Meycauayan City
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| Location | |
 Coordinates 14°44'N 120°57'E |
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| Government | |
| Region | Central Luzon (Region III) |
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| Province | Bulacan |
| District | 4th district of Bulacan |
| Barangays | 26 |
| Income class: | unclassified city; component, urban |
| Mayor | Joan Alarilla (Kampi) |
| Cityhood | December 10, 2006 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Area | 22.10 km² |
| Population | |
| Total (2007) | 196,569 |
| Density | 8,895/km² |
The City of Meycauayan or Meycauayan is an unclassified[1] urban city in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. The city is located about 19 km north of Manila and about 22 km south of Malolos City, the provincial capital city. It is bounded by the town of Marilao to the north, Valenzuela City to the south, Caloocan City (North) to the east, and the town of Obando to the west. It encompasses an aggregate area of 22.1 square kilometres, representing 1.17% of the total land area of the province of Bulacan. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 196,569 people. In 2007, Meycauayan and neighboring district of Marilao were listed as 2 of the most polluted cities in the world.[2]
Meycauayan is known for its jewelry and tanning industry. It is also home to several industrial parks, mostly located at Barangays Iba, Camalig and Pantoc.
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Meycauayan is politically subdivided into 26 barangays.
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Meycauayan is generally surrounded with plain land and gentle rolling hills. Comfortably above sea level, this terrain is an interweaving of greenery and concrete road network. The slope of the land dips towards a west to north westerly direction. River, natural lake and drainage waterways envelope and criss-cross the area.
The town was founded in 1578 by the Franciscan Catholic missionaries. Local tradition names friars Juan de Placencia and Diego Oropesa as the parish and town's founding fathers, who constructed the first church made up of nipa thatch and bamboos which they dedicated to their Nuestro Padre Senor San Francisco de Asis, in what is now Barangay Bahay Pari. In a report of Philippine encomiendas on June 20, 1591, Spanish Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas reported to the King of Spain that La Pampanga's encomiendas were Bataan, Betis y Lubao, Macabebe, Candava, Apalit, Calumpit, Malolos, Binto, Guiguinto, Caluya (Balagtas), Bulacan and Mecabayan (Meycauayan). The encomiendas of La Pampanga at that time had eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty whole tributes. Therefore, Meycauayan along with other Bulakan towns were initially included in the Spanish province of La Pampanga.
Because the newly erected town was constantly attacked by native Aetas, the town was transferred to Barangay Malhacan. The town later transferred to a location known as Lagolo (located somewhere between Barangays Banga and Caingin). Lagolo proved inhospitable at the time, so the town center again transferred to what is now known as Barangay Poblacion, where the Parish Church of St. Francis of Assisi still stands.
Meycauayan was then one of the largest municipalities in Bulacan. The towns of San Jose Del Monte, Bocaue, Marilao, Valenzuela, Obando, Santa Maria and Pandi were once part of the political jurisdiction of the town. During the Spanish colonization in the Philippines, the Spanish authorities tapped Meycauayan's adobe (volcanic tuff rocks) reserves which were used for building stone houses and fortifications in and out of town. Majority of the adobe rocks that were used in building the walls of Intramuros, Manila's "old walled city", were imported from Meycauayan.
On April 4, 1949, a large fire razed the town, destroying its market center and its centuries-old church. It took years to recover from the destruction, aided by the provincial and national governments as well as by the contributions of its own citizens.
On March 5, 2001, the municipality was declared as a component city by virtue of Republic Act 9021, but its conversion was rejected by the voting people of Meycauayan in a plebiscite.
In 2005, the municipal hall was moved from Barangay Poblacion to a newer structure in Barangay Camalig. The former municipal town hall now houses the Mariano Quinto Alarilla Polytechnic College.
On December 10, 2006, by virtue of Republic Act 9356, voters in Meycauayan ratified the conversion of Meycauayan into a component city of Bulacan through another plebiscite. [1] [2] It became the province's third city, joining San Jose del Monte and Malolos.
