Quezon City - History

History

Before Quezon City was created, it was composed of small individual towns. These were San Francisco del Monte, Novaliches, and Balintawak. On August 23, 1896, the Katipunan led by Andres Bonifacio declared a revolution against Spain in the house of Melchora Aquino in Pugad Lawin (now known as Bahay Toro, Project 8). In the early 20th century, President Manuel L. Quezon dreamt of a city that would become the future capital of the country to replace Manila. It is believed that his earlier trip to Mexico influenced his vision.

In 1938, President Quezon created People's Homesite Corporation and purchased 15.29 km2 (6 sq mi) from the vast Diliman estate of the Tuason family (This piece of land became known as Bario Obrero "Home of the Middle Workers" before a name change to Quezon City). The National Assembly of the Philippine Commonwealth passed Commonwealth Act 502 known as the Charter of Quezon City originally proposed as Balintawak City, Assemblymen Narciso Ramos (father of President Fidel V. Ramos) and Ramon Mitra, Sr. (father of Speaker Ramon Mitra, Jr.) successfully lobbied the assembly to name the city after the incumbent president. President Quezon allowed the bill to lapse into law without his signature on October 12, 1939, thus establishing Quezon City.

After the war, Republic Act No. 333 which redefined the Caloocan-Quezon City boundary was signed by Elpidio Quirino on July 17, 1948 declaring Quezon City to be the republic's capital, and specifying the city's area to be 156.60 km2 (60 sq mi). Baesa, Talipapa, San Bartolome, Pasong Tamo, Novaliches Poblacion, Banlat, Kabuyao, Pugad Lawin, Bagbag, Pasong Putik which formerly belonged to Novaliches and had an area of about 8,100 hectares, were taken from Caloocan and ceded to Quezon City. This caused the division of Caloocan into two separate parts, the South section being the urbanized part, the North section being sub-rural. On June 16, 1950, the Quezon City Charter was revised by Republic Act No. 537, changing the city's boundaries to an area of 153.59 km2 (59 sq mi).

Exactly six years after 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 km2 (58 sq mi). The website of the Quezon City government states that its present area is 161.12 km2 (62 sq mi) On October 1, 1975, Quezon City was the actual site of the "Thrilla in Manila" fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. On November 7, 1975 the promulgation of Presidential Decree No. 824 of President Ferdinand Marcos established Metro Manila.

Quezon City became one of Metro Manila's 17 cities and municipalities. The next year, Presidential Decree No. 940 transferred the capital back to Manila on June 24, 1976. On March 31, 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the transfer of the remains of President Manuel L. Quezon from the Manila North Cemetery to the erected Quezon Memorial Monument within the Quezon Elliptical Road. Manuel L. Quezon Monument and the City Hall. On February 22, 1986, the Quezon City portion of the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue became the venue of the bloodless People Power Revolution. On February 23, 1998, Republic Act. No. 8535 was signed by President Fidel V. Ramos.

The Act provided for the creation of the City of Novaliches comprising the 15 northernmost barangays of Quezon city. However, in the succeeding plebiscite on October 23, 1999, an overwhelming majority of Quezon City residents rejected the secession of Novaliches. Quezon City is the first local government in the Philippines with a computerized real estate assessment and payment system. The city government developed a database system that now contains around 400,000 property units with capability to record payments.