A Capital City at the Margins: Quezon City and Urbanization in the Twentieth-Century Philippines

by Michael D. Pante

Quezon City served as the Philippines’s capital for almost three decades (1948–1976), yet Filipinos today barely remember this historical fact. Was the city, therefore, a failure? This book answers this question by presenting an unconventional historical geography of twentieth-century Quezon City, one that focuses not on its grandiose architecture and master plan but on its boundaries, peripheries, and marginal areas. In so doing, it shows how the city functioned as a buffer zone mediating between city and countryside, and thus developed due to the urban–rural overlaps inherent in sociohistorical forces such as colonialism, revolution, agrarian unrest, decolonization, migration, and authoritarianism. Not quite Manila-centric, this book is twentieth-century Philippine history from an off-center point of view.

367 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[ia]

Absolutely adored this book! Might write a longer review eventually

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on the urban history of Quezon City. The book focuses on the development of Quezon City as national capital, and why it failed to become the permanent capital city of the Philippines. It also shows the problems of urban planning in Metro Manila, and the contrasts of privately-developed middle- and upper-class enclaves against the spread of informal settlements in Quezon City and beyond.

Full review: https://hightablenotes.com/2020/08/a-...

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished reading A Capital City at the Margins: Quezon City and Urbanization in the Twentieth Century Philippines by Michael D. Pante. F-ing great book. I don’t think I’ll look at Quezon City’s spaces in the same way again because I’m now more aware of the greater project it was part of when the city was established as the capital city alternative to Manila in 1939 (of course part of the official Commonwealth state project to project power). The book did a great job of discussing what were the processes that shaped the urban agglomeration that is QC today: American and colonial urban planning, civic buildings, patches of suburbs housing the managerial and professional classes, the housing projects, UP and Ateneo, and the slum areas (now budding central business district) which had been originally planned as public parks. One of the contradictions of Quezon City as a failed capital city is that it was built on a social justice vision that unfortunately was undermined by inept government implementation (Philippine Housing and Homesite Corporation, the precursor to the National Housing Authority, for example) and co-opted by local elites. During the Marcos era, Quezon City had become the “slum capital of the country” which partly contributed to the capital being assigned back to Manila in 1976.

Anyway, Diliman is the heart (p. 233-234): “Clearly, a mutualism developed between slum communities and students in Quezon City. As slum dwellers radicalized the students, the students also aided the slum dwellers in their organizing efforts…In a sense, Quezon City did become the working-class model community, although not in the way that Quezon intended it to be. Rather than a sanitized space to inculcate middle-class aspirations among the proletariat and precariat, it evolved into a place of politicization for both the workers and the other sectors who worked with them toward a more just society.”

I highly recommend this book to students of urban planning, local history, and any "QCitizens" out there. A fun book. Pante even discussed how Quezon City in the 20th century did ~not capture the imagination of artists of that time—not like Brocka or Bernal in their famous depictions of Manila via film. Perhaps because Quezon City was still finding its soul then (perhaps its students were also busy with fighting the dictatorship, which is also part of the soul of the city).

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nordis.net/2021/12/05/article...

(*Another sidenote, derived from Pante’s book on Quezon City’s short-lived status as the Philippine capital: along with 15 other sites, Baguio was one of the candidates to replace Manila as the national capital. Ipo-Novaliches, Quezon City-Novaliches, Baguio, Antipolo-Teresa, Nagcarlan-Lilio, and Tagaytay were the top six, accordingly graded based on five aspects: scenic resources, administration, public considerations, strategic considerations, and sanitation works. With an average of 69.4, Baguio was a close second, sandwiching Ipo-Novaliches City (71.5) and Quezon City-Novaliches (68.3), the two sites that will eventually be combined and chosen as the new capital.)

[Anson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read if you want to learn more about the history of Metro Manila. The author is an excellent writer and it doesn't feel too academic. Readers will find it easy to get through this book.

[Beros Kenneth]

Nice book

[Albert Camoose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quezon City I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

[Enzo Miguel De Borja · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book provides an enlightening take on Quezon City - a nominal capital city that failed in its quest for social justice. I appreciated the book's focus on stories from the urban poor, activists, and people from the margins and how the machinations of the upper classes have dispossesed and repressed them as the city becomes a battleground for profit. While today's Quezon City is far from being peripheral, the book allows readers to understand its spatial and historical evolution from the Spanish to the post-Martial Law era and compare the city's experience to other planned capitals in Southeast Asia.