DAVAO CITY—This southern Philippine city that was thrust into the limelight since the 2016 election of its longtime mayor to the presidency is determined to assert the primacy of ecological balance amid a frenzy of development—where industry locators demand ample space for housing, factories and office.
No matter how much business the presidential currency may bring, the city is determined to remain liveable and comfortable both to its residents and transient residents brought there by the thousands of jobs generated by its boom sectors, notably in business outsourcing.
Presidential daughter and this city’s Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio defined this direction in her recent State of the City Address when she said her administration “would be firm on greening the city”.
She was particularly dismayed at the recent flooding at the uptown portion of the city, where a subdivision built two decades ago has periodically caused flooding at a national highway.
In the section of Solid Waste Management and Environment in her address on October 2, Duterte enumerated in a nutshell the importance of ecology as integral to her administration’s 10-point program.
“We have also been firm in our campaign in greening our city, as we opened new parks and playgrounds. Last December 2017, we opened the Davao City Botanical Garden located at Marfori Subdivision and three new playgrounds at the People’s Park, Davao City Botanical Garden and Osmeña Park,” she said.
This statement assured environmentalists that her administration would uphold ecological breathing spaces in the city, where a third of the 244,000-hectare area has been grazed by urban construction. Only two years ago, environmentalists clashed with the City Council on the Council’s plan to remove the green and open space provision for housing developers to observe in their constructions.
Duterte said these parks would allow families and children “to have more options for rest and recreation, and safe play places for children”. She bared three new playgrounds to be constructed in Mintal, Toril and Calinan before the year ends.
“We have conducted coastal clean-up and mangrove tree planting activities along the Davao Riverbank at Barangay 40-D and by virtue of Executive Order 2 Series of 2017, we have intensified the massive clean-up in the 32 coastal barangays of the city through the Bantay Dagat program. The program has engaged 300 volunteers to ensure that there is regular clean-up with the end view of clean coastal waters for the Dabawenyo,” she said.
But her administration would not succeed with a nonchalant and lazy population, she said, including a lack of a legal catch net to back a clean city in the backdrop of a scaled-up urban development where developers are observed to be scrambling already for available space.
Changing skyline, road network
The city government has paid attention to modernizing its own public buildings to demonstrate its clean, uptight design accommodating the concepts of fuel cost-saving green technology. It has also begun to plan ahead with construction of bypass and coastal roads to ease traffic, now afflicting many of the country’s metropolises and cities.
Recently started were “some of our banner infrastructure projects”, like the Davao City Investment and Tourism building, the City Library and Information Center, the 18-Classroom Alternative Learning School facility, the City Social Services and Development Office building, and the Archives building.
In the pipeline are the Davao Museum, the City Health Office, the New City Engineer’s Office, the extension to the Pasalubong Center building, and the eight-story extension to the City Hall Building.
Priority infra projects
Its recent engagement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), Japan’s official financial and technical assistance arm, has given this city the finalized study on Infrastructure Modernization for Davao or “IM4Dvo”.
This study spelled out priority infrastructure projects the city should undertake from 2018 up to 2045 in order to achieve a sound and sustainable city, Duterte said.
In it were identified such big-ticket projects as the extension of the Panacan-Buhangin diversion road, the Davao River boulevard, the Talomo viaduct, the extension of the coastal road now being constructed, the Bunawan-Buhangin road, and the Davao-Samal connector bridge or tunnel.
Last year and until the middle of this year, the city government completed 517 infrastructure projects amounting to P570 million. A year previously, it finished 542 projects.
The city has seen an increase in various construction projects from various private firms, from residential to commercial and other miscellaneous construction. Ancillary permit applications and revenues netted for the Office of the Building Official (OBO) a total collection of P44 million, a 52.22-percent collection efficiency rate of its P85-million annual target collection for 2016. This went up to P103 million the following year and for the current year, the OBO “is on track to surpass its P125-million target since it has already collected 66.52 percent of the target just this midyear,” she said.
The city will likewise bat anew for Congress’s nod in allowing the Davao airport to be granted the status of an airport authority to position itself better as the acknowledged gateway of the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines-East Asean Growth Area.
Local government and tourism officials have been assailing the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) for using the income of the airport to help subsidize the other airports in the country.
Also, Duterte bared her move to impose a building height limit in the city to achieve safe air travel. “Once we have finalized the technical guidelines in coordination with [Caap], we expect this ordinance to provide a skyline safe for air travel, allow our utility agencies the needed density control, and provide our search-and-rescue team a manageable area to cover in times of disaster.”
“I emphasize the urgency of this measure and I hope the Sangguniang Panlungsod will do everything necessary so that we will have the ordinance in place to cope up with the current infra surge,” she added.
Also next year, the Sasa Wharf will embark on a P2-billion expansion project to include the upgrading of the general cargo berthing facilities, as well as the expansion of the port to increase its capacity.
