Baliwag: how Sto. Tomas became Pampanga's youngest town

From the tardy churchgoers of Baliwag to an executive order in 1951: the long road to independence of Sto. Tomas.

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Discover Pampanga Editors · October 2026

Sto. Tomas has an old parish and a young town hall. Its parish dates from 1767, but as a municipality it is the youngest in Pampanga.

The tardy town

Its first name was Baliwag. A local story says the word means tardy, a jab at townsfolk who were always late for Mass. Church records from 1830 to 1854 call it Sto. Tomas de Baliwag; from 1855 it became simply the Pueblo de Sto. Tomas, after its patron, Saint Thomas the Apostle.

In and out of independence

Sto. Tomas separated from its mother town, Minalin, on September 15, 1792. US forces took the town on May 4, 1899, during the Philippine-American War. Then, on January 2, 1905, it was placed under San Fernando. Minalin later regained its independence; Sto. Tomas did not.

Residents petitioned in 1919 and again in 1949. Finally, on October 12, 1951, President Elpidio Quirino signed Executive Order No. 476, detaching five barrios (San Matias, San Vicente, San Bartolome, Santo Rosario and Poblacion) as a new municipality. It was formally reinstated on January 11, 1952, with its first town hall in the house of Mayor Patricio Gomez. The seat of government moved to San Vicente in 1978.

Today it has seven barangays, and its parish of Santo Tomas Apostol still anchors the town.