (which differs from Western Bulacan, administered by Augustinian Order since 1572). The Meycauayan people were able to flourish and became so rich that their sons were six of the best in the then-Province of Meycauayan. These were the towns of Bocaue, Polo, San Jose del Monte, Santa Maria de Pandi, Obando and Marilao).Apuntes Interesantes Sobre LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS... Imprenta de EL PUEBLO, Madrid 1869, p. 79
During the General Visitation of October 5, 1762, by Don Simón de Anda y Salazar, the province was headed by Capitan Don Jose Pasarin, alcalde mayor of the province.Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, Tomo 1, Madrid 1843, p. 139 1795–96, Don Manuel Piñon was the alcalde mayor.D. Angstanle Gouzaga, Estados de la Oblacion de Filipinas Correpsondiente a el ano de 1818, NO. III P. 3
In the same year, British occupation of Manila happened, and many Tagalog refugees from Manila & north areas of Cavite escaped to Bulacan and to neighboring Nueva Ecija, where the original Kapampangan settlers welcomed them. Bulacan, along with Nueva Ecija, was natively Kapampangan when Spaniards arrived. Majority of Kapampangans sold their lands to the newly-arrived Tagalog settlers and others intermarried with and assimilated to the Tagalog, which made Bulacan dominantly Tagalog.Pampanga used to be a coast-to-coast mega-province: What happened? on Facebook
In 1774, authorities from Bulacan, Tondo, Laguna Bay, and other areas surrounding Manila reported with consternation that discharged soldiers and deserters (from Mexico, Spain and Peru) were providing Indios military training for the weapons that had been disseminated all over the territory during the British war."Eva Maria Mehl: Forced migration in the Spanish pacific world: From Mexico to the Philippines, 1765–1811" Page 100. From the original Spanish language source in the archives of Mexico: "CSIC ser. Consultas riel 208 leg.14 (1774)"
By the end of the 1700s, Bulacan had 16,586 native families and 2,007 Spanish Filipino families who were mestizos.ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) By 1818, the census noted an increase of tributes or families totalling to around 50,441 tributes or families, of which there were 6 Spanish families who were settlers from Spain, and 164 were new Spanish-Filipino Mestizo families (with the old 2,007 Spanish-Filipino mestizo families having been absorbed into the native category), 3 converted Negroes (Blacks) families, and 7 newly Christianized Chinese-Filipino families.Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico, de las Islas Filipinas By Fr. Manuel Buzeta and Fr. Felipe Bravo, Volume 1, Published Madrid :(Impr. de J.C. de la Peña) 1850-1851.
Of the new Spanish-Filipino families, these were their number and places of residency: 11 at Polo, 16 at Meycauayan, 28 at Marilao, 88 at Bocaue, 17 at Santa Maria de Pandi, and 10 at San Rafael.
According to the "Guia de 1839", Bulacan province on the island of Luzon, Philippines, was governed by a mayor and consisted of 19 pueblos, 36,394 tributes and 181,970 souls.Biblioteca de LEGISLACION ULTRA MARINA, Tomo 2 Letras B. C. IMprenta de Alegria y Charlain, Madrid 1844, p. 105 D. Felipe Gobantes, Alcalde of the province of Bulacan erected a stone column in the plaza of Bulacan in Memory of Fr. Manuel Blanco O.S.A. who died on April 1, 1845.Catalogo de los religiosos de N.P.S. Agustin de la Provincia del Smo Nombre de Jesus de Filipinas, Imp. De Ramirez Y Giraudier, Manila, 1864. p. 240
In 1848, when the boundaries of Pampanga were changed, the region, which includes the important town of San Miguel de Mayumo and neighboring places that were formerly part of Pampanga, was adjudicated to Bulacan.Census of the Philippine Islands: 1918 Volume I, Geography, History, and Climatology, Census Office of the Philippine Islands, Bureau of Printing, 1920. p. 113 Bulacan also had claims on the present-day eastern portion of Rizal, northern portion of Santa Maria, Laguna, and western portion of General Nakar and Real in Quezon (formerly Tayabas).
The Philippine Revolution
In an earlier period during 1890, Malolos was a hot spot of Liberal Ilustrados, notably the "20 Women of Malolos", who exerted pressure for education under Filipino professors. However, the first phase of the revolution ceased in 1897 with the signing of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato in San Miguel. Under its terms, the leaders of the revolution were to go to Hong Kong and reside there. Under the illusory peace created by the pact, the end of 1897 saw greater determination on the part of the Filipinos to carry on the revolutionary struggle.
In early 1898, the provinces of Zambales, Ilocos, Pampanga, Bulacan, Laguna, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, and Camarines rose again. In Central Luzon, a revolutionary government was organized under General Francisco Macabulos, a Kapampangan revolutionary leader of La Paz, Tarlac.
Pandi was, in 1896-97, with the "Kakarong Republic", the early epicenter of revolutionary fevor. Despite its defeat in the Battle of Kakarong de Sili, the memory of the Kakarong defenders still remain as part of the history and heritage of Bulacan as the first organized revolutionary government established in the era of the Revolution.
American colonial period