Township Trece Martires started as one of the largest and most remote barrios of Cavite. Originally named
Quinta or
Quintana, it was part of the municipality of
Tanza. The land was basically agricultural subdivided into cattle ranches and sugar farms, with less than 1,000 hectares, at the intersection of the present Tanza–Trece Martires–Indang Road (
Tanza–Trece Martires Road /
Trece Martires–Indang Road) and the Naic–Dasmariñas Road (now part of
Governor's Drive). The original bill,
House Bill 1795, was authored by Congressman Jose T. Cajulis (1954–1957) and Senator Justiniano S. Montano (1949–1956). Under the city charter, the
Governor of Cavite is
ex-officio mayor of Trece Martires; then-Governor Dominador Mangubat was installed as the city's first chief executive. On January 2, 1956, the provincial capital was formally inaugurated, the same day when Delfin N. Montano (the son of former
Senator Justiniano Montano) was sworn into office as the new governor. He served in both offices from 1956 to 1971. The provincial-local power company was established in 1957, as the Cavite Electricity Distribution Authority. The company would later also manage communications infrastructure. The city high school was established in 1966, becoming nationalized later in 1983.
1970s to 1990s On June 11, 1977, President
Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 1163, relocating the capital and seat of government of Cavite from Trece Martires to the municipality of
Imus. Cavite Governor
Juanito Remulla requested Marcos in September 1979 to transfer the capital back to the city, but his request was denied. However, the city still hosts majority of provincial and national-level agency offices, making it the
de facto capital of Cavite. Since establishment, the city never elected its own mayor. In January 1988, the city attempted to elect its own local officials to run the affairs of the city and ease the burden of the ex-officio city officials. However, it was denied by the Supreme Court Resolution dated January 12, 1988. In the 1990 Census, the city breached 15,000 residents, almost double the last number from the previous census in 1980. On March 31, 1992, President
Corazon Aquino signed Republic Act No. 7325, which amended the charter of Trece Martires, allowing the city to vote their own local officials for the first time. Prudencio Panganiban became Trece Martires' first mayor-elect. The local water district was created in 1997.
21st Century Sherwood Hills Golf Club started construction in 1997 and was opened to members in 1998. It is a major landholder in the city. It was ranked 85th in Golf Digest's Top 100 Golf Courses Outside the US in 2007. A campus of the
Cavite State University was built in Barangay Osorio in 2005. After a few years, the city government established its own local college, Trece Martires City College in 2008. From 2000 to 2007, Trece Martires more than doubled its population from 40,000 to 90,000, making it the fastest growing city in the country during that period. The succeeding years also followed this trend. It was caused by the influx of new residents choosing to live in its private subdivisions. This growth coincided with the opening of new industrial estates in nearby
General Trias and
Dasmariñas, namely New Cavite Industrial City, First Cavite Industrial Estate and Gateway Business Park, which hosted an Intel plant starting 1997. The city sustained this population boom from 2014 onwards, led by the construction of resettlement sites around the city. The
National Housing Authority, for instance, built 19,000 housing units for relocatees from the
National Capital Region to reside in. These sites are in Barangays Osorio, Hugo Perez, Lallana, Cabuco, Aguado and Inocencio. Several commercial establishments opened in the city, starting with WalterMart in 2012, Tower Mall in 2015, and finally, SM Trece Martires in 2016. ==Geography==