HISTORY OF ANGELES CITY

Much of the resilience and magnificence that Angeles City is manifesting today may be attributed to its rich colonial past.

For many years, Angeles City was known as Culiat. It was named after the vines that were abundant in the area when Don Angel Pantaleon De Miranda, a former Gobernadorcillo (Mayor) of San Fernando, and his wife, Dona Rosalia de Jesus led the people here in 1796 began clearing Culiat, then the northernmost barangay of San Fernando. On December 8, 1829 the barangay was inaugurated as a new town and given the beautiful name “Angeles” in honor of Don Angel and the Holy Guardian Angels (Los Santos Angeles Custodios), its titular patrons.

On May 7, 1899 Angeles became the seat of the short-lived first Philippine Republic under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, with the Pamintuan residence (now the Central Bank Clearing House) as the presidential palace. Thus, about one month later,on June 12, 1899, the first Philippine Republic was celebrated in Angeles. Progress and development led to the conversion of Angeles into a chartered city in 1964.

American occupation in Angeles began in January 1, 1900. It was on this day that Gen. Frederick D Grant structured the first U.S. Government and appointed an Alcalde. In October of 1902, the U.S. Army established their Camp next to the Railroad station in Talimunduk (now Lourdes Sur).

After several years of foreign occupation, Angeles was finally hailed as a chartered city on January 1, 1964 under Republic Act No 3700. In June 12, 1991, after 600 years of dormancy, Mt Pinatubo erupted and caused much devastation to Angeles and Clark. Today, after recovering from the Mt. Pinatubo calamity, Angeles offers everything one could possibly want from a city luxury hotels and fine restaurants, shopping malls, commercial and entertainment centers, and advanced communication facilities.

Pampanga is situated in the heart of Luzon the Central Plains, Angeles City and 20 towns make up this 218,067 hectares province of twin rivers, with City San Fernando as the provincial capital.

Angeles City located just 80 kms north of Manila and 167 kms City of South of Baguio consists of 33 barangays. It sits 182.90 m above sea level with the CSEZ and Mabalacat to the north, Magalang to the northeast,Mexico to the east, San Fernando to the southeast, Bacolor to the south and Porac to the west and southwest Angeles total land area is 6,217.37 hectares.

Angeles City has about 280,000 inhabitants while Clark Field has a transient population of about 30,000. As of July 3, 2006 the Angeles City has a total population of 708,000. The Kapampangan people make up the majority with migrant workers from the surrounding provinces contributing to the population. Kapampangan is the local language, but English and Tagalog are also widely spoken.