LOOKING BACK IN THE PAST IS THE REFLECTION OF MY ROOTEDNESS

ACCOMPLISHMENT OF MARVIN JAY P. TABLANG (summer)

More than a hundred years ago, Muñoz was first inhabited by the Baluga tribes, one of which was called, parang Baluga, who goverened an area that is now the Central Luzon state university site. The second tribe headed by a chieftain named, Bantanga, lives in Sapang Balante and the third tribe settled near the lake Matingkis. The Sapang Balante, which was occupied by the most progressive tribe, was then known as sitio papaya of barrio san Antonio of the town of Guimba.

In a battle, the colonizing Spaniards defeated chief bantanga at the rest of the tribe retreated to the hilly portion of province. In 1886, sitio papaya was change to muñoz in honor of the first appointed Gobernadorcillo, Don Francisco Muñoz was later annexed as a barrio of san juan de guimba (now Guimba).

When the Americans reigned in the Philippines, the resident of barrios of muñoz and San Antonio of the municipality of San Juan de Giumba, palusapis of the municipality of Sto Domingoand the sitios of kabisuculan, Rangayan, Rizal. Mataas na lupa, sineguelas, pukoc, agricultura and pulong maragol of municipality of Talavera, petitioned that their places be separated by their respective municipalities and be organized in to an independent municipality.

On October 28, 1912, by virtue of executive order no. 72, acting Governor General Newton W. Gilbert approved the petition and on January 1, 1913 Muñoz was declared an independent municipality.

Tranquiliano delos santos was first appointed as the town mayor. After several years, a formal local election was held. Tranquiliano delos santos became the first elected town mayor followed by Deogracia Santos Sr, Leocaio Isla, Eulogio Bayuga, Nicolas Ruiz, Anastacio Tobias, Juan Damian Juan Martin, Dario Santos, Simeon Reyes and Alberto Tobias.

In 1992, Engr Efren L. Alvarez was elected Mayor and through his relentless efforts, he developed a transformed the town into hub of science and technology as the fifth science community in the Philippines. With this declaration, Muñoz became a nucleus for research activities owing to the presence of various government researches and development institution and other center of excellence.

Later, Mayor Efren L. Alvarez, together with the 12 member’s agencies of the Munoz sciences community outlined a master plan to bring about various institutional, infrastructure and socio – economic project, which paved the way to the conceptualization of the science City of Munoz.

In 1998, Hon. Simeon E. Garcia, Jr, representative of the 2^nd district of Nueve Ecija, sponsored house bill No. 338, paving the way to the consultation and public hearing on the proposed conversion of Munoz to the science city. On December 9, 2000, after a plebiscite, the town of Munoz anonymously ratified R.A 8977, which created the science city of Munoz – the first and only science city in the Philippines.

The current Science City Mayor, Dr. Efren L. Alvarez, is doing his utmost efforts to sustain the development of the city so that his constituents can feel the real significance of the science Cityhood.