Today's Exactly100: Breaking Boundaries: Or Why Can't Metro Manila Have a Single Governing Body?

The cities in Metro Manila have virtually fused. A drizzle in one area, and all vehicles on the road network serving all seventeen cities obediently stop, and smog from Tunasan, Muntinlupa finds its way to Kaybiga, Caloocan.

Why keep separate cities -- and separate city governments -- when a unified Metro Manila authority makes more sense?

I posed this to Jojo Binay, who was exemplary as city mayor and as vice president of the country.

In his trademark whisper, he said, "true, but imagine the resistance. The head of a Metro Manila would be the second most powerful official of the land". /Vincent R. Pozon