Region IV-A

Province of Laganua
3rd District
Municipality of CALAUAN
Created by Spanish Authorities in 1580
Meaning of Its Name derived from Kalawang, means rust
2nd Class Municipality
Calauan is a 2nd class municipality has an area of about 7,458.6629 hectares more
or less of land and lies in the central part of Laguna. It is bounded on the North by
Laguna de Bay, on the South by San Pablo City, on the East by municipality of
Nagcarlan and on the West by municipality of Bay. It is 75 kilometers from Manila,
21 kilometers from Sta. Cruz, Laguna and 5 kilometers from its neighboring town,
Bay. It is conveniently accessible by land transportation.
HISTORY
The fertile soil of Calauan attracted attention of Captain Juan de Salcedo, when he
passed through Laguna and Tayabas (now Quezon) on his way to Bicol Region in
1570. Ten years later, Spanish authorities established a town government two
kilometers from the site of the present Poblacion, in what is now Barrio Mabacan.
They called the townsite Calauan (tagalong word for rust). Following in epidemic
in 1703, the town was moved to its present site at the fork of three roads---now to
the southwest leading to San Pablo City, the other southeastward to Sta. Cruz, the
provincial capital, and the third going North to Manila.
It is said that a rich woman of Calauan paid for the construction of a concrete
church in 1787, and the archbishop in Manila installed San Isidro Labrador and San
Roque, whose feast day of May 15, as Patron Saint of the town. At the turn of 18th
century, when Bay was designated as the provincial capital of Laguna, Calauan
became a sitio of Bay. Merchants going to Southern Luzon usually pass through Bay
and Calauan. One of them, an opulent Spaniard by the name of Iigo in 1812
bought large tracts of land in Calauan. The landholdings of Iigo and, later, of his
heirs were so vast that many portions were still unsettled. The property was and still
is, known as Hacienda Calauan. About a century later, the people of Calauan fought
a guardia civil during the Philippine Revolution. Basilio Geiroza (better known as
Cabesang Basilio) and his men routed a battalion of guardia civiles in a five-hour
battle in Bario Cupangan (now Lamot I) in December 1897. During the subsequent
Philippine-American hostilities, Calauan patriots fought numerically superior forces
of General Otis in Barrio San Diego of San Pablo. With the establishment of civilian
authority in Calauan in 1902, the Americans assigned Mariano Marfori as first

presidente. Hacienda Calauan finance a construction of a hospital in 1926, and

Mariano O. Marfori, Jr. son of the first municipal presidente, as hospital director and
the resident physician, respectively. (The hospital, unfortunately, was destroyed in
World War II and has not been rebuilt since then).
In 1939, by the request of President Quezon, Doa Margarita Roxas vda. De Soriano,
granddaughter of the Spaniard Inigo, subdivided Hacienda Calauan and sold it to
the tenants, part of what remained was converted into a rest house and a swimming
pool and it became one of the tourist attractions until 1956.
The town got its name from the term Kalawang which means rust. It was claimed
that for centuries lumps of rust surfaced and drifted gently on a body of water
called Macalawang Spring. This spring was situated nearly three (3) kilometers from
the town proper.
Another interesting premise upon which the name Calauan was chosen has a little
story to tell During the early part of Spanish sovereignty over the Philippines,
there was a village located west of the town where an old man found a cross made
of stone. Since Christianity was being introduced in the town, the people felt they
should treat such cross with reverence. They held a mass at the spot where the
stone cross was found. To the surprised of all, during the celebration of the mass,
water sprang out from the exact place where the stone was located. The water was
yellowish and rusty. To commemorate this mysterious event, the people built a
church on this site. They saw to it that altar was constructed right on the spot where
the water had sprung out. The village had grown larger and then populated and
then became the town proper. Being mostly farmers, the people chose to honor San
Isidro Labrador and San Roque as their Patron Saints. May 15 and 16 respectively,
have been their celebration dates.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A BATTLE WE ALL NEED TO FIGHT IN ORDER TO

