Philippine Development Plan

The PDP outlines several key strategies for the sector:

• Develop integrated neighborhoods and sustainable communities particularly for low-income households.
• Intensify implementation of alternatives and innovative solutions in addressing the housing needs of the
lower income classes and vulnerable sector. Solutions such as public rental housing, mixed income and
mixed-use housing development, housing microfinance initiatives, incremental housing programs, and
housing cooperatives will be used to enhance housing affordability.
• Strengthen decentralization of housing and urban development interventions. As prescribed by the Local
Government Code (LGC), LGUs are at the forefront of housing and urban development, with the support
of the national government. The decentralization of housing and urban development efforts will be
reinforced, especially on local shelter planning, comprehensive land use planning with a ridge-to-reef
approach, land acquisition and development, addressing informality, implementation of Regional
Resettlement Action Plan (RRAP), and pursuit of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development
Goals.
• Adopt viable land acquisition approaches and fast track the inventory of lands for socialized housing
development. The upscaling of land acquisition approaches aside from land ownership (such as usufruct,
long-term lease, lease variants and land-banking, among others) will be pursued to address the perennial
 problem of identifying greatly determine the urban form of cities and municipalities. The NSS “recognizes
the role of cities as engines of economic growth and venues of growth and poverty reduction, and of
infrastructure to provide efficient connective networks of sustainable urban and rural communities.”

Regional Agglomeration
• Builds on the efficiencies and maximize the benefits of scale and agglomeration economies, and on the fast
growth of regional centers
• Efficient management of regional centers, including spreading benefits of agglomeration economies to outlying
areas or regions through their large markets, labor force, and innovation opportunities (hub-and-spokes model).
• Regional development support through physical and social infrastructure, other social and economic services,
and efficient urban management.

The NSS identifies a three-tiered settlements network based on population, service catchments, and economic activities:
a. Metropolitan Centers These are the economic centers of the country’s three main island groups. They have
distinct functions in innovation and advanced services, culture and tourism, education and research,
transportation and trade (e.g., primary international gateway), manufacturing, and technology development.

There are three metropolitan centers in the country: NCR, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao. NCR is the metropolitan
center of Luzon and the Philippines, and is envisioned to remain as the seat of the national government. Metro
Cebu is the country’s second largest urban center with extensive domestic and international links. Its central
location makes it a natural hub for economic, commercial, and logistics activities in the Visayas. Metro Davao is a
major international gateway and Mindanao’s premier commercial hub; center for education, health, and services;
and tourist attraction.

By 2025, Metro CDO will become the 4th metropolitan center based on its projected population growth and
functional role as a major gateway and trans-shipment hub in Northern Mindanao. It will also remain as a key
educational center in Northern Mindanao.

b. Regional Centers They are regional markets and service centers for several provinces. They have markets that
are large enough to support a range of services and investments. Regional centers have the most direct linkages
to metropolitan centers. They are regional administrative centers, international gateways, and tourism hubs.

c. Sub-regional Centers These large settlements serve as market catchments of regional centers. They also connect
to and serve as service centers of smaller provincial and local centers. As they grow, these sub- regional centers
tend to merge with adjacent regional centers to form even larger metropolitan areas as those formed by the NCR,
CALABARZON, and Central Luzon.

Connectivity
• Aims to improve linkages among settlements and key production areas by “connecting rural areas to growth
centers”. Doing so increases access to jobs and services and direct growth in areas with greatest economic
potentials through efficient transport networks.

• Seeks to “equalize opportunities across space” through physical connectivity and investments in human capital,
especially in conflict-affected areas and other areas with

Climate, Disaster and Public Health Risks

Reduced biocapacity is compounded by the effects of climate change and related disasters. Aside from its effects on
communities and the economy, climate change will exacerbate the degradation of the natural resource base due to overuse
in resource-dependent communities and urban settlements. Such is the case for Metro Manila, which sits on a floodplain
of Marikina, Napindan and Pasig rivers, exposing its inhabitants to typhoons, floods and earthquakes.

In many urban areas, permanent structures have been built on the river easements, and settlements have spread in
floodplains, mangrove areas, waterways, and geologically unstable areas such as sandbars and river islets. The lack of
drainage systems, coupled with paving over of waterways for urban development, constricts the flow of storm water,
leading to floods.

Climate change-induced economic losses are particularly high in urban and peri-urban areas. This is largely because of the
increasing fragility of urban ecosystems and the low adaptive capacity of communities. As the growth in urban population
continues and urban densities increase, so will the climate and disaster risks and vulnerabilities to high-risk urban
communities and vulnerable groups, especially among informal settlers and urban poor.

