Metro Manila

Metro Manila (Filipino: Kalakhang Maynila), also simply called Manila outside the metropolis, is the metropolitan area that contains the City of Manila, the regional center and the capital of the Philippines, as well as sixteen other political entities. The metropolis is officially consist the National Capital Region (NCR; Filipino: Pambansang Punong Rehiyon) and is composed of Manila plus 16 neighboring cities and municipalities, including Quezon City, the capital from 1948-1976. Metro Manila is the political, economic, social, and cultural center of the country, and it is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Metro Manila is often abbreviated as M.M.. The region is also sometimes called the Greater Manila Area, but this term usually also includes adjacent towns not strictly a part of Metro Manila.

Orientation

Metro Manila is the smallest of the country's regions, but the most populous and the most densely populated, having a population of 9,932,560 (2000 census) in an area only 636 square kilometers large. It is also the only region without any provinces. The region is bordered by the provinces of Bulacan to the north, Rizal to the east, and Cavite and Laguna to the south. Metro Manila is also sandwiched by the Manila Bay to the west and the Laguna de Bay to the southeast with the Pasig River running between them, bisecting the region.

Unlike other regions which are divided into provinces, Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) is divided into four nonfunctioning districts, which are grouped according to geographical basis in refernce to the Pasig River. These districts were created in 1976 but have no local government and no congressional representation, in contrast to that of the provinces. These districts are used mostly for fiscal and statistical purposes.

The cities and municipalities within the NCR are grouped into the four districts as follows:

First District (City of Manila)

City of Manila

Second District (Northeastern Metro Manila)

Third District (Northwestern Metro Manila)

Fourth District (Southern Metro Manila)

The term Metro Manila should not be confused with the metro rail system of the region, and the word metro itself always describes the metropolitan area (as in the metro). The railways are called by their abbreviations, such as the LRT and the MRT, also known as Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit, respectively.

In paper, Manila is the designated capital and seat of the Philippine government, but in practice, the seats of government are all around Metro Manila. The executive and administrative seat of government is located in Manila, so is the judiciary. The upper house of the legislature (Senate of the Philippines) is located in Pasay City, and the lower house (Congress of the Philippines) in Quezon City.

Political Divisions

Map of Metro Manila showing the cities and municipalities.

Metro Manila is composed of fourteen cities and three municipalities. Each is governed by a Mayor who all belong to the Metro Manila Mayor's League, which in tu9rn, is part of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

City	Population¹	Area (km²)	Population Density (per km²)
Quezon City	2,173,831	161.12	13,492
Manila	1,581,082	38.55	41,014
Caloocan City	1,177,604	53.33	22,081
Las Piñas City	528,011	41.54	12,710
Pasig City	505,058	31.00	16,292
Valenzuela City	485,433	44.58	10,889
Taguig City	467,375	47.88	9,761
Parañaque City	449,811	47.69	9,432
Makati City	444,867	27.36	16,260
Marikina City	391,170	33.97	11,515
Muntinlupa City	379,310	46.70	8,122
Pasay City	354,908	19.00	18,679
Malabon City	338,855	15.76	21,501
Mandaluyong City	278,474	11.26	24,731

Municipality	Population¹	Area (km²)	Pop. Density (per km²)
Navotas	230,403	10.77	21,393
San Juan	117,680	5.94	19,811
Pateros	57,407	2.10	27,337

¹ 2000 Census

Interesting Spots

Being the political, economic, and cultural center of the Philippines, Metro Manila is the location of many interesting places and areas. In the city of Manila, one can visit the Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the Philippine President, and Intramuros, which was the seat of the Spanish colonial government in the country. Rizal Park and Quirino Grandstand is the popular meetingplace of various religious groups, such as El Shaddai, as well as other American-based Protestant movements, such as Benny Hinn International and Franklin Graham International.

Makati City is acknowledged as the financial capital of the country where one can find the Makati Central Business District (CBD). Interesting landmarks in Makati's Central Business District include Ayala Center, composed of Glorietta and Greenbelt, Ayala Museum, Yuchengco Museum. Rockwell Center, located at the outskirts of the CBD, is one of the most fashionable places of Makati-and the rendezvous of the Manilan elite.

