What was it like as a UP college student in the 1950s? (Part One)

Recalling memories of Diliman's past

- WALA LANG DR. JAIME C. LAYA

The University of the Philippines (UP) had been in the large Ermita block bounded by Taft Avenue, Padre Faura, Florida, and Isaac Peral. With the Commonwealth government's plan to move the capital to Quezon City, land had been acquired in Diliman for the university. Building construction had begun, and by the outbreak of World War II, the law and education buildings were complete.

Together with the rest of South Manila, the university was badly damaged in the Battle of Manila, and the decision was made in 1949 to move to Diliman. The new location was unknown territory for most. There were homes in Kamuning, San Francisco del Monte, and Cubao, but much of the rest was cogon land.

In 1945, the US Military had actually taken over some parts of Quezon City, including Heroes' Hills and JUSMAG near Timog and West Avenues and the UP campus. Diliman had become practically a small town for US Military personnel, with barracks and an armory, single story cottages of wood and sawali raised above ground on stilts, a chapel, a hospital, shops, a bowling alley, two large adjoining structures that were the theater and the gym, a social hall named Gregory Terrace, and a golf course at the campus center. Several small buildings were at about today's intersection of Commonwealth and University Avenues, probably the camp's entrance checkpoint.