The Current Planning Paradigm in the City of Baguio, Philippines
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Journal of Architecture and Construction Volume 1, Issue 4, 2018, PP 08-16 ISSN 2637-5796 Paradoxes of Inclusion: The Current Planning Paradigm in the City of Baguio, Philippines Lord Byron F. GONZALES Saint Louis University, School of Engineering Architecture, Environment and Habitat Planning, Baguio City, Philippines *Corresponding Author: Lord Byron F. GONZALES, Saint Louis University, School of Engineering Architecture, Environment and Habitat Planning, Baguio City, Philippines ABSTRACT In the context of a Developing Country like the Philippines, a highly centralized land use planning and decision making seems to be the rule rather than the exception. As a result, land use planning theory and practice in the Cordillera particularly in Baguio City is framed by the top-down planning approach guided by the rational comprehensive paradigm leading to the emergence of problems and disconnect between government policy and indigenous people aspirations and land claims which are all qualitatively summarized in the themes of discordance between people, power, and process. It is for this purpose that this study was undertaken, primarily we seek to find out what problems do the city planners experience in the application of the existing land use planning paradigm? Considering that Baguio City is a center of indigenous cultures and how inclusive were the emergent land use planning system? In conclusion discordance in capacities, where legal and statutory provisions themselves provided the limitations to indigenous participation and involvement in planning; and discordances in spatial specific performances provided the constraints for wider and more participative involvement outside the structure of power to the disadvantage of a sustainable land use plan. Keywords: Planning Paradigms, Paradoxes, Land use plan, Indigenous people, Discordances INTRODUCTION roles to the Cordillera Administrative Region as a popular tourist destination, center of The City of Baguio has been characterized by education, health services, and real estate many planners as un-plannable. Characterized development, roles defined by the City’s own by urban sprawl and massive stifling congestion development plan (City Government of Baguio, in many of its residential areas, the city daunts 2015). These roles may well be themselves the most serious urban planner who seeks to responsible for the city’s huge transient impose order and developmental sustainability population and high rate of in-migration. Thus, to the chaos and disorder within it. despite vestiges of Burnham’s original plan still It is not that the city was built and subsequently being perceived in its current morphology, administered without plans. It was, as a matter highly urbanized Baguio City currently is more of fact, an originally planned settlement – a reflective of uncontrolled growth (Gonzales, colonial hill station (See Figure 1), designed by L.B.2017). The City Planning and Development the world-renowned architect Daniel H. Office, thus, operates under extremely trying Burnham (Reed, 1999) who had been careful conditions, trying to formulate a comprehensive enough to note that existing circumstances then land use plan that would guide the city’s land “point to the development in the near future of a utilization policies rationally for the next ten town not exceeding 25,000 inhabitants.” years. The current CLUP was approved on (Burnham & Anderson, 1905, p. 1) However, by second reading in 2015 but it still has to be 2010, it has grown into a city of 325,880 formally and finally passed as a full- pledged residents and a population density of 5.2 per City resolution. square kilometer (Cleto, 2010). To address, thus, the first concern of this study, Unfortunately, any attempt to rein in the city’s to wit, the question of what land use planning population growth rate would be met with paradigms are currently being utilized in extreme difficulty due to the city’s functional planning indigenous regions within the CAR Journal of Architecture and Construction V1 ● I4 ● 2018 8 Paradoxes of Inclusion: The Current Planning Paradigm in the City of Baguio, Philippines and what problems beset CAR municipal Administrative Region and that these paradoxes planners in their quest to develop responsive and lead to problematic applications resulting in sustainable development and strategic spatial urban sprawls and congestion. Furthermore, plans for their jurisdictions, we bear now on the reengineering planning concepts within hypothesis that basic theoretical and conceptual indigenous regions of the Philippines such as the contradictions characterize existing planning Cordillera necessitates the delineation and paradigms and approaches used in planning mapping out of the specifics of these indigenous regions particularly in the Cordillera contradictions. Figure 1. The Burnham Baguio City Plan (1900) LAND USE PLANNING IN THE INDIGENOUS political structures. Consequently, the State shall PEOPLES RIGHTS ACT (R.A 8371) ensure that the ICCs/IPs shall be given mandatory representation in policy-making The different provisions in the IPRA’s bodies and other local legislative councils.” declaration of principles that allude to land use (Congress of the Philippines, 1997) Thus, planning are replete and full of possibilities Section 17 mandates that “the ICCs/IPs shall regarding the democratization of planning in have the right to determine and decide their own indigenous regions. Furthermore, Sections 16 of priorities for development affecting their lives, the law states that “ICCs/IPs have the right to beliefs, institutions, spiritual well-being, and the participate fully, if they so choose, at all levels lands they own, occupy or use. They shall of decision making in matters which may affect participate in the formulation, implementation their rights, lives and destinies through and evaluation of policies, plans and programs procedures determined by them as well as to for national, regional and local development maintain and develop their own indigenous which may directly affect them.” Figure 2. Ancestral Claims of Baguio City However, as Buhangin (2012) has already formal instrument of land use planning noted, only within ancestral domains was a institutionalized in state policy. This instrument 9 Journal of Architecture and Construction V1● I4 ● 2018 Paradoxes of Inclusion: The Current Planning Paradigm in the City of Baguio, Philippines is the Ancestral Domain Sustainable were carried out, interview transcripts were Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP). processed at once. Interview results were then In other indigenous areas where domains do not compared with subsequent interviews. The exist and only ancestral lands are found, (See initial theory which emerged was compared to Figure 2) no formal plan by the IPs is all data as they were gathered. The theory formulated and considered as an input in the continued to be refined by contrasting it with Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). The each new piece of data that became available. IPRA, therefore, could be said to be more of a In carrying out the coding process, open coding, constraining rather than an enabling law for which involved reading through the data several realizing indigenous people power in times and then creating tentative labels for Buhangin’s first planning scenario (i.e. lumps of data that summarized what were seen jurisdictions where there are no ancestral as happening, were carried out each time domain claims). This is particularly true in the interview transcripts were generated. Thirty Six City of Baguio, which, as per Section 78 of the key informants, all of whom had been involved law “shall remain to be governed by its Charter in planning and consultancy in the City of and all lands proclaimed as part of its town site Baguio were involved in the data-gathering reservation. process. The informants’ discourses brought up METHODOLOGY some 426 matters in open coding which were collapsed to 31 patterns in axial coding. These Data was collected through interviews with were subsequently brought together in three thirty six (36) study participants or key final constructs or themes among the open informants, with whom the researcher codes. Selective- theoretical coding was focused conducted 33-60 minutes face-to-face on figuring out the core concepts and the interviews. These interviews were digitally relationships that have been established between audio-recorded and the data was manually categories. transcribed immediately after every interview session. The tool used for data gathering was the The readers ideas were discerned in memos. semi-structured interview quide. A question Finally, final coding fitted together the template was used to provide the initial content categories which resulted in a model that looks for the interviews and the researcher added at the impact of the proposed legal framework questions in the interviews as required. on planning processes within and for the City. Questions were utilized only to guide RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS interviewees and to generate thoughtful responses. As part of the constant comparative The findings show that in theory and in practice, method employed in grounded theory research, land use planning in the Cordillera and in pertinent documents such as minutes of Baguio City in particular is framed by the top- meetings and resolutions of the Baguio City down planning approach guided by the rational Council were only examined when prompted by comprehensive paradigm. It would be shown the interviews