Quezon City is host to various interesting spots, such as Ortigas Center, located at the boundary where Mandaluyong City, Pasig City, and Quezon City, home to the Asia's largest shopping centers. Also in Quezon City is the Eastwood City, duvbbed the Silicon Valley of the Philippines. Just north of Eastwood City, is another famous place, the University of the Philippines, which, having approximately 150 hectares, stands as the largest university campus in the world. Further north is the La Mesa Dam, located in the Novaliches Reservoir. It is the largest rainforest in Metro Manila. Araneta Coliseum, the largest indoor facility in Southeast Asia (dome diameter: 108 meters), is also located in Quezon City. The "Big Dome" hosts sporting and entertainment events in the country.

File:AYALACENTER.jpg

Ayala Center

The night life in Metro Manila is very vibrant and bohemian. The districts of Malate and Ermita in Manila are popular tourist spots, while some prefer to go to Timog Avenue and Eastwood and Acropolis in Quezon City, or the Ayala Center and Rockwell Center in Makati City.

In Pasay City, one can go and taste Philippine cultural arts at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Complex. The complex houses the massive main building of CCP, Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Tanghalang Francisco Balagtas (Folk Arts Theater), the Manila Film Center, and the Coconut Palace. Manila also hosts the National Museum of the Filipino People, National Library of the Philippines, and Rizal Park (also called Luneta).

File:Ww-P-M-Makati.jpg

Makati City Skyline

In Paranaque City, the Diosdado Macapagal Avenue (DMA) is established as one of the premier destinations of both the young and the old. Along DMA are upclass establishments, such as Blue Wave, Bay Gardens, Le Pavillon, and PriceSmart. Located at the end of the DMA is the Manila Marina Village, the only upclass seaside village in the Philippines.

For other places, go to the articles of the individual cities and municipalities of Metro Manila.

Transportation

Roadways

For a very comprehensive information on the roadways of the metropolis, see also: Major Roads in Metro Manila

The metropolis has an extensive system of highways connecting the various cities and municipalities. The major roads include ten radial roads, which branch out from central Manila and five circumferential roads which form concentric arcs around downtown Manila. Most of these roads are very important transportation arteries. One is the C-4 (Circumferential Road 4), also called Epifanio de los Santos Avenue or more popularly as EDSA. It is the major thoroughfare in Metro Manila as it connects five cities in Metro Manila, namely Pasay, Makati, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, and Caloocan. Some other important roads are R-1 (Radial Road 1) or the Manila-Cavite Expressway (Coastal Road); R-3 or the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX); R-7, which consists of España Boulevard, Quezon Avenue, and Commonwealth Avenue; and R-8 or the ultra-modern North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). One of its newest roads, the Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, parallel to the President Manuel Roxas Boulevard, is one of the destinations of Manila's elite.

Metro Manila is notorious for its traffic jams. A trip that should take 20 minutes will last an hour or more especially during rush hours. Consequently, the Metro Manila Development Authority (see also section below) has constructed many projects to decongest traffic.

Such projects of the MMDA for motorists are the construction of flyovers (elevated roads), interchanges, loading bays for Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs), emergency bays, and U-Turn slots over various intersections and thoroughfares, and the completion of the comprehensive railway system (see below). It has also been engaged in road widening with the support of the Department of Public Works and Highways. MMDA has also utilized projects for the pedestrians such as the installation of footbridges, waiting sheds, and men's urinals to various roads in the metropolis. The agency has also implemented various schemes for motorists such as the Uniform Vehicular Volume Reduction Scheme (UVRRS), more popularly known as "color coding", where vehicles whose plate numbers end in different digits are banned from traveling on different days, the Yellow Lane scheme, where yellow-plated PUBs (Public Utility Buses) will only use the two outermost lanes in EDSA, and the Organized Bus Route (OBR) for Metro Manila.

Railways

As of 2005 there are 3 commuter train systems in Metro Manila. For information on the Manila LRT and MRT systems, see the Manila Light Rail Transit System and Manila Metro Rail Transit System articles.

File:MRT3 Shaw2.jpg

Metro Manila MRT

There is also a motor railway currently used by indigent Metro Manila residents. This railway is part of the Luzon railway system. Its main terminal is located in Tondo, Manila. See Philippine National Railways.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport

The country's main airport is the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) which straddles the boundary between Parañaque City and Pasay City. It presently consists of two terminals, while a third one will open in June 2005. There is also a separate domestic terminal. There are two main runways and the hangar of Philippine Airlines is located near the Villamor Air Base.

