Where to find a city within 2 cities in Metro Manila?

During the initial years of the United States occupation of the Philippines from 1901, the American-Filipino rulers found it was necessary for them to reduce the number of provinces and towns in the country as part of economic measures.

They conducted the first official census nationwide in 1903 and based on its results, the first Philippine Commission decided to merge some provinces and towns to lessen the expenses for the salaries of local government officials and employees.

According to Wikipedia and various history books, among the affected areas was the then two-year-old province of Rizal named in June 1901 after the national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Its 32 towns were reduced to 15 with the annexation of 17 to the larger and more progressive neighbors under Act 942 of Oct. 12, 1903.

Only four of the original towns of the infant province -- Marikina, Pasig, San Pedro Macati and Tanay -- retained their status after the merger. Those merged were (with the surviving municipality in capital letters): ANTIPOLO, Boso-Boso, and Teresa; CALOOCAN and Novaliches; MALABON and Navotas; MORONG, Binangonan, Baras and Cardona; PARAÑAQUE and Las Piñas; PASAY and Malibay; PATEROS, Taguig and Muntinlupa; PILILIA, Quisao and Jala-Jala; SAN MATEO and Montalban; SAN FELIPE NERI (now Mandaluyong) and San Juan del Monte; TAYTAY, Cainta and Angono.

Before the first two decades of the 1900s were over, majority of the abolished towns petitioned for the return of their independent status. Many of them succeeded and as of today, only four former municipalities of Rizal province are still annexed to their mother local government units. These are Novaliches with Caloocan City; Boso-Boso (Antipolo); Malibay (Pasay City); and Quisao (Pililia).

However, instead of just becoming a dead town relegated to the dustbin of history forever, Novaliches, located in the northernmost portion of Quezon City and Caloocan City, has become a center of population migration and transportation and commercial growth. In fact, it is at present often considered by many people as "a city within the neighboring two cities of Quezon and Caloocan."

BACKGROUND: How Novaliches became a transport center

When it was abolished as a town in 1903, Novaliches had only a population of 1,556 distributed sparsely in an area of about 10,000 hectares. Until the late 1960s, the Novaliches area remained a sleepy farming community with a population of 120,000.

There were vast rice fields, carabaos and pasture lands here and there, including along both sides of the old Novaliches-Ipo Road, the only direct link then with Balintawak, Highway 54 (now EDSA or Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue) and Manila, 18 kilometers away.

Aside from planting rice during the rainy season, the local residents were engaged in piggery and poultry as well as vegetable and fruit raising. Their products were sold in markets in Quezon City and Manila, including in Blumentritt, Central Market in Quiapo, and Divisoria.

The large Arce Farms in the former Barrio Deparo and San Agustin had thousands of cows, carabaos and goats for milking and meat purposes. In the vast hacienda Jacinto in Pasong Putik, there were several areas devoted to mango and other fruit-bearing trees and plants, including bananas.

The major means of public transportation in the area then were the old type of buses (with improvised wooden windows and doors) operated by the Halili Transportation Company. Later, other bus firms began operating in Novaliches, including Pascual Liner, Fred Liner, and Encinas Transportation owned by former Sorsogon Congressman Salvador Encinas.

When the national government began relocating squatters from Intramuros and Port Area in Manila to Sapang Palay, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan in the 1960s and 1970s, more transport companies began serving the area.

Around the second half of the 1960s, the development of subdivisions in Novaliches began in earnest, along with the exodus of several factories, including the C.C. Unson Motolite Batteries in Pasacola, Jacinto Iron and Steel Corporation in Pasong Putik, Atlas Textile and Marca Piña Soy Sauce in San Bartolome, Manila Paper Mills Inc. in Talipapa, Marsteel Corporation in Sangandaaan and many others.

Among the subdivisions that first opened in Novaliches were: Doña Rosario, Amparo owned by the family of former Philippine Constabulary chief Gen. Guillermo B. Francisco, Buenamar, Millionaires, Villaverde and Jordan Heights in Damong Maliit, Urduja Village (formerly called Philippine Homesite and Housing Corporation), California Village, T.S. Cruz in San Agustin and Baesa.

These developments caused the population of the former sleepy Novaliches to increase tremendously as many job seekers from nearby provinces got employment in the area and soon bought low-cost lots for their family houses in the nearby subdivisions.

Today, almost all former rice fields and forests in the former town had been converted either into subdivisions, factories, shopping malls and other big commercial establishments.

In the former barrio of Pasong Putik, there are now three big shopping malls located within a stone's throw away from each other. These are SM City Fairview, Robinsons Place Novaliches and Ayala Fairview Terraces.

In Barangay San Bartolome, even the former national camp of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP), called Camp Concepcion Gonzales along Quirino Highway, is now the site of SM City Novaliches. That area used to abound with tall trees and plants of different species.

As a result, the population of Novaliches has ballooned to more than 2.5 million as of latest available figures from the 20-year-old Diocese of Novaliches. This was also indicated by the significant increase in the number of Catholic churches in the diocese from just one (the Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Mercy) in 1970 to more than 70 today.

Along with the big increase in the number of residents and vehicles of almost all types -- buses, public utility jeepneys, cargo trucks, tricycles -- there is now a terrible traffic problem in the area daily from early morning to late evening.

The buses plying the routes to various places in Metro Manila from Novaliches have their terminal at the Nova Bus Stop at Robinsons Place Novaliches along Quirino Highway in Barangay Pasong Putik Proper. The terminal was put up by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in cooperation with the Quezon City government and the Robinsons Land Corporation.

On the other hand, the traditional and modern jeepneys with routes from Manila, Balintawak, Valenzuela City, Quezon City Hall, Sapang Palay, San Jose del Monte City, Norzagaray, Bulacan, and Camarin, Tala, Pangarap, Amparo, Bagong Silang, Bagumbong, Deparo and BF Homes-North Caloocan have their terminals in Barangay Novaliches Proper.