Port Area, also known as the Manila Port District and South Port District, is a district of the city of

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It is entirely a reclaimed land occupied by Manila's South Harbor and

Baseco Compound Baseco, also known as the Baseco Compound or Barangay 649, Zone 68, is a barangay in Port Area, Manila, Port Area, Manila. It largely consists of Engineer's Island. History The land which covers Baseco today was once the location of a dockyard ...

(Engineer's Island). It is bounded on the north by the

Pasig River The Pasig River (; ) is a water body in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it bisects the Philippine capital of Manila and Metro Manila, its surrounding urban area into northern and southern halves. Its m ...

, facing the districts of Tondo and San Nicolas, on the west by

Manila Bay Manila Bay (; ) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the Manila, capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Philippines and ...

, on the east by

Intramuros Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila. Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...

, separated by Radial Road 1, and on the south by

Ermita Ermita is a district in central Manila, Philippines. It is a significant center of finance, education, culture, and commerce. Ermita serves as the civic center of Manila, bearing the seat of city government and a large portion of the area's e ...

. Post-war developments at the Manila South Harbor eventually paved the way for the migration of natives from the different provinces, making it one of the largest

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

s in the Philippines.

History

Port Area, historically known as Port District, was built on reclaimed land in the 1890s, toward the end of the Spanish rule, as an expansion of the Port of Manila. In 1914, administrative oversight of the district was transferred to the Insular Collector of Customs (now

Bureau of Customs The Bureau of Customs (BoC or BOC; ) is a Philippine government agency that is responsible for the collecting of customs, customs duties, excise duties, and other indirect taxes in the Philippines. It is part of the Department of Finance (Philip ...

). Subsequently, in 1949, revisions to the Manila city charter resulted in the formal and explicit inclusion of Port Area as part of the newly established 4th district. It was later transferred to the 5th district in 1987, following the restoration of the bicameral

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. In the late 1970s, the urban poor were resettled to

, originally a dockyard of the National Shipyard and Steel Corporation (NASSCO) that was acquired by the Romualdez family in 1966, to make space for a potential international seaport. Baseco was declared a barangay in the 1980s. Following the 1986

People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, were a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...

, the property was sequestered, leading to further resettlement and its proclamation as a residential site in 2002.

Barangays

The district of Port Area is made up of 5

barangays The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the precolonial polities of the same name, modern barangays are political subdivisio ...

, numbered 649 to 653. Barangay 649 contains the Engineer's Island, now informally known as the

. The Island is regarded as one of the biggest urban poor communities in the Philippines. All barangays of Port Area belong to Zone 68 of the City of Manila.

References

External links

* * {{Metro Manila populated places Districts of Manila