Dev’t forum in Cebu set

AN urban planning expert and an official of an international award-winning Cebu town will headline a forum on Sustainable Cities Dialogues 2 (SCD2) at the CAP theater along Osmeña boulevard, Cebu City on June 29.

Dr. Primitivo Cal and Vice Mayor Alfredo A. Arquillano of San Francisco town, Camotes Island will share their insights and experience on sustainable urban and rural development  in the forum.

The forum organized by the Movement for Liveable Cebu (MLC) carries the theme “Learning from the Metro Cebu Land Use and Transport Study (MCLUTS) – Where to Go from Here” and “A Journey From Poverty to Resiliency.”

Cal is a Cebuano professor at the School for Urban and Regional Planning of the University of the Philippines. Arquillano’s San Francisco town bagged the United Nations (UN) Sasakawa Award for Risk Reduction in 2011.

San Francisco’s Purok (sub-village) system is now being recognized as a tool in achieving resiliency especially designed for poor populations in South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand and Vietnam.

“By increasing the participation of civil society in plotting our future together, the resources of the public and private sectors may finally be synergized towards attaining this vision of Cebu,” an MLC statement read.

A separate dialogue among stakeholders in the business and academic sectors yielded a “Mega Cebu” master plan aimed at establishing sustainable economic development covers 13 cities and towns in Metro Cebu.

The plan gained support from Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who noted that public clamor for a comprehensive master plan for Cebu is “a good sign” of community involvement. Correspondents Jessa Marie J. Agua and Carmel Loise Matus