Early 1600s Manila became the first primate city in Southeast Asia – political capital,

ecclesiastical center, economically dominant

1650 Cabecera or poblacion settlement system (urban area) spread in the lowlands with Chapels or small churches are
visitas or rural barrios (hinterland) surrounding each poblacion; Church – Plaza built to attract tenacious natives
Complex EX. Cebu and Manila – Intramuros with straight streets, rectangular plaza, through fiestas and processions
bordered by the cathedral, government buildings, expensive private homes.
1655 1 capital City – Manila; 6 regional centers; 180 cabeceras or poblacions
1762-1764 Seven Years War – Bristish and Indian colonial troops invaded Manila
AFTER 1764 – SOCIO- ECONOMIC CHANGES; INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM
1781  Colonial economy based on commercial, agriculatural led by mestizos EX.
Tobacco and tobacco products
 Emergence of semi urban places in the provinces
1790s Opening of Manila to European and American vessels; opening of Suez Canal Stimulated abaca in Bicol and
sugar in Panay and Negros
1818 Decentralized residences of Spanish mestizos – now in inner cities and Parians Ethnic segregation now blurry
1820  Cebu, Cavite, and Iloilo-Jaro Molo with population of > 10000 each
 Batangas – Taal became non-agricultural settlements and center of inter-island
commerce
1830s  Manila economy was based on exploiting Philippine commodities and importing
goods made abroad; Manila-Acapulco galleon trade was no more; EX. Tobacco
processing form Ilocos in cigar factories near port of Tondo and hemp factories
for abaca
 Jaro and Molo, Panay – mestizo dominated settlements for internal trade
 Cavite – factories and shipyards run by Filipinos
1850s  Cebu and Iloilo were the only provincial centers which attained significant size; Inter-island trade of woven pira
Iloilo developed sugar haciendas cloth
1860  Iloilo and Cebu opened direct international trade
 Iloilo had export functions and sugar haciendas making it the second most
important city
1865 Iloilo became the seat of first new bishopric since 1598 – status was recognized
ecclesiastically; 18 export houses
1870 Manila’s position as primate city had hardly been challenged and derived greatest Cornered 99%of imports; 226 a
benefit from accelerating economic activity of the century; population reached representatives from American
190,000 in 1898; > 750 poblaciones and European export houses.
1850s-late 1800s  Chinese dominated central commercial districts in all settlements, EX. Escolta St.
Binondo; increased inter-island trade, exported commercial crops to Europe and
America and distributors of the British
 Commercial shops on the ground floors of centrally located houses
 No more spatially segregated peripheral clusters of Chinese’s
 Decentralized residential for Spaniards.
AMERICAN COLONIAL PERIOD
1890 Railroad built linking Manila to Central Luzon EX. Guaga, Bulacan, Sual, Pangasinan Bridges were built along postal
lost their hinterlands and declined while Dagupan a rail terminus, flourished as a routes facilitating transport in
major commercial center of Pangasinan; other port cities continued to become Luzon.
regional urban centers in spite of Manila because of its archipelagic nature
1903  Manila had 876 manufacturing establishments; City of Manila was incorporated
covering intramuros and 12 fast growing suburban towns
 Iloilo had a population of 25,000 to 30,000
 Cebu-third most important city with a population of 20,000
 Legazpi, Malabon and Cavite were third ranked centers; Legazpi port opened to
international shipping because abaca developed in its hinterland; Malabon was a
collection and transshipment of goods from Pampanga and Bulacan to Manila
with sugar and cigar factories; Cavite continued as port with associated naval
yard and arsenal.
1905 Manila and Baguio Plans of Daniel H. Burnham introduced the City Beautiful western
type of town planning.
1910 Rebuilding of settlements complete with hygiene and sanitary facilities and drainage Infrastructure planning; socio-
systems called sanitary barrios economic planning on a limited
scale; centralized planning
1920s Barrio obrero or the working class district evolved as government response to the
needs of low-income labor families in urban areas.
1928 Zoning ordinance for Manila promulgate but took effect only in 1940 Zoning became popular in
America in the 1920s
1933 Housing Committee created to clear slums and carry out housing projects for the
poor.
 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE PLANNING AND PLANNING LAWS

