Commonwealth era Initial plans for a new capital city , the second
president of the Philippines and the visionary behind the creation of Quezon City, is the namesake of the city. Before the creation of Quezon City, the land on where it would eventually rise was part of several towns such as
Caloocan,
Mariquina (Marikina),
Montalban (renamed as Rodriguez),
Pasig,
San Mateo, and
San Juan del Monte (renamed as San Juan), all under
Manila province and, beginning in 1901,
Rizal province. In the 1930s, Manila's urban problems were apparent and problematic. It lacked public housing, where thousands of the city's residents lived in congested informal settler communities, especially in the central districts of
Binondo,
Intramuros,
Quiapo,
San Nicolas and
Tondo. who were suffering from a shortage of affordable and decent housing in the capital. The revised
Burnham Plan of Manila envisioned the new campus to be located just outside Manila's city limits at 'the heights behind Manila'. A portion of Mariquina Estate, which was adjacent to Magdalena Estate, was chosen as the new site with an approximate area of . Surprisingly, Quezon allowed the bill to lapse into law because he did not sign it. Cubao, Diliman, Kamuning, New Manila, and
San Francisco del Monte were taken from
San Juan; Balara,
Barranca (Barangka), Jesus de la Peña,
Krus na Ligas, Tañong and the site of the new
UP Campus were taken from
Marikina; and, the barrios and sitios of Libis, and Ogong (Ugong Norte) from
Pasig. Under this law, the area of
Wack Wack Golf and Country Club were to be reverted to
Mandaluyong, and the barrios of lower Barranca and Jesus de la Peña were reverted to
Marikina. However,
Camp Crame was taken out of
San Juan and was given to Quezon City. At the northeast corner of the Quadrangle was a large roundabout, a elliptical site, were the proposed Capitol Building is envisioned to rise. The City of Greater Manila was the basis for the formation of Metro Manila in 1975. After
Imperial Japanese forces conquered the Philippines during the
Pacific War, the City of Greater Manila was reorganized in 1942 into twelve districts, two of which were formed by dividing Quezon City: Balintawak which consisted of San Francisco del Monte, Galas, La Loma, New Manila, Santa Mesa Estate, the
Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, and the present-day
Greenhills, San Juan; and Diliman which was composed of Diliman proper, Cubao, the University District, and the present-day eastern portion of Marikina. In the same year, the patients of
Quezon Institute were relocated to the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Intramuros and the Japanese military used the facility for its own sick and wounded, and they also used
Saint Joseph's College as a hospital. The
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's Twenty-ninth Squadron equipped with
Ki-44 and
Ki-84 fighter planes was assigned to Zablan Field of Camp Murphy. This colonial airfield was modernized by the Japanese with the construction of longer concrete runways, which now form the southernmost part of Katipunan Avenue and White Plains Avenue. The Japanese also renamed some streets, most notably South Avenue which became Timog Avenue. On the morning of 21 September 1944, Zablan Field and three other Japanese airfields in Greater Manila were attacked by American carrier aircraft, which caused President Laurel to issue declarations of martial law and of war. In January 1945, when the Americans returned to mainland Luzon, they gave numerical designations to some roads such as Route 54, which is now
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. In February, the
American cavalry and
Filipino guerrilla units, advanced into Quezon City, defeating Imperial Japanese forces. Heavy fighting occurred in
Novaliches, which at that time was within Caloocan, and New Manila which had been fortified. Smaller actions were fought at Barrio Talipapa and the University District, and the destruction of the bridge on the Tullahan River delayed the advance of the Americans along Route 52, now known as Quirino Highway. After the
Battle of Manila, the City of Greater Manila was dissolved by President
Sergio Osmeña, thus separating the cities and towns that were consolidated and regaining their pre-war status. The area which formed the city was then governed by the
Philippine Executive Commission.
The postwar and independence era to form Quezon City: Existing territorial boundaries Detached by Commonwealth Act No. 502 (1939)
Novaliches area; detached by Republic Act No. 392 (1949)|right On July 17, 1948, President
Elpidio Quirino signed Republic Act No. 333 into law, making Quezon City the
capital of the Philippines. The Act created the Capital City Planning Commission, which was tasked to develop and implement a masterplan for the city. Exactly six years later, on June 16, 1956, more revisions to the city's territory were made by Republic Act No. 1575, which defined its area as . However, according to the 1995 GIS graphical plot, the city's total area is , making it the largest Local Government Unit in
Metro Manila in terms of land area. students from Quezon City-based universities, notably the University of the Philippines Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University were among the first to call for change, ranging from moderate policy reforms to radical changes in form of government. Students from these Quezon City schools, representing a spectrum of positions, were thus at the front lines of the major protests of the first three months of 1970 – what would later be called the "
First Quarter Storm." A year later in 1971, this was followed up by the
Diliman Commune, in which the students, faculty, and residents of
UP Diliman initially planned to protest an impending oil price hike, but because of violent attempts to disperse them, also later demanded that Marcos' military pledge not to assault the campus in the future. Among the prominent cases of abuse suffered specifically by Quezon City residents were the cases of
Primitivo Mijares and his sixteen-year-old son Boyet Mijares, who lived in Project 6 at the time of their deaths;
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao social worker
Purificacion Pedro who was murdered by a soldier at her hospital room in Bataan; 23-year old Kamias resident and student activist Roland Jan Quimpo who became a desaparecido; and Cubao-based tailor Rolando "Lando" Federis who was abducted by armed men in Lucena City while accompanying a group of activists to Bicol, tortured, and then killed. In addition, a large number of student activists who were caught, detained, tortured, sexually abused, killed, and disappeared by the regime had been studying in the various universities and colleges in Quezon City. As international pressure forced Marcos to start restoring civil rights, other key moments in Philippine history took place in Quezon City. Journalist
Joe Burgos established the Quezon City-based
WE Forum newspaper in 1977 and in it published a story by Colonel
Bonifacio Gillego in November 1982 which discredited many of the
Marcos medals. Media coverage of the
September 1984 Welcome Rotonda protest dispersal showed how opposition figures including 80-year-old former Senator
Lorenzo Tañada and 71-year old Manila Times founder
Chino Roces were waterhosed despite their frailty and how student leader
Fidel Nemenzo (later Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman) was shot nearly to death. Most significantly, the August 1983 funeral of
assassinated opposition leader of
Ninoy Aquino began at the Aquino family household in Times Street, West Triangle, Quezon City, and continued to the funeral mass at
Santo Domingo Church in Santa Mesa Heights before the final interment at the
Manila Memorial Park – Sucat. The procession took from 9:00 AM until 9:00 PM to finish as two million people joined the crowd. The experience galvanized many of the Philippines into resisting the dictatorship, with protests against Marcos snowballing until they happened nearly every week, and until Marcos was ousted by the
People Power revolution.
