RE-INFORCING LEADERSHIP OF YOUTH IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION gained an added boost on May 25, 2012 in Ateneo de Davao professor Angelo Aportadera conducting a seminar on youth leadership seminar for members of the Watershed Management Youth Council (WMYC).

WMYC is the coalition of students from different schools of Davao City assisting the local government in water resource protection and conservation. It sits as a member of the Davao City Watershed Management Council, a special body created to implement the provisions of the Davao City Watershed Management, Conservation and Protection Ordinance or the Watershed Code authored by city councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling.

The one-hour lecture on leadership held at the Philippine Eagle Foundation helped in enhancing the leadership skills of the youth leaders in pursuing their advocacy on water resource conservation and protection.

Aportadera’s lecture was part of a four-day leadership training seminar  produced by the WMCC and organized by Dreamcatchers Unlimited, under the leadership of Roger Garcia.

The participants from different public and private high schools and colleges are core members of the WMYC.

Aportadera taught the students the definition and difference of leadership and management. He reminded them during the lecture that both aspects of leadership and management should work together in an individual to become effective in handling their team. Afterwards, he gave several activities to point out the leader and manager of each of the participants.

Garcia, chief facilitator of Dreamcatchers Unlimited and overall head of the leadership training seminar, praised Aportadera and his lecture. “He is a great leader, he inspires people. I can see it from their [the participants] eyes during his lecture. It is a good sign.” Garcia said.

“I was moved by his talk about power. It was so heavy, yet he delivered it light, to the student’s level of understanding,” Garcia said. He is confident that the lessons that the participants learned, including ones taught by Aportadera, will prove useful during their turn as facilitators when they will teach the younger batch of WMYC members.

Davao lumads fighting over Marilog ancestral domain

BY ROGER M.BALANZA

The Matigsalog indigenous people in Marilog District in Davao City are fighting over control of over more than 70,000 hectares of ancestral domain, as their cousins from Bukidnon reportedly continue to sell privileges to big business seeking leaseholds for large agribusiness ventures.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has already split the area covered by Certificate ofAncestralDomans Title (CADT)   between the Bukidnon and Davao natives into two separate management bodies.
The split was made as NCIP found it issued only one CADT to the Federation of Manobo-Matigsalog Tribal Councils (FEMMATRICS) of Kitaotao in Bukidnon involving about 100,000 hectares that also included ancestraldomain lands in Marilog.
The split that delineated boundaries over ancestral domains in Bukidnon and Davao was through the efforts of Davao City Councilor Arnolfo Cabling when he was the chair of the Davao City Council committee on environment and natural resources.
FEMMATRICS is against the split and its officers reportedly are inking contracts with private entities over leasehold agreements on lands in Marilog sparking vehement protests from the Davao lumads belonging to the Manobo-Matigsalog Tribes City of Davao (MAMATRICD).

durianburgdavao blogmaster Roger Balanza with Mambo-o and Davao City councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling

Davao City councilor Datu Berino Mambo-o, chair of the committee on cultural minorities and Muslim affairs, said leaders of six Davao tribes are trying to resolve the conflict.
The communist New People’s Army (NPA) in a statement earlier branded Lito Gawilan, chair of FEMMATRICS, as a landgrabber for selling rights to ancestral domain lands in Marilog to big business.

Davao pushing for ‘whale shark’ tourism

    Three coastal barangays with Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are being eyed  as tourist spots for whale shark viewing.
There have been frequent sightings of whale sharks off barangays Binugao, Lizada and Lasang after being declared as MPAs by an ordinance authored by Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, then chair of the Davao Cty Council committee on environment, five years ago.
Leonardo P. Avila III, officer in charge of City Agriculturist Office, said that there are regular whale shark sightings in these barangays, among five where there are MPAs declared by the Cabling ordinance.ROGER M. BALANZA

DUTERTE REITERATES HARD STAND VERSUS MINING IN DAVAO CITY

Duterte reiterates hard stand

vs. mining in Davao City

---

Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has reiterated his hard stance against mining, saying it will only make Davao City a wasteland.

