Metro Manila
Quezon City
From 1948 to 1975, Quezon City was the capital of the Philippines. The city is named after its founder Manuel Quezon who was the first president of the Philippines when the archipelago was granted partial indepen-dence from the US in 1935. Even today, Quezon City has many government depart-ments and offices. Most are located in the vicinity of the Quezon Memorial Circle which is com-monly referred to as govern-ment circle.
The busiest district in Quezon City is the Cubao shopping area. It is very similar to the Makati Commercial Center but bigger and with fewer extravagant stores. Another gigan-tic shopping center in Quezon City is the new Shoemart City which is also called Shoemart West because it is located at the entrance of West Ave into EDSA.
Quezon City also is the site of some of The Country 's premier educational institutions in-cluding the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University, a Jesuit school.
The most modern specialized hospitals of The Country are also in Quezon City. The Heart Center for Asia was inaugurated Febru-ary 15, l975 and has all the latest sophisti-cated facilities to offer patients suffering from heart ailments. The Lung Center of the Philippines, in operation since 1980, provides modern facilities, methods and services in the treatment of diseases of the lungs and bronchi. The Kidney Foundation of the Philip-pines was the latest addition to these hospi-tals. All of them are situated in the vicinity of East Ave and Don Mariano Mar-cos Ave.
In recent years Quezon City made it to the headlines of the international media for its strict city ordinances which observers felt are so untypical for the Metro Manila lifestyle. Among other things, these ordinances prohibit smoking in public (to avoid misunderstanding: smoking cigarettes, not illegal substances such as marihuana).
Enforcement of the smoking ban and similar rules, however, is rather sporadic. But every now and then, people do get jailed for viola-tion of the anti-smoking and other ordinances. The Philippine Daily Inquirer of November 11, 1989, reported that more than 500 jaywalkers, smokers and illegal sidewalk vendors were rounded up the previous day when Mayor Brigido Simon Jr. launched a campaign to re-store what he considers order and discipline in the city.
The Inquirer revealed that before he started this campaign Simon had diagnosed "an almost total breakdown in the moral values and civic responsibilities of the residents." To bring his constituents back on the moral path he based his campaign on 'hiya and takot' (shame and fear) "The mayor said three detention cells will be installed where arrested violators will be detained in full view of the public... Cov-ered by the 'Balik disiplina' campaign aside from jaywalking, smoking, and illegal vending are littering, loading and unloading on prohib-ited zones, illegal parking, illegal squatting, lewd shows, sale of pornographic comics, mag-azines and tabloids, liquor drinking in public places, urinating in public, spitting in public, smoke-belching and illegal structures." (Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 11, 1989)
Paranaque & Las Pinas
Both municipalities are known for their nu-merous housing subdivisions, such as the giant BF Homes named after the developer, Banco Filipino. Until a few years ago, both towns were noted for beach resorts, which due to their accessibility and proximity to Manila, were frequented by city people without cars. The resorts are still there but access to the beach is gone since the coastal road was con-structed on reclaimed land along the seaside of Paranaque and Las Pinas.
However, thanks to the coastal road, travel south beyond Paranaque and Las Pinas is shortened by 20 to 30 minutes.
Kalookan City
Kalookan City is the center of commerce and industry for the adjacent Metro Manila towns of Navotas and Malabon as well as Bulacan province which lies north of Manila.
The main landmark of Kalookan City is Monumento, the Bonifacio Monument at the intersection of Rizal Ave and Epiphanio de los Santos Ave (EDSA). It suits the industrial character of Kalookan City that its main monument commemorates the most proletarian of all Filipino heroes, Andres Bonifacio.
The monument marks the first encounter between Andres Bonifacio and his revolution-ary group called the Katipunan with the Spanish soldiers August 3, 1896.
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