Metropolitan Arrangements - Philippine Institute for Development ...

Case Study: Metro Manila 261
Table 4. Poverty Incidence of Families, by Region and Urbanity, 1985-1997
Reduction
Region 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997" 1985-1994 1985-1997
Philippines 44.2 40.2 39.9 35.5 32.1 8.7 12.1
NCR 23.0 21.6 13.2 8.0 7.1 15.0 15.9
Areas Outside NCR 47.5 43.1 44.2 39.9 36.2 7.6 11.3
* Preliminary results of the 1997 Family Income and Expenditure Survey_
Source: Economic and Social Stadstics Office, NSCB.
subdivision has been largely based on the circumferential road
boundaries (Figure 1). The inner core is composed of the cities of
Manila, Pasay, Caloocan, Quezon, Makati and Mandaluyong and the
municipalities of San Juan, Navotas and Malabon. The intermediate
core consists of the cities of Pasig, Parafiaque, Muntinlupa, Marikina,
! :_ Pifias and the municipalities of Valenzuela, Taguig and Pateros.
In the immediate post-war period, urban development radiated
from the city of Manila, which has been the administrative, economic,
educational and social center since the colonial period, and situated
northwards to Caloocan City and southwards to Pasay City. Meanwhile,
the development of government housing projects in Quezon City and
the private sector development of Makati as a financial, commercial
and residential center in the late 1950s and the 1960s completed the
filling up of the inner core between Manila Bay and EDSA (or C-4).
Industrial and residential development intensified in Navotas,
Malabon and Valenzuela in the late 1960s and in Marikina, Pasig,
Parafiaque, Las Pifias, and Mundnlupa in the 1960s and 1970s (League
1993). By 1975, the distinction between inner and outer core has
been obliterated as infrastructure and economic finks have virtually
made all these local units a unified core and have spatially merged
them into a metropolitan area that was then loosely referred to as
Greater Manila Area.
Related to this, the Physical Framework Development Plan for
Metro Manila (MMDA 1996a) identified an outer core consisting of
municipalities beyond the originally identified intermediate core and
located in the neighboring regions particularly in the provinces of
Rizal, Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan. These areas are outside the legal