VP NOLI: MODERATION IS KEY TO BALANCED URBANIZATION
November 11, 2008

VICE President and concurrent Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Council (HUDCC) Noli ‘Kabayan’ De Castro called for moderation to address the threat of losing balance in society during his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Fourth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF 4) in Nanjing, China last November 3, 2008.

Under this year’s theme “Harmonious Urbanization, the Challenge of Balanced Territorial Development” De Castro said that the two global threats, namely, financial crisis and climate change can be attributed to greed.

In the area of finance, “human greed… the race to go beyond previous income records, to the point of overextending capabilities of human institutions caused the near-meltdown of the major financial markets in the world,” he pointed out.

In the area of climate change, the “demands of modern man for a multitude of goods and services… send signals to producers that consumers are willing to buy more and more. This in turn, pushes industrial production to grow at a rate that our planet can no longer support. So we consumed more resources and burned more fuel. With so much carbon emissions, the protective layer of our planet gradually erodes,” De Castro said.

He cited several demonstration projects in the country that “adopts moderation and not greed in dealing with climate change”.

The first project aims to improve the capacity of local governments, particularly the provinces of Benguet and Ifugao in the Cordillera Region, to adapt to climate change.

De Castro explained that “Benguet has been identified as among the 43 provinces in the country susceptible to natural hazards and among the top five provinces susceptible to rainfall-induced landslides”. Ifugao’s rice terraces, on the other hand, are “rapidly degrading and expected to be affected further by climate change”.

While the project will require “extensive work with affected communities” De Castro is optimistic the guidelines on integrated and multi-sectoral climate change adaptation will be developed soon.”

The second project involves a disease surveillance and emergency response in climate change-related conditions which will be implemented in Metro Manila and the province of Albay. These areas were identified as prone to climate change-related diseases such as malaria, dengue, typhoid fever and cholera.

Under this project, the early warning and surveillance system of Metro Manila and Albay in managing climate-change sensitive diseases will be strengthened and improved.

The third project, being piloted in Sorsogon City, an emerging coastal city and found in one of the most disaster-prone provinces in the country, aims to equip human settlements in cities and municipalities to “cope with climate change or minimize its negative effects”.

Through this project, it is hoped that “guidelines on green houses and community infrastructure can be developed to replicate the Sorsogon experience in other cities”.

De Castro said these projects share several things in common -- “they are implemented within the means of communities; the models are neither too reliant on the market nor on government institutions; and there is extensive consultation with the people themselves.”

He stressed that when “both markets and government are unable to fully address social problems, going back to the people or empowering the citizenry through “people power” can “bring balance to Philippine society.”

WUF 4 was attended by more than 6,000 participants representing government leaders, Habitat Partners and Urban practitioners from all over the world to discuss and identify solutions to ensure a sustainable future. Other dignitaries and keynote speakers included Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifah, Prime Minister of Bahrain and Raila Amollo Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya.

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