Quezon City
Purpose-built in 1939 as a new national capital, served as Philippines capital 1948-1976, now the nation's most populous and richest city contributing 6% of GDP.
Quezon City was purpose-built to replace Manila. In 1939, President Manuel L. Quezon—inspired by a trip to Mexico City—founded a planned capital on 161 square kilometers carved from Caloocan, Marikina, San Juan, and Pasig plus eight purchased estates. Manila was overcrowded, unsanitary, and traffic-choked; Quezon envisioned a modern alternative. The city formally became the Philippine capital in 1948, inaugurated with Quirino laying the cornerstone of a proposed Capitol Building at Constitution Hills in 1949.
For 28 years (1948-1976), Quezon City was the national capital. The Batasang Pambansa Complex rose to house Congress; government offices proliferated. Ferdinand Marcos returned the capital designation to Manila in 1976 via Presidential Decree 940, but the institutional infrastructure remained. The House of Representatives still meets at Batasang Pambansa. The University of the Philippines (1908) and Ateneo de Manila University (1859) anchor the city's educational identity.
Today Quezon City is the Philippines' most populous city (3.08 million in 2024) and its richest since 2020, with assets of ₱448.51 billion by 2023. It contributes approximately 6% of national GDP, the highest among Highly Urbanized Cities. Old factories and warehouses convert into new CBDs and high-rises. Services generate 72% of GDP; economic output grew 4.4% in 2024. The city won the 'Most Competitive City' award from 2015-2019 and earned a Hall of Fame designation in 2020.
The former capital demonstrates how planned relocations can acquire their own momentum—even when the official designation reverts, the institutional mass remains. Quezon City is now larger and richer than Manila proper, a case study in how political decisions create path-dependencies that outlast the decision-makers.