Bulacan: History
=== Spanish colonial period ===
The conquest of the area comprising present-day Bulacan traces to the first years of the Spanish in the Philippines. Upon the defeat of the Macabebe and Hagonoy forces led by Bambalito in the Battle of Bangkusay on June 3, 1571, Martín de Goiti to proceeded north, first to Lubao in September 1571.
Two months later, on November 14, 1571, Goiti reached Malolos and Calumpit, respectively, and it was reported to Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the first Governor-General of the Philippines. Adelantado established Calumpit and Malolos as an encomienda entrusted to Sargento Juan Moron (Morones in other documents) and Don Marcos de Herrera. These two conquistadores were one of the first group of conquerors accompanied by Legaspi who have arrived in the Islands in 1565.
On April 5, 1572, the encomiendas of Calumpit and Malolos were unified and co-administered by Moron and Herrera. Also in that year, Alcaldia de Calumpit was formed in which the areas of Macabebe, Candaba, Apalit in Pampanga, and the settlements of Meyto, Panducot, Meysulao, and Malolos. On December 28, 1575, Governor-General Francisco Sande ordered to include Hagonoy in Calumpit.
In 1575, Bulakan was established as a visita of Tondo, and it is not part of Calumpit as the boundary between Tondo and Calumpit was marked in Mambog River and placed the statue of Our Lady of Visitacion (patroness of Calumpit) was erected. It was gone and recreated in 1997 upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Presentacion in Malolos.
On April 30, 1578, the town of Bulakan was officially established by the Augustinians, with Fray Diego Vivar as its first prior, and the convent was dedicated to San Agustin; when this was changed to Our Lady of Assumption is uncertain. It was reported that the western part of present-day Bulacan was to be very well-populated and rich. There is no documentation of the exact year and date when the Alcaldia de Calumpit was dissolved nor of the exact foundation year of the province of Bulacan. It has only been documented that Malolos (then part of Calumpit in 1572) was first to appear as part of Alcaldia de Bulacan in 1582. It may be assumed that the reorganization of encomiendas occurred between 1580 and 1582 at the time of Governor-General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa.
The same document, also from the 1582 Relacion de las Islas Filipinas by Miguel de Loarca, reports that Alcaldia de Calumpit had jurisdiction in the areas of Calumpit (the capital), Capalangan, Cabangbangan and Hagonoy, which made up the Alcaldia's villages. Then Loarca mentioned that Alcaldia de Bulacan had Bulakan (its capital), Malolos, Caluya, Guguinto, Binto and Catanghalan (instead of Meycauayan) as its encomiendas, which formerly had one alcalde (mayor), though Loarca wrote that Alcaldia de Bulacan was formed in 1580 at the time of Peñalosa.
According to the document of Governor-General Luis Pérez Dasmariñas in the Account of the Encomiendas for the King of Spain furnished on June 21, 1591, the Alcaldia of Bulacan was part of La Pampanga with the Encomiendas subject to it such as the Encomiendas of Malolos (3,600 persons), Binto (2,000 persons), Guiguinto (2,000 persons), Caluya (2,800 persons), Mecabayan (2,800 persons) and Bulacan identified as " capital" and residence of "alcalde mayor" with 4,800 persons. …