Cavite,
Land of Heroes, is home to a people with a unique blend
of Filipino, Chinese, Spanish and American cultures. It
is home to a friendly, smiling, hardworking and God fearing
people. We want our visitors to feel at home in Cavite.
So, we have prepared this website for you to know us better
and hopefully, to get to like us better. We also prepared
this page for our former residents who have emigrated
to other parts of the world so that we may inject some
nostalgia into their persona and perhaps convince them
to come back for a visit and renew acquaintances and discover
that they are still a part of us.
Mabuhay!
Cavite City today is a bustling, thriving community. We
see dedicated men in government, confident and competent
leaders in the business community and a citizenry that
aspires for a better future and striving to attain it.
It is a totally different scenario from a quarter century
ago when the US Navy pulled out of Sangley Point. It was
a truly depressing sight then. Today,
the business climate is very upbeat. Our young graduates
are adequately prepared and are easily hired if not locally,
then at the Cavite Export Processing Zone or the other
industrial parks located in the province The Philippine
Navy is expected to spend heavily in Cavite when the headquarters
of the Phil. Navy Command is transferred to Sangley Point,
from Manila. The construction business is quite brisk
and is expected to further gain ground when the reclamation
project at Bacoor Bay is finished and the vertical infrastructure
starts to be built. There are now 12 banks within the
City and a couple more banks have plans of opening in
Cavite city. The local government is also spending a sizable
part of its budget in projects like roads, school buildings
and health, sports and tourism development. Cavite City
today is truly a contrast to the Cavite of a few years
ago, Come, visit and see the new Cavite City.
History
Fifty
years after a native-chieftain by the name of Lapu-Lapu
slew Magellan on the shores of Cebu, a still wary Spanish
expeditionary force was landed on a point in the southern
Luzon coast. The year was 1571. From there the invaders
trudged southward until they reached a hook-shaped peninsula
at the tip. The
land was marshy and, covered by mangrove trees. Where
it was dry, there were palms and bushes. Here they decided
to settle. There are many legends how the word "Cavite"
came into being, the most logical of which is that it
originated from the word "hook" which in Tagalog is Kalawit,
having reference to the odd shape of the narrow strip
between two bays. To "kawit" the shortened word, was added
the sound of the syllable "eh," a meaningless word the
natives had a habit of ending sentence with. There being
no letter K in the Castilian alphabet, the polished word
Cavite came about. It was actually the present town of
Kawit where the settlement was until they discovered an
ideal place for the repair and construction of ships.
It was called Puerto de Cavite (Port of Cavite), Kawit
became known as Cavite Viejo (Old Cavite). The
name Cavite is linked to world trade history. The Spanish
galleons, then proud queens of the ocean trade lanes sailed
every July from here to Acapulco, Mexico, via the Great
Circle Route. They were built by skilled hands in the
Puerto de Cavite. Between 1609 and 1616, during the rule
of Governor Juan da Silva, the Espiritu Santo and the
San Miguel were constructed in its shipyard and launched.
So were galleys and other naval frigates. The fame of
the Caviteņos as maritime vessel artisan live to this
day. Constant threat of invasion and raids led to the
transformation of the Puerto into a walled city.
In 1590 they built the surrounding walls (murallas) and
Fuerte Guadalupe on the side, the fort of San Felipe 1595
and the Porta Vaga in 1602. The latter completed the military
and naval defense system. By reason of the Puerto’s importance
and the security it provided, convents and hospitals were
erected therein. Among them - the San Diego de Alcala
convent in 1608, the Porta Vaga (La Ermita), Santa Monica
(Recoletos), San Juan De Dios, Santo Domingo and San Pedro,
the port’s parish church. In 1591 the Franciscan Fathers
established a hospital, the Hospital de San Jose, founded
by the congregation of San Juan de Dios, for sailors and
soldiers. There were also three plazas and one park, Plaza
de Armas in front of San Felipe Fort, Plaza San Pedro
in front of the church and Plaza Soledad in front of Porta
Vaga. By the bay was Paseo del Reparo. Relics of this
historical past existed after the Spanish regime - the
forts and the murallas, the plazas and the parks. The
residents went to church at San Pedro, Santa Monica and
Porta Vaga until the last hostilities. The war destroyed
all these. Cavite had its own high price to pay for Filipino
freedom, during the bloody years of the revolution. It
was first to dare an open clash with the Spanish rulers
when on January 20, 1872, a Filipino sergeant by the name
of Lamadrid led a mutiny in the Cavite arsenal. Their
protest over payment of tribute unheeded, soldiers and
workers in the port took up arms, slaughtered several
Spanish men and officers, were themselves killed, wounded
or executed when the uprising failed.
Aftermath was strong-arm policy which led to the execution
of Fathers Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora
in a conflict over the secularization of the clergy. The
three priest died by the garrote, a capital punishment
contrivance by which the victim is choked to death with
a compressing steel collar worked by a screw. The mutiny
and the execution of the priests infuriated the Filipinos
and stimulated the rising tide of Filipino nationalism.
The Cavitenos
The Caviteņos are, by nature, mostly fractious, challenging
and uncondescending. Permeating through all strata of
Cavite society, these idiosyncrasies made the Caviteņos
earn fame or incur notoriety. One has to take the extremes
in Cavite in order to excel and stand out; the middle
road leads to a dull life and mediocrity, disdained by
the Caviteņos. The rebel in the Caviteņo becomes apparent
and expressive the very moment a child learns how to say
‘yes’ and ‘no’. Nonconformity is the way of life.
It has been, however, this nonconformity that threatens
to rend asunder the harmony among Caviteņos. Among people
where uncommon achievements are a common endeavor, no
one can be admittedly acknowledged as the best or the
top. Caviteņos
have the propensity for microscopic scrutiny; they can
see the slightest scratch on a highly polished armor or
find a flaw in the purest diamond or point out a ripple
on a placid lake. It is not perfectionism that they are
obsessed about, nor are they congenital faultfinders.
Whatever is good, noble and true, they still find it to
be wanting. For them there is always something better
than the best. . . .because they believed that the immortal
of books has not yet been written, the most exalting of
song has not yet been sung, the most lasting of human
achievements has not yet been attempted, and the greatest
Caviteņo is yet to be born.
Information taken from Cavite
City.
R
E S O R T S
Caylabne Bay Resort | Island
Cove | Mount Sea Grand Resoort
H
O T E L S
Microtel
Inns and Suite | Sunrise Holiday Mansion