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Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control: The City

Beautiful Plan of Iloilo City

Article  in  Philippine Sociological Review · January 2019

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ELGIN GLENN R. SALOMON

Colonial Urban Planning

and Social Control:
The City Beautiful Plan of
Iloilo City

Colonialism has shaped Philippine history and society for the past centuries,
and one of its contributions is how we design our cities. Urban planning’s
function does not only determine the use of space and design of the urban
environment. Through colonial urban spaces, city design played an important
role in the social order and “peaceful” relationship between the colonizers
and the colonized. This article argues that the Proposed Development Plan of
the City of Iloilo and Vicinity (The City Beautiful Plan of Iloilo) provided a
comprehensive and ideal model on the everyday power relations and social
control between Americans and Filipinos. Consequently, these forms of social
control in urban spaces downplayed the religious aspects of Spanish colonialism
and made it more rational, utilitarian, and civic oriented. Applying visual
analysis (i.e., visual semiotics) and historical contextualization to the plan, this
article analyzes Michel Foucault’s nature and dynamics of discourse, power,
and knowledge through governmentality in colonial urban spaces. What made
Iloilo different from the urbanization of other cities in the Philippines during the
American colonial period was its market-driven urbanization. Simultaneously,
the American colonizers, as well as local elites, utilized tactics such as the
introduction of public health and reformation of prisoners and destitutes. These
are used as tactics to eliminate what the Americans deemed undesirable elements
of modern urban life, while shaping the ideals and bodies of the colonized
individuals to become productive and civilized citizens of colonial society.

Keywords: colonial urban planning; governmentality; social control; visual

analysis; biopower

Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67 • pp. 35-62 35

Present-day Muelle Loney (Photo by: Alexi Andrea P. Beldia and Andrea Bantugan)

36 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

C
olonialism modernized the political, economic, social, and
cultural institutions of the colonized subjects and provided
infrastructure to “transform traditional patterns of behavior to
conform to western mode” (Torres 2010:1). Colonialism’s impact was
more apparent in the spaces of colonial urban planning, as cities served
as templates for governance and spatial order (Yeoh 1996; Gitler 2003;
Dirar 2004; Legg 2007; Njoh 2008; Sen 2010). More importantly, urban
spaces would assert its function to serve as a metaphor or symbol of
modernity and progress (Shatkin 2006; Lico 2006; Torres 2010). In the
same manner, urban spaces could then determine how to govern the
territory and its subjects.
Colonial urbanization, therefore, played a significant role in the
process of constructing the colonial subject and, as a consequence, “urban
space can be represented as the ideal social laboratory of colonialism,
where ethnic, regional or national identities were molded, renegotiated
and finally redefined” (Dirar 2004:559-560). Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler
(2003:54) used the term “cartography of hegemony” to argue that a
colonial town plan was in itself an assertion of political and cultural
authority. Colonizers then created an illusory space of coexistence and
created the image of Western hegemony as a neutral mediator striving for
a peacefully colonized space. The colonial plan then presents a modern
and utopian scheme to guide its Western entity. Ambeh Njoh (2008)
also provided other objectives of colonial urban planning: Colonial
authorities employed urban planning projects and policies to facilitate
accomplishments of broader goals, which included self-preservation,
cultural assimilation, political domination, social control, territorial
conquest, and perpetuation and consolidation of colonial rule. A colonial
urban plan can then be viewed as “a means of asserting the inviolable
image of the imperial nation” (Cooper 2000:79).

Elgin Glenn R. Salomon is Instructor at the Division of Social Sciences, College

of Arts and Sciences University of the Philippines Visayas in Miagao, Iloilo. He
is also a student of the MA Philippine Studies program at the Asian Center,
University of the Philippines Diliman. Some portions of this article were derived
from his undergraduate thesis. Email the author at ersalomon@up.edu.ph.

Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67 37

 All of these descriptions were reflected in the colonial urban planning
of Iloilo City or the City Beautiful Plan of Iloilo of 1930 by architect and
urban planner Juan Arellano. By using visual methodology (specifically,
visual semiotics), this article argues that through the colonial urban plan
of Iloilo City, Arellano provided a comprehensive and ideal model of
the everyday power relations and social control between the American
colonizers (i.e., local elites such as sugar barons) and colonized Filipinos.
Through these institutional and technological apparatuses in the Arellano
Plan, colonizers and local elites could dominate, subjugate, and control
the colonial subject. As signifiers of modernity, these forms of social
control that Arellano applied—under the guidance of the Americans—
downplayed the religious aspects of Spanish colonialism and made urban
spaces more rational and civic oriented.
Studying and visually analyzing the urban spaces of the City Beautiful
Plan of Iloilo using sociological theories would enhance the understanding
of urban planning in the Philippines as a perpetuator of disciplinary
institutions during the American colonial period. The regional nuances of
its design as a city specializing in sugar exportation offered a perspective
on how the Americans wanted to assimilate and modernize the culture,
politics, and economy to their “little brown brothers” (Morley 2016:10).
This could provide insights on how the integration of the city into the
world economy can shape its unique spatial characteristics (Sajor 2003).
Finally, this article aims to contribute to urban sociology as cities, even
in contemporary times, serve as sites for the materialization of discourses
of power and power relations.
The first part of this article revisits Michel Foucault’s concept of
governmentality applied in the context of colonial urban planning. A
narration of the historical context behind the creation of the Arellano Plan of
Iloilo will then be discussed. Lastly, through historical contextualization,
infrastructures and urban design are visually described, dissected, and
analyzed using the lens of the Foucauldian concept of governmentality.
These are crucial institutions and structures wherein Americans and local
elites were able to showcase micropowers to exhibit superiority and
rationality to the rest of the population. At the same time, these structures
serve as parts of the colonial blueprint aimed at the stability and social
order in the city of Iloilo.

38 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

Colonial Urban Planning:
Controlling the Colonized Subjects
In the book entitled Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the
College de France, Foucault (2007) conceptualized governmentality,
which entailed diffuse structures and procedures designed to govern,
control, and discipline the conduct and mentality of individuals and
the general population (Legg 2007; Thompson 2017). Specifically,
governmentality is a configuration of elements that form a triangle of:
(1) “sovereignty” or state’s authority over subjects by means of law,
edicts, and regulation; (2) “discipline” or techniques of regulation and
normalization of bodies, their forces, and capacities in architecturally
delimited places; and (3) “governmental management,” which includes
the political economy that establishes policies that promote production
and well-being and the biopolitics that seeks to manage the sanitation,
health, and the life of the population (Foucault 2007:107; Thompson
2017:22). Governmentality ensures that each member of the population
is set with a variety of techniques that might make them effective and
valuable members of the community (Danaher, Shirato, and Webb 2000;
Legg 2007).
One of the specific manifestations of governmentality is visibility
(Legg 2007), which tackles the way of seeing and representing reality
based on practical knowledge of a specialist as seen in diagrams, maps,
and plans. This manifestation raised key questions useful for this study:
How are some objects highlighted and others obfuscated? What relations
are suggested between subjects and their space?
Foucault concentrated on three disciplinary discourses that can also
be applied in the spatial analysis of the urban plan: (1) the “science”
which constitutes the subject as an object of inquiry; (2) “dividing
practices” which separates the “productive” and “destructive” elements
of society (e.g., confinement of the mendicants and prisoners); and
(3) “technologies of the self,” where individuals turn themselves into
subjects (Barker 2012).
Despite Foucault’s idea of using social control to describe the
genealogy of power relations in Europe, various scholars have
contextualized the concept in colonial experiences. Various literature
highlight how spaces brought about by colonial governmentality in urban

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 39

planning can signify the power of colonizers as well as local elites (Yeoh
2002; Gitler 2003; Legg 2007; Njoh 2007, 2008; Dirar 2004; Sen 2010).
In the Philippine context, Gavin Shatkin (2006), Gerard Lico (2006),
Cristina Torres (2010), and Michael Pante (2014a; 2014b; 2016a; 2016b)
followed the same framework but focused on the collaboration between
Americans and local elites in developing Manila’s urban landscape where
they can project their power. As the progress of Iloilo was dependent on
the exportation of sugar, the role of local elites such as sugar barons is
therefore crucial in shaping the urbanization of Iloilo as they acquire the
concept of modernity and progress from American colonizers. This is
evident in how they allocated city spaces in the colonial urban plan.
Applying these principles of social control in an urban setting
like Iloilo, the colonial urban plan, of which the Arellano Plan is an
example, would then create a carceral city wherein the power of the
Americans and sugar barons was decentered (Foucault 1977; Knox
and Pinch 2010). In fact, this form of social control is not new to
Filipinos. Resil Mojares (2002) explains that Spaniards molded the body
of indios to become “good” Christians and colonial subjects primarily
through Roman Catholicism: the Roman Catholic God became the
ultimate panopticon by resettling the native population in “fixed compact
communities organized around the centralizing institution of the iglesia
(church)” (Mojares 2002:171). Surveillance and discipline could then
shape the bodies of the indios through the manual de urbanidad (books
of conduct), which introduced discipline on the mind and soul of the
indios. This article builds on the work of Mojares in showing how the
Americans tried to modernize and introduce a more efficient productive,
secular, and rational way of controlling the Filipino body. Indeed, with
the introduction of this modern governance, Americans asserted that they
are better in controlling the bodies of the colonized subjects compared
to the Spaniards. Through “White love,” “Filipinos “bec[a]me visible
and therefore accessible” targets of benevolent assimilation1 (Rafael
2000:23).

