PUNCHLINE
Ike Seneres
Rehabilitation and redevelopment are two twin objectives
that should never be separated from each other. The first requirement of course
is to recognize that these are distinct from each other, even if it would seem
that they are one and the same.
This requirement is very important, because the lack of
recognition could potentially cause the failure of applicable implementation
programs. This is what is happening in the anti-poverty program, because until
now, many of our government officials do not seem to recognize the difference
between poverty alleviation and poverty reduction.
This is also what is happening in the barangay
development program, because many of our government officials do not recognize
the difference between a barangay “Chairman” and a barangay “Captain”. Perhaps
they do not know that a barangay Chairman is a democratic leader of an elected
council who does not have dictatorial power.
A barangay Captain as it implies is a mental residue from
the Spanish times, wherein the said “Kapitan” is actually an officer of the
“Guardia Civil”, no wonder the position had dictatorial and military powers at
that time.
Perhaps it is also the same case in the solid waste
management program, because it seems that many of our government officials also
do not recognize the difference between a dumpsite and a landfill. For those
who would also want to know, dumpsites are already banned and only landfills
are allowed now. But not just any landfill is allowed, because these have to
comply with strict engineering and safety standards in order to ensure that no
harmful substances would leak into the soil and the aquifer.
Long before the strong earthquakes and typhoons hit the
Visayan regions, our laws had already required the building of easements from
the waterways, and the building of materials recovery facilities (MRFs). It
seems however that many of our Local Government Units (LGUs) do not recognize
these laws. It is good to plan for, and dream about what is good for the
future, but we need to have a reality check, to be reminded that if we could
not follow our present laws, how could we even achieve our future plans?
Let us also not forget that for many decades now, we have
been talking about building “farm to market” roads, aside from building “post
harvest facilities”. These are of course good plans, but let us have the
reality check that up to now, these are just dreams for the most part. For the
record, I am not dousing cold water on our wishes to rebuild and rehabilitate
our damaged regions. On the other hand, I am suggesting that we should temper
our wishes, meaning that we should only start what we could finish, and let us
not even think of anything that we could not realize.
Just like building a house, a good rehabilitation and
redevelopment project would need a good plan. In the case of rebuilding and
redeveloping entire communities however, this type of project would need more
than just good architectural and engineering plans.
In line with this,
I would like to propose a “Triple E” strategy, an approach that would combine
Energy, Ecology and Efficiency. Just to put this strategy in the right
perspective, I will tell you right away that I have seen some of the “state of
the art” real estate development projects in the Philippines, and to my
disappointment, most of them do not have renewable energy, do not have solid
waste management (no MRFs) and do not have efficient systems (no automation).
Of course it is easy to say that we want to build “green”
communities, but what is the use of being a “green” community if it is not also
“smart” (efficient)? Besides, how could a community be “smart” if it is not
even “green”? On top of it all, how could a community be “smart” and “green” if
it does not have renewable energy? First things first, it is important for our
local government officials to recognize that “green architecture” is already
inseparable from renewable energy. What this means is that architecture could
not be “green” if its energy supply is not renewable and sustainable.
Looking at this another way, modern agriculture is now
capable of not only producing food, but also raw materials for energy
generation. As I understand it, “efficiency” should mean not just the
automation of services and processes, but also the availability of essential
necessities such as food and water. Speaking of water, our local government
officials should also recognize that with cheap energy, they could now tap
water sources and process these to become drinkable. And conversely, if they
have flowing water nearby, they could also produce energy using hydro
technologies. The cycle goes on, because if they have water, they could also
produce food.
Redevelopment means the restoration of damaged structures
from the previously developed infrastructure. It could also mean the building
of new infrastructure that was not part of what was there before.
Either way, the starting point should always be a good
Integrated Area Development (IAD) plan that should always start with a
Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). All of these could be implemented using
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS),
Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Modelling (CAM) and Operations
Research (OR).
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