title: Tasmanian devil

text: The vast majority of deaths occurred in the sealed portion of the road, believed to be due to an increase in speeds. It was also conjectured that the animals were harder to see against the dark bitumen instead of the light gravel. The devil and quoll are especially vulnerable as they often try to retrieve roadkill for food and travel along the road. To alleviate the problem, traffic slowing measures, man-made pathways that offer alternative routes for devils, education campaigns, and the installation of light reflectors to indicate oncoming vehicles have been implemented. They are credited with decreases in roadkill. Devils have often been victims of roadkill when they are retrieving other roadkill. Work by scientist Menna Jones and a group of conservation volunteers to remove dead animals from the road resulted in a significant reduction in devil traffic deaths. It was estimated that 3,392 devils, or between 3.8 and 5.7% of the population, were being killed annually by vehicles in 2001–04. In 2009, the Save the Tasmanian Devil group launched the "Roadkill Project", which allowed members of the public to report sightings of devils which had been killed on the road. On 25 September 2015, 20 immunised devils were microchipped and released in Narawntapu National Park. By 5 October 4 had been hit by cars, prompting Samantha Fox, leader of Save the Tasmanian Devil, to describe roadkill as being the biggest threat to the Tasmanian devil after DFTD. A series of solar-powered alarms have been trialled that make noises and flash lights when cars are approaching, warning the animals. The trial ran for 18 months and the trial area had two-thirds less deaths than the control.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: First seen in 1996 in Mount William in northeastern Tasmania, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) has ravaged Tasmania's wild devils, and estimates of the impact range from 20% to as much as an 80% decline in the devil population, with over 65% of the state affected. The state's west coast area and far north-west are the only places where devils are tumour free. Individual devils die within months of infection. The disease is an example of transmissible cancer, which means that it is contagious and passed from one animal to another. This tumour is able to pass between hosts without inducing a response from the host's immune system. Dominant devils who engage in more biting behaviour are more exposed to the disease.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: Wild Tasmanian devil populations are being monitored to track the spread of the disease and to identify changes in disease prevalence. Field monitoring involves trapping devils within a defined area to check for the presence of the disease and determine the number of affected animals. The same area is visited repeatedly to characterise the spread of the disease over time. So far, it has been established that the short-term effects of the disease in an area can be severe. Long-term monitoring at replicated sites will be essential to assess whether these effects remain, or whether populations can recover. Field workers are also testing the effectiveness of disease suppression by trapping and removing diseased devils. It is hoped that the removal of diseased devils from wild populations should decrease disease prevalence and allow more devils to survive beyond their juvenile years and breed. In March 2017, scientists at the University of Tasmania presented an apparent first report of having successfully treated Tasmanian devils with the disease, by injecting live cancer cells into the infected devils to stimulate their immune system to recognise and fight the disease.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: At Lake Nitchie in western New South Wales in 1970, a male human skeleton wearing a necklace of 178 teeth from 49 different devils was found. The skeleton is estimated to be 7000 years old, and the necklace is believed to be much older than the skeleton. Archaeologist Josephine Flood believes the devil was hunted for its teeth and that this contributed to its extinction on mainland Australia. Owen and Pemberton note that few such necklaces have been found. Middens that contain devil bones are rare—two notable examples are Devil's Lair in the south-western part of Western Australia and Tower Hill in Victoria. In Tasmania, local Indigenous Australians and devils sheltered in the same caves. Tasmanian Aboriginal names for the devil recorded by Europeans include "tarrabah", "poirinnah", and "par-loo-mer-rer". Variations also exist, such as "Taraba" and "purinina".


title: Tasmanian devil

text: It is a common belief that devils will eat humans. While they are known to eat dead bodies, there are prevalent myths that they eat living humans who wander into the bush. Despite outdated beliefs and exaggerations regarding their disposition, many, although not all, devils will remain still when in the presence of a human; some will also shake nervously. They can bite and scratch out of fear when held by a human, but a firm grip will cause them to remain still. Although they can be tamed, they are asocial, and are not considered appropriate as pets; they have an unpleasant odour, and neither demonstrate nor respond to affection.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: Until recently, the devil was not studied much by academics and naturalists. At the start of the 20th century, Hobart zoo operator Mary Roberts, who was not a trained scientist, was credited for changing people's attitudes and encouraging scientific interest in native animals (such as the devil) that were seen as fearsome and abhorrent, and the human perception of the animal changed. Theodore Thomson Flynn was the first professor of biology in Tasmania, and carried out some research during the period around World War I. In the mid-1960s, Professor Guiler assembled a team of researchers and started a decade of systematic fieldwork on the devil. This is seen as the start of modern scientific study of it. However, the devil was still negatively depicted, including in tourism material. The first doctorate awarded for research into the devil came in 1991.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: Early attempts to breed Tasmanian devils in captivity had limited success. Mary Roberts bred a pair at Beaumaris Zoo (which she named Billy and Truganini) in 1913. However, although advised to remove Billy, Roberts found Truganini too distressed by his absence, and returned him. The first litter was presumed eaten by Billy, but a second litter in 1914 survived, after Billy was removed. Roberts wrote an article on keeping and breeding the devils for the London Zoological Society. Even by 1934, successful breeding of the devil was rare. In a study on the growth of young devils in captivity, some developmental stages were very different from those reported by Guiler. The pinnae were free on day 36, and eyes opened later, on days 115–121. In general, females tend to retain more stress after being taken into captivity than males.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: A plan to create "insurance populations" of disease-free devils has been ongoing since 2005. As of June 2012, the insurance population has reached a combined total of 500 animals and representing over 98% of the genetic diversity of this species. Most of these devils are living in Australian zoos and wildlife reserves. Beginning in November 2012 however, in an effort to create a population that is both wild and disease-free, Tasmanian devils have been relocated to Maria Island, a mountainous island off the east coast of Tasmania. The Maria Island population has grown from a starting population of twenty-eight to 90, and experts will soon begin transferring healthy devils back to the mainland population. A study on the survival rates of the Maria Island population found that in contrast to other carnivores raised in captivity, the Tasmanian devils were not adversely affected by being born in captivity when released on Maria Island.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: Tasmanian devils were displayed in various zoos around the world from the 1850s onwards. In the 1950s several animals were given to European zoos. In October 2005 the Tasmanian government sent four devils, two male and two female, to the Copenhagen Zoo, following the birth of the first son of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and his Tasmanian-born wife Mary. Due to restrictions on their export by the Australian government, at the time these were the only devils known to be living outside Australia. In June 2013, due to the successes of the insurance population program, it was planned to send devils to other zoos around the world in a pilot program. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Albuquerque Biopark were selected to participate in the program, and Wellington Zoo and Auckland Zoo soon followed. In the United States, four additional zoos have since been selected as part of the Australian government's Save the Tasmanian Devil program, the zoos selected were: the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Saint Louis Zoo, and the Toledo Zoo. Captive devils are usually forced to stay awake during the day to cater to visitors, rather than following their natural nocturnal style.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: There have been reports and suspicions of illegal trading in the past. In 1997, a devil turned up in Western Australia; it had not escaped from any licensed keeper. During the 1990s there were internet sites in the US that were advertising devil sales, and rumours that some US Navy personnel had tried to buy them illegally during a visit to Tasmania.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: The devil is an iconic animal within Australia, and particularly associated with Tasmania. The animal is used as the emblem of the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the former Tasmanian Australian rules football team which played in the Victorian Football League was known as the Devils. The Hobart Devils were once part of the National Basketball League. The devil has appeared on several commemorative coins in Australia over the years. Cascade Brewery in Tasmania sells a ginger beer with a Tasmanian devil on the label. In 2015, the Tasmanian devil was chosen as Tasmania's state emblem.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: Tasmanian devils are popular with tourists, and the director of the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park has described their possible extinction as "a really significant blow for Australian and Tasmanian tourism". There has also been a multimillion-dollar proposal to build a giant 19 m-high, 35 m-long devil in Launceston in northern Tasmania as a tourist attraction. Devils began to be used as ecotourism in the 1970s, when studies showed that the animals were often the only things known about Tasmania overseas, and suggested that they should therefore be the centrepiece of marketing efforts, resulting in some devils being taken on promotional tours.


title: Tasmanian devil

text: The Tasmanian devil is probably best known internationally as the inspiration for the "Looney Tunes" cartoon character the Tasmanian Devil, or "Taz" in 1954. Little known at the time, the loud hyperactive cartoon character has little in common with the real life animal. After a few shorts between 1957 and 1964, the character was retired until the 1990s, when he gained his own show, "Taz-Mania", and again became popular. In 1997, a newspaper report noted that Warner Bros. had "trademarked the character and registered the name Tasmanian Devil", and that this trademark "was policed", including an eight-year legal case to allow a Tasmanian company to call a fishing lure "Tasmanian Devil". Debate followed, and a delegation from the Tasmanian government met with Warner Bros. Ray Groom, the Tourism Minister, later announced that a "verbal agreement" had been reached. An annual fee would be paid to Warner Bros. in return for the Government of Tasmania being able to use the image of Taz for "marketing purposes". This agreement later disappeared. In 2006, Warner Bros. permitted the Government of Tasmania to sell stuffed toys of Taz with profits funnelled into research on DFTD.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; ), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the seat of government and one of three defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines. It is composed of 16 highly urbanized cities: the city of Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, San Juan, Taguig, and Valenzuela, as well as the municipality of Pateros. The region encompasses an area of and a population of as of 2020. It is the second most populous and the most densely populated region of the Philippines. It is also the 9th most populous metropolitan area in Asia and the 5th most populous urban area in the world.


