At the risk of oversimplifying very complicated issues and inaccurately estimating the scale of the problems, the time seems to be ripe to put forward a few tentative principles for the future planning and development of the Manila Bay Metropolitan region. The ideas behind these principles are the results of several years of living, working and travelling in the Manila area, of thinking, talking and listening to opinions about the situation and the future, and of reading the many reports and research studies prepared over the years. The synthesis of all these is expressed very briefly in the following few pages and in the diagrammatic map.