quezon city-75-years

1939 - 2014

AUG 21
To elude Spanish
sentries, around
500 Katipuneros
massed at barrio
Kangkong, in
Kaingin Road,
seeking refuge in
the house of
Apolonio Samson
AUG 23
Cry of Pugad Lawin, took
place at the yard of Juan
Ramos, in barangay Toro, as
rebels agreed to the plan to
revolt against Spanish
authorities. They shouted,
“Long live the Philippines!
Long live the Katipunan!”
AUG 24
The Katipuneros warded
off the attack of civil
guards and infantrymen;
the first skirmish had
been fought and the
struggle for liberation
commenced at Pasong
Tamo Road; the rebels
then inched their way to
Balara

MELCHORA AQUINO
Conscripted into the revolution at 84, she fed the
revolutionaries and nursed the wounded who
had taken refuge in her yard.
She was arrested, interrogated, exiled, but
remained loyal to the fight for freedom.
Tandang Sora
Shrine
at Banlat Road, Bgy
Tandang Sora, QC

Marker at Gen
Geronimo Park,
Bagong Silangan,
QC
GEN. LICERIO GERONIMO, a leader of the Katipunan, was well known for his
damaging guerrilla tactics that allowed his men to overcome Spanish, and later on
the American forces, with a minimum of arms.
During historic Battle of San Mateo, his troops known as Tiradores de la Muerte,
killed Commanding General Henry W. Lawton. The Battle of San Mateo took place
at what is now barangay Bagong Silangan, QC.

The suppression and
handling of the protests
by the Marcos
administration
galvanized the student
movement into a force
committed to resist the
Marcos dictatorship.
FIRST QUARTER
STORM
The First Quarter
Storm was a series
of demonstrations,
rallies and other
mass actions against
the corruption and
decline in the
economy during the
Marcos
Administration.
This was particularly
intense during the
first quarter of
1970, and were led
mostly by students
from the University
of the Philippines in
Diliman.
PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION (also
known as the EDSA Revolution) was a
series of popular demonstrations in the
Philippines that began in 1983 and
culminated in 1986. It was a sustained
campaign of civil resistance, participated
in by millions of Filipinos, against a
regime of violence and corruption. This
nonviolent revolution led to the
departure of
President Marcos
and the restoration
of the country's
democracy, from a
14-year
dictatorship.

Quezon City
a glimpse of how the city came to
Inspired by a dream
Made urgent
by the exigencies

— President
Manuel L. Quezon,
in his address
before the
members of the
National Assembly
September 18,
1939.
I dream of a capital city
that, politically shall be the seat of the national
government; aesthetically the showplace of the nation
– a place that thousands of people will come and visit as the
epitome of culture and spirit of the country; socially, a
dignified concentration of human life, aspirations and
endeavors and achievements; and economically, as a
productive, self-contained community."

Pursuing a social agenda
Quezon's dream was
not only to provide
the working man a
home, but also to
create a new capital
for the country which
would house offices
of the three
branches of
government:
executive, legislative
and judicial.

Early one day in July, 1939, Quezon
strolled along the Diliman area with his
friends, including Eulogio Rodriguez, Sr.,
then secretary of Agriculture and
commerce, Alejandro Roces, Jose Paez,
and Antonio G. Sison, who was then the
dean of the College of Medicine of the
University of the Philippines.
Standing on a grassy promontory,
Quezon surveyed the northeastern
sweep of Kamuning, and he was so
awed and inspired by the incredibly
breathtaking view that he exclaimed:
“This is where I would like
to build a real Filipino
metropolis!”

Manila was getting crowded
and his military advisors
(reportedly) told Quezon that
Manila, being by the bay, was
an easy target for
bombardment by naval guns in
case of attack.
This made Quezon push
forward the idea of a totally
new city at least 15 kilometers
away from Manila Bay (beyond
the reach of naval guns).
He contacted William E.
Parsons, American architect
and planner, who had been the
consulting architect for the
islands early in the American
colonial period.

Quezon
proceeded to
transform his
dream into a
reality.
The Board of Directors of the
Philippine Homesite
Corporation, on October 10,
1938, approved a resolution to
purchase “a tract of land
consisting of 15,723,191
square meters” or 1,572
hectares from the Diliman
Estate of the Tuason Family.
The price was five centavos
per square meter.
The Tuason family donated an
additional 493 hectares to
serve as the site of the
University of the Philippines.