title: Metro Manila

text: The region is the center of culture, economy, education and government of the Philippines. Designated as a global power city, the region exerts a significant impact on commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, both locally and internationally. It is the home to all embassies in the Philippines, thereby making it an important center for international diplomacy in the country. Its economic power makes the region the country's premier center for finance and commerce. The region accounts for 36% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Philippines.


title: Metro Manila

text: The region was established in 1975 through Presidential Decree No. 824 in response to the needs to sustain the growing population and for the creation for the center of political power and the seat of the government of the Philippines. The Province of Manila, the predecessor entity of the region, is one of the first eight provinces that revolted against the Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines at the end of the 19th century. Manila's role in the Revolution is honored in the flag of the Philippines, where the sun's eight rays symbolize the eight revolutionary provinces.


title: Metro Manila

text: A historical province known as Manila encompassed territories once held by various pre-Hispanic polities. This included the well-known Pasig River delta settlements of Maynila and Tondo, but smaller settlements such as those at Tambobong, Taguig, Pateros, and the fortified polity of Cainta. It became the capital of the colonial Philippines, with Manila (Intramuros) serving as the center of colonial power. In 1898, it included the city of Manila and 23 other municipalities. Mariquina also served as the capital from 1898 to 1899, just as when the sovereignty of the Philippines was transferred to the United States. The province was dissolved and most of it was incorporated into the newly created province of Rizal on June 11, 1901, by Commonwealth Act 137.


title: Metro Manila

text: Since the Spanish colonial period, Manila was considered one of the original global cities. The Manila galleon was the first known commercially traveled trade route that sailed the Pacific for 250 years, bringing to Mexico their cargoes of luxury goods, economic benefits, and cultural exchange.


title: Metro Manila

text: During the American period, at the time of the Philippine Commonwealth, American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham was commissioned to create the grand Plan of Manila to be approved by the Philippine Government. The creation of Manila in 1901 was 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. Meanwhile, the towns and parishes of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Mariquina, Pasig, Parañaque, Malabon, Navotas, San Juan del Monte, San Pedro de Macati, San Felipe Neri, Muntinlupa and the Taguig-Pateros area were incorporated into the province of Rizal, with Pasig being designated as its provincial capital.


title: Metro Manila

text: In 1939, President Quezon established Quezon City with a goal to replace Manila as the capital city of the country. A master plan for Quezon City was completed. The establishment of Quezon City meant the demise of the grand Burnham Plan of Manila, with funds being diverted for the establishment of the new capital. World War II further resulted in the loss of most of the developments in the Burnham Plan, but more importantly, the loss of more than 100,000 lives at the Battle of Manila in 1945. Later on, Quezon City was eventually declared as the national capital in 1948. The title was re-designated back to Manila in 1976 through Presidential Decree No. 940, owing to its historical significance as the almost uninterrupted seat of government of the Philippines since the Spanish colonial period. Presidential Decree No. 940 states that Manila has always been, to the Filipino people and in the eyes of the world, the premier city of the Philippines, being the center of trade, commerce, education, and culture.


title: Metro Manila

text: During the war, President Manuel L. Quezon created the City of Greater Manila as an emergency measure, merging the cities of Manila and Quezon City, along with the municipalities of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Mariquina, Pasig, Parañaque, Malabon, Navotas, San Juan del Monte, San Pedro de Macati, San Felipe Neri, Muntinlupa and the Taguig-Pateros area. Jorge Vargas was appointed as its mayor. Mayors in the cities and municipalities included in the City of Greater Manila served as vice mayors in their town. This was in order to ensure that Vargas, who was Quezon's principal lieutenant for administrative matters, would have a position of authority recognized under international military law. 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.


title: Metro Manila

text: On November 7, 1975, Metro Manila was formally established through Presidential Decree No. 824. The Metropolitan Manila Commission was also created to manage the region. On June 2, 1978, through Presidential Decree No. 1396, the metropolitan area was declared the National Capital Region of the Philippines. When Metro Manila was established, there were four cities, Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Pasay and the thirteen municipalities of Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasig, San Juan, Taguig, Valenzuela and Pateros. At present, all but one of these municipalities have become independent chartered cities; only Pateros still remains as a municipality.


title: Metro Manila

text: President Ferdinand Marcos appointed his wife, First Lady Imelda Marcos, as the first governor of Metro Manila. She launched the City of Man campaign. The Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, Metropolitan Folk Arts Theater, Philippine International Convention Center, Coconut Palace and healthcare facilities such as the Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, and the Kidney Center of the Philippines are all constructed precisely for this purpose. President Marcos was overthrown in a non-violent revolution along EDSA, which lasted four days in late February 1986. The popular uprising, now known as the People Power Revolution, made international headlines as "the revolution that surprised the world".


title: Metro Manila

text: In 1986, President Corazon Aquino issued Executive Order No. 392, reorganizing and changing the structure of the Metropolitan Manila Commission and renamed it to the Metropolitan Manila Authority. Mayors in the metropolis chose from among themselves the chair of the agency. Later on, it was again reorganized in 1995 through Republic Act 7924, creating the present-day Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. The chairperson of the agency will be appointed by the President and should not have a concurrent elected position such as mayor. Former Laguna province governor Joey Lina was the last to serve as the Officer-In-Charge governor of Metro Manila.


title: Metro Manila

text: Throughout 1988, unemployment among the country's regions was highest in Metro Manila, with 20.1% of the region's workforce being jobless according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the National Statistics Office.


title: Metro Manila

text: By late 2014, then-MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino proposed that San Pedro, Laguna be included in Metro Manila as its 18th member city. Tolentino said that in the first meeting of the MMDA Council of mayors in January 2015, he will push for the inclusion of the city to the MMDA. Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III filed Senate Bill No. 3029, which seeks to create San Pedro as a separate legislative district to commence in the next national and local elections if the bill was passed into law.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila is located in the southwestern portion of Luzon. The region lies along the flat alluvial lands extending from the mouth of the Pasig River in the west to the higher rugged lands of Marikina Valley in the east. The region is geographically divided into 4 zones: the Coastal Margin, Guadalupe Plateau, Marikina Valley, and the Laguna Lowlands.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Coastal Margin or Lowland is a flat and low plain that faces Manila Bay. Located here is Manila, Navotas, parts of Malabon, and the western part and reclaimed areas of Pasay and Parañaque, where the ground elevation ranges from zero meters on Manila Bay to five meters at the west side of the cities of Mandaluyong and Makati. The Coastal Lowland possesses resources for offshore fisheries and fishpond development, and various reclamation projects in the area are meant for mixed-use urban development.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Central or Guadalupe Plateau is the most adaptable to urban development activities not only because of its solid geographical foundations but also because of its existing infrastructure links with the rest of Luzon. It is mainly residential and includes the densely populated areas of


title: Metro Manila

text: Metropolitan Manila such San Juan, Makati and Quezon cities, as well as most parts of Caloocan and Mandaluyong. The ground elevation ranges from 20 meters to 40 meters and gradually becomes lower towards its western side, while ground elevation ranges from 70 meters to over 100 meters towards the northwestern side of the plateau. The area becomes narrower along Pasig River.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Marikina Valley is a floodplain along the Marikina River and a delta along the Laguna de Bay. Its elevation ranges from two meters on the Laguna de Bay side to 30 meters on its north side towards Montalban. It is surrounded by the Central Plateau and mountains of Rizal. It has fertile land suitable for crop cultivation while the Marikina River provides water for industrial uses and discharge.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Laguna Lowlands is not only suitable for agriculture and aquaculture but also for industrial activity.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila is exposed to multiple natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, and typhoons. It is surrounded by active faults including the Marikina Valley Fault System. Other distant faults such as the Philippine Faults, Lubang Faults, Manila Trench and Casiguran Faults, are a threat as well. Flooding is recurrent every year especially in low-lying areas of Valenzuela, Malabon, Caloocan, Navotas, Manila, Pasay, Parañaque, and Las Piñas, where flood are generally linked with the tidal movements in Manila Bay. Meanwhile, Marikina, Pasig, Taguig, and Pateros are areas inland that are also prone to flooding. These areas are located along the Marikina Valley where there is poor soil drainage and a shallow water table due to being in proximity to Laguna Bay's shores. Flood risks are generally lower in cities along the Guadalupe Plateau, including Quezon City, San Juan, Makati, Mandaluyong and Muntinlupa, where volcanic rocks rise up to 40 to 70 meters above sea level. Around five to seven typhoons hit Manila yearly. Manila was ranked as the second riskiest capital city after Tokyo to live in according to Swiss Re.


title: Metro Manila

text: According to the Köppen climate classification, there are two climates in Metro Manila. Most of the region has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen climate classification Aw) while the northeastern part of the region that lies on the foothills of Sierra Madre has a tropical monsoon climate. Together with the rest of the Philippines, Manila lies entirely within the tropics. Its proximity to the equator means that temperatures are hot year-round, rarely going below 15 °C or above 39 °C. Temperature extremes have ranged from 14.4 °C on January 11, 1914, to 38.5 °C on May 7, 1915.