Florentino P. Blanco was the mayor of Meycauayan, Bulacan from 1987 up to 1992. He ran in the 1995 mayoralty elections, and won by more than 6,000 votes over Eduardo A. Alarilla, but was disqualified for vote-buying by final S.C. judgment of July 21, 1997 under Sec. 68 of the Omnibus Election Code in Blanco v. COMELEC, G.R. No. 122258, per Reynato Puno, ponente. Eduardo Nolasco, the Vice Mayor sat as Acting Mayor. Blanco, in 1998, ran again but lost to Mayor Alarilla amid dismissal by the COMELEC Second Division, of disqualification against him in SPA No. 98-043. He ran again during the May 14, 2001 elections, but the COMELEC, Second Division, in SPA No. 01-050, disqualified him under Sec. 40 (b) of the Local Government Code (removal from office through an administrative case). He ran again in the May 10, 2004 elections, but withdrew his certificate of candidacy. In 2007, he ran again but lost to Joan Alarilla, the wife of 3-termer Mayor Eduardo Alarilla. Alarilla sought to disqualify Blanco, but the Supreme Court, on June 17, 2008, per Adolfo Azcuna ruled that: "WHEREFORE, the petition is GRANTED. The Resolution of the COMELEC, Second Division, in SPA Case No. 07-410, promulgated on August 28, 2007, is declared NULL and SET ASIDE, and petitioner Florentino P. Blanco is held eligible to run for an elective office."[3]
Meycauayan is very famous for its jewelry and leather industries. For years, Meycauyan has been the hub of jewelry in the Philippines and in Asia. The place is famous for its very affordable jewelries. Most of the specialists in jewelries had in fact been pirated by other Asian countries.
Leather goods are also another premiere products of the place. Shoes, bags and every kind of leather good are made here. There are a lot of leather tanneries in the city that truly makes Meycauayan a hub for leather goods.
In a September 16, 2007 report, “The World’s Worst Polluted Places,” the Blacksmith Institute listed Meycauayan and Marilao in Bulacan, Philippines, two of the world’s 30 most polluted places in the developing world. It stated: "Industrial waste is haphazardly dumped into the Marilao, Meycauayan, and Obando River system, a source of drinking and agricultural water supply for the 250,000 people living in and around the Meycauayan-Marilao area."[2]
On December 13, 2007, the Supreme Court of the Philippines ordered Meycauayan, Bulacan to surrender peaceful possession to the Heirs of Anacleto Nieto, and vacate the 3,882 square meters lot, at Poblacion, Meycauayan, TCT No. T-24.055 (M) which it used and even constructed an extension of the public market therein. Meycauayan was also ordered to pay the reasonable value of the property and P 1,716,000.00 as reasonable compensation for the use of the property from 1966 until the filing of the complaint on December 28, 1994.[4]
On January 18, 2008, former city accountant Ma. Victoria Atienza (sister of wealthy Philippine jeweler Antonio Z. Atienza, Jr.) and former police chief retired Senior Superintendent Rolando Lorenzo filed a plunder complaint (under Republic Act No. 7080 or the “Anti-Plunder Law”) against former Meycauayan City Mayor Eduardo Alarilla and wife, incumbent Mayor Joan Alarilla, at the Office of the Ombudsman. Victoria and Rolando accused the mayor of "allegedly receiving P 80 million from 200 “ghost projects” in his 9-year city mayor term, and of malversation through falsification of public documents which permitted them to encash in 2007 P 9 million through “ghost deliveries.” Alarilla, however, told ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation that "Atienza’s allegation is pure lie and he had her investigated for alleged irregularities.[5]
- ^ http://www.nscb.gov.ph/activestats/psgc/municipality.asp?muncode=031412000®code=03&provcode=14
- ^ a b Inquirer.net, Meycauayan, Marilao in world’s ‘Dirty 30’-- report
- ^ supremecourt.gov.ph, Blanco v. Comelec and Alarilla, G.R. No. 180164, June 17, 2008
- ^ supremecourt.gov.ph, HEIRS OF ANACLETO B. NIETO vs. MUNICIPALITY OF MEYCAUAYAN, BULACAN, 3rd Div., G.R. No. 150654
- ^ Inquirer.net, Ex-cop chief, treasurer rat on former Meycauayan mayor
- Meycauayan City Official Website
- Philippine Standard Geographic Code
- 2000 Philippine Census Information
- Charter of the City of Meycauayan (RA 9356)
- The Blacksmith Institute - World's Worst Polluted Places
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