The local government of Manila and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) entered into a memorandum of agreement to achieve its vision of a "World-Class Global Capital City toward a Magnificent Manila."

Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan and DHSUD head Sec. Jerry Acuzar signed the agreement on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Mayor Honey said the collaboration with DHSUD will go beyond the city's Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP).

Also present in the signing ceremony were DHSUD Undersecretary Architect Henry Yap and delegates from the agency.

"As you highlight safety and resilience, or LIgtas at MAtibay (LIMA) na pabahay para sa lahat, rest assured that the City of Manila shares your aspirations of providing decent housing for all Manileños and Filipinos, as the cornerstone of improving the quality of their lives, and thus building our nation to its true potential," she said.

She said the creation of Manila CLUP will be at the core of the partnership for the urban transformation project called "Magnificent Manila" from now until 2035.

"As we now embark on the updating of our new CLUP, today's commitment between us ensures that, from day one, we will be working hand-in-hand. That we will be sharing knowledge and resources continuously as partners from its inception, to its refinement, and up to its final version," she noted.

"It will be our blueprint to achieve our vision: to reestablish Manila as a World Class Capital City. A Global city—of equal or even greater stature than our neighboring cities such as Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo," she added.

The plan, according to Lacuna, will guide not only the structural development of Manila, but the quality of life of all Manileños by promoting safe, vibrant, and walkable neighborhoods ensuring that all of them have decent and affordable housing in the world’s most densely- populated city.

The partnership, she said, will also help them provide essential social and utility amenities in all communities; preserve built heritage; protect water bodies, and create more parks, plazas, and green open areas; support economic development; optimize the efficiency of transport systems and peoples’ mobility; build up Manila’s strength as the education center; and guide the development potential of the many unique districts in the city.

"With the collaboration of the city and the DHSUD, what we are given here is a unique opportunity to jointly come up, not with a typical CLUP, but with an innovative and novel plan that gradually transforms our city from being merely liveable to becoming lively, and ultimately to becoming loveable. The plan is for the prime, or premiere city of the country—to serve as a model for other highly urbanized cities," Lacuna-Pangan added.

She said the MOU does not only establish a mere relationship but a collaborative and continuing partnership.