The City of Lucena (Filipino: Lungsod ng Lucena) is a first class highly urbanized medium sized city in the province of Quezon, Philippines. It is the capital city of Quezon and belongs to the 20 most competitive cities of the Philippines. According to the 2011 census, it has a population of 264,879 people in 54,804 households.Nearby towns include Pagbilao (east), Tayabas City (north) and Sariaya (west). It is a first class, highly urbanized city in the Calabarzon Region..Lucena City has a central transportation hub aptly called the Lucena Grand Central Terminal located in Barangay Ilayang Dupay, just midway through the Bicol Region and back. New and modern buses ply the route Buendia/LRT-Lucena, EDSA Pasay-Lucena, Cubao/Kamias-Lucena and Alabang/Starmall-Lucena. It serves not only Manila -bound buses but also buses going toward the upland and far-flung areas of Quezon province, particularly Bondoc Peninsula towns. Bus companies such as JAC Liner, Lucena Lines, JAM Liner, DLTBCo, A&B, BALGCO, Raymond Transportation, Superlines, ALPS, Philtranco, Penafrancia, Isarog, Cagsawa, and Dela Rosa Bus Lines bring back and forth passengers to Manila and Lucena.Lucena also has a wide network of jeepney routes, all emanating from the city proper (Bayan) and reaching out to the major barangays of the city, as well as nearby towns. Thousand of tricycles also roam the streets of the city, bringing passengers right at their point of destination. These tricycles usually are the mode of transport when night falls.The Philippine National Railways (PNR) is on the process of rehabilitating the Existing Manila-Bicol and Baguio-Bicol Railway Line, which includes stops in Quezon province, including PNR Lucena station, which traditionally then is a major loading & pick-up point for passengers and cargoes alike when the railway system was once the primary transportation mode going to Manila. Modern air-conditioned coaches will ply this route.The South Luzon Expressway Extension from Santo Tomas, Batangas will end in Lucena City at the connection of Old Manila South Road. It will be finished by 2016.
Lucena was originally a barrio of Tayabas town, then the capital of the Province of Tayabas which was explored by Captain Juan de Salcedo in 1571 and 1572. Tayabas was organized by the Spaniards through the Franciscan missionaries.One of the former names of Lucena was "Cotta" meaning a strong fort, because forts or cottas were built to defend it from Muslim piratical raids. Spanishrecords mention the existence of cottas (Tagalog: kuta) along the coast of Lucena, particularly in Cotta itself and in the Barrio of Mayao, though these structures are no longer extant. Finally, on November 5, 1878, pursuant to an Orden Real Superior Civil, the community was named "Lucena." It became an independent municipality on June 1, 1879. The growth of local maritime trade facilitated in the Cotta port and the final defeat of Moro pirates plying the Luzon and Visayan waters, afforded the growth of Lucena as a town which eventually led to its being the capital of Tayabas province.Popular knowledge attribute the origin of the name "Lucena" to the town of Lucena, Andalucia where the late Reverend Mariano Granja, the Franciscan pioneer parish priest was said to have earlier served (some even say that he was from this town). The city was originally known as Eliossana, from the Hebrew אלי הושענא Elí hosanna, "God may save us". Muslims called it اليشانة Al-Yussana. But according to the monumental work (Catalogo Biografico de los Religiosos Franciscanos de la Provincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas) of a fellow Franciscan, Eusebio Gomez Platero, Fr. Granja was born in Paredes de Nava,diocese of Palencia, distant from Andalucia. Records also show that he had no previous post as priest of Lucena, Andalucia. During the Philippine Revolution of 1896, the captain municipal of Lucena, Jose Zaballero, led the local revolutionaries. The local revolutionary government was organized by Manuel Argüelles, with José Barcelona as president. After the declaration of Philippine Independence, Gen. Malvar took over Tayabas Province on August 15, 1898. Don Crisanto Marquez was elected municipal president during the first elections.Lucena was the site of bloody struggles at the outbreak of the Philippine–American War in 1899. Upon the establishment of a civil government in the Province of Tayabas by the Americans on March 12, 1901, Lucena was made capital of the province after a bitter debate between Tayabas-born and Lucena-based officials. The decision to make Lucena as capital was primarily based on its strategic location. Unlike the former capital town (Tayabas), Lucena has direct access to the sea. " The Chami Festival " Lucena is known for the best taste of chami (a special noodle dish made of locally produced noodle, cooked like pancit with meats, vegetables and other spices), that's why the Pasayahan Executive Committee included a festivity that would feature Lucena's very own pansit delicacy and also in honor in one of the most popular food to lucenians appetite through the Chami Festival, resulting for it to be an official part of the entire festivities and now considered as one of the highlights of the annual Pasayahan.Chami Festival was first introduced in the Pasayahan on May 25, 2004 as it is expected to merit the attention of the Guinness Book of Records to feature the city as the home of the longest cooking of chami. As good as advertised, hundreds of people gather in the town proper and almost 10 blocks of the street were closed to which tables and tables of chami were served and aligned in the street for eating and for the competition.The traditional Chami Fest has a contest of who can cook the most delicious chami. The contestants line up along Quezon Aveue, the city’s main road, armed with their cooking utensils and will be provided free chami noodles, meat and other condiments for the cooking fest. All participants were also given cash incentive, gift packs from various sponsors.After the cooking, the spectators were given a chance to eat for free the different taste of chami. They wanted that through this chami cooking festival this city will become a destination of our local and foreign tourists every merry month of May.Years passed by, the festival organizers included the "Chami Eating Contest" by teams. The most important mechanic is eat all the chami on the table to win the cool prize cash. There are few mechanics in the competition such as no chami should be spilled, team cannot distribute or give the chami to a non-member. After a few minutes of eating, drinking and resting finally the first group who finished and emptied the table will be the winner.
" Perez Park " was named after the late Governor, Don Filemon E. Perez. Don Filemon Perez is the son of Don Simeon Perez, who was then an influential leader in Lucena. He finished his degrees in engineering studies in United States. When he returned to the Philippines, he later built a sunken garden way back in the early 1920′s that was then donated to the city of Lucena by the Perez family along with seven hectares of land, making it one of the biggest and most beautiful parks in the Philippines next to Luneta and Rizal Park (based on a book published in 1987) and the second largest park in the country after Luneta Park (based on 1994 documents). The park is divided into four (4) blocks/sections. The first block is where the playground, cave-like bandstand, and food stalls are found. This block lost its original sunken design when the ground was flattened in 2000 when it has undergone the renovation and rehabilitation under the administration of the then Gov. Wilfrido Enverga.On the 2nd block are the rock monument with fishpond or known as Stone Map of Quezon made up of boulders, each representing a municipality. Each stone also bears the total land area and population of the municipality it is representing at the time it was constructed.On the 3rd block of the park you can see a shrine made with concrete images of teacher, policemen, road workers, and white-collar state employees in the middle of the fish pond, a stone fish can also be found alongside the rocks and can only be seen if you look closely. On the 4th and last block, you’ll see there the multicolored jet fountain and the monument of the late Manuel L. Quezon also known as our “Ama ng Wikang Pilipino”. The jet fountain was put up in 1967 under the administration of the late Gov. Anacleto Alcala to add beauty to the park. Philippines has a lot of hidden treasures, a treasure that has not yet discovered and that can only be found here in our wonderful country.
