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Cainta, officially the Municipality of Cainta (Filipino: Bayan ng Cainta, IPA: [kɐʔɪnˈtaʔ]), is a municipality in the province of Rizal, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 386,321 people.
It is one of the oldest municipalities in Luzon (founded on August 15, 1571) and has a land area of 4,299 hectares (10,620 acres). It is also 3rd most populous municipality in the province after Taytay and Rodriguez. Its total assets amounting to ₱3,988,392,142.17 makes it the richest municipality in the country in terms of income.
Cainta existed as a village called Cainta when the Spaniards arrived in the 1570s, documented in Spanish records as Cáinta or Caynta. The origin of its name is unknown.
After the death of Rajah Matanda, Adelantado Miguel de Legaspi received word that two ships, San Juan and Espiritu Santo, had just arrived in Panay Island in the central Philippines from Mexico. One ship was under the command of Don Diego de Legaspi, his nephew, and the other of Juan Chacon. The two ships were in such disrepair when they arrived in Panay that one of them was not allowed to return to Mexico. Legaspi ordered that it be docked on the river of Manila. The Maestro de Campo was sent to Panay to oversee its transfer to Manila, with Juan de la Torre as captain.
To help spread the faith, several Augustinian friars were commissioned by Spain and were among the ship's passengers. One of them was Father Alonso de Alvarado, who had been in the armada of Villalobos. Another was Father Agustin de Albuquerque, who became the first parish priest of Taal town, south of Manila. Some of the missionaries were sent to Cebu province in the central Philippines to accompany Father Martin de Rada the Prior. Four stayed to work in Pampanga province and the environs north and south of Manila, which included the then-village of Cainta.
Meanwhile, Legaspi was determined to subjugate the people of Cainta and Taytay, a neighboring town. He sent his nephew Juan de Salcedo with a galleon (a small ship propelled by oars and sails) and 16 small boats accompanied by a hundred Spanish soldiers and many Visayas natives allied with them. Salcedo sailed on August 15, 1571, arriving in Cainta on the 20th. He sought peace from the villagers but the village chiefs responded arrogantly, told him that the people of Cainta, unlike those of Manila, were not cowards, and would defend their village to the death. Confident in the defenses offered by their fort and the security of the site, they were joined by people from Taytay.
These two villages are on a plain on the shores of a river that flows from La Laguna and before arriving there divides in two large arms, both with abundant water. On its banks are found the two villages, half a league from each other, with the river passing through both before finally becoming one in a part of the terrain encircled by thick bamboo groves. These bamboos were tied together with liana, turning them into a thick wall where the people had constructed two ramparts with their moats full of water. By the river, they had built strong stone bulwarks with wooden towers and good artillery (culverins or lantakas), guarded by a large number of warriors armed with arrows, swords and other projectile-type arms.
Deciding to attack, Salcedo first sent Second Lieutenant Antonio de Carvajal with some escorts to reconnoiter the town and determine the weakest point where they could enter. Carvajal, wounded by an arrow in his arm, returned with the information that the weakest spot, the least fortified and with the easiest access was the other part of an arroyo on the side of La Laguna where many boats could be seen entering the river.
Salcedo ordered installed in the prow of the galley a stone-throwing mortar. He and his men then spent the night on shore, while 20 soldiers and numerous allies from Manila remained with Carvajal on the galley with orders that when they heard firing, they should proceed with the attack on the stone bulwarks and the houses in the town, while Salcedo and his men tried to enter through the wall by the arroyo. When they heard the sound of the bugle, the signal that they had taken the town, they were to stop firing.
After giving these instructions, Salcedo began his march and turned toward the river where the attack was to take place. He arrived in the arroyo and found it defended by a group of Cainta warriors who started to fire arrows and hurl lances.
Taken by surprise, the soldiers without waiting for Salcedo's order attacked the rampart and were overwhelmed by a rain of arrows. Finding such tenacious resistance, they began to retreat and flee in disarray.
Salcedo berated his men harshly for having attacked without his orders. Observing that in the other part of the arroyo the rampart was lower, he ordered a skiff brought there and after beaching it, he ordered some of his soldiers to use it as passage to the other side and take a more elevated point from where they could fire at the defenders of the town.
With the defenders retreating, Salcedo and his men were able to approach the wall and breach it. Cainta men came to close the breach, forcing Saavedra to back off.
In the meantime, the cannons of the galley destroyed the stone bulwarks and the houses in the town in a manner the people had not seen before. The shouts of the 600 Visayans allied with the Spanish made the natives believe that the Spaniards were already inside the poblacion [town proper]. Because of this, defenders of the breach abandoned it and retreated to the center of the town.
Salcedo observed this from a distance and ordered the breach attacked again. This time, the Spaniards encountered little resistance. Led by Salcedo and with Saavedra carrying the Spanish banner, they succeeded in entering the town. Together with their soldiers, they advanced rapidly and shortly scaled the wall where a bloody battle was fought.
The Cainta men preferred to die rather than surrender. Having taken over the stone walls, the Spaniards climbed the towers and hoisted the Spanish banner. At the blare of the bugle, the cannons stopped firing from the galley.
