From Tambobong To Malabon Part 1 Lecture

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Algoreth’s “Etimologias Filipinas” says that Malabon, once a quaint town, was named

“Tambobong” more than four hundred years ago.

Tambobong was said to have been one of the tribal domains of first Rajah Soliman, a
cousin of Rajah Matanda who handles Manila and then second is Rajah Lakandula.

The former name originated from the numerous tambo trees growing in the area.
While the name that endured describes the abundant tender and edible shoots of the
bamboo “labong” which was one of the original ingredients of Malabon’s signature dish
“Pancit Malabon”. In the Spanish Era, the riverside town became the convenient
vacation spot for the friars and government officials of Intramuros. They were known
to call the place Malabon. It was “mala” because of the mud that dirtied and ruined
their expensive leather shoes and exquisite long robes imported from Europe and it
was “bon/buen” for its restorative, fresh air and excellent cuisine.

Historians listed various years for the town’s foundation, being 1571, 1600, 1607 and
1670. Records show that May 21, 1599, Tambobong became under the administration of
the Augustinian Friars as a bisita or parish along with the town of Navotas.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Tambobong benefited from its robust economic
activities due to its proximity to the walled City of Intramuros and the Galleon Trade in the
Manila Bay Area.

In 1768, “Casa Regal de Tambobong” a tribunal building was established indicating the town’s
voice in legal and political affairs of the times.

Tambobong’s further industrialization ws manifested by the 1851 establishment in Hulo of a


huge tobacco factory called La Princesa Tabacalera” owned by the King of Spain.
1888 was highlighted by the first Tranvia
de Vapor that plied Malabon’s River
system which was an efficient entry to the
northern provinces.

After the American Revolution, Twentieth


Century Malabon became a town of the
Rizal Province through the Philippine
Commission Act No. 137. It was reunited
with the town of Navotas through the
Philippines Commission Act of 942. Six
years later, in January 6, 1906, Malabon
and Navotas were re-established as two
distinct towns.
Based on the coffee table book from Tambobong to Malabon, MALABON
– NAVOTAS Areas was visited by Chinese and Arab Merchants in the late
T’ang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and Sung Dynasty (960-1127 AD) and they landed
goods there according anthropologist H. Otley Beyer.C

First to arrive before the Chinese junkies were the Arabs between the 8th
and 11th centuries. It was to become Arab’s golden age of sail hence sprang
the Arabian Nights’ Sindbad The Sailor, the fictional hero whose seven
Voyages were well described by Scheherazade in The Thousand and One
Nights. It turns out that Sindbad was not pure fiction but was a composite
figure of the Arab sea captains and merchants who ventured to the limits
of known world guided only by stars.

The year the Arabs visited Malabon-Navotas landing site in the time of
Sindbad the Sailor would have been before 900AD, before the Tundun-
Butuan-Mendang Sri Vijayan Route had been set.
Most Chinese junkies in those days did not sail
beyond the sight of land but simply went down the
coastline, hugging and skirting, stopping, shopping
and swapping goods at trading posts that dotted
the shoreline.

Only in the 1088 did the invention of the maritime


compass finally provide the Chinese captains of
trading ships the much needed direction. They
could now cross the China Sea, reach the fabled
isles of barbarians and land their goods “there”,
just like the Arabs.

“There” would be Tundun (Tondo) the landing site


where the Malabon-Navotas River after crossing the
Navotas River empties into Manila Bay known as
“Tung-lio” or Tung Lao to Arab and Chinese traders in
Pre-Hispanic time, Tondo was identified by Chinese Scholar Wah The Ming to be none other than the Malabon-
Navotas coastline.
Why “There”?

“Because it is the middle of the Bay: according to Mr. Rudy Santos, a Bureau of Fisheries official who had
worked for years at the Bureau’s office in Dagat Dagatan. Teresita Ang-See, President of Kaisa Heritage
Center who runs the Bahay Tsinoy Museum in Intramuros who grew up in Malabon at a time when she could
use the waters of the Tullahan River as a mirror corroborates Santos’ conclusion.

During the trading, Chinese brought and sold or barter silk, porcelain, colored glass, beads and iron ware for
hemp cloth, tortoise shells, pearls and yellow wax.
Some of these Chinese traders have settled
here in Malabon, married to a local, raise
family and continue doing business.

Most of them became affluent families that


eventually controlled the flow of goods in the
market.

