3 kids hurt in wall collapse in Valenzuela

footnotes officially known as the City of Valenzuela ( ) (ISO: PH-00; PSGC: 137504000 ) or simply Valenzuela City is the 101st largest city of the Philippines and one of the sixteen cities that along with the smaller municipality of Pateros comprise the region of Metro Manila, located about 14km (7.9 miles) north of Manila. Valenzuela is categorized by virtue of Republic Act Nos. 7160 and 8526 as a highly urbanized, first-class city based on income classification and number of population. A chartered city located on the island of Luzon, it is bordered by Meycauayan (Bulacan) in the north, Quezon City and northern Caloocan to the east; by Obando (Bulacan) to the west; by Malabon, southern Caloocan and Tullahan River to the south. With a land mass of 44.59km2 and a population of almost 600,000 in August 2010, Valenzuela is the 10th most populous city in the Philippines. Valenzuela's population is composed of 72% Tagalog people followed by 5% Bicolanos. Small percentage of foreign nationals reside in the city.

Valenzuela was named after Po Valenzuela, a doctor and a member of Katipunan. The town preceding Valenzuela that was originally called Polo was formed in 1621 due to religious separation movements from parishes of Meycauayan (Catanghalan). Polo has been occupied twice by foreign armies other than colonial powers Spain and United States: first during the Seven Years' War by the British and by the Japanese during the Second World War. In 1960, President Diosdado Macapagal ordered the creation of the municipality of Valenzuela carved from few territories of Polo and is independent from the provincial government of Bulacan. However in 1963, another law was issued ordering the reversal of the previous edict and reunifying the towns of Polo and Valenzuela under the single name of Valenzuela. In 1975, Valenzuela was named as an independent municipality from the government of Bulacan and incorporated under the administration of Metropolitan Manila Authority. On February 14, 1998, President Fidel V. Ramos signed Republic Act 8625, or the Valenzuela City Charter, which elevated the status of Valenzuela as a highly urbanized, chartered city.

Under the Local Government Code of 1991, Valenzuela has a similar government system to other chartered cities of the Philippines. It is governed by a city mayor and vice-mayor elected through popular vote. The city is divided into two congressional districts and each is represented by a congressional district representative at the Philippine Congress. The vice-mayor heads the 12-manned city council: each district elects six councilors. The current mayor is Sherwin T. Gatchalian.

There is no known tourist spot in the city except for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, the Philippine apostolate to the Our Lady of Fatima of Portugal. Valenzuela is traversed by two major roads in the country: MacArthur Highway and North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), with NLEx being connected to Circumferential Road 5 at segments 8.1 and 9. Major transportation modes include buses and jeepneys that founded terminals at the northern points of the city.

Owing to the cross migration of people across the country and its location as the northernmost point of Metro Manila, Valenzuela has developed into a well-mixed, multicultural metropolis. A former agricultural rural area, Valenzuela has grown into a major economic and industrial center of the Philippines when a large number of industries relocated to the central parts of the city.

Originally, Valenzuela was called Polo. The name Polo was derived from the Tagalog term pul meaning island, though the area was not an entirely island for itself. The original town of Polo was blessed by the rivers from the north and Tullahan River on the south. Hence, the enclosed land was thought to be an island, so the early townsmen regarded the place as Pul which later evolved into Polo done by hispanicization of the word.

Today, the term Polo only applies to the barangay of Polo, the birthplace of Dr. Pio Valenzuela himself, which is found in the city's first congressional district.

According to Philippine historians Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson there existed an infamous battle in Bangkusay, Tondo headed by Maynila king Rajah Sulayman which employed seafarers and warriors from all over parts of the north of Maynila Kingdom and Bulacan. The battle was declared against Spanish conquering forces of Miguel Lpez de Legazpi on June 3, 1571. Spanish troops were headed by Legazpi's nephew, Martn de Goiti. On June 3, 1571, Sulayman led his troops and attacked the Spaniards in a decisive battle at the town of Bangkusay, but they were defeated, and Sulayman himself was killed. With the destruction of Sulayman's army and the friendship with Rajah Lakandula, the Spaniards were enabled to establish throughout the city and its neighboring towns. Legazpi formally established settlement on Maynila on June 24, 1571. According to Martnez de Zuiga, a Spanish missionary of Augustinian order, Maynila was a vast region enclosed by the towns of Polo, Tambobong (now Malabon City), and mountains of San Mateo in Morong. The region of Valenzuela, was formally merged under the rule of Bulacan town of Catanghalan.

On 1587, the Tagalog cabeza de barangay of Catanghalan Tassi Bassi joined the chieftain of Tondo Magat Salamat in a planned insurrection against Spanish colonization of Maynila. The rebellion was composed of kin-related noblemen or maharlikas of Maynila including Juan Banal, another Tondo chief and Salamats brother-in-law; Gernimo Basi and Gabriel Tuambacar, brothers of Agustn de Legazpi; Pedro Balinguit, the chief of Pandacan and other chiefs of Tondo. The "revolution" never happened because whistleblowers revealed the nature of it to Spanish authorities.

When Manila became an archdiocese on August 14, 1595 based upon Pope Gregory XIII's Papal order, regular friars that already established permanent church in Catanghalan decided that the attached sitio of Polo be separated to cater spiritual needs of its increasing population. Through successive efforts of Franciscan Fray Juan Taranco and Don Juan Monsod, sitio Polo was successfully separated from Catanghalan in 1623. Thus, the first cabeza de barangay of the new town of Polo was Monsod while Taranco operated the present San Diego de Alcal parish on a small tavern. The separation was made upon the orders of Governor-General Alonso Fajardo de Entenza the towns were still under the provincial government of Bulacan. (However it must be noted that historical records in Errecciones de los Pueblos at the Philippine National Archives showed first parochial records of Polo as early as November 7, 1621. Later, this was adopted as the foundation day of Valenzuela.)

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3 kids hurt in wall collapse in Valenzuela