The Mismanagement of Metro Manila’s urban plans: How do politics influence and affect Metro

Manila’s urban plans?

INTRODUCTION

As the Philippines has been miseducated by its colonizers (Spanish, American, and
Japanese), it has also been “misurban planned”. Renato Constantino pointed out in his essay “The
Miseducation of the Filipino” that Filipinos have received an education conforming to American
standards and focusing on the assimilation with the United States of America, instead of an
education answering to the needs of Filipinos and directed towards the making of Filipino; and
such has been the case with Metro Manila’s urban planning. Metro Manila’s urban plans do not
fit the megacity, it appears like the urban plans it follows are not designed for it at all, causing it
to grow more and more congested and vulnerable to hazards each year. Furthermore, despite
many attempts and proposals to redesign Metro Manila, there seems to be no effective urban
development plan or strategy for the megacity (Navarro, 2014), making us wonder, what went
wrong? Well, the problem with Metro Manila’s urban planning can be attributed to those who
make and design urban plans. And in Metro Manila, it is the city government and Metropolitan
Manila Development Authority (MMDA) who are responsible for developmental plans for the
city (Casten & Addun, n.d.). Thus, politics has been a major factor in why Metro Manila has its
current urban plans and designs.

Migration has been a common trend in the Philippines over the past decade, with Filipinos
either moving to the nation’s capital or abroad with the hopes of finding better job or education
opportunities (Asis, 2017). The continuous rise in the number of people migrating has resulted in
the overpopulation and congestion of highly-urbanized cities, such as Metro Manila (Arranza,
2019). While more and more Filipinos keep on coming to Metro Manila, the availability of urban
spaces in the megacity is becoming limited and scarce. And with Metro Manila’s current situation,
it is safe to say that the urban spaces within the megacity are mismanaged and not regulated
properly. This causes the city to become more polluted, congested and overpopulated,
vulnerable towards natural and man-made hazards, and less livable. Furthermore, as the
country’s seat of government and the capital region, Metro Manila should be a model city in the
country and by that, it should be well urban-planned. The city governments’ solution that the
decongestion of Metro Manila through removing half of its population is wrong because as expert
urban planner, Felino Palafox pointed out: “even at the population density of Hong Kong, the
entire seven billion population of Earth would fit into the state of Texas”, So, having limited space
is not the problem because if the urban spaces in a city are well-planned it can face challenges
yet still be livable. Urban planning is important because it is the city’s blueprint, it directs how
the limited resources of the city should be used and maximized to benefit the people living in it
(Palma, 2017). Furthermore, having a city that is well-planned and well-designed can efficiently
provide comfort to its citizen by helping cities to grow, predicting risks and disasters, positively
impacting the economy, increasing livability and improving quality of life, and disciplining and
developing the nation (Planning Tank, 2019). Finally, in the case of Metro Manila, it is in desperate
need of a good urban plan because the majority of Filipinos live in the metro and if the megacity
continues to have a poor urban plan, the general welfare and safety of the people are also at risk.

This paper takes the position Metro Manila, because of politics, is a poorly urban planned
megacity wherein urban spaces have been mismanaged by its city governments. Also, this paper,
guided by the question “how do politics influence and affect Metro Manila’s urban plans?”,
discusses the reason why Metro Manila, despite having many good urban plans and designs,
settled with the poor urban plan it has today. In attempting to answer the question above and
discuss what went wrong with Metro Manila’s urban plan, this paper’s flow of discussion begins
by defining urban planning and its political aspect which has been the main factor in urban
planning throughout the city’s history. Then, it is followed by analyzing the problems with Metro
Manila’s current urban plan and comparing it to the past urban plans that the city had and had
planned. Afterward, it delves into the reason for the problem and the solutions made to address
it. The question above is answered in the ‘Urban Planning and Power’ section at the end part of
the paper.