Bulacan celebrates 435th founding year

MALOLOS CITY--It’s a non-working holiday in Bulacan today, August 15 as the province celebrate its 435th founding anniversary.

Governor Wilhelmino Alvarado said the annual celebration will be observed with simple ceremonies as the province prepare for bigger celebration next month for the Linggo ng Bulacan.

The annual Linggo ng Bulacan is celebrated from September 8 to 15 every year.

He said that today’s celebration was declared non-working holiday by President Benigno Aquino III through Proclamation No. 627 signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., last July 30.

Alvarado said the annual celebration is a time for estimated 3-Million Bulakenyos to look back at its history can culture.

As a historic province, the governor stressed that Bulacan is the only province in the country that hosted three republics namely, the Cacarong Republic of Pandi, the Biak-Na-Bato Republic and the first Philippine Republic declared by the Philippine Congress at Barasoain Church on January 23, 1897.

Alvarado added that abovementioned historical event is a source of pride for the province which produced heroes and national artists.

With regards to the founding anniversary of the province, he said that for a long time Bulacan traced its founding as a province during the American time.

But research conducted by Drs. Jaime Veneracion, Reynaldo Naguit of the Center for Bulacan Studies and Isagani Giron of the Samahang Pangkasaysayan ng Bulacan (Sampaka) shows that Bulacan is identified as a province as early as 1578.

This is due to a cedulario found by the researchers which states “Provincia De Bulacan” and dated 1578.

With regards to exact date of foundation of Bulacan as a province, Veneracion correlated it with the practice of Spaniard of dedicating the founding a pueblo to the feast of a patron saint.

In the case of Bulacan it is the Nuestra Senora de Asuncion, which is also the patron saint of Bulakan town, the first capital of the province. Dino Balabo