Speaking in the public affairs program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa“ on Sunday, he said the promise of rehabilitating mining sites by large mining firms is mere lip service and remains to be proven.

He observed that it is not also clear whether the operation of large mining firms in Compostela Valley has truly improved the economic condition of residents in the area.

Duterte said no ordinary Filipino miner has become rich in working with these firms.

“When the big corporations leave, we are left with nothing but empty bags of heartaches,” he stressed.

Duterte said though he recognizes the authority of the national government to allow mining operation anywhere in the country, mining firms will surely have difficulties with any plan to conduct mining exploration and operation in the city.

He said mining firms will never get pertinent licenses to operate within the territory of the city.

Duterte lauded that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio shares with him the advocacy of preserving the environment and protecting the people.

“Mining destroys our land and our forests. It will leave us nothing but problems in law and order,“ he said.

Duterte lauded the resolution filed at the city council expressing support to the call making Davao City as no mining zone as it articulates the position of the city government and the residents. (PNA)

DENR, PRA give up on bid over Davao City government-owned Times Beach

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

The City Government of Davao has control and management of the 24-hectare Reservation Area in Matina Aplaya and may lease out portions of the city-owned shoreline property for business projects without need for foreshore lease agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) or a reclamation permit from the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).
Existing business may now legalize their operation through a lease agreement with the Davao City government, said Davao City Council member Arnolfo Cabling.
Cabling is chair of the committee on housing, rural and urban development, which has tackled applications for FLA with DENR and reclamation permits from PRA by Emars Wavepool and Queensland International.
The applications needed a Resolution of No Objection from the city council.
Emars has built a wave pool facility while Queensland had carved out for its Baywalk
portions of the Reservation Area declared as city government property under Proclamation No. 20 issued by the late President Ramon Magsaysay in 1954. Emars and Queensland are among other businesses now existing in the ReservationArea.
Control of the Reservation Area has long been a question pending at the Davao City Council, which had been tackling the Emars and Queensland issue in relation to its applications with DENR and PRA.
DENR earlier said Emars and Queensland needed an FLA while PRA required reclamation permits.
But the issue on who has full control over the Reservation Area has been answered no less by DENR and PRA during a recent deliberation by the council on the Emars and Queensland requests for endorsement of their applications with DENR and PRA.
Both DENR and PRA said they have “no right” over Reservation Area, which is under the full control of the city government by virtue of Proclamation No. 20.
This position was formally stated in the January 10, 2012 regular session of the Davao City Council, by the DENR through Atty. Felix Allicer, Regional Technical Director of the land Management Services of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and by the PRA through Engr. Eduardo Destura, Department Manager for Planning and Evaluation.
With the City Government of Davao having full authority and sole prerogative on utilization and management of subject property, Emars and Queensland need no longer seek Permit for Reclamation from PRA or Foreshore Lease Agreement (FLA) from DENR.
According to Cabling, Emars and Queensland may now enter into LEASE AGREEMENT with the City Government of Davao to legalize their occupancy of portions of the Reservation Area.
With this pronouncement by DENR and PRA, the City Government of Davao may now pursue initiatives that would transform the Reservation Area into a viable economic venture in tandem with private sector players like Emars and Queensland which have already invested heavily in tourism and business projects in the Reservation Area, said Cabling.

In view of the pronouncements of DENR and PRA, the Cabling committee has recommended termination of all proceedings on legislative Items or recall approved resolutions or ordinances pertaining to requests by Emars and Queensland with PRA and DENR and other related legislative items;
To hasten the legalization of the occupancy of Emars and Queensland of portions of the Reservation Area, the committee also recommended passage of an ordinance authorizing Mayor Sara Duterte to enter into lease agreements with Emars and Queensland.
The committee also recommended that the City Appraisal Committee be convened to determine the amount of lease.