Founded on November 30, 1571, Cainta was a fiercely independent village that fought valiantly against the Spaniards but was later defeated and became a visita (annex) of Taytay in 1571 under the Jesuits. Changes in ecclesiastical administration made Cainta a part of Pasig under the Augustinians but it was deeded back to the Jesuits by the king of Spain in 1696. Cainta became a separate township in 1760.
The chief religion is Roman Catholicism. When the Spaniards arrived, they celebrated the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle and a mass was held in a chapel made of nipa palm branches and wood. Many people came to attend and consequently were baptized into the faith.
The Church of Cainta was completed in 1715. It was gutted during World War II. Only the outer walls and the facade remained which was repaired with a coat of Portland cement. In 1727, an image depicting Our Lady of Light was brought to Cainta from Sicily, Italy, and was among the structures destroyed by Japanese and the joint American and Filipino bombs. Except for the outer walls, now greatly renovated, hardly anything remains of the old church. Extensive damage was also caused by recurrent earthquakes and typhoons that plagued the Philippines. The natives helped in its restoration and the new building was completed on February 25, 1968, and blessed by Manila Cardinal Archbishop Rufino Jiao Santos.
Cainta became an independent town in 1760. During the brief British occupation of Luzon (1762–1763), part of its British India troops known as sepoys lived and intermarried with the natives in one of the town's barrios. The Indian left a culinary legacy in the spicy and highly seasoned dishes that are now part of mainstream Cainta cuisine. Cainta became part of Tondo (starting 1763) but separated in 1883 and incorporated with the district of Morong.
Exequiel Ampil was assigned by Emilio Aguinaldo to liberate Cainta.
Major William P. Rogers, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 20th US Infantry Regiment, came upon the Filipinos in Cainta, about 1,000 strong, and forced them to retreat. He burned the town. Two Americans were killed and 14 wounded, while the Filipinos suffered about 100 killed and wounded.
Upon the approach of the Americans, Exequiel Ampil y Dela Cruz, the Presidente Municipal of Cainta and a former Agente Especial of the Katipunan who had become a pronounced Americanista, strongly advised the Filipino soldiers to surrender. Instead, they shot him. Although wounded, Ampil managed to escape.
On March 3, 1902, major American newspapers including The New York Times reported: "…Felizardo, at the head of twenty-five men armed with rifles, entered the town of Cainta and captured the Presidente of Cainta, Señor Ampil, and a majority of the police of the town. Señor Ampil has long been known as an enthusiastic American sympathizer, and it is feared that he may be killed by the enraged ladrones (thieves & land grabbers). A strong force of constabulary has been sent to try to effect his release." In actuality, Timoteo Pasay was the leader of the guerilla band that kidnapped Ampil on Feb 28, 1902.
On March 4, 1902, near the hills of Morong town, Ampil found an opportunity to escape. A detachment of constabulary was taken from the garrison at Pasig and stationed at Cainta for his protection, he survived the war. And upon retiring from his military and political career, Don Exequiel Ampil together with his wife Doña Priscila Monzon, applied and managed their vast estate from corner of Ortigas Ave. and C. Raymundo Ave., Brgy. Rosario, Pasig City, to Cainta River (San Jose, Cainta) up to the Valley Golf area (Brgy. Mambugan, Antipolo City, Rizal) down to Ortigas Extension (San Isidro, Taytay). The lots were the old and the new Municipal Halls stands, were also part of his estate.
Their son Dr. Jesus Ampil also became a Mayor (grandfather of the Ampil Brothers in Bacolod City); whose siblings where Lumen, Atty. Vicente (of Pasay), Rosario, and Jose.
On October 12, 1903, under the American rule, Cainta and Angono were consolidated with Taytay as one government entity. On January 1, 1914, it once again became an independent municipality and remained so to this day.
In 1942, Japanese occupation troops entered Cainta. By the time of the Allied invasion in 1945, soldiers of the Philippine Commonwealth Army 4th, 42nd, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 53rd Infantry Divisions and the Philippine Constabulary 4th Constabulary Regiment partook in the liberation of Cainta and aided the local guerrilla groups of the Hunters ROTC against the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces.
The general headquarters, camp bases, and garrisons of the Imperial Japanese Army were captured. After the war, the local casualties were over 3,810 killed in action and 12,400 wounded in action for the Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Constabulary, 200 killed in action and 700 wounded in action for the local guerrillas of the Hunters ROTC, and 15,000 killed in action, 36,000 wounded in action, and over 3,400 captured for the Imperial Japanese Army.
On May 9, 1992, a fire broke out at the town's municipal hall two days before the 1992 local elections. The Rizal Provincial Police Command concluded that the fire was accidental, having been caused by a negligent janitor, although the PNP Criminal Investigation Service Command (CISC) refuted this, citing eyewitness accounts to the contrary. By August 1993, Secretary of Justice Franklin Drilon ordered the reopening of the case due to evidence found to be conflicting with the initial conclusions by a team of prosecutors at the Department of Justice.
Cainta is bounded on the north by Marikina and Antipolo, on the west by Pasig, and on the east and south by Taytay. It lies in the Marikina Valley, is 10% rolling hills and 90% residential-industrial. It has the province's highest number of rivers and streams. Historians claim that Cainta's old geographical boundaries encompassed the mountain slopes of Montalban.
Cainta is 17 kilometres (11 mi) from Manila and 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from Antipolo.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Cainta”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.