title: Metro Manila

text: Humidity levels are usually very high all year round. Manila has a distinct dry season from December through April, and a relatively lengthy wet season that covers the remaining period with slightly cooler temperatures. In the wet season, it rarely rains all day, but rainfall is very heavy during short periods. Typhoons usually occur from June to September.


title: Metro Manila

text: There are four national parks in Metro Manila. These are the Rizal Park, Paco Park, and Fort Santiago in the City of Manila and Quezon Memorial National Park in Quezon City. Rizal Park and Paco Park are managed by the National Parks and Development Committee (NPDC), while Fort Santiago is managed by the Intramuros Administration. A tripartite agreement between the Quezon City Government, the National Historical Institute and the NPDC transferred the management of Quezon Memorial National Park to the Quezon City Government. The region also has three protected areas, namely the Rizal Park, Ninoy Aquino Parks & Wildlife Center and the Manila Bay Beach Resort.


title: Metro Manila

text: Rizal Park, also known as Luneta Park, is considered the largest urban park in Asia with an area of . The park along with the historic walled area of Intramuros are designated as flagship destination to become a tourism enterprise zone according to the Tourism Act of 2009. Paco Park is a recreational garden which was once the city's municipal cemetery built by the Dominicans during the Spanish colonial period. Filipino Landscape architect IP Santos, the "Father of Philippine Landscape Architecture", was commissioned to do the design of converting the former cemetery into a park.


title: Metro Manila

text: Manila Zoo is the oldest zoo in Asia, which was founded in 1959. It is the home to more than a thousand animals from 90 different species including the 40-year-old elephant, Mali. The zoo has an average of 4,000 visitors weekly. An estimated 40,000 tourists visit the zoo each month.


title: Metro Manila

text: La Mesa Ecopark is a 33-hectare well-developed sanctuary around the La Mesa Watershed. It was established through a joint partnership between the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, ABS-CBN, and the Quezon City Government. La Mesa Ecopark, along with the Ninoy Aquino Parks & Wildlife Center, are important nature reserves in the Philippines.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) was declared as a critical habitat by the Government of the Philippines in 2007 and was listed by the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance in 2013. LPPCHEA is composed of the Freedom Island in Parañaque and the Long Island in Las Piñas that covers 175 hectares and features a mangrove forest of eight species, tidal mudflats, secluded ponds with fringing salt-tolerant vegetation, a coastal lagoon, and a beach.


title: Metro Manila

text: The framework of government and governance in Metro Manila is based on Republic Act No. 7160, otherwise known as the "Local Government Code of 1991". This law outlines the powers and responsibilities of all local government units (LGUS) in the Philippines and thus forms the basis of inter-local governmental relations among the area's constituent local governments. The local government code grants these units significant political and administrative autonomy in accordance with the principles of decentralization and devolution of power. This situation presents a challenge to the coordination of policy and service delivery across the multiple autonomous local government units and is thus the underlying dilemma of metropolitan governance in Metro Manila.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is the agency responsible for the delivery of public services in Metro Manila. Its services are limited to traffic management and garbage collection. Previously Metro Manila was governed by a regional government authority, the Metro Manila Commission and was led by a governor.


title: Metro Manila

text: A bill was introduced in 2014 proposing the creation of a new governing body in Metro Manila to be known as the Metropolitan Manila Regional Administration (MMRA). Unlike the MMDA which is limited to being an administrative coordinating body, the proposed MMRA will have police and other typical municipal powers and is more akin to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila, the National Capital Region, is the seat of the national government. All the main offices of the executive departments of the country are in Metro Manila. The Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Housing Authority and Philippine Coconut Authority has their main offices based around Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.


title: Metro Manila

text: Manila, the capital city of the country, is the home to Malacañan Palace, the official residence and office of the President of the Philippines. The city is also the home to the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Other key national institutions based in Manila are the Court of Appeals, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Departments of Budget and Management, Finance, Health, Justice, Labor and Employment and Public Works and Highways. Meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology is based in Taguig while the Department of Tourism has its headquarters in Makati. Important economic and financial institutions headquartered in the region are the Asian Development Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Development Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines and the National Economic and Development Authority.


title: Metro Manila

text: The main office of the Government Service Insurance System in Pasay serves as home to the Senate of the Philippines. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives of the Philippines is based in the Batasang Pambansa Complex, Quezon City along with the Sandiganbayan. The Coconut Palace once served as the official office and residence of the Vice President of the Philippines in 2010–2016. The Quezon City Reception House has been serving this purpose since 2016.


title: Metro Manila

text: The political and administrative boundaries of the National Capital Region has not changed since its formation in 1975 as a public corporation under Presidential Decree No. 824. They are composed of sixteen independent cities, classified as "highly urbanized cities", and one independent municipality: Pateros.


title: Metro Manila

text: Unlike other administrative regions in the Philippines, Metro Manila is not composed of provinces. Instead, the region is divided into four geographic areas called "districts." The districts have their district centers at the four original cities in the region: the city-district of Manila (Capital District), Quezon City (Eastern Manila), Caloocan (Northern Manila, also informally known as "Camanava"), and Pasay (Southern Manila). The districts serve mainly to organize the region's local government units for fiscal and statistical purposes.


title: Metro Manila

text: There is a high demand for the inclusion of San Pedro, Laguna in Metro Manila. Support groups from the local government and non-government organizations are striving to incorporate San Pedro into Metro Manila.


title: Metro Manila

text: San Pedro is being looked at as the 18th member of Metro Manila. Former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino is pushing for the inclusion of San Pedro in the National Capital Region, to eventually become its 18th member city. Tolentino said that in the first meeting of the MMDA Council of mayors in January 2015, he will push for the inclusion of the city to the MMDA.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila has a population of according to the 2020 national census. Its total urban area, composed of the urban agglomeration which refers to the continuous urban expansion of Metro Manila into the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas has an estimated population of as of 2015. It is the second most populous (after Calabarzon) and most densely populated region in the Philippines, the 7th most populous metropolitan area in Asia, and the 4th most populous urban area in the world.


title: Metro Manila

text: The most populous cities in Metro Manila are Quezon City (2,960,048), Manila (1,846,513), Caloocan (1,661,584), Taguig (886,722), Pasig (803,159), Valenzuela (714,978), Parañaque (689,992) Las Piñas (606,293), Makati (629,616) and Muntinlupa (543,445).


title: Metro Manila

text: From the 1980s up to the present, informal settlers have accounted for roughly one-third of the Metro Manila population. A majority of informal settlers belong to the middle-class. In 2014, there are an estimated four million slum dwellers living in Metro Manila. Homelessness is also a major problem in Metro Manila. However, these are being addressed by creating in-city relocation housing, and by relocating informal settler families in low-density housing built in the nearby provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.


title: Metro Manila

text: During the American occupation, housing policies in Manila dealt the problem of sanitation and concentration of settlers around business areas. Among those implemented were business codes and sanitation laws in slum areas in the 1930s. During this period and until the 1950s, new communities were opened for relocation. Among these were Projects 1–8 in Diliman, Quezon City and the Vitas tenement houses in Tondo. The government implemented the Public Housing Policy in 1947 that established the People's Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC). A few years later, it put up the Slum Clearance Committee which, with the help of the PHHC, relocated thousands of families from Tondo and Quezon City to Sapang Palay in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan in the 1960s.


title: Metro Manila

text: During the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank supported the programs for the "development of relocation" and "on-site development." Carmona and Dasmariñas in Cavite and San Pedro in Laguna opened as relocation sites. Along with the establishment of the National Housing Authority (Philippines), Presidential Decree 772 made squatting a crime, making the Philippines one of only two countries (the other is South Africa) where squatting is a crime. The government formulated the National Shelter Program which became the over-all framework for dealing with housing needs of all income classes.


title: Metro Manila

text: Imelda Marcos held both the position as Governor of Metro Manila and as Minister of Human Settlements and Ecology or MHSE until the downfall of the dictatorship in 1986. The MHSE, through loans from the World Bank, initiated the Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS) housing projects not only in Metro Manila but also in other provinces.


title: Metro Manila

text: From 1960 to 1992, the government transferred some 328,000 families to resettlement sites 25–40 km from Metro Manila. According to the Asian Coalition on Housing Rights, during Corazon C. Aquino's time, the government would bring some 100,000 persons to relocation sites yearly. During the said period, Sapang Palay and Carmona had a 60% abandonment rate. Congress enacted RA 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) in 1992. The law gave a new name for the squatters: informal settlers. Essentially, UDHA gives protection for big private ownership of land in the urban areas, ensuring that these are protected from illegal occupants. The law also widened the scope of private sector participation in the National Shelter Program (NSP).


title: Metro Manila

text: In the middle of the Arroyo administration's term, infrastructure projects of the government led to the demolition of hundreds of thousands of families (from along railways, C4 road, C5 road, and from Fort Bonifacio). During the same period, new relocation sites in Bulacan, Valenzuela and Caloocan opened.