Naked King David’s penis skewered anew by Davao City Council

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

The controversial Queensland Motel in Davao City at the center of public controversy in 2008 for its 30-foot statue of a naked King David standing on an illegally-reclaimed foreshore area has been revived.
Four years after the public ruckus over Queensland Motel’s Baywalk  and the naked statue of the young David with its 2-foot long uncircumsised penis that sparked public discussion on morality and decency, the Davao City Council has tackled anew the illegal construction and reclamation of the popular motel owned by Teodorico Adarna in Times Beach in Matina Aplaya.
The Baywalk now already completed and opened as a public seaside park has yet to secure a permit from the Philippine Reclamation Authority  (PRA) and a foreshore lease agreement from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The proposed baywalk and Queensland’s illegal reclamation, including the 30-foot high gold-painted concrete statue of the young naked David had sparked an investigation by the city council and intense public discussion four years ago.
Moralists say the naked statue assaulted public decency and called for the destruction of the statue built by Adarna at a cost of P300,000.
The PRA and DENR have not yet issued clearances to Queensland, a requirement demanded by the Davao City Council committee on housing, rural and urban development chaired by councilor Arnolfo Cabling.
The case of Queensland and that of Emar’s Wavepool also built without permit from PRA and DENR, also in Times Beach, were subject of a recent public hearing by the Cabling committee.

EMAR'S RESORT & WAVEPOOL IN TIMES BEACH

  MUST READ:

Naked King David will not lose penis

Davao City’s naked King David under fire anew | DURIANBURGDAVAO

Queensland Motel reclamation under fire anew | DURIANBURGDAVAO

Davao City govt to sue motel owner for illegal foreshore …

King David’s penis to be in safe hands | DURIANBURGDAVAO Minda

Queensland Motel — Blogs, Pictures, and more on WordPress

Davao City officials impressed by Herhof technology

Two Davao City councilors sent to Germany to study a waste-to-energy plant has come back with good assessment of Herhof.
Herhof has offered to handle the city’s garbage and would build a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant here under a Build-To-Operate arrangement.
Davao City has an estimated 600 metric tons of garbage churned out daily by its 1.4 million population.
Mayor Sara Duterte and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the presiding officer of the city council, had allowed councilors Arnolfo Cabling and Marissa Salvador-Abella to go to Germany to observe the Herhof plant.
Abella and Cabling said they would make a formal report to the city council with their recommendation. The Herhof proposal needs the approval of the city council.
Abella chairs the committee on environment while Cabling is head of the committee on housing, rural and urban planning.
The herhof technology would greatly help our ecological solid waste management system, said Abella in her initial report to the council during a session recently.

UN official fears seawater intrusion into city aquifer

AFTER BARELY HURDLING ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS LIKE POLLUTION ISSUES AND DEADLY EMISSIONS, THE PROPOSED ABOITIZPOWER COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT IS UNDER FIRE ANEW: THE DAVAO CITY GOVERNMENT IS AGAINST THE PLANT PUMPING OUT WATER FROM THE UNDERGROUND RESERVOIR FOR ITS COOLING SYSTEM

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

A visiting United Nations expert on water resource management has warned of seawater intrusion into the city aquifer if the local government allows uncontrolled use of its groundwater reserve.

KHAN: Scary scenario

When that happens, it would be irreversible, said Dr. Shahbaz Khan, Chief of Section on Sustainable Water Resources Development and Management of the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Khan’s warning comes as the Davao City local government is locked at the crossroad of whether or not to approve the controversial AboitizPower P25-billion, 300-MW Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFB) coal-fired power plant.

The plant, to be located atop the city aquifer in Binugao, Toril would need about 1,500 cubic meters of fresh water a day for its cooling system to be pumped out of the city’s groundwater reserve.

 The city depends upon the underground reservoir for drinking water and other domestic needs of its 1.4 million inhabitants.

Although already endorsed by the Davao City Council, the project of the Aboitiz-owned company has suffered a snag.

Last week, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who heads the local

DUTERTE with members of the Davao City Council

legislative body, said he would oppose the project following information the plant would siphon off water from the underground water source. He said the groundwater reserve should be protected for the future generations of Dabawenyos.

