Taguig City Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: December 8, 2024

Taguig is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines (Metro Manila). With a population of 1.2 million, it is the fifth most populous city in the country after Quezon City, Manila, Davao City and Caloocan. Taguig is one of the most important urban centers in the Philippines, excelling in various sectors such as finance, education and research, technology, healthcare, culture, entertainment and media.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, Taguig was a Tagalog settlement whose residents relied on rice farming and fishing for their livelihood. The name of the settlement is believed to be derived from the phrase “pook ng mga taga-giik”, which can be loosely translated as “place of the rice threshers”. When the Spaniards arrived in the area, they found the words “taga-giik” hard to pronounce and shortened them to Taguig.

Taguig was one of the settlements claimed for the Spanish crown by Miguel López de Legazpi during his expedition in 1571. From 1573 to 1587, it was an ecomienda granted to Captain Cervantes y Vergara. In April 1587, Taguig officially became a separate pueblo (town) consisting of nine barrios with Santa Ana as its poblacion (municipal center).

During the Philippine Revolution, Taguig had a chapter of the Katipunan, which is not surprising considering that one of the revolutionary leaders, Andrés Bonifacio, had ties to the town: his father Santiago was a native of Taguig. The Napindan Lighthouse in Taguig was the first place where Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo met with other Katipunan members in May 1896, three months before the revolution began. The Katipunan also used the lighthouse as a command center during the Philippine-American War until it was destroyed by an American warship in March 1899.

After the defeat of the Philippines in the Philippine-American War, the new government reaffirmed Taguig’s status as an independent municipality. The town subsequently became part of the newly created province of Rizal. In October 1903, Taguig was merged with Muntinlupa and Pateros to form the municipality of Pateros. In 1905, the municipal seat was moved from Pateros to Taguig and the municipality was renamed Taguig. By 1917, all three municipalities had regained their independent status.

The US government also acquired a large piece of land near Taguig and turned it into a military camp named Fort William McKinley (now Fort Andres Bonifacio). In 1942, Fort McKinley, along with the rest of the town, was occupied by Japan and became one of Japan’s most important military installations in the Philippines. The combined Filipino-American forces liberated Taguig in 1945.

In 1975, Taguig became part of the newly created National Capital Region. In 1993, it became involved in a territorial dispute with the neighboring municipality of Makati over the Fort Bonifacio area; it would take 20 years to settle the dispute in favor of Taguig.

The first attempt to convert Taguig from a municipality to a city was made in 1998, but the residents of Taguig voted against it in a plebiscite. After a petition for a recount was filed, the Supreme Court ordered a recount in 2004. It turned out that the majority of residents did indeed support Taguig’s cityhood, and it officially became a city on December 8, 2004.