The book is a 13-year (1979-1992) case study of the implementation process of the 1980 Intramuros Development Plan which guided the ‘orderly restoration and development of Intramuros as a monument to the Hispanic period of Philippine history’ (PD 1616: 1979). The case study covers two radically different political and legal systems: the martial law period (1979-1986) and the so-called period of ‘Restored Democracy’ from 1986 to 1992.”

 This is probably the first book ever written on land use planning in the Philippines (this is not a Guidebook), and thus, has to cover a lot of ground. It is comprehensive, covering planning at various levels of government, by different agencies involved, and for various configurations of land and different territories and property domains. The author also uses what has traditionally been meant by the term”.

 The book “…serves two purposes: to provide the definitions of planning terms and to list the references for planning sectors. The definitions were compiled primarily from public documents such as laws, implementing rules and regulations, executive orders, letters of instructions, guidelines, memorandum circulars, etc. Each definition is provided with a code that corresponds to a specific reference, classified under different headings to facilitate the identification of basic references for each planning sector/sub-sector.”