Alaminos City

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Alaminos City, referred to as the “Home of the 100 Islands” is located at Pangasinan. Even though a place with separated islands, it is still a place of united people with the attitude of optimism and sense of adventure and a growing faith to the Deity.

History

Before 1747, Alaminos was still part of Bolinao, one of the nine towns of Zambales. After years of progress and improvement it became an independent town. The town got its name year 1872 as part of honoring Lieutenant Governor General Alaminos, the Governor General of the Philippines at that time.
With the desire to be more progressive, a Republic Act 9025 known as “An Act Converting the Municipality of Alaminos, Province of Pangasinan into a Competent City to be known as the City of Alaminos” was passed in the congress. This act was signed March 5, 2001 and a plebiscite was held dated March 28, 2001 which was also positively voted by 85% of the Alaminos. That united action alone brought the simple municipality to be a competitive city.Traders, businessmen and investors soon flocked the city which became a great contribution to its continued growth throughout the years.

Population/ Language/ Area
According to the 2010 census, Alaminos has a population of 85, 025, living in 39 barangays. The land area is 16, 157 hectares. More parts of it is considered as forest land so expect that the embrace of nature will surely welcome you as you visit Alaminos.
The people greets every visitor with a warm welcome and a sweet smile. The people here speaks Ilocano and Panggalatok. If you find yourself hard to speak their dialect or at least to understand them, don’t worry they can still talk with you in Tagalog and in English. So its never a far-from-home experience when you are here. They are also rich in cheerful native songs and wonderful literature.

Products and Services
With a total of 278 hectares of considered forest lands, it is no surprise that Alaminos is rich in agriculture products. Corns, coconuts and rice are some of it. They also take pride of their bamboo and rattan craft industries. Also rich in sea production, they also feel proud of their bangus where their very own grilled bangus belly is made from. Some of their native delicacies are pancit miki, longanisa, patupat, suman and bagoong – all Alaminos version.

Tourist Spots

Hundred Islands is the main tourist attraction in Alaminos City. They offer diving to their blue-green waters that will give you a glace at the underwater beauty of the islands. After diving, relaxing at the coves of the island will give you a great urban retreat. Visitors can also feel marveled at the 10 caves of the Hundred Islands.
Aside from the Hundred Islands, Alaminos also offers other tourist spots that will surely give its visitors a paradise experience. To name a few, they have this horseshoe-shaped with shallow water beach called Bolo Beach.

Bago city

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City Hall in the Philippines

Bago, officially City of Bago, is a second class city in the province of Negros Occidental in the Philippines, some 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of the provincial capital Bacolod. With a total of 163,045 people based on the 2010 census, Bago City comprises the 6.63% of the population of the entire Province of Negros Occidental. It sets a land area of 389 square kilometres, which is 5% of the entire Negros Occidental and 10% of the total land area of component cities.

It is also tagged as the “Home of Historical and Natural Treasures”, owing to its contribution in the colourful history of the province of Negros Occidental and country, and its beautiful scenery and abundance in flora and fauna making it a good eco-tourism destination as well as the “Boxing Capital of the Philippines” title, owing to the great names it produced in boxing.

The community was named after a large tree called “Bágo” under which a native prince Mapagic died according to the writings of a Spanish historian, Diego de Povedano. Another version, however, noted that the name came from the shrub, bago-bago that grew abundantly in the riverbanks. Around the 17th and 18th Centuries, settlers from Molo, Iloilo formed a little village at the mouth of Bago River, presently a rich source of sand and gravel. The village grew into a large settlement prompting its elders to pass a petition for its conversion into a town or pueblo, which was granted in 1800.

Spanish period

Its history has its beginning on September 6, 1571 when the Spanish Adelantado, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, allotted the community to a Spaniard named Juan Gutierrez Cortes as his "encomienda". At that time, the community was still composed of small clusters of settlements along the banks of a big river which later became known as the Bago River. The "encomiendero", since then, administered to the spiritual and socio-economic needs of the natives in the settlements until June, 1578; however, a year before that, this community was placed under the evangelical visitations of Father Geronimo Marin, an Augustinian priest who had taken charge of the Christianization of the natives of Binalbagan since the year 1572. Father Matin, upon his arrival in the community, celebrated the feast of St. John the Baptist, who would later be accepted as the patron saint of the place. Following the traditions and practices of the Spanish missionaries and historians in recording the founding of a "pueblo" or town that usually coincides with the feast day of a saint and since the feast day of St. John the Baptist, falls on June 24 of each year, it follows thereof that Bago was founded on June 24, 1575. History only records 1575 as the year when Bago was founded so that the exact month and day can only be deduced from such traditional practices of the Spaniards. Manila, Cebu and Binalbagan also predicted the dates of their founding on the same historical situations; hence, the logical conclusion is that Bago City was officially founded on the month, day and year heretofore mentioned.

As regards on how the community acquired its name, according to the manuscript of a Spanish historian, Diego Lope de Povedano, which is available in the library of the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, the community was named after a large tree called "Bago" under which, a native prince by the name of Mapagic died.

