Payatas

For the town in Quezon Province, see Tayabas.

Payatas
Barangay
Payatas dumpsite circa 2007
Official seal of Payatas Seal
Map of Quezon City showing Payatas
Payatas Location of Payatas within Metro Manila
Coordinates:
Country	Philippines
Region	National Capital Region
City	Quezon City
District	2nd District of Quezon City
Established	1976
Government
• Type	Barangay
• Barangay Captain	Manny Guarin
Area
• Total	7.74 km2 (2.98 sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC+8)
Postal Code	1119
Area code(s)	2

Payatas is a barangay located in the 2nd district of Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Nearby barangays are Commonwealth, Batasan Hills and Bagong Silangan.

History

The name Payatas derived from the word "payat sa taas", which means the soil located in the upper part of Tulyahan River is not good for planting rice.

It is divided into three local government areas called barangays in the Philippines. They are known simply as the Payatas A, B, C.

Barangay 8 is the original name of Payatas. Payatas is the only barangay established under judiciary rule.

Physical features

Located northeast of Quezon City, Barangay Payatas occupies a little less than twenty percent (20%) of the city’s land area and has about fifteen percent (15%) of the city’s total population. These figures are hotly disputed by academic surveys, however, given that Payatas is far more densely populated than the rest of Quezon City and much of Manila. The Census says there are just under 120,000 people living in Barangay Payatas, though academic studies suggest the real figure (given that most people are squatters are therefore do not own the land they're living on and are not included in official figures is closer to 500,000 (Gaillard and Cadag, 2009; Bernardo, 2004; among other). Payatas shares a border with La Mesa Dam to the north, Barangay Bagong Silangan to the east, Barangay Batasan Hills to the south, and Barangay Commonwealth to the west (see Map 1). Until today, about a third of the land in various parts of Payatas is being claimed in disputes between the municipalities of Montalban and San Mateo, as well as the barangays of Commonwealth and Fairview.

Land area and land use

Payatas is characterized by a steep and sloping terrain, crisscrossed by creeks, rivers, ravines, and low-lying areas near the Marikina River. A fault line runs through its eastern boundary. A large part of the area is classified as medium residential zone that includes housing subdivisions, depressed or informal settlements, and undeveloped areas.

Covering a total land area of 774 hectares, a greater portion of Payatas is privately owned (681 ha, or 88%; see Chart 1). Government-owned land, which includes the four-hectare national government complex (NGC) and the Quezon City property, covers a smaller portion (12%; 93 hectares) of the total land area. While portions of the privately owned area were already developed into residential subdivisions, a vast area (80%) has yet to be fully developed. Nonetheless, despite the poor access and lack of services and facilities, these areas continue to attract a large number of informal settlers from various areas of Metro Manila.

Around the 1970s, upon the initiative of a former barangay official, Barangay Payatas was divided into two major settlement clusters (Area A and Area B) to organize the route of public vehicles. Each area, with its large population and land area, was further subdivided to allow for easier information dissemination and reporting to and from the barangay (see Table 1 below). The larger Area B is further subdivided into Groups 1 to 13 and Phases I to IV in Lupang Pangako, consisting of around 5,000 families where the poorest of the poor are located.

Payatas Dumpsite

A distinguishing feature of Payatas is the Payatas Dumpsite, a 13 hectare garbage dumpsite in Area B. In the 1970s, the area was merely a ravine that was surrounded by farming villages and rice paddies. Now, Payatas houses a 50-acre landfill which earns it the name "second Smokey Mountain".

Payatas dumpsite, 2007

A landslide of junk on July 10, 2000, killed 218 people living on the dumpsite and caused 300 missing persons, though many first hand accounts note that the number is far greater and much closer to 1,000.

Payatas dumpsite is still the largest open dumpsite in the Philippines and was reopened only months after the 2000 disaster at the request of scavengers and other residents of the area who depend on it for their livelihood. There has been some good progress at the dumpsite since the landslide of 2000, as the dumpsite has been resloped to a 40 degree angle from its original 70 degree angle while children under the age of 14 have been banned from the dumpsite and methane extractors remove the methane and convert it into electricity, preventing the spontaneous fires which used to characterise it.

Payatas remains a very poor area, though, and several foundations operate in Payatas to help improve the opportunities of residents, notably including the Fairplay For All Foundation. FFA have a football team known as Payatas FC who have been very successful and aim to show what the people in the area can achieve when given the opportunity. Several players have been invited to join professional football academies and even National teams, varying age levels of the men's and women's team, while their various age groups have won more than 20 trophies between them.

See also

• The Woman in the Septic Tank, a film set at Tondo dumpsite
• Bangkang papel boys

Further reading

• Thoughts of Maria, a novel by Gregory Heath featuring a family living on the Payatas Dump