Pasay
Pasay, officially the City of Pasay, is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 453,186 people.
Due to its location just south of Manila, Pasay quickly became an urban town during the American colonial period. It is now best known for being the site of most of Ninoy Aquino International Airport and of complexes such as Newport City and the SM Central Business Park.
Etymology
There are possible explanations on the origins of the city's name:- A legend suggested that it may have been named after Dayang-dayang Pasay, a princess of the Kingdom of Namayan and daughter of Kingdom of Maynila ruler Rajah Sulayman. She inherited half of her father's lands, which encompasses the present-day city, and founded the present-day city.
- Another legend suggests that the city was named after Pasay, one of the sons of Tagkan, a ruler of Namayan. He inherited territories that included the area of the present-day city.
- There's also a romantic legend where a man named Jose loudly cried out "Paz-ay!" at the grave of his wealthy love interest, Paz, symbolizing their forbidden love and Paz's eventual death due to loneliness. In tribute, Paz's parents named their hacienda Paz-ay or Pasay.
- Some historians believe that the city is named after the medicinal plant pasaw that once grew abundantly there.
- According to American historian Austin Craig, Pasay was known as Javan Pasar, a corruption of the Arabic word bazar as the town was a marketplace.
- During the colonial era, Pasay was spelled as "Pasai", after the Malay historical kingdom in Sumatra, present-day Indonesia.
History
Early history
In local folk history about the period before the arrival of Spanish colonizers, Pasay is said to have been part of Namayan, a confederation of barangays which supposedly controlled territory stretching from Manila Bay to Laguna de Bay, and which, upon the arrival of the Spanish, eventually became known as Santa Ana de Sapa.Spanish colonial period
On May 19, 1571, Miguel López de Legazpi took formal possession of the Rajahnate of Maynila and its surrounding polities in the name of the Spanish crown.Of the many religious orders that came, it was the Augustinian Order who would figure predominantly in the evangelisation of Pasay. Having control over Pasay, they converted the area into an extensive agricultural estate known as the Hacienda de Meysapan. The parish of Pasay was governed from the old Namayan capital, since renamed Santa Ana de Sapa, which was under the jurisdiction of the Franciscans. The promise of space in Heaven prompted early native converts to donate their possessions to the Church, with folklore recounting how a baptized Pasay on her deathbed donated her vast estate to the Augustinians. Most of Pasay went to friar's hands either via donation or by purchase; many natives were also forced to divest of their properties to cope with stringent colonial impositions.
In 1727, the Augustinians formally took over Pasay and transferred it from Santa Ana de Sapa to Malate, particularly under the jurisdiction of the Parish of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. In 1815, it was separated from Malate.
In 1862, notable residents of Pasay submitted a petition to handle their political and religious matters independently, proposing to rename the town "Pineda", in honor of Don Cornelio Pineda, a Spanish horticulturist who was their benefactor. On December 2, 1863, with the recommendation of Manila Archbishop Gregorio Melitón Martínez Santa Cruz, Pineda was granted its own municipal charter, and this date is celebrated yearly as the city's official foundation day.
Philippine revolutionary period
Pasay produced numerous heroes during the Philippine Revolution. The Katipunan, the organization founded by Andrés Bonifacio that spearheaded the revolution, had a chapter in Pineda organized by Pascual Villanueva, Jacinto Ignacio, and Valentin Ignacio. Several women also fought for the cause of the Katipunan including Marcela Marcelo. The execution of José Rizal, who authored the novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo on December 30, 1896, fanned the flames of the Revolution.American colonial period
General Emilio Aguinaldo meanwhile declared the independence of the First Philippine Republic on June 12, 1898, and issued decrees providing political reorganization in the country. With this, Don Catalino became Pasay's first Presidente municipal.Pineda was made the command outpost of the Primera Zona de Manila under Gen. Mariano Noriel, but Gen. Wesley Merritt appealed that the Pineda outpost turned over to the Americans so that they could be closer to the Spanish lines. Thinking Americans were allies, Noriel left Pineda on July 29, allowing American General Greene to transfer. When Intramuros was finally captured, the Filipinos were denied entry to the walled city. Since then, tension simmered between Filipino and American troops, with both sides assigned respective zones but neither observed boundary lines. On the night of February 4, 1899, four Filipinos crossed the American line in Santa Mesa, Manila, and shots were exchanged, triggering the Philippine–American War.
On May 19, 1899, General Noriel was given command again of Pineda. In June, Noriel together with General Ricarte almost defeated the American forces had they exploited the exhaustion of the enemy in the Battle of Las Piñas. Instead, their forces were attacked by American reinforcements and bombarded by warships. The assault forced them to abandon Pineda to occupation by American forces.
