PROPERTY, PATRIMONY & TERRITORY

Foundations of Land Use Planning in the Philippines

CHAPTER 1
ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS RELATED TO LAND USE PLANNING

In this opening chapter, we look at three terms and the concepts which they evoke: land, land
use, and land use planning. Considered sequentially and defined incrementally these three
terms hold the key to understanding many other concepts that will be encountered in the rest of
this book.

CONCEPTS RELATED TO LAND

Land Defined
We are often hard to define the terms and concepts we use or encounter from day to day. One
such term is land. It is so common it forms part of our daily life. And we tend to take it for
granted – until we are forced to define it!

Fortunately, the dictionary comes to our rescue. In fact, the dictionary definition of land covers a
wide range of senses or perspectives in which the term maybe understood, from the
commonsensical to the technical, from the broad to the specific. In the following discussion we
look at land from the common sense, legal, economic and ecological perspectives. It may be
noted that, although each perspective represents an adequate characterization of the term
defined, relative to that particular point of view, there are certain conceptual and practical
limitations that hamper the full and complete understanding of the term. Defining land from a
particular perspective is not unlike the proverbial blind men trying to perceive an elephant:
Each man’s perception is correct in his own way but none is able to know what the animal is like
in its entity. And yet, a full and complete definition, if ever there was one, may be too
complicated it may not serve a useful purpose at all. Such an all-embracing definition is not
attempted in this work. The various definitions are presented rather as a menu from which to
select as a menu from which to select a starting point for anyone to erect the boundaries of
meaning that suits his or her purposes.

Common Sense. The common sense definition of land is that “that solid portion of the earth’s
surface” on which we stand, walk, build our homes, raise our gardens, or produce our crops.
This seems easy enough for everybody to understand. But when we look again, we realize that
there are certain concepts that need further elaboration. For example, just what is referred to as
the ‘solid’ part of the air (gas) which is also found on the earth’s surface? And what about water
in solid form such as the polar ice caps?

On the global scale, the solid portion of the earth’s surface refers to the 29% comprising 143
million square kilometers (55.168 million square miles) of land as distinct from the 71% of 367
million square kilometers (141.668 million square miles) of water. By this reckoning the polar
ice caps are included in the land portion. The simple reason, explains L. Dudley Stamp, is that at
prevailing temperatures the polar ice caps remain permanently solid. And what comprises the
“surface” of the earth? It refers to the thin outer layer of the earth’s crust which varies in
thickness from up to 32 km beneath the continental land mass to only 8 km below the ocean
floor or seabed. Although relatively “skin-deep” this conception of the earth’s surface offers little
practical significance except in the case of those interested in oil and gas or geothermal
exploration.
Another practical difficulty associated with the common sense definition of land is that when we
try to do the things we normally do like build our homes, raise our crops, etc. we realize we are
not free to do them on any land that comes within sight. There are geophysical, environmental,
social and economic factors that constrain us from making use of any piece of land we can find
around.

In reality, a large portion of the solid surface of the earth is practically “useless”. The thick ice
that covers most of the north and south poles and the soil underneath are unfit for normal
human habitation or any form of productive activity. So are the vast expanses of desert that gird
the northern Continental Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and western North America. Then,
too, there are very steep cliffs and deep ravines that are almost inaccessible. Even areas that are
relatively easy to reach are either too barren, rocky and dry, or too wet, soggy and soft. Between
these lands under extreme environmental conditions there are the “good” lands: flat, deep,
fertile soils with adequate water, good drainage and abundant sunlight. But when we want to
make use of them we find that they are no longer freely available. Somebody else may already
be occupying and using them or else have erected a fence around them and hung a threatening
sign “Private property, no trespassing”.

Suddenly we realize the insufficiency of the common sense definition and the need to look at
land from some other points of view. Let us try next the legal perspective.

Legal sense. From the legal standpoint land is defined as any good ground, soil or earth that is
regarded as the subject of ownership, and everything annexed to it whether by nature (e.g.
trees, water) or by man (e.g. buildings, crops) extending indefinitely vertically upwards and
downwards.

This is much more restrictive definition. The operative term from this perspective is “subject of
ownership”. What ground, soil or portion of the earth cannot be owned publicly or privately has
little meaning in law for Polanyi has said, land is not simply a physical entity but also “an
element of nature inextricably interwoven with man’s institutions”. How land came to be
regarded as property is discussed in greater detail further down in this section while the
evolution of property rights in the Philippines is treated in Chapter 3. For now, let us look at the
other implications and ramifications of land as “being owned” by man.

Whoever owns land also owns everything annexed to it either by nature or by man. Such
ownership rights extend above and below the surface vertically to an indefinite extent. This is
the principle that entitles you to pick the fruits of your neighbor’s mango tree that spreads its
branches out into your yard. This is the same principle that empowers your neighbor to stop
you from extending your roof so that its drain does not fall directly into his yard. By the same
principle, owners of large urban land parcels are able to build high-rise constructions and utilize
several levels of basement for car park or additional shop floor. How far upwards and
downwards the surface owner can effectively exercise his rights has technical, practical and
legal limits. For example, the right of the surface owner over the air space above his land and
can be curtailed by existing building height regulations particularly along approaches to
airports or in conjunction with land-use zoning. When we buy a unit in a high-rise condominium
we find our rights confined within the four walls and from floor to ceiling. But even when no
height regulations are in place, how high can we really build to make use of our air space?

Upwards there is virtually no limit. But the prevailing building technology defines the limit at
any given time. In the Genesis narrative (11:1-9) we read of a temple tower that “reaches to the
heavens”. According to the story, the tower was not completed because the builders could not
reach a consensus among themselves. Considering the level of building technology at the time
(hardened brick bonded with bitumen) commentators estimate the height of the tower to be no
more than 21 meters (70 feet) or only 7-8 storeys. Today skyscrapers, cathedral spires,
communication towers and minarets that easily dwarf the tower of Babel pierce the skylines of
major cities of the world. The technology barrier seems to have been overcome and yet the
tallest building to date is hardly half a kilometer high. The urge to build a structure higher than
the tallest one occasionally seizes some corporate boardrooms in an attempt to wrest the record
from the current holder and hold on to the dubious honor of having built the tallest building
until replaced by another one. So will there be an end to the spiraling display of arrogant power
and financial frivolity? The modern-day equivalent of the tower of Babel story is when some
sensible members of the board stands up to ask “What for?” and pricks the bubbling conceit in
everyone else’s head!

Downwards, the theoretical limit is the center of the earth for if we go past this point we start to
look upwards again. How deep is the center of the earth from the surface? The outermost layer
has a combined thickness of about 32 km of continental crust and 8 km of oceanic crust. The
base of the crust is the Mohorovicic discontinuity with an average thickness of 35 km. below this
layer is the mantle estimated to be 2,900 km thick. Finally, the earth’s core lies below the mantle
with a radius of 3,450 km or a total distance of about 6,417 km. Considering that the
temperature rise as we dig deeper, we can effectively use only a few tens of meters below the
surface of the earth. Even the underground railways of London, Paris and other metropolitan
cities which represent some of the most extensive uses of the underground, are limited in depth
to a few tens of meters. Probably the deepest human use of the underground is that of oil or gas
or geothermal drilling reaching down to a few kilometers.

Although the legal concept of land extends man’s rights theoretically from the center of the
earth to the highest heavens, man can actually exercise use rights over a finite and tiny fraction
of that distance, contrary to what “indefinitely vertically upwards and downwards” would
otherwise connote. Barlowe (1958) has a more realistic rendering of the legal definition as “the
sum total of the natural and man-made resources over which possession of the earth’s surface
gives control”. By this, Barlowe explains, land refers to “surface resources together with the thin
layer of subsurface and suprasurface resources man uses in his daily life”.

With the introduction of the term “resource” it is time to move over to the economic perspective
on land.

Economic sense. Land is a natural resource but it can also be “man-made”. As such it is often
regarded as a good or commodity that can be supplied to meet certain requirements for the
satisfaction of human wants.

In its natural pristine state when there were not too many people inhabiting the earth land was
in abundance. Anyone who wanted to use land simply availed of it as a free good. Nowadays,
land is already seen as a scarce resource. Land is scarce simply because the human population
keeps growing while the gross supply of land is fixed. Scarcity of land resources can be further
appreciated if we consider the fact that not every bit of the earth’s solid surface has immediate
value for human use. As earlier discussed, some areas are too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry,
too steep or too stogy for human habitation and utilization. To the extent that these areas are
excluded to the supply of usable land resources the scarcity of land is aggravated. To be sure,
land supply can be augmented through the introduction of human labor and investment of
capital such as reclamation, land drainage, terracing, urban renewal and redevelopment. But
these efforts though socially significant, may not make a dent on the total global supply of land.

There is a social dimension to land scarcity that is, the unequal distribution of property rights
on land. Few powerful clans and rich families have appropriated too much land for themselves,
especially the good productive lands, leaving the marginal ones to be divided up by the majority.
Often many people end up not having share at all.
Scarcity in land resources creates a market in land. If a free market exists, the reallocation of
land is done through the price mechanism. In this way becomes an economic good; its supply
responds to demand and price factors. If a free market does not exist and demand for a land
continues, reallocation may involve the operation of public policy. This latter point will be
picked up in the section on land use planning below.

Why is there demand for land?

Like any other consumer point of view land is needed either as a consumption good or as a
factor of production or both.

Like any other consumer product, land is regarded as consumption good when it is used or
enjoyed in a way that no further production or processing is required. In other words, the use or
enjoyment of the land is the end in itself. As a consumption good, land may be enjoyed in its raw,
natural state or procured in a processed form. The former is associated with outdoor recreation
or ecotourism activities such as trekking through wilderness or wildlife reserves, photo safari,
bird watching, picnic in the park, and the like. Land consumed in processed form includes
services subdivision lots, a gentleman’s farm, a parking slot, a golf course, a condominium unit,
and the like.

As a factor of production, land is taken along with capital, labor and management. The
traditional understanding of land as a production factor is that it provides the physical base, the
platform, site or location where the manufacturing plant, a shopping mall, or an office tower
block is erected. In addition, there are certain types of production activities wherein land not
only serves as the physical base but also as a direct input in the production process. These
activities that are associated with resource extraction such as crop growing, livestock raising,
dairying, fisheries, mining and quarrying.

The distinction between these two dimensions of land as a factor of production has important
implications. The consideration of land as a site or platform of production activities is associated
with urban types of land uses that entail construction of one or other form of structure.
Depending on the specific use intended for a particular structure, whether for residential,
commercial, industrial, and the like, certain characteristics of the site are required. But in
general, when urban land is to be used as a site for urban-type activities, two attributes of the
land parcel are of critical importance: its load-bearing capacity and its location. Load-bearing
capacity is a composite of physical characteristics of the land that determines its ability to
withstand the weight of objects placed on or over it. Some of the relevant physical determinants
include shrink-swell properties and internal drainage of the soil as well as the type and
structure of the subsurface rock formation. (See Chapter 2 for more detailed discussion of
physical determinants). The economic significance of the load-bearing capacity of the candidate
site for urban-type activities is that it affects the investment cost, particularly the cost of laying
out building foundations. A soft unstable substratum entails a considerable addition to the
investment cost including that of engineering interventions such as pile driving to ensure the
integrity of the structure to be built.

When the integrity of the structural foundation is compromised other costs, in addition to the
added investment cost, are incurred as well. A good example is a power plant in Cebu Island
which was built on a bedrock of limestone. After the initial test run the foundations for the
heavy machinery cracked up. Foreign experts had to be imported to introduce corrective
measures thus resulting in considerable time and cost overruns before the facility was brought
to full operation.
The important attribute of land as a site for urban activities is its location or geographical
position. The five determinants of urban land value as formulated by Eugene F. Brigham,
namely, accessibility, amenity, topography, utilization, and historical factors are each a function
of the location of a particular urban site. Accessibility is the relative ease with which the site
occupants can reach other activity areas of the city and conversely, other city residents reach
the site. A given site may be accessible by virtue of its physical proximity to a particular activity
center like a shopping mall, city hall, a public park, or a university. Accessibility of a site may
also be determined by its proximity to a road or street. Amenity is the over-all pleasantness of
the environment in which the site is located. It is a function, among others, of its topography and
its utilization. Thus, an elevated site overlooking most of the city, or waterfront location
normally is a highly prized property especially for residential development. On the other hand, a
site that is prone to flooding or that is situated beside a garbage dump, an abattoir, or a public
cemetery will have a depressed land value. Historical factors, on the other hand, pertain to the
succession of past uses of the site and of the area. This indicates whether the existing or
intended use is still appropriate. Where the intended use is different from the current use the
cost of conversion will add to the value of the site. Homer Hoyt found a number of site or area
characteristics that make it a prized location for residential development, as follows:

1. High-grade residential growth tends to proceed from the given point of origin, along
established lines of travel or toward another existing nucleus of buildings or trading centers.

2. The zone of high rent areas to progress toward high ground which is free from risk of floods
and to spread along lake, bay, river, and ocean fronts, where such water fronts are not used
for industry.

3. High rent residential districts tend to grow toward the section of the city which has free
open country beyond the edges and away from the “dead end” sections which are limited by
natural or artificial barriers to expansion.

4. The high-priced residential neighborhood tends to grow toward the homes of the leaders of
the community.

5. Trends of movement of office buildings, banks, and stores pull the higher-priced residential
neighborhoods in the same direction.

6. High-grade residential areas tend to develop along the fastest existing transportation lines.

7. The growth of high-rent neighborhoods continues in the same direction for a long period of
time.

8. De luxe high-rent apartment areas tend to be established near the business center in old
residential areas.

In contrast to the concept of land as site for productive urban activities, land may serve as a
direct input in the production process. This pertains to activities that are often regarded as
“rural” occupations. The critical land characteristics for this type of activities are soil fertility
and climate in the case of crop growing and livestock raising; water quality and nutrient load on
the case of fisheries; and the quality and quantity of mineral deposits in the case of mining and
quarrying. One underlying feature of these land attributes is that they are nature-given and the
production process making use of these attributes as inputs must proceed according to the
“rhythm and harmony” of nature. Of course, with technology and material inputs the productive
capacity of nature can be enhanced. But there is a limit to how far man can interfere with
natural process. With improved seed varieties, fertilizers and pesticides and other inputs it has
become possible to increase the yield of agricultural crops tremendously. It is the production
time – from seed germination to harvest time, from fish spawning to maturity, the conversion
from fodder grass to milk in the dairy cow’s digestive system, the forging of metals in the deep
furnace of the earth – that is pretty much ordained by nature and there is precious little that
man can do to shorten or “crash” that process. Moreover, because the production process is very
dependent on the elements of nature, each plant, each fish, each animal must have a share of
soil, water, air, sunlight, rain, natural vegetation, and space to grow. Therefore, the stocking
density may not exceed the limit that nature can sustainably support.

Land used as mere site for productive activities, on the other hand, is not subject to these
natural constraints. With the exception of the load-bearing capacity of the land as discussed
above, almost everything else from nature is irrelevant to urban-type production processes.

With production in urban land being largely independent of nature, it is possible to produce
more per unit of time (e.g. modern manufacturing) and per unit of space (e.g. multi-storey
construction) than when land is devoted to rural type of production. It is in the sense that land
used as site is more profitable than land used as soil. This essential difference is often cited by
property owners or developers as the rationale for seeking the conversion of agricultural lands
to urban use the social and environmental implications of agricultural land conversion are
discussed elsewhere below.

Ecological sense. This is the most extensive, all-inclusive definition of land. The dictionary
defines land from this perspective as “the natural environment and its attributes”. The natural
attributes of land include the macro- and micro- climate, hydrology and other climatic
conditions; the geology, topography and soils; and the plant and animal communities that live in
it. What about man? We might as well ask. Is man included in this definition of land?

The answer seems to be both yes and no. yes, to the extent that human populations are regarded
as part of the animal communities that live on the earth. But there is a notion of man as being
detached or apart from nature. It is in this sense that human or man-made is to be distinguished
from natural. This distinction can be extended into understanding the green (forest, wildlife)
and blue (aquatic, marine) environments as basically natural and the brown (socio-economic)
environment as man-made. This conceptual difference is further applied in the definitions of
land use discussed elsewhere below.

Broad Concepts of Land

To summarize the above discussion, we conceive of land as any or all of the following: as natural
resource, as a factor of production or economic good, as property, and as territory. Perhaps it is
more accurate to say that these broad concepts represent various dimensions of the over-all
concept of land.

Land as a natural resource. Land as a natural resource can be a limited concept in that it is a
subset of nature-given resources as distinguished from other natural resources categories such
as water, air, forests, minerals, wildlife and the like. This is nowhere more clearly illustrated
than in the distribution of functional responsibility for each of these categories among the
respective bureaus of the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

As defined in the preceding section however, land can be a broader concept than natural
resource in that land embraces both nature-given elements and man-made attachments on, in,
over and under the surface of the earth. Land, or parts of it may not be considered as a resource
in that it may not have immediate or self-evident economic value. In its primeval state and with
its vegetative cover, it continues to provide some intrinsic environmental value. This intrinsic
value could be destroyed if land were developed and put to some other use than that in which it
came in nature. The introduction of human labor and capital on the land may bestow economic
value on the land but this may completely destroy its intrinsic value (e.g. logging of rainforest or
draining of mangrove swamps). The institutional and policy implications of this conceptual
delimitation are further explored beginning in Chapter 4.

Land as an economic good. Land is regarded variously as a consumption good such as when it is
sold and bought either as raw land or as serviced subdivision lot. Land is also seen as a factor of
production in either of two senses: as a direct input in the production process, e.g. when it is
embedded with metallic or non-metallic minerals, a growth bed for agricultural crops, a grazing
or pasture land, and the like,; or as site or platform for such urban activities as manufacturing,
commercial space, office block, and the like.

Land as property. The notion of land as property is inherited from and propagated by Imperial
Rome which, according to David Richards, decreed “arrogant laws by which Mother Earth is
permitted to be ‘owned’ by her offspring”. From Rome the idea travelled to all countries that
had come under Roman rule including Spain and England. It was the Spaniards and later the
Americans (who were a colony of England) who institutionalized private property in land in the
Philippines.

Absolute private property of land or freehold actually can be traced back to the earliest
civilizations in the Near East. It is said that the Canaanites worshipped their autocratic kings
who owned and controlled earthly estates on behalf of their gods of nature. Among these nature
god-king worshippers were the sea-faring traders of Tyre in Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) who
established the North African colony of Carthage (modern Tunisia) and there implanted their
land laws. Following the defeat of Carthage by Rome in the Punic Wars, these land laws were in
turn adopted by the Roman Republic which spread them throughout the Roman Empire.

Richard goes on to say that an older tenure system pre-dated the concept of private ownership.
This system that prevailed among tribal societies is that of land as social property. Under this
system, society, not the individual, regulated and allocated the land. The right to use land by
every member as a birthright. Land, then, was held in common for the benefit of everyone and
not for the benefit of a small class. The exclusionary powers of private property ownership were
totally alien to traditional societies.

Today despite the widespread application of private property social property in land may still
be found among many indigenous tribes in the Philippines. (See Chapter 3 and Chapter 7.)

Land as property is different from other objects and chattels that are equally the subject of
ownership. When we say we own the land it is not the land as physical entity that we possess for
land is immovable. Rather it is a number of interests or rights in land which we hold either
separately or together. If held together, such rights are conceived of as a “bundle of rights”
which can come in varying sizes. The most comprehensive of these rights is also known as
ownership in fee simple. A fee simple owner has the right to possess, use, misuse and even
destroy his land. He can dispose of his land by giving it away, or selling or leasing it. He can
exchange it for other lands or for other or for other things or mortgage it in the bank. He can
pass it on to his heirs or grant easements to other persons for particular uses. And he exercises
all these rights to the exclusion of all other persons. But although the fee simple owner holds
exclusive rights these rights are not absolute. Individual ownership rights are always limited by
the over-all interests of society as administered by the State. In this sense, only the sovereign or
the State can claim and exercise absolute rights of property ownership.

Land as territory. The exercise by the state of its absolute rights of ownership over land extends
to a geographical area known as territory. The territorial jurisdiction of a State covers the land
within its boundary limits, over its inland and territorial waters, and to a reasonable extent,
over the space above and subsoil below such land and waters, and over all persons and things
within those areas subject to its control (as on its vessels in the high seas or its aircraft on the
air). Because the ownership rights exercised by the State over its territory cover not only land,
broadly defined, but also all persons within it, such ownership rights are expanded beyond the
concept of property to that of sovereignty.

Immanuel Wallerstein defines State sovereignty as a double claim, inward and outward.
Inward-looking sovereignty “is the assertion that within its boundaries the State may pursue
whatever policies it deems wise, decree whatever laws it deems necessary, and that it may do
this without any individual, group or sub-state structure inside the state having the right to
refuse to obey the laws”. Sovereignty of the State, outward-looking, adds Wallerstein, “is the
argument that no other State has the right to exercise any authority, directly or indirectly,
within the boundaries of a given State, since such an attempt would constitute a breach of the
given State’s sovereignty.

The critical role of land as territory in the effective exercise of State sovereignty cannot be over-
emphasized. To be sure the delineation of territorial boundaries is not the sole prerogative of
nation states. Any group of people say a tribe, a clan, a community or any sub-national political
unit such as a barangay, a municipal or city, or a province can claim exclusive rights to a
territory. The question is, on what basis or by what right may a certain group of people draw a
line on any portion of the earth’s surface and claim that all the land and everything enclosed
within the polygon belongs to them?

The basic rationale of the territorial claim of any group of people derives from the absolute need
for its members to have a space in which to carry on their activities for living, for making a
living, and all other chores essential to attaining acceptable levels of individual and collective
well-being. Moreover, they should be able to do these in a manner consistent their shared
values and socially accepted norms of behavior. Hence, the group ought to have exclusive tights
over their territory. But how large a territory must be entitled to? Why do some few individuals
and families own so much land and while the vast majority have so little or nothing? Why do
some nations exercise sovereignty over a vast territory while many others have so small? Even
among sub-national units, many provinces, cities and municipalities have territories immensely
disproportionate to their population size. Just how much land does man really need?

The Russian writer Anton Checkov attempted to answer the question. In his satirical story
“Three Arshins of Land”, Checkov got his protagonist into an irresistible deal. He was to walk
from sunrise to sundown and all the land he could enclose would be his for free. The protagonist
was so overwhelmed with excitement that he could not sleep on the eve of the enclosure. During
the actual walk he was fired even more with greed that he passed up on lunch and snack breaks
which he was perfectly allowed to take. By mid-afternoon he was not walking anymore – he was
jogging! Then in a final race against the setting sun he summoned all his strength and made a
mighty dash to the place where he began. There and then he fell and died. They measured “three
arshins” (7 feet) of land on the same spot and buried him. That was all the land he needed.

Of course, we can argue that we need much more land or space than that, what with all the
things that we have to do which require the use of land long before we are consigned to the
grave. To determine the per capita land requirement concededly very difficult but it is not
impossible.

Ideally the per capita land requirements should be the basis for determining the size of territory
that any nation or sub-national unit is entitled to. Then those who have far too much will have to
give up part of their territory and retain only what is in proportion to their population.
Consequently, those who have too little will have enough. Unfortunately, thus procrustean ideal
is not being followed in the delineation of private property, much less of political boundaries.
According to T. Nicolaus Tideman the territorial claim of nations, and sub-national units for that
matter, are currently justified by either or both of the following principles:
1. That might makes right, and
2. That the claim is in accord with history

The operation of these two principles especially of the first one, lies beneath the current reality
of unequal sharing of the earth’s surface among members of the human race. In the majority of
cases existing territorial boundaries have been drawn as a consequence of conflicts. Where the
conflict is in between equal forces, the boundary line is most probably fixed by mutual
agreement. In the case of unequal contests, the boundary line configuration always follows the
stipulations of the strong upon the weak. Under the principle that might makes right boundary
becomes temporary, lasting only for as long as the parties involved are able to defend their
claim against potential challenges. “Changing conditions” , Tideman explains, “lead potential
claimants to think it likely that current boundaries would not prevail in showdown.” This is
because the principle might makes right removes from anyone the compunction to break the
peace and provoke a showdown to test the defensibility of existing borders. Tideman continues,
“If boundaries can be altered by conflict, then, under might-makes-right the new boundaries will
have the same justification that the old ones had.” If it is in any consolation, changing conditions
especially those in power relations, do not always result in conflict. Sometimes, it happens,
Tideman assures, that those in power diminishes recognize the changed conditions and concede
territory. This latter observation seems to have been validated in the recent case of the Baltic
States which regained their independence peacefully following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The might-makes-right principle finds adherents in various forms in the Philippines. The most
visible expression of this principle is demonstrated in the secessionist movement in Mindanao
and how the government handles it. Through peaceful political processes and secessionist
slowly gain concessions of territory from the central government. But they also seek to expand
their claim and back this up with armed force. They implant settlements in these claimed
territories and call them “camps”. Every now and then their armed elements come into
confrontation with the government’s armed forces. Depending on the outcome of the conflict
the political map of Mindanao continues to be drawn and redrawn.

Another form of the might-makes-right principle is seen in the activities of land grabbers. They
fenced off large chunks of property, including areas of the public domain, and through means
more foul than fair secure titles to their claim. They thus enforce their claim with the might of
their connections to the seat of power backed up by no less than the police and their own
private armies.

In its less belligerent form but with no less pernicious consequences, might-is-right is used to
extract rent-seeking privileges from the State. It is a well-known fact that some favored
individuals were able to get timber concessions far in excess of the limits set in the Constitution.
This is repeated in other sectors of natural resources such as mining, fisheries, grazing and
pasture, and plantation agriculture. Many of the issues of environmental degradation and social
justice can be traced to these excessive privileges enjoyed by the “mighty” in the allocation of
property rights and extraction of economic benefits from natural resources.

The other principle that justifies existing territorial claims is that the delineated boundaries are
historical. No matter how inequitable or irrational some territories seem to be they are
invariably justified by making an appeal to history. This principle is often cited as an argument
by both sides to a boundary dispute. The trouble with this argument is that both parties to a
conflict cannot agree on how far back in time or what specific date in the past to adopt as the
day of reckoning. In a patently unequal delineation the side that is benefited will usually
propose a freeze on redelineation and insist on recognition of the existing boundary. The
aggrieved party will naturally refuse to accept the proposal. A stand-off occurs until the issue is
resolved through a resort to the might-is-right principle.

In the Philippines the problem of boundary disputes prevails at all administrative levels, i.e.
between two barangays, between two cities/municipalities, or between two provinces. The
magnitude of this problem can be appreciated from the fact that there is hardly any province,
city, or municipality where there no boundary disputes. Despite the pervasiveness of the
problem of the problem however, there seems to be very little initiative among those concerned
to settle their boundary disputes. One of the major reasons for a stand-off is that the land area of
the LGUs is one of the bases for the allocation of the Internal Revenue Allotment and so
disputant LGUs are reluctant to disturb or alter the status quo for fear of possible reduction in
their IRA allocations. The implication of this impasse is that there is double counting of the
territories under dispute thereby rewarding the disputants with additional IRA allocation, and
correspondingly penalizing the LGUs without boundary disputes. This can be deuced from the
fact that the aggregate of the reported land areas of all municipalities, cities and provinces is
306,936.3 square kilometers. This is in excess of the 30 million hectares estimated land area of
the country by 693,630 hectares. Clearly, there is an unfairness that ought to be rectified.

Another major reason for the lack of interest among local officials to settle their boundary
disputes is the absence of technical basis for negotiations between the parties concerned. This
can be traced to various forms of defective textual and/or technical description in the
proclamations creating certain LGUs. In some case the boundary descriptions are so vague that
they can be subject of more than one interpretation. In other cases, the boundary markers are
either lost or deliberately mislaid and no attempt is made to relocate or restore them. In many
cases, there are no supporting maps in support of the land area of the LGU that is certified to by
the Land Management Bureau.

The policy and procedures for settlement of boundary disputes are spelled out in Rule III of the
Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7160. The said Rule states that the settlement
proceedings shall be initiated by the political officials. But due to the afore-cited reasons no one
seems to want to take the initiative, at the same time, the DENR has taken the stance of waiting
for requests for technical assistance. Hence, the hiatus.

In an unequal situation the party that derives more benefits is naturally interested in keeping
the deadlock last indefinitely. But this only perpetuates the injustice inflicted on that side whose
claim is the just one. There is a chance that those who are aggrieved have history on their side
but do not have the might to make their historical claim prevail.

The procedure for settlement of boundary disputes prescribed in the Local Government Code
has exhorted LGUs to use amicable means to resolve their territorial disputes. The initiative
shall be taken jointly by the legislative bodies of LGUs of the same level or by the next higher
level. This is to avoid both the innocuousness of the appeal-to-history principle and the
iniquitousness of the might-makes-right principle.

How many LGUs involved in boundary disputes are voluntarily taking the move to resolve their
disputes amicably?

CONCEPTS RELATED TO LAND USE

Land Use Defined

Like the concept of land the concept of land use can have a limited as well as an all-embracing
definition. In its restrictive sense, land use refers to those activities of man on, in, over and
under the earth’s surface that tend to change the natural state of the land. In its broad sense, in
contrast, the concept of land use embraces both uses that are placed by nature, e.g. vegetative
cover, mineral deposits, wildlife and fishes, and those introduced by man. Some authors (Kaiser,
et. Al., for example), use the term land cover to mean nature-attached and reserve land use for
man-introduced activities.

Land use vs. land utilization. Land use planners of all types use these two terms quite freely and
unreflectively. But isn’t it curious that an urban land use planner never uses the term “land
utilization”, only “land use”? On the other hand, the natural resource planner tends to use the
terms “land utilization” and “land use” interchangeably. On very few occasions we come across
this distinction made by natural resource planner: land use pertains to broad categories like
forest, agriculture, settlements, etc. whereas land utilization pertains to specific uses of smaller
areas like irrigated rice, coconut intercropped with ramie, tree farm, protection forest. Often
built into the latter definition is the type of management practice associated with a particular
use. This distinction is important for natural resource planning.

This way of distinguishing land use from land utilization unfortunately, does not have universal
application. At the urban scale, for instance, land utilization as earlier asserted, is never used. In
urban planning, land use is land use whether it refers to broad categories like residential,
industrial, commercial, institutional, or it pertains to specific uses to which individual parcels
are put like single-detached housing, shopping center, or a theme park.

Another key to the distinction between land use and land utilization, it seems to me, lies in
the role played by land in the particular activity that uses it. If land serves as soil (in the generic
sense), in which case land is a vital element, an input to or a condition of production, such as
forestry, cropping, grazing, etc., land utilization seems to be the appropriate term. On the other
hand, if land is used as site, a mere base or platform of activities like industrial, residential,
office, etc. the proper term seems to be land use. But let us not engage in such hair splitting too
much.

Land use conversion. Land use introduced by nature or land cover, if untouched, has the
capacity to renew itself. On the other hand, land use introduced by man usually creates
irreversible changes on the original character of the land. Man-introduced land uses often entail
conversion from one use to another.

The concept of land use conversion is a fascinating one. Often it is being thought of as a
unidirectional process: that man, in his desire to meet his needs actively and continually inflicts
changes on the surface of the earth. But the notion that nature is only a passive receiver if not a
victim of man’s onslaughts covers only half of the picture. Land use conversion may be seen
more appropriately as a tug-of-war between man and nature, both actively engaged in a
continuing contest to gain more ground. On the short term man appears to be gaining the upper
hand in converting forests into croplands, raw lands into settlements, wetlands into fishponds,
grasslands into ranches, and so on. In the long run nature is able to recover some lost ground
and restore these to their original character. Given long enough time nature will slowly but
surely cover with vegetation all the scars of devastation that man is able to inflict. The
restorative power of nature is very succinctly summarized by Carl Sandburg in his memorable
little poem “Grass”:
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo
Shovel them under and let me work –
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
 What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.

To properly understand the concept of land use conversion therefore, we must frame it within
the finite existence of man and not in the context of nature’s eternity.

Two types of land use conversion.

To start with, let us understand two types of land use conversion: reversible and irreversible. A
certain type of conversion is reversible if the soil cover and landforms are not substantially
changed and therefore present a variety of options for future reuse. For example, croplands can
be converted to improved pasture and reverted to croplands as the need arises. Timberlands,
properly logged-over can be brought back to healthy forest again. In the urban setting
residential areas can give way to commercial uses but when he need for more housing arises,
these commercial areas entirely or in part can accommodate residential uses.

Irreversible land use conversion on the other hand, occurs when the original character of the
land is changed to such a degree that reversal to its former use or condition becomes very
difficult if not impossible. Some common examples of irreversible conversion are an over-
logged rainforest, wetlands that had been drained or reclaimed, river dams and reservoirs
inundating entire villages, and strip and open pit mining and quarrying. The most outstanding
example of irreversible conversion is of course, the building of towns and cities and the
infrastructures that go with these on what used to be agricultural or forestlands. In this latter
case, the character of the land on which urban structures are constructed is completely changed
and may never revert to its original state. Thus we see that land used as a soil changed to
another use as soil represents a reversible conversion. Similarly, land used as site changed to
another use as site is also a reversible type of conversion. But once land used as soil changed to
land used as site the conversion is irreversible. The planning and policy implications of the
latter type of land use conversion are taken up further in Chapter 8.

Concept of Land Use Capacity

Land use capacity pertains to the practical limits to which a particular land unit can be put to
productive use. In economic terms, the economic use capacity pertains to the ability of a given
unit of land resource to produce a net return above the production costs associated with its use.
An associated concept is that of highest and best use. A piece of land is said to be in its highest
and best use when it is used in such a manner that it provides an optimum return to its operator
or to society. The criteria for determining the optimum return varies according to who makes
the final decision. From the point of view of the owner/developer, the optimum return will
probably be assessed in strictly monetary terms. Other stakeholders, for their part, may give a
higher or equal weight to intangible social values. Ideally, the criteria should be an acceptable
combination of both.

Another concept associated with land use capacity is that of carrying capacity. Usually
understood in the ecological sense, carrying capacity pertains to the intensity of a particular use
in which a land unit can be put without causing significant damage to the land resource. For
development to be sustainable, the highest and best use of a land unit should not exceed its
carrying capacity. In practical terms, the carrying capacity has been exceeded when the investor
begins to realize diminishing returns on investment, that is, for every unit of increase in
investment the unit of return is proportionately less than what is normally expected.
Concept of Land Use Compatibility

A given land unit often accommodates more than one type of land use. One explanation for this
observation is that the availability of very good land is limited both in terms of quantity and
location and therefore there is competition among potential suitable users of the same area. The
competing uses often end up not gaining exclusive rights over the site in question but sharing
the area among themselves. Combining different uses in the same place is not such a bad idea
provided such uses are compatible with one another.

Compatibility among different land uses may be determined in terms of harmony in ecological
functions and effect, in terms of economic linkages, or in terms of their consistency with
accepted socio-cultural values of the affected population. A very good example of ecological
harmony is the “rice-fish” cropping system wherein rice paddies are seeded with fish fry that
feed on insects and pests and help nurture the rice plants when the rice is ready for harvest the
fish are also mature enough to provide viands on the farmer’s table. In the urban setting,
planting strips along are a necessity not only for aesthetic purposes but more so to serve as
carbon sink to absorb and process the pollutive vehicular emissions.

Economic linkages as basis for compatibility among combined land uses can come in a number
of forms. In manufacturing, the common linkages are those of backward and forward. Relative
to a reference industry, say, a coconut oil mill, coconut growing and copra making which
produce inputs to the mill are related to the oil mill in a backward manner. On the other side, a
series of industries that utilize the outputs that utilize the outputs of the oil mill such as soap
making, candy factories, and the like are linked in a forward manner. Distribution or service
linkages are another example of economic linkages. This is exemplified by the clustering around
an active port of such related business establishments as warehousing, banks, insurance and
bonding firms and the like. Yet another form of linkage is called residentiary. This explains the
proliferation of catering, recreational, housing and other personal service activities around
major construction sites, near schools or around offices.

The desire for socially acceptable and culturally sensitive activities lies behind the widespread
public disapproval of places of “ill repute” such as gambling joints, night clubs and the like
locating within the vicinity of schools, churches, or residential areas. Cultural sensitivity also
explains why funeral parlors and hospitals are not normally allowed to locate too close to each
other no matter whether these two activities have very strong economic linkages.

The concept of land use compatibility is most useful in urban land use zoning. (See Chapter 9).
Two types of zoning practice derive their justification from the concept of
compatibility. Exclusionary zoning assigns to discrete exclusive areas activities that are
incompatible. Mixed-use zoning on the other hand allows the combination of compatible
activities in the same area. The principle behind these two zoning approaches is illustrated in
the Venn diagram below. Given the three general groups of urban activities of work, live and
play, some areas are to be devoted exclusively to any of these three activity types which cannot
tolerate sharing space with the other two. Other areas can tolerate a certain degree of sharing,
the ultimate degree of tolerance being shown by that area where all types of activities can
possibly be accommodated.
 Figure 1.1
PRINCIPLE OF EXCLUSIONARY AND MIXED-USED ZONING

Land Use Classification

The final concept introduced in this section is that of land use classification. Unlike land use or
land cover that is attached by nature, man-introduced land use does not occur at random.
Because decisions about how land is to be used are taken by people more or less rationally on
the basis of their evaluation of several factors, the outcome of their decisions when put together
will exhibit some kind of pattern. This pattern is what is captured during a land use survey and
the data are grouped into categories and put into a logical arrangement. The system of logically
arranging different categories and sub-categories of land use is land use classification. The term
land use classification refers to both the process and the product of the process.

Land use classification is an essential step in land use planning. Without a systematic grouping
of various activities into a manageable number of categories it is impossible to deal with the
vast number of land uses we encounter on the ground. The problem is, what is the basis for
grouping land uses of similar characteristics?

One of the earliest attempts at systematic land use classification is attributed to the North
American planner Harland Bartholomew (see Figure 1.2 below). Ray Northam, echoing the
criticisms of other planners, has pointed out the shortcomings of Bartholomew’s land
classification scheme. For one, Northam notes, the scheme strayed from the task of land use
classification into classifying land ownership as well. A land use type is the same whether it is
privately or publicly owned Northam argues. Concern for land ownership is better addressed
through land classification. Although the two terms are similar, land classification should not be
confused with land use classification. Land use classification pertains to or is based on the
characteristics of land whereas land use classification is based on the characteristics of land use.
Land classification is obviously a broader concept. It can be based on ownership as in public and
private, on capability or suitability, on buildability, on availability in the market, or even on
existing use. Indeed, land use can be considered one characteristic of land. (For more details on
the land classification system in the Philippines, see Chapter 3.)
 Figure 1.2
CLASSIFICATION OF USES OF URBAN LAND
BY H. BARTHOLOMEW
Source: Northam (1979), Figure 9-2, p.220

Secondly, use classes like “light industry” and “heavy industry” are not explicitly defined as the
determination of light or heavy is left to the discretion of the individual analyst. Although any
analyst can devise his own classification scheme, such a scheme is not comparable with others.
It was felt then that there ought to be some standard land use categories that can have a wider
applicability and acceptability. Consequently, American planners came to a consensus that the
basis of land use classification should focus on land use characteristics alone. Whereupon the
American Institute of Planners proposed a classification system based on functional and other
characteristics (figure 1.3 below). Unfortunately, we have no access to illustrative examples.

Figure 1.3
 STRUCTURE OF LAND USE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
BASED ON LAND USE CHARACTERISTICS
Source: Northam (1979), Figure 9-3, p.221

There are at least two major operational problems in land use classification: 1) what categories
and sub-categories to adopt, and 2) how to handle mixed land uses.

Land use categories. Any analyst can select any number of categories to suit his purpose. But for
purpose of inter-area comparison there ought to be some standard way of grouping land use.
Bartholomew came up with two major classes, developed and vacant. But this covers only urban
areas. Kaiser, et.al. have come up with combined land use and land cover classification system
wherein urban land use is treated as only one major category along with agriculture, forest,
water, wetland, and barren land. Each major category has sub-categories and in the case of
urban, each sub-category has a further set of sub-categories.

In the Philippines, the practice is almost a mirror image of the American system. Earlier land use
classifications which were urban focused had invariably adopted the categories of residential,
commercial, industrial, institutional, utilities, and open space with 2-digit to 3-digit sub-classes
for each category depending on the complexity of the town or city being studied.

Later, under the aegis of the National Land Use Committee, an effort to come up with standard
land use classes at the national and regional levels was made. Because the land use classes were
to be used both for characterizing existing land uses and for land use policy making, four
general land use categories were created according to general purpose namely, production
areas, protection areas, settlement areas, and infrastructure areas. Each major category has a
one-step or 2-step hierarchy of sub-categories. This classification scheme is shown in Figure 1.4
below.

The four general land use categories were conceptualized by this author for the National Land
Use Committee for the purpose of developing an organizing concept for a national land use
policy. The ultimate objective is to cover the whole national territory and its local subdivisions
with appropriate land use policies. Accordingly, any territorial unit, regardless of level or scale,
can be seen as consisting of four areas used under any of the following purposes: 1) as a space
for living, 2) as a space for making a living, 3) as a space for the facilities that support the other
two spaces, and 4) as an open space that serves the life support system for the human
population. The space for living is that area utilized by man in performing the activities needed
for the reproduction and well-being of his species. The space for making a living is utilized for
carrying out his livelihood. The space for facilities provides conditions conducive to the effective
use of the two spaces. The life support system is the source of fresh food, fresh air, fresh water
and is the receiver of the wastes generated in the course of utilizing the three other spaces.
These four spaces were later translated into settlement, production, infrastructure, and
protection areas, respectively. These four land use categories can be used for land use
classification as well as land use policy –making purposes.
 Figure 1.4
LAND USE CLASSIFICATION FOR PLANNING
Adopted by National Land Use Committee

Of late, detailed numeric land use coding system was develop by G.V. Manahan of the
consultancy firm PROS in connection with the Land Administration and Management Project of
DENR. What is noteworthy in the Manahan coding system is that it is not confined to urban land
uses but includes rural uses as well. Interested readers would do well to consult the original
report as the coding system is too long to be reproduced in this section.

The problem of mixed land uses. Mixed land use is a phenomenon characterized by a given land
unit accommodating more than one type of land use. In the urban setting, we often encounter
residential lots or buildings that are being devoted to other uses in addition to residential, say
commercial or even light industrial. The conventional solution has been to designate the use of
the lot to that activity which occupies the greater part (more than half for example) of the lot.
Still the problem remains in a situation where the building consists of several floors, each level
given over to a specific activity. In the commercial sectors of cities, for example, it is customary
for a 3-storey building to use the ground floor for commercial purposes , the second floor for
professional services and clinics , and the third floor for residential quarters. Obviously, the
present practice of classifying the parcel as commercial does not reflect the actual functional
characteristics of the lot in question. The solution seems to be to map every floor showing the
actual uses of each floor. This is an emerging necessity in the light of the recent spurt of
investment in high-rise constructions in most cities of metropolitan areas. Gathering data might
be quite simple. All we have to do is enter each high-rise building and refer to the directory of
building occupants which is usually on display on the ground floor. Another solution seems to
be to adopt mixed land use as a land category in its own right.

Perhaps the most ingenious method of handling mixed land use was devised by the Bureau of
Soils and Water Management. The problem of mixed land used is also encountered in the
mapping of vegetation and land cover. Unlike in urban areas, however, there is no multi-storey
mixed land use problem because, as earlier discussed, every plant must have a share of th
ground or soil. Anyway, the BSWM has conveniently disposed of the problem by treating urban
uses as built-up which is a sub-category of special areas. At any rate, the BSWM has done a
commendable job of classifying and mapping the land use and vegetation cover of the entire
country at a map scale that is useful at the municipal and provincial levels. The classification
scheme has three major categories of land use: agricultural crops, natural and semi-natural
vegetation, and special land use. As expected, the subcategories of agriculture are identified
down to the third level of detail (specific crop) and other categories with lesser detail. The
problem of mixed land used is dealt with by creating the concept of dominant use and
associated use, and an alpha-numeric code indicating the intensity of the use (measured in
percent of area coverage). For example, a land unit mapped with an alpha-numeric code 116 By
84 is decoded as follows: From the legend 116 refers to coconut and 84 is the code for
pineapple. So we picture a coconut land intercropped with pineapple, with the coconut as
dominant and the pineapple as associated land uses. How much of each in terms of area
coverage relative to the total area of the land unit is indicated by the letters B for the percent
share of the dominant land use and y for the percent share of the associated land use. The
BSWM has devised the following scales:
1. For dominant land use
Classes Percent of Area Covered
A 90 - 100
B 80 - 90
C 70 - 80
D 60 - 70
E 40 - 50
2. For associated land use
x below 5
y 5 - 10
z 10-20
p 20-30
q above 30

Thus we see in the example above, a land unit is planted to 80% - 90% coconut and
intercropped with 5%-10% pineapple.

Land use map. The output of land classification process is the land use map, sometimes
accompanied by a tabulated data showing the area coverage of each land use category and sub-
category. The area coverage can be measured in a number of ways. Where the land being
mapped has the shape of any of the regular polygons like a rectangle, square, triangle, or circle
the mathematical formula for getting the area of these polygons apply. But most land mapping
units come in irregular shapes and so the aid of some instruments is necessary. The simplest
instrument but the most laborious to use is the dot grid. It involves fitting the distance between
dots in the grid to the map scale and counting the dots contained inside the polygon
representing the area coverage of a particular land use type. A more sophisticated instrument is
the planimeter which is used by simply tracing a mechanically or digitally calibrated pointer
along the perimeter of the polygon and the area is either read out from the liquid crystal display
(in the case of digital models) or computed by plugging the reading material into a formula (in
the case of analogue models). The widespread use of computers and geographic information
system (GIS) softwares has greatly reduced human effort in undertaking this otherwise
laborious task.

The more contentious issues related to the preparation of land use maps are those of map scale
and color codes. Existing planning guidelines prescribes standard scales and colors. These
standards were undoubtedly necessary to facilitate review and public presentation at a time
when maps were prepared by means of manual drafting. Given the increasing use of
computerized mapping softwares which have the capacity to handle wide range of map scales
so that the analyst can zoom in and out to the desired detail; given moreover, that map
presentations are done more and more by the use of light projection instruments whether
manually by overhead projectors or digitally by the LCD machines; and given finally, that map
reproduction is increasingly being done by means of photocopying machines and that the
copying cost of color maps is prohibitively high, to insist on the use of standard scales and
colors is getting harder and harder to defend. Clearly distinguishable shadings and hachures in
black and white reproduce infinitely more cheaply and quickly.

CONCEPTS RELATED TO LAND USE PLANNING

The last sets of concepts introduced in this chapter are those related to land use planning. This
section pulls up and builds on salient points already discussed in the previous two sections on
land and land use and seeks to strengthen the reader’s understanding concept through
incremental learning.

Land Use Planning Defined

Land use is often defined in many ways. In as much as definitions are self-serving, I chose to
define land use planning simply and generally as “proper management of land resources”. This
definition is generic and it cannot be wrong. But it obscures the complexity of the concepts,
concerns and considerations related to land and the uses that man makes of it. It does not tell
us, for instance, who manages what land and what for. Also, who is to say what is “proper”
management?

Proper management of land resources, also in general sense, entails using land in a manner
consistent with its natural qualities so that it does not lose its productivity while it is continually
made to produce for the benefit of man and other life forms that depend on it. But it is common
knowledge that man does not always use land properly. In varying degrees man abuses,
misuses, or disuses land resulting in conditions inimical to the general welfare or public
interest. Thus, proper management also involves intervening in the decision that man makes
about the use of land in order to promote the public interest.

Th phrase “in the public interest” added to the definition answers the question “what for” and
pins the ultimate responsibility for land use planning, that is, for the proper management of land
resources on the government or State. For it is the State that is the acknowledged guardian of
the public interest, the promoter of the general welfare.

With public interest and general welfare considerations as the ultimate objective of land use
planning, the meaning of the phrase “proper management” likewise takes on a definite shape. It
means on one hand, seeing to it that land is utilized only in a manner that its intrinsic qualities
can support to enable it to continue to yield benefits form many generations of users. On the
other hand, land use planning also involves State regulation and control of certain activities that
are inimical to the general welfare to ensure equitable access to land, and optimum enjoyment
of the benefits of its use. In this light, the perception of some quarters that the government can
only indicate but not mandate specific uses of land is only partly correct. The truth is that the
State does both indicate and mandate the proper use of land in the public interest.

State responsibility. As a responsibility of the State land use planning can be placed within the
overall context of public policy making. It derives its rationale from the very justification for the
State intervention in society in general, that is, to secure optimum social welfare. This is due to
the acknowledged failure of the market to maximize social welfare. According to Barlowe (and
most authors on planning), the “laissez faire doctrine that coordinated individual actions will
add up to optimum social welfare” just did not materialize. Instead, “uncoordinated self-seeking
individuals led to frustrating conflicts of interest, human exploitation and misery, and to
something less than optimum social welfare”. Barlowe then concludes that “social control is
needed to promote well-being of the citizenry by expanding their opportunities and liberties
and minimizing the risks and uncertainties that afflict them”. This is the rationale for public
sector planning in general.

The same justification applies to land use planning in particular. In a society where private
property in land exists and where land can be traded in the market the allocation of land is
largely done through the price mechanism. Does not always lead to the best use and equitable
allocation of land resources. Kivell lists four evidences of the failure of the market, namely:

1. The fact that land comes on to market in a haphazard and unpredictable way and at no
time is it in equilibrium with all land being used optimally.

2. Because of its emphasis upon the price mechanism, the market is not good at providing
for public or merit goods. Socially necessary uses such as schools, hospitals or parks
thus squeezed out.

3. Strong land owning and financial interests can dominate weaker groups.

4. The market is not good at dealing with negative externalities such as traffic congestion,
noise and noxious industries.

Private property in land, as earlier asserted in this chapter, is exclusive but is by no means
absolute. The absolute rights over land as property remain with the State which exercises
sovereignty over all lands within its territory. This is expressed unequivocally in Art. XIII, Sec. 1
of the Philippine Constitution (1987):

“The Congress shall give the highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance
the right of all people to human dignity, reduce social, economic and political inequalities, and remove
cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good. To this end,
the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use and disposition of property and its
increments.”

The comprehensive government regulation of the four transactions on land is the domain of
land policy. A subset of land policy which deals with public intervention in the use of land is the
subject of land use planning.

Modes of State Intervention

The specific modes in which the State intervenes in the way lands in its territory are used in the
public interest are country-specific. This will be th focus of this book starting from Chapter 3
onwards. Nonetheless, there are a number of modes of public intervention that are common to
countries having a democratic polity and a market economy. The Philippines professes, or
pretends, to be one such country. These modes of public intervention measures can be grouped
into three categories: public ownership, regulatory measures, and fiscal policies.

Public ownership of land, through acquisition of privately owned land, falls under the power of
eminent domain. It does not pertain to the public domain lands which are already publicly
owned. Eminent domain is the power of the state to retake private property for development by
itself or through various arrangements with private developers. The most common purpose for
which the government acquires private land is the provision of public facilities and services like
schools, hospitals, parks, and roads.in many European countries, especially in Scandinavia, local
governments acquire and build up extensive land banks for future development. Development
land thus placed under public ownership and control, its release for development can be
programmed according to the development plan. It is usual in those countries fir the
government to serve as the “middleman” in various transactions over development land. This
way the government has control over the price of land, the purpose for which it will be used,
and who gets what land. Also, government has readily available land for its own use for public
services and facilities.

Regulatory measures. In general, land use planning, together with its implementing
instruments, zoning, subdivision and building regulations, is the most popular form of land use
regulatory measure. Based on the police power of the State, land use planning is often justified
by the need to safeguard public health and safety, and promote the convenience and comfort of
the citizenry. But regulating could not come on too strongly as “policing” or mandating. The
more positive side of regulating is “indicating” what is socially desirable and making it
rewarding for individuals who put their property to such use as would be consistent with social
objectives. Like the proverbial carrot and stick, regulation seeks to reconcile two contradictory
functions of the State: promotion of equity and social harmony and creation of favorable
conditions for capital growth and investment.

Fiscal policy. Fiscal measures to regulate land use relate to the property tax. The property tax
has at least three purposes: 1) as revenue raising device, 2) to recover to the public the
enhanced value of private land on account of community improvements, and 3) to provide
incentives to promote development. As a revenue raising tool, the basic real property tax
especially when assessment is based on actual use of the land can be used as a lever to
encourage or discourage certain activities. The special levy on idle land or underutilized lands is
both a fund-raising and a regulatory device. The special assessment on properties benefited by
public works projects is both a revenue-raising and a redistributive mechanism. Finally, tax
holidays, rebates and exemptions from the real property tax can be used to encourage investors
to undertake certain preferred activities in desired locations.

Summary. It is towards building up the public understanding that land use planning is the
primary responsibility of the State that this book consistently addresses itself. It may be added
that for land use planning to gain respectability as a worthy human endeavor it must promote
equity and social justice objectives. Public intervention in land use is summarized in the
following actions:

1. Guide the use of land to promote advantageous development of the community.

2. Curb the misuse of land so that it will not injuriously affect the interest of the
community.
3. Prevent the use of land to preserve its integrity and ecological balance.
4. Discourage the non-use or disuse of land to make it productive.
5. Encourage the re-use of land for more appropriate purposes.

Land Use Planning in this Book

This introductory chapter and chapter 2 seek to provide genera, universal understanding of the
concepts, principles and rationale for land use planning. Keeping to the over-all purpose of
providing foundation knowledge for land use planners in the Philippines, the rest of this book,
starting bin Chapter 3 traces the historical roots of current patterns of land ownership and land
use. Chapter 4 sets up the institutional framework through which land use planning as a
function of the State is carried out. The geographical and territorial matrix upon which land use
planning takes place consists of three domains: public, private and ancestral. Land use planning
in the public domain is tackled is tackled in Chapter 5 (Natural Resources) and Chapter 6
(Protected Areas). Chapter 7 deals with planning in ancestral domains. Urban land use planning
or planning for lands that are essentially in private ownership is the subject of Chapter 8.
Chapter 9 introduces the comprehensive land use plan of LGUs as the plan that consolidates the
plans for all three domains under one comprehensive policy framework. The book concludes
with a chapter on emerging challenges for future land use planning in the Philippines.
 CHAPTER 2
DETERMINANTS OF LAND USE DECISION

In this chapter we focus on the restrictive definition of land use, that is, land introduced by man.
Given the presumption or illusion that man is rational, his decisions on land use are supposed to
be based on a number of considerations. These factors are generally classified into physical,
economic and social determinants. Depending on the intended use each of these factors exerts a
greater or lesser weight upon the decision-maker. Sometimes decisions are made based on a
single set of factors, say physical. More often than not a combination of two or a composite of all
these factors no less will be needed to make a rational decision. In addition to the three
determinants the characteristics, peculiar concerns, motives and objectives of the different
stakeholders on land will also play an important part in the decision on how that particular land
or site will be used. The relationships among the determinants are shown in the decision model
below.

Figure 2.1
GENERALIZED LAND USE DECISION MODEL
Chart by E.M. Serote

Before we look at each of the three determinants let us identify the stakeholders in land and
their respective concerns, motives and interests. Imagine that a particular site or area lies
within the impact zone of a major project and that decisions have to be made about whether or
not to change the current use of the land in response to the impact of the project.

Stakeholders and their Concerns

Holders of interest on land include the owners of property directly affected or likely to be
affected; individuals and groups who are not owners of affected land parcels but who will
benefit from, or be disadvantaged by any change in the character and use of the area; advocacy
groups who seek to promote social justice and equity, environmental integrity and land use
sustainability, and other positive values; national government agencies with mandates related
to land; and local government units within whose jurisdiction the impact areas are situated.

Stakeholders who possessed rights of use and disposition over land are concerned about the
possible changes the project might cause on the land or its current use and thereby alter its use
value and/or its value in exchange. The other stakeholders are interested in influencing the
decision of those who possess rights over the affected lands toward adopting the principles and
values they advocate.

Use Value. Those who are interested in the use value of land may be using or intending to use
land as a factor of production: as growth bed for agricultural crops and forest plantations, as
quarry sites for mineral resources, as grazing areas for livestock, as fishpond, or as site for
manufacturing, commercial, office and other establishments from which they extract rent or
realize returns on investments. To this group of interest holders the principle of highest and
best use is the guiding principle. They are likely to oppose objects that will tend to diminish the
capability or sustainability of their land to support productive activities on sustainable basis.
But they will not oppose objects that will cause land use change provided the new land use will
give them higher returns.

Another group of interest holders will keep land for its use value are those who may be using
land as an environment for living: as site of residential communities and associated uses for
social services, utilities, and the like. They are interested in preserving and enhancing the
amenity value of the land and are expected to oppose projects that will tend to depreciate that
value.

What distinguishes those who are interested in the use value of the land is their common desire
to hold on to their land and continue to receive benefits from its use. This makes them
essentially conservationist.

Exchange Value. In contrast, stakeholders who are interested in the exchange value of land
regard land as an item of trade and commerce. They are expected to welcome any project or
action that will tend to increase the market value of their property and are likely to oppose any
project that they perceive will tend to increase the market value of their land in the market.

Finally, government agencies and local government units are interested in attaining a balance
between conflicting interests in land thereby safeguarding and promoting the general welfare.
They are also interested in the nature of use in so far as this increases the amount or level of
real property taxes they can collect.

What is the effect of the following land use on the concerns and interests of the different groups
of decision-makers?

PHYSICAL DETERMINANTS OF LAND USE

The physical and natural features of the land such as soil, topography, geology, climate,
drainage, etc. can serve as one of the considerations for assessing the capability or suitability of
land to support certain uses.

These physical characteristics are considered determinants of land use decisions especially
when the intended use of the land is an input to the production process. This is especially true of
extractive industries like agriculture, forestry, mining and quarrying, livestock raising, etc.
wherein the biochemical composition of the soil is of critical importance. Where the land is to be
used as a site or platform for non-extractive activities such as settlements and urban
development, the geo-physical characteristics of land are an important land use consideration in
so far as they constitute a constraint to development and therefore entail additional costs to
overcome.

The physical characteristics discussed in this section include topography, geology, climate, and
the composite factors of land capability or sustainability, and pedo-ecological zones.

Topography

The factor of topography is important in land use decisions because it affects the cost of
production, the cost of land development, the costs of laying network and infrastructure, the
cost of conveyance of water, drainage and sewerage, and the rate of erosion. Some of the major
topographic features are slope, relief, position, size and shape and land cover.

Slope refers to the gradient or inclination of a surface expressed as the ratio of the vertical rise
to the horizontal run. It is usually expressed in percent. Slope defines the relative steepness or
flatness of land surface. Broadly speaking, lower slopes have a higher suitability for a variety of
uses than higher slopes.

Figure 2.2
THE CONCEPT OF SLOPE

STANDARD SLOPE RANGES

(as adopted by the National Land Use Committee)
SLOPE RANGE (%) DESCRIPTION
0-3 Flat or level land
3-8 Very gently to moderately sloping (undulating)
8 - 18 Moderately rolling to strongly rolling
18 - 30 Strongly rolling to hilly
30 - 50 Hilly to mountainous
Above 50 Very steep

The recommended slope ranges for various lands differ from one agency to the next. For
instance, the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) recommends 18% and above for permanent
forest; housing agencies set 30% slope as the limit for urban and agricultural uses. A 3% slope
minimum is required to make drainage and sewage flow naturally whereas a maximum of 7%
slope is the limit for road construction.

Another dimension of slope is its orientation or aspect. This is important in the siting of certain
activities for maximum capture of sunlight, for shelter from storms or wind (leeward), or when
strong wind velocity is desired (windward).

Relief refers to the general configuration of the earth’s surface characterized by unevenness or
differences in altitudes and slopes. Relief affects the cost of land development as leveling or
grading may be necessary. Some relief features are interesting enough for viewing and are
better left untouched.

Position. The position factor, as, for example, when the site is relatively isolated and
inaccessible, or is located in high elevations, increases development and operating costs. The
elevation of the land defines its climatic regime. (Altitude is inversely proportional to
temperature. A rise of 100m (300 ft) causes a dip of 1°F in temperature.)

Size and shape are also important especially when these factors interfere with operations. Small
irregularly shaped farm lots, for example, do not easily lend themselves to mechanized farming.
Cover, like relief, either in the form of vegetation or rock outcrops can reduce the productivity of
the land if these are not removed. However, natural covers such as fully-grown trees or
interesting rock formations add value to the land.

Geology

Understanding the rock and mineral structure of the earth’s crust is vital in identifying the
appropriate land use and determining the intensity of such use. Some geological elements useful
for urban and regional planning are geomorphology, soils and hydrogeology.

Geomorphology refers to the different landforms occurring on the surface of the earth, such as
mountains, plains, coastal areas, and the like.
Mountains are landforms which rise to a height of no less than 300m (1000 ft), have a narrow
summit and steep slopes. They affect microclimatic conditions in the area. For example, it
becomes rainy on the windward side and arid on the sheltered or leeward side.

Plains are usually low-lying, flat lands with elevations ranging from 0 to 200m. These are very
suitable to a variety of land development but are also susceptible to flooding.

Coastal areas are the areas immediately abutting the seashore. As defined in the Philippine
Fisheries Code (RA 8550) the coastal area or coastal zone is that band of dry land and adjacent
ocean space (water and submerged land) in which the territorial processed and uses directly
affect oceanic processes and uses, and vice versa; its geographic extent may include areas within
a landmark limit of one (1) kilometer landward from the shoreline at high tide to include
mangrove swamps, brackishwater ponds, nipa swamps, estuarine rivers, sandy beaches, and
other areas within a seaward limit of 200 meters isobath to include coral reefs, algal flats,
seagrass beds and other soft bottom areas.

Swamplands or marshes are wet spongy lands saturated with water, supporting a natural
vegetation predominantly of shrubs, trees and grass.

GEOMORPHOLOGY AND THE WEDGE MODEL

Any piece of countryside can be cut into a wedge, a triangular slice of land mass
cutting inwards from the seacoast to the forested mountains. It consists of four
development zones (roughly corresponding to the to the land forms): coastal
areas; floodplains; the foothills, and the upland forests. Each zone has more or
less distinct land uses and activities, e.g. coastal flatlands include major fishing
centers, port towns, coconut orchards, mangrove and river estuaries. Production
activities and settlements are densest at the coast and scarcest at the forest areas.

Soils are the thin upper layer of the surface of the earth composed of a mixture of fragments of
rocks, water, air and organic matter. Soils occupy a unique position as the transition zone
linking the biotic and abiotic or living and non-living environments. Soil properties result from
the integrated effect of climate and living matter acting upon parent material, as conditioned by
relief over long periods of time.

Rocks, or the parent material from which soils are formed can be classified into igneous,
sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks are formed by cooling molten lava.
Sedimentary rocks are the hardened mixture of sediments and parts of other rock materials.
Metamorphic rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks as a result of heat or pressure changes in
the earth’s crust.

The variety of parent materials from which soils are formed explains the heterogeneity of soils
in a given area. As a result they differ in their capability and suitability for specific and uses. To
determine the safe and sustainable use for an area a soil survey must be conducted. Soil surveys
will help establish the content, chemistry, texture and nutritive contents of any land unit. These
factors define the suitability of soils for all forms of plant life and establish certain limits for
their use. In urban planning, knowledge of the physical characteristics of the soil is essential in
determining its ability to provide firm foundations for structures, to filter surface water and to
absorb sewage and wastewater. In rural agricultural planning, the nutrient contents of soils are
an important requirement.
The essential characteristics of soil are its texture, structure and fertility. Soil texture or the size
of fragments (ranging from clay to silt, sand and gravel) determines waterholding capacity. The
larger fragments for example, allow greater room for water. The four basic texture groups are
sand, silt, clay and loam. Soil structure or the form and shape of particles (ranging from granular
to platty) affects root penetration and water infiltration. Soil fertility or the amount of organic
matter (NPK) present in any given soil example is determined by the presence of organisms like
nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and the earthworms which help in the aeration of soils.

The three soil characteristics of soil texture, soil structure and soil fertility in turn determine the
soil type occurring in a particular land unit. Depending on the amount of each of the texture
groups clay, silt, sand and loam in varying combinations the soil type is named. Thus, a soil type
“sandy clay loam” means that the soil is composed of more sand, less clay, mixed with loam. A
place name is usually affixed to indicate the location of the soil sample where this particular
type was first found. Examples: “Bolinao sandy loam”, “San Manuel silty clay”, “Antipolo clay
loam”. The determination of particle combinations is guided by the graph below.

Figure 2.3
GUIDE TO SOIL PLANS

The differences between sand, silt and clay is defined by the size of particles. The indicative size
ranges are as follows:
PARTICLES DIAMETER IN MM
Clay Less than 0.002
Silt 0.002 – 0.006
Sand 0.06 – 2.0
Gravel More than 2.0

Loam is the organic matter which is not measured in terms of particular size not in terms of
volume in combination with other particles but simply by its presence or absence in the sample.

In addition, two important processes involving soils but are not exactly treated soil
characteristics as soil characteristics are soil erosion and soil drainage.

Soil erosion is searing away of land surface by running water, wind, ice and other geologic
agents and by physical processes like gravity. Soil erosion by water is measured by the universal
soil-loss equation:

A = RKLSCP

Where A = computed soil loss per unit area which is a product of the following factors:
R = rainfall erosivity
K = soil erodibility
L = slope length
S = slope gradient
C = crop management (or vegetative cover)
P = erosion-control practice

Erosion is a function of erosivity or the potential ability of the rain to cause erosion and
erodibility or the vulnerability of the soil to erosion. Erosivity is determined by the intensity or
force of rainfall. Erodibility is in turn a function of the physical characteristics of the soil (slope
length and slope gradient) and the nature of land and crop management in place (erosion
control practice and vegetative cover).
Given these factors and their relationships, a general observation can be made that:

The degree of soil erosion is high when rainfall intensity is high, slope is long, and
where vegetative cover is less, and no erosion control practices such as contour
tilling, terracing, and the like are in place.

The rainwater that flows on the ground surface is called runoff. Runoff collects and carries soil
particles. The faster the flow the more particles it carries and the more particles are carried the
stronger the scouring action of the water on the soil. Empirical researchers have determined
that at certain runoff speeds, soil particles of varying sizes are carried off, as shown below:

SPEED OF RUNOFF TYPE OF MATERIALS

(km/hr) TRANSPORTED
0.27 Fine clay
0.54 Fine sand
0.75 Coarse sand
1.09 Fine gravel
2.18 Pebbles about 2.5 cm diameter
3.26 Stones about 25 cm diameter

Tolerable soil loss is defined as the maximum rate of annual soil erosion that will permit a high
level of crop productivity to be sustained economically and indefinitely. It varies from soil to soil
depending on how fast new topsoil can be formed to replace the soil lost to erosion.

Soil drainage refers to the relative rapidity and extent of the removal of water from the surface
and from within the soil under natural conditions. The latter pertains to the hydrogeology of
soils.

Hydrogeology pertains to the subsurface water or aquifer. The structure of the subsoil affects
the rate of flow (lateral) of the aquifer called transmissivity; soil texture affects the permeability
(vertical flow) or recharge. The net effect of lateral and vertical flows determines the water
table. The depth to water table is measured from the ground surface and is indicated in meters
below ground surface (mbgs). See illustration below.

Figure 2.4
THE STRUCTURE OF THE AQUIFER
 FACTORS AFFECTING RECHARGE
1. Rainfall intensity
2. Slope of the land
3. Porosity of rock formation, i.e. the ratio of
empty spaces to total volume
4. Permeability of rock formations, i.e. the relative ease with
which water can pass through porous material
5. Nature of rock strata, i.e. whether flat or inclined
6. Presence of vegetation
7. Atmospheric humidity

Hydrogeology determines not only the potential groundwater for domestic water supply but
also the drainage capabilities of a given area. As a general rule, when withdrawal of water for
whatever purpose and draining it are done by other than the natural way, it leads to additional
development and operating cost. Excessive withdrawal of groundwater can lead to subsidence,
saltwater intrusion, and similar environmental hazards.

Climate

Climate covers a range of factors such as temperature, sunlight, precipitation, humidity , wind
velocity and atmospheric pressure. These factors heavily influence physical and biological
processes. Climate and weather variations prescribe the limits of plant and animal life and
regulate many of the activities of the people.

There are two major categories of climate: macro-climate and micro-climate. Macro-climate
refers to the meteorological conditions such as mountains, ocean currents, prevailing winds,
and latitude. Macro-climate in turn affects the formation of the physiographic region. Micro-
climate refers to the meteorological conditions found within small spaces or local areas. Small-
scale variations in climate are brought about by changes in slope and orientation of the ground
surface, soil type and moisture, and vegetation type and height. Elements of micro-climate
include ventilation, fog and frost, solar radiation, and vegetation changes. Ventilation is the
circulation of fresh air across the landscape and is largely dependent on landforms and wind
direction. Fog and frost are determined by the subtle changes in topography and relative
elevation which in turn affect temperature near the ground surface. Solar radiation is the
primary variable. Vegetation changes affect and are affected in turn by ventilation, fog and frost,
and solar radiation and are therefore an important element of micro-climate.

Any control or modification of the effects of the climate is a costly undertaking. Thoughtful
preparation for future land use activities therefore demands a thorough understanding of
climatic factors so that the costs of mitigation can be avoided. For example, the potential
destruction of air quality by pollution must be a control consideration in decisions about the
location of industry, transportation and other activities which contribute to the alteration of air
content. In agriculture, cropping patterns are almost entirely dependent on the climate. Efforts
to modify the distribution of rainwater through impoundment in irrigation dams require huge
investment costs. So too are glasshouses in arid areas and hothouses in cold environments.

Land Capability Classes

The individual physical characteristics of land are rarely considered in isolation when
determining the use of a site or area. The simultaneous occurrence of these natural features in
varying combinations in a given area determines its potentialities and limitations for specific
uses. Those areas exhibiting homogeneity in physical features can be grouped together to form a
land capability class.
The Bureau of Soils uses nine capability classes (adapted from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
denoted by letters A, B, C, D, L, M, N, X, and Y. Limitations to such classes are shown as
subscripts to the capability class, e.g.:
e = erosion as the main problem of the soil
w = water is the main problem
s = soil condition as the principal problem

Class A lands are very good agricultural lands with level to nearly level (0 - 3% slope) deep soil,
well-drained and with high natural fertility. This land class can be cultivated safely to clean-
tilled or row crops with simple but good farming practices.

Class B lands have slight limitations in use like drainage or excess water, soil and erosion
problem due to slightly sloping relief from 3% to 8%. This land can be cultivated safely to clean
tilled crops provided easily applied conservation practices like contour tillage and cover
cropping are practiced.

Class C lands are moderately good lands that should be cultivated with intensive conservation
practices like contour tillage, terracing, cover cropping, and the like, on account of sloping to
rolling relief of 8% to 18% slope. The limitations may be erosion, excess water or soil condition.

Class D lands are fairly good lands but require careful management and complex conservation
practices like terracing, contour tillage and cover cropping. This land is rolling, strongly rolling
with 18% to 30% slope, is good for limited cultivation but is best suited to permanent tree
crops.

Class L lands are level to nearly level but too stony or too wet for cultivation. This land is limited
to pasture or forest use wit careful management.

Class M lands are steep with slopes of 30% to 50%, may be severely eroded or too shallow for
cultivation, Class M lands are suited only to pasture or forest use with careful management.

Class N lands are very steep with more than 50% slopes, too shallow, rough or dry for
cultivation and are best suited to forest use with careful management.

Class X lands are wetlands that cannot be economically drained. These include mangrove
swamps and marshes. Class X lands are suited for fishponds or for recreational uses or are
simple conserved for their aesthetic value.

Class Y lands are very hilly, mountainous, barren and rugged. This class includes badlands,
riverwash areas and sand dunes. Class Y lands should be reforested if trees are found to survive
in these areas.

Among the nine capability classes, only Class A has practically no limitations. Therefore, only
Class A lands have the capability to support all possible land utilization types. Conversely, land
classes X and Y have the most serious constraints and have little value for productive uses and
are best left in their natural, wild, pristine state. All other classes from B down to N have one or
a number of limitations that reduce their adaptability to different uses and hence, the decision-
makers’ range of alternative choices. Refer to Figure 2.5.

Knowledge of the land capability serves as a useful guide for making decisions on the
generalized use of a particular tract of land or area. Obviously, the capability classification
system described above is oriented to agricultural and related uses. But other non-agricultural
uses can be considered having in mind the general rule that the good agricultural lands are
nearly irreplaceable and hence, they must be maintained under agriculture or crop growing.
Corollarily, lands that have marginal capability for crop growing should be considered for non-
agricultural uses.
 Figure 2.5
GENERAL USE OF LAND ACCORDING TO CAPABILITY CLASSES
Source: Sangatanan and Sangatanan, Fig. 7.1

Suitability Classes

The concept of suitability is often used interchangeably with that of capability. In practice,
capability pertains to the ability of a particular land mapping unit (LMU) to support a general
activity type say cultivated crops. Suitability on the other hand, is assessed with respect to a
specific crop. Hence, for every LMU, there can be as many suitability ratings as there are crops
considered. For example, the same land unit can rated as highly suitable (S 1 ) for irrigated rice,
moderately suitable (S 2 ) for corn, marginally suitable (S 3 ) for pineapple but not suitable (N) for
cut flowers.

Pedo-ecological Zones

Land capability and suitability classes are determined on the basis of a combination of
topographical and geological characteristics of the land. They ignore the contribution of the
climate in determining the total usefulness of a particular tract of land for general or specific
types of activity.

By adding climate to the factors of topography and geology, a new concept emerges which the
Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) calls pedo-ecological zone.

These zones represent the broad environmental gradients which recur as landscapes with well-
defined pedo-ecological attributes, viz, the soil systems, slope and elevation. Each pedo-
ecological zone is divided into distinct land management units (LMU).

The soil systems provide the reference framework for the estimation of the appropriate use,
management and productivity of the various LMUs in each pedo-ecological zone. The functional
properties considered for each soil system are effective soil depth, soil texture within one meter
depth, surface and internal soil drainage, erosion susceptibility, permeability and soil
acidity/pH levels of the effective rooting layers.

The elevation component provides the agro-climatic variations with respect to temperature and
length of crop growing time, an environmental parameter that separates the warm from the
cool regions of the pedo-ecological zones. The elevation, therefore, provides the framework for
the selection of the initial sets of broad landscape and cropping systems that can be sustained
with optimum management applicable for each pedo-ecological zone.
The slope component provides the framework for the estimation of ecological degradation
expected from each use with respect to skills management, capital and labor available for the
farming community.

The following are the pedo-ecological zones as developed by BSWM:

The Warm Pedo-Ecological Regions. These are landscape strips in the low elevations of less than
100 meters above sea level (asl) and with slopes ranging from 0 to 18%. In general, the day
temperature exceeds 25°C and the length of the growing period generally requires good water
sources (irrigation) to ensure the productivity of perennials, especially tree crops. These low-
lying areas include the river floodplains, the alluvial fans bordering the footslopes of hills and
mountains, and the coastal marine areas.

The lowland zones are generally related to some resource limitation such as land drainage in
the low-lying flood plains and in coastal areas; soil salinity in the coastal areas; soil drainage in
the floodplain; shallow, stony soils with sandy coastal fringes; shallow, stony soil with slight
erosion in the alluvial fans; and pollution in the coastal and floodplain areas.

Because of favorable topography, the zone is subject to severe land use pressures, and is
characterized by land use conflicts. Recent developments show that irreversible conversion of
these zones to non-agricultural uses has resulted in both economic development and a serious
loss of traditionally good lands for food and other agricultural production.

The Warm-Cool Pedo-Ecological Regions. These landscape strips represent a wide

environmental wedge that separates the distinct warm and cool regions. The agro-climatic
variations cover a wide range: from low elevation zones (below 200-300 meters) having
relatively continuously warm temperatures and supplemental irrigation is required to sustain
the productivity of most perennial crops, to high elevation zones (300-500 meters) having
relatively cool evenings and short , moist warm days which can support perennial vegetation
such as the forest ecosystem.

These pedo-ecological zones are fragile upland ecosystems because of unfavorable slopes and
unstable soils. Unnecessary removal of the vegetation cover can easily affect its role in
maintaining agro-ecological balance.

When these zones are subjected to cultivation and other uses, priority consideration must be
given to adequate soil and water conservation measures and proper land use.

The warm-cool pedo-ecological regions are made up of two distinct zones described as follows:

The Upland Pedo-Ecological Zones. These zones are the elevated landscape strips within the 500
meter elevation and with slopes ranging from 8% to 18%. These are the elevated landscape
strips that are located above the floodplains. These include the undulating footslope areas and
the low hills.

The upland pedo-ecological zones represent the border strips that separate the public lands
from alienable and disposable lands or lands with less than 18% slopes.

The most dominant properties that limit the potentials for a wide range of uses of the upland
pedo-ecological zones are soil erosion especially in areas grown to the traditional food crops by
marginal, small-scale farmers; moisture stress especially eroded lands in low rainfall, low
elevation areas; shallow, stony soils in limestone-derived soils; and acid, aluminum toxic soils in
volcanic regions.

The upland pedo-ecological zones are general areas grown to various tree crops, devoted to
livestock development and degradation by various industries such as mining.
The Hilly and Mountain Pedo-Ecological Zones. These zones include the low and steep hills and
mountains within the 500 meter elevation with slopes greater that 18%.

These zones are associated with various social, economic and environmental problems such as
illegal and improperly-managed logging; kaingin or slash-burn unstable hillside farming; poorly
managed mining activities; and serious erosion which causes significant damage to the lowland
pedo-ecological zones.

The Cool Pedo-Ecological Regions. These are landscape strips above the 500 meter elevation.
The average daily temperature is, in general, less than 15°C with durations long enough to cause
severe frost and damage to some crops. In areas with favorable topography, the best vegetable
production is observed and a wide range of exotic tree crops are successfully grown.

The highland pedo-ecological zones include plain areas with slopes favorable for various
agricultural production and the steeply sloping land which must be left undisturbed to forest
trees.

