Chapter 1

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1. Background and Rationale

This Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) is an output of the major undertaking of the City Government of Puerto Princesa to prepare and/or revise its comprehensive plans as mandated in the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160). The Comprehensive Development Plan and its implementing instrument, the Local Development Investment Plan, had been produced earlier to provide a rich source of programs, projects and activities to be funded through the city's annual budget. The CLUP, for its part, will serve as the primary guide for the management of land, water, and other natural resources of the city. Its principal implementing tool is the Zoning Ordinance.

The preparation of this successor CLUP comes at a time when the predecessor plan is at the end of its plan horizon. In many important ways, this new edition of the CLUP is an updated and revised version of the predecessor plan. But there are also significant differences in terms of the approach and methodology, the spatial strategy, and the scope of policy coverage.

2. Approach and Methodology

The basic approach to this planning undertaking is capability building. It involves training of the different sectoral committees and getting them to participate in all the steps of the planning process. The process followed is that which is elaborated on in the DILG's “Rationalized Local Planning System”. The integrated CLUP-CDP process is discussed in detail in Chapter 2 of the Comprehensive Development Plan. In this volume, the simplified process which was followed extensively is described. (See Figure 1.1.)

Focusing only on that portion of the integrated process that pertains to the CLUP the major procedural steps are as follows:

2.1. Relating the city's vision to the national goals of physical planning. This step is the bridge that links the local vision to the national goals of physical planning. The national goals were adopted by the National Land Use Committee which are intended to be carried in all physical development plans at all levels of jurisdiction from the national down to city and municipal levels. Making local goals consistent with and supportive of national goals ensures that local government units truly become effective

1

partners of the national government in the attainment of national development.

2.2. Designing and characterizing alternative spatial strategies. A spatial strategy is an abstract conception of the desired pattern of physical development of the city which is realized through creative combination of built-up areas and open spaces. It is the organizing concept that guides the location and allocation of spaces for different land-using activities, the regulation of public and private investments, and the preservation of resources that ought to be protected against inimical human intrusion and other agents of destruction. Designing and selecting appropriate spatial strategies for a city like Puerto Princesa with its avowed advocacy for, and being a long-time practitioner of environmental conservation has been a major challenge to planning the city's physical development.

2.3. Detailing the preferred spatial strategy. The preferred spatial strategy is a mere conceptual framework, a skeletal frame that defines the desired shape of future development. When the detailed elements and components are added, the resulting output is the draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan. It is in this aspect of the process and output that substantial differences between the predecessor and successor plans are manifest. The successor plan, among other things, has taken the term “comprehensive” to its utmost limit, that is, it encompasses not only the entire territorial jurisdiction of the city but also the whole stretch of landscape from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the sea. The basic framework for delineating geographical areas for policy enforcement is the Environmentally Critical Areas Network (ECAN) consisting of terrestrial, marine, and ancestral domain components. The ECAN concept is established in the Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan (RA7611).

2

Current Reality

SuccessIndicators

Vision

Element Descriptors

SectoralGoals

Vision-Reality Gap

(what can be reasonably done

in 3 yrs)

SectoralObjectives/

Targets

Physical Planning Goals Spatial Strategies

(what it takes to close the gap)

Specification of Means

Elaboration of Ends

Location Principles+Protection+Production+Settlement+Infrastructure

Development+Policies+Strategies+Programs+Projects+Legislation

Ecological ProfileStatistical CompendiumThematic Maps

C D P

C L U P

Figure 1.1 Simplified CLUP - CDP Process

2.4. Formulation of land and water use policies. For effective land use regulation, the CLUP must be comprehensive in terms of territorial and policy coverage. In order that every portion of the city's territory is covered with appropriate policy, the four land use policy areas adopted by the National Land Use Committee namely, settlements, infrastructure, production and protection, are used to organize all proposed policy interventions. These policy proposals were generated from the application of various analytical techniques in the course of the planning process notably the Problem-Solution Matrix, map overlay analysis, and the Upstream-Downstream Impact analysis. The local implications of relevant national laws and other administrative issuances were likewise taken into account in the formulation of these policies. To facilitate their implementation the proposed policies are further classified into programs and projects, services or non-projects, and regulatory measures. The proposed programs and projects that are “owned” by the city are then picked up for inclusion in the City Development Investment Program for funding through the

3

development fund in the annual budget. The identified services needed to carry out aspects of the plan are incorporated into the regular functions of existing departments and offices of the City government, or serve as basis for the creation of new executive bodies. The services or non-project components of the proposed policy interventions may also guide the crafting of capability building programs for existing personnel of the executive branch of the City Government. The proposed regulatory measures will be farmed out to the national or local legislative bodies whichever has the proper jurisdiction. In some instances regulatory measures are promulgated in the form of issuances by the city's Chief Executive.