President Manuel Luis Quezon signed
Commonwealth Act no. 502 at 11:40 a.m. in
October 12, 1939, creating Quezon City.
The president signed this
in the presence of
cabinet officials,
assembly men, and all
those whom he had
appointed to the different
posts in the new city.

Quezon looked for a possible chief of police for
Quezon City and asked Gen. Douglas MacArthur to
recommend someone.
“There,” MacArthur told Quezon, pointing to the
man in the white suit. “That’s your man. He’ll make a
good police chief, because he had some police
training in the States.
The man, a lieutenant colonel in the US infantry, told
Quezon : “I’m very honored, Sir. But I can’t accept
the honor. I promised by wife we’d be going back
home after my tour of duty here is over and my T.D.
ends in two months. Sorry, Sir.”
That was how close Quezon City was in having as
chief of police a future president of the United
States: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The main who
would have been
1st Chief of
Police

First Quezon City
Officials
• Vicente Fragante, Vice Mayor
• A. D. Williams, City Secretary
• Dr. Eusebio Aguilar, City
Councilor and City Health Officer
• Jose Paez, City Councilor
• Alejandro Roces Sr., City
Councilor
• Pio Pedrosa, city treasurer
• Emilio Abello, city attorney
• Jacob Rosenthal, assessor
• Manuel Diaz, city engineer
• Amado Amador, Judge of the
Court of First Instance
• Perfecto Palacio, municipal judge
• Emilio Abello, Chief of Police
As published in November 11, 1939 issue
of the Official Gazette, volume 37, No.135,

After assuming the
functions of mayor for 10
days, Pres. Quezon
appointed Tomas Morato as
Mayor of Quezon City.
effective October 23, 1939
Morato was a long time friend of Quezon,
who was then mayor of Calauag, Tayabas
(now Quezon). He was first appointed Chief
of Police by Quezon (who previously offered
the post to then Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower).

President Manuel L. Quezon led the laying of
the cornerstone of the Quezon City capitol on
November 15, 1940, on the fifth anniversary of
the establishment of the Commonwealth of the
Philippines.

At the formal inauguration of Dr. Bienvenido
Gonzalez as the sixth and youngest president of U. P.
on October 19, 1939, Manuel Quezon officially
announced that large portions of UP were to be
transferred to Diliman.
The first unit was to house the main offices of the
College of Liberal Arts, the second the College of
Law and Business Administration and the third, the
College of Pharmacy and School of Dentistry.

In 1941, a few days before the Japanese entered
Manila, President Quezon declared Quezon City a part
of Greater Manila. Quezon City remained as part of the
Greater Manila until January 2, 1947, when its separate
political existence was restored by Republic Act No. 45.
The City of Greater Manila
was created by President
Quezon on January 1, 1942
as an emergency measure.
Photo shows President
Quezon holding an
emergency meeting with
(from left) Executive
Secretary Jose B. Vargas,
General Valdez, Justice Jose
Laurel and Chief Justice Abad
Santos. Secretary Vargas
would be appointed as Mayor
of all the cities.

The Grand Masterplan
Quezon contacted William E. Parsons, American architect and planner, who
helped select the Diliman (Tuason) estate as the site for the new city. When he
passed away later that year, his partner Harry Frost collaborated with Juan
Arellano, engineer AD Williams and landscape architect/planner Louis Croft to
craft a grand master plan for the new capital, Quezon City.

The core of the new city was to be a 400 ha
central green, about the size of New York's
Central Park, and defined by North, South
(Timog), East and West Avenues. On one
corner of the proposed Diliman Quadrangle
was delineated a 25-hectare elliptical site.
This was to contain a large capitol building to
house the Philippine Legislature and ancillary
structures for the offices of representatives.
On either side of the giant ellipse were
supposed to have been built the new
Malacañan Palace, on the North Avenue
(present day Veterans Memorial Hospital),
and the Supreme Court Complex, on the East
Avenue (present day East Avenue Medical
Center). The three branches of government
would finally and efficiently be located close
to one another.