Old Chinese businessmen were said to hoard


goods and stock them until there are no
longer available in the market. They will then
bring out their stocks and sell it in a much
higher price.
NAVAL.
NEPOMUCENO.
ORTEGA.
ANDRES. GUTIERREZ. PAEZ.
BAUTISTA. HIZON. PASCUAL.
BERNARDO. IBAVIOSA. RIVERA.
BLAS. IGNACIO. ROMERO.
BORJA. JOSON. ROQUE.
BOSCH. LAZARO. SALAO.
CACNIO. LUCAS. SANCIANGCO [ Gregorio ].
CAMUS. LUNA. SANTOS.
CAYCO. One side of the Luna is descended SANTOS.
CHIKIAMCO. from the Rufino; one of their SIOCHI.
DALUPAN. forebears was Bernabela Rufino. SYJUCO.
DAZA. MANAPAT. TANCHOCO.
DE JESUS. MARCELO. TIANGCO.
DE LOS SANTOS [ Epifanio ]. “Pepe” Marcelo was a chemical DEL ROSARIO [ related to
DIONISIO. engineer who started many the Andres family ].
GABRIEL. industries. LACHENAL.
GAZA. MARONILLA. NAVAL.
GOZON. MARTINEZ. ROLDAN
Listed are the names of the former Municipal
Captains or what we call now as Mayors of
Malabon from 1670 to 1741.
MAYSILO, CAPITAL OF TAMBOBONG
Historically, Maysilo held the enviable record as the oldest settlement of Tagalogs and
Chinesses in the Archipelago. Having hosted the residencies of principals, such as the late
adopted son of Rajah Soliman, gobernadorcillo of Tondo Agustin Legaspi and his wife, the
daughter of the late Panguiran aka. Phelipe Salalila, Datu of Maysilo and Uncle of the fifth
Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei, as well as Dioniso Capolo and Agustin Manuguit, sons of Lakandula,
the King of Tondo. In 1645 Manuguit at 75 years old was still a proud resident of Maysilo.

It was and is still the site of the first asilos of the Augustinians and it was where the 2 rajahs,
Soliman and Lakandula and Agustin Legaspi and his brothers and cousins plotted the first ever
revolution against Spanish sovereignty in 1586. It din not come as a surprise that the newly
created pueblo de Tambobong, Maysilo with its church and town hall became its capital.
Fifty-two years before pueblo de
Tambobong was created, however,
long before the settlement rose in
commercial importance, Malabon
as documented in a 1618 Capellonia,
had already been designated the
future site of an Augustinian
church on religious grounds.
Specifically, on the hollowed
grounds donated by Agustin Sigua.
Parroquia de San Bartolome and the Tranvia
SAN BARTOLOME PARISH

Because of the discovery of an unsettle


land dispute by the higher Spanish
authorities, then Captain Municipales
Nicolas Acerda Manapat (1731-1734) were
called and the authorities that this was the
best opportunity for them to make their
wishes come true.

They made Captain Manapat to execute in


writing that he indeed had the rightful
claim to the properties involved and while
in the process have exacted a confession
that he had been blessed with half a dozen
children out of wedlock because the
mother of his children were his first
cousin.
The Captain General and the Archbishop
agreed that for Manapat’s Penance he
should move the church and townhall
from Maysilo to Malabon. In return they
will allow Nicolas Acerda Manapat and
Francisca Manapat Andante to marry,
celebrated in church with all the pomp and
ceremonies. Another condition is to name
the church’s patron saint after his
compadre, Bartolome Mangay Mansano,
and the same with the chapels’ patron
saints after the children of the true owner
of the property, Agustin Sigua, who are
San Antonio (Tonsuya), San Nicolas
(Tanong) and Concepcion’s would be
Concepcion.
San Bartolome Church has become a parochial
church on May 14, 1614 and the very first parish
priest is Fr. Luis Gutierrez, OSA.

The parish priests of this church were a Spanish


priest of Order de San Agustin until the Revolution
of 1898. The original church was built on 1813-1861
and was made up of stone, tiza, tingga, tanso and
molave, which is said to be the highest and the
biggest church in the entire country with Manila
Cathedral. The church was ravaged and floundered
during the 1898 Revolution. Only one removable
silver altar was recovered of the total six. The
present San Bartolome Church, in its simple white
patina and ongoing restoration still remind us of its
grand and rich religious past. The Church is also
believed as the original place for the Cry of
Balintawak.
LECTURE TO BE
CONTINUED

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