Gallego, Lloyd Andrew Plan 201 A February 10, 2018

I.D. # 2017-90729 Homework # 1

Ka-LLOYD-oscpic Utopia

The Philippines is, archipelagic in nature, and home toof rich biodiversity and other

natural resources. The Philippines strives towards its continuous development to shape the

future and become a self-sustaining society with fair and equal chance of living forto every

Filipino. The menace threat in sustaining a country is the lack of social impetus of a wider

perspective toof managed development, hence imposing hazards to societytal influx and

economic imbalance. The country continually fails to achieve optimum capacity into providinge a

better opportunitiesty forto every Filipino due to its capitalistic view where wherein the rich

becomesstays and continues to be richer while the poor becomes poorer. thereby not

exhibitingThere is no balance. Currently, the Philippines does not have a culture of inclusive and

systematic planningThe country’s juvenile backbone on development did not conquer its vision

to empower the greater good for everyone. Philippine development is anchored to solve short-

term problems through a reactive approach in dealing with phenomenon. The Philippines

country tends to focus on a mesoscopic microscopic view where in which people wants to solve

a small fragment of a critical issue of a small fragment without realizing the bigger picture of the

problem andthrough understanding its core, which might lead to a more effective and efficient

resolution. This mentality has brought the Philippines to a barrage of unconceptualized and

underdeveloped situations which keeps the country from devaluing and not progressing. The

issues solved by that the country solves become cyclical and repetitive due to the a

misunderstanding of the concept of development.

Metro Manila, the country’s center of development, has been continuously growing in

terms of population, economic activities, travel modes and patterns, energy usage, solid waste

aggravation, pollution, societal issues, crime and high urbanization. As contradicting as it may

occur but the Metro Manila’s development has becomame absurd and chaotic which did not

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yield optimum and managed development. The high increase in all activities has led to the

destruction of the concept of our society. Socio-economic imbalance imposed an

interdependentcy relationship of the different regions within the country and their co-existence

did not materialize to match and resolveto realize the phenomenon of self-sustaining cities.

Several problems are still encountered, including the deficit in basic commodities such as food

and shelter. The aggravation of traffic impact on due to the increase of economic activities have

has resulted to the decrease in societal and economic performance due to everyday problems

in traffic congestion and mobility. Moving out of Metro ManilaIn other regions, development is

not obtained attained to as wellother regions. Energy is not provided to every region and most

places stays rural due to lack of ample technological transfer and awareness. Ecosystems

relatively constantly stays in danger due to unwanted urban growth from the splsurge of

massive land use conversion froorm increasing demands forin economic growth without respect

to nature causing environmental squalor. On In terms of social impacts, not all Filipinos have

jobs to provide for their family and even the minimum wage has not been received by all

members of the society. Fair opportunitiesy into healthcare, education and employmentjobs,

have not been granted to all Filipinos and wherein for the marginalized viewsectors, of living

has becoame a survival game. The Philippines’ concept of inclusive growth and sustainable

development is still raw and pre-mature. The country should look at a macroscopic scale to

provide a better understanding ofin diverse planning techniques anchored to address societal

problems without adverse impact to social, economic, political, cultural, technological and,

environmental aspects of the society and indeed reachedinstead geared towards optimum

growth and the idea of sustainable development.

In the context of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities of To-Morrow, a city must be self-

sustaining and it must be sufficient to provide access toon the basic needs of the society: land,

food, shelter, transport, economic activities, trade and commerce, institutional backbone, and

social needs. In addition, there is an inevitable increase to provide widespread demand to

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increasing population of a society that needs to be addressed. His idea is to keep a principle of

growth, preserving a large belt of country around by cities that and each inhabitant of the a

group should enjoy all advantages of a great city where everything is provided and every person

has a right to obtain. In hHis writings as wellalso includes state that all city activitiesy are is in-

bound and within the periphery, ensuring that all you need has beenis being provided in the city.

His concept of real estate prices has allowed delicate conversion of land uses with proper land

allocation and study for economic investments. His principle as an urban planner hasve been

widely used as inspirations in the development of different communities,to different

community/development. O one of which is the concept of Greenbelt by the Ayala

Corporationmpany where each mall is interconnected withto each other and there is ease of

access is easy to the different phases of the mall. Greenbelt has a garden walk inside the

vicinity that depicts ecological balance within a city and asprovides a mall experience wherein

everything that each shoppers needs can be found inside and there is satisfaction whenever

people get insidevisit it. On a macro -level, the idea of E. Howard is a utopia of urban

development. Nonetheless, though it was crafted with sound judgment to provide inspiration tos

of self-sustaining cities, the Garden City is bound to solve one problem during the 1800’s which

is industrialization – maximizing use of machines and technology for massive production. In

present the 21st century issues, the Philippines has way passedis beyond industrialization as the

country undergoesone keeping pace with technological progression through continuous

development anchored on trend. The Philippines hasve lost its balance in pursuing the true

meaning of development. If his works become a requisite of utopia, an inspiration of a better

Philippines, it should adapt to present day challenges and additional requirements will be

enhanced to obtain necessary changes to get the optimum output of managed development.

