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Ombion: Making humans more humane Posted: 27 May 2021 09:23 AM PDT THAT IS in essence the meaning of development. It is not about structures and designs. Yes, humans not structures. And urban or spatial development planning is something that not a few urban officials are prepared or trained to do because their concept of development is myopic or blinkered, at worse, politically drawn. As a result, what we often get are more problems and conflicts amid the sprawling infrastructures and so-called modern amenities. I am not and I don't pretend to be an expert in the subject of urban, rural, or regional development planning. I consider myself more of a builder of communities, and by that I always put humans at the center of the subject, and the equitable and dynamic integration of human beings, environment and the state in charge of the so-called social order and functionality. Putting humans at the center of any development planning means not only ensuring them all the amenities and conveniences of modern urban life but also living with dignity and in harmony with a well-cared environment less bothered by natural and human-induced calamities and disasters. Unfortunately, many of our urban planners and developers follow the mindset and frameworks whose principal consideration is profit and super-profits. They often complicate land use and development planning according to the interests of the big business and foreign investors who have little regard for humanity and the environment, if at all they have any. They put industrial zone side by side residential and agricultural zones with poor waste management and anti-pollutant systems, thus still affecting the neighboring zones, worse contaminating humans and the agricultural production. They erect commercial buildings and malls in population-packed areas, suffocating already dense urban communities and slums with noise, toxic odor, waste, floods, and other pollutants. They introduce structures and systems that consume so much electricity and water, draining our water and energy resources faster than the physical development itself, and often leaving human communities and vast agricultural countryside with little for production and sustainable growth. They establish government offices in highly commercial areas, thus conveniently inviting commercialization of any government-business transactions, either by a government official or a government unit. They cut trees, destroy rivers and scenery, and replace them with concrete sidewalks, walls, buildings, neon lights, and synthetic decoration which often demonstrate the cacophony and irony of the minds of traditional architects and ravenous developers. In all, what we get is perverted and destructive progress causing more and worsening environmental and social devastation. So here I am reminding everyone again that building human communities takes more than the engineers and development planners' mastery of sand, stone, steel, cement, and the strengths and designs of structures. We need the right appreciation of our human communities, their fears and anxieties, needs, hopes, and aspirations – which I consider the solid foundations of any urban development. It is also a must that we see the links between urban and rural, agriculture and industries, human practices and environmental condition, even the dynamic relation of the rich and poor, and proceed from there with fair restraint towards achieving a great harmony of our human goals and activities with the condition and demands of our environment. We build communities, not on the strength and designs of materials and structures, nor just on the beauty of designs, but on the strength of the unity in spirit and goals of human beings. Johan van Lengen a practitioner of barefoot architecture always reminded his fellows that when we build a house, we are also building a home and that a grouping of homes, each with its own harmony, will comprise a harmonious community, a productive and healthy settlement of human beings. For this, LGU officials must take a longer look at the way they allow the kind of development in the places entrusted to them. They must assess whether the development they pursue puts the needs, welfare, and aspirations of the people at the center of everything, or not. I am glad Bacolod City, Himamaylan City, Dumaguete City, Siaton, Iloilo City, Roxas City, and Kalibo, my own hometown Guimbal, to mention some among a handful few, have been giving a longer view on their urban development plans in order to spur a comprehensive people's development beyond the contours of urbanization. Bacolod City, in particular, is giving much refocusing of its development planning, putting a premium on inclusivity and resiliency of people, like attending to the aspirations and needs of the basic sectors, undertaking new infrastructures and restoring old ones for more harmony and aesthetics while preserving traditions and heritage. I know it is not easy on the part of Bacolod City in particular because of the aggressive influx of big developers whose thrust, taste and priorities often run in conflict with the city. But the city mayor and his decision-makers have so far demonstrated the openness and patience to put proper balance and connectivity in