METRO MANILA:GLOBAL CITY? PDF

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Metro Manila being considered a global city was still somehow far from being one. Although it may have met some of the criteria needed, the region still has a long way to go where it must improve on the general state and welfare of the people, of the environment, and of the economy’s state. Until th...

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Alezandra Joyce C. Sudiacal

BSN-1-D Metro Manila: A Global City?

The National Capital Region or Metro Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is undeniable that this region flourishes when it comes to different opportunities and other economic activities. Hence, the question arises whether or not to call it a Global City or perhaps a Global Region? Global City as defined by Charnock, G. in britannica.com as an urban centre that enjoys significant competitive advantages and that serves as a hub within a globalized economic system. However, in this phrase lies a deeper understanding of what a Globalized city is, and if Metro Manila is considere one. One of the issues in Metro Manila was the traffic, and its tremendous effect to our economy. According to a research conducted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) PH loses P3.5B a day due to Metro Manila traffic. Subsequently, losing this amount of money for a single day would mean so much in the coming years if no remedy or actions were taken to address the matter. Moreover, another major thing in considering along with the classification of a city/region in becoming a Global City was its environment, does it have a clean water-ways? Does it support sustainability? However, the plastic waste and other residual pollutants seems to be the long problem over the Metro. As we can see evidently even for once as we have seen there really is trash even at roadsides, not even witnessing how clogged the rivers were. In line with this, Detox Campaigner of Greenpeace Philippines Abigail Aguilar mentioned that “Manila is on the brink of crisis. If we continue dumping and trashing our waterways, and if big companies continue business-as-usual by producing single-use plastic, then it won’t be long before our oceans are no longer able to sustain life.” Another issue would be the extrajudicial killings in the war against drugs. According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2020 its estimate deaths were even as high as 27,000, and of these numbers 5,526 suspects were killed whom were identified as gunmen that the police did not put probe on. On the other hand, the per capita income of NCR residents shows a P67, 290 per capita income which is a good number compared to its per capita expenditure of P53,563 according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. However, these statistics are not enough to conclude that Metro Manila in general has a good and well lived way of lifestyle for the people as it is still one of the country’s main problems to tackle, poverty. To sum up, Metro Manila being considered a global city was still somehow far from being one. Although it may have met some of the criteria needed, the region still has a long way to go where it must improve on the general state and welfare of the people, of the environment, and of the economy’s state. Until then we can re-consider the debate whether or not to consider Metro Manila as a Global City.

References: https://cnnphilippines.com/transportation/2018/02/23/JICA-P3.5-billion-traffic.html https://www.greenpeace.org/philippines/press/1149/greenpeace-prrc-track-plastic-pollution-in-pasig-river-kicks-off-clean-up-projectalong-manila-bay/ https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/philippines# https://psa.gov.ph/content/average-family-income-and-average-family-expenditures-results-2000-family-income-and#:~:text=Among %20regions%2C%20NCR%20had%20the,capita%20expenditure%20of%20P12%2C230. https://www.britannica.com/topic/global-city...