Manila and Quezon City

A new city

On 28 September 1939 the National Assembly passed the Charter of Quezon City, and President Manuel Quezon signed it on 12 October 1939. It carved about 7,000 hectares out of Caloocan, San Juan, Marikina, Pasig and Mandaluyong, towns of Rizal Province.^[2][1] In 1940 Harry T. Frost, an architectural adviser to the Commonwealth, drew a plan with a great quadrangle at its heart and four avenues radiating from it; its largest rotunda is today’s Quezon Memorial Circle.^[2]

The capital, 1948–1976

Republic Act 333, approved on 17 July 1948, declared that Quezon City “shall be the capital of the Philippines and the permanent seat of the national government”. It set up a Capital City Planning Commission and authorised 20 million pesos of bonds to buy land and build streets, bridges and waterworks.^[3]

The city was formally inaugurated as the capital on 12 October 1949, when President Elpidio Quirino laid the cornerstone of a planned Capitol building at Constitution Hills.^[2]

“The territory within the boundaries described in the next succeeding section is to be known as Quezon City which shall be the capital of the Philippines and the permanent seat of the national government”^[3]

Back to Manila

On 29 May 1976 President Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree 940, in force from 24 June. It named Manila the capital and made the whole of Metro Manila the permanent seat of government. The decree gave its reasons: Manila was “the premier city of the Philippines”, had “from time immemorial” been the seat of government, and had become a popular site for international meetings.^[4]

Metro Manila takes in Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Pasay and other cities and towns.^[5] Quezon City, the largest of them by area, describes itself as still the country’s government centre, with the legislature and other important offices in the city.^[2]