spatial development, structural designs, people's needs and the city's capacity to pursue its development agenda. I hope more will appreciate and follow their exemplary initiatives, because such a thrust is noble, for anything that does not make our people more humane is not development, but destruction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Gonzaga: Looming eco-disasters Posted: 27 May 2021 09:18 AM PDT THE blatant, massive clearing of mangrove forest in the only remaining enclave of small fisherfolks in Bacolod by a private developer who did it without the mandatory public hearing and barangay endorsement of his project, and environmental clearance certificate in the coastal area on the one hand, and the indiscriminate cutting of trees and defoliation in the forestal zone of the Northern Negros Forest Protected Area at Compuestuhan on the other, call for immediate and radical action. Wanted urgently for Bacolod and the province is well-informed chief on environmental laws and codes, situation and state of their implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. For Negros Occidental there is a need for representation of the province's interest in the governing board of the only remaining natural forest strip of Northern Negros Protected Area Management Zone -- one measure with precedence as the Provincial Management Office (Pemo) chief was designated governor's representative under the two successive Marañon brothers' administration. An immediate change in the governor's designated representative at the NNPMB, and the assignment of a technically competent person in the person of the Pemo chief is rational, imperative, and critical at this point. The recurrent massive flooding in PAMB covered cities -- San Carlos, Cadiz, Victorias, Silay and Talisay, is indicative of the rather ineffective management of the NNPAMB. Recent rapid land conversions within Multiple Use Zones (MUZ) have been approved, both for private, and public land use--the latter, a controversial highway road network that would link Calatrava to Patag, the former, Memorial Parks, resorts and recreation facilities, Power line sites, and fishpond. Though there is no actual survey data to support it, a cursory scan of where the flooding is at its worst in such cities as San Carlos, Silay, and Victorias, is where there has been the rapid land conversion of reforestation areas to resorts/tourism destination, and choice hill/mountain housing subdivision. Other than the widespread flooding problem, the great threat to MUZ refo-agroforestry areas rapidly converted to institutional facilities and infrastructures by virtue of actions and decisions of the NNP Management Board under largely 'politicized' control, is a radical diminution of freshwater supply. At Don Salvador Benedicto, and upland Compuestohan-Cabatangan in Talisay the problem of continuing spring water source is now becoming a real problem, and a source of inter-landowner conflict in the grossly affected areas. The NNP Management must explain the effete monitoring, evaluation and penalty measures given to gross acts of violations. While Pemo field officers are near burnout by being pressed to "major in minors" such as endless investigations prior to the approval of special orders covering extraction of soil from one's own property to fill a road concreting in another property that has a negative environmental impact, it is precluded from survey and assessment of projects with critical and high impact on the environment like the clearing of trees to give way to upland resort and recreation facilities as in Patag, Compuestohan and Gawahon. Pemo must be mandated with greater authority and scope of functions, less focus on trivial individual small scale digging of soil, or non-industrial sand and gravel quarrying to industrial, large scale ones, as well as critical land-use conversions to high negative impact government projects. At this point whence the province has set vast road networks projects that cut through threatened forestal areas and reforestation zones with few remaining bio-diversity, Pemo must be tasked in collaboration with NGOs and competent researchers to come up with environmental situation analysis through rapid appraisal using a drone, geoscan and community-based studies across all the listed expanded integrated protected areas. The City and Municipal Land Use Plans must be reviewed and analyzed if these CLUPs are aligned with the protection and restoration of critical watershed and biodiversity areas of their localities. The easy way by developers and even DPWH to resort to clearing of mangrove and aged trees in Bacolod and upland Talisay indicate a serious need for vigilant eco-watch of environmentalists in Negros Occidental. Thanks to the immediate response of concerned and watchful citizens in Bacolod under a Facebook chat group, the mangrove clearing of an unscrupulous engineer-developer has been subjected to a cease and desist order proceeding by the local DENR. For Bacolod, the series of environmental crimes points to the great need for the city mayor and his councilors to the environmental code, the clean water act, and other relevant laws for environmental protection. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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