San Pedro, officially the City of San Pedro (), is a component city in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the , it has a population of people.
It is named after its patron, Saint Peter.
San Pedro has been dubbed as “dormitory town” of Metro Manila and migrants from other provinces commuting everyday through its highly efficient road and transport system. Despite being one of the smallest political units in the entire province, with a total land area of only , San Pedro is the 5th most populous city (out of 6) after the cities of Biñan, Calamba, Santa Rosa and Cabuyao. The city also has the highest population density in the province of Laguna and in the whole Calabarzon region, having . San Pedro became a component city of Laguna by virtue of Republic Act No. 10420 dated March 27, 2013.
Etymology The name of San Pedro originates from its old name: San Pedro [de] Tunasán. The first part of the name comes from Spanish for its patron saint, Saint Peter; while the second part comes from Tunasán, which literally means "a place where there is Tunás" (Nymphaea nouchali),Nymphaea nouchali a medicinal plant abundant on the shoreline of Laguna de Bay. Tunasan is also the name of a neighboring barangay in Muntinlupa, located just north of San Pedro. In 1914, by virtue of Act No. 2390, the town's name was abbreviated to its current iteration.
History Pre-Colonial Period (900-1565)
While there is no archaeological evidence yet that indicate precolonial settlement in the present-day city of San Pedro, the area where the modern city of San Pedro is believed to be part of the native settlement of the Tagalogs centuries before Spanish contact. It is believed that the Laguna de Bay and the San Isidro River gave livelihood and food to the early settlers. As the Laguna Copperplate Inscription dated back to 900 AD was found in Lumban, Laguna, this gives an idea that the area of San Pedro may had an independent precolonial barangay headed by their own Datus and was under the influence if not directly under the alliance network of the Lakan of Tondo.
Spanish Colonial Period (1565-1896) On July 28, 1571, a month after the Spanish conquest of Manila, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi distributed certain parts of Luzon to the members of his expedition who assisted them in securing the Philippines for the King of Spain. Among those given were settlements near Laguna de Bay, with Gaspar Ramirez received 16 villages, with 14 of which located near the river of Calamba, while Francisco de Herrera received four other villages near the lake. Martin Gutierrez and Alonzo Ligero received five villages each, Pedro de Herrera received six villages, including the Indios of the Siniloan River, and Lope Garcia de Herrera received four villages. It is estimated that among these communities was the township of Tabuco, which comprises the modern-day cities of San Pedro, Biñan, Santa Rosa, and Cabuyao. By 1591, it was written that the encomienda of Tabuco belonged to Don Luis Enriquez, with four thousand persons.
One member of Legazpi's expedition, the Portuguese-born Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, also received vast land grants from the King of Spain in recognition of his efforts to conquer the Philippines for Spain. Recognizing that he may die on his upcoming military expedition in Mindanao, he wrote down his last will in Arevalo, Iloilo, where he donated the funds that established the Jesuit-run Colegio de Manila, and naming his wife and daughter as heirs. He likewise wrote that if they die without direct heirs, the Jesuits would use their inheritance for a college. Rodriguez died in 1595, and after almost a decade, in 1604, his daughter perished when the galleon San Antonio sank en route to Mexico. Upon their demise, the endowment of Rodriguez was subsequently applied to Colegio de San Jose (now San Jose Seminary), established three years earlier, in 1601.
Around 1629, the Colegio de San Jose acquired from the Colegio de Manila parcels of land on the southwestern shore of the Laguna de Bay, near present-day Biñan. Years later, in 1634, they also purchased parcels of land within the area owned by the widow of Sergeant Pedro Dominguez Franco. They merged these acquisitions to form the Hacienda San Pedro de Tunasan. However, in November 1639, the Chinese who were working against their will in the neighboring Calamba estate revolted, with the sugarcane fields of the Hacienda Tunasan destroyed in the process. In 1698, Tabuco, together with Biñan and San Pedro Tunasan, underwent pastoral visitation by Manila Archbishop Diego Camacho y Ávila. In the said inspection, Camacho observed that the parishones are not knowledgeable of the Christian faith, prompting him and his assistant Fr. Juan Melendrez to meet the residents individually and test them on their knowledge on the basic Christian (i.e. Catholic) doctrines. Afterwards, he commanded the priests-in-charge of the area, Rev. Frs. Manuel de Leon (Tabuco), Nicolas Godiño (Biñan), and Jesuit Miguel de Salas (San Pedro Tunasan) to instruct their people on the fundamental Christian doctrines. Camacho likewise ordered that the priests and their successors should not to oblige their parishioners to offer anything for the administration of the sacrament of penance, with major excommunication as penalty for non-compliance.
It is claimed that San Pedro de Tunasán became a town on January 18, 1725, upon the request of a group of San Pedrense Principalía led by Alonzo Magtibay, Francisco Santiago, and Ignacio de Guevarra and subsequently approved by the Governor-General and Manila Archbishop Francisco de la Cuesta. King Philip V of Spain was said to have decreed that the town be separated from Tabuco. Francisco Santiago subsequently became the first mayor of the newly formed town. However, another author, Agustin de la Cavada wrote that San Pedro Tunasan became a town in 1712.
