[Ptah]

The multiple central business districts do sound nice, but they also make it complicated to coordinate metro-wide urban development plans, since each of these central business districts fall under different jurisdictions that often see themselves as direct competitors. Ortigas Center, for instance, is even more complicated as it falls under the jurisdictions of the 'cities' of Pasig, Mandaluyong, and Quezon. Personally, I would much rather have for Manila metropolitan area a single central business district.

Speaking of central business districts, there are actually a few more in Manila metropolitan area, but the three I mentioned in previous posts (MAKATI, ORTIGAS, BONIFACIO) are the major ones in terms of size and development. All three are located in what was once the City of Manila's surrounding grass-filled suburbs, away from the old Pre-WWII central business districts in Binondo District (Spanish colonial era) and Ermita-Malate Districts (American colonial era). Alas, WWII destroyed so much of the old city, and the rich and the businesses would eventually move to the suburbs to develop MAKATI, ORTIGAS, and BONIFACIO.

Manila metropolitan area today is like L.A. metropolitan area, where are there many cities and financial districts scattered around. In Manila, each of the 16 'cities' has its own rules and regulations, typically run by a corrupt, feudalistic mayor and his minions who take a blind eye in addressing chronic social problems, among which is the lack of affordable and proper housing for the urban poor. These corrupt government officials only see slums as 'vote farms' for election day.

The rampant corruption, which the current Philippine president is supposedly trying to finally address, is largely responsible for the western media's fixation to paint Manila metropolitan area as nothing but a city of slums, despite the fact there are many areas in Manila metropolitan area that are very much well developed, full of conveniences for cosmopolitan urban living.