Politics of urban planning

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

It’s good to talk about political issues if something good could come out of it, meaning to say that it should result in positive action and not just plain talk that does not amount to anything. In the past days, the airwaves and the newspapers were full of discussion about relocating informal settlers to safer places, but will all this talk ever result in real actions?

I am all for local autonomy, but in everything that concerns local governance; we should always proceed on the assumption that there is a functional oversight system at the national level, to make sure that the exercise of autonomy is within the prescribed national standards. Yes, autonomy is supposed to give freedom, but only within the realm of what is legally right and what is technologically correct.

The extension of local autonomy should also proceed from the assumption that the local authorities are technologically and functionally competent to plan and implement their own land use programs, inclusive of all safety and environmental concerns. This goes without saying that the national government should also be in a position to guide local authorities in this concern, and to provide technical services if and when necessary.

As far as I recall, there is a law that requires developers to turn over the jurisdiction and management of subdivisions from the developers to the local governments, as soon as it is established that the development is already functionally and technologically completed. This also goes without saying that the national agency, in this case the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) will be the one to finally validate the state of completion.

Moving back one step, I recall that even before a development should start, the developer is supposed to get an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR), attesting that the subdivision complies with all safety and environmental requirements, presumably including as well all natural and demographic threats to the development as the case may be.

It was quite a revelation to hear that Architect Jun Palafox had actually issued a warning about forty years ago, that some of the sites slated for development at that time were environmentally unsafe for housing purposes, naturally hazardous in other words. Since the identity of these sites are already known, what is the government going to do about making sure that these same sites that were hit by the floods will not be inhabited again?

Without any doubt, corruption is a very dangerous evil that could cause the death of hundreds of people in its consequential effects. What is even more dangerous is the evil combination of corruption and incompetence, because this union has the potential of killing thousands of people at the very least. We have seen this happen, and we could see it happening again not unless we will do something to change it.

From out of the rubble of the destruction, we should now learn hard lessons that should change the way we do things, not just for now, but for good. Not just for us in this generation but for the generations to come, for the sake of our nation that could practically become a paradise if only we could deal with the natural hazards by using the right legal and technological solutions.

As big things start from small things, we should now start correcting our small mistakes that have worsened into the big problems that are now confronting us. Nothing is too small when it comes to putting into order the bigger picture which is the safety and wellbeing of the bigger population over and above the petty interests of the smaller political elite.

I think that it is not too late to say that we should start with small yet basic steps such as waste segregation and hazard mapping, very simple and yet very meaningful steps that could lead us to bigger and more encompassing solutions that are needed anyway as we also have to deal with climate change and global warming.

At this stage of our history, we should be talking about buying battle ships and combat jets but never mind that for now as long as we could buy rubber boats and rescue helicopters. Better still, let us also buy portable toilets and tent shelters if only to prove that we know how to take the basic steps.

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