title: Metro Manila

text: The National Capital Region accounts for 36% of the gross domestic product of the Philippines in 2018. Furthermore, it has the highest per capita GDP of the country at ₱183,747. The employment rate in the region is at 91.3% . According to the Brookings Institution, the 2014 share of output by industry in Metro Manila is as follows: trade and tourism: 31.4%, business/finance: 28.6%, local/non-market: 15.6%, manufacturing: 12.5%, transportation: 4.9%, construction: 4%, utilities: 2.8%, and commodities: 0.3%.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila will add 1.85 million square meters of office spaces between 2015 and 2017 in the central business districts in Makati, Taguig, and Quezon City as more global firms such as Google and HSBC seek to outsource business processes in the Philippines. The vacancy rate for office spaces remains low, at less 3% in the year-end of 2014. Manila remains as the least expensive capital city in the Asia-Pacific to occupy prime office space at an average rent of $22 per square meter per month.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila makes it to the "Global Top 30" cities according to property consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle, citing its economic scale, vast population, large gross domestic product and BPO specialization as its competitive edge. Furthermore, the region ranks 3rd for the top business process outsourcing global destinations, next to Bangalore and Mumbai. The region's retail sector remains strong, bolstered by remittances abroad, BPOs, and its tourism sector.


title: Metro Manila

text: Historically, the main business district of the metropolis was Binondo, where commercial trading flourished since the 15th century. By the 1960s, economic activities shifted from Binondo to Makati. It transformed Makati into one of the leading financial centers in Asia. Still, Binondo remained as a cultural and financial center because of the vast Chinese population residing and doing business in the area.


title: Metro Manila

text: The minimum wage of Metro Manila is at ₱481 ($10.77) for non-agricultural workers and at ₱444 ($9.94) for those working in the agricultural sector, the highest minimum wage among all the 17 regions of the country. However, an increase of ₱25 was made and implemented in November 2018.


title: Metro Manila

text: Nominal wages are what Metro Manila's current minimum wage rates are known as. The Philippine government has set these wage rates at a fixed amount.


title: Metro Manila

text: On the other hand, the amount after inflation is what is considered the real minimum wage. For instance, the non-agricultural employees of NCR typically receive ₱428.23 per day as opposed to ₱537. The minimum salary for agricultural employees in Manila (including plantation and non-plantation workers) is 398.72 pesos after accounting for inflation.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila has many central business districts (CBD), which categorizes it under the multiple nuclei model in human geography terms. The most prominent CBDs are the Makati Central Business District, Bonifacio Global City, Ortigas Center, Binondo, and Alabang. The region also has plenty of mixed-use developments owned and developed by private corporations such as the Ayala Corporation, Eton Properties, Megaworld Corporation and SM Prime Holdings.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Makati Central Business District is the premier business and commercial center of the Philippines. It is the headquarters to most of the multinational corporations residing in the Philippines as well as the country's biggest commercial firms and BPO companies. The Central Business District has an office stock of 1.1 million square meters of Grade A and premium office space. It is the home to the tallest skyscrapers in the region as well as in the country.


title: Metro Manila

text: Bonifacio Global City is the newest business district of Manila and is the premier financial and lifestyle center of the metropolis. It is located in the north-western part of Taguig. It used to be a military base known as Fort Bonifacio. The Bases and Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) privatized the property and its income from the sale was intended to be used for the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Upon its privatization, the place was transformed into a business hub featuring numerous tourist attractions such as The Mind Museum, high-end shops, towering office skyscrapers, and luxurious lofts and condominiums. Bonifacio Global City will soon overtake the Makati Central Business District as the premier financial center of the country in the future. One of the reasons for it is that the Philippine Stock Exchange will relocate its headquarters in BGC. Also, it has more spaces and land for future developments. It is also the most active business district, generating over 50 percent of the growth in property market and has more available space for rent or lease and sale than Makati.


title: Metro Manila

text: Ortigas Center is a central business district located in Mandaluyong and Pasig, with a small portion of it located in Quezon City. Landmarks in Ortigas include the EDSA Shrine, Shangri-La Plaza and the SM Megamall. Furthermore, The Medical City has its main campus in Ortigas Center. Important financial and national institutions headquartered in Ortigas are the Asian Development Bank, Union Bank of The Philippines and the National Economic and Development Authority. Ortigas is also the home to the headquarters of San Miguel Corporation, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Lopez Group of Companies and The Manila Electric Company.


title: Metro Manila

text: "Global Blue" ranked Manila as one of the "Best Shopping Destinations" in Asia. Metro Manila is home to some of the largest shopping malls in the world, three of which are in the top 10. SM Megamall in Mandaluyong ranks as the 3rd largest shopping mall in the world, followed by SM City North EDSA in Quezon City bagging the 4th place. Meanwhile, SM Mall of Asia in Pasay ranks as the 9th largest shopping mall in the world. Other shopping malls in Metro Manila in the list of the largest shopping malls in Metro Manila are the Ever Gotesco Commonwealth Center, Festival Supermall, Greenbelt, Market! Market!, SM Aura Premier, SM Southmall and TriNoma.


title: Metro Manila

text: Tourism is a vital industry of the region. Metro Manila is the main gateway to the Philippines. Trade and tourism represent 31.4% of share of NCR's output by industry according to Brookings Institution. Metro Manila welcomed 974,379 overnight visitors in 2012, making it the top overnight tourist destination of the country. Manila is visited by the majority of international tourists coming to the country registering a total of 3,139,756 arrivals in 2012.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila has opened 4,612 hotel rooms in 2015. It is also expected to exceed the 3,500 annual addition of hotel rooms in the next two years. Gambling in Metro Manila has also become a popular tourist attraction in the region. Metro Manila is a popular gaming destination in Asia, rivaling other major gaming destinations such as Macau and Singapore. There are around 20 casinos in the metropolis, featuring luxurious casino hotels and integrated resorts. Its thriving local gambling market makes Manila attractive to casino operators. Popular gaming destinations are Resorts World Manila in Newport City in Pasay, Solaire Resort & Casino, City of Dreams Manila, Okada Manila, Westside City Resorts World, and NayonLanding in Entertainment City in Bay City, Parañaque.


title: Metro Manila

text: Intramuros is the historic walled area within the modern City of Manila. Originally, it was considered to be Manila itself at the time when the Philippines was under the Spanish Empire colonial rule. Owing to its history and cultural value, Intramuros and Rizal Park were designated as flagship destination to become a tourism enterprise zone in the Tourism Act of 2009. Intramuros is managed by the Intramuros Administration.


title: Metro Manila

text: The architecture of Intramuros reflects the Spanish colonial style and the American neoclassical architectural style, since the Philippines was a colony of Spain and the United States before it was granted its independence in 1946. Kalesa is a popular mode of transportation in Intramuros and nearby places such as Binondo, Ermita and the Rizal Park.


title: Metro Manila

text: Popular tourist destinations in Intramuros include the Baluarte de San Diego, Club Intramuros Golf Course, Cuartel de Santa Lucia, Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral, Palacio Arzobispal, Palacio de Santa Potenciana, Palacio del Gobernador, Plaza Mexico, Plaza de Roma, San Agustin Church and its newest tourist attraction, the Ayuntamiento de Manila.


title: Metro Manila

text: Some of the country's oldest schools are founded in Intramuros, these are the University of Santo Tomas (1611), Colegio de San Juan de Letran (1620), and Ateneo de Manila University (1859). Only Colegio de San Juan de Letran (1620) remains at Intramuros; the University of Santo Tomas transferred to a new campus at Sampaloc in 1927, and Ateneo left Intramuros for Loyola Heights, Quezon City (while still retaining "de Manila" in its name) in 1952. Other prominent educational institutions include the Manila High School and the University of the City of Manila.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila is widely celebrated in popular lore, frequently the setting for mostly Filipino books, movies, and television programs. Flores de Mayo is widely celebrated throughout all the places in Metro Manila. The yearly Metro Manila Film Festival, inaugurated in 1966, is the forerunner of all Philippine film festivals.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila is the home to the National Museum of the Philippines, the national museum of the country. It operates a chain of museums located in the grounds of Rizal Park just outside Intramuros, such as the National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Anthropology and the National Museum of Natural History. The National Museum complex occupies the place and buildings that were a part of a new capital center proposed by Daniel Burnham in 1901.


title: Metro Manila

text: Prominent museums in Metro Manila include the Ayala Museum, Bahay Tsinoy, Casa Manila, Lopez Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, The Mind Museum, Museo Pambata, Museo Valenzuela, Museum of Philippine Political History, Pasig City Museum and the Rizal Shrine. Museums established by educational institutions are the Ateneo Art Gallery, Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, UP Museum of a History of Ideas, and the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences.


title: Metro Manila

text: The national theater of the Philippines, known as the ""Tanghalang Pambansa"", is situated on a cultural center called the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex. The complex is located between the cities of Manila and Pasay. Aside from the CCP, other popular performing arts venue include Cuneta Astrodome, Mall of Asia Arena, Rizal Park, Quezon Memorial Circle and Smart Araneta Coliseum. Other venues used are the UPFI Film Center and UP Theater in the University of the Philippines Diliman. The famed Manila Metropolitan Theater, also known as The Met, was constructed in 1931 and was known as the "Grand Dame" among all the Art Deco theaters of Manila. Years of neglect forces its closure in 1996. The Met will be restored through a tripartite agreement with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the National Museum of the Philippines and the Escuela Taller.


