M. Recto; Fidel and Carmelo Reyes; Teodoro and Maximo Kalaw; Pacifico, Jose and Enrique Laygo; and Manuel Luz Roxas, Jose D. Dimayuga, Bernabe Africa, Pablo Borbon, Potenciano Malvar, Leoncio Aranda and Bishop Alfredo Obviar.. The later school, perhaps marked for permanence by the enthusiastic patronage of its high standard maintained through the years since its founding in 1922 until the present, is the Mabini Academy established by Dr. Jose Ma. Katigbak, Randall A. Rowley, Tarcila Malabanan-Katigbak and Emilia Malabanan. The fact that Lipeños, even up to the present, are very religious, may be attributed to the fact that Fr. Benito Baras, who was Parish Priest of Lipa for almost three decades (1865–1894), has considered Villa de Lipa as his very own and had shown great paternal love for the Lipeños. He constructed the Parish Church (now Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Lipa) and a new and bigger cemetery with a chapel. Without aid from the State, he constructed the bridge at Sabang and the road that served as a national highway to Manila and Laguna. The Lipa Parish, established in 1716, became a diocesan center in 1910, included the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas (Quezon), Marinduque and Mindoro, with Msgr. Jose Petrelli as the first bishop. On August 15, 1972, the diocese was raised to an ecclesiastical province composed of Batangas province and the dioceses of Lucena, Infanta and Calapan, with Msgr Alejandro Olalia as the first Archbishop. Cityhood On August 31, 1947, Lipa was inaugurated as a chartered City created under Republic Act No. 162 approved on June 20, 1947. Geography Lipa covers an area of at an elevation of above sea level. Lipa's fishing area is located at barangay Halang, in the west of the city; it is actually a portion of Taal Lake, which is connected to other municipalities (Cuenca, Mataasnakahoy and Balete). Lipa is bounded by the city of Santo Tomas in the northeast, the city of San Pablo of Laguna, and the municipalities of Tiaong and San Antonio, Quezon in the east, the municipalities of Padre Garcia and Rosario in the southeast, the municipalities of Ibaan and San Jose in the southwest, the municipalities of Cuenca and Mataasnakahoy and Taal Lake in the west and the municipalities of Balete and Malvar in the northwest. The city's location, in a valley between the Malepunyo Mountain Range and Mount Macolod, makes it a low-risk area for natural