SURVIVE.
Looking outside my window is a mature Bagras tree that stands magnificently
despite the battering of typhoons........ I keep thinking of the battle scenes from the
Lord of the Rings and Avatar movie, wherein century old forest trees played a vital
role to form a strategic alliance with man, beings and other creatures in order to
save the world. Though fictional, these movies entail realism of our present world
and what could happen in the future.
In the problems we face today, climate change is our greatest enemy. We ourselves
have destroyed the forest fortress and that the balance of life has been disrupted.
The elements of earth, fire, air, water and Gaia seem to have turned against us,
magnifying nature's intensity into the likes of hailstorms, tsunami's, el nino,
landslides, forest fires, drought and the like. My question now is how are we going to

win this battle when almost all of the world's giant trees (our allies) are already
felled or when constant use of fossil fuel and garbage continue to pollute our
surroundings?
It is easy to say that tree planting is the solution. I'd say that it is partly correct,
because we need to start somewhere in order to bring back the trees. What we do
not have is the element of time, because it took years, centuries and millenniums in
order to grow those trees. Some seedlings do not stand a chance from extreme
changes in temperature whether hot or cold. They are similar to infants that need
nurturing and care for them to grow strong and healthy, otherwise they will just
wither away. Best way is to plan carefully as to what species to plant that would
best adapt to an area. There should be a follow up on giving care and maintenance
while seedlings are still establishing themselves. Finally, everybody should make it a
conscious effort to join this battle, after all it is the survival of every species on the
planet that is at stake including man.
Read more: http://philippinenativeforesttrees.blogspot.com/2010/07/climatechange-battle-we-all-need-to.html#ixzz3tyPYPdJS

IN DESIGN, SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE, BUT IN RAINFORESTATION I'D SAY

MORE IS MORE!
We often hear designers and architects associate modernism to simplicity, clean,
uncluttered and maintenance free. This is what most of us want to achieve in this
modern world because we want our lifestyle to reflect beauty, comfort and style
minus the headaches. Concepts are made and formulated to meet demands and
requirements, but no matter what the end result is everything should serve a
purpose. Nothing should be put to chance otherwise all efforts will be wasted.
I wish that I can say the same about rainforestation. That I can just plant seedlings
in rows and watch them grow their way into the garden of Eden that we envision
them to be. It takes more than that because there is life in trees and plants and that
we can never control nature, time or the elements. We often say that life is unfair.
Well, life as we know it is certainly full of uncertainties. Unexpected things could
happen to your seedlings/trees like for example your brother's pitbull ate your one
and only germinating Manaring (lithocarpus sp.) seed, which you collected from a
forest in Tagaytay. Or when the time that your jade vine was already making it's way
up the fence that a sudden infestation of moth larvae gorged on the leaves that it
was too late for you to take drastic measures to save it. There was even an instance
when unexperienced you made some unforseen errors in handling and storing
Tindalo seeds that when the time you got back from the trip and planted it, almost
all of it perished due to fungus or bacteria. What a waste! In the end, you try to
learn from these mistakes and hope to never ever do it again.

Enough about reminiscing the past because there is nothing to it. Nothing to bring it
back I mean so might just face life head on. Like in a forest, life is teaming with
species, one dependent on the other to form that symbiotic relationship or an
ecosystem. Rainforestation is mimicking and bringing back that ecosystem. It is the
closest thing that we can offer because we can never ever recreate the original
virgin rainforest once it is destroyed. Diversity is the key. The weakness of one will
be the strength of other species. I am talking about the layer upon layer of plant
and tree species in one area. Try to adapt that concept and maybe then you'll agree
with me that in rainforestation, more is more!
Read more: http://philippinenativeforesttrees.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-designsometimes-less-is-more-but-in.html#ixzz3tyPuPb4b