Abstract—National Steel Corporation popularly abbreviated
as NSC was once the pride of the Philippines for its dream of
fully industrializing the country and making it a tiger economy.
Organized in 1974, NSC bestowed economic prosperity to
Iligan City. NSC’s prosperity was the brainchild of the
establishment of Steeltown Subdivision in 1987, an exclusive
village for NSC employees. With NSC in operation, the village
gained prominence in Iligan City. NSC employees manifested
distinction from the rest of working class in Iligan City and
village created uproar in Iligan City. But in 1995, the sun
finally set on NSC, after its privatization, it was start of the
troubled years of the company, accompanied with financial
problems, mismanagement, and Asian financial crisis, etc.,
NSC ceased operation in 1999. The closure came as a surprise
and brought distress to employees and to Steeltown subdivision.
The company’s demise was the beginning of social and
economic decay of the village. This paper narrates the
dramatic transformation of Steeltown Subdivision from being
an exclusive to common village. It aims to share moral values
and lessons that can be glimpsed out of people’s experience
involved in the study.
Index Terms—Collapse, industrialization, national steel
corporation, steeltown subdivision.
The authors are with the History Department, Mindanao State
University- Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, Philippines (e-mail:
xandelynracelreyes@y7mail.com).
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Cite:Xandelyn Racel B. Reyes, Celyn J. Teatro, Annalou C. Dimantaga, and Froumilyn L. Ochea, "From Exclusive to Common Village: Steeltown, before
and after the Collapse of National Steel Corporation,
Iligan City, Philippines," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 54-59, 2014.