Bulacan

Bulacan is a province in the Philippines. It is located just north of Metro Manila and shares boundaries with Pampanga and Nueva Ecija in the north, and Manila Bay on the south west.

Regions

The province is divided into three cities and 21 municipalities (or towns).

There is no generally agreed pattern on dividing Bulacan into geographical regions, but a rough division can be:

• Northern Bulacan (Angat, Baliwag, Bustos, Dona Remedios Trinidad, San Miguel, San Rafael)
• Coastal Bulacan (Balagtas, Bocaue, Bulakan, Calumpit, Guiguinto, Hagonoy, Malolos, Marilao, Pandi, Paombong, Plaridel, Pulilan)
• Eastern Bulacan (San Jose del Monte, Norzagaray)

Cities

• 1 Angat - A frontier town known for its long river of the same name, which is famous for visiting and swimming. Angat Dam is the biggest dam in Bulacan.
• 2 Baliwag
• 3 Balagtas — formerly known as Bigaa, it was renamed after its most famous resident, poet Francisco Baltazar (who assumed the name Francisco Balagtas), who wrote the classic epic Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura) while in prison.
• 4 Bocaue — well-known throughout the country as the "Fireworks Capital of the Philippines", due to its numerous small businesses manufacturing and selling fireworks.
• 5 Bulakan — the future site of the New Manila International Airport located in Barangay Talptip
• 6 Bustos — has its own trademark product, the finger food 'minasa'. Minasa refers to "cassava cookies", made from cassava flour, egg yolk, yeast, butter, and coco milk. It is often compared to the uraro, another local delicacy.
• 7 Dona Remedios Trinidad — named after the mother of former first lady Imelda Marcos, DRT is the largest town in Bulacan, comprising a land area that is roughly one-third of the entire province.
• 8 Marilao
• 9 Malolos City — the seat of the provincial government. It was also the former national capital during the Philippine Revolution and the site of many battles of the revolution.
• 10 Meycauayan — one of the oldest towns established not just in the province but also in the entire country. Its name translates to "[a place] with lots of bamboo", which can still be seen in the partly-rural northeastern barangays.
• 11 Norzagaray — home of Ipo Dam.
• 12 Obando — famed for the Santa Clara festival, which features as well-known fertility folk dance parade.
• 13 Pulilan — famed for its carabao festival
• 14 San Jose del Monte — a city made up of mostly-agrarian lands. San Jose del Monte was actually the province's first chartered city.
• 15 San Rafael — known for Bulacan’s Prime - Home of Bulacan’s Garlic Longaniza.
• 16 San Miguel — the town is well-known for its sweets, local delicacies, baked goods, balut, salted eggs, and Bulacan cuisines, but its chicharons and pastillas are their most renowned export.
• 17 Sta. Maria — known for fireworks and pork rinds. Someone should consider moving to Sta. Maria if they love what the countryside offers: the peace, nature, and festivities.

Understand

Bulacan, while still agricultural in background, has become part of Manila's ever-expanding sprawl that has converted most farmland and paddies into subdivision, malls, and industrial parks. In 2015, it has a population of over 3 million, and is one of the most densely populated provinces in the Philippines.

Residents of the province call themselves Bulakenyo (derived and sometimes spelled as Spanish Bulaqueño). Most of the locals are culturally and linguistically Tagalog, but towns at the boundary with Pampanga also have significant numbers of Kapampangan speakers, and the sparsely populated areas of the province are the traditional land of the Dumagat, a Negrito tribe inhabiting the foothills of the Sierra Madre.

Talk

Native Bulakenyos speak and write Tagalog. As a matter of fact, a good number of famous Filipino writers hail from Bulacan. Francisco Balagtas (after whom Balagtas town is named) was born here and wrote "Florante at Laura", which is deemed a classic in Philippine Literature and is a required reading in high schools. Jose Corazon de Jesus ("Huseng Batute") and the National Artist Virgilio Almario also hail from Bulacan. It is safe to regard the province as one of the seats of the Tagalog Language. Bulakenyo dialect retains many features of ancient Tagalog in terms of grammar and vocabulary.

Nevertheless, a good number of Bulakenyos can understand and speak English, thanks to mandatory English education in the country. In particular, the younger generation of Bulakenyos have more exposure with the mass media and the Internet and, thus, with English.