Terminals

The first terminal, NAIA-1, is the original terminal and was constructed in 1981. The 67,000 square meter terminal was designed by Filipino architect Leandro V. Locsin and has a design capacity of 4.5 million passengers per year. It currently serves all non-Philippine Airlines international flights. The terminal has reached capacity in 1991 and has been over capacity ever since.

The second terminal, NAIA-2, was finished in 1998 and is named the Centennial Terminal since 1998 was the centennial year of the declaration of Philippine independence. The 75,000 square meter terminal was originally designed by Aéroports de Paris to be a domestic terminal, but the design was later modified to accommodate international flights. It has a capacity of 2.5 million passengers per year in its international wing and 5 million in its domestic wing, which later will expand to nine million passengers yearly. Terminal 2 is the home of Philippine Airlines and is used for both its domestic and international flights since it has the most number of flights out of the NAIA terminals.

The third, much larger terminal, NAIA-3, was approved for construction in 1997 and is nearly complete. The modern US$500 million, 189,000 square meter facility was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) to have a capacity of 13 million passengers per year. However, a legal dispute between the government of the Philippines and the project's main contractor, PIATCO, over alleged anomalies in the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract, is holding completion and opening of the terminal. On December 2004, the Philippine Government took over the management of the facility through an order of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC). NAIA-3 is set to open its gates to the world on June 22, 2005.

The Domestic Terminal on the old Airport Road was built in 1948 and handles all domestic air traffic, excluding Philippine Airlines. Currently, the terminal is composed of two single-story buildings and serves the domestic flights of other local carriers, which are Cebu Pacific, Air Philippines, Asian Spirit, Southeast Asian Airlines (Seair), and Laoag International Airlines.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is the administrative body in charge of the metropolis' development, and solving perennial problems such as traffic management, flood control, garbage disposal and sewage maintenace. It closely coordinates with various other organizations such as the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), as well as the local government units of the component cities and municipalities. Its agency's head is appointed by the president, which is now presided by Chairman Bayani Fernando.

History

Manila was first founded in June 24, 1571 by three Spanish conquistadors, led by Martín de Goiti, Juan de Salcedo and Miguel López de Legazpi. In 1867, the Spanish Government of the Philippines founded the municipalities and territories south of the District of Morong in Nueva Ecija, and north of the Province of Tondo and Imperial Manila isolated from their mother province-Nueva Ecija. The Government by its virtue created the Province of Manila which is comprised by the Province of Tondo to the south and the isolated territories of Nueva Ecija to the north. The parts of Tondo- Navotas, Malabon and Caloocan; and the parts of Nueva Ecija- Mariquina, Balintawak, Caloocan, Pasig, San Felipe Neri (presently called Makati), Las Piñas, and what had been known as Paranaque, and Muntinlupa were combined to form the Province of Manila. The capital of the Province was Mariquina. In 1897, while the Imperial City of Manila is being prepared for industrialization, most houses in Tondo were demolished to give way to railroad construction. One of those whose house was demolished was Andres Bonifacio. After this incident and the death of the three martyr priest, the KKK was secretly established in Balintawak (now parts of Caloocan and Quezon City), and in 1898, the Cry of Balitawak was initiated. The Province of Manila was the 8th and last Province in the Pacific to revolt against Spain paving the establishment of the Federated Philippine Republics (composed of Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bulacan, the District of Morong in Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Batangas, Cavite and Manila). The Province remained in existence until 1901, when its territory was subdivided.

In 1901, the Philippine Assembly created the City of Manila composed of the Municipalities of Ermita, Intramuros or Imperial City of Manila, Tondo, Sta. Cruz, Sta. Ana, San Nicolas, San Miguel, Paco, Port Area, Pandacan, Sampaloc and others. Some Assemblymen created Rizal and the municipalities of Caloocan, Marikina, Pasig, Pateros, Malabon, Navotas, San Juan, Makati (San Felipe Neri), Las Pinas, Muntinglupa and Taguig-Pateros were incorporated in Rizal.

In 1976, owing a great respect to the History of Manila, President Ferdinand Marcos created the Metro Manila Area, because the site of the old province can no longer be used for agricultural purposes and therefore Province by term will not suffice.

In 1992, the Metro Manila became the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, however there are attempts in Congress to replace it to its original name as province.

External links

ClickTheCity.com: Metro Manila's Entertainment Guide and Directory.
MMDA.gov.ph: Metropolitan Manila Development Authority