Duterte had suggested conduct of further study on the potential threat of the coal plant to the water resource or that AboitizPower draw out water for its cooling system from surface water like rivers.

The Davao City Water District (DCWD), the city’s water utility firm which sources out supply from the reservoir located in the Dumoy-Toril area south of the city, said the water reserve has a lifespan of only 50 years if no alternative sources are found. The DCWD is developing a gravity-type surface water development project utilizing an upland river to supply half of the population in the city’s northern district. The project is aimed at easing pressure on the water reservoir already being depleted by several-intensive industries.

Khan is no stranger to Davao City, regularly coming here to assist local stakeholders in planning water resource management strategies through HELP Network Davao, which he help organized five years ago.

Khan bared the scary scenario of seawater intrusion into the underground water reservoir at the sideline of the 3-day Symposium on Water Resource Management and Hydro Hazard held in Davao City last week.

ABELLA

The symposium was organized by the HELP Davao Network headed by Davao City councilor Marissa Salvador-Abella, chair of the city council committee on environment. Kahn is an advisor to HELP Davao Network.

 

Once seawater seeps in, it would be irreversible, Khan told a group of water conservation stakeholders during a dinner composed of Davao City councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, former chair of the city council committee on environment and author of the landmark Davao City Watershed Management, Protection and Conservation Ordinance,  Abella, council committee on environment chair and members of HELP Network Davao.

CABLING: Author of the landmark Davao City Watershed Code

Cabling said Khan told his group that over-utilization of the reservoir could deplete volume and force seawater to seep in to contaminate the reserve.

Seawater intrusion is now happening in the water resources of Cebu City and Manila due to over-utilization of their underground water reserves.

Khan, offhand, told the group, the AboitizPower would pose greatest threat if it pumps out water from the groundwater reserve, the plant being located at the aquifer in the coastal area where seawater and fresh water meet.

Seawater is four times denser than fresh water, said Cabling quoting Khan. Which means that, according to Khan, seawater intrusion would be easier if there is depletion in the reservoir, which would need four times the pressure of fresh water for the intrusion to be prevented.

Khan, an Australian of Pakistani descent, also heads the  UNESCO includes the Water Education for Sustainable Development and  Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy (HELP), which  advises UN member states on environmental and water management policies the Asia-Pacific and African regions.                 

            While here Khan witnessed the launch of the Customized IWRM Guidelines for Davao City and Region XI, a comprehensive guide on water resource management developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)  and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) regional offices in the Davao Region with technical and fincial assistance from UNESCO. ROGER M. BALANZA

 

Ayala Land turns over P23M for Davao City urban poor housing program

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Ayala Land has turned over to the Davao City government P25 million for the city’s Urban Land Reform Program in compliance with the 20 percent Balanced Housing provision of the Urban Housing and Development Act (UDHA).

The provision stipulates that high-end housing developers must allocate 20 percent of their development cost to low-cost socialized housing project.

We are lucky that Ayala preferred us to handle its fund in compliance to UDHA, said Davao City councilor Arnolfo Cabling, chair of the committee on housing, rural and urban development.

Cabling said the P25 million housing fund for socialized housing given to the local government represents Ayala’s compliance to UDHA’s balance housing provision for ongoing projects nationwide.

Cabling facilitated the arrangement with Ayala to pour the fund here.

Ayala is the second high-end housing developer to assign their Balanced Housing compliance to the local government, which is allowed under UDHA, with Alsons Development turning over to City Hall a two-hectare property in Lasang for low-cost housing in compliance to the UDHA provision.

Ayala, whose biggest project here is the P3 billion Abreeza Mall in a joint venture with Floirendo Group, is one of the country’s biggest high-end housing developers and mall builders.

Ayala officials told me this is their way of assisting the homeless

DON ANTONIO O. FLOIRENDO at the Abreeza Mall Davao opening in May

urban poor in Davao City, their expression of support to the administration of Mayor Sara Duterte and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and their confidence in the economy of the city, said Cabling.

