section_path: History/Commonwealth era/Initial plans for a new capital city
section_name: Initial plans for a new capital city
paragraph_text: Initial plans for a new capital 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. There were also problems with sanitation and traffic congestion. The rise of slums in Manila gave rise to the development of its suburbs outside the city limits in the municipalities of Pasay, San Felipe Neri (renamed as Mandaluyong), San Francisco del Monte, Makati, and San Juan del Monte. These towns became favorable to the upper and middle-class who wanted to escape the congested city but had economic links to it.
  
  President Manuel L. Quezon, aware of the problems besetting Manila, initiated housing projects called Barrio Obrero (Worker's Community). These communities were established in various places in Manila such as Avenida Rizal, Sta. Cruz and Barrio Vitas, Tondo. However, the project failed miserably and these communities became slum areas.
  
  Alejandro Roces Sr., a prominent Filipino author, was said to be influential in Quezon's vision to establish a new city. Quezon dreamed of a city where the common people could live and thrive. Roces suggested that a sizeable tract of land be purchased for this purpose. However, the government had no available fund except for ₱ 3 million in the hands of the National Development Company (NDC).
  
  In order to make Quezon's dream a reality and to mobilize funds for the land purchase, the People's Homesite Corporation (PHC) was created on October 14, 1938, as a subsidiary of NDC, with an initial capital of ₱ 2 million. Roces was the chairman of the Board of PHC, and they immediately acquired the vast Diliman Estate of the Tuason family at a cost of 5 centavos per square meter. PHC conducted topographical and subdivision surveys, and then subdivided the lots and sold them to the target buyers at an affordable price. Its target users and beneficiaries were Manila's working class, who were suffering from a shortage of affordable and decent housing in the capital. The service of the Metropolitan Waterworks system was extended to site. The Bureau of Public Works, then under Secretary Vicente Fragante, constructed the streets and highways within the property. Quezon also tapped Architect Juan M. Arellano to draft a design of the city. Eight vast estates were acquired in order to create Quezon City: Diliman Estate, 1,573.22 hectares (15.7322 km 2), Santa Mesa Estate, 861.79 hectares (8.6179 km 2), Mandaluyong Estate, 781.36 hectares (7.8136 km 2), Magdalena Estate, 764.48 hectares (7.6448 km 2), Piedad Estate, 743.84 hectares (7.4384 km 2), Maysilo Estate, 266.73 hectares (2.6673 km 2) and the San Francisco Del Monte Estate, 257.54 hectares (2.5754 km 2). Quezon's goal was to create a place for the working class, coinciding with the planned transfer of the University of the Philippines campus in Manila to a more suitable location, which became another precedent for the creation of Quezon City.
  
  As early as 1928, the University of the Philippines (UP) had planned to expand by adding more academic units and constructing new buildings. The university experienced increase in enrollment and its planned expansion was hampered by its small campus in Manila. The revised Burnham Plan of Manila envisioned the new campus to be located just outside Manila's city limits at 'the heights behind Manila'. The UP Board of Regents informed Quezon of their desire to relocate the campus and he was supportive of the idea. Furthermore, he wanted the facilities in the Manila campus to be used for government purposes. In 1939, Quezon urged the National Assembly to enact UP's relocation and on June 8, 1939, Commonwealth Act No. 442 was passed, enacting the transfer of UP outside of Manila. A portion of Mariquina Estate, which was adjacent to Magdalena Estate, was chosen as the new site with an approximate area of 600 hectares (1,500 acres). Additional land from the Diliman Estate was also added as part of the new university campus.