Physical and administrative changes during the Marcos administration In terms of administrative changes during this period, the region of Metro Manila was created as an integrated unit with the enactment of Presidential Decree No. 824 on November 7, 1975. The region encompassed four
cities and thirteen adjoining
towns, as a separate regional unit of government. A year later, on June 24, 1976, Manila was reinstated by President Marcos as the capital of the Philippines for its historical significance as the seat of government since the Spanish Period. Presidential Decree No. 940 states that Manila has always been to the Filipino people and in the eyes of the world, the premier city of the Philippines being the center of trade, commerce, education and culture. Concurrent with the reinstatement of Manila as the capital, Ferdinand Marcos designated his wife,
Imelda Marcos, as the first governor of Metro Manila, who started the construction of massive government edifices with architectural significance as she re-branded Manila as the "
City of Man". On March 31, 1978, President Marcos ordered the transfer of the remains of President Quezon from
Manila North Cemetery to the newly completed
Quezon Memorial Shrine. It now houses the mausoleum where President Quezon and his wife Aurora Aragon Quezon are interred. It also contains a museum dedicated to President Quezon and his life.
EDSA Revolution In 1986, the
nonviolent People Power Revolution, led by
Corazon Aquino and
Cardinal Jaime Sin, ousted Marcos from power. Thousands of people flocked
EDSA between
Camp Crame and
Camp Aguinaldo in a series of popular
demonstrations and
civil resistance against the Marcos government that occurred between February 22 and 25, 1986.
Commemorative monuments All of the three major monuments commemorating the Martial Law era are located in Quezon City. The
People Power Monument and the
EDSA Shrine were built in the city to commemorate the event, with the latter being a symbol of the role that the
Catholic Church played in the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. The
Bantayog ng mga Bayani was constructed along
Quezon Avenue to honor the heroes and martyrs that struggled under the 20-year Marcos regime. The Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog honors prominent figures during the martial law era.
Contemporary On February 23, 1998, Republic Act. No. 8535 was signed by President
Fidel Ramos, which paved the way for the creation of the City of Novaliches by carving out the 15 northernmost barangays of Quezon City. The voting process only includes the affected barangays, but then-city mayor of the town
Ismael "Mel" Mathay Jr. lobbied to include the whole city. He also campaigned against the secession of Novaliches. In the succeeding plebiscite that was held on October 23, 1999, an overwhelming majority of Quezon City residents rejected the secession of Novaliches. Mathay was succeeded by
Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who served as the city mayor from 2001 to 2010. On May 1, 2001, numerous residents of Barangay Holy Spirit who were protesting against the arrest of former president
Joseph Estrada marched from
EDSA Shrine to
Malacañang and participated in the
May 1 riots against President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In the
2010 local elections, actor
Herbert Bautista, who served as Vice mayor during Mathay's and Belmonte's terms, was elected as the city mayor. During his term, the
Quezon City Pride Council was established. It was the first
LGBT council in the Philippines. He also initiated numerous socialized housing projects called "Bistekville". Bautista was succeeded by
Maria Josefina "Joy" Belmonte in 2019, who has served as the Vice Mayor under his term and the daughter of former Quezon City mayor
Feliciano Belmonte Jr. She was then reelected as City Mayor in 2022, after which the Quezon City People's Council was established. Under the Participation, Accountability and Transparency Ordinance, the council would serve as an umbrella for about 2,232 civil society organizations accredited by the city government as a means for more civic participation and as for the council to be the “eyes, ears and voice” of the city residents in the city government. Beginning March 15, 2020, Quezon City was placed
under community quarantine, which were introduced due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The strictest quarantine was the
enhanced community quarantine in 2020 and 2021, in response to the
then-ongoing pandemic in the city, which has infected more than 100,000 of the city's residents with more than 1,200 deaths. The quarantine was later downgraded to the alert level system (ALS) in 2021 until the state of public health emergency was lifted by President
Bongbong Marcos on July 21, 2023. In the afternoon of June 15, 2025, 61-year-old civil servant Mauricio "Morie" Pulhin, the Technical Staff director of the
House Ways and Means Committee, was attending his daughter's birthday party in a gated subdivision in
Barangay Commonwealth when two motorcycle-riding assailants entered the venue and fatally shot him at close range. Police officials noted that based on evidence, the shooting was carefully planned out by the assailants.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez issued a statement the next day denouncing the "brutal act of violence in the strongest possible terms" and called on the
Philippine National Police (PNP) and the
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation. ==Geography==