By Gina Dizon
Population increases.
It does not decrease unless there is mass death. And so with
increase of Philippine population from 76.5 million in year 2000 to
101 million in 2015, expect 2017 population to go 103 million.
This means need for
more food, more school rooms, more health facilities, more vehicles, and more
space where humans move around, establish shelter and source their livelihood.
More space for officials and officers in government to plan how an increasing
population is addressed with services whether a resident is bona fide or an
informal settler.
A recent forum here
sponsored by the National Statistics Office –Mountain Province presented trends
of the population in the national, regional and province level
registered the highest in CARAGA region at 14.4 million followed by
the National Capital Region at 12 .6 million and the lowest in the
Cordillera among the 14 regions at 1.72 million.
The Cordillera
increased population from 1.37 million in year 2000 to 1.6 in 2010 to 1.7
million in 2015 with the highest population growth rate in Benguet at 1.9%
followed by Baguio City at 1.54%. Obviously Benguet where bustling
La Trinidad is located is nearly a city by itself is the most populated
at 330 thousand followed by Baguio City at 252 thousand. In the
same manner that the highest populated place in Kalinga is Tabuk City and
the most populated in Ifugao is Alfonso LIsta near the business district in
Santiago, Isabela.
Republic Act
1062 is clear on its mandate: to provide government planners, policy
makers and administrators with population data on which to base their
social and economic development plans and programs.
Data particularly
gathered by NSO are size and geographic distribution of the population,
composition in term of age, sex and marital status; religious
affiliation; school attendance, literacy, highest grade completed, technical or
vocational course obtained; housing characteristics, agriculture,
business, industry and other sectors of the economy; occupation of
people, household level characteristics such as those used for lighting,
source of water supply for drinking or cooking.
And for Executive Order 352 particularly calls for census on housing
characteristics in the barangay level including presence of selected
facilities, establishments, informal settlers, relocation areas and inmovers.
Other data needed is
the number of women and children abuse as noted by Provincial Social
Welfare and Development (PSWD) Officer Rosalinda Belagan during said
population forum. And so with vulnerable data sites where disaster can
happen as forwarded by Edward Padcayan of the Provincial Disaster
Risk and Management Council (PDRRMC).
And with the number
of drug surrenderees nowadays is there space for drug rehab centers, space for
Special Education Centers (SPED), space for persons with disabilities (PWDs)
with nearly 1500 cases of registered PWDs in the province and space for women
in crisis centers.
Need for public space
This brings to a concern the need for equivalent space as population
expands and needs demand the space- commercial area, agricultural farms,
government offices, housing space, evacuation space, lots for
social facilities, school and training spaces, parks where children
and people come together and talk and play and move around. And
parking spaces to accommodate persons who buy cars and don’t have their
personal garages and cars of tourists who visit tourist places.
This while having sharp note on protective areas as watersheds not to be
invaded to ensure the much needed water supply of residents.
Parking happens
anywhere even especially on public roads in the midst of people having their
own cars without securing their own garages. And in the midst of a
growing tourism industry since the 1980s.
School rooms are
needed with growing number of schoolchildren and the community is in need
of space to build public facilities.
Consider space for
Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) when economy grows. And so when
make shift MRFs just sprout from anywhere one will come to the
conclusion that a proactive planning of where an MRF site shall be
located was not a priority of officers and officials in
government until ecologists shouts it’s the call of the day.
Mountain Province
which opens and exits road outlets to commercial towns in Santiago
Isabela, and tourist towns of Banaue Ifugao in the east and Ilocos in the
west, and a Halsema Highway cut in the middle of the province to heavily
populated Baguio City has the ;lowest population growth rate in CAR and
the lowest population among the six provinces.
Nevertheless,
increasing population is noted highest in the vegetable producing
town of Bauko with its majestic mountains which pose potential for
eco-tourism, followed by Paracelis near the bustling business
area in Santiago Isabela.
Bontoc the
capital town of the Province since the early 1900s up to now
already showed potentials of getting heavily populated. It was a
century ago in June 28, 1910 when the Philippine Commission under the American
Government issued Resolution Number 29 delineating area and boundaries of the
Bontoc townsite of the provincial government. And so the Capitol
space, barracks, hospital, and jail section were identified
of where these shall be. The Bontoc town site seemingly had a
plan of how Bontoc shall look like.
The presents reveals
how public space is slowly getting depleted due to
infrastructure facilities and residential houses built on the once spacious
lot. Meantime the center of the town utterly shows a demand for parking
lots at the turn of the 21st century.
Tourism and parking spaces
Jerry Santos, NSO-Mountain Province director wondered how Bontoc as the
capital city should have foreseen the need for parking spaces.
In the tourist town
of Sagada, not only when tourists boomed in the 1990s that the
tourist-visited town saw the need for parking spaces which let the
spacious Mission Compound opened for parking and so too in other
private lots.
Not only Bontoc or
Sagada is a potential tourist town but practically the 10 towns of the
province each with distinct attractions- hot springs in Bontoc, majestic
mountains in Sadanga, astounding rolling hills in Paracelis, trekking trails
in Bauko and boating spots in Tadian apart from caves and waterfalls in
Sagada, and cultural interests in Bontoc.
With the Province a
vast space for eco-tourism potential awaits communities how they treat
tourism in their own areas in the now and in the coming days. With Sagada
serving as an example of how it welcomed backpack tourists in the 70s to 80s in
their homes having eventually expanded to a number of small inns to big
inns and a few restos in the 90s to spaces for parking lots in the very recent
years, other eco-tourist potential towns better start planning now how
extensive or regulative their tourism be when tourists come invading
their very homes, backyards, and woodlots.
Comes now planning
which is the direction of why there is gathering of population and
data. Through CLUP or the Comprehensive Land Use Plan lays down the plan
of how community space is used- for residential, forest, watershed,
agricultural,commercial lot and space for recreation.
That is, with
LGUs limited public space as population increases, LGUs need to
invest money to buy lots or let someone donate his or her land for public
use. For alongside is the question on the readiness of LGUs to respond to
demands of the times and the very near future to come.
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