CABANATUAN CITY ? Officials and residents of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, want their town to be declared a ?heritage town? owing to its rich history.

?Our town is rich in many significant historical events of our country. Many of the buildings and other traces of the past have been preserved here,? Mayor Sonia Lorenzo said. Lorenzo said San Isidro was etched in history as the site of the ?First Cry of Nueva Ecija? where Filipino revolutionaries took arms against Spain on Sept. 2, 1896.

The fighting, under the leadership of Gen. Mariano Llanera, went on for three days and resulted in the freedom of jailed leaders and members of the revolutionary forces. Gen. Gregorio del Pilar came with his troops to reinforce the Novo Ecijano fighters.

That uprising earned for Nueva Ecija the distinction of being immortalized in the Philippine flag as one of the eight provinces that first rose in arms against Spanish rule.

Lorenzo said she and other residents were asking concerned agencies to give San Isidro the official distinction of being a heritage town.

San Isidro was once the capital of the Philippines when then President Emilio Aguinaldo transferred his seat of government to the town. It was the capital of Nueva Ecija from 1852 to 1912.

The town was also known as ?Factoria? because a tobacco factory was established there to service the Tobacco Monopoly.

Lorenzo said it was in San Isidro where the Wright Institute, the first high school outside Manila, was established during the American rule.

Its building has been preserved. The school became the Nueva Ecija High School, which transferred to this city several years later.

During the Japanese occupation, San Isidro shared with Pampanga and Tarlac the site of the formation of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon, a Japanese resistance group.

Lorenzo said the house that Aguinaldo, Gov. Gen. James Wright and Col. Frederick Funston, who led American troops in capturing Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela, used, has been preserved. Other big houses used by prominent people in the past are still intact.

?We have also preserved the old capitol which is now used as the town hall, including the water well and the provincial jail within the building,? Lorenzo said.

She said that when other historical sites and buildings in her town were restored, they would serve as symbols of history and education for visitors.