Kalayaan, officially the Municipality of Kalayaan (), is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Laguna,

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 24,755 people. Kalayaan is in the fourth district of the province of Laguna and can be reached three hours by land from Manila. It is the home of approximately 24,214 citizenry. The municipality is home to a hydroelectric power plant, the only pumped storage facility in the Philippines, the Kalayaan Pumped Storage Power Plant located in Brgy. San Juan, that contributes substantially to the income and an economic activity that is anchored on agriculture. It has complied with Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (R.A. 9003) by constructing a Category-I Sanitary Landfill under LISCOP, considered one of its kind on the municipal level in the Province of Laguna, which aims to put into practice the segregation and proper disposal of solid waste for the protection of environment. Kalayaan is roughly rectangular in shape, with a hilly terrain on most of its eastern side, while relatively flat on its western side. Its highest elevations are from 400 to 418 metres. These are found in Sitio Santo Angel, Malaking Pulo, and Cabuhayan in Barangay San Juan, and Sitio Lamao in Barangay San Antonio. Approximately three fourths of the total land area are with terrain 300 metres above sea level. Its lowest points are from 5 to 20 metres along the western sections of Barangays San Juan and Longos towards Laguna de Bay. The municipality was formerly called Longos until 1956 when it was changed to its present name.Republic Act No. 1417
, PhilippineLaw, retrieved 2012

History

A marker posted in the municipal building of Kalayaan reads: “On this site grew a coconut tree with three branches interpreted by our forebears as the future site of our municipal building; three branches being San Juan, Longos and San Antonio.” Today, the belief had been realized but digging through historical records, it seems that the place is still made up of the three original visitas of Babaye (now Longos), Abacao (now San Juan) and San Pablo (now San Antonio). Babaye got its name when the Spaniards came and found women washing clothes in the brook. When the Spaniards continued their aim to conquer the land and a little north of Babaye, they saw a place where people dried abaca and named the place Abacao. The Spaniards claimed the mountains east of Babaye and named the village found there in honor of San Pablo. On March 30, 1946, Executive Order No. 127 which ordered the transfer of the seat of government from Longos to San Juan was signed by Pres. Manuel Roxas. From then on, a part of San Juan became the Poblacion, while Longos, San Antonio and the rest of San Juan became its barangays.

Geography

Kalayaan is located approximately 14º20’ to 14°22’ latitude and 121º28’ to 121º38’ longitude. It is bounded by Paete on the north, Lumban on the south, Laguna de Bay on the west, and Mauban, Quezon on the east. The municipality is from the provincial capital Santa Cruz, from

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, and from

Lucena Lucena (, American Spanish: , European Spanish: ), officially known as the City of Lucena (), is a highly urbanized city situated in the Calabarzon region (Region IV-A) of the Philippines. The city is the largest urban center and capital of ...

. It could be reached via the Manila South Expressway and an artery of the national road southward from Calamba and northward from Pagsanjan.

Barangays

Kalayaan is politically subdivided into 3

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

s, as indicated below and in the image herein. Each barangay consists of

purok A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...

s and some have

sitios A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...

. * Longos (old capital town) * San Antonio * San Juan

Climate

Demographics

In the 2020 census, the population of Kalayaan, Laguna, was 24,755 people, with a density of .

Economy

References

External links

* * Philippine Standard Geographic Codebr>Philippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
*http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/senators/former_senators/wenceslao_lagumbay.htm {{Authority control Municipalities of Laguna (province) Populated places on Laguna de Bay