title: Metro Manila

text: Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion in Metro Manila. Other Christian denominations, Muslims, Anitists, animists, and atheists are the minority. Among the most important religious sites in the region are Manila Cathedral, San Sebastian Church (Manila), Tondo Church, San Agustin Church (Manila), Quiapo Church and Baclaran Church.


title: Metro Manila

text: The National Capital Region is the home to the headquarters of the ASEAN Basketball League, Baseball Philippines, Philippine Basketball Association, Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, Philippine Super Liga, Shakey's V-League and the Philippines Football League. Collegiate leagues based in the National Capital Region are the Colleges and Universities Sports Association, National Athletic Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Capital Region Athletic Association, State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association, Universities and Colleges Athletic Association, University Athletic Association of the Philippines, Women's National Collegiate Athletic Association, Men's National Collegiate Athletic Association and University of Makati's Association of Local Colleges and Universities.


title: Metro Manila

text: Two national sports complex is located in the region, the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and the PhilSports Complex. The Wack Wack Golf and Country Club has hosted major tournaments such as the Philippine Open and the World Cup. Prominent sporting venues in Metro Manila include the Smart Araneta Coliseum, Mall of Asia Arena, Filoil Flying V Arena and the Cuneta Astrodome. The Greater Manila Area is also home to the Philippine Arena, the world's largest indoor arena. It is located in Bocaue, Bulacan and it has a maximum capacity of 55,000 people.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila's, and in general the country's main sport is basketball. Another popular sport in the city are cue sports, and billiard halls are found in many places. Baseball, volleyball, football and swimming are also widely played sports. The region has been the champion of the Palarong Pambansa for 13 straight years. Manila Storm are a rugby league team training out of Rizal Park (Luneta Park) and playing home matches at the Southern Plains Field, Calamba, Laguna. The Metro Manila area is also home to a number of rugby union teams such as the Alabang Eagles, Makati Mavericks, Manila Nomads Sports Club and the Manila Hapons.


title: Metro Manila

text: Since the Spanish colonial period, Manila has been the center of education. The University of Santo Tomas (1611), Colegio de San Juan de Letran (1620) and Ateneo de Manila University (1859) are some of the oldest educational institutions that was established during the colonial period. The University of the Philippines, along with seven other State Universities and Colleges (SUC), namely the Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, Marikina Polytechnic College, Philippine Normal University, Philippine State College of Aeronautics, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Rizal Technological University and the Technological University of the Philippines, are based in Metro Manila. Manila's University Belt form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in the Philippines, making Manila the center for higher learning in the country. The country's top ranked universities, located in Metro Manila, are widely known to be as follows, University of the Philippines System, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and University of Santo Tomas.


title: Metro Manila

text: Prominent secondary schools in Metro Manila include the Philippine Science High School in Diliman, Quezon City, the national science school of the Philippines and the Manila Science High School in Ermita, the forerunner of all the science schools in the country. Primary and secondary education is in the region is governed by the Department of Education-National Capital Region (DepEd-NCR). Meanwhile, the higher educational institutions are under the CHED-National Capital Region.


title: Metro Manila

text: The region has the highest literacy rate among all the regions of the Philippines, with 99.2% in 2008. Literacy rate for males is at 99.0% while literacy rate for females is at 99.4%. For the school year of 2008–2009, Metro Manila has 511 public elementary schools and 220 public secondary schools. There are 309 tertiary (public and private) institutions as of the year-end of 2009. For the said school year, enrollment in public elementary schools is at 1,219,333, public secondary schools at 661,019 and 687,096 for tertiary (public and private) institutions.


title: Metro Manila

text: Healthcare in Metro Manila is mostly provided by private corporations. 72% of region's hospitals are privately owned. , the region has 179 hospitals. Quezon City has the most hospitals while Valenzuela and Pateros do not have any. In 2008, government health workers in NCR comprises 590 doctors, 498 dentists, 4,576 nurses, and 17,437 midwives. Furthermore, Metro Manila has 27,779 beds with a ratio of 2.47 per 1,000 population . The region has the lowest malnutrition rate among all the regions in the country.


title: Metro Manila

text: The headquarters of the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific, and the World Health Organization Country Office for the Philippines are in the region. The main office of the Department of Health, the national health department, is also in the region.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila is designated by the Department of Health as the pioneer of medical tourism, expecting it to generate $1 billion in revenue annually. However, lack of progressive health system, inadequate infrastructure and the unstable political environment are seen as hindrances for its growth. Under the Philippine Medical Tourism Program, there are 16 participating hospitals (private and public) in Metro Manila with a total number of 6,748 beds . Five out of six hospitals in the country accredited by the Joint Commission International are in the region, these are the Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, St. Luke's Medical Center – Global City, St. Luke's Medical Center – Quezon City and The Medical City.


title: Metro Manila

text: East Avenue in Quezon City is the location of prominent national health centers: the Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, and the Philippine Heart Center. Other national special hospital in Metro Manila include the Philippine Orthopedic Center in Quezon City, and the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong. The Philippine General Hospital, the country's premier state-owned tertiary hospital is located at the City of Manila. The St. Luke's Medical Center which operates in Quezon City and Taguig, is a private tertiary referral hospital cited as one of the best hospitals in the world.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Philippine National Police is responsible for law enforcement in the country. Its headquarters is located at Camp Crame along Bonny Serrano Avenue, Quezon City. The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is the regional branch of PNP that operates in the region. Its headquarters is located at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig. Under the supervision of NCRPO, Metro Manila is divided into five police districts. The five police districts are the Northern Police District, Eastern Police District, Southern Police District and Quezon City Police District.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila has the highest rate of crime in the country in 2014, with 59,448 crimes reported (excluding crimes reported in barangay level) with 25,353 of these crimes committed against persons. Following criticisms of high crime rate in Metro Manila, the Philippine National Police launched a relentless anti-crime drive that resulted in the decrease of crimes in the metropolis. As of March 2015 Metro Manila's crime rate is down by 50%. From an average of 919 crimes reported weekly, it has gone down to 412. Recorded robberies and theft also decreased by 63 in just a month. All the 159 police community precincts of Metro Manila will be using the electronic blotter system in recording crimes starting June 2015.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Bureau of Fire Protection National Capital Region provides fire protection and technical rescue as well as emergency medical services to the metropolis. It is broadly organized into five firefighting districts: Manila, Quezon City, District II, District III and District IV.


title: Metro Manila

text: The headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is located at Camp Aguinaldo, along with the Department of National Defense, in Murphy, Quezon City. Aside from Camp Aguinaldo, other military bases situated in the region are Camp Atienza and Fort Bonifacio. The Philippine Army has their headquarters at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. The Villamor Air Base in Ninoy Aquino International Airport is the home to the headquarters of the Philippine Air Force while the headquarters of the Philippine Navy is located at Roxas Boulevard, Malate, Manila.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Philippine Coast Guard is headquartered at Port Area (Manila South Harbor), City of Manila. Its Coast Guard NCR District also has its headquarters in the city and has another Coast Guard Station in Pasig. It also has a base in Taguig and maintains several detachments located in Navotas, Parañaque, Tangos, Vitas, Manila North Harbor, Manila South Harbor and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.


title: Metro Manila

text: In 2012, the AFP Joint Task Force-National Capital Region was launched to ensure peace and stability in Metro Manila, bearing the same function of the deactivated National Capital Regional Command, although it operates on a much smaller size than its predecessor.


title: Metro Manila

text: According to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, public ridership in Metro Manila composes of the following: 46% of the people go around by jeepneys, 32% by private vehicle, 14% by bus, and 8% use the railway system. Transportation development in Metro Manila follows the Metro Manila Dream Plan, which consists of building short-term to long-term infrastructure lasting up to 2030 and addressing its issues on traffic, land use and environment.


title: Metro Manila

text: The roads of Metro Manila is built around the City of Manila. Roads are classified as local, national or subdivision roads. There are ten radial roads branching out from the city. Also there are five circumferential roads forming a series of concentric semi-circular arcs around Manila. The circumferential and radial roads are systems of interconnected roads, bridges and highways. A problem with the circumferential roads are the missing road links. These are the roads that are not yet constructed to give way for development due to Metro Manila's rapid urbanization. The metropolis is resolving this problem through the completion of missing road links or through the construction of connector roads.


title: Metro Manila

text: The radial and circumferential road system are being supplanted by a new numbered highway system implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways, and new signage are being placed with its implementation. Expressways are being assigned numbers with the E prefix. National roads are assigned 1 to 3 digit numbers, except for those classified as tertiary national roads.


title: Metro Manila

text: An important circumferential road is the Circumferential Road 4, with the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue as its major component. It traverses the cities of Pasay, Makati, Mandaluyong, Quezon City and Caloocan. Line 3 follows the alignment of EDSA, from Taft Avenue in Pasay up to TriNoma, terminating before it reaches Caloocan. Circumferential Road 5 serves the people near the regional limits of Metro Manila and also serves as an alternate route for Circumferential Road 4.


