Custody of mountains
It wasn’t a thunderbolt that did it but August floods blamed on by upland commercial development in Cebu City, like the Monterrazas de Cebu in barangays Guadalupe and Tisa, made at least one official pause and rethink development plans for the city.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young is now convinced of the urgent need to overhaul laws governing development especially in the city’s mountain barangays.
Young did not cite specifics but said he may ask Councilor Noel Wenceslao, chairman of the City Council’s urban planning committee, to sponsor a resolution for the modification of the ordinances.
The vice mayor admitted the lack of foresight on the part of city planners vis-a-vis the consequences of mountain development.
“The city is developing at a much faster rate,” Young said. “Before, we did not expect developments to reach the mountains.”
Anyone with a heart for Nature would weep at the sight of formerly verdant but now stark bald mountains especially in south Cebu City.
Without tree cover, the rush of rainwater floods the plains. The mindless sale of our mountains should stop.
Wenceslao, in crafting amendments to the development ordinances, should consult organizations at the forefront of defending Mother Earth like the Philippine Earth Justice Center who can help ensure that local laws would astutely rein in development in favor of ecological sustainability.
The city cannot just wait for the next disaster and have the mayor issue a cease-and-desist order on work in progress.
The Land Use Plan of Cebu City, the subject of years of study, was never actually used to guide decisions by City Hall. It suffered the same fate as the 2006 Drainage Master Plan, mothballed for lack of political will or paid lip service.
Money invested in research and field work are useless if the implementors don’t actually apply the results.
It’s time to find the will to do it.
If the City Council wants to review its ordinances on the building code or craft new ones to address the peculiar concerns of mountain development projects, it should start with solid expert data.
A modified development ordinance could also subject to review contracts that the city signed with developers to compel them to grow and keep pocket forests in the land they work on—not just for aesthetic purposes but also to absorb rainwater and prevent soil erosion.
The ordinance should also put teeth to the law that forbids developers and residents to totally pave lands with concrete such that water cannot seep into the ground.
The City Council should also seriously consider a moratorium on commercial developments in the mountains until clear guidelines are in place.
This would be compatible with the total log ban that President Benigno Aquino III declared to open our celebration of the Year of Forests.
