Quezon City

After the end of World War II in 1945, Manila was in a state of total devastation. With most of the city’s infrastructure in near-complete ruin, the first task at hand for a recovering nation was to start anew, in the midst of meager resources the government faced at that time. Thus, the dream of a national capital had to be put on a wayside.

Also as a result of Manila’s destruction, those who were fortunate to survive were too traumatized to continue living in the city premises. Thus the trend was for many families to move away to the suburbs, trying to escape the nightmares of war that still haunt the city that was trying to get back on its feet. Thus, the wide open spaces of Quezon City became a viable option as a place of residence for them, where they can start anew in a postwar environment.

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With the growth of Manila by the 1930s, as well as the congestion that came along with it, Manuel Quezon made it a priority upon his assumption of office as Philippine president of the self-governing Commonwealth government to establish a new capital city for a soon-to-be-independent state. There were a number of considerations that were factored in for a new capital like the available space for expansion and how the area can be not difficult to defend. (the previously Capitol area near Rizal Park was susceptible to attacks from possible naval attacks at Manila Bay)

While there were other locations considered like Baguio (which was the country’s summer capital) and Tagaytay. It was decided that the new national capital will be built right outside Manila, eventually buying what was then a large tract of land owned by the landed Tuason family called the Diliman Estate. The foundations of the future capital city were first laid in 1938 when a portion of the estate was allotted for housing of government workers and others in the labor force known as “Barrio Obrero” (Workers Village) in what is now present-day Kamuning. In addition, additional land was purchased to form the nucleus of the defense center of the new capital. The land would become the site of Camp Murphy, which was eventually divided into what are now Camps Crame (headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary, now the Philippine National Police) and Aguinaldo. (headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines)

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