LAW TITLE DATE

COMMONWEALTH PERIOD (1935-1941) – concern for both economic and physical respects of planning including housing, links across
sectors were still lacking, sectoral planning remained sectoral and centralized; vertical links across government levels absent.
CA #2 National Economic Council – due to economic implication of the impending independence, tasked to formulate 1935
dev’t plans for the new Commonwealth.
People’s Homsite Corporation (PHC) – for urban planning and development 1938
CA #468 National Housing Commission (NHC) – for urban planning and housing 1941
AFTER WW II (1946 – 1950s) – Preoccupied with economic rebuilding, first in a series of five-year plans came out for the period 1947-1951
which understandably embodied mostly social and economic measures for national recovery, local development planning in the 1950s spread
nationwide…
EO 98 National Urban Planning Commission 1946
EO 93 People’s Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC) – merger of PHC and NHC 1947
AO 29 Real Property Board July 12,
1947
RA 333 Designating Quezon City as new Capital and master planning it by the Capital City Planning Commission (CCPC)
RA 580 Home Financing Commission 1950
..regional planning and development started, a host of regional development bodies were created in 60s…..
EO 367 National Planning Commission – NUPC, CCPC and RPB abolished, the only physical planning agency of the 1950
government, also vested with regional planning functions
RA 997 Government Survey and Reorganization Commission – proposed Reorganization Plan 53-A dividing the 1954
Philippines into 8 regions.
… rural community development become a priority concern
EO 156 Presidential Assistance on Community Development Office (PACD) – CD councils organized at the provincial, local 1956
and barangays levels.
… a semblance of decentralized town planning begun, local autonomy given importance, importance of town planning recognized.
Unfortunately, local planning happened only on paper, planning was clearly top-down, highly centralized in spite of supportive legal fiat trail
could have emancipated local planning. National planning focused on macro-economic policies without spatial dimensions. Sectoral plans
were mainly socio-economic. Dichotomy between socio-economic and spatial/ physical plans persisted. Multi-level planning of framework
seemed in order but plans could not be integrated due to differences in thrusts, objectives and approaches. Regional planning effort
continued although largely ineffective (administrative region, IAD, river, basin/ island/ ecological region, provincial). People’s non participants.
RA 2264 Local Autonomy Act of 1959 – first of its kind, empowered LGUs to enact zoning ordinances and subdivision 1959
rules; all towns and cities required to form local planning boads to craft development plans under the guidance
of NPC
RA 2370 Autonomy to the Barrios or Barrio Charter – made the barrios quasi-municipal corporations vested with taxing
powers and power to enact ordinances through an elective barrio council
MARCOS REGIME
RA 4341 Institute of Planning at UP Diliman established in order to create a pool of planners and declared a national October 1965
policy on comprehensive planning of human settlements and their envinronment
RA 5185 Decentralization Act of 1967 – greater freedom and ampler means for LGUs to respond to the needs of their 1967
people and enable the people to participate
RA 5435 Presidential Commission on Reorganization – produced Integrated Reorganization Plan 1968
EO 121 Provincial Development Committee headed by a development coordinator – tasked to prepared provincial 1968
development plans and coordinate private and public investments
RA 5488 Home Financing Corporation – reorganized Home Financing Commission 1969
EO 535
1972 t0 1985 – regional planning approach to development took permanent shape, regional planning authorities resurrected, metropolitan
planning, decentralized yet centralized; multi-level planning structure and institutions but still centralized due to type of political leadership,
tokenism in people participation, spatial awareness in development planning through physical framework planning.
PD #1 Integrated Reorganization Plan – delineated the country into 11 administrative regions with regional capitals, Sept. 24, 1972
creation of Regional Development Councils and Authorities (only the RDCs were activated)
EO 419 Task Force on Human Settlements (TFHS) Sept. 19, 1973
PD 461 Department of Natural Resource May 17, 1974
PD 824 Metro Manila Commission – a first metropolitan planning and governance Nov. 7, 1974
PD 757 National Housing Authority – merged PHHC, PAHRA, TFDA, etc. July 31, 1975
LOIs 447. Strengthening the administrative capacity of the regional offices by ordering the delegation of substantive Aug. 12 & 18,
448 & 895 and administrative authority to the regional office 1976; Jul. 25,’79
PD 933 Human Settlements Commission May 13, 1976
EO 648 Charter of Human Settlements Regulatory Commission Feb. 1981
PD 1267 National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation 1977
PD 1396 Ministry of Human Settlements with the HSRC (now HLRB) as the regulatory arm; June 2, 1978
LOI 729 Directed MHS to prepare land use and zoning plans; still enforced by HLRB 1978
PD 530 Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or PAG-IBIG 1978
EO 90 National Shelter Program 1978
PD 1618 Autonomous Regions IX and XII July 25, 1979
BP 220 Low-Income Subdivision Development – 30% of gross family income affordability Sept. 25, 1982
Local Government Code of 1983 Feb. 1983
LOI 1350 Providing for the institutional framework for the national physical planning – transferred from MHS to NEDA; Aug. 1983
created the inter-agency NLUC
PD 1567 Establishment of 1 day care center in every barangay for aged 6 and below 1984
PD 957 Residential condominium and Subdivision 1984
PD 1216 Redefining 30% “open space” as used in PD 957
PD 1096 Building Code of the Philippines