Being associated with fragile forest ecosystems, the highland pedo-ecological zones are related
to some social and ecological problems. In some areas, small isolated plain lands are overused
and this results in intrusion of farming into the less suitable lands in nearby forest areas.
Highland vegetable farms are known to be heavy users of pesticides and cause chemical
pollution of downstream areas. In some cases, exploitation of the highlands results in
displacement of indigenous people.

Economic determinants are the factors considered in the evaluation of costs and benefits of
alternative uses to arrive to the highest and best use for a particular parcel of land. These
factors weigh heavily when decisions are made on whether to convert from one use to another,
say from seasonal to perennial crops, or from agricultural to urban use, or even from one urban
use to another. Economic considerations also explain some landowner’s decision to defer
utilization of their land in anticipation of future windfall benefits.

Benefits of Land Use

The benefits of land utilization are varied and are mostly expressed in terms of the money value
that the product of such utilization will fetch in the market. This is true for land uses that
consider land as direct input to the production process, e.g. the value of the agricultural crop
harvested for a particular season. On the other hand, the benefits of using land as a site for
urban uses, say commercial, are those accruing on account of its location, i.e., its relative
accessibility to other economic activities. A commercial establishment that is more accessible to
its intended customers is more likely to generate greater volume of business than one that is
more remote. Another benefit is the general increase in land value as a result of its use. All other
things being equal a parcel put to some kind of use or improvement will have a higher value
than one that is left in its natural state. This is easily appreciated in the vastly different price one
would ask for a serviced subdivision lot. For example, developed land with horizontal
infrastructure fetches 40 times the cost of raw land with horizontal and vertical infrastructure,
200 times the price of raw land, according to sources from the property development sector. Yet
another benefit that can be expressed in money terms is the estimated value of mineral deposits
within a prospective mining and quarry site.

There other benefits of land utilization that cannot be assigned monetary value. These types of
benefits are derived mostly from the use of land for public purposes such as parks, school sites,
road right-of-way, cemeteries and free parking lots. These types of benefits accrue to society as
a whole, hence, the difficulty of estimating their value. Another non-quantifiable value is
amenity which is the collective subjective perception of different individuals. When derelict
landscape is improved, e.g. waterlogged mosquito-infested area is drained, the benefits in the
form of improved health and sanitation cannot be easily be quantified.

Cost of Land Development

On the other side of the elevation are the costs of brining land into utilization. Land in its natural
state is seldom ready for use. Before it can acquire much economic value, it should be made
accessible for use through the application of land resources such as the following:

Direct outlays for land development. Almost every type of land development requires some
direct outlays of capital and labor. The extent and nature of these outlays vary with the type of
development. The capital outlay required for the commercial exploitation of forests may take
the form of building simple logging trails. To convert fragmented lands to mechanized
cultivation requires the complicated process of land consolidation and readjustments. The
change from agricultural to urban use entails yet higher capital investments. The construction of
highways, land reclamation and mineral exploitation are some of the most expensive land
development activities.

The land development cost is sometimes considered as “sunk cost”. Investment in land
development can never be withdrawn. Sometimes when the activity operates at a loss the
capital may not even be recovered. However, when the project is successful, the capital that has
been spent in developing land losses significance as far as its effect upon the operations is
concerned.

Recurrent costs of land development. These include operating and maintenance costs,
depreciation allowances for improvements, the interest payments on borrowed capital and local
property taxes.

Social costs of land development. These include the social returns and satisfactions foregone
while the development is in progress, e.g. the inconveniences suffered by pioneering settlers in
the early stages of resettlement.

Ripening cost. This pertains to the cost of holding property in its present state (often in lower
uses than those justified by current market conditions) when it is ripe (real or imagined) for
higher use. For instance, when a cutover farmland is maintained by the owner under
agriculture in the midst of neighboring residential sites, the owner actually incurs a high cost for
a lower return. In such a case, the owner is encouraged to convert though sometimes
prematurely to higher use. If the owner has little interest in the returns he could secure from the
operation of the land, he usually sells at a speculative profit.

In summary, land is viewed in the economic sense as a time-honored and safe area of
investment, either for development or merely for speculation. If land is held for development,
the following principles apply:

1. Decision on land use are largely influenced by the owner’s perception of the highest and
best use.

2. People are naturally inclined to make first use of the land with the highest use capacity.

3. Should additional land be needed, use of land of lower use capacity at a higher
development and production cost may be resorted to as long as there is assurance that
buyers are willing to pay the market price or that society is willing to subsidize the cost
of such development.
Land Value

As discussed earlier, the evaluation of the costs and benefits of alternative land use is made
easier if both costs and benefits can be expressed in monetary terms. In the succeeding
paragraphs some concepts and principles associated with determining the value of land are
discussed. The concept of land value is useful when land is regarded as a consumption good that
is traded or exchange in the market.

What is value?
Value is an abstract word with many acceptable definition. In general, it is the relationship
between an object desired and a potential buyer of that object. Value can also be defined as the
power of a good or service to command other goods and services in exchange. In terms of
appraisal, value can be defined as the present worth of future benefits arising from the
ownership of real property.

For property to have value in the real estate market, it must have the following characteristics:
utility, or the capacity to satisfy human needs or desires; scarcity, where the demand is greater
than the supply; effective demand, or the need or desire for possession or ownership that is
backed up by the financial means to satisfy that need; and transferability, or the relative ease
with which the transfer of rights of ownership from one person to another can be effected.

Market Value vs. Market Price

Market value can be taken as an estimated price based on an analysis of comparable sales and
other pertinent market data. Market price is what property actually sells for, it’s selling price.
Although ideally, the market price should be the same as the market value, this is not true
sometimes. E.g. when the seller is forced to sell quickly or when the ale is arranged between
relatives. Therefore, the market price can only be taken as equal to the market value when
consideration is taken of the relationship between seller and buyer, the terms of the sale
and conditions of the market, and the effect of the passage of time since the sale was made.

Market Value vs. Cost

It is important to distinguish between market value and cost. Market value and cost are often
equal, especially when improvements on the property are new and represent the highest and
best use of the land. Very often, however, cost and market value may not be equal. Consider two
identical houses which cost the same to build. One is on a busy street with no provisions for safe
pedestrian crossing and the other one is situated in a quiet residential area. The value of the
former may be lower because of its location. Occasionally, there may be a desire to sell off
quickly, as in housing estates to rid the developer of the holding costs. In such situation, the
market value may be lower than the actual cost of construction.

Some Economic Principles of valuation of Property

Certain economic principles are to be borne in mind in the appraisal or valuation of property:

Highest and best use. This refers to the most profitable use to which then property is adapted
and needed or that use that is likely to be in demand in the reasonably near future. For example,
it may be decided that the highest and best use for a parking lot in a busy downtown area, is to
use it for an office space or office building. To place a value on the lot in its present use will be
erroneous, since a parking lot is not the highest and best use of the site.

Substitution. The maximum value of a property tends to be set by the cost of purchasing an
equally desirable and valuable substitute property, assuming that no costly delay is
encountered in making the substitution.
Anticipation. Value can increase or decrease in anticipation of some future benefit or detriment
affecting the property. The value of a house, for example, may decrease if there are rumors that
the plot on which the house is situated is liable to subsidence.

Change. This principle works in conjunction with the one of anticipation. It states that market
value is never constant, because economic, social and institutional forces are at work to change
the property and its environment. In addition, property itself is constantly changing. For
example, the quality of the soil can change through forces of nature, and improvements change
by aging. Because change is continuous, the estimate of market value is valid only on the day it is
made.

Balance. This principle has a dual meaning. When applied to an individual property, the
principle states that the maximum market value is reached when the four factors of production,
viz, land, labor, capital and management, attain a state of equilibrium. In this respect, the
principle works in conjunction with the principles of contribution, increasing and decreasing
returns, and surplus productivity. When applied to a neighborhood, the principle states that the
maximum market value is reached when the complementary uses of the land attain a state of
equilibrium. For example, a single-family residential neighborhood requires commercial
facilities, e.g. grocery stores, gasoline station, drug stores, etc. and other support facilities like
churches, schools, playgrounds, etc.. it is only when these complementary uses are available and
functioning that the property and the neighborhood can achieve maximum market value.

Competition. When substantial profits are being made, competition is attracted. This means that
excess profits attract competition and that competition often destroys profit. For example, the
success of a retail store may attract more retail stores into the area. This will tend to reduce
profit for all stores unless the purchasing power in the neighborhood increases substantially.

Conformity. According to this principle, the maximum market value is reached when a
reasonable degree of economic and social homogeneity is expected in the foreseeable future.
There should be a reasonable degree of conformity along social and economic lines. When this
principle is applied to residents, it means similarity in age, income, background, education,
attitudes, etc.

Consistent Use. The property must be valued with single use for the entire property. It is
improper to value a property on the basis of one use for the land and another use for the
improvements. The latter however, is the prevailing practice in assessing land values for real
property taxation purposes.

Increasing and decreasing returns. Improvements to land and structures will eventually reach a
point at which they will have no effect on property values. If money spent on such
improvements produces an increase in income or value, the law of increasing returns is
applicable. But a t a point where additional improvements will not produce a proportionate
increase in income or value, the law of diminishing returns applies.

Contribution. The value of any component of a property consists of what its addition contributes
to the value of the whole or what its absence detracts from the value. For example, the cost of
installing air-conditioning or remodeling an older building may be greater than is justified by
the rental income that will accrue.

Progression and regression. These principles indicate that the value of a lesser object is
enhanced by association with better objects of the same type. For example, a P 250,000 house
among P 750,000 homes would probably bring a higher market price. This is progression. The
regression principle states that when there are dissimilar properties within the same general
classification in the same area, the better property will be adversely affected by those of lesser
quality.
Supply and demand. The value of a property will increase if the supply decreases and the
demand either increases or remains constant – and vice versa. For example, the last lot to be
sold in a residential area where the demand of homes is high would probably be worth more
than the first lot that was sold in the area.

Factor Affecting Demand and Supply of Property

Because value is a function of supply and demand, it is important to know what factors either
affect either the supply of or demand for land or property. The following are some of these
factors:

Increase or decrease in population. All other things being equal, increases in population will
result in increased demand for property. A large population will require more houses to live in,
more buildings in which to work and more space for leisure-time activities, and all the other
ancillary activities necessary for modern living. Such population changes may be considered on
a national basis or on more local basis, and if there are movements of population from one area
to another, property values are likely to be affected both in the area of origin and in the
destination.

Change in the age distribution of the population. Such changes my influence property values.
For example, in one period a large proportion of the population may be under 40 years and in
another period may be over 40. Such changes may be reflected in the demand for more
bungalow types for the older generation while flats may be preferred by the younger
generation. This may call for adaptation of the existing housing stock to cater for housing
demands.

Changes in the proportion of married couples to single people. This may be reflected in the
demand for particular housing types and hence the value of property. Single people may be
more satisfied with one-room bedsitters than are married couples. Different types of
accommodation may be required and this will be reflected in value of properties.

Changes in fashion and taste. Fashion is important in property demand and property values.
Many old buildings may be still functionally desirable as places to live in, but their designs may
no longer be attractive enough for people to demand them and this will be reflected in property
values. Such changes are evident in price trends of different types of property.

Changes in the fashionableness of areas. Not only do many fashionable areas of cities become
unfashionable, but unfashionable areas may occasionally become fashionable. A fashionable
area where all the rich people live is where property values are high. (Refer back to homer
Hoyt’s observations quoted in Chapter 1.)

Changes in the type of society. Such changes may be in the form of a society which is undergoing
transformation from agrarian to industrial where people leave the agricultural land for work in
industries in the urban areas. Occasionally also, in the urban areas, people get richer and decide
to move out to suburban areas. A notable form of this type of societal change in the less
developed countries is the immigration into the cities for economic opportunities, all of such
changes will result in increased demand for property and consequent changes in property
values.

Changes in technology. A house with central air-conditioning is invariably more valuable than
one without. Where factories are concerned for example, changes in technology may have far
reaching effects on property values. It may be that new machines are designed which to carry
out industrial processes more efficiently than existing workshops do not have. Thus the older
workshops may become obsolete and less valuable.
Changes in building methods. If new building technologies result in an increased supply of new
buildings, unless there is an increase in demand or an increase in money supply, the prices or
values of that type of property resulting from the technology and building methods may fall.

Changes in money supply. If there is a change in the money supply available for the purchase of
property, without there being changes in any other supply and demand factors, this should
result in price changes in the property market. If more money is made available for home
purchase, there may be a competition among potential purchasers which may result in prices
being bid up. One factor that affects the money supply is the steady stream of home-bound
remittances of overseas workers. Also, it is well-known that house improvement or home
purchase is a priority investment of most overseas workers’ families.

Changes in means of communication. Accessibility and the availability of infrastructure exert a

great influence on the value of the property. The value of some properties is likely to go up. This
is the basis of the special benefit levy and the arguments as to whether societies which have
carried out infrastructural improvements should benefit from increases in property values.

Planning controls. This factor probably has the greatest effect on values of property than any
other factor or all the other factors combined. The designated use of the land in the CLUP and
zoning ordinance can result in huge increases in value of some landed property or alternatively
in decreases in other property’s values. The farmer whose land has been reclassified into non-
agricultural use may find that the value of his land has increased fifty-fold as a result of the
LGU’s action.

Land Value Formulas

Two sample land valuation formulas are given below. The first, by P.F. Wendt, has a general
application. The other, by E.F. Brigham, is for valuation of urban lands.

GENERAL LAND VALUE

(According to Paul F. Wendt)
• The expected aggregate net annual return on the land expressed as a percentage of the annual
rate at which the investment is estimated to be amortized annually
• Is interrelated with the pattern of land uses, and with land use intensities
(Aggregate Gross Revenues) − (Total Cost Expected)
Land Value =
Capitalization Rate
Gross Revenue Component:
1. Investor’s expectation of the size of the market
2. The income spent for various urban services within the market
3. The urban area’s competitive pull
4. The supply competitive urban land
5. The prospective investment in public improvements
Total Cost Component
Total expected cost is the sum of –
1. Local property taxes
2. Operating cost
3. Interest on capital invested in percent
4. Depreciation allowances for those improvements

The Capitalization Rate is affected by –

1. Interest rates
2. Allowances for anticipated risks
3. Expectations concerning capital gains
 URBAN LAND VALUE
(According to Eugene F. Brigham)
V = f (P, A, T, U, H )
i.e. the value (V) of a particular urban site is a function of its
P = accessibility to economic activities
A = existing amenities
T = topography
U = present and future use
H = historical factors that affect its utilization
Accessibility value – relative ease with which the site occupant can reach other activity areas in the city
Amenity value – subjectively perceived “pleasantness” of the environment in which the site is located
Topography – natural characteristics of the site like slope, elevation, soil structure. It affects both amenity
value and development cost.
Utilization- existing and desired use of the area where the site is located, as reflected in the current land
use map and zoning map. Usually categorized into residential, commercial, industrial,
institutional agricultural, open space, etc.
Historical factors – the succession of past land uses of the site and of the area. This indicates whether
existing use is still appropriate or is no longer suitable.

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF LAND USE

Whereas, the physical and economic factors affect individual decisions on land use, social
determinants are the other factors that influence individual and collective actions. These
factors, with the exception of government regulations, are not considered consciously and
rationally by individuals when making decisions as to the use of their land. And yet their
influence is no less strong than economic and physical factors. These factors may be classified
into social values, customs and traditions, property ownership patterns and government
policies.

Social Values, Customs and Tradition

Values are principles, view and convictions that motivate behavior resulting in certain
organized forms of action by individuals or groups. They are derived from customs, traditions
and cultural biases and they influence people’s attitudes towards land and the uses to which
land is put.

Some examples of customs and traditions that influence the pattern of land utilization in the
Philippines are dietary habits, strong family ties, hiya and religious convictions.

Dietary habits. Majority of Filipinos for instance, have a customary preference for eating rice. As
a result large areas of agricultural lands are devoted to rice production even if it can be
demonstrated that cultivating other crops may be profitable. An exception are the Cebuanos and
the Igorots who may have cultivated the taste for corn and camote, respectively, probably by the
accident of geography.

Strong family ties and its extension, extended families. This is another Filipino social value that
has greatly influenced land uses. In rural areas, large agricultural estates that lend themselves to
modern farm management are continuously being fragmented and parceled out to surviving
heirs. This gives rise to uneconomic sized farm lots. Of course, the reverse may also be true. An
enterprising family displaying clannishness consolidates fragmented lands into a single estate
administered by the family which is converted into a single estate administered by the family
which is converted into a business organization. An example is the Alcantara family of Davao.
Similarly, large urban estates consolidated by few rich families are shown to have been master
planned and consequently attracted massive private investments, e.g. Ayala, Ortigas, Araneta
developments in Metro Manila.

In the urban areas too, strong family ties is manifested in the high level of tolerance of relatives
who put up other relatives in crowded dwellings. Even non-relatives can claim the same
privilege as long as they are known to the relatives or come from the same region of origin as
that of the host. This practice hastens the blighting of residential areas.

Hiya. The reluctance of landowners to transfer title to their heirs while the former is still alive
gives rise to difficulties in determining ownership once they are dead. This is one reason why
many land parcels are left idle or put under sub-optimal use because the ownership issue is
unresolved.

Influence of religious beliefs. In Muslim areas, settlements are oriented to the mosque and many
of the land use activities can be explained in terms of religious practices. The traditional custom
of burying a dead relative right in one’s backyard is incomprehensible to the non-Muslim land
use analyst.

Patterns of Land ownership

The size of landholding and the social status of the landowner usually affect the type of land use
to which land is devoted. Generally, larger landholdings are devoted to more productive uses
and activities are more organized and more efficiently operated. In planning for urban uses,
more consolidated lands lend themselves to better planning and land use controls that are
fragmented ones.

Some property owners look at land ownership as bestowing on the owner social status. Such
type of owners have no interest in putting their lands to higher categories of uses when the
market clearly justifies it. They may not even be accused of speculative land holding. The most
that can be said of them is that they are disusing or underutilizing their property. And the tax on
idle lands, existent in our laws for some time now, has not been able to deal with this issue
adequately. Is the government suffering from the hiya syndrome?

Another complication is the growing social consensus for the recognition of the old “communal
ownership” pattern characteristic of the tenure system in ancestral domains. Already enshrined
in the 1987 Constitution, the land rights in ancestral domain areas are now being written up in
our statutes, for example, RA 8371 (IPRA). The specific features of customary ownership rights
vary according to ethnic groups but they might come close to a typical view of land by an ethnic
community wherein:

1. No individuals can claim ownership over the land. Land is not given to a single
individual. It is given to the community and the community has the obligation to take
care of it. Whatever fruit a person may reap from its bounty, he has to share with the
community especially to those who are most in need.

2. The land is the source of the people’s existence. The spring of its bounty is the source of
their livelihood. Without it people will die.

3. Land is where their ancestors lived, and where they are buried. As such, land is very
sacred for it is where the spirits of the ancestors roam. Their ancestors help them take
care of the land.

4. Ownership claim by individuals is by virtue of use. Therefore, one’s claim is lost through
disuse or misuse.
Government and Political Influence

Government and polities can extensively have important impacts upon land use. Some land
policies can be instituted at the national level while others require regional or local action.

Almost every decision regarding ownership and use of land can be affected by public policies.
Real property taxes represent an annual levy against land ownership and can be used to force
lands into more intensive use. The inheritance tax can force the breaking up of large estates in
order to spread the tax burden among heirs. The power of eminent domain can be used by
government to acquire property from owners who are unwilling to sell. Various aspects of the
exercise of the sovereign or public power of the State can be used to protect property rights,
prevent frauds, and force individual land owners to comply with public health and safety
standards, building codes, subdivision regulations and zoning ordinance.

Land use controls, therefore can be seen as instruments which have been instituted by society
to regulate the exercise of certain basic rights pertaining property in land. The most common of
these basic rights and the limitations that the government may impose on them are:

Surface right. This is the right which permits a landowner to enjoy the current use of his land, a
right which can only be enjoyed within the limits set by the CLUP and the zoning ordinance.

Productivity right. This is the right which allows the owner to make profit from the current use
of his land, a right which can be controlled through taxation.

Development right. The right allows the owner to improve his land in the best possible way he
knows but this right can be limited by land use planning and zoning.

Pecuniary right. This right enables the land owner to benefit from development value, both
actual and anticipated. The control over this particular right has formed the subject matter for
the “unearned increment” or “windfall” debates in most societies where the institution of
private property is recognized and preserved. In the Philippines, this is the subject of special
assessments.

Restrictive right. This is the right of the owner not to develop the land, and which again can be
the subject of the idle lands tax.

Disposal right. This is the right which allows the owner to sell or will his land to others, a right
which is being eroded by various forms of taxation such as the donor’s tax, capital gains tax, and
the like.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In answer to the question propounded at the start of this chapter. It is obvious that each of the
factors discussed in the foregoing sections exerts varying weights on the decision-makers. But
certain generalizations can be made at this point. To most private landowners, for example, the
economic factors weigh far more heavily than do the other physical factors. The physical
characteristics of the land are seldom taken as the final deciding factor, for, given enough
money, or given the assurance of a reasonable return, investors can have physical constraints
ameliorated or overcome. However, under a regime of effective land use planning and
regulation the final say is undoubtedly reserved by the local government in its capacity as
promoter and protector of the general welfare. In the Philippine context, the Local Government
Code has unequivocally mandated LGUs to prescribe reasonable limits and restraints on the use
of land within their respective territories. This mandate is the foundation of land use planning
in the Philippines. (See Chapter 4.)
 CHAPTER 3
LAND USE PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES:
PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS AND PRACTICE

There are three interlocking dimensions of land use planning: technical, political, and ideological.
The technical dimension involves the approaches, methods and techniques used to determine the
proper location of, and allocation of space for the different land using activities. The political
dimension relates to the development of policies, guidelines and criteria for proper management of
land resources, including the sharing of responsibility between the national government and local
government units in various aspects of land use planning. The ideological dimension deals with the
underlying social philosophy of land. Such philosophy is manifested by the value that society
attaches to land, by the prevailing notions of private property rights, and by the perceived role of
the State vis-à-vis private property use decisions, as shaped by the historical experience of the
people.

For land use planning to succeed, the social philosophy of land must be clearly articulated by the
State in the form of policies which must be adhered to by the people in general. The social
philosophy in turn, defines and delimits the extent of the State power to regulate land use. Finally,
the extent of the State power to regulate the use of land that society allows it to exercise determines
the policies on, and the tools and techniques of land use planning. Land use planning therefore must
not be seen as a purely technical exercise. Rather, it must be understood as essentially a political act
of translating societal values into social goals, and seeking to attain those goals through proper
management of land and other natural resources aided by appropriate analytical techniques and
management tools. In short, effective land use planning is possible when ideology, politics and
techniques converge or at least are consistent with one another.

Against this yardstick, how does land use planning in Philippines measure up?

To start with, there is a perception that land use planning in the Philippines is a technical exercise in
need of political support and a consistent ideological foundation. The primary reason for this is that
those who make the plans and those who make policies and take decisions represent contrasting
interests. Plan making is the task of the technocrat in the bureaucracy; policy and decision-making,
on the other hand, is the politician’s preserve. Either of them advocates a different social philosophy
of land.

LAND AND THE FILIPINO

Private interest in land in the Philippines is so pervasive that the welfare objectives upon which
land use planning is founded like “distributive justice”, “equitable access to benefits of land use”,
“land as natural resource and not as commodity o trade” are confined to the realm of rhetoric.
Untrammelled private interest in land has two manifestations. One is highly skewed pattern of land
ownership. The other is weak State incapable of effecting redistributive justice and social equity
objectives.

Skewed Land Ownership

The story of the Filipino’s relationship to land has been characterized by continuing accumulation
by the few and dispossession of the many. The vaunted Filipino’s attachment to land and his dogged
insistence on having no less than a title as evidence of possession can be explained from the point of
view of both the acquisitive few and the dispossessed many: the former covet land out of insatiable
greed, the latter out of desperate need. The accumulator, like the protagonist in Checkov’s “Three
Arshins of Land”, acquires land by all means, fair and foul, with the frenzy of one racing against the
sun. The dispossessed seek to acquire whatever land there is from any source including traders in
“rights” over lands they have no right to sell in the first place. Once they have acquired “title” to
their land, they defend their possession literally to the death: the latter even at the cost of their own
lives, the former at the expense of others’ lives. Some of the most brutal killings that occurred in this
country can be traced to the disputes over possession of land. To the Filipino land is life. To the
dispossessed, to acquire land has become an obsession, to at least have a share of this earth, a little
place they can call their own. To the one who acquired too much, land is life – and more. It adds to
the holder status, enormous wealth, and political power.

How did land come to be concentrated in the hands of a few and an elusive dream to the many?

Pre-colonial Practice. Pre-Hispanic Filipinos probably practiced communal land tenure. Land
belonged to the family, clan, tribe, or barangay held in trust for the group by the head. Every
member who wanted to use land and was able to work it had automatic right of access, which right
he lost once he was unable to use or work the land. This is evidence by the property concepts that
prevail to this day among indigenous peoples who had resisted or did not succumb to the inroads of
foreign culture, especially those who live in the uplands and highlands. (See Chapter 7.)

Among those who settled in the flat lowlands engaged in wet rice cultivation such as the Tagalogs
and Pampangos private property in land in its rudimentary form was found to be in practice at the
time of the Spanish contract. Families and individuals divided up land among themselves so that
they recognized and respected one another’s landholdings. They did not only work their land, they
could also trade or barter them or bequeath them to their heirs. Besides the rice land, homelots,
lots, nipa and coconut groves, and even forestlands were also subject to trade and barter. Although
this indicated individual private land ownership, communal ownership was likewise in practice.
Lands owned in common by the barangay included nearby woods, open spaces, grasslands, marshes
and mangroves. Beyond their individual parcels and barangay commons lay the rivers, lake, or
seacoasts which they also considered as belonging to them. The reason for their extensive claim is
explained by Corpuz (1989, I) as owing to the rudimentary nature of agriculture that they practiced.
“The barangay fields were small; technology was simple; crops were low. The harvest from the
small fields was augmented by the fruits of the woodlands and slopes; the prize of the hunt; and the
catch from the water. The barangay people had need of extensive tracts.”

Other historians like Constantino (1975), Agoncillo (1990) and Tan (1997) believe that private
property in land was non-existent in the pre-Spanish Filipino society. Barangay chiefs merely
administered the lands in the name of the barangay. Such communalism ensured that every
individual had a share of community resources, regardless of status. This has made ownership of
land unimportant if not altogether unnecessary. Similarly, the Muslim societies in Mindanao which
had had earlier foreign contact starting from the 13th century were practicing a form of feudalism
wherein land was held in common but was in private use.

Enter the Spaniards. Given the rudimentary concept and practice of private property in land that
may have existed at the time of the Spanish colonization, it is not completely accurate to say that the
Spaniards brought with them the institution of private land ownership. Rather, it was the Spaniards
who introduced the “Regalian doctrine” by virtue of which all lands belonged to the King because he
had invested in the expeditions of discovery, conquest and pacification. Thenceforth, ownership of
land was a right or privilege bestowed by the king to the natives. Thus, the Filipinos lost their
ancestral rights to land.

The Spaniards then undertook the consolidation of scattered barangays into compact pueblos or
towns and the natives could lay claim only to the agricultural land surrounding the towns. The vast
expanse at the fringes that they used to enjoy in common became realengas or crown land. The
concept of crown land is roughly equivalent to the concept of public domain. From these lands of
public domain the King awarded large land grants to non-Filipinos, particularly those Spaniards
who took part in the conquest and pacification campaigns in other parts of the world. Thus, the
Filipinos saw the first appearance of lopsided distribution of land in favor of non-natives.

The Rise of the Native Principalia. In the pre-Spanish Filipino society there were natural leaders
whose authority was recognized by the group and which was passed on to their heirs. These leaders
were co-opted by the Spaniards to assist them in administering the pueblos. The native Principalia
were given formal positions are gobernadorcillos (in towns) or alcaldes (in provinces) and in return
for their services of collecting taxes and organizing forced-labor gangs they received land grants.
Thus, from holders of land in trust for the community the native principalia became the actual
owners of erstwhile common lands now transformed into crown lands. This is the second instance
of unequal land distribution in the Philippines, this time the natives’ own leaders became the large
landowners.

Land Acquisition. As long as the Spanish colonists were making quick money from engaging in the
Galleon Trade they did not attach too much importance to owning land. The only land sales took
place in the wet rice areas around Manila. Following the abolition of the Galleon Trade in 1814 and
the policy of the Spanish crown to produce agricultural crops for export the mad rush to acquire
land started.

In their effort to acquire land, the Spaniards theoretically recognized native private landholdings.
Early on, the Spanish crown had insisted on a policy so uncharacteristic of colonial powers at the
time, “that in any acquisition or conquest personal liberty and private property, whether of
individuals or corporations, existing at the time of acquisition, were to be respected”. Referring to
the Indians in America, but this may well apply to the Filipinos, the King issued the order to his
conquistadors to make them direct subjects of the crown, to convert them to Christianity but also
reminded his conquistadors that the Indians were “free men and might not be enslaved. Their land
and property were their own and might not to be taken from them save by fair and willing sale”.
King Philip II issued his Ordinances in 1573 which from part of the Laws of the Indies. Ordinance
139 may have governed the Spaniards’ behavior during the first decades of their occupation of the
Philippines:

Obtain information of the diversity of nations, languages, sects and prejudices of the natives… and about the
lords they may pledge obedience to, and by means of commerce and exchange, try to establish friendship with
the Indians, showing great love and caressing them and also giving them things in barter which will attract their
interest, and not showing greediness for their things. (The Spaniards) should establish friendship and alliances
with the principal lords and influential who would be most useful in the pacification of the land.” (Translated by
Mundingo and Crouch)

In reality however, due to the absence of written documents to prove their possession, native
landholders eventually lost their lands to the Spaniards. Using various methods more foul than fair,
the Spaniards, with the aid of the native principalia acquired large tracts, including communal lands,
and transformed these into landed estates. Cushner refers to the native principalia as “opportunistic
Judases who betrayed their people by selling their communal land… Thus, from their position of
authority the principalia class took quick advantage of the new economic and political reality to sell
lands which were not theirs to sell”.

Neither was the taking of native property done through “fair and willing sale” as earlier decreed by
the King. Land sales were unfair and abusive. As Bauzon describes a typical transaction, “when sales
occurred between two Spaniards or mestizos fair prices were paid. When a transaction involved an
Indio and a Spaniard the price paid to the Indio was exploitative. Sometimes the payment was made
not in cash but in kind such as a few inexpensive jewelry for tens of hectares of cultivated land”.
Other modes of land acquisition included lease-purchase (pacto de retroventa) wherein the native
seller often failed to buy back the leased property, and outright land grabbing or usurpation
through fraudulent surveys and complicated court proceedings. The priest, particularly of the friar
orders, cajoled their rich parishioners to donate land to the church in return for promises of
spiritual favor. Thus did land end up in the hands of a few landed estates, not least of which were of
the friar orders. This is the third and most far-reaching moment of skewed land distribution. It led
to a vast social transformation characterized by “a few large landholders and an army of landless
peasants who either worked as feudal peons or went adrift as landless laborers or vagamundos”.
This new social relationship exacerbated income inequality and gave rise to mass poverty. The loss
of their ancestral lands coupled with the manner by which these were taken from them was the
principal motives for the natives’ sporadic revolts that sparked in many places of the country
throughout the Spanish regime.

The New Elite. The rise of landed estates (haciendas) also brought about a new social structure. At
the apex were the absentee landowners, mostly the friar orders. They hired salaried administrators
who ran the estates and received rent from the renters. The renters were of two types: small
inquilinos who worked and lived on the estate and were allowed to work a small plot, and the big
inquilinos who were non-cultivating tenants. At the bottom of the structure were the aparceros who
came from the army of landless vagamundos and worked on the estate as salaried workers or share
croppers.

The big inquilino had the most advantageous position in this social structure. He leased relatively
large tracts of church lands for a fixed annual cash rent and sublet the land to small inquilinos and
aparceros who paid him half of the harvest plus the principal and interest on the production capital
he loaned to them. Big inquilinos hired overseers so that they did not have to live on the estate.
Behaving like the absentee owners themselves the big inquilinos lived and worked in Manila and
elsewhere. They sent their children to the best schools here and abroad and used their affluence to
gain political influence and power. And the change-over of colonial rule from the Spaniards to the
Americans, these former renters became the new hacienderos, courtesy of American-style land
reform.

American-Style Land Reform. One of the earliest major acts of the American colonial government
was the purchase of the friar estates for redistribution to the tenants. The estates were surveyed
and were found to cover 166,000 hectares with an estimated resident tenant population of 60,000.
The program of redistribution to the tenants would allow them to become owners in 25 years.
However, after the lands were purchased by the American government from the Vatican, almost all
the lands ended up as haciendas owned by Filipinos of the upper class. Connolly, quoting Endriga,
explains that this “upper class” Filipinos are none other than the big inquilinos who had wanted to
wrest control of the friar estates and were instrumental in the purchase by the Americans. The same
influential people came forward to the Americans and acquired possession of the purchased friar
estates. As the new hacienderos the principalia class became the big landowners twice over. Thus
the Americans reinforced this class in their position of influence and power. This has exacerbated
the already skewed land distribution pattern even during the Spanish regime.

Torrens Title System. Under the Americans, the institution of private property in land is further
strengthened by the adoption of the Torrens system. Under this system the title of the grantee or
transferee is made binding against the whole world, including the government, as soon as the deed
of transfer shall have been presented and registered in the office of the register of deeds. To
facilitate registration the government provides to the owner a Torrens certificate of title when the
property is transferred to another party, the title is submitted for cancellation and a new Torrens
title is issued to the new owner.

The knowledge that the Torrens title is binding against the whole world is what gives the Filipino a
sense of security tenure. This makes the “title” the most sought after instrument to prove one’s
possession and a security against any possible dispossession. This probably explains why most
Filipinos, having experienced dispossession for centuries, would not settle for anything less than a
title as an instrument of tenure to property.

Land Classification. Another important contribution of the Americans is the classification of lands in
the public domain or lands that had not been placed under private ownership. Under the Public
Land Act (Commonwealth Act 141) of 1931, lands in the public domain were classified into
timberlands, mineral lands, and agricultural lands (otherwise known as alienable and disposable).
The identification and delineation of disposable public agricultural land, after these had been
released as being no longer needed for forest or public purposes, accelerated their alienation and
disposition to private claimants. Four methods of disposition were instituted, each with defined
maximum limits of hectarage. One method was by homestead settlement patterned after the
American West with a maximum of 24 hectares for each applicant. Another mode is sale by open
bidding. By this method an individual can purchase up to 124 hectares; a corporation up to 1,024
hectares. Lease is another option whereby one can apply for a maximum of 1,024 hectares if
intended for cultivation; 2,000 hectares if to be used for grazing. The law (CA 141) has also opened
the door for confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles to lands of the public domain of up to 24
hectares. This could be done either through judicial legalization or by administrative action (free
patent).

The boundaries between the disposable portion of the public domain (A&D) and the portion that is
not available for disposition were not, however, clearly marked out and monumented on the
ground. The land evaluation parties that undertook the land classification marked out boundaries
by painting signs on boulders, tree trunks and similar objects which disappeared after a few years.
Not knowing where the limits lay, people eventually entered and occupied these non-disposable
lands (timberlands) in the false hope that they could obtain titles to those lands they entered by
virtue of “open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation”. Little do they
know that this provision of law applies to areas that had earlier been classified as alienable and
disposable (agricultural) lands of the public domain. The extent of encroachment on timberlands
can be appreciated from the findings of the survey of forest occupants conducted by the DENR in
1989 which counted a total of 18 million inhabitants living in non-disposable lands reserved as the
nation’s patrimony.

Real Estate Business. Up until the close of the Spanish regime the concept of a residential
subdivision was unknown to most Filipinos with the probable exception of a few who have lived or
traveled abroad. During the Spanish period the practice was for the landlord to designate a certain
section of his property where tenants could build their own houses and in return pay rent to the
landlord. No allocations were made for streets, school sites, and other public facilities like open
spaces. If your homelot happened to be located in an interior area, access to your lot was done by
hoping over your neighbor’s fences. Communal faucets and communal toilets were provided by the
landlord.

The Americans introduced the practice of land subdivision and the business of selling subdivided
lots. Soon they were selling land retail and due to increasing demand even rice paddies, zacate fields
(actually marsh lands where horse fodder was gathered), fishponds and similar areas were being
converted to subdivisions. The earliest subdivisions in Manila were reportedly easily sold out even
without the needed improvements. The roads, drainage systems and other improvements were
later put up by the city in collaboration with the lot owners. But in the absence of standards and
regulations these subdivisions degenerated into slums and blighted areas.

The business of real estate development and selling of subdivided (not necessarily serviced) lots
has become the basis of new wealth. Developers acquired and assembled raw lands well in advance
of actual need and maintained a seller’s market in developed land. Although the State now regulates
and enforces standards on subdivision developments, some unscrupulous operators manage to
make quick money by taking opportunistic advantage of weak government law enforcement.
The private business in real estate is also largely responsible for modifying the urban form of most
cities throughout the rest of the 20th century. (See Chapter 8.)

Two Types of Landed Interest. Thus we have today two types of landed interest. One is the
traditional agricultural estate and the other is the large urban real estate business. Both wings of the
landed interest are strongly represented in, or make powerful lobby in the halls of legislative bodies
from the national down to the local level. They also mount strong pressures on land use regulatory
bodies. The agricultural landed estate block has its banner cause the protection of haciendas from
being broken up for redistribution under the agrarian reform law. Sometimes they find common
cause with the urban real estate block by seeking the conversion of portions of their haciendas into
industrial, residential and other forms of urban development, again to dodge the agrarian reform
law. For their part, the urban real estate wing of the landed interest incessantly attacks the policy on
protected agricultural lands. They know that agricultural lands on the edge of built up areas are the
easiest and most profitable to develop into subdivisions. Their lobby arena is the local Sanggunian
which is empowered by the Local Government Code to reclassify agricultural lands into urban land
uses.

In the face of these formidable blocks of landed interest how can land use planning defined broadly
as State regulation to ensure proper utilization of land resources and equitable sharing of the
benefits of such utilization take root, much less flourish? Much would depend, no doubt, on the
ability of the State to exercise its authority to manage the national patrimony and to regulate
private property.

A Weak State

The State as Manager of Land Resources. As was asserted earlier, the other manifestation of
paramount private interest in land is the relative weakness of the State in managing land resources
in a way that social justice and equity objectives are promoted. This owes in part also to the land
classification and titling system which has legitimatized unequal claims, some families obtaining
titles to inordinately large tracts of land, while marginalizing others. To understand what land
resources are managed by the State, we have to know something about the land classification
system. The general land classification system aims to identify what portion of the national
patrimony shall be retained by the State and what can be released for private ownership and use.

Old and New Land Classification Schemes. According to the land classification system prior to 1987,
all lands of the national territory are either timberlands, mineral lands, or alienable and disposable
(A & D). Portions of the territory that have not yet been classified are known as “Unclassified Public
Forest”. The timberlands and mineral lands remain in the hands of the State; A & D lands can be
released to private claimants. The State owns and administers the timberlands which account over
half of the national territory. The A & D lands, though largely in private hands, are subject to State
regulation or can be reacquired by the State in the public interest, through the exercise of the power
of eminent domain.

As owner of timberlands, the State may actually develop them by administration or by contract,
lease, grant or similar arrangements with private parties. The State also subclassifies timberlands to
determine what areas may be put under productive use and what areas may be reserved for
protection and conservation purposes.

As regulator of A & D lands that are already in private hands, the State exercises this function
through the use of various devices including land use planning. Of course, there are portions of A &
D lands which are still untitled. These remain with the State as part of the public domain until they
are otherwise alienated and disposed of according to specific laws. (See Figure 3.1.)
Following the effectivity of the 1987 Constitution, a new land classification was set up. According to
the new scheme, all lands are divided into private lands and lands of the public domain. Private
lands are either in private ownership or held by the State in its capacity as a private individual.
Privately-owned lands are subject to eminent domain, that is, they can be taken back by the State
provided that the taking is for public purpose and the requirements of due process and just
compensation are satisfied. Lands in the public domain on the other hand are further subdivided
into non-disposable and therefore not available for alienation (natural parks, mineral lands, forest
lands) and disposable and hence available for alienation for various purposes (agricultural,
residential, commercial, industrial, educational, town sites). (See Figure 3.2.)

Figure 3.1
OLD LAND CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
Source of basic data: NRMDP-DENR
 Figure 3.2
NEW LAND CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
Source of basic data: NRMDP-DENR

Obviously, when A & D part of the public domain is alienated and disposed, it becomes part of the
private lands, leaving behind the non-A & D parts for the State to own and administer. Regulation of
private lands, however, continues to be exercised by the State in the public interest.

Unequal Privileges. As manager of public lands, the State has bestowed unequal privileges in the
exploitation of natural resources on one hand, and has allowed encroachment of protected areas by
the marginalized families, on the other. Fees and charges have not been commensurate with the
privilege granted to lessees and concessionaires for the exploitation of natural resources. Some of
the richest individuals derived their wealth by extracting economic value from public lands and
paying to the State almost gratuitous rents. Thus poverty and affluence are both the effect of
inequitable access to the benefits of land use and are to blame for the environmental degradation
that now stalks the nation. Guingona (1970) provides a critique which may well mirror the status of
natural resources under government management:

“The Constitution… declares that all agricultural, timber, and mineral lands of the public domain, and all other
natural resources of the Philippines belongs to the State. These natural resources, with the exception of public
agricultural land, shall not be alienated. Evidently the State seeks to conserve these resources and to develop them
through the grant of licenses and leases to qualified firms and persons for a specific period, bur never to alienate
them permanently.

The restriction has been breached many times over. Forest lands, for example, belong to the State. But after an area
is exploited by a concessionaire, the State seldom reforests (it) for lack of funds. These lands are often times
reclassified, converted to agricultural lands open to the public, and subsequently alienated to private parties. Even
areas that have been proclaimed by the President as exclusive reserves for forest and mining areas, even national
parks exclusively designed for the preservation of wildlife have been reclassified, reconverted, and released to
private parties for their own private purpose not consistent with the original intent of the Constitution.”

In a well-documented book, Danguilan (1993) attributes forest denudation mainly to the

government and partly to non-government forces. The government is largely to blame for
deforestation through the lack of coherent forest protection policy and weak law enforcement. In a
more active mode, the government has used the timber lease agreement (TLA) as a tool of political
patronage. Private concessionaires protected by politicians violated forestry laws and advance their
interests at the expense of forest protection. Even the military officers were either engaged in illegal
logging or were protecting illegal loggers. Moreover, the dissident New People’s Army, Danguilan
adds, contributed to forest denudation by benefitting from logging concessionaires rather than
defending the forests (Introduction, xiv).

But if the government has done a poor job of equitably allocating privileges in the use of the natural
resources in the public domain, it has done even much worse in the disposition and regulation of
private land. The government, both national and local, seems to content itself with playing the role
of spectator, standing in helpless bewilderment in the face of market hysteria in land trading.

Speculative Trading in Land. Untrammelled private interest in land and the weakness of the State
are nowhere more starkly manifested than in speculative trading in land as an item of commerce.
Private developers and dealers make profits from land transactions or by producing and selling
serviced lots as a commodity of trade. They have absolute control over the release of land for
development by buying up large amounts of raw land , mainly agricultural lands, and hoarding them
until they are ripe for sale or development. This makes land so inaccessible to most low-income
families that squatting seems to be the only alternative available to them.

This observation is so amply demonstrated in the case of the Urban Land Reform Law (PD 1517)
itself. (See further discussion below.) Three months after signing the decree, then President Marcos
issued Proclamation No. 1893 declaring the entire Metropolitan Manila area as land reform zone.
This was to mobilize the instruments for implementing the urban land reform law “as part of the
program of equitable and rational distribution of wealth”. Less than two years later, the President
issued Proclamation No. 1967 (14 may 1980) amending the earlier proclamation and limiting the
coverage of urban land reform to 244 identified sites only. The combined size of these sites amounts
to a tiny fraction of the land area of the metropolis. One can almost see in this case the invisible
hand of powerful interests bearing upon the higher level of decision-making. Thus, urban land
reform retreated before it could take the first few steps forward – and under an authoritarian
regime yet.

The succeeding Aquino government was to execute the coup de grace. The urban land reform law
(PD 1517) was replaced with (or supplemented by?) the “Urban Development and Housing Act of
1992” (RA 7279). The new law reiterates the welfare objectives of PD 1517. But due to the fact that
the new law places heavy reliance on the role of private developers in carrying out programs of
housing and urban development raises some misgivings about its effectiveness. There are doubts
expressed in some quarters that the stress on fiscal incentives and market-based instruments as the
main mechanism of State intervention will result in equitable access to urban land. It is feared that a
large segment of the low-income population will be effectively excluded from the program.

Moreover, RA 7279 is too cautious to disturb the existing pattern of land ownership by initially
confining the application of the law to government-owned property and placing private lands as last
priority in land acquisition proceedings. Also, the law imposes a maximum size the poor can own
but no such limit is imposed on the wealthy. Thus, the structural causes of inequitable access to
land, viz, highly skewed pattern of ownership and uncontrolled profitability in land transactions
will be here to stay.

Welfare as Rhetoric. As earlier argued, the prevailing notion of property and of the role of the State
in regulating private land use decisions is basic to the success of land use planning. In the
Philippines, it would seem that the concept of private property is gradually changing. This can be
gleaned from the pertinent provisions of the last three constitutions that the country has so far
produced in the 20th century. It may be noted that the 1935 Constitution was overly protective of
private property rights. It was the 1935 Constitution that influenced generations of Filipinos into
thinking that private property is absolute and inviolable. In the 1973 Constitution, the concept of
social responsibility in private property ownership was introduced for the first time. The 1973
Constitution provides: “The State shall promote social justice to ensure the dignity, welfare and
security of all people. To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, enjoyment
and disposition of private property and equitably diffuse property ownership and profits.
(Underscoring supplied.) The same provision recurs in the 1987 Constitution. The 1987
Constitution is even more forthright: “The use of property bares a social function and all economic
agents shall contribute to the common good. Individuals and private groups… shall have the right to
own, establish and operate economic enterprises, subject to the duty of the State to promote
distributive justice and to intervene when the common good so demands”. The wellspring of all land
policy overflows with the rhetoric of welfare.

The welfare rhetoric of the Constitution has to be translated into specific statutes before it can be
operationalized. Legislative bodies, however, from the national to the local level, are not about to
enact those needed legislations with any sense of urgency. That is because legislatures from the
local to national levels are dominated by landed property interests.

The task of translating the welfare objectives of the Constitution has therefore devolved upon the
technocrats: the planners in national agencies and the technical staff of local planning bodies. The
technical officers and staff do not represent the landed interests. The early generations of town
planners who trained abroad or who had trained under teachers who obtained their planning
degrees from British, Canadian and Australian schools had imbibed the egalitarian and welfare
ideals of post war town and country planning of these countries. They saw in planning the
opportunity to reform the social inequalities associated with property ownership.

The period of martial law, (the 1970s and early 1980s) provided the atmosphere and impetus for
the technocrats to contribute to the rhetoric of social reform. With Congress padlocked, the
technocrats in the bureaucracy suddenly found themselves writing laws and formulating policies.
They apparently relished their new-found power and tended to exercise it “with great zeal and in
some instances, with vengeance”. An example of such technocrat-produced legislation is the urban
land reform law (PD 1517) of 1978. This law contained a lot of radical ideas that, if fully
implemented, could have contributed a great deal toward democratizing access to urban land.
Section 2, “Declaration of Policy” bears quoting in full:

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the State: a) to liberate the human communities from blight,
congestion, and hazard, and to promote their development and modernization; b) to bring about the
optimum use of land as a national resource for public welfare rather than as a commodity of trade
subject to price speculation and indiscriminate use; c) to provide equitable access and opportunity to the
use and enjoyment of the fruits of the land; d) to acquire such lands as are necessary to prevent
speculative buying of land for public welfare; and e) to maintain and support a vigorous private
enterprise system responsive to community requirements in the use and development of urban lands.

In pursuit of the above policy, the law authorized responsible government agencies to apply
innovative planning techniques. For example, in land acquisition, alternatives to the conventional
modes of expropriation and consolidation and readjustment, and joint venture arrangements.
Innovative land disposition techniques authorized in the law excluded neighborhood ownership,
residential freeholds subject to improvement conditions, the reservation of development rights, and
tenure in improvements separate from tenure in land. Finally, innovative land value assessments
and real property taxation and a vigorous land development financing scheme were provided.

Undoubtedly, it was under martial law that technocrats and their welfare rhetoric attained
respectability and importance. It was during this period when just about anybody could prepare a
draft degree and have it signed by the President that planning concepts and jargon found their way
into the texts of decrees, letters of instruction, general orders, and presidential proclamations.
It was also during this period that the infrastructure for physical and land use planning was
established with the creation of the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), replacing the National
Planning Commission. Upon the initiative of the MHS, a massive program of assistance to local
governments in town was launched. Today, zoning has become so popular that people tend to
equate it with planning itself.

Part of the reason for the respectability that town planning has acquired during martial law was the
personal involvement of no less than the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda Marcos. Perhaps it is this
association with Mrs. Marcos that had given planning such a stigma that it became one of the least
important activities under the Aquino administration. Probably the most significant achievement of
the Aquino government to the field of planning was the enactment, at a very late stage in her tenure,
of the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (R.A. 7279). References to this latter law are
made in the context of other topics elsewhere in this book.

From the Aquino administration onwards there has been a shift in the focus of land use regulation
from private lands to lands in the public domain. Landmark legislations include those on protected
areas (RA 7586), mining (RA 7076 and RA 7942), fisheries (RA 8550), agriculture and fisheries (RA
8435), indigenous people’s right (RA 8371), to select a few. Perhaps the most important legislative
output after the Marcos years is the Local Government Code (RA 7160) which devolved, among
many other things, the authority to regulate land use to local governments. The national
government nevertheless continues to prescribe policies, rules and standards on land use planning
administratively through a multi-agency body created by an issuance that dates back to 1983,
Marcos’ Letter of Instruction 1350, namely, The National Land Use Committee. (See Chapter 4 for a
fuller discussion of the institutional framework of land use planning in the Philippines.)

THE POLITICS OF LAND USE PLANNING

We have seen thus far two contrasting realities: the primacy of private interest in land and the
social welfare posturing of elements of the bureaucracy. These have given rise to a politics of
ambivalence as reflected in the legislative output for land use planning and regulation. The mandate
of the State to regulate the use of, among other actions on, and is explicitly provided in two
successive constitutions (1973 and 1987). Subsequently a draft National Land Use Act has been
prepared to serve as a framework for the comprehensive regulation of land use. Unfortunately,
nearly a decade after the first version was filed, eight different versions are, as of this writing, on file
in the Senate and seven in the House. Considering the fact that landed interest dominates the
Philippine legislature at any time, the bill may well languished in the limbo of mass amnesia.
Whenever a national calamity such as floods strikes, however, some lawmakers are jolted back to
lucidity. They would invariably decry the absence of a national land use policy and then file their
own versions of the National Land Use Act. Such reluctance on the part of lawmakers to enact a law
that would curtail some of their private interests and privileges is understandable. But it is not as
though the country is unable to get on with life without any land use policy.

The truth is, there are existing policies on land use each covering a particular sector of land and
other natural resources. There are codes of laws covering the use and exploitation of forestlands,
mineral lands, fishery resources, and agricultural areas. Built into these laws on exploitation are
certain provisions on conservation to secure sustainable use of these resources. A few legislations
deal with protecting such natural resources as parks and wildlife, critical watersheds, biodiversity
areas, and the like. But these laws are fragmented and unconsolidated. The proposed National Land
use Act seeks to put all these in one comprehensive framework using the land use classification
scheme shown in Chapter 1. But a comprehensive land use regulatory framework includes
regulation of the private domain which legislators, both local and national, are reluctant to enact
because it will hurt their interests.
Devolved Function

At any rate, the regulation of private land use is devolved to the local governments. This LGU
mandate is tucked into nondescript provisions of the Local Government Code. The explicit provision
is buried inside the lengthy enumeration of the functions of local legislative bodies: “Prescribe
reasonable limits and restraints on the use of property” within their respective territorial
jurisdiction. Even the provision directing all LGUs to prepare their comprehensive land use plans
and enactment of these plans into zoning ordinances is hidden in paragraph (c) of Section 20. The
main subject of Section 20, Reclassification of Lands, is only a subset of comprehensive land use
planning, a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. Moreover, the authority to regulate land use that is
devolved to LGUs does not include the authority to regulate ownership, acquisition and disposition
of property the latter being retained by the national government. And yet whoever owns the land
has a greater say in deciding how that land should be used. And in the Philippine society the bigger
one’s property the bigger one’s voice.

Left to the LGU’s own devices, land use regulation is most certain to fail because for one, local
government officials feel powerless in the face of large landed interests. Often, the local officials
represent landed interests, if they are not the landowners themselves. The question of land use
regulation is one case in which devolution is probably counter-productive. For effective land use
regulation the LGUs should be the implementers of a national law rather than of a local ordinance
only. In this regard the experience of the United Kingdom is instructive

Under the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947, the U.K. nationalized development right.
Everyone, regardless of position or station in life, is required to secure planning permission from
the local planning office before developing their property. One such applicant for planning
permission was a member of the royal family. He wanted to build a new castle in a greenbelt, a
nationally protected open space. The local planning officials refused to grant planning permission
and felts strong enough to resist powerful political pressures because they knew they were
implementing a national policy and had the full backing of the national government.

In the Philippines, local governments regulate land use through the local zoning ordinance. The
zoning officer is often powerless to stand up to pressures (or the price) offered by the powerful.
Worse, the zoning ordinance that the zoning officer enforces is often crafted to protect the local
legislator’s landed and business interests to start with.

Retained Function

If the regulation of the private domain is left entirely in the hands of local governments, the
regulation of lands in the public domain which constitute a significant portion of any LGU territory
is retained by the national government. Despite explicit declarations in the Local Government Code
that LGUs and the national government shall co-manage the environment, in reality the national
government seems to be holding back and allows only token participation by the LGUs in the
management of lands and natural resources in their territories.

CO-MANAGEMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Under the 1991 Local Government Code (RA 7160) LGUs are mandated to co-manage with the
national government the natural resources and the environment through the mechanism of
devolution of DENR-functions. In practice, however, the devolved functions are not adequate to
enable the LGUs to manage their jurisdiction effectively. This is due to the fact that in their exercise
of their devolved functions, LGUs are subject to the “supervision, control and review” by DENR.
Another reason for the inadequacy of the devolved functions is that the geographical area covered
by the devolved functions actually amounts to a small, almost insignificant proportion of the LGUs’
territorial jurisdiction. A major portion of most LGUs’ territory falls under DENR-retained areas.

Thus, although LGUs have been empowered to co-manage their entire territorial jurisdiction in
reality their authority applies to only a limited portion of their territory.

Reproduced below are the DENR devolved functions classified under the five sectoral areas covered
by devolution as found in the manual of operations for each sector, forests, protected areas,
environment, lands and mineral areas.

Devolved Functions in Forest Management

To the Province

1. The enforcement of forest laws, rules and regulations, community-based project areas, small
watershed areas and communal forests.

2. The authority of the provincial government to enforce forest laws, rules and regulations
applies only to officially-declared communal forests, areas covering community-based
forestry projects and small watershed areas.

3. Within the community-based project areas, the small watershed areas and the communal
forests, the enforcement of forest laws, rules and regulations shall include, but not limited
to, the following functions:

a. prevention of forest fires, illegal cutting of trees and establishment of kaingins;

b. apprehension and prosecution of, or the possible filing of charges against violators of
forest laws, rules and regulations;
c. confiscation of tools and equipment used in illegal cutting of trees or gathering of forest
products illegally extracted from the devolved sites; and
d. imposition of appropriate penalties for illegal logging, smuggling of natural resources
products, and of endangered flora and fauna, slash and burn farming and other unlawful
activities.

To the Municipalities

1. The implementation, management, development of, and the responsibility for the
sustainability of the community-based forestry projects and activities.

2. The following projects and activities are now part of the functions and responsibilities of
municipalities to which they have been devolved:

a. Integrated Social Forestry projects, which used to be funded out of DENR’s regular
appropriations, except for one project per province which the DENR has retained as its
social forestry research and training laboratory.

The ISF projects retained by the DENR are also called Centers for People’s
Empowerment in the Upland (CPEU). These projects shall be used by the DENR to
provide technical and training assistance to the projects that have been devolved to the
local government units.
b. Establishment of new regular reforestation projects, except in areas located in protected
areas and critical watersheds.
c. Completed family and community-based contract reforestation projects whether
regularly funded or foreign funded, subject to the policies and procedures of the DENR.
 d. Forest Land Management Agreement which confers certain rights and privileges to
families or communities over certain forestlands or reforestation projects.
e. Community Forestry Projects subject to the concurrence of financing institution, for
those projects that are foreign funded.
f. The management, protection, rehabilitation and maintenance of small watershed areas
which are sources of local water supply as identified or to be identified by the DENR.

To the Cities

The functions of, and responsibility for enforcing forestry laws, rules and regulations within
community-based project areas, small watershed areas and communal forests that are located
within the territorial jurisdiction of the provinces. These projects are those listed above as having
been devolved to the municipalities and cities.

To the Barangays

There no forest management functions and responsibilities that have been devolved in the
barangays. In spite of the absence of devolved forest management functions to the barangays,
however, the DENR recognizes their important role in protecting the forests as well as in
rehabilitating degraded forestlands within or near their territorial coverage.

Barangay officials may be designated or deputized by the DENR, subject to specific rules and
regulations, to perform environmental, including forest protection work in as much as they are in
the forefront of delivering basic government services. Barangay officials and members designated
by law or ordinances to maintain a desirable and balanced environment or who come to the aid of
persons in authority who protect the environment are considered agents of persons in authority.

Despite this seemingly long list of devolved functions the total area coverage of these devolved
functions relative to the area of non-devolved or DENR-retained functions is quite small. The
manual itself admits that the forest management functions devolved are limited and that majority of
these functions have been retained by law with the DENR. Yet some of the devolved functions have
not been implemented.

It appears that the major instance of devolution took place in 1992 when ISF projects then existing
were devolved to LGUs along with the corresponding Community Development Officers (CDOs) and
Community Development Workers (CDWs). Subsequently, there seems to be little devolution effort
carried out. The CDOs and CDWs were assigned by the LGUs concerned to different offices to do
tasks that are not related to their functions. In the case of LGUs that created their own Environment
and Natural Resources Office (ENRO) the CDOs and CDWs were more fortunate because they were
made to form the core staff in the new office. Others have since sought other jobs elsewhere.

The most notable forest management function that is not being devolved is that of communal
forests. The manual of operations foes not provide procedural guidelines for the transfer of
responsibility for communal forests. This is probably a case of oversight by those who prepared the
manual apparently equating the concept of communal forest with that of community-based forestry
projects. A communal forest is defined in DAO 30-92 is “a tract of forest land set aside by the
Secretary of the DENR for use of the residents of a municipality from which said residents may cut,
collect and remove forest products for their personal use in accordance with existing laws and
regulations.” The law (RA 7160) allows each LGU to apply for a maximum of 5,000 hectares to
manage as its communal forest. To date, very few LGUs are known to have availed of this
opportunity and responsibility.

At present, LGUs are being left from the process of awarding community-based forestry projects.
The CENROs deal directly with communities and families rather than with LGUs in the award of
CBFM projects. Nonetheless, NGA-LGU co-management of small watersheds is gaining greater
interest. However, there is no clear-cut definition of “small” watersheds. The concept of watershed
is itself one of the most misunderstood terms. The common understanding of watersheds is that it
refers to the “upper catchment” only. A watershed, in reality, pertains to the entire drainage basin of
a river or river system consisting of upper and lower catchments. This affects the delineation of
boundaries and allocation of responsibilities among communities involved. A few LGUs are in fact
asking for a certain watersheds to co-manage. Such initiatives by LGUs however are not being
undertaken pursuant to the DENR-devolved functions. Rather, they form part of foreign-funded
projects driven mainly by the advocacy of fund donors. Thus, de facto devolution is being pursued
outside the formal context of the DENR-devolved functions.

Protected Areas and Wildlife Management

Among the ENR sectors this sector as probably devolved the least, as can be seen in the following
short list of devolved functions:

1. The establishment, protection and maintenance of tree/forest parks, greenbelts and other
tourist attractions in areas identified and delineated by the DENR and which are not part of
the Protected Areas System.

2. The collection of fees for services and use of tourism facilities established within tree parks,
green belts and other tourist attractions.

3. The implementation of the Rescue for Important Conservation Hotspots (RICH) Project in
areas identified and delineated by the DENR.

4. The implementation of the Community Awareness in Resources and Environment (CARE)

Project in areas identified and delineated by the DENR.

DENR field offices, notably the CENROs ought to be more actively involved in identifying areas in
the public domain which LGUs can develop as their “forest or tree park, green belts, and other
tourist attractions.” Actually this mandate to establish and develop local government forest or tree
parks all over the country dates back to April 1983 with a directive by then President Marcos “to
enhance the beauty and improve the ecosystem of our communities to provide the populace with a
healthy and wholesome environment and places for rest and recreation, and to make our people
increasingly appreciate the need for preserving our forest and restoring the at the earliest possible
time our denuded area…”

It may noted that the creation of livable environments in the Philippine cities and other urban areas
is being left in the hands of private subdivision developers. The 30% open space requirement on
subdivision developments is one such measure to ensure that the essential life support systems of
local communities do not get completely built over. But what about residential areas outside areas
outside of the formal subdivisions? Who is responsible for providing non-subdivision dwellers the
needed healthy and wholesome environment through the establishment of public open spaces?
Obviously it is the duty of the LGUs to provide this amenity for their constituents. The problem,
however, is that most lands in existing settlements are already privately owned and lands in the
public domain are almost always unavailable except those explicitly covered by the devolved
functions. The LGUs are therefore very dependent on the DENR to make available portions of the
public domain for use as public open space.

One such public domain lands that may be used as public open space are the river easements and
salvage zones along beaches most of which are currently encroached upon by either the private
owners of adjoining properties or by plain squatters. The portions of easements that are still free or
that may be recovered from illegal occupants may be turned over to the LGUs concerned for the
latter to develop as part of their tree park or urban forest. The extent of public easements is defined
in the Revised Forestry Code (PD 705) and in the Philippine Water Code (PD 1067) as follows:

“The banks of rivers and streams and the shores of the seas and lakes throughout their entire
length and within a zone of three (3) meters in urban areas, twenty (20) meters in agricultural
areas and forty (40) meters in forest areas… are subject to the easement of public use…”

Along this margin no person is allowed to stay longer than is necessary for recreation, navigation,
floatage, fishing or salvage, or to build structures of any kind. Everybody knows that this provision
of law is observed in the breach and nothing is being done to correct the situation. This is perfect
venue for putting into operation the principle of DENR-LGU co-management of the environment.

Moreover, the manual of procedure (DAO 30-92) provides for forest/tree parks established at the
barangay, municipal and city levels. There are no provision for similar amenities at the provincial
level. This is probably another case of oversight considering the fact that park users come from
different levels in the hierarchy of settlements. Over and above the community and municipal parks
there is a need for a higher order facility that caters to a province-wide or regional population.

It is interesting to note that despite the absence of guidelines, initiatives have been taken to identify,
establish and co-manage provincial-level forest/tree parks. We can cite as an example the case of
the Cotabato Provincial Forest and Eco-tourism Park in Barangay Amas, Kidapawan City, Cotabato.
The 645-hectare park is what remains of the larger “Cotabato Lanzones Forest Reserve” which later
became known as the Amas Reforestation Project” of the DENR. The CPFEP is described as the only
remaining showcase of plantation-cum-natural forest type in that part of the country. Conveniently
located behind the provincial capitol and very accessible to the general population, the park is now
being co-managed by the provincial government of Cotabato, the DENR, and the Philippine National
Police on the strength of a Memorandum of Agreement entered into by those agencies.

A similar initiative is being pursued by the provincial government of Nueva Viscaya to co-manage
the Magat Watershed Reforestation Project in Diadi, Nueva Viscaya, and operate it as a provincial
eco-tourism park.

The above-cited cases, and perhaps many others not yet documented, point to the need to include
provincial governments in the scheme to establish a hierarchical network of forest/tree parks or
public open space in general for the enjoyment and education of the Philippine population.

Another issue regarding local government participation in the management of protected areas has
to do with NIPAS areas. Present policy explicitly excludes NIPAS areas from coverage of the
devolved functions. And yet, two seemingly exceptional cases exist, those of the St. Paul
Subterranean National Park in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, and the Sagay Marine Reserve in Sagay
City, Negros Occidental. Both NIPAS areas have their Protected Area Management Board (PAMB)
jointly chaired by the respective city mayors and the DENR Regional Executive Director (RED),
apparently deviating from the provisions of the NIPAS Law (RA 7586).

These two precedents give a hint to another modality of co-management as an alternative to

devolution, namely, joint management.

Environmental Management

The DENR has devolved the following environmental management functions to local government
units:
In accordance with Section 17 of the Code which provides that the enforcement of laws is devolved
to provinces and cities while implementation of projects and activities is devolved to municipalities
and cities, the devolved environmental management functions are to be performed as follows:

1. To be performed by the provinces for the component municipalities and the cities within
their territorial jurisdiction:

a. Issuance of Environmental Compliance Certificate to establishments registered under

Kalakalan 20;

b. Adjudication of pollution cases involving establishments registered under Kalakalan 20;

c. Apprehension and testing of smoke-belching vehicles and imposition and collection of

fines.

2. To be performed by cities and municipalities within their territorial jurisdictions:

a. Implementation of solid waste management disposal;

b. Abatement of noise and other forms of nuisance as defined by law;

c. Implementation of Cease and Desist Orders issued by the Pollution Adjudication Board.

To the ordinary citizens, environmental issues boil down to the issue of pollution and the concept of
environmental management simply involves pollution control and abatement. Pollution control, in
turn, involves apprehension of polluters, regulation of potential polluters, and proper management
of solid and liquid wastes. These are the main themes covered by the manual of operations for
environmental management pursuant to DAO 30-92. The common polluters identified are
industries, other sources of noise and odor pollution, and smoke-belching motor vehicles. In the
case of industries, only small-scale firms registered under Kalakalan 20 program are within the
jurisdiction of LGUs. Control of smoke-belching motor vehicles has also been devolved.

In the exercise of these devolved functions many LGUs lack the technical capability and do not have
testing equipment and laboratory facilities. In effect, LGUs are still heavily dependent on the DENR.
Hence, most of the major responsibilities in pollution control and abatement are being performed
by DENR.

The LGUs, however, will assume greater responsibilities than they have hereto exercised. Under the
“Clean Air Act” (RA 8749) LGUs shall share responsibility for the management and maintenance of
air quality in their territories. The function has been assigned to the local ENRO. With this
assignment the “optional” character of the position as contemplated in Sec. 484 of RA 7160 may
have been repealed and the local ENRO may indeed have become a mandatory LGU office.

Regulation of potential polluters is handled mainly through the environmental impact assessment
(EIA) system. The manual of operations limits the authority of LGUs to that of granting
Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) to industries registered under Kalakalan 20. But under
the recent EIA procedural guidelines Kalakalan 20 firms are exempted from coverage of the EIA
system. This implies that LGUs no longer have any significant role to play in the EIA system. What
can be considered as the major participation of LGUs in the EIA system is that of certifying to the
social acceptability of the proposed project for which the signature of the barangay chairman
and/or the city/municipal mayor is sought. In some cases, a resolution from the local legislative
body is needed for added weight.
There is a strong feeling among LGUs that they are under-represented in the EIA process. Being the
locale of the proposed project and the direct receptor of the impacts of the project, LGUs, it is felt,
should be an active participant in every major step of the EIA process. Among the suggested roles of
LGUs are the following:

1. Mandatory Representation in the Scooping Session. The proposed project will have a direct
impact on the host LGU and therefore the latter should be given every opportunity, at the
earliest possible stage of the project, to raise their concerns and apprehensions.

2. Membership in the EIA Committee. This will allow the LGU representatives to closely follow
up on the concerns they raised during scoping and to determine how the project proponent
analyzed the issues and proposed to deal with those issues. On the other hand, host LGUs
may not be exactly impartial with respect to particular projects. Often, LGUs vie for the
“honor” of hosting certain industries within their territorial jurisdiction for the anticipated
impacts on the socio-economic welfare of the local population and on local government
revenue. Owing to this inclination of most LGUs, it will be very difficult for them to act
objectively in the review of EIA reports. This can be neutralized by adopting transparency in
the process of evaluation and decision-making.

3. Active Participation in Public Consultation. To instill the values of public participation and
transparency in decision-making, LGU representatives must actively support and participate
in public consultations. As a rule, no certification by the barangay chair or by the local chief
executive as the social acceptability of the proposed project will be issued without the
benefit of public consultations.

4. Mandatory Membership in the Multi-partite Monitoring Team. This is another venue and
opportunity wherein the LGU will be able to determine whether concerns of their
constituents are being adequately addressed.

5. Share in the Utilization of the Environmental Guarantee Fund. At present the disposition of
the EGF is centralized. LGUs should be allowed to take part in decisions regarding how the
EGF is utilized, again, in the apparent interest of safeguarding their local residents’ welfare
who, after all, bear the impacts of the project.

Further to LGU participation in the EIA process, the setting up of the programmatic compliance
procedures applied in industrial estates and industrial development areas seems to have
institutionalized consultations between DENR and the LGUs concerned. The DENR and the LGU
concerned shall enter into a memorandum of agreement to the effect that the eco-profile report for
their industrial estate or industrial development area that had been prepared for purposes of
securing the environmental compliance certificate be incorporated in the Comprehensive Land Use
Plan of the host LGU. This will enable the latter to exercise its land use planning and other
regulatory functions over the area.

Regarding the matter of solid waste disposal, DENR has prepared guidelines for selection and
evaluation of sanitary landfill sites. Such guidelines however have not found widespread application
except for a few pilot cases.

Land Management

The DENR has devolved to LGUs the following land management functions:

1. Conduct of cadastral survey

2. Conduct of lot survey, and
3. Conduct of isolated and special surveys.
What has been devolved is the administration of the survey activities. The following functions
which are part of the survey are still to be performed by the DENR:

1. Issuance of survey authority,

2. Verification of survey returns,
3. Maintenance of official survey records and documents,
4. Issuance of patents, and
5. Other post-survey activities.

In connection with the devolved functions, LGUs are responsible for:

1. Providing and deploying the necessary personnel to be involved in land survey projects and
activities;
2. Providing training opportunities to the personnel assigned to supervise survey activities to
improve their capabilities
3. Monitoring and deploying the LGU survey projects and activities to determine whether the
objectives are being met and to make corrections and adjustments if there are deviations in
the LGU survey plan;
4. Coordinating closely with the nearest DENR field office on land survey matters; and
5. Encouraging the participation of non-governmental organization in the evaluation of bids
for surveys.

The procedural guidelines for the conduct of surveys are spelled out in detail including the
prescribed forms and computational formulas. All that LGUs need to do is appropriate the needed
funds to defray the cost of conducting the surveys and secure the authority to conduct the said
surveys. The only issue, it seems, is a simple one of the LGU being able to afford the cost of
conducting the surveys.

The more critical issue in local land management is the problem of boundary disputes. The problem
of boundary disputes prevails at all administrative levels, i.e. between two cities/municipalities, or
between two provinces. Despite the pervasiveness of the problem however there seems to be very
little initiative among those concerned to settle their boundary disputes. One of the major reasons
for the stand-off is that the size of the land area of the LGUs affects the allocation of their Internal
Revenue Allotment and so disputant LGUs are reluctant to disturb or alter the status quo for fear of
possible reduction in their IRA allocations. The implication of this impasse is that there is double
counting of the territories under dispute thereby rewarding the disputants with additional IRA
allocation, and correspondingly penalizing LGUs without boundary disputes. This can be deduced
from a simple comparison between the total LGU-reported land area and the actual land area of the
country. The aggregate of the of the land areas of all municipalities, cities and provinces is
306,936.3 square kilometers. This exceeds the 30 million hectares estimated land area of the
country by 693,630 hectares. Clearly, there is an unfairness here that ought to be rectified. And
DENR has a crucial role to play in this regard.

Another major reason for a lack of interest among local officials to settle their boundary disputes is
the absence of technical basis for negotiations between the parties concerned. This can be traced to
various forms of defective textual and/or technical descriptions in the proclamations creating
certain LGUs. In some cases the boundaries are so vague that they can be subject of more than one
interpretation. In other cases, the boundary markers are either lost or deliberately mislaid and no
attempt is made to relocate or restore them. In many cases, there no supporting maps that
accompany technical descriptions.

The policy and procedures for settlement of boundary disputes are spelled out in Rule III of the
Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7160. The said rule states that the settlement
proceedings shall be initiated by the political officials. But due to the aforesaid reasons no one
seems to want to take the initiative. At the same time, the DENR has taken the passive stance of
waiting for requests for technical assistance.

The importance of authoritative boundary delineation for effective local governance and ENR co-
management between the LGU and the national government cannot be over-emphasized. There is
therefore an urgent need to break the impasse with no less than the President or the legislature
initiating the move.

Mines and Geo-Sciences Development

The following functions relative to mines and geo-sciences development have been devolved to
LGUs:

1. Enforcement of the small-scale mining laws not declared as government mineral

reservations subject to policies, standards and guidelines of the DENR;

2. Issuance of permit for guano collection and to extract sand, gravel and other quarry
resources; and

3. Verification and adjudication of conflicts on the extraction of sand, gravel and other quarry
resources; and

4. Imposition and collection of fees and charges on guano, sand, gravel and other quarry
resources.

No manual of operations for this sector was prepared. However, the People’s Small-Scale mining Act
of 1991 (RA 7076) and its implementing rules and regulations (DENR DAO 34-92) will probably
serve the purpose.

It may be noted that the devolved functions for this sector extend to the provincial and city levels
only. The implementing body is the Provincial/City Mining Regulatory Board created under RA
7076. The Board is responsible to, and is under the direct supervision and control of the DENR
Secretary. It is headed by the DENR representative as Chairman with representatives of the
provincial governor or city mayor, of the small-scale mining sector, of the big-scale mining sector,
and from an environmental NGO, as members. The powers and functions of the Board are as
follows:

1. declare and segregate existing gold-rush areas for small-scale mining;

2. reserve future gold and other mining areas for small-scale mining;
3. award contracts to small-scale miners;
4. formulate and implement rules and regulations related to small-scale mining;
5. settle disputes, conflicts or litigations over conflicting claims within a people’s small-
scale mining area; and
6. perform such other functions as are necessary to achieve the goals and objectives of RA
7076.

One issue that is frequently cited has to do with the representation in the Provincial Mining
Regulatory Board (PMRB). The non-representation of municipalities places them at a disadvantage.
Often municipalities find themselves unable to protect quarry resources in their area from would-
be operators who barge into town already armed with quarry permits from the PMRB.

The environmental effect of quarrying, if not properly done, viz., river bank erosion, instability of
roads, bridges and other structures, flooding, and the like are a common experience of localities
where quarrying takes place. For this reason, municipalities desire to have a hand in regulating
quarry activities in their territorial jurisdiction. At the very least they should be consulted before
permits to quarry resources in their area are issued.

Another issue is the scheme of sharing the proceeds of mineral extraction between the national
government and the host LGUs. According to the LGC LGUs are entitled to a share of 40% of the
proceeds of utilization of natural resources. It is felt by LGUs concerned that this amount is grossly
inadequate to compensate for the environmental degradation, if not devastation, that usually
accompanies mining operations. On the other hand, DENR officials observe that LGUs do not utilize
their share to undertake activities for the protection and rehabilitation of the environment and
natural resources. To this LGUs counter that the LGC simply requires that their share be used to
finance local development and livelihood projects. Often they hardly find any amount left for
environmental protection. Certainly a more thorough investigation has to be undertaken to
determine the adequacy of the LGU share in the proceeds of natural resources exploitation.

Continuing Devolution

If the devolution of DENR functions to LGUs appears to be tentative, selective, and is being pursued
in an attitude of testing the waters, devolution is not a finished product. The DAO 30-92 itself opens
the door to the possibility of continuing devolution. The DENR has indicated its commitment to
devolve more functions and responsibility for larger areas as soon as LGUs can demonstrate their
readiness to take on greater responsibilities.

Pursuant to the policy of continuing devolution, the DENR and the DILG issued Joint Memorandum
Circular 98-01 and then again Joint Memorandum Circular 20013-01 which established the
institutional framework for partnership and co-management arrangements in the management of
forest resources. Among other provisions, these joint memoranda emphasize the preparation by
LGUs of forest land use plans covering forests lands within their territorial jurisdictions. The forest
land use plans shall be the basis for the co-management arrangement and shall be adopted as an
integral part of the CLUP of the LGU concerned. While this new initiative awaits documentation, it is
premature to make any substantial commentary.

In the meantime, the national government (DENR) continues to assume principal responsibility for
the planning and management of the nation’s natural resources. Chapter 5 looks into the
management of natural resources in major ecosystems such as watersheds and coastal zones. The
natural resources management modalities described in Chapter 5 are premised on exploitation and
development as the primary objective. Natural resources management anchored on resource
protection as the principal objective is treated separately in Chapter 6. In either case, the imperative
of sustainable development are an underlying theme.

CO-MANAGEMENT OF ANCESTRAL DOMAINS

The responsibility for ancestral domains is given by law (RA 8371) to the National Council for
Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). Only five years old as of this writing, the implementation of the
Indigenous People’s Right Act (IPRA) is undergoing institutional birth pains, including a challenge
to the constitutionality of the law which left the Supreme Court in a deadlock. One of the
requirements of the law is the preparation of management plans for each ancestral domain site.

Ancestral domains form a significant part of LGU territories and the IP population an equally
significant portion of some LGUs’ population. It stands to reason that the management planning of
ancestral domains should be coordinated with the comprehensive planning of the host LGU. The
approaches and processes of integrating the management plans of the ancestral domains into the
LGU’s comprehensive plan, as well as the modalities of LGU-NCIP co-management of ancestral
domains are undergoing a process of research and development. (More on this in Chapter 7.)

