Baliuag History

1.
Balliwag church:
The rich culture of Baliwag waves hand of welcome to most tourist from
other towns and countries. The colorful festivals held in Baliwag and the
artistic engineering of the churches in town receives hundreds of
fascinations. In addition, with these magnificent picture perfect views, the
Baliwag Clock Tower also stood amidst the busy town of Baliwag
welcoming everyone as they stop over the place. Noted with its Baroque
design of architecture, St. Augustine Parish Church is Baliwag’s prime
church named after the town’s patron St. Augustine that is locally known
as Tata Usting. The church is founded in between 1769-1774 but is
tormented by an earthquake in 1863. The church is reconstructed into its
now beauty in 1880 by catholic patriots and devotees in Baliwag. The
church is famous with its gigantic bell tower that rungs to call the
attention of the townsmen of the mass that is about to happen. Now, the
Baliwag Church has served more than hundreds of weddings and
baptisms as well as final bid of goodbye during funeral masses. As a
town populated by mostly catholic devotees, Baliwag also have more
than handful of churches and quasi parishes located in every barangay
one of which is the Mt. Carmel Church located in Sabang. The church is
famous of its marble and bricks ensembles that seems to mimic some
castle like ambiance. The iconic Iglesia ni Cristo Church for the Iglesia
devotees of the town is also a remarkable piece of art visited in the town
of Baliwag. More than churches, Baliwag still remains to cast wide range
of tourist attraction such as the Old Municipal Building that now serves
as a Museum of Cultural Heritage. It is also opened as a public library
with thousands of books to choose from different genres of choice. The
Greenery Baliwag is one of a Tagaytay like ambiance famous among
event place seekers. The place is distinguished by its light house that
creates vivid views of picture perfect sunset. La Jardin and The Venue is
also a famous place where most events, birthdays, and other special
occasions are catered. The annual fiestas held in every barangay of
Baliwag is one of the main reason of most foreign and local tourists that
visits Baliwag every now and then. The festive celebration of townsmen
despite tight budgeting proves how Baliwagenyos stand the trials they’ve
been through as the year pass by. The colors of Baliwag tourism is a
living painting of its colorful heritage. It is a picturesque that draws the
cheerfulness and resilience of Baliwagenyos through the test of time.
Every Holy week, in the observance of Catholic religious activities in the

Philippines, some churches are holding a Lenten procession which starts
at 7:00 in the evening of Good Friday from the Church and ends at the
Church. The procession has carriages with statues of Jesus Christ and
other biblical icons which depicts the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. The
number of carriages varies in every Church because it depends on its
community on how many families or organization has their own and who
has enlisted to join the procession. St. Augustine Parish Church in
Baliuag, Bulacan holds the record of the longest Lenten procession in
the Philippines with the number of carriages that does not fall below
eighty annually which is being held on Holy Wednesday and Good
Friday. The procession would finish in almost two hours. The carriages
vary in sizes and shape, from simple to luxuriously decorated, manually
being pushed and pulled to roll its wheels, some are motorized or carried
by a truck, and some with the aid of electric generators to light all the
lights in the carriage. Most are attractively fascinating and you would
conclude that the owner is from a wealthy family with the lavish and
laborious decorations and size of the carriage. Some carriages could
occupy the width of the street and others have long bamboo stick poles
that the crews on the carriage would extend to hold upward the electrical
cables that are dangling which may trap the tip of the gigantic size of the
carriage.
Before the Spaniards came in 1521, Baliwag was just a tranquil and
small wilderness where impassable roads and narrow meandering
pathways called “paraan” may be found. Only a handful of people have
occupied the place together with animals and wild birds, and they
commonly travel long distances through work animals and sleds. The
townsmen of Baliwag was then considered paganistic for believing the
existence of supreme beings and worshipping spirits. The spirits called
“Bathala” were believed to dwell in caves. In order to pay homage to
them, rituals and offerings like fruits, perfumes and different foods were
served in the caves. The ancient Filipinos who lived in Baliwag also
religiously believed in superstitions and gave importance to natural
activities like howling of dogs, kissing of lizards, and the sight of a black
cat walking across their path to signify bad things and death omen.
These beliefs were transferred from generation to generation and are
still being practiced in many parts of the town until today. Even before
the conquest of Spaniards, Baliwag was very rich in culture. Natives
already practiced their own language and social customs, and the
people in town were already engaged with their own commercial
activities through barter system.
SPANISH ERA: THE “MALILIWAG”
The Spaniards introduced and