Agriculture, especially livestock raising, farming, and fishing, during that period, was its residents' primary income source. Manuel Buzeta and Felipe Bravo described the town in 1851 as having 613 houses, with a town hall and jail, and a primary school that caters to the young learners. Its parish was constructed using mixed materials and managed by a native secular priest. The crops that are said to be grown by the residents at this time were rice, sugar cane, corn, coconuts, mangoes, and other fruits and vegetables. The Rector of the Colegio de San Jose, in support of the Sociedad Economica de los Amigos del Pais, introduced mulberry planting in Hacienda San Pedro Tunasan to compete with the Chinese silk-making industry. Initially successful, the farmers eventually abandoned it, with the Spaniards blaming what they perceived as laziness of the Filipinos. Despite this, San Pedro Tunasan was among the towns that frequently experienced banditry and cattle-rustling, leading to the reputation that the town itself is not safe.
The 1818 Spanish census recorded the area having 1,112 native families and 2 Spanish-Filipino families.(507)
The Revolutionary Struggle (1896-98) During the early months of the revolution, siblings Antonino and Jose Guevara led the residents of San Pedro Tunasan in joining the nationalist cause. Due to its proximity to Cavite and to the Manila area, the local residents were advised by General Emilio Aguinaldo to discreetly sympathize with the revolutionaries as not to compromise the role of San Pedro as a rearguard of the revolutionary struggle. San Pedrenses followed this advise and secretly provided food and provisions to the Revolutionaries in Cavite. When the Spaniards launched their counteroffensive in Cavite, the people of San Pedro sheltered refugees from Cavite, including General Mariano Alvarez, and Andres Bonifacio’s widow Gregoria de Jesus.
San Pedro eventually became under the command of Katipunero General Paciano Rizal, brother of Jose. With the help of Guevara, they finally organized a municipal government led by mayor Gregorio Alvarez, who welcomed de Jesus and others to the town in 1897. De Jesus lived in the residence of Almario Ilmedo in San Roque village during her stay. Upon the resumption of the Philippine Revolution in May 1898, San Pedro was among the towns liberated by Filipino revolutionary forces on the offensive in Laguna. Some San Pedrense revolutionaries even helped in the liberation of other towns in the province from Spanish control.
First Republic and the Philippine-American War (1898-1901)
San Pedro was among the towns controlled by Filipino forces when the Philippine Declaration of Independence was promulgated on June 12, 1898. As a result, its presidente municipal, Gregorio Alvarez was among those who participated in the Bacoor Assembly of August 1, 1898. In this meeting held at Bacoor's Cuenca Mansion, about 200 municipal presidents ratified the Philippine Declaration of Independence. Months later, on December 30, 1898, San Pedro was among the towns who commemorated the first Rizal Day in accordance with the decree issued by President Aguinaldo. The Parish Priest of the San Pedro Apostol Parish, Fr. Victor Enrile, presided a Requiem Mass in honor of Dr. Jose Rizal inside the church, which was followed by a program where patriotic residents praised Rizal and rebuked the Americans due to the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1898).
When the Philippine-American War broke out, San Pedro Tunasan initially served as one of the rearguards for the forces of the First Philippine Republic. Some residents even formed a militia that joined the fight against the Americans. However, on January 6, 1900, during their military expedition of Brigadier General Theodore Schwan, the Americans entered San Pedro Tunasan without any resistance. Some residents who were suspected of sympathizing with the First Philippine Republic were arrested by the Americans and severely tortured. When President Aguinaldo ordered the Filipino forces to shift to guerrilla warfare, the politico-military governor of Laguna, General Juan Cailles placed San Pedro, together with Biñan, Santa Rosa, Cabuyao, and Calamba under the leadership of Colonel Severino Taiño. When Taiño was killed somewhere between San Pedro and Biñan, he was replaced by Colonel Julio Infante.
After the surrender of the First Republic in March 1901, General Miguel Malvar made San Pedro Tunasan part of his guerrilla area of operations, prompting the Americans to subject the town to hamletting tactics to force the remaining Filipino guerrillas to surrender. Later, Filipino resistance forces led by General Macario Sakay operated in San Pedro until his execution in 1907.
American Colonial Period (1898-1946) Once the Americans seized control of San Pedro on January 6, 1900, they appointed Benito Almendrala as Municipal President, and Arcadio Morando as Chief of Police. A year later, Toribio Almeida became the first elected Municipal President of San Pedro. As an austerity measure of the American Colonial Government, in 1903, by virtue of Act No. 939, San Pedro Tunasan's township status was dissolved becoming part of the then town of Biñan. In the same year, Muntinlupa was joined to the aforementioned under Act No. 1008. The local residents requested the Insular Government to reinstate San Pedro as a town, which succeeded upon the enactment of Act No. 1553 in 1906. Pascual Mindo became the municipal president of the revived Municipality of San Pedro Tunasan in 1907. It was also around this time that the Hacienda San Pedro de Tunasan was reverted to Jesuit control, following the orders of the Holy See that the Colegio de San Jose, together with the Hacienda Tunasan be returned by the Dominican friars to the Jesuit fathers. Eventually, an American businessman, Carlos Young, leased the Hacienda from the Jesuits.