Look to (mega)cities

We confront the problems of 21st century society with institutions designed 400 years ago. But today’s challenges won’t be solved using the archaic three-department, separate but together framework of central governments. The late political theorist Benjamin Barber suggested a change in narrative. Look to cities.

More than 50 percent of the global population live in cities. The urban dream continues to endure. By 2050, with the population expected to hit 9.8 billion, this figure is projected to rise to nearly 70 percent or 6.7 billion.

Cities worldwide are nations’ growth engines. Here at home, majority of MSMEs are found in Metro Manila, our main metropolitan agglomeration. In 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that NCR continued to account for the largest share of GDP at 32.3 percent. The neighboring regions of CALABARZON and Central Luzon contributed the second and third largest shares with 14.3 percent and 10.4 percent. Combined, this entire metropolitan center totaled 57 percent of Philippine GDP (down from pre-pandemic levels).

To brave new worlds. The evolving phenomenon of agglomeration, with cities cooperating and integrating rather than competing, has become de rigeur. Several of the oldest ones worldwide have synergized with surrounding areas to form mega-cities.

Given spatial advantages and scale economies, it comes as no surprise that the Senate and the House are now institutionalizing another celebrated agglomeration in Mindanao. The President will sign into law the bill creating the Metropolitan Davao Development Authority (MDDA). Metro Davao has been a reality for the past 27 years, the brainchild of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Sen. Francis Tolentino shepherded the legislation to a 23-0 vote in the Senate. He explains his support: “Critical decisions such as vaccine distribution, curfew implementation and community quarantine measures are made not by each local government unit but in unison through metropolitan councils or regions. The COVID-19 pandemic has x x x encouraged economic cooperation and interlinked health strategies among neighboring local government units. Moreover, the uniform decision-making made by metropolitan councils makes more sense given the geographical contiguity of local government units x x x to promote a sustained and all-inclusive decentralization in the region.”

Deconstructing chaos. Urbanization and the economic progress it brings comes with attendant political, environmental and social challenges. Urban mobility, infrastructure, sanitation, traffic, pollution, safety and security, disaster response are just a few of the constraints to a better life. It has become even more complicated because of global warming, exposing the vulnerability of our informal populations.

The ad hoc style of confronting problems so much a part of the formation of our oldest cities simply won’t work anymore. Manila, like Mesopotamia from the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates, developed along the mighty Pasig. Its hundred flowers bloomed in the various satellite towns and cities that sprouted up, expanding into a mega-city. But meticulous purpose and not serendipitous accident should guide our reform efforts henceforth.

Newer v. Bigger. First and foremost, development should be systematic and pursuant to carefully crafted short- and long-term plans. One way about it is to create a new metropolis. Indonesia is the latest to design a capital city with a tabula rasa approach. Announcing that the country’s capital has been transferred from historic Jakarta to the new Nusantara in the wilds of East Borneo, our neighbor has provided us with a peg and a dare. Yangon in Myanmar was “unseated” by Nay Pyi Daw in 2005. We actually led with our own early experiment as President Manuel L. Quezon, as early as pre-WW II, laid plans for the transfer of the capital out of Manila. The country followed through by establishing the jigsaw Quezon City as its seat in 1948.

Another way is to simply get bigger and rule better. It’s against this backdrop that we consider the new power interfaces like the MDDA. Planning, coordination and financing are the areas where metropolitan regions find common cause. The MDDA bill is actually derived from RA 7924, the law creating the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

Institutional arrangements are essential to coordinate metropolitan development as they enable service delivery and sharing of the cost burden. But coordination alone, as we’ve seen in Metro Manila, is not enough.

No man is an island? MMDA had issues not just with its component, disobliging cities (e.g. notoriously refusing to contribute to the MMDA kitty or defying uniformity in traffic regulations) but also with the national government. Metro and national governments should identify collaborative common ground in the decision making process. This is especially critical in large infrastructure plans that straddle jurisdictions – like the large technical systems (LTS) of energy, transport and water. In the exercise of regulatory process by cities over these LTS that are also common pool resources as, for example, when the City of Manila Road Network is the only arterial access to the Port of Manila or in the case of the NLEX Toll Plaza situated within Valenzuela City, these “borderless” problems necessitate input and insights from next higher authorities in nested jurisdictions or from the central government.

Complex issues like these and many others are highly integrated, their resolution dependent upon the governance initiatives of area-wide networks.

Theory v. Practice. MMDA’s experience is a cautionary tale. The autonomy of local governments and the power of local mayors dampen incentives for effective coordination and service delivery. MMDA has thrived more in the former than in the latter.

Also, metro-wide services largely remain with national government agencies, as does the budget for these services. The MMDA also lacks fiscal independence and is rather dependent on the national government for the bulk of its budget. As a consequence, efficiency is severely impacted.

Clearly, coordination alone is not enough. The proper allocation of powers and financing is fundamental to make the metropolitan body successful in the services it was envisioned to deliver.

Only time will tell whether the MDDA will suffer the same extended birth pains as the MMDA. Surely, however, the formalization by law of a once voluntary aggrupation should help the region navigate governance issues and animate their developmental efforts.