Ulo ng Apo - OLONGAPO CITY

Historical Ulo ng Apo in Olongapo City

The City of Olongapo (Tagalog: Lungsod ng Olongapo; Sambal: Syodad nin Olongapo) is a highly urbanized city located in the province of Zambales, Philippines. 

Name:

According to popular legend, there once was a group of warring tribes who lived in the area in and around what is now the modern city. A wise old man, seeing the perils of disunity, exerted great effort toward uniting the warring tribes. There were, however, some who bitterly opposed his idea, and one day the old man just disappeared.

After a long search, the old man's body was found, but with the head missing. It is said that the tribesmen launched search parties to locate the severed head of the man. (To the Sambal, decapitation was the only permissible form of assassination.) These efforts proved to be futile, and the search was eventually called off. A boy, however, vowed to himself that he would not stop searching until he found the elder’s head. He searched for weeks, but found nothing. Then, one day, he chanced upon what appeared to be the old man’s head, resting on top of a bamboo pole. The boy ran back to his people crying, “Olo nin apo! Olo nin apo!” (“head of the elder” in Sambal; translates as “ulo ng apo” in Tagalog), running hysterically from village to village. The phrase stuck, and that, according to legend, is how the area got its name, Olongapo. To this day, the old man’s head acts as a symbol of the unity of the people of what is now a modern city.

History:

Unlike the rest of the Philippines which gained independence from the United States after World War II in 1946, Olongapo was governed as a part of the United States naval reservation.

After the efforts of James Leonard T. Gordon, the area was relinquished to the Philippine Government and converted into a municipality on December 7, 1959. The first mayor appointed was civic leader Mayor Ruben Geronimo and was later succeeded by business enterpreneur Ildefonso Arriola.

Six years later under Mayor James Leonard T. Gordon, Olongapo was reconverted to a chartered city on June 1, 1966.^[1] Olongapo City administers itself autonomously from Zambales province. Adjacent to the city is the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, which until 1992 was a United States naval base.

Like his father before him, Mayor Richard Gordon, who was against departure of the US military forces, lobbied for the turnover of the facility and its conversion into a freeport after the Senate of the Philippines rejected an extension of a treaty with the United States government.

The city is known for its innovative methods of urban managemen in the 1980s in addressing crime and cleanliness that has been said to be copied by local governments nationwide. These include the public utility color-code, traffic management system, waste management system earning Olongapo City national and international award such as the UNESCO Cities for Peace representing Asia and the Pacific in 1997 and the Konrad Adenauer Local Medal of Excellence in 1999.

Furthermore, the Asian Development Bank and World Bank have also recognized its successful urban redevelopment and city development strategy after the US Base turnover.

{Source: Wikipedia}