Friday, July 04, 2008 Alabado: Development software needed By Roberto P. Alabado III Planning Perspectives
JUST recently, former President Fidel V. Ramos cited the need for a Mindanao plan beyond 2010. People will certainly have in mind more infrastructure and economic projects for Mindanao.
Now who will make all the technical development plans so that prosperity will ensure a region-wide impact and not on certain areas only? Who will think of the plans in a holistic and comprehensive approach to develop synergism among sectors? Who will undertake various participatory approaches to ensure that these projects will be people-centered?
We will need professionals trained in urban, regional, and environmental planning so these projects will have a sustainable impact in the region.
Going around Mindanao I have met planners of the local government units, technical experts of development agencies and national government agencies as well. Most are usually engineers or architects. While I have no doubt of their capabilities, I would like to see more people from the planning field or development management fields as holding positions in these agencies.
I usually encounter LGUs with a local planning office composed of the planning coordinator and perhaps three to five staff members, and with only the planning coordinator as having availed of short courses and seminars in planning. This, for me, is a cause for alarm since there may be only a very few persons in the LGU who can provide the technical planning aspects needed for development.
I know that training courses can be utilized to upgrade the knowledge and skills of our local planners but it also takes a rigid academic program to really imbibe the discipline of your field of expertise, after all, training courses do not give a failing grade to their participants.
Most of our planning professionals here in Mindanao are stationed in the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) offices and other national agencies of the regions. Region 11 is very fortunate that its NEDA Regional Director has a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning.
The planning profession is still very young here in the Philippines having started only in the 1960s. The organized group of licensed planners -- the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners (PIEP) organized in the 1990s, still has a small membership and perhaps we can count less than 50 members who are currently in Mindanao. We may even have a smaller number in that group who are actually engaged in planning activities. Now counting how many regions, provinces and municipalities we have in our island, this number of planning professionals becomes really insignificant.
Now if we count the number of persons who actually have an academic degree in urban and regional planning then they may be also around that figure but their ranks are added by the environmental planning and the development management degree graduates. There is only one university in the Philippines that offers a graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning and that is the University of the Philippines. A few other universities offer a bachelors or a graduate degree in environmental management and development management courses that are more inclined on the environmental aspect and the social aspect of planning.
Surely if Mindanao has to grow rapidly, we will need professionals who could manage the process of change in the area. We will need professionals who can provide sound and logical development alternatives for our politicians. We need people who can see the "big picture" and understand the specialized fields under development planning. We will need highly capable people who understand the dynamics of development as well as translate these into physical plans to avoid the pitfalls of development. We will need professionals who understand sustainable development and help create policies that will protect the green environment while enhancing the quality of life in the towns and cities. We need people who can see into the future and provide the guidelines for our politicians to solve the present problems as well as avoid the future problems.
As for now, I hope that the universities of Mindanao will offer new courses geared towards development planning and management. Perhaps the youth of today will think of the future of Mindanao and enroll in planning related courses that are needed by the people of Mindanao. I dream of a Mindanao after 2010 where plans and projects meet the needs of the people and not of the few.
