The National Capital Region, or called as Metro Manila, is the most populous of the twelve defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines and the 11th most populous in the world. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 11,855,975, comprising 13% of the national population.
The region is the political, economic, social, cultural, and educational center of the Philippines. As proclaimed by Presidential Decree No. 940, Metro Manila as a whole is the Philippines’ seat of government while the City of Manila is the capital.
Shaped by foreign powers, Manila became the capital of the Philippines in 1571 under the Spanish rule. Mariquina also served as the capital from 1898–1899, under the colonization of United States. In 1901, the recreation of Manila at the time of the Philippine Commonwealth was commissioned to create the grand Plan of Manila, composed of the places and parishes of Binondo, Ermita, Intramuros, Malate, Manila, Pandacan, Quiapo, Sampaloc, San Andrés Bukid, San Fernando de Dilao, San Miguel, San Nicolas, Santa Ana de Sapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Mesa and Tondo.
President Quezon established Quezon City in 1939 to be the capital city of the country from 1948-1976. It was returned back to Manila through Presidential Decree No. 940, stating that Manila has always been to the Filipino people and in the eyes of the world, the premier city of the Philippines.
The City of Greater Manila was abolished by the Japanese with the formation of the Philippine Executive Commission to govern the occupied regions of the country. The City of Greater Manila served as a model for the present-day Metro Manila and the administrative functions of the Governor of Metro Manila that was established during the Marcos administration.
On November 7, 1975, Metro Manila was formally established through Presidential Decree No. 824, under the management of the Metropolitan Manila Commission. On June 2, 1978, through Presidential Decree No. 1396, the metropolitan area was declared the National Capital Region of the Philippines, with the President’s wife Imelda Marcos as the first governor.
In 1995, President Corazon Aquino reorganized the structure of the Metropolitan Manila Commission and renamed it to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, with its chairperson appointed by the President.