1 Coined by former US President William McKinley, the benevolent

assimilation (Rafael 2000; Torres 2010) of the Americans aimed to win the
confidence, respect, and affection of its colonial subjects by guiding them
toward development and modernity.

40 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

 The concept of “White love” was echoed by Ian Morley (2016) in
the context of the colonial urban plan when the Americans steered the
construction of official Filipino nationalism. Americans concentrated
the “symbolic capital in the projection of the nationhood in the hands
of those on top” (Rafael 2000:107), including the landowners of Iloilo
and Negros. Both Americans and local elites would then invent an ideal
Filipino while suppressing “egalitarian expressions of nationhood from
those at the bottom of the social hierarchy” (Rafael 2000:107). In this
article, the concept of White love can be evidenced through the plan’s
allocation of spaces in Iloilo City to serve and reflect the interest of those
who are in power.

As such, the article utilizes visual analysis (specifically, visual

semiotics) and historical contextualization since the said plan did not
materialize. By building on Gillian Rose’s (2001) suggestion, I look at
how the spaces (the signifier) of Iloilo City served as an instrument of
subjecting and dominating Filipinos (the signified) by looking at detailed
visual evidence on institutional apparatuses and technologies projected
in the Arellano Plan. In historical contextualization, my analysis of the
plan is grounded on government documents on policies regarding various
forms of social control and civilizing projects made by Americans. Most
importantly, aside from determining the location of the spaces, I describe
how these spaces could produce a colonized subject.

The Plaza Complex during Spanish Colonialism

Even prior to the arrival of the Americans, urban planning was utilized
to control the everyday activities within the Philippine colonial society.

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 41

Spanish colonization highlighted the role of the Roman Catholic Church
as the focal point of development. The proclamation of the Leyes de
Indias of 1573 by Philip II of Spain defined the urban pattern of Spanish
colonizers toward its newly established territories in the Americas and
the Philippines. With a visually conspicuous main plaza, a principal
street traversed on one side and secondary streets in a gridiron pattern.
The rectangular plaza was bordered by government buildings and private
houses. The central institution of the complex is the church, with its bell
tower acting as a panoptical device (Hart 1955; Doeppers 1972; Lico
2003). The indios were encouraged to live “under the ring of the
bells” (bajo de la campana) to provide a more efficient method of spreading
the word of God (Lico 2003; Hart 1955). For more than 300 years, the lives
of the indios revolved around the religious dogma of Spanish authority.
The Monografias de los Pueblos dela Isla de Panay by Juan Fernandez
(1918) highlighted that most of the spaces in Iloilo and its neighboring
towns during the late 19th century to the early 20th century were allocated
for religious and agricultural purposes (see Table 1).
Spanish authorities, however, did not prioritize the promotion of health
and sanitation, the introduction of liberal education, and the development
of science and technology. For instance, during the second half of the
19th century, ilustrados such as Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez-Jaena, and
Marcelo H. del Pilar blamed the friars for the backward condition of the
archipelago by representing the Spanish rule as tyrannical and immoral
(Schumacher 1997; Abinales and Amoroso 2005). Furthermore, when
the Americans colonized the Philippines, they used the sentiments of the
ilustrados against the frailocratic Spanish to alleviate themselves in the
pedestal as agents spreading rational Western civilization (Rafael 2000).
Henceforth, urban patterns in some cities across the archipelago also
changed as reflected in their objectives in the newly acquired colony.
During the same period, the Jaro-Molo mestizos shifted from textile
production to sugar production in the neighboring island of Negros
(McCoy 1992). Although Negros became the main producer of sugar,
it was dependent on Iloilo City for its secondary services. According to
Alfred McCoy (1992:117), by the 1890s, “all Negros haciendas shipped
their sugar across the Guimaras Strait for storage and export from Iloilo’s
river-front warehouses.” Sugar brokers, bankers, and merchant residents

42 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

Table 1. Profile of Iloilo and Its Surrounding Towns
during the Late 19th Century to the Early 20th Century
SOURCES OF
TOWN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE POPULATION
LIVELIHOOD

