ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the rise of new mega-regions that restructure the nation's multiple geographies by entangling populations, capital and landscapes. It identifies emergent mega-regions in the Philippines and account for the various social, political and economic forces that enabled their rise. These geographies have entailed the displacement of marginalized populations, land-grabbing and environmental degradation. In a globalized world of complex urban patterns, mega-regions are considered as new scales of geography that serve as major engines of global economic growth. Since the American colonial period, when masterplanning of cities was introduced through Daniel Burnham's projects in Manila and Baguio, masterplanning has shifted scales with shifting administrative regimes and their respective developmental agendas. In the contemporary spatial scaffolding of urban development in the Philippines, special economic zones are the critical nodes of accumulation. Mega-regionalization has become the mode of urban transformation in the country, as regional centers coalesce and interconnect with surrounding cities, towns, villages and hinterland zones.
