ON JULY 11, 1869, Pio Valenzuela, a Filipino physician and a major figure during the Philippine Revolution against Spanish colonizers, was born in Polo, Bulacan (present day Valenzuela City).
Valenzuela was a medical student at the University of Santos Tomas when he joined the barely week-old Katipunan, a secret society founded by Andres Bonifacio on July 7, 1892 in Tondo, Manila.
He secretly established Katipunan branches in many areas in Morong (now Rizal province) and Bulacan.
Notably, Valenzuela helped Emilio Jacinto establish the Katipunan paper, Kalayaan, using stolen types from the Diario de Manila.
In later years, he served as the first mayor (during the American regime) of the municipality of Polo (now Valenzuela City) from 1899 to 1900 before he became the governor of Bulacan province (1921-1925).
He died on April 6, 1956 at the age of 86. In 1963, the town of Polo was renamed Valenzuela in his honor. The municipality became a city in 1998.