Iloilo • Provincial hall • Trading sugar, 12,802

• Municipal hall copra pineapple,
• School of arts and and abaca fabric
trades
• Primary school and
college
• Government offices
• Convent
• Cemetery
Molo • Municipal hall • Planting and 9,255
• Parochial house trading
• Church • Weaving
• Cemetery pineapple and
• College for girls abaca fabrics
• Good groups of houses • Pastry making
and roads (i.e. biscocho,
ensaimada)
Jaro • Cathedral • Planting rice, 5,346
• Episcopal palace sugar, mongos,
• Parochial house tobacco and
• Conciliar seminary vegetable
• College for girls • Trading
• Small hospital
• Town hall
• Good groups of houses
• Good roads except the
one going to Leganes
Mandurriao • Municipal hall • Planting rice, 7,100
• Church fruits, legumes,
• Parochial house abaca and cotton
• Cemetery
• Poor road condition to
San Miguel
• Good road to Jaro
Arevalo • Municipal hall • Planting rice, 8,508
• Church sugar and coconut
• Regular group of • Fishing
houses • Weaving
• Parochial house • Gathering of tuba
• Cemetery
• Good roads going to
Oton and Molo

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 43

 SOURCES OF
TOWN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE POPULATION
LIVELIHOOD

La Paz • Church Salt making 5,351

• Cemetery Fishing
• Municipal hall Planting sugar, rice,
• School pineapple and abaca
• Small model farm
• Meteorological
observatory
• Good roads to Jaro and
Iloilo
Source: de Fernandez (1918:116-125, 140-145)

became the dominant force in the region’s sugar industry. Aside from
owning haciendas in Negros, both local and foreign elites built riverfront
warehouses alongside the Iloilo River and owned houses in Calle Real, the
main commercial street of the city. At the same time, these sugar planters
would exercise extraordinary political influence as mediators between
the capital and countryside. These conditions would then influence the
cityscape of Iloilo that would continue during the American period.

THE AMERICAN CITY BEAUTIFUL PLAN

AND JUAN ARELLANO
During the 19th century, industrial development in the United States
created challenges in urban areas such as overcrowding, poverty, and
pollution. Consequently, the City Beautiful Movement emerged as one
of the most influential responses to problems of urbanization. The City
Beautiful Movement, which was unveiled by Daniel Hudson during the
World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, functions “to enshrine cultural
ideals and stimulate civic pride, which would in turn induce social and
economic improvement, serving as an antidote to moral decay and social
disorder” (Ellem 2014:108). When Daniel Burnham became a member
of the Senate Parks Commission, he drafted the McMillan Plan of 1901-
1902 to redevelop and revitalize Washington, D.C. The McMillan Plan
also served as an epitome of the American City Beautiful Movement
as it became the planning model across the major cities of the United
States like Chicago. The City Beautiful Movement was also extended by
Daniel Burnham in the newly acquired colonies of the United States. For
Christopher Vernon (2014), the Americans applied this urban planning

44 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

movement to their colonies in the Panama Canal Zone and most especially
in the Philippines.
Typically, the design of a City Beautiful Plan focused on “classically-
inspired structures grouped around open spaces, oriented to revere the
natural beauty of a site” (Ellem 2014:108). It also featured “streets
that were laid out with formal, axial geometry and wide processional
boulevards which radiated outwards from the civic center” (Ellem
2014:108). This then served as the symbolic core and centerpiece of
the city.
Meanwhile, the Americans gained control of the Philippines after
more than 300 years of Spanish rule through the Treaty of Paris in 1898.
They viewed Filipinos as savage, primitive, infantile, and in dire need
of improvement (Morley 2012), hence they exerted efforts to implement
policies that would train, develop, and civilize Filipinos (Vernon 2014).
Benevolent assimilation and manifest destiny served as the rationale
for this civilizing mission. The American civilizing mission would
extend into the discourse and implementation of urban planning in the
Philippines, which coincided with their imperialist agenda to promote
American rationality among Filipinos (Brody 2010). This is shown after
the Philippine-American War when Daniel Burnham improved Manila
and created Baguio as the Summer Capital of the Philippines (Vernon
2014). In Manila, Burnham’s plan focused on (1) the accessibility of
government buildings to the public and (2) aesthetic improvement and
efficient transport (Shatkin 2006). The City Beautiful Movement was
crafted later through the employment of pensionados. These pensionados
were usually the sons of regional elites who were given the opportunity
to study in the United States. After completing their studies, they were
expected to serve in colonial bureaucracy, apply what they learned in the
United States, and assimilate Filipino culture within the American way
of life (Knake 2014).
One of these pensionados is Juan Arellano, who pursued building
projects and public works. He attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila
and later studied arts. Arellano also enrolled in architecture at the Drexel
Institute of Philadelphia from 1908 to 1912 and obtained his postgraduate
studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Later on, he attended the Beaux
Arts School in New York City and was exposed to the City Beautiful