title: Metro Manila

text: Prominent radial roads include the Radial Road 1, composed of Roxas Boulevard and the Manila–Cavite Expressway (Coastal Road) that connects Metro Manila to Cavite, Radial Road 3 or the South Luzon Expressway that connects Metro Manila to Laguna, Radial Road 6, composed of Aurora Boulevard and Marcos Highway that runs up to Rizal and Radial Road 8 or the North Luzon Expressway that serves as the gateway to the north.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Skyway serves as the region's main expressway, directly connecting the North Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway. It also enables access to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport via the NAIA Expressway (NAIAX). The Skyway is the first fully grade-separated highway in the Philippines and one of the longest elevated highways in the world with a total length of approximately . Other expressways such as the Manila–Cavite Expressway and Muntinlupa–Cavite Expressway also connect Metro Manila to its surrounding areas.


title: Metro Manila

text: The development of roads, highways and expressways are based on the Metro Manila Dream Plan. Ongoing projects in the dream plan include the rehabilitation of EDSA, Skyway Stage 3 and the construction of the missing road links for the circumferential roads (e.g. Taft Avenue Flyover, Metro Manila Interchange Project Phase IV).


title: Metro Manila

text: Rail transportation in the Greater Manila Area is a major part of the transportation system in Metro Manila and its surrounding areas. It consists of the Manila Light Rail Transit System, Manila Metro Rail Transit System, and the PNR Metro Commuter Line. As of 2021, the three systems and its four operational lines combined has 82 stations, covering a total of . The network makes up the majority of active railways in the country and bear the brunt of providing the metropolis with rail as a faster alternative mode of transport other than buses and jeepneys. However, these systems are currently insufficient for the rapidly expanding metropolis; to address this, new lines and line extensions are under construction, which will extend the system far out into neighboring regions.


title: Metro Manila

text: Several new railway projects are being undertaken by the national government and the private sector. These include the North–South Commuter Railway, the Metro Manila Subway, and MRT Line 7, all of which are under construction. Line extensions such as the LRT Line 1 South extension and the LRT Line 2 West extension are in the pipeline. Other line extensions and railway lines are in the planning stage.


title: Metro Manila

text: Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is the only airport and the premier gateway in Metro Manila. It is the busiest airport in the Philippines. NAIA has four terminals: Terminal 1, Terminal 2 (which is exclusively used by Philippine Airlines), Terminal 3 (the newest and largest airport terminal in NAIA) and Terminal 4 (also known as the Manila Domestic Passenger Terminal). The other airport that serves Metro Manila is Clark International Airport in Angeles City which is located away.


title: Metro Manila

text: Bus franchises in the region are regulated by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board. The Premium Point-to-Point Bus Service is the express bus system that runs from its dispatch terminal in Fairview up to the central business districts along EDSA. It aims to cut travel time substantially and provide a faster, safer and more convenient bus service to commuters, who are usually caught at the heavy traffic across the metropolis. A second express bus link from SM North EDSA, Trinoma and SM Megamall to Makati opened in December 2015, and by January 2016 was the line on which, for the first time in nearly three decades, a double-decker bus traveled on EDSA, to the delight of motorists, followed by a third link, this time from Robinsons Galleria to the Ayala Center complex in February 2016 and a fourth in March linking the Ayala Center to the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa via the Metro Manila Skyway (and later to Ayala Malls South Park). As of the present express buses also link the Market Market mall and Circuit Makati to both the Nuvali residential township and the Pacita Village complex in San Pedro, both in Laguna, in services launched in 2014 and 2017, respectively (plus additional services to the UP Town Mall in Quezon City and SM Masinag in Antipolo, Rizal), while intercity express buses have been in operation since 2015 to alleviate traffic on EDSA. In 2018, additional services from the Makati CBD and from San Lorenzo Place up to Cavite debuted.


title: Metro Manila

text: Metro Manila will have its bus rapid transit system operational by 2018. The proposed BRT system will traverse Commonwealth Avenue up to the Manila City Hall. The planned BRT system costs ₱4.9 billion ($109.5 million) and will have a fleet of 300 buses and 32 stations.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Pasig River Ferry Service run by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is the principal ferry shuttle system of Metro Manila. It traverses the Pasig River from Barangay Pinagbuhatan in Pasig to Plaza Mexico in Intramuros. Although it was referred to as a ferry, it is more akin to a water bus. It has 17 stations, but only 14 are operational. Another ferry route called the Manila-Bataan Ferry was launched on May 10, 2017, and traverses Manila Bay from the Bay Terminal at CCP Complex in Manila to Orion, Bataan. A new ferry route known as the Cavite-Manila Ferry Service that runs between Noveleta, Cavite and Intramuros was launched in January 2018.


title: Metro Manila

text: Meralco is the sole electric distributor of Metro Manila. It generates its power from the National Power Corporation and other independent power producers in Luzon. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) was responsible for the supply and delivery of potable water and the sewerage system in Metro Manila. It was privatized in 1997 and the region and its immediate surrounding areas were split into the east and west concession. The winning corporations provide the same function of MWSS.


title: Metro Manila

text: The Maynilad Water Services took over the west zone, which is composed of Manila (excluding the southeastern part of the city), Caloocan, Las Piñas, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay and Valenzuela. It also operates in some parts of Makati and Quezon City. Manila Water operates on the east zone, comprising the cities of Mandaluyong, Marikina, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan and Taguig. It also operates in large areas of Makati and Quezon City and the southeastern part of Manila, which was excluded from the west zone.


title: Metro Manila

text: For garbage hauling, the region spent ₱4.221 billion ($93.855 million) in 2013. Quezon City spent the most at ₱994.59 million ($22.115 million) while Pateros, the region's only municipality, spent the least money on garbage at ₱9.478 million ($210,747).


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: Steven Michael Robert Howey (born July 12, 1977) is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles as Van Montgomery on The WB/CW television series "Reba", and Kevin Ball on the Showtime series "Shameless." Howey has also appeared in the films "Supercross", "", "Bride Wars", "Game Over, Man!", and "Something Borrowed".


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: Howey was born in San Antonio, Texas. He has Scottish ancestry. He graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta-Montrose and attended Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, for two years on a basketball scholarship. He later attended his father’s acting workshop where he decided he wanted to become an actor.


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: Howey has guest-starred on various TV shows including "ER" (1994) and "The Drew Carey Show".He also starred in and produced the independent film "Class" (1998), which was written and directed by his father and was accepted into the Denver International Film Festival.


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: In 2001, Howey got his first starring role in a series when he was cast as Van Montgomery in the show "Reba". Howey stayed with the show until it ended in 2007. He also appeared in Reba McEntire's music video "Every Other Weekend" with his "Reba" co-star Joanna García. He also did a cameo in "Broad City".


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: In 2005, he starred in the action film "Supercross" as K.C. Carlyle, an MX racer. Howey also played Weatherby in the movie "", alongside Jaime Pressly and Eric Roberts. In 2009, he starred in "Bride Wars", with Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson (with whom he also starred in the 2011 movie "Something Borrowed", once again as her love interest). Howey also portrayed the title role in the 2009 film, "Stan Helsing". That same year, Howey also appeared in the web series "CTRL" playing Ben Piller. He has also appeared on the show "Psych".


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: In summer 2010, Howey joined the cast of the Showtime dramedy "Shameless", as Kevin Ball, a series regular. Season 2 premiered January 8, 2012, with Howey remaining a main cast member. He then continued to play character Kevin Ball through the end of the show.


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: In 2013, Howey guest starred on an episode of Fox's "New Girl" entitled "TinFinity" as Jax, a professional football player and love interest of Jess (Zooey Deschanel).


title: Steve Howey (actor)

text: Howey was married to actress and model Sarah Shahi. The two became engaged in June 2007, while vacationing in Hawaii and married on February 7, 2009, in Las Vegas. In July 2009, they had their first child, a son. Shahi had an at-home water birth. In March 2015, Shahi again home birthed their twins, a daughter and son. Howey and Shahi filed for divorce in May 2020. Their divorce was finalized in January 2021.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Tyrese Darnell Gibson (born December 30, 1978) is an American actor and singer. He released his self-titled debut album in 1998, which featured the single "Sweet Lady", peaking at number twelve on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100. His second and third albums, "2000 Watts" and "I Wanna Go There", were released in 2001 and 2002; respectively, the latter contained the lead single "How You Gonna Act Like That", which became Gibson's highest-charting single, reaching number seven on the "Billboard" Hot 100. His fourth album, "Alter Ego", explored hip hop, while he was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album for his fifth album "Open Invitation" (2011). Gibson's sixth album, "Black Rose" (2015), debuted at number one on the U.S. "Billboard" 200, becoming his highest-charting album. He has sold over 4 million records in the United States.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson had his first starring role in John Singleton's coming-of-age hood film "Baby Boy" (2001), and then began appearing as Roman Pearce in the "Fast & Furious" franchise. Gibson reunited with Singleton for the action film "Four Brothers" (2005), and plays Robert Epps in the "Transformers" franchise. He appeared in the comedy film "Ride Along 2" (2016), and appeared in the superhero film "Morbius" (2022).