On June 11, 1901, Pineda was incorporated into the Province of Rizal. Pascual Villanueva was appointed as municipal president. On August 4, 1901, the Pineda municipal council passed a resolution petitioning that the original name of Pasay be returned. On September 6, 1901, the Philippine Commission, acting on the request of the townsfolk, passed Act No. 227 renaming Pineda back to Pasay. Two years later, on October 12, 1903, Act No. 942 merged Pasay with the southern municipality of Malibay, expanding its territory. With a population of 8,100 in 1903, Pasay was placed under the fourth-class category together with 9 other municipalities.
Friar lands, then nationalized, were turned into subdivisions. Soon, the Pasay Real Estate Company offered friar lands as residential lots for sale or for lease to foreign investors. Postal, telegraph, and telephone lines were installed, and branches of Philippine Savings Bank were established. In 1907, a first-class road from Pasay to Camp Nichols was completed. Others were repaired including the old Avenida Mexico, now called the Taft Avenue extension. Transportation services improved. Among the first buses plying routes to Pasay were Pasay Transportation, Raymundo Transportation, Try-tran, and Halili Transit.
By 1908, Meralco tranvia lines linked Pasay to Intramuros, Escolta, San Miguel, San Sebastian, and San Juan. Automobiles took to the streets, testing their maximum speed on Taft Avenue. On April 11, 1914, Cora Wong, a nurse at the Chinese General Hospital, became the first woman in the Philippines to fly as a passenger on a flight with Tom Gunn in a Curtiss seaplane off Pasay Beach.
Pasay eventually became a suburban area of Manila during the American occupation period. From a population of 6,542 residents, the town had a population of 18,697 by 1918, where 163 of them were Americans. Pasay was developed to be a residential area for prominent Filipino families and Americans, including future president Manuel L. Quezon. By the 1930s, the former rural town had become a suburb of the capital city.
From the 1900s up to the mid-1930s, Philippine National Railway services reached Pasay thru its Cavite Line.
Japanese occupation
came and on December 26, 1941, General Douglas MacArthur issued a proclamation declaring Manila and its suburbs an open city. On New Year's Day 1942, Quezon, while in Corregidor, established the City of Greater Manila, wherein Pasay, along with other nearby towns of Rizal, was merged with Manila and Quezon City. He called his secretary Jorge B. Vargas and appointed him by executive order "the Mayor of Greater Manila". The mayor of Pasay was then Rufino Mateo, who was concurrently the district chief of Pasay under the City of Greater Manila, governing a town of more than 55,161. During the WWII, many Pasayeños joined in the fight against the Japanese. Jose P. Maibag, born and bred in Pasay, laid out underground networking. Carlos Mendoza, a resident of Barrio San Roque, together with 14 others, formed a mobile broadcasting station called "The Voice of Juan dela Cruz." On July 11, 1942, Japanese military police captured the group. Carling Mendoza, alias Juan de la Cruz" and other members of the group were brought to the old Bilibid Prison and were tortured.Pasay had to redo the signs all over town, with Filipino was ordered to prevail over English. The national language became a core subject in the secondary school curriculum, while Japanese was taught as well at all levels of education. On October 14, 1943, Japan proclaimed the Second Philippine Republic. In the meantime, food had become so scarce that prices soared. Pasay residents began to move away from the city to the provinces outside. The Japanese occupation forces dissolved the City of Greater Manila in 1944 with the establishment of the Philippine Executive Commission to govern occupied regions in the country, thus separating the consolidated cities and towns, with Pasay returning to the province of Rizal. In the middle of February up to early March 1945, as the combined Allied forces began to converge on the way to the Manila area northwards from the south, Pasay suffered enormous damage during the month-long Battle of Manila, and many residents perished either by the Japanese or friendly fire from the combined Filipino and American forces.
On February 27, 1945, General MacArthur turned over the government to President Sergio Osmeña. One of Osmeña's first acts was to dissolve the City of Greater Manila. He then appointed Juan Salcedo Jr., born in Pasay in 1904, as Director of Philippine Health, and then as executive officer of the Philippine Rehabilitation Administration in charge of national recovery from the devastation wrought by the Japanese occupation. Osmeña appointed Adolfo Santos as prewar vice mayor of Pasay, in place of incumbent Moises San Juan who died during the war. He also issued an executive order that would dissolve the City of Greater Manila effective August 1, 1945, thus reinstating Pasay's pre-war status as a municipality of Rizal.