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 45

Movement. Soon after, he worked for George B. Post & Sons in New
York City with Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., who was one of the early
proponents of the City Beautiful Movement in the United States (Madrid
2008; National Historical Commission of the Philippines 2013). When
the Philippine Autonomy Act, or popularly known as the Jones Law, was
passed, it opened more opportunities for pensionados to hold influential
administrative and policymaking roles (Knake 2014).
Arellano then returned to the Philippines. He joined the Bureau of
Public Works of the colonial government in Manila and executed the design
of the Cebu and Bulacan Provincial Capitol, the Legislative Building
(the present National Library) in 1926, the Post Office Building and the
Manila Metropolitan Theater in 1931 (Alcazaren 2005; Madrid 2008;
National Historical Commission of the Philippines 2013). Equipped with
skills in urban planning, Arellano applied the City Beautiful principles to
mold Manila’s urban zoning. Together with Harry Frost (also a central
figure in the City Beautiful Movement and coauthor of the 1909 Chicago
Plan), Arellano created the design of Quezon City in 1940, which was
poised to become the nation’s new capital city (Bueza 2014; Pante 2019).

Iloilo and the City Beautiful Plan

At the peak of American colonialism and the booming sugar trade,
Iloilo experienced various problems related to urbanization. In 1904, “the
depth of water in the mouth of the river was less than 11 feet at low tide
and the channel was very narrow and tortuous” (Bureau of Public Works
1914b:30). This shallowness prevented larger ships to pass through the
Iloilo River. Typhoon and heavy rainfall caused “occasional mud holes”
in the city streets (Bureau of Public Works 1913:32).
The city’s affluent sugar barons spearheaded the building boom in the
Central Business District. Art Deco-designed buildings became models
of modernity (Madrid 2008). The series of urban development resulted
in the heavy traffic of human and goods at the waterfront to a point when
the “narrowness of the streets cannot anymore cope with the heavy
traffic” (Bureau of Public Works 1914a:39) due to the city’s increasing
population. Meanwhile, the increasing urban proletariat brought by the
growing volume of sugar transiting through the city led to the inadequacy
of wages and social security protection. This resulted to the creation of

46 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

the Federacion Obrera de Filipinas (FOF) which led a series of strikes in
the 1930s (McCoy 1992).
The American colonial government, in collaboration with the regional
elites and foreign companies, provided various infrastructure projects that
promoted the development of Iloilo’s cityscape. In fact, infrastructure
projects in Iloilo during that time focused on transportation that would
aid in delivering sugar products efficiently from Negros to Iloilo that
would be exported for the global market. The Iloilo River was dredged
deeper so as to accommodate more ships to enter the city (Bureau of
Public Works 1914b).
The collaboration between the sugar barons and foreign companies
and the Americans made the urbanization of Iloilo unique from the rest
of the cities in the Philippines:

In accordance with an agreement entered into between the city of Iloilo

and Inchausti and Co. Calle Legaspi has been considerably widened and
improved under the supervision of the district engineers. The walls of the old
bodega owned by Inchausti and Co. were torn down and moved back to the
new line of street and a rough rubble wall constructed from same back to the
south line of Inchausti’s property. (Bureau of Public Works 1914a:39)

Meanwhile, “arrangements were made for the purchase of Lopez

property leading from the Muelle to Calle Progreso in order to open a
new street from the Muelle through Progreso to the water front in the
vicinity of Warner Barnes and Co.” (Bureau of Public Works 1914a:39).
Streets in the business district had been “resurfaced with crushed
limestone, making another first-class street in the shipping district which
will greatly relieve the congestion in that quarter” (Bureau of Public
Works 1915b:31). Calles Real and Iznart was “resurfaced and put in
first-class condition” (Bureau of Public Works 1915b:31) by mixing fine-
grained black basalt and limestone screening.2 By improving the streets
in the shipping district, it created the “finest streets of any city in the
Islands” (Bureau of Public Works 1915b:31).

2 During that time, these construction techniques were then considered as

modern ways of mitigating the effect of disasters that were common in the
tropics (Pante 2016b).

