Balagtas City

Balagtas is a first class urban municipality in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 65,440 inhabitants. With the continuous expansion of Metro Manila, the municipality is now part of Manila's built up area which reaches San Ildefonso in its northernmost part. Thirty kilometers North of Manila, Balagtas (formerly known as Bigaa), renamed in honor of Filipino poet Francisco Balagtas, has nine barangays. The municipality is bounded by several towns; on the South by Bocaue, on the north by Plaridel, on the East by Pandi aand a portion of Sta. Maria, on the West by the towns of Bulacan and Guiguinto. Two main roads, the McArthur Highway and the North Luzon expressway (NLEX) bisects the municipality as this national roads cut northward to the Ilocos region. At the southern approach of the town from Manila is a first class concrete bridge that crosses the Balagtas River. The river, navigable by banca and motor boats, empties into Manila bay after snaking through the town of Bulacan to the West which provides Balagtas with fresh water food. At the foot of the bridge, along the highway towards the North, is the town hall. In front of the town hall is spacious park where the monument of its hero, Francisco Balagtas is located. The town hall is surrounded by Spanish colonial type houses, including the known "Bahay na Tisa" . Two hundred meters from the municipal hall is the barrio of Panginay, the birthplace of Francisco "Balagtas" Baltazar, for whom also "Balagtasan", a form of debate in versified Tagalog, was named. In reverence to the hero's deeds, the official name of Bigaa was changed to Balagtas through the legislative act sponsored by the late Congressman, Teodulo Natividad. In 1946 the Historical Society of the Philippines placed a marker at the birthplace of Balagtas in Barrio Panginay, Bigaa, Bulacan. Originally known as Encomienda Caluya as per history records regarding the early years of Bulacan Province, Caluya was mentioned as one of the Six Encomiendas of the Province together with Calumpit, Bulacan, Meycauayan, Malolos and Binto (Quingua) later known as Plaridel. It was erected by the Augustinian Missionaries in 1592 under the jurisdiction of the Alcalde Mayor of Bulacan. In 1602, Caluya was formally organized into a town with its own Gobernadorcillo and renamed to Bigaa. When the Americans established civil government in 1902, Bigaa and nearby Bocaue were combined to form a town with the latter as the seat of government. In 1911, however, Bigaa was separated from Bocaue, and to it was added the town of Pandi, which became one of Bigaa's barrios. In 1946, shortly after the Philippines gained political freedom from the United States, Pandi by virtue of a legislative fiat was given a municipal charter of its own, distinct and apart from Bigaa.