The Philippine utopia in my personal view should have a self-sustaining feature wherein

each region comprising composed of cities is not dependent in the need of the other but are co-

existing – meaning they support and contribute to the development of the other but are resilient

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enough to provide for its own when crisis comes. The An ideal concept of the Philippines

concept for me is when I can access all the basic needs within the territory of premise of each

municipality/city, and there is proper distribution of land use enough to cater to specific needs of

the country including but not limited to institution (such as parks, schools, hospital, churches,

city hall, etc.), commercial (malls, banks, etc.), industrial (factories, etc.), residential (duplex,

mid-rise, subdivision, etc.), agricultural (poultry, vegetation, wheat plantation, etc.) and forrest.

The idea is to create balance with in all the resources we have. It should not exceed one’s need

as there is care for different aspects of the society.

I believe the need to increase energy production from renewable sources such as

geothermal, hydrologic, wind and/or solar energy should be further utilized to sustain production

with due respect to environmental impacts caused by massive day-to-day work. The energy

shall sustain movements in economic growth for optimum production used in trade and

commerce. Land exploitation shall be invoked restricted and developers should practice

harmonious land use planning as basis of maximizing land use reference tailorthat is fit for the

necessary activity ion the area. Never should agriculture be removed as one of the main

marbles of Philippines economyic arm. The rich soil ofin the Philippines should havehave

safeguarded every Filipino that enough food shall be providedprovided every Filipino with

enough food but yet due to the misuse of land and vested interests of other economists and

capitalists, scarcity exists. , theyThese economists and capitalists tend to destroy the ecological

balance for personal interests, thereby which incapacitatinged agricultural economic

opportunities in the Philippines. Food security is a basic part of this movement to keep it from

going and reach its further horizonhas become a concern as our products exit the country

instead of being consumed by our citizens. I propose that the agricultural land be integrated in

all regions either by placing it near residential areas where industrial waste will not affect the

agriculture or have a mixed-use plan of for agri--industrial lands that can co-exist together which

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can indicateincrease food production, thereby stabilizing yearning to ffood security but stilland

keeping food organic.

Transportation should be vital in shaping a better Philippines may it either be by land,

water, air or rail. The tTransportation plays a key role in this movement because we want to

move people from one place to the other and problems with accessibility and mobility

exacerbate impede socio-economic growth as it impacts local transfers, freight movement,

deliveries and inclusive growth. As a people person in thea utopic Philippines, I want to go to

work easily with the transport modes are readily available, and I can reach to my destination on

time and have traveled with dignity – convenient, safe, right cost, comfortablecomfortably. There

is haven convenience going to and from my workplace, where I get that can provide a fair

salary in doing jobs. I don’t think that the city should be that this will be disregarded. Rails shall

be utilized for transporting goods often which are currently transported by trucks and running

onin highways yet and imposing hazards to the many people. I believe that highways shall be

for public transport, private cars/SUVs, small delivery trucks and pedestrians only to in order to

keep maintain and instill road safety to for the community. For expansion of trade and

commerce, and promotion of eco-tourism, the water and air transport shall be greatly utilized to

will give vast opportunities to provide for the constituents of the country. This is also and is vital

in the coexistence of for eeach city to co-exist ddue to the connections made by different

transport modes. It can also be an opportunity to expand our service internationally and we

might achieve global excellence.

Basically, a better Philippines for me should not pose any grand changes or imaginative

solutions, it can be as simple as integration of necessities to current challenges and setting of

priorities for urban and regional development action. The main idea is that all regions should co-

exist in– a symbiotic relationship. Development must be planned and not a per piece action

reacting to present phenomenon. Plan should be linear and progressive wherein we impose

steps to achieve our vision. The direction for growth should be based on fair sharing of all

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resources and for the benefit of the whole country and not for one city, or municipality or , or

region only. I believe we should remove the stigma of each city competing over with other cities.

There should be mutual benefits among between each city/ies/municipality in order achieve the

greater good as it will help manage growth become managed. For practical applicationsIn our

current context, the concept of urban and regional planning is not viable to penetrate the

mindset and culture of developmenta welcome concept especially ion a country run by

capitalists. Most improvements must ensure collaboration onf all line agencies and local

government units and must produce an aligned masterplan toof creatinge a better Philippines to

live in. It is necessary to ensure the commitment of from each contributor ion this big plan to

achieve the success and and effective matrix to match thisof creating a utopia is wheren people

live harmoniously in each region, free from marginalization discrepancies and is based on fair

and equal judgment of development.