Diocese of Novaliches History

Origin of Novaliches: History of Settlement

On February 2, 1854, Feast of the Presentation, General Manuel Pavia y Lacy arrived in Manila to serve as the 62 nd Governor General of the Philippines Islands. Having defended the child queen Isabela II from the claims of her uncle Prince Carlos, he was awarded earlier with the title of Marquez of Novaliches, a small village 60 kilometers away from the city of Valencia.

One of his first projects in the Philippines was to establish a penal colony where prisoners would be given lands and their freedom as long as they developed the area of settlement. When they cleared the area, they called it Hacienda Tala because it was like a star that had fallen in the heavily forested area. It then attracted people from Meycauayan, Polo, San Mateo and Montalban to form a larger community.

When Gen. Manuel Pavia left on October 28, 1854, the settlement grew to comprise the nine barrios at present: Bagbag, San Bartolome, Bagbaguin, Kaybiga, Llano, Bagombong, De Paro, Camarin, Tala and five sitios: Kapre, Damong Maliit, Pasong Putik, Maligaya and San Agustin. The inhabitants therefore decided to form a municipio with a Gobernadorcillo: Presidente Munisipal, Teniente Mayor, Cabeza de Barangay and proposed to name it in honor of Gen. Manuel Pavia, Marquez de Novaliches. In January 26, 1856, the 64 th Governor-General Manuel Crespo y Cebrian therefore officially established the town of Novaliches.

In the same year Archbishop Jose Aranguren, OAR, sent the Augustinians under Padre Andres Martin to establish the first Church in the newly established municipio dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Merced.

It was in Novaliches that Andres Bonifacio organized the Katipunan so that the first shot of the revolution was fired on August 24, 1886, in Pugad Lawin, and the second shot at Binuksok, Novaliches. When the Katipuneros massacred Gen. Luis and his soldiers and burned the convent, the Church was left abandoned by the Augustinians for almost 35 years. Only in 1931 did the clergy return with the diocesan priests: Padre Paterno Bernabe, Padre Nicolas San Juan, Msgr. Hernando Antiporda, Padre Francisco Santiago, Padre Segundo Alto.

In 1990, the present area of Novaliches came under the Ecclesiastical Districts of Kalmana and Quezon City. In 1994, the new District of Quezon City North was established by Jaime Cardinal Sin, DD, and was headed by Most Rev. Francisco Claver, SJ, and Msgr. Felipe Ocol as his Episcopal vicar. In 1996, Most Rev. Teodoro Bacani, took over the two districts of Kalmana and Quezon City North where Msgr. Alfonso Bugaoan, jr., served as Episcopal vicar. In March 2002, the new Ecclesiastical District of Novaliches comprising the bulk of Quezon City North and Kalookan North comprising 51 parishes was established with Bishop Bacani as her District Bishop and Fr. Gerardo Tapiador as her Episcopal vicar.

The Diocese was formally established on December 7, 2002 and was canonically erected on the 16th of January, 2003 from its metropolitan, the Archdiocese of Manila by the late pope John Paul II with the appointment of Bishop Teodoro C. Bacani, Jr., as the first Bishop. The Bishop appointed the first Vicar General, Fr. Gerardo Tapiador, first Chancellor, Fr. Jaime Lara, and first Oeconomus, Fr. James Gaa. The seat of the Diocese, dedicated to Jesus, The Good Shepherd, located at Regalado Avenue Ext., Fairview Park I, Novaliches, Quezon City.

On June 10, 2003, when Bishop Bacani took a leave, Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, DD, then the Bishop of San Fernando, La Union, was appointed concurrently as the Apostolic Administrator of Novaliches on June 19, 2003. He was formally appointed Bishop of Novaliches on November 2003 and was installed at the Good Shepherd Cathedral on January 26, 2004.