Dasmariñas (), officially the City of Dasmariñas, is a component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the , it has a population of people. With a land area of , it is the largest city both in terms of area and population in Cavite and the wealthiest local government unit in the province.
Being located just from Imus and south of Manila, the growing congestion and conurbation of Metro Manila has led to its rapid development in the late 1900s. This growth is manifested by the influx of major shopping malls, hospitals, universities, banks, industrial parks, and the growing number of residential subdivisions accommodating its growing population.
Etymology Dasmariñas was named after Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, the seventh Spanish governor-general of the Philippines who served from 1590 to 1593. After his death, his son Luis Pérez Dasmariñas became Governor-General from 1593 to 1596. Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas came from San Miguel das Negradas of Viveiro, in Galicia, Spain.
Dasmariñas literally means "from As Mariñas", a coastal region of Lugo combining the comarcas of A Mariña Occidental, A Mariña Central and A Mariña Oriental. The term itself comes from mariño ("of the coast, seaside or shore" in the Galician language spoken in Viveiro, and ultimately from mar ("sea").
History
Foundation and Spanish Ruling In the 19th century, during the Spanish colonial period, Dasmariñas was originally called Tampus, meaning "end of the forest" in the local Tagalog language. It was formerly a barrio of Imus and part of a vast Recollect hacienda that supported the various missionary activities of the Recollects in the Philippines and Spain.
On April 9, 1864, a council composed of the Archbishop of Manila, the politico-military governor of Cavite, the Prior Provincial of the Augustinian Recollect Order, and the parish priest of Imus met to discuss the creation of a new town and parish to separate from Imus. At that time, there were only 643 inhabitants in Tampus. After thorough discussions, Rafaél de Echagüe, the Governor-General of the Philippines, approved the creation of the new town on May 12, 1864, with Don Juan Ramirez elected as the first town head, or gobernadorcillo.
The creation of the town was unique among other towns in Cavite. For the first time, a town was established not through a petition from the local populace and its officials, as was customary and legally required, but instead through the initiative of high-ranking church officials and the Cavite politico-military governor.
An ensemble of nipa houses from other barrios of the hacienda, such as Malinta, Nancaan, Salacay, Paliparan, Malagasang, and Salitran, was grouped and migrated into a reducción (reduction) in Tampus in 1866. Reducción originally referred to the religious and civic aspects of missionary activities but later came to mean the process of resettling and unifying a community, thus creating a newly organized town. For the Spanish missionaries and friars, this process was advantageous for evangelization and consolidating Spanish rule. The new town could be accessed through a well-constructed network of roads and bridges built by the Recollect Order's architects and engineers.
In the same year, it was renamed Perez-Dasmariñas in honor of the seventh Governor-General of the Philippines, Don Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas (1590–1593). Governor Dasmariñas, a Knight of Santiago, was a native of Galicia, Spain and a former magistrate of Murcia and Cartagena, Spain, who introduced significant economic improvements during the early days of colonization.
By the end of 1866, Perez-Dasmariñas had met the requirements of a typical Philippine town. A spacious town plaza at the center was surrounded by a church and a convent made of stone and bricks, a courthouse constructed from wood and nipa, a primary school for children, and various houses made of nipa. A cemetery was situated approximately 200 yards away from the church and enclosed by a wooden fence.
Due to the growing population, the Recollects sent a petition to Madrid for the establishment of a new parish in Dasmariñas, independent from Imus. Queen Isabella II signed the Royal Order creating the new parish of Perez-Dasmariñas on October 21, 1866. The following year, the construction of the stone parish church of Dasmariñas, dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, began.
The First Barangays Dasmariñas was originally composed of several barangays or barrios (neighborhoods). Among these, Salitran was considered the most important and notable during the Spanish regime due to its role as the site of the Recollect estate house. The name Salitran is derived from the Tagalog word sal-it, meaning "people from another town." Being part of the Recollect Hacienda in the town of Imus, Salitran attracted many workers from various provinces who labored as farmhands. Within Salitran, a place called Layong Iloko was named for the Ilocanos who settled there, while Pasong Santol earned its name from the abundance of santol trees in the area.
Tampus, the center of the newly established town, was situated at the edge of a deep forest. This contrasts with a sitio in Paliparan called Pintóng Gubat ("gate of the forest.") Barangay names were often inspired by geographical features, as seen in Barrio Burol, whose name reflects its hill location. Similarly, Sabang means "crossroads." Barrio Salawag is believed to have been the old Barrio Salacay, with salawag referring to long bamboo poles used for securing nipa roofing.
Nancaan, now known as Langkaan, derived its name from the Tagalog word langkâ, meaning "jackfruit." The jackfruit, the largest fruit tree in the Philippines, was reportedly introduced from India to Malaysia and later planted in the country by Arabs and Indians. The prevalence of jackfruit trees in the area likely inspired the name Nancaan.