Get in

By car

The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) is a major motorway that can get you into Bulacan from Metro Manila (particularly Quezon City and Valenzuela) and the neighbouring province of Pampanga. Exits in Bulacan include Marilao, Bocaue, Tabang, Sta. Rita and Pulilan. Comparatively and almost parallel to the NLEX, travellers can take the at-grade McArthur Highway, stretching from the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City up to Pangasinan.

Asian Highway 26 enters Bulacan from Nueva Ecija, running south towards Manila. It follows NLEX near Malolos.

By bus

There are provincial buses to and from Manila to most key cities and towns in the province. Some operators are:

• Baliwag Transit. Serves the municipalities along the Cagayan Valley Road, especially Baliuag, the bus line's namesake and headquarters. (updated Aug 2019)

San Jose del Monte is served by city buses from Metro Manila, mostly via Fairview in Quezon City.

By plane

Bulacan is halfway between Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL ^IATA) and Clark International Airport (CRK ^IATA), both served by international and domestic flights, but transportation from either airport to anywhere in Bulacan is rather bewildering.

The municipality of Bulakan, southeast of Malolos, is the location of the future New Manila International Airport, which is eyed to replace the airport in Manila. Construction began in 2021. If completed, the airport will have four runways, which can be expanded to six (as compared to the present Manila airport, which has two), and ground transportation to Manila is through an expressway and a railway.

By train

Bulacan has never been served by train since the 1990s, but there is ongoing construction of the North-South Commuter Railway that will travel between Manila and Clark Airport. As of 2024, parts of that line is nearly complete, with partial operation (between Valenzuela and Malolos) to begin at least by 2025.

San Jose del Monte will be served by the nearly-complete MRT Line 7 (MRT-7), but the trains will never serve the city proper itself, stopping short of the Bulacan border at Caloocan. There are plans however to extend the line to serve San Jose del Monte city proper and connect it to the future New Manila International Airport.

Get around

In the major highways, the main mode of transportation is by bus of jeepney.

There are also van shuttles (UV Express) that service longer routes within the province (for example, from Meycauayan to Malolos via the NLEX).

Within most cities and towns, you can get by tricycles.

See

Barasoain Church

• Barasoain Church (Malolos) - The site of the First Philippine Republic during the Revolutionary War. There is an adjoining museum at the parish convento.
• Biak na Bato National Park - The site of the Pact of Biak na Bato, an important truce forged by the Spanish government and the Revolutionary Philippine Government during the late 19th century
• Casa Real (Malolos) - a historical museum situated a few meters from the diocesan cathedral
• National Shrine of St. Anne (Hagonoy)
• National Shrine of the Divine Mercy (Marilao)
• Angat Waterpark (Angat)
• Pinagrealan Cave (Norzagaray)
• Puning Cave (Dona Remedios Trinidad)
• Amana Waterpark (Pandi)

Eat

Native delicacies

• Ensaymada
• Inipit
• Pastillas, a favorite and popular "pasalubong" (or take home treat) in Bulacan. Traditionally, it is made of the best carabao's milk, but in commercial quantites, believed to be made out of locally produced and commercially available milk in supermarkets. Patiently simmerred in very low heat and painstakingly stirred into a soft and sticky batter that melts in your mouth, pastillas is rolled into finger-sized pieces, then rolled onto white sugar. Bulacan's pastillas are individually wrapped in white Japanese paper, as compared to the intricately cut pastillas wrappers as it is made in other parts of Luzon. They are then packed into colorfully patterned boxes, a practical way of handing these sweet delicacies either as gifts, or just as "pasalubong". Beware not to limit yourself to only a couple of boxes of these milky treats, as one may later on lament that he should have taken a half-dozen or a dozen even, boxes of the best pastillas of Bulacan.
• Puto, a rice cake that may be topped off with cheese slices or egg. Some of the most famed puto can be bought in Marilao and Mecauayan
• Suman
• Minasa
• Chicharon
• Bulacan Longganisa, also known as longganisang bawang. Known for garlic flavor. Bulacan longganisa also have Hamonado, as sweet cured pork sausage. In 2021 department of tourism accredited Bulacan’s Prime -Home of Bulacan’s Garlic Longaniza as a tourist shop where travelers can buy authentic Bulacan Longganisa, located at San. Rafael and Baliwag.

Stay safe

Many parts of the province are low-lying, and prone to flooding during the monsoon season. This includes the coast of Manila Bay, the banks of Angat River, and the Candaba swamp and Pampanga River delta. High tide and dam outflows can also worsen floods.

Owing to their proximity to Manila and the accompanying suburban industrialization, southern Bulacan also suffer from air pollution.