General Emilio Aguinaldo, Cavite

General Emilio Aguinaldo, officially the Municipality of General Emilio Aguinaldo, is a 5th class municipality in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 23,973 people.

Formerly known and still commonly referred to as Bailen, the municipality was renamed General Emilio Aguinaldo in honor of Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the Philippines and a native of Cavite.

Etymology
The town is also known by its former official name, Bailen, named after the Spanish town of the same name. The town was established in 1858, the 50th anniversary of the Spanish victory against France in the Battle of Bailén that was fought in 1808 during the Peninsular War.

The municipality's current official name was adopted in 1965 and is named after Emilio Aguinaldo, the president of the First Philippine Republic and a native of Cavite who died the year before. In 2012, municipality administrators voted to revert the town's name back to Bailen; however, this was never ratified.

History
The municipality of General Emilio Aguinaldo used to be a separate Catholic parish in the adjacent town of Maragondon. It was founded by virtue of a decree issued on August 28, 1857, by Archbishop Fray Aranguren, OSA, of the Archdiocese of Manila. The decree separated the barrios of Batas and Guyong-guyong from the town of Maragondon, naming the new parish Bailen after a town in the province of Jaén. It is recounted that a group of citizens from Barrio Batas petitioned Spanish Governor-General Fernando Norzagaray to convert their barrio into a municipality because of its distance from the town proper. Giving due course to the petition, the Spanish governor approved the request on August 2, 1858.

The American civil government, from 1899 to 1901, reduced the number of towns to facilitate the military policy of concentrating the civilian population of the poblaciones. The Philippine Commission approved Act No. 947 on October 15, 1903, annexing the municipalities of Bailen and Mendez to Alfonso, thus becoming barrios of Alfonso. Bailen was reconverted into an independent municipality in 1915 with the complete restoration of peace and order in Cavite.

On June 19, 1965, with the signing of Republic Act No. 4346, the town's name, Bailen, was changed to General Emilio Aguinaldo, in honor of the first Philippine president, who died the year prior.

On September 3, 2012, administrators voted to revert the town's name back to Bailen. The Cavite Provincial Board unanimously approved Committee Report 118-2012, renaming General Emilio Aguinaldo, during the 95th Regular Session. However, the plebiscite to rename the municipality was never held.

Geography
General Emilio Aguinaldo is located 82 km from Metro Manila. It is bordered to the north and east by the town of Maragondon, by Alfonso to the south, and by Magallanes to the west.

Barangays
Bailen is politically subdivided into 14 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

Currently, there are 4 barangays which are classified as urban.

Demographics
In the 2020 census, the population of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo was 23,973 people, with a density of undefined PD/km2.

Local government
The following are the elected officials of the town elected last May 9, 2022 which serves until 2025: