Imperial Manila (Filipino: Maynilang Imperyal) is a pejorative epithet used by sectors of Filipino society and non-Manileños to express the idea that all the affairs of the Philippines, whether in politics, economy and business or culture, are decided by what goes on in the capital region, Metro Manila, without considering the needs of the rest of the country, largely because of centralized government and urbanite snobbery.
[7]The term was used by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her 2006 State of the Nation Address, which she said has "slowed down progress, has become open to over-competition and oppressed the provinces and its people".
[14] Officials of the Mindanao-based group Moro Islamic Liberation Front have blamed "Imperial Manila" for making the Muslim Mindanao region the poorest in the country, stating that "the consequence of neocolonialism has deprived our people to run themselves unfettered and unhampered."
[citation needed] Metro Manila commuters, too, many of whom have had to leave their families in other parts of the country in order to look for work, suffer from the effects of traffic congestion.
[28][29] Notably, Tagalog-speakers themselves who are not from the capital region (e.g. Calabarzon or Mimaropa) are often derided as unsophisticated promdi (Tagalized form of "from the"; hicks or country bumpkins) because of their accent, grammar, vocabulary or rural customs.
[30] [W]e've left sacred and untouched, spotless and unsullied, the same centralist authority where near-absolute political power continues to reside: Imperial Manila.