Manila on February 3, 1945 and started recapturing the surrounding areas, San Mateo came under the line of fire of the Liberation Forces and was continued with help of Filipino soldiers under the Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Constabulary and local guerrillas. Residents were advised by the Air Raid Warden to vacate the Población and seek refuge in Sitio Kalamyong on the west bank of the Marikina River. There, they built temporary shelters while the U.S. Air Force conducted daily bombings on Japanese installations in Montalbán. However, one afternoon, a bomb on board an American Air Force plane was accidentally dropped on the refugee camp at Sitio Kalamyong, killing a hundred civilians. Although in the aftermath of the war the American Government compensated the people of San Mateo for the war damages, there were cases when the amounts received were not considered commensurate with the sufferings endured. When municipal governance was instituted by the Spaniards in San Mateo in 1799, the town was governed by a Gobernadorcillo who served for one year and exercised the power to appoint the Cabeza de Barangay for the same term of one year. However, there were instances when the Governadorcillo served for two or three years. The first resident appointed to the post of Governadorcillo in 1799 was Donato Sulit while the last one to hold the post in 1895 was one Ismael Amado Jr., who incidentally continued serving up to 1905 even after the establishment of the Civil Government under the Americans in 1901 when he was appointed Capitán Municipal by the Military Governor of the United States Army Department. Cityhood and redistricting proposal As early as 2016, the town's Sangguniang Bayan approved Resolution No. 60, Series of 2016 requesting Senate through its president, Franklin Drilon and the House of Representatives through its speaker, Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to co-sponsor a bill for San Mateo's conversion into a city and creation of a lone legislative district. This was proposed by Rizal's 2nd district Representative Juan Fidel Felipe Nograles through House Bill No. 336, making sure that the second district of Rizal will be reorganized to add two more districts, along with Rodríguez (Montalbán). Finally, on April 12, 2021, the 3rd district of Rizal, which consists only of San Mateo, was established by virtue of Republic Act No. 11533. It elected its first representative in 2022 in the person of Jose Arturo Garcia Jr. Timeline