Cabuyao Cityhood Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: August 4, 2024

Cabuyao is a first-class component city in the Philippine province of Laguna, situated 26 miles southeast of Metro Manila. Due to numerous factories established there by Philippine and international companies, it is known as “The City of Modern Factories” and “The Enterprise City of the Philippines”. The name of the city is derived from the word kabuyaw, the local name of the kaffir lime tree (Citrus hystrix).

Before the beginning of the Spanish colonization, Cabuyao was situated in the middle of Tabuco, a large and prosperous territory that also included present-day Biñan, Calamba, San Pedro, and Santa Rosa. It was a center of trade between the natives and Arab, Chinese, and Malay traders.

The colonization of the region began in 1570, following the conquest of Manila by the Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi. Legazpi tasked Juan de Salcedo with conquering all native settlements around the lake of Laguna de Bay. In 1571, Tabuco was declared an ecomienda, i.e. a town owned by a Spanish noble, in this case one Gaspar Ramirez. The Spanish renamed it Cabuyao and made it the center of the colonial government in the area.

In 1896, local guerrilla groups joined the forces of General Paciano Rizal in their fight against the colonial authorities. The Spanish surrendered two years later, but the victory of the Philippine Revolution was short-lived: it was followed by the Philippine-American War, which the Philippines eventually lost. The residents of Cabuyao resisted the American occupation, but had to surrender in the end. The first mayor of Cabuyao under the American administration was Captain Sotero Batallones, who peacefully surrendered the town to the Americans. He assumed the position in September 1904.

In January 1942, less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Cabuyao was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. During the occupation of Cabuyao, there were no direct confrontations between the occupational forces and Filipino guerrillas. Instead, the guerrillas fought the Makapili, a pro-Japanese Filipino militant group.

Once the war was over and the Philippines gained independence from the United States, Cabuyao continued to grow and develop. A bill proposing to convert Cabuyao from a municipality to a city was introduced to the Congress of the Philippines in December 2010. After a series of successful readings and committee hearings, it was approved and signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III.

To ratify the conversion, a plebiscite was held in Cabuyao on August 4, 2012. Almost 90% of voters supported the cityhood of Cabuyao, and it became the 142nd city in the Philippines. The anniversary of the plebiscite is celebrated as Cabuyao Cityhood Day and has the status of a special non-working holiday in the city of Cabuyao.