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Two Golden Decades: Kalookan 1951-1970
©Copyright 1971 by Agapito M. Joaquin
FOREWORD
I did not write this book. It
consists of articles, letters and materials written through the years by
different people. All I did was to gather those of them that were extant,
from my own files and from those of friends, to present the throbbing reality
that was Kalookan during the past two decades. I had the good fortune of
being a part of Kalookan during those twenty years, and of being at a vantage
point to observe the man who, for the same period, was the focal point of its
activities, but I tried to resist the temptation to editorialize.
The history of the city will probably be written
more completely by others. So will be the biography of the man who led it
from a lawless town to a thriving metropolis. For the present, I will
consider my work well compensated if this volume will preserve for future
writers an era in Kalookan that will be difficult to duplicate in the next
succeeding decades.
City of Kalookan, January 1, 1971
Agapito M. Joaquin
ACKNOWLEDEGMENT
The author acknowledges with gratitude the help extended to him by the heirs
of the late PABLO BAIRAN, Sr., who financed the research that went into
the writing of "The Role of Kalookan in the Nation's Quest for
Freedom" and "The Bastard Daughter of Rizal Province" which
comprise the first two articles in this book.
PREFACE TO THE 1981 EDITION
After the local elections of 1971, when Macario B. Asistio lost his bid for a
sixth term as Mayor of Kalookan, we were left with about 300 undistributed
copies of this book. We kept the volumes in the vacant shelves of
our law library, thinking that after the political debacle, no one in
Kalookan would be interested to read the story of Macario B. Asistio's two
golden decades in office.
We were wrong. In less than a year, the remaining books were sold out at
progressively increasing prices. Macario B. Asistio was, if that
were at all possible, more popular out of office than when he wielded the
powers of Mayor of Kalookan.
We
are reprinting the book not only in answer to popular clamor, although
that in itself would have been a sufficient reason, but more so because we
feel that a younger generation in Kalookan ought to have access to the
information that the book contains. Knowing the efforts exerted, the
difficulties and the heartaches encountered by those who led the city in
its infancy should make us feel a little more appreciative of what we have
today.
The book is being reprinted with very little modification. Between the
first and second editions, we have come up with a more definitive history
of Kalookan, with emphasis on her role in the nation's quest for freedom
and her sixty years as a neglected municipality of Rizal Province. We used
these new works to replace Serrano's "Brief History of
Kalookan", which appeared in the original book, because a recounting
of our people's rebellious and independent spirit fits in more logically
with our later fight to be free from the shackles of an outmoded
provincial system of local government.
The fight, after all, is what this book is all about.
City of Kalookan, 1981
Agapito M. Joaquin
AUTHOR'S NOTE OF THE USE OF THE "K's" AND THE "C's" IN SPELLING THE NAME OF THE CITY
The observant reader will notice the seemingly interchangeable use of
"Caloocan" (with two "C's") and "Kalookan"
(with two "K's") in the different articles contained in this
book. Those using "C's" were generally written before July
28, 1970. On that date, the Municipal Board enacted Resolution No.
106, requesting all department heads thenceforth to use the letter
"K" instead of "C" in spelling the name of the
city. The move was inspired by the wave of nationalism that engulfed
the nation in the late 1960's. The Anglo-Spanish letter in a name
that was obviously indigenous smacked of the snobbishness of the colonial
master that made him write cauayan instead of kawayan, to
give just one example.
Surprisingly, it was the courts and the fiscal's office that led the other departments
in complying with the resolution. School authorities refused to
honor it (they still do), arguing that "C's" in a proper noun
are not changed to "K's" when written in Pilipino. The
fallacy of this assertion is that "Kalookan" is the proper noun,
and the "K's" are not changed to "C's" when written in
English. At any rate, ours is the only city in the country that is
written in two different ways. If only for uniformity, it is urged
that the correct spelling be used by all.
It will probably take much longer than a decade to achieve total compliance,
but the progress so far made is encouraging.
City of Kalookan, 1981
The Author
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Foreword
Acknowledgement
Preface to the 1981 Edition
Kalookan or Caloocan?
Table of Contents
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