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 47

48
Figure 1. The Proposed Development Plan of the City of Iloilo and Vicinity

Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

(Source: City Planning and Development Office Iloilo City)
 As mentioned in a report by the Committee on Insular Affairs
(1932:75), because Iloilo was envisioned to become a charter city, there
was a need to embody “a modern principle of governance.” Formally
known as The Proposed Development Plan of the City of Iloilo and
Vicinity, it underwent revisions in September 1928, June 1929, and
October 1930. In addition to these revisions, an earlier version of the plan
was drawn up in 1926 (Morley 2018). It was signed by Juan Arellano
himself as the consulting architect of the Bureau of Public Works.
Together with Arellano, A.D. Williams, an American who served as the
director of public works of the colonial government, also signed the
approval of the urban plan (Arellano 1930).
Similar to the other City Beautiful Plans during the same period,
Iloilo’s version highlighted streets that were plotted with axial geometry
which radiated toward important civic spaces (e.g., exposition grounds)
and institutions (e.g., city hall). These institutions “were to be placed
in deliberately public and accessible spaces, symbolizing in the minds
of Americans the values of American democracy” (Shatkin 2006:584).
Similarly, the Iloilo plan also pointed out the importance of aesthetics
with the presence of proposed parks and tree-lined boulevards. The
tree-lined streets in the Arellano Plan consist of the already existing
Calle Huervana, Calle Lopez Jaena, and Calle del Pilar in La Paz and
on the proposed Calle Cementerio in Mandurriao, while its parks are
situated in the present districts of La Paz and Molo (alongside the Iloilo
River). As part of the City Beautiful Movement, these green spaces
sought to alleviate the crowded and unhygienic conditions of the city
(Ellem 2014).
But unique to its experience as a vital port city for sugar exportation,
Iloilo’s first comprehensive urban plan aimed to transform the congested
town into a “self-sustaining city heavily reliant on its potential river
port and booming sugar trade” (Madrid 2008:45). In fact, the said plan
mentioned port improvements, including: (1) marginal wharves, rivers,
and strait; (2) a widening river at the bends; (3) a closing channel at
the railway crossing; (4) a drainage canal in Molo; (5) a bridge over the

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 49

drainage canal; (6) a dredging river; and (7) a reclamation of the airport
site (Arellano 1930).
The plan retained the Philippine Railway as Capiz and Central
Iloilo produced and transported sugar and other products such as rice,
palay, corn, hemp, and tobacco locally and internationally (Bureau of
Public Works 1915a). Moreover, the proposed airport and hangars were
adjacent to the terminus of the Philippine Railway, which were located
at the mouth of the Iloilo River. Overall, the transportation proposals in
Iloilo represented the importance of the port city to the world market
which makes it “the most attractive agricultural locality in the Philippine
Islands” (Bureau of Public Works 1915a:31). These improvements would
then make the City Beautiful Plan of Iloilo an ideal colonial city.
Based on the Arellano Plan, most of the road constructions were
extended outside the present Iloilo City proper. These transportation
improvements in the port area, railways, and cemented roads signaled
the triumph of the modern over the traditional that would then contribute
to the formation of modern society (Pante 2014a, 2014b). Likewise, the
expansion of Iloilo was deemed necessary for the urban conglomeration
of six towns that would comprise the Iloilo metropolis. This was put
into effect in 1936 when Iloilo City became a chartered city during the
American Insular Government (Madrid 2008). Unfortunately, the plan
was derailed when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor that led to the
Second World War. The only legacy left of his plan was the former City
Hall (presently the Main Building of the University of the Philippines
Visayas), which became the seat of power in the colonial port city (Madrid
2006). As manifested in his role as a new ilustrado, Arellano planned
to create a sustainable city for the Ilonggos through improvements in
the cityscape. However, aside from showing modernity, the spaces of
the Arellano Plan can also signify domination, subjugation, and control
toward the colonial subject.

FOUCAULDIAN SOCIAL CONTROL IN THE

CITY BEAUTIFUL PLAN OF ILOILO
The neoclassical architecture of the City Hall of Iloilo was designed by
Juan Arellano himself and was considered to be the largest structure in
the Visayas and Mindanao at the time (Delgado 1935). At the facade of

