Quezon City boundaries and area
- Section 3 fixes Quezon City’s boundaries and limits, covering a total area of 15,660 hectares, more or less.
- The boundary description starts at point “1” (northwestern corner of Quezon City boundary) and proceeds through points “2” to “16” using specified bearings, distances, and river/watershed-following segments.
- The territory covered by Quezon City is explicitly tied to what was previously fixed in Commonwealth Act No. 502 and later amended by Commonwealth Act No. 659.
Capital City Planning Commission creation
- Section 3 creates a Capital City Planning Commission composed of seven Members.
- Three Members must not be government officials, and they are appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments of Congress.
- Members’ terms expire at the termination of their work, and the President may remove any member for cause.
- Members (except the chairman) receive a per diem of twenty-five pesos for each day of meeting, not more than two times a week, actually attended.
- Members are granted necessary traveling and other expenses not exceeding one hundred pesos while engaged in work for the Commission.
Commission leadership and staff
- Section 3 requires the President to designate one member as chairman, who acts as general manager.
- The chairman’s compensation is ten thousand pesos per annum.
- During the temporary absence of the chairman, the Commission elects a temporary chairman who exercises all duties and enjoys all privileges and emoluments of the chairman during the time acting.
- The President, with consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoints an executive secretary chosen based on administrative and technical qualifications, with compensation of six thousand pesos per annum.
Planning powers and zoning rules
- Section 4 authorizes the Commission to make and adopt (or cause to be made and adopted) a general plan for the physical development of the Capital City of the Philippines, accompanied by maps, sketches, overlays, plates, charts, and explanatory descriptive matter.
- The general plan must include recommendations on the general location, character, and extent of streets, viaducts, bridges, waterways, waterfronts, boulevards, parkways, playgrounds, squares, parks, and other public ways and ground/open spaces, and must cover:
- locations and extent of areas suitable for residential development;
- locations and extent of public buildings and other properties; and
- locations and extent of public utilities, terminals, and markets for water supply, power, sanitation, transportation, communication, distribution, and other purposes.
- Section 4 authorizes the Commission to establish districts or zones for industry, trade, transportation, residence, public or semi-public, civic activities, and recreation.
- The Commission determines:
- height and area covered by buildings;
- population density;
- business and advertising signs, including restrictions on size and projection over street lines;
- the proportion of the lot where buildings may be constructed;
- sizes of lots, courts, and other open spaces.
- Section 4 requires the Commission to adopt rules governing acquisition of private lands and subdivision into small lots for:
- lease or sale to the public as to residential zones, and
- lease only as to industrial and commercial zones,
including rules on development form, surrounding-land uses for streets, light/air/density, drainage and sanitary facilities, lot sizes/shapes, and mandatory reservation of a reasonable minimum area for schools, parks, and other public purposes as a condition precedent to plat approval.
Purposes guiding coordinated development
- Section 4 declares that the general plan, zoning, and subdivision of the Capital City must guide and accomplish a coordinated, adjusted, harmonious construction and future development.
- The development must, in accordance with present and future needs, best promote health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity, and general welfare, and must provide efficiency and economy in development.
- The Commission’s planning must include adequate provisions for light and air, promotion of healthful and convenient distribution of population, promotion of good civic design and arrangement, economic, wise, efficient and equitable expenditure of public funds, and adequate provision of public utilities and other public requirements.
Appropriations and land survey
- Section 5 appropriates one hundred fifty thousand pesos or so much as may be necessary from the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated for:
- salaries of necessary personnel;
- the per diems of Commission Members; and
- incidental expenses to carry out the Act.
- Section 6 requires the Director of Lands to, within thirty days upon approval of the Act:
- survey the area defined in Section 2; and
- prepare a plan indicating names of owners, area, assessed value, and improvements if any.
- The Director of Lands must turn over the plan to the Commission within one hundred twenty days for the Commission’s use in preparing development.
- Section 6 requires that the plan indicate the boundaries of the present Quezon City as defined in Section 2.
Master plan submission and execution
- Section 7 requires the Capital City Planning Commission to submit to the President within one year after its organization the master plan for approval.
- The Commission is charged with executing the master plan as approved by the President.
- Section 7 provides that allocation of lots for sale or lease to the public under Section 4(c) is made with the approval of the President.
Acquisition of private estates
- Section 8 authorizes the Commission to acquire, by direct purchase at a price not exceeding the assessed value as of January 1, 1946, or through expropriation proceedings, all private estates included within the Section 2 area.
- The government must charge the public price at cost plus six per centum on a cash basis.
- If a lot is sold on an installment basis, interest of four per centum per annum is added to the original cost of the lot in addition to the six per centum.
- In computing actual cost for sale to the public, expenses incurred by the government in preparing the subdivision plan—including cost of construction of streets, bridges, and other municipal improvements—are added to the original purchase price of the private estate.
- The rate of lease per square meter in commercial and industrial zones is fixed by the Commission with approval of the President.
- Section 8 requires lease or sale award to be made, as far as practicable, to the highest bidder.
Bonds, revolving fund, and tax exemption
- Section 9 authorizes the President, in the name and on behalf of the Republic of the Philippines, to issue bonds in an amount of twenty million pesos.
- Bond proceeds must be used as a revolving fund for:
- acquisition of private estates,
- subdivision of the area, and
- construction of streets, bridges, waterworks, sewerage, and other municipal improvements in the Capital City.
- Section 9 provides that bond date, form, interest rate, and term length are determined by the President.
- Principal and interest must be payable in Philippine currency or its equivalent in United States currency, at the discretion of the Secretary of Finance, at the Treasury of the Philippines; interest is payable at periods set by the President.
- Section 9 makes the bonds exempt from taxation by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines or any political or municipal subdivision, and requires the tax exemption fact to be stated upon the bonds’ face.
Sinking fund and annual appropriations
- Section 10 creates a sinking fund for payment of bonds issued under the Act.
- The fund must be structured so that the total amount at each annual due date equals an annuity of one thousand nine hundred thirty-seven pesos and thirteen centavos for each one hundred thousand pesos of bonds outstanding, accrued at three and one-half per centum per annum.
- The sinking fund is under the custody of the Central Bank, which invests it in a manner approved by the Monetary Board under Act No. 3014, which governs investment of sinking funds.
- The Central Bank must charge investment expenses to the sinking fund and credit it with investment interest and other income.
- Section 11 provides for a standing annual appropriation from any general fund in the National Treasury to cover:
- the sinking fund contribution; and
- the interest on bonds issued under the Act.
- Section 11 also provides an appropriation from general funds sufficient to cover expenses of issue and sale of the authorized bonds.
Supervision of bond-funded works
- Section 12 gives the Capital City Planning Commission supervision of all work and improvements made using the proceeds of the bond authorized by the Act.
- The works must begin as soon as the Treasurer of the Philippines certifies that the fund provided is available.
- Section 12 requires all income derived from sale or rental of lots in the Capital City to be credited to the revolving fund created from bond proceeds.
- The revolving fund may be used only for executing, improving, or extending the master plan and for maintaining and operating public services within the Capital City.
Repeal and effectivity
- Section 13 repeals all acts, executive orders, or regulations (or parts) inconsistent with the provisions of Republic Act No. 333.
- Section 14 provides that the Act takes effect upon approval.
- The Act is approved July 17, 1948.