influenced Christianity among Filipinos and have built a lot of Catholic
churches. One of these was established in Quingua (now Plaridel) of
which, Baliwag was a cabecerria or barangay of it with no definite name
(cabecerria or barangay is the modern-day barrio).
Due to lack of transportation, the inhabitants of Baliwag tend to walk or
ride a banca to get all the way to Quingua, a distance of nine kilometers,
in order to hear Sunday and feast day masses. Because of this, the
religious churchgoers from Baliwag often came late for mass. The
consistent habit of tardiness became the butt of jokes among the people
of Quingua that whenever they saw a group of folks coming from
Baliwag, they would mockingly say, “Eto na ang maliliwag” (“Here comes
the slowpokes.”) or if the latecomer was alone, they would usually say,
“Eto na si Ba Liwag” (“Ba” is a provincial title of respect for a man). The
derogatory term “maliwag” (or Baliwag) clung that even the Spanish
“cura” would announce from the pulpit in reference to the people of
Baliwag. Through the years, the name Baliwag has evolved and by this
appellation, the town became known.
A CHURCH OF ITS OWN
ts church, the San Agustin Church, recorded a total of 30 curates since

1733-1898. Fr. Esteban Diez Hidalgo and Fr. Fausto Lopez served for
40 and 24 years, respectively and believed to have the longest years of
service among others. An Augustinian friar named Fr. Joaquín Martínez
de Zúñiga said in his book on 1800 entitled, “Status of the Philippines,”
that the convent or parochial house of San Agustin in Baliwag was
considered as the best in the whole archipelago and that no edifice in
Manila can be compared to it in terms of symmetry. Fr. Joaquín Martínez
de Zúñiga was believed to have arrived in the Philippines on August 03,
1786 and visited the town of Baliwag, Bulacan on February 17, 1802
together with Ignacio Maria de Álava y Sáenz de Navarrete. Their host
was then the Baliwag’s Parish Priest, Fray Esteban Diez. The
earthquake on June 03, 1863, one of the strongest to ever hit Manila,
damaged the Baliwag Church. The reconstruction began in 1870 when a
temporary house of worship, called the “Provincial” was located along
southeastern of the churchyard in Año 1733 street. It was believed to be
a narrow and simple structure which was later used by the RVM Sisters
of the Colegio de la Sagrada Familia (now St. Mary’s College of Baliuag)
as classrooms. Thereafter, Antonio de Mesa “Maestrong Tonio” from
Makati, Rizal was hired to manufacture its parts in his hometown and
transported it in Baliwag through banca river. Meanwhile, Baliwag,
Bulacan was then considered as one of the largest and richest towns of
Bulacan during the early part of 19th century. In fact, the Philippines won
prizes from the London Exposition in 1851 for the specimens of piña
fabrics and cigar-cases (petacas) delivered there, which were woven in
Baliwag.
BALIWAG FOUNDATION
Baliwag was founded by the Augustinians in 1733 but records showed

that it was created or founded in the provincial chapter on May 15, 1734.
According to Fr. Merino, both of the dates mentioned are correct and in
harmony with each other stressing that May 26, 1733 was the time when
Baliwag began its actual or de facto existence while May 15, 1734 was
the time when the Augustinian formally approved or recognized the
creation of the town which thenceforth became part of the order’s
ministry concern. It was considered the 10th town founded by the
Augustinians in the province of Bulacan.
AMERICAN ERA IN BALIWAG

