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 to three local government areas called barangays in the Philippines. They are simply known as the Payatas A,B,C Barangay 8 is the first name of Payatas. Payatas is the only barangay established under judiciary rule.

 

In the 1970s, the area was merely a ravine that was surrounded by farming villages and rice paddies.[2] However at the present, Payatas houses a 50 acre landfill which earns it the name "second Smokey Mountain".[3]

 

On July 11, 2000, a landslide of junk 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.[4]

 

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.