LAND USE PLANNING IN PRACTICE

Land use planning, as a technical exercise directly involving local governments, can be said to have
taken off in the latter half of the 1970s when the massive programs of assistance on town planning
were launched. In 1976, the inter-agency National Coordinating Council for Town Planning,
Housing and Zoning (NCC-TPHZ) was organized to assist cities and major urban centers in the
preparation of town plans and zoning ordinances. In two years’ time, 159 LGUs received assistance.
When the program was stopped in 1979, the Human Settlements Regulatory Commission (HSRC)
continued the assistance unilaterally and by the end of 1980, a total of 347 more LGUs availed
themselves of the assistance. In July 1980, another inter-agency assistance program was launched
and by end-1983 another set of 662 LGUs were assisted. The program continued until the EDSA
uprising in 1986. Thereafter, a new program of assistance, the Local Planning Program, led by the
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) was launched. As of March 2001, between
70% and 80% of LGUs nationwide have already prepared their town plans and zoning ordinances.

Land Use Planning Before LGC

The planning process adopted in these assistance programs as standardized by the Human
Settlements Regulatory Commission involved in the following steps:

1. Analysis of the planning area, including the physical base, population. Economic activities,
social services, and local administrative capabilities.

2. Sectoral projections translated into land requirements.

3. Preparation of a concept plan

4. Preparation of the land use plan which allocates land to the various sectoral uses.

5. Preparation of the zoning map and corresponding zoning ordinance.

6. Preparation of the local development investment program (LDIP).

7. Plan legitimization which includes public hearings, adoption by the local Sanggunian, review
by the regional technical review committees, and approval by the Human Settlements
Regulatory Commission.

All the programs of assistance in town planning had the following objectives or themes:

1. Transfer of planning technology from higher to lower levels;

2. Institutionalization of the planning process at the municipal level;

3. Coordination among cooperating agencies and between these agencies and local
governments;

4. Preparation of town plans with improved quality;

5. Easing the financial burden of LGUs; and,

 6. Promotion of citizen participation in town planning process.

In an evaluation study conducted by the U.P. Planning and Development Research Foundation
(PLANADES) in 1984, the effects of the inter-agency local planning assistance programs were
assessed. Selected findings are summarized below.

1. Positive Effects

a. The program had introduced the rudiments of town planning to hundreds of people
through the learning-by-doing approach.

b. The program had created great expectation on the part of local official regarding what
the plan can do to bring about development

c. Hundreds of local chief executives were initiated into the planning process.

2. Negative Effects

a. Regarding technology transfer, the members of planning assistance teams from the
national and regional levels gained more skills than their local counterpart.

b. Too much emphasis was placed on the production of the plan document and less on
instituting planning as a part of the routine activities in local governance.

c. The program had unquestionably resulted in the production of a big number of plans for
the first time also, the land use plan was made a component of the town plan.
Weaknesses of the plan document produced include:

i. Standardized format and stereotyped approach preluded individual initiative and

creativity.

ii. There was too much unutilized data collected and included in the document.

iii. Implementation instruments were limited to the zoning ordinance and the local
development investment program.

Of the two instruments of plan implementation referred to above, the zoning ordinance appears to
have gained more widespread popularity. Credit must go to the persistent effort of the Human
Settlements Regulatory Commission, now Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), to
train and deputize local zoning administrators. There is no doubt that now, people have become
more aware of the existence of the zoning ordinance than that of the land use plan which is the basis
of the ordinance.

One major flaw of the zoning ordinance, however, is that it did not embrace the entire territorial
jurisdiction of the municipality. Its coverage was confines to the urbanized area of the municipality.
It was silent about what uses could be allowed in agricultural areas, forests, coastal zones,
environmentally constrained areas, and sensitive ecosystems.

Land Use Planning Implications of the LGC

In the advent of the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160) the regulation of land use through
the comprehensive land use planning and zoning ordinance has been devolved to LGUs. The Code
directs all LGUs to “…continue to prepare their comprehensive land use plans enacted though
zoning ordinances which shall be the primary and dominant bases for the future use of land
resources…” National government assistance in the preparation of land use plans has been stopped.
Assistance came in the form of guidelines and standards formulated by the NEDA and DILG a\ns,
through Executive Order No. 72, the HLURB. The review and approval of local land use plans have
also been transferred to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in the case of component cities and
municipalities, and the Regional Development Council in the case of highly urbanized cities and
independent component cities, and the HLURB in the case of provinces.

In the preparation of their CLUPs most LGUs have resorted to contracting the services of private
consultants. Others have tried to do it on their own. Whether by themselves or by consultants, the
preparation of local land use plans has been a slow and long process and many LGUs are unable to
meet deadlines as imposed by the national government.

The Local government Code of 1991 obviously seeks to break new grounds in the field of local
governance. Along with these innovations are a number of principles and concepts which are
conducive to the advancement of local land use planning, when properly understood.

The Meaning of Comprehensive. Although previous land use planning has always attempted at
comprehensive coverage, the meaning of comprehensive has been limited to that of “multi-
sectoral”, not “embracing the entire territorial jurisdiction”. The latter interpretation was not
possible at a time when the authority of LGUs did not extend to the natural resource domains such
as forests or timberlands. The authority of LGUs was limited to regulating private lands only. And so
the older-generation land use plans and zoning ordinances covered only the urban sector of the
local territory under the LGC, LGUs exercise authority over their entire territory, as earlier
discussed in this chapter. LGUs are now co-partners with the national government in the
management of the public domain like forestlands, mineralized areas, and in the enforcement of
environmental laws and policies. It may be recalled that LGUs in the past did not have any part
managing the public domain lands even if these were located in their territorial jurisdiction. This
resulted in neither the local nor the national government being able to protect those areas that
needed to be preserved . Local governments also watched helplessly as concessionaires, permittees
and lessees who were responsible only to the national government caused the over-exploitation and
degradation of their environment. Now, as partners in managing, developing and protecting the
resources in the public domain, the LGUs are also entitled to a share in the proceeds from natural
resources exploitation. It is obvious also that zoning is no longer an adequate measure for
comprehensive control of land use. Zoning has been developed as an instrument to control
development in urbanized and urbanizing areas. For the control of land use in the resource domain
and in protected areas it is clear that other instruments ought to be put in place. (See Chapter 8 &
9.)

Political Support to Planning. Another significant change that the Code introduced into the practice
of local land use planning is the explicit assignment of the responsibility to adopt a comprehensive
land use plan and enact a zoning ordinance to the municipal and city legislative bodies. By directly
entrusting the responsibility for land use planning to the political officials of the LGU the LGC lends
political support to planning, something that was not existent in the past.

The new composition of the local development councils (LDC) also suggests a shift in the perception
of planning as mainly a technical exercise to one that is essentially political. Their membership
being limited to the political and community leaders, the LDCs have now become deliberative and
decision-making bodies. The technocrats from the line agencies, offices and departments have now
become consultants or resource persons on call. Technical support should now be used only as a
basis for improving the quality of political choice. (See fuller discussion of the local planning
structure and functions in Chapter 4.)

Centralization Tendencies. In spite of the devolution policy there are certain areas over which the
national government tends to be reluctant to give LGUs substantial authority. One area is the
management of natural resources. Notwithstanding provisions in the LGC to the effect that LGUs
share responsibility with the national government, as lengthily discussed in this chapter, the
national government appears to have devolved too little and retained too much authority. Another
case of clear centralization can be seen in the regulation of agricultural land conversion.

The issue of agricultural land conversion has preoccupied policy makers as early as the 1970s when
it was increasingly felt that urban expansion is occurring in many cities and large towns at the
expense of the prime agricultural lands situated at the edge of built-up areas. Several conversion
guidelines were then issued first by the then HSRC, now HLURB, then by the National Land Use
Committee. When it was later realized that the conversion of agricultural lands to urban uses was
being resorted to by landowners to evade the provisions of the agrarian reform law, the
Department of Agrarian Reform was vested the exclusive authority to approve or disapprove
agricultural land conversions by virtue of Executive Order 129-A, s. 1987 by the Office of the
President. The DAR took the lead and now presides over the conversion process. The Department of
Agriculture added its weight by protecting irrigated and irrigable agricultural lands through a
national law, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (RA 8435). All these policies have
been formulated by the national government agencies without regard for the land use planning and
regulatory powers of the LGUs. Even the exercise of authority of LGUs to reclassify agricultural
lands which has been granted by the Local Government Code (Sec. 20), a power that is a necessary
concomitant of land use planning and regulation, is being limited by the national government
through the joint issuance by the DA, DAR, DILG and HLURB. This administrative issuance
prescribes procedures and requirements that LGUs must comply with before local legislative bodies
can enact ordinances reclassifying their agricultural lands to other uses as mandated under Sec. 20
of the LGC. (More details on this issue in Chapters 9.)

CONCLUSION

This chapter posited an ideal condition under which land use planning can succeed, i.e., there must
be convergence of ideology, politics and techniques. Using this ideal situation as the backdrop of the
study we then tried to assess Philippine land use planning practice as it evolved over the last three
decades or so. We saw that such desired convergence occurred in the past or is likely to occur in the
near future.

It was found that there is no clear-cut social philosophy on land that the political leaders adopt to
inform their policies. This can be traced to the fact that the seemingly reformist pronouncements in
the recent constitutions and the welfare rhetoric of recent legislations do not come from a social
consensus. They are rather attributed to technocrats in the bureaucracy who have no power or
mandate to put them into reality. Politicians and decision-makers, on the other hand, by and large,
represent private interests in land which they are not about to give up in favor of regulation by
society through the land use planning functions of the government. Thus, land use planning in the
Philippines lacks a solid ideological foundation and a strong political support.

Land use planning is thus reduced to mere technical exercise. Seen in this light, there may be indeed
be significant advances achieved in the last two or three decades. Given massive assistance
programs similar to those launched by the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements, land use
planners at the local levels may yet attain a certain degree of technical expertise and land use
planning may reach technical sophistication never before achieved. In fact, the technical aspect of
land use planning is now benefitting tremendously from the rapid developments in geographic
information technology. Yet, the deeper purpose of land use planning as an instrument of social
engineering is still far from being realized. For, instead of addressing the fundamental problems of
inequitable access to land and the unbridled speculation in the land market, the government simply
promoted planning as a technique, method or procedure in producing a plan document. No amount
of technical sophistication however, can make land use planning work under an ideology where
social justice and equity considerations take the back seat and where allocation of land is left almost
entirely to the market.
 CHAPTER 4
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR LAND USE PLANNING

As we noted in Chapter 3 the initiatives for land use planning have emanated mainly from the
executive branch of government (bureaucracy). The legislative branch being dominated by
landed interests, is quite timid if not reluctant to formulate policies that might jeopardize the
interests of its members. Accordingly, many of the enabling instruments that serve as the bases
for land uses planning and regulation consist of executive and administrative issuances. Most of
the laws on planning still in use consist of the presidential decrees issued during the martial law
period when the Congress was abolished. A notable exception is the enactment of the Local
Government Code (RA 7160) which was an act of Congress during the restored democracy.

Substantively, this chapter is made up of two parts: one pertains to the organizational
structures for land use planning and the other is about the planning processes, policies and
plans that are used as the bases for land use regulation. It will be noted further that, in the
absence of a comprehensive national legislation on land use regulation, the inherent and
devolved powers of local governments are being utilized to enforce and implement nationally
generated land use policies.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES FOR LAND USE PLANNING

In taking an inventory of the land use planning and regulatory bodies in the Philippines we can
only move back in time to the post-World War II era. Certain periods may be discerned from
historical milestones or landmark legislations. During these periods the primary responsibility
for planning is invariably assigned to existing agencies or special bodies expressly created for
the purpose. For the purpose of this section we shall consider the following milestone:

1. The creation of the National Urban Planning Commission in 1946; latter becoming the
National Planning Commission in 1950;

2. The adoption of the Integrated Reorganization Plan as Presidential Decree No. 1 in

1972;

3. The creation of the National Land Use Committee in 1983; and

4. The enactment of the Local Government Code in 1991.

National Urban Planning Commission

The first physical planning body in the Philippines was the National Urban Planning
Commission (NUPC) created by virtue of Executive Order No. 98 by President Sergio Osmeña.
The NUPC had for its primary function to prepare plans for the reconstruction of urban areas
destroyed during the war. The Commission was composed of a Chairman and five members all
appointed by, and under the direct control and supervision of the President. Its mandate was to
“prepare general plans, zoning ordinances, and subdivision regulations, to guide and accomplish
a coordinated, adjusted, harmonious reconstruction and future development of urban areas
which will in accordance with present and future needs, best promote health, safety, morals,
order, convenience, prosperity, and general welfare, as well as efficiency and economy in the
process of development; including among other things, adequate provisions for traffic, the
promotion of safety from fire and other dangers, adequate provisions for traffic, the promotion
of safety from fire and other dangers, adequate provision for light and air, the promotion of
healthful and convenient distribution of populations; the promotion of good civic design and
arrangement, economic, wise, efficient and equitable expenditure of public funds, and the
adequate provision of public utilities and other public requirements.”

In the exercise of its functions the NUPC could designate urban expansion areas (Sec. 3a) as well
as urban renewal and redevelopment areas (Sec. 3d) in cooperation with the National Housing
Commission.

Although the NUPC was a central authority responsible to no less than the President, its plans
could however, be rejected by local government units. As Santiago and Magavern recount:

“The Commission was authorized to adopt general plans (controlling the location of publicly-
assisted improvements), zoning ordinances and building and subdivision regulations for any urban
area of the Philippines. The local legislative bodies were empowered, however to override the
general plans, zoning and subdivision regulations adopted by the Commission by a three-fourths
vote. Where the legislative bodies did not act, the local zoning ordinances are considered to have
taken effect.”

Local Planning Boards. The same Executive Order 98 also empowered the NUPC to organize
local planning boards (provincial and chartered cities) to which the Commission may delegate
its functions.

Local Zoning Administrators. Another position created by the Executive Order was the Office of
the Zoning Administrator in each city or municipality that had been planned and zoned by the
Commission. For large cities the ZA was appointed by the Commission directly; for smaller
urban areas, the district engineer of the area concerned was deputized as local zoning officer.

The Real Property Board

The planning and zoning of the City of Manila b by the NUPC had given rise to issues related to
the delivery of private lands for public purposes. To attend to these issues the real Property
Board was created by President Manuel Roxas. The RPB was composed of three members
chosen from the City Assessor of Manila, the Bureau of Lands and the Manila Realty Board all
appointed by the President. The RPB was to assist the NUPC on compiling data on vacant private
lots and abandoned streets, ascertain existing assessed and market values, and conduct
negotiations for various modes of land delivery with property owners.

The Capital City Planning Commission

Following closely, on July 17, 1948, republic Act 333 was passed establishing the permanent
seat of the National Government in Quezon City and creating the Capital City Planning
Commission. The CCPC was composed of seven members three of whom were to come from the
non-government sectors but all were appointed by the President. The duties and functions of
the CCPC were exactly the same as those of the NUPC but pertained to specific area only.

The National Planning Commission

The increasing duplication of these planning bodies had given President Elpidio Quirino the
justification to abolish all existing bodies and consolidate their functions into the National
Planning Commission (NPC) for the sake of the economy and efficiency. The NPC was composed
of seven members all appointed by the President. The Chairman and some members and some
members were to come from the non-government sectors. The Commission was assisted by an
Administrative Staff headed by a permanent Director of Planning. The staff was composed of
planners, engineers, architects, economists, sociologists, lawyers, and related professionals. The
functions of the NPC were the same as those of the three earlier bodies combined. In addition, it
was mandated to extend its services to areas beyond the urban areas. The NPC was also
authorized to undertake regional planning throughout the following activities:

1. To prepare general plans for regional areas for the purpose of integrating and
coordinating the various plans for the different urban areas within each region.

2. To prepare general plans for the Philippines or any of its sectors showing the overall
location of such projects as inter-provincial and inter-regional trunk roads, waterways
and other inland transportation facilities, airports and air terminals, national parks,
forest reserves, seashore bathing facilities and other recreational and health resorts.

3. To submit recommendations for the conservation and development of the natural

resources of the country.

The NPC served as the central planning body until it was abolished in 1972 following the
declaration of martial law and the reorganization of the Philippine government bureaucracy.
The functions of the NPC were assumed first, by the Environmental Planning Division under the
Bureau of Community Development of the Department of Local Government and Community
Development, and later, by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board and its predecessor
agencies.

The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board

Early Beginnings: The Task Force

On September 19, 1973, Executive Order No. 419 created the Task Force on Human Settlements
(TFHS) to conduct a study on the nature, policy issues and strategies in the pursuit of a
comprehensive of a comprehensive and integrated human settlements program in the country.
The TFHS was a 17-agency directorate chaired by Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz, then President of the
Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP). The multi-disciplinary working Secretariat was
drawn from the DAP.

In December 1973, after the initial three-month investigative phase the TFHS rendered a
situation report. Ten months later, in November 1974, the TFHS submitted a four-volume
integrated report which contained framework plans for the entire Philippines, a more detailed
plan for the Manila bay Metropolitan Region, policy recommendations for special programs in
housing for the Tondo Foreshore Area and in frontier settlements, as well as a comprehensive
study on the identified three major chronic problems of the city: migration, expansion of
industrial areas and restricting developed sections. The volume on Special Programs dealt with
critical aspects of human settlements such as housing and environment welfare.

A Full-Blown Agency: HSC

On May 13, 1976 by virtue of Presidential Decree 933, the TFHS evolved from an ad hoc agency
into a commission conferred with the status of a full-pledged government body. Named the
Human Settlements Commission (HSC), it was envisioned to pursue and institutionalized the
human settlements movement, a multi-faceted strategy that encompasses all phases of human
needs and activities.

The HSC was a national planning body which performed regulatory, implementing and
coordinating functions. As a national planning body, it was charged with the preparation of a
multi-year national plan which was integrated with the national economic development plan of
the National Economic Development and Development Authority.
This plan highlighted the spatial implications and components of national and regional
development areas, policies, and programs; identified critical and priority areas for
development applying comprehensive physical planning techniques; formulated physical
planning guidelines and standards for regional and local development planning; and
institutionalized physical planning support services relative to data banking.

The HSC functions included national monitoring and planning assistance to interested LGUs,
agencies and parties, plan enforcement and regulation, Metro Manila Area development
planning, environmental management, human settlements technology research, and special
projects.

MHS and HSRC

As the subject human settlements became a growing national concern, following the Habitat I
International Conference in Vancouver, Canada, the President saw it fit to consolidate the efforts
of other agencies involved in aspects of other agencies involved in aspects of human settlements
planning other than shelter, such as livelihood and community services delivery.

On June 11, 1978, the HSC, together with 30 other government entities was placed under the
umbrella of the Ministry of Human Settlements created under PD 1396, with then First Lady
Imelda Marcos at the helm. To distinguish it from the newly created “mother agency” and to
emphasize its role in the MHS conglomerate, the HSC was renamed Human Settlements
Regulatory Commission.

Being a regulatory body, HSRC’s power relative to land use planning was limited to rule-making
through formulation of planning standards and guidelines; and development control through its
power to approve and disapprove land use plans and zoning ordinances of LGUs and to issue
locational clearances to various projects. In its four years of existence, it was able to assist some
300 municipalities in coming up with their town and zoning ordinances.

HSRC’s New Charter: EO 648

On February 8, 1981 by virtue of Executive Order 648 HSRC was clothed with quasi-judicial
powers. In addition to its existing functions, the authority to regulate subdivision and
condominium development and sales and the real estate business as a whole was transferred
from three-fold program of Town Planning and Zoning, Real Estate Management, and Urban
Land Reform.

The TPZ program took a backseat during the years that HSRC embarked on its new role as a
shelter regulatory agency. With its limited manpower and budget, efforts were directed towards
the formulation of rules for subdivision and condominium development and adjudication of
cases involving violations of PD 957. Existing standards were streamlined and liberalized in
order to give impetus to the administration’s thrust to speed up production of low-cost and
socialized housing.

With simplified requirements and relaxed standards without however compromising safety,
shelter production came to a peak in the years that followed. The period 1982 to 1990 were the
best years for the real estate industry. The investment climate was good and urban lands were
readily available for shelter ventures. These years saw the sprouting of subdivision projects
especially within Metro Manila area and its outskirts. From thence, the number of licenses to
sell issued to residential subdivision and condominium projects steadily increased. From a
meager 83 in 1981, the figure jumped to 332 in 1982. By the end of the decade, HSRC had issued
5,974 licenses to sell, which translates to the production of 481,906 residential units or an
average of 46,000 units a year. Moreover, the then rampant cases of swindling involving sales of
subdivision lots was reduced owing to the Commission’s vigorous public information campaign
to encourage people to check with HSRC whether a project is a licensed before buying. HSRC’s
presence was felts in every region where it has strategically located field offices manned by
competent personnel.

HLURB

With the end of the dictatorship in 1986, MHS was abolished and was replaced by the Housing
and Urban Development Coordinating Council. HSRC, however, remained untouched,
organization- and function-wise.

Under the Executive Order 90 (s. 1986), it was simply renamed, as it is now known, Housing and
Land Use Regulatory Board. Its functions were further expanded to include regulatory
supervision over homeowners’ associations.

By the end of the millennium the agency had, among other accomplishments, issued a total of
25,284 licenses to sell residential and non-residential projects or a total of 3,511,263 units.
Yearend 2000 found HLURB assisting Gus all over the country in the preparation, finalization
and updating of their Comprehensive Land Use Plans, which by now has become a mandatory
requirement of local governance.

Toward the end of the martial law regime, land use planning activities were felt to be getting
fragmented as other national agencies whose functions are land-contingent were pursuing their
own programs independently of one another. The need to coordinate these disparate activities
into a coherent framework was becoming self-evident. On August 2, 1983 President Marcos
issued Letter of Instruction 1350 creating the National Land Use Committee.

National Land Use Committee

Background

One major gap in integrated development planning has been the absence of a government entity
responsible for the comprehensive allocation of land resources. The designation of land uses
has been undertaken on an uncoordinated basis in which various agencies in the performance
of their respective functions have taken it upon themselves to reclassify and designate lands on
the basis of their suitability for their own particular purpose. A more desirable and meaningful
approach should be a global and comprehensive identification of suitable and best land use
viewed from an overall national perspective.

Mandate

In recognition of the need for a centralized and more synchronized utilization of the country’s
land and related resources, the National Land Use Committee was created on August 2, 1983.
The NLUC was commissioned in particular to serve as the coordinating mechanism to prepare
and periodically revise an Integrated National Physical Framework Plan. Other tasks of NLUC
are:

1. Develop, compile, and reconcile actual and indicative national and regional land use
plans;

2. Coordinate and integrate physical planning activities; and

3. Coordinate related researches and surveys undertaken by the various agencies.

Composition

Because capability and resources for physical and land use planning are available in several
government agencies and because land use allocation is an undertaking which cuts the concerns
of various agencies, the NLUC as a coordinating and integrating body is composed of several
agencies. For the NLUC Proper, which is a Sub-Cabinet level, it is composed of the Deputy
Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as Chairman;
and the Undersecretaries of the following agencies as members:

Department of Agriculture
Department of Agrarian Reform
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Department of Public Works and Highways
Department of Transportation and Communication
Department of Science and Technology
Department of Interior and Local Government
Department of Trade and Industry
Department of Justice
Secretary-General of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council

Functions of Key NLUC Members

NEDA. The National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA is primarily responsible for
physical planning at the national and regional levels. For this purpose, it has the following
functions:

1. Formulate and prescribe regional standards and guidelines for regional physical
framework for regional Development Councils;

2. Provide technical assistance to the regions in the formulation of land use and land
capability decision maps;

3. Develop, in conjunction with the various appropriate government agencies, a database

system which would identify and classify the present and possible uses of specific land
areas, public and private, comprising the total land resources of the nation;

4. Serve as the secretariat for the National Land Use Committee; and

5. Perform such other functions as may be necessary.

MHS. The Ministry of Human Settlements (now Housing and Urban Development Coordinating
Council – HUDCC) is, within the context of and consistent with the national and appropriate
regional framework plans, responsible for undertaking, through the Human Settlements
Regulatory Commission (now Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board – HLURB), general
human settlements planning at the sub-regional levels, more specifically, at the level of the city
and the municipality. For this purpose, it has the following functions, among others:

1. Formulate and prescribe national standards and guidelines for zoning ordinances of city
and municipal governments; and

2. Provide the technical assistance to city and municipal governments in making land use
plans and land capability decision maps.
In addition, the HUDCC shall continue to be responsible for the general supervision of local
governments at the city and municipality levels to ensure that the preparation and enforcement
of local zoning plans are in accordance with the standards and guidelines established by the
HLURB.

MLG. The Ministry of Local Government (now Department of Interior and Local Government -
DILG) is responsible for the supervision of local governments at the city and municipality levels
to ensure that the preparation and enforcement of local zoning plans are in accordance with the
standards and guidelines established by the HLURB.

MNR. The Ministry of Natural Resources (now Department of Environment and Natural
Resources – DENR), through the forest Management Bureau and the Land Management Bureau,
retains responsibility for the legal classification, management, and authorized disposition of
public lands, including forest and pasture lands, swamp lands, and, alienable and disposable
lands.

MA. Within the framework of the National Physical Framework Plan and the provisions of
Executive Order No. 803, the Ministry of Agriculture (now Department of Agriculture – DA)
delineates and classifies agricultural land resources with emphasis on the utilization,
conservation, and the proposed development and management of prime agricultural lands. It
also indicates the necessary support infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, farm-to-market
roads, and agro-industrial centers.

LGU. The cities and municipalities have primary responsibility, consistent with the national
zoning standards and guidelines promulgated by the HLURB and the general land use strategy
expressed through the National Physical Framework Plan and its regional components, in
determining the classification and use of land in their respective localities to be enforced
through appropriate zoning ordinances.

To backstop the NLUC Proper, a Technical Working Committee was organized. It is composed of
Asst. Secretaries or Directors of related government bureaus and entities, viz:

National Economic and Development Authority as Chairman

Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board
Department of Agrarian Reform
Department of Public Works and Highways
Commission in Settlement of Land Problems
National Land Titles and Deeds Registration Administration
Department of Transportation and Communication
Bureau of Soils and Water Management
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
Philippine Council of Agricultural Resources Research and Development
Department of Interior and Local Governments
Department of Trade and Industry
Forest Management Bureau
Land Management Bureau
Environmental Management Bureau
Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau
National Mapping and Resource Information Authority
National Housing Authority
UP School of Urban and Regional Planning
Presidential Management Staff
Major Accomplishments

Since 1983, the Committee has the following accomplishments to its credit:

1. Handbook on Land and Other Physical Resources (published in 1984)

2. Regional Thematic Maps at 1:500,000 scale on population, land classification, soils,

slope, climate/rainfall, agricultural land use, forest land use, major industries, tourist
spots, energy resource, land capability, road network systems, seaports, airports,
population density, land reform areas, water resources, mineral resources, land survey
status and forest cover.

3. Draft National Physical Framework Plan, 1986-2000. (Approved in principle by the

Marcos regime but was not legitimized. After the EDSA Revolution [February 25, 1986] a
new set of members came in and decided to refine it following a bottom-up approach
and incorporating new data and firmer concepts).

4. Training/workshops/consultations on Land Use Planning, Land Use Information System

and Physical Framework Planning

5. Policy and Plan Review

a. Review of Guidelines on Conversion of Agricultural Lands, 1988
b. Brief on Policy Issues on Land Use and Management which was discussed by the
Cabinet in August 1985
c. Review of Ministry of Human Settlements’ (MHS) Multi-Year Human Settlements
Plan, 1983-87 and 2000

Current Activities

1. Preparation of the Second Edition of the National Handbook on Land and Other Physical
Resources

2. Assistance in the Preparation of the Regional Handbooks on Land and Other Physical
Resources

3. Assistance in the Formation of the Regional Physical Framework Plan, 1990-2020

4. Reformulation of the National Physical Framework Plan; 1990-2020

5. Study on Data/Map Requirements and Availability

Providing a vertical connectivity are the regional and provincial land use committees. These
lower level counterparts duplicate, to the extent possible, the composition of the NLUC. The
most important responsibilities of the RLUC and PLU include the preparation of their respective
physical framework plans and the review of lower-level comprehensive land use plans. The
following section describes the generic local planning structure. The structure may well
describe the provincial, city and municipal levels.

LOCAL PLANNING STRUCTURE

The institutional structure of local planning and development is spelled out in Title Six, Sections
106-115 of the Local Government Code. The principal function of this planning structure is to
initiate the formulation of the “comprehensive multi-sectoral development plan” for approval
by the provincial, city, municipal, or barangay level legislative council. The composition,
functions, relationships, activities and other details about the Local Development Council (LDC)
as the planning body of each LGU are:

Local Development Councils. Every LGU shall have a comprehensive multi-sectoral development
plan to be initiated by the LDC concerned and approved by its Sanggunian. For this purpose, the
provincial, city, municipal, or barangay development council, shall assist the corresponding
sanggunian in setting the direction of economic and social development. And coordinating
development efforts within its territorial jurisdiction.

Composition

1. The provincial development council is headed by the governor and is composed of the
following members:

a. All mayors of component cities and municipalities;

b. The chairman of the committee on appropriations of the sangguniang panlalawigan;
c. The congressman or his representative; and
d. Representatives of NGOs operating in the province, who constitute not less than
one-fourth (1/4) of the members of the fully organized council.

2. The city or municipal development council is headed by the mayor and is composed of
the following members:

a. All punong barangays in the city or municipality;

b. The chairman of the committee on appropriations of the sangguniang panlungsod or
sangguniang bayan concerned;
c. The congressman or his representative; and
d. Representatives of NGOs operating in the city or municipality, as the case may be,
who constitute not less than one-fourth (1/4) of the members of the fully organized
council.

3. The barangay development council shall be headed by the punong barangay and shall be
composed of the following members:

a. Members of the sangguniang barangay;

b. Representatives of NGOs operating in the barangay, who constitute not less than
one-fourth (1/4) of the members of the fully organized council.
c. A representative of the congressman.

4. The LDC may call upon any local or national official in the LGU to assist in the
formulation of the development plans and public investment programs of the said LGU.

Representation of NGOs. Within a period of sixty (60) days from the organization of LDCs, NGOs
shall choose from among themselves their representatives to said LDCs. The sanggunian
concerned shall accredit NGOs.

Functions of LDCs

1. The provincial, city, and municipal development councils shall:

 a. Formulate long-term, medium-term, and annual socioeconomic development plans
and policies;
b. Formulate medium-term and annual public investment programs;
c. Evaluate and prioritize socioeconomic development programs and projects;
d. Formulate local investment incentives to promote the inflow and direction of private
investment capital;
e. Coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the implementation of development programs
and projects; and
f. Perform such other functions as may be provided by law or competent authority.

2. The barangay development council shall:

a. Mobilize people’s participation in local development efforts;

b. Prepare barangay development plans based on local requirements;
c. Monitor and evaluate the implementation of national or local programs and projects;
and
d. Perform such other functions as may be provided by law or competent authority.

Meetings. The LDCs meet at least once every six (6) months or as often as may be necessary.

Executive Committee. The provincial, city, municipal, or barangay development council shall, by
resolution and within three (3) months from the date of reorganization of the LDC, create an
executive committee to represent and act in behalf of the LDC when the latter is not in season.

1. Composition

a. The executive committee of the provincial development council is composed of the

governor as chairman, the representative of the component city and municipal
mayors to be chosen from among themselves, the chairman of the committee on
appropriations of the sangguniang panlalawigan, the president of the provincial liga
ng mga barangay, and a representative of NGOs that are represented in the LDC, as
members.

b. The executive committee of the city or municipal development council is composed

of the mayor as chairman, the chairman of the committee on appropriations of the
sangguniang panlungsod or sangguniang bayan, and a representative of NGOs that
are represented in the LDC, as members.

c. The executive committee of the barangay evelopment council is composed of the

punong barangay as chairman, a representative of the sangguniang barangay to be
chosen from among its members, and a representative of NGOs that are represented
in the LDC, as members.

2. Powers and Functions. The executive committee shall:

a. Ensure that the decision of the LDC are faithfully carried out and implemented;

b. Act on matters that need immediate attention and action of the LDC;

c. Formulate policies, plans, and programs based on the objectives and priorities set by
the LDC;

d. Take final action on matters that may be authorized by the LDC except the approval
of local development plans and annual investment plans.
 3. Meetings. The executive committee shall hold its meetings at least once a month. Special
meetings may be called by the chairman or by a majority of its members.

Sectoral and Functional Committees

1. The LDCs may form sectoral or functional committees to assist them in the performance
of their functions.

2. To ensure policy coordination and uniformity in operational directions, the sectoral and
functional committees shall directly establish linkages with NGAs and such sectoral or
functional committees organized by the government for development, investment and
consultative purposes.

3. Consistent with national policies and standards, the sectoral or functional committees
shall:

a. Provide the LDC with data and information essential to the formulation of plans,
programs, and activities;

b. Define sectoral or functional objectives, set targets, and identify programs, projects,
and activities for the particular sector or function;

c. Collate and analyze information and statistics and conduct related studies;

d. Conduct public hearings on vital issues affecting the sector or function;

e. Coordinate planning, programming, and implementation of programs, projects, and

activities within each sector;

f. Monitor and evaluate programs and projects; and

g. Perform such other functions as may be assigned by the LDC.

Participation of LDC Members in Sectoral or Functional Committees. Each member of the LDC
shall, as far as practicable, participate in at least one sectoral or functional committee.

Secretariat. There shall be constituted for each LDC a secretariat responsible for providing
technical and administrative report, documenting proceedings, preparing reports; and
providing such other assistance as may be required by the LDC. The LDC may avail of the
services of any NGO or educational or research institution for this purpose.

The secretariat of the provincial, city, and municipal development councils shall be headed by
their respective local planning and development coordinators. The secretariat of the barangay
development council shall be headed by the barangay secretary who shall be assisted by the city
or municipal planning and development coordinator concerned.

Relation of LDCs to the Sanggunian and the Regional Development Council

1. The policies, programs, and projects proposed by the LDCs shall be submitted to the
sanggunian concerned for appropriate action.
 2. The local development plan approved of provinces, highly-urbanized cities, and
independent component cities shall be submitted to the regional development council,
which shall be integrated into the regional development plan for submission to NEDA, in
accordance with applicable laws, rules and regulations.

Local Development Planning Process. The DILG shall, in coordination and consultation with
NEDA and the leagues of the LGUs, formulate the operational guidelines of the local
development planning process.

Two observations about the composition of the LDC ought to be made here. One has to do with
the change in perspective about the nature of planning. The other pertains to the need for, and
manner of procuring technical inputs in planning.

Paradigm Shift

There is a change in the way planning should be understood, that is, from a view of planning as
basically to one that is essentially political. This can be gleaned from the composition of the
Local Development Council under the earlier Local Government Code of 1983 (Batas Pambansa
337) compared to that of the 1991 Code (RA 7160). Under the earlier Code, the LDC was
composed of the Mayor/Governor as head, heads of offices and departments of the local
government unit, as members. The bulk of the membership then comprised the technical
personnel of various sectoral and functional agencies of government. In contrast, the
membership of the present LDCs is predominantly made up of politicians. The only non-
politician (but may be equally political in strategy and tactics) members are those who
represent non-governmental and people’s organizations from whom one-fourth of the total
membership is reserved. For the first time also the Congressman is represented in the LDC the
better for him to integrate his own projects or the development funds at his disposal into the
plans and programs of the LGU.

The Political Component. The notion of planning as essentially political probably derives from
an insightful reading of the inherent weakness of Philippine planning in the past. As we asserted
in Chapter 3, Philippine planning has been a technical exercise in need of political support.
Technocrats in both national and local levels prepare more or less elegant plans but it is
common to knowledge that these plans merely adorn the bookshelves of office executives. The
main reasons for this unfortunate reality is that legislators rarely use the plan as a basis for
enacting laws and ordinances. After the mandatory adoption of the plan, the legislative bodies
believe that their role in planning and development is over. Local sanggunians are notorious for
enacting ordinances and passing resolutions appropriating funds for project that are not
identified in the local development plan or investment program. The automatic membership in
the LDC of the appropriations committee chair of the sanggunian ensures an effective linkage
between the planning and the legislative functions, and, by implication, lends political support
to an otherwise isolated technical exercise. With the present composition of the LDC, it can be
said that the local planning structure has a very strong political component: the LDC and the
local sanggunian.

The important role played by the local legislative body in planning can be summarized in this
definition of the comprehensive plan (also known as land use plan) by Hugh Pomeroy, as quoted
in Babcock: “… a plan that makes provision for all the uses that the legislative body of that
municipality decides are appropriate for locations somewhere in the municipality; it makes
provisions for them at the intensities of use that the legislative body deems to be appropriate; at
the locations that the legislative body deems to be appropriate.”

The Technical Component. If planning is essentially political does that make technical inputs
irrelevant? Not at all. For all the heads of the agencies and department are no longer members
of the LDC, they may be called upon to serve as resource persons whenever matters pertaining
to their areas of competence come up for deliberation in the LDC. This is one avenue where the
LDC’s avail of technical inputs from “consultants-on-call” in the formulation of local
development plans and public investment programs.

The other modality by which the LDC procures technical inputs in their planning and
programming functions is through the formation of sectoral of functional committees. The
sectoral committees, when properly constituted will ensure a comprehensive multi-sectoral
coverage of the local development plan and investment program. Often, however, the so-called
sectoral committees that LGUs organize such as those on agriculture, tourism, housing, etc. are
actually sub-sectoral components of the different development sectors. A 3-digit classification of
the five development sectors and their respective sub-sectoral component is shown in Table 4.1.

For a truly comprehensive coverage of every conceivable aspect of local development the LDC
must organize sectoral committees and not merely content themselves with sub-sectoral
committees. The LDC should also make sure that technical committees draw membership from
all societal sectors: government, private, academe, religious, professions, and so on. Although
the formation of sectoral committees is optional as indicated by the use of the word “may”, LDCs
should not miss the potential value of sectoral committees to provide substantial inputs through
their continuing engagement in all stages of the planning and development process. This can be
appreciated from the functions of sectoral/functional committees listed above, in contract to the
ad hoc, one-shot, on-call consultation as a means of procurement of technical inputs by the LDC.

The importance of the sectoral committees is further highlighted if it is realized that their
functions parallel those of the local planning and development coordinators. With all the
sectoral committees functioning as intended all that the local planning and development
coordinator should do is “coordinate” their activities and integrate their outputs. After all, this is
what the “coordinator” in his position title means: to coordinate the different sectors and not
only the different department heads of the local government. This arrangement is even more
productive in the case of cities and municipalities that cannot afford to hire adequate staff to
organize their LPDO to its full complement. All that the few personnel need to do is to be able to
coordinate the sectoral/functional committees and make them work with them.

Table 4.1
SECTORS IN THE COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
1.0 Social Development 3.2 Social support
1.1 Population (size, growth, distribution) 3.2.1 Hospitals
1.2 Social services and status of well-being) 3.2.2 Schools
1.2.1 Health 3.2.3 Waterworks and sewerage
1.2.2 Education, culture, recreation 3.2.4 Public socialized housing
1.2.3 Welfare 3.2.5 Facilities for aged, infirm,
1.2.4 Housing disadvantaged
1.2.5 Protective services 3.3 Public administrative support
1.3 Gender equity concern 3.3.1 government buildings
2.0 Economic Development 3.3.2 Jails
2.1 Primary sector 3.3.3 Freedom parks
2.1.1 Agricultural crops 3.3.4 Public assembly areas
2.1.2 Livestock 4.0 Environmental and Natural Resources
2.1.3 Fisheries (inland, brackish, marine) 4.1 Lands
2.1.4 Forestry 4.1.1 Lands of the public domain
2.2 Secondary sector 4.1.2 Private and alienable and disposable
2.2.1 Mining and quarrying lands
2.2.2 Manufacturing 4.1.3 Ancestral domain
2.2.3 Construction 4.2 Forest lands
2.2.4 Electricity, water, gas utilities 4.2.1 Protection forests
2.3 Tertiary sector 4.2.2 Production forests
2.3.1 wholesale and retail trade 4.3 Mineral lands
2.3.2 Transportation and communication 4.3.1 metallic mineral lands
2.3.3 Finance, insurance and related 4.3.2 non-metallic mineral lands
activities 4.4 Parks, wildlife and other reservations
2.3.4 Real estate 4.5 Water resources
2.3.5 Personal and community services 4.5.1 Freshwater (ground, surface)
2.3.6 Tourism 4.5.2 Marine waters
2.4 The Informal Sector 4.6 Air quality
3.0 Infrastructure Development 4.7 Waste management
3.1 Economic support 4.7.1 Solid waste
3.1.1 Irrigation systems 4.7.2 Liquid waste
3.1.2 Power generation (mini-hydro) 4.7.3 Toxic and hazardous
3.1.3 Roads, bridges, ports 5.0 Institutional Development
3.1.4 Flood control and drainage 5.1 Organization and Management
3.1.5 Telecommunications 5.2 Fiscal Management
5.3 Legislative Output
5.4 LGU-NGO-PO linkages

The generic local planning structure consisting of the political and technical components is depicted
in Figure 4.1 below. The political component comprises the Local Sanggunian and the Local
Development Council, as earlier discussed. These two bodies lay down policy guidelines and take
decisions regarding the direction, character, and objectives of local development. They do these in
their capacity as elected representatives of the people. In a very real sense, they are the true
planners of the city, municipality or province.
 Figure 4.1
LOCAL PLANNING STRUCTURE
Chart by E.M. Serote

The technical component on the other hand is headed by the Local Planning and Development
Coordinator. The Office of the LPDC serves as the technical arm and head of the LDC Secretariat. In
that capacity the LPDC “coordinates” the different programs of the LGU departments and the
national agencies operating locally. More importantly, the LPDC coordinates the different
sectoral/functional committees that provide detailed inputs to the comprehensive multi-sectoral
development plan and investment program.

It may be noted that the Local Special Bodies should be seen not as co-equal but subordinate to, and
supportive of the LDC the latter being the “mother” of all planning and programming bodies of the
LGU.

In the case of large and high-income cities that can afford to adequately staff their local planning
office, a suggested structure that combines functional and sectoral concerns of the technical
component of their local planning structure is given below. The suggested structure centers on the
Office of the Local Planning and Development Coordinator. (See Figure 4.2.)

The LPDO. The functions of the Office of the Local Planning and Development are as follows:
 1. Formulate integrated economical, social, physical, and other development plans and
policies;

2. Conduct continuing studies, researches, and training programs;

3. Integrate and coordinate all sectoral plans and studies;

4. Monitor and evaluate the implementation of the different development programs, projects,
and activities;

5. Prepare comprehensive development plans and other development planning documents;

6. Analyze the income and expenditure patterns, and formulate and recommend fiscal plans
and policies;

7. Promote people participation in development planning; and

8. Exercise supervision and control over the secretariat of the LDC.

The functions of the LPDO may be grouped into the following subjects corresponding to the major
subdivisions of the planning process:

1. Information management. This combines functions 2 and 4. It involves generation,

processing, storage and retrieval of sectoral planning information. Through the conduct of
continuing studies and researches the LPDO builds up new information for planning and
programming. In addition, feedback information collected through monitoring and
evaluation of the impacts of the program and project implementation as well as the effects
of development regulation constitutes a major component of the planning database.

2. Comprehensive and multi-sectoral planning. This function puts together functions 1, 3 and 5.
It involves preparation, update or revision of the comprehensive land use plan and the
comprehensive development plan.

3. Investment programming. This combines function 3 and 6. This involves culling out
programs and projects from different sectoral plans of the CDP, which are of local
ownership and responsibility to be included in the three-year LDIP and the AIP. This
function also generates appropriate measures for attracting private investments into the
locality for the local sanggunian to enact.

4. Public participation promotion. Listed as function number 7, this requires of the LPDO
effective skills in organizing and coordinating public consultations, seminar, workshops and
other modes of involving the different sectors of society in all stages of the planning
process.

5. Secretariat services to the LDC. This is function number 8 and it involves keeping minutes
and records, setting agenda and related matters pertaining to the activities of the Local
Development Council.
 6. Quality Assurance. The LPDO also sees to it that plans, programs and projects of the local
government are compliant with national standards and guidelines.

Except for function number 5 above, the other functional groups are embedded in the functions of
the Sectoral Committees within the LDC as depicted in Figure 4.1 above. It is obvious that the LPDO
needs to change from the usual internal organization set-up. In terms of staff capabilities, two
generic abilities must be developed: 1) familiarity with all aspects and stages of the planning
process; and 2) ability to coordinate activities of the different sectoral committees and integrate
their outputs.

Accordingly, an organizational structure of the LPDO that is responsive to the multifarious tasks
assigned to it is depicted in Figure 4.2 below. Salient points about the full-blown structure are as
follows:

1. The Local Planning and Development Coordinator (LPDC) shall be aided by a deputy
coordinator who shall coordinate the activities of the three functional divisions to allow the
LPDC to attend to external matters and inter-departmental linkages.

2. There will be two staff support services: administrative support and public information. The
administrative support shall serves as the core staff in providing secretariat services to the
Local Development Council, in addition to its support function to the LPDO. The public
information and advocacy service is a new but necessary function of the LPDO to educate
the public on planning issues and concepts and thus enable the public to participate
intelligently in efforts to resolve those issues.

3. The functional divisions respond to the mandated functions of the office. The divisions are
further supported by sections or services that reflect the subjects of responsibility of each
functional division.

After looking at the planning structures and their mandated functions, we will consider next the
procedural and substantive content of the plans that these planning bodies are mandated to
produce. As we did in the first part, we shall start with the national and end with the local level.

PLANNING PROCESSES AND PLANS

The National Framework for Physical Planning

The National Framework for Physical Planning (NFPP) evolved from the National Physical
Framework Plan (NPFP), which was prepared by the National Land Use Committee (NLUC) in 1992
and adopted through Proclamation No. 65 by President Fidel V. Ramos.
 Figure 4.2
FULL-BLOWN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
OF THE LOCAL PLANNING AND DEVLOPMENT OFFICE
Chart by E.M. Serote

The NFFP was prepared in response to the presidential directive (LOI 1350) to formulate an
integrated national land use policy agenda that would guide the allocation, utilization, development
and management of the country’s physical resources. However, with the emergence of new laws,
sectoral plans and policies, the NLUC recognized the urgency of refining and updating the NPFP in
order to make it more responsive to the changing environment. As a result, in 1997, six (6)
interagency technical working groups (TWGs) were created to draft the document. It was decide
that a National Framework for Physical Planning (NFPP) was deemed more appropriate and
relevant as a planning document. After a series of meetings and workshops within and among the
various TWGs and after many consultations with all sectors, the draft NFPP is put in final form.
Excerpts:

The NFPP: 2001-2030

Vision and Principles

The vision of national development is anchored on sustainable development and growth with social
equity. It is development that will be sustainable for all generations of Filipinos, so that the use of
the country’s land and other physical resources yields the greatest economic benefit to both the
present and future generations.

To achieve the national vision, land use, physical, and related planning activities shall proceed
within the context of the principles that support the allocation and use of land and water resources
with due regard to their sustainability. These principles include:

1. Food security. Utilizing the country’s land and water resources in a manner that provides
sufficient and affordable food products to all Filipinos of the present and future generations
through local production and/or importation;

2. Environmental stability and ecological integrity. Achieving environmental stability through

the observance of appropriate standards, and ensuring ecological integrity through effective
natural resource management and balancing the demand of land using activities vis-à-vis
preservation of ecosystems;

3. Rational urban development. Encouraging the sustainable growth of cities and large towns
while complementing the growth of rural areas by adopting alternative urban development
approaches;

4. Spatial integration. Linking consumption and production areas to achieve physical and
economic integration through appropriate infrastructure systems;

5. Equitable access to physical and natural resources. Ensuring equitable access to resources
through a just distribution of the country’s resources and by providing equal opportunities
to all Filipinos in the use and acquisition of land and other resources;

6. Private-public sector partnership. Encouraging shared responsibility between the

government and the private sector in the development and management of the country’s
physical resources;

7. People empowerment. Establishing pragmatic, appropriate, flexible and dynamic structures

or mechanisms that involve the participation of key stockholders.

8. Recognition of the rights of indigenous people. Ensuring the indigenous people’s right to
develop, control and use lands within their ancestral domain; and

9. Market orientation. Adopting the interplay of market forces within the framework of
ecological and intergenerational factors as a basic parameter in the allocation and use of
land and physical resources.
The Planning Environment, Challenges and Strategies

The overall physical planning challenge that the NFPP addresses is to provide policy guidelines
towards the envisioned growth of the country in a manner that is efficient, equitable and
sustainable. It is a challenge born out of the fundamental condition that the country faces – that of
limited physical and economic resources and increasing demands from a population that continues
to grow to unprecedented levels. In particular, the policy guidelines need to address the following
specific challenges: increasing urban population, and corresponding demand for urban services;
unplanned expansion of settlement areas; declining agricultural productivity; land degradation;
limited access to and; outdated land use plans and the increasing role of local government units in
planning; and lack of institutional linkages.

These challenges require a set of strategies that would lead to the desired overall development of
the country where: the geographically-fragmented islands are economically integrated; social,
cultural, political and economic interaction takes place beyond local, regional and even national
boundaries; comparative advantages and regional resource endowments are fully harnessed
without destroying their assimilative and regenerative capacities; and access to productive
opportunities and minimum desirable levels of social welfare by all citizens is guaranteed.

The challenges and desired development directions suggest several strategies including, among
others, the promotion of national dispersion through regional concentration, strengthening of
urban-rural linkages, resource area-based development, and installation of mechanism for effective
regional development.

Land Use Policy Guidelines

The Land Use Policy Guidelines form the core of the NFPP. It covers the four (4) major land use
components of Settlements Development, Production Land Use, Protection Land Use, and
Infrastructure Development. As presented, each component includes discussions on the current
situation, physical planning issues and concerns, and policy options/guidelines.

Settlements Development

Settlements are areas where concentrations of population engage in economic, political, cultural,
and other social activities. They vary from small, agriculture-based villages to metropolitan urban
centers that accommodate millions of people and serve as industrial, market, and administrative
centers. For the most part, the type and scale of activities as well as the conditions of the physical
environment where these take place directly reflect the quality of life of a settlement’s population.

Settlement Development focuses on the spatial distribution of shelter, infrastructure and networks,
and services. It is also concerned with the interrelationships of settlements as they develop and
establish functional linkages based on their respective resource endowments and comparative
advantages. The primary concerns of Settlements Development are to help ensure, for the present
and future generations of Filipinos: (a) an effective integration of activities within and among
settlements, allowing efficient production and movement of people and commodities through the
access of the population to housing, education, health care, recreation, transportation and
communication, sanitation, and basic utilities such as water, power, waste disposal and other
services.
The major issues/concerns and the corresponding policy guidelines in planning for settlements
development are: 1) planning within the context of national settlement network; 2) spatial
distribution and planning for future population growth; 3) infrastructure and basic services; 4)
housing and informal settlements; 5) environmental impacts; and 6) food security and land use
conversion.

1. Planning within the context of a national network of settlements. The shift from the previous
national policy of defining a role-specific hierarchy of settlements to one that encourages
local development initiatives in development planning increases the need for local planners
to make strategic decisions that involve regional or national considerations. Some of the
basic policy guidelines that need to be considered are the following:

a. Formulate individual town or city plans within the context of national hierarchical
network of settlement where there will always be differences in the level and scale of
activities. Despite such differences, however, opportunities for economic growth and
improving the delivery of services and the overall quality of life relative to other
settlements can be locally initiated;

b. Guide the formulation of physical plans by the close relationships between local
economic growth and production efficiency, market access, and the provision of basic
services; and

c. Establish and maintain external linkages to increases inter- and intra-regional

integration that leads to improvements in local production and market access.

2. Spatial distribution of and planning for future population growth. Given demographic growth
trends, virtually all settlements will experience a continuing growth of their population. The
selection of spatial strategies to accommodate future growth, however, lacks consideration
for the specific economic and environmental characteristics of the area concerned. Thus,
physical plans become unrealistic and difficult to implement. Five policy options or
planning approaches that may be utilized by planners depending on corresponding
environmental and economic conditions that coincide with the local situation are: (a)
redevelopment/renewal; (b) growth of other towns/cities; (c) urban
expansion/metropolitan growth; (d) new town/city development; and (e) infilling of vacant
lands and increasing densities in certain areas. (See Chapter 8.)

3. Infrastructure and basic services. There is currently a wide gap between the provision of
infrastructure and basic services and the demand of the existing population. Faced with
such reality, it is essential to adopt a more strategic approach to planning for the land and
infrastructure requirements of basic services. This means maximizing the benefits of
investment in these requirements in terms of: (a) the number of people served; (b) the
extent to which they promote and support regional and local physical framework plans; and
(c) the opportunities for private sector participation.

4. Housing and informal settlements. Rapid urbanization, low income levels and lack of areas
allocated for affordable residential developments have led to the proliferation of unplanned,
informal and overcrowded settlements. This may be addressed, in part, by increasing the
supply of land, particularly to those in need of affordable housing, through (a) direct
allocation, (b) improving infrastructure to access unutilized land, (c) encouraging mixed use
and higher density developments in selected areas, and (d) improving services and
 infrastructure support to existing residential areas. In addition, physical plans should
identify disaster-prone and other environmentally-critical areas and define appropriate
residential development limits and specifications to reduce safety risks.

5. Environmental impacts. The growth and development of settlements have adverse impacts
on the physical environment. Given current urbanization trends, and as recent studies have
shown, developing countries such as the Philippines may expect or are already experiencing
a shift in the type of environmental problems that need the most attention. Physical
planners need to be aware and prepared to deal with this shift, which is from natural
resource-based type of problems to those dealing primarily with urbanization and
industrialization – industrial pollution, vehicular emissions, encroachment into disaster-
prone areas, sanitation and health problems caused by the lack of water supply, sewerage,
and waste disposal services, and even erosion of cultural/historical resources. These may
be reduced or mitigated by (a) delineating land available for or restricted from settlement
expansion, (b) identification and management of environmentally critical areas, (c)
matching of land uses and densities with environmental and service infrastructure
capacities, and (d) encouraging appropriately planned mixed use developments, transit use,
pedestrianization, and cultural/historical preservation in large urban areas.

6. Food security and land conversion. Settlement planning can assist in the attainment of the
food security objectively by helping protect key agricultural production sites; enhancing
productivity; and improving the efficiency of the distribution network.

Production Land Use

Production land use refers to the direct and indirect utilization of land resources for crop
production, fishery, livestock and poultry production, timber production, agro-forestry, mining,
industry, and tourism. Lands under this category include agricultural areas, coastal and marine
zones, production forests, mineral lands, industrial and tourism development areas where
productive activities could be undertaken to meet the country’s requirements for economic growth.

The primary objective if planning for Production Land Use is to determine the most efficient and
equitable manner of utilizing and managing land resources so that there is adequate and accessible
space for sustainable food production, forest and mineral resource extraction, industry, and
tourism, with the end in view of meeting the material and other requirements of the population.

The physical planning issues and concerns are grouped into four categories: 1) food security; 2)
levels of production and productivity; 3) industrialization; and 4) environmental impacts.

1. Food security. Concerns on food security range from the extent to which food security will
be achieved through local food production or importation to land conversion, productivity-
land deficit and limited land supply. The following policy guidelines seek to address such
concerns:

a. Implement Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZs), adopt a

shift from the traditional commodity production to “seed to market” approach, and
protect SAFDZs from conversion through land use and infrastructure planning and
zoning;
 b. Identify existing agricultural lands, assess their production and productivity levels, and
to the extent practicable and possible, protect these from conversion;

c. Identify potential agricultural expansion areas and, with due consideration for
competing land uses, protect these from conversion;

d. Identify marginal lands for agricultural production and provide these with appropriate
technologies for basic subsistence requirements giving primary strategic importance to
generating livelihood and other activities that would support basic needs of farmers,
farm workers, and fisherfolk;

e. Consider marginal lands as expansion areas for non-agricultural activities to reduce the
pressure of land use conflict arising in the SAFDZs; and

f. Provide infrastructure support that would link production areas to other land uses, and
implement other measures to increase productivity in SAFDZs, and in existing and
expansion production areas.

2. Levels of production and productivity. There is a need to increase the levels of production
and productivity in agriculture, forest, mining, industry and tourism sectors in order to
address existing supply gaps, increasing demand brought about by increasing population
and per capita consumption levels, and increasing competition from foreign investors.
These objectives may be approached and attained through the following policy guidelines:

a. Identify and delineate existing and potential agricultural, forest, and mining production
areas, assess supply and demand requirements, implement measures to improve
efficiency, and provide support infrastructure and other facilities to production
activities;

b. Promote water security through focused irrigation programs, research and

development, and the development and improvement of a water database; and

c. Identify and delineate existing and potential tourism areas, assess current economic
performance vis-à-vis social and environmental impacts, determine areas where
tourism should be pursued further or discouraged, and provide infrastructure support.

3. Competitive and strategic industrialization. The issues facing the planning for industrial sites
include: the type of industrial activities for regional and local physical plans; extent of land
to be allocated; and the location of industries. These issues may be addressed by the
following policy guidelines:

a. Review the performance of existing industrial areas towards a decision on whether they
should be maintained and supported, expanded, or used for alternative activities;

b. Explore alternative uses for non-performing industrial areas;

c. Encourage the growth of information technology industries as an economic activity by

not prematurely constraining their locational preferences, and providing
infrastructures support and other appropriate incentives;
 d. Adopt a market-oriented dispersal strategy at the regional/national level to guide the
overall location and distribution of industries;

e. Utilize local development and land use plans, land suitability, existing and potential
industrial sites and support infrastructure, and environmental impacts at the local level
to guide industrial location; and

f. Solicit the inputs and participation of the private sector and other stakeholders in
planning for industrial sites.

4. Environmental impacts. Production activities require extraction and utilization of natural

resource that results in some form of environmental degradation. Such degradation is
exacerbated by the effects of natural calamities. The following policy guidelines seek to
mitigate the negative impacts of various production activities:

a. Identify proper location of production activities by avoiding protected and hazard-

prone areas and other environmentally constrained areas; and

b. Adopt and implement land use policies and zoning regulations that encourage the use of
disaster mitigation and environmentally protection, and rehabilitation measures during
production.

Protection Land Use

Protection Land Use refers to the rehabilitation, conservation, and management of

sensitive/critical ecosystems to preserve their integrity, to allow degraded resources to regenerate,
and to protect the human population from environmental hazards.

Protection Land Use policy guidelines seek to achieve environmental stability and ecological
integrity; ensure balance between resource use and the preservation of some educational, cultural
and historical significance and protect people and man-made structures from the ill effects of
natural hazards. They cover the following protected areas: NIPAS, non-NIPAS and hazard-prone
areas.

There are four major physical planning issues/concerns within the Protection Land Use: 1) non-
demarcation of boundaries of protection areas; 2) conflict resolution within protection areas; 3)
disaster mitigation, use of resources and its impact on protection areas; and 4) information,
education and communication campaign.

1. Non-demarcation of boundaries of protection areas. While protected areas have been

mapped out, these areas have yet to be marked on the ground. The identification and
demarcation of the boundaries of protected areas, non-NIPAS areas and hazard-prone areas
on the ground leads to the resolution of conflicts insofar as defining the extent to which
certain activities are to be allowed in protected areas. Demarcation should be prioritized
according to the following order: hazard-prone areas; boundaries between protection and
non-protection areas; and boundaries within protection areas.

2. Conflict within protection areas. Areas that pose extreme and frequent danger to the most
number of people, whether direct or indirect, should be given priority in resolving land use
 conflicts within protected areas. Between NIPAS and non-NIPAS areas, the former should
prevail. Subsequently priority should be given following the management schemes outlined
in the NIPAS Act. Further, to support each in the NIPAS Act. Further, to support such
measures, parameters and databases that aid the identification and management of high-
risk, hazard-prone areas and the application of appropriate planning measures should be
established and disseminated.

3. Disaster mitigation, use of resources and its impact on protection areas. Appropriate physical
planning measures as part of comprehensive disaster mitigation plans for hazard-prone
areas should be identified and implemented. This includes the identification of allowable
activities that have minimal impact on the environmental quality of non-NIPAS areas.

4. Information, education and communication campaign. Public awareness on the values of

protection areas and disaster preparedness should be intensified and public participation in
conservation and disaster mitigation efforts within their communities should be increased.

Infrastructure Development

The role of infrastructure in national development is to provide the built-up environment that
allows production, consumption, and service activities to take place. Infrastructure is the physical
entity that enables economic processes, supports and guides urban and rural development,
integrates the various communities of the archipelago into the Philippine nation, and links the
country to the global community. In this manner, the state of infrastructure, including the way it
enhances and complements the natural environment, provides a physical measure of national and
local development and, ultimately, of the quality of life.

Infrastructure development is the common physical link among the production, protection, and the
settlements components of the NFPP.

Infrastructure development in the NFPP covers five sub-sectors: transportation, communication,

energy, water resources, and social infrastructure. Its basic concerns are the provision of basic
services, fostering economic and other forms of integration necessary for producing or obtaining
the material requirements of Filipinos, and the development of an efficient, responsive, safe, and
ecologically friendly built environment. The major planning concerns and corresponding policy
guidelines in infrastructure development are: 1) strategic role of infrastructure; 2) food security
and agrarian reform objectives; 3) protection and disaster mitigation; and 4) local and private
sector participation.

1. Strategic role of infrastructure

a. Prioritize and implement infrastructure projects that support the policy of national
dispersal through regional concentration;

b. Promote inter-modal transportation systems, taking into account compatibility,

economic feasibility, comparative advantage and linkages of desired transportation
modes to facilitate smooth transfer of people and goods between designated transfer
points;

c. Prioritize and implement infrastructure projects that allow increased access to basic
social and other development services while catering to the productive sectors and
 market-based industry putting the entire population into the mainstream of sustainable
development;

d. Ensure compatibility of infrastructure with local land use and development plans, giving
priority to projects with the most strategic impacts; and

e. Protect infrastructure right of way.

2. Food security agrarian reform objectives. Prioritize and implement strategic rural/regional
infrastructure that supports food security and agrarian reform objectives by enhancing
local production and market linkages.

3. Protection and disaster mitigation

a. Promote infrastructure compatibility with NIPAS and other protection areas, mitigating
potential negative effects of infrastructure projects, while ensuring the operational
efficiency of such projects and protecting them from the harmful encroachment of other
activities.

b. Incorporate disaster mitigation principles in infrastructure development.

4. Local and private sector participation. Promote local and private sector participation in
infrastructure planning and implementation.

Regional and Provincial Physical Framework Plans

Aside from NFPP, there are regional and provincial counterparts in each region and province of the
country. The lower level framework plans echo the structural organization and policy proposals
embodied in the NFPP. It may be noted however that the higher level framework plans are at best
indicative or recommendatory only. This is due to the foot-dragging of Congress in getting the
proposed National Land Use Act enacted.

In order to enforce the national land use policies pertaining to the four land use categories of
settlements, protection, production and infrastructure support areas, there is need to utilize the
regulatory powers of the local government units. After all, every portion of the national territory is
located within the jurisdiction of a particular LGU.

The final section of this chapter will lay out of the appropriate model of local planning and
development.

Local Planning and Development Model

This section describes an ideal scenario where a particular local government unit (LGU) manages
its own growth and change through a body of plans with varying scope and time frame. Th term
“ideal” does not imply a utopian, unrealistic or unattainable dream. It simply means a scenario that
does not exist as yet. Nevertheless, it is the scenario that the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA
7160) wants every local government unit to achieve. In fact, the LGC envisions LGUs to become
“self-reliant communities and effective partners in the attainment of national goals”. Through the
policy of devolution, the national government enables the LGUs to enjoy more powers, authority,
responsibilities and resources with which to manage growth and change within their territorial
jurisdiction. With the aid of various plans, LGUs are expected to more effectively manage their own
local development. There are two sets of plans that LGUs are directed to prepare. One is the
comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) enacted through a zoning ordinance. The Code likewise
mandates the LGUs to prepare long-term, medium-term, and annual socio-economic plans and
public investment programs. That the two sets of plans are separate and distinct can be inferred
from the fact that the CLUP is never mentioned among the plans that the LDC is directed to prepare.
Rather, it is listed among the functions of the Sanggunian.

These plans in turn influence public and private sector investments which have the cumulative
effect of making available improved quality goods and services and making these more accessible to
the people thereby raising the level of their well-being. Any change in the level of welfare of the
population is expected to create corresponding changes in the character and configuration of the
land and other physical resources of the locality. It may be noted that any improvement in the level
of social and economic well-being of the local population will almost always entail deterioration of
the natural environment. How to achieve development objectives without necessarily sacrificing
the environment poses a major challenge to local development planning and management.
Fortunately, the growing body of literature on sustainable development tends to support the view
that the seemingly conflicting claims of development and the environment are not irreconcilable. As
the LGU gains longer experience in managing growth and change, especially when the local
legislative body is ever alert for possibilities to formulate policies as well as to further support the
implementation of plans, programs and projects with needed legislations, its institutional capability
will be enhanced considerably (See Figure 4.3).

Comprehensive Land Use Plan

The Local Government Code mandates all LGUs to prepare their comprehensive land use plans as
the primary basis for determining the future use of land and other natural resources. The CLUP also
serves as the basis for prescribing reasonable limits and restraints on the use of property within the
municipal jurisdiction, for regulating subdivision developments, and for reclassifying agricultural
lands into non-agriculture uses. Being comprehensive in geographical scope, the CLUP covers the
entire territorial jurisdiction of the municipality including these areas that are traditionally the
domain of the national government. The authority to plan and manage these latter areas shall now
be shared between the LGU and the national government. To adequately cover every part of the
territorial jurisdiction of the municipality, the CLUP embodies appropriate policies for each of the
four land use policy areas: protected areas, settlements, production areas, and infrastructure
support areas. Moreover, the CLUP is a long-term policy guide that spans several terms of local
officials so that continuity of development programs is ensured. (See Chapter 9.)

Zoning Ordinance

The principal and legal instrument for enforcing the locational policies and performance of the
CLUP is the zoning ordinance. Unless the CLUP is enacted into a zoning ordinance it remains an
indicative plan with only persuasive force and effect and people can afford to ignore it. Once the
zoning ordinance is enacted, however, the right of property owners to develop their property is
transferred from the individual to society and every one who wants to develop his/her land must
seek permission or clearance from the local government. (See Chapter 9.)

If the long-term framework plan is already in place, medium-term plans and short-term investment
programs serve as instruments that carry out the long-term plan. The medium-term plan is what
the Local Government Code refers to as: integrated economic, social, and physical plan” or
“comprehensive multi-sectoral development plan” (CDP).

Figure 4.3
A LOCAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT MODEL
Chart by E.M. Serote
Comprehensive Development Plan

The CDP can be regarded as an action plan and an implementing instrument of the CLUP. Its time
frame should only cover the tenure of local officials so that it can serve as their program of
government.

There should be at least five components of the CDP (Refer back to Figure 4.3): social development,
economic development, physical/land use development, environmental management, and
institutional development. Depending on their importance in the locality, sub-sectoral development
plans may be prepared separately to give them the p[roper emphasis, e.g. agricultural develop pan,
fishing industry development program, or manpower development program. (Refer back to Table
4.1.)

Social development component. This component of the CDP seeks to improve the state of well-
being of the local population and upgrade the quality of social services such as health, education,
welfare, housing and the like. Questions of equity, social justice, gender concerns and those of
vulnerable groups are also addressed by this sectoral plan. Many programs and projects in this
sector are of the “soft” non-capital type but they are no less important than the capital-
improvement projects.

Economic development component. Although it is not the business of government to go into

business in general, it is government’s responsibility to ensure that the economy is in a sound state
of health. This is because on it depends the level of family income and employment and hence, the
level of well-being of residents. The economic development plan embodies measures the local
government intends to take to create a favorable climate for private investments through a
combination of policies and public investments necessary to enable private investments to flourish
and of jobs and household income. The status of the local economy also determines to a large extent
the amount of locally derived revenues of the LGU.

Physical and land use development component. This component deals with the infrastructure
building program and the land acquisition required as right-of-way or easements of public facilities.
The physical development plan may involve urban renewal or redevelopment schemes for inner
city areas, opening up new urban expansion areas in the urban fringe, or development of new
growth centers in conformity with the chosen spatial strategy.

Environmental management component. This plan consolidates the environmental implications of

all development proposals within the municipality and provides mitigating and preventive
measures for their anticipated impacts. It embodies programs for maintaining cleanliness of air,
water and land resources and for rehabilitating or preserving the quality of natural resources to
enable them to support the requirements of economic development and ecological balance across
generations.

Institutional development component. This plan focuses on strengthening the capability of the local
government bureaucracy as well as elected officials to manage effectively planned growth and
change in their territorial jurisdiction. It includes manpower training, scholarships, seminars,
workshops, study tours and similar activities. Membership in different functional and sectoral
committees and professional leagues and participation in their planned activities is also
encouraged and supported by this sectoral program. Promoting the involvement of voluntary
sectors in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the different sectoral
programs, projects and activities is a vital concern of this sectoral plan. This sectoral plan,
moreover, seeks to provide mechanisms for the effective partnerships and linkages between the
LGU and the national and provincial government agencies, between the municipal and barangay
officials, and between and among contiguous or adjacent LGUs to promote their common beneficial
interests.

The outputs of each sectoral plan may be grouped into two forms: programs and projects and new
policies or local legislations. The first form of outputs will serve as source of inputs to the local
development investment program. The second type of outputs will be included in the legislative
agenda of the Sanggunian (See Figure 4.4).

Figure 4.4
SECTORAL DEVELOPMENT PALNNING PROCESS
Chart by E.M. Serote

Local Development Investment Program

The local development investment program (LDIP) has traditionally been nothing more than a list
of projects that are derived from the analysis and projection of sectoral requirements. Often the
projects listed in the LDIP are mostly those that national agencies have already programmed
themselves. Moreover, the LDIP is a short-term plan covering normally a one year period (more
popularly known as Annual Investment Program, AIP).

Investment programming in the context of the local government’s planning and development
function involves generating the programs and projects derived from the detailed elaboration of the
CLUP and the CDP. Specifically, this form of public spending will modify, guide, direct, control, or
otherwise elicit the desired private response in order to accelerate local economic development,
raise the level of socio-cultural well-being, improve the standard of public services, utilities and
infrastructures, and, on the whole, attain the desired urban form in the CLUP. The projects must
therefore be selected not only on the basis of their potential to satisfy sectoral requirements but
more so for their contribution to attaining the direction and intensity of urban growth consistent
with the preferred spatial strategy.

Investment programs moreover, must be spatially, rather than merely sectorally focused. The areas
comprising the spatial structure of the town are the town center, residential areas, production
areas, open space and protected areas, and the circulation, utilities and services that these areas
require. (See Chapter 9 below.) Investment programs should be consistent with the planned
intervention in these areas in accordance with the CLUP.

There are three main components of the LDIP: 1) final project list; 2) financial analysis and
projection; and 3) financial management schemes.

The Financial Project List. The final list of projects to be implemented should preferably be lifted
from the CLUP and the CDP. However, opportunities should be opened for soliciting additional
project ideas particularly from the sectors of society who were not properly represented in various
aspects and stages of the planning process. Projects should be screened using Sec. 17 of the LGC as
template and evaluated on the basis of their potential contribution to the realization of the long-
term goals and, in the case of land based, land-contingent projects, their consistency with the
preferred spatial strategy or urban form. Moreover, the objectives of the Philippine Agenda for
Sustainable Development for the 21st Century or PA 21 should be used as additional criteria for
screening and prioritizing programs and projects. Cost estimates shall accompany each project
using the project brief format.

Financial Analysis and Projection. The financial performance of the LGU for the past several years
should be analyzed. Then, on the basis of past trends and other growth assumptions, the funds that
are likely to become available from regular and recurrent sources are projected are projected for
each year of the programming period. The funds available for public investment are those funds not
earmarked for personal services, office maintenance and operations, debt servicing, mandatory
reserves and other statutory obligations.

Fiscal Management. The projected total funds available for investment are then matched with the
total funds required to implement the projects in the final list. If the two values match, then the
LDIP is put in final form. If, on the other hand, the funding requirements exceed the available funds,
the LDC or the Sanggunian shall adopt any or a combination of the following options:

1. Cut down the final list further, starting from the bottom of the ranked list until the
cumulative total cost matches with the available funds.

2. Retain the project list and program the augmentation of the projected funds by:
a. Intensifying collection of revenue sources where the current collection efficiency is low,
and/or

b. Tightening the belt of non-essential expenditures, and/or

c. Enacting new revenue measures such as utilizing the special levies on property, e.g. idle
lands tax, special benefit assessment, and the like, or taxing new subjects and activities
within the prescribed powers of the LGU. (See Chapter 9 below.)

d. Contracting for loans and other forms of indebtedness as authorized in the Local
Government Code.

Figure 4.5
LDIP PROCESS AS A LINK BETWEEN
DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Chart by E.M. Serote
 TOWARD AN INTEGRATED PLANNING SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

This final section elaborates on the possible integration of the planning systems at various
administrative levels. The elements of this planning system include the organizational structure for
planning processes, and integration of plan documents.

Rationale for an Integrated Planning System

The primary reason for setting up a vertically integrated and horizontally coordinated planning
system is that development plans, programs and projects, especially those that have spatial and
locational dimension, involve the use of specific parcels of land uniquely located within cities or
municipalities. It is absolutely necessary for such plans and projects conceived at higher levels to be
consistent with the plans of the local areas where the project is situated. Conversely, it is equally
absolutely necessary for local plans and projects to conform with those of the higher levels.

Similarly, at each administrative level, there is also a need for all plans to have horizontal
coordination. The long-term physical framework plan for a particular level should guide the
preparation of short-term and medium-term development plans whether those plans be
comprehensive or sectoral ones. In turn, the development plans shall guide the preparation of
programs and projects, investment budgets, regulatory measures, and other instruments of plan
implementation.

A scheme for establishing the proper linkages (horizontally and vertically) among planning
processes and plan documents is discussed below. (See Figure 4.6.)

Organizational Structure for Physical Framework Planning

The administrative structure for development planning already exists. Similarly, the inter-agency
body for land use and physical planning has already been created for the national (NLUC) and
regional (RLUC) levels. The NLUC and its regional counterpart, RLUC, are composed of agencies
having to do with the land. The secretariat of this inter-agency body is composed of the NEDA staff
at both levels. The NLUC and RLUC have been mandated to prepare the national and regional
physical framework plans, respectively.

At the provincial level the counterpart body of the NLUC and RLUC is the provincial land use
committee (PLUC). None exists in the city of municipal level. Given the relatively longer experience
in land use planning that cities and municipalities have gained over the years, it might make more
sense to strengthen the existing structures rather than create new ones. One way to strengthen
local development councils to better prepare them to take on physical planning functions is to
create a standing committee on land use planning within the provincial, city and municipal
development councils.
 Figure 4.6
HIERARCHY AND LINKAGES PLANS
Chart by E.M. Serote

Synchronization of Planning Cycles

All physical framework plans should have a time zone of 30 years, to be updated and revised every
six years. Six years, which is the term of office of the elected national officials, shall be the time
frame of the national and regional medium-term plans and investment programs. The medium-
term plans shall undergo mid-term updating and revision every three years. The 3-year planning
cycle corresponds to the tenure of local officials. The annual component of plans and programs also
called the annual investment plan (AIP) is synchronized with the budget cycle.

A crucial aspect of the synchronization of planning process is the setting up of an information base
that is constantly being updated by newly generated as well as feedback information. New
information is derived from fresh surveys and resource inventories. Feedback information comes
from monitoring of impacts of planned and unplanned developments on the physical and socio-
economic environment resulting from both public and private investments.

Impact monitoring is a vital link that completes the planning cycle. The appropriate inter-sectoral
organizational set-up and procedure for this important activity at all levels however, have not yet
been specified. Offhand, the impact monitoring function may be lodged at NEDA and DENR at the
national and regional levels. At the provincial level, the PPDO may assume the responsibility with
the assistance of the provincial assessor and the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources
Officer (PENRO). The provincial assessor’s office shall monitor changes in public lands situated
within the province. Similarly, at the municipal level, the CPDO or MPDO will have over-all
responsibility for impact monitoring but can seek assistance from the city/municipal assessor and
the Community Environment and National Resources Officer (CENRO) concerned. People’s
organizations (POs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the sectoral committees of
the local development councils may be co-opted to undertake certain aspects of impact monitoring
and evaluation. Project monitoring and evaluation shall be the joint responsibility of the project
implementing agency or office and the local planning office.

Vertical Integration of Physical Framework Plans

The third dimension of the integrated planning system is the integration of the plan documents
themselves. Of all types of plan documents that such a planning system produces, the physical
framework plans must fit into each other tightly because they all pertain to the same land resource
although projected at varying scales. This means that the spatial unit covered by each lower-level
plan is unique in terms of location but it affects – and is affected by – the other spatial units of the
next higher level plan. Because the national territory is made up of the cities and municipalities
these component of the national territory interrelate in ways that each develops individually and
yet contributes to the unity of the whole. Each of these administrative and political jurisdictions will
have a 30-year physical framework plan: NFPP, RPFP, PPFP, and the city or municipal
comprehensive land use plan. In cases where several adjoining or contiguous localities become
incorporated for purposes of integrated are governance such as metropolitan area, a corresponding
metropolitan framework plan will have to be prepared. In the next few sub-sections the integration
of the substantive contents of the RPFP, the PPFP, and the municipal CLUP will be described.

The Regional Physical Framework Plan

The RPFP is the regional counterpart of the National Physical Framework Plan (NPFP) being
renamed National Framework for Physical Planning. The RPFP is a long-term (30-year) indicative
plan that shall guide public and private sector decisions on the use of land and other natural
resources. This is to ensure that these resources are devoted to the most beneficial use by the
present as well as future generations. The RPFP likewise delineates areas and resources that must
be conserved and protected for all time. Specifically, the RFPP embodies the desired spatial
arrangement of land-using activities so as to:

1. achieve a rational distribution of the regional population;

2. facilitates access by the regional population to economic opportunities and social services;
3. guide public and private investments to ensure optimum and sustainable use of natural
resources; and
4. protect and maintain the integrity of the environment.

At a glance, it depicts an end-state scenario toward which efforts and activities for the next 30 years
are directed. Unlike short-term or medium-term development plans, the framework plan is made
up mainly of spatially-based and area-focused policies to guide detailed development planning.

In order to attain its four objectives, the RPFB like its national counterpart, contains four major land
use policy areas: 1) production, 2) protection, 3) settlements, and 4) infrastructure development
areas.

Production Land Use Plan. Embodies the existing and proposed land uses for production purposes.
Production areas include all A & D lands and portions of the public domain not specifically set aside
for conservation or protection purposes, such as the following:
 1. Croplands sub-classified to the extent possible into major crops.

2. Timber and fuel wood forests, sub-classified to the extent allowed by existing information
into production forest types and indicating the extent of existing timber license areas.

3. Mineral and mining areas classified by type of mineral deposits with indications of
estimated volume of each mineral and extent of mining permits.

4. Grazing areas and managed pasture lands indicated by areas currently covered by pasture
leases, as well as potential expansion areas.

5. Fishery areas, both inland freshwater bodies and aquamarine resources indicating areas
covered by existing leases and possible expansion.

6. Tourism areas currently devoted to, or with potential for the provision of user-oriented
facilities such as resorts, hotels, large-scale recreation facilities, and theme parks.

7. Multiple use zones and buffer zones of NIPAS areas.

Protection Land Use Plan. Embodies policies for those areas in the region which may not be
developed or exploited for their economic value, at least within the period covered by the plan.
Development actions in these areas include rehabilitation of degraded environments as well as
strict enforcement of existing laws and regulations. These areas include:

1. Protection forests which are maintained solely for their beneficial influence on soil and
water regimes in particular and on the environment in general. Protection forests include
all areas with 1,000 m or more elevation, all existing old growth closed canopy (virgin)
forests, second growth dipterocarp forests within areas with 50% slope or more, highland
pine and mossy forests, and buffer strips along rivers and seacoasts and lakeshores.

2. Logged-over or mining-degraded areas for reforestation or rehabilitation. It may be pointed

out that the tree species for timber reforestation normally take more than 50 years to
mature. Reforestation areas, therefore, may be treated as conservation areas in the RPFP.

3. Critical ecosystems for rehabilitation including coral reefs, mangroves, wetlands, lakes,
rivers and lowland forests.

4. Environmentally-constrained areas which pose a high degree of hazard to human activity or

occupation. Examples of these areas are those subject to seismic activity, prolonged
flooding, tidal waves or tsunamis, areas with unstable slopes and areas threatened with
saltwater intrusion.

5. Protected areas which include national parks, civil and military reservations, wildlife and
rare species and habitats, coastal zones, watershed reservations and areas of outstanding
natural beauty or which have historical or cultural significance.

Regional Settlements Plan. This major component of the RPFP translates the preferred spatial
development strategy into a package of politics and other intervention measures directed towards
the realization of the “rational” pattern of spatial distribution of the regional population and
economic activities. The regional settlements plan takes off from the existing hierarchy of urban
centers and, consistent with the preferred spatial strategy, strengthens, modifies or replaces the
existing pattern. In any case, the regional settlements plan contains policies dealing with, among
others:

1. Urban centers whose growth must be restrained, either on account of sheer size or due to
poorly chosen location.

2. Urban centers whose further growth may have to be stimulated.

3. Areas for future urban agglomerations like metropolitan areas.

4. Urban-industrial nodes and corridors to be promoted.

5. Significant rural settlements or resettlement sites, including settlements of indigenous

peoples in ancestral domains.

Regional Infrastructure Development Plan. This RPFP component presents the major
infrastructure requirements to carry out the spatial restructuring of the region envisioned in the
Plan. Subcomponents of the infrastructure plan include:

1. Regional transport network to connect provinces and sub-regional areas as well as to link
region with other regions. The network may involve a combination of new or major
improvement on existing arterial roads and bridges, seaports, airports and railway lines.

2. Regional power supply to cover new, or major expansion of existing generating capacity as
well as the establishment of a regional power distribution grid.

3. Regional telecommunications system which seeks to establish new networks or improve or

expand existing ones.

4. Major water impounding works for any or all of the following purposes:
a. Hydro-electric power generation
b. Large-scale irrigation
c. Flood control
d. Soil conversion
e. Domestic water supply

5. Major shore protection and riverbank stabilization projects.

6. Urban and industrial waste collection, treatment and disposal systems in metropolitan
areas.

7. Tertiary-level social infrastructures in support of, or to stimulate growth in identified urban

centers.

8. Major tourism-support infrastructures.

The Provincial Physical Framework Plan

The intermediate level that links the regional plan with the municipal and city plans is the
provincial physical framework plan (PPFP). For the purpose of preparing the PPFP, the Provincial
Land Use Committee which is the provincial counterpart of the NLUC and RLUC, has been created as
a permanent sub-committee within the Provincial Development Council. The PLUC also assists the
Sangguniang Panlalawigan in the review of municipal and component city comprehensive land use
plans prior to their approval.

For easy integration, the PPFP should adopt the same land use categories as in the RPFP. The PPFP
has a dual characteristic: 1) as a more detailed disaggregation of the relevant portion of the RPFP,
and 2) as an aggregation of the municipal land use plans of the municipalities and cities comprising
the province, including those of highly urbanized cities.

The Provincial Physical Framework Plan, like the RPFP, is merely indicative in that the provincial
government does not have the same statutory land use planning powers that cities and
municipalities have. This does not in any way diminish the usefulness of the PPFP. It does serve,
among others:

1. To provide a basis for other sectoral plans especially those that have to do with land,
natural resources, and infrastructure facilities.

2. To reconcile and rationalize land use proposals among adjoining localities and with higher
level framework plans.

3. To guide development agencies and private developers, particularly those that undertake
large-scale projects, on the proper location of such projects.

4. To provide a basis for adjudicating conflicts arising from the implementation of land use
plans and development projects that straddle the boundaries of two or more municipalities.

Provincial Production Areas Plan. This component of the PPFP reiterates the same categories in the
RPFP but projects them in greater detail. At this level, the delineation of production areas may
utilize natural boundaries that cross-cut municipal boundaries such as watersheds, coastal zones,
flood plains and the like. Otherwise, the spatial organization of various land uses may adopt the
different ecosystems occurring in the province such as urban, lake or riverine or estuarine, marine,
small island, forest, and the like.

Provincial Protected Areas Plan. In the light of the new Local Government Code, the local
government is now an active partner of the national government in the planning and management
of natural resources and the environment in their territorial jurisdiction. The provincial framework
plan therefore includes existing and potential NIPAS protected areas as well as non-NIPA areas for
protection. Specific programs, clearly located, on reforestation and other rehabilitation areas
should form part of this component of the RPFP. It also identifies area, not otherwise identified in
the RPFP, for conservation and protection such as outstanding vistas, wilderness areas, and
potential park and recreation areas with potential park and recreation areas. Urban industrial
pollution-threatened areas and areas with potential natural hazards are also identified and
delineated.
Provincial Settlements Plan. The provincial settlements plan is an important component of the
provincial physical framework plan because it is the provincial level at which the hierarchy of
settlements strategy becomes meaningful. For sure, the RPFP does have a regional settlements plan.
But the province, after a review of the applicable portion of the regional settlements plan must
amend, refine or adopt the same.

Because of differences in scale and possibly in perception of priorities between the regional and the
provincial levels disagreements about the roles of certain designated areas are bound to emerge.
These should be reconciled immediately. As a general principle, the regional plan should prevail
over the provincial one as far as designation of major urban centers is concerned. With respect to
lower-order centers, the province should have the final say.

Also, the RPFP may have limited its coverage to higher-order centers. The provincial settlements
hierarchy may extend as far down as barangays, depending on the size of the province. Emerging
metropolitan areas should be identified and treated as special settlement areas. Similarly, the issue
of how to deal with upland settlements situated in the public domain should be addressed at the
provincial level.

Provincial Infrastructure Plan. The province likewise adopts the relevant and applicable portion of
the regional infrastructure plan. Because of larger scale, minor infrastructure projects, especially
those intended to be funded out of provincial funds should be included.

The Municipal Comprehensive Land Use Plan

As a municipal counterpart of higher-level physical framework plans the city/municipal

comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) is a long-term concept or perspective for the development of
the area. It is a guide or framework for more detailed development planning of the area. Unlike its
higher counterparts, however, the CLUP is not merely indicative. Once translated and enacted into a
zoning ordinance, the policies in the CLUP become mandatory and enforceable.

Functions of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. In specific terms, the CLUP serves the following
functions:

1. To interpret and adapt national, regional and provincial policies to physical and
environmental conditions of the locality.

2. It adopts a desired urban form as the organizing concept in the location of various land-
using activities.

3. The CLUP serves as the basis for identification of major infrastructure projects and for the
enactment of a comprehensive zoning ordinance and the regulatory measures.

Elements of the CLUP. Like the physical framework plans of the higher levels, the n=municipal
comprehensive land use plan has a time horizon of 30 years. It is also a set of policies for the
planning and development of different areas. The CLUP is linked to the provincial and regional
physical framework plans in any or all of the following ways:

1. It adopts and treats as a form of constraint to urban development the protected areas
identified in the higher-level framework plans. To the extent possible, the CLUP should
clearly delineate the exact boundaries of protected areas.
 2. The CLUP shall confine production activities including settlements and infrastructures or
divert them to areas outside of protected areas.

3. It shall adopt or seek to strengthen the role that has been identified for the city or
municipality in the provincial and regional settlement plans.

4. It aligns or links up its infrastructure projects with those of higher level plans. In case there
are regional or provincial infrastructure projects that will be located in the municipality, the
specific sites shall be chosen with the participation of the affected local residents.
Thenceforth, the selected sites shall be treated as committed lands and as forming part of
the municipal comprehensive land use plan.

The CLUP is fairly detailed. Planning criteria and standards and development policies and
guidelines pertain to micro-areas representing sections of the municipal territory. The detailed land
uses of micro-areas covered by the CLUP are discussed in Chapter 9.

Horizontal Integration of Plans

Whereas it is absolutely necessary for the physical framework plans to be integrated vertically, it is
not all that necessary for short-term and medium-term development plans to be vertically
integrated. This is to give substance to the principle of local autonomy. However, the horizontal
integration of medium-term and short-term development plans and investment programs with
their respective physical framework plans is a must. The argument for that is that the development
plans are coterminous with elected officials and are likely to change with them. Although this is
advantageous in the sense that politicians will now be able to identify themselves with the plans
they are going to implement, there is nonetheless a need to provide a measure of stability and
continuity is assured with the long-term physical framework plan in place and serving as the guide
to the physical development of the area.

The following subsections will elaborate on the horizontal linkages between the physical plan and
the medium-term development plan, the investment program and the annual capital budget at the
regional, provincial and municipal levels. The discussion shall focus more on the substantive
elements and less on the timing and sequence of activities.

Horizontal Integration at the Regional Level

The Medium-Term Regional Development Plan, the RDIP and the AIP. For almost a decade prior to
the formulation of the RPFP, the Regional Development Plan (RDP) served as the guide for
coordinating the various sectoral development programs and projects in the region. each RDP
prepared since 1982 has had a 4-year or 5-year planning horizon and covered the economic and
social sectors. The land use and physical dimensions of the plan were invariably treated as
incidental to, and consisted mainly of the land and infrastructure requirements of the social and
economic sectors. This approach is based on the notion that land and other resources must be used
to achieve the different sectoral growth targets. The focus of planning then was more on what
resources and how much of these resources may be developed and exploited and less on what areas
may be conserved and protected.
With the RPFP already in place, land (and other natural resources) may no longer merely serve to
satisfy sectoral requirements but also to limit, constrain and shape future development. The RDP
now becomes one of the implementing instruments of the RPFP.

What substantive component of the RPFP can be translated into specific aspects of the RDP?
Actually all aspects of the RPFP can be used as basis for the preparation of the Regional
Development Plan. The general objectives of the RPFP are comprehensive enough and will be
relevant for a considerably long period of time. The spatial and sectoral development strategies are
also conceived for a minimum of 6 years, coterminous with the electoral terms of national officials.
The objectives, strategies and targets of the RDP should therefore be tested and evaluated as to
their consistency with, and contribution to the attainment of the long-term development goals and
strategies.

The physical development policies covering the four major components of the RPFP will likewise
serve as the framework for the formulation of specific short-term sectoral programs and projects.
For example, the Regional Production Land Use Plan has strong influence on the formulation of
programs and projects in the economic or productive sectors. The Regional Settlements Plan
provides guidelines for the social programs and projects and the location and allocation of support
infrastructures. The Regional Infrastructure Plan serves as a basis for the infrastructure support
component of the RDP which in turn is translated into the Regional Development Investment
Program (RDIP). The RDIP is finally broken down into the Annual Investment Program (AIP) which
becomes part of the annual budget.

The Regional Protected Areas Plan underlies all sectoral programs and projects having to do with
preservation, conservation, rehabilitation and protection of vital natural resources. It seeks to build
into sectoral development programs conservation measures and practices in accordance with the
Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21). But beyond the requirement that all sectoral development programs
and projects impinging on the natural ecosystems must incorporate environmental conservation
measures, the Protected Areas Plan component of the RPFP pursues active conservation and
rehabilitation projects in severely degraded areas as “development projects” in their own right.

Sectoral Plans. Sectoral agencies having to do with land and other natural resources may formulate
and adopt their own long-term and medium-term plans. Such sectoral plans must be placed within
the framework of the RPFP. The sectoral agencies concerned are linked to the RPFP process in at
least two ways. The first contribution of the sectoral agencies is in the form of sectoral data and
information as an input to the formulation or reformulation of regional development goals and
strategies in the RPFP. The second role of sectoral agencies in the RPFP is that of implementing the
particular components of the RPFP that are within their functional responsibility through the
sectoral programs and projects. The latter role includes among others, monitoring of environmental
change to furnish feedback information into an inter-agency resource information system. This
resource information system provides data for future revisions of the RPFP and the formulation of
other development plans.

An alternative arrangement would establish a “development impact” monitoring system at NEDA’s

regional office itself. This will supplement the project monitoring system already in place.

The purpose of impact monitoring is to capture changes in the social, economic and physical
environment within given intervals of time – usually longer than one year. A system must be set up
in such a way that changes on account of planned and unplanned development as a result of public
and private investments are properly captures. The monitored changes may also be intercepted at
the provincial and municipal levels. Such a monitoring system is an indispensable link in the
medium-term and long-term planning cycles. (See Figure 4.7).

Figure 4.7
HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION OF PLANS AT REGIONAL LEVEL
Chart by E.M. Serote

Horizontal Integration at the Local Level

The PPFP and Provincial Comprehensive Plans. Not all provinces have approved Provincial Physical
Framework Plans. Fewer still are those who have prepared comprehensive development plans
(CDP). Provinces that do have a CDP inevitably prepare investment programs as the main
instrument for plan implementation. In any case they should endeavor to have their PPFPs
approved and then dovetail their programs and projects with the PPFP.

One significant advancement towards devolution of planning powers to provinces is the assignment
to the provincial government of the responsibility of implementing laws on the environment and
natural resources within their territorial jurisdiction.

Natural resource management as an added power of provincial governments can embrace

conservation of public lands. It also involves development programs such as reforestation, small-
scale mining, fisheries development, and managed pastures either by administration or through
private leases and licenses. Also, it includes implementation of laws on environmental protection.
Land use regulation in privately owned lands shall continue to be exercised by city and municipal
governments. Indirectly through its power of automatic review of municipal legislations, however,
the provincial government can also exercise control over municipal land use planning. In fact, the
function of adjudicating conflicts arising from the implementation of local zoning ordinances,
currently performed by HLURB, should now be devolved to provincial governments.

The settlements plan and infrastructure plan components of the PPFP shall guide the planning of
the social sectors in the PDP and the location and allocation of investment programs and
infrastructure projects.

Finally, a provincial development impact monitoring system shall be set up by the provincial
government. This system to capture changes in the overall environment may enlist the
participation of the CENROs and PENROs in as far as monitoring changes on the public domain is
concerned; the provincial, city and municipal assessors to capture changes in the land use on
account of private investments and of the CPDOs and MPDOs regarding changes brought about by
public sector investments. Participation of POs and NGOs should likewise be encouraged.

Evaluation of the new information derived from the monitoring system shall take place every three
years to assist in the mid-term revision of the 6-year Regional Development Plan. After two 3-year
cycles, the feedback information may be used to revise the RPFP and the PPFP. (See Figure 4.8.)

Figure 4.8
PROVINCIAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Chart by E.M. Serote
The Municipal Comprehensive Land Use Plan and the Comprehensive Development Plan. At the base of
the hierarchy of planning processes and plan documents is the city or municipal planning system.
Majority of towns and cities already have their plans. However, the municipal/city plan has been
prepared without the benefit of a framework plan for a wider area – province or region. In effect,
each town plan is independent of the next.

In as much as cities and municipalities have and use regulatory powers, they are in the best position
to effect the desired land use patterns and mixes through detailed land use planning and enactment
of zoning ordinances and adoption of other regulatory measures. Also, cities and municipalities
need to prepare a 3-year comprehensive development plan that will be translated into 3-year
investment programs and annual investment budgets. (see Figure 4.9.)

Figure 4.9
MUNICIPAL PLANNING AND DEVOPMENT SYSTEM
Chart by E.M. Serote

Because the long-term comprehensive land use plans is essential a locational guide for land-using
activities it can be directly translated into a long-term zoning plan and ordinance. Detailed
procedures for zoning are already available elsewhere. But some revisions in the existing zoning
guidelines are necessary, such as the suggestion given below.
Areas of Reform

The immediate implication of the proposed integration of physical framework plans and
development plans is the revision of existing town planning guidelines of the HLURB. As a member
of the NLUC the HLURB will have to dovetail its guidelines with the NLUC-adopted land use
categories for the sake of consistency. This should remove the present confusion among PLUC
members who review municipal CLUPs. The confusion arise from the substantial difference they
often encounter between the PPFP and the CLUP. The PPFP follows NLUC guidelines while the
CLUP is based on HLURB guidelines. The adjustments on the HLURB guidelines shall include the
following points:

1. The “comprehensive” in the CLUP should not only mean “multi-sectoral” but more properly
“embracing the entire territorial jurisdiction” of the LGU. As illustrated in Chapter 9, the
LGU territory includes the private domain, the public domain, and the ancestral domain. Of
course, the HLURB guidelines prescribe the preparation of a general land use plan and an
urban land use plan. The general land use plan is often taken as the comprehensive land use
plan in the sense that it covers the whole territory. However, the general land use plan in
the sense not translated into an enforceable zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance is
focused on the urban area only. Also, the urban land use plan according to the HLURB
guidelines always pertains to the poblacion regardless of whether other sections of the
town are already urbanized. The discussion in Chapter 8 below clearly indicate a more
complex set of consideration when delineating the urban area.

2. The four general land use categories of protection, production, settlements, and
infrastructure development areas shall be adopted, super-imposed on the three domains.
Necessarily the zoning ordinance shall be revised to cover these four policy areas and
embrace the three domains. More zoning districts than the traditional urban-focused
districts will have to be created and the land use policies covering non-urban properties
such as those on protected areas, timberlands, ancestral domains, and the like, shall be
incorporated in the local zoning ordinance. (See Chapter 9.)

3. To enforce the comprehensive zoning ordinance may require co-management

arrangements between the LGU and responsible national agencies through the
instrumentality of a memorandum of agreement, specifically with DENR and the NCIP as
applicable. (See Chapter 9.)

4. The CLUP and the CDP should be prepared as separate documents. This way, only the CLUP
should be the subject of review by the PLUC, thereby reducing the workload of the latter.
The CDP which embodies the sectoral programs and projects and the public investment
plan of the incumbent local officials should no longer be subject to review by higher
administrative levels consistent with the spirit of local autonomy.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

The institutional framework for land use planning from the national down to the local level is
already in place. It has come a long way from the highly centralized body created in 1950(NPC) to
one that has shifted much of the responsibility for land use planning and regulation to local areas.
All that is needed is to make the planning system work for the benefit of the Filipino and his
environment.
 CHAPTER 5
LAND USE PLANNING AS NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

As indicated in Chapter 1 land use planning in the Philippines occurs on a matrix of three
property domains: public, private and ancestral domains. In this chapter and the next we shall
focus on the public domain. The full coverage of the public domain includes lands, waters,
minerals, forests, fisheries, and wildlife. In this chapter we will not covers all of these natural
resources. We shall be concerned mainly in the context of watershed and fisheries comprised
within the coastal zone. This selective treatment is justified by the over-riding concern in this
book to identify policy areas wherein local governments can participate more meaningfully in
managing the natural resources of their territory.

ALLOCATION OF RESPONSIBILITY

The land classification system, both old and new, as described in Chapter 3 has provided a basis
for determining what lands are to be retained in the public domain and what lands can be
released for disposition to private claimants. Consequently, two categories of land now exist: 1)
lands that are already in private ownership and 2) lands in the public domain. (Refer back to
Figure 3.1.) Those that remain in the public domain are to be further subclassified into
agricultural or lands that are still alienable and disposable, forest lands, mineral lands, and
national parks. The latter three are no longer available for alienation to private parties. (Refer
back to Figure 3.2.)

The land classification system has likewise provided a basis for the allocation of administrative
responsibility among the different agencies and levels of government. Those parts of the public
domain that are classified as agricultural are administered by the Land Management Bureau
(LMB) for disposition to private claimants or to government agencies for their own use. Those
that are not available for alienation are farmed out to other bureaus of the DENR, namely, forest
lands to the Forest Management Bureau (FMB), mineral lands to the Mines and Geosciences
Bureau (MGSB), and national parks to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB).

Another category of lands that may cross-cut all other lands in the public domain are the
ancestral domain of indigenous peoples (IP). The responsibility for delineating and disposing of
ancestral domains used to be assumed by the DENR but is now taken over by the National
Council for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) following the enactment of the Indigenous Peoples’
Rights Act of 1997” (RA 8371).

The responsibility to regulate the lands already in public private ownership is lodged with the
local government units (LGUs) within whose boundaries the private lands concerned are
located. The main drawback of this arrangement is that LGUs are confined to regulation of use of
private lands only. The LGUs have nothing to do with regulating the ownership, acquisition and
disposition of property. This power is reserved by the national government. The national
agencies carry out their responsibilities without allowing nor requiring any significant
involvement of the LGUs concerned. And yet no lands in the national territory are outside the
territory of a particular LGUs as well. The result of this segmented responsibility is that neither
the national government nor the LGUs have been able to effectively manage their areas of
responsibility.

The Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991 introduced the concept of co-management of the
environment and natural resources between the national government and LGUs. As discussed in
Chapter 3 however, the implementation of the co-management concept has not gathered
enough momentum to move it anywhere closer to becoming a standard practice. We shall
return to this subject later. For now let us focus on how well or badly has the national
government exercised its responsibility over lands in the public domain.

EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

Land use planning as natural resource management is of fairly recent vintage. The seeds of the
idea that natural resources ought to be managed and not merely to be exploited were sowed in
the 1973 Constitution. But it took the 1987 Constitution to invigorate the idea which attained
full flowering with the enactment of several legislations on natural resources management
during the closing decade of the 20th century.

To be sure, the 1973 Constitution is probably the most radical among the four constitutions that
the Philippines has crafted. However, the 1973 Constitution was implemented by the
authoritarian Marcos government whose pretensions to radicalism were unmasked by rampant
cronyism. It was the 1973 Constitution that first introduced the requirements of conservation,
ecology and development to be added to the criteria for determining the size of land to be
developed, acquired by, or leased to qualified persons. The same criteria are reiterated in the
1987 Constitution but here another requirement is further added, that is the requirement of
agrarian reform as one of the considerations in determining the size of public land for
disposition. Thus, natural resource use sustainability and the promotion of social justice and
equity is now the prevailing philosophy. This represents a complete turn-around from the
earlier view that natural resources are for exploitation which prevailed during the Spanish,
American, and early independence periods of Philippine history.

Under the Spaniards

We have seen in Chapter 3 how lands came to be consolidated into large landed estates during
the Spanish regime. Through the vehicle of land grants, purchase, donation, and other forms of
conveyance the friar orders were able to own vast tracts of rice lands initially. Concentration of
ownership continued into the latter part of the Spanish era when Spain started to enter the
world market and introduced plantation agriculture. Spaniards and other foreigners who
participated in the growing world economy had to amass more lands for cultivation to sugar
cane, tobacco, abaca, and other cash crops.

Exploitation of forests started at a very slow pace during the Spanish regime. For over 200 years
the rate of extraction was a little over 4,000 ha annually simply because timber was mainly used
for shipbuilding. Later, with increasing population and the requirements for more lands to be
placed under commercial agriculture the deforestation rate increased to 51,000 ha a year from
1863 up to the close of the Spanish regime in 1898. At any rate the Spaniards tried early on to
control the rate of exploitation by issuing certificates of timber cutting starting in 1863 so that
by the time the Americans took over, there still remained vast tracts of forest lands, mostly old
growth or virgin forests.

Under the Americans

The coming of the Americans had accelerated the exploitation of natural resources. When the
Americans were weighing the pros and cons of keeping the Philippines as their colony, one of
the critical considerations was the vast natural resources of the Philippines. Seeing the
potentials of these resources, the Americans decided in favor of the taking of the Islands. As
articulated by Senator Alfred Beveridge: 1) The Philippines could provide a gateway to China’s
limitless markets, and 2) The fertile plains and valleys of Luzon could produce rice and coffee,
sugar and coconuts, hemp and tobacco, and the Islands’ forests could supply the furniture of the
world for a century to come.
To start with, the Americans only strengthened the already lopsided distribution of land by
reselling the purchased friar estates to the rich renters, the inquilinos, and went into buying
large tracts of agricultural lands themselves such as the pineapple plantation and cattle ranches
in Bukidnon, sugar estates in Negros and in Central Luzon. The Americans helped themselves to
our forests without restraints. A forest law in 1904 authorized the Bureau of Forestry to grant
concessions in whatever size and duration subject only to the concessionaries’ ability to service
their contract. According to Danguilan-Vitug, the Americans also put up the UP College of
forestry in Los Baños. There the American teachers taught that forestry is logging, managed as
an agricultural crop. Thus, for several generations Filipino foresters were tutored in the concept
of forest as something to be harvested. This concept is reinforced by the 1935 Constitution.

The 1935 Constitution was to serve as the legal framework for the Commonwealth government
in preparation for self-rule. It prevailed for 38 years until it was superseded by the 1973
Constitution. It is curious that one whole article is entitled “Conservation and Utilization of
Natural resources”. But the word “conservation” appears only in the title of the article. No
provision whatsoever is given about conservation in the body of the article. Instead, the article
deals with disposition, exploitation, development, and utilization of natural resources and sets
limit on the size of land that anyone can acquire. As a result of this emphasis on extraction and
exploitation the forest resources of the country dwindled rapidly. It is reported that from 1920
to 1960 the Philippines was the top exporter of rainforest timber in Asia, first to the US and later
to Japan. During this period the rate of deforestation peaked at 300,000 ha a year. The rate was
halved to 150,000 ha/year in 1980 when other suppliers had entered the market. This went
down to less than 100,000 ha/year by 1990 when logging ban took effect in some areas. But by
1996, the remaining forest cover less than a million hectares are classified as virgin or old
growth.

After Independence

That exploitation reached its peaked after independence is hardly surprising. This is due in part
to the continuation of the American commercial interests under the parity rights which they
enjoyed even after independence in 1946. The principal explanation however, lies not only in
the prevailing notion that trees are for cutting but that the reasons for granting timber
concessions are dubious. Forests are increasingly seen not only as natural resource but also as a
political capital.

Affluence for the Few. As Kummer explains, there are two reasons for the grant of concessions:
1) out of sincere desire to foster development and 2) to grant political favors to either
Philippine elites or multinational corporations (mostly American). The real reason, Kummer
believes, is more the second. “Forests are viewed as an asset whose benefits should flow mainly
to politicians and the well-connected. The distinctions between politicians and loggers is
difficult to make, since loggers contribute heavily to political campaigns and many politicians
control logging concessions.” Porter and Ganapin confirm that “the Philippine political system
has concentrated control of natural resources in the hand of the few at the expense of the
economically disadvantaged and put premium on the short term exploitation of resources”.

Many of the members of Congress were loggers themselves or else were lawyering for loggers.
In as much as Congress had the exclusive authority to grant concessions the fees and charges
were kept at a minimum so that the concessionaires appropriated themselves the economic rent
that would have gone to the government but that the government failed to capture. Corruption
had also extended to the military who were likewise engaged in illegal logging. In fact, during
the Marcos presidency, logging concessions were given to reward retiring generals. Even the
insurgents benefited by collecting “taxes” from loggers.
As a result of this large-scale corruption the forest resources were depleted in no time but
enriched the few elites. Large-scale corruption, Kummer concludes, facilitated the rapid
expansion of legal logging, minimized efforts to stop illegal logging, tolerated destructive logging
practices and ineffectual attempts at reforestation, and concentrated financial benefits in the
hands of loggers and their allies.

The Obverse Side of Affluence. The affluence of the few who had benefited from the privilege to
extract natural resources has an obverse side, and it is ugly. It is a picture of an army of
dispossessed, destitute landless Filipinos. Under a regime of unequal privileges of access to land
and natural resources, the privileged help themselves so much out of insatiable greed while the
underprivileged help themselves to ever available space they can get out of desperate need, as
we asserted in Chapter 3.

The principal assumption behind the grant of concessions is to remove the open access
character of the resource. As explained by former DENR Secretary Angel Alcala, the
concessionaire is supposed to “take only a few trees and leave the rest to grow so that [the
concessionaire] can return later and take some more, without destroying the forests. This is
supposed to be a sustainable system. But here [in the Philippines], although they use the term
selective logging, there is only one harvest, a big one. After that, no more.” So what happens
after the forest has been cleared? Kaingeros or slash-and-burn agriculturists take over. The
logged-over forests is intruded by settlements and agriculture because the concessionaires,
having made a lot of money on the first harvest are no longer interested to reforest and improve
their areas. After the concessionaire leave the forest reverts to an open access regime once
again. This time, the dispossessed poor, who have little chance of getting a slice of the large
agricultural estates, enter the only open access resources available, the abandoned forest
concessions and the coastal zones. The conversion of forest lands to agriculture and settlements
by migrants from the lowlands prevents the forests from regrowing. This is the obverse side of
the destructive forestry that the earlier concessionaires had practiced. This is what Sec. Alcala
meant when he said, “I have seen bad logging early in my life… I have seen with my two eyes
how loggers and kaingineros destroy forests.” The kaingineros engage in agriculture and in the
process destroy the second growth forests because it is the only option available to them. They
are forced to engage in subsistence agriculture because of the need to produce or earn enough
to eat. A food income in kind offers certain security.

Technical Factors. There are also technical reasons why people encroach into forest lands. One
factor to blame, according to Kummer, is road building. The road to the forest is built either by
the government or by the concessionaire, more probably the latter. When the primary forest is
logged the operator moves on to another area of primary forests to cut leaving behind the
logged-over area without any visible protection through enrichment planting or reforestation. It
is usually at this point when migrants move in.

Another technical reason is the absence of the forest land boundaries. The absence of markers
setting off the boundary between forestlands and alienable and disposable lands has led to
rampant encroachment by human settlements, agriculture, and other non-forest related
activities on forest lands. Moreover, information on forest and boundaries are at best
incomplete and at worst missing in the LGUs particularly among those with uncompleted
cadastral surveys and those that have yet to undertake such surveys. Often the land
classification maps are kept only in the CENRO or in NAMRIA and the manner in which these
maps are prepared is not user-friendly. The map sheets come in varied scales and the originals
arte so old and worn out that white print copies are hardly readable.

It is worthy of note that the DENR has adopted as its “banner program” for CY2000 the
delineation and establishment of permanent forestland boundaries. The Banner Program aims
to conduct actual survey and plot the boundaries of classified timberlands and unclassified
public lands including established settlements or communities within forestlands. The
boundaries will be plotted both on the 1:50,000 m topographic maps and on the ground. Ground
boundary markers in the form of reinforced concrete monuments spaced one kilometer apart
and planting strips of forests and fruit tree species shall be established between monuments.

In the light of the mandated function of LGUs to prepare their comprehensive land use plan as
basis for formulating policies to manage and regulate the use of natural resources and to
maintain ecological balance in their respective jurisdiction, the authoritative boundaries of
forest lands, national parks, mineral areas, and for that matter alienable and disposable lands
are a vital information support they cannot do without. It could be of great help to LGUs
therefore if the forest land boundaries are delineated in uniform scales and plotted as an added
feature of the topographic maps that can be obtained “over the counter” in all NAMRIA outlets.

Still another reason why migrants wittingly or unwittingly enter forest lands or violate forestry
laws is the old practice of not involving the LGUs in taking care of the forests within their
territorial jurisdiction. Violations of forestry laws, particularly cases of illegal logging take place
almost everywhere. The LGUs take part in the apprehension of offenders with varying degrees
of zealousness in carrying out their devolved functions depending on whether it hurts or helps
their agendas and interests. But even among the well-meaning local officials, their participation
in the enforcement of forestry laws is severely limited to the areas covered by devolved
functions. Having no authority to enforce the laws in the non-devolved areas where most
violations occur LGUs often choose to look the other way.

The other, more profound reason why local officials often chose not to lift a finger against illegal
logging, especially of the small-scale “carabao logging” type, is that in many localities this is the
only available means of livelihood for the residents. And the practice continues and persists
because handicraft industries and the informal construction industry.

The migration of people from the lowlands to the forests in the uplands continues. Today, about
one-fourth of the entire population of the Philippines reside in uplands.

TOWARD A POLICY SHIFT

The overwhelming number of people living in forests or depending on forest resources for their
livelihood has led the DENR to rethink its policy on forest management. Whereas, in the past,
kaingineros were labeled as squatters, trespassers and vandals, now these upland farmers are
being regarded as partners of the government in seeking to arrest forest destruction and effect
rehabilitation of degraded resources. From a failed policy of awarding timber license
agreements (TLA) to large exploiters, the DENR has shifted support for small-scale users, the
communities Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMA). By this policy shift, the DENR
hopes to achieve the dual objective of social equity and environmental sustainability. This is
capsulized in the slogan “People first and sustainable forestry will follow”.

Predecessors of CBFM

The community-based approach to forest management, generically known as “social forestry”

dates back to the 1970s. Coming under such programs as “Communal tree farming”, “Family
reforestation”, and “Forest occupancy management” social forestry aimed to get the shifting
cultivators involved in preserving the forests. They were awarded areas where they could settle
and cultivate. They were given tenure over the land they had occupied and were encouraged to
develop their farm lots, be productive and become self-reliant. Farming methods not harmful to
the forest were taught to them. Even communities outside the forests but were occupying areas
adjacent to the forests were contracted to reforest and protect the existing forests.
The concept of CBFM is essentially the same as its predecessor programs. Organized
communities, rather than elite politicians are awarded the privilege of becoming “timber
concessionaires”. Under the CBFMA they are allowed to harvest mature trees within their
“concessions”. The basic principle of CBFM, according too former DENR Secretary Fulgencio
Factoran who was hugely instrumental in pushing for the adoption of this new policy, is that the
communities themselves are in the best position to manage and protect the forest. However, he
said, “before they can fully assume such role, the problems of poverty and tenure must be
addressed first, so that communities can be convinced to assist government”.

Such a policy shift is in pursuance of the provisions of the 1987 Constitution, especially those
pertaining to the promotion of the people’s right to a balanced ecology and of social justice.
However, Congress cannot be relied upon to take the initiative in crafting the needed legislation
which would run counter to the interests of its members. As usual, it took the Executive Branch
to formally recognize the soundness of the approach and to adopt it as the national strategy for
the sustainable development of the country’s forest resources through an Executive Order. The
presidential directive pursues the dual theme of sustainable forestry and social justice, pursuant
to the constitutional provision. The Executive Order also emphasized the need for national
agencies and local governments to take into account the needs and aspirations of local
communities including indigenous people whose livelihood depends on the forest lands. The
order expressly granted these participating organized communities “access to forestland
resources under long-term tenurial agreements, provided they employ environmental-friendly,
ecologically sustainable, and labor-intensive harvesting methods”.

Subsequently, the DENR issued its implementing rules and came up with a Strategic Plan to
pursue CBFM into the rest of the 21st century.

The CBFM implements the last two of the three policy approaches to sustainable forest
management adopted recently by the DENR, namely, 1) strict observance of logging ban on
ecologically sensitive and vulnerable protected forest areas such as critical watersheds,
biodiversity reserve, and national parks; 2) regulated use of ecologically stable natural
production forests through environment-friendly forest harvesting methods to satisfy the
country’s needs; and 3) converting the upland population from agents of forest destruction into
active partners in forest stewardship, conservation, development, and management.

The first of the above policies is now being implemented by the NIPAS law and other laws on
protected areas (See Chapter 6). Policy 1 and Policy 2 in turn implement the protection-
production dichotomy of land uses enunciated in the National Framework for Physical Planning
of the NLUC (Refer back to Chapter 4).

The following discussion on the CBFM is taken from these two aforementioned documents.

Principles of CBFM

The basic principles underlying CBFM are:

Social equity, recognition of indigenous peoples, and gender parity. Upland forest occupants and
forest-dependent communities, both indigenous peoples as well as migrant groups, women as
well, have the right to occupy and use forest land resources upon which their cultures and their
livelihood depend, provided that they do so responsibly and sustainably.

Livelihood and local management of natural resources. Because their subsistence and livelihood
depend on the forest resources, and because they reside close to or in the forest themselves,
forest occupants and communities are logically the most appropriate front line managers and
stewards of the forest.

Community participation, sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation.

Whether defined as a gathering of individuals of organized groups in the barangay, municipal or
provincial levels occupying a commonly-shared, contiguous area, forest-dependent
communities will undertake responsible and sustainable forest management if it is in their best
interest to do so.

Creation of the enabling environment. The government’s responsibility is to create the enabling
environment in which forest occupants and communities are empowered and to institute
sustainable management systems to rehabilitate, sustainably use, protect, and conserve the
country’s forest resources.

Partnership. Being complex, sustainable forest management requires that the task of creating
environment for community-based forest the DENR and the forest-managing communities need
to enter into mutually-beneficial arrangements with local government units, other local groups
and the private sector in pursuing sustainable livelihood and forest ecosystems.

Key Features of CBFM

Community empowerment through the granting of access and use rights to forest lands and
resources to indigenous peoples and migrant forest-dependent communities. Capability-
building efforts embedded in community organizing, training and the provision of technical
assistance in organizational, livelihood, marketing, and forestry concerns aim to empower
communities.

Integration of all people-oriented forestry programs under one coherent organizational

structure and using a unified tenure instrument. On the ground, this means the integration of all
people-oriented forestry projects under one CBFM management of the watershed in which they
are found, and the integration of their management plans into the overall land use and
development plans of their respective local governments.

This feature requires re-aligning and re-defining existing staffing and deployment patterns to
meet CBFM requirements. It also requires greater coordination with field people to ensure that
adequate human and logistical support for program implementation gets included in DENR’s
annual plans and budget.

Deregulation and resource allocation reforms to better support the emergence stability, and
growth of forest-based and livelihood-focused enterprises of forest land occupants and/or
dependents.

The comprehensive resource use rights bequeathed by a unified tenure instrument – that
includes provisions for transferability of tenure and a right to contract with other parties to
access development capital, technology, markets, or other needs – will only become operational
and effective when forestry rules and regulations allow the private sector to profitably invest in
CBFM-related ventures.

Deregulation will further require that local government units, in partnership with DENR,
become actively involved in the allocation of forest resources so that they also support or
initiate CBFM efforts to forge mutually-beneficially relationships with members of the private
sector.
Accordingly, existing forestry rules and regulations impinging on CBFM implementation shall be
simplified so that they can be easily understood and appreciated by POs and individual forest
occupants in their efforts to sustainably manage their resources.

Decentralization and the greater accountability of CENROs, PENROs and REDs not only the
approval of tenurial instruments but also in ensuring that:

1. participatory planning and community-organizing processes are undertaken with CBFM

participants and stakeholders at different field and local government levels;

2. the field-generated plans become incorporated into the operational plans of their
respective offices and provided for accordingly in their annual budgets; and

3. appropriate technical and financial support are accessed by CBFM participants to realize
the benefits promised by the tenurial instruments.

This feature of CBFM requires that the CENROs take on greater service-oriented functions than
they have ever had before. It will also require PENRO and regional offices to be better equipped
and responsive in supporting CENRO-level CBFM initiatives.

Devolution and the generation of greater local support for CBFM on the ground. This also
requires DENR to enter into strong partnerships with respective local government units at
CBFM sites. This requires that CENROs, PENROs and REDs take the initiative to engage local
government units in land use planning, CBFM site selection, meeting the requirements of
CBFMAs, and the mobilization of financial and other resources from both the public and the
private sectors.

This further requires in partnership with LGUs, DENR field offices establish multi-institutional
support groups composed of local NGOs, people’s organizations, academic institutions, business
sector representatives, and other, which can provide not only credible monitoring service but
also additional technical and financial support for CBFM communities.

The CBFM Process

The implementation of a CBFM project shall have four stages: the Preparatory Stage, the PO
Formation and Diagnostic Stage, the Planning Stage, and the Implementation Stage.

Preparatory Stage

The implementation of this stage are (a) to inform and educate DENR officials, LGUs and the
general public about CBFMP; (b) to establish institutional linkages between the DENR and the
LGU; (c) to identify potential CBFMP areas; and (d) to select CBFMP areas.

Information, Education and Communication Campaigns. The DENR and LGUs, in collaboration
with other governmental agencies, non-government organizations and other sectors, shall
conduct an Information, Education, Communication (IEC) campaign to inform, educate and get
the support of all concerned sectors on CBFMP implementation. The campaign shall include the
orientation and training of DENR and LGU personnel and leaders of the people’s organization
who shall be engaged in the implementation of the CBFMP.

Establishing Institutional Linkages. The DENR shall work with local governments, other
government agencies, people’s organizations, non-government organizations, tribal councils,
and other concerned organizations to ensure that communities are empowered to initiate and
achieve the objectives of CBFMP. The DENR shall promote and support the active participations
of these agencies and organizations, and shall assist them in enhancing their capacities to
actively participate in and support the program.

Identification of CBFMP. Identification and selection of CBFMP areas shall be jointly undertaken
by the DENR and the concerned LGU in consultation with local communities. The identification
of CBFMP is consistent with the overall watershed conservation strategy and with the
Municipality Land Use and Development Plan. The general procedure in selecting CBFMP areas
is as follows:

1. Each CENRO and duly designated representatives of the concerned municipal

government, shall identify potential CBFMP areas with the aid of a Forest Land Use Plan,
latest available information and/or updated forest management map, and other baseline
data. The CENRO and LGU representatives shall then validate the identified areas on the
ground to determine their suitability in accordance with the criteria defined below.

2. The validated areas, endorsed by the concerned Legislative Councils of LGUs, shall then
be indicated in a map of appropriate scale, which map, together with pertinent data and
information, shall be forwarded through channels to the Regional Executive Director
(RED) for approval.

3. The approved map and all other documents shall be furnished the Director of the FMB,
for data base management and monitoring purposes.

4. Upon approval of the CBFMP areas, the CENRO shall, within fifteen (15) days, inform in
writing the concerned LGUs and together with the latter, shall conduct an information
campaign to inform the public about the program. Copies of CBFMP guidelines and site
map shall be posted in the municipality and barangays where the site is located.

Criteria for Area Selection. The following are the criteria for site selection.

1. Available areas: CBFMP may be implemented in uplands and coastal lands of the public
domain except in the following:

a. Areas covered by existing Timber License Agreements (TLAs), Pasture Lease

Agreements, Industrial Forest Management Agreements (IFMA) and other forest
land contracts, leases, permits or agreements, except in the following cases:

i. the lessee, permittee or agreement holder executes a waiver in favor of the

CBFMA, provided, that when any pre-existing rights expire within three years
from the issuance of a CBFMA, no waiver shall be required; or

ii. a permit is issued only for the collection or harvesting of minor forest products, in
which case no waiver from the permittee shall be required. Upon termination of
any pre-existing permit shall not be renewed and any new permit shall be given
to the CBFMA holder.

b. Protected areas except multiple use zones, buffer zones and other areas where
utilization activities may be allowed pursuant to the provisions of R.A. 7586 (NIPAS
Law) and its implementing rules and regulations;

c. Forest lands which have been assigned by law under the administration and control
of other governmental agencies, except upon written consent of the concerned
government agency;
 d. Certified ancestral lands and domains , except where the ICCs/IPs opt to participate
in the CBFMP; and

e. Other areas occupied by ICCs that are known to be ancestral but are not yet covered
by CADT or CALT, unless the ICCs/IPs opt to participate in the CBFMP.

2. Presence of communities within or adjacent to forest lands and who are largely
dependent on forest land resources for their livelihood.

3. Endorsed by the Legislative Councils of concerned LGUs for the CBFMP.

4. Open, denuded or marginal forest lands requiring immediate rehabilitation and

protection; and

5. Adjacent to or adjoining existing CBFM projects.

Processing of Conflicting Claims

1. Adverse claimants or any party alleging conflicting claims over the identified CBFMP
area, or portions thereof, shall file their complaints before the RED within thirty (30)
days from date of first publication/ or notification.
2. The RED shall convene a team composed of the Regional Technical Director for Forestry
(RTD-F) as Chairman and representatives of PENRO and CENRO, Provincial and
municipal governments, to hear and receive proof of conflicting claims. This team may
utilize culturally appropriate and locally acceptable methods of conflict management,
provided these are transparent and fair. Indigenous dispute resolution processes and
other appropriate institutions such as the Provincial Special Task Forces on Ancestral
Domains (PSTFAD) and the Community Special Task Forces on Ancestral Lands
(CSTFAL) established under DENR Special Order No. 25, s1993 as well as the PAMB in
protected areas shall be invited to participate in dispute processing.

3. The RTD-F shall prepare a report on the Team’s findings and recommendations and
shall submit the same to the RED within fifteen (15) days from the date the case is
submitted for resolution. The RED shall render a decision on the matter within fifteen
(15) days from receipt of the report.

Formation of People’s Organizations and Diagnostic Stage

The objective of this stage are (a) to encourage participation of local communities in the CBFMP;
(b) to start community organization building or strengthening; (c) to define existing conditions
(social, economic, natural resources, etc.) relevant for planning; and (d) obtain a CBFMA.

Application by the Community. Local communities, represented by existing organizations, or at

least ten (10) residents, or their Barangay Councils, may apply in writing to the concerned
CENRO for participation in the CBFMP. The application shall be supported by concerned
Barangay and Municipal Legislative Councils, a brief socio-economic profile of the barangay and
the number of expected participants.

Community Appraisal and PO Formation. The CENRO, in collaboration with duly designated
representatives of the concerned LGUs, shall cause the conduct of an initial community
appraisal. The community appraisal shall focus on identification of the existing forest land
resources management system of the community and related concerns that may be addressed
under the CBFMP. Both DENR and LGUs shall assist, if appropriate, with community organizing
activities (CO) and in the establishment of a PO (if not existing) which shall be community-based
and duly registered. It is preferred that the PO is authorized to conduct business and access
loans for financing opportunities from both financial and non-financial institutions.

Employees of DENR, LGUs or other government agencies shall, in no case, become members or
officers of POs.

Application for CBFMA. Once registered, the PO may apply for a CBFMA by filing an application
to the concerned CENRO. The PO shall submit the following minimum requirements:

1. Certificate of Registration of the people’s organization, provided, that ICCs/IPs shall be

exempted from presenting this requirement;

2. List of officers or, in the case of ICCs, members of the Council of Elders;

3. List of member and their respective addresses including names of both spouses in each
household;

4. Resolution from the membership authorizing the officers of the community organization
to file the application. ICCs that opt to avail of CBFMA shall show proof of consent
through their Council of Elders or equivalent body; and

5. Individual or joint endorsement of the concerned Legislative Councils of the Barangay,

Municipal, and Provincial LGUs, depending on the jurisdiction and coverage of the area.

Within fifteen (15) days upon receipt of the application, the CENRO shall check the required
supporting papers, prepare the corresponding map of the area at 1:50,000 scale and endorse
the same to the RED through the PENRO. A Review Committee composed of representatives of
the RTD-Forestry, CENRO, PENRO, barangay, municipal and provincial councils and PAMB, if the
site is within a protected area, shall, within fifteen (15) days, convene and discuss with the PO
the terms and conditions to be included in the CBFMA. Its recommendations shall then be
forwarded to the concerned approving body.

Planning Stage

The objective of this stage is to assist the PO in preparing their (a) Community Resource
Management Framework (CRMF); (b) Resource Use Plans (RUPs); (c) Annual Work Plans
(AWPs). If applicable, the POs shall likewise be assisted in securing interim resources use
permits that will provide them livelihood opportunities while the CRMFs, RUPs and AWFs are
being prepared. DENR-LGU-other sectors shall assist the POs in undertaking these activities. As
such, the plans that are prepared shall only require affirmation by DENR-LGU partners.

Formulation of CRMF. The CRMF shall indicate, among others, the community’s and the PO’s
mission, vision and objectives; a summary of situation analysis (see community appraisal,
above); the guiding principles to be followed in plan preparation; indicative community
resource development and use plans; internal management arrangements including benefit
sharing; external supports needed; and internal monitoring and evaluation system to be
adopted.

Formulation of RUPs. A management and utilization plan for each resource, e.g., timber, rattan,
resins, covering a specific area of the CBFMA and time period shall be prepared. The DENR shall
conduct resource inventory as a basis for the resource use plan. The accepted resource use plan
shall serve as the permit to utilize the resource.
Annual Work Plan. The operationalization of the CRMF and the RUP shall indicate among other
things the specific targets for the year for utilization (based on the RUPs); resource
development and protection (agroforestry, tree plantations, assisted natural regeneration,
protection activities, etc.); organizational strengthening (training, other skills development) and
enterprise development.

Interim Resource Use Permit. One of the outputs of the community appraisal is to identify
existing forest-based livelihood systems that may be enhanced to augment income. The
community shall be granted an interim user’s permit that shall terminate upon the acceptance
of the resource use plans.

Implementation Stage

The objectives of this stage are to (a) enhance organizational and institutional capacities that
will make resource use and development sustainable; (b) ensure the economic viability of
resource management activities; (c) ensure the flow and equitable distribution of benefits to PO
members and to the larger community; and (d) ensure the build-up of capital by the PO for
forest management and community development projects.

Activities in the Implementation Stage. Activities in this stage will evolve around the iterative
processes involved in implementing and managing planned activities specified by the annual
work plan, reviewing the outcomes of these activities, replanning and using experiences as
bases for the succeeding annual work plan. Implementation also includes the following:

1. Review and revision of POs’ constitution and by-laws;

2. Sourcing of local and external financial and technical assistance;
3. Mobilizing workgroups;
4. Strengthening of organizational and entrepreneurial skills;
5. Linking and transacting with markets;
6. Monitoring and evaluation;
7. Continued membership and leadership skills development.

Other assistance. The DENR, the LGU and other assisting organizations shall continue to support
the PO by providing the necessary brokering services to link the PO to resource institutions and
by monitoring PO outputs to ensure observance of technical requirements provided in the
CBFMA and the resource use permits.

Preliminary Results

The adoption of the CBFM approach and the corresponding reduction of the former large-
concession approach has yielded some encouraging results. In less than 20 years from 1982 to
1999, for example, the area covered by TLAs was drastically reduced from 6.7 million hectares
to only 0.8 million hectares and the number of TLA holders went down from 186 to 20. On the
other hand, the area placed under CBFM agreements ballooned from a mere 30,000 hectares to
5.1 million hectares during the same period. The income earning capacity of upland households
has also reportedly increased.

With the increased and increasing forest areas being reforested we would expect a long-term
beneficial effect in the form of improved water yield of watersheds. It is for this reason that
communities and LGUs under the CBFM move from mere forest managers to “water managers “.

Watershed Defined
A region or area bounded peripherally by a water parting (also known as water divide or
interfluve) and draining ultimately to a particular watercourse or body of water. Variously
called river basin, drainage basin, stream source areas or catchment area, watershed refers to
the land surface from which water flows to a given point on a watercourse. Watershed is
understood both in the sense a perimeter defined by the water divide and the area enclosed by
it.

Value of Watersheds

The most important role of a watershed area is that of storing freshwater long enough to allow
the consumptive use of water before it escapes into the atmosphere (evaporation) or flows
down to the sea (run-off_. Its usefulness depends on its ability to receive and deliver an
unpolluted harvest of freshwater for both urban and non-urban uses. Watershed management
therefore has for its objective the maintenance or enhancement of the ability of th watershed to
produce an orderly flow rather than a raging torrent and to minimize losses by evaporation and
pollution.

Strategies in Watershed Management

In critical areas where erosion hazard is high, soil conservation measures must be instituted.
The basic philosophy behind soil conservation is to keep the soil surface in a receptive condition
for the infiltration of rainfall and that surplus water should be led off along gentle slopes
without searing erosive velocities. Where steep fall is unavoidable, concrete channels or other
structures should be provided.

Strategies include cultivation on the contour, construction of cut-off drains and grassed
waterways, terracing of arable areas in steeper slopes and land drainage of the flatter areas.

Part of the challenge of maintaining maximum water output is the prevention or retardation of
water loss by evaporation an evapotranspiration. Evaporation is water loss by means of the
escape into the atmosphere of water consumed by plants.

Some methods of retarding evaporation in water reservoirs include:

1. Floating blocks of was. In sunlight was softens and flows to form a flexible continuous
film. Even if it breaks and cracks in cold weather, the sun’s heat subsequently reforms it.

2. Solid blocks, floating and covering the surface reduce the area where evaporation can
occur. Blocks of lightweight concrete, polystyrene, rubber and plastic have been found
effective in small reservoirs.

3. Sand-filled reservoirs (artificial aquifers). Evaporation can be controlled by filling

reservoirs with sand and gravel. Water is stored in the pores between particles, and the
water level is kept more than 30 cm. below the surface to prevent evaporation. Water is
drawn off by a drainage pipe through the dam wall.

These methods are effective only in small reservoirs. Large bodies of water are still beyond the
reach of available technology, because it is very difficult for the evaporation-suppressing system
to withstand heavy winds, storms and floods.

Reduction of Evapotranspiration. Another challenge to watershed managers is the reduction of

water loss by evapotranspiration. The myth that planting trees in stream source increases water
yield is not supported by scientific facts. Results of experiments tend to point to the opposite as
more plausible. That trees especially the perennial evergreen varieties with deep penetrating
roots consume more water and cause loss by transpiration. Although the extent of loss by
evapotranspiration is not as great as that in open evaporation, the loss is considerable. The main
rationale for the afforestation of stream source areas is the prevention of soil erosion. But this
function can well be performed by vigorous grasses for managed pastures. Bamboos are found
to be ideal for this purpose because their roots are shallow but nonetheless well spread and
hold the soil firmly. If trees must be planted, annuals are preferred over perennials. The annual
harvest of tree plantation breaks the otherwise continuous water use by perennial plants.

If grasses and brush are effective watershed protection however, they are more vulnerable to
forest fires. Protection from forest fire therefore constitutes a major component of watershed
management.

Finally, the challenge of attaining maximum water output can be met by strategies to increase
storage by recharging the aquifer or groundwater. Grasslands are effective watershed covers
because of their high capacity for accepting rainfall and conserving the soil as long as they are
protected from overgrazing, stamping of livestock, and burning. The combination of contour
trenching and seeding with vigorous for arresting surface run-off and increasing infiltration
rates. But grass must be grazed to reduce water loss by transpiration.

One of the pioneering example of “watershed managers” is the provincial government of Nueva
Viscaya. Utilizing its mandates in the Local Government Code the provincial government, in
collaboration with concerned municipalities, launched a program to co-manage with the DENR
the Barobbob water shed in Bayombong. The primary purpose of the program is to ensure
sustained water yield for urban and agricultural uses. The increased area under tree cover will
also stabilize the soil in sloping areas and help reduce the arte of siltation of the rivers and
streams and sedimentation of the coastal zones.

We shall now turn to the coastal zone as the ecosystem that receives all the impacts of land-
based activities.

COASTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Coastal Zone Defined

A generic definition of the coast is to have it begin with the shoreline (or a line of intersection of
a water body with land) and extending inland to the limit of tidal or sea-spray influence. Klee
defines the coastal zone as extending from the shoreline to the limit of the continental shelf.
Klee adds that the coastal zone is where the terrestrial environment influences the marine or
lacustrine (lake) environment, or vice versa. Hence, the coastal zone is an ecotone, a transition
area or border where two ecological communities meet.

In the Philippines we have a wider band of geographical area which we consider our coastal
area or zone. It consists of a dry land and an adjacent ocean space (water and submerged land)
in which terrestrial processes and uses directly affect oceanic processes and uses, and vice
versa. Its geographic extent includes areas within a landmark limit of one (1) kilometer from the
shoreline at high tide to include mangrove swamps, brackish water ponds, nipa swamps,
estuarine rivers, sandy beaches and other areas within a seaward limit of 200 meters isobath
including coral reefs, algal flats, seagrass beds and other soft bottom areas.

Importance of the Coastal Zone

The coastal zone has very vital functions and services to the human population and to nature
itself. Historically, coastal areas have accommodated the earliest human settlements where the
sea provided both food and a means of mobility for the population. In the Philippines more than
60 percent of the population reside in coastal towns and cities. One of the strong attractions of
the coast is the perceived therapeutic character of seawater. This makes resorts very popular or
even a necessity for persons of ill health, especially the well to do. But to rich and poor alike the
shores and beaches afford the most varied forms of recreation, as witness the hordes of
recreationists, especially among urban dwellers, who flock to the beach during long weekends
or summer breaks. Simply sitting by the sea in quiet contemplation can be a source of
psychological and spiritual renewal.

The seascape often serves as an inspiration for painters and photographers and other nature
lovers. The coastal zone is also an important location of inter-island and international ports, an
indispensable infrastructure support for world trade and commerce. Finally, the most
important service the coastal zone performs for the human population is as source of food. In
the Philippines more than half of the animal protein consumed by the population is derived
from marine fishes and aquaculture. Small-scale municipal fishing is nurtured in the coastal
areas accommodated more than one million jobs in 1997.

Ecologically, the coastal zone serves as an important habitat for wildlife such as the myriad
species of flora and fauna that depend on coastal estuaries. It also is a natural filter. The wetland
sin the coastal zone filters impurities from the waters that pass through them. Often the coastal
zone is the ultimate receiver of urban and agricultural wastes. The configuration of the coasts
such as barrier islands, beaches, sand dunes, and cliffs, buffer residents living along the coast
and protect them from high and big waves.

Coastal Resources

The ability of the coastal zone to perform its multifarious functions depends on the state of
coastal resources that aid in the performance of such services. The most important resources is
fisheries but the sustainability of supply is very dependent on the status of three other
resources that serve as habitat of fishes: mangrove forests, coral reefs, and seagrass beds.

Mangroves. Mangrove forests reportedly covered a total of 450,000 hectares in 1918 but this
figure dwindled to only 120,500 hectares annually. This is due to increasing rate of conversion
to human settlements, reclamation, waterfront development, and other infrastructure projects.
Further contributing to mangrove depletion is the use of mangrove for fuel wood and as
building material. Conversion to fishponds is the largest contributor to mangrove depletion but
this has slowed down in recent years due to uncertainties in the international market for prawn.
The continued use of mangrove for firewood and construction material is ill advised considering
that the mangrove has far more value as ecosystem habitat for fish species.

Coral Reefs. Coral reefs contribute 10-15 percent of the yearly total fish production. Each square
kilometer of coral reefs is estimated to nurture about 30 tons of commercially valuable fish and
invertebrates every year. When damaged, however, it requires as much as 30-50 years to
recover. Different type of human activities on the land contribute to degradation of coral
resources. These include agricultural cultivation of the uplands, deforestation and disposal of
mine tailings which aggravated siltation. To a minor extent, direct extraction and destructive
fishing methods such as dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing, muro-ami, and the like, also
contribute to coral reef stress.

As of 1991, the status of the Philippine coral reefs was assessed as 5.3 percent excellent, 25.2
percent good, 39 percent fair, and 30.5 percent poor.

Seagrass Beds. Seagrasses are an essential link between coral reefs and mangroves. Their
function include: reduction of water energy and motion, regulation of the chemical composition
of coastal waters and sediments and as habitats for a variety of fishes, shell fish, crustaceans,
and the like. Sea cow and marine turtles feed directly on seagrasses. Seagrasses also filter
impurities in water which would otherwise destroy corals. The Philippines is reported to have
lost from 30 percent to 50 percent of its seagrass resources as of 1993 due to both man-made
causes like agriculture and mining and natural causes like cyclones, typhoons, tidal waves and
volcanic eruptions.

Coastal Fisheries. The fishery sector is among the most important contribution to the national
economy. It comprises three sub-sectors: municipal fisheries, aquaculture, and commercial
fisheries. Yet despite its importance, serious problems beset the industry.

Despite its importance to the national economy, the fishery sector has been on the decline since
the mid-1990s. The reasons for this are the continuing degradation and depletion of fish habitat
and the increasing rate of overexploitation of fish stocks due to rapid population growth and use
of illegal fishing methods.

Again, as in forestry, Philippine fisheries, especially the small fisherfolk are victims of a flawed
political economy. The big fishers are also the local politicians or they control local politics. In an
open-access regime, Dela Cruz and Lopez explain, there is no clear owner or steward of the
resource. Hence, everyone wants to extract rent or profit from the resource ahead of the others
until the resource is consumed. In this race to collect the most ahead of the rest the big
operators with their big capital and more efficient technology have the edge. No one stands as
referee for the national government is too far away and the local government is under the
control of the big operators anyway. Dela Cruz goes farther: “Influential people in government
and their cohorts have used state authority to depletively extract resources without being
accountable for its regeneration. Resource rent taking has been institutionalized in some
instances such as conversion of mangroves to fishponds.

Consequently the few elite become richer and the great masses remain poor. Most fisher
families are among the poorest of the poor, earning incomes way below th poverty threshold.
Most fisherfolk suffer from poor nutrition despite the fact that they supply almost 65 percent of
the nutritive needs of the entire population. Without adequate skills, the small fisherfolk have
no alternative livelihoods and so they also resort to illegal fishing methods to survive.

After the enactment of the Philippine Fisheries Code (RA 8550) the LGUs have been put in
charge of managing their municipal waters which is extended from 7 km to 15 km from the
shoreline. Within the municipal waters, commercial fishers are prohibited from operating. But
violators are rampant because LGUs are either reluctant to regulate their allies or are powerless
to face up the big operators.

But LGUs cannot shirk the responsibility to protect the rights of subsistence fisherfolk especially
of local communities to the preferential use of communal marine and fishing resources, both
inland and offshore. The Local Government Code has likewise given LGUs exclusive authority to
grant fishery privileges in municipal waters and impose rentals and fees. The Philippine
Fisheries Code of 1998 (RA 8550) also bans commercial fishing in municipal waters and
reserves these exclusively for municipal fisherfolk and their cooperatives and organizations.

One of the difficulties faced by LGUs in regulating municipal fishing is the absence of boundary
markers setting the limit of municipal waters. For this purpose, the National Mapping and
Resources Information Authority has been tasked to assist the LGUs. Once the technical support
is in place, LGUs are supposed to come up with ordinances, prescribe rules and regulations, and
impose rent, fees and charges in consultation with their respective fisheries and aquatic
resources management councils.
Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries. The whole idea behind the new policy is to remove the open-
access character of coastal and marine resources. In effect, LGUs now have the exclusive right to
grant territorial use rights in fisheries (TURF). In dispensing such rights preference is given to
small fisherfolks, especially when they are organized. The shift from open-access to a
community property regime for coastal resources is intended to achieve what the CBFM sought
to promote: sustainability of the resource and equity and empowerment for the
underprivileged. Unlike in the forestlands, however, community-based coastal resource
management (CBCRM) is not solely the initiative of the government. Many non-government
organizations were involved, either on their own or in partnership with the government.

A number of government initiatives had much to do with the rehabilitation of fishery habitats.
The DENR, using its experience in the timberlands, has introduced the community-based
mangrove forest management approach wherein the cooperatives of fisherfolk were tapped to
reforest denuded mangrove areas under a Mangrove Stewardship Contract (MSC). The contract
guarantees security of tenure and a privilege of access to mangrove resources in accordance
with the stipulations in the contract. For its part, the BFAR has established fishery
organizations, conducted resource assessments and established sustainable yield levels, and
provided assistance to several coastal municipalities. Assistance to LGUs by both responsible
agencies, DENR and BFAR, is still deemed to be inadequate. To date, many LGUs are not yet
capable of taking on the effective management of their coastal resources.

One management tool that is indispensable is that the coastal resource management plan, in the
same way that the comprehensive land use plan is a must for managing land resources. At the
moment, however, there are no procedural guidelines on the preparation of a coastal resource
management plan. So we have to rely on the experience of non-government organizations on
the how’s of CBCRM plan formulation.

Considerations in Formulating the CBCRM Plan

Balancing Conservation and Development Objectives

Management initiatives target not only the conservation of natural resources but also the
satisfaction of the people’s socio-economic and cultural needs. These two objectives are not
always consistent with each other.

Conservation efforts in a particular ecosystem may necessitate hindering its further utilization
at current levels. This will hamper the ability of some sectors of the population to take resources
for their livelihood in that particular area. On the other hand, some activities aimed at
improving the economic conditions of the people in coastal areas may not have direct
correlation with conservation efforts being undertaken.

There is a need therefore, to balance these two objectives. Definitely, there would be trade-offs
that must be offset one way or the other. One is by ensuring that undertaking conservation
measures will not make people more vulnerable to socio-economic stresses and hardships.

A management action reducing the rate of resources extraction can be complemented by

searching for alternative sources of livelihood for those who will be affected. Likewise,
development efforts should be linked to the conservation efforts being undertaken.

Participation of Stakeholders

Stakeholder’s participation is an important factor in a plan formulation, implementation and

enforcement. The community, as participant, must act as controllers and managers of their
resources. Their involvement in every stage of resource management is very crucial to its
successful implementation. Community participation ensures that the fisherfolk and their
families appreciate and support the management plan they themselves have helped to
formulate.

The local knowledge regarding resources and community life must be respected, considered,
and integrated in the management plan. Likewise, indigenous management practices must be
taken into account in defining management actions.

Ultimately, the whole process is also a capability-building exercise. As community members

take part in preparing and implementing the CBCRM plan, they are being prepared to manage
and control their resources on their own

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

The use of participatory rural appraisal methods is a progressive step towards ensuring the
meaningful participation of local people in the process. PRA is the sum of methodological
approaches that enables the community to share, analyze and expand their knowledge of
community conditions, to plan and to act. It involves the sharing of knowledge among local
people, between local people and outsiders through which they are able to exchange ideas,
analyze their situation, problems and issues.

Sharing of ideas, validation and feedback can be instantly facilitated through the use of
participatory methods such as group discussions and employment of visual tools. It also offsets
the bias that only those who are talkative and who are able to write can join as participants. In
short, it encourages the entire community to participate in the process of sharing and
discovering.

It also offsets the dictum that “intellectual outsiders” know best. PRA provides the venue
wherein outsiders’ and local people’s idea of life condition meet. Outsiders must be willing to
defend their long held viewpoint against the critique of the community through PRA.

Community members through the support of development workers can devise an action plan
based on PRA analysis and results. Thus, PRA is a venue wherein the resource management plan
can be formulated.

Local Knowledge

Local knowledge regarding resources and community life is often perceived as very backward.
But these knowledge and wisdom were built up and verified by long years of community contact
with their environment. Often, the local people’s perspective provides a lot of know-how on
better management practices in the community. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can lead
to efforts that are more socially and even ecologically sound.

Gender Considerations

One of the most common failures in development initiatives is the failure to recognize women as
a distinct sector in the community. Often, community members are treated as homogenous. This
has led to man-centered efforts that failed to address the needs of women. Women, with their
distinct roles and functions in the community, are also stakeholders and must also be part of
community management efforts. Resource management planning has to consider the needs of
women in the productive, reproductive and community management spheres.

Laws and Policies

Another important consideration in formulating a resource management plan is how national
and local government laws and policies affect community resource management efforts. Some
laws can be utilized to boost resource management initiatives in the area but there are laws
which frustrate such initiatives.

Also, certain macro-economic policies may contradict resource management efforts. For
example, a national policy to promote industrialization and trade liberalization that necessitates
converting an agricultural area as an industrial center may be contrary to the necessary
conservation and development in that area.

CBCRM Process

According to Alcala, there are six steps in the Community-Based Coastal Resource Management
(CBCRM) process, as applied in the Philippines. These are as follows: 1) social preparation and
community organizing, 2) environmental education and capacity building, 3) resource
management planning, 4) support activities for livelihood and financial resources mobilization,
5) research and monitoring, and 6) networking activities. McManus describes in more detail the
process her group used in preparing the CBCRM plan in Bolinao, Pangasinan, reproduced with
slight editing below:

1. Community Organization. Core groups (e.g. seaweed farmers, processing groups, fishers,
women, youth) are identified, formed and later consolidated into people’s organizations.

2. Environmental Education. Using the concepts and tools of environmental education, the
communities are empowered to think about their economic and social needs and
problems within an environmental management framework.

3. Institutionalization. Throughout the process of organizing and enhancing people’s

environmental consciousness, a community grows in capability and strength in forming
people’s organizations, in deepening its understanding of the natural environment, in
attempting sustainable use of its living resources, in utilizing environment-friendly and
economically viable livelihood systems, and in linking up with other communities and
groups to share its experience.

4. Resource management includes the development and evaluation of resource use and
management options which are identified through participatory research. These options
include (but are not limited to) marine reserves, aquaculture technology, land-based
production systems, land and coastal development plans, and rehabilitation. This
component works closely with the livelihood development and networking and
advocacy components in the evaluation of options and their implementation. It is
crucial to note that the success of resource management hinges on the economic
viability of complementary and environmentally sustainable entrepreneurial systems. In
short, relief from fishing pressure through the provision of the non-capture fisheries-
based livelihood can result in consequent recovery of natural resource bases and
enhancement of both food and cash security.

5. Livelihood development refers to production, marketing and trading activities

undertaken individually or collectively for people to increase their level of food
production and to generate income which enhances their economic and social life.
Livelihood development also involves institutionalizing production and marketing
mechanisms for self-reliance. Within a CBCRM framework, alternate entrepreneurial
systems become the major economic incentive for organized and environmentally
conscious communities to decrease fishing pressure and to promote sustainable forms
of coastal resource use. At the initial stage of CBCRM, supplemental alternative
 technology and management are the main forms of livelihood development. As income
generating activities evolve into viable business enterprises, they may be transformed
into alternative rather than simply supplemental income sources. The business viability
of such systems will have to be ensured both by the technical aspects of production and
the social, economic and legal support structures. The ultimate gauge of the success of
livelihood systems is the significant increase of food and cash security, as well as the
enhancement of the productivity and health of coastal ecosystems.

6. Networking and advocacy. Networking establishes linkages with other groups and
agencies working for a common goal such as coastal resources management. Advocacy is
a mechanism through which organized groups and communities institutionalize their
goals in policies and laws and other groups and higher levels of governance, such as the
national government. Networking is therefore a prerequisite of advocacy. In both cases,
an organized community reaches beyond its confines to help, to learn from other
communities and groups and together effect significant policy changes as an ultimate
expression of a collective evolution toward self-determination.

INTEGRATED CATCHMENT APPROACH

Integrated catchment approach (ICM), variably known as “whole catchment”, or bay region
management is a variant or expansion of the generic concept of coastal resource management. It
embraces the inland portion up to the limit of the terrestrial watershed and the water body that
receives the drainage of that particular watershed. The rationale behind such extensive
delineation of management zone lies in the fact that anything that happens in the watershed
eventually affects the ocean through run-off that enters the streams, rivers and estuaries and
finally flows into the sea. The seaward portion of the integrated catchment or receiving waters
can be extended up to a maximum legal limit of 200 nautical miles from the shoreline as allowed
under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). For practical purposes, a more
manageable extent of the receiving water body could be the 12 nautical mile limit of the
territorial sea or the 15-kilometer limit of municipal waters.

Integrated catchment management is an approach to natural resource management that seeks

to understand and address the interrelated issues pertaining to land, water, vegetation, wildlife,
and other resources in their totality. It permits a comprehensive understanding of the natural
phenomena as well as human activities both on land and on the water that contribute to the
water quality of the receiving water body. Understanding the relationship between land-based
and water-based activities in a particular catchment system will lead to a better appreciation of
area-specific issues and challenges and to the formulation of more forward solutions and
policies.

Another rationale for the ICM approach is that different segments of society and various sectors
of the economy have their own agenda to pursue and targets to achieve, each without any idea
about how their resource utilization will affect and will be affected by other components of the
ecosystem. As a result the ability of the natural resources to provide for human needs across
generations is threatened by conflicting demands on, and unsustainable use of, these resources.
Through the ICM approach such disparate interests could be coordinated toward attaining
common objectives that are beneficial to all without hurting the environment as well.

Moreover, the ICM approach owes to the peculiar geography of the Philippines. Being an
archipelagic country, practically every area in the country can be placed within one or other
integrated catchment system. Hence, the ICM approach can provide the basis of an integrated
land use and water use planning and zoning.
It is rather odd that in an archipelagic country like the Philippines we have not developed an
integrated approach to planning our terrestrial and marine resources. We have always carried
out land use planning almost completely oblivious of the existence of the waters that surround
our lands. Worse, most Filipinos do not have an adequate understanding of the relationship
between land and water use. To be sure, there are already a few attempts at water use zonation
but the simultaneous integration of land and water use regulation is something that remains a
dream.

Finally, the ICM approach offers the best opportunity for providing the venue for giving a full
play to the concept of co-management. The following illustration has aptly captured the very
essence of co-management between the LGU and national agencies in the management of
natural resources and maintenance of ecological balance.

A TYPICAL COASTAL VILLAGE AND VARIOUS AGENCIES

INVOLVED IN IMPLEMENTING ITS CRM AND
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
Source: DENR/DILG/DA-BFAR/CRMP (1997)
Figure 3-2, p. 3-3, citing Fellizar et al. (1996)
 CHAPTER 6
LAND USE PLANNING IN PROTECTED AREAS

Natural resources as the repository of economic value and the basis of the production of wealth
have been an accepted fact of long standing. Also the notion that natural resources should be
conserved to prolong their service to humankind has prevailed in the consciousness of people for a
long time. But the idea that certain natural resources or certain components of the natural
environment should be conserved in perpetuity for their own sake and not for any utilitarian
purpose is not widely understood. The value that such resources afford to society is not so much
the economic gain that man derives from their use as the non-monetary benefits that man gets from
their “non-use” such as public enjoyment and recreation, healthful atmosphere, enhanced human
knowledge, and cultural advancement. Moreover, the idea that such resources have to be actually
protected from any form of destructive human intrusion seems alien to many people.

This chapter expounds on the concept of protected areas, and makes a survey of the different
categories of protected areas which are all part of the public domain. The planning of protected
areas has important implications on local land use planning because protected areas form an
integral part of local territories. Protected areas also constitute one of the four general land use
policy areas.

CONCEPT OF PROTECTED AREAS

The concept of protected areas may have been formally introduced into the country by the
Americans as evidenced by the fact that the first 65 national parks were proclaimed during the
American occupation between 1911 and 1945. By June 2001 the Protected Areas and Wildlife
Bureau (PAWB) of the DENR listed 209 areas covered by proclamation as national parks. The
highest numbers of proclaimed national parks (50) are located in Region IV and the national Capital
Region. These national parks in region IV have a combined land area of 1.13 million hectares or
nearly half of the total area coverage of all proclaimed national parks in the Philippines. The
smallest national park is the Hinulugang Taktak in Antipolo City with an area of 0.89 hectare while
the largest so far is the Palawan Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary covering 763,399 hectares, both
in Region IV. (More details in Table 6.1 below.)

Table 6.1. PROTECTED AREAS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Initial and Proposed, June 2001
Region Initial Total Area (ha) Proposed Total Area (ha)
CAR 9 137,545.00 11 TBD
Region 1 16 22,398.95 5 2,597.7036
Region 2 10 112,195.00 7 4,364.1400
Region 3 15 242,822.70 10 TBD
Region 4A 34 106,804.63 15 25,166.7400
Region 4B 15 1,030,214.60 17 TBD
NCR 1 24.00 0 TBD
Region 5 23 75,758.69 6 4,029.1300
Region 6 12 158,332.38 8 15,570.9200
 Region 7 18 54,390.97 19 26,027.6950
Region 8 9 19,731.78 42 88,562.4500
Region 9 7 14,390.00 7 TBD
Region 10 8 146,324.00 14 70,289.8950
Region 11 9 177,783.59 5 TBD
Region 12 3 59,214.00 5 TBD
Region 13 10 32,089.00 11 TBD
ARMM 10 184,203.55 2 TBD
Total 209 2,599,180.84 184 236,608.6736ʸ
Source of basic data: Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, DENR Central Office
Notes: TBD = To Be Determined
ʸ = Partial Total

The concept of protection differs slightly from that of conservation. While conservation can be built
into exploitation, as in most interpretations of “sustainable development”, protection connotes a
“no touch, no entry” attitude and policy toward the resource or area being protected. Protecting an
area or resource against human intrusion may have a double effect; it leads to the preservation of
the inherent natural qualities of the resource, on one hand, and the protection of people against the
potential dangers and hazards that environmentally critical areas pose to their lives and well-being
on the other. This gives rise to an expanded concept of protected areas.

In the early stages of their usage, protected areas and national parks were synonymous. Even the
1987 Constitution refers to national parks as one of the four basic land classes of the public domain
together with agricultural, forest, and mineral lands. As a generic land class, national parks
obviously mean protected areas. Today, in the wake of the adoption of the National Land Use
Committee of the four land use policy areas: protection, production, settlements and
infrastructures, the purpose and scope of the general category “protection land use” transcend
those of the national parks. The objectives of protection land use policies are: (a) to protect
sensitive critical ecosystems from human intrusion in order to preserve their integrity and to allow
degraded resources to regenerate themselves; and (b) to protect the human populace from
environment hazards.

National parks have now become only a subset of the broader concept of protected areas which
embraces the following three categories: (a) areas declared as belonging to the National Integrated
Protected Areas System (NIPAS) being established under R.A. 7586; (b) areas outside the NIPAS
areas requiring equivalent amount of protection; and (c) areas prone to natural hazards otherwise
known as environmentally-constrained areas.

THE NIPAS PROTECTED AREAS

In the past, protected areas were identified, set aside or designated individually by law, decree,
presidential proclamation, and executive order and the administrative jurisdiction over each site
was given not only to DENR but also to other departments and instrumentalities of the government.
The NIPAS law has consolidated all protected areas then existing under one “system” and placed
under one agency, except those that had been assigned to other agencies. The overall
administration and control of the system is assigned by law to the DENR through its Protected
Areas and Wildlife Bureau.

The rationale for the establishment of the system of integrated protected areas nationwide is as
follows:

“Cognizant of the profound impact of man’s activities on all components of the natural
environment particularly the effect of increasing population, resource exploitation and industrial
advancement and recognizing the critical importance of protecting and maintaining the natural
biological and physical diversities of the environment notably on areas with biologically unique
features to sustain human life and development, as well as plant and animal life, it is hereby
declared the policy of the state to secure for the to secure for the Filipino people of present and
future generations the perpetual existence of all native plants and animals through the
establishment of a comprehensive system of integrated protected areas within the classification
of national parks as provided for in the Constitution.

It is hereby recognized that these areas, although distinct in features, possess common ecological
values that may be incorporated into a holistic plan representative of our national heritage; that
effective administration of these areas is possible only through cooperation among national
government, local government and concerned private organizations; that the use and enjoyment
of these protected areas must be consistent with the principles of biological diversity and
sustainable development.”

The national system of protected areas consists of two components: the initial and the additional.
The initial components of NIPAS are all areas that, prior to the effectivity of the Act on June 1, 1992,
have been designated or set aside, pursuant to a law, presidential decree, presidential proclamation
or executive order as a national park, game refuge, bird and wildlife sanctuary, wilderness area,
strict nature reserve, watershed, mangrove reserve, fish sanctuary, natural and historical landmark,
protected and managed landscape or seascape as well as identified virgin forest. As of June 2001,
the PAWB-DENR has accounted for 209 sites comprising the initial component. At the same time,
additional candidate sites were considered for possible inclusion into the system. The number of
recommended new sites had piled up to 184 as of the same date (Refer back to Table 6.1).

NIPAS areas encompass outstandingly remarkable and biologically important public land that are
habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals. These also cover biogeographic
zones and related ecosystems, whether terrestrial, wetland and management of NIPAS, eight
categories of protected areas are recognized:

1. Strict nature reserve;

2. Natural park;
3. Natural monument;
4. Wildlife sanctuary;
5. Protected landscapes and seascapes;
6. Resource reserve;
7. Natural biotic areas; and
8. Other categories established by law, conventions or international agreements to which the
Philippine government is a signatory.

Each of these categories is defined in the NIPAS Act as follows:

Strict nature reserve is an area possessing some understanding ecosystems, features and/or
species of flora and fauna of national scientific importance. It is maintained to protect and
maintain natural processes in an undisturbed state in order to have ecologically representative
examples of the natural environment available for scientific study, environmental monitoring,
education, and for the maintenance of genetic resources in a dynamic evolutionary state.

Natural Park is a relatively large area not materially altered by human activity and where
extractive resource uses are not allowed. It is maintained to protect outstanding natural and
scenic areas of national or international significance for scientific, education and recreational
use.

National monument is a relatively small area focused on the protection and preservation of
small but nationally significant natural features on account of their specific interest or unique
characteristics.

Wildlife sanctuary comprises an area encompassing the natural conditions necessary to protect
nationally significant species, groups of species, biotic communities or physical features of the
environment where these may require specific human manipulation for their perpetuation.

Protected landscapes and seascapes are areas of national significance characterized by the
harmonious interaction of man and land while providing opportunities for public enjoyment
through recreation and tourism within the normal lifestyle and economic activity of these areas.

Resource reserve is an extensive and relatively isolated and uninhabited area where access is
normally difficult and which has been designated as such to protect natural resources of the
area for future use and prevent or contain development activities that could affect the resource
pending the establishment of objectives which are based upon appropriate knowledge and
planning.

Natural biotic area is an area set aside to allow the way of life of societies living in harmony
with the environment to adapt to modern technology at their own place.

The over-all objective of protection as stated in the NIPAS Law is to secure for the present and
future generations the perpetual existence of native plants and animals. This generation goal
can be broken down into the following specific objectives.

1. To maintain sample ecosystems in their natural state.

2. To maintain ecological diversity and environmental regulation.
3. To conserve genetic resources.
4. To provide opportunities for education, research, and environmental monitoring.
5. To conserve the watershed and thereby control floods.
 6. To control erosion and minimize sedimentation of rivers and other water bodies.
7. To maintain indigenous use or habitation.
8. To produce protein from wildlife.
9. To produce timber, forage or similar extractive commodities.
10. To provide recreation and tourism services.
11. To protect sites and objects of cultural, historical, or archaeological heritage.
12. To protect scenic beauty.
13. To maintain open options, management flexibility, and multiple use.
14. To contribute to rural development.

Each of the above categories of protected areas contributes to the attainment of these objectives in
varying degrees as indicated in Table 6.2 below.

Table 6.2
CONSERVATION OBJECTIVES
OF NIPAS PROTECTED AREA CATEGORIES
Strict Wildlife
Natural Natural Biotic
Nature Sanctuary/ Protected
Conservation Natural Monument/ Resource Area/
Reserve/ Managed Landscape/
Objective Park Natural Reserve Anthropological
Scientific Nature Seascape
Landmark Reserve
Reserve Reserve
Maintain sample
ecosystem in / / / / X X /
natural state
Maintain ecological
diversity and
environmental
X / / X X X /
regulation
Conserve genetic
resources
/ / / / X X /
Provide education,
research and
environmental / X / / X X X
monitoring
Conserve
watershed, flood X / X X X X X
control
Control erosion
and sedimentation X X X X X X X
Maintain
indigenous use or / X /
habitation
Produce protein
from wildlife
X X X X
Produce timber,
forage or extractive X X X
commodities
Provide recreation
and tourism / / X / X
service
Protect sites and
objects of cultural,
historical or X X X / X /
archeological
heritage
Protect scenic
beauty
X / X X /
 Maintain open
options,
management X /
flexibility, multiple-
use
Contribute to rural
development X / X X / X X

Sources: 1. Miller, E.R. 1980. Planning National Parks for Ecodevelopment, Center for Strategic Wildland Management Studies, Ann Arbor.
2. IUCN/UNEP 1986. Managing Protected Areas in the Tropics. IUCN, Gland Switzerland.
Notes: / = Primary Objectives
X = Compatible Objectives

Setting Up and Managing the System

As outlined in the law, the process of setting up and running the system consists of review and re-
legitimization of each site belonging to the initial component as well selection and legitimization of
additional sites. Once the final components are established by law the management of the system
will be effected through a hierarchical organizational structure within DENR with authority
extending from the central office through to the regional level and finally to the site.

Establishment/Disestablishment. Both initial and later components are to undergo a process of

review and intensive study for purposes of determining whether each site will be established as
part of the final system in its entirety, or with some parts removed, or new areas added; or will be
disestablished or withdrawn completely from the system. Each site that will be established will
then be the subject of an interim Presidential Proclamation until Congress will have enacted a law
making the site as a final component of NIPAS.

Administration of the System. Once established, the NIPAS will be administered by a three-tiered
structure. At the top of the structure is the DENR central office with no less than the Secretary as
the over-all responsible authority exercised through the PAWB. At the regional level, the Regional
Executive Director of DENR assumes over-all responsibility assisted by the Regional Technical
Director and the Protected Areas and Wildlife Division. The site-based management of the
protected is exercised by the protected area management board (PAMB), which is headed by the
DENR-RED. The day-to-day administration of the site is performed by a DENR-designated Protected
Area Superintendent (PAS) who must reside within the protected area.

To properly guide the management and administration of each protected area site, a site-specific
management plan manual is required. The management planning process is reproduced below with
slight editing.

MANAGEMENT PLAN PREPARATION, APPROVAL AND ADOPTION

NIPAS site management planning and implementation shall be undertaken by the protected area
staff, which may include an NGO, technical specialists and representatives of local communities
within and near the site following a general planning strategy prepared at the national level. The
protected are management plan shall be contained in a management manual.

The General Management Planning Strategy (GMPS)

GMPS Preparation. The Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) under the technical direction
of the Undersecretary for Environment and Research shall prepare the General Management
Planning Strategy. This document shall serve as a guide in the formulation of site-specific
management plans including buffer zones. The GMPS shall, at the minimum, address the following:

1. Promoting the adoption and implementation of innovative management techniques such as:
management zones; buffer zones for multiple use and protection; habitat conservation and
rehabilitation; biodiversity management; community organizing; socioeconomic and
scientific researches; site-specific policy development; pest management and fire control;

2. Providing for the protection of indigenous cultural community domains and interests and
for the rights of tenured migrants; and,

3. Creating closer coordination between and among the DENR, local government, the private
sector and the general populace.

In addition to contributions from various technical experts in protected area and biodiversity
management, the PAWB shall solicit the assistance of NGOs in GMPS preparation, particularly in the
area of community-based resource management and indigenous cultural community concerns.

GMPS Adoption. Within thirty (30) days after submission of the final draft of the GMPS by the
PAWB, the same shall be adopted by the NIPAS Policy and Program Steering Committee and issued
by the Secretary as a Department Administrative Order.

Management Zones

Protected Area Management Zoning. To provide flexibility in management, each protected area and
its attached buffer zones shall be divided into one or more of the categories listed below. Cultural
communities, tenured migrants, other existing protected area users and the local government
concerned shall be a part of the decision making process in zone establishment and management
planning. Management objectives and strategies shall be developed for each zone and specific
approaches and technologies identified and implemented in accordance with the strategy to meet
those objectives. The zoning of a protected area and its buffer zones and management prescriptions
within those zones shall not restrict the rights of indigenous communities to pursue traditional and
sustainable means of livelihood within their ancestral domains unless they so concur.

1. Strict Protection Zone. Areas with high biodiversity value which shall be closed to all human
activity except for scientific studies and/or ceremonial or religious use by indigenous
communities.

2. Sustainable Use Zone. Natural areas where the habitat and its associated biodiversity shall
be conserved but where consistent with the management plan and with PAMB approval; (i)
indigenous community members and/or tenure migrants and/or buffer zone residents may
be allowed to collect and utilize natural resources using traditional sustainable methods
that are not in conflict with biodiversity conservation requirements; (ii) research, including
the reintroduction of indigenous species, may be undertaken; and (iii) park visitors may be
allowed limited use. No clearing, farming, settlement, commercial utilization or other
activities detrimental to biodiversity conservation shall be undertaken. The level of
allowable activity can be expected to vary from one situation to another.
 3. Restoration Zones. Areas of degraded habitat where the long-term goal will be to restore the
natural habitat with its associated biodiversity and to rezone the area to a more strict
protection level. Initially, natural regeneration will be assisted through such human
interventions as fire control, cogon suppression and the planting of native species as well as
climax species. Exotic species (not native to the site) shall not be used in the restoration
process. Existing houses and agricultural developments may be allowed to remain initially
but would be phased out eventually.

4. Habitat Management Zones. Areas with significant habitat and species values where
management practices are required periodically to maintain specific non-climax habitat or
conditions required by rare, threatened or endangered species. Examples would be forest
openings for the tamaraw or brushy forest for the Philippine tarsier. Human habitation and
sustainable use may be allowed if they play a habitat management role.

5. Multiple-Use Zones. Areas where settlement, traditional and/or sustainable land use,
including agriculture, agro-forestry, extraction activities and other income generating or
livelihood activities, may be allowed to the extent prescribed in the management plan. Land
tenure may be granted to tenured residents, whether indigenous cultural community
members or migrants.

6. Buffer Zones. Areas outside the protected area but adjoining it that are established by law
and under the control of the DENR through the Protected Area Management Board. These
are effectively multiple-use zones that are not to be managed to provide a social fence to
prevent encroachment into the protected area by outsiders. Land tenure may be granted to
occupants as an integral part of the protected area in management planning.

7. Cultural Zones. Areas with significant cultural, religious, spiritual or anthropological values
where traditional right exist and ceremonies and/or cultural practices take place.

8. Recreational Zones. Areas of high recreational, tourism, educational, or environmental

awareness values where sustainable eco-tourism, recreational, conservation education or
public awareness activities may be allowed as prescribed in the management plan.

9. Special Use Zones. Areas containing existing installations of national significance, such as
telecommunication facilities, irrigation canals or electric power lines. Such installations may
be retained subject to mutual agreements among the concerned parties.

10. Other management zones such as may be used in the management plan and approved by
the DENR Secretary.

The Management Plan and Management Manual

Preparation. A Management Manual which contains the protected area Management Plan and
supporting data shall be prepared in accordance with Section 9 of the Act. The Management Plan
shall serve as the basic long-term framework plan in the management of the protected area and as a
guide in the preparation of the annual operations plan and budget. The Management Manual shall
be drafted with the assistance of experts in such fields as socioeconomic planning, ecology and
protected area management, reviewed and endorsed by the PAMB, and approved by the Secretary.
(Refer to Annex for the Content of the Manual.)

Public Consultations and Hearings. In preparing the management plans, an iterative process of
public consultation and hearings with the local communities, non-government organizations and
people’s organizations operating in and/or familiar the conditions in the concerned national
government offices shall be undertaken to the fullest extent possible. The goal is a workable plan
strongly supported by the local community. It shall be the responsibility of the regional Executive
Director (RED) to ensure compliance with this provision.

Endorsement and Adoption. The Management Plan shall be endorsed to the Secretary for his
approval and officially adopted by the PAMB in their capacity as representatives of the local
communities in the concerned protected areas.

Implementation. The Management Plan shall be translated into an annual work program and
supporting budget by the protected area staff under the direction of the PAS following the
government budgetary cycle. The work program and budget shall be approved by a majority of the
PAMB but may be modified from time to time as the situation demands.

Review and Update. The Management Plan shall be reviewed and updated on a regular basis, at
least once every three (3) years. However, in cases where significant physical developments occur
within the protected area or critical resource constraints prevent implementation of important
programs/projects, the Plan or some components thereof may be revised/modified. Any
modification or revision of the Plan shall, however, be approved by a majority of PAMB members.

National Review of Management Plans. To ensure consistency of individual Management Plans with
the philosophy, spirit and objectives of the Act, the Secretary shall reserve the rights to review all
plans proposals for the management of the protected areas. In the exercise of this authority, the
Secretary shall delegate the review to the IPAS Technical Coordinating Committee in coordination
with PAWB. Based on the outcome of the review, the Secretary shall issue the pertinent
directives/instructions to concerned implementing units.

IMPLICATIONS OF NIPAS ON LOCAL PLANNING

Protected areas are explicit exempted from devolution. The management of such areas is the
responsibility of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) headed by the Regional Executive
Director (RED) of DENR. The only participation of LGUs is the management of protected areas is
implied in their membership in the PAMB.

In at least two cases, however, the management of protected areas has been shared by DENR and
the LGUs: the Sagay Marine Reserve in Sagay City, Negros Occidental and the St. Paul Subterranean
National Park in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. The latter park has been renamed “Puerto Princesa
Subterranean National Park.” In both cases, the local chief executives are now co-chairs of the
PAMB.

As noted in Chapter 3, the above-cited cases open the door for other modes of co-managing
protected areas. The PAWB also welcomes co-management possibilities with LGUs over erstwhile
protected areas or portions thereof which had been disestablished according to the procedures laid
down in RA 7586.
In practice however, the planning and management of NIPAS protected areas done completely
apart from that of the local government unit that has territorial jurisdiction over the site. The site is
likewise administered by a DENR-designated officer as though it were a separate territory. Once it
is becomes part of the NIPAS, that portion of an LGU’s territorial jurisdiction is withdrawn from the
effective control of the host LGU. Add to this the mandatory buffer zone and the area involved can
be quite considerable. An yet there are certain realities that make it necessary for the host LGUs to
take a more than passive stance with respect to the protected areas in their territory. For one, many
of these protected areas are home to “migrant” families, counting aside indigenous peoples who
may be native to these areas. In some cases, too, these settlements have become stable and are even
transformed into regular barangays. Whatever the PAMB decides to do with these settlements will
have a considerable impact on the host LGU.

Secondly, in the light of the new comprehensive land use plan and zoning ordinance which must
cover the entire territorial jurisdiction of the LGU, how is the LGU going to treat the protected area
that sits within its territory? From the point of view of the LGU, the protected area should still be
considered an integral part of the LGU’s jurisdiction. The PAMB management plan should be
incorporated in the CLUP and the management zoning of the protected area should likewise be
integrated into the macro-zoning of the entire LGU territory. To avoid conflicts, the policies adopted
by the PAMB for the protected areas should also be adopted as part of the comprehensive land use
policy framework of the LGU.

The other set of concerns has to do with the so-called “non-NIPAS” protected areas. In the case of
resources which LGUs or local communities want to protect but which do not qualify for the status
of NIPAS areas what authority do LGUs have to protect them? In the absence of explicit policies to
this effect, is presumed that the planning powers of LGUs can be used to deal with such issues. The
nagging question remains whether LGUs can exercise jurisdiction over non-NIPAS protected areas
located in the non-devolved DENR domain. Such issues involving very steep mountains, very high
elevations, environmentally-constrained areas, savage zones along sea coasts, lakes and rivers are
often encountered by local planners in connection with the preparation of their comprehensive
land use plan and zoning ordinance. The absence of explicit policies from the DENR regarding the
extent of the LGU powers over these areas often puts LGUs in the dark about what local policies and
actions they can take.

At any rate, the LGUs play a very important role in non-NIPAS protected area conservation. These
areas are often small and unconsolidated and have no definite management structures created to
manage them. But none of these are located outside the jurisdiction of a particular LGU to place
these areas under its comprehensive land use regulatory function. The Local Government Code
explicitly directs all local chief executives and Sanggunians to “adopt adequate measures to
safeguard and conserve land, mineral, marine, forest, and other resources” within the territorial
jurisdiction of the LGU.

NON-NIPAS PROTECTED AREAS

The enactment of the NIPAS Law has made it possible to distinguish or qualify what areas should be
placed within and outside the System. As in the NIPAS areas, equal importance should be accorded
to development. The areas initially identified outside the NIPAS areas are the following: reserved
second growth forests, mangroves, buffer strips, freshwater swamps/marshes, and unproclaimed
watersheds. Other areas that may be included under this category are protected rice lands and
coconut preservation areas. Historic preservation or heritage sites and visual amenity corridors
may be added as relevant to a particular local area.
Reserved Second Growth Forests

Practically all primary growth forests have already been logged over and the remaining virgin or
closed canopy forests are identified s among the initial components of NIPAS, present and future
logging operations will therefore shift to second growth forests. Not all regrown forests however,
could be the subject of logging operations.

Pursuant to the Revised Forestry Code (PD 705), DENR has issued an order prohibiting logging
operations in areas with slopes of 50 percent and above and in areas above 1,000 meters elevation.
This is meant to preserve the remaining tropical forest gene pool and biodiversity and to prevent
on-site and off-site damage in these areas, among others. Hence, there is a need to delineate and
protect these areas even if they are not officially part of the integrated protected areas system.

What is the significance of the slope and elevation criteria? Places in high elevations (1,000 meters
and above) are in constant with moisture-carrying cloud. The clouds lose their moisture on contact.
The presence of vegetation allows the moisture to penetrate into the ground thereby recharging the
groundwater or aquifer. Without vegetation, the moisture will just run-off on the surface or
evaporate into the atmosphere. Places with steep slopes (above 50 percent), on the other hand,
should not be disturbed because once the top soil is loosened it will easily erode and contribute to
siltation of rivers and other water bodies downstream. In worse cases, this could lead to landslides
and more disastrous consequences.

Mangroves

Mangroves are a community of inter-tidal plants including all species of trees, shrubs, vines and
herbs found on coasts, swamps, or borders of swamps. Along with fish sanctuaries, mangroves from
part of the network of protected areas for agricultural development.

Mangrove play a vital role in the sustainability of fisheries by providing a spawning and nursing
ground for certain species of fish and other aquatic flora and fauna. It has been demonstrated in
many fishing grounds all over the country that when the fringing mangrove forests around sea
coasts, bays or lakes are left untouched the yield of fisherfolk increases significantly. Mangroves
also serve to protect the shore from erosion due to heavy storms and strong waves.

Mangroves need to be protected due to the following threats to their survival:

1. Rampant conversion into fishponds, saltbeds, rice paddies, and even for housing,
commercial and industrial developments.

2. Over-exploitation for timber, firewood and tanbark.

3. Pollution due to dumping of mine tailings, urban solid and liquid wastes, and deposition of
agricultural chemical residues.

The proper management of mangroves is given in the guidelines issued by the DENR. The LGU
should delineate these areas and put them under protection status in their CLUP and Zoning
Ordinance. Where necessary, reforestation of degraded portions should be undertaken with the
involvement of affected communities.
Freshwater Swamps and Marshes

A marsh or a swamp is a tract of soft, low-lying wetland that is saturated with water due to the
impermeable nature of the soil and the flatness of the surface. It is often formed when a lake basin
fills up and run-off of water is so slow that the damp soil grows vegetation. A swamp or marsh is
usually overgrown with vegetation as a result. The distinction between the two is that a marsh may
be underwater temporarily while a swamp is permanently saturated with moisture.

Swamps and marshes perform very important ecological functions. They provide a very rich habitat
for various species of fish, shellfish, mollusks as well as water plants and water-resistant trees.
They are often attractive feeding stations of migratory birds and they offer a variety of recreational
opportunities. Due to their at times unique flora and wildlife, these interesting ecosystems could be
elevated to the status of NIPAS protected areas.

Although swamps and marshes are listed among environmentally critical areas that require special
consideration under the Philippine Environmental Impact Assessment System, there are no
coherent policies on the proper use and management of these ecosystems. Many of these areas are
classified as alienable and disposable and may have been already been titled to private claimants.
When drained or reclaimed, swamps or marshes make for rich agricultural farmlands or building
sites. This makes it extremely difficult for the LGU to argue for their retention as protected areas. In
any case, perceptions of private gain should be weighed the broader social benefit.

Buffer and Easements

Buffer strips and public easements along rivers, lakeshores and coastal areas are marked out in
land surveys as separate lots and are excluded from titling for private ownership. These strips of
land are reserved by various laws for public use. Easements along water bodies are reserved under
the Forestry Code (PD 705), the Civil Code, and the Philippine Water Code (PD 1067). The
Philippine Water Code provides:

“The banks of river streams and the shores of the seas and lakes throughout their entire length and
within a zone of three (3) meters in urban areas, twenty (20) meters in agricultural areas, and forty (40)
meters in forest areas, along their margins, are subject to the easement of public use in the interest of
recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing and salvage. No person shall be allowed to stay in this zone longer
than what is necessary for recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing or salvage or to build structures of any
kind.”

There is a rampant violation of this provision of law both in urban and rural areas. It is common
knowledge than urban areas structures are constructed not only within the 3-meter easement but
even right on the river or estero itself by landfilling. In the agricultural areas, owners of farmlands
abutting on rivers cultivate the easements as though these were their private property. Worse, they
even claim that they have titles to these areas.

Along lakeshores and seashores the public easements likewise are misappropriated. Either these
public easements are occupied by squatters or they are fenced off by holders of foreshore leases.
This effectively excludes the public from getting access to these “public” easements.

The DENR has the administrative responsibility for these areas but the agency has clearly fallen
short of people’s expectations about their effective use and regulation. It is about time the LGUs are
allowed to co-manage these as part of their open space and urban park systems.
Other easements that have local or regional importance include small watersheds around sources
of domestic water supply such as natural springs; visual corridors along certain sections of roads
that afford a panoramic view of seascapes, mountainscapes, or deep valleys; and historic or
heritage sites.

Protected Agricultural Areas

There are two types of protected agricultural lands that are covered by national laws: protected
croplands and coconut preservation areas.

Protected Crop Lands. Defined in the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (RA 8435) as
forming part of the “Network and Protected Areas for Agricultural and Agro-industrial
Development” (NPAAAD), protected croplands include “all irrigated areas, all irrigable lands
already covered by irrigation projects with firm funding commitments, all alluvial plain lands highly
suitable for agriculture whether irrigated or not, agro-industrial croplands or lands presently
planted to industrial crops that support the viability of existing agricultural infrastructure and agro-
based enterprises, highlands or areas located in elevations of five hundred (500) meters and above
and have the potential for growing semi-temperate and high-value crops, all agricultural lands that
are ecologically fragile the conversion of which will serious in serious environmental degradation,
and mangrove areas and fish sanctuaries”.

The concept of protection applied to agricultural lands differs from the “no touch, no entry” policy
with respect to forests. It means protection from premature and at times unnecessary conversion
especially of the irreversible kind as discussed in Chapter 1. For once these good farmlands are
converted into residential subdivisions or commercial and industrial estates they are gone for good.
If this practice is unregulated we might jeopardize the base of our national food security.

The argument often cited to justify conversion of our agricultural tracts into urban land use is that
the latter is the highest and best use. This may be true from the point of view of private gain but not
in terms of social and environmental benefit. We must keep in mind that Class A lands are not
duplicable. It takes nature geological time to form them. Once we lose them we cannot expect
nature to be able to replace them within several lifetimes. To raise the food requirements of our
rapidly growing population we have been forced to cultivate areas of lower capability class with
sub-optimal yields such as eroded sloping lands. Studies by the BSWM show that to make up for the
loss of one hectare we need to cultivate them five to seven hectares of sloping land, often within
forests areas. The adverse environmental effect of agricultural land conversion is obvious when it
leads to the corresponding conversion of forestlands to agricultural use.

Putting good agricultural land into urban land uses, moreover, is a case of misappropriation of land
resources. Urban land uses have no need for fertility of the soil. Hence, lands with low suitability to
agriculture should be the priority areas for urban development. Real estate business interests
however argue against this proposition saying that the lands unsuitable for agriculture are often
inaccessible and to make these areas accessible would require additional investment cost and thus
increase the price of developed lots. Well, society must bear the cost of sustaining long-term social
benefits.

Protecting agricultural lands from hasty conversion to urban land use is a battle for the minds (and
pockets) of owners of farm lots. Tenants are naturally opposed to conversion because they want to
protect their livelihood. Landowners are more vulnerable to offers by speculative land developers.
Current rules and regulations on agricultural land use conversion define the parameters of legal
conversion and penalize illegal conversions. This is in pursuance of the policy of the State to:

1. preserve prime agricultural lands to ensure food security;

2. ensure that all sectors of the economy, all regions of the country are given optimum
opportunity to maximize agricultural productivity to promote efficiency and equity, and to
accelerate agricultural modernization; and
3. strictly regulate the conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses in accordance
with the CARL (RA 6657) and/or the AFMA (RA 8435).

It would seem that the conversion policy is directed at the different parties interested in or affected
by the conversion issue, namely, owners of farm lots to urban land developers, and tenants or land
reform beneficiaries. To the landowners who cannot seem to resist the attractive offers of urban
land developers and to the developers who are making the juicy offers, there are areas considered
non-negotiable for conversion as well as areas highly restricted from conversion. So they better
restrict their transactions in areas designated as priority development areas. Otherwise they just
wait out the expiration of the moratorium on conversion imposed by AFMA of five years from
February 10, 1998 to February 9, 2003. The agrarian reform beneficiaries who also want to sell
their land may have to wait for five years after they will have paid for their awarded land in full. The
message that all these regulations seem to convey is: Yu just cannot convert your agricultural land –
as yet.

What a way to ensure food security! A food security policy that implicitly grants that the highest
benefit there is in owning agricultural land is to sell it or put it under non-agricultural use is half-
hearted, to say the least. But to entice landowners to keep their land under cultivation and to buy
them off from the blandishments of speculative land developers requires subsidy schemes which
the government cannot afford. So what is the way out?

Let us learn from the experience of Southern China. Farmers whose plots are situated right on the
edge of the urban area and in the “natural expansion” path of the city are not prohibited from
selling their land. But they are encouraged, even assisted, by the government to build medium-rise
apartment rentals. Other emerging concepts include urban gardens or leisure farms but these have
not yet caught the attention of urban land use policy makers.

The other arena in which the protected agricultural land issue is played out is in the session halls of
local Sanggunians. Section 20 of the Local Government Code (RA 7160) has devolved the power to
cities and municipalities to reclassify agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses when the land in
question is deemed no longer economically productive under agriculture. Both the outcome of both
processes is the irreversible loss of agricultural lands.

Most members of the Sanggunian favor reclassification and/or conversion because it is likely that
they are the property owners themselves. But even leaving aside personal interest the partiality of
local officials for putting private property to urban development is a perfectly rational stance. The
local government stands to benefit more from the real property tax levied on developed built over
land than on agricultural land. The other half of a whole-hearted food security policy therefore is to
give financial incentives to cities and municipalities that opt to protect their agricultural lands. This
could take the form of grants on top of their regular internal revenue allotment.

Coconut Preservation Lands. When the government adopted a policy of commercial logging ban the
people found a substitute source for their lumber needs in coconut trees. This led to rampant,
unabated and indiscriminate cutting of coconut trees. This led to rampant, unabated and
indiscriminate cutting of coconut trees. To avert the imminent collapse of the coconut industry
which is one of the principal income earners of the country, the government found it necessary to
regulate the cutting of coconut trees. By virtue of the Coconut Preservation Act of 1995 (RA 8048) it
has become illegal to cut coconut trees without securing a permit to cut from the Philippine
Coconut Authority. The law in general prohibits the cutting of coconut trees except in the following
cases:

1. When the tree is sixty (60) years old.

2. When the tree is no longer economically productive.
3. When the tree is disease infected.
4. When the tree is damaged by typhoon or lightning.
5. When the agricultural land devoted to coconut production shall have been converted in
accordance with law to residential, commercial or industrial areas.
6. When the land devoted to coconut production should have been converted into other
agricultural uses or other agriculture-related activities pursuant to a conversion duly
applied for by the owner and approved by the proper authorities. The conversion shall be
allowed only if majority of the coconut trees have become senescent and economically
unproductive or where the coconut of geographical location, topography, drainage and
other conditions rendering the farm economically unproductive.

7. When the tree would cause hazard to life and property such as when it poses immediate
threat, danger, or obstruction to:

a. Existing houses, animal dwellings, business establishments;

b. Plazas, playgrounds, promenades, and public places frequented by people;
c. Public roads and highways, rights-of-way, ports, dams, irrigation, and waterways;
d. Electric, telephone, communication lines or installations; and
e. Other properties whose value or use is greater that the coconut trees which pose the
threat, danger or obstruction.

It is noteworthy that the law does not only regulate the cutting of coconut trees. It also requires the
replanting and replenishment of the trees cut. The law provides:

“No permit to cut shall be granted unless the applicant in coordination with the PCA and the local
government concerned has already planted the equivalent number of coconut trees applied for to be
cut… The PCA, in coordination with the local government unit concerned shall regulate and oversee the
planting, fertilization and care of the newly planted coconut trees…”

ENVIRONMENTALLY-CONSTRAINED AREAS

The third group of protected areas pertains to the environmentally-constrained areas.

Environmentally-constrained areas are areas prone to natural hazards, specifically weather,

hydrologic and geologic. This section discusses protection man and the environment from the
negative impacts brought by these natural hazards. The development and use of lands should
consider the limitations posed by these hazards.

Water and Water-Related Hazards. Aside from the occasional flooding due to severe monsoon
weather, the country experiences about 20 tropical cyclones a year. On the average, about eight to
nine of these cyclones annually inflict enormous damage to public and private property, as well as
loss of human lives. Strong winds, excessive rainfall and storm surges are usually experienced
during tropical cyclones.

Tropical Cyclone Winds. Tropical cyclones which reach typhoon intensity I.e., mean wind speed of
over 120 kph, are considered destructive. However, their maximum wind speeds, when they reach
beyond 230 kph, have never been measured accurately since most conventional measuring
instruments in weather observation seldom go beyond this mark. The strongest winds recorded
occurred along the country’s east coast.

Tropical Cyclone Rains. Floods produced by excessive rainfall associated with tropical cyclones are
more destructive than strong winds. Prolonged rainfall due to slow-moving or quasi-stationary
typhoons causes inland floods, ultimately inflicting damage to agricultural crops, public and private
property, disruption of commercial activities and the loss of lives. Heavy rainfall also occurs when a
slow-moving typhoon passes close to the northeast of Luzon. Although not necessarily hitting any
part of the country, it is capable of inducing the moist laden southwest wind flow to produce heavy
rainfall over the western sections of Luzon and Visayas.

Storm Surge. When a tropical cyclone approaches the coastal area, strong onshore winds can cause
a rise of several meters in the sea level. This rise is known as the storm surge. The Philippines, with
its vast coastline, has had several disastrous storm surges in the past.

Drought. Drought, which can also be regarded as a weather-related hazard, occurs when there is
insufficient water to meet requirements for various uses such as irrigation, power generation and
household consumption. Drought may start anytime, last indefinitely and attain various degrees of
severity. It can also occur in any region of the world with impacts ranging from slight personal
inconvenience to problems of national magnitude.

Earthquake-Induced Hazards. The Philippines is a seismically active country, with at least five
earthquakes occurring everyday. The major earthquake generators in the archipelago include the
following: (a) Philippine Trench; (b) East Luzon Trench; (c) Manila Trench; (d) Collisional zone
between Palawan and Mindoro, (e) Negros Trench; (f) Collisional zone between Zamboanga
Peninsula and Western Mindanao; (g) Sulu Trench; (h) Cotabato Trench; (i) Davao Trench: (j)
Philippine Fault Zone and its many branches; and (k) other active faults such as those of Lubang,
Tablas, Casiguran and Mindanao.

The various hazards resulting from earthquakes are ground shaking, ground rupture, liquefaction
and lateral spreading, landslides and tsunami.

Ground Shaking. Most of the destructive effects of earthquakes can be attributed to ground shaking
– the disruption up-down and sideways motion. Severe ground shaking can cause building and
other infrastructure to crack or collapse. The intensity of ground movement during an earthquake,
which is measured as peak ground acceleration, depends on its magnitude, the distance of the area
from the epicenter and those overlain by unconsolidated sediments experience more severe ground
shaking.

Ground Rupture. Also termed as fracture movement and fissuring, this is the creation of old
fractures or cracks on the ground surface. Oftentimes, two blocks on both sides of the rupture move
in opposite directions, either vertically or horizontally or a combination of both. In the cases of the
July 16, 1990 Luzon Earthquake, the damage was very heavy on buildings and infrastructures
straddling the ground rupture while damage was minimal for structures a distance away from the
rupture. Areas prone to ground rupturing would be those transected by active faults.

Liquefaction and Lateral Spreading. Liquefaction is the process by which loose, water-saturated
sediments lose strength and assume the property of a liquid. This occurs during intense ground
shaking and results in the forcible expulsion of water and sediments to the surface in the form of
water and sand fountaining. The subsequent loss in volume and underlying support leads to a
subsidence and tilting of structures on top of the liquefying layer. A related hazard is lateral
spreading, which is the expansion of the ground as it rests on soft and water-saturated layers.
Lateral spreading results in cracking, collapse, subsidence and tilting of buildings, roadways,
bridges or railroad tracks. Areas subject to liquefaction and lateral spreading are those underlain by
loose, water-saturated sediments such as river deltas, riverbanks, marshlands, coastal zones and
reclaimed areas.

Landslides. Strong earthquakes trigger landslides in areas with steep slopes that are overlain by
clayey soil or highly-weathered and/or fractured rocks. In general, areas having the above-
mentioned characteristics and transected b an active fault would be more prone to earthquake-
induced landslides.

Tsunami. Earthquakes that are shallow-seated occurring below the seabed are strong enough, at
least with a magnitude of 7.0, to displace parts of the seabed and disturb the water mass above it.
This generated tsunamis – giant sea waves – that could reach heights several tens of meters above
the normal sea level. Tsunamis have affected some coastal areas in the Philippines. Most of the
earthquake sources are located locally and close to the archipelago but some tsunamis have sources
as far as Alaska in the Pacific Ocean. The areas most vulnerable to tsunami are the southern,
western and eastern coast of the Philippines.

Volcanic Hazards. The Philippines has approximately more than 200 volcanoes which are
distributed in five volcanic belts intimately related to the subduction processes along the trenches
bounding the country. At least 21 volcanoes are considered active and several have erupted in
recent times. The most active volcanoes being monitored closely are Mt. Pinatubo in Central Luzon,
Tall Volcano in Batangas, Mayon Volcano in Albay, Bulusan Volcano in Sorsogon, Canlaon Volcano in
Negros Island, and Hibok-Hibok in Camiguin Island, Mindanao.

Most hazards posed by volcanoes occur during eruptions. The most common include lava flows,
airfall, and pyroclastic flaws. Other dangers during eruptions include earthquakes and fissuring
caused by the force of upward moving magma, tsunamis and water oscillations (seiches) in lakes
caused by earthquakes and water displacements, subsidence due to withdrawal of magma, and
edifice failure in the form of landslide due to too much bulging on one side of the volcano and
accentuated by earthquakes. A common hazard from volcanoes, although not directly associated
with eruptions, is lahar.

Lava-Flow. Lava flow is a stream of molten rocks from a crater or fissure during a relatively quiet
eruption. Lava flows are channeled along gulleys and deposits are usually only confined down to
the midslopes of the volcano. The immediate impacts from lava flows are burial of areas and
bulldozing of structures along path.

Airfall. Airfall is a shower of volcanic debris which affects a wide area. The thickness of airfall
deposits on a particular place directly depends upon the magnitude of the explosive eruption, the
distance from the crater and the geographic location of the area relative to the prevailing winds
during the eruption. Among the impacts from ashfalls would be burial of grounds close to the
crater, roof collapses, health-related side effects especially in the respiratory system, and
interference with air transport operations.

Pyroclastic Flow. This is a turbulent flowing mass of explosively-ejected volcanic materials mixed
with hot gases moving downslope at high speeds, of 60 kph or more. Pyroclastic flows usually
extend down to the middle and basal slopes of the volcano. These flows bury areas along their path.

Lahar. Lahars are flowing mixtures of remobilized volcanic materials and water. These could erode
or bury materials along their path. Although usually indirectly related to eruptions, lahars are more
devastating than the other hazards as they can affect low-lying and populated areas as far as 40 km.
to 50 km. away from the volcano.

Edifice Failure. Edifice failure is the partial collapse of a volcano’s slope in the form of a big
landslide. This is triggered by any of the following: the preferential bulging on one side of the
volcano as magma ascends to the surface; a strong earthquake; an eruption hazard though this is
not common compared with the previously mentioned hazards and has not been historically
recorded among the six active volcanoes being monitored, except in the case of Mayon Volcano
particularly its southeastern slope because of its height and steep slopes.

For disaster-preparedness and planning purposes, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has prepares hazard zonation maps showing areas prone to particular
hazards among the six volcanoes being monitored. An important feature in the hazard zonation
maps is the permanent danger zone. A great risk is involved during an eruption, hence, permanent
settlements are discouraged within this zone. The delineated danger zone radius from the crater
are six km. for Mayon Volcano, the whole Volcano Island for Taal Volcano, four km. for Bulusan
Volcano, 4-5 km. for Canlaon Volcano, and three km. for Hibok-Hibok Volcano. For Mt. Pinatubo, a
10-km. radius danger zone is being applied at present.

Erosion. Erosion is the removal, transport and deposition of sediments. This could be divided into
soil, river and coastal erosion.

Soil Erosion. Soil erosion is the process which involves three events, namely: detachment, transport
and deposition. The major agent of erosion in the Philippines is water especially during heavy
rainfall which results in flooding. During erosion, the topsoil and everything else on the land surface
within the packed energy of the flowing water is carried away. Statistics show that regions suffering
from high rates of erosion are CAR, II, VIII, X, XI, and XII.

Some of the hazardous effect of soil erosion are: (a) deposition areas along waterways, lakes and
reservoirs are rendered shallow and water quality is reduced; (b) continuous erosion renders the
subsoil layer marginally productive to agricultural activities; and (c) sedimentation imperils the
irrigation systems, the water supply and power capacities of reservoirs.

River Erosion. River erosion is a natural, continuous ad generally predictable process in a river
system. It involves abrasion and scouring of stream banks and beds and is a primary process in
bringing changes in the landscape. River erosion is particularly severe during typhoons and storms
when the volume and velocity of flowing water are their highest. Rivers are important and
permanent parts of our landscape and unwise developments along their courses pose serious
problems due to river erosion. Shoreline/streambank erosion is usually caused by the rampant
illegal quarrying along rivers.
Coastal Erosion. Coastal erosion is a natural process rather that a natural hazard. Problems arise
when people build structures along the coastal zones. Coastal erosion is, in general, a continuous,
predictable process and various engineering measures have been applied in attempts to control it.
The causes of coastal erosion include the global rise in sea level; typhoons and severe storms; and
human interference with natural shore processes. The increasing utilization of the coastal zone for
recreation, human settlement and industrial activity, e.g., mining and quarrying makes coastal
erosion a serious national problem. Another problem brought about by coastal erosion is the
destruction of coral reefs, the natural habitat of marine living things, and other marine resources.

Key Issues/Concerns

Disaster preparedness planning and management are inadequately integrated into the overall
planning process. The consideration of natural hazards as constraints in the development seems to
be weak and inadequate both at the national and local levels due to poor implementation of disaster
preparedness measures/policies. In most instances, the government appears reactive and not
proactive in dealing with hazards faced by the country.

Basic Policy Options/Guidelines

A Multi-Hazard Mitigation/Protection Plan should be developed using physical infrastructure and

economic systems in the various regions, and information on the vulnerability of each element at
risk to each of the hazards (earthquake, typhoon and other natural disasters). Protection plans
should be prepared with priority on building database on maximum reduction of threats to life,
structures, and economic production. The government should undertake a full review of methods
and resources needed to implement disaster protection plans to include legal structures, building
permit authorization procedures, staffing levels and skills availability.

Land use allocation should be constrained by the natural hazards. Hazard maps prepared by
PHIVOLCS and PAGASA are considered indicative maps and should serve as quick references for
determining the vulnerability of an area to natural hazards. Those in need of more detailed
information on a particular hazard can refer to concerned government agencies or should initiate
detailed geologic, hydrologic and engineering evaluation subject to established standards. The
government should also intensify and prioritize the identification and delineation of hazard prone
areas.

It should be the policy of the state to give full priority to disaster preparedness management, hence,
agencies involved in the prediction/warning, monitoring, and response system should be
adequately supported (a) to expand their capabilities and expertise in disaster prediction and
monitoring; (b) to provide adequate rescue and relief support to effected people; (c) to rehabilitate
and reconstruct damaged infrastructure and other properties.

OUTDOOR RECREATION IN PROTECTED AREAS

The general policy of “no-touch, no-entry” in protected areas does not preclude the possibility of
putting the protected area, or selected parts of it, under some kind of productive use. The most
readily available type of use for a protected area is for outdoor recreation, with or without tourism.
Some protected area management plans explicitly provide for a recreation zone within the
protected area itself. Even when no specific area is zoned for recreation, however outdoor
recreation activities can be deftly incorporated among the allowed uses of different management
zones. Beneficial use, including opportunities for income generation, by the local community is the
best incentive for them to participate in the protection of the resource.

The following ideas might help the LGUs with protected areas within their territories to plan
outdoor recreation activities for their residents and visitors from their immediate regional areas.

Planning for Outdoor Recreation

The urge to spend leisure time in rural (or at least extra-urban) surrounding creates a demand for
the use of land and water resources as recreational areas. The urge is itself a function of 1)
availability of leisure time, 2) the level of affluence, and 3) the degree of mobility of the population.

Outdoor recreational activities can be distinguished from such nature-divorced activities as

bowling, pool, disco dancing in that they are undertaken in relatively lower degrees of manipulation
of the natural resources and normally require the presence of a “natural” substance like forest, lake,
mountain as an underlying element.

The types of ecosystems which people like to find themselves in during their leisure hours vary
accordingly to taste and availability but popular preferences seem to gravitate around two types of
ecosystems: water and vegetation. The pull of a sandy beach or the presence of an inland lake adds
immeasurably to the value of any recreational area. Also, woods, sands and meadows, provided
they are not inaccessible are very popular. Of course, it is not so much the actual b=nature of the
ecosystem which attracts people as their perception of it.

Classification of Recreation Resources

According to the degree of human interference and the actual or potential intensity of uses
recreational areas can be classified into the following:

1. High-density recreational areas – intensively developed and managed for mass use.

2. General outdoor recreation areas – subject to substantial development for a wide variety of
specific recreation uses.

3. Natural environment areas – various types of areas that are suitable for recreation in a
natural environment and usually in combination with other uses.

4. Unique natural areas – areas of outstanding scenic splendor, natural wonder or scientific
importance.

5. Primitive areas – undisturbed roadless tracks, characterized by natural wild conditions,

including wilderness areas.

6. Historic and cultural sites – sites of major historic or cultural significance either local,
regional or national.

Obviously categories 3, 4, 5 and probably 6 are appropriate in protected areas.

Recreation resources may also be classified according to the characteristics of the users in terms of
the time they use the resource (day, weekend, long vacation) and the physical and ecological
characteristics of the resource especially its degree of wilderness or manipulation away from its
natural state:

1. User-oriented recreation resources – characterized by being so close to homes of the users

as possible. The activities become the most important feature and a great deal of alteration
is acceptable and often necessary to protect the area against the damaging effects of heavy
use.

2. Intermediate-type recreation resources – available to the city dwellers for use on day
outings or weekends, generally larger than the first category, they run from a few hundred
to several thousand hectares. Common activities under this type are camping, picnicking,
hiking, swimming, hunting and fishing. This type of recreation resources involves a lower
degree of manipulation of the natural environment.

3. Resource-based recreation areas – where outstanding resources are found, independently

of the distribution of the population. This may well be some distance from the majority of
users. Common use periods are the long vacations and the activities depend upon the
resources offered. Major sight-seeing is the paramount activity though other interests may
be included. The environment is all important in these designated uses and so human
impact must be minimized except in limited areas where visitor numbers are very high.

Categories 2 and 3 are deemed appropriate for moist protected areas.

Landscape Analysis for Recreation and Tourism

Landscape analysis may have been included as part of the characterization of the protected area in
connection with the preparation of the protected area management plan. Otherwise the LGU or
private proponent will have to conduct landscape evaluation as input to recreation and tourism
planning.

Urban and rural landscapes are sufficiently distinct to merit separate planning approaches.
In urban areas, the visual scale is smaller and more confined so that the aesthetic problems are
mainly architectural, competition for the use of land is more severe, and air pollution is of greater
concern. In rural areas, views are wider, recreational use less intensive and conservation more
concerned with the protection of the landscape against erosion and soil and water pollution.

The terrain in developed urban areas is usually limited to relatively flat areas with slopes ranging
from 3% to 8% to avoid serious drainage problems and the engineering problems encountered in
building in steeper slopes. Land used for roads provide the means for bringing most people into
contact with the countryside. Land near highways are peculiar in that they are usually viewed while
the observer is in motion. The proper alignment of roads must not only avoid traversing important
physiographic obstruction but also take into consideration the scenic value of the “visual corridor”.

Rural or underdeveloped terrain on the other hand, fulfills a variety of practical aesthetic, and
recreational needs which can be classified into three groups:
1. The most intensive is the land use for team sports and children’s group play. Individual
areas may be small but are frequent where population is dense. The land must be flat and
level. It should be well drained so that it can be used even after heavy rain. The soil should
not be too hard and strong nor too soft and dusty.

2. Rural land for educational and scientific purposes includes nature reserves, botanical and
geological collections, arboreta, etc. the dominant concern is not for aesthetics but for well-
being of the plant and animal species involved. Even the strict protection zone of the
protected area can be used for this purpose.

3. More individual and wider ranging forms of sport and recreation require special terrain
conditions in a rural setting. They usually have footpaths for running, rambling, and
picnicking, golf courses, paths and open water for swimming, boating, sailing and fishing.
These recreational land uses depend primarily on the visual and aesthetic qualities of the
landscape. The enjoyment value of a landscape depends on the environment and on the
viewer. Certain general principles, however, can be given about what makes for an
attractive landscape:

a. There must be contrast: light and dark, vertical and horizontal, straight lines and curves,
land with water and sky, etc. there should be no stiff formal angles or undue repetition
of the same elements. Bold abrupt foregrounds have a softening effect on distance.
Curves should generally be gentle and wide.

b. Colors must be in harmonious combination. If colors are arranged in a spectrum:

i. white ii. red iii. orange

ii. yellow v. green vi. blue
iv. indigo viii. violet ix. black

the most harmonious combinations are those between alternate colors (i & iii, iv & vi,
etc.) and when more than one intervening color is jumped the result is quite
unattractive. Each of the three primary colors (red, yellow, blue) will go well with a
combination of the other two , e.g. red and green, purple and yellow, etc.

Attractive physiographic features are usually the following:

a. Hills and mountains give dramatic quality to the scene.

b. Open water is always attractive specially when it is in motion.

c. Coasts are usually attractive and are enhanced by the presence of sandy beaches
and rock pools.

d. Woodland, when penetrable, adds charm to all sceneries.

The physical comfort of the viewer must also be considered. Recreational land should be
dry and well drained so that it does not form puddles or make walking and sitting
unpleasant. Sites should be placed favorably in relation to sun, wind and access routes.
Eco-tourism Development

Eco-tourism may also be undertaken in protected areas. Eco-tourism is defined as a low-impact

environmentally sound and community-participatory tourism activity in a given natural
environment that enhances the conservation of bio-physical and cultural diversity. It promotes
environmental understanding and education, and yields socio-economic benefits to the concerned
community.

Realizing the potential uses of protected areas for eco-tourism promotion, the DENR and the
Department of Tourism issued a Joint Memorandum Circular to provide a general guidelines for
interested parties in developing eco-tourism projects. Guidelines on site and activity considerations
are reproduced below.

Onsite Considerations

1. The area should have unique natural/cultural feature which will provide enjoyment and
educational benefits to visitors.
2. The area should be accessible.
3. The area should have a stable peace and order situation.
4. There must be a highly receptive and cooperative local community.
5. In case of NIPAS areas, eco-tourism sites should be in recreation zones and other
appropriate zones.

On Activity Considerations

Eco-tourism activities must have all of the following attributes:

1. environmentally-sound and low-impact development;

2. with educational value;
3. have community acceptance and participation; and
4. provide social and economic benefits to the concerned community through livelihood
undertakings.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

The growing number of protected areas under NIPAS should not dissuade the LGUs from making
sustainable use of these areas within their territorial jurisdictions. Contrary to popular impressions,
the NIPAS Law is more flexible in its policies than earlier proclamations and laws on national parks
and other reservations. With the management zonation approach in the NIPAS Law, there are
greater opportunities for beneficial use of protected areas provided the regulations in the core
protection zone are strictly observed.
 Annex

CONTENTS OF PA MANAGEMENT PLAN

The contents of the Management Manual shall include the following:

1. Executive Summary

2. Description of the Protected Area

a. Historical background
b. Biogeographic Setting
c. Regional and Local Setting
d. Topography, Geology and Soils
e. Climate
f. Boundaries and the Rationale for their Location
g. Flora and Fauna, habitats, and Ecosystems
h. Human Population and Current Land Use
i. Legal Status and Regulations
j. Current Management Activities and Research
k. Initial Environment Examination Report

3. Issues:
a. Conservation Value
b. Biodiversity Concerns
c. Habitat Rehabilitation Needs
d. Management Constraints
e. Local Interests, Rights and Concerns
f. Development Potential, including Tourism
g. Changes Required in Legal Status

4. Management Plan: This section will draw upon the background and issues to justify the
goals, objectives, strategy and management activities to be used.
a. Goals – long term
b. Objectives – to be achieved within the life of the project or plan, quantifiable to the
extent possible.
c. Key Management Issues
d. Site Management Strategy – the plan that will integrate management activities to meet
the objectives.
e. Management Activities – an overall strategy is needed as well as zone specific strategies
and management activities. Buffer zones shall be treated as an integral part of the
protected area when planning.
i. community organization
ii. ancestral domain rights
iii. tenure for tenured residents of protected area and buffer zone
iv. boundary demarcation
v. management zone boundaries and the rationale for each
vi. protection program
- by wardens
- by the community
vii. habitat rehabilitation
 viii. habitat management
ix. sustainable use
x. infrastructure including maintenance
xi. visitor program and accommodations
xii. specific management plans for each management zone, including buffer zones.

5. Bio-inventory and Research Program

6. Special Studies

7. Monitoring and Evaluation

8. Management Information Data Base Development

9. Administration
a. Staffing
b. Work Program
c. Budget

10. Annexes
a. Maps (1:50,000), pictures, aerial photographs
b. Species lists, etc.
c. References
 CHAPTER 7
LAND USE PLANNING IN ANCESTRAL DOMAINS

Ancestral domains comprise the third territorial matrix upon which land use planning can take
root in the Philippines. Being the latest among the property domains to be recognized (only in
formal terms because in reality, it is the oldest), the ancestral domains will not be an easy host
for land use planning to establish. There are technical, conceptual and other difficulties that
must be overcome.

A major difficulty is how to delineate the boundaries of an ancestral domain. The concept of
domain as a social perpetual space cannot be easily translated into geodetic coordinates. But
even when the metes and bounds are finally delineated, the boundary lines will necessarily
traverse areas that are already allotted to one or other government agency or administrative
level. Because the law excludes from consideration lands that are already in private ownership,
the ancestral domains will most likely be taken out from existing public domain lands, mostly
under the different bureaus of the DENR. To a limited degree, the departments of Agriculture
and Agrarian Reform will also be affected because some areas that are under their
responsibility may one day be identified as forming part of an ancestral domain. But most of all,
local governments at all levels – barangay, municipality/city, and province – will be involved
because no area of land in the national territory is outside the territorial jurisdiction of a local
government unit.

The resolution of tenurial and territorial conflicts will be left to the concerned agencies. In this
chapter we shall focus on the ancestral domain development and protection plan (ADSDPP) that
will serve as the guide for proper management of resources and for the regulation of all future
actions in the ancestral domain. Our main objective is to outline in broad strokes the
substantive and methodological implications of the general guidelines for the preparation and
adoption of the ADSDPP as embodied in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the
Indigenous People’s Rights Act (RA 8371) or IPRA. Whatever discussions in this chapter will at
best serve as general “considerations” for the appropriate agencies interested in assisting the
indigenous peoples to prepare their management plans. Of particular interest in this chapter is
how to relate the ADSDPP to the CLUP of host municipalities or cities or to the PPFP of host
provinces as the case may be.

The discussion on methodologies shall take off from the experience of the Cordillera Regional
Office of the National Council on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) who attempted to prepare a process
guide and applied it in the field. The other parts of the chapter consist of background materials
to help us understand the complexities and peculiar characteristics of the indigenous peoples,
especially when experienced vicariously.

Another source of difficulty is the need to recognize and incorporate the customary laws and
protect the cultural integrity of the IPs. This in addition to guaranteeing that the IPs benefit
equally with other members of the Filipino population from the rights and opportunities
granted by existing national laws. The implication is that planning in ancestral domains is much
more complicated and challenging than in the other territorial domains.

CHARACTERIZING THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

The Indigenous Peoples Defined

“Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples” (ICCs/IPs) refers to a group of people

or homogeneous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have
continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined territory, and
who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized
such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive
cultural traits, or colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, become historically
differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs likewise include peoples who are
regarded as indigenous on account of their descent conquest or colonization, or at time of
inroads of non-indigenous who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and
political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who
may have resettled outside their ancestral domains.”

Geographic Distribution of IPs

Philippine indigenous peoples inhabit the interiors and mountains of Luzon. Mindanao,
Mindoro, Negros, Samar, and the Palawan and Sulu group of islands. They are composed of 110
tribes and are geographically distributed as follows:

1. Cordillera Administrative Region – Kankana-ey, Ibaloi, Bontoc, Tinggian or Itneg, Ifugao,

Kalinga, and Yapayao.

2. Region I – Aeta or Agta or Pugot, and Bago of Ilocos Norte and Pangasinan

3. Region II – Ibanag of Isabela and Cagayan; Ilongot of Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya; Itawis
of Cagayan; Ivatan of Batanes; and Aeta of Cagayan, Quirino and Isabela.

4. Region III – Aeta of Zambales and Tarlac; Dumagat and Remontado of Aurora.

5. Region IV – Dumagat of Rizal; Remontado of Rizal and Quezon; Alangan or Mangyan,

Batangan, Buid or Buhid, Hanunuo and Iraya of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro;
Tadyawan of Occidental Mindoro; Cuyonon, Palawanon, Tagbanua and Tao’t bato of
Palawan.

6. Region V – Aeta of Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur; Aeta-Abiyan, Isarog, and
Kabihug of Camarines Norte; Agta, and Mayon of Camarines Sur; Itom of Albay; Cimaron
of Sorsogon; and the Pullon of Masbate and Camarines Sur.

7. Region VI – Ati of Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Antique, and Capiz; the Magahat of Negros
Occidental; the Corolano and Sulod.

8. Region VII – Magahat of Negros Oriental and Eskaya of Bohol.

9. Region VIII - none.

10. Region IX – Badjao and Subanon in Zamboanga del Sur and Sibugay.

11. Region X – Banwaon, Matigsalog, Talaanding and Umayamnon of Bukidnon; the

Camiguin of Camiguin Island; Higa-unon of Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental; and
Maranao of Lanao del Norte.

12. Region XI – Dibabaon and Mansaka of Davao del Norte; B’laan, Kalagan, Langilad, T’boli
and Talingod of Davao del Sur; Mandaya of Davao Oriental; Bagobo of Davao del Sur;
Mangguangon of Davao; and Matigsalog of Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur.

13. Region XII – Manobo Blit of South Cotabato; Tagkaolo, Tasaday, and Ubo of South
Cotabato; and Bagobo of South Cotabato.
 14. Region XIII – Higa-unon of Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur; Tigwahanon of Agusan
del Sur; Manobo and Umayamnon of both Agusan provinces.

15. ARMM – Illianen and Tiruray in Maguindanao; Maranao in Lanao del Sur; Tausug in Sulu;
Yakan, Samal and Iranon in Tawi-tawi; and Kalibugan in Basilan.

Population Estimate

Just how large is the IP population?

It is difficult to make an estimate of the IP population with any degree of accuracy because of the
absence of explicit reports from the National Statistics Office. Secondly, the delineation of
ancestral domains has not been adopted as census tracts. Also, the absence of regular tracking
or time-series data on each ethnic group renders extremely difficult any meaningful
demographic analysis of the growth rate, age-sex structure, and the other characteristics of each
ethnic group.

The following figures are the latest estimates compiled by the NCIP from the combined reports
of the Office for Northern Cultural Communities (ONCC) and the Office for Southern Cultural
Communities (OSCC) in 1996+. Form these lump-sum figures we can make some general
statements. For example, the IPs constitute close to one-fifth (17%) of the total population of
the Philippines. Over three-fifths (61%) of the IPs are residents of Mindanao; one-third (33%)
are found in Luzon; and only 6 percent in the Visayas. (see Table 71.)

Table 7.1
REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
1995
Region Estimated Population
Cordillera Administrative Region 1,252,962
Region 1 - Ilocos Region 1,039,447
Region 2 - Cagayan Valley 1,014,955
Region 3 - Central Luzon 227,675
Region 4 - Southern Luzon 717,122
Region 5 - Bicol Region 185,488
Region 6 - West Visayas 145,959
Region 7 - Central Visayas 29,150
Region 8 - East Visayas 0
Region 9 - Western Mindanao 1,137,197
Region 10 - Northern Mindanao 1,444,503
Region 11 - Southern Mindanao 2,539,767
Region 12 - Central Mindanao 855,760
Caraga - Northeastern Mindanao 874,456
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) 313,749
Total 11,778,190
Source of basic data: National Council for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Combined 1996
Annual Reports of the ONCC and OSCC

Land Area Coverage

The total land area comprising the ancestral domains is estimated at 4.83 million hectares or
roughly 17 percent of the total land area of the Philippines. Out of this total area, some
2,532,000 ha have been issued with certificates of ancestral domain claims (CADC) by the DENR
from 1994 to 1998, numbering 181 certificates. The remaining 2,298,000 hectares representing
100 new claims are pending survey and delineation with the NCIP.

Brief History of Philippine IPs

To understand how Philippine IPs came to be distinct and differentiated from the majority of
the Filipinos both in terms of peculiar customs and traditions, social and cultural traits as well
as in terms of geographical and ecological habitat, let us take a glimpse of their history.

How the IPs came to live in hard-to-reach hinterlands can be explained can be explained in
conjectural and historical terms. The conjectural explanation has to do with the migration wave
theory proposed by H. Otley Beyer. According to the theory, “waves” of migrants came into the
Philippines at various times from various points in Asia. The earliest migrants were said to have
used the land bridges that were believed to connect the archipelago to mainland Asia within the
past 50,000 years or during the Upper Pleistocene. They were probably hunters from central
Asia chasing large mammals like elephants and buffalo. When the land bridges submerged due
to global warming and melting of polar ice caps the Philippines became isolated and the next
waved of migrants had to move by water. Riding on dugout canoes or plank-built boats the next
migrants began coming in about 7,000 years ago. Unlike the first waves, the later ones carried
with them vastly improved stone technology and incipient knowledge of agriculture. They were
the great seafarers who ha first settled along the coastal areas and whose descendants were
later move on the Pacific islands. The later migrants came from China, Vietnam, Borneo and
Celebes. Some (Proto-Malays) carried blowguns, bows and arrows; others (Northern Malays)
introduced bronze and the technology for rice terraces; still others (Southern Malays) were
blacksmiths, weavers, and potters.

As summarized by Beyer, migration waves started with the Java Man, and then the “little
people” (Australoid Sakai, Negritos, and Proto-Malays), followed by two waves of Indonesians
(Type A and Type B) with a smaller wave of Papuans, who were succeeded in turn by separate
Northern and Southern Malays, and finally the Jar Burial People.

Later anthropologist no longer accept Beyer’s theory and geologist doubt the existence of the
land bridges. Students of Philippine pre-history however, recognize the continuous movement
of people from island to island but they believe that such moves did not come in waves but in
small groups of settlers or traders. Both sets of conjectures explain how the Philippines came to
be populated. However, they fail to account for the internal geographical distribution of the pre-
historic (or pre-colonial) population. For this latter information we find Robert R. Reed’s
characterization of indigenous settlements patterns quite enlightening.

Reed found the spatial patterns of pre-colonial settlements as the outcome of ecological
adaptations of the early inhabitants to the peculiar topography of the Philippine archipelago.
Although fragmented into several thousands of islets and coral rocks, the dozen or so largest
islands exhibit a common geographical framework comprising of a mountainous spine flanked
by zones of rolling uplands and foothills, narrow alluvial plains parallel to the coasts, and short
river valleys. Over this topographic framework is a climate regime characterized by an almost
uniform temperature due to the combined effect of warm-sea insularity and low latitudinal
location. Climate variations between areas are due mainly to differences in elevation and
amount of precipitation.

The manner in which the early inhabitants adapted to these ecological conditions depended
largely on the level of technology that have acquired or developed for meeting their food and
other survival needs. Thus, Reed distinguished three patterns of adaptation as witnessed by the
early Spanish explorers. These were represented by the Negrito hunter gatherer who inhabited
the densely forested cores of the islands, the sedentary rice farming Malays whose small
settlements were scattered along the coasts in the lowlands; and a transitional type of
adaptation which combines some hunting from the Negritos and some farming from the Malays.
The geographical areas of preference of this third group are the mountain plateaus and near the
headwaters of rivers.

The Negrito hunter gatherers “do not sow seeds or gather harvests; but with their women and
children they wander half naked, over the mountains like beasts”, as described by Francisco
Combes. They inhabited heavily forested mountains but did not establish permanent
settlements. They considered inland interiors their own territorial preserve and violently
opposed any intruders. Due to their small number and low level of technology they did not
cause any significant modification of their habitat.

For their part, the coastal and lowland Malays lived in small settlements along the coasts and
lowlands. They “dwelt on the plains, and gad a more orderly mode of life, sowing grain and
gathering enough for their support”, according to Augustinian priest Antonio Mozo. The Malays
feared wandering into the Negritos’ domain but their mutual hostility was transcended by their
need to trade, for the produce of one was desperately needed by the other.

Wherever they may have found themselves, whether in plains, coasts, or hinterlands, the early
Filipinos evolved an essentially homogeneous culture, a way of life that was largely dependent
on nature. Community life then, Corpuz believes, was influenced by, and responded to, common
ecology. The generally benign tropical climate and the largely uniform flora and fauna favored
similarities, not differences. Life was essentially subsistence but not harsh.

The third group was called tingues by Francisco Colin. Colin describes the tingues as living in
moderately rugged areas such as mountain plateaus and river headwaters. Here they practiced
a combination of hunting and fishing and swidden agriculture. Like their shifting agriculture,
their settlements were also semi-permanent. They lived in a small kinship groups and were
relatively secure in their adequate territory for long rotational fallows and a balanced swidden
ecosystem.

Among the three groups of native inhabitants, it was the lowland and coastal Malays engaged in
sedentary agriculture who got into direct contact with foreign culture and succumbed to
acculturation more easily than the Negritos and the tingues. The first foreign cultural inroad
came with the introduction of Islam during the 13th century. Islam was first introduced to the
Maguindanaoans of Cotabato and the Tausug in Sulu. Later Islam spread from Cotabato to the
Maranaos in Lanao and from Sulu it reached the Sama, Yakan and Subanon of Tawi-tawi,
Zamboanga, Basilan, and Palawan. By the time the Spaniards came almost three centuries later,
Islam had spread to the Visayas and Luzon and as well.

When the Spaniards started to settle in the Philippines in 1565 they found the scattered
settlements of the natives a hindrance to their missionary and other objectives. The first task
they set to do was to gather all the natives together in compact settlements called pueblos or
towns. Through a policy of reduccion, literally, of reducing the number of scattered settlements,
they were able to reach out the natives more easily. The responsibility for carrying out the
reduction was given to the Spanish friars who made the church and convent the center of
pueblo life. All natives, whether new converts or unbaptized were invited to build their homes
around the church, the easier for them to receive religious instruction. The reduction was a
device to make the Filipinos low-abiding citizens of the Spanish culture and civilization.

The Moros or those who had embraced Islam resisted Spanish rule and Christianity. The
Negritos and the tingues were at least reluctant and at worst hostile to the Spanish overtures.
The Spaniards accordingly classified the natives into Indios, Moros, and infieles. The Indios
were the Christianized natives and were a more favored class the other two. The Indios
generally came from the lowlands. The Moros were subsequently driven out of Manila and the
Visayas to Mindanao. The infieles or indigenous communities remained in, or were driven to the
hinterland. Because of the difficulty of getting access to the uplands the Spaniards did not
pursue the infieles into the deep interiors. Being placed outside the immediate concern of the
Spaniards, the infieles enjoyed relative security and the opportunity to preserve their own
culture. They even succeeded in thwarting the efforts of the missionaries to convert them to
Christianity. Thus they were able to separate themselves physically from the newly-evolved
Christian community. Given the bias of the Spanish colonialists in favor of the Christianized
Indios, a mutual feeling of suspicion, fear, and hostility was developed between the Christians
on one hand, and the non-Christians on the other.

The Americans, in their time, continued the Spanish policy of assimilation or integration. They
classified the Filipinos into two groups: Christian and non-Christian. Non-Christian Filipinos
were the “natives of the Philippine Islands of a low grade of civilization, usually living in a tribal
relationship apart from settled communities.”

Using their experience with the American Indians, the Americans adopted a general policy of
allowing the non-Christian Filipinos to maintain their tribal organization and government
should they find themselves unable or unwilling to accept American tutelage. Such tribal
governments, however, were subjected to firm regulation and were prevented from exercising
‘barbarous’ practices but were instead introduced to ‘civilized’ customs.

The Americans created a government office to implement their policy of assimilation. The
Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes (BNCT) was created under Act. No. 253 in 1903 with a mandate
to “conduct ethnographic research among unhispanized Filipinos, including those in Muslim
Mindanao, to determine the most practicable means for bringing about their advancement in
civilization and prosperity.” The BNCT was able to produce a wealth of anthropological studies.

It is noteworthy that the 1935 Constitution did not contain any policy on the non-Christian
Filipinos. In spite of this seemingly oversight, the Philippine Congress passed R.A. 1888 in 1957
that sought to preserve the policy of integrating the indigenous peoples into the mainstream of
Philippine society. The law created the Commission on National Integration (CNI) to carry out
programs of integration. The law replaced the term non-Christian Filipinos to “natural cultural
minorities”. But the integration policy met with fierce resistance because it was being pushed
with an air of condescension promoting a guardian-ward relationship. But what dealt a fatal
blow integration was the whole displacement of non-Christian settlers from Luzon and Visayas
after the Second World War. Using their knowledge of the Public Land Act and the Torrens
titling system, Christian settlers, aided by the government, succeeded in acquiring in their
names many ancestral lands.

The 1973 Constitution is, in many ways, watershed of social reform. It was this Constitution, for
example, that carried for the first time a provision on the cultural minorities which it changed to
‘cultural communities’:

“The State shall consider the customs, traditions, beliefs, and interests of national cultural
communities in the formulation and implementation of State policies.”

The 1973 Constitution was however, implemented by the authoritarian government of

President Marcos who abolished the CNI and replaced it with the Presidential Adviser on
National Minorities (PANAMIN). Under the PANAMIN the official policy was full integration of
ethnic groups who wished to preserve their original lifeways side by side with the larger
community. Integration was to be voluntary. In practice, however, PNANAMIN engaged in
forced resettlement into reservations, militarization, and intimidation especially in Mindanao.
President Marcos also issued a decree which aimed to issue land occupancy certificates to the
national cultural communities. The law set a period of 10 years within which IPs were to
register their land claims. Because of the government’s failure to prepare the implementing
rules and regulations of the decree, however, no land occupancy certificates were issued. Worse,
their IPs were losing their ancestral lands to huge government projects such as hydro-electric
power dams, palm oil and sugar plantations, and projects of Marcos cronies like timber
concessions, mining and cattle ranching. The IPs were not only evicted from their ancestral
domains but they also saw the reduction and destruction of their natural environment.

Thus a bad government or its hypocritical leadership has made a mockery of the noble
intentions of the Constitution. In this particular case the poor IPs turned out to be the victims.
The plight of the IPs in the hands of the majority-controlled government is summarized by
Senator Juan M. Flavier in the following quote:

“The Indigenous Cultural Communities, including the Bangsa Moro, have long suffered from the
dominance and neglect of government controlled by the majority. Massive migration of their
Christian brothers to their homeland shrunk their territory and many of the tribal Filipinos were
pushed to the hinterlands. Resisting the intrusion, dispossessed of their ancestral land and with
the massive exploitation of their natural resources by the elite among the migrant population, they
became marginalized. And the government has been an indispensable party to this insidious
conspiracy against the Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs). It organized and supported the
resettlement of the people to their ancestral land, which was massive during the Commonwealth
and early years of the Philippine Republic. Pursuant to the Regalian Doctrine first introduced to
our system by Spain through the Royal Decree of 13 February 1894 or the Maura Law, the
government passed laws to legitimize the wholesale landgrabbing and provide for easy titling or
grant of lands to migrant homesteaders within the traditional areas of the ICCs.”

The Aquino government that took over in 1986 is described by some observers as the period of
recovery of the democratic space that was lost under Marcos. Relative to the issue of indigenous
peoples Aquino took a reverse position from the policy of integration to one of preservation. To
give more focused attention to matters pertaining to the IPs, Aquino created three offices: 1) the
Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA), 2) the Office of Northern Cultural Communities (ONCC), and 3)
the Office of Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC). It was also during the Aquino government
that the 1987 Constitution was formulated and ratified.

The 1987 Constitution went further than the 1973 Constitution in that the former expressly
guarantees the rights of tribal Filipinos to their ancestral domains and ancestral lands. By
recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral domains and lands, the State has
in effect committed itself to promote and preserve their way of life.

It took ten years before this recognition was formally put into effect in the form of a specific law:
The Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 (RA 8371) or IPRA for short.

THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S RIGHT ACT

The IPRA was passed by the Tenth Congress of the Philippines on October 29, 1997. It is the
consolidation of two bills: Senate Bill No. 1728 and House Bill No. 9125. Its implementing rules
and regulations were approved on June 9, 1998. To implement the provisions of the law the
National Council for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) was created. The new body abolished the
functions of the ONCC and the OSCC. The law also adopted the term “indigenous cultural
communities” (ICC) and/or the generic term “indigenous peoples” (IP). The use of the
internationally current terminology aligns the Philippines with the international agenda for the
protection of human rights and the environment.

IP Representation

To ensure proper representation of the IPs in the NCIP, the law provides for the position of
seven (7) commissioners, one of whom shall be the Chairperson and at least two (2) of the
commissioners shall be women. One commissioner shall represent each of the following
ethnographic regions:
Region I - The existing administrative Region 1 and the Cordilleras

Region II - The present administrative Region 2

Region III - The rest of Luzon

Region IV - Island Groups including Mindoro, Palawan, Romblon, Panay, and the rest
of
the Visayas

Region V - Northern and Western Mindanao

Region VI - Central Mindanao

IP’s Rights to Ancestral Domains/Lands

The most important feature of the IPRA is the recognition, promotion and protection of the
rights of the IPs to their ancestral domains and ancestral lands. As defined in the law:

Ancestral Domains refers to all areas generally belonging to ICCs/IPs comprising lands, inland
waters, coastal areas, and natural resources therein, held under a claim of ownership, occupied
or possessed by ICCs/IPs by themselves or through their ancestors, communally or individually
since time immemorial, continuously to the present except when interrupted by war, force
majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth or as a consequence of government projects or
any other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private individuals/corporations,
and which are necessary to ensure their economic, social and cultural welfare. It shall include
ancestral lands, forest, pasture, residential, agricultural, and other lands individually owned
whether alienable and disposable or otherwise, hunting grounds, burial grounds, worship areas,
bodies of water, mineral and other natural resources, and lands which may no longer be
exclusively occupied by ICCs/IPs but which they traditionally had access to for their subsistence
and traditional activities, particularly by the home ranges of ICCs/IPs who are still nomadic
and/or shifting cultivators.

Ancestral Lands refers to land occupied, possessed and utilized by individuals, families and clans
who are members of the ICCs/IPs since time immemorial, by themselves or through their
predecessors-in-interest, under claims of individual or traditional group of ownership,
continuously, to the present except when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by
force, deceit, stealth, or as a consequence of government projects and other voluntary dealings
entered into by government and private individuals/corporations, including, but not limited to,
residential lots, rice terraces or paddies, private forests, swidden farms and tree lots.

Rights to Ancestral Domains. The rights of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains include:

1. Right to ownership
2. Right to develop lands and natural resources
3. Right to stay in the territories
4. Right to be resettled in case of displacement
5. Right to regulate the entry of migrants
6. Right to safe and clean air and water
7. Right to claim parts of reservations
8. Right to resolve conflicts
Rights to Ancestral Lands. The right of ownership and possession of the ICCs/IPs to their
ancestral lands includes:

1. The right to transfer land/property in accordance with their customary laws and
traditions.

2. The right to redeem their land/property that had been transferred to a non-member of
the concerned ICC/IP under any form of unacceptable terms and conditions, within
fifteen (15) years from the date of transfer.

Responsibilities of IPs. The law does not only recognize the rights but also enumerates the
responsibilities of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains, as follows:

1. Maintain ecological balance, that is to preserve, restore and maintain a balanced ecology
in the ancestral domain by protecting the flora and fauna, watershed areas, and other
reserves.

2. Restore denuded area – to actively initiate, undertake and participate in the

reforestation of denuded areas and other development programs and projects subject to
just and reasonable remuneration.

3. To observe and comply with the provisions of the IPRA and the rules and regulations for
its effective implementation.

Rights to develop lands and natural resources include the following specific activities and
entitlements:

1. The right to develop, control and use lands and territories traditionally occupied.

2. The right to manage and conserve natural resources within the territories and uphold
the responsibilities for future generations.

3. The right to benefit and share the profits from the allocation and utilization of natural
resources found therein.

4. The right to negotiate the terms and conditions for the exploration of natural resources
for the purpose of ensuring environmental protection and conservation, pursuant to
national and customary laws.

5. The right to an informed and intelligent participation in the formulation and

implementation of the any project, government or private, that will affect or impact on
the ancestral domains and to received just and fair compensation for any changes which
they may sustain as a result of the project.

6. The right to effective measures by the government to prevent any interference with,
alienation from, and encroachment upon these rights.

THE ANCESTRAL DOMAIN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION PLAN

An essential guide to the effective enjoyment of the rights and proper exercise of the
responsibilities of the ICCs/IPs is the area management plan. This plan is called the “Ancestral
Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan” (ADSDPP).
It may be noted that prior to the enactment of RA 8371 in 1997 the responsibility of carrying
out the Constitutional provisions on IPs was initially assumed by the DENR. On the strength of
an administrative order the DENR undertook the identification, delineation and recognition of
ancestral land/domain claims. Accordingly from 1994 to 1998 the DENR was able to issue 181
Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC) covering an estimated 2.5 million hectares.
After the issuances of CADCs the DENR also assisted the IPs in the preparation of their ancestral
domain management plans (ADMP). A Provincial Special Task Force on Ancestral Domains was
created from the staff of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO)
specifically for the purpose of carrying out the order. The Task Force, together with local
cultural community offices and agencies, concerned LGUs, non-government and people’s
organizations assisted the IPs in the preparation of their AMDPs. The AMDP was regarded as a
comprehensive management plan for the ancestral domain considering indigenous land use and
tenurial systems as well as customary laws, beliefs and traditional practices of the community.
The AMDP sought to address the following considerations:

1. indigenous community in the protection, conservation, development and exploitation of

natural resources in the area;

2. protection and maintenance of the indigenous community rights over livelihood

sources;

3. provision of supplemental sources of livelihood;

4. preventing encroachment of the domain by outsiders;

5. treatment and participation of non-ICC members inside the ancestral domain;

6. prevention of degradation of domain and maintenance of ecological balance therein;

7. resolution of overlapping claims and boundary conflicts;

8. maintenance of the community’s indigenous socio-cultural and spiritual integrity;

9. rehabilitation of denuded forest areas;

10. provision of needed technical and financial assistance;

11. inter-agency participation; and

12. census of ICC population inside the ancestral domain.

In the wake of the enactment of RA 8371 and the issuance of its IRR, the ADMP has been
changed to the ADSDPP. Probably there is no essential difference between these two plans but
this should be determined in future comparative studies. To date the NCIP has not yet issued
guidelines for the preparation of the ADSDPP. We shall rely therefore on the guidelines
prepared by the Cordillera regional office of the NCIP based on the experiences of the IP
communities that had attempted to prepare their own ADSDPPs, mostly under the DENR
guidelines but incorporating the new provisions of the IPRA and its IRR. Free editing was
supplied by the author for contextual and internal consistency.

THE ADSDPP PROCESS

The Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP) preparation
hinges on the right of the ICCs/IPs to freely pursue their economic, social, political and cultural
activities. The plan is based on the people’s indigenous knowledge systems and practices and on
the principle of self-determination. It serves as the basis of the Five-Year Master Plan defined
under the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 8371. (Sec. 8, Part II, Rule VIII).

The content of the ADSDPP

According to Section 2 Rule VII, the ADSDPP shall contain the following basic information:

1. Manner by which the ICCs/IPs will protect the domain;

2. Kind or type of development programs adopted and decided by the ICC/IPs, /in relation
to livelihood, education, infrastructure, self-governance, environment, natural
resources, culture and other practical development aspects;

3. Basic community policies covering the implementation of all forms of development

aspects; and

4. Basic management system, including the sharing of benefits and responsibilities among
members of the concerned ICC/IP community.

As applied in the Cordilleras, adaptations to these basic contents in the form of concepts,
guiding principles, and approaches to planning were introduced as described below.

Development concepts

Development concepts derived from dialogues and consultations conducted with community
members by the non-government organizations that had worked with the people in ancestral
domains are as follows:

1. The ancestral domain sustainable development and protection plan (ADSDPP) is holistic
and integrated. It ensures sustainable economic, political, cultural and
environmental/ecological balance and calls for the convergence of all the services by
government and non-government agencies.

2. The outcome of the implementation of the ADSDPP programs and projects should be the
development of the indigenous peoples.

3. The goals of the ADSDPP shall be sustainable natural resource management, sustainable
farming systems, cultural integrity; self-determination and lasting peace with nature,
environment and among all of creation.

4. The overall approach to the ADSDPP shall promote the integration of the indigenous
people’s spirituality as the life force that generates unity, harmony, integrity of all
people and their cultures, into all phases of the ancestral domain programs.

Guiding principles

The formulation of programs, projects and activities shall be guided by the following principles:

1. System-oriented and integrated approach.

2. Integration of gender concerns in development.

 3. Interface of indigenous customary laws and indigenous knowledge systems and
practices (IKSP) with the present system of governance.

4. A concern for meeting the needs of present and future generations.

5. Awareness of limits in the carrying capacity of ecosystems.

6. Maintenance and strengthening of vital ecosystem functions in the development process

7. A concern for resource use efficiency

8. Recognition that poverty is both a cause and a consequence of environmental

degradation

9. Concern for equity in access to an control of natural resources

10. Promotion of citizen’s/people’s participation and decentralization in implementing

programs.

Steps in the ADSDPP Preparation

The following procedure of preparing the ADSDPP combines the legal requirements and the
actual experiences of communities that had prepared their Ancestral Domain Resources
Management Plan (ADORMP) under DENR – DAO No. 34 – 96, as well as Rule VII and Rule VCIII
of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of R.A. 8371.

Information Dissemination

Under Rule VIII, Section 3, information dissemination involves the conduct of intensive
information campaign on the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) among the community
members through an authorized NGO or PO engaged by NCIP.

Another important activity before the preparation of the plan is a leveling-off of understanding
among key leaders of the community about the objectives, contents, and schedule of the
planning.

Information Dissemination Activities

The primary entities involved in planning are key leaders in the community such as respected
elders, LGU officials, peace pact holders in bodong areas, and sectoral representatives from
women, youth, church, business, academe, heads of socio-civic organizations, etc. their support,
contribution and participation are essential in producing the plan. Therefore, a thorough
discussion and orientation about the plan should be held during a meeting called for the
purpose together with the local lead group and assisting partner agencies.

During the meeting, community members and local lead groups or NGO partners should arrive
at a common understanding of the nature and purpose of the ADSDP and of the planning
process.

In addition to the IPRA, the following topics are discussed during the information dissemination
campaign:

1. Development concepts for an ancestral domain community.

 2. Guiding principles of the framework for community development, activities, programs
and projects.

3. Components of a development plan for the ancestral domain.

4. Objectives of the Plan. Aside from the requirements of the law, the ADSDPP has the
following objectives:

a. To ensure the sustainable utilization of the Indigenous People’s ancestral domain

resources such as forests, croplands, freshwater, etc.;

b. To maintain and protect

i. the quality of common resources such as air and water in the communities;

ii. the environment and biological species and genetic diversity in the natural
resources as in the forest and water; and

iii. the integrity of essential ecological processes and life-support systems.

c. To develop public awareness of the interdependence between environmental

quality and economic productivity and in the process, create strong constituency for
environmental protection.

d. The ADSDPP should fill felt needs by the communities and their articulation of these
needs is crucial before nay planning process is started.

The objective can be clarified by describing what the plan should not be such as in the following
cases:

1. The ADSDPP should not be treated as a package for sale to the highest bidders. Though
the need for raising resources for the plan’s implementation is legitimate, the
satisfaction of donor requirements should not be made the primary consideration.

2. The ADSDPP should not be made an imposition by external entities.

The main features and description of the ADSDPP

1. The plan should be built upon existing resources including indigenous knowledge
systems, practices and traditional institutions. It must tap and utilize indigenous
knowledge systems and processes in the whole process of resource conservation and
development. It respects these indigenous knowledge systems and takes these into
consideration in preparing the plan, and in its implementation, and monitoring.

2. The plan should be simple and practicable. It considers the feasibility of its
implementation according to the present resources of the community and possibilities
of outside support. A project is feasible if it provides a clear direction for its
implementation or it conforms with existing practices making possible its
implementation at the level of the people.

3. The plan should be responsive to the needs and aspirations of the communities. An
initial situational analysis before the planning stage would reveal the needs and
aspirations of the people. To be able to respond to such needs should be prepared by the
people themselves because they ensure that their needs are met. They can identify the
priority development projects or programs.
 4. The plan should be based on facts and figures. One basic information required
preparation before preparation of the plan is the socio-economic profile of the
community. Such profile provides facts and figures through the years which can be used
as basis for planning.

5. The plan should be based on community analysis. This feature highlights the integral
role of community members in planning. The preparation of the plan involves the people
in each step and ensures that their analysis of the situation, problems, and solutions are
articulated and integrated.

6. The plan could be written in the vernacular. This helps facilitate the community’s access
to the contents of the plan and makes it readily available for their use.

After the seminar and planning-workshop, an initial draft of the ADSDPP of each barangay
should have been prepared.

Organizational structures for the ADSDPP preparation

A multi-sectoral group can be formed to assist the local lead group prepare the ADSDPP called
the Technical Working Group (TWG). This team spearheads the technical preparation of the
ADSDPP.

Members to the TWG can be identified during the first orientation meeting. When those
identified during the first orientation, the community can formalize their involvement through a
resolution and identify their tasks.

The topics discussed during the orientation with key leaders should be discussed again to level
off understanding among members of the Municipal and Barangay Technical Working Group,
local lead group, NCIP and the NGO partner.

The TWGs are of two level: municipal wide and barangay-based. The barangay-based TWGs
composed the municipal TWG. The TWG can be composed of representatives from the tribal
leaders, women sector, youth, peace pact holders, heads of line agencies, barangay and
municipal officials.

The roles and functions of the members are clarified. The local Chief Executive serves as the
Chairperson of the TWG while the Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO) is the
main secretariat. The local lead group helps coordinate activities. The barangay TWG leads in
data gathering (primary and secondary) and the preparation of barangay plans.

After forming and clarifying the roles of the Barangays and Municipal Technical Working Group,
their next task is to plan the conduct of the ADSDPP Planning Seminar-Workshop.

The General Planning Process

The technical process involved in the ADSDPP plan preparation may involve the following
sequential steps:

I. Baseline survey
II. Development needs assessment
III. Formulation of the ADSDPP
IV. Validation of the plan
V. Submission of the ADSDPP to NCIP
VI. Submission of the ADSDPP to the LGU
VII. Dissemination of the ADSDPP

I. Baseline Survey (Sec. 3, h)

The Council of Elders/Leaders, with the assistance of the NCIP, shall conduct a participatory
baseline survey of the ancestral domain focusing on the existing population, natural
resources, development, development projects, land use, source of livelihood, income and
employment, education and other concerns. For the purpose of baseline survey, the NCIP
may engage the services of an authorized NGO or PO.

Among the functions of the Municipal and Barangay TWG include baseline survey. Each
Barangay TWG takes charge of the survey in their respective barangays while the Municipal
TWG consolidates the outputs.

II. Development Needs Assessment and Goal Formulation (Rule VIII, Sec. 3,c)

The Council of Elders/Leaders, with the assistance of the NCIP, shall conduct a workshop in
every village within the ancestral domain to determine the will of the community members
regarding the kind of development the community should pursue in terms of livelihood,
education, infrastructure, self-governance, environment, natural resources, culture and
other aspects for the purpose of the Development Needs Assessment. The NCIP may engage
the services of an authorized NGO or PO.

The assessment of development needs is a task that can be done in 7the process of
formulating the ADSDPP with the community in the formulation of their plans.

III. Formulation of ADSDPP (Rule VII, Sec 3,d)

The concerned ICC/IP, through its PO and/or Council of Elders, and with the assistance of
the NCIP, shall formulate its Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection
Plan.

The planning workshops

After the creation of the Barangay and Municipal TWG, the communities start by conducting
a seminar and planning workshop. The planning workshop is both an information sharing
activity and the start of the planning process. Assessment of development needs can be one
of the objective of this activity. This objectives and features of the ADSDPP are thoroughly
discussed again for the benefit of members absent during previous orientations and to
deepen the understanding of others. It is important that everybody involved has a common
understanding of the objectives and features of the ADSDPP.

The Barangay and Municipal Technical Working Groups are the participants in the activity.
Participants from the barangay are grouped according to questions that need to be
answered.

Below are guide questions for the planning-workshops that likewise serve as development
needs assessment:

Workshop I:
1. What is the present situation of your community? A community map shall contain the
answers to this question.
2. How do you envision your community five (5) years from now?
 3. What are the programs that should be undertaken in order to achieve your vision?
4. Illustrate your vision in drawing.

The output of these questions is a community vision showing the different programs or
projects that should exist in the future.

Workshop II:
1. What are the resources found in your community/domain?
2. What are their current use?
3. What are the possible strategies and technologies (it could be indigenous) to be
employed for the utilization of these resources?
The resources are presented in the following matrix.
Inventory of Current Other Technology
Resources use usage Needed

Workshop III:
1. What are the problems, issues, concerns besetting your community?
2. What possible programs, actions do you recommend for their resolution?
3. To realize your recommendations, what agencies/groups/institutions/persons do you
identify to assist you?
Answers are presented in the following matrix:
Problems/Issues/ Possible Solutions Assisting Groups/
Concerns Agencies

The barangay consultation-validation of plans by the TWG

The objective of the barangay consultation and validation workshop is to enrich the plan and
gain its approval by the community.

The output during the ADSDPP planning at the municipal level is presented and validated at the
barangay level. Key leaders from the barangay are invited to comment on the plan and their
suggestions, additional data, or changes are integrated in the plan. If finally approved, the
barangay prepares a resolution stating their approval.

For areas absent during the municipal planning workshop, their first activity is to conduct a
similar planning in the barangay. The same plan is immediately validated and approved by the
members.

A validated barangay ADSDPP is the expected output of this activity.

The consolidation of barangay plans by the TWG at the municipal level

Results of the barangay plans are consolidated by members of the MTWG. The consolidated
barangay plans become the municipal plan. The different barangay visions are synthesized to
arrive at a common municipal vision. The municipal plan is further enriched by integrating the
plans of the municipal government and line agencies.

This consolidated barangay plans should include processing of data gaps by the MTWG. The
result of this consolidation activity is an ADSDPP that will then be validated by the different
sectors of the community.

IV. Validation of ADSDPP (Sec. 3,e)

With the assistance of the NCIP, the PO and/or Council of Elders shall conduct assemblies
among the ICC/IP members for the validation and approval of the ADSDPP. The communities
can validate and approve the Municipal ADSDPP in a Municipal Validation and Approval
Meeting.

The municipal ADSDPP is presented to representatives of key multi-sectoral groups in the

community. The MTWG solicits any additional data, changes, or other suggestions to improve
the plan. Should there be data gaps, the MTWG is given time to provide these. Then another
meeting shall be called for the final approval of the plan.

When community representatives have no further comments and they agree to the contents of
the plans, then a resolution of approval shall be made. The people may use any of the following
ways of approving the plan: approval through a barangay resolution executed by its residents
and officials; and municipal resolution passed by municipal officials with sectoral
representatives from the barangays.

Packaging the ADSDPP

Packaging the ADSDPP refers to the activities of putting together the validated and approved
municipal plans into book form. If the TWG lacks the capability and equipment to package their
plan, the partner NGO, if requested can assist the communities.

The MTWG will finalize the ADSDPP according to the suggestions, changes, or additions made
during the municipal validation. Members design the format of the ADSDPP and reproduce
several copies for submission to prospective agencies that can be of help to implement the plan.

The over-all contents of the plan are the following:

1. A description of the community resources (e.g.. skills, knowledge, and practices);

2. An articulation of the community’s vision;
3. A description of activities/program/projects to achieve the vision given the resources to
implement the plan; and
4. Articulation of issues that need resolution and corresponding recommendations.

The following are the detailed components of development plans for ancestral domain
communities:

1. Agricultural/ on-farm improvements

• Technology-sustainable agriculture, biodynamic farming technology, multiple
cropping
• Credit support service
• Marketing support service
• Post-harvest management and facilities
 • Livestock raising
• Crop eco-system development

2. No-farm improvements
• Trading/vending
• Handicraft
• Metal craft
• Wood crafts, etc.

3. Physical infrastructure
• Farm-to-market roads
• Irrigation
• Foot bridge and foot trails
• Tram lines or cable cars

4. Basic social services

• Relevant education/functional literacy
• Alternative holistic health program and nutrition integrating IKSP on health care
approach and healing
• Lighting/electricity/mini-hydro power
• Potable water systems

5. Institutional development and local governance

• Interface of indigenous political structures e.g. the council of elders, peace pact
holders, Ator, etc., customary laws and IKSP with the present systems
• Policy advocacy for interfacing in the local, regional, national levels
• Strengthening of the indigenous social, economic, and political
organizations/institutions in the community.

6. Management and development of natural resources and ecosystems. The improvements,

development, and enhancement of the following:
• Tayan system for clans; muyong, lapat.
• Other sustainable natural resources management practices of the community plus
some modern technologies that are sustaining and environmentally sound.

This component would include the following areas of concern:

• Environmental waste management/pollution control
• Water system development
• Integration of environmental considerations in decision-making
• Proper valuation, pricing/costing of environment and natural resources
• Resources access and property rights
• Conservation of bio-diversity
• Rehabilitation of degraded eco-systems and resources
• Environment education and public awareness
• Promotion of spirituality of indigenous peoples

7. Capability building/education and training for the following sectors.

• Youth
• Women
• LGUs
• Existing indigenous organizations for an active participatory local governance,
customary laws documentation and integrations in the program/projects
implementation; gender and development; parenting and family management.
 8. Program for accelerating the completion of the process for the award of CADT and CALT,
which are the land tenurial; instruments of the ancestral domains/lands of the IP
communities.

The above-mentioned integral parts of plans are suggestions subject to the discretion of
and modification by communities. It should be recognized that particularities and
uniqueness in the local situation demand flexibility in planning so that a singular,
uniform design cannot be applied to all plans. Workshop outputs are reported in a
plenary session. Participants are given the chance to critique, comment or suggest to the
concerned barangay.

V. Submission of ADSDPP to NCIP

Upon validation and approval, the IP and/or the Council of Elders shall submit the
ADSDPP to the NCIP for their information and concurrence. The ADSDPP shall form part
of the national database on ICC/IP communities which compiles, among other things,
development programs, projects and activities within the ancestral domain, which the
NCIP is mandated to establish.

VI. Submission of the ADSDPP to the local government (Section 2)

The ICCs/IP shall submit to the municipal and provincial government unit having
territorial and political jurisdiction over the ADSDPP in order for the said LGU to adopt
and incorporate the same in the municipal Development Plan, Municipal Annual
Investment Plan, Provincial Development Plan, and Provincial Annual Investment Plan,
as the case may be.

VII. Dissemination of the ADSDPP (section 2)

All ADSD shall be disseminated among community members in any mode of expression
appropriate to the customs and traditions of the ICCs/IPs including, but not limited to,
writings in their own language, oral interactions, visual arts, and analogous modes.

SOME TENTATIVE THOUGHTS

This Chapter closes with a preliminary suggestions drawn from the author’s insight and
experience. These ideas will hopefully help the NCIP in formulating more refined guidelines for
the preparation of the ADSDPP. These thoughts center on three key considerations: 1) on how
to classify the ethnic groups into a few manageable categories, 2) on the desired substantive
context of the ADSDPP document, and 3) on the integration of the ADSDPP into the local
planning system of the host LGU.

Categories of Ethnic Groups

The need to address the unique and peculiar characteristics of each group requires that
planning must be done in and by each group individually. Given that there are about 110 ethnic
groups in the Philippines, NCIP will have a gargantuan task of assisting each one of them as part
of its mandate. Given further that the IPs today are probably heterogeneous than Corpuz had
thought earlier. Homogeneity pertains more to the Malay lowland rice farmers who had since
been acculturated and become part of the mainstream majority. The IPs of today were the
Negritos and tingues as classified by Reed. These two latter groups are more heterogeneous on
account of differences in their socio-cultural development and the uniqueness of the ecosystem
in their habitat. Hence, as system of grouping the IPs using the ethno-ecological framework is
suggested to reduce the number of groups to a manageable number.
The ethno-ecological framework is an original idea of anthropologist Eric S. Casiño who
suggested that all ethnic groups in the Philippines can be classified into upland dwellers (proto-
Malays) and lowland dwellers (deuteron-Malays). The lowlanders can be further subdivided
into lowland farmers and coastal fishermen.

The ethno-ecological framework was later adopted by this author in a paper using the group of
IPs according to religious beliefs or acculturation, namely Christians, Muslims, and lumads. The
same framework is being revised here, this time, using Jocano’s five typologies of ethnic groups
according to levels of social organization. Starting from the simplest to the most complex social
organizations, Jocano came up with the pisan, puro, ili, magami, and banwa types. Jocano then
describe each type and came with characteristics typical of each group in terms of geographical
locations, settlement patterns, economic activities, social structure, socio-political organization,
religion and art. If we use Jocano’s five typologies and expanded the ecological setting then we
construct 35 cells into which each ethnic group can be “pigeonholed”. (See Table 7.2 below.) Of
course, typical characteristics of each cell should give a clue into the common issues that should
be addressed. The solutions and planning approaches, if organize according to each cell will be
more relevant and focused to come up with still fewer cells similar ecosystems can be combined
such as coastal and lakeshore/riverine to form one ecological type; valley, savannah and
foothills another; and upland a third.

On the Substantive Content of the ADSDPP

This is based on the four basic information that the ADSDPP should contain as follows:

1. Manner by which ICCs/IPs will protect the domain. In as much as the protection will not
be uniformly applied on the domain, it would be helpful to adopt the concept of
management zonation under the NIPAS planning as discussed in Chapter 65 above. Once
the micro-zonation of the AD is done policies are formulated for each management zone.

Table 7.2
THE ETHNO-ECOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CLASSIFYING IPs IN THE PHILIPPINES
Ethno Ecological Setting
Group Coastal Lowland Lakeshore
Type (Valley) Riverine Savannah Foothills Uplands Highlands
Pisan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Puro 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Ili 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Magami 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Banwa 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

2. Kind and type of development programs. Programs and projects should not be identified
arbitrarily. The five (5) development sectors and their sub-sectors should be organized
for completeness of coverage. If each development sector, as discussed in Chapter 4
above, will identify their programs and projects the sum total of the projects identified
will be a comprehensive multi-sectoral coverage of the area. If the host Municipal
Planning and Development Coordinator if functioning properly he can help toward this
end.

3. Basic community policies. The four policy areas in the LGU’s comprehensive land use
plan, as discussed in Chapter 9 below, when adopted in the AD will leave no part of the
domain left uncovered by appropriate policies. These land use policies should be
supplemented by sectoral policies formulated in item 2 above.
 4. Basic management system. Who will manage the AD will depend whether the AD
coincides with an LGU boundary. If it does, the structures and functions of the LGU
(barangay, municipality, province) should be put in full operation. Otherwise, the
informal leadership structure that exists in a particular ethnic group will have to be put
to work. The level of social organization a certain ethnic group has attained will
determine the structure of leadership. The pisan type may still be resort to lying on the
older or bravest member to provide the leadership and enforce the community rules.
The other types, puro, ili, magami and banwa are sufficiently complex to allow the
emergence of a leadership class. But in all types the influence of kinship ties may not be
ignored.

Integration of the ADSDPP with LGU Planning System

The rationale for integrating the ADSDPP stems from the need to utilize the mandates of the
LGU will apply to all areas within its territorial jurisdiction. The mandate to regulate land use
within the municipal territory should be invoked to apply within the AD. Afterall, the IPs are
regarded as citizens of a particular LGU. Secondly, as citizen, they are entitled to a share in the
development fund that the LGU spends among its various constituencies. The program and
projects in the ADSDPP should therefore form part of the local development investment
program of the host LGU.

Hence, the integration of the ADSDPP into the LGU’s plans should not come at the end of the
ADSDPP process. The host LGU should be involved in all stages of the ADSDPP preparation
should form an integral part of the periodic and cyclical planning activities of the LGU.
 CHAPTER 8:
LAND USE PLANNING FOR THE URBAN SECTOR

Urban land use planning primarily involves regulating the location, intensity and direction of
development rather than merely allocating land areas for such space using functions of city life
as residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational and other activities in the built
environment. Urban lands are mostly privately owned. Urban land use planning as a
government function therefore entails public intervention in the decisions made in accordance
with socially accepted criteria and standards in order to promote the social objectives and well-
being of city residents.

Land use planning for urban sector is a subset of comprehensive land use planning. It is focused
on the urban or “urbanizable” parts of the municipal territory. What is the so-called “urban
sector” or urban place in the Philippine context?

DEFINING THE URBAN PLACE

The National Statistics Office started to define an urban area in the 1960 census. This was
revised soon after and the revised version was used in the 1970 census and in all subsequent
censuses (1975, 1980, 1990, 1195, 2000). The revised version is reproduced below.

1. In their entirety, all cities and municipalities which have a population density of at least
1,000 persons per square kilometer.

2. Poblaciones or central districts of municipalities and cities which have a population

density of at least 500 persons per square kilometer.

3. Poblaciones or central districts (not included in 1 and 2), regardless of population size,
which have the following:

a. Street pattern, i.e. network of streets in either parallel or right angle orientation;

b. At least six establishments (commercial, manufacturing, recreational, and/or

personal services); and

c. Any three of the following:

i. A town hall, church or chapel with religious services at least once a month;
ii. A public plaza, park or cemetery;
iii. A market place, or building where trading activities are carried out at least once
a week;
iv. A public building like a school, hospital, puericulture and health centers or
library.

4. Barangays, having at least 1,000 inhabitants, which meet the conditions set forth in 3
above, and where the occupation of inhabitants is pre-dominantly non-agricultural.

According to the above definition, an urban place may be a town or city in its entirety, the
poblacion only, and/or a barrio with certain characteristics that are peculiar to an urban area.
Although a certain municipality may be classified as completely urban it is probable that the
municipal territory is not yet fully built up because the basis of classification is the ratio of
population to land area. On the other hand, a barrio that is classified as urban is usually
contiguous to the traditional urban core or poblacion, it can be analyzed in its own right and
treated as forming another node in addition to the traditional poblacion. In any case, we can still
make the general observation that whether or not the municipality or city is classified as
completely urban, morphologically, there remains a sector that is more heavily built up than the
other parts of the municipality. This peculiar morphology of the typical town resembles strongly
the generalized model of Russwurm in Figure 8.1 below:

Figure 8.1. THE FORM OF THE TYPICAL PHILIPINE TOWN

Adapted from Russwurm

As shown in the model, three sectors of the town can be recognized morphologically: the urban
core, the urban fringe, and the rural hinterland. The core built-up area is roughly the equivalent
of the poblacion. The urban fringe lies immediately outside the poblacion. It may comprise the
inner fringe and the outer fringe according to an area’s distance from the edge of the poblacion.
The rural sector can also be conceived of as consisting of two components, the urban shadow
and the rural hinterland. The urban shadow is rural in character but signs of urban influences
are evident such as the presence of economic activities directed at servicing the urban market.
Typical urban shadow industries include cut flower or vegetable gardens, sash factories, wood
works, steel fabrication, poultry and piggery farms and the like. Within the rural hinterland
there may exist urbanized barrios or emerging urban nodes. We shall return to this model later
when we consider the desired location of future urban expansion.

I this chapter, we shall consider the poblacion as the “urban sector” in a typical town. We shall
assume that the poblacion is historically the first urban area from where urban development
and expansion proceeds whether in a planned or in a spontaneous manner. With the poblacions
serving as the point of reference we can understand that urban expansion takes either a
centripetal or centrifugal from during certain stages of a town’s development. What is the
significance of the poblacion in Philippine towns and cities?

In the light of the current use of the term “barangay” referring to the lowest level of political
units younger generations of Filipinos will miss the rich historical nuance hidden behind the
older terms “poblacion” and “barrio”. The earlier poblacion-barrio dualism used to evoke
images of the urban-rural distinction and reflects the typical physical structures of most towns
and cities in the Philippines. The poblacion has, since the Spanish regime, served as the
administrative, religious, cultural, commercial and service center of the town. It is compact in
form which is the inevitable outcome of the gridiron street pattern prescribed by no less than
the king of Spain. The poblacion is also the residence of the elite landowners who do not have to
work their land and therefore could afford to engage in non-agricultural activities and had the
leisure to indulge in cultural pursuits. In contrast, the barrios represented the habitat of the
native population who depended on the fruits of the land for a living. They lived in dispersed
small clusters of houses. Services were minimal and barrio folks had to procure their needs
from the poblacion on periodic basis. In appearance and physical structure, the barrio is
markedly different from the poblacion.

The poblacion-barrio landscape is a product of centuries of Spanish settlement policy. At the

end of the Spanish regime and at the start of the American rule the Philippine town is described
by James A. LeRoy in 1905 in the following terms:

“Under one governmental unit, the old pueblo of Spanish phraseology, are included the
main center of population, which may range anywhere from a cluster of two hundred
houses to a thriving rural city with perhaps a cathedral church, with secondary schools
and even a printing press, and the outlying rural districts, sometimes spreading over an
area of forty or even more square miles, in which are various subordinate little centers
of population, with from ten to several hundred houses in each, commonly called barrios,
again a Spanish governmental term… A barrio may be but a little cluster of huts, located
on the edge of the untouched forest or where they will be contiguous to the planted
crops; but a barrio may also be a little village in itself, with its separate school (quite as it
had a visita, or chapel dependent upon the parish church of the town in Spanish times)
and with thousand or more inhabitants.”

Spanish Policy of Concentration. The formation of the poblacion originated from the policy of
settlement concentration of the Spanish colonists. It may be noted that when the Spaniards
came to this country they found the native inhabitants of scattered hamlets or small clusters of
houses, or barangays, many of which were located in inaccessible areas such as thickly forested
areas, swamps or marshlands, and uplands or highlands. Given these formidable obstacles it
was virtually impossible for the Spaniards to indoctrinate the native inhabitants. Only by
consolidating them into compact communities could the Spaniards fulfill their objective of
converting the Filipinos and nurturing them in the Christian faith. Hence, the Spanish policy of
reduccion which literally involved the reduction of thousands of scattered settlements into a
smaller number of larger compact communities called pueblos. The central part of the pueblo
was called cabecera, later called poblacion.

Because the policy of settlement reduction was in reduction was in pursuit of their missionary
objectives, it was the friar orders who actively embarked on consolidating the native
settlements into pueblos. A pueblo is a concentration of several barangays often comprising up
to 500 families. In his very detailed study, Robert R. Reed (1967) has described the process and
outcome of nearly three centuries of Spanish missionary campaigns to resettle into larger
communities. Some of the successful techniques included offering small gifts like shirts, salt,
needles and similar personal items; fascinating the natives with colorful religious rituals and
pageantry especially that of the patronal fiesta; and giving the natives a sense of protection
against the cruelty of the civil authorities and tax collecting encomenderos. Many native
voluntarily moved into the poblacion especially during epidemics because the friars were often
the only ones who had some medical knowledge. The friars’ commendable attempts to give
comfort for stricken Filipinos gained many converts and resettlers. Those who got healed
readily attributed their miraculous recoveries in the hands of the missionaries to divine
intervention. Of all these methods applied by the Spaniards, the most important instrument of
enticing rural folks to move to the center was the town fiesta in honor of the town’s patron
saint. The attraction of the fiesta lies in the celebration of the mass and the spectacles on to the
religious ones such as singing and dancing, dramatic presentations, cockfighting and other
forms of gambling, and the extended feasting and drinking.

In spite of the enticements of offered by the Spanish friars however, many natives resisted the
consolidation effort. In some cases the friars sought the help of civil authorities to relocate the
natives by force. Native resistance to reduccion was not without valid reasons. One such reason
was the open rejection by some natives of Spain’s civil and religious colonization. The “moros”
of Mindanao and the Luzon mountaineers (Igorots) for example, successfully resisted foreign
domination up to the end of the Spanish rule. Other reasons included the persistence of pre-
conquest inter-barangay conflicts and hostilities, the continuing influence of native traditional
priests and priestesses who persistently directed the people to resist Christian conversion and
to cling to their idols. Also, because of the natives’ resistance against oppressive taxes they did
not want to be very accessible to the tax collectors who naturally lived in the pueblo. But the
most important reason for native resistance to the Spaniards’ resettlement efforts had to do
with the natives’ means of livelihood. Phelan explains the Filipinos’ resistance to resettlement
thus:

“The traditional rice economy provided no compelling material inducements to move

into the new settlements that the clergy were seeking to organize around the parish
churches. The Filipinos were subsistence and not surplus farmers. Their traditional
adaptation to their environment required that they lived adjacent to the land they
cultivated. In addition, fishing and hunting were important source of food, and the
transfer to compact villages threatened to destroy the whole ecological balance of
existence, a fact which does much to explain the hostility of most Filipinos to the
resettlement policy of the Spaniards.”

The poblacion-barrio, urban-rural town structure that came down to us was therefore a
compromise solution in the face of tenacious native opposition to Spanish resettlement efforts.
The Spaniards desired for all the natives to reside in the urban centers but allowed those who
could not or would not want to resettle to continue to live in smaller clusters or barrios and
even in much smaller groups of houses called sitios the easier for them to avail of religious
services during occasional visits by the priests. Thus, the dualistic physical structure of Spanish
towns characterized by an urban core and a rural hinterland dominated Philippine landscape
throughout the 20th century. Now in the 21st century, changes are bound to be introduced but
such changes must harmonize with themes of continuity.

The Plaza Complex. Pre-Spanish Filipinos did not have any preconceived pattern for the design
of their villages. Neither did they have any tradition of monumental architecture. This is
probably due to the stronger influence of South Pacific island cultures than of mainland Asia
after the submergence of the land bridges and the total separation of the Philippines from the
Asian land mass. Therefore, according to Reed, “the Spanish friars worked with extremely
plastic cultural material and were able to organize Philippine reductions in a European urban
mold”. If the friars encountered resistance by the natives to resettlement, they however, met
with little resistance to the introduction of European town planning concepts among those who
had been relocated.

The design of Philippine reductions (towns) was in consonance with the physical layout in all
Spanish colonial towns, that is, the standard gridiron street pattern as the organizing concept of
the new resettlement. This Hispanic master plan was characterized by the presence of a central
open park called “plaza” surrounded by an orderly system of rectangular street blocks. Directly
fronting on the plaza were three architectural foci: the Catholic Church, the tribunal or the
municipal government house, and the residences of the principalia. The Church was easily the
most visually prominent among the structures around the plaza. Frank Laubach (1925), writes
his glowing impression of the imposing presence of the church in the plaza:
 “The friars deserve praise for their magnificent conceptions in Church and convent
buildings, and their equally fine judgment in selecting locations. Almost without
exception one may see the massive white stone church, far and away the finest building,
and on the choicest location, in every town in the archipelago. Religion was placed at the
center of the city, as they meant to place it at the center of life.”

The second most important structure around the plaza was the tribunal or town hall. The
tribunal was the seat of the municipal government. It contained the offices of the
gobernadorcillo (mayor) and his assistants. During the Spanish period the town hall also served
as hotel and restaurant for important municipal visitors especially during town fiestas. Although
the tribunal served as a symbol of government authority, its prominence however is clearly
second only to that of the church. By its location, architecture and quality of construction the
tribunal exhibits an inferior position. Even today when the center of authority has shifted to the
government the legacy of bygone ecclesiastical dominance is still very evident.

The third dominant feature of the plaza complex was the substantial residences of the town’s
elite, the principalia. As described earlier (Chapter 3) the principalia descended from the ruling
class (datus) and were co-opted by the Spanish colonists to serve as local administrators. Their
aristocratic line and social prestige were further emphasized by the quality of construction and
the physical location of their houses. This spatial structure of the plaza complex that started in
Spanish colonial times persists today in most towns in the Philippines. The church, public
buildings, and the residences of the elite were erected around the plaza and all facing towards
the plaza.

Additional features of the plaza that we find today are of recent vintage, dating back to the late
Spanish and early American regimes. One added feature is the public school and the other is the
public market. Another conspicuous structure in the plaza is the concrete water tank which
indicates the introduction of piped water system serving households in the poblacion during the
American regime.

Thus, the poblacion, which represents the built-up urban area can be analyzed morphologically
as comprising two sections: the plaza complex as the urban core and the outer poblacion area
which decreases in density as the distance from the plaza increases. Decentralization of
residential neighborhoods in the poblacion was later allowed due to the threat of fire in dense
settlements considering the most buildings outside the plaza complex were of light materials.
Recognizing the danger of conflagration in compact settlements Governor Jose Raon decreed in
1768 the general decentralization of residential areas in poblacions. The Governor allowed
poblacion residents to disperse provided they remained within hearing distance of the church
bells.

The success of the Spanish friars in consolidating the natives into compact urban settlements
may be gauged from the fact that by 1896 at the start of the revolution, the five religious orders
had founded a total of 695 reductions or an urban population of 1,042,500. In the same year the
estimated Christian population of the Philippines was 6,172,000. Thus, only 17 percent of the
population yielded to the urbanization effort of the friars. Conversely, this can be interpreted as
indicative of the Filipinos’ resistance to “forced urbanization”. This does not imply, however,
that Filipinos are averse to living in urban areas. It would seem that Filipinos like to urbanize
but for reasons other than the Christianization and Hispanization pretexts foisted on them by
the Spanish colonist.

That Filipinos continued, and continually seek to live in urban areas can be gleaned from the
census data. In 1903, the first nationwide census counted a total of 1,077 poblacions with a
combined population estimated at 1.65 million. This represents 22 percent of the country’s
population of 7.6 million. In almost a century later, the urban population had reached about
50%.

By the second half of the 20th century urban development may have crept beyond the limits of
the poblacion. In many localities, the role of the poblacion as the cradle of urbanization was
becoming less and less important as other areas of the town including barrios vie for
designation as an urban place. Hence, the definition of urban area cited earlier in this chapter.
How are we to understand contemporary urban development in the Philippines?

Contemporary Urban Development

Although the poblacion is diminishing in importance, it is nevertheless a very useful reference

point when we try to understand contemporary urban development. A little over a century after
the Spaniards stopped their urbanization policy, the poblacion remains the visible urban core in
majority of the 1,500 odd cities and municipalities. In these predominantly rural localities we
can still find the distinct, sharp edges of the poblacion and the start of the rural hinterland. The
poblacion is still intact both in form and function. In a growing number of localities however, the
urban edges are getting increasingly blurred due to incremental expansion of the built
environment into the urban fringe. In such cases the built-up are has grown in size many times
over but the original poblacion is still distinct and discernable. Perhaps, too, the old functions of
the poblacion and the plaza complex are still intact. But other sections of the town have since
grown into urban centers in their own right and may even have overshadowed the old
poblacion. This is typical of provincial capital towns and quite later, regional government
centers. (Read more on this in Chapter 9.)

In yet a number of cases, the built-up area has expanded way beyond the poblacion into the
rural hinterland and farther into the territory of neighboring towns. These extensive urban
areas, known in the literature as metropolitan areas, have amalgamated several neighboring
towns into an amorphous built-up blob with no distinct center but several centers which were
the respective poblacions of formerly separate towns.

Urban development, defined simply as the creation of the built environment, in contemporary
times in the Philippines occurs on at least three morphological types. The first, and the most
simple, consists of predominantly rural towns with their poblacion as the only urban sector. The
second type is exemplified by the town with a much expanded urban are extending beyond the
limits of the old poblacion but the contiguous built-up area is still confined within the territory
of the town. The third is the metropolitan area.

With the exception of the first type, which is the remaining relic of the Spanish urbanization
efforts, none of the present urban areas have benefited from any deliberate effort to shape
urban growth according to some predetermined conceptual mold. This is due to the fact that the
Americans did not materially change the towns that the Spaniards built. The Americans simply
added on a number of new utilities and facilities such as piped water supply and sewerage,
universal public education, public health services, ore and better roads, electricity, and
telecommunications. Perhaps the most important American contribution that had the most far-
reaching impact on the morphology of present-day Philippine towns is the introduction of the
real estate business. In fact, it is not an oversimplification to say that after the Spaniards left,
town building has become a private-led affair.

Free-for-All Urban Development. A century of free-for-all, private-led, unmanaged urban growth

has led to many undesirable outcomes. For one, the production of residential space has been
completely dominated by private developers. They package and sell lots and houses like any
other commodity of trade, the quality of the good varying according to the buyer’s ability to pay.
This leaves out a large segment of the population who either cannot afford the speculatively
priced housing packages, or who have absolutely no capacity to pay. This market-excluded
segment of the population therefore seek housing accommodation available. The rest just squat
on any open space they could find. Thus, the present urban scene is easily characterized by a
vulgar dualism which McAuslan referred to as the ‘legal and illegal city’. This dualism translates
to a seemingly unbridgeable gap in environmental quality between two residential enclaves: the
high-end opulent houses in well-planned gated ‘villages’, on one hand, and the over-crowded
ghettos of dirty, disorderly, makeshift hovels, on the other.

Another outcome of free-for-all urban development is the location of industrial and commercial
establishments. The choice of location is left entirely in the hands of the private investors often
resulting in incompatible land use mixes. Th traffic impact of such locational choice is also
seldom assessed and planned for properly thereby aggravating the traffic conditions in most
urban areas.

Yet another undesirable outcome of unplanned growth is that open space for public use and
benefits is not protected for the public. Sidewalk, even the very waterways themselves, are
encroached upon and built over, or else are turned into garbage dumps. Utility easements like
those of road rights-of ways , power transmission lines, transformers and sub-stations, gas
storage tanks, and the like are intruded and built-over. Waterfronts, coastal zones, mountain
ridges, and other visual corridors that otherwise offer excellent views of landscapes and
seascapes are built over, blocking the public view. Even the town plazas that once were the
centerpiece of the Spanish urban design, are rapidly giving way to commercial buildings,
covered courts, and similar constructions.

Inadequate Government Response. Of course, government regulation of land subdivisions

started to be exercised with the creation of the National Planning Commission to be exercised
with the National Planning Commission in 1950. The NPC, however, was able to serve only
chartered cities and provincial capitals. It was only after the issuance of the Presidential Decree
957 on July 2, 1976 that regulation of subdivision and condominium developments was more
effectively and more comprehensively implemented. Despite State regulation of real estate
developments however, the government has not been able to effectively influence the direction
and location of developments. This is due mainly to highly centralized powers and resources.
Local governments have been nothing more than passive spectators to the developments
occurring in their territories resulting from actions and reactions of the private sector on one
hand, and the national government, on the other. Local governments, for example, have not
been able to properly guide the direction of urban expansion by their failure to extend the
poblacion streets towards desired urban expansion areas. Transport networks and utility
service extensions by and large, have not been used to shape and influence the direction of
development but merely to service developments that are already in place. In the process of
urban expansion, which is primarily private-led the outlying agricultural lands in the urban
fringe are invariably converted, no matter whether there are still in-lying vacant lands in the old
poblacion or inner city areas. Let us understand further the dynamics of contemporary urban
development before we can institute the appropriate planning intervention.

Models of Urban Development in the Philippines: Some Policy Issues

Urban development has been defined earlier as the creation of the built environment and the
adaptation, occupation and utilization of this environment by people for purposes of living and
making a living. The built environment can be conceptualized therefore as being made up of the
production space, consumption space, ad exchange space, which are the outcome of the
activities and motivations of the private sector, made up both formal and informal firms and
households, and the initiatives and responses of the State, both local and national.
The term “creation of the built environment” does not refer strictly to the building of new
towns, i.e. complete cities out of raw lands or greenfield sites. Contemporary urban
development involves principally the rebuilding or expansion of existing towns and cities. In
mature Western countries, Kivell observes, urban development nowadays often takes the form
of in-fill development wherein vacant lands in-lying in already built up areas are finally built
over. More often than not, urban development entails extension beyond the existing urban edge.
This phenomenon is known as suburbanization. Yet another form of urban development is the
rejuvenation of old sections of the city which not only changes the land use character of inner
cities but also increases their density through production of more floor space. Finally, there are
the few cases of urban nucleations formed around what originally were single-purpose free-
standing nodes like industrial estates, commercial districts, institutional and recreational
centers.

In the Philippines, similarly, much of contemporary urban development takes the form of
extension of the urban edge of existing towns and cities. Majority of the 1500 odd cities and
municipalities are rural in character as earlier stated. But each of them has an urban core or
poblacion which is normally the starting point of expansion in the course of urbanization. In-fill
development can also be observed in a few areas as exemplified by the towering residential-
cum-office condominiums that are changing the skyline of major urban centers. Densification of
residential suburbs through conversion of low density residential districts into townhouses is
also observed to be taking place. Privately initiated renewal of inner city areas is likewise
evident most prominently in Chinatown and Ermita districts in the city of Manila.

Urban development activities by the formal sector is paralleled by the informal sector.
Squatters, either acting singly or in groups do their own “in-fill” development by invading and
adopting as their built environment any available vacant lands regardless of who owns them.
Squatters also contribute to the suburbanization process in the sense that government
relocation programs invariably have suburban locations. Also because firms are observed to
prefer suburban locations in recent years the squatters who follow where the jobs locate may
well have joined the suburban drift on their own.

These are mainly private sector efforts. Contemporary Philippine government is not well known
as a builder of cities. Nevertheless, private efforts at city building or rebuilding may not be
entirely private “initiatives.” They may be responding to certain policies and programs of the
government. Conversely, government policies may also be the response to private actions rather
than strictly autonomous initiatives. This circular character of the public-private interface in
urban development based on the urban land nexus theory will be the main analytical
framework used and demonstrated in the following sections.

To better understand the dynamics of urban growth or expansion, we created a number of

idealized models or prototypes. These and the policy issues peculiar to each prototype are
described in the following pages. It should be borne in mind, however, that every town or city
has its own history and unique features. As D.L. Wilcox has observed, the “u” in urban means
“unique”.

MODEL I. Spontaneous Development Through Influx of Population

Settlements attaining a large enough population size, whatever the initial reasons for th influx of
population are bound to grow faster than settlements of smaller size. The threshold size beyond
which the settlement may well be on its way to self-sustaining growth is not known. But large
size is definitely an advantage because it represents big consumption demand which, in turn,
spurs production activities.
Under this model, the main reason for the fast population growth of a town or city is not so
much due to its attractiveness to voluntary migrants as its being the receiver of movers being
pushed out of certain areas by natural and manmade calamities. Such calamities include
squatter and slum clearance and relocation, insurgency and similar forms of armed conflicts,
and natural catastrophes.

Squatter Resettlement. One such “push” factor is the massive eviction of squatters from inner
cities of the metropolis and their relocation to suburban areas like Carmona, Dasmariñas, or
Sapang Palay. Urban development through squatter eviction and relocation merely transfers the
problem from the rejecting locality to the receiving community. The eviction is often justified by
the perceived benefits that the evicting locality will reap but the cost to the receiving
community are ignored. The relocation sites are usually situated outside the built up areas,
initially remote, isolated with minimum of infrastructure and services in place. Employment
opportunities are not available on site and the relocatees have to commute to the inner cities to
seek or keep their jobs. Commuting eats into a considerable portion of their day’s pay and so
many of the relocatees sell off their lots to return to the inner cities to squat again.

Over time, the general environmental quality of the resettlement sites improves through the
sheer efforts of the residents themselves. Private investments are later attracted to the area and
new jobs become available and the community begins to acquire a life of its own.

In the planning and development of the resettlement site the host local governments are not
involved or have minimal participation resettlement has always been the responsibility of the
national government. The resettlement areas thus become enclaves in the municipalities where
they are located. The impact of these resettlement areas in term of changing the urban form of
the host locality is easy to detect, i.e., they contribute to urban sprawl. It can be inferred that the
resettlement areas also exact heavy demands on the host city’s or municipality’s utilities and
services. On the other hand, they benefit the host locality in terms of increased consumption
demand which boosts the local economy. In at least one case, Sapang Palay, the influx of large
numbers of relocatees benefited the host locality, San Jose del Monte in Bulacan in terms of
increase share in the Internal Revenue Allotment. Eventually, the town became the first city in
Bulacan and is currently the most populous city in Central Luzon (Region III).

But what are the social benefits and costs of squatter relocation to receiving communities? To
date, there are no systematic assessments in this regard.

Insurgency Victims. Another man-made calamity is insurgency which is a major cause of

significant population movements particularly from areas of armed conflicts into large urban
centers. At present there are no government programs directed to these evacuees except for the
usual relief services. Government settlement schemes are focused rather on “returning”
insurgents. Perhaps it is assumed that the evacuees will temporarily stay in the evacuation
center and that when the peace and order situation is stabilized they will soon return to their
original places of abode. But is this assumption correct? How many of the evacuees have in fact
“melted” into the host population either as permanent residents or squatters? What urban
centers have absorbed such evacuees in significant numbers? What is the social cost to the
receiving urban centers of accommodating this additional population? What policy should be
adopted in respect to the evacuees? Should they be forced to return to their places of origin
once these are made safe for their return? If not, what sort of assistance should be given to the
recipient LGUs to enable them to cope with the added burden of providing for the “visitor”
population? These questions are never asked anywhere and hence, no policies are being
formulated to address them. The host localities are often left to their own devices.

Victims of Natural Calamities. Victims of natural calamities on the other hand, are relatively
better placed as far as relief services are concerned because of the usual outpouring of
sympathy from all sectors and places soon after the occurrence of the calamity. It is when the
assistance graduates into the rehabilitation and development stages that the government takes
full responsibility and the spatial impact begins to be felt. In cases where the victim’s original
places of abode continue to be under threat or declared to be permanent danger areas the
problem of providing them permanent settlements becomes a major headache for government.
So far, the government has adopted resettlement as the main approach to shelter provision. It
has not looked around for alternative approaches such as assisting the victims to be absorbed
into the communities of existing towns and cities that are free from natural hazards.

This is not to say that resettlement is an undesirable alternative. In fact, to some groups of
affected population, resettlement is probably the only option. For example, members of ethnic
minorities who may find it difficult to integrate themselves into the mainstream of Philippine
society need to be relocated to sites that closely resemble their original habitat. Also, farmers
who know of no other skills and who must retain their livelihood, should be resettled in
homesteads and farm resettlements. To some of the affected population however, resettlement
may not be the appropriate approach. Relocating urban-based or urban-oriented communities
to sites too far removed from their jobs and relatives, for example, entails tremendous social
and economic costs to the affected families. This is due to the considerable time lag that it takes
private firms to respond with on-site investments and provide the needed jobs in the
resettlement sites. A recent example id the approach taken in resettling the victims of Mt.
Pinatubo eruption. Despite provision on the sites of standard factory buildings called
“productivity centers” investors are reluctant to relocate there because of poor accessibility.

The Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) requires resettlement sites be located not too
far away to benefit from the jobs and markets of the central and inner cities. Yet in realty,
resettlement sites are so far away from existing jobs as to cause a significant reduction in the
day’s income of commuting laborers. Moreover, most resettlement sites are selected, developed,
operated and maintained by the national government. Hence, they exist as foreign bodies and
are not integrated into the host communities. In a few instances the resettlement communities
are carved out into separate municipalities, e.g. the municipality of General Mariano Alvarez in
Cavite.

Alternatives to Resettlement. All these disadvantages tend to reinforce the argument for
adopting an alternative approach, i.e. integrating the relocatees into existing unthreatened
towns and cities. This latter approach to relocation which has not been seriously considered by
government currently implements. For one, by integrating into existing towns with stable
communities the relocatees will be able to adjust to their new environment faster. Secondly, for
a fraction of the cost of building completely new towns the recipient municipalities and cities
could be assisted to expand and improve their existing facilities and services to enable them to
accommodate large numbers of additional population. Thirdly, the demand for urban land can
be reduced to the extent that the assisted towns can make optimum use of their existing urban
areas through in-filling and densification. Finally, the assisted towns which are usually small
ones may be able to attain the proper population size that will propel them to self-sustaining
growth.

Under the Urban Development and Housing Act government policy on resettlement seems to be
changing. The law ordains that resettlement or relocation shall be resorted to only where on-
site development and rehabilitation are not feasible. The Act appears to be partial to urban
revitalization as a mode of providing future urban accommodation. This policy looks laudable in
that it encourages optimum utilization of existing urban space and it reduces the pressure of
development in the urban fringe thereby helping protect the agricultural lands from conversion.

The Community Mortgage Program is another government response which seemingly

reinforces this thrust toward on-site development and urban renewal. The CMP however,
should be utilized not merely as a tool to address the problem of homelessness and landlessness
but also as a device for promoting compact urban forms and efficient utilization of existing
urban space. The CMP should, in theory, be able to help reduce the pressure on greenfield sites
in the urban fringe. However, this observation is deceptive in that the program covers only
socialized housing for squatters and homeless families. It has nothing to do with the locational
preferences of middle and upper income households who are gobbling up green field sites in
sprawling suburban subdivisions.

MODEL II. Urban Growth Through Windfalls in Household Income

Under this model the main stimulus to urban development is the net capital inflow accruing
from the inflow from the windfall incomes of households, and investments of institutions and
government, into a particular locality. According to Bendavid-Val and area grows if it realizes a
net inflow of capital which it retains and utilizes or circulates in the local economy long enough
to allow substantial value added accrual. The simple explanation for income multiplication is
when the one who earns income spends it, that sending creates income for other people. When
those who earn income in turn creates income for other people. When those who earn income in
turn spend their income, they create income for still more people, and so on.

The major contributors to net capital inflow in some Philippine towns and cities are export of
manpower (particularly overseas), development of local tourist potentials, siting of major
institutions, and location of regional government centers. Because no systematic studies have
yet been undertaken to analyze the spatial, urban development impact of these net capital
inflows on the host local communities, the following discussion is based on the author’s
uncontrolled observation.

Remittances from Deployed Labor. The export of manpower is undoubtedly one of the country’s
major “industries”. The impact of this policy on the country’s foreign exchange reserves is
already well-known. Its impact on the urban development of the countryside however, deserves
more thorough analysis so that appropriate policies toward proper retention and utilization of
capital inflows from the remittances of contract workers or migrant workers in selected areas
may be developed.

Casual observation (to be validated by empirical research) indicates a consumption pattern

peculiar among households receiving remittances from members working elsewhere. Initially,
household expenditures go into the minimum basic needs including investment in housing
improvement. These initial investments benefit the bigger cities more as consumption
purchases are made there. And depending on the volume of such purchases, they may cause
expansion of the manufacturing and commercial areas of those cities.

Investment in housing improvement and purchases of consumer durables such as appliances

and furnitures do not have significant impact on the urban form of provincial towns, where
settlements are dispersed and are of extremely low density, in the first place. But they do
increase the demand for public utilities like electric power, water systems, and
telecommunications. Local governments in general, fail to respond to such increased demands
for public services and the households often provide for their own needs through unregulated
installations, connections or constructions. The more enterprising the ones even collect user
charges for strictly-home-use appliances like television and video machines, or sell “ice” water
or frozen foods. Some families receiving such windfall incomes tend to leave their rural place
and move into the poblacion where the availability of urban conveniences like electricity and
piped water allows them to enjoy the delights of modern living.

Later on the households would be looking for other areas of investment, and would soon turn to
informal investment channels which have a variable impact on the built environment. The most
popular capital investment among OFW families is the tricycle or jeepney which becomes a part
of the public transport system of the locality. Concomitantly, the need for improved roads and
bridges also increases. Moreover, the proliferation of tricycles and jeepneys clogs up often the
narrow streets. Existing towns and cities are just not ready or are too slow to respond to the
sudden increase of motor vehicles which is a sign of increasing affluence. In many cases, where
the arterial road serves as the town’s main street, and in the absence of alternate local roads,
local traffic merges with through traffic thereby effectively sowing down both flows. The
conventional response by the national government to this predicament has been to construct
diversion roads skirting the town centers ostensibly to allow separation of through traffic from
the local traffic.

The impact of diversion roads on the by-passed town centers needs to be studied in depth to
validate the following observations:

1. That the diversion road pulls development away from the town center causing
premature urbanization of the urban fringe area.

2. Development soon concentrates along the new diversion road and in the absence of a
local ordinance to control roadside activities, the by-pass road would be constricted in
no time thereby giving rise to the need for yet another diversion road. This encourages
wasteful and inefficient urban sprawl.

3. The y-passed town center experiences economic blight due to the loss of potential
shoppers, and in a number of cases, the central business district is shifted toward the
diversion road. Worse, if the by-pass road is diverted to the next town, the tax base of
the by-passed town is likewise adversely affected.

Another form of national government response to traffic gridlocks in town centers is the
construction of fly-overs. Local governments, however, do not have any effective response to the
impact of fly-overs on their local economies.

Investment by the OFW families in small-scale transport utilities gives rise to yet another type
of informal activity, namely, repair services and parts supply. Because of their small scale of
operations these activities are often carried out inside residential premises, sidewalks and curb
sides resulting in traffic obstructions and zoning violations.

Investment in Local Tourist Potentials. Prior to the LGC of 1991 (RA 7160) the development of
tourist resources was the responsibility of the national government. Now tourism promotion
and development have been devolved to LGUs.

Towns with important tourism and recreation facilities provide opportunities for local residents
to cater to the tourist traffic by providing accommodation, transport and related services. In
many areas of the country, small-scale resorts, restaurants, bars, discos and similar tourist
facilities are being established with capital brought in by foreign nationals who marry local
residents. In some instances, too, such marriages are not authentic and the local households are
only being utilized as dummies by foreigners. The land contingent impact of this practice is that
effective ownership and possession of land and tourist resources pass on to foreigners and this
might deprive the local population of access to these resources.

Location of Major Institutions. The location of major institutions, public or private, such as
regional hospitals, universities, convention centers, military camps, and the like, contributes
significant capital inflow into the host local economy. In some towns where large institutions
are located household investments are directed towards providing accommodation for transient
visitors, employees and students, catering services, and office supplies. These institutions are
major stimuli to urban development. Notable examples are Siliman University in the case of
Dumaguete City or Clark in Angeles City. In an exceptional case like that of Olongapo City, the
city grew as an adjunct to the huge Subic Naval Base. However, such influences are not well
documented or analyzed, hence, proper policy issues are not identified.

Location of Regional Government Centers. The most land-contingent government initiative under
this model is the site location of regional government centers. All the 15 regional centers are
cities and almost all regional centers also serve as provincial capitals. In at least five regions the
regional government center is located at a discrete regional government center. In the other
regional centers the national government agencies (NGA) lease office spaces from private
property developers.

Where the NGAs lease office spaces there are some advantages to the locality. One is that the
annual rental on office space represents a net money flow into the local economy. This is not
possible in areas where the NGAs are housed in government-owned regional centers. Another
benefit accruing to the local economy is the wider participation of the local population in
providing services to the office workers if the offices are distributed throughout the built up
area of the city.

Where the regional offices are consolidated in one government center the urban form of the
host city is significantly modified. The local transport network and traffic flow will have to be
rationalized, new sets of urban services provided, and new private investments in housing and
similar needs will be provided in or in the vicinity of the new government center. Depending on
the strength of this pull, the function of the traditional city center might be weakened over time.

Obviously, one of the challenges to planners of towns serving as regional centers is to come up
with the proper physical plan and urban design that will indicate clearly the hierarchy of
government functions but integrate them into a coherent, compatible and pleasant city image
with amenities and easy orientation for residents and visitors alike. (Read more discussion on
this in Chapter 9.)

MODEL III: Urban Growth Through Modernized Agriculture

Urban growth through agricultural development is a long and slow process. But when the
sequence is reversed, i.e. agricultural modernization as a concomitant of urban development,
the reciprocal process is accelerated. This is because urban areas are the most effective market
for agricultural products, both in terms of the enormous demand for food crops and the
requirements for industrial inputs in the city. Thus, the most productive agricultural lands are
those near or surrounding large urban centers because they are able to benefit from the huge
demand for food and cash crops. The farmers in these areas enjoy comparatively higher income
levels and greater opportunities for investment in non-farm activities.

A variation on this model is the case of large agricultural plantations like pineapples, bananas,
and sugar cane. The land use impact of plantations for export is the increase in hectarage under
cultivation as demand in the world market expands. The economic fallout on the local
population is strengthened if small farm holders are allowed to enter into contract growing
arrangements. Urban growth is in turn triggered by the increasing cash incomes of households.
Of course, commercial fisheries can also be included in this model but the spatial impact of this
industry is less land contingent, except when fish processing is also undertaken in the locality
where the fish is landed.

This model is exemplified by towns that re located within the sphere of influence of large
metropolitan centers. Farming towns exploit their locational advantage by serving as market
gardens of the metropolis. Fruit and vegetable growers in Central Luzon and southern Tagalog,
for example, are cashing in on their proximity to the huge markets of Metropolitan Manila. La
Trinidad, in Benguet, benefits from its nearness to Baguio City and so do the municipalities
around Metro Cebu.

The implication of increased income of farmers on the built environment in the short term is the
investment in facilities, milling/warehousing, trucking, and, to some extent, packing, and
wholesale trading houses, all located in the poblacion. When the farmers sustain a degree of
affluence over the long term they begin to invest in non-farm activities. The non-farm activities
that affluent farmers invest in usually have no direct linkage to agriculture, such as auto repair
and body building, tricycles, and other urban-oriented trades and crafts. It seems that they make
more money faster in these non-farm activities and so the farmers tend to become more
preoccupied with them than farming. Feeling less and less dependent on the land, they begin to
neglect their farms. Worse, they convert them to residential, industrial, and other urban uses, or
else sell them to speculative buyers and developers. The paradox is that urbanization leads to
agricultural productivity but at the same time undermines the base of agricultural production.

The policy response by government has been a series of attempts to limit agricultural land
conversion. On close scrutiny however, government policy on agricultural land conversion is
flawed in at least three respects. First, it is ambivalent. It does not categorically state whether
government wants to protect agricultural lands or wants to accelerate the process of
conversion. The continued insertion of the clause “when the (agricultural) land ceases to be
economically productive for agriculture” in all guidelines on conversion or reclassification has
been a very convenient swing door to abuse and speculation. Even the AO 20 and later, RA 8435,
which is touted to be a bold step towards protecting agricultural lands is compromising in some
portions. It still “shies” away from implementing the DA’s network of protected agricultural
areas.

Second, protection efforts are concentrated on the “victim” (agricultural land) of conversion and
less on the “aggressor” (urban development). In a word, no amount of concern can protect the
“prey” without doing anything to control the appetite of the “predator”. Latest policies relevant
to the issue such as Sec. 20 of RA 7160 (on reclassification of agricultural land to urban uses),
and EO 214 (conversion around regional industrial centers and tourism zones) tend to whet the
appetite of urban developers and speculative buyers. If the government really wants to protect
agricultural lands for the sake of food security, it should not rely on the use of police power
(regulation) alone but should exercise eminent domain as well. Devices like transfer or
purchase of development rights, compensation for farmers, green belt policies, and creative
urban planning that promotes the optimum utilization of built up areas like in-filling, urban
renewal, and densification are available tool kits which have not been used by the government.

Thirdly, the policy is flawed in that it fails to co-opt the LGUs into the process. Ultimate
authority still rests with the national government and yet all the lands in question are within the
jurisdiction of cities and municipalities. The issue of land conversion has been treated as a
subject or tropical concern being addressed by the national government outside the context of
town planning and urban land use planning. Hence, existing policies are both inappropriate and
inadequate.

This author takes the position that the ultimate and sustainable solution to the land conversion
issue should be found within the local planning and development system. Local governments
must be empowered and trained to plan and manage their land and other resources properly.
The highly centralized system and process of land conversion approval should be seen as a
temporary measure and should be phased out when the LGUs shall have been adequately
tooled up and empowered to take over the job. After all, land use conversion is but one aspect of
the town planning and development regulation function of LGUs.
MODEL IV. Urban Growth Through Industrial Location/Expansion

Urban growth through industrial location or expansion is a well-known process and industrial
dispersal (meaning locating industries in areas outside Metro Manila) remains a favorite and
recurring regional development strategy in the Philippines. The popularity of this model stems
from the expectation of the benign or spread effects that new or expanded industries will have
on the locality and surrounding areas. Based on Myrdal’s theory of cumulative causation the
chart below graphically illustrates how the economy of the local area expands from the initial
impulse – location of new industry into the area.

Figure 8.2. MYRDAL’S CONCEPT OF CUMULATIVE CAUSATION:

AN EXAMPLE OF INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION IN AN AREA
(Source: Gore 1984, 37)

The country’s experience in regional industrial dispersal has been limited to direct provision of
serviced sites in developed industrial estates. Were the State intervention less direct the
tendency of private investors is to choose locations that benefit from already existing urban
agglomerations. This explains the popularity of CALABARZON and Cebu as preferred industrial
locations.

In the light of the latest policy to limit government intervention to off site developments, what
will happen to the designated Regional Industrial Centers then? Would they be able to attract
prospective locator firms? The Special Economic Zone Act of 1995 (RA 7916) has identified
scores of additional towns and cities in 38 provinces as potential sites for special economic
zones. Would it be a better approach to assist target cities or municipalities to improve their
urban services in order for them to provide greater attractions for potential investors? This
latter approach is based on the “behavioral theory” of industrial location which posits that firms
no longer choose locations on the basis of cost optimization, contrary to classical location
theory. Rather, firms are more and more attracted to locate in an area with generally high
quality of the environment and the availability of social amenities for the family of their
relocating corporate executives to enjoy.
Studies have tried to assess the impacts of industrial estate on the national and regional
economy, on employment, and similar concerns. But none of these studies has considered the
impact of industrial estates on the socioeconomic and spatial development of the host town or
city.

Assuming that Myrdal’s theory of cumulative causation indeed happens in reality, what are the
land-contingent implications of the socio-economic changes in the locality brought about by the
locating industry? What appropriate responses do – or should – the local government units
concerned make? The following observations based on the author’s experience can serve as
hypotheses which have to be further validated.

1. The very first land-contingent problem that arises out of industrial location decisions is
how the host locality can meet the requirement for industrial land. If the firms are
formal-sector ones they most probably require extensive land areas because of the
nature of modern industrial plants. These firms would give greater preference to
greenfield sites in the urban fringe than to in-lying vacant lots in city centers and inner
cities. This exacerbates
the issue of conversion of good agricultural lands.

2. The demand for urban land is subsequently multiplied many times over by residential
subdivision developers who tend to locate their developments in the same areas where
the industrial sites are located. This further puts pressure on agricultural lands and
exposes the future residents in these subdivisions to hazards of pollutive industrial
effluents.

3. Migrant laborers who cannot afford to avail themselves of accommodation in the forma
subdivisions obtain housing and urban services from the informal market and whatever
facilities the host locality can offer, thus aggravating the problems of the usually ill-
equipped resource-poor suburban LGUs.

4. The subsequent location of service and ancillary industries in the area to take advantage
of the backward and forward linkages with the basic industry creates the need for more
industrial space. Hence, the necessity for more land conversion.

5. If the informal sector responds to the external economies thus created, more informal
firms will proliferate inside the residential premises and a pattern of mixed land use is
soon established, probably in violation of some policies in the local zoning scheme.

6. The long-term general prosperity of the community and the increased tax take by the
LGU heightens competition for greater share in public investments in the creation of
more urban space. Faced with the powers and resources to invest tax money into public
improvements favoring either the production space (water, health, education) how do
the LGUs usually decide? How should they decide? This would depend on the business
connections and loyalties of key local officials.

The above analysis focuses on the impact of privately initiated industrial location, or those made
in response to government policies and incentives. It does not include public sector-initiated
moves into fully serviced export processing zones and their more recent versions, the Special
Economic Zones (ECOZONE). The latter also deserves further study particularly or acquiescence
by the host LGU to the disadvantages created by the ECOZONE.

Worth looking into are the implications of certain features of the ECOZONE that do not fit into
Myrdal’s model. For example, in an ECOZONE the possibility of forward and backward linkages
to the local economy is probably nil. This discourages the subsequent location of ancillary and
service industries, there being no agglomeration economies created. Secondly, the provision
within the industrial estate of employees’ housing, social amenities, and related services
significantly reduces participation by host population in providing services to the industrial
workers. Thirdly, industrial firms within the ECOZONE enjoy a lot of tax-free privileges thereby
depriving the local government of much needed revenues. And yet these firms continue to enjoy
police and fire protection and other urban services from the host LGU.

In addition to industrial location through industrial estates, there is the question of industrial
firms choosing their own locations outside the established industrial estates such as those that
are based on extraction of non-renewable natural resources like wood processing, cement
factory, hydro and geothermal power plants. The location of these industries is invariably
oriented to raw material sources. Industrial firms of this type represent both the formal and
informal sectors. Formal sector firms have the tendency to locate in suburban and rural areas
where liberal allocation of space for sprawling plant layouts is still possible. This trend
exacerbates the issue of conversion of greenfield sites to urban uses. Normally outside the pale
of the municipal zoning ordinance, these suburban and rural sites are placed within the land
conversion regime presided over by the DAR. In more cases than not the conversion gets
approved due to a flawed conversion policy as discussed earlier.

Actually, the liberal allocation of industrial sites can easily find justification in the current thrust
towards more economic productivity and creation of more jobs. Also, the technological
innovation in modern manufacturing which calls for horizontal plant layouts requires more
industrial floor space. Nevertheless, the selection of specific sites for industrial development
should leave out the good agricultural lands. Executive Order 124 of September 8, 1993
prescribes the criteria and procedure for site selection of industrial, tourism and socialized
housing purposes. But what EO 124 does not cover is a matter of greater concern. It does not
regulate the subsequent siting of residential subdivisions near or around the industrial sites by
speculative developers. This is often unnecessary and hazardous: hazardous because it exposes
the future residents to environmental pollution caused by the industries; unnecessary because
there are better alternatives.

Technically, residential subdivisions around industrial sites could be restrained by enforcing

planned buffers and green belts. Authority to do this is devolved to the concerned LGU.
Furthermore, the increased demand for housing the industrial workers can be met by
improving and increasing the housing stock in the existing town centers and inner cities.
Industrial workers will most likely look for rental space because they cannot afford the
speculatively priced house-and-lot package offered by subdivision developers. This alternative
will provide the rationale and impetus for the host LGU to undertake urban renewal of blighted
inner city areas and in-filling of vacant and underutilized urban lands. More importantly, the
local residents can benefit from the capital inflow that will be brought in by the industrial
investors and migrant workers and their families.

In the case of resource-extraction activities, the main problem during operation is

environmental degradation. The environmental guarantee fund required by the EIA system to
be put up by the firm concerned is supposed to deal with this problem but as noted in Chapter 3,
host LGUs have little say in the way this fund is utilized. Moreover, when the resource is
exhausted the host LGU will face the problem of economic and environmental blight -
unemployment, industrial derelict land, toxic residues, and the like. How prepared are host
LGUs to cope with these problems?

Another locational tendency of formal sector firms is that of agglomeration. While this behavior
makes economic sense, it exacerbates environmental pollution in that any new industry adding
its effluents to the existing level of pollution in the same area raises pollution levels
exponentially. We already have zoning and anti-pollution laws to deal with this problem but we
still face massive environmental degradation everywhere. Perhaps the tools are adequate but
their implementation is flawed?

Other problems related to industrial location arise from the location choices of informal
industrial firms. This sector has indeterminate locational preferences. It poses a constant
headache to the zoning administrators, a cause of corruption and environmental pollution, and
a threat to equitable allocation of urban services. The only available tool that LGUs possess to
deal with these problems is the zoning ordinance. Whether this tool is appropriate and
adequate remains to be determined by an evaluative study.

Another variation on the industrial location arise from the locational model is the location of
transport facilities such as an airport, seaport, train station, or bus terminal. These facilities
have very strong impact on the local economy and land use pattern. Host LGUs must know how
to analyze the impact of these facilities to be able to craft the proper policies.

MODEL V. “Cities in Towns” and Social Equity Issues

This pertains to large private developments that take up a considerable portion of the land area
of a given municipality, e.g. Ayala in Makati and Cebu, Bonifacio in Taguig, Ortigas in Pasig. The
sheer size of the investments and the projects that these private developers undertake easily
dwarf those of the local government concerned. Strictly a formal sector development, these
“cities” within existing towns are conspicuous for their adherence to international planning and
building standards and provision of “world class” facilities. The application of municipal
ordinances in these developments is often waived or suspended. The net effect of this type of
urban development is social and spatial polarization or dualism in the host locality.

For their part, the private property developers regard their development as one whole business
proposition. It is understandable how they select the types of activities they invest in: they
prefer those that give them relatively high, fast and secure returns. Thus, they provide
residential space that caters to high income households and foreigners. The more numerous
“residents” of these “cities” who are employees and low-income earners are left out to secure
their own accommodation elsewhere. Developers of this “towns in towns” invariably allocate a
larger share to commercial and office land uses because these are activities that lend themselves
to higher densities, hence, higher yields on investments. They also provide services normally
regarded as public goods in “packaged” or “commodified” form so that anyone who avails of
them must pay. Examples of these are recreational parks and eating places, museums and
galleries cleverly tucked into shopping malls and arcades. These mixed use developments are
described as “cities” in themselves and they cater to almost all human needs. But the one big
difference is that one can avail of services and goods only if one can afford to pay for them.
These “cities” in towns are the modern equivalent of the corporate city in which relationships
are strictly a business transaction as between a seller and a buyer. These are, as one author calls
them, “cities without citizens”.

On the other part of the polarized town the social and physical landscape is completely different.
Low income households predominate and their basic needs are catered for by the informal
sector. The urban structure in this sector is a jumble of mixed uses, public facilities are of
inferior standard, and “dirty” industries somehow manage to persist. Being unable to pay for
everything they need, the residents in this quarter regard themselves as citizens demanding
entitlement to certain rights and services from the government. How is the LGU going to balance
the needs of the poorer section and the demands of the rich quarter for various types and
quality of urban services?

How may the local government effect the integration of the polarized town? How can this
predicament be avoided in the first place?
Heavy reliance on the private market to provide social goods and services, especially housing,
moreover, can lead to social inequities exemplified by the following observable conditions:

1. Highly suitable urban lands are already owned and occupied and turned into enclaves by
high income residents leaving the less suitable ones for low income groups.

2. Potentially urbanizable areas that are also highly suitable for urban development are
already preempted by private developers who practice their own land and banking
strategies.

3. Low income households cannot afford the speculative cost of houses or lots offered by
private developers in the market.

4. Private developers generally invest in developments targeting the upscale (“A and B”)
market, and in high yielding commercial and industrial property development. Despite the
proliferation of sprawling subdivisions and high-rise condominiums, the housing backlog
has not been substantially reduced.

The net effect social polarization is lack of physical integration of the city: irrational circulation
network, differential quantity and quality of urban utilities and services provided, and
differences in the overall quality of the environment. It is observed that most high-income
subdivisions have their own internal road networks not linked with the municipal circulation
network. This creates a dead end effect and makes certain areas of town inaccessible.

Another symptom of social inequity is seen in the competition for urban utilities and services.
High income households, for example, usually install booster pumps to increase water pressure
in their own premises but at the same time deprive their low income neighbors of water in their
taps. Also, between a rich household and a poor one who both tamper with their electric meter
it is obvious who is more likely to steal more electricity.

One more example is seen in the way road engineers align their road projects. They usually
evade high income subdivisions but have no qualms aligning their new roads to traverse low-
income communities because in their calculations this is the least-cost alternative. Little do they
realize that destroying the homes of low-income households inflicts a high social cost to them
because they are less to absorb the impact of dislocation.

Finally, high income residential enclaves, probably because of their influence on local
government decision makers, are better able to get the ear of city hall for the latter to extend or
maintain a high quality of urban services such as garbage collection, street sweeping, police and
fire protection, and the like.

The most basic problem elated to social equity in the urban area is the lack of access by the
“underprivileged and homeless” citizens to decent and affordable housing. There is a lop-sided
distribution of urban land ownership in favor of the high income households, to start with.
Neither is there any attempt to define maximum limit to urban land holdings by those have the
money. Moreover, the urban land market is completely unregulated. The rationale of state
intervention in the land market stems from the view that land is a natural resource and should
not be regarded as a simple commodity of trade. The speculative element in land prices must be
reduced if not eliminated. The value of land should be realized more in its use rather than in its
exchange. Yet government chooses to be a captive to the vicissitudes of land values.

Undoubtedly, urban land reform provides the most radical solution to the inequality in
allocation of urban space. It purportedly enables even the low income groups to have access to
urban housing. The government has come up with an urban land reform law in 1978 which, by
the very tone of language used, promised to be a radical solution to the problem homelessness
and landlessness. The implementation even started with a Presidential Proclamation (No. 1893)
putting the entire Metropolitan Manila Area under coverage of the law. But it turned out to be
an empty posturing because less than a year later the President issued another proclamation
No. 1967) limiting the application of the law to only 244 sites which were identified as areas for
priority development (APDs). Whatever happened to these areas remains to be assessed.

The urban land reform law became moribund with the enactment of a new law. The new law
adopts the same welfare rhetoric that PD 1517 used. Its coverage however, is limited to the
“underprivileged and homeless” elements of society. It relies heavily on the private sector to
provide “socialized housing” and the main instrument for government intervention is giving
fiscal and financial incentives to private developers. Whether the private sector is responding
favorably and adequately is again a subject for review and analysis. The few studies on this
subject so far do not show encouraging findings.

It is worth noting however, that RA 7279puts high priority on the acquisition of government-
owned lands for use in “socialized housing” schemes. This can be construed as a form of
government subsidy which should bring down the final cost of the house and lot to levels
affordable to the target beneficiaries. Is this hypothesis true?

Moreover, the law states that the rights of small-property owners will be respected. “Small” is
defined as 300 sq. m. in high-class cities and 800 sq. m. in lower class cities. Does this imply that
property holdings in excess of “small” ones will be subject to “land reform” measures? Could this
300 sq. m. or 800 sq. m. be the upper limit of individual land holding in urban areas? But why is
there a limit for the poor and none for the rich?

Whatever the merits of urban land reform in the Philippines, however, it is flawed in its basic
approach to land disposition, i.e., urban lands are cut up and distributed in small parcels. Urban
land reforms adopts the same approach as agrarian reform: “land for the landless”. This policy
arises from a lack of appreciation of the basic differences between urban land and rural land.

One basic distinction between land in the rural area and urban land is that activities in rural
land such as agriculture depend very much on climatic conditions, especially on sunlight.
Therefore, it is essential that the farmer own his farm and have rights to the sky over his farm.
Hence, “land for the landless” is an appropriate strategy in agrarian reform. In contrast, urban
land uses are not dependent on the climatic cycles and therefore ownership of the land need not
extend to the air space above it. In an urban area, the air space is as vital as the land surface and
whoever has possession of the air space has the potential to produce more “land” or floor space
in a relatively small surface area.

Failing to understand this principle, the government is missing out on the opportunity to
produce more floor space for everyone who needs it. The government loses such an excellent
opportunity on two counts. One, by cutting up the lands acquired for socialized housing into
small parcels and redistributing these to individual families, the government deprives itself of
access to the air space above these lots. And the small size of parcels make it technically
impossible to build more than two storeys. This is a waste of an urban asset. Two, by abetting
the allocation of large home lots to high income residents through the provision of R-1 zones in
zoning ordinances, the government allows few families to enjoy the use of so much space while
thousands of others remain homeless and landless. To further compound the inequity, large lots
are better able to support multi-storey constructions than small lots. And so, large lot owners
are now converting to high-rise buildings making more floor space available but these are not
affordable to low income families.
The more effective solution to the problem of massive homelessness in our cities is for
government to build four- to five-storey walk-up multi-family dwelling units of various sizes to
suit different affordability levels. These should be constructed by local government engineering
offices and directly operated by the local governments as municipal enterprises. The units
should be disposed on rental or lease basis so that the government can retain ownership of the
land and enjoy unhampered access to the air space above it for future redevelopment. The
authority to engage in public rental housing is given in the UDHA. But government authorities
will easily dismiss this proposition with the usual excuse that there are not enough public funds
for this purpose. It is common knowledge however, that some cities are wealthy enough to
undertake projects of this kind.

One final point. How should the government deal with the situation whereby private property
developers would rather invest in the production space (shopping malls, office condominiums)
and selectively put their money in the consumption space for the high-end clientele
(townhouses, high class subdivisions)? Note that one segment of the population stands the
loser: the middle and lower-middle income wage earners. These segments of the population are
disqualified from the socialized housing schemes under RA 7279. They also cannot afford to buy
in the market for high income housing. Often, the only available accommodation that fits their
status and income are those located in distant suburban sites. Long-distance commuting
however, eats into their day’s earnings. It compounds the traffic problem, exacerbates
environmental pollution, and encourages urban sprawl. The affected local governments that can
afford it, e.g. Makati and Pasig, can do something to offer accommodation to these middle
income earners within their municipalities. They could operate rental housing outside of the
socialized housing schemes of RA 7279, or they can encourage or assist their own residents to
invest
In walk-up apartments or in renovating their own homes to accommodate renters. This way,
their municipalities can capture part of the earnings of the employees working in the “cities-in-
towns” who need not to commute to the suburbs.

MODEL VI. The Metropolitan Area

The ultimate form of urban area is the metropolitan area, known variously as “urban region”,
“functional urban region” or “conurbation”. The Dictionary of the Social Sciences defines
conurbation as a “large geographical area, extending across several local government
boundaries, forming in socio-economic terms a single continuous urban region”. The term
“metropolis” comes from two Greek words: metro, matrix meaning “mother”, and polis meaning
“city”. This is descriptive of the actual growth of the metropolis from that of a mother city giving
birth as it were, to daughter cities and together forming a large city that is several times bigger
than the original one in terms of land area and population.

A simple way to comprehend a metropolitan area is to conceive of a city that has overgrown to
the extent of “overrunning” the other towns and cities surrounding it. In physical-spatial terms
the metropolitan area may be analyzed as comprising the central or core city and the
surrounding localities called suburban areas. The latter are functionally related to the core city
commuting range are considered outside the metropolitan area and are generally known as
exurbia.

In extremely large metropolitan areas there may be a number of central cities having its own
suburban hinterlands as well as open unbuilt areas between them. These form what Jean
Gottman calls “megalopolis”, a spatial; system consisting of several metropolitan areas.

In terms of population size, definitions of metropolitan areas differ. The U.S. Bureau of Census
which coined the term “Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas” (SMSA), defines the term
“metropolitan” as an urban area with one or more central cities having a population of at least
50,000 plus adjacent, adjoining or contiguous units having population densities of at least 150
persons per square mile (389 persons per square kilometer). The total population of the spatial
system must be at least 100,000 and the average density at least 1,000 persons per square mile
(2,590 persons per square kilometer). Friedman and Miller, American planners believe that a
metropolitan area covers an “urban field” consisting of a core area of at least 300,000 people
and a surrounding territory within a radius of 100 miles.

In the Philippines, no formal definition of a metropolitan area exists although the term has been
in circulation for a few decades now particularly in reference to “Metro Manila” and “Metro
Cebu”. If the American definition were applied in the Philippines there could easily be
delineated a good number of metropolitan areas in the country. But if Friedman and Miller’s
definition is used, very few such “urban fields” can be found due to the geographical peculiarity
of the Philippines being an archipelago of small islands. Perhaps the closest thing to the concept
of metropolis in the Philippines is the “highly urbanized city” which, according to the Local
Government Code, is a city having a population of 200,000 or more.

How does a city grow into a metropolitan area?

In the early stages of urbanization the tendency for the population and economic activities is to
concentrate in the core city. This is particularly true if the core city has certain locational
advantages such as the presence of a port, iron and coal, or some specialized services that
render it attractive to capital and labor migration. The compact city that is thus formed by this
centripetal growth trend yields certain social and economic advantages like high degree of
accessibility between residences and jobs and other activity centers, maximum opportunity for
communication and contacts, and an environment conducive to the formation and diffusion of
modern innovative ideas. At a certain level of concentration however, disadvantages and
diseconomies begin to occur. The deterioration in the quantity and quality of urban services,
environmental degradation, and the rise in social pathologies like criminality, drug trafficking,
prostitution, etc. are some of the more obvious detrimental effects of concentration.

At this stage, urbanization reverse itself into a centrifugal growth pattern or a deconcentration
of population and jobs. The latter phenomenon is called suburbanization. More than anything
else suburbanization contributes to the formation of metropolitan areas. Suburbanization
loosens up, as it were, the erstwhile compact city and creates a sprawling city.

In the succeeding paragraphs we seek to explain the phenomenon and process of

suburbanization.

The process of suburbanization is itself a very complex one. It forms part of the general
urbanization process. Although it has strong physical spatial manifestation, suburbanization
cannot be explained in geographical terms alone. It has social, economic and technological
dimension as well.

Environmental Factors. The main push factor that derives residents out from the central city is
the generally unsatisfactory living condition resulting from overcrowding, the high land rent,
and deteriorating quality of urban services. In contrast, the availability of relatively cheap land
and the possibility of enjoying the comfort and amenity afforded by yet unspoiled nature serve
as the push factor that attracts city dwellers to relocate to the suburbs.

The first to respond to the attractions of the suburbs are the high income residents, the
business, industrial and political elite who have the means to relocate or else establish a second
home in the outskirts of the city far from the din and heat of the “madding crowd”. This explains
the existence of residential enclaves conspicuous for their high perimeter walls, large lots,
opulent houses, secured entrances, or the so-called “gated villages” in the suburban towns.
Economic Factor. An economic explanation of suburbanization is associated with the activities of
land developers and real estate brokers. Much of the perceived attractions , real or imagined, of
suburban living can be traced to the promotional activities of real estate developers. Often they
can and do induce premature suburbanization by building and selling subdivision lots in
greenfield fringe areas way ahead of actual need. Even government agencies involved in housing
provision behave similarly. Target groups for this type of suburban housing are the middle to
upper middle-income families: managerial, technical and professional workers in business and
government . the main characteristic of this type of housing is that of uniformly designed
bungalows on uniform-sized lots and though the land allocation is not as liberal as that in the
wealthy enclaves, there is often provision for front lawns and backyard gardens. The relocation
of high- to middle-income residents to the suburban towns inevitably induces high-end support
institutions like excusive schools, colleges and universities, expensive hospitals and research
facilities, theaters, cinemas and large shopping centers to relocate or at least provide extension
services in the suburbs.

Technological Factor. Technological changes especially in manufacturing industry have likewise

given impetus to the decentralization of economic activities and population. It is observed that
modern industrial products are no longer iron or steel based and that late-generation
machineries are lightweight and require a horizontal plant layout. These characteristics of
modern products and processes have rendered many industries relatively footloose and the
traditional orientation to the seaports of central cities already a thing of the past. Hence, new
industries or expansion of existing industries have invariably sought suburban sites. Also, the
presence in the suburbs of universities and research institutions that had earlier decentralized
represents an added premium to industrial decentralization because of the possibility of
linkages with these research facilities. The 50-km ban on new industries from the Manila City
Hall also contributed to the decentralization of industries in Metro Manila.

Only after industrial jobs have decentralized in considerable numbers are the low-income blue-
collar workers able to follow suit. But by this late stage in the process the better locations in the
suburbs will have been preempted by the higher income classes. The poorer quarters – low
lying areas, residual lots from earlier subdivision platting, and areas in close proximity to
pollution sources – are often the only places available for low-income groups to settle on. These
pockets of poverty are the stat of blighting in the suburbs.

Historical-materialist Perspective. Yet another explanation of the phenomenon and process of

suburbanization is provided by historical materialists or neo-marxists. They explain
suburbanization and the growth of the metropolis in terms of the cycle of investments made by
capitalists in their desire for more accumulation. The historical cycle of “growth – crisis –
adjustment – growth” affects the investment behavior of capitalists and the timing of their
investments. During a period of growth when the role of accumulation is high, capitalists invest
further in expansion of their production capacities like acquisition of modern machineries and
equipment. Then they enter a period of crisis when they over-produce and the market
correspondingly depresses. During such period, capitalists invest more in the built environment
which does not directly contribute to increased production in the short term. This investment in
the built environment like housing for laborers, plant expansion, increased power generating
capacities, etc. contributes to the physical-spatial growth of the city as well as to the
readjustment of productive capacity in time for the next period of growth. This cyclical pattern
of investment is not unlike the formation of cambium layers or annular rings in the tree trunk.
Some geographers have described the process as “leapfrogging” but a more picturesque image
is that of the proverbial race between the turtle and the rabbit.

The Role of the State. The important role of the government in enhancing suburbanization must
also be understood. Public investments in improved transport infrastructures especially radial
highways and expressways are a major catalyst of suburbanization. Liberal policies on housing
finance often result in mushrooming subdivision developments in the urban fringe. In Metro
Manila, the policy banning the establishment of new industries or expansion of existing ones in
the inner cities ostensibly to protect the latter from further pollution is believed to have
exacerbated the outward expansion of the metropolis. Even the absence of public policies on
urban utility extension like piped water provision, sewerage systems, garbage collection, etc.
has encouraged suburbanization by default. These urban services often follow rather than
control the direction of private investment in urban development.

What are the issues associated with metropolitan growth?

The effects of suburbanization are no less multi-dimensional than its causes. But for easier
appreciation we use convenient categories such as social, economic, environmental and political
factors.

Social Issues. In social terms, suburbanization sharpens class divisions with the upper class
preempting the better locations and, with the help of the State, protecting their enclaves from
encroachment through zoning and building codes which perpetuate such class distinctions.
Consequently, the lower classes are confined to their rundown quarters in the core and inner
cities. In cases where their employment has decentralized to the suburbs the low-income
working classes are also inferior “downtown” facilities, the better ones having decentralized
along with their patrons.

Economic Issues. The economic effects of suburbanization stem from the massive flight of
business and industrial firms from the central city to the suburban towns. Family incomes in the
core tend to be depressed in economically blighted areas. This is turn erodes the tax base of the
core city, causing drastic reduction in revenues from traditional sources and therefore lowering
in the quality and quantity of social services the city can afford to provide. An example of this
phenomenon is the transfer of the main offices of big corporations from Manila to suburban
Makati. This could have resulted in the loss to the City of Manila of a substantial source of local
tax revenues and a corresponding gain to Makati. But this hypothesis remains to be tested.

On the other hand, the cost of providing social services to the metropolis grows enormously and
the small suburban towns often find themselves overwhelmed and unprepared. The range of
services available is often inappropriate or inadequate to the requirements of the new high-
income or middle class residents forcing the latter to avail of services back in the central city
and therefore spend their income there.

Environmental Issues. In environmental terms, the most significant effect of suburbanization is

the conversion of agricultural lands to urban uses. Often conversion is premature owing to the
speculative activities of land developers. The permanent loss of good agricultural lands may
jeopardize our food security in the near or distant future. Also, profit-seeking developers
usually fail to provide necessary open spaces. They cover every square meter with structure or
pavement and consequently deprive the city of trees and prevent infiltration of rainwater into
the ground thereby causing the water table to recede. Notable exceptions could be observed in
the case of recently developed industrial estates and technology parks. Where industries have
also decentralized from the core city, this has the effect of dispersing the point sources of air
pollution exposing wider areas to this health hazard. Levels of air pollution are also raised by
increased motor vehicle use due to ever-increasing commuting distances.

Political Issues. The main political issue associated with metropolitan growth is the proper
sharing of powers and responsibilities between the core city and the suburban towns, on the
one hand, and the recognition by these local units of the need to surrender some of their powers
and functions to a higher jurisdictional body on the other. (See Chapter 10 for management
alternatives and planning approaches in metropolitan areas.

TOWARD PLANNED URBAN GROWTH

A Question of Approach

Once the LGU officials have recognized and actually assumed the responsibility of managing the
physical growth of their town or city, then urban land use planning starts. A good place to start
is to have a clear understanding about what public planning does. Here is a good quote: “Public
planning is, or ought to be, concerned with significant change, with the impact of those major
economic, physical and social events which do not take care of themselves. It is society’s
instrument for the collective management of significant change, for stimulating, shaping,
diverting, speeding, retarding change, or even for preventing it altogether.” Whether they hire
consultants or decide to prepare their plans themselves, local officials ought to be familiar with
the geographical model generalized in Figure 8.1. as described earlier present day towns and
cities can be classified under any of the three morphological types: 1) a predominantly rural
town with the original poblacion still intact; 2) a town or city with an expanded built-up area
but still confined within the territorial boundaries of the LGU, and 3) a highly urbanized city
with its built-up area over-running its boundary and incorporating other adjoining LGUs. The
first two will be covered in this chapter as the individual town or city is the proper scale at
which urban land use planning becomes meaningful. The third pertains to an urban region, a
metropolis, and is discussed separately as an emerging challenge to Philippine planning in
Chapter 10.

Let us recall the model in Figure 8.1. A town or city is made up of three sectors: the urban core,
the urban fringe, and the rural hinterland. In a type 1 town the urban core is the old poblacion.
When there is little pressure on the urban fringe the rural hinterlands starts right from the edge
of the poblacion. In type 2 cities the built-up area has already extended beyond the limits of the
poblacion and so we can distinguish two sectors, the core or old poblacion, and the inner city
which represents the incremental growth around the poblacion. Beyond the inner city is the
urban fringe and farther beyond, the rural hinterland. In both types, the rural hinterland is most
probably a prime agricultural land. This is due to the site selection criteria for Spanish
settlements which required that the new settlement is “… in an elevated and healthy location;
with means of fortification; fertile soil and with plenty of land for farming and pasturage; have
fuel, timber and resources; fresh water, a native population, ease of transport, access and exit;
open to the northwind; and, if on the coast, due consideration should be paid to the quality of
the harbor and that the sea does not lie to the south or west; and if possible not near lagoons or
marshes in which poisonous animals and polluted air and water breed…” Much later, during the
middle of the 20th century the government pursued programs to open agricultural settlements
and homesteads in sparsely populated river valleys of Mindanao, Palawan, Isabela, and other
regions. Townsites in these agricultural settlements have since grown into big towns and new
cities, e.g. Koronadal in South Cotabato, Tacurong in Sultan Kudarat, and Kidapawan in
Cotabato, to name a few.

Goals of Present-day Urban Planning

The Local Government Code has mandated LGUs to plan and manage their respective territories.
Planning is simply defined as the public control or regulation of the pattern of development.
Why should LGUs control the pattern of development in their territorial jurisdiction?

The General Welfare Clause. Urban land use planning entails, among other things, the physical
translation of the general welfare clause?
 “Every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly granted, those necessarily
implied therefrom, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and
effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare.
Within their respective territorial jurisdictions, local government units shall ensure and support,
among other things, the preservation and enrichment of culture, promote healthy and safety,
enhance the right of the people to a balanced ecology, encourage and support the development of
appropriate self-reliant scientific and technological capabilities, improve public morals, enhance
economic prosperity and social justice, promote full employment among their residents, maintain
peace and order, and preserve the comfort and convenience of their inhabitants.”

Often, when formulating their vision statement, LGUs look around everywhere else for ideas but
tend to ignore the general welfare clause as the proper source of the goals of local planning and
development. Other critics, especially some NGOs claim that the general welfare clause is
inadequate as a source of ideas for formulating development goals. Surely, they have not looked
at them hard enough. Indeed, what can be a more basic and more sublime goal of urban land use
planning than to promote the general welfare? But how are we to translate the general welfare
goals into physical planning goals? How do we translate these goals into a vision of a good city?

Vision of the “Good “ City. Hildebrand Frey envisions a good or livable city as one in which the
hierarchy of human needs is adequately provided. Frey adopts Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as
follows: the most basic are those for air, water, food, shelter, sleep and sex. Next comes the need
for safety and security. Then, as the individual feels more secure, he seeks to satisfy his need for
love and belongingness, for self-esteem, and esteem from others. Beyond these basic needs are
yet higher needs which are no longer hierarchical but nevertheless interrelated. These higher
needs include truth, order, justice, beauty, unity, comfort, and self-sufficiency.

Based on these concepts of basic and higher needs, Frey takes an inventory of what a good city
should provide its citizens:

1. Provision for all physical needs

• a place to live and work
• reasonable income
• education and training
• transport and communications
• access to services and facilities

2. Security, safety and protection

• a visually and functionally ordered and controlled environment
• a place free of pollution and noise
• a place free of accidents and crime

3. A conducive social environment

• a place where people have their roots and children their friends
• a sense of community and belonging to a place or territory

4. A good image, reputation, prestige

• a place that provides a sense of confidence and strength
• a place that gives status and dignity
• a place that offers opportunity for individuals to shape their personal space

5. A chance to be creative
• a place that allows communities to shape their own districts and neighborhoods

6. An aesthetically pleasing environment

• a place that is well designed (aesthetically pleasing)
 • a place that is physically imageable
• a place that promotes culture and is itself a work of art.

As the population grows hos is a particular town or city going to provide for the new space
requirement for urban use? Where will the supply of new urban land be taken, from the urban
core? urban fringe? or rural hinterland?

Because the creation of urban land always entails conversion of agricultural or forest lands,
which conversion is often irreversible, care must be taken so that only lands not suitable or
reserved for such agricultural production are converted. The main reason for this derives from
the fact that the land qualities essential to agriculture or forestry are not relevant to urban land
use. Hence, it would be a serious misappropriation of resources to use good agricultural lands,
which are not easily reproducible, for activities that do not require the fertility of the soil in the
first place.

Another important characteristic of urban land use is that, unlike agriculture or forestry, urban
activities can be accommodated at far greater densities in less extensive areas depending, of
course, on the load-bearing capacity of the land. In the urban area, land per se is not as
important as floor space and the ratio of floor space to land area can in theory, be expanded
indefinitely. The implication of this is that urban expansion need not always entail building over
new land in the urban fringe. There are a good number of other ways by which space
requirements for urban expansion can be met. The following sections will make this point
abundantly clear.

To assist decision-makers, a simple demand-supply balancing model (see Figure 8.3) is offered
for consideration. As rational decision-making tool the demand-supply balancing model allows
the local government officials to take an inventory of lands in their territory that are available
for urban use and to match this with projected demands at any given period of time.

Figure 8.3
DEMAND-SUPPLY BALANCING MODEL
Chart by E.M. Serote
Projecting Demand. In projecting demand for urban land, it is usually convenient to use certain
man-land relationship assumptions or per capita space requirements available in existing
planning guidelines and handbooks. However, blind adherence to standards will not be able to
address the uniqueness of individual localities. Per capita land allocation is applicable only to
predominantly rural towns where urban growth is associated with the normal increase in the
urban in the urban (poblacion) population. In case a given locality experiences any one or
combination of the urban growth models reviewed in this chapter simple space allocation
standards will obviously become inadequate. If the LGU can afford it, it is much more useful and
realistic to conduct special studies on the population, economy, environment, infrastructure,
and other sectors to derive a fine grained set of data on these sectors’ future land requirements.
Chapin suggests a basis for projecting demand for urban lands as shown in Table 8.1.

Assessing Supply. The assessment of supply of buildable land can make use of the physical
parameters as discussed in Chapter 2 above. In addition, a simple accounting table that nets out
lands that ought not to be built over from the total land area of the city or municipality is a more
useful assessment tool. (See Table 8.2.) This is because some areas which may be determined
characteristics may turn out to be protected areas. (An exhaustive list of protected areas is
given in Chapter 6.) Moreover, information on ownership of lands is a useful input as this will
indicate whether the lands in a given area can be made available in the market for development
land in a timely manner.

Table 8.1
BASES FOR PROJECTING DEMAND FOR URBAN LAND USES
For industrial use (manufacturing)
a. ratio of industrial space to projected total population
b. forecast increase in industrial establishments, by type
c. forecast levels of industrial employment
d. forecast changes in industrial floor space ratio
For commercial use (wholesale, retail, services)
a. forecast number of establishments
b. forecast of employment
c. employment to shop floor ratio
d. ratio of commercial area to built-up areas
For residential neighborhoods (including areas for dwelling and related uses)
a. additional housing requirements consistent with affordability levels
b. areas for public low-income housing
For institutional areas (public and semi-public)
a. based on prescribed standards for each sector
b. based on special studies
For parks and open space
a. based on service area
b. locally determined policies
Source: Chapin

Demand-Supply Balancing. After the estimated supply of, and projected demand for urban land
have been matched, either a surplus or a deficit situation will emerge. In the case of surplus, the
land allocation can proceed immediately. (Refer to Figure 8.3.) The greater challenge here is
determining what to do with the lands that are available for urban use but are not yet needed
during the short or medium term. Some approaches available include:

1. Putting the excess lands in municipal land banking system so as to avert speculation.
Instead of disposing of its land holdings, government should reserve these for future
use.

2. Reserving development rights in favor of the local government. Short of actually

purchasing the lands, the LGUs may, by ordinance reserve the right to exercise the lands
when needed.

3. Allowing interim use that lends itself to easy conversion when the need arises. Some
interim uses may include vegetable or flower gardens, parking lots, or some form of light
construction.

In case of deficit of urban land during the initial matching, the following supply augmentation
and demand management strategies may be tried (in this order of priority):

Supply Augmentation Strategies

These strategies have the effect of increasing the supply of urban land. The first three pertain to
meeting the need for urban space within the poblacion or inner city. The last two are intended
to make available new urban land by expanding into urban fringe. All these strategies are
intended to achieve efficient utilization of land resources.

In-filling of Vacant Urban Lands. Vacant lands are land parcels bypassed by development and are
lying unutilized amidst lands that have been converted to some type of functional use. Northam
has classified urban vacant lands into five types as follows:

Type I – Consists of remnant parcels that are the bits and pieces left after platting and
development have taken place. Characterized by irregular shape and small sizes, these are the
most numerous.

Type II – Consists of parcels that are unbuildable due to steep slopes, danger of flooding, or
unstable subsurface materials. In addition to physical constraints there are societal and
institutional constraints to development such as size, shape and geophysical configuration
inadequate to meet certain standards.

Type III – Parcels that comprise corporate reserves, usually large in size but less numerous.
These had been acquired in the past by business concerns with the thought of eventually using
them for relocation or expansion of business operation.

Type IV – Parcels of modest size held for speculation in the expectation that they will eventually
be sold for profit.

Type V – Parcels held in institutional reserve such as future school sites and religious facilities
and public services organizations.
The process of putting to use these in-lying vacant lands is called “in-filling”. Developing these
areas yields a number of benefits. In-filling reduces sprawl and results in preservation of
agricultural lands in the urban fringe. There is reduced duplication of urban services and
utilities as in-filling makes use of services that are already in place in the urban core. For
municipalities, increased real property tax revenue are expected as the assessment for tax
purposes is based on actual and in general, development land yields higher tax than idle
property. For developers, in-filling offers an opportunity to respond to new and changing
markets. In-filling also improves the city image in that every vacant abandoned house and lot
are repaired, restored, rebuilt, or put to some constructive use. In-filling on the other hand, has
a few constraints. For one, it runs counter to the “suburban dream” which many urbanites take
as a status symbol of upward social mobility. Also, moving into in-filled inner city areas may be
unattractive to some who associate city centers and inner city areas with overcrowding, poor
quality of utilities and social services, and prevalence of social issues like criminality, drug
abuse, etc. Moreover, by the time in-filling is adopted as a policy by the LGU, employment and
jobs may already have decentralized to the suburbs.

Densification of Inner City Areas. Certain sections of inner city areas may be underutilized but
have the capacity to accommodate higher densities or greater use intensity. Existing high-rise
buildings with low occupancy rates, enclaves of single detached dwellings and similar cases of
inefficient use of urban lands must be regulated. Even in-filling of vacant lands can be used to
increase densities by encouraging the construction of a minimum of medium-rise buildings
(MRBs). Before choosing the high-rise option, however, the LGU should conduct studies to
assess the acceptability of such types of accommodation to Filipino families and to determine
their readiness to live in them. Perhaps 4 to 5 storey walk-up apartments may be introduced
initially to acclimatize Filipino urbanites to living “in the sky”. Later, tenements of increasing
heights may be allowed in selected areas.

Table 8.2
ESTIMATION OF SUPPLY OF URBAN LAND

Total area of city/municipality ha

Subtract ha

a. Protected areas
i. NIPAS
strict nature reserves
national parks
natural monuments
wildlife sanctuaries
protected landscapes/seascapes
resources reserves
other protected areas (e.g. virgin forests)
ii. Non-NIPAS areas
reserved second growth forests
mangroves
buffer strips/easements
freshwater swamps/marshes
critical watersheds
b. Other reservations
i. military and civil reservations
ii. mineral and geothermal reserves
iii. water courses and surface water
c. Environmentally critical areas
i. water-related hazards
ii. earthquake-related hazards
iii. volcanic-related hazards
iv. erosion-hazards
d. Protected agricultural areas
highly restricted agricultural lands - SAFDZ
e. Heritage sites

Gross potential supply of urban land ha

Subtract: ha

a. existing built-up area

b. production forests
i. timber lands
ii. industrial tree plantations
 iii. communal forest

Net buildable area ha

Add: (When buildable area is insufficient ha
to meet the projected demand)

a. vacant urban land

b. urban renewal/redevelopment area
c. areas for increased density
d. new reclamation areas
e. conditionally restricted agricultural areas
f. moderately restricted agricultural areas
(as a matter of last resort)

Total land supply for urban use ha

Urban Renewal or Redevelopment. In the Philippines, renewal or redevelopment of slums and

blighted areas usually results in increased densities in inner city areas, the conversion of single-
storey make-shift dwellings to permanent medium-rise walk-up apartments increases residual
density.

For urban renewal schemes to become sustainable, treatment should not be limited to
residential redevelopment. Job creation must also be incorporated in urban renewal or
redevelopment programs by allowing mixed-used developments provided these are compatible
with residential use.

One disadvantage of urban renewal is the resulting increase in land values and rents in the
renewed area. This process known as “gentrification” effectively replaces or displaces the
former low-income dwellers with new residents who have higher income.

Due to the importance and potential of urban renewal as an approach to meeting the space
requirements for future urban growth, an entire section is devoted to the subject in Chapter 10
below.

Reclamation. For cities and municipalities bordering on seashore or lakeshore areas,

reclamation may be an alternative means of producing new urban land. In case the reclaimed
area is situated on the urban waterfront, it may become an extension of the built-up area.
Reclaimed lands need not be built over in their entirety. Being completely open, they offer
excellent opportunities for designing and building new public parks or a new institutional
center with facilities for public recreation. Reclamation however, should be considered among
the last options because of its high cost and its potential to alter certain ecosystems with
unpredictable consequences. Reclamation proposals must be subjected to strict environmental
impact assessment.

Agricultural Land Conversion. If agricultural land conversion is inevitable the DA’s strategic
agriculture and fisheries development zones (SAFDZ) map should be used as a guide consistent
with the CLUP. It is recommended that priority for conversion should be given to the marginally
suitable agricultural lands, designated as “conditionally restricted” areas. Extreme necessity
could justify conversion of the “moderately restricted” areas. But the “highly restricted”
agricultural areas must be considered “no touch” or non-negotiable areas.

Agricultural land conversion leads to the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The term sprawl carries
a connotation of ugliness, an outcome of irrational and premature extension of the built-up area
in all directions. It evokes the image of a drunken person sitting “sprawled” on a chair. Urban
sprawls has a number of negative implications. For one, it leads to inefficiency of land use due to
leap-frogging. Leap-frogging occurs when urban areas are formed at considerable distances
from the built-up core to pre-empt lands that have low development cost, leaving a non-urban
zone in between. It is at this non-urban zone lying between two advancing urban fronts where
conflicts arise such are premature increase in land values and accelerated speculative land
sales; agricultural activities may be inhibited, and the pattern of growth may be detrimental to
both inhabitants of the new development and those caught in the “trough” between urban
growth areas. Secondly, leap-frogging contributes to the formation of urban “enclaves”, i.e.
urban territory detached from the main body of the urban area. Thirdly, there is progressive
loss of farmlands, especially those of the highest quality. Farmlands are necessary, not only to
assure adequate food supply but also for their open space available. And finally, the cost of
extending urban infrastructure and providing basic urban services by both private and public
sectors may be comparatively higher than the perceived high land values of in-lying vacant
lands utilized for in-filling.

Demand Management Strategies

This set of strategies could be considered as alternative to complementary to the supply-

augmentation strategies. The effect on the urban form of the following strategies is the same as
those of the supply-management approaches, that is, they encourage compact built forms
resulting in more efficient use of lands for human settlements.

Improved Rural Services. By improving the level of welfare of rural residents their desire to
migrate to the urban areas might be dampened to some extent. To create this desired effect,
development intervention should be one that will tend to weaken rather than strengthen the
urge for rural-urban migration. Examples of intervention that reduce the rural-urban
population flow are agrarian reform, rural resettlement, irrigation development, rural
electrification, potable water supply, and efficient rural telecommunications.

New Alternative Centers. If outward expansion of the existing urban area is severely constrained
and upward expansion has exceeded tolerable limits, then alternative urban centers may be
identified and assisted to grow in the rural hinterlands. There may be large barangays or
clusters of barangays where future urban population and economic activities may be diverted.
But then, again, the planning of these new centers must be subject to the same constraints
considered in the planning or replanning of the poblacion.

In highly urbanized localities (Morphological Type 2) the creation of new alternative urban
centers will have the effect of metropolitanization. Metropolitanization is also an important
emerging challenge to future urban planning in the Philippines. Hence, a sub-section in Chapter
10 below is devoted to this subject.

Relocation or Resettlement. This is an effective way of decentralizing the urban population. But
the economic and social costs are high both to the relocated families and o the society in
general. Social benefit-cost calculations should be made before any decision to adopt this option
is taken.

Control of Growth in the Urban Fringe

Corollary to the efficient utilization of urban lands in the urban core, some strategies to prevent
or at least delay the expansion of the built-up area into the urban fringe which may be
considered by the LGUs are given below.

Agricultural or Large-Lot Zoning. Large lot zones are considered temporary holding areas where
development should be temporarily discouraged but eventually allowed. In some jurisdictions,
only agriculture is allowed. Only single-family housing and essential farm structures should go
with the agricultural estate,

Planned Unit Development. The design of a PUD allows the clustering of development in tightly
structured patterns, thereby leaving a good deal of useable open space for residents. The PUD
may be applied in the urban fringe or in in-filled or redeveloped inner city areas.

Tax Deferral Laws. A complement to agricultural zoning, these laws permit the owner of large
agricultural land to apply for a special classification of his land to be taxed on the basis of its
value in agricultural production rather than on its market value. The assessor keeps a record of
the difference in assessment between the land value in agriculture and its market value. When
the land is sold or converted to urban land use, the back taxes become due. The idea is to
encourage the farmer to stay on his land longer than he normally would and thereby encourage
orderly urban expansion. These laws are based on the theory that farmers sell their land
prematurely because of rising property taxes and windfall benefits caused by impending
urbanization.

Utility Extension Policies. Because of the provision of infrastructure and utilities has a substantial
effect on the timing and intensity of development, public utilities should be used purposely to
shape urban development rather than simply serve it. The local government should not allow
extension of utilities in areas where development should not occur.

Park and Open Space Policies. Open space for parks must be acquired by local government well
ahead of the occurrence of urban development.

Preservation of Natural Resources. Floodplains, woodlands and other natural resources must be
preserved and protected through legislation to ensure water supply, protect wild flora and
fauna, and prevent erosion.

Low-density Institutional Uses like military camps, golf courses, universities, memorial hospitals
and parks, churches, etc. should be encouraged.

Greenbelts may be declared around the urban core and protected from encroachment by urban
development. Agricultural lands, natural woodlands, and low-density institutional uses may
form part of the greenbelt.

If these options are considered and evaluated by the LGU officials before making decisions on
the location of development proposals, both from the private sector and government, they may
be well exercising their responsibility to control the pattern of development in their territories
to promote the general welfare.
 CHAPTER 9
THE COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLAN
AND THE MANAGEMENT OF LOCAL TERRITORIES

The comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) is the most extensive in geographical coverage as it
embraces the entire territorial jurisdiction of the local government unit. The preparation of the
CLUP is mandated to all local governments. Hence, the CLUP may well be dubbed as the policy
guide for the management of local territories.

THE COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLAN DEFINED

The term “land use plan” is generally understood as a plan for the proper management of land
resources. Attaching the modifier “comprehensive” and leaving it unqualified as the Local
Government Code does has left the term open to equivocal interpretation. Indeed there are at
present two views about the meaning of the comprehensive land use plan (CLUP). One view
defines the CLUP as the translation into spatial dimensions and allocation of the various sectoral
land of the socio-economic development plan. According to this interpretation, “comprehensive”
is equivalent to “multi-sectoral”. It is exemplified by the town planning guidelines of the
Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) which evolved from the experience of this
agency (and its predecessor agencies) in extending planning assistance to local governments
since the mid-1970s.

The other view defines the CLUP as the policy guide for the regulation of land uses throughout
the LGU’s territorial jurisdiction. According to this view, the modifier “comprehensive” means
“encompassing the entire territorial limit” of the local government unit. This interpretation
derives from the physical framework planning initiatives of the National Land Use Committee
through its Secretariat, the national Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The main source of confusion lies in the facts that the Local Government Code mentions two
types of plans that LGUs must prepare. One is the comprehensive land use plan translated into a
zoning ordinance. The other is the “socio-economic development plans and policies”
(comprehensive development plan, (CDP) translated into public investment programs and
private investment incentives. The HLURB contends that these two plans are one and the same
and this belief is reflected in the agency’s Town Planning Guidelines.

This author argues that the two plans are distinct and separate. One thing that bolsters this
argument is the fact that the responsibility for each plan is given to separate bodies in the LGU.
The CLUP is assigned to the local legislative body or Sanggunian whereas the CDP is the
responsibility of the Local Development Council.

The rest of this chapter will provide details about the CLUP and its implementing tool, the
zoning ordinance. The CDP and its implementing tools, the local development investment
program (LDIP) and the private investment incentives and the other regulatory instruments are
properly covered elsewhere.

One further clarification: the term “comprehensive land use plan” is here taken to be the local
equivalent of the “physical framework plan” at the national, regional, and provincial levels.
Because provinces are the upper tier in the hierarchical network of local governments, the
existing provincial physical framework plans might well be renamed provincial comprehensive
land use plan to be consistent with the terminology used in the Local Government Code.
The Question of Geographical Scope

The LGU as a political unit is a subdivision of the national state. The range of its services is
multi-sectoral and its clientele comprise the citizens and residents within its territorial limits.
The plan which the LGU utilizes to address it multi-faceted concerns must necessarily be
comprehensive in that its policies and the powers needed to carry them out apply to all sectors
of the local population and to all areas within its territorial jurisdiction.

The Three Domains. The municipal territory comprises two or at most three domains: private
domain, public domain, and ancestral domain (Figure 9.1). The private domain consists of all
lands that had been released as alienable and disposable (A & D) and already titled to private
owners/claimants. Private lands also include those owned by government corporations and
instrumentalities. Private lands are the only ones subject to the real property tax. Lands of the
public domain include all those retained by the State such as A&D lands that have not yet been
alienated or disposed of, forests or timberlands, mineral lands, national parks, and municipal
and territorial waters. Most of these lands are under the functional responsibility of the DENR
through its sectoral bureaus. Ancestral domain lands are those claimed by and/or titled to the
indigenous people. Although their rights to their ancestral land dates back to time immemorial,
it was only after the 1987 Constitution that their rights were formally recognized. This
recognition is institutionalized in the Indigenous People’s Right Act (RA 8371) enacted in 1998.
Ancestral domains/lands are under the administrative responsibility of the National
Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

Figure 9.1
THE THREE DOMAINS WITHIN THE LGU TERRITORY

The CLUP which must encompass the entire territorial jurisdiction of the LGU necessarily must
embrace not only the private domain but also the public and ancestral domains notwithstanding
the fact that the latter two are under the administrative responsibility, is not subservient to, but
is co-equal with national government agencies. Together, they must co-manage the local
territory as an integral part of the national territory and in behalf of the national State.

Co-Management Principle. This concept and interpretation of the comprehensive land use plan
represents a departure from the current practice of limiting the application of local planning
and zoning powers to urban r built up areas or potentially buildable areas. Public domain lands
such as forests, national parks and similar reservations which are also embraced within the
territorial limits within the territorial limits of the LGU are normally the preserve of the national
government and LGUs traditionally did not have anything to do with those areas. But now the
national government intends to involve LGUs in the management of these areas and resources.
Section 3(i) of the LGC declares that the LGUs “…shall share with the national government the
responsibility in the management and maintenance of ecological balance within their territorial
jurisdiction”. Even the management plans of ancestral domains/lands shall be integrated into
the CLUP of the LGU having territorial jurisdiction over them. The CLUP therefore can serve as
the framework for co-management of the national territory and its component local territories
between the national and local governments.

The Question of Time Frame

The LGU is a corporation but it has a longer lifespan than an ordinary corporation. Unless its
status is change by an act of Congress, an LGU is fairly stable and permanent.

In contrast, the tenure of local officials is too short – 3 years according to the latest law. Given
their brief term of office, it is observed, newly elected officials spend their first year in office
familiarizing themselves with the job and their third year campaigning for reelection. Thus, they
get to do their job during their second year in office. Even if they get reelected twice which is the
maximum allowed by law, they will not be able to accomplish anything significant especially if
they have to prepare a new plan at the start of each new term. Moreover, the short-term plans
which normally take the form of Annual Investment Programs (AIP) that LGUs prepare in
support of the annual budget could be disjointed, irrational and capricious.

Therefore there is a need for a long-term framework that defines the desired physical pattern of
growth of the locality. This long-term framework will also guide formulation of short-term
programs and projects to ensure continuity, rationality and stability in local development
efforts down through many generations.

But how is long-term? In order to align the local CLUP with higher-level framework plans, a 30-
year time frame may be adopted. However, a convenient alternative is to use as the time frame
of the CLUP the projected doubling time of the area’s population.

Basic Concepts of CLUP

The long-term comprehensive land use plan or CLUP of a city or municipality should be
consistent with its higher level counterparts: the PCLUP, RPFP, and finally, the NFPP, which
represent the physical framework plans of the provincial, regional and national levels,
respectively. These framework plans generally embody policies on settlements, protected areas,
production areas, and infrastructure areas.
Land Use Policy Areas. The four policy areas correspond to the four generalized areas within
any given political/administrative unit or territory, i.e. areas for living (settlements), areas for
making a living (production), the areas taken up by infrastructures to connect and support the
two areas, and the life support systems (protected areas). As reflected in Figure 9.2, the four
policy areas taken together would leave no part of the territory uncovered. The life support
systems or protected areas refer to those areas that are not built over but are left in their open
character because they perform their function best in that condition, i.e. as source of fresh food,
clean air, safe water, and also as receipt of wastes generated in the settlements, infrastructure,
and production areas. The latter three areas comprise the built environment. Also included
among protected areas are those that are environmentally hazardous to human settlements.
This further reduces the territory into only two broad policy areas: the built form and the
unbuilt environment.
 Figure 9.2
THE FOUR POLICY AREAS OF
THE COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLAN
Chart by E.M. Serote

Let us look into the relationship between the built form and the unbuilt environment. The built
form grows with every addition to the local population because each person requires a space for
living, a place for making a living, and a space for the support facilities and services. And when
the built form increases in size, the unbuilt environment in the same territorial unit
correspondingly decreases. If this process goes on continuously the built environment will most
likely gobble up the entire territory of the LGU. This is highly unacceptable because it results in
ecological imbalance if not disaster. The main function of the CLUP therefore is to maintain
ecological balance in the LGU territory by restraining the growth of the built-up area and at the
same time protecting the unbuilt environment from premature if not unnecessary conversion.
Restraining the growth of the built form involves either controlling the demand for space
(through population policy) or managing the supply of urban land. Land use planning focuses on
the latter by organizing the pattern of development according to a desired urban form.
Concept of Urban Form. The creative combination of the built and the unbuilt environment
constitutes the desired urban form or spatial strategy. The urban form is not merely a passive
outcome of development activities. The concept of urban form pertains to the way future
population and taking into account the need to retain some areas in their open character to
ensure safety and sustainable environments for human habitation. The concept of an urban
form is therefore an active agent to control the shape, direction and intensity of the built
environment so as to preserve and conserve the unbuilt one. The function of an urban form to
shape the built environment is not unlike that of the form works which a mason puts up to cast
the mortar in place. Without such a mold the mixture will only spread in all directions giving
rise to an inchoate formless blob, much like those of existing urban areas in the Philippines
today.

Urban Form Stereotypes. There are infinite varieties of urban forms depending on one’s activity.
But some authors like Kevin Lynch have tried to reduce the field of choice to five stereotype
forms: the core, the dispersed sheet, the galaxy, the urban star, and the urban ring. Stripped of
their fancy names, these stereotypes actually represent variations from and combinations of the
two extreme forms of concentration and dispersion. These forms are not forced upon any given
surface. Rather, the range of possible shapes is limited by the actual conditions in the planning
area such as its topography, the existing built-up area, the existing and proposed road network,
the ease with which privately-owned lands can be brought into the market for land
development, and the like.

In reality, town planning in the Philippines does not start from scratch and planners often
encounter an already existing urban form. As extensively discussed in Chapter 8 above,
similarly, in the evacuation and choice of the preferred urban form there are a host of criteria to
use. The perceived benefits from and disadvantages of one form are numerous. But a good case
can be made for compact urban forms that will result in efficient use of urban land and effective
preservation of open space. In some land-short areas, upward expansion of the built form is
increasingly getting to be the only option.

The chosen urban form is then used as the organizing concept that guides the location of various
land uses and the formulation of locational policies to be enforced through the zoning ordinance
and the other regulatory instruments.

At the city or municipality level, the four policy areas are distributed in the different
geographical sections of the LGU such as the town center or centers, urban and rural residential
districts (settlements); the circulation system and other infrastructure support and services
(infrastructure); production areas like agricultural, commercial, industrial and tourism areas;
and open space and conservation areas.

After the desired spatial strategy has been chosen, the CLUP is put in final form. Policy
recommendations are made for each element, consistent with the four general land use policy
areas of settlements, production, protected areas, and infrastructure support areas as described
by the preceding section. In the succeeding sections we will see how these policy areas are
actually identified and analyzed at the city or municipal level.

SETTLEMENT AREAS

The settlement areas embrace the traditional town center or poblacion, other urban residential
areas, rural settlements, and in some cases where they exist, the settlement of ethnic groups or
indigenous people. Conceptually, settlement areas constitute the space for living.
The Town Center

The town center is the most important element of the city/municipality’s spatial structure. It is
the nerve center of the social and political life of the town. It is the place where the most
important functions are located and from where city/municipal-level services are provided. The
town center also performs a symbolic function. It embodies the distinctive image of the town
with which residents identify themselves. Tis unique image also enables non-residents and
visitors to recognize the particular town and not mistake it for any other town. The CLUP should
ensure that the appropriate functional and symbolic artifacts are provided.

In case the town also serves as provincial capital and/or regional administrative center, the
design is a bit more complicated. The relative position of the provincial capitol and the
municipal level administrative compound of the host city or municipality, not to say differences
in architectural styles, leaves no doubt in the observer which one is more prominent. But being
a provincial capital town does not imply that letting its identity be submerged under the
overpowering presence of the capitol site. The municipal/city hall deserves an identity all its
own. Although it should not compete with the provincial capitol, the host/municipal/city hall
should complement the former in a number of ways such as proximity, architectural style, scale
of buildings and grounds, and the like. In any case, a well-conceived urban design ensures that
the hierarchy of administrative levels and the relative prominence of each center are visually
distinct and easily recognizable.

A little more problematic is how to incorporate the regional offices into the urban design of
towns or cities serving as regional centers as well. At present there seem to be two models
which we may call the discrete and the discreet. The discrete model is where the regional offices
are consolidated in one site usually at some distance from the existing built-up area of the host
city. Examples of the discrete model are those in Region 2 (Tuguegarao), Region 3 (San
Fernando, Pampanga), Region % (Legaspi), Region 8 (Palo, Leyte) and ARMM (Cotabato City).
The discreet model, on the other hand, is where the regional center is “invisible” with individual
agencies renting private office spaces without any discernable pattern of distribution or
clustering. The rest of the regional centers follow this model.

The host LGUs should be able to analyze the impact of the presence of regional offices within
their jurisdiction on their urban design, local economy, and local government tax revenue,
among others. We can hypothesize that the discrete model has a stronger impact on the urban
design than on the local economy or local revenue since the regional center is most probably
government-owned and hence, rent-free and tax-free. The discreet model, in contrast, has a very
strong impact on the local economy and local revenue but could be an urban designer’s
nightmare.

At the municipal level, there are at least four focal points of the town center: 1) the
city/municipal hall and related buildings for government administration; 2) the parish church
or churches or mosque; 3) the central business district (CBD); and 4) the central park or town
plaza. Of these four focal points, the religious center is the only one that cannot be influenced by
the local government. But efforts should be exerted to ensure that it continues to be an integral
part of the town center. In most cases, the CBD is formed by the accretion of private sector
investments over many years. But in small towns, the formation of the CBD usually follows the
location of the public market.

In older towns, especially those which date back to the Spanish times, these four focal points
have been put together in one central location with the church looming large in the scenery.
This urban design called the “plaza complex” is typical of Philippine towns. The close proximity
of these central functions made it very convenient for the townspeople to procure their daily
and weekly needs. Today, in the wake of fast transportation and communication, the original
rationale and design concept of the plaza complex are fast losing their importance. One-stop
shopping malls seem to be replacing the old town centers. Besides, the old town centers are
getting to be overcrowded and the facilities are becoming inadequate for the requirements of
modern social life.

The main problem for the local officials to decide is where should the town center be located
consistent with the preferred spatial strategy? Is the present location the ideal one? Should
there be only one center or several? If more than one, where are they best located? Are those
centers equal in importance or is there some kind of hierarchical order? Are those centers in
equal importance or is there some kind of hierarchical order? The secondary problem is
whether to locate the four focal points in the same general area (the traditional “plaza
complex”) or to locate each one of them separately. We observe a growing tendency to relocate
the city/town hall only. Bu the LGUs are indiscriminate in their choice of location. It would seem
that the new site is just about the first site available or the property of some influential resident
who wants to enhance the value of his other properties. But as we have seen, relocating the city
hall affects the city image and local officials cannot be too careful in the choice of the new
location.

The Residential Pattern

Urban Settlements. The residential pattern is the outcome of the aggregate of decisions of estate
developers and of individuals building their own dwellings on their own lot or in squatted-on
lots. This sometimes gives rise to undesirable consequences. Individual households’ private
housing results in spontaneous settlements whose location and quality are largely unregulated
especially in the matter of providing the mandatory open space or access to individual lots and
houses. On the other hand, residential subdivisions are qualitatively better but they have a
selective clientele and hence, they tend to create enclaves and exacerbate social segregation.

The fact, however, is that the public interest is better served and the general welfare is better
promoted if the local government exerts a stronger influence in regard to the location of
residential areas. Through the locational clearance system and subdivision regulations, the local
government can reorganize the town’s physical structure through properly conceived
residential patterns. Residential developments outside of formal subdivisions can be
restructured through such schemes as land consolidation or readjustment and proper location
of infrastructure, especially those of roads and streets.
The primary concern in structuring residential patterns is the health and safety of the residents.
This suggests that location of residential areas must be free from natural and man-made
hazards to life and limb must have a pleasant and healthful environment. The other concern
relates to access by local residents to places of employment, shopping and city/municipal-level
services as well as to community-level services. One simple way to ensure access is to declare by
ordinance that al customary footpaths be recognized as public easements which must be kept
open at all times.

The ideal physical form that can address the above concerns effectively is the concept of
“neighborhood unit”. An ideal neighborhood unit is simply a physical environment in which a
mother knows that her child have no traffic streets to cross on his way to school. It is moreover,
an environment where the housewife may easily walk to the shopping center to obtain the daily
household goods, and where the employed persons may find convenient transportation to and
from work. Above all, an ideal neighborhood provides a safe environment and adequate
facilities for children to play.

A cluster of a few neighborhoods may form a community to support higher-level facilities and
services like a secondary school, a district park or a feeder public market. These clusters are
then conveniently linked to the town center.
Rural Settlement. The challenge for every LGU is how to fit and/or reorganize the existing sitios
and barangays to conform to the concept of neighborhood unit and the hierarchical pattern of
residential areas. Also, how to incorporate ethnic communities, rural settlements, resettlement
sites, and informal communities into the general residential pattern.

Rural settlements are usually scattered and are found in relatively remote locations. This makes
it difficult for the LGU to bring in social services and facilities for modern living. The Spaniards
in their time tried to force these rural dwellers to relocate to the poblacion but they were only
partly successful. This time, we can at least improve accessibility to enable rural folks to avail of
services in the urban services.

Informal Settlements. An ongoing concern everywhere is how to deal with informal settlements.
Informal settlements occupy their sites illegally. Unless their tenure is legalized on site, they
must be relocated or resettled. This topic has been covered in Chapter 8. What bears
emphasizing here is the injunction in the Urban Development and Housing Act (RA 7279) to
undertake “proper and humane” relocation and resettlement. What is a humane approach to
settlement that is relevant to land use planning is the question of location. Relocatees should not
be “banished” to some god-forsaken place where they are totally cut-off from their social
networks and their livelihood. The UDHA directive to give priority to in-city relocation should
be heeded to the extent possible. Where this is not possible and resettlement to new locations is
the only option, we should make sure that the relocatees continue to be integrated into the
social and political life as well as linked to the markets in the host locality. In general, relocation
sites whether in-city or outside the existing built-up areas should be planned in such a way that
they form part of the over-all urban fabric of the locality over time.

Depending on available lands for urban expansion and consistent with the chosen urban form,
the CLUP should also indicate the residential densities in various areas or districts. It must be
borne in mind that although the single-family, single-detached housing is preferred by almost all
households, in the long term this housing type cannot be sustained. Sooner or later, multi-family
attached housing and in highly urbanized areas, medium-rise walk-up apartments will become
necessary.

PRODUCTION AREAS

Production areas, or the space for making a living, are taken up by commercial, office, industrial,
agricultural, tourism and similar activities. Some production areas are located within the built
environment, e.g. commercial, office and certain types of industrial activities. Other production
activities are performed in the unbuilt environment such as agriculture, forestry, mining and
quarrying, and some forms of tourism.

Commercial and industrial land uses must be properly located not only to afford convenience
and economy to local residents to the procurement of the goods they need. These areas also
provide employment to a substantial portion of the labor force. Their location has tremendous
impact on the volume and direction of daily traffic flow. Commercial and industrial activities
and some extractive activities like mining, moreover, have the potential to pollute and degrade
the environment in varying degrees.

Commercial Areas

Commercial establishments range in scale from sari-sari store to the huge shopping centers.
Each type has its own service population and offers a variety of goods and services appropriate
to its clientele.
The Public Market. For small provincial towns, the types of shopping facilities generally include
the public market and the strips of commercial street frontages that develop around it, and
along the arterial road traversing the town center.

The importance of the public market lies in the enormous variety of goods that it offers. It
serves principally the local residents and to a lesser extent the non-residents. Therefore,
decision must be made whether there should be only one public market or several which are
located in various places close to the concentration of population, also consistent with the
chosen spatial strategy.

Shopping Centers. The shopping centers offering convenience goods and shopping goods serve
both the local and regional population. These establishments usually locate along the arterial
roads thereby causing enormous traffic congestions during certain days or parts of the day. The
local government should direct these commercial strips to other municipal streets to unclog the
arterial road and speed up through traffic. At the same time, measures may be taken to convert
motorist into shoppers by providing ample and safe parking and pedestrianizing certain side
streets on certain days or at certain times of the day. If there is any intention to attract investors
in large free-standing shopping centers, appropriate areas for this purpose should be identified
in the CLUP.

Offices. Offices traditionally co-locate with commercial activities because they often share a
common clientele. In recent years, however, offices have increasingly shared residential space
as an offshoot of widespread use of electronic communication media. The proliferation of home-
offices especially those of non-government organizations and consultancy firms should be
evaluated in terms of its impact on the urban form and design, circulation patterns,
communication services, local tax revenues, and land use classification and zoning.

Industrial Areas

Industrial activities are also a major provider of non-agricultural employment, attract daily
traffic, and, depending on the type of manufacturing process ad product or by-product, a
polluter of the environment. Therefore, their location must be carefully chosen, especially in
relation to residential areas, schools and other sensitive activity areas.

The main locational question is whether to have a separate industrial zone or to allow
industries to intersperse with other activities. If the choice is the latter, individual firms
certainly have their own perception of what makes for profitable locations. But the local
government must evaluate location of industries on the basis of their impact on the
environment, on traffic, and on public provision of services and utilities like water and sewerage
systems, telecommunications facilities, electric power and service roads. Proximity and access
to transport nodes like ports, airports, bus terminals and train stations must also be considered.
Small-scale and cottage industries may be located in conjunction with commercial and
residential areas.

If the LGU intends to develop an industrial estate, the indicative location should be identified in
the CLUP but the site plan preparation should be commissioned to experienced site planners.
Another important decision that the LGU should take is whether to place the industrial estate
under the status of a special economic zone or under some other management arrangement.
Careful evaluation of the options should lead to what is most advantageous to the local
residents.

It may be pointed out that there are advantages to the LGU that hosts a special economic zone
(ECOZONE). For one, the development of the estate will be fully financed by the national
government. Likewise, the cost of protecting the local environment will be borne by the national
government. The national government will also assist the host LGU in expanding its urban
services and utilities to meet the needs of migrant workers. The local chief executive will also
serve as a member of the ECOZONE advisory body.

On the minus side, the host LGU may be disadvantaged by the suspension of its taxing powers
over business establishments locating inside the ECOZONE.

Agricultural and Other Resource Extraction Areas

Easily the most extensive production area in many localities is that which is devoted to
agricultural, mainly crop cultivation. Some localities have extensive fishery areas as well. The
peculiar characteristics of agricultural areas are their relatively flat topography and their close
proximity to built-up areas. Due to these geographical features, agricultural areas are often seen
as potential urban expansion areas. In fact, the rapid conversion of agricultural lands to urban
uses especially in regions where large-scale industrial development is being promoted has
sparked the most heated arguments and mass actions in recent years.

Agricultural areas. Agricultural areas comprise croplands of various types, livestock and
grazing, fisheries and forestry areas. Unless operated as large-scale ranches, livestock and
grazing areas often share with the areas devoted to croplands so these areas are not mapped as
distinct agricultural land use. Piggery and poultry, however, may be classified under commercial
or industrial (agri-business or agro-industrial). Grazing lands, on the other hand, are reflected in
the production forest area. To the extent possible, agricultural croplands should be sub-
classified into distinct categories such as areas for annual crops and permanent crops, irrigated
and rain-fed, and the like. Croplands that are placed under protection status by existing laws
should be clearly delineated such as protected rice lands (RA 8435) and coconut preservation
areas (RA 8048). Also, in the fisheries zone, certain mangroves are protected from conversion to
fishponds under the Fisheries Code of 1998 (RA 8550).

The practical reason for delineating the protected agricultural lands has to do with land use
conversion. When conversion of agricultural lands, especially of the irreversible kind of
conversion as discussed in Chapter 1 becomes necessary, priority should be given to
agricultural lands that are not classified as protected.

The Issue of Agricultural Land Conversion. Just how should local governments regard their
agricultural lands? As eventual “catch basins” for future expansion? As the ultimate basis of the
nation’s food security? These are two extreme views that divide the conservationists and the
“conversionists”.

Actually, there are national policies that have conflicting effects. One is Sec. 20 of the Local
Government Code, which allows cities and municipalities to reclassify between 5% and 15% of
their agricultural areas for urban purposes. On the other hand, the Agriculture and Fisheries
Modernization Act (RA 8435) prohibits conversion of irrigated and potentially irrigable lands to
urban uses.

The specific impacts of these national policies on local areas vary from one municipality to the
next and appropriate local policies should be formulated to reconcile and balance local and
national interests.

Fisheries in Municipal Waters. The use of municipal waters for fisheries has been devoted to
local governments. Municipal waters include streams, lakes and inland bodies of water and tidal
waters not otherwise forming part of a protected area, and marine waters up to 15 kilometers
from the coastline depending on the configuration of the coastline, the marine municipal waters
may be very extensive. Within its municipal waters the city or municipality is responsible for
the management, conservation, development, protection, utilization, and disposition of all fish
and fishery/aquatic resources. Through local ordinances or enforcement of national laws, the
LGU regulates fishing activities, grants fishing privileges to registered cooperatives and
fisherfolk organizations, and protect small-scale fisherfolk from encroachment by commercial
by commercial fishers. In order to effectively exercise these responsibilities the LGU concerned
should undertake the delineation, delimitation and demarcation of the boundaries with
technical assistance from NAMRIA. Then, the LGU, through an appropriate resolution by the
Sanggunian should decide whether or not to allow commercial fishing operations on the outer
margin of its marine waters from 10.1 kilometers up to 15 kilometers from the coastline. If
there are competing claims on the use of municipal waters, a water use zonation scheme may be
worked out with the different stakeholders involved to avoid unwanted conflicts. One important
purpose of water zonation is to separate areas for culture or stationary fisheries from areas for
catch or mobile fisheries. Water use zonation to reflect the reciprocal relationship between land
use and water use. This is consistent with the total catchment management approach discussed
in Chapter 5.

Another rich fishery areas are mangroves. Although the main function of mangroves is that of
spawning ground for many fish species, mangroves are being converted into fishponds. It is
important that some mangrove forests are preserved for biological and ecological balance. The
Fisheries Code (RA 8550) reserves up to 25% of mangrove areas for this purpose. The LGU
should help enforce this provision of the law.

Forest lands. Pursuant to Sec. 17 of the Local Government Code the DENR has devolved certain
of its functions relative to forest management. These are discussed in Chapter 5. But we can
focus on one item which is relevant to forestry or production activity – communal forests. A
communal forest is defined as a “tract of forest land set aside for use of the residents of a
municipality from which they may cut, collect and remove forests products for their personal
use”. An LGU can apply for up to a maximum of 5,000 hectares to manage as its communal
forests. Most LGUs are unaware of this provision of the law and so they have not availed of the
opportunity to co-manage the forest lands in their territorial jurisdiction.

In addition to managing its own communal forest, the LGU, in coordination with the DENR,
should actively seek to co-manage the other forest lands within its territorial jurisdiction. If
these forest lands are not categorized as protected areas then they could be placed under the
community-based forest management (CBFM) schemes (See Chapter 5). In the spirit of co-
management the DENR and the LGU concerned should jointly delineate and allocate these forest
lands under any applicable tenure-securing scheme giving priority to the local residents of the
area. The over-all objective of joint management is to utilize the forest lands under optimum
productive use with the direct benefits of such utilization accruing to the resident communities.

In case a portion of the forest land in the LGU territory forms part of a large-scale timber
concession, this affected area should be delineated just the same so that the implications of the
concession on the surrounding areas could be analyzed and proper integration as well as
proactive measures can be put in place.

Mineral Lands. The identification and delineation of mineral lands is outside the jurisdiction and
competence of the LGU. It is the duty of the DENR and other entities concerned to apprise the
affected LGU of whatever mining activities are being conducted within the territory of the latter.
This is to enable the LGU to undertake measures to protect its residents from any adverse
impacts of mining and quarrying activities. The delineation of the effective operational area and
its necessary buffer zone will also enable the LGU to plan out corrective and complementary
measures to the perceived environmental and social impacts on the vicinity.
Every LGU should likewise identify areas with sand and gravel deposits and apply for
governmental gratuitous permit to quarry materials for use in their various construction
activities particularly road construction. Also, every affected municipality should insist on being
consulted before permits to quarry in their jurisdiction are issued by the provincial mining
regulatory board.

Regarding other resource extraction activities like forestry, commercial fisheries, mining and
quarrying, the municipality has limited control except those that had been devolved.
Nonetheless, these activities have a direct impact on the physical and socio-economic
environment of the LGU. Therefore, the affected LGU must fully exercise its co-management
function with the national government to protect its residents from adverse impacts of resource
extraction activities within its borders.

Tourism Borders

Tourism is an important source of income for the local community. Care should be taken
however, that the development of tourist resources does not result in environmental
degradation as well as in moral corruption of the local population. The paradox of tourism that
people tend to destroy what they came for to enjoy must not be lost on local officials and
investors. Moreover, the benefits of tourism promotion and development of local tourist
resources must be equitably distributed among all sectors of society. Also, tourism development
should not deprive the local residents of access to common resources such as beaches, lakes,
rivers, natural forests, caves, mountains and the like.

INFRASTRUCTURE AREAS

Infrastructure areas provide a vital link between and among the different land use areas as well
as support the activities for living and those for making a living. Conceptually, infrastructures
that support the former are classified as social infrastructure while those that support the latter
are known as economic infrastructures. In reality, however, their functions overlap.
Nevertheless, infrastructures may serve any or a combination of the following functions:

1. To support the realization of the desired urban form.

2. To fill backlogs in existing public services and utilities.

3. To upgrade the quality of urban services to national or international standards.

4. To ensure access and equalize social and economic opportunities in all areas of the
town.

5. To reduce vulnerability of people to natural and man-made disasters.

6. To support increased economic production or productivity in accordance with growth

targets.

The main infrastructure components and their locational peculiarities are discussed below.

Circulation System

The circulation system is a major factor contributing to the formation of the physical structure
of the town. It plays both reactive and proactive roles. It is reactive when it merely services
development, that is, the circulation system is laid out to service activity areas that are already
in existence. On the other hand, the circulation system can be used to induce future
development in identified growth areas, in accordance with the preferred spatial strategy.

There are at least three types of circulation sub-systems that must be planned at the local level:
thru traffic, linkages between the town center and the barrios, and internal circulation in the
town center.

Thru Traffic. To most towns thru traffic is a major component of local circulation. This is due to
the fact that the inter-town (provincial or national) arterial road that crosses the town center is
usually adopted as the main urban thoroughfare. All other municipal roads connect to, or
branch out from it. In such a case, there is a high degree of merging of local and regional traffic,
causing traffic congestion problems in the town’s main street. How can thru traffic be separated
from local traffic?

The usual solution is construction of an overpass or a by-pass road. A by-pass has the adverse
effect of diverting development to another part of town or causing premature conversion of
agricultural lands. Is this socially desirable? Perhaps an alternative is to use certain existing
municipal streets to handle diverted traffic. An overpass on the other hand, eases traffic flow at
intersections but it does not increase the capacity of existing streets.

Poblacion-Barrio Traffic. In many cases, too, traffic between the poblacion and the barrios is
handled by the arterial national or provincial road. This also leads to the use of the arterial by
slow-moving barrio-bound vehicles like tricycles and calesas, often retarding thru traffic flow
and sometimes causing vehicular accidents. It makes more sense therefore if alternate routes to
handle strictly local traffic are provided.

Internal Circulation in the Poblacion. Traditional town centers have streets that were not built
to handle big and heavy vehicles. Widening these old streets is often not feasible due to
intensive permanent roadside developments. A bypass road is often the solution but the adverse
effects of this solution on the local commercial establishments must be carefully evaluated.
Other alternatives should be explored such as the prohibition on buses and trucks to cross the
town center. This requires the provision of bus terminals at the edges of the town center and
traffic inside the center can be conveyed by pedicabs, calesas, bicycles, or on foot. This solution
is also environmentally-friendly. Recovering sidewalks for the pedestrian and totally
pedestrianizing certain streets can also improve internal circulation in the town center.
Facilities for safe pedestrian crossing such as pedestrian-activated traffic signals, zebra
crossings, and overpasses should be installed at strategic sections of busy city streets.

Another thing to look into is linkage between subdivision streets and the municipal circulation
system. We have to make sure that no subdivision creates a dead-end effect. It is better to layout
the municipal o barangay street pattern in advance before subdivision developers start their
projects so that they can design their internal circulation system to link up with the wider
circulation network of the town.

Footpaths. Customary footpaths and trails form an extensive circulation network especially in
remote rural areas. Often these footpaths are in such bad condition especially during rainy
months that affected residents find it hard to negotiate through them even on foot. The LGU
should declare these to be permanent easements of public use so that owners of private lands
traversed by these footpaths will be compelled to keep them open in perpetuity. Then the
municipal and barangay funds should be used for their improvement and maintenance. Like any
road network, footpaths should be built and maintained to all-weather standards.

Water-related Transport. In LGUs that are situated along navigable rivers, lakes, and coastal
zones where extensive use is made of water bodies for transportation, water-related
infrastructure forms part of the local circulation system. The infrastructure support could take
the form of all-weather landing and berthing facilities. Then the road approach to these facilities
should be maintained in good condition to ensure safe and smooth inter-modal transfers.

Other Major Infrastructures and Urban Services

In addition to transport networks, other infrastructures and urban services that have to be
properly located are waterworks (especially water sources), treatment and disposal of sewage
and garage disposal, power plant or power distribution substation, oil or gas depot, and flood
control. Each of these must be carefully located because of their potential to pollute the
environment or their susceptibility to pollution themselves. Some of these also pose great risks
to life and limb of the affected residents.

Domestic Water Sources. If the town must rely on surface water as a source of domestic water
supply, this body of surface water and its immediate catchment area should be delineated as
protected area to ensure the continuous supply of water at the right quantity and quality. If the
source of water supply is groundwater, aquifer recharge areas should likewise be identified and
protected.

Sewage Disposal. Beyond a certain population, alternative sewage treatments to the septic tank
system should be considered. In predominantly residential areas, community sewerage may
replace individual septic tanks. In industrialized areas, the municipal government may install a
centralized sewage treatment facility and collect user charges from connected establishments.

Garbage Dump or Sanitary Landfill. Low-lying areas such as ravines, swamps and abandoned
barrow pits are good dumping grounds provided that air and water pollution is abated.
Landfilling is recommended to minimize spread of diseases. The practice of dumping along
shoulders or side ditches of major roads could no longer be allowed in the light of the enactment
of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003).

Power Sources. Power plants, sub-stations and gas or oil depots must be situated away from
residential areas. The LGU is not responsible for putting up these facilities. The LGU is however
responsible for providing buffers surrounding these installations.

Flood Control and Drainage. Areas requiring major civil works to stabilize riverbanks,
seashores, lakeshores and to straighten the course of meandering rivers should be identified.
Such structures may be so designed as to accommodate other users, e.g. dike roads or
walkways. The regulation easements and savage zones, properly landscaped or vegetated can
enhance the quality of the urban environment.

Social Service Facilities. The location of social services like schools, hospitals, and government
administrative buildings on the other hand, must take into account proximity and access to their
service population. The hierarchy of services should also be followed. Hence, the most central
municipal services like a secondary or tertiary school, a general hospital, etc. have to be located
in the poblacion; lower level services should be sited in conjunction with the neighborhood unit
and community clusters.

PROTECTED AREAS

A system of functional open spaces is an important element of the CLUP. Functional open spaces
are lands that are deliberately kept in their open character for their contribution toward
marinating the amenity value of the environment. They offer opportunities for cheap recreation
for the local residents. At the same time they can serve as protection buffers around hazardous
areas and installations. In addition, protected areas covered by existing national laws which are
located within the territorial limits of the LGU may be considered as forming part of the open
space system of that LGU.

Local Open Space System

Open spaces like other social services follow a hierarchy of functions. At the city/municipality
level, the town square plaza is at the top of the hierarchy. The town plaza should be a factor in
establishing and maintaining the image of the town. Central urban functions may be located
around the town plaza. Lower order parks should be planned in conjunction with neighborhood
and community centers. Lower-end open spaces include district parks, neighborhood parks,
vest-pocket parks, and tot lots (children’s play areas).

Buffers and the city/municipal communal forest required by the Local Government may also be
incorporated into the open space system. So are the public easements along riverbanks, around
escarpments, or along lakeshores and seacoasts. Prime agricultural lands, too, due to their latest
status as protected areas should now form part of the municipal open space system. Historical
sites or local significance should form part of the open space and preservation areas of the
locality. Finally, the environmentally critical and hazardous areas could be ingeniously planned
and designed to form part of the town’s open space and preservation areas.

Nationally Protected Areas

Protected areas under national laws are also part of the open space system identified and
maintained at the local level. These have to be delineated to the extent that they are located in a
given LGU territory. Then the applicable policies in the national law and specific regulations in
the protected area management plans should be incorporated into the CLUP and Zoning
Ordinance for joint enforcement, again in the spirit of co-management. Protected areas covered
by national laws can be classified into the NIPAS (RA 7586) areas and non-NIPAS areas. The
latter are embodied in other laws. All of these categories are discussed in Chapter 6.

NIPAS Protected Areas. Under RA 7586 there are eight categories of protected areas, namely:

1. All NIPA Categories (RA 7586)

a. Strict nature reserve
b. Natural park
c. Natural monument
d. Wildlife sanctuary
e. Protected landscape and seascape
f. Resource reserve
g. Natural biotic area
h. Other categories established by law, conventions or international agreements of
which the Philippines is a signatory

Non-NIPAS Protected Areas. These are areas for protection identified in various other
legislations and policy documents. A partial list follows, indicating sources.

1. Non-NIPAS Categories
a. Second growth forest (PD 705)
i. above 1,000 meter elevation
ii. above 50% slope
b. Mangroves and fish sanctuaries (RA 8435; RA 8550)
c. Buffer strips/easements (PD 705; PD 1067)
i. 40 meters along river bank in forest land
 ii. 20 meters along river bank in A&D land
iii. 30 meters along riverbank in urban area
iv. 40 meters around escarpments
v. 20 meters from the right-of-way of national roads
d. Salvage zone along foreshore lands (P.P. 2146)
e. Freshwater swamps and marshes (P.P. 2146)

2. Environmentally Constrained Areas

a. Areas prone to weather and water-related hazards (National Physical Framework
Plan)
b. Areas vulnerable to earthquake-induced hazards (NPFP)
c. Areas affected by volcanic hazards (NPFP)
d. Areas subject to erosion (NPFP)

3. Protected Agricultural Areas

a. Network of Protected Agricultural Areas (DA AO No. 1)
i. Highly restricted conversion areas
ii. Moderately restricted conversion areas
iii. Conditionally restricted conversion areas
b. Irrigated and irrigable rice lands (RA 8435)
c. Coconut preservation areas (RA 8048)

4. Others
a. Watersheds of sources of domestic water supply (local ordinance)
b. Plazas and heritage/historic sites (P.P. 2146)
c. Utility easements: NAPOCOR transmission lines, regional transformers, oil and gas
storage facilities, cellsites (local ordinances)
d. Visual corridors or areas with high aesthetic value (P.P. 2146)
e. Geothermal reserves (site specific proclamations)

ZONING AND OTHER TOOLS OF CLUP IMPLEMENTATION

The CLUP is primarily a guide to the proper location of land-using activities. As such it can be
directly translated into a zoning ordinance. This is exactly the perception of the Local
Government Code when it directs the local government units to “continue to prepare their
respective comprehensive land use plans enacted through zoning ordinances which shall be the
primary and dominant bases for the future use of land resources”. The zoning ordinance
therefore has been singled out in the Code as the principal instrument for implementing the
CLUP.

In this formal section of this Chapter we will skip the procedural aspects of zoning. The Housing
and Land Use Regulatory Board and its predecessor agencies have done a good job of
popularizing the mechanics of zoning formulation and enforcement. As a result people are more
familiar with zoning than with planning. Often they tend to mistake one for the other.

Our discussion here will focus on those that are not found in existing planning and zoning
guidelines: the deeper philosophical and political basis of zoning. We will also highlight the
changes in current zoning particularly as regards the scope of coverage and new land use
categories consistent with our definition of the CLUP. The remaining part of this section will be
devoted to a review of other instruments of public control of land use. For the latter purpose,
only those regulatory measures that are already in our statute books but are yet unutilized will
be reviewed.
Zoning

Zoning has been defined from the early works of the National Planning Commission to the latest
HLURB Town Planning Guidelines, in terms of its procedural aspect, namely, the division of a
city into districts or zones and prescribing the use regulations for each district or zone. What is
not stated but is presumed nonetheless is that it is the local government that draws the line
between zones. But by what authority does it prescribe the use or uses for each zone when in
fact the lands being thus delineated are not owned by the local government but are mostly
private property? Older zoning ordinances derive their legal basis from the exercise of the
inherent police power of the State to safeguard and promote public health, safety, convenience
and general welfare.
Latest ordinances, especially those enacted after the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions, had the
benefit of explicit provisions of law and administrative issuances as base of authority in addition
to the implicit ones. Both constitutions, as explained in Chapter 3, have enunciated the principle
of principle of social responsibility in property ownership and have empowered the State to
regulated the “ownership, acquisition, use, and disposition of property and its increments”.

The rationale for State regulation of land use is succinctly summarized in another section of the
Constitution, “The use of property bears a social function, and all economic agents shall
contributed to the common good. Individuals and private groups… shall have the right to own,
establish and operate economic enterprises, subject to the duty of the State to promote
distributive justice and to intervene when the common good so demands.”

The authority to regulate the use of property was subsequently devolved to LGUs through the
Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160). The Code accordingly directs the legislative bodies
(Sanggunian) to “prescribe reasonable limits and restraints on the use of the property within
their territorial jurisdiction”. The basis for reasonable prescription of limits in land use is to be
the comprehensive land use plan and the instrument for enforcing those limits and restraints
according to the CLUP is the zoning ordinance. In short, the zoning ordinance is the instrument
used by the State (through its territorial and political subdivision – the local government unit)
to regulate the use of land within the LGU territory. And the manner in which the State shall
regulate land use is to “prescribe reasonable limits and restraints” on the way landowners use
their property. This latter point is what most property owners cannot understand, much less
accept. Most property owners believed that their ownership is absolute. But as discussed in
Chapter 1, private property ownership though exclusive is not absolute but is always limited by
the over-all interest of society as administered by the State. The exercise of zoning by the local
government therefore has more profound political implications than its procedural, if
mechanical definition often suggests. This political implication of zoning must be understood by
both the local legislators and the citizens especially the affected property owners.

Political implication of zoning. When the local Sanggunian enacts a zoning ordinance, the
legislators must understand that they are exercising their political power to withdraw from
property owners’ bundle of rights one of those rights namely, the right to develop or use their
property. While they continue to enjoy all the other rights to their property, property owners
can no longer decide on their own what use to make of their property. The right to use has been
transferred from the individual owners to society at large. Thenceforth, each time an individual
wants to use his lands he has to secure clearance from the local government being the
administrator of socialized rights on the use of land. If the local Sanggunian members realize the
serious political implications of zoning, they should ensure that their zoning and the
comprehensive land use plan of which the zoning ordinance is an implementing instrument are
formulated through a broad participatory and consultative process so that the plan and the
zoning ordinance are the product of social consensus.
For their part, once assured that the CLUP and the zoning ordinance are the product of social
consensus, the citizens will not begrudge the local government its authority and voluntarily
comply with the prescribed limits and restraints on the use of their property, for the sake of the
general welfare.

Proposed changes in current zoning practice. Consistent with the CLUP framework presented in
this chapter, some changes in the current zoning practice are necessary. The proposed changes
will focus on the geographical and subject areas of coverage and on some emerging zoning
district categories not yet adequately covered by present guidelines.

Comprehensive scope. The new zoning shall now cover the entire territorial jurisdiction of the
LGU and not focus only on the urban area as is the current practice. Urban land use regulations
shall also extend to barangay settlement centers outside the Poblacion, or in each of the
identified growth centers in accordance with the chosen urban form. In case there are lands of
the public domain and ancestral domains occurring in the particular LGU, the management
plans of these domains shall be incorporated into the CLUP and the policies embodied in those
management plans shall be reflected in the local zoning ordinance. The organizing framework
for the scope of the new zoning shall combine the three domains (Figure 9.1) and the four
general land use policy areas (Figure 9.2) summarized in the matrix below.

Figure 9.3. ORGANIZING FRAMEWORK FOR NEW ZONING

Land Use
Ancestral
Categories/ Private Domain Public Domain
Domain
Zoning Districts
Protected Areas
Settlement Areas
Infrastructure Areas
Production Areas

Total catchment concept. An alternative or at least complementary concept is land and water use
zoning. Considering the archipelagic character of the Philippines it is surprising how we have
carried on land use planning for decades completely oblivious of the water component of our
territory. It was only fairly recently that water use zonation was attempted for the first time as
is the case of the Batangas Bay. However the water use zonation was undertaken as a discrete
activity without coordination with the land use planning among the LGUs upstream. Yet we
know that the quality of the receiving water body is dependent to a larger extent on the
activities on the land upstream. There is therefore a need to have a combined land and water
use zoning that reconciles land uses in the upper catchment with the water quality
requirements of various uses of the receiving water body.

In this connection, amendments should be made on the Local Government Code (Sec. 131, r) and
the Philippine Fisheries Code (Sec. 18) to the effect that the authority of LGUs over their
municipal waters should not be limited to fisheries only. Other water uses in which the LGU may
be given authority to regulate may include tourism and recreation, navigation and transport,
commerce and industry, and the like. When various alternative uses of the water body are
considered a general rule may be established so that the use that requires the highest water
quality should be adopted as the norm in determining the overall quality of the water body to
maintain and that water quality standard in turn will control the type and intensity of land uses
upstream especially when such land uses have the capacity to degrade the quality of the
receiving waters. Indeed, water-driven land use planning or water-sensitive land-use zoning is
an urgent need that is long overdue in the Philippines.

Emerging land use/zoning problems. There are some problematic situations that cannot be
easily solved by strictly adhering to current zoning guidelines. For example, the problem of
mixed land uses. The convenient practice is to adopt the dominant use only thereby ignoring the
other uses. To be more realistic, both dominant and associated uses should be taken into
account, adopting for this purpose the ingenious classification scheme devised by the BSWM as
discussed in Chapter 1 above. This implies that a new land use type namely, “Mixed land use”
shall be accepted as a zoning district in its own right. To be sure, present zoning practice already
promotes mixed land use by providing a list of other allowable uses in any given use district.
The principal decision tool is the “Zoning Compatibility Matrix”. The matrix lists all possible
land-use activities and indicates whether each activity is permitted in a given zone, without
certain, or under special conditions. The concept behind the zoning compatibility matrix is
essentially sound. But there is seemingly a high degree of arbitrariness in its construction.
Moreover, the same prescribed matrix is applied uniformly in all areas of the country. To
improve its validity and usefulness the matrix should be constructed by each LGU so that it will
truly capture the essence of the CLUP land use policies, give full consideration for the various
dimensions and nuances of compatibility (Refer back to Chapter 1), and reflect the socio-
cultural sensibilities of the local population.

Secondly, special zones should be created to serve as a catch-all category for situations that are
hard to pigeonhole under existing categories. Two related examples are particularly
appropriate in this regard owing to the fact that most urban uses and town centers date back to
colonial times (Spanish and American). Some sections of these towns are either too old and
rundown or are historically or culturally significant. Certainly both sections deserve special
treatment; the former may be a candidate for designation as a zone for redevelopment and the
latter for conservation.

A third example of a problematic situation is how to categorize production areas that are
treated as protected areas. This ambiguity applies to some agricultural areas like irrigated and
irrigable rice lands (RA 8435) and coconut lands (RA 8048). Both are obviously production
areas but are covered by protected area policies. So where to classify these lands? There seems
to be more sense in classifying these lands under the more stringent category that is, protected
area. To do otherwise would frustrate the object of protection altogether.

Other Implementation Tools

In addition to zoning, the local government uses other authority-levers to deal with private
property owners such as the exercise of its taxing powers and eminent domain. In a positive
developmental mode the LGU can use its power to spend, putting its funds directly into public
investments and thereby indirectly influence private investments into the locality.

Taxes on real property

There are a number of impositions on real property ownership in the Philippines: the basic real
property tax, and the special levies such as the special education fund, the tax on idle lands, and
the special benefit assessment. The first two are the more familiar ones and are used extensively
for revenue raising purposes. The last two are rarely applied but they are effective planning and
regulatory tools when properly utilized.

The basic real property tax. Why should one pay taxes on the land that he owns? This is a
question many are not asking aloud and the answer to it is probably understood by only a few.

The answer begins with the concept of land as a natural resource. As such it is supposed to be
enjoyed free by everyone like they do the air, sunlight and the rain. But unlike the other natural
resources, land has become the subject of private ownership. And whoever is the owner of land
enjoys a bundle of right to use, dispose, transfer, and exclude others from enjoying it. Because
not everybody can own land for whatever reason, then those who are able to obtain title to land
are indeed privileged members of society. Ownership of land therefore, is less of a right than a
privilege. Hence, the real property tax is a tax not on the use of the land as many are wont to
believe, but on the privilege of owning it. Although the basis of assessment is the actual use of
the land, the tax is levied on the person who is in possession of the property. That explains why
squatters, renters, lessees, and others enjoying similar tenure, do not pay taxes on the lands
they actually occupy and use. For this reason too, the rampant practice of LGUs collecting the
real property tax from the occupants of timberlands on the strength of tax declarations is
difficult to justify. According to the Forestry Code, the mere issuance of tax declarations to forest
occupants is illegal. Many local officials explain that they are taxing the use rather than the
ownership of land. This to me is an erroneous interpretation of what the realty tax is all about.

The special educational fund. The additional one percent (1%) tax on real property accruing to
the special educational fund (SEF) is similarly a revenue-raising measure the proceeds of which
is exclusively for the maintenance and operation of public schools. Administered by the local
school boards, the SEF goes into the construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and
equipment, the conduct of educational research, purchase of books and periodicals, and sports
development. Local school boards have the exclusive authority to determine and approve the
disposition of the proceeds of the SEF, which is treated as a trust fund by the local government.
Although the SEF is applied on all taxable property, it cannot be considered as a general tax due
to the specific purpose for which it is intended. Hence, it is properly a special levy. In its original
version, the SEF was not levied on all taxable property, probably in keeping with its special
character. Property with assessed value below a certain cut-off level used to be exempt from
this imposition. Now in its latest version the SEF has become simply an additional levy on all
taxable property.

Strictly speaking, the basic real property tax and the SEF are not planning tools in the sense that
they do not prescribe or indicate the way land should be put to use nor do they control or limit
the location of, or the direction where development should proceed. The other two special
levies, namely the tax on idle lands and the special benefit assessment are powerful planning
and regulatory devices when properly applied.

Idle lands tax. The idle lands tax is and additional imposition of five percent (5%) on the
assessed value of lands considered as idle. Idle lands are defined according to whether they are
classified as agricultural or urban. An agricultural land is deemed idle if it has an area of not less
than one hectare and a half of which is unutilized for agriculture. Exempted from this definition
are agricultural lands planted to permanent or perennial crops with at least fifty (50) trees to a
hectare. Also exempted are lands actually used for grazing.

For urban lands to be idle, these should have an area of not less than one thousand (1,000)
square meters, one half of which remains unutilized or unimproved. Individual owners of
subdivision lots regardless of the size of lots are liable to this imposition. Likewise, subdivision
owners or operators with individual lots that remain untransferred to lot buyers are subject to
this special tax. The basis for invoking exemption from this special levy includes force majeure,
civil disturbance, natural calamity, or any circumstance that would physically or legally prevent
the owner from utilizing or improving the property in question.

What is the rationale behind the idle lands tax? The obvious justifications for this special levy
are to promote efficient and optimum utilization of land for the overall benefit of society as well
as to curb the practice of speculative holding of land in anticipation of windfall profits from
timely sales. The more apparent reason for local governments’ wanting to impose this special
levy is the prospect of increased real property tax revenues accruing from the additional and
usually higher assessments on new buildings, machineries and other improvements once the
erstwhile idle lands are put to productive use.
Another use of the idle lands tax which is unknown to most people, including responsible
government officials themselves, is that of regulatory device to influence the pattern and
direction of development in accordance with the desired urban form. The near coercive power
of the tax to compel errant property owners to invest in their property lies in the exorbitant rate
of the assessment which is set at five percent (5%) of the taxable assessed value of the property
in question. Repeated imposition of the special levy on top of the basic real property tax and the
mandatory special education fund will have effectively wiped out the value of the property in a
matter of twelve (12) years or so. If it seems confiscatory in effect this special levy is intended to
be so, in order to make the property owners realize that it is counter-productive to keep their
land idle or under-utilized.

If the idle lands tax possesses that compelling power then it could be used to intensify
development in the desired areas in accordance with the spatial strategy or the preferred urban
form in the comprehensive land use plan. For example, if the objective is to achieve a compact
urban form by accommodating future urban growth through in-filling of existing vacant lots and
by increasing density in the inner city rather converting greenfield sites in the urban fringe
(Refer back to Chapter 8), then the idle lands tax should be imposed on idle and under-utilized
lots in the built-up area. Otherwise, applying the tax generally over the whole municipal
territory will not help achieve the desired spatial outcome.

A possible variant of the idle lands tax which is a tool to intensify development in certain areas
in the land use plan is a tax on under-utilized property. Land may not be exactly idle as legally
defined. But its current use or use intensity may be of a lower category than what the market
justifies in accordance with the concept of “highest and best use”. For example, the owner of an
inner-city lot continues to hold on to a single-storey residential house when the rest of the block
or district have converted to multi-storey residential or commercial development. A useful
indicator of the intensity of development of an urban property is the ratio of the value of
improvements to the value of the land. The lower this ratio the more likely is the property being
used in a sub-optimal manner. For purposes of imposing the special levy, a cut-off ratio should
be determined so that all properties with ratios below the cut-off one will be subject to the
special levy. This regulatory device will achieve greater effect if it is applied in conjunction with
a zoning plan that indicates different density levels for various geographical sections of the city.

Although this tax is reportedly being applied successfully in Cuba and other Latin American
countries with which the Philippines has historical ties, the concept has not reached this
country for one reason or another. It is being offered in this book, nevertheless, as food for
thought for present and would-be legislators at both the local and national levels.

Special benefit levy. Another special levy on taxable real property which has been in existence
since 1939 is the benefit levy or special assessment. Originally issued as a provision of
Commonwealth Act No. 134, this special levy was later carried on in Presidential Decree 464 or
the Real Property Tax Code of 1974. Then in the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160) this
special levy again appears in Section 240 – Section 245, inclusive. Despite its long presence in
the laws, however, this imposition has been hardly utilized, partly because some local
government officials are not aware of the existence of such a law and partly because of the lack
of models or precedents for those wanting to implement it to follow.

Just what is the special benefit levy? This is an assessment of lands that are specially benefited
by public works projects, whether new construction or improvements on existing ones. This tax
allows local government to recover as much as sixty percent (60%) of the cost of the project
from contributions by the owners of the lands who stand to benefit tremendously as a result of
the project in the form of increased land values.
The rationale behind this special levy derives from the principle of social justice and equity
which requires that anyone who is made worse off by an action of society deserves to be
compensated and anyone who becomes better off by that same action has to return the
undeserved benefit to society. As is currently the practice in the Philippines, only the
“worsement” compensation is claimed by property owners whose property or parts thereof are
the subject of eminent domain proceedings. The betterment levy to which society is entitled, on
the other hand, remains uncollected by the government. Thus, society is being deprived of a
substantial source of funds to finance most of its infrastructure projects. This special levy is a
veritable gold mine waiting to be tapped.

The net effect of the betterment levy is that society ends up being the loser by allowing the
unearned increment in land values to be pocketed by the benefited property owners through no
effort of their own. If the two concepts are applied in tandem wherein those who are rendered
worse off are compensated and those made better off are compelled to reimburse society for the
latter’s investments in public works projects, it may well be that actual payments need no
longer be made in either direction. This scheme is what Americans call “wipeouts for windfalls”.

Actually, the principle of wipeouts for windfalls is unofficially being observed in the Philippines.
This is exemplified in the rampant practice of landowners who donate portions of their
property for the proposed public works project in anticipation of greater benefits that the
project will induce or accelerate in terms not only of increased land values but more particularly
in terms of general improvement in business climate and investment opportunities. Under this
unofficial practice however, there is no p[roper valuation of the benefits that accrue to either
party and no one knows in what direction the net benefits flow.

Eminent Domain

Another inherent power of the State to deal with private property owners is the power to take
back private property for public purpose. To protect private property owners from arbitrary
and abusive exercise by the state of this power, the Constitution has put up limits or conditions
on the government in the exercise of eminent domain. These are, that the taking is for public
purpose, that due process is observed, and that just compensation is paid to the affected owner.

The transfer of privately owned land into the hands of local governments is an important
planning tool. If planning entails public control over the pattern of development in a given
territorial jurisdiction, there is no more effective way to realize the socially desirable use of
certain lands than for those lands to be in the possession and control of the local government
(on behalf of the society itself). This requires more extensive application of eminent domain
than the usual project-specific expropriation for sites, rights-of-way, or easements of proposed
public works projects. Local governments must be able to use their eminent domain powers to
acquire more private property for land banking purposes.

Land banking is the advanced acquisition and consolidation of lands identified in the
comprehensive land use plan as areas for future urban expansion. In the Philippines it is the
private developers who practice land banking with the undesirable outcome that land becomes
speculatively priced when released by them in the market. This practiced renders land for
urban development inaccessible to the poor. Even the government often falls victim of
speculative pricing when it acquires land for public use through negotiated purchase. It is
therefore highly desirable for local governments to practice land banking to be able to curb
speculative pricing of development land and to control the pace and timing of the development
in accordance with the plan.

The experience of Singapore, Scandinavia, and other European countries is instructive in this
regard. In these countries, areas identifies in the comprehensive land use plan as areas for
future urban expansion are immediately acquired by the local government. Then the
government releases only enough land as needed for development in accordance with the plan.
The release of development land to private developers is done with maximum transparency
through public auction to ensure that final lot buyers do not fall prey to speculative pricing. The
justification for local governments to practice land banking is implied in the expanded purpose
for the exercise of eminent domain as mandated by the Local Government Code, namely, “… for
the benefit of the poor and the landless…” the addition of this phrase among the purposes for
which eminent domain could be exercised leaves no doubt that land delivery to local
governments especially for developing projects that directly benefit the poor such as low-cost
housing is a legitimate public purpose. To satisfy this mandate, local governments rather than
the private developers should engage in land banking.

Public Investment Programming

Whereas zoning ensures that projects are located in the right place the projects subject to
zoning regulation are often identified or initiated by the private sector and are not always of the
right type in the sense of being socially acceptable. Hence, there is a need to supplement zoning
with another authority-lever: public investment.

Investment in public infrastructure and facilities is a powerful tool to shape local development
in accordance with the chosen urban form in the CLUP. When public facilities such as roads and
bridges, schools, public buildings, water supply systems, or waste disposal facilities have been
established these have the potential to shape the pattern of land use for decades. This ability to
shape future development is due not only to the fact that once the facilities can also shape
development in that they strongly influence private investment in the desired direction. Public
investment therefore is a double-edged authority-lever. It improves the quality of public
services and at the same time it influences corresponding private investment. When both the
public and private sectors are investing in the community the synergistic effect created will
redound to higher levels of social and economic well-being of the population.

The preparation of the medium-term and annual public investment program is one of the
functions of the Local Government Council as mandated in the Local Government Code. The
CLUP is a rich source of programs and projects to be included in the investment program. Public
investment programming is an intermediate process that links the plan to the local budget. With
a functional local development investment program (LDIP) translated into its annual
component (AIP), local budgets can truly operationalized the approved local development plan
as directed by the Code.

With projects taken out of the CLUP and the comprehensive development plan, no longer can
the present practice of plucking projects from anywhere be sustained. At any rate, the choice of
programs and projects to be included in the investment program should be guided by the
following principles:

1. Put emphasis on asset-forming expenditures. The broader concept of “asset: includes

both hard and soft projects. Hard projects involve acquisition of land and construction of
physical structures that form part of the community’s capital buildup. Soft projects, on
the other hand, pertain to direct investment in people which are the most important
assets of any community. Public investment in skills training, scholarships, and public
health are examples of soft projects that are no less important than infrastructure
projects.

2. Enhance the strategic nature of public investments. Public investment projects must not
only lead to improved public services in general. They must be able to influence or
leverage substantial private investments in order to accelerate and expand the
 community’s capital build-up thereby multiplying the benefits that will accrue to the
inhabitants.

3. Strengthen the spatial basis of their investment program. Projects, especially of the
“hard” type should support the realization of the desired spatial strategy in the CLUP.
Henceforth, public investment projects should be chosen according to their potential to
shape the physical development of the city in accordance with the desired urban form.

4. Limit projects to those “owned” by the LGU. The projects that will be included in the
LDIP/AIP should only be those owned by the LGU or those for which the LGU is solely or
principally responsible. Although projects are already included in the programs of those
higher agencies so it is superfluous to have them included in the LDIP. The “local”
character of the projects need not be confined to small low-budget ones. Local projects
may include large multi-year developments, given the enabling authority of continuing
appropriations. One useful guide in determining local ownership of programs and
projects is the enumeration of basic services devolved to LGUs.

5. Improve local fiscal management. Current investment programming practice has

invariably followed the conservative track. The implementation of the CLUP requires
more funds than what are normally available from regular revenue sources. This would
suggest the adoption of bold non-conventional approaches to fiscal management,
including but not limited to, raising more revenues by improving collection efficiency in
certain items where the LGU tends to under-perform, by strict and judicious watch on
expenditures, by trapping hitherto unutilized revenue raising powers such as imposing
special levies on real property, and by exploring the feasibility of applying the various
modes of credit financing as enumerated in the Local Government Code.

6. Stress on participatory, consultative process. Notwithstanding the long list of program

and projects already identified in the CLUP, and despite the highly participatory process
applied in the formulation of the plan itself, there may still be some important ideas that
escaped notice the first time around. Every opportunity should be given to all sectors
and areas of the LGU constituency to have their ideas heard on all matters that affect
their lives.

Guided Private Investments

Yet another authority-lever available to the LGU is the mandate to put in place measures to
attract private investments. The rationale for such intervention measures derives from two
realities. First, the magnitude of investible resources in the possession of the private sector is
much greater than that of the public sector especially at the local level. Significant local
development can be achieved better with the private sector investing in the area in multiples
(rather than mere fractions) of the public sector investment.

Secondly, private investments left unguided may lead to unsatisfactory social outcomes. Private
investors are not known to give prominent consideration for the general welfare as a factor in
their decision-making. State intervention in private investment decisions is therefore necessary
to promote distributive justice, social equity, and the general welfare.

The authority to guide private investments is given to the Local Development Council. What the
Code intends is for the LGU to provide incentives to provide incentives to promote the inflows of
private investment capital. With public and private investments complementing each other the
benefits that will accrue to the citizens will be multiplied many times over.
Co-Management of Other Domains

All of the above discussion pertain to the power of the LGU to regulate the use of land in private
property ownership. What about land and other natural resources which are traditionally part
of the public domain and the ancestral domain but which are under the responsibility of the
national government? Does the LHU have powers and responsibilities over such areas within its
territorial jurisdiction?

It may be noted that one of the operative principles of decentralization enunciated in the Local
Government Code is that “local government units shall share with the national government the
responsibility in the management and maintenance of ecological balance within their territorial
jurisdiction.” Local governments and the national government are therefore directed by the
Code to act as co-managers of the national territory and patrimony.

In pursuance of this principle, the Code empowers the Mayor to “adopt measures to safeguard
and ensure land, mineral, marine, forest, and other resources of the city…” the Code also directs
the SP to:

“Protect the environment and impose appropriate penalties for acts which endanger the
environment, such as dynamite fishing and other forms of destructive fishing, illegal logging
and smuggling of logs, smuggling of natural resources products and endangered species of
flora and fauna, slash and burn farming, and such other activities which result in pollution,
acceleration of eutrophication of rivers and lakes, or ecological imbalance.”

In the spirit of co-management, the LGU can use the CLUP as the basis for crafting a
memorandum of agreement or similar instrument with the DENR or its relevant service bureaus
to jointly manage all natural resources, and with the National Commission for Indigenous
Peoples (NCIP) to share responsibility in the planning and development of ancestral domains
located within the jurisdiction of the LGU.

To summarize, the CLUP is comprehensive in that it incorporates relevant elements of all area
and thematic plans discussed in Chapter 5 through Chapter 8. When the CLUP is already in
place, all subsequent plans for the natural resources, protected areas, ancestral domains and
urban lands must conform with the policies in the CLUP.
 CHAPTER 10
EMERGING CHALLENGES

In this concluding chapter we train our eyes into the future. This is a fitting end to a piece of
work that involved a lot of looking back. Concerned as we were to establish the foundations
upon which present land use planning in the Philippines may have taken its root we necessarily
have had to dig up historical antecedents and explanations. Now having come this far we should
be able to point out what remains to be done to enrich the substantive content of Philippine
land use planning. It has been noted particularly in Chapter 8 that urban development in the
Philippines continues to create sprawling low density cities because the creation of the built
environment is dominated by private developers and the government has not been able to
control the size, shape and direction of urban growth. The undesirable outcomes of unregulated
growth are there for all to see. Some of the more apparent ones include the inefficient utilization
of urban land as indicated by the presence of vacant lands in practically all urban areas in the
country, the progressive loss of prime agricultural lands that are giving way to the inexorable
advance of the urban frontier, and the blighting and slummization of the inner cities.

If the government really wants to assert its mandate to regulate future development to
minimize the undesirable outcomes of unplanned growth, two rather old approaches to
managing urban growth need to be considered: metropolitanization and urban renewal. These
two strategies reflect the eternal tension of growth and result in contrasting spatial outcomes;
one leads to centrifugal and the bother to centripetal growth patterns.

Metropolitanization, or its more modest local equivalent, metropolitan arrangement, is not

being pursued vigorously in this country. This owes in part to the indeterminate results of the
only metropolitanization experience in the Philippines – Metro Manila. Being too closely
identified with the Marcoses, the fate of Metro Manila has risen and fallen with the former first
couple. Current policy strongly reflects the anti-Marcos backlash ever cautious not to allow the
resurgence of authoritarianism. Taken as a symbol of centralized authority, metropolitanization
appears on the surface to be anachronistic to the general mood of devolution and
decentralization. Yet, to an increasing degree, the metropolitan arrangement is the only rational
approach to the planning and management of large urban areas such as the highly urbanized
cities that are rapidly growing in number (See Table 10.1).

Urban renewal is another old urban planning strategy that has received little attention in this
country. This is due to the existence of cheap agricultural land at the fringes of poblacions.
Because they are easily accessible and they entail less cost to develop and therefore assure
higher profits for private developers, the agricultural lands in the urban fringe has been
absorbing the onslaught of urban expansion. Often, the desirability of locating in suburban sites
is more perceived than real, a perception created in the public mind by the promotional
gimmicky and advertising campaigns of real estate speculators. This results in inefficient use of
land twice over: low density and underutilized space in inner city areas coupled with
proliferation of unsold subdivision lots in greenfield sites. Otherwise, the physical growth of
cities exhibits a “doughnut” effect, that is, a filling up of the fringe and a hollowing out of the
core.

Outward expansion of the city cannot go on indefinitely. The continuous conversion of

agricultural lands, legal or illegal, cannot be allowed without undermining the base of the
nation’s food security.

Large sprawling cities, moreover, create certain absurdities in urban living. Long distance
commuting, under conditions of inefficient transport facilities, for example, takes up a
considerable portion of a person’s workday, saps his energy, and reduces his productivity. This
is not to mention the increased pollution load in the atmosphere that reduces one’s life
expectancy. Very large cities also pose servicing problems such as maintaining acceptable level
of quality of utilities and social services, garbage and sewage collection, and crime prevention.

Table 10.1
CITIES OUTSIDE METRO MANILA WITH OVER 200,000
POPULATION, RANKED 1990, 1995 & 2000
RANK 1990 1995 2000
1 Davao Davao Davao
2 Cebu Cebu Cebu
3 Zamboanga Zamboanga Zamboanga
4 Bacolod Cagayan de Oro Antipolo
5 Cagayan de Oro Bacolod Cagayan de Oro
6 Iloilo Antipolo Bacolod
7 Butuan Iloilo General Santos
8 Iligan General Santos Iloilo
9 General Santos Iligan San Jose del Monte
10 Angeles Butuan Iligan
11 Tarlac Angeles Butuan
12 Antipolo Tarlac Tarlac
13 Baguio Baguio
14 Batangas Batangas
15 San Jose del Monte Angeles
16 Cabanatuan Cabanatuan
17 Lipa
18 Mandaue
19 San Fernando, La Union
20 San Pablo
Sources: National Statistics Office, 1990 Census of Population and Housing
National Statistics Office, 1995 Census of Population
National Statistics Office, 2000 Census of Population and Housing (Preliminary results)

Outward expansion of the city can be arrested by redirecting growth back to the inner city.
Through urban renewal, the inner cities are made attractive again both by living and for making
a living. Urban renewal is particularly appropriate in the Philippines due to the fact that the old
urban cores or poblacions are becoming inadequate for the demands of modern living.
Moreover, due to widespread use of less permanent construction materials many sections of our
cities all too easily become blighted and rundown.

Urban renewal maintains the livability and attractiveness of inner cities and to the extent that it
does, it should be able to reduce the pressure to move to suburban sites.

The other way to arrest the outward expansion of the city is to divert or decant growth to other
town centers within commuting distance of the central city. These other towns, usually small
ones, would be assisted to grow and become a member of some form of inter-LGU cooperation
or metropolitan arrangement. Hence, metropolitanization and urban renewal need not have
contradictory effects. Taken together they become complementary faces appropriate for 21st
Century Philippines.

In the next sections we shall take a closer look at metropolitanization and urban renewals as the
possible components of a two-pronged approach to managing future urban expansion.
 METROPOLITANIZATION

The phenomenon (and the process) of suburbanization that is largely responsible for the
creation of metropolitan areas has been discussed in Chapter 8 above.

Suburbanization leaves in its wake a widely spreading city. The term “sprawling city” is
sometimes used to call forth an “ugly” image wherein the central city has crossed over to
adjoining localities thereby effectively eliminating formal political boundaries. Thus a
metropolitan area emerges. The distinction between localities is virtually erased in a metropolis
and yet each local unit that has been “run over” by the advancing urban frontier struggles to
retain its political identity and authority. However, the problems of planning and administering
this area transcend municipal boundaries and assume a regional character and scope.
Traditional urban planning approaches are no longer adequate to deal with the type and
magnitude of metropolitan problems.

The rationale for metropolitan planning and governance stems from the need to integrate
planning and administration among local government units that had been “overrun” by the
sprawling central city. The problems associated with urban sprawl such as loss of agricultural
lands to urban use, long distance commuting, decay and blight in the core and inner cities, and
the like, can be apprehended on the area-wide scale by an entity that is superimposed on, and
whose powers transcend the limits of the existing local units. Also, some urban services are
more effectively and efficiently delivered at the metropolitan level.

From the perspective of rational land use planning the metropolitan approach enables a number
of contiguous cities and municipalities to marshal or manage their land resources collectively
for the furtherance of their common interests. In areas where the pace of urban growth is
accelerating, the pressure of population on the land is intensified. The threat of conversion of
agricultural lands to urban uses hangs over the heads of property owners and LGU officials. The
question that decision-makers face is whether the agricultural lands should now be released for
non-agricultural use at the risk of jeopardizing the base of the national food security. The
corollary question is whether it is possible to satisfy the space requirements for future urban
growth and expansion without necessarily using up the good agricultural lands that invariably
surround urban areas.

Left on its own to decide an individual LGU will have limited options. But when the issues are
addressed in a collective manner, there is greater flexibility and the range of alternative
solutions grows wider. In a metropolitan arrangement consisting of several LGUs with one of
them being obviously the most urbanized, normally recognized as the metropolitan core,
different central functions can be distributed among the LGUs in the collective. This will remove
from one member, say the core city, the burden of having to accommodate all functions within
its own territory. By thus balancing space requirements for urban across the metropolitan area
it is possible to preserve and protect the traditional and sustainable agricultural lands in each
locality concerned. This can be done by adopting a spatial strategy in which each LGU promotes
a compact and efficient urban form so that none of them would unnecessarily sprawl into their
respective rural hinterlands and thus leave the areas between urban centers open and unbuilt.
This spatial strategy however requires development of an efficient circulation and
communication network among the component LGUs.

Although the present Constitution authorizes the creation of metropolitan forms of

arrangement among local government units, LGUs seem to be adamant to form such groupings.
And yet the number of cities that are attaining the character of metropolitan areas is growing.
Even the Local Government Code has overlooked this issue. It has no explicit provisions on, nor
does it define what a metropolitan area is or should be.
Actually the present Constitution is overly cautious about the emergence of metropolitan areas
as new political units. Although it allows the creation by law of metropolitan political
subdivisions, the Constitution however makes sure that the component municipalities “shall
retain their basic autonomy and shall be entitled to their own local executive and legislatives
assemblies”. Further, the Constitution limits the power of whatever metropolitan authority will
be created to that of simply providing basic services requiring coordination.

This is an apparent over-reaction to the experience with the Metropolitan Manila Commission
wherein power was centralized in the Commission and the legislative powers of the component
LGUs were removed. It comes as no surprise therefore that the Local Government Code echoes
this attitude and precludes the possibility of trying out alterative models of metropolitan
governance.

Metropolitan and other forms of aggregation among LGUs are based on a provision of RA 7160
which allows LGUs to “group themselves, consolidate, or coordinate their efforts, services and
resources for purposes commonly beneficial to them”. Examples of services that are better
provided by a metro-wide authority are transport and telecommunications, power generation
and distribution, domestic water supply and sewerage, flood control and drainage, police and
fire protection, and garbage collection and disposal.

Approaches to Metropolitan Planning and Administration

It is a wise policy to anticipate and plan for rather than merely react to the emergence of
metropolitan areas. Provincial or regional planners must be able to identify highly urbanized
cities that have attained or are likely to attain metropolitan character within their territorial
jurisdictions. These cities are conspicuous for their high rates of population growth and
substantial private investments. Expansion of the built up area is observed to proceed at a rapid
pace. The concentration of tertiary level services (or central functions) invites increasingly
heavy transactions as well as commuting between the city and surrounding areas.

Delineating a Metropolitan Area

In the absence of a formal definition of a metropolitan area in the Philippines, the highly
urbanized city may be adopted as the core city, as suggested in Chapter 8.

The highly urbanized city along with the towns in its hinterlands (i.e. within daily commuting
range) should be delineated and declared as a special planning area either by the Provincial
Development Council or by the Regional Development Council, whichever has jurisdiction over
the area.

For the last three censuses conducted by the National Statistics Office the number of cities
outside Metropolitan Manila with a population exceeding 200,000 grew from 12 in 1990 to 16
in 1995 to 20 in 2000 (See Table 10.1). It may be noted that the top three cities maintained their
respective positions during the 10-year period: Davao, Cebu and Zamboanga. These are the
“provincial” cities that have passed the half-million mark. Davao City with over a million
population is the largest city outside Metro Manila. It is topped only by three other cities:
Quezon City, Manila, and Kalookan, all components of Metro Manila.

Among the newly converted cities that made it to the highly urbanized list are Tarlac, Antipolo,
San Jose del Monte and San Fernando, La Union. Tarlac and Antipolo had attained the over-
200,000 population level as early as 1990 before both became a city in 1998. San Jose del Monte
was converted into a city in 2000 but had by 1995 already ranked 15th among the largest
provincial cities, advancing to 9th position after 5 years. Antipolo had a more spectacular rise
from 12th position in 1990 to 6th place in 1995 and 4th in 2000.
Theoretically, all 20 large cities as of year 2000 could well serve as the core city of emerging
metropolitan areas. Some conceptual difficulties however, may be encountered in the case of a
few of them. In the case of Davao and Zamboanga, which are over-bounded, it is hard to
conceive of them as the core of a metropolis. Over-bounded cities have their built-up areas
confined within the territorial boundaries. Due to their very extensive land area, the intense
flows of trade, commuting, and other transactions, which normally occur between a core city
and its hinterlands in a metropolitan area are “internalized” within the cities territorial
boundaries. The center-periphery relationship between several political units, which is the main
characteristics of a metropolitan area, occurs between districts and barangays of the same city.
In the formal sense therefore, Davao and Zamboanga are hard to conceive of as “metropolitan”
despite their very large populations.

In recent years some local groups have been pushing for the creation of a “Metro Davao” which
embraces adjoining LGUs such as Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur, Panabo in Davao del Norte, and the
Samal Island Garden City. These LGUs supposedly carry on strong relationships with Davao City.
If established, Metro Davao would be a huge metropolis with a combined land area of nearly
one-tenth of the total land area of the Philippines.

Small islands that are too close to a large “mainland” city to be capable of forming a viable
internal economy like Samal in respect of Davao City, may indeed be included within the orbit of
influence of the mainland city. This seems to be a rational adaptation to the metropolitan
concept in archipelagic country like the Philippines. Thus, the inclusion of Mactan Island in
Metro Cebu, Guimaras Island in Metro Iloilo, or Panglao Island in Metro Tagbilaran may be
justified after the “Metro Davao” model.

Another conceptual difficulty pertains to large highly urbanized cities at the edge of an existing
metropolis like Antipolo and San Jose del Monte. These metro fringe have been receiving the
overspill population and investments from Metro Manila as shown by an average yearly
population growth rate of 8.5 percent for both cities. The population influx into these two
metro-fringe cities can be attributed to the massive relocation of Metro Manila squatters in
Sapang Palay, San Jose del Monte and the proliferation of residential subdivisions in Antipolo.
The massive influx of population is not, however, accompanied by relocation of adequate jobs.
Residents therefore continue to hold down their jobs in the metro area and commute back in the
evening. Thus, Antipolo and other metro-fringe towns serve as suburban bedrooms for Metro
Manila. Functionally, therefore these metro fringe areas are still part of the metropolis. For this
reason, it is difficult to conceive of Antipolo, San Jose del Monte, or any other metro-fringe town
as the core city of a new distinct metropolis. Perhaps even more absurd is the idea of some
officials of Quezon City who want their city to be the core of “Metro Quezon”.

Planning and Managing a Metropolitan Area

Planning the metro area is probably not as difficult as administering it. The political problem of
creating the appropriate administrative structure for the metropolis has been the most ticklish
issue in many countries that have had an experience with metropolitan governance, most
especially in the Philippines. Before deciding on the structure, the problem of how to allocate
powers and functions between the metropolitan government and the component local
government units must first be resolved.

Two options are available and, depending on the option taken, the appropriate organizational
structure becomes easier to identify. One option is annexation or amalgamation. This process
empowers the central city to extend its boundaries to embrace surrounding localities causing
the latter to lose their political identity and power and become a mere district of the core city.
Examples of this process can be seen in the amalgamation of the towns of Binondo, Sta. Cruz,
Pandacan, Paco, etc. into the city of Manila or of the towns of Molo, Jaro, etc. into Iloilo City. The
most recent example of annexation or amalgamation is that of the Samal Island Graden City. The
island city fused the municipalities of Babak, Kaputian, and Samal. Under this option, the Big
City type of government appears to be the most appropriate structure.

The second option is incorporation or integration. Here, the suburban localities retain their
political identities but agree to be co-opted into a relationship with the core city based on
functional specialization and interdependencies. Under this option, the appropriate structure is
somewhat complicated.

Three alternatives are currently available for the latter option: 1) Metro Government; 2) a
regional body; and 3) administration by the central or national government through some
department or agency.

Metro Government

This form of metropolitan governance treats the metropolis as a geographical-political unit run
by a single government that partakes of the nature of public corporation. The metro
government consolidates the significant political powers of local government units comprising
the metropolitan area. Although local officials continue to hold office and the geographical
boundaries of local units are kept intact, component local government units however, do not
exercise legislative or policy-making powers. They serve as mere conduits for the delivery of
government services and to some extent as listening posts to collect feedback from the residents
and communities.

Metro area planning and policy making is performed by a Council which may be appointed by
the central government or indirectly elected by the residents. Day to day operation and
management is exercised by an Executive Officer who is usually appointed by the central
government, the Council by any other higher authority. In the extreme case, all officers – policy
making as well as operational – are appointed by the central government.

A very good example of this is the now defunct Metropolitan Manila Commission which is
superimposed a metro government on, and consolidated the legislative powers of the 17
localities comprising Metro Manila.

In theory, a metropolitan government is in better position to promote a social goals of efficiency

and equity than the single local government unit. Efficiency is served by consolidating otherwise
disparate powers of local governments which, exercised singly, could not match the nature and
scope of overgrown urban problems and concerns. Such powers that are more efficiently
exercised by metro rather than local governments include land use planning, transport
planning, and coordination of basic services delivery like police and fire protection, garbage
disposal, flood control, sewage collection, water supply, electric power, and
telecommunications. The social goal of equity is likewise achieved by consolidating public
financial resources and allocating these fairly and equitably among the local units. This has the
effect of richer municipalities helping the poorer ones, an arrangement which may not happen
without the reallocative role of a metro government.

On the minus side, a metro government by reason of size and organization structure is often
perceived as “remote” and is unlikely to promote in the citizenry a sense of community. The
ordinary citizen relates to the local government unit more easily than to an intermediate tier
that lies between the national and local governments. His identity is tied to his local town or city
but the metro arrangement tends to erase that identity. Another problem is associated with the
issue of representation and accountability. Metro governments are run mostly by officials
appointed by higher authorities. This seems to run counter to the democratic principle that the
power to rule must emanate from the consent of the governed. Being an appointee of the central
government, the metro manager is ultimately accountable to it thereby compromising whatever
claims to autonomy the metro government makes. Yet it is also not clear whether the
effectiveness of a metro government lies in its political independence or in the strong backing it
gets from the central government. The next two alternative forms are evolved to address these
issues.

Elective Regional Body

The case for the elected regional body to run the metropolitan area is premised on the need to
provide a vital political base for the exercise of fiscal powers of taxation and resource allocation.
Being directly empowered by the people the regional body does possess the authority to plan
and exercise its plans by exercising regulatory powers and selected positive policy
interventions.

This type of structure can be adopted if incorporation or integration is decided upon as the
mode of sharing powers and functions among the component local government units.
Outstanding examples of this structure include Metro Toronto and Greater London
governments which were in effect a federation of local authorities. Each component LGU was
represented in the Metro Toronto Council by elected deputies whose number was allocated
according to the size of their population. Council members elect the Metro Manager. Functions
were also allocated between the metro and area municipalities. The following examples were
those for Metro Toronto and Greater London.

Table 10.2
METRO-LOCAL GOVERNMENT SHARING OF RESPONSIBILITIES
Metro Toronto
Function Metro Toronto Component Municipalities
Water supply Construction and maintenance of pumping stations, Local distribution systems and
treatment plants, trunk mains, and reservoir for the retail sale of water.
wholesale distribution of water to all 12 component
municipalities and the city of Toronto itself.
Sewage disposal Construction and maintenance of trunk sewer mains and Local sewage disposal.
sewage treatment plants to provide – metropolitan
sewage disposal system capable of accepting sewage on a
wholesale basis from the component municipalities.
Garbage collection Left entirely with the
municipalities
Roads The designation of highways as metropolitan roads, and Construction and Maintenance of
the establishment of an arterial system of highways. local streets.
Transportation The responsibility for public transportation system
throughout the metropolitan area
Education Coordinating educational facilities in the metropolitan Local school board must finance
area. the cost of any standard of
educational service above the
level metropolitan grants, if it is
desired to go beyond the basic
standard.
Health and welfare Provision of homes for the aged, maintenance of wards, Public health, unemployment
and post-sanitarium care for tuberculosis patients, and relief, maintenance of non-wards,
hospitalization of indigent patients. and social work.
Justice Provision and maintenance of courthouse and jails.
Police Left entirely with the
municipalities.
Fire Left entirely with the
municipalities.
Housing Decentralized to municipalities Local Councils retained all their
 powers concerning housing and
redevelopment.
Planning The Metropolitan Planning Board was created with Local planning boards were
authority extending beyond the metropolitan area created to plan in conformity with
encompassing all adjoining municipalities. It was overall metropolitan plan.
charged with preparing an official plan for this larger
planning area.
Parks and The Council has the power to establish metropolitan Creation and maintenance of local
recreation parks. parks.
Finance and The Metro Council was responsible for uniform On the basis of uniform
taxation assessment of all lands and buildings. On the basis of metropolitan assessment, the
total assessment, requirements are levied against each Local Council would collect the
municipality at uniform rate. The local government then revenue required to provide local
collects the metropolitan requirements as well as its services.
own. Authority to finance by borrowing is exercised by
the Metro Council both for itself and on behalf of any
local government in the metropolitan area.

In the case of London strategic and local planning were allocated among 32 boroughs
comprising the Greater London Council. The core of GLC consisted of 12 inner boroughs
including the City of London and the suburbs were made up of 20 outer boroughs.

Table 10.3
FUNCTIONS SHARED BY GLC AND LONDON BOROUGHS
Function GLC Boroughs
Town Planning Structure plan: strategic development Local plans, local development control
Housing Overspill; interborough transfers Housing authorities in own areas
Highways & traffic Authority for defined metropolitan roads; Authority for all except trunk and
management major traffic management metropolitan roads; local parking schemes
Environment Refuse disposal; main sewers Refuse collection; local drainage
Open space Large pools; sports centers Local parks

Table 10.4
FUNCTIONS EXCLUSIVELY GLC OR BOROUGH-CONTROLLED
Function GLC Boroughs
Public Transport (Buses and underground) GLC
Education 12 inner boroughs 20 outer boroughs
Ambulance Service GLC
Fire Service
Building Control GLC; inner 20 outer boroughs
Research and Intelligence
Personnel Health 32 boroughs
Welfare 32 boroughs
Child Care 32 boroughs
Libraries 32 boroughs

In some ways, the structure of the metropolitan Manila Authority which succeeded the Metro
Manila Commission resembled that of the federated Metro. There was a return of the political
powers of component municipalities and the MMA whose function has become largely
coordinative was run by a Council composed of the Mayors of all 17 cities and municipalities
with rotating chairmanship of 6-month term. The basic weakness of this arrangement is the lack
of specificity in the allocation of powers and functions. And since the Philippines has a unitary
system of government, the federated type of metro structure may not be the appropriate one.
Official pronouncements to the contrary notwithstanding, there really was no significant
devolution of powers to the local government. It has always taken the central government
agencies does not permit the emergence of truly autonomous local government units. Hence, a
third alternative structure may be worth investigating.
Regional Coordinative Machinery

A third alternative structure for the metropolitan area is based on the consideration of the
metropolis and further, that in the delivery of these national essential services the local
government is often dependent on these national government agencies. But each one of these
agencies has its own set of programs and priorities and its own budget with which to implement
them. So what is needed is a coordinative machinery that will consolidate these agency
programs and capital budgets and arrange these into a system of priorities that responds to the
needs of the area.

The proper body under this arrangement is a Regional or Metropolitan Development Council
composed of the heads of national agencies, the mayors of all local units involved, and private
sector representatives. Council members elect their Chairman. This deliberative body is
backstopped by a technical staff from a major agency like the DPWH or NEDA and assisted by
seconded personnel from other departments and sectors and LGUs as the need arises. The main
functions of the RDC include preparation of a framework plan for the metropolitan area, a long-
term capital investment program translated into annual investment budgets, conduct of special
area and sectoral studies, and monitoring and evaluation of program and project
implementation. The LGUs are co-opted into any or all of these processes without losing their
political identities and powers and they continue to exercise their usual functions. Their
planning and policy making is limited to matters of local importance or otherwise is subject to
review and realignment by the RDC. The allocation of specific functions between the RDC and
the LGUs may have adapted features of the Toronto Development Authority which succeeded
the MMA is patterned after this third model.

Because the Metropolitan Manila has undergone three changes in management structure since
its creation in 1975, perhaps a serious evaluation should now be made to determine which of
the three models is best suited to local requirements. Who knows but that a new model could be
evolved out of the insights and learnings from experience.

Other Experiences in the Philippines

The Metro Naga Experience

The Metro Naga Development Council is a partnership among 15 local governments in the
provinces of Camarines Sur. It was formed in May 1993 when 13 local executives, exercising the
expanded powers of local governments under the new Local Government Code, agreed to share
and pool resources and coordinate their development efforts. This was embodied in a
memorandum signed by the mayors of Naga City and, initially, of 12 municipalities. Membership
expanded to its present size when two more towns were accepted as members.

The new partnership was further bolstered when then President Ramos issued Executive Order
No. 102 “creating” the Metro Naga Development Council and authorizing its inclusion in the
annual General Appropriations Act. Since then, the Council has been able to access national
funds for its operational expenditures.

Structure

An Executive Committee composed of the 15 local chief executives, sets the direction and
policies of the Council. The Council is headed by a chairman who presides over its meetings, a
vice chairman and a secretary. An Executive Director who reports directly to the Chairman
manages the Council’s day-to-day activities.
Under the supervision of the Executive Director is the Project Development Unit (PDU) that acts
both as secretariat and technical staff. Two project development officers, a finance officer, and
one support personnel man the PDU. Supporting the PDU is the larger Technical Working Group
made up of the planning officers of Naga City and the 14 member-LGUs such as the Local
government officer, health officer and social welfare and development officer depending on the
specific undertakings of the Council.

Resources and Equipment

The operations of the Council are funded out of the budget released by the national government
under the General Appropriations Act and by the contributions of its member LGUs equivalent
to 2% of their respective Economic Development Fund. Normally, this would amount to P6
million annually. Due to the budgetary difficulties faced by the national government, releases
had often been delayed and substantially cut. The similarly situated local governments likewise
pay their contributions in installments. This has not hampered the Council however as it has the
full support of the Naga City government whose contribution alone is enough to fund the regular
activities of the Council for one whole year.

Functions

As stipulated in the memorandum of agreement signed by the mayors in 1993, its functions are:

1. Plan and coordinate area-wide programs, projects and activities;

2. Facilitate the sharing of resources (financial, personnel, equipment and technical

expertise);

3. Package projects and access external resources from national government agencies,
financial institutions, non-government organizations and foreign donors for local
development programs and projects;

4. Act as clearing house for problems that may arise between member-LGUs; and

5. Act as a lobby group to channel national government programs and projects to Metro
Naga.

The planning and coordination of development programs were reiterated in Executive Order
No. 102.

The Council has also initiated the following services for its members-LGUs:

1. Metro Naga Senior Citizens Service – Empowering senior citizens by assisting them
organize themselves into the Metro Naga Senior Citizens League, which has evolved into
the Metro Naga Senior Citizens Cooperative and now operates a senior citizens drug
store. The Council also hosts activities as the annual Christmas Choral Singing Contest
among the elderly to stress their important contribution to the community.

2. Metro Naga Emergency Rescue Network – Professionalizing the services of the

ambulances operated by Metro Naga LGUs and setting up an alternative inter- and intra-
LGU communications system that has since expanded down to the barangay level.
 Aside from emergencies, the network is also responsible for the conduct of more than 48
medical missions in far-flung Metro Naga communities and a surgical mission conducted
by US-based Bicolano surgeons for indigent patients.

3. Metro Naga Equipment Pool – Giving member-LGUs access to heavy equipment for local
development projects at minimal cost. The equipment are owned by Naga City and lately
bolstered by the equipment of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Members can use the equipment rent-free but they shoulder the operating cost. In
return, the Council subsidizes the repair and maintenance of the equipment.

4. Metro Naga Project Assistance Fund – A facility intended to augment the funds of
member-LGUs for the implementation of their own priority projects.

The Project Assistance Fund was initially utilized by the member-LGUs in preparing for
the Palarong Pambansa ’97 (which was co-hosted by the Metro Naga Development
Council and the Province of Camarines Sur). It has since evolved into a facility to fund
LGU-identified development projects.

These activities were conceived to address the day-to-day concerns of the member-
LGUs’ constituency. These help maintain the bond that encourages the involvement of
the mayors and sustains the interest of the member LGUs.

Benefits of the Arrangement

The Council derives its strength from its win-win formula: Membership multiplies the resources
available to an LGU as those owned by the others could be tapped for a member’s own projects.
This gain is amplified when a member compares the amount of its contribution (which is
proportionate to its income) to the resources made available to it. Membership also removes
much of the competition inherent among adjacent LGUs. There is a more open exchange of
information and expertise among the mayors and the key personnel of the city and the
municipalities facilitating the complementation of specific development activities.

The Metro Jolo Alliance

Another metropolitan arrangement on record is that of Metro Jolo, an alliance of four

municipalities with Jolo, the provincial capital of Sulu, as the core city. The alliance was
triggered by the desire to solve a common problem – deteriorating peace and order condition –
which transcends municipal boundaries.

Metro Jolo is basically a socio-economic alliance forged by and among the municipal
governments of Jolo, Indanan, Patikul, and Hadji Panglima Tahil with the primary objective of
establishing and institutionalizing cooperative efforts to address developmental concerns and
ultimately to find a better way to grow together. These areas have been assailed by multi-
faceted development concerns, some of which are not of their own creation.

Poverty, lack of basic services, and unstable peace and order conditions have caused the exodus
of people from the neighboring towns to Jolo, the capital town of the Province of Sulu. This has
strained services and facilities and has caused serious environmental as well as socio-economic
problems. Today, 50% of the total population of what is now called Metro Jolo are crammed in
the capital town which occupies only 5% of the total land area of the four alliance
municipalities. Meanwhile, the three other municipalities in the alliance continue to be sparsely
populated and to wallow in poverty despite their rich resource base.
Taking cognizance of the situation, the four municipal governments formed the Metro Jolo
Development Council. They signed a Memorandum of Agreement on February 28, 1996
committing themselves to consolidate their efforts, services, and resources. The alliance agreed
to institutionalize and implement the Metro Jolo Integrated Development Project. Since the time
it was organized, the MJDC was able to formulate its strategic plan, hold an industry planning
workshop for projects identified in the strategic plan, computerize the tax collection system for
Jolo, and implement a solid waste management program.

Its strategic plan contains the following vision-mission formulated by a multi-sectoral group:

Vision

We, the people of Hadji Panglima Tahil, Indanan, Jolo, and Patikul envision Metro Jolo to be a
peaceful and progressive community, with empowered law-abiding citizens nurturing spiritual,
moral, and cultural values, and enjoying better quality of life through sustainable development.

Mission

To improve the socio-cultural, economic and political well-being of the people of Metro Jolo and
their environment through provision of progressive policies, budgetary support, equitable
access to and the effective and efficient delivery of basic services, in coordination with local
government units and national line agencies, in collaboration with non-government
organizations, peoples’ organizations and the private sector.

Organizational Structure

The Alliance, as a council composed of municipalities, falls below the level of the Provincial
Development Council, but lies above the level of Municipal Development Council. In metro Jolo,
the council is composed of the four Mayors, the Provincial Planning and Development
Coordinator, and a representative of the private sector. The project manager who sits in the
council represents the Project Management Office (PMO) as the secretariat. An inter-agency
working group injects the programs of line agencies to the alliance, or its members are prepared
to address problems which their respective agencies can respond to. This group is composed of
the DepEd, DENR, DA, DILG, DOH,DTI, PNP representatives. Since the devolution of the functions
of these agencies is in the regional level and not at the LGU level because of the Regional
Autonomous Government, the agencies are in a position to respond more to an alliance
initiative rather than to a specific LGU initiative. The Technical Working Group is composed of
the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators of the four municipalities. They assist
the PMO in the day-to-day implementation of the projects. This organizational structure is ideal
for an inter-municipal alliance (figure 10.1).
 Figure 10.1
ORGANIZATONAL STRUCTURE OF METRO SULU

The operational budget of the PMO comes from the contributions of the LGUs in the Alliance.
The whole initiative was facilitated by the Local Government Support Program of the Canadian
International Development Agency and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Prospects for the Metropolitan Arrangement

Metropolitanization represents the highest form of spatial integration of LGUs that have
attained a high level of urban development. In the Philippines today, only Metro Manila, Metro
Cebu, Davao and Zamboanga have attained a high level of urbanization as evidenced by their
large populations. Perhaps, only these large urban centers can qualify for the possible
organization of structures for metropolitan governance. In other areas that are on their way to
attaining metropolitan character such as those within the influence areas of a highly urbanized
city, the more metropolitan arrangement might be more appropriate.

Urban-Focused IAD. The metropolitan arrangement recalls the earlier concept of the integrated
area development (IAD). The IAD is a spatial system consisting of an urban area and its rural
hinterlands that mutually benefit from the factor and product markets provided by either side.
This is the unique contribution of the Philippines to development literature having come at a
time when the buzzword in the rest of the world was “integrated rural development” (IRD). The
Philippines however, has not been consistent and persistent in pursuing the IAD concept in its
regional development policy. Taking a second look at the IAD strategy, we can discern IAD
elements in the metropolitan arrangement, which we may well refer to as urban-focused IAD. If
we had planning and programming areas consisting of a constellation of LGUs revolving around
fairly large urban centers, rural areas can benefit from the dynamism of the core urban center.
At the same time, the core city need not grow to an unmanageable size like Metro Manila as
there is a built-in mechanism for decentralizing population and economic growth within each
integrated area.

A Question of Sustainability. One practical consideration is the sustainability of a metropolitan

arrangement. The most important factor of sustainability is the financing arrangement. All
existing metro arrangements are enjoying funding support from external sources. Can the LGUs
that are mere members of the metropolitan alliance sustain their interest and match their
interest with the needed commitment of their own resources

The Leadership Factor. The other factor of sustainability is that of leadership. Often an alliance
lasts for as long as the enthusiasm of one leader infects the rest of the members. Once the
“natural” leader is no longer in power, the others would tend to lose interest in the alliance. The
highly personalistic character of public policies and programs remains a big constraint in this
country.

URBAN RENEWAL

It is said that a city is like a biological organism in that both go through the stages of growth up
to maturity and then enter a period of aging and decline and eventually die. Unlike its biological
counterpart, however, the city has the capacity to renew itself. Through new investments by its
citizens or whoever else have a stake in its continued survival the city acquires new vitality and
is able to avoid decay and death. Investments to arrest decline of the city or any part of it is
known in general as urban renewal.

Urban Renewal Defined

Urban renewal, then, is a “comprehensive approach to the revitalization of areas of urban

decline”. The term was supposed to have been coined by the American housing economist Miles
Colean around 1950. Grebler (1964) defines urban renewal as a deliberate effort to change the
urban environment through planned, large-scale adjustment of existing city areas to present
and future requirements for urban living and working. Medhurst and Parry Lewis (1969) define
urban renewal as comprising any or a combination of these programs: rehabilitation,
conservation, and redevelopment. Rehabilitation is bringing up substandard structures to a
prescribed standard. Conservation involves a combination of rehabilitation and spot clearance
in order to upgrade an area. Redevelopment involves demolition, clearance and reconstruction
of an entire area.

Rationale for Urban Renewal

As embodied in its definition, urban renewal becomes an option when certain sections or
districts of a city experience blight. If, at the onset of blight no renewal treatment is introduces
progressive deterioration leads to abandonment and decay. Why does a city experience blight?

Actually most buildings in the city can be maintained in a good state of repair as long as the
owners are willing to put up the maintenance costs required. But most owners are not and so
structures deteriorate. When the rest of the structures in a neighborhood decline in quality a
slum is created. This phenomenon is explained in economic terms by Richardson as follows:

“One of the determinants of the market value of a particular property is the quality of the
neighborhood in which it is located, that is a spillover effect. This means that the owner
obtains the highest return from his property if it is undermaintained while the others in
the area are well maintained, and conversely, he receives a lower return if he upkeeps
his property in a deteriorating area. In the latter case it pays him to maintain his
property in good condition only if adjacent properties are also upgraded. In an atomistic
market this condition will not be fulfilled.”
There are other reasons why property owners are reluctant to improve their structures such as
nearness to non-conforming activities say, a commercial establishment near a residential
neighborhood. The owners of residential properties are usually unwilling to improve their
premises. This is due to expectations that the residential area will ultimately be converted as the
commercial activity expands. Still another reason is the perception of property owners that
higher returns may be obtained for their area themselves. This is why a crucial feature of urban
renewal, according to Richardson, is the involvement of government. Public action and public
subsidies are necessary to renovate deteriorating or blighted areas of the city.

Types of Blight

Blight does not occur in the residential districts of the city. Northam (1979) distinguishes
commercial blight from urban blight, the latter term being customarily used to refer to the
residential area. In commercial sections of the city, four types of blight may be identified as
follows:

Economic blight occurs when there are changes in the demand structure: loss of population,
losses to competing centers, changes in economic structure of the threshold population.
Evidences of economic blight include increased vacancies, loss of higher order establishments,
and change in merchandise lines of remaining stalls. Physical blight refers to deterioration of
structures occupied by business concerns, probably as a function of age. Functional blight has to
do with the inability of a given establishments to engage in efficient operations due to
technological changes. Floor-to-ceiling shelves for example, no longer attract customers who are
used to the eye-level racks of modern supermarkets. Frictional blight or environmental blight
exists when the commercial establishment finds itself situated within an area that has an
unfavorable effect on the business operation, such as businesses along the LRT line away from
stations or near flyovers.

Northam likewise draws a distinction between urban blight and a slum. Urban blight, in the
context of housing, refers to the physical characteristics of the occupants rather than the social
characteristics of the of the occupants of such housing. It refers to that critical stage in the
functional or social depreciation of real property beyond which its existing condition or use is
unacceptable to the community. The concept of blight is limited to the functional depreciation
(loss of productivity) of real property in an area. Slum, on the other hand, is a more inclusive
term which pertains to particular sections of the city where houses are crowded and old and
aesthetically displeasing, where rents are relatively low, and the social pathologies of
alcoholism, disordered family life, prostitution drug trafficking, etc. are a common occurrence.
The concept of slum has both social and physical connotations – a particular social group
occupying a discrete housing setting characterized by blight.

Another distinction must be made in the Philippine context is that between slums and squatter
areas. In the mind of the Filipino lay person, these two terms are the same. Well, they may be
similar in that squatter areas normally develop into slums mainly because no secure tenure the
occupants of squatted-on areas lack incentives to improve their premises. But, as explained by
Richardson earlier, slums can occur in areas where properties are owned. So not all slums are
squatter areas and not all squatter areas are slums.

Models of Urban Renewal

We have limited experience in urban renewal in the Philippines so in the following sections we
shall review foreign models from which we can draw some insights and improve on our own
approach. We shall consider the American, British and East Asian (Japan) approaches and then
juxtapose the reblocking scheme of our own National Housing Authority.
American Experience

The economic theory of blight posited by Richardson does not completely explain the formation
of slums in the American context. Feagin (1998) finds more credible explanation in the profit-
making activities of urban real estate speculators. These powerful elites comprising developers,
bankers and industrial capitalists buy up rundown areas and keep these in deteriorated state
while waiting for the “higher and better” use for the area. In the meantime they benefit from the
large depreciation allowance on their dilapidated property which are tax deductible. Thus,
according to Feagin, slums are created by this profit-centered activity, as upkeep on the
purchased old buildings is kept low to keep profits high.

Richardson’s observation about the necessity of government involvement and public subsidies
in urban renewal however, is true, in the sense that private developers usually win favorable, is
true, in the sense that the form of cheap land, tax abatements. And utility services subsidized by
the general taxpayers. That this can happen is due to the close ties between developers and
government. Government plays a critical support role by providing the conditions for profit
making in urban development by absorbing the cost of servicing the redeveloped or renewed
land. The close ties between business and government is evidenced by the fact that many
American cities have been directly governed by individuals with real estate or banking interests
that are fostered by the decisions they make as government officials. Even government officials
without direct development connections make decisions supportive of the urban development
industry.

Urban Renewal Process. The process of urban renewal in the U.S. proceeds according to the
following sequence as described by Northam (1979).

1. Eligible communities present a workable program of community improvement designed

to prevent or eliminate blight.

2. Land acquisition by the local authority through direct purchase at fair market value.
Funds are made available by the federal government to the local government in the form
of capital grants equivalent to two-thirds to three-fourths of net project cost. The net
project cost is the difference between the estimated price of disposed project land and
the cost of carrying out the project. At this point the title to the purchased lots is
transferred to the urban renewal agency, a local government entity.

3. Relocation of displaced persons and establishments is done through any of the following
modes: outright payments to cover the cost of moving or the losses suffered in the
process of moving; special mortgage insurance or assistance in obtaining housing in the
private sector; or aid in obtaining alternate housing in low-rent public housing projects
in the community.

4. Demolition of all types of buildings in the area except certain structures that, when
retained, fit into the development plan.

5. Site improvement by grading and leveling and provision of public facilities such as roads
and streets, water mains, trunk sewer lines, street lighting, and the like.

6. Resale of improved land to private parties for redevelopment in accordance with a

comprehensive plan for the area.

Northam sees desirable effects of reselling redeveloped lots to the private sectors in that the
blighted area is removed and the area is guarded against reverting to a slum again. Returning
the land to the private sector, moreover, is consistent with the American ideology of market-led
development. Finally, according to Northam, the land once put in private ownership is also once
again placed on the local government’s tax assessment rolls thus assuring income for the local
authorities.

Richardson, on the other hand, criticizes the American practice of the State’s holding back on
full-scale intervention by selling to private developers the redeveloped site at a heavy write-
down of the acquisition and improvement costs. Although the local government’s loss is covered
by the federal government’s capital grant, still the heavy subsidy does not go into dealing with
the problems of people affected but for the benefit of private enterprises.

Another effect of reselling and leaving the redevelopment to private developers which is
prejudicial to the low-income groups is gentrification.

Gentrification, explains Feagin, is a form of urban revitalization in which lower-income

urbanites are displaced by higher-income urbanites. The higher-income urbanites either are
residents of outlying city areas returning to the central city, or suburbanites opting for central
city locations. Also called “renaissance” this process takes two forms: incumbent upgrading and
speculator-developer upgrading. Incumbent upgrading involves local residents together with
newcomers of the same socio-economic background upgrading a central city area, pushing out
the poorer local residents. Speculator-developer upgrading on the other hand is done by buying
up low-income housing, building or replacing it, and then selling to white, affluent, often young,
families with professional, technical, or managerial workers. Another form of gentrification is
the practice of converting apartments and multi-family structures into “townhouses” and
condominiums and selling these to more affluent households. Often the apartment renters are
ostensibly converted to owner-occupiers by increasing their rental charge and crediting it as
amortization after collecting huge downpayments. As a result, most existing households had to
leave because they could not afford the greatly increased cost for the same housing unit with
minor improvements. In most cases low- to middle-income families will never be able to afford
housing in such apartment buildings, forcing them to look elsewhere, often for less than
adequate housing.

British Experience

The British have a long history of urban renewal due in part to the effect of the industrial
revolution in the late 18th century. The early versions of urban renewal took the form of slum
clearance and redevelopment. Houses were color-coded on the map to show what buildings are
unfit for human habitation, or are bad arrangement, and so on. The preponderance of unfit and
badly arranged buildings in a city block would make the whole block a candidate for clearing
and demolition.

Unlike in the United States, urban renewal in Britain is done by local authorities with financial
assistance from the national government. The local governments, which retain ownership of
most of the land and housing stock in the city, continually monitor the standard of dwelling
units. When majority of the houses do not meet the tolerable standard as defined in the housing
act in effect at the time, the local authority passes a resolution declaring the area as “Housing
Treatment Area” and specifying whether the treatment is demolition, improvement, or a
combination of both. Where the treatment involves demolition, compulsory purchase of the
land if privately owned is done by the local government. In case only improvement is required,
financial grants are made available by the local authorities to homeowners who undertake the
repairs themselves. After the redevelopment or improvement, the original occupants who were
temporarily sheltered elsewhere, are rehoused in the redeveloped areas. This practice went on
until mid-1970s.
By 1975 the practice was modified into “gradual renewal”. Gradual renewal is the continuous
process of minor rebuilding and renovation of individual structures. This sustains and
reinforces the vitality of a neighborhood in ways that respond to the social and physical needs
of the residents. It was argued that for some residents low-quality houses might meet their real
need for cheap accommodation. It was soon realized that housing is just one of the basic needs
of the poor who were mostly immigrants with little education and poor habits of sanitation and
environmental hygiene.

The focus of treatment then shifted from housing improvement to upgrading the quality of the
environment in declared areas of special need. Urban renewal by this time had expanded in
concept and converged into an urban aid program. The urban aid program was designed to
raise the level of social services in areas of acute social need and help to provide an equal
opportunity for all citizens including those in deprived areas. Areas of acute social need are
usually inner city areas that are conspicuous for signs of multiple deprivations such as old,
overcrowded, decrepit houses, absence of or inadequate plumbing and sanitation, persistent
unemployment, large families, high proportion of children in need of care, and similar
characteristics. Because of the comprehensiveness of the intervention, the government
encouraged and enlisted the participation of private and voluntary groups.

The problem of persistent unemployment due in part to the structural shift in the British
economy from traditional manufacturing to high technology and service industries was hitting
the inner city areas. New industries prefer new sites in the new towns or overseas and so the
jobs in the inner cities have disappeared. To enable the local authorities to cope with the
problem their powers were expanded under the Inner Cities Act of 1978. Whereas local
governments were limited in the past to the provision of social services, the new act
empowered them to extend loans to private investors to rejuvenate old commercial and
industrial areas. Local governments could now participate more effectively in the economic
development of their areas.

Urban renewal had by this time shifted to urban regeneration with strong economic focus. This
shift veers away from the traditional emphasis on measures to help deprived groups towards
measures designed to generate wealth and stimulate private sector activity in inner city areas.
Under the Local Government, Planning and Land Act of 1980, enterprise zones were designated
in inner cities. Within the enterprise zones a lot of incentives were offered to attract private
investors to locate there such tax exemptions, simplified planning procedures, and more flexible
design and layout left entirely with the developer. Also, to effect the revitalization of large areas
of blight like the docklands in London and Merseyside urban development corporations were
created. The urban development corporations were large powerful corporations that had the
authority to consolidate publicly owned land. National agencies and local authorities with
landholdings in the redevelopment areas released public lands for private commercial and
residential development.

At this point, urban renewal in Britain had taken on the character of its American counterpart.
Gentrification has also taken its place in a country that had for decades been known to put a
high premium on public participation and concern for the distributional effects of its planning
interventions.

Land Readjustment

Another approach to urban renewal is land readjustment which found wide application in
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Land readjustment is now applied in urban areas but its origin
can be traced to the farmland rationalization of Japan and Germany in the 19th century. Larsson
traces an even earlier origin of the concept to the village land reallocation in Scandinavia during
the medieval period. Whether applied in agricultural or in urban areas, the principle is the same.
Land readjustment involves the improvement in the shape, dimension, and condition of plots to
allow maximum benefits of use and enjoyment by the property owners. When applied
systematically under the aegis of statutory directives such as in Japan, land readjustment is a
powerful instrument for effecting restructuring of urban areas.

The earliest known application of land readjustment in the urban setting came with the Tokyo
Urban Renewal Ordinance of 1888. This resulted in the implementation of a series of land
readjustment projects around the Imperial Palace. By 1918 the ordinance was replicated in the
other large cities of Japan. The following year, the City Planning Act of 1919 institutionalized
land readjustment as an approach to alleviating the undesirable effects of industrialization in
the urban centers. The successful use of land readjustment as a redevelopment technique
especially after calamities and disasters led to the enactment of a dedicated legislation in 1955,
the Land Readjustment Act, which has come under amendment twice, in 1982 and 1995. Japan
also introduced the concept of two East Asian countries that had come under Japanese
influence, Korea and Taiwan. Both countries have adopted the concept and introduced
adaptations to suit readjustment can be said to be a unique contribution of East Asia to urban
renewal practice.

The Japanese model, known locally as “Kukaku-Seiri”, is a very detailed and elaborate process.
The Japanese have developed a process flow for each implementor, whether by a public
authority or by private groups such as cooperatives.

Land Readjustment Defined. Land readjustment is a comprehensive urban area

[re]development project which provides urban infrastructure such as roads, parks, and
sewerage in an integrated manner together with serviced building sites. It is intended to
transform urban areas that had earlier developed in an unplanned spontaneous manner where
houses built in a very dense haphazard way, where public facilities are inadequate, and where
the environment is deteriorating. The after-project effects are seen both in the way public
facilities and utilities are provided in the new configuration of building lots, each lot being
regularly shaped and has a street frontage.

Another distinctive feature of land readjustment is equitable sharing of costs and benefits. All
borders of rights in land contribute to the cost of providing public facilities and receive back
serviced lots in proportion to their original contribution. The serviced lots they received are
much smaller than their original lot but this loss is more than made up of for by the enhanced
land value and an improved community. Yet another advantageous feature of land readjustment
is that it does not create any dislocation as the community which has been built up for many
years will be maintained in its original site.

Implementing Bodies

Land readjustment schemes may be implemented by local public organizations such as

provincial and municipal governments, national and local government agencies, public
corporations, private individuals, or cooperatives.

Procedural Flow

Land readjustment process is summarized into the following 12 steps:

Formulation of the Conceptual Plan. A conceptual framework that shows how development
objectives may be achieved by land readjustments is formulated by the implementing body.
Determination of the Project Area. The project must be one that is identified in the City Planning
Law where land readjustment could be implemented. It may be located in a city/town planning
area or in an urbanization promotion area.

Formulation of a Project Plan and Implementation Activities. If the implementation is done by

public bodies the implementation articles specify the following: 1) name of the project; 2)
project area; 3) project scope; 4) office location; 5) cost allocation; 6) means od disposition of
reserved land; 7) the Land Readjustment Council; and 8) methods used to determine the
hectarage of original lots. If implementation is by a cooperative the cooperative must formulate
its own implementation articles. These require the consent of more than two-thirds of the
landowners and land leaseholders in the area to be implemented, and the consent of the
landowners and land leaseholders representing more than two-thirds of the land. The articles
incorporation, together with the implementation plan, must be approved by the prefectural
governors. The implementation articles contain the following: 1) name of the cooperative; 2)
project area; 3) project scope; 4) office location; 5) cost allocation; 6) number of officers, their
terms of office, their responsibilities, and election procedures; 7) matters related to the general
meeting; 8) matters related to determining the area to be subjected to land readjustment; 9)
accounting procedures; and 10) matters related to the land evaluation methods.

Establishment of a Land Readjustment Council. This council is established to protect the rights of
the landowners and land leaseholders by ensuring that their opinions are reflected in public
projects. When a public entity implements an LR project, the council determines a replotting
plan, and designates a provisional plot that will greatly affect the interests of landowners and
leaseholders in the project area. The Council is comprised of members elected among the
landowners and leaseholders in the project area. The number of members of the Council ranges
from ten (10) to fifty (50) according to the size of the area concerned. Members serve a term of
not more than five (5) years . details of the Council operation are specified in the
implementation articles.

Preparation of Draft Replotting Design. A proposal for the layout of public facilities is prepared
and presented to the public. The replotting design indicates the location, size and shape of
replots which should follow the rule of correspondence in replotting. Replots with special
concerns are also indicated in the replotting design. The rule of correspondence means that a
replot should, in principle, correspond to the original lot in terms of approximate location.
Replotting is conducted on the basis of the principle of correspondence.

Designation of the Provisional Replot. The location and size of replots are designated
provisionally.

Construction. Buildings are relocated to the provisional replots and roads, utilities, etc., are
constructed. After the completion of this work, the respective caretakers take over the
management of the facilities. Therefore, the implementing body must ensure that a full
discussion is carried out beforehand to avoid any complications after the caretakers of the new
facilities are installed rather than carry out the project merely from the viewpoint of land
readjustment.

Numbering of Lots . the boundary, name and administrative district and the address of lot
numbers are reviewed and fixed.

General Inspection of the Replotting Plan. In order to make the final decision on the replotting,
the replotting plan is inspected by holders of land rights.

Enforcement of Replotting. Replots and equity for holders of land rights are enforced in
accordance with the replotting plan.
Registration of Land and Buildings. Due to the enforcement of replotting, the address and lot
number of buildings change. The implementor should inform the land registration office on the
enforcement of replotting and recommend changes to the registrar. New public facilities that
are established after the implementation of the LR project are placed under the management of
the city, town, or village governments may succeed to their management when work on such
public facilities is completed. The management of a public facility cannot refuse a proposal by
the implementing body for the transfer of control of the facility.

Collection and Payment of Equity. The project is completed with the collection and payment of
equity. Adjustment payment will be paid or collected in case there is inequity or replots are not
returned to original landowners. The amount of adjustment is calculated in the replotting plan
and paid or collected after the enforcement of replotting.

The implementing body is dissolved once the project is completed.

The Reblocking Scheme

The Philippines’ modest experience in urban renewal can be traced mainly to the programs of
the then Ministry of Human Settlements particularly its attached agency, the National Housing
Authority. As the sole agency responsible for shelter provision, its mandates include the
provision of adequate housing to the greatest possible number of people; the development of
various modes of shelter provision; and the promotion of private participation in housing
ventures.

The NHA has been engaged in limited urban renewal efforts through its program on slum
improvement. On-site upgrading is an approach to the problem of substandard shelter in
blighted communities. The approach gives emphasis to the development of better environment
and hygiene. The rationale for this is that the deplorable condition of slums lies not so much in
the unsatisfactory quality of individual houses as in low level of environmental sanitation,
severe congestion of people, and lack of basic community facilities. On-site upgrading therefore
focuses primarily on infrastructure and utilities provision and secondarily on improvement of
dwelling units. Along with physical improvements is the provision of livelihood opportunities to
raise the income levels of the site residents such as cottage industry development, manpower
training, job placement/referral services, cooperatives formation, small business loans and
technical assistance, and the like. The principal method of on-site upgrading is the reblocking
system.

The Reblocking System

Reblocking involves the realignment of structures to provide alleys and pathways connecting
the interior area to the major roads, and subdividing the area into residential lots for awarding
to qualified beneficiaries.

The reblocking process was evolved as a solution to the technical difficulties of establishing
rights-of-way of utility lines and using conventional construction procedures without causing
wholesale damage to existing houses in a community characterized by high structural density
and poor construction quality. The process calls for studying in detail the particular groupings
of households in a neighborhood and shaping development plans according to the existing
layout and distribution of structures in a given area. Alternative development plans are
prepared to reflect the services and infrastructure that have to be introduce taking into account
the need to bring structural disturbance to a minimum.
Basic Principle. Reblocking operates on four basic principles namely, maximum retention of
structures and minimum displacement of families; provision of basic services and utilities; land
ownership by qualified beneficiaries; and maximum community participation. Involvement of
the affected residents in deciding the block layout and in redefining their lot boundaries is the
prime consideration. The opinions and suggestions aired by the block residents provided the
basis for alteration on the plan.

Procedural Steps. There are nine steps in carrying out a reblocking project as described by
Reforma (1983) namely:

Block Identification. A proposed block consisting of an area with from 90 to 150 structures
bounded by secondary roads is identified, its boundary delineated, noting structures within the
block’s right-of-way, utility lines, drainage, etc.

Information Campaign. At the same time an information campaign using various media is
launched to explain the objectives, nature, scope and implications of the reblocking project.

Ocular Survey. A composite team composed of representatives from the architectural group,
socio-economic development group, community relations team, and a private surveyor
conducts an ocular survey to determine structural quality of buildings that will be affected.

Census Verification. The research team through interviews determines untagged structures and
census status of residents, affordability levels of households, house occupancy size, and place of
origin of residents.

Technical Design. The architectural group prepares three preliminary alternative plans, each
varying according to the degree of movement required of each structure. Each alternative plan
is approved by the NHA General Manager.

Presentation of Alternatives. People discuss among themselves and with the Project Team the
merits and demerits of each plan and choose any one, or else develop an entirely different plan.
The Project Team revises the plan according to the people’s suggestions and after approval by
the Project Manager, presents the revised plan again for final discussion with the people.

Technical Survey. The surveyor now computes the exact lot areas and prepares technical
descriptions of lots and the final subdivision plan. A list of proposed lot awardees is endorsed to
the NHA General Manager and the Bureau of Lands which in turn gives certificates of awards to
the lot awardees.

Moment of Structures. Owners of structures, assisted by the Project Team move their own
buildings according to the approved plan. To help defray the cost of moving, a home materials
loan program is extended by the Development Bank of the Philippines.

Cost Recovery. To enable the NHA to have a revolving fund to use in other projects full cost
recovery is adopted as a policy. Cost recovery is achieved by sale of residential lots to the
beneficiaries at minimal price plus a development charge. The monthly development charge is
reduced to the extent that the Project-developed commercial and industrial lots can be sold or
leased to private investors.

The reblocking process was first developed in connection with the bigger Toronto Foreshore
Urban Development Project. It has since been replicated in many slum upgrading projects of
NHA. Two of these were documented by Lopez and Cordero.
Prospects for Urban Renewal

Most of Philippine towns and cities had been founded during the Spanish regime as discussed in
Chapter 8. Each one of these has an urban core known as the poblacion. In the course of
population growth and urban expansion new development has invariably been absorbed by the
urban fringe at the sacrifice of agricultural and forest lands. It has been argued that this form of
conversion is a threat to the country’s long-term food security. It has been noted also that
efforts at regulating agricultural land conversion have focused on the victim (agricultural land)
rather than the culprit (urban development). By putting restraints on urban expansion, it is
argued, the need for agricultural land conversion can be reduced. What need conversion are the
old rundown sections of the urban areas to enable them to accommodate greater numbers of
urban dwellers. Urban renewal will make old city centers and inner cities more attractive and
livable. And to the extent that renewed inner cities will attract new urban development outward
expansion into the urban fringe can be restrained.

Another argument for urban renewal is the spiraling cost of fuel, especially of oil and oil
products, and the growing concern for sustainable development. This author shares the view
that reduced use of motor vehicles and increased resort to walking as a means of urban mobility
help the cause of sustainable development in a significant way. This requires a redesign of our
cities in a way that results in compact urban forms where residences and activity centers are
within walking distance of each other. One way to achieve this is to renew or revitalize the core
city or inner cities by creating mixed-use nodes. Indeed the high cost of fuel consumption and its
effects on the environment has burned all the justification for allowing the further expansion of
large metropolitan areas.

Should urban renewal be finally adopted as an approach to addressing the requirements of

urban growth, which model, among those reviewed above, holds up some promise for the
Philippines? It would seem that the American approach would find hospitable application in the
Philippines given a relatively vibrant private development sector here. In fact, a growing
number of private-led redevelopment of inner cities such as Rockwell Center in Makati and the
Ayala Center in Cebu attest to the adoption of the American model. What is missing in these
examples is the public sector initiative. In the U.S. model, private developers came into the
picture after the local government, assisted by the national government has purchased and
cleared the redevelopment area. If the government participates in the renewal process, it can at
least exert some leverage in looking after the interest and welfare of lower income groups. On
the other hand, when everything is left in the hands of private property developers the outcome
will most certainly be certainly be gentrification, that is, the displacement or marginalization of
the lower income groups.

The interest and welfare of the poorer sectors of society are better attended to in the British
model, at least in its earlier version. By focusing government intervention in the improvement
of housing stock and of community services and facilities, the British approach addresses
directly the needs of the urban poor. Even in its later form in which jobs were introduced in the
inner cities through the promotion by local governments of enterprise zones, the revitalization
of British inner cities is by and large pro-poor. What makes the British model hard to emulate is
the fact that in Britain local governments retain ownership of majority of urban lots and housing
stock. This makes planning intervention and land use regulation infinitely more effective.

The East Asian practice of land readjustment deserves a closer look because it seems closest to
the NHA’s reblocking scheme in concept and purpose. Perhaps reblocking could be upscaled to
the sophistication of land readjustment by introducing a number of innovations. The most
critical problem it seems is how to consolidate urban lots which had been cut up into smaller
parcels. Small-sized plots, individually, cannot support the construction of multi-storey
structures. Therefore, they preclude the utilization of the air space above such lots. Hence, the
need to consolidate.

One approach to consolidation is for the local government to put up the initial capital and
purchase the redevelopment plots and construct medium to high-rise condominiums with the
assurance that the property owners will have the right to purchase units equivalent to the value
of their lot. By building high, a particular block or neighborhood can be redesigned in such a
way that more public open space can be recovered and adequate public facilities can be
provided.

Another approach to consolidation is for property owners to form a cooperative or a

corporation and, with appropriate assistance from the local government, undertake the renewal
of their neighborhood themselves. This way the property owners retain ownership of their lots
and multiply their surface rights by the number of floors they are able to construct on their
consolidated lands.