This refers to the news item titled “Disaster blamed on rapid development of Metro Manila” (Inquirer, 8/13/12). According to this report, it is the view of Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, the CEO of the environmental group Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Philippines, that the “Filipinos, not the monsoon rains, are to blame for the deluge that paralyzed the metropolitan area of 14 million residents” and that the “latest disaster to hit the Philippines was the result of the unfettered and mindless march to urbanization that had replaced soils and trees, which could absorb the rains and reduce flooding, with concrete jungles.”
The rapid development of Metro Manila is manifested by the fact that it covers only 0.2 percent of the country’ total land area, but its population and gross domestic product (GDP) represent 13 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of the country’s total population in 2010 and 2009 (Wikipedia data). Such a lopsided development resulted in the following: (1) The poverty incidence in Metro Manila has been reduced to a comfortable level of 4 percent, but it suffers from increasing vulnerability to flood disasters. (2) On the other hand, the national poverty incidence has remained steady at 26.5 percent (equivalent to 23.14 million Filipinos)—a level that has far worse devastating effects than floods, particularly those that befell the 12 marginalized provinces with the highest population poverty incidence, as follows: Bohol—48.3 percent, Zamboanga Sibugay—49.8, Northern Samar— 51.2, Saranggani—51.8, Davao Oriental—52.7, Magiundanao— 53.7, Eastern Samar—54, Romblon—54, Masbate—54.2, Surigao del Norte—57, Agusan del Sur—58.1 and Zamboanga del Norte—61.6 or the equivalent to 4.15 million. (National Statistical Coordination Board 2009 data)
The Aquino administration should consolidate its efforts and gains in participatory governance and anticorruption campaign; it should draw up a blueprint of economic development that adopts the concept of the regional growth centers initiated by the Ramos administration in order to attain, among others, the following objectives: (1) stop or reverse the trend of migration to Metro Manila; (2) facilitate regional-level poverty reduction, particularly in war-torn Mindanao; and (3) ensure a balanced geographical spread in adapting to climate change.
—EDMUNDO ENDEREZ,
eenderez@gmail.com