50 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

the former City Hall are sculptures of two men sitting on both sides of the
entrance, known as the Law and Order. The tower on top of the City Hall
has four windows which gave the structure a whole imposing view of the
city, thus serving as a panoptic device.
The City Hall of Iloilo symbolized the city’s seat of sovereign power
since it housed the Office of the Presidencia (the mayor), the Justice of the
Peace, and the Municipal Treasurer (Delgado 1935). As a local government
center, it was envisioned to be a “continuous stimulant to the building
program of the city… [and] future development will unquestionably be
controlled by the location of the City Hall” (Delgado 1935:44). Because
of the imposing design of the City Hall and its accessibility to the
public (Shatkin 2006), it instilled a sense of patriotism, secularism, and
democracy esteemed by Americans—values that were denied to Filipinos
by Spanish authorities. Following the concept of “White love,” the power
of surveillance was transferred from the religious and despotic Spanish
governance to a more rational, liberal, and utilitarian governance of the
Americans. In the spatial aspect, the center of power was shifted from the
church building to government offices such as the City Hall.
The radial and urban grid patterns are also apparent in the Arellano
Plan. It had “eight symmetrical shaped blocks of land” (Morley
2018:11) emanating from the monument and the exposition ground,
and extending toward the whole city. Although the urban plan did
not mention the structure and image of the monument and exposition
ground, it is crucial in imposing the power, secular ideals, and rationality
of American colonialism. Similar to other City Beautiful Plans, the
exposition ground provided avenue for spectacles marking important
secular events and a space that represents the focal point of political
power. It could engender every colonial citizen “a feeling of aesthetic
appreciation and thereby civic pride” (Ellem 2014:108) to become a
significant societal actor.
Compared to smaller Spanish plaza complexes that dotted Iloilo
City in the Arellano Plan, the proposed American-inspired exposition
ground served as the center of civic activities of the colony given the
wider space it can accommodate. Instead of being driven by religious
values and symbols of the Spanish Catholicism that were displayed by
the plaza complex, the space of the exposition ground and monument

52 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

Figure 3. The Proposed Exposition Ground and the Monument located
at the center of Iloilo City, which was surrounded by a residential area.
(Source: City Planning and Development Office Iloilo City)

promoted secularism. Hence, the plaza complexes all over Iloilo City
were highlighted less in the Arellano Plan, although the Jaro Plaza was
proposed to be developed by the Bureau of Public Works at around 1933–
1938 (Morley 2018).
Similar to radial avenues, the urban grid pattern of roads in the
Arellano Plan would lead to the City Hall. These roads would discourage
concealment of the colonized subject. The proposed residential areas
were planned to surround the exposition ground and the City Hall. The
residential roads would encourage people to respect the symbol of power.
Meanwhile, the two proposed sports grounds (with field and
baseball grounds) were supposed to be constructed near the proposed
park. What is interesting to note is that it would have been located at
the Iloilo Normal School (present day West Visayas State University).
Outside the vicinity of the school, a barrio playground was proposed in
Jaro. Playgrounds and sports grounds are important spaces in promoting

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 53

the rationality of American colonialism. As mentioned by the Bureau
of Insular Affairs (1906:536), “a sufficient plat of ground will be
secured in each case to make at least a good playground.” Its manifest
function was to beautify the school grounds and promote health and
fitness among students. In fact, “teachers must not neglect to develop
the physical powers of his pupils”—they were even “encouraged to
participate in outdoor sports that require some exertion” (Bureau of
Insular Affairs 1906:536).
In the context of American colonialism in the Philippines, sports
drew poor children to school, with physical education paving the way
to acculturation. Sports promoted competitive values, discipline, and
community pride—values that Americans wanted to endorse to young
Filipinos. The revolutionary program of the Americans “surpassed even
those lofty expectations when it stated that exercise was necessary to
make Filipinos taller and bigger and that the stock of the race can be
improved considerably despite many handicaps” (Gems 2002:38).
The improvement of science and technology also amplified the control
of the Americans regarding the body of the colonized as the Americans
viewed the Philippines as a laboratory of hygienic modernity. Warwick
Anderson (2006) added that the Americans equated the attainment of
Filipino self-government to the establishment of hygienic identities in
the colonial laboratory. This development would help in the protection of
trade, defend the troops and administrators, and justify their domination.
As part of their civilizing mission, they introduced the means of
preventing various types of diseases.
For instance, during the early years of American colonialism, infected
animals were “attended by an appalling mortality” (Bureau of Insular
Affairs 1904:546). As specified, “[a] diseased animal should be located
without any difficulty” (Bureau of Insular Affairs 1904:546). The report
also added that “detecting all diseased animals will necessitate some kind
of a systematic inspection which may easily be carried out in Manila
and other cities by those charged with such duties in guarding the public
welfare” (Bureau of Insular Affairs 1904:546). As illustrated within
downtown Iloilo, the proposed animal quarantine office was planned to be
built at the side of the railway station. This site was pivotal because goods
were usually flown in from the hinterlands to the city, and vice versa.

