Sta. Rosa Branch

Last updated on September 30, 2019

In 1571, Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo, the grandson of Miguel López de Legazpi, founded the town of Biñan which was annexed as a barrio to Tabuco (now, Cabuyao) while exploring the region of Laguna de Bay.

In 1688, Biñan, together with Barrio Bukol (Santa Rosa, before separation from Biñan) separated from Cabuyao. After a series of renaming, separation of barrios to become independent towns, Barrio Bukol was politically emancipated as the municipality of Santa Rosa. The town was renamed after Saint Rose of Lima. The municipality of Santa Rosa was founded on January 18, 1792.

During the revolutionary period in 1898, the town was instrumental in the proclamation of Philippine independence from Spain when it signed the Act of Independence on June 12, 1898. Later on the town’s local revolutionaries fought alongside the forces of Pío del Pilarduring the Philippine–American War.

On February 5, 1945, the town was left abandoned by the Japanese soldiers when the local guerrilla resistance movement, with support from the American and Filipino military contingent, entered the town proper, where skirmishes, torture, and deaths occurred.

During the post-war era, until the 1970s, the townspeople were largely dependent on basic agriculture and family-owned enterprises for livelihood. The influence of industrialization slowly took shape in the 1980s with the entry of local and foreign investors who were instrumental in the fast-pace economic and social transformation of the town and the province.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa,_Laguna