These twin moves on the city’s point of entry will boost travel and cargo transport.
On energy, she said the Aboitiz-owned Davao Light & Power Co. will replace, over three years, the sodium lamps in the streets with the cost- and energy-efficient LED lighting. As it undertakes the program, Davao Light’s underground cabling project to rid downtown streets of the messy wiring on the streets is also under way.
To back the needs of the industries, the city will start the construction of the water infrastructure under the Davao City Bulk Water Supply Project, with the 6.8-hectare water treatment and processing facility in Barangay Gumalang, north of downtown. This is seen to ease the city’s reliance on the underground aquifer for drinking water and shift to surface water of a river system inside its protected watershed.
“This would ensure the sustainability of the water needs of the present and future generations,” she added.
With funding from the Department of Public Works and Highways, the 1.7-kilometer bypass road was opened in June this year to help motorists going to the Davao International Airport avoid congestion, particularly along Mamay Road and CP Garcia Highway.
The construction of the 18.2-km coastal road is ongoing under a multiyear funding scheme and she said the People’s Republic of China committed “to donate P1.5 billion for the construction of a bridge that will connect the portions of the road disconnected by the Davao River”.
The Comprehensive Transport and Management Plan is being crafted to implement the most viable mass public transport system and public transport routes for the city. A benchmarking activity was conducted in Australia from May 20 to 30 this year.
Meanwhile, the City Traffic and Transport Management Office (CTTMO) has issued citation tickets to 26,982 traffic violators as the number of traffic violators has increased in the first semester of 2018 compared to the data of 2017 and 2016.
The citation cost violators of jaywalking and other traffic rules some P16.8 million in fines.
The CTTMO also towed a total of 796 vehicles and continued to remove and confiscate unauthorized signages.
Protection needed
To avoid loss of its agriculture, which comprises almost two-thirds of its land area, the Office of the City Agriculturist is currently coordinating with other sectors to come up with an Agricultural Development Master Plan.
She also instructed the office to work out a plan to protect the loss of agriculture lands, although she admitted that the private nature of the business transaction between landowners and project developers would hinder the city government from fully ensuring that the farms are maintained.
The city government’s support will nonetheless be continued. She said the Davao Agriculutural Trading Complex in Daliao, Toril, will be started soon and the project was initiated by the Department of Agriculture.
“The food terminal bridges the producers’ need for maximum benefits and consumers’ need for quality-based and affordable agricultural products. It will help facilitate fast and efficient movement of goods, particularly, fresh farm products, in and out of the city and the whole region; and it is designed to improve marketing for basic producers,” she said.
Protection is also being extended to the coastal areas under the Coastal-Based Resource Management Program-Marine Protected Areas Development Program. This program seeks to establish 10 Marine Protected Areas in 10 barangays “identified as a response to the need of fisherfolk for sustainable fish catch allowing for food security, poverty alleviation and environment management.”
No more landslides
At the Shrine Hills, the City Council has supported her intention with amendments and supplement to the Urban Ecological Enhancement Subzone segregating 200 hectares for close protection following a landslide at its northern edge that blocked traffic at the diversion road for weeks.
But cleanliness will not be abandoned with urbanization, to ensure that the city keeps its reputation as a clean city.
“With this, we are now looking into improving our garbage collection processes, whereby collection of properly segregated garbage will be strictly implemented following a fixed schedule based on categorization and utilizing specific collection vehicles for the purpose,” she said.
Waste-to-energy
She announced that the city will shift to waste-to-energy mode, a project being opposed by environmentalists who fear its adverse effect on waste segregation and management. Groups like the Greenpeace and the Interface Development Initiatives warned that the huge garbage volume requirement to feed the operation of the waste-to-energy machine would render waste segregation useless.
Duterte said the city has also identified at least six sites to put up the sewerage treatment systems.
“As we continue to improve, rehabilitate and build new drainage systems, we shall complement this with the creation of these sewerage treatment facilities all over the city. We will continue to study on how to best build these sewerage treatment systems to ensure the city’s compliance with waste water regulations,” she added.
To cope with climate change and the continuous rising of sea levels all over the world, “this past year, together with the DPWH, we have commenced work on 14 key drainage improvement projects all over the city with more than P900 million in funding,” the mayor added.
She warned, though, that “all of these efforts, even with the continuous, daily and nightly cleaning of drainage lines, rivers and coastal areas in the city, would not be enough if we continue to violate laws on proper development and as we all indiscriminately dispose of our garbage all over the city.”
“I encourage everyone to partner with us in the campaign against single-use plastics and we have endeavored to implement this in our departments. We invite everyone to use reusable alternatives to lessen the plastic waste of the city.”
“We can send one million people to clean our coastal areas, but this would be put to nothing if we continue to be lazy and disregardful of how we dispose of garbage,” she said.
Image credits: Gualberto M. Laput/PNA