As its name suggests, Barrio Obrero (Workman’s Village) has an undeniable Spanish colonial flavor; it started in 1916 in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean area with Commonwealth status. But its version in Davao, however, did not start until 1938 when the first such project was launched at Piapi, Quezon Boulevard (then called Bonifacio).
The first Barrio Obrero was personally inaugurated by Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon while the second one was legislated in Congress through a bill sponsored by Davao representative Cesar M. Sotto. This undertaking resulted in what is now Obrero District.
Barrio Obrero was first introduced in Manila in 1920 when Ramon Fernandez was mayor. The city government of Manila bought 94,086,300 square meters (9,408.63 hectares) of land at Grace Park, Caloocan City at P0.70 per square meter. This was subdivided into 180 square meters per lot and sold to laborers at P1.50 per square meter, and the project was christened ‘Barrio Obrero.’
Apprised of the idea, American governor-general Leonard Wood, in 1926, ordered an extensive survey of the slums of Tondo and San Nicolas districts, but no result came out of it. Seven years later, governor-general Frank Murphy organized a housing committee to conduct experimental work in Tondo slums that resulted in the construction of thirty-one (31) model houses.
Encouraged by the initial results, Congress, the following year, allotted P250,000 for the erection of low-cost housing for laborers. For its part, the city government of Manila under mayor Juan Posadas built twelve (12) model houses on land between Yangco and Velasquez Streets, in Tondo, Manila; it was named ‘Model House Site’ and the houses were sold to laborers.
Later on, the concept was adopted by the municipal board of Manila by acquiring a loan from the Postal Savings bank to buy a 17-hectare land worth P387,685, divided into twenty-six (26) blocks of 513 lots at 108 square meters each but sold only to bona fide residents of Manila earning wages that did not exceed P60 monthly or a daily wage of P2.40.
Serafin E. Macaraig, in “Social Problems” (1929), wrote that eleven (11) of the lots were set aside “for such needs as a school site, public midden-sheds, parks and playgrounds, markets, theatre, public-baths, and other public conveniences.”
When the Commonwealth was constituted, Rep. Gregorio Perfecto, a native of Mandurriao, Iloilo, who represented the first district of Manila (1935-41), filed a bill for the establishment of ‘barrio obreros’ in and near industrial villages throughout the islands. A P10 million appropriation was proposed to finance the enterprise, but the bill did not prosper.
Nevertheless, in 1938, the government organized the People’s Homesite Corp. with the National Development Co. as the sole subscriber with a total capital of P2 million. Initially, it purchased 1,572.3 hectares from the Tuason family at Diliman, Quezon City. Before its operations were suspended due to war, it was able to sell 1,500 lots and 435 homes to low-income families.
After the war, President Manuel A. Roxas issued Exec. Order No. 93 in 1947 merged the 1938 state-owned corporation with the National Housing Commission, created in 1941 under Commonwealth Act No. 648, but organized only in September 1945 under President Sergio Osmeña.
Central to the merger, which took effect in October 1947, were four objectives, namely: (i) establishment of low-cost housing for low-income families; (ii) establishment of housing for the destitute; (iii) slum clearance; and (iv) purchase, subdivision, and resale of landed estates.
The rise of workman’s villages would be replicated in many growth centers throughout the archipelago, including Davao City; it would also become the inspiration for future large-scale low-cost housing projects. During the first Marcos regime, the government initiated a counterpart undertaking known as Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS).
