Spanish colonial era Originally, Caloocan was the area where the old town of
Tondo and
Tambobong met, located along the shores of
Dagát-Dagatan, a crescent-shaped inland lagoon to the west. The settlement along the shore was known as "
Aromahan", or "
Espina" to the Spaniards, and separated from Manila Bay by a narrow ridge from Tondo towards an opening in
Kinabutasan leading to the sea. By the late 1700s, the fishermen of Aromahan have expanded towards a hill east of Dagat-Dagatan. This naturally stony hill was called "
Kaloogan", meaning "interior territory." With Aromahan relegated to the periphery, this hilltop area was also settled by oppressed people from Tondo, becoming the new center of the community by 1802. To the east was a vast stretch of
cogon-covered land. Eventually called "
Kalaanan", meaning "flat grassland" in old Tagalog, this area is now generally known as Grace Park. The local government building was set up on the relatively well-settled portion just above Libis Espina. The old Aromahan chapel was finally abandoned and a new
church was built facing the municipal hall. To escape the Spanish authorities, many from the area abandoned the town proper and sought refuge in the grasslands of
Balintawak and Pugad-Lawin, in which the people fought the landlords of Hacienda de Maysilo for terrestrial rights, which went on for almost a hundred years.
The Philippine revolution Caloocan is historically significant because it was the center of activities for the
Katipunan, the secret militant society that launched the
Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire. In a house in Caloocan, secret meetings were held by
Andrés Bonifacio and his men, and it was in the city's perimeters where the first armed encounter took place between the Katipunan and the Spaniards. The revolution erupted after the "
Cry of Balintawak" led by Bonifacio against Spain on August 30, 1896.
American invasion era In 1899, the people of Caloocan showed resistance to coming to terms with the Americans, who were bent on extending their supremacy over the country. The men of Caloocan fought the new invaders on February 23, 1899, however victory eluded the local troops on the pretext of
Antonio Luna's rift with
Emilio Aguinaldo's loyalists. Due to the consolidation of several municipalities in 1903,
Novaliches, then an independent municipality, became part of Caloocan pursuant to Act No. 942, as amended by Act Nos. 984 and 1008 of the
Philippine Commission.
Japanese occupation era In 1942, Caloocan was one of the municipalities of Rizal merged alongside Manila and Quezon City to form the
City of Greater Manila as an emergency measure by President
Manuel L. Quezon. It regained its pre-war status as a municipality of Rizal when the City of Greater Manila was dissolved effective August 1, 1945.
Cityhood In 1961, after Republic Act No. 3278 was approved by the
Philippine Congress, a plebiscite was conducted.
Territorial changes Caloocan once encompassed a much larger, contiguous area. The districts of
Balintawak,
La Loma and
Novaliches were once part of Caloocan. Balintawak is a historic district because it was the original site of the "Cry of Pugad Lawin" (Unang Sigaw sa Balintawak) at a location called "Kang-kong" near
Tandang Sora's house. Novaliches was an expansive sector with some hillsides that served as meeting places and hideouts for
Andrés Bonifacio and the
Katipunan. During the American occupation, there was a consolidation of several municipalities. Caloocan annexed the neighboring town of Novaliches on October 12, 1903, as stated in the Act No. 942 of the
Philippine Commission, bringing its total area to about . When Commonwealth Act No. 502 created
Quezon City in 1939, Caloocan ceded 1,500 hectares of land from the barrios or sitios of Bagubantay (Bago Bantay), Balintauac (Balintawák),
Balingasa, Kaingin, Kangkong (present-day Apolonio Samson), La Loma, Malamig, Matalahib (present-day Santo Domingo), Masambong, Galas, San Isidro, San José, Santol and
Tatalon. Instead of opposing the transfer, Caloocan residents willingly gave the land in the belief it will benefit the country's new
capital city. However, in 1949, Congress passed Republic Act No. 392, which redefined the Caloocan–Quezon City boundary. The barrios of Baesa, Sangandaan, Talipapâ, San Bartolomé, Pasong Tamó, Novaliches Proper (poblacion), Banlat (present-day Tandang Sora), Kabuyao, Pugad Lawin, Bagbag, Pasong Putik, which once belonged to Novaliches and had an area of about , were excised from Caloocan. The remaining portion of the Novaliches is now called North Caloocan. This split Caloocan into two parts: a more urbanized southern section and a suburban-rural northern section, which is part of Novaliches. In 1957, the sitio of Bagbaguin was separated from the barrio of Caybiga (Kaybiga) and converted into a distinct barrio known as Barrio Bagbaguin.
Reorganization attempts Issues concerning budget and handling village governments led to attempts to restructure the city's
barangays since late 1980s. A plebiscite was held on March 10; with a turnout of only 10% majority of the participated voters reportedly opposed the proposal. On the other hand, residents of
Bagong Silang (Barangay 176), then the country's most populous barangay and was used as a relocation site for informal settlers, appealed the partition of the barangay since 2013. On April 3, 2024,
President Bongbong Marcos signed RA No. 11993 which would divide the village into six. This was ratified by the majority of voters in a plebiscite held on August 31.
Philippine drug war Throughout
Oscar Malapitan's mayorship from 2013 to 2022, he regularly boasted of a decreased crime rate in Caloocan. However, the
Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) noted in 2020 that Malapitan's mayorship was characterized with a passivity towards President
Rodrigo Duterte's
war on drugs during its first year (2016–2017), with Malapitan asking the local branch of the
Philippine National Police (PNP) to take charge of crime control and work vigorously against illegal drugs, which PRIF claimed to have "resulted in a huge spike of deadly police violence" and "excessive levels of vigilantism" during this period. Many of the high-profile incidents in Duterte's national drug war occurred in Caloocan, including the murders of Luis Bonifacio and his son Gabriel in 2016, the murder of jeepney driver Michael Lee in March 2017, and the
murders of Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman in August 2017. Barangay 188, known to be a long-time hotspot for illegal drugs, saw its barangay captain Edres Domato, alleged to be connected to the drug trade, assassinated by motorcycle-riding gunmen on June 25, 2016, one of the earliest casualties in the drug war; all but one councilor of the barangay were eventually assassinated. City councilors were also discouraged from attending the wakes of drug war victims and providing burial assistance to their families. it has since been deemed the country's first organized resistance effort by residents affected by the national drug war. Caloocan also passed Ordinance No. 702, sponsored by councilors Mercado, Onet Henson and Alou Nubla, in early September that implemented a new curfew for minors (from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.) and placed the liability on their parents in response to the police murders of delos Santos, Arnaiz and de Guzman. By mid-September, Caloocan's entire police force was relieved from duty by PNP Chief
Oscar Albayalde, despite it receiving the award for Metro Manila's Best City Police Station from the
National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) a month earlier; only newly assigned police chief Jemar Modequillo and his administration deputy were retained. Although Modequillo attempted to instill discipline in the city's police force and reduce the number of deaths in police operations in the months after his assignment, he was characterized by his support for Duterte's drug war and observance of his mandate. In March 2018, a spate of
drive-by shootings perpetrated by pairs of motorcyclists, locally known as "riding-in-tandem", occurred in the city. By next month, councilors Mercado, Nubla and
PJ Malonzo proposed an ordinance that would ban motorcycle-riding male tandems, but upon the protest of motorcycle clubs, however, mayor Malapitan stated that changes will first be made to the proposed ordinance before he signs it into law. On May 1, 2024, a columbarium named Dambana ng Paghilom () was inaugurated in
La Loma Cemetery to serve as a memorial for the victims of the Philippine drug war. ==Geography==