section_path: History/Contemporary
section_name: Contemporary
paragraph_text: 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.