2.5. Revision of the existing Zoning Ordinance. In as much as the predecessor CLUP has undergone a major revision, the Zoning Ordinance which is the principal instrument for implementing the CLUP has also undergone substantial revision. Salient features of the revised Zoning Ordinance include the integration of the ECAN zoning and the urban land use zoning which are erstwhile separate documents and are enforced by two separate bodies. The integrated ordinance will now be enforced by a single regulatory body. Another important feature of the revised Zoning Ordinance is the consideration it gives to the total catchment concept wherein policies for certain upstream areas are tested for their sensitivity to their potential impact on downstream areas. A necessary extension of the total catchment concept as a salient feature of the revised zoning is the incorporation of the municipal waters under one use regulatory regime. Since the national government has devolved to local governments authority to manage nearshore areas of up to 15 km of the shore the coastal LGUs like Puerto Princesa are expected to manage and protect their respective portions of the national territorial sea for the benefit of small fisherfolk and coastal communities.

3. Barangay Clustering

In the wake of the recent change of status of Puerto Princesa to that of a highly urbanized city (HUC) and the revision by the National Statistics Office of the 1970 definition of an urban place wherein all barangays belonging to a highly urbanized city are now considered urban, there should no longer be rural barangays in Puerto Princesa. Pending full-blown consideration of the legal, administrative and practical implications of the new NSO definition, however, the urban-rural delineation adopted in the previous plan has been retained. The practical value of maintaining the urban-rural dichotomy is that it allows focusing of analysis and targeting of interventions on areas and sectors that suffer from various forms of disadvantage, on one hand, and

4

concentrating investments in growth areas to spur rapid development, on the other. As shown in chapter 3 of this volume, the urban-rural delineation has highlighted the stark differences between these two areas in terms of indicators of development. Reducing these differences over time, and thus achieving social equity and spatial parity, is a goal implicit in all development programs.

For the sake of consistency the clustering of barangays for both urban areas (Figure 1.2) and rural areas (Figure 1.3) which was adopted in the predecessor plan have been modified in this successor plan to conform with the revised spatial strategy as discussed in detail in Chapter 4. The delineation and characterization of new barangay clusters are taken up at length in Chapter 5.

4. Organization of this Volume

This volume, like its counterpart CDP, consists of seven chapters. Having emanated from a common source the two plans share the same vision statement and characterization of the current reality. But beyond these similarities the two plans are distinct and have different features and purposes.

The brief general introduction, Chapter 1, is devoted largely to the discussion of the mandate and rationale for the formulation of the CLUP and the approach and methodology adopted in its formulation..

Chapter 2 reiterates the vision statement with the added effort to demonstrate the essential connection between the city's vision and the national goals of physical planning, thereby showing that the city is indeed an effective partner in the attainment of national development.

Chapter 3 discusses the challenges to the development of Puerto Princesa focusing on territorial and spatial issues particularly on the disparity between urban and rural areas. Herein lies the importance of maintaining the distinct delineation of urban and rural areas.

Chapter 4 elaborates on the spatial strategy which will serve as the organizing concept for the location of land-using activities. The present strategy adopts the strategy in the predecessor plan in its essential features but offers very substantial modifications and adds important details to it.

Chapter 5 puts the conceptual spatial strategy in detail resulting in the draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan. This chapter contains a more detailed characterization of the different barangay clusters as the geographical basis of policy formulation and enforcement.

5

Chapter 6 collects all appropriate policy proposals that cover all areas of the City's territory. To facilitate implementation, the policies are classified into projects, non-projects and regulatory measures. The regulatory measures are either incorporated into the revised zoning ordinance or may be issued as single-purpose ordinances or executive orders.

Chapter 7 lays out the tools and strategy for implementing the revised CLUP.

Technical annexes are included at the end and are referred to in their proper contexts.

6

Fig. 1.2 Urban Area Barangay Clusters

7

Figure 1.3 Rural Area Barangay Clusters

8