Community quarantine, imposed to counter the spread of the COVID 19 virus, amplified the need to improve the quality
of living conditions most especially of vulnerable households living in highly dense communities. The emerging health and
safety concerns as the country transitions to the new normal is expected to slow down housing production as well as
relocation and resettlement activities given the disruption in production and delivery of construction materials, limitations
in the conduct of social preparation activities and greater opposition from receiving LGUs due to fear of infection and social
services requirement, among others.

It also places greater demand to shift to digitalized government transactions on human settlements development and the
need to improve housing affordability with considerations on the increased unemployment and loss of income and
livelihood as well as increased production cost due to the imposition of construction health protocols, housing redesign
that considers public health goals and increased construction supplies and materials.

Government is challenged to uphold principles set out in existing CLUP and CDP guidelines, and to capacitate
implementers to manage and regulate urban expansion to achieve inclusivity and sustainability.

Urban Connectivity and Mobility

Urban expansion is inevitably tied to transportation and urban connectivity. How spaces are linked can influence how areas
develop, just as much as urban growth and movement dictate how cities and areas within them are connected.

But while the CLUP and CDP provide guidance for planning transportation and connectivity the scope is often limited to
often limited to roads and, when applicable, sea and airport facilities.

Institutional capacity.
Challenges of urbanization place immense pressure on LGUs, which often lack the institutional and technical capacity. The
enactment of the Local Government Code in 1991 expanded the role of LGUs to include local development planning and
provision of urban services. However, broadening the scope of responsibility did not automatically translate to the financial
and technical resources needed to perform such responsibilities.

Long-term urban development visions are also compromised because of unpredictable political cycles that affect continuity
of plans and programs. This leads to planning approaches that are shortsighted, reactive, and parochial. LGUs also suffer
from the lack of integration and coordination among institutions involved in urban development and management.
Shelter
The impact of urban planning and design is none more pronounced than at the center of urban development: housing.

Housing Supply and Demand. Urban population growth in the Philippines outpaces housing service delivery. To date, more
than 40 percent of urban families live in informal settlements, which suffer from poor quality housing, insecure tenure,
inadequate infrastructure, and high risk to public health. There are an estimated 1.4 million ISFs nationwide, 544,000 of
which are in the National Capital Region.

Banner Programs
The Department’s banner programs are targeted, catalytic interventions that aim to rethink and restructure the process of
designing and developing human settlements. Ranging from settlements development, urban infrastructure, design, policy
and governance, they act as levers and stimulants for further action towards sustainable urban development, and
showcase the Vision of the DHSUD through a holistic, innovative, and integrated approach.

The programs are presented under the banner statement: Sustainable Housing in Well Planned Communities for Every
Filipino Family. This mirrors the sector plan’s long-term vision, while focusing on priority programs for implementation
especially in the short and medium terms, demonstrating tangible results and reflective of the collaborative nature of work
in the urban development and human settlements sector.

1. Creating Spaces
Aim to identify, delineate, give structure and function to, and protect spaces within the urban-rural continuum,
such that they become platforms for sustainable urban development and human settlements.
2. Metropolitan Development Program
The Department recognizes the trend of metropolitanization in the country and globally, and aims to draw benefits
from such agglomerations towards creating sustainable communities. It also derives lessons from Metropolitan
Manila, and seeks to transform these into better development strategies for emerging metropolises. More
importantly, it will work towards purposive, deliberate solutions to achieve sustainable urban development.

The PDP has identified current and planned metropolitan areas for development: Metro Laoag and Metro
Tuguegarao, Tabuk and Metro Santiago, Metro San Fernando and Metro Baguio, Metro Cabanatuan and Metro
Tarlac, Metro Subic, Metro Balanga, and Metro Baliuag, Metro Batangas and Metro Lucena, Metro Calapan and
Metro Puerto Princesa , Metro Naga and Metro Legazpi in Luzon; Metro Cebu, Metro Iloilo, Metro Bacolod, Metro
Tagbilaran, Metro Tacloban, and Metro Ormoc in the Visayas, and Metro Davao, Metro Cagayan de Oro, Metro
General Santos and Metro Zamboanga in Mindanao. DHSUD supports this track and will provide guidance in
sustainable urbanization and settlements development of these areas. The program will also incorporate strategies
that link urban and rural areas, and promote forward and backward economic linkages between and among key
cities or metropolitan areas, and smaller cities and municipalities.

Bioregional Development Program

Bioregional Development Program The program builds on the ecosystems or ridge-to-reef planning approach being
promoted by the Department in the crafting of CLUPs for all LGUs. It goes beyond consideration of the watershed
in local planning, and will explore innovative and alternative development and governance strategies in LGUs
based on natural boundaries, such as watershed areas, to ensure that urban development is aligned with principles
of environmental stewardship and genuine ecosystems-based development.

The project will cover LGUs within watershed areas or bioregions.