Another historical version is that the place got its name from a shrub called "bago-bago" which was then growing luxuriantly along the river banks.

Geography 

Bago City has a total land area of 38, 941 hectares, 3,651.7150 ha. of which belongs to Mt. Kanla-on Natural Park. It is composed of 24 barangays, 16 of which are rural and 8 are urban. Based on NSO 2000 Census, urban barangays include Abuanan, Atipuluan, Caridad, Balingasag, Don Jorge Araneta, Ma-ao, Poblacion and Taloc. Brgy. Ilijan, however, with a distance of 30.50 km from the city proper is the farthest barangay. Brgy. Bacong has the biggest land area with 4,827.0350 hectares while Brgy Poblacion, as the smallest, has 311.5044 hectares. The city has 1,100 has-water area and 15 km coastline. Bago City is traversed by the widest river in the province, the Bago River, which starts from the northeast slope of Mt. Kanla-on and drains into Guimaras Strait.

It has moderately slopping to rolling lands. Slopes are raging from 0 to 3% comprises 22.911.42 has. 3 to 8% comprises 5,783.92 has. 8 to 18% comprises 4, 682.22 has, 18.1 to 30% comprises 1,514.84 has, 30 to 50% steep hills and rolling comprises 1,735.18 has. and a very steep and mountainous 50% above comprises 2,313.57 has.

Normally, the city is wet from May to December and dry from January to April with a temperature level of 24.40 degrees Celsius. Average rainfall recorded is 5.68 mm for 89 rainy days within a year while average humidity level is at 76.17%.

99.6% of the residents speak Hiligaynon while 0.4% speak other languages such as Tagalog, Cebuano, Aklanon and llocano. When it comes to religion, 82% are Roman Catholic, 2% are Convention of the Philippines Baptist Church, 6% are Aglipayan, 3% are Iglesia ni Kristo and the remaining are either Jehova’s Witnesses, Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, Seventh Day Adventists, Evangelicals, etc.

Bacoor city

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City Hall in the Philippines

Bacoor, officially the City of Bacoor  is a first-class urban component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. It is a lone congressional district of Cavite and is the province's gateway to Metro Manila.

According to the 2010 census of population, Bacoor has a population of 520,216 people  making it the second most populous city in the province after Dasmariñas. The city is a bedroom community which owes its large population to the influx of low and middle-income settlers who availed of the various housing projects and subdivisions in it.

Some accounts indicate that the city of Bacoor, also named Bakood or Bakoor, was founded as pueblo or town in 1671. When Spanish troops first arrived in Bacoor, they met some local inhabitants in the process of building a bamboo fence (bakod in Filipino) around a house. The Spaniards asked the men what the name of the village was but because of the difficulties in understanding each other, the local inhabitants thought that the Spaniards were asking what they were building. The men answered "bakood". The Spaniards pronounced it as "bacoor" which soon became the town's name.

Spanish period

Bacoor was one of the flashpoints of the Cavite Mutiny of 1872. Bacoor's parish priest at that time, Fr. Mariano Gómez, was one of the GOMBURZA trio implicated in the mutiny for advocating secularization of priesthood in the Philippines. He and the rest of GOMBURZA were executed at Bagumbayan in 1872. The death of the GOMBURZA served as the inspiration for Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo, which in turn influenced the ignition of the Philippine Revolution.

During the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896, Bacoor was one of the first towns in Cavite to rise up. A Katipunan chapter, codenamed Gargano, led by Gil Ignacio from barrio Banalo, started the hostilities in Bacoor on 2 September 1896, three days after the revolution began.

On 17 February 1897, General Emilio Aguinaldo's 40,000-strong force confronted a 20,000-strong Spanish reinforcement at the Zapote River. The Katipuneros reinforced the southern bank of the river with trenches designed by Filipino engineer Edilberto Evangelista. They also blew up the Zapote Bridge with explosives which killed several Spaniards crossing it and thereby preventing them from reaching Cavite and forcing them to retreat to Muntinlupa. Despite the Filipino victory, they lost the brilliant Evangelista who was killed in action.

However, after the Spanish counteroffensive in May 1897, Bacoor and the rest of Cavite finally fell to the Spaniards, forcing Aguinaldo and his men to retreat to Biak-na-Bato.

Geography

Bacoor is strategically located at the gateway to Metro Manila. A sub-urban area, the city is located approximately 15 kilometers southwest of Manila, on the southeastern shore of Manila Bay, at the northwest portion of the province with an area of 52.4 square kilometers. It is bordered to the east by Las Piñas and Muntinlupa, to the south by Dasmariñas, to the west by Kawit and Imus, and to the north by Bacoor Bay an inlet of Manila Bay. Bacoor's is separated from Las Piñas by the Zapote River and from Imus and Kawit by Bacoor River.

Most of the city is composed of flat, formerly agricultural lands, with some areas such as the coastal barangays of Zapote, Talaba, Niog, and Panapaan lying below sea level. Some barangays such as Molino and Queens Row are situated on the hills that form valleys along the upstream portion of Zapote River.