Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Mandaluyong City is a city in Metro Manila, Philippines. Among the metropolitan areas in the world, it is the 18th largest. Its total land area is 1,124.97 hectares. The city of Mandaluyong is home to several shopping and entertainment districts. It is among the newest commercial destinations in the Philippines. There are different stories on the origin of the name “Mandaluyong”. One tells of the early days when the place abound with a kind of tree called luyong from which beautiful canes and home furniture were made. Another claimed that the Spaniards named the place Mandaluyong based on the report of what a navigator named Acapulco saw that the rolling hills were frequently lashed at by daluyong (“big waves from the sea”). This seems to give credence to traditional stories before the coming of the Spaniards that giant waves from the sea lashed at the adjoining hills of the vast lowland, referred to as “Salpukan ng Alon”. Father Felix dela Huerta, a Franciscan Historian, observed that the rolling topography of this land resembled giant waves of the sea. Hence, natives replying to the question of strangers as to what the place was called, used to answer Madaluyong, later hispanized by Spanish writers into Mandaluyong by affixing the consonant “n” to the first syllable. Romantic residents, however, peddled the story of a Maharlika named Luyong who fell in love with Manda, the lovely daughter of a barangay chieftain. The chieftain had no personal liking for Luyong and forbade his daughter's marriage to him. Luyong overcame the objection of Manda's father by winning a series of tribal contests which was the custom at the time. The couple settled thereafter in a place which was later called “Mandaluyong” literally named after “Manda” and “Luyong”. Mandaluyong formed part of what was once the Kingdom of Sapa of the Great Majapahit Empire around 1300. More than a century later, around 1470, it expanded and was called the Kingdom of Namayan. The vast kingdom comprised what are now Quiapo, San Miguel, Sta. Mesa, Paco, Pandacan, Malate and Sta. Ana in Manila, and Mandaluyong, San Juan, Makati, Pasay, Pateros, Taguig, Parañaque, and portions of Pasig and Quezon City up to Diliman. Mandaluyong was first known as a barrio of Sta. Ana de Sapa which was part of the District of Paco, Province of Tondo. Named San Felipe Neri by the Spaniards in honor of the Patron Saint of Rome, it was separated from Sta. Ana de Sapa in 1841. During the American period, San Felipe Neri was consolidated with the municipality of San Juan del Monte. For several months in 1904, San Felipe Neri became the capital of Rizal province.