NEWSFLASH

LUBAO: A HISTORIC TOWN AWAKENS

Lubao, Pampanga, June 25, 2002 (STAR) Unknown to many, Lubao is a giant and historical town in its own right. It is one of the oldest towns in Pampanga, if not in the entire Central Luzon, having been founded by the Malayans. It was already an established settlement with local government headed by Rajah Macabulos when the first Spaniards led by Martin de Goiti set foot on its soil and "founded" it in September 1571.

Composed today of a total of 15,731.11 hectares and 44 barangays – the biggest of any town in the country – with a population of about 130,000, Lubao got its name from the Spaniards who baptized it "Lo Bajo" and eventually corrupted to Lubao.

The Augustian friars led by the Reverend Juan Callegos built the town’s first church, the Saint Augustine Church, the venue of the Arroyo-Montenegro wedding this morning, in 1572.

Records also showed that the first printing press in the country was established in the Saint Augustine Church in 1602.

Lubao became the capital of the Philippine Revolutionary government under General Emilio Aguinaldo in 1898. The Saint Augustine Church became the temporary and emergency seat of the Aguinaldo government when it fled from the Americans in 1898. In fact, one of the leading citizens of Lubao, Don Leandro Ibarra, occupied a prominent position in the revolutionary government, that of Secretary of Interior.

During the Second World War, a big warehouse and bodega in the town served as arsenal of the American Army, thus making it one of the main targets of the Japanese bombing missions.

The infamous Death March passed through Lubao. During those trying times, the people of Lubao exerted efforts to help the marchers by giving them food or medicines at the very risk of their own lives. In fact, many marchers escaped through the support and encouragement of the Lubao people although many more perished due to sickness and hunger.

During the Japanese occupation, underground movements or guerrilla units of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) were organized in Lubao and had endless encounters with the Japanese soldiers.

Despite producing in 1961 its first Philippine President, Diosdado Pangan Macapagal, Lubao has not grown by leaps and bounds as expected during his time.

President Macapagal, mainly due to his personal virtues of honesty, commitment, integrity, deep love and fear of God, did not concentrate and pour in projects to his hometown as his successor, Ferdinand Marcos, did for his home province of Ilocos Norte.

But Macapagal could be credited for initiating the North Luzon Expressway and the Epifanio de los Santos Ave. (EDSA) which cut short travel time to Pampanga, triggering faster development of the province much later.

Macapagal’s issuance of the Agrarian Reform Law in 1963 also brought improved peace and order not only to Pampanga, then the hotbed of the Hukbalahap, or Huk, movement and communist insurgency, but to the entire Central Luzon region.

The post-Diosdado Macapagal era brought Lubao back to sleep.

With the ascent of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001 to the Presidency and the eventual election of her eldest son, Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, as vice governor of Pampanga, Lubao suddenly awakened from its deep sleep.

With a President in the Malacañang Palace and a Vice Governor, now acting Governor, at the Provincial Capitol in San Fernando City, the people of Lubao have high hopes for a faster and better development of their town in the coming years. Already, some projects have been poured into the town by the Arroyo administration. Pampanga’s Governor, Manuel "Lito" Lapid is currently in the United States.

The people of Lubao -- which now has a youthful mayor, Dennis G. Padilla, and a member of the Provincial Board Member in the person of his mother and former mayor, Lilia G. Pineda -- are expecting more from the Arroyo administration to make Lubao, once the capital town of the Philippines and a center of printing in the country during the Spanish times, a premier municipality in the country again.