Rizal

The territory of Rizal province was historically inhabited by Tagalog communities. Antipolo's church was in the care of the Jesuits, to whom the governor-general entrusted the image of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage after it arrived from Mexico in 1626. The image became a focal point for devotion across Luzon, and Antipolo developed as a pilgrimage town. The province was created on 11 June 1901 by the American colonial government and named in honor of José Rizal, executed five years earlier.

Rizal is known for its artists, above all in the town of Angono, which calls itself the art capital of the Philippines. Two National Artists, the painter Carlos 'Botong' Francisco and the composer Lucio San Pedro, came from Angono. The town's walls, plazas, and public spaces are decorated with murals.

Pilgrimage and the Antipolo Shrine

The annual Antipolo Pilgrimage during Holy Week and May draws hundreds of thousands of devotees who climb the road to the shrine—some on their knees for portions of the route. The Simbahan ng Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage) is the destination, and the surrounding Antipolo City has developed a commercial ecosystem around the pilgrimage.

The Higantes Festival in Angono, held every 23 November in honor of the town's patron saint, St. Clement, features giant figures (higantes) made of bamboo and cloth with papier-mâché faces, paraded through the streets. The tradition is said to have begun as a way of mocking colonial-era landowners and became a civic celebration. The festival draws crowds from Metro Manila and is one of Rizal province's most distinctive cultural events.

Rizal's food culture is Tagalog suburban—shaped by proximity to Manila's restaurant scene and by the resources of the Sierra Madre foothills and Laguna de Bay. Antipolo is known for its suman (rice cake) and casoy (cashew) products. The Marikina River valley and Laguna de Bay shoreline provide fresh fish. The province has a developed restaurant scene, particularly in Antipolo, oriented toward Manila day-trippers.

Suman sa Lihiya

Glutinous rice cooked with lye water (lihiya), wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed. The lye gives the rice a characteristic yellow color and slightly alkaline flavor. Served with brown sugar, coconut jam (matamis na bao), or ripe mango. A staple Antipolo pasalubong sold at roadside stalls along the pilgrimage route.

Tagalog is the primary language of Rizal province. Given its position adjacent to Metro Manila, the Tagalog spoken here is close to the national standard. Filipino and English are dominant in education, business, and media. The province does not have a distinct regional dialect of note—its Tagalog is metropolitan rather than provincial in character.

Because Rizal lies in the heart of the Tagalog region, almost all of its residents speak Tagalog as their first language, with English and Filipino as second languages. Migration from across the country has also brought smaller communities of Bikol, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Waray speakers, among others.

Places to Visit

Antipolo Shrine (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage)

The Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage dominates Antipolo's hilltop. The church was rebuilt after World War II, and in 1954 the bishops of the Philippines declared it the national shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo. The image is displayed in a chapel above the main altar. The surrounding area has restaurants, souvenir stalls, and views across Metro Manila and Laguna de Bay from the hill's elevated position.

Hinulugang Taktak National Park

A waterfall in Antipolo City, proclaimed a national park on 15 June 1952 and long a summer getaway for Manila residents. After years of pollution and typhoon damage, the park has been restored. The remains of the old Antipolo railway terminus are nearby.

Rizal rises from the shore of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, to the southern Sierra Madre. In Baras, the Masungi Georeserve protects a limestone karst landscape that was once threatened by logging and quarrying. Its foundation was set up in 2015, and a geopark project since 2017 aims to restore about 2,700 hectares of degraded watershed around it. Around 400 species of plants and animals have been recorded there, among them cloud rats, monitor lizards, civets, monkeys and seasonal salinggogon blossoms. A new microsnail subspecies found on its rocks in 2017 is known from nowhere else.

Northern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat

Phloeomys pallidus

Least Concern

A large, shaggy, tree-dwelling rodent found only on Luzon, recorded at the Masungi Georeserve. It feeds on leaves at night.

Field note: Keep forest patches intact and do not buy wild-caught cloud rats as pets.

Philippine Serpent Eagle

Spilornis holospilus

Least Concern

An endemic raptor often heard calling over forest edges. It is one of the endemic species recorded at Masungi.

Field note: Never shoot or trap raptors, and report injured birds to DENR.

The Image from Mexico

In 1626, a carved image of the Virgin Mary arrived in Manila from Acapulco, brought by Governor-General Juan Niño de Tabora, who gave it to the Jesuits of Antipolo. The image, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, came over on the galleon route across the Pacific—the Acapulco–Manila run, one of the longest regular ocean voyages of the colonial era, during which ships were lost to storms, pirates, and navigational failures.

Devotees credited the image with protecting the galleons, and it became the patroness of travelers. The practice of pilgrimage to Antipolo, originally made by those who sailed the Pacific trade, eventually became one of the largest annual pilgrimages in the Philippines—hundreds of thousands of devotees climbing the road to the hilltop church each Holy Week and May. The specific maritime context that created the devotion is largely forgotten. What remains is the image and the road to it.

The hill on which Antipolo sits looks west toward Manila Bay. On clear nights, the lights of the city spread across the plain below. The devotees who make the climb come with particular needs—safe travel, healing, a difficult decision, a promise to keep. The shrine's specific function, protecting those who cross dangerous water, has generalized over four centuries into something that covers any crossing, any journey, any uncertainty. The image from Acapulco now looks out over a metropolis of about 14 million people, most of whom have never seen the Pacific.