She was called as Barrio Pauli which came from the word “Pauli-uli” or moving back and forth after the meandering creek close by. In 1912, after the liberation, Barrio Pauli obtained her municipal status with Pedro Urrea, Sr. as its Municipal President. She then became a municipality of Rizal, named after the country’s national hero, Dr. Jose P. However, two years after independence the administra
tion of Rizal was returned to Nagcarlan because of the inability of the municipal officials to uphold the basic needs of the government necessary to its operations. Consequently, the former municipality then became Barrio Rizal. Because of the vehement desire of the people to maintain its municipal status, the residents led by Fortunato U. Arban and Agustin U. Vista then councilors of Nagcarlan, Laguna petitioned the Office of the Governor-General of the Philippine Islands praying that the former municipality of Rizal be separated from the municipality of Nagcarlan, Province of Laguna between 1912 and 1918. On December 19, 1918, Acting Governor-General Charles E. Yeather issued an Executive Order No. 58 increasing the twenty seven municipalities of the Province of Laguna to twenty-eight by separating the former municipality of Rizal from the municipality of Nagcarlan and reorganizing the same into an independent municipality comprising eight barrios such as Antipolo, Entablado, Maiton, Laguan, Pauli, Talaga, Tuy and Pook that took effect in January 1, 1919. After such creation, Fortunato U. Arban and Agustin Vista were appointed Municipal President and Municipal Vice President respectively, until they got elected in the same positions during the first local elections in 1919.
