The Bailar Historian

Brief History of Bailen

Bailen is a small town on the Western part of Cavite province. It is inhabited at present by around five thousand peaceful and low-abiding people. It is about eighty (80) kilometers and three hours trip to Manila by regular bus transportation. It is a fourth class municipality. Before the year 1858, Bailen, then known as BATASAN, was only a barrio of Maragondon. It was composed of scattered cottages connected by trails. There are manymango groves. There was no good road connecting the barrio to the town of Maragondon, but trails, which were always muddy during the rainy seasons. Theonly means of transportation was by horse, by which goods and persons werecarried on horseback to and from Maragondon, because of this the people of Bailen suffered hardships in their trade and business transactions; in the payment of their taxes; in contracting marriage, baptisms and in all other civil and religious duties to the mother Municipality. These led the people to file petition for the separation of Bailen from Maragondon, to become an independent municipality.

The Inhabitants of the Barrio filed the petition through their prominent citizens, who signed the said petition on January 2, 1858. They asked that, they be separated from Maragondon as the following grounds:

1. That they have more than six hundred voters, living in houses of their own;

2. That was very hard to transport economical, civil and religious business in the Poblacion of Maragondon because of the great distance and poor means of transportation;

3. That they have all the means necessary to run as independent municipality, and;

4. That all the people are ______ in their desire to be separated from Maragondon and become an independent municipality. They also reasoned that during rainy days, it took them many days to reach Maragondon, because of the mud and the floods on rivers they have to cross in going there. In the said petition, they included the then barrio of Banitam, now known as the town of Magallanes.



REFERENCE:
Angat, J. (1953), Bailen, its history, origin, prominent men, its legends, customs and traditions.