Malinta, or Malintaan, comes from the Tagalog word lintá, meaning "leech," due to the abundance of leeches in the area.
On July 18, 1899, three sitios in Perez-Dasmariñas were elevated to the status of barrios: Sampaloc, named for the abundance of tamarind trees; Tamban, later renamed San Jose; and Lucsuhin, later renamed San Agustin.
The Philippine Revolution By June 1896, the Spanish authorities in Cavite province had become suspicious of the local elite's activities. There were alleged top hierarchy meetings of the Recollects in the hacienda houses of Salitran and San Nicolas. Included in the meeting were General Bernardo Echaluce and other top military officials. The purpose of the meeting was to determine whether it was just to apprehend the notable elites who were Freemasons. Fortunately for the elites, no decision was made during the meeting. Thus, the local leaders freely but quietly continued their subversive activities.
As soon as the revolution of 1896 broke out, leaders of Perez-Dasmariñas took up arms against the Spanish rule. Don Placido Campos, the town head at the time and Don Francisco Barzaga, the municipal secretary, gathered the people to liberate their town from Spanish control at the beginning of September 1896. They captured the courthouse and the hacienda house in Salitran, killing the religious clergy who lived there.
As towns in Cavite fell to Filipino revolutionaries, the Spanish government in Madrid felt that Governor-General Ramon Blanco's offensive against the natives was ineffective. Thus, Camilo de Polavieja took over the command of the islands, with General José de Lachambre as the head of the campaign. Gradually, the Spaniards regained the control of the province. After the fall of Silang, the Spaniards focused on Perez-Dasmariñas. Knowing the strength of resistance he might encounter, General Lechambre decided to surround the whole town. He sent to advance units headed by Brigadier General José Molina who went to take the left. The troop under Colonel Arutos who had taken Paliparan, moved westward to cut the escape of the Filipinos to Imus and Carmona. General Lechambre sent the main force towards the south.
The locals suffered a terrible defeat due to a lack of arms and ammunition. As the Spaniards approached the Poblacion, the revolutionaries retreated to the stone building of the town. On February 25, 1897, the Spaniards decided to encircle the Poblacion rather than advance directly into the interior. They began burning all the buildings except the church. Seeing that they were surrounded by fire, some of the rebels came out of hiding but were immediately met with open fire. Those who had taken refuge in the courthouse refused to come out and were all burned alive. Even those who had sought refuge in the church eventually surrendered to the advancing Spanish forces. By March, Perez-Dasmariñas had fallen back into Spanish hands.
Then, General Lachambre returned to Salitran. He expected heavy resistance from the revolutionaries who occupied the hacienda house but to his great surprise, they were able to take the place without any resistance. They hoisted the flag of Spain and converted it to their headquarters.
There were large Filipino casualties according to Lachambre. There were 150 men inside the courthouse when Spaniards set fire to the building and all 150 inside were killed. Others took refuge in the convent, but was also set on fire and the men were shot as they emerged. Others had shut themselves up in the church. With the church surrounded, the mountain artillery was brought up into position and from a distance of 35 meters, the strong doors of the church were bombarded and the troops went in through the breach. At the height of the Battle of Perez Dasmariñas, General Flaviano Yengko, General Crispulo Aguinaldo, Lucas Camerino, Arturo Reyes and many more revolutionaries lost their lives in the battle.
An American Plan With the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, the Philippines was ceded to America by Spain. The American regime brought to Dasmariñas, as it did to other parts of the country, several fundamental changes in the system of government, in language, and in educational system.
In the month of February 1899, the Philippine–American War began. General Henry Ware Lawton's brigade operated south of Manila including the province of Cavite in the middle of June 1899. The Americans could not land directly at Bacoor because Zapote river was defended by the Filipino revolutionists who built trenches as tactical defenses forming three sides of an angle which made the Filipinos hardly visible. The American's 14th Infantry Battalion swam across the during the Battle of Zapote River and under the cover of military artillery, charged against the Filipinos who then retreated to the woods.
Moving southward, the Americans encountered more Filipino revolutionaries in the towns of Bacoor, Imus, and Perez-Dasmariñas, and an infantry battalion narrowly escaped annihilation. News had been brought to the American camp that the Filipino soldiers had evacuated the town and that the native mayor was disposed to surrender it formally to the Americans. The battalion thus went there to take possession, but before reaching the place, the Filipino revolutionists closed in on all sides, and a heavy firefight went on for hours. The Americans were saved from destruction by a desperate bayonet charge when they were rescued by General Weaton's brigade.
Placido Campos, who sided with General Emilio Aguinaldo since the beginning of the Philippine-American War in 1899, was captured together with his nephew Guillermo Campos. They were imprisoned at the Provost Political Prison in Intramuros where they were kept for six months.