54 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

Animal inspection was highly needed to set healthy standards of farm
animals that will enter and exit the city. Indeed, there is an interrelation
between urban transportation and public health (Pante 2016a). By putting
the animal quarantine office adjacent to the railway station, it ensures not
only the quality of livestock that were entering the city, but also the safety
of the consuming public.
Political rationality would then function to clear “the city of the
detritus, not just waste, sewage and nuisances but also ‘unhygienic’
spaces that did not properly belong to the vital order of the city”
(Barry, Orborne, and Rose 1996:114). Institutions deemed unhygienic
“had to be banished to the periphery of the city” (Barry, Orborne, and
Rose 1996:114). This can also be recognized on urban spaces located
on the outskirts of the Arellano Plan, such as the proposed cemetery.
The proposed cemetery was planned to be built on the outskirts of
Iloilo city, specifically in the district of Mandurriao. There were
small Catholic cemeteries in the Arellano Plan that were already in
existence during the Spanish colonial period. It can be observed that the
geographical location of these cemeteries promoted unsanitary burial
since these were positioned near the proposed residential zone. In fact,
the Roman Catholic cemetery in Molo overlaps with the City Hall
complex. Therefore, it can be inferred that relocation of the cemetery
was manifested in the plan. As stipulated by law, the location of the
cemetery should be “at least 25 meters away from any dwelling houses”
(Bureau of Insular Affairs 1906:113). The proposed cemetery’s position
in the urban plan of Iloilo aims to reduce the probability of epidemics
brought by unsanitary burial practices.
The Americans’ knowledge of science and technology convinced
them that aside from changing the physical landscape of the colony, they
can also manipulate the bodies and character of the docile Filipinos. In an
economic sense, a healthy and civilized body would also result to efficient
citizens that would work and subjugate for the colonial government and
the sugar-driven economy. These proposed urban spaces also function
to socially reform the colonial society’s marginalized sector such as the
city’s prisoners and destitutes.
Reflecting this rationality, the prison and poor houses were planned
to be constructed on the outskirts of the city for both prisoners and

SALOMON • Colonial Urban Planning and Social Control 55

Figure 4. Proposed prison, poor house (with their respective farms), and
cemetery found in the present-day district of Manduarriao, the periphery
of Iloilo City (upper left). (Source: City Planning and Development Office
Iloilo City)

urban poor, respectively. As far as the Arellano Plan is concerned, docile

prisoners and destitutes can be modified through confinement. This
includes making them productive and rendering them useful to the public.
It can be exemplified by the presence of the prison and poor house farm.
As seen in the plan, the prison is reminiscent of a half wheel similar
to a panoptic device. Inside this institution, these prisoners were given
incentives if they are industrious and hard-working, while they lose
their standing if they “have acquired by any infraction of order or lack
of diligence” (US War Department 1910:46). Accordingly, prisoners in
“the more advanced grades have their own farm which they work on
a profit-sharing basis with the government and their own family” (US
War Department 1910:46). The confinement and the self-discipline of
prisoners through incentives would result in turning themselves as
subjects of power.

56 Philippine Sociological Review (2019) • Vol. 67

CONCLUSION
The literature on governmentality in the context of colonialism
suggests that urban planning would help manage the subject through
domination, subjugation, and control that would eventually make them
valued members of society. Although there are similarities between the
Arellano Plan of Iloilo and American-made Burnham Plans of Manila
such as the presence of monumental, governmental, and aesthetic spaces
(Shatkin 2006), the City Beautiful Plan of Iloilo emphasized the role
of the city as the center of sugar exportation in the Philippines. This is
demonstrated in the proposal of improving the city’s port area to ensure
the sufficiency of sugar in the global market. But by plotting these spaces
in the Arellano Plan of Iloilo, the aforementioned institutional landscapes
and environments were poised to contribute to the variegated impacts on
colonial governmentality.
Although Iloilo lost its prestige as the center of sugar exports in the
country due to labor strikes and effects of the Second World War (McCoy
1992), Iloilo gradually regained its lost glory as a sustainable and modern
city in the past decade. Restoration projects of heritage sites were
spearheaded around the city, including the former City Hall of Iloilo,
some commercial establishments around the Iloilo River, and the central
business district. Similar to the Arellano Plan, improvement in the city’s
aesthetics was also promoted through the creation of the Iloilo Esplanade
alongside the Iloilo River.
Future research on the topic can determine how the contemporary
cityscape in the so-called “smart city” shows the persistence of colonial
ideals in the current city’s planning, including the continuing dominance
of the political-economic elites in the urban landscape of Iloilo. Above all,
the existence of these contemporary spaces as sites of governmentalities
should be further analyzed.

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