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson was born and raised in Watts, Los Angeles, California. His mother, Priscilla Murray Gibson ( Durham), raised him and his three older siblings as a single parent after his father, Tyrone Gibson, left.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson's career began when he auditioned for a Coca-Cola commercial at the suggestion of his high school music teacher. An appearance in a 1994 Coca-Cola advertisement, singing the phrase "Always Coca-Cola", led to bigger fame. It also led him to other appearances, such as for Guess and Tommy Hilfiger.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson was signed as an artist to RCA Records in early 1998. Afterwards, he released his debut single "Nobody Else". It quickly rose on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 36. On September 29, 1998, he released his self-titled album "Tyrese" at the age of 19. It debuted on the "Billboard" charts at No. 17. In late 1998, Gibson became the new host of the weekday music video show "MTV Jams" on MTV and a host and VJ for the channel. Afterwards, he released the second single from the album "Lately". It made it to No. 56 on the "Billboard" charts. Then, the album's third single and highest-charting single "Sweet Lady" became the album's biggest hit, reaching No. 9 on the R&B charts. The single earned Gibson a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance. The album eventually went on to be certified Platinum. Gibson, along with singers Ginuwine, RL of Next, and Case, were featured on the soundtrack of "The Best Man" on the single "The Best Man I Can Be".


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: On May 22, 2001, Gibson released his second studio album "2000 Watts". The first single off the album was "I Like Them Girls", which reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album went on to be certified Gold, selling over 500,000 copies. The third single off the album, "Just a Baby Boy", with Snoop Dogg and Mr. Tan, was featured on the soundtrack to the film "Baby Boy", Gibson's first major acting role.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: After RCA Records was disbanded Gibson went on to sign to J Records. There he released his third studio album "I Wanna Go There" on December 10, 2002. His first single from the album and arguably his most successful single to date "How You Gonna Act Like That" debuted on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 7.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: On December 12, 2006, Gibson released his fourth studio album, "Alter Ego", his first double-disc album. It was also his first album in which he debuts his rapping persona. The first single off the album was "One" debuting on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 26. The album itself is considered Gibson's lowest selling album to date. In 2007, Gibson, Ginuwine, and Tank founded TGT.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: After taking time from music to focus on his family and his highly successful acting career, Gibson decided it was time to return to music. In 2011, he signed himself and his newly founded label Voltron Recordz to EMI and announced he was working on a new album titled "Open Invitation". On August 16, 2011, Gibson released the lead single "Stay". The music video for the single featured fellow actor, friend and "Baby Boy" co-star Taraji P. Henson. It peaked on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 11. The second single "Too Easy" featured fellow actor, friend and rapper Ludacris. It peaked on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 38. The third single "Nothing On You" peaked on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 61. "Open Invitation" was released on November 1, 2011. It debuted on the US "Billboard" 200 albums chart at No. 9, sold 130,000 copies in its first week and has gone on to sell over 400,000 copies. In 2013, the album earned Gibson his third Grammy nomination at the 2013 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: In early 2013, it was announced and confirmed after much speculation that Gibson, Ginuwine, and Tank would be releasing their debut collaboration album, to be distributed by Atlantic Records. In 2014, Gibson released the album "Black Rose". A double album set was released in 2015. On July 10, 2015, "Black Rose" was released and had debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 77,000 copies, making it Gibson's first number one album of his career.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: In October 2017, Gibson worked on a project titled "Identity Theft", also returning to the alter-ego Black Ty. The album focuses more on his hip-hop roots, predicting that it will "change hip-hop."


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: When Gibson competed on season five of "The Masked Singer", interim host Niecy Nash introduced his character as "Porcupine," only for Gibson to tell her that his character preferred to be called "Robopine."


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson has a recurring role in two of the highest-grossing film series: "Fast & Furious" and "Transformers". His first role was in John Singleton's "Baby Boy" in 2001.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson plays Roman Pearce in the "Fast & Furious" film series. He first played Pearce alongside his best friend, the late Paul Walker, in 2003's "2 Fast 2 Furious", his second collaboration with Singleton. He returned as Roman Pearce in "Fast Five" (2011), "Fast & Furious 6" (2013), "Furious 7" (2015), "The Fate of the Furious" (2017), and "F9" (2021).


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson portrays Sergeant Robert Epps in the "Transformers" film series. In 2007, with the cast of Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Megan Fox, Anthony Anderson and Jon Voight, with star Shia LaBeouf, "Transformers" went on to make nearly $710 million worldwide. It was directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. Steven Spielberg served as the executive producer. Gibson reprised his role in the sequels "" (2009) and "" (2011). Gibson was supposed to return as Epps in "" (2017), but was unable to appear due to scheduling conflicts with "The Fate of the Furious".


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: In 2005, Singleton and Gibson collaborated for the third time when Gibson co-starred in the action-crime drama "Four Brothers" alongside Mark Wahlberg.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: In 2009, Gibson co-created a three-issue comic book titled "Tyrese Gibson's MAYHEM!" after being inspired from his visit to Comic Con.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: On May 8, 2012, Gibson released his first book, titled "How to Get Out of Your Own Way". It went on to be a "New York Times" bestseller. On February 5, 2013, Gibson co-authored his second book along with close personal friend Rev. Run titled "Manology: Secrets of Your Man's Mind Revealed", which also went on to be a "New York Times" best seller.


title: Tyrese Gibson

text: Gibson was married to Norma Mitchell from 2007 to 2009, and the couple had one child, a daughter, born in 2007. He married Samantha Lee on February 14, 2017. Their daughter was born on October 1, 2018. In December 2020, Gibson and Lee announced they were divorcing.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios' games before beginning development of their own software in 1993 with games like "Rock n' Roll Racing" and "The Lost Vikings". In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and eventually Blizzard Entertainment after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard released "".


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Since then, Blizzard Entertainment has created several "Warcraft" sequels, including highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" in 2004, as well as three other multi-million selling video game franchises: "Diablo," "StarCraft" and "Overwatch". Their most recent projects include the expansion for "Diablo III", ""; the online collectible card game "Hearthstone;" the multiplayer online battle arena "Heroes of the Storm;" the third and final expansion for "", ""; the multiplayer first-person hero shooter "Overwatch;" and the eighth expansion for "World of Warcraft", "." The games are operated through online gaming service Battle.net.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: On July 9, 2008, Activision merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company. On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from majority owner Vivendi. As a result, Activision Blizzard became a completely independent company. Since 2018, the company's reputation has suffered from a series of poorly received games, controversies involving players and staff, and allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct against leading Blizzard employees.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard Entertainment hosts annual gaming conventions for fans to meet and to promote their games: the first BlizzCon was held in October 2005, and since then, all of the conventions have been held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. BlizzCon features game-related announcements, previews of upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games and content, Q&A sessions and panels, costume contests, and playable versions of various Blizzard games. Blizzard WorldWide Invitationals were events similar to BlizzCon held in South Korea and France between 2004 and 2008.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse in February 1991, after all three had earned their bachelor's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, the year prior. The name "Silicon & Synapse" was a high concept from the three founders, with "silicon" representing the building block of a computer, while "synapse" the building block of the brain. The initial logo was created by Stu Rose. To fund the company, each of them contributed about $10,000, Morhaime borrowing the sum interest-free from his grandmother. During the first two years, the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I" and "Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess". In 1993, the company developed games such as "Rock n' Roll Racing" and "The Lost Vikings" (published by Interplay Productions).


