1 9. Manila Brian H Roberts 1 Introduction Metro Manila i With a land area of 636 km 2 , Metro manila is the second largest urban area, by population, in Asia, after Jakarta (WWF 2009). But the metro area is much larger than the seventeen local governments that make up the national capital region (NCR). The Metro Manila, in reality, also includes adjoining urbanised areas in the surrounding provinces of Bulacan (north), Rizal (east) and Cavite and Laguna (south). The population of this Greater Manila area is close to 18 million, making it the 7 th largest mega city in Asia (Laquian 2005). is a large polycentric mega-city with a population of more than 12 million people growing at around 1.5 % per annum. By 2020, the metropolitan area population is expected to reach 13.4 million (City Mayors 2009). It is located in the southwest of the island of Luzon on an isthmus bounded by Manila Bay to the west, a large shallow lake — Laguna de Bay — to the southeast and the Sierra Madre Range of hills and volcanos to the east and north east. It is divided by the Pasig River. Most of the city lies on a wide flood plain, which is one of the largest in the country. Metro Manila is a fascinating city of diverse cultures, traditions and religions, as well as the national centre of government, commerce, education and transportation in the Philippines. Like other large Asian cities, it faces many development problems associated with congestion, pollution, infrastructure shortages, weak governance and poverty. It is a vulnerable city that has been assailed numerous times by severe tropical storms, floods, earthquakes and fires, as well as beset by invasion, and economic, social and political crises. It is also a city that is becoming increasingly exposed to the impacts and effects of globalisation, terrorism, economic shocks and climate change. Despite Metro Manila’s vulnerability, it is still a dynamic, vibrant and resilient city. It has generally recovered relatively quickly from past crises and destructive events. However, more often than not, it has been local communities and businesses which have led the recovery efforts, because of the slow response of the national and metropolitan governments. Although the experience of recovery in most cases has been slow, resilience strategies have been learned by government, business and the community as a result of the management of previous crises. In this chapter the author examines the dimensions of risk and resilience related to crises or disaster management and recovery in Metro Manila. Risk events and shocks which impact on cities can take many forms: e.g. natural disasters; wars; accidents; political, economic, social, governance, legal and environmental incidents; as well as technology failure (Roberts and Tabart 2005). The pathway to recovery from these events can be driven by individuals, communities, business, and government ─ or combinations of these. Few studies have been conducted which examine the dimensions of risk or resilience at a city or regional level in the Philippines (Quisumbing, McNiven et al. 2008). What research has been