On May 01, 1899, Henry Ware Lawton’s troops consists of 25 scouts
have marched in Baliwag from Norzagaray and Angat where he
strengthened his forces. In the same date, Secretary of the State John
Hay handed over to French Ambassador M. Jules Cambon the $20, 000,
000 due to Spain under the Treaty of Paris for the cession of the entire
Philippines by Spain to the United States under the charade of,
“payment for improvements made in the colony.” The American regime
brought great changes and impact in Baliwag as well as other parts of
the country in terms of government, language and education system
including the coinage where instead of Filipinos using the Mexican peso
coin, they used the conant which represents power.
FIRST MUNICIPIO
“Lumang Municipio” (Baliuag Museum and Library)
The town’s first executive was Capitan Jose de Guzman, a

gobernadorcillo (the title gobernadorcillo was adopted in the year 1789
only). Gobernadorcillo or capitan was then the highest position open to
Filipinos in the civil government. Their responsibilities include collection
of the tributes of the town, even spend from their own pockets for the
maintenance of local jails and feeding of prisoners, and supply other
needs of the municipal government. The gobernadorcillo was
accompanied by the tribunal composed of teniente mayor (chief
lieutenant), juez de ganadas (judge of the fields) and juez de policia
(judge of the police). In 1893 Maura Law, the title of Gobernadorcillo
became capitan municipal and juez to teniente. From Baliwag’s
independence from Quingua, now Plaridel, Bulacan to 1898, there were
49 who served as capitan, 13 as alcalde, and 92 as
gobernadorcillo. Felix de Lara (1782) and Agustin de Castro (1789) were
the first alcalde and gobernadorcillo, respectively. Meanwhile, Municipal
President Fernando Enrile, have honored some of the chief executives in
1908, even naming some of Baliwag streets in honor for them.
THE FIRST MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
The Philippine-American civil and military authorities was in charge of

the first ever municipal elections and Baliwag, Bulacan was chosen as
the location for the first Philippine local elections on May 7, 1899. The
Filipinos then gathered at the plaza of the San Augustin church after the
Holy Mass, and thereafter, the officials were preferred based on the
qualifications set by the Americans for voters. According to some
deceased old folks of the town, the first municipal building of Baliwag,
Bulacan under the American regime was the Yoyongko family residence
in Poblacion. The said property was now part of the the market site
purchased from the owner named Mariano Yoyongko, who became
town’s gobernadorcillo in 1885 and 1886 and a capitan municipal in
1891.
BURNT MUNICIPIO
When the municipio got burned in 1907, the government rented the big
Gonzalez house with heavy and unique materials owned by Jose
Gonzalez, brother of Dr. Joaquin Gonzalez or “Pepeng Mariquita.” It was
located along Sta. Leocadia Alto and in 1915, the government finally
bought the said property. The old mansion served as Lumang Munisipyo
(the Old Municipio or Town Hall Building, as seat of the local
government) for 65 years. Nowadays, the “Lumang Munisipyo” is already
the Baliwag Museum and Library.
MODERN-DAY BALIWAG
In New Year’s Eve of year 2000, Baliwag, Bulacan welcomed the new
millennium with a blast and unforgettable celebration by conducting a
mini-program in front of San Agustin Church at Barangay Poblacion.
Meanwhile, national artist Nick Joaquin on his article “Baliwag the almost
city” in Philippine Graphic Weekly Magazine in December 20, 1999, said
that the town is an almost city and described it as “a super exurbia still
clean and green ecologically and thus a magnet for the urbanities and
sub-urbanities of Metro Manila.”
2.

Baliuag History

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1.

Every Holy week, in the observance of Catholic religious activities in the

SPANISH ERA: THE “MALILIWAG”

The Spaniards introduced and

A CHURCH OF ITS OWN

ts church, the San Agustin Church, recorded a total of 30 curates since

Baliwag was founded by the Augustinians in 1733 but records showed

AMERICAN ERA IN BALIWAG

“Lumang Municipio” (Baliuag Museum and Library)

The town’s first executive was Capitan Jose de Guzman, a

THE FIRST MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

The Philippine-American civil and military authorities was in charge of

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