ON BUILDING A SQUATTER-FREE DAVAO CITY

THEDURIANBEAT

By ROGER M. BALANZA

ON BUILDING A SQUATTER-FREE CITY

All local government units have one common problem: informal settlers. In highly urbanized LGUs like Davao City, the number of informal settlers grows annually due to migration by people seeking better opportunities.

            Also spread out around the city are old settlements on private lands working out purchase plans with owners that could not be speedily pursued due to fund lack.

            While anti-squatting laws are in place to prevent illegal occupation of private and government lands by informal settlers, the spirit of humanity, sometimes, bind LGU hands from enforcing an iron-fisted policy.

            Urban land reform planning however is seen as a long-term solution to urban squatting.

            In Davao City, housing planners map out multi-pronged approaches to respond to relocation, funding source and creation of sustainable communities for thousands of informal settlers.

            On top of this grand plan to make Davao City squatter-free is the Local Housing Board chaired by the Mayor.  Armed with the Davao City Shelter Code, the landmark legislation authored by Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, the Local Housing Board identifies on-site and off-site settlements, approves funding for land purchase and guides the implementation of socialized housing projects. The Local Housing Board also interacts with key national government housing agencies to collaborate on implementation of housing projects.

           With the Davao City Council providing a guiding hand to support legislation strengthening socialized housing programs, the Davao City government is on the right track towards providing long-term solution to housing for the city’s thousands of homeless urban poor.

            The Urban Land Reform Program (ULRP) has been strengthened with the participation of the Socialized Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), which would absorb about 75 percent of cost of land purchase of local government socialized housing projects.

            The SHFC funding initiative under its Localized Community Mortgage Plan (LCMP) would quadruple the capability of the local governments P100 million stand-by housing fund to serve more informal settlers and other qualified sectors.

About 40 hectares of property where there was supposed to rise an export processing zone in the early 90s—for two decades a wide piece of abandoned land—has been turned into a settlement for thousands of homeless urban poor dwellers here.

Failing to take off after initial road works and several buildings and much fanfare, the First Oriental Ventures project on the 70-hectare property in Barangay Ilang, Bunawan District crashed even as it was touted as Davao City’s window to the world export market.

            But while the city lost its chance to be in the map of the country’s export processing zones, the First Oriental Ventures’ failure has come as a gift to indigent homeless families looking for a roof over their heads in this city of 1.4 million where acute housing is social problem.

            The First Oriental Ventures property had been foreclosed by the banks after the company closed down and abandoned the project.

            Today, this piece of grasslands could serve as model for the city’s ULRP.

            About twelve homeowners associations under the umbrella of the Kobbler Federation—a non-government organization of urban poor associations—has been born on the site.

           The Philippine Deposit Insurance Commission, the Fareast Bank and the Land Bank, which collectively own the property worth about P60 million, through their joint Asset Privatization Committee, has already issued intent to sell the property to the settlers numbering around 3,000 families after negotiation by Councilor Cabling.

           The property has now more than 3,000 families settled on the site which could own their lots under the Localized Community Mortgage Program (LCMP). A program of the state-owned Socialized Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), the program allows for purchase of settlement site with SHFC pitching in 75 percent of the cost and the local government the remaining 25 percent. Beneficiaries pay amortizations on a long-term contract, with the local government handling collection.

          There are several dozens more homeowners association existing as informal settlers are negotiations are underway for the city government to provide funding for land purchases.

            And as it looks to the future, the Davao City government foresees more migration coming in as the city’s unlimited opportunities as Southern Mindanao’s premier city lure migrants from other provinces and regions. But city planners have no doubt that the city government has already set into place the machinery for long-term solution to urban poor housing in the Shelter Code authored by Councilor Cabling and the political will of local administration to achieve the Dabawenyos vision to make their city squatter-free.

            Demolition of shanties of the urban poor was at the core why Mayor Sara Duterte punched a court sheriff who refused to grant her plea to stay the eviction that would have rendered homeless more than 200 families. This piece should thwart any misinformation that there might be something wrong with the city government’s program on urban land reform program. While the city government is serious about eradicating urban squatting, it is doing it with a heart.