History of Pila

Pileños ascribed their unique blessings in the last war to the intercession of their protector, St Anthony of Padua. To their great joy and as though to confirm their belief, Pope Pius XII declared the saint a Doctor of the Universal Church with the title Doctor Evangelicus on 16 January 1946, only a year after the liberation of Pila from the Japanese.(Clasen 1967). Henceforth, Pila adopted the honorific Bayang Pinagpala (the Blessed Town) as proposed by the town historian, Mr. Rogelio Lota. (74)
     
A group of grateful residents established a college, St. Anthony Academy (now Liceo de Pila) on 5 october 1947. Its founders were Fr. Francisco Radovan, Doña Maria Ordoveza vda. de Rivera, Atty. and Mrs. Casto Maceda, Atty. Luis O. Rivera and Doña Vicenta Salamanca. The Riveras later donated their shares in the academy to the parish (St. Anthony Junior College 1972). (75)
     
The first woman doctor of Pila, Dra. Carmencita Rivera y Relova graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in 1948. She is the daughter of Dr. Manuel Rivera and she married her schoolmate, Dr. Jose Valenzuela, who had finished the previous year (University of the Philippines College of Medicine 1982:201-203). (76)
     
The venerable barrio of Pagalangan together with those of San Roque and Nanhaya declared independence from the town of Pila in 1949. The new municipality chose the name Victoria in honor of the daughter of President Elpidio Quirino, Miss Victoria “Vicky” Quirino who was then acting as the First Lady to her widower father.(77)