Back in the late 1950s, the North Triangle and the East Triangle—two vast tracts of land in the Diliman district of Quezon City bounded by Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa), Quezon Boulevard (now Quezon Avenue), and North Avenue; and by Edsa, Quezon Boulevard and East Avenue, respectively, were completely owned by the government, and were meant to be used exclusively for public purposes. These parcels of land lay near the national government center around the Quezon Monument.
Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon had wanted to house the offices of the national government at this center. World War II in the Pacific and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippine Islands, however, derailed his plans.
These two tracts of land had cogon grass virtually everywhere, which meant that many of the government offices established there could be considered “pioneers” of the area.
By the 1960s, only a few government agencies had offices along North Avenue and East Avenue.
Along North Avenue was the Philippine Sugar Institute Building, the Philippine Veterans Hospital, and veterans golf course, which was open to the public. Golden Acres, an “old folks home” stood near the junction of North Avenue and Edsa.
East Avenue hosted the head offices of the Land Transportation Commission (now called the Land Transportation Office) and the Social Security System, as well as the Government Service Insurance System Hospital (now called the East Avenue Medical Center).
At the center of the North Triangle was the campus of the Philippine Science High School. At the corner of Edsa and Quezon Boulevard was a quaint seedling nursery, which later became the Manila Seedling Bank. The rest of everything in both triangles were small patches of gardens cultivated by informal settlers, or cogon grass.
The Elliptical Road surrounding the Quezon Monument hosted the offices of the Philippine Housing and Homesite Commission (today’s National Housing Authority), a small office for GSIS engineers, the Philippine Coconut Administration (the current Philippine Coconut Authority), the Philippine Tobacco Administration, the Bureau of Agricultural Extension (now the Department of Agrarian Reform head office), and the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (now called the Department of Environment and Natural Resources).
In February 1975, the Philippine Heart Center for Asia, a pet project of then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, opened on East Avenue. This was followed by the Metro Manila Transit Corp. (MMTC) depot near the PSHS campus.
The 1970s and 1980s saw additional government buildings constructed in the area, including the Central Bank security printing plant, mint and gold refinery, the Kidney Center and the Land Registration Commission, both along East Avenue.
Quezon Boulevard had the Lung Center, the National Children’s Hospital, and the National Power Corp. (now the National Grid Corporation) Building. North Avenue’s additional structure was the Quezon City safety standards office.
Agham Road, where the PSHS campus is located, was extended to traverse the East Triangle and connect North and East Avenues. This extension road became the address of the Bureau of Internal Revenue headquarters, Two roads constructed behind the BIR compound hosted the offices of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), and the APO printing center. A branch of the Philippine National Bank, which was not yet privatized back then, also opened nearby.
The greenery where Quezon Boulevard joined North Avenue became the Parks and Wildlife promenade (later renamed the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife compound).
In the 2000s, the government buildings that rose in the area were the National Telecommunications Commission head office and the Office of the Ombudsman (both along Agham Road), the National Printing Office, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (all near the NIA Building), and the Commission on Human Rights compound near the corner of Quezon Avenue (formerly Quezon Boulevard) and Edsa. The side of the North Triangle beside Edsa became a depot of the light rail transit operated by the government.
What President Quezon envisioned for both triangles became a pipe dream.
The SM City mall complex started the privatization of the area in the late 1980s. It has expanded numerous times, first, northwest near the Quezon City Science High School, and then eastward near the old site of the Philippine Medical Association and the now defunct Peach Blossoms Restaurant.
A hamburger fastfood outlet currently stands at the corner of North Avenue and Mindanao Avenue.
The portion of the North Triangle along Edsa now hosts the Ayala Trinoma mall complex. A high-rise residential condominium project is currently under construction nearby. The MMTC depot has disappeared.
At the corner of Quezon Avenue and Edsa now stands Eton Centris, a commercial mall operated by the SM group. This mall has several restaurants, fastfood joints, and a gasoline station near it, all of them along Edsa. Completing the privatization of the rest of the East Triangle fronting Edsa is the future site of a private university.
There is an office of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. along East Avenue across the PHC, but at least it’s a branch office of a public utility, and not a shopping mall.
Gigantic billboards advertising various products ranging from denims to liquor can be seen along the Edsa sides of both triangles, particularly at the corners of Edsa and Quezon Avenue, and Edsa and East Avenue.
A couple of years ago, when the Quezon City authorities kicked out the Manila Seedling Bank from its site at the corner of Edsa and Quezon Avenue, they not only deprived the city of one of its “lungs” in the concrete jungle that is Metropolitan Manila; they made this piece of valuable real estate attractive to shopping mall developers. Will this government property get “privatized” as well?
Since Quezon City’s coffers are oozing with taxpayer money, selling this area is not only unnecessary; selling it will invite criminal prosecution for causing undue injury to the government and the people.
