SMX Convention Center • Seashell Drive, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City, Philippines • 23-26 April 2009
Physical Development Plan
for The Historic Town Center of
Malolos
This is Malolos… a town rich in cultural heritage, site of our nation’s
finest moments in history and a venue of great possibilities. Located 42
kilometers northeast of Manila, Malolos is the commercial, residential,
industrial, residential, industrial, institutional and historical center of the
province of Bulacan. Once a simple poblacion, it has grown to be one of
the best known local units not only in Bulacan but in the Philippines as well.
Malolos was an encomienda of Tirado before it became a poblacion
according to the “Account on Encomiendas in 1591”1 . As it was laid out, it
followed ordinances of the Laws of the Indies whereby a certain area was
decreed to be of the Church, another for the civil government, another
for the principales and so on, along a circular gradient emanating from
the town plaza. The roads were also to be constructed in such a way that
they radiate at right angles from the center into the four cardinal points.
The concept of “centrally located shrines, great market places and open
squares” were probably inspired by the practice of the Aztecs of Latin
America while the Roman grid system as conceptualized by Vitruvius and
developed by the Renaissance became its formal justification.2
Because of the ecological terrain of Malolos, it became important in
the development of a complex system of roads and waterways in Luzon.
A military road connected the poblacion of Bulacan to Manila by mideighteenth century while trade towards Pampanga and Pangasinan
was through the rivers and the sea. By 1842, Malolos, a newly emerging
principalia, was the most populous town in Bulacan.
By the turn of the 19 th century, concrete churches, bridges and
hispanized homes (Bahay na Bato) were constructed. It was on 1898 that
Malolos glittered with pride when the Revolutionary Congress, also called
Malolos Congress, convened inside the Barasoain Church with the framing
of the Malolos Constitution, “the best gem of glory of the political capability
of the Filipino people in those historic times”.3 The Basilica Minore, known
as Presidencia, became the official residence of General Emilio Aguinaldo
and the Barasoain Church was the session hall of the Congress.
As to why Malolos was chosen by Aguinaldo as his capital, J.D. Miley
pointed its historicity. He said that aside from the town’s accessibility, the
real reason for its selection was the fact the “the present revolution had
its first beginning there that the place persistently remained a hotbed
of revolution, and as a reward for the patriotism and loyalty of this
picturesque little town”.4
For centuries, the town of Malolos has been engraved in every Filipino’s
consciousness of history. It is a town that has witnessed the country’s
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