San Jose, officially the Municipality of San Jose (), 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 ...

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( ), is a first class province of the Philippines located in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Calabarzon region. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,908,494 people, making ...

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 79,868 people. The name of San Jose originates from its previous name as a barrio: ''San José de Malaquing Tubig'' or ''San José de Malaking Tubig''. The first part of the name comes from Spanish for its patron saint,

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

, and Fr. Jose Victoria, the parish priest of Bauan Church, under which the town once fell. The second part, Malaquing Tubig or Malaking Tubig, translates to "big river" or literally "big water" in Tagalog, referring to body of water that cuts through the area.

History

The Aetas were the first inhabitants of the place. They started clearing some portions of the wilderness especially in areas near the riverbanks. Several groups of settlers then drove this Aetas to the hinterlands and permanently occupied the place. They named it ''“Malaquing Tubig”'' which literally translates to "big river" referring to body of water that cuts through the central portion of their early settlement. The Spaniards then colonized the Philippines in 1565.

Bauan Bauan, officially the Municipality of Bauan (), is a municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 90,819 people. Etymology Bauan derived its name from the following Tagalog wor ...

was established in 1596 as an ecclesiastical unit administered by the

Order of Saint Augustine The Order of Saint Augustine (), abbreviated OSA, is a mendicant order, mendicant catholic religious order, religious order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who ...

with Malaquing Tubig as one of the barrios under its jurisdiction. Human population of Malaquing Tubig started to grow and in 1754,

Taal Volcano Taal Volcano (; ) is a large caldera filled by Taal Lake in the Philippines. Located in the province of Batangas about south of Manila, the volcano is the second most List of active volcanoes in the Philippines, active volcano in the country ...

erupted, destroying the original Bauan. And before its actual site could have been selected, Malaking Tubig was separated from Bauan. The recognized leaders of Malaquing Tubig then petitioned to the Spanish authorities for the creation of that place as a pueblo which was granted to them on April 26, 1765. On April 26, 1765, the barrio or sitio was renamed as ''San José de Malaquing Tubig'' by Fr. Jose Victoria, the parish priest of Bauan Church who presided a

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

there. This date is also noted as the day the residents petitioned to separate from Bauan and become an independent parish and town. On December 11, 1766, the barrio was separated from Bauan and became a town named San Jose. Ignacio de los Santos was named as its first ''governadorcillo'' circa 1767. In the new town's establishment, it originally included the land that now makes up Cuenca, which was separated to become an independent municipality in 1876 or 1877.

Geography

San Jose is located at . According to the

Philippine Statistics Authority The Philippine Statistics Authority (; PSA) is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that collects, compiles, analyzes, and publishes statistical information on economic, social, demographic, political affairs, and gene ...

, the municipality has a land area of constituting of the total area of Batangas. San Jose is from Batangas City and 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 ...

. The municipality is bounded in the north and north-east by Lipa, east by Ibaan, south by Batangas City and San Pascual, and west by Cuenca and Alitagtag.

Barangays

San Jose is politically subdivided into 33

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 shown in the matrix below. 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 ...

Climate

Demographics

In the 2020 census, San Jose had a population of 79,868. The population density was .

Economy

San Jose is well known for growing good varieties of

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

, lanzones, and

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...

. It is where a great number of poultry and piggery animals are grown and sold, especially to

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

, where it supplies a significant percentage of poultry products. Most of the San Jose workforce is either directly or indirectly involved in farming. There are also numerous feedmill corporations within its jurisdiction which include WhiteGold, Everlast, Busilac, Wincom, New Golden Mix.

Government

List of former Municipal Executives

Although currently called "Mayor", the Municipal Executive of San Jose has held other names including ''Gobernadorcillo'' which means "Governor" during the Spanish Period.

Tourism

The Archdiocesan Shrine of Saint Joseph the Patriarch located in the town proper is a popular Catholic pilgrimage site. It was once built with cogon and bamboo by Augustinian friars around 1788. The present structure was built on 1812 under the supervision of a botanist Fr. Manuel Blanco. It has single-aisled interior which offers an unobstructed view of the large main altar. The altar is massive, with six rounded columns encircling the image of Saint Joseph. Outside a multi-tiered belfry stands which was built in the latter part of the 19th century; a bridge offers passage to the church over the Malaquing Tubig River. San Jose is also home to the Oblates of Saint Joseph Mission and its Minor Seminary, founded by the Saint Joseph Marello. The Oblates were the first Italian congregation to send missionaries to the Philippines. San Jose became their first foreign mission, and is the center of the Vicariate X of the Archdiocese of Lipa. San Jose celebrates Sinuam Festival every April 25 to commemorate its founding anniversary and to thank its patron for the good performance of the main business in the town which is Poultry.

Infrastructure

The Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR Tollway), an expressway that runs through the town, has an exit situated in the nearby Ibaan.

Notable personalities

* Querube C. Makalintal – Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

(1973–1976), Speaker of the

Batasang Pambansa The Batasang Pambansa Complex, or simply the Batasan (), is the seat of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. It is located along the Batasan Road in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. The complex was initially the home of the Batasang Pa ...

(1978–1984) and Solicitor General (1954).

References

External links

* Philippine Standard Geographic Code* {{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose Municipalities of Batangas 1766 establishments in the Philippines