Part of the original masterplan for Quezon City

QC becomes the nation’s capital
On July 25, 1946, President Roxas appointed a
committee that would select the site for the
capital city of the Philippines. The committee,
headed by Senator Melecio Arranz, chose Quezon
City.
Reasons:
• proximity to Manila
• within the 30-kilometer limit from the Rizal monument of Manila
• accessibility from all important areas in the Philippines either by land, air
or sea
• already available conveniences
• geologic qualities, which provide a satisfactory foundation for buildings
and other structures
• large areas of government-owned land right in its central zone to support
substantial public improvements
• historical background; consideration of public expenditures already made;
administrative commitments and evident public support.

On July 17, 1948, President
Elpidio Quirino signed
Republic Act 333, known as
the Charter of Quezon City,
declaring the site of
Novaliches-Quezon City
area as the new site of the
capital city of the Republic
of the Philippines.
The law specified the city's area to be 156.60 sq.
km. Portions of what were then parts of
Caloocan (8,100 hectares) were ceded to
Quezon City: Baesa, Talipapa, San Bartolome,
Pasong Tamo, Novaliches Poblacion, Banlat,
Kabuyao, Pugad Lawin, Bagbag, and Pasong
Putik which formerly belonged to Novaliches.
Finally, on October 22,
1949, Quezon City was
inaugurated as the new
National Capital of the
Philippines.

Quezon City was the capital of
the Philippines from 1949 to 1976
On November 7,
1975, President
Ferdinand Marcos
promulgated PD 824,
establishing Metro
Manila.
Then in 1976: PD 940
declared Metro Manila
as the seat of the
national government,
and Manila as the
capital.
METRO MANILA
Development of Metro Manila showing the
years that each area became a city.

On June 16, 1956, more
revisions to the city's land
area were made by
Republic Act No. 1575,
which defined its area as
151.06 sq. km
REPUBLIC ACT No. 1575
AN ACT TO AMEND AND REPEAL
CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT
NUMBERED FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY-
SEVEN, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE
REVISED CHARTER OF QUEZON CITY.

75 years hence…
A city on the go
Most Competitive City in Metro Manila
and 2 nd Most Competitive City in the
Philippines (Asian Institute of
Management 2007 Cities
Competitiveness Ranking Project)
Top Philippine Asian City of the Future:
No. 7 among 200 Asian Cities, 2007 –
2009 (London Financial Times Survey
thru Singapore’s Asiabiz Strategy)
One of the Top 10 performing Highly
Urbanized Cities ranked nationwide on
Local Governance Performance
Management System (LGPMS) and
awarded the Seal of Disaster
Preparedness, 2012

Quezon City is the largest city of the
Philippine metropolis, with an area of
161.12 sq. km., and is the most
populous urban center with a
population of 3,179,536. Thus, the
city has the biggest consumer
population and the largest manpower
resource pool in the country.
A city of the young, 40% are less than
20 years old. It therefore has the
largest number of school children in
the country, about 500,000 of whom
are enrolled in public schools in the
city. Of its employable population of
1.80 million, 1.16 million are younger
than 40 years.

Home of about 40,000 ICT
professionals
81 tertiary-level colleges
9 universities
About 20,000 tertiary-level graduates a year
Site of the nation’s best high school for science,
Philippine Science High School, and the UP-Ayala
Land Technohub, country’s first full-scale,
campus-based science and technology park
Technology-based incubators in UP
Diliman campus and business
incubation services at the Ateneo de
Manila University
34 Philippine Export Zone Authorityregistered
Information and
Communications Technology Parks
and buildings

231 community parks
32 neighborhood parks
8 major special parks
6 historical parks
16-hectare UP Arboretum
25-hectare Quezon Memorial Circle
33-hectare La Mesa Eco Park
39-hectare Ninoy Aquino Parks and
Wildlife

2 LGU-managed hospitals
56 health centers
7 superhealth centers
City with the highest concentration
of hospitals with the biggest bed
capacity
18 government hospitals
42 private hospitals
8,303 total bed capacity
154 dental clinics
211 optical clinics
271 general medical clinics
141 x-ray and diagnostic clinics
96 dermatologic clinics
36 therapeutic clinics
33 veterinary clinics

27,454 wholesale and retail
establishments
A shopping complex in every dense
community cluser
Site of the 3 rd biggest
shopping mall in the
world
3,942 restaurants and
other eating
establishments