Urbanization and Spatial Development in the Philippines : A Survey

This paper surveys urbanization and spatial development in the Philippines by reviewing studies dealing one way to another with the subject. The objective is to put spatial and urban issues in perspective so that an understanding of them may cumulate through research. Research on these issues has been generally fragmentary, lacking overall consistency and coherence. There is a need to view urbanization and spatial development within a unified framework. These two aspects of development are closely intertwined in that they both depend on the nature and pattern of industrialization as well as on the structure and pace of agricultural development. In addition, they are determined in no small measure by macroeconomic policies that exert explicit spatial biases, probably even more so than by regional and rural policies explicitly designed to foster dispersed regional development. Therefore, to be more useful, research and, by implication, policy should adopt a framework that takes into account these important dimensions.