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Around 1993, co-founder Adham told the other executives that he did not like the name "Silicon & Synapse" anymore, as people outside the company were confusing the meaning of silicon the chemical element used in microchips with silicone the materials used in breast implants. By the end of 1993, Adham changed the name to "Chaos Studios", reflecting on the haphazardness of their development processes.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: In early 1994, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for $6.75 million ($ million today). Shortly after this point, they were contacted by a Florida company, Chaos Technologies, who wanted the company to pay () to keep the name. Not wanting to pay that sum, the executives decided to change the studio's name to "Ogre Studios" by April 1994. However, Davidson & Associates did not like this name, and forced the company to change it. According to Morhaime, Adham began running through a dictionary from the start, writing down any word that seemed interesting and passing it to the legal department to see if it had any complications. One of the first words they found to be interesting and cleared the legal check was "blizzard", leading them to change their name to "Blizzard Entertainment" by May 1994.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Shortly thereafter, Blizzard Entertainment shipped their breakthrough hit "", a real-time strategy (RTS) game in a high-fantasy setting.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard Entertainment has changed hands several times since then. Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On-Line by a company called CUC International in 1996. CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger. Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line (which included Blizzard) to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard, at this point numbering about 200 employees, became part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: In 1996, Blizzard Entertainment acquired Condor Games of San Mateo, California, which had been working on the action role-playing game (ARPG) "Diablo" for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, with Blizzard's main headquarters in Irvine renamed to Blizzard South to distinguish the two. "Diablo" was released at the very start of 1997 alongside Battle.net, a matchmaking service for the game. Blizzard North developed the sequel "Diablo II" (2000), and its expansion pack "" (2001). Following these releases, a number of key staff from Blizzard North departed for other opportunities, such as Bill Roper. Blizzard's management mentioned made the decision August 2005 to consolidate Blizzard North into Blizzard South, relocating staff to the main Blizzard offices in Irvine, and subsequently dropping the "Blizzard South" name.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Following the success of "", Blizzard began development on a science-fiction themed RTS "StarCraft" and released the title in March 1998. The title was the top-selling PC game for the year, and led to further growth of the Battle.net service and the use of the game for esports. Around 2000, Blizzard engaged with Nihilistic Software to work on a version of "StarCraft" for home consoles for Blizzard. Nihilisitic was co-founded by Robert Huebner, who had worked on "StarCraft" and other games while a Blizzard employee before leaving to found the studio. The game, "", was a stealth-oriented game compared to the RTS features of "StarCraft", and was a major feature of the 2002 Tokyo Game Show. However, over the next few years, the game entered development hell with conflicts between Nihilisitic and Blizzard on its direction. Blizzard ordered Nihilistic to stop work on "StarCraft: Ghost" in July 2004, and instead brought on Swingin' Ape Studios, a third-party studio that had just successfully released "" in 2003, to reboot the development of "Ghost". Blizzard fully acquired Swingin' Ape Studios in May 2005 to continue on "Ghost". However, while the game was scheduled to be released in 2005, it was targeted at the consoles of the sixth generation, such as the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, while the industry was transitioning to the seventh generation. Blizzard decided to cancel "Ghost" rather than extend its development period to work on the newer consoles.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard started to work on a sequel to the "Warcraft II" in early 1998, which was announced as a "role-playing strategy" game. "," the third title set in the "Warcraft" fictional universe, was released in July 2002. "Warcraft III" has inspired many future games, having the influence on real-time strategy and multiplayer online battle arena genre. Many of the characters, locations and concepts introduced in "Warcraft III" and went on to play major roles in numerous future Blizzard's titles.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles, "The Lost Vikings", "Rock n' Roll Racing" and "Blackthorne", from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them for the Game Boy Advance handheld console.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard Entertainment released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the "Warcraft" franchise, on November 23, 2004, in North America, and on February 11, 2005, in Europe. By December 2004, the game was the fastest-selling PC game in the United States, and by March 2005, had reached 1.5 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard partnered with Chinese publisher The9 to publish and distribute "World of Warcraft" in China, as foreign companies could not directly publish into the country themselves. "World of Warcraft" launched in China in June 2005. By the end of 2007, "World of Warcraft" was considered a global phenomenon, having reached over 9 million subscribers and exceeded in revenue since its release. In April 2008, "World of Warcraft" was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. Blizzard's staff quadrupled from around 400 employees in 2004 to 1600 by 2006 to provide more resources to the game and its various expansions, and Blizzard moved their headquarters to 16215 Alton Parkway in Irvine, California in 2007 to support the additional staff.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: With the success of "World of Warcraft", Blizzard Entertainment organized the first BlizzCon fan convention in October 2005 held at the Anaheim Convention Center. The inaugural event drew about 6,000 people and became an annual event which Blizzard uses to announce new games, expansions, and content for its properties.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Up through 2006, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, had been working to rebound the company from near-bankruptcy, and had established a number of new studios. However, Activision lacked anything in the MMO market. Kotick saw that "World of Warcraft" was bringing in over a year in subscription fees, and began approaching Vivendi's CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy about potential acquisition of their struggling Vivendi Games division, which included Blizzard Entertainment. Lévy was open to a merger, but would only allow it if he controlled the majority of the combined company, knowing the value of "World of Warcraft" to Kotick. Among those Kotick spoke to for advice included Blizzard's Morhaime, who told Kotick that they had begun establishing lucrative in-roads into the Chinese market. Kotick accepted Lévy's deal, with the deal approved by shareholders in December 2007. By July 2008, the merger was complete, with Vivendi Games effectively dissolved except for Blizzard Entertainment, and the new company was named Activision Blizzard.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Blizzard established a distribution agreement with the Chinese company NetEase in August 2008 to publish Blizzard's games in China. The deal focused on "" which was gaining popularity as an esport within southeast Asia, as well as for other Blizzard games with the exception of "World of Warcraft", still being handled by The9. The two companies established the Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology for managing the games within China. Blizzard and The9 prepared to launch the "World of Warcraft" expansion "", but the expansion came under scrutiny by China's content regulation board, the General Administration of Press and Publication, which rejected publication of it within China in March 2009, even with preliminary modifications made by The9 to clear it. Rumors of Blizzard's dissatisfaction with The9 from this and other previous complications with "World of Warcraft" came to a head when, in April 2009, Blizzard announced it was terminating its contract with The9, and transferred operation of "World of Warcraft" in China to NetEase.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: They released an improved version of Battle.net (Battle.net 2.0) in March 2009 which included improved matchmaking, storefront features, and better support for all of Blizzard's existing titles particularly "World of Warcraft".


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, "World of Warcraft" subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the end of 2006, prior to "" expansion. However, "World of Warcraft" is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of "World of Warcraft". Mike Morhaime accepted the award.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Following the merger, Blizzard found it was relying on its well-established properties, but at the same time, the industry was experiencing a shift towards indie games. Blizzard established a few small teams within the company to work on developing new concepts based on the indie development approach that it could potentially use. One of these teams quickly came onto the idea of a collectible card game based on the "Warcraft" narrative universe, which ultimately became "Hearthstone", released as a free-to-play title in March 2014. "Hearthstone" reached over 25 million players by the end of 2014, and exceeded 100 million players by 2018.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Another small internal team began work around 2008 on a new intellectual property known as "Titan", a more contemporary or near-future MMORPG that would have co-existed alongside "World of Warcraft". The project gained more visibility in 2010 as a result of some information leaks. Blizzard continued to speak on "Titan"s development over the next few years, with over 100 people within Blizzard working on the project. However, "Titan"s development was troubled, and, internally, in May 2013, Blizzard cancelled the project (publicly reporting this in 2014), and reassigned most of the staff but left about 40 people, led by Jeff Kaplan, to either come up with a fresh idea within a few weeks or have their team reassigned to Blizzard's other departments. The small team came upon the idea of a team-based multiplayer shooter game, reusing many of the assets from "Titan" but set in a new near-future narrative. The new project was greenlit by Blizzard and became known as "Overwatch", which was released in May 2016. "Overwatch" became the fourth main intellectual property of Blizzard, following "Warcraft", "Starcraft", and "Diablo".


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: In addition to "Hearthstone" and "Overwatch", Blizzard Entertainment continued to produce sequels and expansions to its established properties during this period, including "" (2010) and "Diablo III" (2012). Their major crossover title, "Heroes of the Storm", was released as a MOBA game in 2015. The game featured various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on "Warcraft", "Diablo", "StarCraft", and "Overwatch" universes. In the late 2010s, Blizzard released "" (2017) and "" (2020)"," remastered versions of the original "StarCraft" and "Warcraft III," respectively"."


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: The May 2016 release of "Overwatch" was highly successful, and was the highest-selling game on PC for 2016. Several traditional esport events had been established within the year of "Overwatch" release, such as the Overwatch World Cup, but Blizzard continued to expand this and announced the first esports professional league, the Overwatch League at the 2016 BlizzCon event. The company purchased a studio at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, that it converted into a dedicated esports venue, the Blizzard Arena, to be used for the Overwatch League and other events. The inaugural season of the Overwatch League launched on January 10, 2018, with 12 global teams playing. By the second season in 2019 it had expanded the League to 20 teams, and with its third season in 2020, it will have these teams traveling across the globe in a transitional home/away-style format.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: In 2012, Blizzard Entertainment had 4,700 employees, with offices across 11 cities including Austin, Texas, and countries around the globe. , the company's headquarters in Irvine, California had 2,622 employees.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: On October 3, 2018, Mike Morhaime announced his plans to step down as the company president and CEO while remaining an advisor to the company; he formally left on April 7, 2019. Morhaime was replaced by J. Allen Brack, the executive producer on "World of Warcraft".


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Frank Pearce announced he would be stepping down as Blizzard's Chief Development Officer on July 19, 2019, though will remain in an advisory role similar to Morhaime. Michael Chu, lead writer on many of Blizzard's franchises including "Diablo", "Warcraft", and "Overwatch", announced he was leaving the company after 20 years in March 2020.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: On January 22, 2021, Activision transferred Vicarious Visions over to Blizzard Entertainment, stating that the Vicarious Visions team had better opportunity for long-term support for Blizzard. Vicarious had been working with Blizzard for about two years prior to this announcement on the planned remaster of "Diablo II", "", and according to Brack, it made sense to incorporate Vicarious into Blizzard for ongoing support of the game and for other "Diablo" games including "Diablo IV". Vicarious was completely merged into Blizzard by April 12, 2022.


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: In celebration of the company's 30th anniversary, Blizzard Entertainment released a compilation called "Blizzard Arcade Collection" in February 2021, for various video game platforms. The collection includes their three classic video games: "The Lost Vikings", "Rock n' Roll Racing," and "Blackthorne," each of which containing additional upgrades and numerous modern features.""


title: Blizzard Entertainment

text: Activision Blizzard was the subject of a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July 2021, asserting that for several years the management within Blizzard as well as Activision promoted a "frat boy" atmosphere that allowed and encouraged sexual misconduct towards female employees and discrimination in hiring practices. The lawsuit drew a large response from employees and groups outside of Activision Blizzard. In the wake of these events, Brack, one of the few individuals directly named in the suit, announced he was leaving Blizzard to "pursue new opportunities", and will be replaced by co-leads Jen Oneal, the lead of Vicarious Visions and the first woman in a leadership role for the company, and Mike Ybarra, a Blizzard executive vice president. Oneal announced in November 2021 that she would be leaving the company by the end of 2021, leaving Ybarra as the sole leader of Blizzard.